Dallas, here I am...

Well, after an early morning ferry ride on Sunday, I arrived to a clearly Canadian comrade at the terminal! We hopped in her car and headed for the border. Shortly thereafter, we were in Bellingham, Washington, ready to commence shopping!

Well, I am a champion shopper, if I do say so myself. My husband held back some cash, before I left, so there would be some left when I meet them back in Seattle in a week. Probably a good thing....2 days of shopping and now I must stop so I can eat while in Dallas.

On Monday, we went to the Chihuly glass exhibit in downtown Seattle. If I had a bucket list, I've crossed something off of it. What a stunning and amazing exhibit. I will forever be changed by the beauty that was displayed...I will have some pictures once I'm settled.

So at 10pm, we started our journey to the Seattle airport for our midnight flight to Houston, to connect to Dallas. For a moment, I thought I was moving through line ups at Disneyland....but no enjoyable Disney characters ever arrived, nor were there any fun rides at the end of the line up...just another line up!

It is funny, while self checking in we were offered $250 to take a later flight......wish we had done that, as we only paid $287 for our flight....and come to find out it was over booked and cancelled! Seems severe thunderstorms were rolling around Houston and our flight had been cancelled. We  were to fly out at midnight, but had been rebooked for 2am.

So, we found a seat and waited it out. Finally boarded our flight. I forgot I like to sit on the wing in a window seat. Barb, my travel companion, took the aisle seat. So, we had someone that would make our sandwich....who do you think it would be????? As people walked on the plane, the anticipation was tense. Lucky for us, it was a handsome young man in shorts and t-shirt with nice arms who completed our sandwich. I suggested to him we were pleased he made a cute addition to our sandwich! Too bad for him, he had wicked allergies and after popping several pills before take off....snotted the entire flight. Even while he slept..he snotted. There were several kids on the flight and they quietly existed until just before we arrived, a wee baby let her presence known.


Now I don't know about you, but after little sleep and a sitting/sleeping in a cramped seat for 3 hours...my feet were swollen and really sore. We had to dash off of the airplane; figure out what gate to run to, to get our connecting flight that was not what we had originally booked due to storms the night before. We got to our gate and immediately boarded. Well, we walked on the tarmac to board and HOLY HUMIDITY....we were blasted!

The plane was a little puddle jumper that would normally fly across the ocean between Victoria and Vancouver. I was seated next to a semi-cowboy. I call him a semi-cowboy because he did not have a cowboy hat nor boots.....but he did sport a crisp white western shirt and jeans. We finally took off after United had to unfuel the plane....yes, they removed fuel from our airplane. That freaked me out...would they remove too much? Seems they had been refueled the night before for a different flight that was cancelled. So after defueling, we still weren't moving. Seemed there now was not enough weight in the airplane....so a man or two were asked to move to the back and sand bags were added! Take off finally arrived.

Take $25 town carride  to car rental....wah wah wah...companion traveller had booked for Monday pick up, so no cars available today!!!!! Another $10 ride to hotel, then check in.

WOW, what a hotel!!! This place is insanely HUGE...MAMMOTH! There are wonderful Asian influences everywhere. Our room is gorgeous.....get set up. Then we move down to the atrium coffee shop for some coffee and food to start searching for reasonably priced car rentals. We find one and viola, it is booked and Barb is on her way to the airport to pick it up.

We will be joined by Jennifer at about 6:30pm and will pick up Jackie at 7:45pm. We have one more day before convention starts on Thursday. Shopping is in the plans for tomorrow. Oh and seems more severe thunderstorms for tonight.

So, we plan to have a relaxing day and see what tomorrow will bring!

Convention bound.....

Well, I am beginning my trip to Close To My Heart's 2012 Convention, in Dallas, TX, today.


I'm being picked up by another Consultant  at the ferry terminal in Tsawwassen, then we are going to shop our way from Bellingham, WA to Seattle. We will stay overnight in Seattle, then on Monday visit the Chihuly glass exhibit downtown; Pike St Market; and see the ginormous ferris wheel.


At midnight, we fly out to Dallas, TX. We will meet up with 2 other Consultants, to enjoy convention together. Once convention is over, and I'm back in Seattle....my family is meeting me there, then we will carry on to the Oregon Coast.


I have run out of time to get posts ready in advance. So, my apologies if I'm not able to get any posts up while I am gone. I do have an awful lot to show you.....but, if it has to, it can wait until I return.

