My First Road Trip

Good Evening,

The week-end has officially started. It's after 6:00 o'clock on a Friday. I really don't like dreary days. I have no energy those days. I did get a little crafting done this morning and then I headed out as I needed some buttons for this scrapbook page and I also wanted to stop at Costco again. Yesterday I bought a nice green sweater and I liked it so much I went back for the yellow one today. I didn't want to just purchase stuff for me...so yesterday I bought Xavier a summer outfit and it was so cute that I bought him another one today. They are just some little one piece short sets. I bought nice colors so when I scrapbook the pictures I'll be able to use different colors of paper. Sometimes you don't realize how long you've had some clothes or how often you wear them until you're looking through pictures and picking out paper to go with your pictures. I need to get a bigger wardrobe. lol
I mentioned yesterday that we were going to the Cirque last night. We had a nice supper out with Bob and Pam and then headed to the Metro Centre. The show was pretty good. i was maybe expecting a little more excitement. I would say it was only filled to about 60% capacity. They had a few high wire acts, a fire act, some contortionists, something similiar to a balance beam, tumblers, clowns. fun to be out with friends though.
This is a photo of Xavier last week-end when he came over for a visit. The little book on the left side will actually open up and that is where the journalling is going to go. I've wrote it in first person. So the road trip was from his perspective.


PS - Last day of May tomorrow. Today I realized my vehicle inspection needs to be done. I have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. The car can be running just fine and when you take it in for an inspection there always seems to be lots of things that need repair.
Tomorrow I'll put up some pictures of the cards we'll be making at The Cutting Garden in June.

Have a good week-end.

Yvonne

Wine Anybody?

Hi

Late on my post today. It's afternoon.
Just waiting for Bob & Pam so we can go to Cirque du Soleil. Going to go out to supper first. Should be a fun evening.
Pretty basic card today. Picked the stamp up at Michaels for 80% off. Stamped and watercolored on watercolor paper. Added a little metal for some pizazz. Sometimes less is better. I've had this one colored for ages but had just never put it together. I did use dimensionals under the layer of purple so it would pop off of the card more.

Working on another scrapbook page. Maybe I'll have it done for tomorrow....maybe not.

Have a good day.

Yvonne

Beaches - Lake Ontario

Morning,
I told you yesterday was going to be a crafty day. I finished off my scrapbook page and finished up three cards. Just sharing the scrapbook page for today. Sketch from lst weeks challenge on 52Sketches52Weeks. Unfortunately I didn't get it in in time for the contest.
This is more pictures of my trip to Toronto. I sometimes think of Toronto as all smog and concrete buildings. The beaches are obviously the beaches of Lake Ontario and only maybe 15 minutes from downtown. The sand went on for a long ways and you should have seen the number of sand volleyball courts. I can't even begin to imagine what that park would be like on a hot summers day. But by the size of everything, busy comes to mind. It was one of their first nice days when I was there and there were a few people out. Also we were out on a Friday afternoon which would account for fewer people.

The second page is a park downtown that we walked to. I actually needed to stop and rest there. I didn't wear proper walking shoes and we had been out hiking around for about 3 hours by then. Ouch.

The paper I used is from the Chloe's Closet collection. Notice the brads, paper flowers and paper clip. They are also accessories from the same collection. The green vine and the flourishes in the corner are cut from my cricut as is the lettering. The cartridge used for the lettering is Lyrical Letters. It's a new one out. The vine was Zoobaloo and the flourishes are from Storybook.
Today I'm at the Cutting Garden. I'll be getting some samples ready for next weeks card class. I believe we will be working with chalks.
Tomorrows post will be cards.

Yvonne

Early Birthday Greetings

Good Morning,

Well I had a pretty productive day yesterday. A little cleaning (but not as much since the cats moved to Toronto), a little crafting (not very productive as I couldn't make a decision on my scrapbook page), and some errand running (that was productive).Oh yes, and a little exercise time. Today should be a crafty day - right after the washing.

I'm sharing two cards I received when we had our girls crafty night. The first card was made by Kim. Kim's cards always have lots of layers. There's gold, lilac, vellum and white cardstock. There's windows cut out of the white and leaves embossed and cut out at the base of each window. Prima flowers attached to the windows over the gold embossed stems on the vellum. Make sure you click on the photo to get a better look.

My second card is by Val. The butterfly is gorgeous. He was all cut out and layered up. Complete with glitter. Very pretty. Love the pattern paper.


Thanks again gals, the cards really are beautiful.

