Happy New Year...

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It is that time of year again where we look back at the past 12 months. Our triumphs, challenges, the happiness and sadness of the year.

Here is a card that I worked on for Valentine's Day. I know, early right! LOL

I used some pink cardstock for the background. I used patterned paper from Bella Blvd's, December Details, Sugar plum line. The image is Stamping Bella's perk me up daisy outline.



I coloured the image using pencil crayons and blended using Goo Gone. For a bit of bling I added some Stickles (star dust). I also added a bit of very thin green and brown ribbon.



So...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!


Cheers ;)

Stylish Blogger Award

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Hi everyone!

I received this wonderful award today from Kari at Pigtail1's Paper Patch. It was a complete surprise! and many thanks! I never thought people other than my friends were reading my blog and it is nice to hear from people that they like what I do. So thanks again Kari!!

So here is the deal with the award:

After receiving this award I link it back to the person who sent it to me, then I list 8 facts/statements about myself, and finally I pass it on to blogs I have discovered recently!!

So here I go:
1. My most creative time is very late at night or very early in the morning depending on the way you look at it :)
2. I bought a new car in March and drive it as much as I can!
3. I am from CANADA!!
4. I am a consultant for Close to my Heart.
5. My favorite entertainer is Anita Renfroe. I have now seen her twice!! She does an amazing parody of Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies", she calls it "All the Wrinkled Ladies"!! Check it out on YouTube!
6. I am a GLEEK, are you?
7. I am supposed to wear my glasses, but don't.
8. My favorite stamp is my Sticky Boy. He is the prototype for Close to My Heart's acrylix stamps. He is only availabe to consultants at Convention, the catch is you have to find him as he is hidden all over by the corporate staffers.





Now to pass on the award:

Tina at Scrapdiva Tina

She does some amazing work! Check out her blog!

Cheers!

Merry Christmas!!

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So the day has finally arrived. Been a bit busy getting ready for the holidays, pretty crazy here getting ready for 3 cookie exchanges, family visits and such. I am enjoying the time with family and friends.

My mom decorated the outside of our house before the snow fell. Here are some pictures.





This is the urn she designed....isn't it pretty!!!



and the fake cat with his festive hat!!!

I love him. We have all kinds of hats for the holidays for him. We have bunny ears for easter, a green hat for St. Patrick's day....

When I get home I have to wrap the last of my presents. Hope your holidays are filled with friends, family and good cheer!!

All the best,
Alexis

December....snow...what else is there?

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Instead of waking up to snow this morning, it was all rainy. I really didn't want to get up and go into work, one of those lazy days! Outta the house at 7:30am though and off to the train.

On Saturday my friend Carol and I attended the Stamp until you cramp at Stamping Bella's. It was great! I got to see Laura and Kelly and we had a FABULOUS time together. I also got a lot of my Christmas cards done. One of the ladies at work had asked for some cards with Penny Black's hedgehog on them and I was very excited to make them for her. I love her stamps!! Finishing touches go on them tonight and will post some pictures of them tomorrow.

One of the other cards I created is this one:


The image is from Stamping Bella, Not Even a Mouse by Mo Manning. I fell in love with this stamp as soon as I saw it. I even had the best paper to go with it. I had taken a class at The Workshop about two weeks ago and I had some left over paper with the plaid on it. It worked out perfectly. I added some brown ribbon and an ringed edge that was punched out using a Martha Stewart punch. I also included three gold baubles to the bottom right hand corner.



Here is a close up of the mouse in her cup. So adorable. I colored the image using copic markers.

Here are the colors I used:
For the mouse: C00, C1, R11
Blanket: B000, C00
Letter: E00
Cheese: Y11
Stocking: E55
Cup and Saucer: G95, G99, R29

For all the shading around the image on on the cup and saucer I used a dark gray and medium gray with Goo Gone.

Just an update on my dad's mom, tumor is back and she goes for surgery tomorrow, all fingers are crossed!!

Cheers!
Hope you enjoy!

food for thought

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It is interesting how life can take such quick curves when you aren't looking. At the house were I grew up we had a neighbour, Hazel. She saw both my sister and I born, and watched as we grew up. After my grandmother passed now 15 years ago, she became almost a surrogate grandmother for both me and my sister. And a mom for my dad, even to this day he calls her mom. She's sick again and it scares me. It is like watching what happened to my grandma all over again. So this is my therapy...writing and making cards because right now I am hoping she gets better....

