Cookie Monster and Elmo

Surprisee!! Today I am featuring my oldest grandson.

Erik is 10 years old, and last night when he visited he saw

some of my latest cards made for swaps and wanted to case one set of mine

as he loves the fun look of it and immediatly got in a casing mode.

/.

What a busy boy, he knew the background colors he wanted to  use for hit two cards project (he wanted to make them for his teachers) Erik is sooo totally focused and enjoying every moment, and his face totally lit up when he checked his end results. Of course he had to sign the back of his paper creations too, just like his proud nonna.He decided on his initials only (ET 2012) I like that. ♥

Look how happy and proud he is!!

I am sure his two teachers would totally enjoy Erik's

hand made punch art cards! ♥ Who wouldn't? ♥

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here is my take. I recently made these cards for a kid's swap

hosted by Libby. {{I totally cased the idea from Debbie (lil dj)

when I received her own swap cards for a 'Male Mail' swap I hosted quite a while back. FINALLY I seized the perfect occasion for casing her cards ♥}}

Here they are folks...simple cards, but ohhh so much fun to make

for kids and kids at heart! ♥

Hope you enjoyed this post....I didn't tell Erik I was going to

dedicate this post to him, I want to surprise him with your

comments....sooo pleeeaazzz leave him some!! LOL ehhe

Have a GREAT and BLESSED day everyoneeee!!!

Thanks for visiting!! ♥

Father's Day Duel

Hello my Darlin Peeps...it is Dueling time again!! ♥
Each month,on the 15th to be exact, we Dueling Dazzlers 'battle' with the Dueling Divas to compare ideas, learn new tecniques and creating DAZZLING cards together.

This month our darling hostesses are April (for the Dazzlers) and Jamie (for the Divas)

April sent us an awesome masculine kit from which to create a Father's Day card .

I {{{ ♥ }}} everything from the kit, especially the burlap!

With my kit, I decided to make an easel card ..I actually started making a sideways easel first, but truly preferred the more 'regular' kind and stuck with it.

Incredibly, I made my card ten days ago...way ahead of time for once...lol...

woott meee...love it when I can receive kits a bit early! ;o)

♥ < Thanks April ! > ♥

April's kit contained the following items:

 Krafty Dots by Recollections, Out of Print/Storyteller by Basic Grey and Go Fish/Mini Fish by Carolyn Holt Designs
Burlap and Pearls by Recollections
Ribbon and Bakers Twine from my stash
Clothespin from SU!
Stamps: Favorite Occasions by JustRite and Totally Tool set from SU!

As I was creating this card my mind went to all the happy times I spent with my amazing father....
my memories of him are in sharp contrast with the man he is today....unfortunatly Alzhaimer is NEVER kind to anyone afflicted by it or their families. I am mourning my father's brilliant mind...
but when I hug him and I still receive his warm hugs back (most of the times...) I thank God he is still in my life...       
***I love you Dad, for ever and always...♥ ***




Hope you like this month's contribution   to our  friendly  monthly duel... ♥                                                  I'd love it if you could leave a sign  of  your sweet visit, I so appreciate reading all comments ...               *THANK  YOU*                           BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!!  

 

 

 

 

Unidentified Image # 2

Hello blogging friends...
here's the second reveal of the fairly new Unidentified Image (closed) swap started by Barb on SCS as a spin off from the original 'mystery' image swap originally created by Jeanette (Forest Ranger on SCS)

For this second round of the swap, Kelly (SCS: MiamyKell4) was the hostess with the mostest and sent all of us partecipants the cutest images of this adorable beach beauty  'Florence' from Karftin Kimmie .
Kelly also had a fabulous idea how to implement our paper creations for this swap, with her crusade to save  some specific area close to where she lives, in dangers of being destroyed in name of 'progress'...mmm :/
Please check her wonderful blog here for more explicit informations and details:

http://sandcastlestamper.blogspot.ca/

For my card, I truly wanted to capture some wonderful tropical colors and, lucky me, found what I considered a perfect background of color combos to show off  the  sky at sunset or in the middle of the afternoon ,thus, in my own mind I saw a myriad of tropical goodness possibilites...:o) Added some hand cut waves for the water ,and hand torn sand paper to depict part of the beach where this suntanning beauty is laid upon...Florence was colored with Copic (it was my very first attempt using them last week end at a friends' house...need much more pactice I'm afraid...) I also gave her some glam by using stickles around her sunglasses rim and on her belt buckle. Crystal effect was used on her 'lenses'...A couple of added button shells completed my visual of  a day spent on  a beautiful sunny Miami beach surrounded by nature's beauty...

