Xmas card my son made

Here is the card I promised to show you all yesterday, my son made this card and wanted me to share it with you all. He is 8 years old, and is a great beginner card maker in the making :D!!!

Inky Hugs,

catherine

MERRY CHRISTMAS :)

Just thought I would post a quick note to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from my family to yours and please stay safe over the holidays :)! Have some exciting news to share with you in the New Year (and NO I AM NOT PREGNANT!!!) :)!

Will have a post later on today of more cards :D !

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Christmas card

It is a rainy wet grey day here, and I wasn't in the mood to be wrapping presents with my three children running around the house. Lol, that could be asking for trouble :p! So I decided I would make a Christmas card, while 2 of my 3 were having a snooze out in the living room and my oldest was also making his own xmas card behind me.

Here is the Christmas card that I created, am very happy with how it turned out :)! I will be posting my son's card too later, as he asked me if I could show all my crafty friends out there what he can do. Lol!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

my Christmas cards for '09

I hadn't been into one of the crafty stores that I frequent in awhile, so one day about a week ago I decided to head on over to Carousel Rubber stamp store to check out if she had anything new in. Well, I found this AMAZING Santa stamp in there and Dejah(the owner of Carousel) helped me figure out what I could do with this image. So here is what I did with this Santa image:

1) stamped him out using Archival Jet Black ink

2) used a clear glaze pen on all his beard/mustache and hair

3)colored in his beard and hair using my gray Tombow marker

4) used a gold glitter pen for his glasses

5) used the glass finish on his glasses lenses and eyes

6)used puffy paint on his hat

7) colored in his face using my SU skin colored marker

8) then I attached him to green cardstock that I picked up from Photo Memories

LOVE how he turned out too...can't wait to play around with this stamp a bit more to see what else I can do with him. This last picture you see, I wanted to show you what his puffy hat looked like up close :)! Thanks for stopping by :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

xmas tree

Here is our Xmas tree that we got from our backyard, what a great looking tree :)! The kids decorated it, they put all the ornaments in clumps as high as each of the 3 could reach, then I had to go and re-decorate. Our middle guy, made the tree topper and he wanted us to use it, so we are :p!

Stockings hung by the chimney with care, check! My dh made the wooden hooks that hook onto the mantle of the fireplace for our stockings to hang from. Yep, there's my dd still trying to hang ornaments in clumps on the bottom branches.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from my family to yours, be safe!

Inky Hugs,

Cathernie

Hand Stamped by Lacey blog candy giveaway

Please head on over to the blog called "Hand Stamped by Lacey", she is having a giveaway over on her blog...check out the goodies what she is giving away :D!!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Crafting in Croatia blog candy giveaway

Mary G. is celebrating her 9 month blogaversary on her blog called "Crafting in Croatia" :), by giving away Gina K's "Lovely Shelf" stamp set and a sampler pack of Gina K's Pure Luxury Cardstock.

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Crafty Blogocks giveaway

Please head on over to the blog called "Crafty Blogocks" as he is having a blog candy giveaway, what is he giving away you ask?? Well, let me tell you...he is giving away some kits:

Monday: Popcorn box kit- Blue

Tuesday: Popcorn box kit-Pink

Wednesday: carry all box- Pink and white

Thursday: carry all box-blue and white kit

Friday: Sizzix box #3 kit- Pink and white kit

So hurry on over and check out his giveaway :)!

Inky Hugs,

catherine

Emmie-lou Who Stamps and You blog candy giveaway

Please head on over to the blog called "Emmie-lou Who Stamps and You", as she is having a celebration blog candy giveaway to help celebrate her Blogaversary :)! Hurry on over and check out her blog :)!

Inky Hugs,

catherine

afternoon crafty project

I needed to wrap up a gift for Julie, as I am seeing her tonight at a movie night we are going to, and all my gift bags here are for babies or bdays not xmas (of course just my luck). So here is what I came up with, I made this bag out of full 12 by 12 sheets of card stock from PhotoMemories. The ribbon I got from Michael's a few years ago, thought it looked elegant and sort of Christmasy to use :)!

Inky Hugs,

catherine

family bday get together

Saturday afternoon we had a family Bday party to goto, this family Bday party was for 4 people: my dh, my Uncle Phil, my Nephew, and my dd. It was held at my parents house, and people just came over for the afternoon for tea/coffee plus cake :)!