Hopefully I'll get something together today to share tomorrow.

Any requests as to what you would like to see?

Yvonne

Shadow Box Card

Good Morning,

Monday again. Had a terrific week-end with Xavier. He is so good. Oh and did I mention so cute! Will have to do a scrapbook page or two. Working right now on some more of my Toronto visit.

Moving right to days post. Remember last week I went out to a girls crafty night. This is the project Kim prepared for us to do. It was so neat. Would like to try another one or two of these. The only drawback is you need to deliver them in person. Not really designed for mailing. The writing and images are all stamped. I quite like the stamped words.


This card was from our swap that we did. The theme was to use a womanly stamp. I drew Kim's card and it was just gorgeous. Using photo stamps, vintage stamps is really Kim's style. It's so different from mine that I really appreciate her cards.

I still haven't got Deborah's project completed but will work on it.

Must see what I can do today. I have to mail out some packages. Watch your mail Kristen!

Yvonne

Fishing Vest

Good Morning,

Thought I would let you know how our crafty night on Tuesday went. It was great. Kim designed a really cool card for us. It's like a shadow box. Don't have a picture of it yet as I want to distress the paper a little. But I was very happy with how it turned out. We also did our card exchange, which I'll post pictures of soon and some other cards that the gals made for me. Oh... lucky me.

The first card today is the tri-shutter card again. If you remember the challenge was wonderful women. This was all I had so I had to try to make a fancy fold card to make up for the little image. lol We've already discussed how to make this card but the ribbon in the centre. See how it looks wrinkled. I tie my bow and then very carefully apply heat to it from my heat tool. It melts the organdy ribbon and causes it to curl. Be very careful as it doesn't take much heat. On another card I also after it was heated rubbed it into an ink pad to distress the ribbon a little and make it look older.


A little manly card here. Just in time for "Father's Day" It opens at the centre so you have to untie the hemp. Easy to make and then I just add stitching around everything and sponge with some ink.

That's all the excitement in my life today. Must call DS and make sure they are bringing my Grandson for a visit. I think he must miss me!

Happy Crafting!
Yvonne

Lattice Fold

Hope all of you had a good long week-end! I went out today for coffee and was surprised to see everything open.
I did get a few cards made this week-end. A couple of them I can't post until tomorrow night as they are for a card crafty exchange. It was a tough card to do. The theme of the card was wonderful women. I don't have a whole lot of woman image stamps.
I dug out an old template of mine that I purchased I think at Atlantic Fabrics years ago. It's a template to make different cuts/folds on your cards or scrapbook page.
The butterfly, flowers and leaves are all embossed and then cut out. Time consuming but worth the effort. All cut out images are raised up with dimensionals. Other than all the cutting the card is very straight forward.
The pattern paper is from Stampin' Up and double-sided.

Talked to my son last night and it looks like they will be bringing Xavier over for a visit towards the end of this week. Should be lots of fun. Will have to make sure I have my camera fully charged.

Heading back to my crafty room. Need to put some cards into envelopes so I can get them in the mail tomorrow.

Good Night.
Yvonne

4 Wheelin'

Hi There,

Well it's been a while. I did arrive back home on Tuesday night. I had a great visit with my daughter. Did lots of fun things. Some of them were going to Medieval Times on Mother's Day and checking out Toronto Island. I will give you up dates on different things as I scrapbook the pages.

The two pages shown here were from Monday on Toronto Island, hence the title. Duh!
The island is about 6 klms from tip to tip. There's a ferry that goes over from Toronto about every 1/2 hour. Once over there you can walk or rent bicycles. We thought it would be fun to rent a quad-a-cycle. You can peddle side by side. First off, one might thing it would be easier to peddle than a single bike. NOT! We couldn't believe how tough it was. Didn't help that we kept forgetting the brake on too! lol That just caused a lot of giggling! We also learned that a steady pace is better than trying to go fast. We figure it has something to do with both people need to be in-sync on the speed. There is also lots of space to picnic, there are beaches, complete with clothing optional. The day we were over there we didn't think that would be an issue. I had three layers on and wasn't shedding any of them even when I was peddling. There is also a small amusement park and something similar to Old MacDonalds Farm. Stay tuned for pics of that.
Didn't take great pictures of the scrapbook pages. The photos themselves look much better in person. On this page we set the camera up on a rock so we could get both of us in the picture.

This page has the journalling hid behind the page. Look closely at the top...do you see that little notch. I adhered an envelope behind the page to hold my journalling.

