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)