Thursday, April 29, 2010

You Melt My Heart

I actually completed two layouts and a couple of cards this past weekend at our Retreat! Yay for me!

The first one was based on a sketch I made for our croppers. It is a sweet layout done in pink and yellow (one of my favorite color combinations!) and has an adorable photo of my nieces, Danielle and Sarah, on it.

I used paper from the Twitterpated line from Pebbles Inc. (I am soooo in love with this line! ) and some fabulous new ribbon we just got in the store.

Pink and yellow, hearts and ruffles - oh my - girlie heaven! I am just so glad that my sister had an extra photo of her girls with her for me to use! Thanks Mary!

This is my sketch which is also posted on my sketch blog at i.love.sketches.

Have a wonderful day~


Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Little Red Wagon #26

Happy Wednesday! It was Regan's turn to post the challenge this week at Little Red Wagon and she chose Sympathy as her theme. This is not something I would normally think of when I am card making, so it was a really good challenge for me!

I decided to use paper from a new line by Fancy Pants called Road Show. It had the perfect feel for a sympathy card.

I created the flowers using Nestabilities and the sentiment is a rub-on (thanks Darcy!). The buttons and ribbon were from my wagon.

Have a good week and try to play along with us at Little Red Wagon

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Busy, busy, busy!

The past couple of weeks have been crazy busy! We had huge back-to-back scrapbooking events that took up a lot of my time and energy, but I am happy to say both were a great success and tonnes of fun!

First, we participated in ScrapFest Kitchener 2010, which is a large paper crafting venue held each Spring. We begin our preparations a couple of months in advance and this year they included having aprons and tote bags made up with our logo on them...

putting gorgeous new papers in our famous black crates...

and decorating our booth with kites and clouds for a bright, Springy feel!

We also stocked our booth with the best new products available and made up 30 new layout kits, thanks to Shelby's fabulous design work!

Deanna and Regan from our Design Team kept everyone entertained at our make 'n take tables, which had line-ups all weekend long!

Regan made the sweet fabric flowers for our aprons along with matching headbands that we all wore! Aren't they just uber cute? It was an amazing event and it was so great to see all our scrapbooking friends who stopped by to shop and say hello. We will be doing a complete recap of our ScrapFest experience on the Two Scrapbook Friends blog sometime soon.

Then, this past weekend we hosted our Spring Scrapbooking Retreat Weekend! Again, it was lots of preparation, but it was truly one of the best weekends we have ever had. We had over 70 scrapbookers in one place for an entire weekend and we did not hear a single complaint! Wow!

Each person who came received some special goodies, one of which was an unfinished wooden journal from Kaiser Craft. We thought most of our guests would just take them home to make up at a later time, but much to our delight, many of them actually decorated their journals while they were there!

My sister Mary helped us out once again and we both decided to decorate a journal for each other. This is the journal that Mary made for me...

I will fondly think of her each time I use it ♥ And this is the journal I made for Mary...

It was a wonderful couple of weeks, but I am looking forward to a more normal routine again. I still have some layouts and cards from the weekend that I will will be blogging sometime soon!

tfl~


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Little Red Wagon #25

It's Wednesday already! This past week has just flown by in a total blur. We participated in ScrapFest this past weekend and now we are busy preparing for our weekend retreat in Grand Bend! I will have lots to post when I have the time, but for today it is time for Little Red Wagon's challenge.

This week Avril challenged us to use Ruffles on our creation. I totally adore ruffles so I was very excited to do this challenge. This week I decided to do a layout using a sketch I made for our croppers at ScrapFest.

This is my layout using a fabulous new line of papers from Fancy Pants called Rusted Sun.

I added a paper ruffle just below the photo and stapled it into place. I hand cut the cloud and added some stitching along the borders with my machine. Then I pierced some holes around the bracket shape. It felt good to do a layout for a change!

Thanks for looking and be sure to join in the challenge!


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Little Red Wagon #24

This week's challenge at Little Red Wagon was posted by Carolyn and we are to do some embossing on our card. I decided to give a new Sizzix embossing folder a try and this is the result.

After I embossed the design, I lightly sanded the paper to help the design show more. Then with a bit of ribbon, a couple of buttons and a decorative pin, all in similar colors, I ended up with a sweet little card! I also used my sketch from last week once again, but I turned it sideways for something different. Thanks for the challenge Carolyn!

Do pop over to Little Red Wagon to see what the other girlfriends have created and if you are feeling inspired, why not give this week's challenge a try?


Monday, April 12, 2010

Washing Machine Woes

Today was a good day. We finally bought a new washing machine to replace our old one that died a loud, painful death about 2 weeks ago!

