I now have a slide show of some of my work....

Wow... that was a little excercise in patience and perserverance! My brother came over today and thank goodness for his patience and his techy background. We got a slideshow posted, I should say, he got a slideshow posted for me but painstakenly tried to keep me in the loop as he was doing it. Anyways, this is a small compilation of my earlier work. I have yet to get my camera and take out more of my work to showcase. At this moment in time, I am happy with what I've got and there will be more to put on later.

I am looking forward to the New Year and what it will hold for me. I have some great ideas that I would like to manifest in my arts and craft work. I am in the habit of taking on a bit of an "old" world flavour to my art as I like the distressed look -the worn, shabby chic look. I love textures and fabrics and I imagine the "feel" of a card with dimension and texture upon it. I like bling - the bejewelled look~ using rich ribbon, either soft and velvety, or stiff, sharp or crisp and glittery. I like using rich paper that has a sheen and weight to it and I like to layer and mat with substantial weights of card stock. For the bases of my cards, I like to use again a substantial wieght of paper and build up from there. Each card must have a good balance of weight and "feel" regal. I continue to learn from others whom I consider masters.....
I am going to sign off for tonight and hopefully when I email y'all, you will come and visit me here and sign up as a member and leave a comment for me!!!

The company is gone... we are quiet!

Good day everyone.... our company has all gone now.. we will have a small smattering of visitors now until New Years. All is well ... I hope my technically savvy bro comes soon to add some neat features to my blog. more very soon....

Merry Christmas Everyone

Well the day is almost over for us!! We have been enjoying good food, the best company, and the joy of little people, (nieces, nephews and our grandson) whose energy is so infectious with the joy of life and all of its wonders. I love this time of year for that. We get to kindle our family relationships and make wonderful memories for a small space in time. Looking forward to our oldest son and his family to arrive... it was their turn at the other Gramma's house this year for Christmas Day! I am so good at sharing. More tomorrow...

A Great Opportunity to enter ....

Hello... take a look at this blog candy from Viviane Casale from Handmade By Vivi, www.handmadebyvivi.blogspot.com

She has an awesome blog chock full of techniques, contests, challenges and loads of links to fabulous places... Go on over and take a look and while you are at it, enter her contest in celebration of her new designer team position. Congrats Viviane on your DT position for the Magnolia Stamp Lovers Blog.

Christmas Eve...

The countdown begins... I have alot to do today. We are having turkey and trimmings today and steak and seafood tomorrow. I want to enjoy my boys, enjoy my grandson, my husband and the rest of my extended family! I look forward to having a good time with them all. I have posted a few pics of my work for now and will post the slide show when my brother arrives as well as take some more pictures after Christmas to post! I would like to post some more info and updates today, later on, after some rest and more food prep has taken place. I plan to go to mass tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. My blog has been in more of a personal style right now while I get in the habit of posting random thoughts and ideas. My focus is to get used to going on site to post something everyday so that I am prepared to get more to the task of posting my work and talking paper crafts in future. Again, more random thoughts coming soon to a blog near you!

Okay... some technical difficulties.

Hello again... I am busy with our final preparations for Christmas. I did not get to play in my craft area at all in the last 2 weeks. Well, ever since the craft show I did on the 5th of December come to think of it. I did a great craft show in a neighboring small town and I had alot of people go by my booth and fill out ballots for my raffle draw. I gave alot of business cards out and made some great contacts. I will follow up with them all by getting them on my email contact list and then send out an email to announce my new blog and my position as the newest member of Stamping and Scrapping design team. I can't seem to get my slideshow to work with some major technical difficulties. I am going to post the pics one at the time for now and then my brother will help with the slideshow when he arrives for his Christmas visit. I am excited to set my blog up with even better widgets and options and learn more tricks to blogging. more later...

A lot of water has gone under the bridge....

I have accomplished so much in the last little while in preparation for Christmas. Two of the boys are home and they are pitching in which is great for us!! There is a little snow, enough for them to go snowmobiling.... the lights are up and look very nice. Most of the shopping is done. I am happier each day and counting down til my little buddy gets here for christmas. I am thinking the festivities are going to be wonderful. I just want to enjoy the boys this year and we have our little Cass joining us for the first time. Pics are coming, I feel like I can get them done and posted....

Got the meat pies out of the way~~

Still busy with Christmas prep and getting ready for company! I am still hoping to get pics taken of my current cards. I made some nice christmas cards with a little sewing detail on them. I really enjoyed creating them using the sewing machine too. I have alot of plans for the sewing machine as a value added to creating cards.. I have some ideas on textures too as I love the 3 dimensional look and I love different textures on my work. Or at least that is what I visualize...
I love color and try to provide it on my work using various mediums. I love Michelle Zindorff's creations that she achieves with her brayer work. I love the Copic coloring technique as well and I am always trying to improve my work there but have not done a true copic course yet. I love using paint, and glitter - especially the glitter you can heat set so that it doesn't come off your work all over. I love heat embossing with stamps and using acrylic paint on chipboard - I love my cricut and all that it can do with it. I love my spellbinders for working on cards and the cuttlebug to emboss for that unique background sophisticated look. I try to think outside of the box with all my tools but that takes muse and time to just sit with various product and just play... more on my cards later.

Another day of preparations for the holidays...

It seems like the wheels are spinning. So much to do, so little time! I must get my ducks in a row.. I have the best intentions but sometimes that is just not enough. More later...

I am wanting to get some of my cards Posted...