Thinking of you...

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One of the girls at work just lost her grandmother. So I created this card for her.

I created this card using some scraps from my Close to My Heart papers.

The stamp is also from Close to my Heart. The inks I used are bamboo, desert sand, and black.

Enjoy!

Happy Anniversary!

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It was my parent's anniversary on Saturday. 28 years together!

I found the best stamp to use on their card. You can find it at Stamping Bella. It is designed by Mo Manning, who creates the most amazing images. This stamp is called Young Love.
Here is the card I created:



I coloured the image with Copic Markers! I will amend this post later with the exact colours I used.

I used a Martha Stewart punch for the lacy purple paper, some beige ribbon and three clear jewels.

Here the up close image of the stamp.



The couple is just so cute!! Did you notice the two little birds behind them on the bench!!

Enjoy!!

A somber event....

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This weekend I attended the third annual butterfly release at Fairy Lake to commemerate the passing of loved ones. Our next door neighbour lost his mom so we attended along with other family and friends to remember her with him.


Here is our neighbours with their butterflies. They were packaged in little white triangular boxes. They had to pull off the elastic that held it together and then open the box to release the butterfly. They had to aclimatize first before they took off.



Here are all three butterflies getting ready to take off. They were truly spectacular. All the butterflies that were released were all monarchs.



A close up of one of them.
All of them were so vibrant.

The weather also held out so that all the butterflies could fly away.



Here is a special moment I caught of Richard with his butterfly. He talked to it very quietly before it flew away. I really love this shot and was so glad I got it.

A little pick me up!

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Have been having a horrible week. When they say bad things come in three's they sure do mean it. So I thought I would do a card.

Here is what I created using some left over Basic Grey paper I had in my stash.



I used the House Mouse image and colored it with copics. The shading is done with a blue prismacolor pencil using goo gone.

Hope you enjoy.

94 days till Christmas...

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...are you ready? I'm not. So I thought I would get a jump on my Christmas cards early this year. Here is one I made on Saturday at our little crop that Carol hosted. Carol was there, Connie stopped by, there was Jennifer, myself and Lisa came by as well. It was a great day.




Here is the close up of the Santa. I fell in love with him as soon as I saw the Close to my Heart catalogue. I have always like the vintage images. It is on page 44 of the Fall/Winter 2010 catalogue and is called "Father Christmas".

The image is coloured with copic markers. I used: E00, E11 and R11 for his face. I used a bit of W0 for his beard to make it pop. The berries are coloured with R27. His suit is coloured with W4 as the base and then with R27 over top. On the holly leaves I used YG93 and YG95. Then I used my gold gel pen to add a little sparkle.

Around the image I used brown prisma colour pencil with Goo Gone to create the shading.

Enjoy!

Wishing for some good weather....

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I woke up to torrential rain this morning. I definately wasn't looking forward to leaving for work. So here's a card to make you smile.



The image is from Stamping Bella's Hugabug line. Isn't she cute. I love that it is raining hearts. This was just a very easy card to create. Very simple.

enjoy.

Convention 2010, Last Day

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Hello again from Washington.

Today is the last day of convention. Very sad :(

Our general session started with Jeanette answering questions that were sent in by consultants from all over. This was really heartfelt and informative.

We also got to find out that our next convention will be in California in DisneyLand. Woo Hoo!! Everyone was so excited.

After our general session we started with our make and takes. We made two layouts using the new papers, stamps, and inks.

They are truly amazing.

After this we had our business classes. Another amazing day.

In the evening we had our Dinner where we recieved our specially made convetion stamps. I also found a STICKY BOY!! My first!! I was very excited.

Convention 2010, Day 2

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So the sun rises and brings with it another convention day filled with paper, ink, and lots and lots of embellishments.

Today started again with General Session, and our keynote speaker was Mary Christensen, a motivational speaker. She is the author of "how to be a network marketing superstar". This woman was great. She was funny, entertaining, and engaging. She kept us really entertained.

After lunch we had two business classes and then our make and takes.

We completed four cards for our make and takes, using the new stamps and embellishments. They were SO cool.

