Exciting News!!

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share with you my very exciting news that I can now shout from the rooftops, lol!!!

I have been asked to be a Design Team member for The Paper Passion here in Ottawa. Rosa has so generously offered me this position and I can't wait to get started. Her website, The Paper Passion offers amazing product and unbelievably low prices. I also get to work with the other member of the DT, Marcie Morgan. Her incredibly talented work can be found here - I can't wait to start working with you Marcie!

Hopefully I'll get to do some inking this afternoon - it has been a struggle health-wise for me this week so I hope I can find the energy to create. I really want to, my body just doesn't seem willing! :(

Thanks for stopping by today and I really hope I get something posted up soon.

Hugs,

Danielle x

Look what arrived in my mailbox!!

Woohoo!! Linda, it finally arrived! I did a late check on my mailbox and there it was. Thank you SO much - you were incredibly generous with your images. Wow, I can't wait to start playing, hee hee!!

I have never used House Mouse but have always admired them on the store shelves. I guess I just didn't take the plunge and buy any - but that may change after I get to play with this wonderful selection.

I am going to extend an invitation to any of my regular bloggers who would like to RAK any images with me. Linda and I did this through our mutual love of Magnolia stamps and I have to say it certainly develops into an incredible friendship bonding. So, if you're interested, feel free to mail me at lord.danielle@gmail.com and let me know what images of mine you'd be keen to exchange.

Hope you're all having a wonderful evening!

Hugs,

Danielle x

Men's Attache Case

Hi all!

I have been looking for a men's 'briefcase' type box to go with my 'Suit Card' for an upcoming 'For the Men in your Life' class at Heather's Stamping Haven. And today I stumbled across this - isn't it sweet! The original creation, found here is far superior to my attempt, but this was my first try and you have to work with what you've got, right??!! Actually, I will be trying it again as I am want to make it hold a DVD. The dimensions on this one are too small so I will have a go at making it bigger - a perfect way to gift a DVD or a CD don't you think?

This is a quick posting today as I would like to try and get back down to my crafting room and experiment some more! Besides, I have to go and make those pancakes that my boys have requested for supper tonight as my 7 yr old reminded me it's 'World Pancake Day'!! Which of course reminds me it's Ash Wednesday tomorrow and the beginning of Lent. Mmm, haven't thought about what I will be giving up - blogging?? stamping?? err, no!! Will have to think of something else, lol!

Have yourself a great Tuesday evening and hopefully see you back again soon. Thanks too for all your wonderful wishes of congratulations on my Art Glitter gallery - much appreciated! :)

Hugs,

Danielle x

The Art Glitter Institute

Hello everyone!

Just a quick posting to let you all know that my cards using The Art Glitter Institute's Fantasy Film have made it into their gallery!! I can't tell you how proud this has made me feel - it's almost like a publication, lol!! Yippee :)

Here's the link - The Art Glitter Institute - feel free to go check it out!

Hope you're all having a fabulous day - mine certainly just got better!

Hugs,

Danielle x

Spring Chicken - VLVFeb04 and Cute Card Thursday Challenges

Hello everyone!

Thanks for stopping by today and paying me a visit! I've managed to incorporate two challenges into this one card today - I love it when that happens! :) The layout is using the Viva la Verve Feb04 challenge - the final one for February to qualify to win the outstanding prize from Verve Stamps over on SCS. Also, Cute Card Thursday was to make a 'spring' card - and I think this chicken definitely qualifies for that. This choice of palette is a huge step away from my regular choices but I like to have to challenge myself like that! It's certainly bright and cheery and the sentiment I'm sure is what we could all do with right now - so I wish you all lots of sunshine!!

Onto the card, I cuttlebug embossed the back green panel with the circles folder. Oh, I forgot to mention that the VLV *twist* this week is to use acetate, so I embossed a panel of acetate and sewed it onto the yellow panel - you may be able to spot it if you look closely enough! The stamped image is a new Spring 2009 release from Sunshine Designs by The Stamp Barn - isn't it cute! I used tombow markers and distress inks to colour the image. It's a little difficult to see but the flower is sparkly with Aqua stickles. The addition of clear and green dew drops and the ribbon give the finishing touches to the card.

