Happy Holidays ................ or feeding the mosquitoes 2011 !

 Our 10 days of holidays are coming to a close and they have been anything BUT what we had planned ! My husband has been plaqued with health issues relating to his Crohn's Disease and  so we decided earlier in the year that we would just stay close to home and camp in our favorite spot for the majority of the summer . The first long camp ( not just a couple nights at the RV ) was supposed to start on May 20th... the first evening of the May long weekend in Canada  . Thursday DH arrived home from work and said he felt like he needed to go to the ER ( a good indication that something is REALLY wrong ! ) as he was having chest pains ............. Thankfully our oldest came over and took him down immediately . 8 hrs later he was released with a clean bill of heart health ........ could be Crohn's related ! Ugggg !!!! Not MORE worries !!!!!!


 When he came in at 2 am I had another little bomb to drop on him . His 88 year old Mother had been admittied to the hospital where she lived and it looked like she wouldn't make it though the night ..... Well again , she lived through the night so DH booked a flight down to see her and our relaxing was put on hold indefinitely ! DH was away for 5 days and Mother pulled through to the amazement of the doctors ..... She is now home and every day seems to be getting stronger ! The Old Gal is going to outlive ALL of us as she has a very strong will and is just not ready to go ! I keep telling DH that she will live until she sees 100 as her oldest sister was a week shy of 101 and her next sister will be 97 this year ! There is NO WAY the baby of the family will hit the Pearly Gates before them ! LOL !

 DH arrived home at 4 pm on the Tuesday and by 6 pm we were in our RV ! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr , between the cool weather and the rain it was a miserable for a few days . Fortunately , the rain let up during the day and we got to enjoy sitting outside ..... and feeding the mosquitos ! They LOVE me ! We had our OFF lanterns going almost the whole time we were outside and they work awesome !!!!  We did get to see some beautiful lightening storms go through and had some thunder to liven up things ! Good thing our mountains are still buried in snowpack !

 Last evening we took the campground owner up to the HIXON FALLS to see the Spring runoff . Last summer when we were up there the falls were just a trickle and now this is what they look like

In the early 1900's this area was rich in it's gold deposits so I can well imagine the couple that works this claim this year ( they actually own the mineral rights for this area and legally you can not pan or dig for gold here without their permission or knowledge ! ) could find some real GOLD treasures ! The view was amazing , the ground slippery with moisture and the power under that waterfall was mindboggling !

 We are home until Friday evening then will head back to the RV to feed the mosquitoes again ! hope we see some warmer , dry weather !!!

Have a great week everybody !

I PROMISE .................

 I haven't been crafting at all lately so I have nothing to show ! We have packed the RV though and moved it down to our camp spot for a couple months before we take a trek at the end of July for a couple of weeks .

 Have I missed crafting ? ABSOLUTELY ! Have I spent any money on supplies ? ABSOLUTELY ! LOL ! Will I be playing in the near future ..... ABSOLUTELY !!!!!     BUT , we are going to be camping for the next while off and on .... some short stays , some long stays ! I tried crafting in the RV and found I didn't enjoy it because of the crappy light ( and that was even with my portable OTT light ! ) and because the crafting supplies take up too much room in my limited storage ! You wouldn't see any RV created cards or images unless I am home ......................... Don't give up on me as I will be back in full swing come September and there will be the odd card posted between then and now .....................

 So , wish for some warmer weather , the floods in our area don't take out any major roads or property or lives  and that we can all enjoy our summer . This is the Canadian May long weekend so travel safe and enjoy life !

From my Summer HOME................. to Yours .......................

Happy Creating and Enjoy Life to the Fullest !

A little creating and a surprise visitor !

 Honest , I have managed to get in my room a bit this last week as I had to get a birthday card and a Mother's Day card done . My oldest had his 37th birthday on April 27th ! Wow , I am just in shock when I stop and figure out how OLD I am then !!! All I can say is I am so happy I had my kids long before I was 30 ......... like a long ways before ! LOL ! My son is an avid outdoor's man and would love nothing better to be fishing or stomping through the bush with either his camera , his gun or his crossbow . I thought this was a cute image so whipped him up a card from this SU stamp .