Yes, our well-used, fairly new washing machine was in the middle of doing a load of laundry, when it suddenly sounded like a 747 taking off and and started to smell like burning rubber. The sad news was that it would cost almost as much to repair it as it would to replace it, so we opted to replace it. A simple task. Or so we thought. After shopping at just about every appliance store in the area I can say that buying a new washing machine is...

not.that.simple
!!!

You see, it is not just a matter of buying a white washing machine vs. a bright red one! Oh no - there is front load vs. top load, belt drive vs. direct drive, different capacities, sanitizing cycles, delayed starting, different spin speeds, ultra-quiet plus noise reduction features, internal water heaters, stay fresh options and stabilization-of-uneven-load-whatchamacallit! It can be terribly confusing!

Mr. B, who went out one day determined to buy one, called a couple of hours later to say, "Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of 2 rocks and a washboard!"

I actually had visions of seeing this when I got home from work!

Oh well, I can rest easy now that we have made a purchase and I can look forward to my new washing machine and to baskets of clean laundry once again.

Yes, I will admit that buying a new washing machine was almost as bad as buying a new mattress! But that is a whole other story for another time...


Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Little Red Wagon #23

Happy Wednesday! It is my turn to post the challenge at Little Red Wagon this week and I decided to make up a sketch for everyone to follow!

I have been in such a Springy mood lately, that I chose a sweet image from Stamping Bella for my card.

The stamp is called Jump for Joy and is actually a stamp with 3 cute girls on it. I decided to just stamp one of them and have her skipping rope. I used my Prismacolor pencils to color her and I added a bit of twine for the jump rope. It was actually one of my scrapbook friends from my store that gave me the idea for the jump rope! Thanks Sue - I love it!

Since I love working with sketches, I tried making up a couple of them recently and found that I really enjoyed it! Since then, I have decided to start my own sketch blog! It is called i.love.sketches and it is going to be a blog where I can post my sketches to keep them all in one place. It is not a challenge blog and anyone can use my sketches as they please. I hope you visit my new blog and I hope you find some inspiration for your card making and scrapbooking!

Try to stop by the Little Red Wagon to see what the other girlfriends have created! Have a fabulous day:)


Monday, April 5, 2010

Jelly Beans, Easter Eggs and Lemon Cheesecake Squares

This past weekend was a wonderful time as we prepared for and celebrated Easter. I love traditions, but this year I decided to try a few new things and they turned out so well that I thought I would share them with you!

As my boys are both getting older, I thought I would change things up and do something other than a traditional Easter basket for them. I decided to make some candy jars and I had a lot of fun putting them together.

I picked up a couple of canning jars and some bulk candy and I simply layered the candy in the jars. Then I added some ribbon and a tag and I think my guys were quite happy to be greeted by these colorful, candy-filled jars on Easter morning!

The next thing we did was try some new egg dyeing techniques, compliments of Martha Stewart. In a recent issue of her magazine, I read how you can use electrical tape to mask off areas and add designs to your eggs. The color is achieved using regular food coloring!

This is a sampling of our finished eggs. We had so much fun trying different designs and I think they turned out so pretty!

After doing some basic designs, we got really creative and added food coloring directly to the egg with a Q-tip. Then we added some detailing with a black fine-point marker. I just love the little chick and butterfly! I think egg decorating has been taken to a whole new level in our house!

Last, but not least, I tried a great new recipe for Lemon Cheesecake Squares. Oh my - they are were fabulous!!!

Here is the recipe if you would like to give them a try. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Lemon Cheesecake Squares

Base:
30 Lemon Social Tea Cookies
1/2 cup butter, melted

Cheesecake Layer:
1 pkg. (8 oz/250 g) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg

Top Layer:
4 eggs
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. finely grated lemon rind
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. icing sugar

In food processor, crush cookies to make 2 cups; pulse in butter until moistened. Press into parchment lined 9 x 13-inch metal pan. Bake in 325 degree oven until firm, about 12 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack.

In bowl, beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth; beat in egg. Spread over base. Set aside.

In bowl, beat eggs with granulated sugar until thickened. Beat in lemon rind and juice, flour and baking powder until smooth; pour over cheese layer.

Bake in 325 degree oven until edges are set and brown, about 35 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack. Cut into squares. Dust with icing sugar. Yummm!

I hope you weekend was equally delightful and was filled with lots of special moments.



Sunday, April 4, 2010

Resurrection Joy

Happy Easter! What a glorious morning to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and we have a lovely day planned! At church this morning, we sang one of my favorite songs by Twila Paris and I thought I would share it with you.



May your Easter be filled with the joy of the Resurrection.

Blessings~


Friday, April 2, 2010

Good Friday

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8


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