I'm back ... I hope!!

Been a while, I know! Again, life got in the way ...
Hopefully I'll be able to post more often, at least I'll try to.
Until I get my bearings again, here's a little bit of what I've been up to lately ...

Spring is in the Air!

At least it was yesterday, today ... not so much! It rained all day yesterday and I awoke this morning to my car covered in snow! Yuck!!

I spent most of the day yesterday either dozing or planning classes for this spring and posting them to my Demonstrator Business Web Site. Hope you can join me for this series!!

I've added a PayPal button to the right of my blog under "About Me" for payment of this series.

I've finally gotten some pictures taken of my new craft room. I'll share them over the next week or so. I've also taken pictures of few projects that I've finally completed the last few months.

I'm a big fan of Ali Edwards and her no-nonsence view of scrapbooking. Ali has chosen a word each year that she tries to follow in her crafting (she says she finds it filters into her whole life) and I've decided to try this also. The word I've chosen for this year is "COMPLETE". I'm finding it is, also, filtering into my whole life. So ... I've actually completed quite a few crafting projects that I had started and put aside. As well, Brent and I are completing a few things around the house that had been started and never quite finished.

Here are some of the craft room photos and I'll post more later this week.

New Class

Filled With Love

Join me in this class designed by the very talented Mary Fish where we will make 3 unique cards and a bonus project using products from the "Filled With Love" Bundle offered by Stampin' Up! This bundle is only available until January 24^th so hurry to register!

I am offering 3 ways to take this class:

1. Buy the wood-mount bundle which includes Filled with Love Wood-Mount Set and exclusive Love Patterns Designer Series Paper
   and free package of Bitty Buttons for $40.45 and the class is FREE!
   
2. Buy the clear-mount bundle which includes Filled with Love Clear-Mount Set and exclusive Love Patterns Designer Series Paper and free package of Bitty Buttons for 33.45 and the class is Free!
   


3. Sign up for the class to make the 3 cards and bonus project and pay $20.00
   

In order for me to order the bundles in time for the class, registration and payment must be made by January 24^th . Payment can be made by PayPal or in person by cash or cheque.

For more information check out my DBWS.

Class

Option 1 Filled with Love Wood-Mount Bundle $40.45 Option 2 Filled With Love Clear-Mount Bundle $33.45 Option 3 Class Only $20.00

WOW!!!

In 6 years as a demo, I've never seen this before!

What I did with an extra hour of sleep ...

a little bit more organizing. I bought these sponge dauber holders online somewhere (I suffer from "old-timers" disease ... sorry I don't remember where I got them), finally bought enough sponge daubers, found my P-Touch and got to work. I've labeled each dauber and labeled each plastic holder with collection name and voila!

Swaps

I was a swapping fiend for a while, but gradually slowed down to the point where I hadn't swapped in a year or two.
This fall I joined up again for a couple. Below is the card I made for an organized swap that I joined.
Next one was for general swapping.

Hellooooooo ....

bet you thought I'd up and moved or something! LOL ... no such luck!

That darn thing called "LIFE" got in the way again!

It's been busy, busy, busy and ever changing. New office, new job, new school year and ... new craft room!!

Brent & I have done some major renovations and have moved my craft room to the old family room in the basement. It sounds so dark and dreary when I say it that way, but in fact, it is bright and light and now my "happy place". LOL

I've now got my table in the same room as my supplies, so classes are MUCH easier now. Here are some pictures ...

These picture were taken as we were putting stuff up ... I'll take some new pictures soon (after I tidy a bit ... hehehe) of what it looks like with most of my stuff in.

I am still around ...

just not on the web. Having said that, I will be back in a day or two with some cards and such that I've managed to pump out.
The sun is shining already this morning (it's 6:45ish am) and the weather is promising to warm up! It's a GOOD DAY! LOL

Using up more stuff ...

that I've had laying around. The transparency is one that I've had for a few years, as is the paper and chipboard letters. I had actually bought this scrapbooking kit before I knew about Stampin' Up! The colours in the kit seemed to co-ordinate with the Soho Designer Hardware and my hospital gown.

The journaling reads as follows:

HEART ATTACK??? ME??? Labour Day weekend 2008, after training 6 drivers in Special Needs. I just thought I was over-heated and didn't bother to go to the dr.'s or hospital. Did my am run on the first day of school ... haven't driven a bus since.

