Blossom Party die and Notably Ornate by Stampin Up and me

Yippeeee.. it's Saturday.. I hope you had a great start to your weekend. We sure did. The floors are clean, the rooms are half/half organised again, the kids are happy and ate their lunch and I had some time to create a card and now even post it on my blog..

What do you think of my new background.. I can't believe how easy it was to ad to my blog. I think that really need the sight of these flowers. The last couple of days it has been snowing... again... (no comment) It is grey outside.. and I am in need of some flowers and dutch flags. I couldn't locate mine. I guess it went AWOL. (sigh) Well.. to all my dutch friends: Ik hoop dat jullie een gezellige Koninginne dag hebben gehad, met veel oranje tompoezen en gezellige rommelmarkten. En doe de Koninging en Alexander en Maxima maar de hartelijke groetjes van ons hier in Canada! :)

Today I visited the Pals Paper Arts Challenge site and I saw that they encouraged us in their current challenge #91 to use a button, or 2 or 3 in our projects. I love what a button can do to a card, so off I went. I used the same kind of layout for my cards as I did yesterday. I guess it is a tiny bit different.. so I hope you don't mind.

• For the first time I used my 'Blossom Party Stampin Up die' (#115971 - $23.95) Isn't that flower stunning. Together with the Top Note die it looks like such a professional card (smile)


• Again I used one of the images of the Notably Ornate Stampin Up stamp set (#120561 - $21.95) + one Crumb cake SU button in the middle of the flower.


• I also added a strip of 1/2" stitched - Poly Poppy Parade SU ribbon (#119263 - $12.25).

Well.. I think I am going to check out 'Uitzendinggemist.nl' on my computer to see what Queens day was like in Holland. I am sure it will be fun.

Inky hugs, Pauline

Always and Notably Ornate by Stampin Up and me

Good Royal Friday to you! Did you watch a bit of the Royal wedding on tv today? I loved it.. Wasn't Kate Middleton stunning in her gorgeous dress. And wow, Prince William was just so sweet, don't you think? You should have seen my 4 year old daugther. She was as quiet as a mouse while she was watching the beautiful ceremony and the unforgettable carriage ride. And don't get me started on all the fun and beautiful and just silly hats that all the woman were wearing during the day. Yip, I am proud to say that I was one of the 2 billion people that watched their wedding today, even though I attended in my morning pyjama gown and drank my tea from a huge Starbucks mug instead of an english danty tea cup! I am one proud and happy camper!

Needless to say I got inspired to make something fun and ornate after all that beauty today! I went over to the Hand Stamped Sentiments site to play along with their challenge #65. They encouraged us to create a 3-D card or project for Mothersday. & This is what I came up with.

• I used the beautiful frame from the Notably Ornate Stampin Up stamp set and inked it up with the Early Espresso ink and stamped it on my Whisper White card stock.


• Do you see the Taken with Teal card stock that I rolled through my Big Shot with the Top Note die. I love how it pops with the Soft Suede card stock from Stampin Up and the Real Red ink. And it fits so beautifully around the frame I stamped.. Love it!
  


• The bird is from my Always Stampin Up stamp set. This bird comes always in handy. It is so elegant and simple.

Well.. Tomorrow it is April the 30th and it is going to be Queen's day (Koninginne dag) in Holland. I will miss all the orange on the streets and the red, white and blue flags. And Amsterdam with the - way to many people - on all the streets.

I might have to hang out my dutch flag.. if I can actually find it.

Cheers and Inky hugs, Pauline

Baby Bundle by Stampin Up and me for the PP #44 Challenge.

Good Monday evening to you.

We had a great Easter weekend with our dear family and friends + as an icing on the cake, we had some beautiful sun shine, which made most of our snow and ice disappear! . Oh my.. how I love the heat of the sun. The days went by way to quick, but I am sure that was a good thing. :)

When I came home I checked my email and there it was .. I received another Cut Above Award from the Paper Players Challenge 'girls'. Now what about that? My last card I entered in for the PP Challenge #43, they liked! loved! I can't tell you how thrilled I was about receiving the Award! Again it felt like icing on the Monday Morning-cake. :)

This is what Anne Marie Hille from Stampin' Anne had to say about my Elephant card. She is the sweetest thing! Really. (Hi Anne.. thanks for your beautiful and encouraging words about my card.. You also make gorgeous cards, but you are also so sweet and talented with your words! Thank You!)
Okay there we go!

• I just loved Pauline's adorable Elephant card with the fun mix of colors. The little popped up ear and the tiny 'peanut' tag were the perfect additions to her clean and simple design. such a sweet card to welcome a little peanut to the world. Congratulations on being my pick for a Cut Above this week.
  