Speaking of sunny...
this is how I made the sun...
I wanted it 3-D and wanted to use felts...
however, my very limited supply of felt
material does not include either yellow or orange...mmm what to do??Well.. some felt flowers from my stash came to my rescue...yes I was soooo determined to make the sun MY way....lol
I used part of the yellow felt flower as the sun rays and with the smallest plain circle nestie I cut out the center of the orange flower....et voila'!
I had the sun (almost) as I had envisioned creating it in my head....LOL

Oh yeahh..and for the wee sun-umbrella...wellllll...I really wanted to add one to my scene...thus I added a lil tropical looking umbrellas from the dollar store... sure came useful too...NOT only for a beverage embellish eh?!!LOL *wink*

 This is the inside part of my cards.
I like that both sentiments (front and inside) compliment each other so well...
This card could easily be read as:

    "Life is a matter of moments.....because nice matters!"

There you have it...I had fun creating these beach~scene cards for such

wonderful challenge with a cause to boot....hopefully their recipients will enjoy

receiving such labour of paper love...♥

Have a GREAT, blessed  Day you all...thanks for visiting!!

xoxox

Con~GRAD~ulations Chickee!

Hello my dear friends in blogland!

Today I'm submitting a graduation card I created last night for one of my students'

sister who just graduated from high school -in fact she had her Commencement last night as I was creating....lol... talk about perfect timing...:o)

For this cute chick card I used a Whipper Snapper stamp I had for  a while and

finally got it inked. It is aptly called 'Chick with Brain' -MY822-

I totally love this adorable image and so easy to color as well....

I chose to use  layers of yellow card stock for this card as I saw Emma's gorgeous dress on her Mom's FB page and she had striking yellow accessories too ie: yellow purse, flower wristlet etc...      I think this color goes very well with the gray and black combo too.       (I forgot my camera at work yesterday, so I had to take these pictures at school this morning, just before handing over this card to Emma's Mom when she dropped  off her younger daughter ....thus my writing was already on the inside part of the card...*sigh*....)

also whipped up a quick envelope for it, use some sizzlits for the newly graduate's name and shaped up an oval with my beloved spellbinders...et voila'...a quick personalized envie to go w/a cutie patootie feathery chick... :o)

 

♥ I hope Emma liked receiving this one of  a kind chick!! ♥

Wishing you all a great weekend full of wonderful surprises!

Thnaks for visiting, I sure appreciate your valuable comments too! ♥

Card Deets:
Stamp : Whipper Snapper / Spring Pictogram (SU)
Ink: Archival Onix Black ; SU markers
Card Stock : Ging Gray, Summer Sun
Designer Paper: Class Act Phrases, TPC Studio -Class of 2012
Accessories: Spellbinders-Labels Three; Swiss Dots E/F , Alphabet Sizzlets ,
MS border punch, dimentionals, Crystal effect, yellow gingham ribbon
Tecnique: distressing 

SOTC Challenge~~May 2012

Hello Friends,

it is time to show you another card made for the 'Sisterhood of the Travelling Cards' . Such group is the brainchild of Kadie (kmensley on SCS).

Here are all deets about this dedicated group of stampers: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/cards-f107/closed-sisterhood-traveling-cards-t7-t550294.html

The wonderful hostess for the month of May, was April (Aprilo on SCS)

and she challenged us with the following request:

"...This month's theme is Monochromatic May! Your card can be for any occasion, but it should be all one color family! I tend to have a problem making cards like this, so I would love some inspiration from my Sistahs!..."