My kids don't get to see their Cousin Iain

a lot, so this is what they look like when they greet him...lol. They don't miss him or anything, what do you think :p??

My oldest just LOVES his cousin Iain, they love to play wrestle and just do "cool things" (as my son says when asked what they do together) with each other. Luckily, my nephew didn't mind being tackled and sandwiched by his cousins!

I caught my dd playing peek a boo, with one of

my other relatives that was just coming into the house. Instead of seeing the person she was playing peek a boo with, I was standing there waiting for her to pop out for me to take her picture. Gottcha!

Here is my sister in law, reading Maiah a part of the Christmas Curious George collection of stories while we are waiting for others to arrive.

My nephew, and then my two boys all being silly in the living room together :)!

Here is one of the 3 Bday boys, this is Uncle Phil :)! He doesn't like his picture to be taken, but I thought I would take the opportunity to take it since it is a special occasion and all.

I took a picture of all the bday people, had to take two since my 3 year old dd wasn't cooperating like the other bday people.

This is my great Auntie Jean, she lives just across the street from my parents and up the street from my Aunt and Uncle. I grew up with family very close by, and that was a really nice thing to have.

My brother, wife and son gave my dd a Alphapede...he has the alphabet in uppercase letters on one side and lower case letters on the other side. Pretty neat :), as you can see it is quite difficult for her to carry this guy around!!

Here she is showing the Alphapede to Great Great Auntie Jean :)!

Here is my Nephew, :)! He was complaining that Auntie Catherine (me) hardly had any pictures of him on her blog, that was because he used to be of the age where funny faces for pictures was the THING to do.

Here is my Aunt reading something with my oldest son, thought this picture was cute :)! My nephew reading one of his Birthday presents, he is quite into reading...

My dd opening one of her gifts she received, it is a Dora backpack filled with mega block lego and 2 Dora figures. When she figured out what it was, she grabbed it and hugged it a HUGE hug. Next to her is her anxious older brother wanting to help out in anyway he can to assemble the Dora lego.

Inky Hugs,

catherine

P.S. what do you think of my new watermark??

Inspiration in Action Weekend Sketch challenge 113

I came across this sketch for the Inspiration Action Weekend sketch challenge and decided to give it a try :)! I also felt it high time I get crafty again as I have been a very bad blogger, so here we go with a new start and hopefully will have more for you tonight to take a look at.

Here is what I came up with, wanted to let you know the Christmas moon is by a company called Sunshine Designs beautiful stamp. Will be using this sketch again I think, real soon :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

added the "Followers" button or "gadget" on my blog

Thank you to Anita for helping me out with that, as I couldn't figure it out and thought you had to get it on the actual google reader page. Anyways, there we go got it sorted out I now have it up and running. Hope to get more than 2, lol, guess that means I better work on more crafty projects and be a better blogger :p!

Inky Hugs,

catherine

my bday girl

Just had to share with you two pictures I took this morning of my bday girl, the first pictures is of her being silly and she kept begging me to take her picture with her tongue sticking out.

Now here is the picture, I REALLY wanted to get :)!

Inky Hugs,

catherine

cards in my mail today and one I made

Here is a card that my dd received in the mail today from Auntie Erin, yep she is even hooked on card making (just have to get her to get a blog going, tee hee)!

This next card is from Theresa Malak, for the CCE #5 group A for this months card exchange :)! Thank you Theresa for this beautiful card, am putting it up on my crafty room wall tonight as soon as I finish typing up this post :)!

This next card is one I made for a girl I look after, her bday was yesterday and I wanted to do something nice for her. I got the girl image from Deviant art site, the nickname of the person who drew her was "nzaxdiamond". Didn't realize the picture was blurry like this until I posted it here :(!

Inky Hugs,

catherine

My baby girl is 3 today :D

HAPPY BDAY BABY GIRL :)! Hope your day is full of fun, surprises and wonderful memories...(yes mommy has her camera out and clicking away :D). Hard to believe you are 3, it seems like yesterday we brought you home from the hospital to meet your brothers.

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

a Christmas card and something cute

I used a sketch for Sugar Bowl #25, but didn't use the stamps they wanted me to so I didn't enter their challenge! Here is the card that I created using this sketch :), something different but am happy with how it turned out and did I mention I LOVE the new xmas cuttlebug folder.

