Christmas Cards in August!

Yes, it's amazingly the first of August!  How that happened I have no idea!  Being the first of the month, that means another challenge over at CCAYR!

Here's our challenge for August.... Since many of us have had a lot of heat this summer, we're going to cool things down with SNOWFLAKES! Yes, as some of you guessed from the sneaks, your cards this month need to have snowflakes of some kind - in the paper, embellishments, stamping or whatever you like!

I pulled out some old Basic Grey Figgy Pudding and found this big snowflake sticker and that immediately created this image in my head!  The best part is I have everything I need to make another one too since it was a huge sticker I cut in half!

Check out the blog for all the other design team creations as well.  It's amazing to see how different all the cards are based on the same challenge!

*Remember if you do 5 cards this month following the challenge, your name will go into a draw for a prize at the end of AUGUST! (this challenge CAN be combined with any other blog or forum challenges that you do this month.)
This month the RAK is another great set from SU!


Please upload your cards to your blog, a gallery, or photobucket and remember to give us the EXACT links to see them. You can do 5 of the same cards or 5 different ones (as long as they follow the current challenge) If you do 5 of the same, please show us a picture of them altogether. Thanks!


YOU NEED TO LET US KNOW IN THIS POST WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE 5 CARDS IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE MONTHLY PRIZE.

Cheers,

A First?

OK, so I do have a bit of a paper addiction when it comes to my scrappy stuff - just ask my family!  And lately, I've been so busy with class stuff that I haven't done much of my own.  So, today I decided I wanted to play a little and there on my table was some of the new Imaginisce Birthday Bash line that I just got.  I was very good and only got a few sheets even though I LOVE it!

So, the "first" is that before putting it away, I actualy played with something new that I got!  This is also the first time I've used the punch and love that too!  The best part of this is that the red and white cardstock I used for this were also scraps!  How did it all come together and so quickly you ask?  I have resources!  lol 

I was poking around the Imaginisce blog and found a card by Kim Holmes and simply lifted it.  As I tell people in class, sometimes when you don't have a lot of time and simply want to play, don't worry about reinventing the wheel!  It came together quickly and I have everything out to make one more like this as well!  Might as well make 2 if I have everything out!

Now, on a completely different note...  The kids decided today that they were going to get busy and when I went in the living room, I was welcomed to "the rainforest"!  Who knew you could have a rainforest in your living room?!  Amazing where their minds go!

And here's just a little something from a couple of days ago that I thought I'd post since there aren't enough of these pictures of the boys and I!  I really don't like seeing myself in pictures, but I do know that they don't really care how I look and that as they get older, they're going to want these pictures.  I'm lucky enough to have them, so I just need to suck it up and get out from behind the camera sometimes as well!  They're getting so big...  Where does the time go?

Have a wonderful Thursday evening!  I'll be hanging out with my boys and then watching a little guilty pleasure that they call Big Brother!  If you're watching, who's your fav?

Cheers,

New Class Schedule!

These are from the Petal Pushers class I'm teaching in August.

For all of you that are local and thinking about a creative break, the new class schedule is up and classes are ready to go!  You can check them out in the store as well...

August Class Schedule

Birthday Bash with Penny Black

For the Men in Your Life II:  All Occasion Cards

Summer Fun Layouts

Basic Grey: Oliver Layout Class

Basic Grey: Olivia Layout Class

Think that's it for me in August!  And there are many more as well, taught by Jacquie and Alexis, so check them all out!

Hope everyone is enjoying this sunny day!  We're just taking it easy around here and I'm working tonight!  Looking forward to a day off tomorrow...

Happy weekend!

Cheers,

Summer Fun!

OK, so this is going to be a little bit of randomness today...

I know the summer is whizzing by, but there are still some things I'm hoping to do and looking forward to...

I'm hoping to pick this up again and actually finish it this time.  Ever since having the boys, I haven't done very well with my reading and I do miss it.  I pick up books and keep trying, but never quite seem to finish.  I saw the trailers for the movie and want to see that as well, so I'm promising myself I'll finish the book first!

Also looking forward to doing some camping!  May only be the odd day here and there, but looking forward to it!  We didn't do much last year and really missed it.  Need to get on it though!

Yes, OK, I'm sucked in again this summer!  Having fun watching the houseguests and following all the craziness on Big Brother 12.  The good thing now is that I can PVR it and watch it without all the commericals and can zip through the boring bits!  Who are you cheering for?

Bought a ticket for this for tomorrow night and thinking about how we could spend that $50 million...  It's endless...  Any ideas?!  lol 

We've already done some fun summer things too like the fireworks, water park, the boys had a sleepover at Nana and Grandpa's, and just getting out and playing together.  George is working on teaching Kyle to ride his bike still since he's so tentative, but I think he's gaining in confidence.  Hoping to still get Kyle registered for karate here as well!

I know there's so much more I was thinking about when I started this, but it'll have to do for now... 
Cheers,

Fireworks and Fun!

Wow, so here we are at July 21st already!  The summer is whizzing by and I feel like it just started.  Hard to believe it only another few weeks and we'll be thinking about school supplies again!

We did get out to the Fraser Fest fireworks this past weekend...  The boys were really excited about going as we've gone the past few years.  We used to have this great spot all picked out to watch them, but when we were there last year, we were quite disappointed as we could barely see anything because they had moved the location of the barge they shoot the fireworks from. 

George got out the Google Earth maps and figured out where he thought would be a good place to check them out.  We couldn't get as close to the river as we wanted for safety reasons, but one of the women working on them told us that a little park nearby would be a good place to see them from.  It was perfect because the kids played until the fireworks!  OK, so we all did!  Then, George has packed popcorn and iced tea, so we had snacks and watched the the fireworks - a fun family night!