That's all for today. Will try and get a card together for tomorrow. Hope you are enjoying the long week-end.

Yvonne

Toronto

Morning,
I did upload a couple of cards to share with yo while I'm away.
Firstly, and obviously I did make it to Toronto with cats in tow. Got the two pets loaded into their carriers Thursday morning and listened to their mournful pleas all the way to the airport. Getting them checked in wasn't so bad...the girl at the check-in counter asked me what I was quoted per cat to fly them. She confirmed that was indeed the correct rate however when she went to finalize it the price was around $2400.00. lol Little more than I agreed upon. Next up was the cats cages had to be xrayed. Ok...You have to take the cats out of the cages. Are you nuts? We're in the middle of the airport...I need to be in a 10 x 10 room in case they get away so I can capture them again. Well that went better than I expected...it also helped that Kevin was there to handle it. They are now taken away and I don't see them until Toronto airport. Both appeared to be doing okay and they weren't too noisy. We get out of the baggage area and Kristen is waiting for us. Thank goodness - another pair of hands. Now to find the car rental. Go this way, that way, up the elevator. Oh right...we are now in the elevator somebody please remember to push the button. Off again. Out of the elevtor, we'll head in this directions, looks like it might be right. Elevator again - need to go back down. Found it. Car I've reserved they are out of but they will give me a free upgrade. Now I've got a PT Cruiser. Cats are in, luggage is in, Kristen is in. We have Tom Tom out (GPS System). Oooops, can't get service in the parking garage.
Out we go...on the road. Turn left - GPS is still trying to locate where I'm at and where I'm going. He didn't work fast enough, I just took a wrong turn...heading back around to the parking garage again. Second time through you know what you are doing. lol Kristen knows enough we need to get on the 409 East. Tom Tom is still thinking. Missed that exit...now I'm going the wrong way...I'll shorten this up a bit. After a couple of treks up and down the freeway I finally managed to hit the right exit and instead of me trying to watch the screen and drive Kristen just held it and told me what was coming up next and of course Tom Tom talked to us too. lol That was the other funny thing. Tom Tom had been on mute so I told Kristen to turn it up. It was at 10% volume and she cranked it to 100% volume! lol Of course when he spoke he almost blew our ear drums out and scared us half to death.
We arrived safely at her apartment and the kittys are settling in. Patches settled in right away. Just her nature. Grizzley is a little more cautious and is sort of living under a bed. He did come out and sleep with me last night and was actually purring. On a good day he doesn't always purr.
Enough adventure news there...we did take the Subway downtown but I'll save that for another post.
Today's card is pretty simple. I needed a quick card done on Wednesday as I needed to get it in the male for a family birthday that I was already late for. I used the Cuttlebug embossing folder and co-ordinatins paper for the background and sanded it.
Twinkling H2o's was the coloring medium. On this card I really liked how the ground turned out. I tend to struggle a bit with things like that. Added a piece of metal embellishment for a little extra pop.

Hope you enjoyed the story and the card.

We will be heading out with the car this morning to collect cat supplies. Will be driving when there is less traffic.

Yvonne

Nana Says "....."

Hello There,

First off...Laura from Hamilton...I need your e-mail address to respond to send the directions...the scrapbook store in Toronto is Scrapbooks by Design.
Since Monday I've been battling a headache. I think it's just the excitement and stress about going to Toronto. I'm taking the two cats so that makes things a little more challenging. But once they get there they will be so loved. I'm so looking forward to seeing Kristen and doing some fun things with her. I'm taking my rain coat just in case the weather doesn't want to co-operate. a few sprinkles won't stop us!
Look I got another page done. This one took less than 24 hours. lol I used my cricut for the font and the cute little pea pod in the corner. The small words I typed on the computer and punched out with my word window punch. The chip board pieces were left over from another project I did. The color was just right. Pattern paper is from Chloe's Closet line from Making Memories. I got that from The Cutting Garden. There's all sorts of great papers in that line.


I'm enjoying being able to use some brighter colors and patterns. Lime green was just never my color!

Don't know if I'll have any postings for the next week. I may just drop in to tell you what I've been up to or if we get some good photos maybe I'll just share the pics. I could take pics of the scrapbook stores I get to or pics if I purchase anything. That will be unlikely that I'll puchase anything considering my will power and all. NOT!

Have a good week...I know I will.

Yvonne

Proud Daddy

Morning,
Finally finished this layout yesterday. It sat for a week needing just one more thing. I couldn't decide what to put or write on the lower left hand side on the first layout. I ended up liking the idea of using another round circle.

