INTERNATIONAL INKERS *kit #4*

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Wootttt  my dear friends and followers, today I AM SOOOO EXCITEDDDD!!
Do ya wanna know WHY??!! :o) Well it's because it's CANADA's turn to showcase 'her' kit this month....
humm well...I mean...it's my turn anyways..LOL
First let me introduce WHO the INTERNATIONAL INKERS are, to the wonderful newcomers that may read us, by adding this link that simply explains it all,please check it out :
http://paola-sama.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html

Secondly, as a special thank you , a lucky visitor will receive a kit with all the goodies necessary to make a 'travelling card'  just by leaving a comment on each of the International Inker's blogs ( it may be a good idea to become a follower too,if you're not one already..besides, I'd LOVE to have ya visiting often! *wink*)

Here's what each International Inkers received - I have one for YOU to win too!
The winner will be randomly selected on Sunday evening, July 31.**GOOD LUCK** :o)
This month kit contains the followings:

Stamped Images:

'Are We There Yet?' ( from SU! 2003)

'The Journey' (from Tim Holtz)

*clear stamp*  (from SandyLion)

Accessories:

Ribbons: assorted mix ; twine, mini clip, extra large button,

wood tag (by Chatterbox), leatherette luggage tag (by Jolee's boutique)

Assortment of Designer Papers from:

K & Company , My Mind's Eyes , Basic Grey

plus I added a real map page from my area.

When I was putting this kit together I was thinking how wonderful it could be if we could all pack our suitcases and travel to visit each others home and Country....*sigh*...I wish.....

Besides visiting friends (virtual or not) IF you had a chance to see a part of the world U have never seen, where would your dream trip take you and why? What kind of transportation would U use most?? 

*Personally I'd love to go visit Paris, Spain,the Greek Islands, the Great Pyramids, Africa,Japan,

Austria....so many wonderful, exciting places. I have yet to see and explore...I would travel mostly by plane or by ship....yup,I LOVE cruising too!! :o)

How would YOU answer the above fun questions? C'mon...don't be shy now...*wink*

Thank you all for stopping by today, I encourage you to check the rest of the 'Inkers' amazing creations!!           

 The international Inkers are:

Michelle (USA), Catherine (USA),
Karen (Canada), Paola (Canada),
Tanja (Germany) and Imke (Germany)

NB: --->**Tanja may be partecipating at a later date**
BTW I POSTPONED THE DATE UNTIL FRIDAY AUG ,5th <TO SELCT A WINNER>
Hopefully this works better for everyone!:o)

~*Have a most blessed day !*~

           ~Paola~

Calendar Girl~~~July's challenge



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 Well folks, it's that fun time of the month again...
-------> CALENDAR GIRLS' time that is <--------
Who are the Calendar Girls?
In Jeanette's words (she's the leader who's started it all...) : "We are a group of bloggers who want to have a place where friendships blossom, creativity abounds, and encouragement prevails! In keeping with that dream, this blog group has been created so we will have a place to interact and enjoy being fellow bloggers."

Miss July's hostess is Michelle.
...and she gave us a free for all and any theme we wanted to pursue!
But.....there is a catch,oh yeahh!!

All cards needed to be created using anything BUT a STAMPED IMAGE (sentiments are okay).

Examples would be punch art, stickers, embellishments, patterned paper, what ever we chose.

For this challenge, I decided to add my own background using one of the floral CB folders I like, and brush it with a couple of ink pads to add some color,  giving it a 'wild' brushed effect....

I also cut out a couple of butterflies ,using my Big Shot, then I stenciled
them in using a Q-tip and colored chalks before adding some sponging and stickles to them.