Before I go, Linda passed this beautiful award onto me - thanks so much Linda! It goes to everyone who posts such beautiful and supportive comments on my blog. Please take it and pass it on - you know who you are! It's great to see you here and hope you come back again soon! Thanks again for all your awesome comments - I really love to read them!

Hugs,

Danielle x

Friday Sketchers Challenge

Hi there!

Gosh, it seems I haven't posted all week - my apologies! I feel like my mojo went walkabout and didn't quite know how to make it home, lol!!! I was also busy putting some 'finishing touches' to cards I'd already made to give to a store that sells them - they had an artists open house last night so wanted to make sure I had some stock in!!

Well, I'm here with a card for the Friday Sketchers challenge posted over on their blog. What a fun layout Jacqueline did to work with this week. I thought I'd make this card for my niece's birthday that's coming up, hence the cute ballet Tilda.

I am going to have to apologise (again), hee hee, as the image is not coloured to my normal 'standard'. Why? I hear you ask. Because I've bought copic markers and I've finally gotten a chance to buy some Memento ink which is the only ink that works with them. So last night I was playing around and colouring this image. Please be gentle on my first copics attempt, lol!!!! I didn't want to throw the image away (I hate waste) and that is why I thought it would be perfect for my niece's birthday card. There are a few colour blotches that I'm not happy with but overall, for my first attempt, I'm fairly proud of myself! :)

Here is a close-up of Tilda although I'm not so sure I should show a closer view of my blemishes, hee hee!! Claudia has fabulous copic tutorials over on her blog, although she does state clearly that she is not a qualified copics instructor.

The rest of the card is pretty self-explanatory - I used my new hearts cuttlebug embossing folder behind Tilda and added a metal charm 'Make a Wish" with a ribbon for my sentiment. Four pearl brads and a touch of pink and green ribbon finish the card off.

Below is also a pic of how I finished off the inside of the card. It's very simple but I incorporated the same dp from the main front panel and carried it through to the inside. I stamped the image in Memento Dark Cocoa - I'm loving the brown - it's not so harsh as black!

That's all for today! Hope you have a fabulous weekend and get some inking time! Thanks for taking the time to stop by and visit today and if you post a comment, huge thanks!! :)

Hugs,

Danielle x

Fun Blog Candy up for grabs!

Hi there everyone!

So I was wondering over to Linda's blog and she has won some blog candy - but with a really fun twist!! She won a homemade "gift" by being one of the first 5 people to leave a comment under the post, so now I'll see who my first 5 are! The first 5 people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice! For you. (There is a possibility it will be a purchased item instead of homemade, or both).

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:-

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2. What I create will be just for you.

3. It'll be done sometime this year (I will want to get it done ASAP so it will probably be in the next month or so).

4. You have no clue what it's going to be.

5. The catch? Oh, the catch is you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog (then come here and post, I will check your blog *wink*). The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a handmade gift by me. Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! SO ...................who will be the first 5 people????

1. Sam - UKMUMINUS

2.

3.

4.

5.

If you see your name on the top 5 please email me your address so I can get your candy out!

Warm Thoughts of You - VLVFeb03 Challenge

Hi again!

Wow - I'm managing a second post today!! This is the third Viva La Verve challenge over on Splitcoast Stampers for February with the *twist* of keeping it monochromatic. Again, I'm using two new release stamps from The Stamp Barn - the gorgeous scroll flower design and the sentiment. I adore this aquamarine blue colour - it's always so soothing and pretty. I don't think you can ever make an 'ugly' card using this colour!