This is what absolute JOY looks like. I had just found out that my heart had completed TWO natural by-passes. And that no surgery was needed in the foreseeable future!

MY Day

As we all do, I have my list of blogs that I visit each day ... some are SU demos and some are not. One that I really enjoy is by Michelle Wooderson. I just love her style and (what I see on this side of the computer screen) ease with which she creates. She created and shared, what she calls, her "12 Days of Me". Basically Mish has chosen 1 day each month to be her "personal" day ... she does whatever it is she needs or wants to do, that day. Blogging, scrapping, cardmaking, organizing, cooking ... whatever. She created a list/booklet to help her plan her day and so that she can get whatever she needs ahead of time. LOVE THE CONCEPT!!! I bought one of the kits that she made up and sold in her Etsy shop ... chose my day for a few months in advance (because I work outside of the house, I had to pick convenient days, not the same day each month as Mish did) and "had at er" (as dh says). My first "day" was Family Day - February 15th!

Below are pictures of the booklet that I made up with Mish's kit.

Isn't it fun? As you can see, I've chosen March 14th to be my next personal day ... CAN'T WAIT!

I'll be back another day with a layout or two that I did on My Day!

Lovely Ladies

For our last class, we made cards for children and women. I really love making very simple cards, but sometimes I like to "fuss" a bit.

All 3 of these cards are CASE'D, but I'm a very bad blogger and didn't not take note of who they were from. I'm really sorry, if they are yours, please let me know so I can give you credit. I promise to try harder and give credit where credit is due.

I love the ease of stamping this one and the quick way of adding a touch of elegance with a half-back pearl from the Pretties Kit.

I was so happy to find a use for the ornament punch other then for Christmas cards.

The Sweet Pea Felt has to be my favorite embellishment right now!

I will be back later with some pics of how I spent Family Day (February 15th here in Ontario)and perhaps a sneak peak of an upcoming class.

Happy Sunday!

The sun is shining, what little snow we have is melting and (I hope) spring is slowly showing her lovely face!
Here are a couple of the cards that we made in class a couple of weekends ago. I CASE'D them from the SU website. They were originally made by Tamara Bertram. We only made two of her designs and there are still two more we could make.

I'll be back in a couple of days with a few more that we made.

I'm back!

Bit by byte. LOL
I"ve got my father's computer and I am s l o w l y downloading my things onto it. I've got all of my drivers on now and the very first thing I downloaded after my drivers was ... Yep! My Digital Studio!! I've missed playing and really needed to get a new blog header made.
What do ya think? OH MY GOSH!! I love playing with this programme. Have I mentioned that before? hehehe.
I've got a few more things to work out with this computer, but I think it's coming along really well.
I've had a class, I've finished up a couple of projects that were sitting around and I'm working on a few more classes and projects for myself.
I'll be back soon with some pics.

I'll be back ...

just as soon as I get my computer fixed. It seems I've got a very nasty virus(s) on it and we are still working on getting it dealt with. Until then ... I'll not be able to post much and certainly will not be able to share pictures of projects. But I will return .... LOL

An update...

to let you know what I'm up to.
Unfortunately, it's not much. I'm having a bit of a time trying to absorb and process everything that has happened in the past 6 or 7 months. In the past two weeks, I've also learned that I may be out of a job. Our company had to submit a bid proposal for the bus routes we still have, but was not successful. There will be lots of shuffling of personnel between the 4 bases that are now open, with the possibility of closing one of them. I've been told that by the end of February I will know whether I will be continuing with the company or if I will have to look for another job.
I do have one card from Christmas time that I have not shared. Sorry for the poor picture.

We went on a search

for the perfect Christmas tree and I think we might have just found it! Things are going to be a bit low key around here this year. I didn't really want to go to the trouble of putting up a tree but my dh really wanted one. We had a number of errands to run last weekend and on our way home drove past a garden nursery in the little town beside us. I caught a glimpse of a tree and had dh drive back to look at it. It was about as perfect as it could get. Smallish, straight trunk and very fresh! We had them cut off a bit from the bottom of the trunk, got it netted and loaded it on top of the SUV.
This first layout was made using the Christmas Cocoa II 12x12 pre-designed page ... I literally just plopped the pictures into place and typed a bit of journaling! It took all of, maybe, 10 minutes! SWEET!

