Welcome Christmas By Stampin Up and me + PPA challenge #74

Hi dear everyone.

Don't you love that feeling when all the presents are wrapped, the shopping is done, the suitcases are filled with winter clothes and skates and pretty dresses and outfits to celebrate Christmas with your family... sigh.. Yip I love that feeling.. I am just not there yet! But it will come. I am close. The evening is still young.

I even sat down to work on a card. I used the sketch of the PPA Challenge #74. I love joining the Paper Pals. They are so talented!I think it really worked out well.

• I love the Marina Mist for the ribbon. Such a nice touch to make it a bit more Chrismas-sy.. (There you go I even created my own word today).
• The DSP is from the retired Christmas Cocao from Stampin Up. I love those snowflakes. They are so petite and pretty.
• The image I used from the'Welcome Christmas' stamp set by Stampin Up.
  

Well.. I think this is it for making Christmas cards this year. It was good and fun. Thanks for all your sweet comments, I loved them.

I hope you will have a peaceful and happy celebration of the Christmas days ahead of you, with all the ones you love!

You're loved as well, I am sure!

Inky hugs, Pauline

Peetjes Freubelsite is sure one you don't want to miss!

Hi sweet all of you's.

Have you ever visited Peetjes Freubelsite? No.. well then you are lucky.. this dear dutch woman has one incredible talented blog with the most stunning cards. The details she puts in all her cards are mind blowing. I love it. She is also very funny and just adorable in her writing. Please give her site a visit. I am sure she would love to have you visit. I sure try to do that each day.

This morning I received this card from her in the mail. She posted it a while ago.. I think I left a comment for this card, because I loved it so much! Yip.. she is a lady for the details. She remembered and send me the same card.. Isn't it beautiful? Thanks Petra.. That is so sweet of you. I love it.. So fun to actually hold a card in my hands that you made.. The details are so beautifully done! It's sure is a keeper.

In one of her blog posts she asked us what we do with the Christmas cards we receive. Well.. I added 2 photo's of what happens to our cards.. The photo ones end up on our massive Canadian fridge for the rest of the year and the other sweet cards are on our side board. I love receiving cards and reading the little notes that our friends write to us.

Well.. gotta wrap some presents here.. 2 more days until Christmas evening :)

Inky hugs, Pauline

Greenhouse Gala by Stampin Up and me with some Mojo Monday #170

Hi dear you!

One more post for today. I just couldn't wait until tomorrow.. (smile) I so love how this card turned out. I used the sketch from the Mojo Monday Challenge #170. I had to adjust it a bit because my bow turned out a bit bigger than I wanted to. But it still works right :)

It is so refreshing to not make a Christmas card today :) Just a simple celebration card with lots of Marina Mist and Crumble Cake and Whisper White. The Greenhouse Gala DSP still hits the spot for me.. hahaha.. I couldn't have done this card without it. It brings flare and such an elegant touch to the whole layout!

Okay.. gotta go.. My hubby will soon be home and this living room looks like my craftroom. Gotta clean up.

Inky hugs, Pauline

Apple blossoms by Stampin Up and me

Hi dear you. I hope you are doing well in your little corner of the world.

I had such a beautiful morning with my dear friend Kylie. She is such a true artist. Not just with making stunning cards, but also with life. The way she juggles life and it's challenges and beauties amazes me. I love her.. and am so happy we were able to hang out and share a bit of our lives' wisdoms and questions..

We created this card with one of my newer stamp sets called 'Apple Blossoms' from Stampin Up. It is a level 2 Hostess set. Wow, did we ever love working with it.. We used a Mojo Monday sketch to set up this card. It turned out so well. Like this set was made for this sketch :) Mary Fish created something very similar to this one.. She was our big inspiration this morning. Thanks Mary. Please click on this link and it will bring you right to her website.. She has the most amazing projects and Minute to WOW video's. Send her my love :)

As a base we use the Crumble Cake card stock. On top of that a layer of Early Espresso. The Whisper White is used to stamp our images on. We picked the following colors to put it all together: Daffodil delight, Marina Mist and Old Olive.

