Relaxation Plus***

My husband and I went to my aunt and uncle's home this past weekend up in Northern Ontario. Their home is beautiful, the surroundings peaceful and the food and wine plentiful!!


We had a fabulous time and I wanted to share a few pictures with you.. Enjoy**




This is the view from the deck and from our bedroom... FABULOUS!!!
This is the English garden at the front of the house.

This is Abbey!! She is the sweetest dog!!

This the front of my aunt and uncle's home.. They built this from the ground up by themselves, with the help of family and friends... It is gorgeous!!!

For my Friend***

My friend Mary was here this past weekend for dinner. Our husband's were out golfing for the weekend so she came to my place and I made her a Julia Child inspired meal of Beouf Bourginone, Rice Pilaf and buttered green beans with almonds.
It was YUM***
Anyway I used Lauren Meader's tucked away template for this little gift that I made for her.
The ribbon is from Sharon Johnson's store and the sentiment is from PTI!!!

Enjoy everyone***

SSNOTIME102*** LEAVE YOUR COMFORTABLE OWN ZONE***

Let's Leave our Comfort Zone -- OK, we all know we have one and most of us don't like to leave it, at least not for very long. But today, that is just what we are going to do - we are going to leave our stamping style comfort zone and do a card or project in a style TOTALLY unlike what we normally do. For example, if you always are drawn to doing cutesy things -- go elegant, or masculine, or anything OTHER than cutesy. Do something that does NOT come natural to you.





Well for one thing I don't think I have a particular "STYLE"!! I am an all over the map kind of person. I like to try all kinds of things, but I think if there is one thing I am not very good at is visualizing a 3-D project and being able to see it through to the end. I usually start something and then end up throwing it out. ALOT of projects have gone the way of the trash bin...

So for the past few days I have been rummaging around and finally found some rice paper that I had and a round paper mache box and just went for it. I was thinking about Julie's post from a few days ago where she used Mulberry paper in a similar way...

I used bits of paper and Modge Podge, covered the box, let it dry and hoped like h@##ll that the lid still fit. Because if it didn't it was going in the garbage!!!

I used a chipboard coaster for the card and covered it with the rice paper as well and used Modge Podge to seal it. Some simple black satin ribbon and a few black gemstones rounds out this project. Simple !! PHEW - it worked.





So go for it!! Leave your comfort zone and show us what you can do!! See Sharon's site HERE for all the details and check out all the other fine creations this weekend from this wonderful design team...

Julie - http://www.outtoimpress.blogspot.com/

Tammy - http://www.stamphappy-tammy.blogspot.com/

AJ - http://www.thewillowgarden.blogspot.com/

Jennifer - http://www.thebuckstampshere.blogspot.com/

Deb - http://www.deborahlynnesdreamincolor.blogspot.com/

Jenny - http://www.onekraftykat.blogspot.com/

Barb - http://www.barspaperpursuits.blogspot.com/

Pat - http://www.rubbermaid.blogspot.com/ - Our guest designer this month***

SNOW***

Here is another quick and easy felt project.. A cute table runner for the Christmas season**
Enjoy everyone***

Snowman table runner***

I just wanted to share with you one of the wool felt runners that I completed the other day.
Finally*** I love when I can add things to my Christmas stash***

Enjoy your day everyone and thanks for stopping in***

I have totally switched gears***

I was looking at Debbie Olsen's site the other day and fell in love with the card she made with the new Cosmo Cricket Christmas paper.. I have the paper so I started with this pile of stuff and ended up with 6 Christmas cards... I am pumped!!!

I used some sentiments from different Papertrey Ink sets and also the vintage buttons, ribbon and twine from them as well.

Happy Anniversary***

Hey everyone!! Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend.

This is one of the new sets from PTI's last release... Love it for coloring... I colored the flower parts with Copics and cut them out layering them with dimensionals.

Simply adding some ribbon and some designer paper from K & Company makes for a wonderful anniversary card for our friends...

Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping in***

SSNOTIME 101 *** POLKA DOTS

I hope everyone enjoyed the party last week.. What a great celebration... So many wonderful cards and great little nuggets of information...

This week it's all about polka dots. The party from last week is over, but we are all still dancing! We're doing the polka!!! Well, not really -- but we ARE playing with POLKA DOTS today!!! So let's see some polka dotted creations from all of you -- that's it!!! Have fun doing the Polka!

My card came about by accident... I saw these funky stickers in the Cosmo Cricket pack and thought I had to use them... The polka dotted paper is from my bit bin.

Put together the card and then read the challenge for this week and said YES!!! DONE!!!