It was a very simple , quick card as I had to get it done before they popped in that night ! LOL ! Yes , I left it until the last minute !

I did get my Mother a card done and in the mail today for Mother's Day . i love this Magnolia's Tilda with Butterfly !

 OUTSIDE of card .......

INSIDE of card ..... I just loved this paper by KaiserCraft's Magic Happens Collection ! I just added a stamped sentiment and it finished off the interior of the card just perfect !

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The other night my husband was sitting on his favorite chair watching a hockey game when he looked up and said something was coming through the trees just off our deck on the bank . We figured it would be Mr BEAR as he has been around but instead through the bush wandered MR MANGY MOOSE ! He decided to trim some of the new growth off our bushes and was quit content to stand on the bank and eat like he didn't have a care in the world . Unfortunately it was dusk out so my photos aren't great but I was actually standing on my deck not far from him snapping photos ! Not sure who is crazier , him for being in a residencial area or me for tempting fate and standing out there taking the photos ! LOL !

I lightened some of these photos as you couldn't see Mr Moose ! DH said the moose is about a year old and went through a very long , hard winter as he was skinny and very mangy ( as you can see by the last photo ..... his fur is just hanging in clumps ) . After about 45 minutes of eating he wandered off and hasn't been back ! I <3 living up North as you never now WHAT is going to arrive in your yard !!!!

Have a great week , happy crafting and hope you all see sun and no crazy weather in your area !

Do you want to see ?

 I got behind last week on my Easter cards and probably most of them will not get done now ! I started cleaning my room and it ended up into a major overhaul which , in true scrapping sense , will still be on going .... simply because I have 2 huge piles that have to gone through and either stored , given away or tossed ! I had an old small wall unit in my room before that though it was great for storage it also took up far too much room . Never mind the microwave cart that I had my paper cutter and Big Shot on plus another cart that I had my printer on .... and various OTHER pieces of furniture in my small 8'X12' room .... and that is counting the closet that is full to the brim with DH's clothes ..... and jackets ! The man is a clothes horse .... but THAT is another story !!!! LOL ! I had a couple friends that asked me to post some photos of what I have done .... so before it gets " out of hand " AGAIN here it is !

I didn't take any before photos but somewhere in my archieve will be photos ! Here is what my ORIGINAL room looked like in 2006 http://donnacr.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html ! Needless to say , I took some birthday money and bought some Martha Stewart cube units from Home Depot as we don't have an IKEA here and the shipping was 6Xs more then the price of the unit I wanted !!!  A one day project took me 5 days .....as I put all the units together .... they are easy ! I had my desk and hutch before and purchased it and a tower from Best Scrapbook Shelves over the past 5 years . I LOVE these and they are so worth the money ....... By the way , the price has gone down CONSIDERABLY since I bought mine !!! Yes , that is just the way the ball bounces for me ! LOL !

I have a paper tower also made by Best Scrapbook Shelves and it was a limited edition one when I bought it ...... No crazy about it in my small room and may end up removing it from my room . The Copic storage is Quickutz Magpie Storage .... LOVE them and something else that is no longer available ! My long arm OTT light usually is bent over my desk but I put it straight up to take the picture ! LOVE this light !!! I love containers .... as you can tell by my desk ! LOL ! They hold all sorts of goodies from paper pads , images , stamps , pens or whatever I toss in them ! I do actually clean them out on a regular bases so I can see what has been tossed ! My quilting mat never got used for such but has been well used on my desk ! I neeed to find a pretty pink one though ! LOL !

One of my Martha Stewart cube units ... actually this is 2 put together ! I do love this for storage ! It holds all sorts of trasures from my albums of Magnolia stamps , more stamps in other albums , Close To My Hearts tool kit that holds my STICKLES all neat and in one place , baskets of punches on the bottom and a scrap basket .... and baskets of CTMH stamps . The plastic tower holds ribbon , more punches , acrylic paints and odds and sods that need to be hidden ( like chocolate ! LOL ) . On top of the storage tower I dismanteled a drawer for the cube unit ( I picked it up for $5 at Walmart and it didn't fit quit the way I wanted it too ) then took white DUCK TAPE and taped it to the plastic unit to make a sturdy stand for my TV ( a gift from DH at Christmas ) and the cable box . I actually used a MS shelf over the top of the " box " to give the shelve a sturdier shelf as the base of the drawer was pretty flimsy ) .

