Our critters

Awhile back I mentioned that we were going to a Reptile show and I forgot to post the newest additions to our zoo! This first picture is one of the two Giant African Land Snails we got. They live in a glass aquarium with soil & they eat lettuce, watermelon, cucumbers, etc. They are so cool to watch as they slime across the glass!! We had 4 of them about 4 years ago, but they died. These two are named Rob & Big (Tim named them - don't ask!)
Here are the 3 leopard geckos we got. There are 2 females and one male - Lucy has red lips and red on her tail (named after Lucille Ball) - she is in the middle, stepping on Squirrel, Ginger has lots of brown spots - she is on the far right, and Squirrel is the male - on the left - or bottom of the pile. We named him Squirrel because he was such a spazzy dude when we first got him - very squirmy!! This isn't the greatest pic of them all together cuz they move around so much! This bottom pic is Squirrel, trying to climb up the glass (with very little luck because they aren't that type of gecko).
And, I just found out Tim's brother is moving up north, so we will be inheriting his 3 leopard geckos at the end of the month - Dave, Jenn, and Jane!! CRAZY little zoo going on here again & I couldn't be happier! I missed having all my critters!

I know some of you are probably saying EWWW but honestly, until I met Dave, Jenn and Jane when I first met Tim, I thought the same thing! But they are so soft, like velvet, and very gentle...and hardly any work at all! Watching them up close is really cool - especially the snails - you can see the muscles moving in their "foot" as they slime along....totally awesome! When we had Chip, or chameleon, I would sit there for hours watching him - his feet, his tail, his crazy eyes, and his horrendously long tongue!!! LOL I miss him a lot actually!

I don't have any cards to share - I did make some last night but forgot to take pictures of them before I sealed them up to be mailed! OOPS!!! Have a great weekend...and for those of you in the rain....stay dry!!!

Tilda in the park AND some NEWS!!!!!

This is Tilda in Apron, sitting on a park bench enjoying the sunshine! I stamped the bench & coloured it with gamsol & prismas, then stamped Tilda on SU watercolour paper and coloured her the same (notice I dirtied up her knees?? What kid goes to the park and doesn't come back with dirty knees??) I coloured and cut out the birds, also from Magnolia. As you can tell from the shadows, I popped out the birds and Tilda (sorry bout the shadows!) and mounted it on a pre-printed card base from Michael's. I made the grass with prismas & gamsol. I also cut it down to 4x4. That's it..... a simple scene card!!

AND HERE IS MY NEWS: (I can hardly contain myself!!) My VERY FAVOURITE EBAY store, Simon Says Stamp just came out with their own line of stamps - they are VERY cool - 19 sets in all, very versatile & a variety to choose from. Anyways, Heidi, who is THE most FABULOUS woman in the world asked me if I would be on their DESIGN TEAM!!!! I didn't believe it at first, lil 'ol me?!?! WHAT?!?!?!?! So now, I'm an Official Honorary Design Team member!!! WHEEEEE!!! (Tim wasn't as thrilled as I was so you can imagine how badly I wanted to share this with you all?!?! MEN!!!) You really need to check out her store - they have EVERYTHING!! They carry Penny Black, A Muse, Hero Arts, Inkadinkado, Stampendous, Tim Holtz products, Stampabilities, SU, House Mouse, paper, ink, markers, storage things...its crazy FULL of stuff!!! And if they don't have it, they will do their darnedest to find it for you! Heidi has found me a bunch of retired stamps that I HAD to have!! And I've spent a lot of money there - I am sure I've already paid for her son's college tuition!! LOL You can't beat GOOD customer service nowadays & they definitely have it!!! Check it out!!

Graduation card for my niece

I made this card for my oldest niece who is graduating from SAIT, a trade school type. Their colours are red and white so I went with that! I used the SU set Great Graduation from 2002 that I just recently found and purchased! Wheee!!! I used my congrats folder with my Bug, and coloured the grad with prismas and gamsol. The card base is Real Red. The red shimmery ribbon is from Michael's. On the inside I used a sentiment from Verve Visual's set Greatest Expectations.

Birthday cards

Two of my friends had babies last year within days of each other, so now we have two First Birthdays to attend! I totally CASE'd this card from somewhere, not sure where....so if you know, or it's yours, let me know so I can give credit to the owner! Same card, different colours! The Hedgie and the dinosaur are popped up for dimension. The stamps are from Penny Black - Zoophabet and Critter Party. The dinosaur is from Whipper Snapper. The card bases are preprinted ones from Michael's. Sorry the dino is so dark, he really isn't IRL! Sorry this is such a quick post, I just looked at the time...and well, I might be late for work if I don't get my butt in gear!!! AND, it's Wed. so hopefully we didn't have a staff meeting or I'm in BIG trouble!!! EEK!! Enjoy the day wherever you are! It is POURING here, but I love the rain!!! And I'm not on supervision so that's even better!!! Nothing worse than standing outside for 20 min. in the rain! UGH!

MORE blog Candy! AND another card!

