Home hair cuts.....

Joel is keeping his hair short these days. So I figured, I used to trim my dad's hair with the clippers so I will get a pair of clippers so I can keep his trimmed and save some money. He was asking me all week last week to trim his hair - and honestly he needed it - it was getting a little out of control! He asked me Tuesday and Wednesday to cut it - but I decided I would wait until Friday night to cut it.....just in case I messed it up, that way I would have 2 days to find someone to fix it! So I started trimming it with the clippers.....I would just like to say that I have a new found respect for my hair dresser cause I made a bit of a mess. I'm sure I could do it with a bit more practice - but I stopped before it was un-fixable! So first thing Saturday morning we zipped into London and got all fixed up at Hair Masters! I'm sure he was telling the girl quite the story about how his mom wrecked his hair!!!! On a positive note though - I trimmed Joe's on Sunday and his was okay. It could have been a bit shorter, but I didn't destroy it like I "almost" did to Joel!! Even Edward and Bella were checking out his hair!!!!! Check out the tv in the background!
Chow for now, Jacqui

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long Challenge - Anything goes

This week over at the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long Challenge Blog it was an Anything Goes Challenge. It is also the last challenge of the year. We were sponsored by Soft Pencil this week. Please see the CSAYL Challenge Blog for more information on this generous sponsor. The base of this card is Handsome Hunter card stock by Stampin' Up! The next layer is some designer paper made by K&Company, from one of their new Christmas stacks. The tiny layer on the side is the "other" side of the designer paper from the first layer. I coloured the image with Copics and cut it out using my Nesties. I then sponged in some blue before removing the Nestie so I had a consistent border. I then used my Polar White Flower soft to put in some snow along the bottom under the tree and some falling as well. Then I put some bling on the tree and a few snowflake bling in the corner and some word bling on the bottom. Quick and easy, but still cute! (well at least I think so!) I hope you have enjoyed seeing all my creations for the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long Challenge Blog and I have enjoyed every minute of being on the design team! Chow for now, Jacqui

Christmas Cactus

On the 30th of September I lost my Aunt Anne. She had been having health issues for the past few years and at the end of September she passed away. Prior to her passing, she moved off the home farm and into a retirement apartment in Thedford. It was a very nice place. She had a nice sized spot with room for many of her own favourite things. She always had a green thumb. She had many plants in her house and thrived under her care. She gave me some of these plants, which I love! They are very different coloured than many I have seen. I looked in my book of plants and I believe they are types of begonias. This on is a Christmas cactus. I could not wait to see what colour the flowers were going to be when it flowered. Look at what colour they are! I'm happy to report that they are all doing well..still....and hopefully will for years to come. Chow for now. Jacqui

Wednesday Weigh In

Well I went down one pound this week. Not as much as I was hoping for, but in spite of all the running around I have been doing and eating at not the hours I should be eating, I'm glad it was a loss and not a gain. So that brings the total back down to 23 pounds. It's actually pretty much on target, since they say you can safely lose about 2 pounds a week. So I am not discouraged. This has been a busy week. I have decided to help coach the senior girls volleyball team at the high school. Earl Hochachka has been coaching the teams for years and he is a great guy. I enjoyed coaching the field hockey girls and I enjoy volleyball so I thought I would offer to help with the girls. We have had 2 practices so far and there is some pretty good talent on the team so I am looking forward to a successful season. The junior boys have started their basketball season so I will be splitting my time between the senior girls and the junior boys. I am not helping with the junior boys, but Joel has made the first cut for the team so hopefully he will make the final cut. I hope to get more stamping done this weekend, providing nothing creeps up that has to be done and then I can hopefully get some of these clipboards sold! I've been watching Ellen whenever I can, I used to watch it faithfully, but have been too busy to watch it all the time, so I try to catch it, or bits and pieces of it whenever I can. She has been talking a lot lately about bullying and being nice to one another. You know, it's so very important to be kind to people and not be judgemental. You never know what another person is going through or why they are having a bad day, so let's all just chill out and be kind to one another. Follow the lead of these guys, and give each other a helping hand to be kind to someone. Chow for now, Jacqui

35 days until Christmas!