Lastly I added some grosgrain dotted ribbon, a big flower brad and trimmed the bottom using a Martha Steward punch. Applied the card's  front to some old olive c/s and taped it all on bazzill.
I like the end result and love this color combos...a bit too 'wild and busy ' yes...but that surely reflects me :o)
Hopefully YOU like it as well....:o)
Thank YOU Michelle for the wonderful challenge..I like it when I have to think 'outta-da-box'!! :o)


Have a WONDERFUL day and please come back tomorrow as the INTERNATIONAL INKERS will display their card kits for this month ... *Canada is hosting!!*... and guess who's giving away this month card kit on her blog??? *wink* I think YOU guessed it right...*wink & smile*
~~*Paola*~~

Butterflies Everywhere swap

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I partecipated in a wonderful 'butterflies' swap, hosted by Linda H.
This swap had my heart flutter right from the start, as soon as I read the reason behind its title...
I sure could not pass the opportunity to partecipate in it. I never wanted to partecipate on a swap as much as I wanted to partecipate in this one, and the motif will came clear soon as you read on...

From Linda's own words:Butterflies Everywhere
In memory of my son Jared, born 16 weeks premature.
He was so beautiful and precious but was only with us a short time, just like a butterfly ♥

My heart totally wanted to hug her for doing this in ode of her baby son.
I so undestand the reasoning behind it and what better way than to show your creativity and dedicate it to a couple of angels in Heaven?
I purposedly said a couple of them, because we have our own little 'butterfly' in Heaven too, and I'd like to think that my two days old (first grandson) Alexander , along with Linda's  little Jared, would soar and flutter as quietly and beautifully as butterflies in the wonderful peacefulness of  the Heavens  above us.... This visual  image really gifts me with inner peace and serenity.....
                                    ♥ God Bless all the Heavenly Children ♥

For my card I really wanted to show something delicate yet sturdy, fragile yet strong, with color hues as the everchanging sky above us ,and
abundant flowers representing  the nectar of life.
And definetly I wanted my card to be pretty and a bit glittery too, but without being overly done.
Lastly I wanted it to be unique and to stand out...
Hopefully I achieved all that.

Thank YOU, Linda for the inspiration!

♥I'd like to dedicate these cards to both Jared
and Alexander.♥
♥ May you two little ones keep on fluttering by as free as butterflies can be...♥

Card Deets:

Stamps: 'Patterned Bugs' by Inkadinakdo clear stamp set (inside of card)

PSK F-2843 Sentiment (inside of card)

Ink: Night of Nvy,Naja Breeze, Cerainly Celery

Card Stock: Night of Navy, White

Designer Paper from Costco

Accessories: Butterfly big dye (SU) ,swiss dot CB folder,white satin ribbon,silver cord, pearls,

paper doilies,glitter, glue pen,crystal effect

Tecnique: dry embossing, kissing tecnique, 3-D

The following is a beautiful poem I saw at Vancouver Children Hospital many many years ago, while our little grandson Alexander was fighting for his life...It was hung on a wall on the way to the chapel and each word was beautifully and lovely stitched ,surely it was a labour of  much love.
Please feel free to read it, or not...
                                                 ♥ A Child Loaned ♥
"I'll lend you for a little time A child of Mine." He said. "For you to love the while he lives And mourn for when he's dead. It may be six or seven year Or twenty-two or three But will you, till I call him back Take care of him for Me? He'll bring his charms to gladden you And should his stay be brief, You'll have his lovely memories As solace for your grief.
 I cannot promise he will stay Since all from Earth return, But there are lessons taught down there I want the child to learn. I've looked this wide world over In my search for teacher's true, And from the throngs that crowd life's lanes, I have selected you; Now will you give him all your love, Nor think the labour vain Nor hate Me when I come to call And take him back again? I fancied that I heard them say:
"Dear Lord, Thy will be done, For all the joy Thy child shall bring, For the risk of grief we'll run. We'll shelter him with tenderness, We'll love him while we may, And for the happiness we've known, Forever grateful stay. But should the angels call for him Much sooner than we planned, We'll brave the bitter grief that comes And try to understand."     
Anonymous

SOTC~~~> Christmas In July

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Today turned out to be quite an Unexpected paper crafting kind of day...
I ended up working on and completing two swaps, plus some extra cards to add ot my stash, for a total of
16 cards, finished inside-out. woot woott.. :o) Originally we had such different plans for today, but hubby was feeling poorly and Dr. ordered him to rest as much as possible ,so we postponed our plans to a better day...hopefully tomorrow.