The sketch layout was quite challenging until I figured out what stamps I was going to use then everything fell into place very nicely! The dp is from a Costco stash I have and I coloured the flowers in using Twinkling H20's (very sad to note that LuminArte are closing down their business) :(
I used a couple of Prima flowers with a small white one on top to finish the look. The sentiment was stamped on my oval nesties and I added three pearl brads to the top right hand corner to add some sophisticated bling! One last finishing touch was paper piercing some detail down each side of the bottom panel.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! Have a great evening and hope to see you back here tomorow!
Hugs,
Danielle x

Suit & Pocket Watch Card

Happy Monday everyone!

Hope you're all well - today we're enjoying 'Family Day' here in Ontario! It's wonderful to have a 3-day weekend together and I'm posting this quickly before we're off to take the kids swimming! I found this fabulous card tutorial over on Mel's blog - isn't it wonderful! It's always such a challenge to find a great male card and this was just sooo fun to do. It's very straightforward and easy to put together. I found the time consuming bit was the sewing but it's really necessary to give this card that extra detail. The pocket watch stamp is from The Stamp Barn and the chain was a cheapo link chain from the Dollar Store! I sewed the button on and the dp is from my stash - I thought it was the closest one to looking like a men's dress shirt!

That's pretty much it - it's a quick posting 'cos the kids are desperate to get out and go for their swim!

Hope you like it and be sure to click over to Mel's blog for the tutorial. Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a fabulous day!

Hugs,

Danielle x

Silhouette Poppies

Hello fellow stampers!

After an incredibly busy day I'm managing to get a couple of minutes to sit down and do this posting for the Friday Sketchers challenge. It was a fabulous layout by Heidi and I decided to use another new release stamp from The Stamp Barn. This is a silhouette poppy stamp which I stamped, stamped off, then stamped off again to achieve the shaded look. I wanted to keep the colours fairly simply so used SU! green dp and complemented the black ink with black cardstock. I love the dramatic look of black against the white and green. I used three dew drops in place of flowers - flowers would have overshadowed the beautiful silhouette of the poppies. I punched out a word window tab and stamped my sentiment on there (also The Stamp Barn). For the far left panel on the sketch I used a strip of black organza ribbon and tied a bow at the top with some hemp string. The rest of the card is pretty self-explanatory.
Wishing you all a very Happy Valentine's Day! It's my mom's birthday today and was so happy she loved her Tilda card I made for her! I hope you all enjoy a LOVEly day - my DH is sick so we won't be going anywhere!! boo hoo :(

Thanks for stopping by and leaving all your beautiful comments! They so make my blogging worthwhile!! :)

Hugs,

Danielle x

VLVFeb02 Challenge Card - Better late than Never!!

Happy Friday everyone!

Wow - do these weeks ever fly by!! Well, here is last weeks Viva La Verve second February challenge - and better late than never I guess! The *twist* this week was to not use designer/scrapbook paper! Oh, that was a little more challenging than I had realised! Having gotten so used to using the beautiful array of papers out there, I had to put my brain into action and this is what came out! All I can say is thank goodness for the cuttlebug, lol!!

The stamp I've used is a new release from The Stamp Barn - watch this space as I will be adding more samples of their new releases in the coming week. This particular one is from a set 'Meadow Grasses' - they're just beautiful!
Everything here is pretty straight forward - I used paper piercing to add detail to the background, but yet still keeping the card crisp and clean. Not using dp has actually made me appreciate the crisp, clean lines that can be created and yet still produce a beautiful card!

Thanks for stopping by today - I hope you come back to check in for the other Stamp Barn releases - they'll be worth it!

Enjoy your Friday whatever you're doing!

Hugs

Danielle x

My 3 yr old's Valentine Cards!

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to do a quick posting and share my 3 yr old son's valentine cards that he stamped with me yesterday! He did these all by himself for his nursery school friends! Aren't they cute!

Maybe I have a crafter/stamper in the making! We got out a selection of heart and valentine stamps and away he went - he had a great time and I have to admit didn't make too much of a mess!!

I hope to be back later with another posting. Time seems to be running away from me these days and I hate not being able to post every day or every other day! I still have my second February VLV challenge to do yet - hopefully I'll get a chance to put that together this afternoon!

Thanks for stopping by and admiring my little guy's work, lol!

