Are you sure you have to go?

I have a hard time when someone I like/respect leaves - I just don't do sentimental very well. So when the secretary at my sons' school announced her departure for another job I was a bit stymied about what kind of card to make her. This wonderful woman has been a huge support for my eldest son and her leaving is a true tragedy for him and the school as a whole. I decided to go with a humorous card so that I wouldn't end up getting all sloppy and mushy about how much she means to the kids (and their parents). 

The image is from Elizabeth Dulemba (her weekly free colouring pages are perfect for cards) and the sentiment is my own warped creation. I used papers from Basic Grey (my absolutely favourite paper line) along with a Nestabilities die to create the frame. I don't remember where I picked up the pink pom pom ribbon but I really like how it adds a bit of movement and fun to the card.

Challenges:
Crafty Pad - girly
Creative Belli - anything starting with "P" (I used pom poms & patterned paper)
Delicious Doodles - spots or stripes (there are lots of spots on this card)
Digi's with Attitude - include a digi person
Everybody Art Challenge - my favourite thing (my favourite paper line)
Fab 'n Funky - use a digi
The Outlawz Copic Challenge - anything goes
Sketch Saturday - sketch

Blog Hop winner and birthday cards for kids

Before I show you today's cards, I need to announce the winner of the recent Ezee Pzee Blog Hop. We had a total of 33 entries so I put the number into the randomizer and the winner is:

Michelle

Michelle, please send your information to engravit@albertacom.com so we can get your prize out to you. Congratulations!!!
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I have 2 cards to share today. Both use images from Bugaboo as well as Basic Grey papers. These are very fun & bright birthday cards that I will be donating to Cards for Kids. If you haven't heard about Cards for Kids yet, this is a project to collect hand-made birthday and special occasion cards that can be given to hospitalized children. It's a great excuse to craft and a great use for all the cards that we (meaning us crafters) make. I encourage you all to think about donating a card or two!

Challenges:
Allsorts - for a boy/man
Do You Stack Up? - patterns
Fairy Fun Fridays - birthdays
Paper Play - layer it up
Creative Belli - beginning with "P" (I've used lots of "p"atterned paper
I Did it Creations - card for a child
Stamp Something - cute somethings

Cats in the garden

Update: I'm just thrilled to report that my second card was chosen as card of the week over at Digi's With Attitude. Woo hoo! I can hardly wait to spend the gift certificate that I've won. Thanks!

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The rain has been pouring down and I really need for Spring to arrive, but unfortunately I don't have control over Mother Nature. But I can make Spring cards so I pulled out a couple of fun Bugaboo images, some flower-filled Basic Grey papers and my freshest Copic colours and got to work. I'm looking forward to sending these cards out to friends who are suffering the winter blah's.

Challenges:
Crafty Cardmakers - flowers
Digi's with Attitude - add raindrops (I added Stickles to make the drops stand out in card #2)
Fab 'n Funky - use a digi
Fuzzy Wuzzy - animal; anything goes
Quirky Crafts - in the spring garden
Simon Says Stamps - animal antics
Stamps 'r Us - animals
Stamp Something - cute somethings (nothing cuter than a cat)

Looking in to say happy birthday

First off, if you haven't already checked out the Ezee Pzee blog hop then you still have time - the hop ends tomorrow (Jan 25) and the candy available is just fabulous! Scroll down here or click on the blog candy link in my sidebar to join the hop.
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I'm totally psyched about today's card! I picked up the image from Dustin Pike ages ago and although I love it, I hadn't used it yet.

So this weekend I was inventorying my embossing folders and when I came across this brick wall fade (from Tim Holtz) I knew that I had the perfect item to work with the image. I embossed on "Black Magic' Core'dinations paper and then lightly sanded to bring out the blue core. I cut the image out carefully and then rounded the edges to give a bit of dimension.

Since the image and colours are so strong, I chose to use a clean & simple sketch from Sunday Sketch & Stamp for the card design.

Challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - for a man/boy

Alys' Sunday Challenge - for the guys

Cards for Men - for a male & celebrate (in this case a birthday)

Catered Crop - recipe (I used Copic markers & black ink; polka dot paper)

Craft Your Passion - use 2 patterned papers

Crazy Challenge - dots & spots (polka dot paper)

Fab 'n Funky - animal magic

I Did It Creations - card for a child

My Time to Craft - spots & dots (polka dot paper)

Sunday Sketch & Stamp - SKETCH

A trio of birthday or love cards

If you are looking for the Ezee Pzee blog hop (and a chance to win some excellent blog candy) then keep scrolling down or click here.

