Mojo Monday 199

Well I did'nt get things done on my big list of to-do's today... for when I was supposed to be checking that list off I got sidetracked by Mojo.  My sweet Mr does not call me "Miss Stubbs" for nothing, I was determined to finish this card no matter what.  It took me several hours in the end!

I really liked this challenge and I like how my card turned out - even if I really really struggled with it: 

I'm sorry I can't name the papers as they were given to me, but the shapes are all my own.  

The Rose  and Leaves are from Graphics Fairy. 

I sprinkled some glass beads over glue in the middle of the flower. 

The stamp is from Studio G

Happy Anniversary Lil Sister - a FREEBIE to celebrate!

It's my Sister Nina's wedding anniversary - wishing you both a v. special day!   To celebrate I made up this pretty stamp for you to use for your projects.  Its a png file, 300 dpi, aproximately 3 inches in size.  I am also including a staple so you can secure it :)  I took the photo with my iphone yesterday and added some filters to that!  G'wan over to Nina's and wish her a happy day instead of leaving a comment here if you only have one comment in you!

Right click on elements and "Save As"  

Personal Use! 

A Card for Seb's Mechanics & more FREEBIES added to "The Vault"

Most of you who are regulars to my blog know that we have a VW Vanagon and we ♥ it to bits.  It is not only our vehicle but it is our "home away from home" when life bites and when we vacation.  This is our second van, and this second one I picked out myself in 2008 for my birthday present:

Oh what a happy day that was!  At any rate, we have always "named" our vehicles and so this is Seb - short for Sebastian who was a famous Italian explorer and cartographer. 

We try to take very good care of Seb, so we take him in to get some TLC each year before summer.  Our mechanics specialize in VW's and are sooooo nice too, so we always do something nice for them when we pay the bill.  This time I made an extra special card for the people at the auto place to go along with their do-nuts: 

('scuze my finger holding it together)

This is a 5.5 inch card

The transparent road map panels on the sides came from

Making Memories - [clear creations] TRAVEL set

I love the little hunk of brown textured paper under the Thanks sentiment,

I just had a scrap of it.  Its almost plastic feel but I think it just finished

the card off perfectly! 

♥♥♥♥♥

I added 5 more personal use products into "The Vault" {click the tab at the top of this page that says "Mrs Miles...}  They are as follows:

• Heart Music (mini kit)
• Holly Wreath
• Howdy (rope words)
• Howdy Frames (rope )
• Howdy Knots (rope)

Enjoy - and a little comment would sure go a loooooong way to make more additions possible! *wink*

Clean and Simple

I'm just catching my breath after a few days visiting with my Sister in Law Judy - we had a wonderful time visiting, crafting and poking around in the local shops.  It was great to spend time with you Judy!  
I had to build a birthday card for a friend and my Sister Nina invited me to a simple card challenge and I decided to take her up on it.  Here's the sketch: 

Clean and Simple

And here's my take on it:

Grapic: Graphics Fairy

Stamp Studio G

Papers - various 

Luckily the person this card is intended for likes birds.  I loved how quick this card went - it gave me time to play with other projects - stay tuned!  

Mojo 198!

And here's what took me FOREVER to do today:

Just simple, I found this glittery thread I've never used from when I went to a Tatting Convention a few years ago.  I did not mark down all my supplies.  Sooooorry!  I kept my Sister Nina waiting forever for us to all blog together.  My sister in law Judy is here and we blogged all at one go and Judy fixed my sewing machine so I was able to sew on this card.  Now my husband has several "real" items of clothing he wants done... sigh!



Happy Canada Day and Memorial Day, A FREE digi-kit to celebrate!

Whew - we've made it almost through another week!  How has YOUR week been?  Everyone getting geared up to celebrate Canada Day (July 1st) and July 4th for our neighbors to the south?  What are your plans?  

Our plans include taking in a parade tomorrow and watching fireworks in the evening.  Our community puts on a spectacular fireworks display and my Mr. and I have a romantic date which includes eating homemade pizza with a faux painting camping feel.  We choose a good vantage point (waayyy far away from the busy downtown) and with Seb (our VW Camper-van) we set up our lawn chairs and just chill while the sun goes down, then bring out the layers of clothing and blankets as it gets dark.  Ahhh - truly the way to start summer.