This is the second Martha Stewart cube unit ( 6-cube ) which I have my electric BIGSHOT on .... and it I am so pleased with the space I have to work with there ! I built the unit up so the heaat vent wasn't covered and that is why you can see 2X4's ! Hey a girl has to make do when DH is anything but handy !! LOL ! I have a basket of Cuttlebug folders , some CTMH stamp containers that I keep my 6X6" paper in and some Magnolia Stamps  and I have a long plastic container that hold my BigShot long dies and platforms / shims  in . The white basket holds dies for the BigShot .... most of them being Tim Holtz ! The small white box on the top of the unit holds my Copic refills .

Just a quick overview from my doorway ...... and at some point I will show you the other wall ....... AFTER I get it cleaned up ! LOL ! It holds a cartthat has my printer and cutter on it .... and my biggest joy , my stamp tower .... and Clip-It up !!!

 Thanks for looking and come visit any time !

Easter Creating 2 !!!

 The snow is trying to fall outside so I thought I would hide in my craft room this morning and ignore it ( maybe it will go away ! ) . I finished off a quick card so now my out of town parcel can get sent .... whether it gets there in time is up to Canada Post !

An Easter card for my sister . A Prima flower sits on a crocheted medallion made by my friend Lise` in Quebec . Thanks friend ! It looks beautiful on the card and believe me , the piture does NOT do this card justice ! I love this Tilda and eggs ..... Thanks to another friend !

This is another altered note pad for my sister . Not as fussy as the other one I made but I was RUSHED ! LOL !

 I am sure she wouldn't notice simply because she isn't the " crafty " one of the family ( she does love to garden though ! )

And a very quick card for my brother .... He loves daffodils so what better then Tilda holding a daffodil on Magnolia daffodil paper ! I am sending him some great silk daffodils that I picked up at Michael's too !!!

Have a great week and I hope SOMEBODY is seeing sun and warm weather !!!

Easter creating !

 With hockey playoff season in full swing , I have had time to play in my room now that I have it ALMOST reorganised ( that will be another story for another day though ! ) . I should have had these projects done days go but it didn't happen so my out-of-town Easter stuff will be late ! I think my family is getting used to that ! LOL !

This is an altered small lunch kit that I am going to send to our long distance Granddaughter . I will fill it with chocolate ........ and I also made a not so altered lunch kit for her little brother ( though he isn't our grandson ) as I know he would be disappointed ( he is 3 ) if she got something and he got nothing !

This is the back of her tin .... it is now sparkly as I decided to coat the back in Sparkle Modge Podge just to make sure the letters stayed put .

This is her card . It is 4 X4 " and I used the Mini-Magnolia Tilda blowing hearts  on it . A Nestie die and the pearls are Deco Pearls ( very cool stuff to use ! Squeeze on as a liquid glob and it becomes a hard " pearl " ) . I have the card sitting in my plant on my table !

This is the card I made for my parents . I adore this Tilda and the Wild Orchid lace is so beautiful to use .... but just for special occasions ! The rosette is made from the new Tim Holtz rosettte die . Easy to use and fun , fun , fun !

This is the interior of the card ..... a Magnolia sentiment , Magnolia paper and a mini 60's Tilda .

Have a great week and enjoy the Spring .... even if you are still getting that horrible white stuff still ! TFL !!!

SURPRISE !!!!!

 SURPRISE !!! That is what I got when I opened my door late this morning as I had a nice package on it delivered by the Purolator driver ! Inside my box was the NICEST surprise from my bestest friend Lisa ... a belated birthday present ! ( My birthday was at the end of March but I love the surprise that this was a birthday that just keeps on giving and giving ! I LOVE HAPPY MAIL ! LOL ) . This is what she sent me

This is a SCENTSY warmer which melts scented wax and makes your house smell OH SO GOOD !!!! I also received a wax tray called Rio Beach but I didn't try it today as I was in the mood for my all time favorite called White Sands ! scentsy has LOTS of different fragrances to choose from !