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I had a super productive couple of evenings spurred on by an absolutely incredible sale at Bugaboo. Ending TODAY (Jan 22) Bugaboo has all their stamps on for 60% off. I went quite crazy and bought myself a whole bunch of new images including the three I have used here.

I kept all three of these cards simple so that the images would really stand out (and even if I do say so myself, I think my colouring is extra good on these!). I'm going to donate all of these cards to Cards for Kids so I wanted them to be usable for all types of occasions although they are each quite clearly most suitable for Valentine's Day or a bithday.

I used some red foil paper that I saved from a box of chocolates (I love repurposing) to matte the image and create the band along the bottom of the card. I also used a square of the foil and embossed it with a Cuttlebug folder. I went back & forth on whether I should touch-up the embossing where white from the back of the paper came through but I decided to leave it as is to match the worn look of the boy's coat & boots.

This next card is definitely for a birthday. I used two embossing folders (notebook from Tim Holtz, "Happy Birthday" from Cuttlebug) to create the background. I used the sketch from Cards & Things.

This is my favourite of of the cards - I'm quite pleased with how tasty the cupcake ended up looking. Kind of a light chocolate with caramel! The sketch for this card is from Moving Along with the Times.

Challenges:

All Sorts - for a boy/male

Challenge Up Your Life - clean & simple

Copic Creations - use something new (the digis)

Moving Along with the Times - SKETCH

Simon Says Stamps - BINGO (I chose die cut, embossing, ribbon

Sisterhood of Crafters - birthdays

Stampin' Royalty - anything with wings

My Time to Craft - spots & dots

Cards & Things - SKETCH

Aly's Sunday Challenge - things with wings

Itzee Ezee Pzee product reveal & blog hop

Welcome to the very first Ezee Pzee blog hop! If you arrived here from the Ezee Pzee Facebook group then you are on the right track. If you’ve arrived here some other way, then go here to start at the beginning. I think you're really going to enjoy seeing the new products from Ezee Pzee as well as the exciting projects that the Dezign Team has made.


To participate in the blog hop (and maybe win some candy) is ezee! Visit each design team member's blog and leave a comment. You will get one entry into a draw for some pretty amazing blog candy just for visiting and leaving a comment at each Dezign Team Member's blog. Posting the picture of this candy on your own blog, along with a link back to Ezee Pzee will earn you another entry into the draw (just make sure to leave a comment letting us know that you added the link!).

Do you want to know what you're hopping for? Take a look:

So, what are you waiting for? The blog hop starts January 19th and ends on January 25th. If you lose your way at any time here is a full list of all of the Dezign Team blogs with links:

• Ezee Pzee Facebook page
• Shelley (that's me!)
• Jennifer
• Rena
• Diana
• Dana
• Katie

I'm so excited to finally be able to share my latest project for Ezee Pzee! I've been sitting on this project for what feels like forever waiting for today's blog hop and reveal. I received my design team package a month ago with the most inspiring direction to use everything in the package to create something about family. Each member of the wonderful Kathy's family chose an item to include (their choices being the feather, piece of slate, wooden stalk of wheat and rawhide cord).

So, this is what I started with:

And this is what I ended up with:

Basic Grey "Curio"paper with acetate-covered opening to show off the engraved wood cover. The chipboard embellishments from Ezee Pzee are finished to look like brown suede.

I used an Ezee Pzee chipboard flower as a closure on the small keepsake envelope on the left page.

I love that the Ezee Pzee snowflake doesn't have to be used for winter - I think the addition of a distressed frame and a decorative brad results in quite a vintage floral look.

Engraved leather leaves ... need I say more?

My first time using this Tim Holtz stamp set to create my own background paper.

Wasn't there slate in that Dezign Team package? I couldn't figure out how to incorporate a piece of stone so I ended up putting the slate under some Core'dinations cardstock and then sanding over top. The results is this wonderfully distressed paper that I've used throughout the album.

