EASTER CHICK POUCH

Who doesn't like Easter chocolates?  

And the residents at Mom's retirement home are no exception.

Inspired by a video tutorial from

Michelle Last, 

(which can be found here:

http://michellelast.typepad.co.uk/my_weblog/2012/03/easter-treat-pouch-using-the-stampin-up-bird-punch-video-tutorial.html)

I decided to make these little pouches filled with chocolate eggs 

for Mom's friends where she lives. 

Michelle has created some amazing projects and her

video tutorials are well produced and easy to follow.

Thanks Michelle, for the inspiration for this project.

Mom has become acquainted with many of the residents and some 

have shared sad stories of how they miss their

families who they rarely ever see.

Who does that???  Who can put their loved ones away 

some where and just forget about them?  Do these people

not realize that we will all be in our golden years eventually?

Anyway, to help bring some Easter smiles, these little pouches were

made with love and I know they will be enjoyed.  

And best of all, Mom is so happy to be able to spread

some cheer among her friends.

Thanks for stopping by.

HAPPY EASTER!

~Bonnie~

ON A ROLL

As it turns out, there will be another lady coming to

Jenny's birthday lunch tomorrow... Stella, who is celebrating her

81st birthday on the same day as Jenny.  So, I decided to

make each of them the same style cards

but in different colours.

Inspiration for these cards can be found here http://www.card-making-magic.com/doublezigzagcard.html

Both of these gals love flowers so I'm sure they will enjoy these cards.

Hope you are having better weather than us here in

southwestern Ontario ... minus degree temperatures, with

snow and high winds resulting in white out conditions.

Of course these are just regular conditions for you Gail!

http://scrappintimes-gail.blogspot.ca/2013/01/celebrate-what-you-want-to-see-more-of.html

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

CREATING ABOVE GROUND

Since Mom decided to move to a retirement home, the bedroom that we had built for her was calling my name.  Moving my craft room from the basement to the

main floor of our home was to say the least, extremely arduous ... 

but so worth it.

Now I am crafting above the ground and LOVING IT!

Spending time on Pinterest is very addicting but I have been so inspired

by the many incredible ideas that I find there.  The next card is one of those ideas.

It is a zig zag fold card

and the instructions can be found here:  

http://www.card-making-magic.com/doublezigzagcard.html

Modesty aside ... you know when you complete a project and you

just feel so good when you look at it?  Well, that's how I

feel about this card.  My dear friend Jenny is celebrating her

80th birthday next week and we are taking her out for dinner.  

This will be her birthday card.

I ♥ SNOOPY.  And have ever since I was a little girl.  

I have made it a mandate to haul out some of my old and never been inked stamps

and create with them.  In a drawer marked "Snoopy", I have several 

stamps paying homage to him and here is a little card that I 

made with one of them.

And I would like to share an idea with you for my new

method of housing my punches.

I have several edge punches that cannot be stacked or

otherwise stored in an organized way, so I came up with this idea.

These Bygel rails can be purchased at Ikea and I hung them

on the inside of my closet door in my craft craft room.

I drilled a small hole in each punch, where a hook could be placed and the

punch subsequently hung on the rail.  Then I punched a sample of each 

punch and have them hanging with the punches on the door.

Well that's it for now.  

And thank you CURT for lighting a fire under me

to post on my blog again.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

BRAYERING 101

It was Cathy's Workshop Friday this past week and she

decided to have us work with our brayers (come to find out that

I need a new one, hence the results of my cards leave something

to be desired).  Anyway, we had fun, as usual and certainly

gained some knowledge about brayering ... thanks Cathy.

Using the new SU fabric, Cathy created a little tissue holder for

each of us ... isn't it cute??!!!

And finally, I found this adorable little Easter treat pouch 

http://michellelast.typepad.co.uk/my_weblog/2012/03/easter-treat-pouch-using-the-stampin-up-bird-punch-video-tutorial.html

and decided to make one for each of the girl's.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

FOR THE NEWLYWEDS

Classic black and white is often my choice for wedding cards.

In my stash of handmade flowers, I had this

white lace flower and decided it 

would be a nice

addition to this wedding card.

An EK Success border punch was used as the background frame

(http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/becca-bit-border-filled-frame/)

as well as the side borders.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

PINK MELTON FLOWER

One of my craft passions is definitely creating flowers

and as we all know, wool felt is one of the best materials 

to use for many of the flower patterns.

However, wool felt can be a little pricey and a little more difficult

to find in local fabric shops.  While shopping in

a local fabric mill outlet the other day, I came across this pink

'melton' fabric and while it seemed quite thick compared to normal

wool felt, I thought I would try a small swatch of it.

My Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Sizzix die is my go-to die

when I am using fabrics for flowers. It cut through the melton

like butter and I am very pleased how the flower turned out.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

MADISON WINDOW

After working on my next Workshop Friday Project for the past several weeks,

I decided to deviate from the project for a much needed rest. 

Using my Grand Madison Window die and trying my hand at 

making some flowers, I managed to create this card.

Soft Sky is one of my favourite SU colours so I decided

to use that as my starting point.

I added a couple of flourishes, some MS sprigs, 

a few pearls 

and 

there you have it.

It felt sooo good to make a card again.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

A BIRTHDAY TRIO

Got a little carried away on this design ... had to make

one in each colour.  But with several upcoming birthday's, they will

be put to good use.

I am so loving this M/S deep edge punch.  I originally got it to use on

scrapbook layouts but really like using it as a card border.