After we were done we went out for dinner and dessert. We had a great time. I even got to go into the Peeps store!!! I have never seen one before! Not that I actually eat the things, mind you, my sister and I have a ritual of microwaving them. SO FUNNY!!! you should definately try it. We are usually in stitches for hours when we do this.

Well that's all for now, going to bed. :)

Convention 2010, Day 1

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Hoorah!!!

It's hear! The official first day of convention.

General session started at 9am, but we did breakfast of course first and some card swapping. Got lots of neat cards from consultants I had never met before. This is a really great networking time, plus you get all this inspiration.

At General session we got to see all the new product that Close to My Heart is releasing in the new catalogue. The biggest change is that we are going from three catalogues a year down to two. But don't fret, these two catalogues are going to have 24 more pages each. YA! We also got introduced to 8 new colours in the spring colours. They are amazing. We also got new papers, stamps, and embellishments.

After general session we did lunch, then were off to Extravaganza.

Here we went to 8 different stops and sat and listened to all the different classes from boutique chic to glittering. It was fantastic. After each session we handed in a ticket and got a new product from the catalogue. After 8 all sessions we had: 3 new stamp sets, the opaques, flip flaps, the new inks, metal accents, and clear cards. WOW!! These are going to be used in our make and takes on Friday.

Pretty good day!

Museums and Memorials...

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Today Gail and I went to the Smithsonian Museum, specifically the Museum of American Hisotry and we also visited the Holocaust Museum.

Our trip started at 9:30 where we met up with Liz, another CTMH consultant we met on this trip. We took OnBoard tours down to the Old Post Office. We decided to do the Tower Tour. This is where you go into the Old Post Office and travel all the way up the tower. You can then look out across DC to see all the sites. In the back drop you could see the Cathedrals, the national monuments, and the White House. It was pretty high up and I got a bit queasy.

On the way down we stopped where the housed the bells. Got a really good picture. Then on to the bottom of the building. We looked in the shops and got some really good postcards of washington.

Next we headed over to the Museum of American Hisotry. We got to see Julia Child's kitchen. This was one thing I really wanted to see especially after having seen the movie Julie and Julia. I had so much fun...Bon Appetit!! LOL. I also got to see the Holidays on Display, Pop culture items, and the First ladies dresses. In the pop culture section I saw KERMIT the frog, Judy Garland's ruby slippers, Archie Bunkers chair....it was pretty cool.

After we had visited the gift shop Gail and I headed out to the Holocaust Museum. When we arrived we went and looked at Daniel's Story. It took you through the changes that Daniel experienced with his family. Very sad. We were lucky that we booked tickets to the permanent exhibit....I am very glad that we did as it was amazing and sad all at the same time. The entire time you walked through the exhibit there wasn't a word uttered. It was completely silent, very respectful. Some of the images were a little hard to digest, but it really made you think. I would definately recommend that if you are travelling to washington, you make this a stop. I was practically in tears by the end of it. The sadest part was the children's section. I had to walk by that, there were pictures on the wall and toys....

While in the gift shop they had this really interesting poster, it said:
THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU SAW
- the next time you witness hatred
- the next time you see injustice
- the next time you hear about genocide

We ended up getting back to the hotel about 3:30pm.

Gail and I then headed back to the room and then out to register for convention.

Night tour of DC

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WOW!! Last night we boarded the OnBoard Tour bus with all kinds of CTMH ladies. Gail, Carol and myself had signed up for DC the Lights tour. This tour took us to the US Capitol Building, Iwo Jima Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, The White House, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, World War II Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial. The only one we didn't get to see was the the Old Post Office.

Our driver and tour guide were amazing. Our first stop was teh Iwo Jima Memorial. It was a really good day to do this tour because on Tuesdays, they have a practice with the guns and the band infront of the memorial.....all those guys in uniform. It was spectacular. It's amazing the control they have when throwing the guns and flipping them. If I ever tried it you can bet your booties mine would be on the ground on the first flip.

We stopped next at Korean War Memorial. We learned that the statues are covered in this special paint so that at night when the special lights are on they look like ghosts. On the wall there are faces of people who have perished. The tour guide even had one lady who saw her father's face in the wall. After you pass by the statues and the wall you come to a little fountain, and on the wall is the quote "freedom is not free". This was truly awe inspiring.