I want to share with you all the details about the products and techniques that I used to create this album, along with some close-up shots of the different embellishment elements but I don't want this post to end up too long (and I want you to have lots of time to visit the other Dezign Team members' blogs) so if you are interested, please keep an eye on my blog and I'll share more details over the coming week.

My supplies:

• Mini album (wooden cover & chipboard pages), Ezee Pzee
• Assorted chipboard shapes, Ezee Pzee
• Assorted leather shapes, Ezee Pzee
• Patterned papers - Basic Grey "Curio" 6x6 paper pack
• Core'dinations cardstock
• Distress ink "vintage photo", Tim Holtz
• "Tattered florals" die cut, Tim Holtz
• Scalloped border punch, Martha Stewart
• Iron Gate border punch, EK Success
• "Espresso" paint dabber, Adirondack
• "Urban Tapestry" stamps, Stamper's Anonymous, Tim Holtz
• "Cherry Blossom", "Willow" and "Terra Cotta" walnut ink antiquing solution, Tsukineko
• Copic markers, various colours
• Brown tissue paper, repurposed from packaging
• Acetate, repurposed from packaging
• Ribbon, unknown
• Brads, unknown
• Binder rings

Challenges:
Ooh La La Creations - bling it on
Basic Grey - dots & spots
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - anything goes
Fairy Tale Challenge Blog - flowers
The Stamp Man Challenges - distressing
Stamp Something - anything goes
Do You Stack Up? - distressing
Simon Says Stamp & Show - polka dots (the paper on pages 9/10)

Pink makes everyone look pretty

I've got a stash of digi images that I've coloured (and in some cases even matted) but never used. So I'm making a concerted effort to make use of them rather than colour new. In some cases, such as this one, I can't imagine why I haven't used the image earlier.

This sweet little hedgehog from Phindy's Place is so adorable in all her finery that even the flies buzzing around her head seem to be lovely. I thought this image would be perfect for a little girl and so I made the card with an assortment of Basic Grey papers (from "Lemonade" set) that are just super feminine. I added a touch of glitter to the flies and a few coloured pearls in the bottom corner.

I'll be donating this card to Cards for Kids as either a "birthday" or "just because you're special" card. If you aren't familiar with Cards for Kids (and it is a brand-new initiative so you probably aren't), we are collecting hand-made greeting cards that can be given to hospitalized children who are unlucky enough to be in hospital over their birthday or other special day. I really encourage you to check out the site and if donate a card or two!

Challenges:
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - anything goes
Quirky Crafts - in the springtime garden (the hedgehog you find in your garden may not be wearing a pink & green dress but mine is - lol)
2 Sisters - flowers (this paper is overflowing with flowers)
Our Creative Corner - dress up the sketch (I added an embossed frame, another layer of matting plus some coloured pearls)

Sharing popcorn ... for life

A month to go and already everyone is thinking Valentine's Day. I was at the mall today and there were hearts and cupids and mushy cards everywhere. But, do not be misled by the hearts on today's card. This is not a Valentine's Day card! In fact, my husband's nephew announced his engagement and this card is actually in recognition of that wonderful event.

The image is a favourite of mine from Karen's Doodles; I bought it ages ago and have used it for other engagement cards. I purchased the boy & girl separately and merged them in Photoshop for this card. The colouring is done with Copics and the papers are from a brand-new paper pack I picked up this past week from Basic Grey. I'm not entering it into their card challenge since I'm not using a Christmas theme, but I used sketch from Christmas Card Challenges.

Challenges:
Karber Monthly Challenge - digi and movies
Basic Grey - dots & spots
Crafty Calendar - new beginnings
Elephantastic - new beginnings
Southern Girls - lovey dovey
Crafty Creations - new beginnings
Scrap-Creations - love is in the air
Gingerloft Challenge - celebrations
Crafty Pad - something new (a new marriage)
Copic Creations - anything new (the paper pack)

Candy Cane Bear

I have a very simple card to share today. This one uses a digital stamp from one of my favourite digi designers Dustin Pike (Doodle Dragon Studios). This guy puts out literally hundreds of images each year and his prices are unbelievable.

For this card I coloured the bear using Copic markers and then matted him on a selection of traditionally coloured papers. The largest red panel is embossed with a candy-cane stripe folder. In order to keep the card from looking too plain, and to mimic the rounding of the candy cane, I used my corner punch on the two outside edges of the card front. Like I said, super easy but I think this will be great for so many people this coming Christmas.