Wow, here it is Monday evening and I still don't have card pics posted yet. I am going to work on that tonight a bit. Hopefully I will get some pics of some of my nicer cards and then post them on my blog here. I need to get to work here... I was a bit busy with my community interests today and that took up a fair bit of time. Later....

Seems clear enough today!

Phew! It seems like it will remain clear today and I am glad for it as I am going to a little gathering tonight about 20 miles away. Calling for more snow for tomorrow though. I am getting ready for christmas here - wrapping gifts and cleaning house in preparation for our children coming home. Cooking and baking and putting away food so that when the rush comes, we can enjoy our family and not be constantly in the kitchen cooking. I just want to have an easy going christmas with my boys and my husband and no pressures. With surgery coming after the New Year, I just want to have fun! Alot of my fun is making cards and scrappin' pages of my family but I have not had alot of time to do that this month. Last month I did a little more work on cards than anything else. I really like to stamp and I am just learning to color with copics and other markers. It does take a practiced hand to accomplish a beautiful and finished result. I have some great Just Rite stamps and I have to say that I love them. With the right cardstock and archival ink they stamp an amazing crisp image. Perfect for coloring! I have a great collection of Spellbinders and I have a good size collection of Cricut Cartridges - around 48 of them. I have both the Cricut Create and the Expression which I bring out to my crop clubs and card workshops. I have not had any problems with the Provocraft products-- they wear well and are used consistently by over 100 people. I have the cuttlebug and over 30 to 40 folders so I have some great product to work with. I am currently working on Wedding invites for my Nephew's wedding. I must have 175 invites completed for April 1st, 2010. All of the templates are made and now it is time for production as I am dividing the cards into about 5 different designs but keeping them all in the same paper collection. I will do a slew of them at my sister's while I am getting stronger in January after surgery as she is the mother of the groom and wants to be involved too. I have to take some pics some of my cards and find the pictures I have already taken. I will post them soon but Christmas prep and all the dates to keep leading up to Christmas comes first! More later, I promise.... k

Yikes! I posted yesterday but something happened to the computer and it did not publish. I am finally home after 4 days of blinding snow squalls and a harrowing trip to Barrie to congratulate my son on his graduation from Basic training at Borden. He looks fabulous and he did such a good job -- we are sooo proud of him. We had a great visit with Lee, Sharla and baby Jacob and took some fantastic pics that are just scrapbookable and very cardascious!! He is sporting his new santa hat and matching booties and very, I say very.. little... else! Well aside from his Pirate pics at Halloween, these pics take the Prize! Now it is time to find get back to the business of my blog here -- sort out the pics of some of my work and to take more pics of my work and post them here on the blog. Getting ready for Christmas and then in between I will continue to post!! Later....

Adding some more and learning as I go..

Good morning everyone
I am away visiting my favourite grandson and checking emails. I thought I would post something and learn a little more about creating a blog. I am reading up on various gadgets to add to make the page interesting and there is sooo much to learn. I will eventually learn to customize my page art but for now it is shaping up not too bad. I have added one of my favourite online stores and you will notice by the two blinkies I have added. If you click on them it will open up to the online store where you can see all new possibilities. Stamping and Scrapping is an amazing online store with great values and sales and the shipping is one of the fairest coming in from the US. But, let me say the customer service is the most amazing and I am sure one of the greatest reasons that she does a wonderful business! Cindy (Kev and the gang too) is and are the best online business crew that I know. They make your shopping experience very personal. Thanks for being who you are and bringing the small mom and pop shops back into the 21st century!
Anyways, I am having fun with this endeavor so far and intend to keep it going ... more to say real soon...

It's the 3rd day in...

Hello my Friends
As I posted yesterday, it will be a challenge for me to find various things to talk about on the blog but I want to concentrate on the world of crafting. Card making and Scrapbooking are my main focus and I have a new BabyLocke sewing and embroidery machine that I am cross using for quilting, embroidery and sewing on my cards and scrapbook pages. I love making cards, cards and more cards.. to me they are like mini scrapbook pages. There is no end to what can be created on a card. As I said, I need to put some pics of my cards on the blog to showcase. I love to design and create. I am in the process of creating a space that is very conducive to creating with my artistic eye. I am away from home today and will be for a few days but I have oh so much more to share. Thanks for visiting and any helpful tips and comments for the blog are very much appreciated. I'll be back tomorrow...

Good Day everyone... I don't know how much more building I will be doing on the blog today... this month is going to be crazy with all the kids coming home and all the preparations I have to do to get ready for everyone. I hope my brother can help me to get some kool gadgets up on my blog. This is a great discipline for me.. to post daily even if it is just this and that. Hope to have more later as I put on some more gadgets!! I want to post pics of some of my cards.... Tonight maybe, after I get some stuff done today that needs doing in time for Christmas!!

The time has come!!

Well, well... I have finally arrived. I have been toying with the idea of creating a blog and I know that it can provide so many positive attributes within myself to aspire to such as organization, consistancy, determination, and motivation to name a few. I have wanted to showcase some of my work and provide a location to house my creative designs and to invite visitors to come and share with me. I have seen and continue to enjoy so much wonderful work online and have visited many creative blog spaces that for a while now I have wanted to join that wonderful circle. I will post more later... I want to begin to create my space here online. Thank you to my friends who have encouraged me to create and committ to a blog. Please feel free to become a friend by joining my blog and subscribing to my space as I go along here. I need all the encouragement I can get...