Next we stopped at Lincoln Memorial. Can I just say he is HUGE!!! Makes me feel so small! Underneath the statue there is a little museum about Abe with quotes and such. Then you can go up on this elevator to get to the statue. The view looking out is great. It was dusk by the time we got here, so it was even better. On a side note though....We saw the biggest nasty RAT at the memorial. We were all totally grossed out practically running away from it when we noticed it, however, one girl (as a true scrapbooker would) went to find it to take a picture. Truly Brave!!

Next stop....Vietnam War Memorial. There were supposed to be three parts to this memorial however they were restoring one, so we only got to see the nurse's statue and the wall with the names. I can't believe how many names are on that wall. The memorial is made up of two walls that make a "V" for Vietnam. The nurse's status was really neat, and it's nice that they recognized the work that they do. The tour guide had informed us that there were a lot less casualities because of the work that these women had done.

YAY!!! Obama....too bad I didn't actually get to see him, however we got to visit the white house. I even saw the guys who patrolled the top of the building. It was pretty cool. We walked around part of the building before we got to the front. It was neat to see it at night with all the lights, and the fountain lit up. The other neat thing is I got to see the Secret Service Police car. The lady driving it was pretty cool when I asked if I could take a picture.

On to the World War 2 memorial. In the centre of this memorial there are fountains and all around are pilars with states names and wreaths on them. On one side there is a wall with approximately 4,000 gold stars....and one little duck....LOL. I didn't think it was real, but it was!!! I chuckled about that.

.....and last but not least the US capitol building. Again the lights on the building were pretty cool.

All in all it was a pretty good tour, a little dark and gross outside because it was still about 80F with NO wind, but it was a great experience, and I would recommend this to anyone who comes down.

Until later today...

Official Day 1 in Washington, D.C.

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Hiya Ladies,

Today is my official first day in Washington. We left yesterday morning about 7 am from Newmarket, Ontario. It was Carol, Gail and myself in the car along with our luggage, and scrapbooking supplies. We arrived in Washington about 8pm. It was a pretty long drive with a few pit stops along the way. All in all it was a good trip, even managed to grab a nap.

We did hit a few snags with the directions and got a bit lost, but everything turned out ok. We got a pretty good room at the Gaylord National Hotel. We can see some of the river to the right of our window, and the views from the inside of the hotel of the Potomac River are specatular!!!

So, now back to today. we got up pretty early had the oil changed in the car (wanted to make sure that we would be able to make it back home as it had gone down quite a bit because of the heat and the long drive). Then we headed to Mount Vernon. This was really cool. We got to see where George Washington lived and died. The building itself is now owned by "The Ladies", a group of women that bought it in the 1800's for $200,000. This included all the buildings and the approx. 300 acres of land. Pretty neat, eh? I thought so.

We took the tour of the house, saw where the servants of the guests stayed, where family and visitors stayed, and the kitchens. We also got to see all the out buildings, and the tomb of Washington and Martha, and their other family members. I believe the tour guide said that there were about 25 other family members buried there.

We got to see where the slaves were buried and where the farming was done. It was a terrific experience. We also did the museum where the took you through his life, and his military carrier, and what happened in his life. We also got to see this really neat movie about some of his battles. The chairs even moved, and we got snowed on too!!! LOL. Not real snow, but soap bubbles of some sort. Now ask me how I found out they were soap bubbles, well of course I looked up. Please DO NOT look up if you go. I got it in the eye. Not such a happy camper. Luckily all was good.

So tomorrow, I believe Gail and I are going to the Holocaust Museum, and to see Julia Child's Kitchen (my idea). I wanted to see this kitchen after that movie....Julie & Julia, which by the way I LOVE!!!

Well catch up tomorrow.

Post pictures when I get home as I can't on the computer I am at!

Cheers.

another week....another card

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Good Morning!!

Here's a really cute card for your Tuesday morning.





The image is Whiff of Joy. The stamp is called Dancing Willow.

The sentiment "Happy Birthday" is from Stamping Bella.

I used copic markers to colour the image. I used: R11, R20, and R21 for her dress. For her skin I used E00. For her hair I used E11, E31 and E35. I used the perfect pearls to add a bit of sparkle to her necklace.

