Shabby Noel

Hello Everyone!

Last year I only made one Christmas card in the entire month of July, and when Christmas came around, I was super short on cards. This year, I am getting ahead of the game, so I will be getting into the holiday spirit with my crafting as much as I can during July.

I used an image from a purchased Christmas card pack I bought years ago, before I started making cards. I think it works great as a focal point and it's better than tossing that package away.

The base and the layers are cut with Spellbinders, the snowflakes are Cheery Lynn, the Poinsettias and the 'noel' are from Sizzix, The Snow Writer and the pretty glitter are from DecoArt. Everything else is from my stash.

It's hard to tell, but the base is see through where all the cut outs are. I used the same fancy die to cut the tent fold as I did the bottom layer. I was inspired to give this a try by my dear friend Karen of Kaleidoscopic Sparkles, she makes the beautiful shaped cards. It was quite difficult to do with my sucky machine, so this may be the only one I bother with.

I am entering the following wonderful challenges:

Inky Chicks - Challenge #69 - CHRISTMAS IN SUMMER

Fab n' Funky - Challenge #311 Christmas

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Just a few minutes drive from us is the Credit River. It goes for miles and miles and miles, and so do the trails! This spot is one of our favourites so far. There are fields of flowers, bridges, man made walls and even rock benches where you can sit and take a break.

There were fields of these beautiful flowers - Dame's Rocket!

Swamp Roses are everywhere around the river and lakes. I know they don't look like roses when they're open, but they sure do when they're closed.

Back on the home front, the geese are keeping cool in the lake. The goslings are getting so big!

A big Hello from LINUS as he waits patiently for me to fill the food bowl.

PRECIOUS still hasn't worked up the courage to cross that branch to the balcony, but she watches on from the safety of the tree.

Oh, and big surprise... JUNIOR is all curled up on the patio chair again!

THIS MIGHT BE THE SMALLEST BABY SQUIRREL EVER!!!
Good grief, would you just look at that little guy! Awwwwwwwwwwwww!

Last but not least, my token after dinner shot...

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. If you have any questions or interesting tidbits about today's wildlife, please let me know.

Birthday Florals for a Friend - with Video

Hello Everyone!

I have a special treat today for a very dear bloggy friend. This was the card I sent her for her birthday, and although it hasn't arrived yet, I'm going to share it with you and hope she doesn't see this post until after it arrives. This crafter has not only inspired me with her art but with her kind sweet personality as well. She has been a valued friend to me and I hope to show her how grateful I am with this card and video. I hope you enjoy this Doc!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKI aka DOC!!!!

Please visit Niki - Pawsitively Creative Crafts and give her some birthday bloggy love!

This was actually  meant to be my DT project for Anything But Cute this month. I'm a little late getting it posted, but you really don't want to miss out on our challenge for May.

As we celebrate our First Anniversary at Anything But Cute, we want you to celebrate what you do best...mixed media! This is your chance to do it your way, in your favourite style...so pull out those inks and paints and show us what you're made of! You can make anything you want, in any theme you want and any style you want, just as long as it has some mixed media products on it and no cute images. HAVE FUN!

Along with all of our Design Team inspiration, we are also featuring projects by some of our Favourite Artists from our first year, and we also have a super line up of prizes from amazing sponsors like The Funkie Junkie Boutique, Emerald Creek Craft Supplies and Alleystamp!

This one's for you Doc, I sure hope you don't mind all the pastels!! lol Thank you to everyone for your support. If you have any questions, drop me a comment at YouTube. Hugs

Card Series 111 - Birthday Florals for a Friend

The flowers on this card are handmade out of ribbon. If you would care to watch the tutorial for those, here is the video. The colours are different, but the technique is exactly the same.

I am entering the following wonderful challenges:

** - Fussy and Fancy Challenge 163 - Birthdays

- Glitter N' Sparkle - Challenge #187 One For The Ladies
** - Emerald Creek Dares - The B's (birds, birdcages, blossoms, beads, bows, browns)

  

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Hubby and I went to the Japanese Gardens on Sunday. It was quite beautiful, but we were disappointed to see that the cherry trees were not in bloom. Apparently, they may not bloom at all this year. They think that the horrible ice storm we got so late in the season may have killed the flower buds. Most likely the trees will go straight to leaves. 

Gives us something to look forward to next year I guess. In the meantime, there were some trees with beautiful pink flowers on them...can anyone help my identify what they are??

There were several ponds and they were all filled with wildlife. There were small trickling water falls and there was even a rock garden. It was just so pretty. I took many many photos...more than I could ever show you, without boring you stupid! lol

MY FIRST TURTLE...AHHHHHH!! FUN!

My token morning coffee shot...nice right!

A typical morning feeding time on my balcony. Everyone picks a chair...hilarious to see them all lined up sometimes. There are so many new faces this spring, I haven't even named them all yet.

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. If you have any questions or interesting tidbits about today's wildlife, please let me know.