Love...Giveaways!

Hey guys, I'm back after a short little break to bring you a fabulous giveaway from The Ardent Sparrow. I found about this letterpress company called Sweet Harvey through this website and it made my love of letterpress grow and grow.

I went to a workshop in August with a friend in Toronto at Bookhou studio and we learned screen printing and letterpress. It was well worth it! The paper was amazing, the machines and process is so natural. I applaud anyone who does this as a job because they are truly blessed so be so free and creative.

Anyways, I'm posting about the giveaway on the The Ardent Sparrow website. Hopefully this gets me another mention and maybe I can win something from the talented Sweet Harvey!

Oh ya! I'm on twitter now too. Apparently there are a lot of crafty people there as well as celebrities. Check it out.

...and this is y u love me. :)

Love....Diapers

Well, ok kinda like diapers. For the purposes of this latest project, yes I love diapers. In real life, they terify me! Just these little fabricy things to hold poop. No ziploc or air tight seal. It's got BP disaster written all over it.

The giraffe is a free digi stamp that I found online from craftgossip (a really cool blog with all kinds of craft links) and i just coloured it in with my copic markers. The felt diaper was a last minute add-on for the sake of being cute. I think it works.

...and this is y u love me.

Love...Brooches

That may not look like a lot but I am loving my newest ebay purchase! I ordered 50 brooches for $47 (shipping was extra obviously). I am working on my next project which I hope to finish in a couple of months but i'm trying to build my collection so feel free to make donations.

I'm sure you can guess why I would need so many but for those that don't i'll let you have some fun with the internet to find out. I will post the final product when it's all done!

The suspense is the best part..

...and this is y u love me.

Love....Weddings

I know it's been a little while since i've posted so I may just play a little catch up. Here are some cards I made for a couple weddings I had in June.

Here is another one that i donated to my brother who showed up to a wedding without a card.

June was a busy month but I spent two weekends in a row at the weddings of friends of mine. I love going to weddings. They are like snowflakes because there are no two that are exactly alike. There is a formality to them that everyone is familiar with but it's like opening up a domo box and not knowing what you'll get.

The first wedding had a dark pink theme for the bridesmaid dresses, some of the flowers, jewels on the table, the wine they gave as the favour, etc.. The music was traditional to the couples background and the food was exceptional.

The second wedding had a Coco Chanel/Parisian theme and the colours they used were blush and black. The table numbers resembled the label of a Coco Chanel perfume bottle. The food was excellent and there were many courses.

Altogether the experiences were great and I can't wait to see what else is in store.

.. and this is y u love me :)

Love.....Etsy

Do you ever have an idea in your head of something you wish you could make but don't know if it has ever been made? There is now an answer. Etsy! Lately, I've found myself stuck on etsy for hours searching and wondering what limits there are to the wacky, crazy and creative.

Some of my favourites:

- a definite cottage lamp

- old lady/bird decor

- making my walls pretty art

- gothic antique jewelry

AND

- super fun stuff

My latest purchase is a kick ass jewelry box that is covered in silk and has a wicked screen print.

I am going to take this opportunity to apologize for taking up your whole afternoon searching etsy. Here is a quick tip: Sign up and you get DAILY (including weekends) updates on some cool stuff.

....and this is y u love me.

Love....Wintersleep

What a busy week! It is a true sign of summer when your evenings are filled with fun activities and you run on little sleep but you are still able to wake up with a big smile on your face.

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of seeing one of my favourite bands, Wintersleep, in concert at the Mod Club. While their new CD, New Inheritors, is a step in a different direction, they continue to amaze crowds with their consistency and high-energy live shows. The new album definitely sounds much better live. They have the ability to keep concert goers on the edge of their seat and leave them wanting more. They played two full sets and one kick-ass encore.

Love.....Thank yous

I met some pretty fantastic people a week ago and had an awesome night of dinner and drinks. We shared laughs and continued on to a Rockband jam session. The fun night leads me to my next blog and a new task for my life.

I am in the mood to challenge people to do something thoughtful for someone other than their immediate family or significant others. I feel like I’ve wasted much of my life being sucked into my own selfish habits that I forget to pull myself back to reality and make a connection with real people. There was a time when i sacrificed my time for others and I want to spend a little time each day doing that again. I’m going to revolutionize my life and challenge you to be more thankful for the little things. The perfect way to start is with crafts!!

The card I made was inspiration from a collection of cards that I have been collecting in a folder and thought were really neat. I like to interpret them in my own manner and do the best I can with my resources. I used my baroque roller stamp from Stampin Up to start as a background for the card and also on the pots for the flowers. I made the flower pots by hand and outlined them with a black felt pen. I used my Copics markers to colour in the flowers. My favourite part about this card is the pop dots that I used to create some dimension. Try it sometime and make someone's day.

....and this is y u love me.

Love.....Minty Freshness

I am still buzzing from the wedding a week later. Everything we have worked on is now done and we're back to normal life. Maybe I can jump onto some wedding forums and befriend some fiancees so I can get back to work!

It took us a little bit to figure out what to do for place cards. I can admit that it is a slight annoyance to clean up those little pieces of paper with peoples names on them telling them what table they are sitting at. So, ask yourself, how do you get people to clean up after themselves? EASY! CANDY and a lil persuasion. No one wants to leave behind a personalized gift. That's just rude.

With a week before the wedding, my sister-in-law and I went on a candy hunt and found some delicious mints at bulk barn. I used the box template (Stampin Up) on the Cuttlebug and basic black paper (Stampin Up) to create these little gems as table cards. I wrapped them in silver ribbon from Fabricland and adhered the table card with a black border on top. It was a simple way to make an impact and enjoy some after dinner mints because the last thing you want is to talk to your close-talking Uncle Ned and smell the remnants of the roast beef he just devoured.

Cost: less than $1 per person (Not including cost of Cuttlebug and box template)

....and this is y u love me.

Love....Graphic Designers

Just a quick shout out to Kym. She is the creator of my fancy new header. I love it soo much and it couldn't have turned out better. She is definitely super creative and for that I thank you!

Love.....Centrepieces

Ready, set, GO!

This is my attempt to start blogging. Some of you may think, why blog? Why now? The truth is I always have so many ideas that I need a way to share them with the world in hopes that I can entertain/help someone. I think I will stick to things I make, stuff I love and u might love too or stories that I can share. Not to mention the fact that I remind the lovely people of the world why they love me so much.

My first order of business, my brother's wedding.

Ok, so I have a tendency to go overboard with some of my ideas and really run myself into the ground trying to make it happen. This brings me to the centrepieces. My future sister-in-law came up with the idea to have cupcakes in lieu of a cake for their wedding (GENIUS! Because who ever gets around to eating the cake?!). After a week of solid cupcake tryouts (and a few extra pounds to make my jeans look painted on) we found some winners. The next step; make a cupcake stand for the tables. Here is a picture of what we came up with.


The base is thick foam pieces purchased on Ottawa Street and the wallpaper wrapped around the side is from Home Depot using a spray adhesive. We made sure to put a doily under so that you can't see the foam. Then we bought ribbon from Fabricland, secured with pins and glue and voila! They look fantastic.

Cost: less than $10.00

.....and this is y u love me.