Long time.....no blog.....

Hey there.

It's been a while since I last posted. I've had a bunch of things going on and unfortunately updating my blog was not on my priority list. Sorry to any of you who just can't wait to read what I have to say ( like that happens!)

I wanted to share with you a great card I received from Janet Rains. I was her partner in a sketch challenge and I received this card the other day.

I just love it.

I liked the sketch when we did the challenge and I love the paper she chose for it.

Her choice of where to put the glitter is awesome and her colouring is great as well.

And the bonus is she said I could share it with everyone on my blog! So here it is.

Enjoy!

Today I am thankful to my sister Diana......for listening.

Chow for now

Jacqui

Happy Father's Day!!

My all-time favourite saying about fathers is this one.

"Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a Dad."

I gave my dad a tile that said that for Christmas one year.

This is the card I created for Father's Day this year. I fell in love with this Changito image the first time I saw it. My BFF Vicki had it so I had to stamp off some images when I was up in Kingston this spring.

The base of the card is Not Quite Navy card stock from Stampin' Up! I can't remember where I got the designer paper from though.

It's a pretty simple card, but I like the way it turned out.

Today, it's a no-brainer.......I'm thankful for my dad.

Chow for now

Jacqui

Hanna Stamps Guest Designer Call II

I couldn't possibly let the Hanna Stamps Guest Designer Call go by without a Riley card. That is just unthinkable!

I whipped this card together today. I had the idea for a while, but then put it to paper today.

The base of the card is Basic Black from Stampin' Up! The Rileys were stamped with Memento ink using the masking technique on Georgia Pacific paper. They were then coloured with the Copics. The floor was drawn in and coloured with the Copics. I used my Exacto knife to cut out and around all the Riley's. I put a Brushed Gold piece of card stock behind that had been run through the Big Shot using a Cuttlebug embossing folder, to create a curtain. That's why I cut out all the Riley's so you could see the curtain behind the graduating Riley's. I scored along the bottom of each Riley and folded the paper slightly I put them on the card with dimensionals behind each of them to give it texture and have them in front of the curtain, as if being on stage.

I stamped the shoe image from Pin Up Hanna and cut the fuzzy off the shoe to make it look like lights shining on the stage. I put a tiny little bling star in the centre to give it a little something.

I used my Karen Foster snap stamps to write the words "class of 2009", I then punched it out using a square punch and punched out tiny stars and popped them up on top. I was pleased with the way this one turned out.

Chow for now

Jacqui

The Cleaner

Do you watch this show?? The Cleaner?

I was surfing on the weekend and I came across this show. I had heard of it before, but had never watched it. I think they were having a marathon on the weekend cause they were playing the episodes back to back. I came in halfway through the marathon cause I think it was episode 7 or something......well if you know me at all......you know I am extremely anal when it comes to watching shows and reading books and I have to read/see every chapter/episode in order......I wouldn't want to miss anything! So I have been watching the episodes of The Cleaner online

To be honest I am getting pretty sick of reality TV. The show description as taken from the website......... "The Cleaner," inspired by the true story of a real-life "extreme interventionist," stars Benjamin Bratt as William "The Cleaner" Banks, who, after hitting rock-bottom from his own addictions after the birth of his daughter, strikes a tentative deal with God. Now along with his unconventional team, he helps people get away from their addictions by any means necessary.

Benjamin Bratt does a great job as William and he's some pretty sweet eye candy.

There are gonna be some big names on this upcoming season that starts on the 23rd of June - Whoopi Goldberg being one of them!

Tune in if you get a chance - you won't be disappointed.

Today I am thankful for all the people who participated in the Relay for Life this weekend. What a great bunch of people walking to raise money to KICK CANCER IN THE ASS.

Chow for now

Jacqui

Hanna Stamps Guest Designer Call

Hanna Stamps is having a Guest Designer call! (click the link for all the information) They are looking for 6 fresh, fun and funky designers to cover their guest designer spots from September through February!

You must create your finest card using Hanna Stamps, Hanna Images and Riley's (oh and Sophie too!!)

So here is my entry. There are 3 separate images, but they go together to make one project!

I thought I would get started early on my 2010 calendars! I am a procrastinator and usually leave everything till the last minute.....so I got a jump start on these ones.

Hope you like my samples!!!

Thanks "Hanna Stamps" for an opportunity to be a Guest Designer.

Today I'm thankful for ........... Hanna Stamps!!!! Not only do I love the stamp sets - the owner of the company, Kristi Ferro, is pretty darn special too! (((((hugs))))) Kristi!

Chow for now,

Jacqui

Sneak Peeks!!

I haven't had much of a stampin' mojo going lately. I have a few things started....I was strong out of the gate...but not so good at the finish!!

I've been feeling a little guilty about it because I have all these supplies and they are just sitting here when I am not using them. So I made myself sit down and work a little bit tonight. I didn't get anything 100% complete, so I'm gonna give you a few sneak peeks of what's "coming soon".

Today I am thankful for James. He is a friend of mine at work, who recently had a heart attack. He is a hoot and lots of fun and he always makes me smile. I am very thankful he was able to get to the hospital in time.