Can you believe that it is only 35 days until Christmas? Yeah me neither. It seems it was just a month ago I was buying a Christmas present and it has been a whole year. Just like last year though, we are trimming way down. Really, what do we need? Nothing, other than spending quality time with family and friends. That is what Christmas is all about and that is what we are going to focus on. Not the number of presents under the tree. We did this last year, and my kids told me it was the best Christmas ever! So I'm looking forward to another season of love and friendship! To get ready for the Christmas season, I made some clip boards. I am still making some, and hopefully will be able to sell them all! They are so fun to make.
This one I did using Theresa Collins paper. I have never seen Theresa Collins paper before, but I love the texture of it and the rich colour. So on the back of the clip board there is a little bag that holds the tags that have the numbers on them. There is a magnet on the back of each tag, which will attach to the tiny piece of tin that is behind the paper on the front! There are many numbers so you can make the different count down days until Christmas!
This one is done using Bo Bunny paper. My good friend Kim made one and I had to case it. I love the vintage look of it! It's hard to tell from the picture, but the holly in the corners are 3-D as well as the piece of holly over the word Christmas at the bottom. The candies on the designer paper have been "shined up" with Crystal Effects, and the piece under the number section is ribbon.
This one is done using Recollections paper. I don't think I have ever used their paper before, but will definitely use it again. The red piece in the background - all those snowflakes - FLOCKED on the paper! How fun is that? And the big black snow man hat - FLOCKED as well! It adds for fun texture on the project. There is polar white flower soft on the letters to look like snow! The numbers for this one have been put in the centre of snowflakes - I thought that was fitting for the snowman theme! My friend at work loves snowmen, so she asked me to make some snowman stuff! So this is what I have come up with so far...but the ideas are still swirling around and there is no volleyball or field hockey or anything else this weekend that I know of...so I will be whipping up some more!
Hope you liked this little countdown to Christmas!
Chow for now,
Jacqui

Stampin' With Friends

You know, there is nothing better than stamping with friends. I do a lot of stamping on my own in my stamp room in front of my television or while listening to music, and don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy that, but there is nothing nicer than stamping with another person. I find that I get inspired just by stamping with someone else. So I enjoyed my weekend at Vicki's last week. She invited some of her girls over to stamp! It was fun. I love seeing these guys when I get up to Kingston. I wish we lived closer so we could do it more often. This is another bedroom shot!!!! You'd think we spent all weekend in Vicki's bedroom!!!! ha ha - but she had to show her other girls her comfy sheets. Seriously - it's like sleeping on a teddy bear!
Chow for now
Jacqui

CSAYL Challenge 71 - Sketch Challenge

This week over at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long, we had a sketch challenge! I like sketch challenges. The cards whip up quite quickly. You already have your layout, you just need to pick your colours. Pink Cat graciously sponsored our challenge this week. Please see the CSAYL blog for more information on this sponsor. The base of the card is Whisper White card stock by Stampin' Up! The card is a 6 X 6 card. The DSP is from a stack I got recently made by K & Company. The image was coloured with Copics and a little bit of glitter pen for the ice skates! Have fun with this sketch challenge this week. Next week is the last challenge for the year. Chow for now Jacqui

Fancy Folds

I told you yesterday that when I was at Vicki's place, I got to attend one of her card classes. The class was a fancy fold one and we created 5 cards.

This fun one was made with the scraps that were left over from the easel card. It's a fun gift card holder. You can see where the slits have been punched to put in the gift card!
My picture of this card open was too blurry to post, but the belly band slides off and then the card opens from top and bottom. I love all the textures of this card.

This was a fun card to make. I like the way it all folds up to a square!


Believe it or not, this is the first tri-fold card I have made!!! They look so complicated, but really they are not too bad! I was surprised.

This is the pretty easel card we did. The yummy designer paper is from a stack made by My Minds Eye. Man they make nice paper. The snowman was cut out using the cricut machine...yep....it's on my Christmas list! I like the way this one turned out.
Now this picture...I'm not sure if you all bring your card clubbers into your bedroom or not....lol!!!! Vicki got some great new sheets for her new bed - and they are so soft she had to show them to her girls!! So what better photo opportunity than that? Look how fun this is.....so if you are in the Kingston area you should sign up for her card classes!!!!
Chow for now,
Jacqui

Wednesday Weigh In.....oops...

Well my 4 days at my BFF's house caught up with me. I went up 2 pounds this week. So that puts me back to a total loss of 22 pounds. I'm not worried about it though. I figured I would either go up or stay the same....I ate things that were definitely not on the menu plan!!!! But that's okay - ya gotta live and have fun. But I'm back on track again. Got my fresh supply of groceries last night and am on the straight and narrow again. I had a great time at Vicki's though. I got to attend one of her card classes. It was fun. The girls that come to her classes are a bunch of fun! I will post the cards we made in the next day or two. I still have them on my camera, which is at home where my internetless computer sits!! They were fun cards though. It was a fancy folds class, so not your typical cards. We also made some cool clip boards that my good friend Kim showed us. They are so much fun and I hope to make a bunch to sell to people at work!
I need to get working on my Christmas teacher gifts and things to sell! Hopefully it will be as profitable as last year.
I thought I would show you a few samples I took pictures of when I attended Regionals back in September!!
I love the colours in this one. It looks so much better in real life than the picture I took. The black flowers in the background are embossed and it was such a rich looking card.