Even the pumpkin eyes are polka dots and the ribbon has polka squares!!!

Enjoy everyone*** Check out Sharon's blog HERE for all the detail and then check out all the wonderful polka fun from the design team...

Pat - http://www.rubbermaid.blogspot.com/ Our guest designer for this month!!!

Julie - http://www.outtoimpress.blogspot.com/

Tammy - http://www.stamphappy-tammy.blogspot.com/

AJ - http://www.thewillowgarden.blogspot.com/

Jennifer - http://www.thebuckstampshere.blogspot.com/

Deb - http://www.deborahlynnesdreamincolor.blogspot.com/

Jenny - http://www.onekraftykat.blogspot.com/

Barb - http://www.barspaperpursuits.blogspot.com/

I am in a Hallowe'en state of mine ***

This funky guy is designed by Karen Stolper for American Art Stamp!!

Love him... Kind of leaning away from that spider***

Stamped in Memento black ink and colored with Copics which takes about a millisecond.

A little glitter and some gemstones and paper from my bit bin***

Enjoy***

Eeeky Freeky***

I get so much inspiration from Miss Anna Wight..This cute little Hallowe'en kitty is from her Hocus Pocus set, stamped in black archival ink and watercolored with Tombow markers.

I distressed with a little Weathered Wood ink and spritzed with some Guatemalan Green Luminarte Shimmering Mist.

The sentiment is from the same set with a tin star attached. The button is PTI!!

The designer paper is Cosmo Cricket I do believe.

Have a happy Monday *** and thanks for stopping in ***

We have a Blog Candy Winner***

Linda writes:



Hello Janine from Canberra Australia!! How can I pick one recipe - I am married to an Italian man who is a disillusioned cook by trade - so any new recipe, especially Italian sounds good to me - but I think I will try the FONTINA CHEESE AND ARTICHOKE PIZZA it sounds YUMBLY! Thank you for the opportunity to play for the Candy - Happy birthday to Sharon and last but not least - love you card - the colours are fabulous!! Thanks again for the chance to play - God bless you!



Congratulations Linda*** Check out Linda's blog HERE



Thanks again to everyone who played and looked and left comments...

Thank you all for checking out my blog and playing along with all of the Stamp Simply ladies***
My niece has been here for a few days, she is 7 and she helped me take this photo.
The paper is Cosmo Cricket and the image and sentiment are from My Favorite Things.

Have a Happy Sunday***

SSNOTIME*** 100 ***

MY RECIPE BLOG ADDRESS IS NOW UP PROPERLY***





WE ARE HAVING A PARTY!!!


A BIRTHDAY PARTY!!! TO CELEBRATE STAMP SIMPLY'S 100TH EPISODE!!!


CHECK OUT ALL THE ACTION AT SHARON'S SITE HERE*** WE HAVE PAST AND PRESENT MEMBERS OF THE DESIGN TEAM AND MANY OF THE GUEST DESIGNERS AS WELL***

Check out all the great cards, projects, tutorials and candy!!! Cozy up with your favorite drink and browse away!!!

Pat Adam - Christmas Gift Tags with BLOG CANDY
AJ - 1 Card Done 3 Ways
Tammy - Birthday Reminder Book
Jennifer - Birthday Card with BLOG CANDY
Julie - Card Set in Tote with Directions
Barbara- Birthday Card with BLOG CANDY
Deb- Tutorial on Dying Silk Ribbon Using Copics and Refills
Jenny- Birthday Card with BLOG CANDY
Jerri - Birthday Card and Tutorial on Hand Embossing with Light Box
Joan- Birthday Card and Etched Glass with BLOG CANDY
LeAnne - Birthday Card with Glitter
Barb- Birthday Cake 3-D Gift Item with BLOG CANDY
Darlene - Birthday Card with Special Recipe
Rose Ann- Birthday Card with BLOG CANDY
Leslie - Gift Tin of Soaps with Coordinating Card
Heather - Birthday Card
Sabrina- Birthday Card with BLOG CANDY
Sharon- Monogrammed Birthday Gift Set with BLOG CANDY


FIRST OF ALL HERE IS MY BIRTHDAY CARD***

I AM ALSO OFFERING YOU THIS STRESS FREE SUMMER MENU...


Actually these dishes can be made any time of the year.