Isn't is stunning.. ? Love it.

Inky hugs, Pauline

Christmas Cocao with many circles by Stampin Up and me

Good morning .

I love adding beautiful Designer Series Paper to my cards. Many of them are so SO versatile and gorgeous. I am not sure about you, but I always have a hard time gluing one side to my card. Stampin Up offers 2 sided Designer Series Papers and you can pick which side to use.. The 2 sides look always so stunning together, so they are great to use on almost any cards.

Anyway, Today I had about 10 minutes to put this card together. Between dropping my son of at school, wrapping Christmas presents, feeding the kids and going through my closet to find That perfect dress for the Christmas Party I am going to tonight with my sweet hubby. He was gone for about a week. He worked about 13 hour days.. seriously.. wow.. Out in the snow.. Not my thing as you know me to well.

Still haven't found That perfect outfit yet.. maybe I don't even have it. I didn't even have time to go out and get something. Shopping with 3 kids... Nah..

It's about a year ago I had to dress up for something fancy..

Oh well.. he got a different job, so maybe I can wear the same dress as last year.. Nobody will know right.. I borrowed the dress from my dear friend Darlene.. Everytime I wanted to give it back to her.. she was like.. No you keep it. You looked great in it.. So.. okay then.. I guess that's what I am wearing tonight :)

But I do have to iron it.. I think.. We'll see.

So this week I was home and I had to deal with our 3 lovely kiddo's. Who had the stomach flue, the littlest one was teething, they wanted to wrestle with me (I know.. is the daddy thing, but I went along with it :) shoveling lots of snow, making dinners and reading many stories... cleaning, cooking, writing our Christmas cards, doing the laundry, stopping the kids from attacking each other :) yip I was busy too.. So happy he's coming back though.. enough for this week!

Well..Not much to ad to this card info. As you can see I used a lot of different circle punches. I think I used all the sizes that Stampin Up has for sale..

Love it!

Have a great weekend dear you.

And if you have a Christmas Party to go to... I hope you will feel happy in your dress :)

Christmas Cocoa By Stampin Up and me

Good morning dear all of you.

It is winter, so I really shouldn't be surprised that it snowed again here in Calgary. It is hard to appreciate those beautiful tiny snowflakes, when you have to shovel them away. While my daugther was admiring them, I sure had my workout, Wow, they are so heavy when they are all piled up :)

When I looked at the PPA Challenge #73 of this week, and the Paper Players Challenge, I knew I wanted to redeem those snowflakes again :) We were encouraged to use some lace on our creations. To be honest I don't have any lace in my collection of ribbon supplies, but I do have gorgeous Stampin Up punches that were ready to be used. + the Paper Players let us pick our favorite color to work with. Soft Suede.. No doubt aout that one. (pss: If you click on the 'Soft Suede , you can order this beautiful paper through my SU website).

So, I used the Whisper White card stock and the Soft Suede as the main colors for my card. I am almost having to stand up to type, because I am so pumped up. I love LOVE how this one turned out! Let me also quickly say that I OFCOURSE had to ad some beautiful pearls to this card. Just what it needed to add some bling :)

The Designer Series Paper is also from Stampin Up. It is now retired.. Wow, do I love it.. If I had known that I loved it so much then I would have ordered some more.. It's called 'Christmas Cocoa' DSP. The tiny birds are from the 'Northern Hearts' Hostess stamp set. If you have the chance try to get your hands on that set.. It is amazing. really!

Well.. I think I need to shovel again.. sigh.. If I wait any longer.. It will be even more intense to try to get it off the 30 steps that lead to our home..

Enjoy your day and if you are anywhere close to warm sunny weather.. enjoy it.. and say hi to the sun from me.. Tell him, I miss it's warmth :)

Mojo Monday 169 by Stampin Up and me

Hi dear all of you. How is your Tuesday going today? I hope you are well, where ever you are in this big world :)

As I write this, my brother Eelke and my dad are in Rotterdam in the Doelen concert hall listening to the Choir of Kings College from Cambridge, England. Oh how I wish I was sitting on a chair next to them. Have you ever seen them on tv or listened to them on a cd. Their Christmas carols and songs are absolutely gorgeous. I grew up with their songs. When I hear their music.. it's Christmas for me. Their voices give me goose bumbs all over.. Beautiful!

