Prairie Paper & Ink

Mother's Day Post #3

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there!!

I had an uneventful Mother's Day. Tim and I went to the city last night for the late showing of Iron Man 2 (I've seen the first one several times and couldn't wait to see the new one - I know I'm a nerd! It helps that Robert Downey Jr. is good eye candy though ROFLOL!! *wink*) and didn't get home 'till nearly 2 am - I loved the movie so it was worth it. Since the girls slept over at Tim's parents we both got to sleep in - THAT was a nice way to start the day. Since I started working out of the house and with both of the girls in school I rarely sleep in anymore.

Anywho - we had a quiet day and everyone is winding down before the girl's bedtime. They each made me cute cards for Mother's Day (or Mudder Day as Josie pronounces it LOL) and we got flowers from the restaurant where we went for lunch with Tim's parents and friends of theirs - so if I can keep the cat from killing them (she has a thing for plants! She's constantly clawing/ripping/chewing my houseplants! I barely had the pansies in the house more than 20 minutes before she was attacking them!!) I'll be planting them as soon as it warms up enough here.

SO - I still have a few more Mother's Day cards to share that I made last weekend so here goes:

This one was SUPER quick and simple - the patterned paper (all of these were made with the Basic Grey Kioshi papers - I was on a roll with them!) did all the work!

I used my SU! Bigz Butterflies dies to cut out the butterflies and attached them with Kioshi brads.

The ribbon is May Arts satin.

The sentiments are from my All Women set.

The inside was kept simple - I lined it with patterned paper then stamped another sentiment from the All Women set onto a piece of cardstock then trimmed it and adhered it.

Kioshi patterned paper, and Kioshi brads and stitched brads. The Primas were from my stash. The lace is the Kioshi self-adhesive ribbon doilies - SO quick and simple to add a bit of wow to the card!

More sentiments from the All Women set.

The little floral strip is also from the self-adhesive ribbon doilies pack.

This one I really liked - mostly b/c the layout was simple as I wanted to focus on the sentiment.

I combined the 'Mother' from the All Women set with a verse from the Friends Sentiments set - it just *worked* YKWIM?

The inside was kept simple. With some of the cards I purposely left off the 'Happy Mother's Day' sentiment - as they can be used for any occasion - birthday, thank you, thinking of you, just something nice to give to your Mom :o)

I saved this one for last as it was my favorite one out of the bunch I made.

I used my Spellbinders Blossom dies (all but the largest one) and cut the shapes from 2 of the patterned papers. I sponged the edges with SU! Perfect Plum ink to add some definition then attached them to the card with a Kioshi brad.

The dragonfly was a Martha Stewart punch - I punched it from heavy weight vellum then adhered it to the card with Mono Multi. It seemed to be lacking something so I covered it with Crystal Stickles - which worked perfectly!

Again I kept the inside super-simple by just lining it with more patterned paper and that was it.

**Side note - some of you that have followed my blog regularily over the past year (or more!) will remember that my mom crushed her foot in an accident several months ago now. I remember some of you asking how she was doing not too long ago.

She's been doing good! Her foot - well it was more her toes - 2 or 3 of them were crushed and had to have pins inserted - it was a gross and painful process and took FOREVER to heal. Since she runs a coffee shop (that serves food at lunch, plus baking that she does, PLUS she caters - seriously if you are ever travelling through Rosetown, Saskatchewan make sure to stop by Fresh Ground Coffee house on Main Street - you won't regret it!) she was never able to take enough time off to "put her feet up" - so that slowed down the healing process considerably.

The ONLY thing that sucks for her (and me) is that she might never be able to wear heels again. And if you knew my mom and saw the size of her shoe collection (heck **I** haven't even seen it - don't want to - I'd prolly be green with envy!! I get my love of shoes from her.) you'd know how much that would suck. And it sucks for ME b/c her feet are at least 2 sizes smaller than mine - so it's not like I could you know - help out and give some of them a good home *huge wink*!! But the fact that she's able to run around and whatnot at all is a good thing.

But yeah it's been roughly 6 months or so since? And she's active (LOL you should hear her running down the hallway when she's got things to do - people hear her and think it's some kid running around and nope! It's always her) and doing good. I don't have to help out at the coffee shop hardly at all now - maybe every rare once in a while.