Anyone who knows me knows that I love Italian food. I love to cook it and eat it***

MENU

PINK PROSECCO COCKTAIL

FONTINA CHEESE AND ARTICHOKE PIZZA

INSALATA MISTA

FILET MIGNON WITH PARMESAN BUTTER

BLUEBERRIES WITH LEMON-MASCARPONE CREAM


Most of these dishes take only minutes to put together... And so I don't take up too much room here please go to my Recipe Blog " My Recipes to You" to get any of the recipes that you might like to try. Believe me they are all delicious***!!!

Thirdly I have Blog Candy as well. I have an anniversary set from Papertrey Ink to give away so leave me a comment and tell me which recipe you might try and I will pick a winner on Sunday night at 6:00 pm *** Good luck to everyone that plays***

Baby and Me***

Two of my nieces are expecting around the same time. February or March 2010.. I made these congratulatory cards for them and a little journal so that they can record their experiences before and after the baby arrives.

The image and "pregnant" sentiment are from Hampton Art stamps, and the "celebrate" sentiment is PTI... I paper pieced the pants on one girl and the top on the other.

I colored the image with Copics and added a little cloud with Antique Linen distress ink.. The ribbons are PTI as well. The paper is from My Mind's Eye.. I also used a scallop oval nestabilitie for the image and a ribbon tag die for the sentiment. For the book I used letters from the Just Rite collection and a scallop circle nestabilitie... A few dew drops were added as well***

Enjoy*** everyone and thanks so much for stopping in***

Felt flowers***

Just a quick post today... We went to dinner at friends the other night and I didn't want to make something out of paper because I do that all the time so I put together this felt flower from a pattern that I had from Bird Brain Designs.

I just used all my little bits of felt , stitched her up and attached her to a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio.

Today we have a birthday celebration for my husband so I will see you later on**

Have a fabulous day and thanks so much for stopping in***

SSNOTIME99*** WE ARE ALL FRIENDS***

Today's challenge is simple -- make a card for a friend, for ANY occasion, just make sure the word *friend* appears somewhere on the card front. There are so many fun friend sentiments out there -- these will be fun cards to check out! If you don't happen to have any friend sentiments, you could even hand write friend on a little tag to hang -- whatever works -- let's just get very *friendly* today -- LOL!!! Have fun with this!

Here is my *friend*ly card for this week's challenge!! The "friends" sentiment and little flower are both from Hero Arts. Stamped simply on an oval scallop nestabilitie in black and some pink and black gemstones added around the edge. The ribbon is from Sharon's store. The designer paper is from my bit bin.

Check out Sharon's site HERE and all the other friendly creations from the design team.

Julie - http://www.outtoimpress.blogspot.com/

Tammy - http://www.stamphappy-tammy.blogspot.com/

AJ - http://www.thewillowgarden.blogspot.com/

Jennifer - http://www.thebuckstampshere.blogspot.com/

Deb - http://www.deborahlynnesdreamincolor.blogspot.com/

Jenny - http://www.onekraftykat.blogspot.com/

Barb - http://www.barspaperpursuits.blogspot.com/

We say goodbye to RoseAnn as our guest designer for July and say hi to Pat Adam AKA the RUBBER MAID as our guest designer for August...

AND

If you have been counting this is the 99th challenge for the Stamp Simply Design Team. Next week with be # 100!!! Stay tuned for some great fun as Stamp Simply celebrates***

Christmas is in the Air***

I just received these little snowmen in the mail from MFT!! They are so cute!! I inked them up with Memento black ink, and colored them with Lyras and gamsol.

Added to some black cardstock and a deckle edged nestabilitie. A little glitter added to the star buttons.

The paper is from my bit bin so I don't know who it is. Some ribbon from PTI!!

Christmas - it's a comin***

Now this is QUICK!!! I was rooting around in my room trying find my ScorPal that I had misplaced... HA !! Can you imagine how messy my room is!!!

Anyway*** I found these Christmas tags so I thought that I would cut off a little of the bottom, add them to a chipboard coaster, cut off the excess, add a sentiment from an Anna Wight set that I pierced and inked, added some twine replacing the awful string that was there and VOILA!!!

A tag for my Christmas stash!!!

Wedding Pics***

The bride and groom had a fabulous day for their wedding The sun was shining and here are all the guests waiting to walk down to the wedding site.

Here is a pic of the wedding site way off in the distance. The farm was so pretty and green!!

This is the very proud mother of the bride and me***

My husband, myself and Julia and Eric after their vows. They make such an awesome couple***

Baby Welcome***

A friend of mine needed a baby card so this is what I made for her.

I used "Baby Plaid" designer paper along with some ribbon from Michael's..

The letters are "Thickers" and the little dress is from Inkadinkado stamped with olive green ink and cut out.

Sorry about the dark photo but it is still raining***