Well I have to tell you. .. last week I saw so many beautiful Challenges, but I had a huge lack of time to create... painful.. but don't get me wrong.. I had a great week! I picked up our 2 friends from Holland at the airport. They are going to stay with us for 6 months! 6 whole months of 'dutch' around me. Can it get any better than that? Of course they will travel through Canada as well.. but we will be their home base :) Oh.. they are such a gift to me, to us.. They are so caring and fun and they just embrace this crazy household here :). Yes I feel blessed. I /we love living in community.. it makes life so much better!

Anyway... I am getting side tracked here.
This morning I had some time on my hands and created this baby card for the Paper Players Challenge #44. I know, what is it with that urge to create baby cards lately. Please don't ask me to answer that one. I really have no idea!

I inked up for the first time my new Stampin Up Baby Bundle Stamp set. (#120576 - $24.95. This set has 16 different images) Oh I can see myself using this one over and over. The 'baby sky' is the limit with this set!
I wanted to make a little Whisper White card stock dresser with a cute bear sticking out. Well.. it totally worked. Oh how fun! I used my round SU tab punch (#119864 - $23.95) at the bottom of the dresser. It just needed a bit of fancy-ness there. Do you recognize half of the tab punch. I love it.

To finish it all off I added one of those gorgeous Sweet Stitches Designer Fabric Brads from Stampin Up (#121880 - $8.95). These are available in the Mini Catalogue for only a couple of more days.

Cute cute cute! I hope it will inspire you as well.
Well.. The night is still young.. and my house is still in need of a clean up.. So guess where I am heading too.

Inky hugs, Pauline

Baby steps by Stampin Up and me

And a beautiful busy Sunday it was.

the other day I received such a sweet little note from Anne Marie . This lady has one incredible beautiful blog with amazing cards, called: 'Stampin' Anne'. She is also a member of the Paper Players Challenge website. The card that I added for their Color Challenge #42 was chosen as a 'Cut Above'. So SO cool! What an honour! Seriously.. These ladies have a talent that goes above and beyond.

Each of the design team, picks their favorite card and Lesly picked mine. Oh how fun! She and her lovely team members had already given me so many sweet comments on this card last week, which I so treasured, that I felt double blessed hearing from them again. This is what Lesly Croghan from 'Always playing with paper' and the PP - team wrote to me:

• 'As I looked through the selection of wonderful cards created, I kept being drawn to the hilarious and sweet card created by Pauline at the Pursuit of Stampiness. I really giggled when I first clicked on her card, such a clever use of stamps, ingenious really!! Those colours are fun and bright and I feel that she captured the 'mood' of them perfectly. I also loved how she used the flower brads... they look perfect on this card. Congratulations on being a Cut Above this week Pauline'.

'Thanks so much Lesly, for making me smile and for highlighting those details of my card'. & Yes!I agree with you on the 'giggle' factor of my card. So fun eh! I love the ants.. Please visit her blog.. she has such a huge talent in creating cards.

Well, today I had some time to play again for their next Paper Players Clean and simple challenge #43. & in my humble opinion it turned out so SO cute.. I love it. They challenged us to keep it simple.. Now for some reason, that was a hard one for me. So I sneaked in a couple of cute 'simple' additions. I love how one of the elephants is carrying a little tag that says 'peanut', From what I understand of elephants is that they love peanuts and from what I understand from Canadians and Americans is that they call their little babies sometimes little 'peanuts'.. So I felt so 'with it' when I came up with that idea :) Oohh.. I love having a creative hobby.. Sorry I just get so tickled about this kind of stuff.

Well.. Grandma Carolyn is here and I want to spend some quality time with her :) No fun having a computer on my lab while we are chatting.

Have a good good sleep ladies!

Inky hugs, Pauline

Thoughts & prayers by Stampin Up and me

Here is the view from our window yesterday morning. It inspired me to stamp my tree in white today.

Good Friday morning to you.

And the snow is melting ...AGAIN... Yesterday we had about 12 inches of snow.. yip.. winter wonderland again. Do I have to say more?

This morning I hopped over to the Stampin Sisters in Christ Challenge side . They encouraged us in their 84th Challenge to use the color purple or wood in our cards. As the time of Easter is coming closer they reflected with us on what a huge thing Jesus did for us on the cross about 2000 years ago, now. It still blows me away.. He is the One that looks at me with eyes full of grace and love and patience. He keeps reminding me not to give up and to keep the hope and love.. He is stronger than 'death'! Now who else can say that? Right...

The ingredients of this card:

• I inked up one of the tree images of the 'Thoughts and Prayers' (#113252 - $31.95) stamp set from Stampin Up in my Whisper White craft ink. (#101731 - $9.25)


• After that I rolled my stamped Concord Crush card stock from Stampin Up (#119792 - $8.50 for 24 smooth sheets) through my Big Shot Die-cutting machine (#113439 - $132.95) together with my Vintage Wallpaper textured embossing folder (#120175 - $10.95).