She works pretty much seven days a week - a lot of people don't realise just how much time she puts in for her business. Thankfully she took today and tomorrow off for a bit of a break so I won't even see her 'till Tuesday.

I already got and gave her some stuff for Mother's Day weeks ago (I couldn't wait and gave it to her early b/c they were perfect for her) which drives her nuts. She HATES being given things early b/c then there's nothing on the actual day - but what she doesn't know is that I got her another present and will be giving it to her when I see her on Tuesday (and since she rarely goes online and I don't even think she's ever been to my blog - she's not a person who is familiar with technology - I generally have to walk her through it step-by-step - there's little-to-no chance of her seeing this) so she'll get an extra surprise.**

That's all for my rambling today!! Happy Mother's Day again everyone!   

Friday Sketch! (May 7/10)

This week's sketch is another oldie-but-a-goodie:

From way-back-when here's AMYRS9 - you can check out the original post HERE <-----click!

If you are new to the Friday Sketch! PLEASE check out and read all the info HERE <----click!

 

 

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Mother's Day Post #2

The Friday Sketch will be late - prolly tonight I will be able to post. I have been busy with work and am working a little late tonight too - so I thought I'd share this post for now then get the Sketch! up later on tonight after I get home!

Here's a few more Mother's Day cards that I had made over the weekend:

This was a fun one to do. I made the card front using strips of papers from the Basic Grey Kioshi pack - I had a pile of scraps sitting on my table over the weekend and I was determined to use up as much of them as possible! 

The 'Mother-in-law' sentiment is from my All Women set - they're 2 separate stamps - I just lined them both up onto one block and stamped.

I used a large Prima flower from my stash and attached it with one of the Kioshi stitched brads.

The rick-rack is from that little paper ribbon kit.

On the inside of the card I added a full piece of patterned paper and then stamped the 'Happy Mother's Day' (also from the All Women set) onto another strip and adhered that.

Then with this card I used up even more little strips of patterned paper!

I used my Stampin' Up! Bigz Butterflies die again (same as yesterday's card) - this time I cut one piece of patterned paper and one from cardstock. On the cardstock one I lined the edge with Star Dust Stickles.

I attached the butterflies with a green prima and a Kioshi brad.

The ribbon is May Arts and the sentiments are from the All Women set.

 

On the inside I added a few more patterned paper strips and that was it! 

 

Mother's Day Post #1

This has to be another quick post as I have to head to work right away!

I made a bunch of Mother's Day cards when I was at the retreat this past weekend - I didn't have any in my stash and I sell them at my salon and at the coffee shop my Mom owns:

I used the Basic Grey Kioshi patterned papers and my All Women set for all the cards. I had fun making them!

With this one I ran some of the papers through with my Stampin' Up! Bigz Butterflies die and attached 2 of them to the card with a Kioshi button.

The ribbon is May Arts.

I stamped the 'Mom' and 'It's Your Day' from the All Women set onto the front of the card.

Then I just used one of the patterned papers to line the inside of the card and stamped another sentiment from the All Women set onto cardstock, trimmed it and adhered it into place and that was it :o)   

SNEAK PEEK - Cookie Crumbs Special Day

**I had 3 posts yesterday so make sure to scroll down and see them all!**

*random FYI - as I'm typing this I can see all the snow coming down out the window. We actually had a blizzard warning issued for today - gross!! It was bad enough having to deal with the snow and storms in APRIL - but it's MAY now!*

Today starts off the sneak peeks for the May All That Scraps stamps release.

Today's sneak peeks are for Diane's Cookie Crumbs line - the set is called Special Day.

This was the first card I made with the set. I had to use the rose image as soon as I saw it!

 

I stamped the rose with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto CCD White Cardstock and colored it in with Copic markers. I used RV32, RV42 and RV14 which are all over the RV shade range - but they are colors that went well with the patterned paper - and I feathered them into each other in order for them to blend seamlessly. I was quite pleased with the end result!

And of course I had to add a little bling via some Stickles :o)

All the patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Kioshi line - I showed all the stuff I got in the ATS haul Video and post HERE <----click!

I used my circle and scalloped circle nestabilities to cut out the rose and to mat the image.

The sentiment (also from the Special Day set) was stamped with SU! Pale Plum ink.

