Friday, December 31, 2010

Reflections ...

December 31, 2010 ... wow, can you believe 2010 is coming to an end?!  "What happened?!" ... that's what I usually ask hubbie after falling asleep on the couch ... however, I definitely did not sleep through 2010.  Actually, I think I was a bit sleep deprived this year.  Looking back, it's been a year of learning and new challenges ... started a new job and learned a lot this year about myself and what I'm capable of.  I did focus a lot on work this year ... adjusting to the job, working in a virtual team, and team changes.  I'm happy to say that after all that's happen, I do feel like I'm at the right place at the moment ... for me and the company. 

Also, I'm thankful to hubbie, family and friends who have kept me sane through the year!  It's funny though ... I always get reminded in some way of what's important in life ... paper, stamps, inks and all that fun stuff ... LOL ... just kidding but my crafts are a part of me! 

Anyway, I will focus on ensuring a balance in 2011.  I already know it's going to be a busy year ... there's already 2 weddings that will be happening ... my brother is planning to get married in May and my best friend will be getting married later in the year!  The weddings will certainly help me achieve a better work/life balance!

Ok, let's end 2010 on a creative note!  Here are cards from my Creative Kickstart class with Jennifer McGuire.  I really enjoyed this class and the techniques we learned.  One of my favorites is using the Ranger's Pearl dabber paint as a resist (middle pic).  Just  love that butterfly stamp and the shape of that card!

  

Got to play with some sticky back canvas (left pic) ... was fun to use something other than paper and really like the result.  And love those mini frames ... BTW, the reason I have 2 is because one was from the Hero Art make and take that Jennifer did in Framingham (one on the right ... in case you wanted to know).

  

Hopefully, this class as well as the other classes and experiences will help me kickstart the New Year with some new crafts to share with you :)  See you in the New Year!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Festive Techniques ...

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas.  Hubbie and I had dinner Christmas eve with the family at my brother and his girlfriend's ... oops, I mean fiancĂ©'s.  We had turkey, stuffing, potatoes ... lots of food and desserts!  I was sooo full!  On Christmas day, we had the usual family dim sum get together with my mom's side of the family ... 4 tables ... which is basically about 40 people!  The evening was nice and quiet ... just hubbie and me :)  The past few days have been really lazy days!  I guess hubbie was right ... needed time to re-energize.

Hubbie and I don't get each other gifts ... this has been the case since we bought the house.  However, we do get each other things throughout the year for no reason.  To be quite honest, I prefer those moments ... I still remember working in The Paper Room one morning and turning around to go cut some paper ... when I see a box on the stool, it was an airbrush compressor!  I've been thinking about getting one and had not quite decided yet, and hubbie went out and got me one ... it was in The Paper Room for a couple of days before I discovered it!  I was so touched by this surprise ... I had to wait to thank him since I didn't want to wake him up at 7 a.m. on a weekend!  This Christmas I did have something to open ... to help me start my lazy days :)  Apparently, Santa brought me a bag of Miss Vickies Crinkle chips ... yummy!  Hubbie ... I mean Santa set it on the dining room table and "borrowed" one of my stamps "a merry Christmas to you" (actually the one in the card below) ... he leaned the stamp against the bag.  Sorry, I didn't think of taking a picture of it ... I should have ... it was really cute!

Keeping with the current theme, here are the cards from the Festive Techniques class with Jennifer McGuire.  I really like the technique we used on the transparent card.  We created the background with an arcylic block, some Distress inks, and pearlized water ... really simple!  I also changed it a bit and used one of the Christmas greeting stamps I have from Penny Black.


I love the music background stamp used below (middle pic) ... could also use it for a birthday card.  BTW, it is suppose to be a tag where you could slide a gift card in.  However, you also have the option of using this for the front of the card.  I haven't decided yet, so I hid the hole behind the music background layer.

 

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

  
May you have a great Christmas filled with wonderful surprises and all the best for the New Year!!

Just a quick share ... it's the1st card set that I made ... and since I did not have a box for it, I made one!
 
Next time, I'll use 3 different images ... I didn't have another image with this Penny Black kitty that would fit in the blossom shape, so I just did 3 different colors.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Woo hoo ... I'm officially on vacation!!

I actually survived until the holidays!  Yipeeeee!! 

After such a crazy and busy year, I can now take a real break ... I'm off for 20 days!  I worked a couple of hours this morning to finalize a few bits (my 1st day off), but that's ok ... I am now off ... no connecting to work, no emails ... just focusing on spending time with hubbie, family and friends, and of course lots of quality time in The Paper Room.  Needless to say, I plan on blogging more frequently ... so stay tune!

I'll be starting the vacation with a nice breakfast with Hubbie ... hopefully, he'll wake up soon ... I'm getting hungry ;)

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Still within reach ...

Here's a picture of how things look now after I added the Gracious Living containers to my current
"towers".  It felt so good after I organized everything ... yeah, I know I'm a bit wierd ... hey, to each their own, right? 

Hubbie keeps saying that he's going to get me a mini step ladder if I made it any higher.  Hah!  It's higher, and I'm still able reach the top drawer ;)  However, I don't think that will be the case if I go higher than the 2 highest ones.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Wow, time sure goes by fast!

It's been over a week since my last post ... ooops!  I've been busy finishing some of my cards from my classes with Jennifer McGuire and working on some cards for my next class.  I have so many ideas going on at the same time ... I decided it was time to focus! 

However, I first needed to get organized.  Hubbie picked up one of those "Gracious Living" bins while he was at Canadian Tire for me ... you know the ones where I've stacked up and have all my stamps, inks, papers etc.  I'll take a picture of how high they are now and share it in a later post.

Once I got organized, I made this card for a friend who needed one for a baptism ... nothing amazing ... just a simple card.

Finally, here's card #3 from the Colour My World class.  It's not exactly how it was suppose to be ... I kinda of tweeked it a bit since I ripped too much.  Can you tell which one is mine?  I'll give you a hint ... it's the badly taken picture!  (The nicely taken picture of course is Jennifer McGuire's.)  You know I really don't take good pictures when there's no sunlight ... who am I kidding!?  I'm not sure it makes a difference :( 


BTW, can you believe it's already December!  We got 30 cm of snow yesterday ... hubbie had a nice little workout shovelling the porch and stairs ... thankfully, we got someone to do the drive way or hubbie would have had a major workout :)