It snowed here yesterday, and my son E* went outside to play in the little snow we had...he created this little snowman on the top of our slide on our deck. He asked me to take a picture of this lil guy for him, wanted me to show my friends on my computer :)! He also made a bigger snowman, and used a snowman wooden kit for it's face but then he tore it down shortly after he made it. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of that one, it was really good :)!

Inky Hugs,

catherine

Cards By Kerri Blog Candy giveaway

Hurry on over to the blog called "Cards by Kerri" as she is having a blog candy giveaway because she is celebrating her Blogaversary :)! Looks like a great giveaway, and HAPPY BLOGAVERSARY KERI :)!

Inky Hugs,

catherine

AMAZING GIVEAWAY

Would you want to win one of these??

Or how bout one of these beauties??

Please hurry on over to "Rachelle's Writing Spot" blog and check out how you can win one of these lovely crafty things :)!

Inky Hugs,

catherine

Created By JB blog candy giveaway

Hurry on over to "Created By JB" blog, as she is having a blog candy giveaway. Check out all those lovely goodies she is giving away :)! I am running on over to checkout the details now :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Today's Momma Giveaway

Today's Momma is having a huge giveaway, head on over to their site and check it out :)! Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?

~Canon digital camera

~Shillouette

~nestabilities

~more stamping stuff

~clothes

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?

scarf

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?

my own xmas cards

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?

my Rocking horse that not only rocked but bounced too

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?

~DS

~lego of any kids

~Little Pet shops

~DS Games

~Dolls

6. What is your favorite holiday food?

Frozen chocolate wreath my mother in law makes

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?

Teacher's gifts for my son's teachers and bus drivers

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?

White Christmas

9. Favorite holiday song?

Deck the halls

10. Favorite holiday pastime?

spending time with family and friends, sharing memories and gifts with each other

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Lisa's Bday/20,000 hits blog candy giveaway

Lisa over on her blog is celebrating her bday and her 20,000 hits on her blog she is having a blog candy giveaway on her blog called "This n' that" :)! You should hurry on over, leave her some bday love and check out what you have to do to enter for her giveaway :).

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

fun Christmas card

Last night, I wanted to make a Christmas card using the new Cuttlebug folder that I picked up the other day from Photo Memories. LOVE this folder, it is bigger than the other one's and covers more of your card :D! I also used a stamp that I haven't used in a little bit, then I used the puffy white paint on my card but had a bit of a issue with the bottle it comes in.

What I mean by an issue is that when I squeezed the bottle (not hard) that the top which was screwed on really well popped off and the puffy paint went all over me. This is when the chaos erupted in my house, just as that happened all 3 kids wanted something to eat or help with something. I told them to look at me, that I had to clean up the mess but then I would help them...not good timing I guess :p! I got the card finished though, and used my new light tent that my dh made :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Crafty night

Thursday night was my monthly crafty night out with the gals, for this crafty night we had to make 8 Xmas cards and so I wanted to do something different. Here is what I came up with :)! For this card I first cuttle bugged my green card stock with the Snowflake embossing folder, and then I used my Nestabilities to cut out the large label out of White card stock (from Carousel), a circle out of the same white card stock and a tiny gold square Nestabilities. I then took the white circle and I embossed the gold pattern onto the circle card stock, once I did that I took a sponge and inked up the white card stock using my Bravo Burgundy SU ink pad. So no that is not Burgundy card stock that I embossed on, lol, thought I would do something different.

I took my white label card stock and stamped the branch like image onto the edge of the card stock, to make it look like the end of a Christmas tree. I then sponged the blue on around the tree stamped image, it really made the branches pop. I attached the branch image onto the card base, then attached the circle ornament onto the branch. Next, I attached the ribbon onto the top of the card because I felt the card needed something else to make it look more like a Christmas card.

We then exchanged our Christmas card challenge

cards to each other, which is always exciting to see what the other gals have made :)! The first card is Louise's card, it is gorgeous and love the font of the "Peace" sentiment.

The next cards is Deborah's card, another gorgeous card and it is an easel card (sorry I didn't take it out of the clear envelope it was in). It is gorgeous, and I have been meaning to try my hand at the easel cards but just haven't gotten around to it. Now I will HAVE to :p!

The next card/lantern project was done by Val, and what a great idea that was she had to make this :)! LOVE it :D, okay so I LOVED all of them :p!

Here's Kim's project, GORGEOUS snowflake card :)!