Well, I totally {{{{{heart}}}}this challenge!! woot woott...

I knew exactly what stamp set I was going to finally ink...I knew the tecnique

I wanted to apply too....yet I was undecide on the color family...and then it hit me...

I wanted the card to have a 'soft feeling' to it therefore I decided to stick to neutral tones and hues and did not add any sentiments on purpose, to allow the recipients to include one of their choices depending on the occasion...

I really like the soft result obtained by combining a few tecniques together.

 

Card Deets:

C/S: Crumb Cake (SU) , Naturals Ivory (SU)

D/P: from My Minds Eye

Ink: River Rock,Soft Suede, brown sugar marker (American Crafts),Gelly Roll pen.

Stamp: Bliss (SU)

Accessories: white satin pearl embossing powder, double stitched grosgrain ribbon (SU),

self adhesive pearls (Kaisercraft), Boho flowers punch (SU), Textile Texture embossing folder.

Tecniques: * sponging * distressing * dry embossing * wet embossing *

 

There you

 have it folks...

Thanks for such fun challenge April!

♥ Blessings to all! ♥

Calendar Girls~ Memorial Day...

Hello Friends,
First of all I'd like to wish HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY to my American friends,
secondly it is the 28th and, as such, it is CALENDAR GIRLS time!
I think I made it just in the nick of time...;o)

Who are the Calendar Girls? From the words of our 'founder' (Jeanette aka Forest Rangeron SCS) 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.

This month Calendar Girl hostess is none other than Barb ♥ (swap hostess with the mostest - aka barbaralynn on SCS) She challenged our group of galZ with the following  May Challenge:" Memorial Day--a day of honor, remembrance, family picnics, parades, flags placed at cemeteries, concerts and the unofficial start to summer! So the challenge this month for the Calendar Girls is to ink up a patriotic stamp, get out the red/white/blue paper and DSP to post a card that shouts respect to your country and those who have served in the past. I would also like you to note in your post on the 28th what is in your plans this year or what typically has been part of your celebration in the past years on Memorial Day.
Paola--my challenge to you is to also show us your Canadian Patriotism with a card that reflects the colors and images that you are proud of. Barb (Miss May) "

Memorial

A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something,

usually a person (who has died) or an event.

 The most common type of memorial is the gravestone or the memorial plaque.

Also common are war memorials commemorating those who have died in wars.

[From Wikipedia]

Today, is an extremely important date for me as each 28th of May we pay respect and commemorate some beloved members of our family who departed toward a better

and most peaceful world....
May 28th----is the day when I lost my paternal Grandfather ...I was only 8 yrs old...
yet I remember well all the wonderful walks through daisies and poppy fields and the awesome stories he used to tell me as  he shaved, using a special shaving mirror encased in wood, complete with a lil drawer for his shaving kit. That mirror has been sitting in my living room for years now...took it back with me during one of my trips back 'home' many years ago...

May 28th----is the day when I lost my favorite maternal uncle, a man whose gentleness and kindness and love for kids and everything that was nature made quite an impact in my life. Again, during another of my trips back 'home' we decided to surprise my Mom...and he came back with me to Canada and it was a most joyful eventful surprise for all...I didn't say ANYTHING to anyone, not even to my dear hubby! :o)

May 28th----is the day when I lost my first handsome precious,adorable grandchild.

He turned 21 yrs old in Heaven, two days ago. I think often of my Alexander and love to talk about him...but as this time of the year approaches I also became very melancholic....it's like a misty cloud takes over me.....no matter how much I try not to feel overcame by emotions....I miss my first grandchild soooo much still, but know that God had special plans for him and know he is most happy being my sweet angel watching over us from above the wonders of the heavens...

May 28th......is when memories come most alive....when I pay tribute to several members of my family at once...May 28th...an unforgettable day.

I had Barb's approval to interpret 'Memorial' my own way....therefore my card , for this month's challenge is ment to reflect my thoughts for my loved ones, embracing both the colors of the Country where I was born in, and the colors of the Country who adopted me when I was a teenager. The two star - mostly in green , white and red - Italy's colors , are a tribute to my nonno and zio while the biggest star in  Canada's colors, is in honour of my beloved grandchild.

