A new me

I had my hair down to the middle of my back, for awhile I have been planning to get it chopped off but then life happened and things just got busier...so in other words it didn't happen. So yesterday, I decided to go for it and make an appointment for this morning :)! They put my hair in a pony tail, cut it off...told me I had the right amount to donate and told me that is my good deed for the day :)! I wanted my hair short but not too drastic, so here is what she came up with for me ...boy does it feel weird and light :)! 

Inky Hugs,
Catherine

Sundy night card

I have started teaching a class Sunday nights at my church, and it is for the next 4/5 weeks...I have 5 women in our group and my Father in Law. This class is about Encouragement, so we send out our cards to someone we feel needs to have their spirits brightened...I helped out with a class last year with my friend Anita.

The flowers are from Unity Stamp company (thank you Dejah for carrying this line of stamps), and the sentiment is by Cornish Heritage Farm set called "Friend Centers".

Inky Hugs,
Catherine

Crafty night

Here is our project for "Crafty Night" on Saturday night at Julie's house, that Julie found online and Val/Kim helped out with the project :)! This was a really FUN project, and will definitely do it again soon....perhaps a great Mother's Day gift or something. Don't worry my mom nor my Mother in Law don't look at my blog often, so I am not too worried about them seeing this project...

Here is the other side of the box we created, we started out with a blank box from Michael's, painted Gesso onto it, then painted our box whatever color we wanted. We then also made this GORGEOUS flower, which I will be making again and again I am sure :)! I added the beads on the bottom of the box for feet, and will be adding more to the box later but just wanted to show you all what we created.

Every month we issue out a challenge to our crafty group of gals, then the night of our "Crafty Night" we draw names and swap our challenge projects to each other. This time I drew Vals name, LOVE your card :)! Love how you had the pattern on the patterned paper shimmery...beautiful work Val :)! 

I received a card in the mail from Maryann Lawrence in my mailbox, thank you so much for this cute card...very nice :)! This card is part of the CEE (Canadian Card Exchange) that I am part of, where you have to send 2 cards a month once signed up and you get 2 cards from two other people...fun stuff.

Thanks for stopping by,
Catherine

Blog Candy over at "In My Minds Eye" blog

Please head on over to "In My Minds Eye" blog, as she is having a blog candy giveaway of all the items above in the picture. Pretty nice giveaway if you ask me :)!

Thanks for stopping by,
Catherine

Encouragement small group class I am teaching tonight

Yep,  you read that correctly I am teaching a class tonight at my church! We are doing this "Hinged Card", I haven't ever done and thought it would be perfect for the group I have tonight. The card looks so much better in person, I am seriously disappointed with my picture of this card am going to definitely take a photography course and get a new camera.

Here is the inside of the card, will have to say that I will make this card again and it was actually a lot of fun to make :)! The flower on the card is actually a layered flower, not that you can tell by this picture (sheesh), and I used glue dots to attach the flowers together then to the card.
The class I am teaching tonight is a small group that has the theme of "Encouragement", so the people in our group will be sending the card to someone they feel needs some cheering up or just because :)!

Inky Hugs,
Catherine

bad blogger

Hi, my name is Catherine and I am a BAD BLOGGER this week! I not only haven't posted or done anything crafty but I have fallen off my challenge wagon too. Sadly, the next 2 weeks are going to be insane with appointments for my middle son and also I am taking a course called "The Incredible Years" once a week for 2 hours. I am also starting to do a card night at my church as well, which shall be interesting since no one really is into making cards besides my friend Anita at our church. I helped Anita last year do the same card making night, but this year she is helping me out occasionally :)!
I want to get back on my challenge wagon, will try my best to catch up this weekend with a ton of cards...or so I hope :)!
On a side note, my middle guy E* was assessed today for OCD and we found out he does NOT have it... so the question of the day then is: what is it then if it isn't OCD?? Well, we are going to do more assessments/testing and are taking things one day at a time! Good news is I LOVE our new Psychologist and finally someone who is on the same page as me....someone who get's our situation.



Thanks for stopping by,
Catherine

Stencil question

Someone asked me who made the stencil that I used on my "Today" card that I made the other day, and it is by TheCraftersWorkshop.com . It is called "Mini Swanky"


Have a super crafty night, I will post some stuff tomorrow :)!

Inky Hugs,
Catherine

Kellie Winnell kit giveaway

Kelly Winnell is offering up a Spring Candy kit from All That Scraps, so please head on over to her blog and check out what you have to do to win the kit I have pictured here with this post :)! Isn't this kit cute?? Thanks for stopping by :)!

Inky Hugs,
Catherine

Tickled Pink Stamps blog candy giveaway

Hurry on over to the blog called "Tickled Pink Stamps", she is having a HUGE giveaway of goodies that you may not want to miss out on...