They say that The Choir of Kings College, Cambridge is one of today's most accomplished representatives of the great British choral traditions. And I believe them. Did you know the choir was created by King Henry VI, who founded Kings College in 1441, to provide daily singing in his chapel, which remains the main task of the choir to this day.

I made this card with their beautiful music and songs in the background.. I can't wait to hear how the concert was.. I know it was a life long dream for them to be at a Kings College service once in their life time. I hope one day they will come to Canada. After all we share their English Queen.. right.. :)

Anyway.. For this card I used the layout of the Mojo Monday 169. Beautiful. You can never go wrong with their challenges. I used the Real Red as a base for this card. For the first time I used my super large scallop circle punch.. How fun.. just the perfect kind of size for these kind of cards.

And do you recognize the little birds. These cuties are from the new stamp set 'Northern hearts' of SU. It is a Hostess set. The 'JOY' sentiment is from 'Welcome Christmas' that is available in the SU Catalogue 2010/2011.

Well.. I gotta go.. feeding the little ones in this household. and myself.

Inky hugs, Pauline

Dasher Christmas Card by Stampin Up and me

Hi dear everyone.

Tomorrow I am going to make some Christmas cards with about 15 woman. This is one of the cards they can make. We have about 1 1/2 hours to create 3 cards. Most of them are rookies at card making. So I am excited to introduce them to this awesome hobby of mine.

It was a huge task for me to prep for it, but while I was doing it I just got more excited about our time tomorrow.

For this card I used the Dasher Stamp set from Stampin Up. I used Old Olive as a base for this card. I matched it with Real red and Whisper White. Do you notice the tiny pearls? So cute.. Love it!

I will let you know how it went..

Inky hugs, pauline

Patterned Pines By Stampin Up and me

Hi sweet all of you! Do you remember ths Hostess Stampin Up set from Last year Christmas.. Called ' Patterned Pines'. So happy I choose that stamp set to work with this morning. I absolutely love it.

My daugther and her 2 cousins also joined me around the crafting table this morning. Oh how we had a blast. In between feeding and cuddling and I don't know what else I did to the other 2 little ones playing on the floor, the 4 of us got crafty. & they are good at what they did. I was so impressed. The dedication they have to finnish what they started. Wow!

So I want to encourage you, even if you have 6 kids in the house and you are all by yourself to take care of them.. go have fun and make some cards.. they love it.

I even had time to work on my card.

I used the Crumb Cake card stock as a base. This color always works for an elegant looking Chrstmas card. I used a deep red of Riding Hood Red to ink up the images. + the same color retired SU ribbon from about 2 years ago. It still works for me.

Well, it's lunch time and I have 6 hungry tummies to feed, well.. 7.. mine included!

Have a happy day. The weekend is almost here!

Inky hugs, Pauline

Snowflake die with a cute silver star brad by Stampin Up and me

Hi dear Stampers. How are you? It is already Wednesday today. Oh my, how the week flies by again. I am not sure what I even did this week. We walked back and forward to and from school, I did some grocery shopping, cleaned up the house.. same old, same old.... and yes.. it's still a mess here.. (smile) I shoveled snow.. lots of it and I got stuck in it with the car .. yes.. that same beautiful snow that covers the trees and cars, and roofs and paints everything with its crispy white color.

Sigh ...snow.. I so dislike driving in the snow. I like snow under the microscope :) but when I get stuck in the same thing .. no not my thing :)

I like this card though :) I love how I cut the snowflake off on the side.. It gives it a real funky look. The silver star brad looks just perfect in the center of this flake.

What a day.. I need to sleep ... lots of sleep.. Later :)

Enjoy your evening.

Inky hugs, Pauline