Challenges:

Christmas All Year Round - anything goes (Christmas)

Fuzzy Wuzzy - anything goes (include an animal)

Stamp Something - use a digi

Karber Christmas - use a digi and anything goes

ABC Christmas - "A" is for anything Christmas

Paper Crafting Journey - use a digi

Some Odd Girl - embossing

3 monkeys & a cupcake

I had a super productive evening last night and completed a total of 4 cards for Cards for Kids (which provides hand-made cards to Children's Hospitals for distribution to hospitalized kids on their birthdays and other holidays). 

These cards were pretty quick to put together as the images were already coloured and I used card sketches from a couple of challenge sites for the designs. All that was left was the selection of papers (Basic Grey, of course) and embellishments (buttons). All of these papers came from the Basic Grey "Wander" collection. All of the images are from Bugaboo.


Challenges:
Sisterhood of Crafters - birthday
The Crazy Challenge - animals
Crafty Pad - birthday
Pile it On - cute kids (card #4)
Basic Grey - dots & spots (cards #2, 3)
Catch the Bug - anything goes
Crafty Emma - all creatures great & small
One Stop Craft - card for a child
Crafty Catz - food or drink (card #4 is a cupcake)
Sew Many Cards - flags (pirate flag in cards #1, 3)
Stamp Something - use a digi
Fuzzy Wuzzy - anything goes (with an animal)
Charisma Cardz - birthdays
Delightful Challenges - buttons
Corrosive Challenge - sketch (cards #2, 3)

Friday Sketchers - sketch (cards #1, 4)

Cards for kids

I've recently decided to start collecting and then donating handmade cards to the B.C. Children's Hospital. I'm calling the project "Cards for Kids" and am working to get the first batch of cards to the hospital by the first week of February. These cards will be given to the nurses and staff at the hospital to give to sick kids at appropriate times (like birthdays and holidays).

This card is the first that I've made specifically for "Cards for Kids" and I'm quite pleased with it. I think it will be just great for a boy's birthday.

The image is from Tiddly Inks and I think it's just perfect for a boy's birthday. I raided the kids' craft stash for the paper (it's from a Crayola pack) and used alphabet stickers for the sentiment. The ribbon started out white but was coloured using Copics to match the boy's shirt.

Challenges:
Crafty Pad - happy birthday
One Stop Craft Challenge - for a child
Stamp Something - use a digi
Charisma Cardz - birthdays & celebrations
Paper Play - clean & simple

Gift bags

Christmas may be long over but that doesn't mean I'm not still giving out gifts (nothing like being organized!). I finally dropped off my last couple of Christmas presents and so I can share the gift bags that I created for them.

The bags were super quick and easy to make. I used a couple of House Mouse stamped images that I had pre-coloured, matted them on some plain cardstock, and then added a shiny ribbon. The decorative border along the top of each bag was made with Martha Stewart's pine branch border punch and a strip of Sookwang double-sided tape with red glitter added. 

Challenges:

House Mouse & Friends - celebrate

Crafty Emma - all creatures great & small

Fuzzy Wuzzy - anything goes (with an animal)

Crafty Sentiments - anything but a card

ABC Christmas - anything Christmas

Fab n Funky - anything goes

Anything Goes Challenge - something "C" (I chose "C" for Christmas)

Portfolio notepad project

Today's project is a portfolio note pad that I made as a teacher gift. I started with a small size note pad (9 x 6") that I purchased at my local Staples and then made a decorated portfolio cover using coordinating papers.

 To make the portfolio cover, I cut two pieces of a nice heavy double-sided cardstock to form the front & back covers. I then attached them with a coordinating piece of cardstock that I scored and folded to create a 1/2" spine. I then cut another strip of cardstock (1" by 6") and adhered it to the top of the notepad. I decorated the front of the portfolio with more of the paper and then embellished it with a flower made using the Tim Holtz "Tattered Flowers" die cut. And then the entire thing is finished off with some "antique photo" distress ink.

I'm not happy with the flower (although it looks much better in real life than in the photo) as I couldn't make it as full as I wanted (after all, this needs to be a usable item) and think next time I would use a stamped image instead of a 3-D embellishment. But that's the way of crafting, right? Create, criticize, improve.

