Yup, just 50 feet from our front door! That is way to close for comfort. Anyway, have a nice evening. I'm closing all the doors and windows now and locking up for the night. I hope they don't have a key!
Here's a picture. There's a corner rounder, a Metallic pen and a package of 36 photo mounts that are 4" x 6". I find they work equally well as patterned paper for card fronts, too. So, if you're not a scrapbooker, only a cardmaker, they will still be useful.
Here's a card I made today with a cupcake. YUMMY! Pull out your rubber stamps that have a food theme; vegetables, cakes, soups, coffee, nuts anything we can eat and make a card. I used my cupcake stamp from Inkspirations, a new rubber stamp online Canadian store. Go check it out, if you haven't already. I coloured the icing with Prismacolor Marker in Walnut and added a few Copper Stickles and some Perfect Pearls in pink for the little dotty things. The paper is by Karen Foster and the ribbon is from the ribbon tutorial by Rhi. I love it.
Okay, I'm on a roll. This afternoon I made this card which complies with two challenges. IC89 on SCS and Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge 15. This is worth two extra numbers to be called on Monday.
The challenge is to make a gate fold card, which I love BTW, and the engagement was a perfect opportunity to really 'gussy' it up! I used the tutorial by Beate Johns and a couple of little details (read hearts on the front) that I saw at Oodabug Alley. Thanks, Charmaine I did tell you I loved it, but couldn't quite bring myself to copy it exactly, although I did think about it. The tool that is most useful for the gate fold card is my Scor-Pal. I use this little baby EVERY TIME I made a card. I will never hand-fold again. Thanks so much to Diana Crick for creating this terrific, can't-live-without-tool.
After that card, I saw a sketch challenge I liked at My Time, My Creations and I wanted to participate. I almost never pick an image first when I make a card, but today was different. I knew I wanted to use my Stella Ruby paper by Basic Grey and it has a sewing theme running through it, which I hadn't really noticed until the other day. This image is part of a prize I won for a Scavenger Hunt at The Stamping Zoo (it is no longer in business, I'm sorry to say). I used Old Olive c/s for the base and Stella Ruby for the layers. I stamped the image onto Very Vanilla using Tim Holtz' Distress Ink in Walnut Stain. Then, I grabbed some ribbon from MM and used Tami's tip to straighten it. What a great way to iron it, thanks, Tami. I topped it off with a big, round brad from, where else, the $$ store. I removed the prongs with scissors so that I didn't need to poke through to the inside of the card. I like this idea and use it often. Then the inside of the card doesn't look messy or need extra cardstock on it. Thanks, Lauren, for a great sketch challenge.
I made a card for Shackie friend whose birthday is this month. I hope she likes it. It's Billboardabella from my ever-growing Stamping Bella collection. Did you know Billboardabella comes with about nine different sayings? I used Cool Caribbean cardstock and layered some of the gorgeous Glitter Stack, some of which is the prize in Round 2 of Bingo. Then I stamped Billboardabella onto Very Vanilla c/s and mounted it onto Cool Caribbean. I picked up some cute little MM flowers & brads and the irridescent butterflies at the Dollarama the other day, along with many other craft goodies. (BTW - all of the embellishments I purchased were $1.00, hence the name Dollarama, I guess - DUH!)
Actually, there are several Shackies with birthdays this month. Here's another card I made in the fog of pain! LOL! This time we have Bubblebella. The cardstock for this is Lovely Lilac. Once again, background paper is from the Glitter Stack (I'm loving this paper and it's perfect for "da Bellas"). The sentiment is also a wonderful embellishment from Dollarama. Bubblebella was coloured with Prismacolor Pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits and a blending stump. I used pink Perfect Pearls on some of the bubbles and Stickles on others. Of course, I did this before attaching the mounted, stamped image to the card base. So, when I turned the image over to place the adhesive, some of the glitter and pearls got smudged. But, you know what I think? Well, I'll tell you: I think it looks like there's a bit of steam rising from the tub and bubbles bursting in the air, so I left it. I don't think it looks too bad and, if anyone asks, I'll tell them I did it on purpose!