Three bright stars shining inside my heart forever....   ♥ ♥ ♥

Did you noticed what I used to create my background and part of the stars??

I ♥ recycling...

~~~* Sending blessings to all! *~~~

Paola

May's Mystery Image Challenge

Hello Friends,

Here we are once again, continuing on the fun that our fearless leader
Jeanette- aka Forest Ranger (as she's best known on SCS) started way back !!

This is the tenth round and the fabulous hostess for this round is Linda. ♥

The images received each round are a complete mystery to everyone , and we are not allowed to post our finished cards until the 18th of every other month to keep the surprise from being spilled....*wink*

Linda gifted us with wonderful full card front style images....Very springy looking and serene - it is going to be interesting to see everyone interpretation of such mystical images.

*click on any images to enlarge*
I must confess that I was swamped at first and no ideas came to mind, then I decided to keep it simple and use the Spotlighting Technique with the immies received.

For that reason I sacrificed using a full image and punched out five different circles from it to use for spotting my cards (4 to send away and one for me to keep)
The inside of each card sports a cute li sentiment from SU and a glittery butterfly
sticker.
I am still not too pleased with the end result of this card, but there is no use  crying now over spilled milk....sort of....LOL

Have a wonderful blessed day to YOU, who just took the time to stop by and brighten my day :o)

xox

Card Deets:
Image : Outlines Nature Fairies image; Rubbernecker Wildflowers

Ink : Memento Tuxedo Black ; Rich Razzleberries
Stamp/sentiments : SU- Sweet Little Sentiments
Cardstock : SU- Rich Razzleberry & SU- YoYo Yellow
Accessories : SU Punches,SU Markers, SU-Wine Organdy Ribbon ,
                         Embossing folder 'Stripe' by Darice , gems, glitter, green butterfly stickers.
Tecnique: Spotlighting Technique

A dueling card at camp....♥

Hello Friends!

It's the 15th of the month again...that means that

it is DUELING time between the Dazzlers and the Divas :o)

This month, my friend Judy (a Diva) and I (a Dazzler) are co-hosting the duel and

came up with a Spring Theme. We also decided to send both teams the exact same images and sentiments, so we came up with this sweet darling image from SU

aptly named  'Serene Spring'

 

Above is what I included in each of the Dazzlers’ kits :

Immies were inked with: Memento Black & Archival Versafine Antique Sepia
Card Stock : Very Vanilla (SU) & White c/s from Wausau Paper Co.
Designer Papers : from Costco
Accessories : cut out butteflies from Sizzix BigZ Beautiful Butterflies ; pink daisy flower w/ pearl (from Jolee’sBoutique) ; 5 petal silk flower from Michaels ; styled vanilla hardware from (SU Hodgepodge) ; buttons and beads from my stash ;
pink/vanilla gingham ribbon & polka dotted ribbon from local craftstore.
For tecnique I added a lil steepling ,to my coloring, at the bottom of the pot...

This is what was requested from our respective teams:

                                      SPRING IS IN THE AIR! 

It’s May, that month when the earth bursts forth with new growth, new flowers, new bird song.  Other’s have described this time better than us. Here’s some favorite poems/quotes that reflect this theme:

“ The air is like a butterfly With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky And sings.”
Joyce Kilmer / Spring

“ Sweet May hath come to love us, Flowers, trees, their blossoms don;
And through the blue heavens above us The very clouds move on.”
Heinrich Heine / Book of Songs

“ When April steps aside for May, Like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten;
Fesh violets open every day: To some new bird each hour we listen.”
Lucy Larcom

We also asked our teams to include -alongside their May Dueling Darling creations-  what they love about the month of May.

It could be a favorite activity, a special event or a favorite flower that you associate with. We look forward to seeing your offerings! ♥