Inky Hugs,
Catherine

Bunny Basket

Yesterday on Julie's blog, she created these adorable Easter bunny baskets with her 2 girls as they were home sick and she has also created a tutorial on how to make it. I have altered the tutorial a bit, as my dd was wanting her bunny to be BIGGER and so here is what our basket looks like with the BIGGER bunny on it :)! The original idea came from Mercedes blog, adorable basket and am sure this isn't the last time I will be making these baskets as they would make a cute girl's Birthday party treat basket.

Here is the side of the basket, I didn't have the same punch as Julie but thought this one would work just as well :)!  Go on over to Julie's blog to see her tutorial on this great project, and I DARE you to try it :D!

Inky Hugs,
Catherine

Card for the day

Here is my card for the day, but am sure I will be making a few more today that I just may post as well :p!I also decided to use something other than Sweetpea stamps for this card, even though they are addictive :p!  I used the Studio G stamp set I picked up the other day to create this card, it came with the "today" sentiment, the flowers along the bottom and the dragonfly. The border that you see isn't a stamp, nope, it is actually a stencil that I picked up from Julie's cousin's store when we made the road trip with Julie :)!
I placed the stencil on the patterned paper, then sponged black ink over top of the stencil to make this beautiful elegant border. The stencil, is only 5 by 5 with other several different flourishes on it...will take a picture of it to show you what other flourishes are on it :)!

Inky Hugs,
Catherine

Stamps: "Studio G" Today set

Ink: Archival Jet black ink

Card stock: Blue, and Black card stock from Carousel, SU "Very Vanilla" card stock, pp from Val's stash (thank you Val)

Accessories: Nestabilities, dimensionals, Sook Wang Double Sided tape, Martha Stewart light green ribbon, make up sponge from Dollar Store

Sweetpea Card Challenge

There is a new challenge over at the Sweetpea Challenge blog, that I just HAD to participate in and so here is the card that I created for the challenge. I decided to stamp my image using my Versamark Watermark ink pad, then to gold emboss the whole image. I then colored in my image using my Touch markers, it really changed the look of the Sweetpea image I used to have it all outlined in gold :)! I also used my Glitter Ritz with blue highlights on the outside of her wings to give it a glittery look...

Inky Hugs,
Catherine

Stamps: SU "Sweet pea" sentiment stamp, Sweetpea "Haiti" stamp

Ink: Versamark Watermark ink pad

Card Stock: SU "Very Vanilla", Black card stock from Carousel, patterned paper called "Beautiful Life" by Bo Bunny

Accessories: Nestabilities Dies, Sook Wang Double sided tape, Dimensionals, Gold Embossing powder, Touch Markers, Rhine stone, Marvy Flower punch, Cuttlebug Embossing folder "Victoria", Glitter Ritz Blue Highlights

look who is in my backyard

My oldest son, belongs to an AMAZING group called "Sibling Group" and it is for children who have siblings with Special Needs. They meet once a month to do fun crafty things, or go on an outing, or to just play games and chat about what it is like to have a brother or sister with Special Needs. My dh's Aunt is the leader of this group, so this month they all got to paint their own bird house and they had a few left over to give to the siblings at home. The birdhouse you see is my middle guys birdhouse, and he was so thrilled this morning when he noticed that it had some visitors :)!

Inky Hugs,
Catherine

Come Softly card

Here is another Sweetpea card that I made yesterday night, for this card I used "Come Softly" stamp :)! The design behind the stamped image is patterned paper, I didn't stamp anything on to make the design the only think I stamped was the sentiment.

I also decided to do something different with the butterfly, so I stamped out the butterfly again on some Vellum and curled the wings on it. Next, I put some blue Glitter Ritz on the wings of the butterfly to make it stand out more!

Inky Hugs,
Catherine

Stamps: SU "Well Scripted", Sweetpea "Come Softly"

Ink: Archival Jet Black ink

Card stock: SU "Kraft card stock, Black card stock from Carousel, Watercolor paper from Loomis and Toole, patterned paper by Pink Paislee called " Fascinating"

Accessories: Cuttlebug Embossing "Victoria" folder, Sook Wang double sided tape, dimensionals, Glitter Ritz "Blue Highlights",Glass Finish, Nestabilities dies

Birthday card for Aunt Elizabeth

Today is my Aunt Elizabeth's bday party, so I needed a card to go with her gift! I saw this cute card the other day on someone's blog (sorry lost the piece of paper I had it written on), and thought this would be a perfect Birthday card for my Aunt. Cute eh?? Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY EASTER :)!


Inky Hugs,
Catherine

Stamps: SU "Well Scripted"

Ink: SU "Bravo Burgandy

Card Stock: SU "Very Vanilla"

Accessories: Marvy flower punch, Buttons, Dimensionals, Glue Dots