Deborah did the first project with us, it was a fun easy one which I really loved doing. It was to stamp on a candle and to blingify it :p (like my new word??) ! Gorgeous...just gorgeous and easy to do too, didn't take long.

The next project was done by Louise, she taught us how to make a cute lantern and also gave us those battery operated tea lights. Wouldn't these look cute hung all over your Christmas tree??

Once we were all done our projects we exchanged our Xmas gifts, and also played a fun game which I will have to get the directions for. We also had some yummy chocolate cake that Kim brought for us, and boy was it delicious :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

School Board meeting

Well, I am sure you are all anxious in finding out how our presentation to the School board went the other night :)! We were originally given 5 minutes to do our presentation, but they decided right there before we went up that they would give us 10 minutes and in the end we had 30 minutes. They kept asking questions, commending us one by one, shaking their head at the state of how things are, we kept answering questions and asking questions ourselves. Then they asked if we had something else to add, I told them I did and here is what I said:

" I would like to challenge the board to go out into the schools, to go out into the communities to talk to the families at all the schools in HRM and the staff at the schools. Making sure the staff know that they will not be reprimanded for telling the School board how things are! You really have to LISTEN, you will hear some pretty heart wrenching stories but these are the stories you need to hear. They will tell you if you ask, but go out and get to know these people...you will have your eyes opened."

To that they told me it is impossible to get out to all the schools in a short time, but that I was right in that they HAVE to get out into the community and talk with the families/Staff or how will they know what is going on. They told us we have to take this to the government next, so the next morning I wrote all the MLA's in our Province and they are one by one writing me back telling me they support us :)!

Check out our FB page called "Choice Words", would love if you could be part of it too :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

bad blogger again here

I know I am such a bad blogger lately, but here is my reason for the past week and this week as well...I am getting ready to do one of the BIGGEST things I have ever done in my life. Not only am I a full time stay at home mom of 3 beautiful children, but now am working on a side project that involves being an advocate for all Special Needs children or children with Learning disabilities in HRM. Yep, I know a big job and yes I am crazy :p! Not to worry I am not taking this task on by myself, I have a friend named Laura Campbell who is a parent of a Autistic girl who is in grade 4 at my son's school.

Tonight we are going to our school board to do a presentation with regards to the lack of:

~Support Services

~Speech Therapy

~Occupational therapy

~Learning Center service

~Resources

we aren't pointing fingers and we aren't looking for who's at fault. We just would like someone to stand up and say okay how are we going to fix this or start to fix this?? As I said before this is for all children in our city :)! We have been printed up in the newspaper, and are getting a lot of feed back...yes even the people who should really keep their mouths shut are coming out of the wood works to give their thoughts. Will let you know how it goes tomorrow morning...this is going to be an interesting night! We have also started a Facebook page called Choice Words, and not too worry once this presentation is done we aren't done we are moving on to the lovely politicians :D!

On another note I will be having something crafty to post tomorrow for you :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

new playground in our area

The other day I had to goto the Post office, it is about 20 minutes away from our house...on the way home something caught my eye. So I looked and I saw a HUGE new playground behind a community center just up the street from our post office, well I was excited to see this here because if you want to goto a good playground you have to drive into the city. There are several play structures there for different ages, and there are also swing sets there too for older kids and little ones :).

Yesterday, we decided we'd stay home and rest...since we are still exhausted from the flu we all had over the past 3-4 weeks. I decided the kids needed to get out of the house mid morning,

and took them to this new playground to check it out :)!

Check out this castle, it was pretty neat and the best part is that it is for 5 year olds to 12 year olds (not too sure if it is something a 12 year old should be on). My kids had fun climbing, sliding, spinning things, climbing through tunnels etc. :)!

Here is my dd all bundled up on this cold Sunday morning, getting ready to go play on one of these several play structures :)!

Here is E* up onthe neat climbing structure, he loved this and spent a good 1/2 hour on this one.

Here is I* up on the same climbing structure as E* was, but Isaac went to the top of it :)!

Here is Isaac in another one of the climbing structures, wanting to just take a break from running.

This is my dd mashing her face against some plexi glass at the plaground...just as I took it I told her to get her face away from that as we don't know who else had done that. Lol!

The kids came down all at once in a row, and I was there at the right moment to get them coming down the slide :).

This is the last picture of my dd coming through one of the small tunnels that they had there...it is actually a lions head that she is climbing into.

Inky Hugs,

Catherine