Yes, Kyle's now at this age where he has a love hate relationship with me taking pictures all the time!  He sometimes asks me to take his picture and then other times, I get "the look"!  He's so very funny these days...

I'm afraid I didn't get the best pictures or very many since my battery was dying and I had forgotten the tripod!  Oh well, it was more the memory of us being there and spending time together that was important!

Looking forward to many more of these...  Love my boys!

Cheers,

CCAYR Design Team Intros!

Well, this is just a quick hi!  I've been soooo busy lately and haven't had too much time of my own to make many new cards (the above in from last Christmas!) though I have tons of ideas I'm working on.  Just popping to say hi since it's my day to be introduced on the CCAYR blog today because the design team has been introduced all week!

It's fun because I had a full class to teach on Saturday morning and it was Christmas cards! It was so popular that I'm running it again in August if you're local!  I'm having so much fun designing new cards for Christmas already with some of the new paper that's coming and there's a lot more on it's way! 

There may even be a little random giveaway drawn from any comments here as well, so feel free!  There's the giveaway on the CCAYR blog as well!

Cheers,

PS Will try to post some new crafty stuff and an update ASAP!

Color Throwdown #100!

OK, so I just found this Color Throwdown challenge and knew I had to try it.  The colour combination sure isn't one I'd normally pick, but I sort of lucked out because I knew I had this Lil' Davis paper in my stash that would work perfectly!

This was so much fun to play with and I'm trying to add a few birthday cards to my stash so this was the perfect opportunity to add another.  I also got to try out one of the "new" Cuttlebug folders I got a few weeks ago and hadn't used yet.  So, here's the card I did for this... 

I like this combination so much I think I might have to play with it a little more though I know there'll be lots more challenges too!  Check out the blog and some of the many other cards done for this - amazing!

Cheers,

Christmas Cards All Year Round!

These cards are from a class I'm teaching this coming weekend!

OK, so I know it doesn't exactly feel like Christmas these days, but we're only 167 days away!  Things have changed a little this month at CCAYR and I'm helping out with the blog and keeping things up and running there for a bit now.  Lesley and I have just announced the new design team and are very excited about things to come! 

We'll being introducing a member of the team each day this week, so come back daily and check things out!

The challenge for this month is an easy one too... Anything goes!  You heard it... make any kind of Christmas cards you want!   We can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.


Leave a comment if you do our challenge! Please only enter NEW CARDS that are made in JULY.

*Remember if you do 5 cards this month following the challenge, your name will go into a draw for a prize at the end of JULY! (this challenge CAN be combined with any other blog or forum challenges that you do this month.)

This month the RAK is another great set from SU!  Plus Lesley'll throw in a couple other little goodies.

Please upload your cards to your blog, a gallery, or photobucket and remember to give us the EXACT links to see them. You can do 5 of the same cards or 5 different ones (as long as they follow the current challenge) If you do 5 of the same, please show us a picture of them altogether. Thanks!

YOU NEED TO LET US KNOW IN THIS POST WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE 5 CARDS IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE MONTHLY PRIZE.

We can't wait and see what you create this month! Have fun!
Cheers,

Summer has arrived...

OK, so these pictures don't exactly show that summer has arrived though I guess there is sun streaming in behind them from the window, but these two were sure cute sitting together the other morning!  They do get along quite well though being only 3 months apart in age (4 now) means that they definitely do have their moments!

Things certainly did start to heart up a couple of days ago though and, just as I predicted, we went from cool and often rainy to fairly hot (for BC weather!).  These were taken the day before yesterday before we got the pool out.  It was the first really warm day of the season for sure, so we got out the sprinkler to cool off and the kids had a blast!

The aftermath...

It got warmer yesterday and I think will be at least as warm as that today and maybe warmer.  I'm teaching tonight, so I'll be in air conditioning for that.  Thinkin' that might be a good thing!  I admit to not being one for the heat though it sure is nice to have the sun.  Seems to make everyone happier!

I'm a little tired this morning.  I find that I seem to get my second wind these days about 11pm when I should be going to bed.  I think it's just that it's quiet and I can get  a lot accomplished, but then I go to bed late and I'm tired in the morning.  I know that I have less patience when I'm tired too, so that's not good when I have 4 kids to deal with all day!

It really doesn't help that the last 2 nights were broken sleep when I finally did get it too!  The night before last Nathan woke up for whatever reason and then was upset and didn't seem to want to go back to sleep.  This morning was horrible though because I was woken up at 5:45am by the smoke detector as George tried to toast himself an English muffin!  Nothing like scaring the pants off me from a dead sleep!

Oh well, all's good and I've had coffee now, so let's see what the rest of the day brings!  Hope you have a good one!

Cheers,

CPS Sketch 174

Paper is Echo Park.  Cardstock is Bazzill.  Stamp is Hero Arts.

Gems are Hero Arts.  Butterfly Punch is Martha Stewart.  Ribbon is Amuse.

Managed to get a few minutes to play this afternoon!  I so wanted to do something with this new Echo Park paper I just got and the CPS Sketch seemed to be a good place to start!  Loved this sketch and may do some more of this one!

Have some pictures to post later of the kids in the sprinkler for the first time this year too, but need a little more time without all the kids asking me for a snack!
Cheers,

Happy Canada Day!

Just a quick little note to say that I hope everyone had a great day celebrating the wonderful country and we're lucky enough to live in.  I sure know that living overseas taught me that there was no other place than Canada that I could call home...

The weather wasn't great here and there were showers off and on, but we headed over to the celebrations in Surrey and had a great time.  Always lots to see and do though we decided against the concert and fireworks tonight.

The rest of the day was quite low key and it was just nice to spend it together!

Happy Canada Day!

Cheers,