I used more patterned paper on the inside of the card - and some more of the self-adhesive ribbon paper strips - I had FUN with those over the weekend! It's neat stuff! You have to be careful peeling off the paper backing with the lace style like this b/c it's so detailed - but it sure adds a nice touch eh?

The sentiment on the inside of the card is from the Love Sentiments set - I also stamped that with SU Pale Plum ink. 

 

• STAMPS: Cookie Crumbs Special Day set, AmyR Stamps Love Sentiments.
• CS: CCD Copic Quality White, SU Cameo Coral, Orchid Opulence, Basic Grey Kioshi Patterned Papers.
• INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Pale Plum, Copic Markers.
• ACCESSORIES: Basic Grey Kioshi Self Adhesive Ribbon Doilies, Kioshi Brads, Stickles, Dimensionals.

**Don't forget to head on over to the ATS blog to check out the samples there! And if you leave a comment on their sneak peek posts you'll be entered in to win the stamps that are being peeked!**

 

 

 
  

A Few Retreat Pictures

**post #2 for today! Be sure to scroll down to see the first one!**

Here are a few pics from the stamping retreat - I didn't take many - I was too busy stamping!

This is the main area where we had all the tables set up for crafting - the view is amazing!

And this was my little spot. I didn't bring near as much stuff as I did for the previous retreats - and I still didn't touch half of what I brought!!

And here's the stack of *some* of the cards I finished - I got 15 done over the weekend and started to mass produce a set of 12 that were nearly finished before we had to leave - not bad!!

Last but not least a pic of me crafting away. And those green and pink pails are full of all my Copics - more about those in THIS post <---click! since I get asked about how I store them a lot! 

That table behind me on the right was full of stuff I was selling off. I've been doing this for so long (and was a SU demo for several years) that I've amassed quite a bit - way more than I will ever use. So I always bring along things to sell off.

FYI that set of ink pads with the caddy and extender (all SU) on the table shown is still for sale. If anyone is interested leave a comment and I can post more info on them as I'd like to sell them to someone who will give 'em a good home and USE them as I don't!

ETA: This is Camp Kadesh at Christopher Lake, Saskatchewan. It's HUGE and there's separate rooms with beds (have to bring your own bedding), a kitchen and all that. 

This is a private retreat (as in no companies or stores put this on) Julie puts on and it's only once a year - it's a lot of work for her to get everyone signed up and booking the facility and timing everything with the caterer (it's fully catered by her sister-in-law who is a FABULOUS cook - she does it as a business though (catering) so everything has to be booked in advance) so I doubt she will do it more often than that.

You can check out Julie's post about the retreat HERE <-----click!

You Make Me Smile - Sketch Sample!

I'm back!!

Sadly we didn't have internet access at the retreat (well there WAS internet but we didn't have access to it! :o( ) so I never got the chance to post the card I made for the latest Friday Sketch!

However I had a fabulous time and got a LOT of cards done - I'm not looking forward to all the pics and editing I have to do for them all though LOL! Nor having to put everything away again and clean up my studio - I was so short on time I just flew by the seat of my pants and grabbed things at random - and made quite the mess in the process.....

Anywho - I have a few pics from the retreat to share that I will upload later - for now here's the card I made for the Friday Sketch! on April 30:

Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

I pulled out my CCD Flower Power set for this card - that monkey is adorable ;o)

 
I stamped the image onto CCD White Cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink then colored it in with Copics.

I added dots of Yellow Stickles to the flower, and used my Clear Glaze pen on the ladybug bodies.

The sentiment is from my Big Words & Handy Additions sets. I stamped the 'smile' with SU! Certainly Celery ink then stamped the 'You make me' with black over it.

The felt flowers were from my stash - sorry I'm not sure where they came from! They're self-adhesive and then I added DoodleBug Sugar Coated brads to the centers of each.

On the inside of the card I just added some more patterned paper (I'm still trying to use up all my My Little Shoebox papers - I have lots left still!) and some white cardstock and that was it!

• STAMPS: CCDesigns Flower Power Set, AmyR Stamps Big Words and Handy Additions sets.
• CS: CCD Copic Quality White, Yellow, My Little Shoebox Patterned Papers.
• INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU! Certainly Celery, Copic Markers.
• ACCESSORIES: Felt Flowers, Brads, Yellow Stickles, Clear Glaze Pen.