First off  I worked on creating Christmas cards...YUP I did say CHRISTMAS !
I made these cards for this month's Sisterhood of the Traveling Cards, graciously hosted by Linda

~For this Month's theme  she required that we make Christmas cards and aptly named this month's swap
CHRISTMAS in JULY. We could use anything we wish on our cards as long as the result was christmasy...it was all up to us! Her only other stipulation was to have fun !!  :o)
THAT is sure easy to do when crafting! I feel I am in a world of my own when I create, time seems to fly and next thing I know I spent hours not realizing it....and not thinking of any kind of stress-related problems at all...I think it's God's way to make my mind rest as well...PTL! :o)

For these cards I chose a clear stamp set from Inkadinkado.I love the image of the Three Kings,
it means so much to me and makes me also reminisce about  how wonderfully celebrated The Epiphany is in my 'old' Country of origin...
The live Nativity scenes ,the perfumes of oranges
(yes they are related to the Epiphany in my culture),
the opening of the stockings (we do open them on January 6th!) and checking all the loot ,mainly consisting of candies ,including torrone (nougat)
The best time of course, is the fact that the Three King finally reach our Saviour and give Him homage and gifts fit for the King that HE truly is.

This is the sentiment I chose to ink
on the inside of the card,with a sweet
angel- messanger of God- announcing
the Saviour's birth.
I specifically chose not to add additional colors to these images; wanting,instead for them to portray less 'fuss' but more true meaning instead.
I hope I was able to convey that.

CARD DEETS:

Image & Sentiment:
'O Holy Night' by Inkadinkado
Card Stock:
Cherry Cobbler (SU)
Designer Paper : My Mind's Eyes
              >Christmas Glitter<
Inks:
Cranberry Crisp,Baja Breeze,
Close to Cocoa
Accessories:
Glitter, dimentionals,sticky dot buttons,




I hope Linda and my other creative and uber talented Sistahs ,as well as YOU
-my friendly followers- like my inking choice for this Christmas in July theme... :o)

:::Sending  blessings and smiles your way:::
Stay tuned for next posting...coming soooooon:o)
     Paola

*Garden of Friendship* - July's Dueling Darlings-

    



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Hello my dear followers and friends...

Today I have a real treat to share with you . This adorable, beary sweet card was made from a wonderful Garden of Friendship' card kit that Terry sent us Dazzlers for our July's duels against the Divas (with LJ being their hostess this month.)

I received mine just a few days ago and was itching  to play with the new cute image and all the wonderful stuff received...

Terry's kit was absolutly AMAZING and full of goodies , especially tons of  felt flowers and buttons...I kept ooohhing and awwhing over each items...WOW,so much to chose from!

Thank YOU darling WingPit Sistah! (our pet name for eachother...lol)

Terry also challenged us to add a story or memory about a good friend:

My story is about an awesome and talented friend of mine from Italy

Her name is Tiziana (pr: Tee-ze-ah-nah)

We first met,virtually, through an italian food-chat,where we were sharing many recipes and suggestions and how to improve our skills in the kitchen and be more creative in the food's world...especially when it came to bake and decorate cakes....

That led to phone calls and e-mails and presents sent back and forth for the main occasions such as Christmas and Birthdays... Tiziana met my Parents before she even met me, during one of their trips back 'home' many years ago... Our friendship grew and grew and to this day we are still reading each others almost daily and still share a great friendship and suggestions .

Last time we saw each other was 4 years ago,in the Adriatic Riviera...I am still waiting for her to hop on that plane and come to Canada to visit me ...I know one day that shall happen!