And, my final card in the middle of the night is one I made for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge 14 which you can see here. I picked up some fabulous Halloween paper at my local LSS last week and have been wanting to cut into it. You all know how that feels, to have new paper and just chomping at the bit to use it! I know you do...that's how I've been feeling and last night, I was able to give in to my desire. The black cardstock is from Bazzill and was trimmed just as you see it. No fancy cutting for me, I wouldn't have the patience. The striped paper is double-sided and is part of the Holiday Collection by KEI (I think, it's so small I can't read it, even WITH my glasses). The paper under the image is Halloween Slanted Lines by Heidi Grace. It's been a while since I used my MissyB Designs stamps, but she is perfect for Halloween, so I inked her up. Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie and Almost Artichoke was used around the edges of the stamped image and sentiment. For Halloween, the messier, the better! My final touch was this huge spider, also from Dollarama. Man, I can't wait to go back there! 
Here's another card I made, based on Sketch 2, which is a personal favourite of mine. Just so we're clear, any card I post is not eligible for an extra number. 
The first prize up for grabs is a package of 6” x 6” sheets from the Stella Ruby Collection by Basic Grey. The prize for the next round will be announced after each win. There will be a minimum of 6 prizes (one for each type of Bingo, plus a random winner from all the entries for each sketch challenge). We will play the game in rounds. So for Round 1, we will play until the first person gets BINGO, T, H, X or Blackout. Then whatever type of Bingo they win with will be excluded from the next rounds. So Round 2 was a T, Round 3 an H, and Round 4 is currently for an X or Blackout. 
However, the reason for the card is not so simple. This is for a friend of one of the member's of The Stamp Shack. Her friend has recently been diagnosed with cancer and several of the Shack members will be sending her cards of encouragement for her fight. We were told that this woman "is using the analogy of a fierce battle to oust an invader to help her cope. As she says, she's very much "in her head and in her thoughts" at the moment, does not want pity or sympathy, just wants to fight." Apparently "she has an absolutely irreverent, quirky sense of humour" and this will go a long way in helping her battle this dreadful disease. I'm hoping that she will find strength and humour in my card.
This is the card I promised to show you today. My photos always turn out better when photographed in natural light, but I think this applies to everybody. That's my excuse 'cause I was way to tired last night to do it, it was so hot. The weather has finely broken and we are at a very pleasant 24 degrees C., with a light breeze.
Geez, I'm so far behind I don't think I'll ever catch up! This is one of the Monday challenges by prbloom. You can check out her gallery by clicking her highlighted name. Her challenge was to take our favourite animal set and make a card with blue and green animals. Well, as you can see, I did that, but I just had to had a bit of dash with that red thing and, don't ask, I don't know what it is supposed to be. These creatures are from Silly SeaLife by SU. The card base is Cameo Coral, the DP is by Paper Pizazz called "Pool Water". I put some Karen Foster Loopy Brads on the corners and threaded some green wire through them. This is my first time using them and I can see where some improvement is necessary. Anybody have a tutorial on how to use them, please let me know. Then, I threw a couple of star brads in hoping that you could imagine they are star-fish. C'mon, you can do it, I know you can. And there you have a card from Monday's challenge.
This card is from the last day of challenges, which was Tuesday. Yvette is responsible for this challenge to make a tag card. You can see her gallery here. This is my first attempt at a tag card and I must say, it was super easy and it won't be the last. The only stipulation was to use the same stamp set for all the panels and/or sentiments. We could have hand-written a sentiment, but NOT do a computer-generated one. No problem as the SU stamp set which I used, Crab & Co., has sentiments as well as great critters. The card measures 9" x 5-1/2" and is scored at 3" and 6". I chose a Bazzill cardstock in a sandy-beigey colour. The DP is by Provo Craft and was purchased at Michaels. I noticed on Asela Hopkins blog, Hop Art Studio that she always gives the colour names of media she has used. I like that idea, so I'm going to give it a try. These images were all coloured with Prismacolor Markers. The clam on the left panel was coloured with Deco Aqua and Celadon Green, the crab in the centre is Pale Vermillion and the shrimp on the right is coloured with Goldenrod and Yellow Ochre, then I added Yellow Stickles to him for some bling. I put some Glitter stuff under the clam and crab and a little blue Stickles under the shrimp. I used a variety of shapes of brads and added bits and pieces of ribbon and/or fibre to the top. I really enjoyed making this style of card and just love how it turned out.