Chow for now,

Jacqui

Giddy with excitement.....

Well I didn't get as much stamping done as I planned on it this weekend. I'm stressing about paying bills and keeping everything afloat and it is hard to get into the stamping mood when I have a million other things on my mind. I was doing some surfing and yep...you guessed it....PBS was airing Celtic Thunder. So I thought ah heck I'll sit here and watch it. Much to my surprise it was the AWESOME show they put on when I went with my Mom and my daughter to see them in London in April! It was a great show when we saw it in London and I am happy to see that they have put it out on DVD as well. They sang a bunch of different stuff in this show, and I am glad to see that they have put out another CD as well! This one is called Celtic Thunder - Take Me Home. They do a great version of "I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)". George does a great job - it's on of the few songs where they get him smiling. And boy oh boy he's an attractive man when he smiles. He's pretty good looking when he is serious, so when he smiles....hhmm..!!!!!

I'm curious where this one was shot.

Okay this was a short post but I'll try better for tomorrow.

Today - I'm thankful for..... PBS (Public Broadcasting) cause otherwise I wouldn't have known about this new show and new CD!!!!!

Chow for now

Jacqui

Another spin on the sketch

Unfortunately I have had to make some sympathy cards in the last couple of weeks. I liked the sketch that we had for our sketch challenge so I decided to use it for creating my sympathy cards.

The base is Basic Gray and the Designer Paper is Urban Oasis.

I have a whole whack load of stamping I need to complete this weekend, Thank you cards, birthday cards, Father's Day cards, Sympathy cards, Christmas cards, a name frame and class planning....so hopefully I will have some more consistent posts.

I was speaking with Vicki the other day and she reminded me that I had let my "I'm thankful for" list fall by the wayside.

So today - I am thankful for......My Best Friend Vicki cause she keeps me on the ball!!

Chow for now

Jacqui

Congratulations Diana!

As most of you know, my sister is Diana Gibbs. She is the one who got me into Stampin' Up! She is very creative and has never-ending talent. Recently, she submitted some projects to Stampin' Up! for their Artisan Award contest.....and she won!!! She gets $500 cash, $500 in products, dinner with Shelli and others at convention and I'm not sure what else. (she explains it better on her website!)

I am very proud of her and strive to be like her some day!

One of our recent challenges was a sketch challenge. Here is the card I came up with for it.

It's a 5 X 5 card. The base is Pink Pirouette. The next layer is Raspberry Tart designer paper. The half circle is Pink Pirouette, embossed with the big shot and the texture plates. The oval is also Pink Pirouette embossed in the same way. The smaller oval is another piece of Raspberry Tart DSP and then the next smaller oval is Pink Pirouette card stock. The bird was stamped with Stazon on Whisper white card stock and coloured using the blender pens and re-inkers. It was then cut out and popped up on the card. 3 dew drops were attached with mini glue dots to the top right hand corner of the card. A white rub on sentiment was applied to the bottom right hand corner of the card.

Chow for now,

Jacqui

Another Chapter Finished......One Step Closer to Commissioner!!!!!

Last night was Jade's last meeting as a Pathfinder. She started out when she was, if I remember correctly, 6 or 7 years old. Guiding in Canada starts with Sparks. Then they move onto Brownies, then to Guides and then to Pathfinders. After Pathfinders they move on to Senior Branches and only meet once a month instead of once a week. Jade has been lucky throughout her Guiding experience and she has had awesome leaders. They have made sure the girls were involved in lots of activities and worked very hard with them to earn their badges. Jade's leaders have had a very positive affect on her each year. The leader who has meant the most to Jade was her Pathfinder Leader, Liz. Liz is amazing. She is so supportive of the girls, but strict at the same time......two great qualities in a leader. She has been there for Jade when Jade needed someone to talk to...and Mom just wouldn't do. Jade even invited Liz to attend her grade 8 graduation ceremony last year, and we were honored that she accepted the invitation. Not only is Jade lucky to have had Liz as a Leader, we were very lucky to have her in Jade's life as well. The Canada Cord is the highest award that can be earned by girls in Pathfinders (girls aged 12-14). One of the things they must to do earn the cord is to organize and run their own camp. Jade and her group did this just this past weekend. They each had to organize the camp right down to the shopping for the food for their group. They had lots of fun and Mother Nature cooperated pretty good for the weekend as well. Jade earned her Canada Cord last night. Liz hosted a last meeting at her house and the girls provided a pot luck. Jade made a memory book for Liz and she also presented Liz and the other two leaders, Cory and Angela with a bouquet of flowers. It was an emotional evening for the girls, but a proud evening as well. Jade has made some very good friends through Guiding, and she has learned many valuable lessons and skills.

I am so very proud of Jade for her achievement and hopes she continues on.......she has mentioned a few times that she would like to go on to be the Commissioner!

Chow for now,

Jacqui

Simon Says.........Goodbye......