Enjoy.

it's finally here......

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Hello, everyone.....it's SATURDAY!!!!

Just because it's Saturday it makes me want to smile. I am very excited for the weekend, except for the rain. So, in honour of the rain I thought I would share with you a card I created just for this occasion.



I found this stamp at my local Michael's and instantly fell in love with it. Don't you just love it too??? Let me know. Post a comment. Do you have your own boots, too?





The image is stamped on Stamping Bella's bestest paper with Momento ink.

The boots were coloured with Copic markers.

I also added some clouds using chalks, a light blue and a bit of grey to add some depth.





Enjoy, and I hope you have a great weekend too!!!

CROPTOPIA 2010

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Hiya!

I am still recovering from Croptopia this past weekend. I had an amazing time. This crop was held at Camp Iawah in Godfrey, Ontario. This camp is beautiful. The really neat thing about this place is that it is always full of dragonflies when we come. It's specatular. Here are all the ladies. There were over 90 of us in attendance.



Here are my cropping buddies:

There is Clare, Veronica, Me and Rose, in our matching PJ's. We wore them Saturday night.



We had so much fun at this event. I took Friday off of work and spent the night at veronica's. Rose came Friday morning at 4am. Veronica (the master packer) was able to get all of our supplies into the car in twenty minutes. I think this was the fastest time so far.

We had a good trip out to the camp. Sadly, we were unable to pick lilacs this year as they were already past their blooming stage. We took a nap in the parking lot of a Tim Hortons as we were all pretty tired....not me though, I got a good nap on the way down. Thanks again Vern for driving.

We got to Iawah about 9ish. We got signed in and our stuff emptied out of the car. Then we got down to work. I got quite a few cards done. Here is one.



This is a new Stamping Bella stamp. It is part of the LULU collection. it is called LULU's wedding cake. I love how fanciful it looks on the card.



Here is the close up of the cake.

I chalked around the image with a rose colored chalk. Under the cake I used a bit of grey for the shadowing. On the cake itself I used copic markers, specifically: R81, R83, R85, YG23, R20 and R21. I used perfect pearls on the cake to add a bit of sparkle. I love how this card turned out.

I ended up staying up until 1:30 on Friday night, just working away. I was one of the last people to leave.





I was up again Saturday morning for breakfast about 7:30am, then back to scrapbooking. We didn't stay up too late on Saturday as I was pretty tired.

On the way to the rooms Saturday night Veronica and I saw this beautiful sunset. The picture doesn't do it justice.



We were up again Sunday morning for breakfast at 8:30am. We scrabooked until about noon. After lunch we were on our way home.

Here is another neat thing we saw on Sunday. It had attached itself to the netting at the doors. It's a moth. VERY NEAT!!



Well hoped you enjoyed.

A disasterous long weekend

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Well the last few days have been interesting to say the least. I was supposed to go up and visit my sister at school in Waterloo this weekend, however, my body had a different idea. I ended up staying home from work on Thursday due to a very sore throat. I woke up Friday morning and it was worse so I ended up going to the walk in clinic. I was in and out within the hour which was fantastic, but the prognosis was strep throat. By Friday night, it was terrible. I ended up having to go to the emergency room as my glands in the back of my throat were so swollen I was having problems swallowing. The staff at the hospital were amazing. My doctor was great too. After looking at me and taking a throat swab, he thought I might have mono. I was not looking forward to that!! Luckily, that test came back negative. YAY!! So with some medication I was outta the hospital, feeling much better. I had a very relaxing rest of the long weekend.

april showers bring may flowers

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I love The Greeting Farm stamps. Their images are so cute.

Here is their little gardener.





Here is the close up of the image. I coloured her with copic markers. I chalked around the image.

The fence is a punch by Martha Stewart.

oh rainy day.....

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It is absolutely awful outside today....so I thought a card would make it better.





Here is the close up of the Bella. She was stamped with Momento ink on Bella's Bestest paper. I coloured her with Copic markers, and chalked around the image.

~enjoy~

I'm a total Klutz...

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This weekend started out pretty great. Got some cards done friday night, got to sleep in Saturday morning. Then.....I walked down the stairs....