Humble Artist's Swap June 2012

It is time again to reveal the card I created for the Humble Artist's Swap I Hostess. Here were June's guidelines:

-Must have minimum 8 layers stacked

-Do not use patterned paper

-Do not use any neutral cardstock (except for base)

-Do not use non paper embellishments such as ribbon; brads; twine or hemp

-Do not use stamp sets with “Border” or “Background” in their name

-Use at least 6 different stamped images

-Create paper embellishment that can count for at least and is 2 layers

-Card must be at least 4 ¼ x 5 ½

I  used 5 stamp sets to accomplish this card. The image stamped as a background on the Creme Brulee base is from Love Life . Next layer is Hollyhock cardstock, stamped with the large flourish from, The Best Things. The Sorbet layer is stamped with a background image from, April's stamp of the month, You Are. I didn't use stamp sets with the word "background" in them, but I did use background stamps.....sneaky huh!


The flower is 5 layers starting with Tulip; Sorbet; Smoothie; Cotton Candy; finally Creme Brulee. The bottom 4 flowers alternate with stamping from Simple Memories and Love Life. The top flower is stamped with the Lucy Workshop On The Go Kit stamp set. I cut a small circle from Sorbet cardstock for the flower centre, then added Stardust Glitz.


The sentiment is from the Lucy WOTG Kit stamp set, as well as, the tiny flower I stamped and embossed in clear embossing powder. The embossed image is on the Creme Brulee background layer; the sentiment layer and the top flower layer. I sliced the Sorbet layer and threaded Blush cardstock through, to appear as ribbon.


No neutrals; no stamp sets with the word "background" or "border" in them; and no patterned paper! Mission accomplished!


All supplies are Close To My Heart.
Stamps: The Best Things; Lucy WOTG; You Are - Apr SOTM; Love Life; Simple Memories
Cardstock: Colonial White; Creme Brulee; Hollyhock; Sorbet; Blush; Tulip; Smoothie; Cotton Candy
Ink: Creme Brulee; Hollyhock; Sorbet; Blush; Tulip; Smoothie; Cotton Candy; Versamark
Embellishments: Stardust Glitz
Tools: Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge

A Perfect Day

Once I inked up one image in stamp set, Perfect Day, I had to ink them all up. This one I paired with Florentine paper.

I stamped the main image with Garden Green ink and inked the bird in Desert Sand. The cardstock accents are Brown Bag scalloped; Cocoa and Garden Green. I tied the border up with White Hemp.


All supplies are Close To My Heart.
Paper: Florentine
Stamp: Perfect Day
Cardstock: Colonial White; Brown Bag; Garden Green; Cocoa
Ink: Garden Green; Desert Sand
Embellishments: White Hemp

Florentine Sympathy Card

Thankfully, I have not had to make lots of Sympathy cards or keep them on hand......so when I rec'd an email that my SIL's Mother passed away, I put this together.

I used Florentine paper for the large background and border. The Garden Green cardstock is stamped with an image from Diverse Backgrounds. The sentiment is from 4 My Friend and is stamped in Cocoa on Colonial White.


All supplies are Close To My Heart.
Stamps: 4 My Friend; Diverse Backgrounds
Paper: Florentine
Ink: Cocoa; Garden Green
Cardstock: Cocoa; Twilight; Colonial White; Creme Brulee
Embellishments: White hemp
Tools: Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

H2H Challenge - Patriotism

I'm very excited to share my first challenge as a part of the H2H Design Team. You can play along too, by creating artwork sharing your Patriotism. Keep reading to find out how!

Create your own artwork and post it to the H2H Challenge blog. CTMH products must be included in any artwork submitted for the challenge, but it does not have to be 100% CTMH. If other products are used, a description or list of what was used would be appreciated.


On to my card.......I find we Canadians are quietly proud to be Canadians. I wanted to shout it out with this card, just how proud I am to be a Canadian! 


I started with patterned paper from Roxie. I stamped words and an image from both Celebrate Canada and Canadian Celebration sets, in Holiday Red ink. I cut maple leaves from Holiday Red cardstock with my Art Philosophy cartridge in all different sizes. I also cut an oval in White Daisy cardstock and a scalloped oval in Holiday Red. I stamped the Canadian flag image in Holiday Red, then added the words in Black ink.


My border with the shaped bottom is cut from Art Philosophy in Kraft paper and matted with White Daisy. I have lined it with Bitty Opaques for some understated bling. I stamped the leaf border with Holiday Red and added Holiday Red grosgrain ribbon on either side, as a border. I sponged Desert Sand ink on all of my borders.


Finally, there would not be anything Canadian completed without our signature "eh!". I used retired Doodle Alphabet, as the font looks as fun as we do when we use this Canadianism!


All supplies are Close To My Heart.
Stamps: Doodle Alphabet; Celebrate Canada; Canadian Celebration
Paper: Roxie
Cardstock: Holiday Red; White Daisy; Kraft
Ink: Black and Holiday Red; Desert Sand
Embellishments: Holiday Red grosgrain ribbon; Bitty Opaques
Tools: Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge

July 1st is Canada Day!

It is Canada's birthday today and I couldn't be happier to be a Canadian!

Happy Canada Day to all of my Canadian friends and family!