Over the past year or two my parents cat, Simon, was dealing with some "internal" issues and was on meds to help him perform his normal functions each day. Unfortunately medicine can only do so much and Simon's issues were too much for him to handle. So my parents had to make the hard decision to put him down. I was at work the other day and my mom called to tell me that my cat Patch, who recently passed away, had some company. I wasn't sure what she meant at first because the day before she had called me to inform me that a cousin of ours had passed...and then I thought..Patch was a cat....I put 2 and 2 together and said WHAT?? Simon? She said yes and then explained to me about his internal issues, that I won't go into here. He will definitely be missed. He was quite the unique cat for sure. I remember one time we were over there and one of his favourite toys was a stuffed banana. He would play with that thing for hours. My son Joel had asked Grandma if he could have a banana. She said sure. So Joel went out into the kitchen and grabbed a banana. I guess Simon could not tell the difference between the "fuzzy" banana and a "real" banana and he started growling and hissing and chasing Joel! Joel was quite a bit smaller then and was scared to bits! Simon had a very "interesting" growl/hiss/meow - whatever you wanted to call it - when he was really angry he sounded like a jungle cat!

I'm not sure if my Dad will admit it or not, but I bet he will miss him a lot. They spent quite a bit of time together. When my Patch passed away, someone emailed me and said they become our "furbabies" and nestle right in our hearts. How true is that?

This picture of Simon is from Christmas. We were unwrapping presents and he kept crawling under the tissue paper and laying there! It was comical.

Rest in Peace Simon. Say hi to Patch when you get to kitty heaven

Chow for now,

Jacqui

Happy Anniversary Adam and Cat!

It's hard to believe that a year has gone by (the end of May) that I attended the wedding of Adam and Catherine ! I was truly honoured to be asked to attend the wedding and it was the most fun wedding I have been too. The combination of Canadian and Chinese culture was also very interesting. We had a great time and were blessed to share in their day.

For their Anniversary card I thought I would try out my Flower Soft. I like the way it adds texture to the images. The set I used is a floral one from Our Craft Lounge I stamped the images with Memento ink and coloured them with the Copic markers. I then applied the Flower Soft. I coloured the lanterns and cut them out and popped them up on top of the Flower Soft images. A piece of white satin ribbon was tied across the top to finish off the card.

I hope they enjoy the card as much as I enjoyed making it for them.

Chow for now

Jacqui

Happy Birthday Curtis

Today is Curtis's birthday! I decided to make him a card using an Ian stamp from the set Rock the Farm from The Greeting Farm. I stamped this image when my sister Diana was home. She brought a bunch of stamps with her and I stamped a bunch of images so I could make cards after she went back home. These little guys are fun to colour.

The base of the card is Handsome Hunter by Stampin' Up! The next layer is Basic Black by Stampin' Up! The image was stamped with Memento ink and coloured using the Copic markers.

The sentiment was stamped and then punched out using the word window punch. It's a pretty simple card, but I like the way it turned out!

Happy Birthday Curtis! Have a drink on me!

Chow for now

Jacqui

Ready, Set, Go......

Yesterday was the Regional Track and Field meet for the public schools. Joel qualified at his school to compete in the relay race and for long jump. It was kind of a crappy day today, wet and windy, but they continued on throughout the day. Luckily for me....maybe not so lucky for Joel....his events did not start until 3:00 pm. I get home from work at that time, so I was able to watch both of his events.

We watched his long jump event, and he jumped well, but he did not qualify to move on to the big track and field meet.

Then they ran their relay race. Joel was third in the leg, he got the baton from Thomas....then he ran and handed it off to Mike.....and they came in SECOND!!!!!! So they all got silver medals. He gets to go to the big meet in London, (not sure when that is....next couple of weeks I would assume) He was pretty excited, as were we!!!

Here he is with his medal.

Here is a close up of his medal

Chow for now

Jacqui

Anything Goes!

The picnic yesterday was fun. It was great to see Granny again and she looked just beautiful. The girls put a little bit of make up on her and I think she looked just fantastic. We are still very blessed to have her with us. She is 90. We have that blessing reinforced each time we go to the nursing home to visit and we see the other residents who do not recognize their family and are not aware of their surroundings. It is very sad. So, we are very thankful that Granny is still Granny and that all her little quirks are there just like they have been for as long as I remember. Here is a picture of Granny with her make up on! Isn't she pretty!

Here is a picture of Granny and Joel. I love this one. I don't have very many pictures of them together, and I certainly don't have many with Granny smiling - she has started smiling a little bit more for pictures, but they are few and far between. You have to get her when she does not know you are taking her picture.

Here is one with me and Granny as well!

I even have a card to post today!!!

One of my challenges this week was to make an "anything goes" card. This was good for me, cause I had an idea for a couple of cards that were not Stampin' Up! only, so I made one for this challenge. I really like the Changito monkey's and this is one of the little fellas I grabbed up from Sheila's store when I was there when my sister was home.

The image was stamped and coloured with the Copics. The flower was cut out from the designer paper and layered to make petals. A large brad from Stampin' Up! was used for the centre of the flower. A little bit of bling was added to the bottom near the sentiment.

Hopefully my challenge partner likes it.

Chow for now

Jacqui