The image stamp I used is from a set that is one of my originally stamps from

13 years ago.  Boy, we sure have come a long way

since then.  As I look around my craft room and see all of the

punches, embellishments, tools, machines and paper, it's hard to believe

that it all started so long ago with a stamp, stamp pad, embossing powder and

a heat gun.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

MAGICAL BIRTHDAY WISHES

With quite a few birthday's in the upcoming month, I've

been busy creating some cards for some

special people who will be celebrating

their birthday's.

Using Spellbinder's Fancy Tags Three, this card was created for 

a lady who will be celebrating her 80th.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

WORKSHOP FRIDAY

Well, this project took two Friday's to complete and after a lot of tedious work, the finished project was sooo worth it. 

It was Cathy's turn to host and she designed this rosette wreath for us to make.

Thankfully, Cathy cut and scored every rosette for us ... we just had to 

fold and assemble them.  Now I say "just ", like it was nothing but

in actual fact, it was a lot of work.

After a few hot glue burns, some tired eyes and some frustrated hands, the

project was completed and now hangs proudly in my craft room.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~ 

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!

One of my all-time favourite projects is an advent calendar clipboard, that my friend Cathy (http://thestampwhisperer.blogspot.com/) designed and
invited me over to make with her.
Of course, I chose PINK.

I have it displayed all year long in my craft studio
but really enjoy actually using

it during December.

I covered the clipboard front with DP and began to layer my pieces.

The Ornaments are a Sizzix die and have a magnet attached to the back.

Behind the circle nestabilities, I cut a small piece of sheet metal for the magnets

to adhere to.

The ornament magnets are stored on the back side of the clipboard,

by attaching a piece of sheet metal and then DP to cover the metal sheet.

I also made a plastic pouch using a heavy duty sheet protector and s/a velcro dots 

to keep it closed.

The trees were made from a Sizzix die, 'glitterfied' and then popped up.

The tag was also made using a Sizzix die .

 The next card was made for my friend Curt (http://curtsplayhouse.blogspot.com/).
When I saw the stamp of the dog with the Santa hat,
I knew that I 'needed' it to make a card for Curt since

the image reminded me so much
of his Shotsy and Gunther (Curt's giant schnauzer kids).

The little oval tag just tucks inside the top of the Santa stocking.

We have new neighbours and our Abbey has been smitten with their

little beagle, Jessie.  So this card was to Jessie from Abbey with

a little gift for Christmas.

And finally, this little gatefold card was made and sent to a few of my blogging

friends.  I have had these Justrite stamps for quite a while and finally put them

to good use.

Well, that's it for now.  

I'm off to my kitchen to make some Christmas caramels.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

IT'S A MAUVE CHRISTMAS

With the dreaded Halloween season being over (dry up those tears Curt), I can now concentrate on my favourite time of the year ... CHRISTMAS.
My first card this year is for my Mother-In-Law, who loves mauve.
I have been wanting to use these Flower Soft display globes since last year when I purchased them.  I can remember when I first began to stamp (over 13 years ago),
I was really intrigued with shaker cards.  And while I did manage to create a few,
they never quite looked 'right'.  Using these

display globes combined with Spellbinder dies, the results are quite pleasing.

The one problem I did have was trying to photograph the card.  No matter what

I did, I had a reflection of light that bounced off the globe.  

Anyway, I think you will get the gist of the card from the photos below.

It's difficult to see the image but I used an image from The Stamp Barn of

a deer looking at a bright star in the sky (I highlighted the star by using a tiny 

crystal bling).  I stamped the deer with Versacolour White and then

highlighted the entire image with Pearl-Ex.  Martha Stewart carrara marble 

tinsel glitter was used as snow inside of the globe.

One card down ... only a few dozen to go!

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

FEATHERED FRIENDS

We have had the fortune of having bluebirds nest in our bluebird box, for the past 2 summers.  I have spent many hours, sitting on my deck, watching them come and go and on occasion, even fighting other birds in defence of their nesting box.

My friend Cathy gave me this little chipboard BIRD shaped mini book a long time ago and I decided to make use of it in the way of my preserving my bluebird photos.

I covered each chipboard bird (back and front) using various S/U D/P's and the glitter embellishments are from K&Co Spring Blossoms.

Upon opening the nesting box, I found a few tiny feathers, left behind in the nest.

The photos were taken with my little Canon Powershot, using the farthest zoom setting.  While the photos are not the greatest, they still allow me to preserve my memories of my little feathered friends.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

MOJO MONDAY 189

With all of the 'poopy' weather we've been having lately (windstorms, rain, cool temperatures), I'm beginning to think that we might not ever see Spring this year.  

So, I decided for Mojo Monday this week (thanks Julee for another great sketch),

 to haul out some "in-your-face" colours for my card project, to at least 

brighten up my spirits, if only for a couple of hours.  The DP is SU's Kaleidoscope 

and the solids are Peach Parfait, Melon Mambo and Tempting Turquoise.

Becca Feeken of Amazing Paper Grace is such an inspiration to so many, not the least of which is me.  The flower on my card was made using a technique that can

be found here on Becca's blog.

My next card is for a friend who just found out that she has breast cancer.

I am hoping that some mail might cheer her up a bit.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~

WORKSHOP WEDNESDAY

We had our WSW today and it was Cathy's turn to host.  Our first card was made using primarily SU materials and punches and used up some of Cathy's bits of DP from her scrap bin.  It was an excellent way to use these leftover pieces.

   

Then Cathy gave us cardstock and some stamps to create something on our own.  It was very interesting to see what the 3 of us came up with and how different they each were.  

I love how Cathy made her flower 3-D (it's hard to see by the photo but she stamped a couple of the flower images and then popped each up to make the 3-D).  We each used seed beads for the flower centres.  Thanks Cathy for another fun workshop.

Thanks for stopping by.

~Bonnie~