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

Rejoicing in Christmas by Stampin Up, Carolyn and me

Good morning dear all of you.

Only 26 more days until it's Christmas. Oh my how time flies these days. Me and my sweet mother in law Carolyn used this gorgeous 'Rejoicing in Christmas' stamp set just before I went to Holland. She purchased that one and we couldn't wait to try it out. I have to say, we had a blast. So fun. We so needed to relax hat evening. Just to sit and create & get our minds focused on other things than running after the kids :). My hubby went on one of his hunting trips that weekend and she helped me with the care of the kids. She is amazing. She reads them stories, takes them out for some chocolate milk at their/her favorite coffee shop.. She just loves them all over. The kids can't wait to see her and Ray again.

I love how this card puts the focus on Josef and Maria and Jesus. To me that's what Christmas is about.. the celebration of the birth of Gods Son Jesus. What a gift.. unreal!!! But don't get me wrong, I also super duper enjoy getting together with our dear family and friends over Christmas and the New Years. We are so blessed with all of them.

You know when I was being crafty here with Carolyn, I was thinking..

We should do something like this with her friends. In the last 9 years I have gotten to know them a little bit and they are all so, so sweet. In one way or another they have all been so good to our family. When I started dating (with my now hubby) Scott, they dropped me of at the airport after I visited him in Canada, the threw an amazing Bridal shower for me before we got married. They send us cards and gave us rides to Fairmont, phone calls and the best hugs when we would meet.

But above all they have been such amazing friends to Carolyn over all those years. And I also keep hearing from Carolyn that they love the cards I make for them.. maybe they would like to give it a try for them self.. They will be surprised at how fun and relaxing it is to do something like this. & I would love to sit at our table and make some Christmas cards with them.. Spoil them and have some snacks, some wine and some lovely Christmas music and some fun chats. I am so sure they would all enjoy it.. I might ask her..

Anyways.. It's gorgeous outside.. and I need to do some heavy duty snow shoveling.. before it turns into ice on those many steps that lead to our home sweet home...

Have a beautiful day yourself.

Inky hugs, Pauline

Amazing Stampin deal for yourself or as a gift to pass on at Christmas!

Hi dear all of you!
Are you in Canada? And do you love Stampin Up?

I just wanted to share something with you, that I am completely tickled about. Stampin Up is offering a huge deal right now. For only another 2 days you can purchase a starter kit from Stampin Up for half the price. 50% off. $107 and you don't pay any taxes and any shipping on top of that!

Here is a link to all that is in this Stampin Up starter kit. http://www.stampinup.com/ca/documents/CA_start_kit_0510_digital.pdf

This is truly the 'I want it all kit'. worth over $375. after November the 30th it is again $215 dollars. This is still a good deal compared to the $375 you would normally pay for all the stuff you get. You can customize your own stamp sets, choose the colors of your ink pads, ribbon, paper and more

• When you purchase the starter kit you also become a Stampin Up demonstrator and member of my Pursuit of Stampiness crafting bees. You are not required to sell or purchase anything further or host any workshops or sell products.
  


• You do receive Stampin Up demonstrator discounts and benefits (20% discount on everything and 30% discount on your next order after you receive your starter kit) until the end of the next full quarter. Stampin Up's quarters are from January - March, April - June, July - September, October - December.


• There is also the Digital Starter kit with the Digital Studio software and many many stamps, paper etc. on sale for $107.50. This Digital software alone is worth $106 dollars. Here is the link to the download for this starter kit. http://stampingjo.com/wp-content/uploads/Digital_start_kit.pdf


• There is never a penalty to drop and the fun part is, you totally keep all the products that are in this starter kit..
  
• It's my honour to welcome both hobby stampers and business demonstrators to my Pursuit of Stampiness group. I provide support for both!


• If you want to remain active and continue Demonstrator discounts and benefits you will need to sell a minimum of $400 per quarter. Most demonstrators find that this goal can be reached in one or 2 workshops or with their own purchases or of that of their friends.
• Starting December the 1st, you'll get to pre-order products from the upcoming Occasions and Sale-a-Bration mini. You'll get the products first and get the discount.
• Enjoy exclusive acces to thousands of creative ideas and samples and fun discussions on the Stampin Up demonstrator website.
• You receive a free subscription to an exclusive monthly Stampin Up magazine.
• You receive 2 free months subscription to your own Stampin Up website.. I can help you set this up.. It is so fun!
• You have the opportunity to earn many free stamps and fun trips.
• you will get all the new catalogues for free when they come out.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

If you are ready to sign up here is the link to my website http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/pursuitofstampiness/.

When you are there. This is what you need to do. Click on 'Start your own business' ( I know sounds kind of scary :) Then click on 'Join now' and there you have it. 'the online Independent Demonstrator Agreement. Do you see the line: Enter your recruiter Authorization Password? Type in there: Pursuitofstampiness. Simple as ABC.

Have fun taking a test drive in all the Stampin Up benefits. i would love to hear from you!

Fine Flourish by Stampin Up and me

Hi dear all of you.

The kids are playing outside in the snow and I am on my couch trying to ignore my jet lag. It feels like I can sleep for weeks. I brought my hubby to the airport this morning.. he has to work somewhere far away for a couple of days.. Talk about timing.. I could have used a little bit of help with this whole transition of settling back in to Canada.. Oh well.. this too will pass right! ?

I started this post with a gorgeous picture of Canada.. The Rocky Mountains.. I am trying to convince myself that it is good to be back in Canada. It is good.. I know that part :) I just miss my family and friends in Holland. The windmills.. the meadows, the oh well.. everything.. (smile) when I went through my pictures.. I saw this one I took last summer.. Again it took my breath away.. All on the same planet.. but yet so far away from each other.....

Anyhoo! I created this card last night.. I couldn't sleep anyway. :) I used the gorgeous 'Fine Flourish' stamp from Stampin Up. Don't you love the Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon.. To bad that color is retired.. I stocked up on some :) so that's the good part.

I love how it turned out... I hope you enjoy it too. Well.. I gotta go.. one more suitcase to unpack.

Inky hugs, Pauline

Back from our sweet trip to Holland

In Hilversum with our 3 cuties


Me and my dear friend Ellie.. Hi Ellie :)

A good cup of Douwe Egberts Coffee and a speculaasje


Me and my son on the beach in Hoek van Holland

Hi dear all of you.

I just got back from an amazing time in Holland. Those days just flew by.. But I am full of great memories and impressions that will last a life time.

It was so good to be with my family again. They are all so sweet. the way they all opened their hearts and homes for me. and helped me and the kids to hang out with them in Holland.
On one of the pictures you see one of my dear friends Ellie. She rocks, if you ever see her walking on the streets, just give her a hug from me.. My arms are just not long enough to do that from here... just kidding Ellie... well.. about the arms not being long enough.. . :)

I also met so many new dutch stampers who also love to be creative.. We exchanged some blog addresses.. I can't wait to follow them in their creative journey. & oh I wish for them too that they would have Stampin Up in Holland.

Well.. I have some unpacking to do.. I am loaded with dutch chocolate and dropjes and coffee and hema clothes.. sigh.. I miss Holland already.. So difficult to have my heart in 2 countries..

But.. that's life right.. I hope to be able to create a card somewhere in this day.. I missed my little craft spot in the house.. and my hubby too of course :)

Hugs, Pauline