Challenges:
Crafty Sentiments - anything goes or anything but a card
Craft Your Passion - anything goes

Happy birthday you old dog

I know it isn't particularly respectful calling my Dad an old dog, but I don't think he'll mind (and it is pretty fitting) so I made this card for Dad's upcoming birthday. The inside sentiment reads "Happy birthday, you old dog".

The image is "Best seat in the house" from Just Inklined. I had such fun colouring this image, especially getting the colour of the chair just right. Now my Mom would never have allowed a chair that looked this rough sit in the house but if it was up to my Dad this type of chair would definitely have been in a place of honour, not to mention the old smelly dog. I used a mix of Basic Grey papers and cardstock stickers from the Pyrus collection. I love the eyelets on either side of the card - I punched holes through the one paper layer and then inserted copper eyelets so that the cream background paper would show through. I still think this card is too plain but Dad likes simple so I held back on embellishing further. The great benefit of making cards is that each card can be taylored to match the recipient's likes/dislikes.

That's it for today. Hope you are having a great one!

Challenges:
Fab 'n Funky - anything goes
Stampin' Royalty - birthday
Crafty Emma - anything goes
Paper Sundaes - use something new (the Basic Grey paper/embellies)
Creative Inspirations - use something new
Top Tip Tuesday - metal (the brads)
Sketch and Stash - sketch (my forgotten stash are the eyelets)

Sending birthday wishes

Today I have 2 dogs to share - one is on a card and the other is now a part of my family. First, the living dog. "Larry" (who may be renamed soon) is a 6 year old Husky X that I found at my local animal shelter. He is arthritic, overweight and sheds like you can't believe (and it's wintertime; I can't wait to reupholster my furniture in Husky hair come Spring). And he's just perfect! I love a dog that enjoys walks but doesn't bug me if I don't want to go out. He is just so lovable and easy-going. The kids are fighting over who gets to hug him next (although he seems to be quite happy accepting multiple hugs at a time). I'm a strong believer in adopting adult animals because their personalities are known and it's therefore easier to find a good match for any househould. Our last dog was 7 yrs old when we adopted her and we had a wonderful 5 years with her. I'm hoping for at least as long with Larry.

And now for the paper dog. This card was created for a very dear friend's birthday this month. Although I have a collection of completed cards I always like to make a brand-new, personalized card for my special friends. This card was made using her favourite colours (blue and bright white).

The image is a freebie from Sliekje. She offers so many adorable images on her blog and never charges a cent for them! I coloured this little guy using Copics (warm greys) and then adhered him to a layered card of patterned paper and shiny Bazzil cardstock. The patterned paper is actually a winter pattern but by carefully placing the image and embellishments over the snowflakes, it ends up being just right for this card. Even though her birthday is in January, she loves all things Spring so it was important to make sure this card used colours and patterns that were very fresh.

Well it's time to walk the dog to the mailbox (a mere block away and quite an acceptable walk for my Larry) and get this card on its way. Have a great day!!!

Challenges:
Totally Gorjuss - for someone special
Stamping Vacation - monochromatic blues
Papertake Weekly - anything goes
Craft Your Passion - anything goes
Crazy 4 Challenges - celebrate (a birthday)
Totally Papercrafts - time to celebrate/party

Christmas kitty

I have to admit that I'm one of those people who listens to Christmas music in the summer and makes Christmas cards all year round. So it definitely isn't surprising that today's card is ... Christmas!

The image I've used is a freebie offered in Simply Cards & Papercraft Magazine. This magazine usually contains a double spread of digi images that you can photocopy or scan and then use at will. I just couldn't resist this cat - his expression is just priceless!

As usual, I used Copic markers to colour the image and Basic Grey papers. But I also used the Copics to colour all of the embellishments - the taupe rik-rak was actually an ugly shade of red so I turned it over and coloured it to match the kitty;  the gold ribbon started out white; and the pearls were off-white. I am a major advocate of Copic markers because of their versatility and usefulness (no, I don't work for Copic but if they want to send me any free markers ... LOL).

Anyway, have a wonderful first day of 2011! Here's wishing everyone a creative year full of fun!

Challenges:

Fab 'n Funky - quick & easy Christmas

Top Tip Tuesday - get embellishing

Christmas Cards All Year Round - anything goes Christmas

CES Challenges - anything goes

Sketch & Stash - choose a sketch from the year