Hugs

Danielle x

Friday Sketchers Challenge

Good Sunday morning all!

At last, I have a chance to post my card for the Friday Sketchers sketch challenge - sorry for such a delay since my last posting. This weeks sketch is a fabulously versatile one from Claudia! I still stayed with a Valentine theme and used this christmas Tilda holding the heart ornament. I used these beautiful Daisy D's background papers and focused my main colour around the blue. The heart is a stamp from The Stamp Barn which works just beautifully with the Tilda's - she sits in there so perfectly! I stamped it on watercolour paper and used my distress inks to colour the heart and Tilda. On the blue panel I embossed the left side with a cuttlebug embossing border flower folder - I love the subtle look it gives! To finish it off I used some white organza ribbon and a piece of matching green silk ribbon to tie the knot. This is my first time making a stick pin - I think I still need to perfect it a bit but I love the look it gives on the card! I can see some more trips coming up to the jewellry section in Wal-Mart! I ran each panel through the sewing machine to add that extra bit of detailing.

I'm pleased with how I managed to incorporate 3 different dp's on this card (even though they were all from a co-ordinating pack!!). This is always a challenge for me and I really like the finished look to this one! I hope you do too!

Thanks for stopping by today and a huge hug to all of you who leave some beautiful comments! It really makes my day :)

Hugs

Danielle x

Materials Used: Distressing Inks - Aged Mahogany, Faded Jeans, Vintage Photo, Tattered Rose

Daisy D's Designer Paper

Cute Card Thursday!

Happy Thursday everyone!

This is my first time checking in with the Cute Card Thursday challenge and it was to use *metal* on your card - brads, charm, eyelet etc. I had a birthday card to make so I thought I would incorporate the challenge into my card.

I haven't stamped up this Tilda and her flower basket in a long time and with a desperate need to be feeling that Spring has to be around the corner, I thought it was the perfect image! I chose this very pretty paper as my colour palette and pulled out the pale blue, purple and greens from it to play with. Using my tombow markers, I coloured in Tilda and cut her out. I used lilac Flower Soft with sprinkles of cream on the top for her flower basket. I used the very cute 'with love' cuttlebug embossing border which fit perfectly on the blue panel next to Tilda. I popped Tilda up with dimensional pop dots. A doily, ribbon, sewing machine and metal filagree flower finished off the card.

Below is a closer view of the Flower Soft I used for her flower basket. I added some purple Stickles to add a little sparkle to the top of the flowers! I sprayed it with a Matte spray sealant to ensure the flower soft doesn't fall away from the card.

And there it is - two jobs done in one!! Thanks for taking the time to look today.

I am hoping to get some blog candy together - either for when I reach 10,000 hits or 50+ followers - depends which gets there first! So if you're thinking of following my blog you would help me reach my goal and get my blog candy out sooner - good for everyone, no?? ;)

Hugs,

Danielle x

Valentine Chocolates!

Hi there!

I have had this Alota chocolate box stamp inked up and coloured for a while now, I just haven't had the chance to put it on a card! This is one of my new Alota stamps and it is wonderful - I love it! I coloured the Tilda from the New Years Collection in with Distress Inks. The chocolate box was painted with my Twinkling H20's - it has a beautiful shimmer to it! The background paper says 'oh so sweet' all over it - I think it is probably for a baby girl but I thought it worked perfectly with the box of chocolates! I used a panel down the middle of a slightly darker pink to add some contrast and interest. The bottom of the card hasn't shown up to clearly but I have a scalloped panel on the bottom with some gorgeous heart crochet lace sitting on the top. I added a swirl die cut and a prima flower with a felt die cut flower on the top. With a silver brad I adhered a small heart charm to the centre of the flower.

For the inside of the card I used a matching piece of cardstock from the main front panel, adhered a paper doily and used a Labels 1 die cut from spellbinders for my sentiment. I ran a piece of pale pink organza ribbon behind the panel to add a little extra detail. I used 3 little stick-on brads above and below the sentiment.