This second layout was using some Christmas Cocoa II paper, but it was a "create your own" project with the photo blocks in place. Again ... really easy, fun and it only took about 30 minutes 'cause I fuss so much!

What I am really loving is the fact that I got 3 layouts done in two evenings!! WOW!
Well ... I'd better get off here ... I've got some presents to wrap and some to make. I'll come back with pictures to let you see what I ended up with.

Using up ...

my "stuff" ... finally! Ok ... I admit it ... I hoard my stuff!! There ... I said it. LOL
Last year I bought a tutorial from Andrea Walford and finally got around to making the flip book.
Why didn't I make this sooner??? Her directions were so concise and easy to understand, the pictures (for a visual learner like myself) were so helpful. It took me only 2 evenings of sitting in front of the tv to make 4 of them! I highly recommend her planners!! Here are a few pictures of this planner.

MDS Scrapping

I'm really loving this programme ... it is so easy and quick. I'd really like to find a printer that I can use to print off these pages as I make them ... so far, you cannot print individual scrapbook pages through Stampin' Up! If you know of a printer where the colours are true and the price is reasonable ... please let me know.

Sorry about the delay ...

it's been a tough week. It seems like I keep coming on here and whining about my life and that is so not what I want to use this blog for. Bear with me while I get this off my chest and then I'll be done once and for all (I hope ... LOL).
As mentioned a few months ago, we lost our mother this summer. Dad had been her caretaker through her battle with cancer and focused solely on her health. As is quite usual in these cases, his health consequently suffered a great deal, but was not noticed until her passing. In October we brought my father down south to stay with us while he was being evaluated for experimental heart surgery in Toronto. He was ultimately accepted and decided to move into a retirement home nearby "TEMPORARILY" ( his words, lol) until the surgery and then for his recuperation.
Unfortunately, he didn't make it to his unscheduled surgery date. While fighting to the end, he passed away on Monday morning. This week has obviously been an ordeal. My sister and her family will be heading back up north now that the weather is finally co-operating (we've had a horrible storm most of this week, as has most of the rest of the province). I'll be cleaning up this weekend and back to work on Monday morning. I try not to inject my personal life much here but I would like to pay tribute to my parents by showing you a picture that I cherish so much now. This was taken Mother's Day when my dh and I surprised my mother by making a day trip up north for brunch.

Thank you all for bearing with me!

NOW ON TO OUR REGULARILY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING ...

Here is the picture of my hybrid MDS card when finished.



I'll be back in a day or two with more MDS creations ... I love this programme!
(don't forget that you can click on the picture for a larger picture)

A Learning Curve ...

One of the steps to being MDS Certified was designing a card and having it printed. I decided that I would have two printed ... one that was 100% digital and the second I would make hybrid. I omitted the ribbon on the second and sent it off to be printed. Below are the cards that were sent off to be printed and following them is the card after I added the physical ribbon.

Sooooo ....

I've been playing around with My Digital Studio ... what an easy program to manouever around in!! I created my blog header in it. What do you think?
I'm really looking forward to some time off at Christmas to play even more.
I've not had a lot of time to stamp ... a lot of running around with Dad and, unfortunately, a bit of down time with a flu or bug or something.
My club is finished until February, but there has been some interest in some classes. I'm hoping to sit down and get some arranged beginning in the new year.
Hopefully I'll be back in a day or two with some pictures of something I've stamped!

The Season is starting ...

Check out the deals! Show your hubby, boyfriend or significant other ... have him call or email me to order your Christmas present (I will even wrap it up "Stampin' Up!" style for them). If you can't decide what you would like ... I have gift certificates and will wrap it up too!

On a side note ... I apologize for not being around much. I've been a bit pre-occupied with my father. His health is not very good at the moment and he has come to live down south here for a bit. He'll be having some heart surgery at some point, and until then ... I am his driver.

To say that I have not had much stamping time (or space ... My Goodness! my room is a disaster!) would be an understatement! But ... I'm turning that around. I've put together a little project that I gave my club ladies at our last meeting. I'm hoping to get pictures of it tomorrow and will try to post them in the next day or two.

The rest of the Custom Scrapbook Pages ...

And the very last page in the album ...

Thanks for looking!!