Doesn't it look nice on my mantle ? I love all of it and being the scrapper that I am , my first thoughts were .... maybe I would add some bling to the center of the flowers ( I didn't ! LOL ) but Scentsy does have warmers that can be decked out with some rub ons !!! Very cool !!!!

If any off you are interested in checking out Scentsy then check out our friend Lori's online site at https://lorigriffiths.scentsy.ca/Home  . Tell her I sent you to her ! LOL !

And Lisa , I didn't forget about you ! Thank you from the absolute bottom of my heart for being such a fabulous friend ! You stick with me through thick and thin .... and my odd " mistakes " ! Amazing how such a friendship has grown over the past 5 or so years considering we met ONLINE over a silly FASTENATOR ( all you scrappers , remember that silly tool that we ALL had to have at one point .... then tried to regift it to whomever would take it off our hands ? ROFLMBO ! ) .

Thanks girlfriend for being there .... and the fantastic gift ! HUGE cyber HUG coming your way !

A little mojo finally !!!

 I was beginning to think my mojo had disappeared but FINALLY this weekend I spend a bit of time at my desk playing . I have a couple Easter gifts I need to get done and sent so managed to get one done ! I bought these cool notepads just after Christmas and have been " going " to alter them for my Mother and Sister ...... and there they sat !

This is the side view and that is a LOT of note paper ! It also shows the diamensions on the cover

These flowers are cut with a Tim Holtz Tattered Flower Die then sprayed with Tattered Angel Glimmer Mist and crinkled out and bent to shape before putting them together with a brad from my stash . The stems are florest wire and the leaves were by prima . Tida is colored with Copic markers , though I have no idea what colors  I used . The butterfly is from Prima and the rhinestones from my stash. the grass punch is from Martha Stewart .

If you have seen this idea before it probably came from the blog of Eulanda Silvey's as she has altered a couple of these notepads . Check out her blog for some fantastic cards and altered projects ! Funny thing is , we BOTH bought our notepads on the same day .... We live MILES apart from one another too but we both bought our's at a Save-On  grocery store ... though I have also bought some at Zeller's ! They are really pretty notepads even before they are altered !

Have a great week and happy creating !!!

And a card for this week's sketch challenge on The Outlawz

 This was a fun sketch to use on THE OUTLAWZ ! I took a bit of creative license with it and ran with it a bit !!! Here is the sketch

 And this is my card !

Come join the fun !!!

a quick card for The Outlawz

 Just a quick card for this week's challenge on The Outlawz for their Promarker-Copic challenge which was to color flowers ! Fun to do something other then people for a change so I went with all flowers and no people this time !

Come join the fun ! Amazing how fast the card stash grows when you keep up !

Valentine's Day gift ... just a little late ! LOL !

   I have been sneaking a few minutes every once in awhile since early February trying to get my husband's Valentine's gift done so I can give it to him . Between him being sick and home a fair bit then me having a cold or fighting those darn Spring migraine ( barometric pressure and crappy air quality induced ! ) it has been hard to accomplish much . Finally DH went away overnight on business so yesterday afternoon I just said to heck with it and started working on this to complete it . It was a case of putting things together , gluing and tweaking to get it just right ! I finally did the last of it late this afternoon only to find out the clock didn't work ...........FRUSTRATING to say the least ! So OFF came the clock parts , another tweak with the file ....... and putting the battery in the RIGHT way made a world of difference ! LOL ! FINISHED !!! I am so pleased with the end result and I hope he is thrilled with it as well ! Now I can finally tell him why drawers got slammed and he got snarled at every time he came to stand over my shoulder while I was trying to get this done in secret !!!!!

My finished project .....

 ( and yes , that is still snow in my backyard but it is slowly leaving !!! YEAH !!!! )

This is a Kaisercraft clock that I used some old Bohemian paper on it ( almost matches my living room scheme perfectly ! ) , a Prima butterfly spray and flowers , the wooden flourishes and wood butterflies are from Kaisercraft as well and  coated with STICKLES . The clock numbers come from MICHAEL'S as I couldn't find any small wood numbers anywhere . Everything else is from my stash and is either rub-ons or stamped !