I was really happy with this card - it turned out so pretty! Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to look and post a comment! I hope you're all enjoying a fabulous day.

Hugs,

Danielle x

Materials Used: Distress Ink colours - Tattered Rose, Aged Mahogany, Vintage Photo
Twinkling H20's - Burnt Umber, Pink Chiffon

Wedding Bells!

Happy Monday everyone!

Today I'm showing you a wedding invitation idea, RSVP and place setting/favour box that I've put together for an up-coming class I'll be teaching at Heather's. What I love about this invitation is the bottom flap where I made a little envelope to stash the RSVP card in! (see photo below). I used classic colours of cream and gold although of course it can be very easily adapted to the wedding colours of choice. I used this beautiful tulip border stamp from The Stamp Barn which I embossed with gold ep. I used the cuttlebug D'Vine swirls embossing folder on the top and bottom panels with a strip of gold ribbon to 'hide' the join seam at the top! The gold flower is a Spellbinder's die cut with a cream Prima flower glued on top. I also used a small piece of cream organza ribbon to tie in with the gold. The inside is plain gold vellum which can be easily run through the computer to generate the invitation details.

The RSVP card is done very simply on a piece of matching cream cardstock with the tulip border stamped either side. A piece of gold vellum (which would be computer printed with the rsvp 'details') is adhered down with double sided tape. The 'RSVP' is again a stamp from The Stamp Barn, as is the 'Invitation' on the front. The 'envelope' is made from two triangles cut and adhered down each side. And voila! - there is, in my opinion anyways, quite a classy looking wedding invitation!

I posted this triangle favour box last week some time and I thought it would work perfectly for this wedding set. Again, I made it in matching cream and gold colours and used the MS doiley punch to add detail to each end. Why I thought this would work particularly well for a wedding is that on each of the 3 sides I have added the nesties die cuts. You can write or computer print your guest's name on one side, the wedding couple's names on another, and a 'thank you for coming' on the other, and still include a nice favour inside - all in one project! Isn't that awesome!!

I hope you enjoyed this post - please leave a comment if you do as I love having feedback on what I do! I thoroughly enjoyed doing this project and can't wait to teach it! That favour box has to be a new favourite of mine - it's just so versatile - I love it!

I have to tell you - I had a phone call from my mother this afternoon - she lives on the little island of Jersey in the English Channel. She was so excited to tell me that it was snowing - it has been many years since Jersey last saw snow! It was hard to share in the enthusiasm when we get x-number feet of the white stuff here every year but I know my nieces and nephew will be experiencing it pretty much for the first time! I hope it sticks around for at least a couple of days for them to enjoy it!

OK, well that's all for now. Thanks for popping by today - hope to see you back again soon!

Hugs

Danielle x

Silhouette Flowers - Viva la Verve Feb01 Sketch Challenge

Good Sunday morning!

Hope you are all keeping well and finding some time to craft and relax today! I made this card yesterday for the first February Viva la Verve sketch challenge of the month. I wasn't able to complete all of January's sketches - just too much illness in the house! Hopefully I'll keep up this month and then be in the running for some of those gorgeous Verve stamps!!

This weeks sketch came with a *twist* of embossing - dry/wet - whatever your choice. I chose to go with my cuttlebug as it's my favourite way of adding embossing to my cards. I decided to pull out these stamp images from the Jeanne Streiff Collection that haven't been inked up much lately. I stamped the main image then stamped off the second image to the side - I love the finished effect. I used my new nestie labels 2 for my main panel. The rest is pretty straight forward - lots of layering and I distressed the edges of my card for a shabby/chic look. I used the argyle embossing folder. The colour tones are so much prettier in real life - I was having difficulty with the light yesterday to capture the true colours. The second label layer is actually more pumpkin in colour than what it looks on the photo. The finishing touches were the brads and the organza ribbon. I used brown ribbon to tie behind the image then added a strand of black when I tied the knot.

Thanks for popping over today and taking a look! I'm off to the gym - I haven't had a chance to all week so now I can go with my BFF!

Hugs,

Danielle x