Her Birthday is coming up very soon and I will definetly send this card to her....:o)

Image and sentiment: Fred Bear - Oopsie daisy (My Favorite Things)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo black,
Paper: SU! ; DP: stripe (Me & My Big Ideas), flower words (DCWV)
Felt flowers: Favorite Findings (JoAnn's)
Ribbon: American Crafts
Doily: Martha Stewart
assorted buttons

THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY!!

I HOPE YOU WILL LEAVE A SIGN OF YOUR VISIT,

I do LUV to HEAR from YA  :o)

Blessings!!

Paola

Calendar Girls~~~JUNE~~~~



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 Well, I have finally uploaded my June creation for the Calendar Girls challenge.
I ment to post this project way sooner...truth is that even though I took a huge craft bag full of anything imaginable for crafting, with me during our camping holiday, I never had a chance to even open my 'bag of tricks'...
My very sweet friend Carol  was the wonderful hostess for last month's challenge, and here's what she asked us to do:

1. Make a card or a 3D item or whatever you would like and base it around something that you enjoy doing or plan on doing this summer...ex: a vacation, camping, family picnic, swimming, family reunion....you get the idea...

2. Write a short ditty about why you like or are looking forward to the theme you have on your card, when you post...

3. Now since here in the US Memorial day is at the end of May and the 4th of July is at the beginning of July and June is smack dab in the middle of two holidays that honor our nations heros....I would like for you to send your card to either a soldier or a resident in a nursing home...(Sweet P I know you don't live in the states but I do know you love and honor the elderly and your nations heros as well)...I think that there are so many people that have shaped our lives and have stood up to protect us all... often these people are forgotten....so if you choose to take the 3rd part of this challenge (Optional of course)...you will certainly put a smile on someones face that will certainly appreciate it...
Well, it was no brainer for me what I was mostly going to do over the summer, and I even had a plan for my card as soon as I saw the posted challenge...:o)
My truck and trailer  images were already colored and cut out before I took off  for camping...all I needed to do was finishing the card  sometimes during the holidays...well you already know that IT never did happen! :/ Too busy being adventurous and having fun with my hubby and my friends.

Somehow my perspective for my card shifted from my original plan...Now I wanted to make something totally diferent, to either frame or to put inside a shadow box with the addition of some mini pine cones or anything else it may remind me of the great camping experience,especially at Jasper (Alberta) where our awesome and huge campsite overlooked a very pristine, beautiful , serene meadow where every single day we were blessed by seeing some form of wildlife , mainly momma elks and their babies , gophers and squirrels right in front of us, only a few meters away... :o)

For this theme,I looked forward
to try and recapture that beautiful , peaceful looking meadow,trying to incorporate a forest's scene and my love for camping...the outdoors,
the nature that surround us...
Also tried the masking tecnique for the very first time...
and yes...I do need a LOT of more practise, but at least it's a start...

Once I frame this project, I will take it to my Dad and reminisce about Jasper again with him as he does still have
some memories of that place. My Mom tells me he used to really love it...probably that is the reason  why I love Jasper so much too.
A place I will definelty like go back to again, same campsite, same meadow...

THANK YOU CAROL ... this was an AWESOME theme indeed and I thoroughly enjoyed giving it my own interpretation :o)

I 'm hoping that you, my  followers and friends , like it as well~~~
Looking forward to read your comments and suggestions :o)
~ GOD BLESS YA!~
~Paola~

**Please Note: Will post all deets tomorrow!!**

SOTC ~~~June~~~

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My wonderful friend Kadie ( who, a few years ago, cemented together the Sisterhood Of The Traveling Cards) was the hostess with the mostess for the month of June...
Her requests for June was to make a card with girls' sports in mind ,OR to use our favorite Team's colors....(at least that is my interpretation of  miss Kadie's challenge,hopefully I didn't mess up!! :/ )

Hence I used a combos of green and blue colors for my card, in support of my love for the  awesome Vancouver Canucks' Hockey Team .:o)
{Yes, we lost the Stanley Cup, but we are still Champions regardless!!}

Must also admit that I am so behind with all of my blog postings lately....*sigh*
kind - of - hard to play catch up but I shall give it  a try :o)