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wellllll....lemme tell ya....Hubby and I are presently camping and I am commuting back and forth twice a day to feed our cat,  go to work and to check my e-mails and favorite internet site aka SCS  ♥ *wink*. I didn't think I had  a chance to make my card and post today...but decided at last minute to take some supplies with me ,along with the May kit, and work at it while camping...mmmmm it turned out I started my card after 11:00 pm yikesss. I also realized I didn't even have a pair of scissors with me...mmmm...what to do?? As U can see kitchen scissors came to the rescue....lol....but I sure missed NOT having my nesties along!....I also didn't have any twine or floss to use on my buttons....sooo I turned thin strips of throw away c/s into 'thread ' which I now call  'faux-floss' I also used 'faux  floss' to make the butterfly centre 'threading' each bead into vanilla strips which I curled up the ends later on at home......Anyhow...considering I hardly had any items other than cardstock,  I would venture to say it all turned out ok afterall...;o)

My favorite things to do in May is to fully enjoy nature - aka go CAMPING! ♥
Love hearing the chirping of lil birds flying from branch to branch and watching them...it relaxes me as I lay down with my favorite read and a beverage at hand *wink*...(Yes Darlene I kept my promise! *cheers* lol)
Yesterday afternoon I heard the calling of the majestic eagles....hubby and I were wondering if ,perhaps, the feathered mother was calling the young ones back to the nest as the call was quite persistant.....
This May I also love the fact that finally my whisterya is coming to full bloom and it looks spectacular!...(Spring sprang quite late this year in my neck of the world!)

Please check the rest of the Dazzlers and Divas's Dueling creations here:

DAZZLERS

♥ Jeanette ♥ April ♥ Debbie ♥ Melina ♥ Michelle ♥ Terry ♥ Darlene ♥ Paola

DIVAS

♥ Barb ♥ Carol ♥ Jamie ♥ Judy ♥ Kelly ♥ Laura Jean ♥ Tami ♥

Thanks for visiting!! Have a great, blessed day!

Child Birthday ~~ April SOTC

♥ Hello my dear blogging Friends,

finally got inky today, after several days of literally staring at my
messy craft space and wondering how did I let it go that 'wild' once again...*sigh*
I just wish I had a magic wand each and everytime I finish creating a card...

Anyways, today's post is about April's Challenge for the SOTC group
 (Sisterhood Of The Travelling Cards) on SCS' s site :
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/cards-f107/closed-sisterhood-traveling-cards-t7-t550294.html

My dear friend Carol was the wonderful hostess for last month, and she challenged us to create children's birthday cards so that her beautiful 7 yo grandaughter could use them  for the many children's birthdays invites she goes to. Great idea, right? ♥

Well, believe it or not I actually had  a real hard time deciding on what to create, which image to chose, go boy/girl or neutral?... I even went through a bunch of newer stamps and, at the end, I chose the one set that wasn't even considered at first....
I really should try to use the many older rubbah I collected over the years ,especially from my SU stash. This set was purchased via SCS B&S a few years back and it's only my second time using it...yet it is such an adorably cute set w/ endless possibilities...
Finally, I decided how my cards was going to take shape and what you see  is the final result...

Card front and Inside of card

Ultimatly I liked how this lil girl immie turned out, holding a heart shaped balloon (brushed with Crystal Effect to give it a sheen look) and a lil banner message.
The nesties are positioned over fabric d/p. This lil gal's totally ready to part-eee ;o)
 Hopefully, every sweet lil birthday girls receiving these cards would enjoy receiving them just as much as I did creating it....
Thanks for stopping by my friends, please let me know what your thoughts are...I do appreciate each and every comment I read....*muwahhhhhhhhh*

  ♥ Blessings To All!! ♥
            ~~Paola~~

*Card Deets*
Stamps: Kids at Play, Spring Pictogram,
Birthday Best, Birthday Counts, Cute Converse (all from SU)
Card Stock: Melon Mambo, So Saffron
Designer Paper: 'Firefly Fest' - Adhesive Backed Fabric Paper by Recollection Signature
Accessories: Blossom nestie, Circle nesties, gingham yellow ribbon (Michael), stickles,
liquid pearls, yellow baker's twine, crystal effect, dimentionals, glue dots
Tecnique: Paper Piecing, Coloring w/ markers