I'm also looking forward to a visit from Judy - my Sister in Law who's coming on Sunday!  I'm sure we will compute and craft up a storm while she's here.  Travel Safe my sweet SIL ♥  

Here are some pics of this weeks adventures: 

Delicious – Strawberry Cream Pie

Our neighbours invited us over for dinner on Tuesday evening and it was fabulous.  It was our first time to visit their home and they served us such amazing food, so sumptuous we could hardly walk home!  We also got to visit with another set of neighbours and its sure heart warming to know such nice people live close by.  I can see how wonderful this will be in the cold of the winter – especially as the three of us women really love to bake. 

 

A fruit salad deluxe!

I’d put a fruit bat to shame.  I can’t seem to get past having a giant fruit salad for lunch – every single day!  I am not a breakfast eater ( I know ) that is soooo bad of me.  Anyways this is what is in this salad today.

• watermelon – cut in 1 inch cubes
• strawberry sauce – 1 cup fresh strawberries, 1 tsp organic coconut butter whirled together in a magic bullet
• vanilla yogurt – 0 % fat type
• fresh coconut flakes – yes, from a fresh coconut!
• almonds – toasted in microwave in 1/2 tsp butter, salted lightly

Let me tell you, this is a little bit of heaven in your tummy! 

 

 

Clever Girl!

 

I usually have banana on my fruit salad, but these did not arrive until after the fact.  I’ve always noticed those “banana hangers” and thought they were a wonderful idea so I made do with the stand for our patio cutlery set.  The cutlery only comes out when we eat outside, so the rest of the year the stand gets repurposed. 

 

Oh yeah Sister – pthffft! 

I’m a big sister so I can be mean.  Actually let’s say cruel because I know one thing my little sister always longs for is to be here when the cherries ripen.  That’s just happening now though many orchards are very late.  We have not had as much sun lately.  Sorry Sister.  I’m mean.  You can smack me when you come to visit.

 

Wild Currants

 

Some of nature’s fruit is coming ripe too!

 

Saskatoons

I always get a little misty when the Saskatoon Berries ripen.  I have so many happy memories of picking these as a child.  My grandmother (who died several years ago) used to “pay” us children to pick pails of these for her.  They make a lovely Jelly Jam.  You would not want to eat these raw, they are quite woody in texture and rather bland, but the Jelly is very tart and sweet and bursting with almost a lemony edge.  Served on toast with cream cheese – well even the Queen would delight!

♥

I wish you all a great holiday weekend. Stay tuned for some Canada Day Parade pics soon! I always love this song so will share it with you.

HAPPY CANADA DAY to all my blog readers!

 

WORSHIPERS AGREE

by HIS SEASON

 

Let our nation sing to the King of Kings

Let our people pray to the Lord today

May the anthem of my country be pleasing God to Thee

From sea to shining sea let the worshipers agree

That the Lord of the Heavens is the Lord who reigns in me

From sea to shining sea let the worshipers agree

 

O Canada let the worshipers agree

O Canada living God reign in me

O Canada we stand on guard for Thee

O Canada

 

Let our nation sing to the King of Kings

Let our people pray to the Lord today

May the citizens and leaders ever stand on guard for Thee

From sea to shining sea let the worshipers agree

May we trust in the living God to keep us glorious and free

From sea to shining sea let the worshipers agree

 

O Canada let the worshipers agree

O Canada living God reign in me

O Canada we stand on guard for Thee

O Canada

 

And in the spirit of celebration I’m giving away my Paper Bag Art kit – a kit from when I designed in 2008.  You will notice that the kit preview is from “Olivia Dorozio” – that was my aka when I designed in a shop that no longer exists.  Most of the wonderful designers from that shop migrated over to Scrapbook-Elements.com – you should really check out their products!  

I hope you enjoy, and I would love to see how you use this kit!  Just send me a jpg of your scrapbook page or project and I will feature it here. 

Click on the preview to download.  I’ll put this one in “The Vault” as well in the next few days too.    (this is one BIG kit – 133 mb, be patient downloading)

 

Mojo Monday, More FREE Goodies from "The Vault", An Interesting Site or 2, Random Pics and Another Free Element!

Just added 5 more items to "The Vault" (tab up top here) 

• Birthday Candles elements
• Happy Canner line art element
• Heart Doodles elements and brush set
• Heart Heart glittery elements set
• Heart Music Mini Kit

Enjoy!

 ☺☺☺

Here's a sweet poem I came across and thought would like to share with you, and I've created a little freebie to go with it as well!