Here's a lil close up of the card, inside and out~~

Card Deets:

Stamps:

On The Green (SU) ,
Element of Style sentiment (SU),
Bella sentiment (inside)

Ink:
Night of Navy, Wild Wasabi, Versamark

Card Stock:

Pacific Point, Garden Green
Designer Paper by Reninisce

Accessories:

Clear embossing powder,Argyle C/B folder, pacific point ribbon,
twine,buttons, square nesties,oval punch,glue dots, dimentionals

Tecniques:

Clear image wet embossing, dry embossing,sponging,layering



I sent 4 of these cards off a tad late  -even though I took all the necessary crafting items along to finish this swap , and at least three others while on vacay- but there was NO time for crafting!!  too much fun was had being adventurous...lol
I truly don't expect any swaps cards back...but I still wanted to partecipate regardless,since I have yet to ask for a monthly 'pass'  *wink& smile* :o)

~~~~HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!!~~~~~until next time ~~~*ciaoooo*  :o)


This card was submitted for the following challenges:

http://paperprettiesblog.blogspot.com/

http://7kidschallengeblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/challenge-26-texture.html

Finally...the 'Mystery' is revealed!! :o)

WOWWWW!!
It's been like..4-EVAH since I posted on my lil neglected 'Amore' !!
Well, the silence is broken-so to speak- lol  and I am happily ready to take my blog's reins again :o)
Had just returned a couple days ago from a two weeks WONDERFUL camping experience outside my beautiful British Columbia...and visited the lands of Dinosaurs and Glaciers...
(one was scorching HOT and the other was way too COOL...lol)  Will post lots of pictures soon, in a new thread..stay tuned! *wink* :o)

Back to the REAL reason for this post, which is to reveal the Mistery image card  originally scheduled for the month of June,on the 18th of the month to be precise.

Unfortunatly we, here in Canada, had to deal with disruptive postal service leading to a full blown postal strike right in the middle of this swap...*****can U say FRUSTRATION??****  :/
Thus the reason of postponing the swap by a month, specifically July 18th.
Yup..it HAD TO HAPPEN when it was my turn to host eh??! **Murphy's Law I tell ya! ** Strikes' been thankfully over and done with, my holidays as well (at least for the time being...lol)
All I wish to do now is to thank each and everyone of the wonderful partecipants of this swap for their understanding and total support in a dire and unpredicted situation. 

***KUDOS AND THANKS TO EACH OF YOU, MY DEAR 'MISTERY' FRIENDS'***

It was great to be your hostess for this round, had so much fun chatting with you on SCS mistery swap thread...hopefully everyone of you did as well, in spite of the glitches above mentioned.
I am now soooo looking forward to our next Mistery round with Karly at the helm :o)
You'll soon receive cuteeeeeer than cute images she has stamped for all of us!!
So glad I don't have to wait to receive them...ahahha*wink*
Should I give ya a hint???mmm let's seee....
naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! I cannot/will not/should not!!...LOL :o)

* click on any photos if you wish to enlarge*

Here's the card I made for the swap.
The cute image I used ( and sent out to all partecipants) is from Penny Black 'High Spirits';
sentiment is from 'Studio G', both are inked in Memento Black.
Cardstocks I used: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Whisper White, Glittery D/P from My Minds Eyes.
Accessories: pink & blue punched out lil butterflies, Bella baubles, Spellbinder, crystal clear,
glitter.
Tecnique: sponging, coloring w/markers and some chalks.

Here's a little close up for ya....
you can easily see how 'sparkly'
the big flower ,lil birdies and green dots looks with the help of Crystal effect....*wink* :o)

And here's the inside part of the card.
Yes, I decided to change the color
of the sentiment...because I
could!...LOL :o)

That's all for now folks...*wink & smile* ...

hope you likey, and please feel free to make suggestions...:o)
See you sooner than soon as I have LOTS of blog catching up to do in the next few days...
*~~~~Love and blessings to all~~~~*
Paola