WOW!! Michelle at Stamps, Paper, Scissors and Donkey Smiles is giving away an amazing blog candy prize for reaching 5000 hits!!! CONGRATS Michelle!! You MUST check out her blog, her work is AWESOME!!! All you have to do to enter is link her blog & blog candy post to your blog! Easy Peasy!!!

This card was made for Adelee's swap club - the theme for this month is "farewell to in colours"...so I used Purely Pomegranate, a colour I am going to miss a LOT!!! The sketch is SC172 (SCS). The card base, scallop circle and ribbon are all Purely Pom, the DP and the strip under the ribbon is Close to Cocoa. I rock and rolled the butterfly with Groovy Guava and Purely Pom and added some sparkle with my Sakura Gelly pen. The butterfly is from the set "Garden Whimsy" and the sentiment is from the set "One of a Kind", both SU. That's all for today! Have a great day!!!

Three Father's Day cards

This first card was made for a Monthly card swap I'm in, where we each hostess a month and send the girls in our group 7 images and 7 pieces of DP. When we get these packages, we make cards with them & send them back to the girls in the group. It is A LOT of fun. This month I got this ol' golfer (Rubbernecker) and this is the card I made with him. The DP is unknown but it is texturized, like that old velvet wallpaper we all probably had growing up....so cool!!! I coloured him with gamsol and prismas. I actually added a circle punch on the bottom right corner that says Happy Father's Day. This is one I'm going to sell at the Farmer's Market on Thurs. night! Last Thurs. I sold about $60 worth of cards and 3D items...not bad for a pretty slow night!!! It will pick up once the BC guys come with their truckloads of fruit!!! I used the Mojo Monday 36 sketch for this card and the next one.
This card I made for Tim's Dad, who lives on Vancouver Island, very close to a light house. When I asked Tim what kind of Father's Day card he wanted for his dad, he said "a Lighthouse"...of course, a stamp I don't have!! So I put out a call to all my stamping buddies and Donelda came through for me! This stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms. She even hand delivered them when we went to the Airdrie Stampers Celebration (or spending spree as she calls it!!) I coloured it with gamsol and prismas, and sponged the sky with Sky Blue. The shell charm is from a Dollar store & is on a piece of hemp; the sentiment is from this GREAT little set from Clear Dollar Stamps - their SOTM for May - you cannot buy it, but you can get it FREE if you spend $50! Not hard to do, Lori's stuff is awesome!! The base is close to cocoa and the DP is from Creative Memories (jewel tones).
This card is for Tim's Step Dad. I think he might be tired of getting golfing cards from me, so I made this one with Grillafella. The background is stamped with images from the Clear Dollar Stamp SOTM set - it is totally cool...go check it out!! I coloured with gamsol and prismas and sponged the edges. The base is Close to Cocoa, The green DP is from Basic Grey (can't remember which line...sorry!)

I posted the card for my Dad earlier in the month - the faux suede puppy one...so I didn't forget him!! I was WAY on the ball for my dad!!! :) AND look at all those links I gave you.....what an enabler I am!!! MWAHAHAHAHAH!!!

Blog Candy @ Heidi's!

I was BLURFING and found this FABULOUS blog candy! Heidi is giving away a HANGLAR stamp and 30 images. Hanglar stamps are from Norway and they are similar to the Magnolia stamps that I adore so much - they are sooo cute! BUT impossible to get!! So, check out her blog for your chance to win! I don't have any so this would be a nice start!! ;)

Burnished Velvet cards

Well, I finally had time to play with the new toys I bought at the Airdrie Stamper's Celebration a few weeks ago!! This first card was my first attempt & I messed up a bit on the flowers but I still think it's pretty. It is WAY more sparklier in real life! Is that even a word?? LOL.. it is now!!! The project uses Sookwang double sided tape and micro fine glitter. You use the tape backing as a stencil for either positive or negative images. You do one layer, burnish it (rub it with your finger to make it shiny and adheres it to the glue), then lift off the next mat or stencil and do the same in a different colour) and continue until you have used all the colours you want. In the first one I used my Marvy dragonfly punch & retro flower punch and my Boho Blossoms punch from SU. The sentiment is from Happy Everything. It was pretty fun - and the results are GORGEOUS!! And the texture IRL is like REAL velvet!! So soft!!!
This card I made for my SIL's birthday. I used my Creative Memories Star punch - it has 2 different size stars - very cool...and perfect for this type of project!!!
Here is a close up of the glitter. I used gunmetal as my base, then copper, peacock and stardust.
And the last one I did for my friend's birthday - I used lilac and stardust. I used the Bubble punch from Creative Memories for this one. Now that I look at this, the cupcake needs some "bling", so I'm going to add some stickles to the cupcake to match the background.

This spending spree was courtesy of Donelda & Lorinna - thanks ladies!! LOL But I"m glad I did - it is very cool stuff!! Here is the link to the store that was demo'ing these products and their online store, so you too can SPEND SPEND SPEND!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAAHAH!!!! (that is my evil laugh!!! I'm Impressed (based out of Vancouver, BC...so perfect for all us Canadians!!!)

Thanks for stopping by...... :D