Shout Out to SheetLoad!

I’m so excited about this free monthly online card magazine! I may have had my head in the sand, but I had never heard of Sheet Load of cards before today! Here is a link to their blog spot SHEETLOAD OF CARDS. They have April’s Issue out and May’s issue is ready to view online too! You really should go have a look because they have a new sketch, and many different card samples using that sketch, including one from guest artist Kurtis Amundson A.K.A Stamping Kub!

Have a peek at April’s issue. It features stamps and papers from Stampin’ Up! You can view it with Acrobat Reader.

If you like it too, shout it out! You could win a pretty Bella prize!

Now for a card I made today!

First, I have to say how wonderful my friends over at SCS are!

I was having a pretty bad day. I have horrible allergies and some days, even though I am on a 24/7 drug at this time of year, for it, I still feel like crap. My head spins and my hands shake!! I really wanted to do the Featured Stamper challenge and I chose a pretty card to case and went ahead and did it. But I was feeling so bad that it took me far longer than it should have, and I really didn’t think I liked it when I was finished! I posted it anyway explaining how I felt. This is where the wonderful girls over at SCS come in. I had many wonderful comments on my card, but what was really nice was how they all wished me well and hoped that I felt better! Reading their comments really did make me feel better! And after a while I went back and looked at my card again, and decided that it was better than I originally gave myself credit for. So, now I have the courage to post it here too. It also makes me realize how a simple comment can affect a person. I always leave a comment on a card that inspires me. I always give an honest opinion about it. And, I remember what our Mother’s always said: If you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything! If asked, I only give constructive input. I always want to encourage anyone to be creative! And I have found that creative types do need encouragement!

Thanks to all my friends on SCS and all my new friends visiting my blog!

Have a creative day!

Deena

A case of time well spent

Phew! I’ve had a busy weekend. How about you?

On Saturday I went downtown to meet up with someone I had only ever chatted with online through private messages on SCS. We met at Chapters so we could browse the card making mags of course, and have coffee. I was excited to meet her face to face, and even a bit nervous. I mean, really, I’ve never met someone online before.

I didn’t even know what she looked like because she doesn’t have a picture up on SCS. She had seen a pic of me, but still didn’t recognize me! She had told me she would be wearing an aqua blue coat. I was looking around and only saw someone that I suspected might be her ( because she was looking around too), but she wasn’t wearing a blue coat. When I approached her, and she realized who I was she said, “You didn’t have blond in your hair in the picture! And, I know, I’m not wearing my blue coat! ” It was kind of funny. Good thing we were meeting in a relatively low traffic area, or we would never have met up.

She is a lovely person, and I had a very nice time talking with her. It’s not that often that I can talk ‘cards’ with someone (in person)! Oh, ya, I also got to practice my French with her, since that is her first language. She spoke some English to practice too. I really should speak French more often, you’d think I would, living in Montreal, but no, I don’t. She gave me some creative ideas and a gift of some papers and a bookmark she had made. We talked for a couple of hours! I had a really nice time with her, and hopefully she did too.

After my afternoon out, Des (my husband) picked me up and we went to his Sister’s for dinner with the kids. Their kids are grown and on their own, so they love seeing our boys. It’s nice, because they only live 20 minutes away, and they have kept the boys overnight to give us a break! Isn’t that nice when you have family to help out, like that?!

Today was the beginning of spring cleaning for me. Nobody likes to clean, or at least nobody I know, but there is something so satisfying when you finish a job! A sigh of relief that it’s done. Everything smells fresher, feels fresher. It felt so good to weed through the hats, mits and scarves, giving some away, putting some away for next year. I had to keep some out though, we do still have 5 feet of snow outside! Even though it’ technically spring! Aaargh! I also got down and dirty and finally cleaned the grout around my floor tiles. You would not believe how this was bugging me. When my brother in law very kindly installed our tiles in the entranceway, he did not seal the grout. Which I didn’t know needed to be until my Sister’s husband informed me that it wasn’t done. Then I started to notice how black it quickly became! Regular washing did nothing to remove the dirt that permeated it. So, today, I finally Oxi cleaned it! Yay! It worked! What do I know? I probably should have asked my Mom. LOL

Finally, tonight, I had some time to make a card, after the boys were off to bed. Laura (Scrapnextras) was the featured stamper this weekend! Yay! I love her gallery of cards on SCS! So I knew I wanted to do this challenge, and case (create and share everything) one of her cards.

I cased her card you can see Here.

The porcupine and the sentiment are from Stampin’ Up, a set called Fun & Fast Notes. Isn’t he cute?? I stamped him with Close to Cocoa ink, then colored him in with a brown chalk. The butterfly is colored in with a pink gel writer. The dp is from Studio 8 Paper, and the solid pink and solid brown papers are Bazzill Basics. The ribbon is from Verve Visual and I love it! I have the same ribbon in brown and teal too.  I also used a brown staedtler fineliner marker to add tiny dots on the tips of the porcupine’s needles, to make them look prickly!

Thanks for reading my ramblings, have fun creating!

Deena