Now these guys are adorable. Who would have come up with a little dresser card. I think Jackie Topa designed these (if not, I apologize to the person who did) They are just so adorable. That's the only thing with displays at some of SU's events, you don't know who made the cards unless they are all on one display for a person.
I really liked this swap card that someone made. I love the flowers inside the hearts and the different colours of the flowers. It just struck me as really pretty.
Another great sample was this card. How cute with the mountains of snow in the back ground. I love the silhouette cards.
This is a cute scrapbook page. You can't see from the picture, but each one of those chocolates is stamped and then cut out and the tops of them are all popped up! They did look good enough to eat!
Hope you enjoyed a few samples!!
Chow for now
Jacqui

Shadow stamping!

Well..it's not really a technique...................it's my cat! Shadow!She loves it when the girls come over to stamp. For one thing I think she can smell sponges. She knows when I am using them and she will run out to my stamp room and get up on the table and she will scoop my sponge away. Then she bites off little bits of the sponge until she has it shaped in a ball and then she will play with it all over the house. All the while she is doing this, she is meowing with her deep jungle cat meow and then she will stop and rest her head on the sponge and then roll on it and do some funky somersaults. She is just too funny! She was sitting right up on the table with Donna when she first got there getting right into the ribbon action! Then she was right up with Vicki as well, and she managed to get some close ups of her! Isn't she pretty!


Chow for now Jacqui

Little Bo Bunny book

My dear friend Joan retired on November 3rd. Even though we didn't work side by side in our department, it's different now without her here. I can't just pick up the phone and chit chat about what's new in the world of stamping and scrapbooking (yeah I know...while we were working!) We are both great multi-taskers who can chit chat and still complete our work all at the same time. I'm very happy for her to be retired and to have the time to do whatever she wants when she wants, but I'm still gonna miss her like crazy. A bunch of girls at work, we call ourselves "the lunch bunch" had a little get together for her the weekend before she left. I was asked to make a card for her send off. I decided instead of a card, I would make a type of journal book, that way everyone could write a little bit more than just their name on a card. She loved it, (thank God!) and said she is gonna put it on her shelf in her retirement place in Arizona! I was pleased with the way it turned out, it was easy to put together actually. I just got a little Bo Bunny book and then embellished it up. I did add a chip board cover cause the cover that was on it, was pretty flimsy

This is the cover. All I did here was create a chipboard cover and then put a nice rectangle on from the designer paper and embellish it with flowers from my BFF's flower drawer (thanks Vicki!)
This is the inside of the front cover. I wanted it to be a nice saying, but one that was about reflection as well as moving on to a new chapter in her life.

This shiny cover was actually the cover of the journal, but I didn't think it would hold up over time.

I used our punch to punch out Best Wishes and used some sticker letters to create Joan's name.



This page is simply embellished with some prima flowers.
This page I added the "thanks" sentiment along the top.
This page was embellished with the large flower sticker
This page I added the rub on at the top of the page and the primas with the glitter brad at the bottom.

This one is simply a rub-on

This was a rub-on a well.
This bee is a rub-on too. I love those glittery rub-ons. they look beautiful in real life.

Just the bracket sticker on this page.

OO this is my fav - with the Flower Soft on the flower!

Just a little flower sticker with a rhinestone in the middle.

Some letter stickers to spell "so long"

I liked that little owl, so I coloured him and cut him out and then popped him up on the vine of flowers.

I didn't do anything to this page at all - I thought it was already pretty enough!

Just a flower sticker on this one.

I stamped a little retirement sentiment on that tag.

I stamped the flowers and then punched out the circle ring and popped it up around it.

Just stamped the definition of "remarkable" and then punched it out with a square punch

Added the "Hugs to You" sentiment and some brownish rhinestones.

I punched out a leaf with my punch and added the Glitter Ritz to give it some pizazz!
Just a little circle sticker.

Stamped "good luck" across the bottom with some tiny rhinestones.

Stamped the sentiment "you deserve the best" then I cut out and popped up the word "you"

and this was the sticker that I put on the back cover of the journal. Then we passed it around and everyone had a chance to sign it and put some of their memories and thoughts in the book for Joan.
. Chow for now Jacqui