That's right, I totally fell down the stairs. I even managed to wake everyone up. Not the most pleasant way to wake someone up. Luckily I walked away with some really awful bruising, a sore little toe and a very sore back.

Now, to the good stuff. I got this stamp when I was in Kitchener. She is a Greeting Farm. Her name is Cheeky Glamour.





I used some scrap black and white paper I had in my bin. I think it is Basic Grey. I colored her using copics.

well, hope you like her.

enjoy!!

so many cards....so little time....

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Hi Everyone!!!

It has been WAY too long since I last posted.....

Here's the low down on what has happened since...oh WOW...I didn't think it was that long....March 1, 2010.

I have been very bad with not keeping this up to date.

So here goes....

I bought a new car. YAY. A little dark silver Nissan Versa Hatchback. I LOVE it. It's so cute.

I went to The Workshop's weekend retreat from April 16-18, 2010 in Stratford. A little change from our usual Collingwood, however, it was a great new experience. My friend Carmen and I drove down together. We spent sometime in Stratford before starting to crop. We went to a little burger and fry place on the main street called Boomers. It's really great. Burgers are good, and the BESTEST thing: if they don't make it there they get it locally. YAY. love the local support.

Here is where we cropped. It was in the Guthrie Room in the Hotel. There were about 50 ladies that attended the event. I cropped with some of my SISTAH's, Carmen, Carol, Elaine, Carrie, and Sharrie.

Here is my desk. Do you think I could get any more on it.....hahahahaha I had a huge laugh looking at this picture after....can you see it? what i was laughing at.....my Timmie's coffee. As any true Canadian can attest to, you day doesn't start with out that morning's timmies coffee.

We had a great time. We even went out to Scrapfest. It was such an amazing experience. For all those out there that couldn't make it....there's one coming to the toronto area. YAY!



Here is Carmen, Carol and myself, under the Scrapfest banner.

I am going to post some cards tonight....


STAY TUNED....

Proud to be Canadian...

OUR COLORS MAY BE RED AND WHITE, BUT OUR HEARTS RUN PURE GOLD!!
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I love being a Canadian! With the end of the Olympic games and the amazing goal by Sidney Crosby yesterday in the hockey match, I was extremely proud of my country. We have so much talent here in Canada. It's great to see all areas come together to celebrate, the athletes, artists, builders, and the companies that donated their time and supplies, it goes to show you how we can come together.

Here is one of the cards I created on Saturday at the Diva Crop. The stamp is called Rabbits of the Round Table and is by House Mouse. As soon as I saw this stamp I fell in love with it. I coloured the image with copic markers.



Here is the close up of the bunnies.

been awhile

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Wow, this last month has been very busy for me.

My friend Veronica hosted the Diva Crop yesterday. I had so much fun. I also got to visit with some friends that I haven't seen in awhile. Julie from Sassy Scrapping was there with her store. If you guys haven't checked out her site, it's great!!

I sat with Marg, Barb, Sue, Elaine, and Lisa. We had an absolutely fun time.

Now, here's a card to get you ready for St.Patrick's Day.

Enjoy

been away for awhile...

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Hello Ladies,

Sorry I have been away from my blog lately. I have been studying for my paralegal licensing exam that I wrote yesterday. WHEW!! It’s over, now I have to wait for the results to see how I did.

Ok. So Close to my Heart is giving away a free Felicity Collection Kit every day for the month of January to celebrate National Papercrafting Month. Click HERE to access the blog. All you have to do is comment each day and you are entered. It’s that easy. Just don’t forget.

Also, we are hosting a Crop for Heart on Saturday, March 27, 2010 from 10am to 9pm. This will be hosted at St. Paul Catholic Elementary School in Newmarket. It's going to be so much fun. For more information you can either leave a message here and I will send you the flyer, or you can email Carol at ctaggio72@rogers.com

Cheers!

a new year, a new card

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Hello Ladies,

Hello 2010!! Hope everyone had a great new year's.

I had a very interesting day today. While I was on lunch I was reading the paper. I came across the obituaries. On a whim I went through them. Wouldn't you know it...I found my dad's name!! Not just his first and last but the same middle name....it was disturbing....so of course I sent it to my mom. She certainly enjoyed it.

Well here's my card for today. Hope you like it!!!



and here is the close up of the little girl:



Enjoy