A Swarm of B's

B hopeful, B Happy, B cheerful, B kind,

B Busy of Body, B modest of mind, 

B earnest, B truthful, B firm and B good, 

B sure your B haviour B all that it should.

B sharp in the morning, and never B flat,

B ware most of all that you never B that,

B all of these things and whatever B fall, 

B sure you'll B happy and B loved by us all!

by Eleanor K. Pratt

☺☺☺

Mojo Monday rolls around once again - I got side-tracked and cleaned up and sorted my entire craft area.  Took me from 7 a.m. to 3, but was so worth it.  It was a pleasure to work in my new creative corner.  

I chose the square, and here's my take on it: 

I do not know the make of paper 

The stamp was one of Nina's (mah sister) so look in comments and perhaps she will enlighten us.

The flower is actually a combination of a pre-made (behind) and the fore one I made - 

I cut a small circle out of a scarf - yes, a scarf, the type you tie around your neck.
I kept the circle folded, then cut three bumps into it, like 'petals'
Then I unfolded it and sewed a pearl in the middle then sewed little stitches here and there
around the pearl to 'pinch' the material in a bit.
I then sewed the 'scarf' flower to the pre-made flower and glued it on the card.
Voila!

☺☺☺

What a fabulous weekend it was - we had friends over for lunch on Saturday.  We had missed her retirement party which was a few weeks ago and so we made our own little celebration to commemorate her milestone.  The weather co-operated nicely so we were able to sit out on the patio.  We enjoyed crusty homemade bread, fresh green salad (whipped up by my Mr. who is so talented in the kitchen) and I created my own new dressing recipe.  This could be used on either a green salad or a fruit salad: 

Barb's Refreshing Coconut Lime Dressing

1/4 cup fresh water from coconut

1/4 cup light olive oil

1 tsp honey

1 tsp organic Tasana Coconut Butter 

2 tsp freshly squeezed Lime juice

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

1/2 lime leaf

GARNISH:

fresh Lime zest

cilantro 

Place ginger, lime leaf, honey and coconut butter in a Magic Bullet (or blender)  Zap to smoothness, add in coconut water, olive oil.  Garnish with zest and cilantro.  Oh MY! 

☺☺☺

In my last post - or could be the one before that - I mentioned I've missed sharing some good sites with you  so I thought today I would send you to one that I think is pretty cool and useful - let me know what your favorite projects from it is! I can't decide myself, there are too many great ideas to choose from.

Click HERE to be taken to Craft Roulette!

☺☺☺

And finally, the Freebie I promised.  I got inspired by that fun poem and decided to whip up a bee - then I had to have the words, and of course I had to make some bee "trails" - one just gets carried away!  I hope you enjoy these.  I also have another element from Pam's vintage photo album in queue too, so check back soon.  I'd ♥ to see how you use any of my products - just send me a small jpg and I'll feature you here!

A little "aside" here as well - though I create and give away freebies here, many of my friends are designers who make a living from doing this too.  I can't seem to find a balance for me to do it in a way to make enough of a contribution to our household (heck, I just l♥ve my time with my Mr. too much)  so I do it for fun and hope that some of you out there who may be like me and survive on one income (happily, I might add) may be blessed by some of my designs.  This said, I heartily ask that when you do have funds and are looking for designs that you check out my dear dear talented designer friends, most in my sidebar - Saxon, Sunni, KimB, Gaye, Linda, Kristin, Louise and lastly (though I have not seen anything new for a little bit) Amy!

download

10 More Free Items added to "The Vault"!

Happy Saturday everyone!


I've added 10 more items to the vault (look up, The Vault TAB!)

• Festive Lamp
• Gina's Little Snowman
• Festive Flakes add on
• Get My Drift
• Furry Nice Frames
• Floral Swirls
• Pretty Cord Ribbons
• Tapes # 4
• Fun Flowers
• Garden Pest

Enjoy!

(creeeeakkkkk!) Opening the Freebie's Vault, a new Freebie and this & that

GOOD DAY to you, and to you a GOOD DAY!

Ok, watch out, there's severe flooding here - well, fortunately not the sort of flooding that is happening all over our country and in USA to our south (lifting ya all in prayer!) - No, my flood is JOY overflowing my heart and there's no stopping it.  Yes yes, it's going to make me go out and do something nice for someone today!

Kind hearts are the garden,

Kind thoughts are the roots;

Kind words are the blossoms,

Kind deeds are the fruits.  