• Then I layered this piece on a some Whisper White card stock (#100730 - $9.25 for 40 sheets) and Crumb Cake card stock from Stampin Up (#120953 - $8.50 for 24 smooth sheets of card stock).


• I used one sheet of my Designer series Paper Pack - In Color - Level 1 Hostess set. (#121028) This 6x6 paper pack with 60 sheets is a free product, that Stampin Up offers you among the many other beautiful choices of stamps + another $20 that you can spend on anything you like from their catalogue, after you spend $200 on SU items. I so love this paper.. and the variety of designs.


• I added some sticky pearls and some Crumb Cake ribbon.


• I used one of my 2 favorite punches to high light the sentiment on my card. My SU Modern Label punch (#119849 - $23.95) + the SU Word Window punch (#119857 - $22.95) + my SU Scallop trim border punch (/118402 - $22.95)

Wow, that was a huge list.. All for one card. I love mixing and matching my SU stuffies. A card is never the same. Inky hugs, Pauline

So cute + Bugs & Kisses by Stampin Up and me

Good morning everyone!

Yesterday my dear blogger friend Christy told me that the Paper Players had something in their challenge, that I might be interested in. This sweet woman cracks me up. She often teases me when she sees that I used 'again' :) one of my favorite colors 'Baja Breeze' .So I had a feeling that it had something to do with it.

And there you had it. The sweet ladies of the Paper Players (Hi beautiful ladies, I just have to add in here that you all are so so SO creative and talented , inspiring and encouraging) challenged us to use Baja Breeze, Poppy Parade and So Saffron in our card. That's all I needed. So here is what I came up with..

As a base for this card I used the Baja Breeze Stampin up card stock. The next layer was So Saffron. I rolled my Top Note Stampin Up die through my Big Shot and got this great frame to work in. Please look at all the details.

I loved how it all came together. The So Saffron ribbon and the flower brads.. the Stampin Up markers in the same colors. The cute little ants from my Stampin Up 'Bugs and Kisses' stamp set.. Well I am sure you get the point.. I had a lot of fun putting it all together.

Well.. I gotta go again. I still need to do a lot of painting in our home sweet home.

Inky hugs, Pauline

By Ones by Twos - by Stampin Up and me

Good Monday afternoon to you! Wow, this day flew by so fast. It was a full house with lots of laugther and toys and sweet children. They really were sweet. They played princesses inside the house and outside on the trampoline. Then they went with their cute dresses outside in the mud puddles. Yip.. guess who is going to have to do a lot laundry by hand tomorrow.. ;)

Last week I created this card with my dear friend Sherry. She came over in the evening and we really had a great time sipping our drinks and catching up. She home-schools her 4 kids during the day.. I am so impressed with her. I think she does an amazing job handling her household and raising her kids. Besides being all that she is also an amazing and talented painter. the details she covers and the patience this woman has. It just blows me away.

She had never worked with Stampin Up's stuff and she was as tickled pink as I was when I was first introduced to it. It was just so fun to see her stamping and enjoying it. I hope we can get together again and connect.

Oh how I love my hubby.. I mean hobby.. hahahaha.. That came out the wrong way.. So fun.. Ofcourse I love them both to pieces ;)

Here I used a retired Sampin Up set, called 'By Ones by Twos'..I love how easy it is with this stamp set to create a super cute baby card. It really wasn't hard at all. A while ago I created something similar. You might remember that one as well.

Well. I gotta prep some dinner. Hope to connect to you soon.

Inky hugs. Pauline

Baby Steps by Stampin Up and me

Happy Friday to you dear you.

It is still cold outside, but the sun is out and gives our living room such a nice warm glow. I am just being happy here, sitting on our couch with a warm cup of Chai tea enjoying this new day. Last night was a late night for this mom here. I came home around 12.30 pm. I went over to a dear friends house and we talked and shared our lives and dreams with each other and prayed. I love those moments of being able to connect to each other and to God.

This card I created with the Pals Paper Color Challenge #88 in mind. This week they inspired us to use the following colors: Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight and Crumb Cake. These are 3 of the colors that Stampin Up has in it's stunning color assortment. I loved using them.

And how fun is this, I gave this card has 8 layers. I love that sturdy feel of a card when it is just packed with beauty. (smile)

The image that you see is from the Baby Steps Stampin Up stamp set (#117092 - $10.95 ) I also used one of the Daffodil Delight flower brads (#119734 - $11.50 for 48 brads). I love when I can match the colors on my cards. It gives a card that 'balance'.. Hahaha, I never thought I would say that about a card. But I think that it's true.