I am working on another page now that is just pictures of Xavier. Maybe I'll go back through some photos I have of Adam and see if you think his son looks like him. I have to make sure I get the real baby pictures cause by about 2 months he had really chubby cheeks. lol


I need to think about packing my suitcase to go away on Thursday.

Hopefully I'll have something else to share tomorrow.

Yvonne

Tri-fold Card

Monday...I'm on a roll as I had a post yesterday too! Well I only have three more sleeps till I head to Toronto to see my daughter. I will be there from Thursday till Tuesday...right over Mommy's Day! See's found a whole bunch of things for us to do. Guess what...see even found a 4000 sq ft scrapbook store to take me too. lol We may take in a play or go to a Medevial Dinner Theatre. The zoo is on our list if the weather is good. Here & I went there a few years back and had fun but it was so cold that time that our digital cameras has trouble working cause the battery was getting soooo cold. lol We'll go this time if the weather is good. (And Kristen if you're ready this...absolutely no stuffies this time) lol Mu daughter always loved stuffed animals and I seem to continue to induldge her.
Also by DH and myself will be empty nesters after my trip to Toronto. DD has agreed to take the two cats. They were the childrens pets but you know the routine - Mom & Dad are the caretakers - but not anymore. I'm sure I'll miss them for a little while - perhaps their personalities but certainly not the hair they leave on everything and kitty litter on the floor. Well enough chit chat and onto what you came here for in the first place.

Marrakech is the Basic Grey line I used on this card. The stamp set is also from Basic Grey and designed to compliment this paper line. Just as a side note I used my Scor-pal for all the scoring on my cards. Works great and accurate. If you've been in the store this is the same design I used for the baby card with the bunny on it. The lattice look along the top edge of the card is using the Martha Stewart Lattice punch. I do love those border punches.

This card will also be done at The Cutting Garden on Wednesday. If you want to have a morning of chit chat I'll be teaching the class in the a.m. and Kim will teach in the p.m. If you're unable to attend our classes drop me an e-mail and I'll forward directions. Please be sure to leave me an e-mail address to reply too!



Well I've lots to do today which includes buying another kitty carrier. We have two but one is going to be too small to put Patches into and have her comfortable for 5 or 6 hours.

Enjoy today as the weather looks rainy towards the end of the week. Just checked the weather forecast for Toronto too. Think I might need an umbrella. Good thing I'm not made of sugar & spice so if I get caught out in the rain I won't melt.

Yvonne

Sense of Time

Happy Sunday!

Week-end weather wasn't as bad as it was supposed to be. It was nice that we got rain on Friday to help put out the fire in the HRM.

I spent part of Saturday creating a couple of cards and the rest of Saturday and some of Sunday cleaning my craft room. What an ongoing battle. I moved stuff around, threw some out, put some into the bin slatted for the yard sale at The Cutting Garden. I think I'm ready to go back into the craft room to create/mess it up again.
Also went to the movies on Saturday night and saw the Soloist. It was a good movie. Different from what I usually go and see. I tend to lean towards the comedys. The Soloist is based on a true story. Makes you stop and think about the personal battles some people have to face everyday.

Todays creation is from a new stamp set in the occassions mini catalogue. It's called a Sense of Time. I used Basic Grey and Going Grey as my cardstock colors. The pattern paper worked exceptionally well. It has watch pieces on it and was from a package I got at Costco. The verse on the front of the card is also from the same stamp set and I embossed that in black powder. The two brads are also altered using black embossing powder. My nestabilities were used to cut out the circles. Sponged a little grey around the outside of the stamped image. finish it off with just a little ribbon and it was quick and easy.

This card is the same as Friday's post but I used blue cardstock instead of the green. I think I like the effect better...what about you? Just a softer look.

Enjoy your evening.

Yvonne

Tri-fold Shutter Card

Hello Everyone!

My apologies for being away...I've been scrapbooking but still don't have the layout quite finished. I know, it takes me forever. Just too picky. I've also worked on a couple of cards but wasn't happy with how they turned out. I may post them anyway but they just aren't doing it for me.
I plan on being home this week-end so hopefully will get a few things done to share next week.
The idea for this card came froma yahoogroup I belong to that use the scor-pal. The card is called a Tri-fold Shutter. Not nearly as hard to do as it looks. There will be a version of this card taught at The Cutting Garden next week.



I'm keeping it short today but I did want to get something up and shared with you.

Have a good week-end and maybe I'll drop in on you tomorrow.

Yvonne