Do you realize you have the power today to turn this seemingly ordinary day into an extra-ordinary, extra-special, never-forgettable day for someone?  You might not even have to get out of your chair.  Oh if you are feeling full of fizz then by all means grab some gardening tools and get into your friend's garden for a few hours and help her rid her flower plot of weeds, all the while having a time of friendship.  

But if you're feeling like "staying put" then you can brighten someone's world by reaching out and building them up.  All that praise does nothing while it lies dormant in your heart.  Why not set it down on paper (a card or letter, yes a real pen and ink paper, or even an email or e-card will do) and deliver it to someone who's made a difference in your life, or someone who could use a boost... or someone who needs someone?  You are loved, let your joy overrun the banks of the river of your life! 

Luke 6:38

New International Version (NIV)

³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

♥--------------♥

I've been running through my old posts and realize I have a TON of freebies - something like 200 of them hosted in my 4shared in fact and more on my hard drive but I've never taken the time to put them in one spot where you can access them, with thumbnails and all, so over the coming month I am going to be putting them in my Vault - look up... you will see the TAB at the top of this page (that says Freebies Vault).  Please be patient as it is going to take me like, forever, to index everything.  I will try to cluster them together in categories (like all the Christmas items grouped together, that sort of thing) so you may have to check back often to see what I've added.  I would LOVE to see how you use my elements - if you send me a small jpg of your projects I'll be honored to feature them here. 

Do you know I give away beautiful free scripture wallpaper for your computer as well?  I make it in several sizes to be a perfect fit for your desktop - you can find these over on my church blog (yes, I blog a lot during the week!)  Look under "The Gallery" tab at the church blog by clicking HERE!

♥--------------♥

As I've been reading back in my older blog posts I realized how I used to share some of my great web-link finds and I do have a lot of very interesting and useful ones, so I think I'm going to try to share more of these with you!   Stay tuned.  

♥--------------♥

I forgot to share the Father's day card I made for my man - so here goes: 

I added this backing onto the card - the cards I saw on the web did not have a stand up backing - they just had a piece of blank card-stock on the back.  I think that its effective to have the card stand on its own.  Can you imagine this on someone's desk? 

The funny thing is, my Mr. has a shirt almost identical to this one - I was so excited when I saw the paper.  

Ha!  I found a picture of him taken a couple of weeks ago wearing this exact shirt (minus the tie) - wooo so handsome! 

I know what you all are screaming for but I'm sorry - I did not follow any one set of directions for this shirt, I played around and modified what instructions I found and did not write them down or take pictures (GASP! - me not take pictures??? Was I faint?)   I added little touches as my creative spirit led me to do.  So the best I can do is tell you to Google "Shirt Card" instructions.   PS - this was not an easy card to make! 

♥--------------♥

Last, but not least, I'm offering up another one of Pam's beautiful vintage elements for you today.  Pam has been taking courses at the school where my Mr. teaches and I attend and she's heavy into learning Photoshop and all this amazing digi-scrapping as she puts together her family's heritage.  You know when you show 100 people how do do all this empowering and terrific computer magic but only a few of these will go on and do something with what they learn?  Well, Pam is one of them.  Yesterday was our last formal day to work together at youlearn.ca (the school, click on the link, check it out!)   I liked what Pam said on the card she gave us with gifts to thank us for our helping her learn how to put together her family journals "My ancestors and I thank you from the bottom of our collective hearts."  How encouraging is that?  I've loved my time together with Pam and she's been generous to want to share these beautiful elements with you!  These are actual pages from her (very old) family photo album.  

download

PPS - You might want to scooch over to my dear friend Linda's blog too - she's got some SO GOOD NEWS and some excellent and fun Monkey Brushes for you she's made!   Click HERE to be transported !

Mojo - Oh Yippidy!

Yes - its Monday and I have come to love my Mondays because I get to "play mojo" with my family - Nina, Judy and Sam (links in my sidebar)   Got to keep my carding skills honed to keep up with these talented ladies, for sure!  

Here's today's sketch - nice and simple, gotta like that.



And my take on it:

credits:  star - K and Co

Lettering stamps:  Recollections - Elegant Double and Once Upon a Letter

The rest - I dunno (scratching my head) 

Stay tuned for more cards soon, my Mr. has me making a scad of them for tomorrow's school graduation (he's an instructor)  Lots of people to congratulate and wish a good summer to.