 Well off to clean my crafty area as it looks like a bomb has gone off ! I still have a couple hours before DH gets home so he may get a real shock as the room will be cleaned up ... to a POINT !!! LOL !

Have a great weekend and I hope you get to see sunshine where you live and some craft time !!! TFL !

The Outlawz ... Masculine card

 Monday's Greeting card card challenge on The Outlawz was for a masculine card . I had just purchased this Penny Johnson stamp and thought it was perfect for this challenge and was more then happy to ink it up ! The paper and ribbon was from a blog win from Eulanda ( thanks ! ) and the sentiment is a Lili of the Valley  stamp ( I LOVE their stamps ! ) . Copic markers colored the images and the background of the sentiment and were used on the image ! I do love my Copics ! Mementos Ink was used forall stamping .
Here is my take on this challenge ...

And here are my breakfast visitors this morning !

Pilated woodpecker on my feeder on my deck . Guess he thought he should come join me while I drank my morning coffee !

And this is Mr ( or maybe it is Mrs ) Squirrel sitting in a tree eating a peanut that my neighbour puts out for him / her every day ! He is a pest though as he / she torments my dogs and makes them bark !!!!

And he/she hides peanuts in the robin's nest in my lilac bush just beside my deck ! Silly Squirrel !!!
 
Have a good week everybody  ! Hope the weather is more Springlike for you ( some areas around here are getting MORE snow ! ) ... We are having SUN and our snow is finally starting to melt .... only about 4' left to go in the backyard and about 10' in the snowbanks at the front  ! LOL !
 
Happy creating and come join in the fun on The Outlawz !

A quick card for The Outlawz and my SIL

SIL's birthday is soon so I had to get this card done and it fit the challenge over on The The Outlawz Monday  greeeting challenge of last week . The image is a digital image from one of my wins . Nice to be using them as I wasn't sure I would ever go DIGI !!! Not all the time though as I LOVE my inky fingers !

Here is my card . Copics were used to color the image and the DP is made by Magnolia .Ribbon from my stash as are the flowers . Sentiment and tickets are from Whimsy Stamps !

Have a great week everybody and happy creating !

This Week for The OUTLAWZ .....

 I have spent days just trying to get my cards ready for a couple challenges ...... seems my brain has been on a malfunction for days and Murpy's Law has ruled - AGAIN !!!! I have managed to crank out two cards for this week so far with a few mishaps ( like my electric Big Shot getting jammed because I was trying to something and had tried to force to much through the rollers !!!! Not much fun trying to unstick the dang thing either ! )

Tuesday's Color Challenge was to use 3 shades of green ... and glitter ! Well I did manage to find 3 greens that didn't look too bad together and came up with this card . The image is my Mo Manning . My Glitter is on there just not a lot of it ! LOL !

My little fairy is colored with Copics and my sentiment is a Lili of the Valley stamp with a Nesties backround ( as is the baby fairy ) . I used Momento Ink for the sentiment . The fairy's wings are Stickles Diamond Glitter as is the lace trim on her clothes .

On Wednesday on The Outlawz it is SKETCH day ! Great sketch to play with ladies ! This is image is by Lili of the Valley as is the sentiment and again she is colored with Copics . The paper is by KaiserKraft and is a new release but at the moment can't remember it's name but it gorgeous IRL !!

The fairy's wings are painted with SMOOCH pearl as is her skirt . It actually shimmers IRL . Stickles diamond glitter is on the purple of her skirt and the flowers in her hair .

 As I said , Murphy's Law has ruled today .......

Happy creating and come join the fun on The Outlawz !

40 Years .... and a Magnolia sweet couple

 My sister and her husband will be celebrating 40 years of marital bliss this weekend and I am LATE getting this card finished . It was a struggle for some reason and I have to get it to the mailbox today ! I am not thrilled with how it turned out but it will have to do ! I am not entering it in any challenges either !

I love this Magnolia couple as they are so versatile !

 Happy Anniversary Ken and Kathy ! Lots of love and best wishes coming your way !!

TFL ..... Have a great week and Happy creating !