I usually try to stick to 4 colors on one card, just to give it that clean and elegant look..

Anyhoo.. the weekend is coming closer and it's going to be my hubbies birthday. Fun fun! I already bought some white Hortensia's to brighten up our living room.. Aren't they gorgeous? I will add a photo of them, so you can enjoy them too :)

Now all I need is a card. So I have a job to do!

Inky hugs, Pauline

Stampin Up's Clearance rack restocked!!! Get 60% off beautiful products!

Hi there.. You're still up? Me too. It is late and I should just go to bed. I know.. Tomorrow the day will start early again with our 3 young children.

I just wanted to let you know that Stampin Up's online clearance rack has been restocked with tons of discontinued items. Get huge discounts on Stampin Up! ribbon, markers, ink, designer series paper, card stock and much more. Up to 60% off!

To order click for my online shopping store and look for clearance rack on the left. Be sure to click 'all' in the show drop down box on the right to see everything.

• Order now, while there is plenty to enjoy. Items seem to sell out quickly.


• Don't miss the grab bag option.


• Clearance rack products are ONLY available with online orders.

Have fun with it!

Inky hugs, Pauline

Season of Friendship by Stampin Up and me

Good Wednesday to you!

Wow, I think that I am slowly getting back in the groove here in this household. We went to Fairmont Hot Springs in Britisch Columbia. Now we are unpacked, stocked up on groceries, did the laundry and responded to the many emails and phone calls, that I was so behind on.

This card I created over the weekend in Fairmont. Outside there was so much snow on the Saturday, that we decided not to go skiing with the kids, but instead to stay home. And guess what, the next day was a gorgeous day on the ski hill. A blue sky and so much sun. I totally got a sun burn. And I am loving it. And I am so proud of Reuben and Rachel.. They both went on the chair lift to the top of the mountain.. and came down. They are so little and that mountain is so huge.. but they did it. I am so thankful for their healthy bodies. What a blessing. I know, it is not something I want to take for granted.

I also like to introduce you to Cassie. She is the dog of my hubbies parents. The first time I met my hubbies parents, they just got her as a puppy. She was the cutest thing ever, running all over the place and being so generous with her happiness. We had her many times in our home when they went away on their trips. What a great dog. Cassie is now almost 12 years. Her hips don't work that well anymore.. So sad. She used to run after the ball and love to play.. Now she is more into cuddling and laying in front of the fire place..

Anyway.. all that to say. This card I created with the Season of Friendship Stampin Up stamp set. (#111776 - $29.95) What a beauty of an image they created at Stampin Up for us to use.. I so love this set. The added pearls are just the best, don't you think?

Well.. I gotta go.. have a beautiful day today where ever you are!

Inky hugs, Pauline

Grab a bag filled with Stampin Up goodies worth 4 times as much as what you pay for!

Good morning. How is your weekend going? We are loving the mountains and the Hotsprings and our family out here in Fairmont Hotsprings B.C. I am so proud of our 2 kids. For the last 2 days they have been skiing their socks of off.. Wow.. And the sun is gorgeous on those mountains in the sun. Anyway.. Do you love a good deal and a little mystery? Then you're welcome to check this fun Stampin Up deal out!

Grab a Bag of Stampin' Up goodies!

• The fun started all yesterday, April 1, and continuing while supplies last, customers will be able to purchase special "grab bags" when they order online through my Stampin Up web store. These grab bags will come in three sizes: the $6 (contains over $24 of SU products), the $12 (which contains at least over $48 of SU products), and the $18 grab bag (this bag has at least over $72 of beautiful SU products).


• Each bag will contain a variety of gorgeous discontinued products that could include a combination of any of the following: ribbons, Accents & Elements, chipboard, Designer Series Papers, and Simply Sent kit components. Grab bags will not contain stamp sets or tools. Please keep the following in mind: Grab bag orders can only be placed on-line.


• There is no minimum purchase required to participate in the grab bag special offer. There is no limit to the number of grab bags a customer may purchase; however, grab bag items are only available while supplies last. All grab bag sales are final. There are no refunds or exchanges. Not all grab bags will be unique.


• Spend $25 in Stampin' Up! products and qualify for the Spring is Blossoming Promotion.


• You should use the following item numbers when ordering grab bags:

Item Description:

1. #125873 $6 Grab Bag (containing at least $24 worth of products!)


2. #125874 $12 Grab Bag (containing at least $48 worth of products!)


3. #125875 $18 Grab Bag (containing at least $72 worth of products!)

Again.. You're welcome to take a little peek. Please click on the SU 24 hours shopping / order button at the top, you will not be disappointed. I ordered mine.. and I can't wait to see what is in it! How fun! I will let you know as soon as I receive mine.

Enjoy the rest of your day. Pauline