Live, Love, Laugh

Only 2 days of 2012 left!  As the year comes to a close, we'd like to thank all who've encouraged and supported us over the last couple of months as we embarked on this fun, creative endeavour of ours!  We're looking forward to 2013, as we're excited about trying out lots of new recipes and papercrafting projects!

Speaking of crafting, over the holidays I've been trying to get some long-overdue projects completed.  Here's one of them:

Our 'laugh' kept getting knocked over by the boys' playing soccer in the house(!)  I've fixed it many times over, but alas, the last 'hit' shattered it beyond repair. I was inspired from the latest CTMH Idea Book.  Best part is, it's unbreakable :)

Supplies:  Avonlea paper, My Creations Blocks, Burlap Ribbon, all CTMH; MS Pearls; Brown ribbon from my stash, letters created on AI.

Wishing everyone a very healthy, happy, and SWEET New Year! And remember to LIVE, LOVE, and LAUGH :0)

Season's Greetings

We'd like to wish all our friends, family, and readers a very Merry Christmas 
and a healthy and happy New Year!

Christmas Fruitcake

Not your typical fruitcake!  Richly dense and moist, made with apricots, pecans, dates, golden raisins, and topped with delicious marzipan.  This recipe was given to Anita by her good friend, Marie, who has been making it since her high school days.  It's the fruitcake that converted both of us into fruitcake lovers!  
Finally, a fruitcake you can get excited about! 

Quilled Cross

Quilled Cross

My most intricate quilled creation thus far.  It took about 3 days to complete (in between working, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the kids, of course!) The pattern I used was taken from Malinda Johnston's 'The Book of Paper Quilling'  Although it didn't need it, I thought the addition of some pearls would be the perfect finishing touch.

Tania's Dynamic Duos Card Challenge #32

I was up to another Dynamic Duos card challenge this week!

I hadn't used my CTMH Find Your Style stamp set in a while, and thought it would go well with their 'pretty in pink & rose red' theme this week.
After stamping the dress form stamp in CTMH black ink, I thought it looked a little plain, so I dressed it up with some pink ribbon (the frill behind it was accidental, but I thought it looked cute, so instead of trimming it off, I left it there).  I used some 3-D foam tape to attach it to the card.
I used the dress form stamp once again to create the stamped border.  
I was planning on a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment, but couldn't find an image or font stamp that I liked, so I went with the 'friend' stamp that came in the set. I stamped it on some pink vellum paper and attached it with a thin strip of black paper and a couple of pink rhinestones.
Finally, I glued the top layer of the card to some Bazzill pink cardstock. 
I'd like to think it turned out to be 'simple yet chic' :)

Thanks for visiting!

Christmas cookie platters now available!  

Includes an assortment of our signature cookies: Caramel-Pecan, Lemon-Poppy Seed, Chocolate-Pecan Shortbread Logs, Cocoa Butter Balls and Tea Cakes.  
Available in small or large platters.

Tania's Dynamic Duos Card Challenge #31

Tania's Dynamic Duos Card Challenge

I had a lot of fun participating in my first ever Dynamic Duos colour challenge, and was glad their theme for this week included the classic Christmas combo of green and red-perfect for the Christmas mood I've been in for the last couple of days, as I've put up my Tree, decorated my home, and of course, baked xmas cookies :)) 

Before I started, I knew I wanted to use CTMH red baker's twine in this card, as it so reminds me of candy canes.  I also knew I wanted to make a card that looked like a xmas present.  Since I didn't have any ribbon in the required colours, I decided to 'make' some out of some scrap green paper, CTMH kraft borders (which I decided to thread with the twine) and some MS red glitter.  To continue with the neutral kraft theme, I made the bow out of CTMH burlap ribbon-a favourite product that I find myself using over and over again (I thought it looked a little plain, so I added some sheer white ribbon to it). I embossed some red paper with my Cuttlebug using their polka dots embossing folder, assembled all of the above, and finished it off with a tag that I punched out with my Recollections punch, added a glittered 'For You', and threaded a corner of it with a few stitches of the twine.  

 Looking forward to my next card challenge!

Thanks!

Thank you to all who visited us at the Poinsettia Tea and who helped to make our first bake sale a huge success! It was great fun! We hope you enjoy your goodies :)

Craft & Bake Sale

Getting ready for our church's annual Christmas craft and bake sale this weekend! We're very busy, baking up a storm!  Here are some cards that Tania made that will add some Christmas spirit to our table :)

                                         Something fun:

All supplies CTMH: Grey Wool ink; Stamp Sets: Snow Friends, A Little Thanks; watercolour pencils; waterbrush; Fun Flock; glitter; cs: Twilight, White Daisy.

Something cozy: I love how this CTMH stamp set screams coziness.  It's hard to see in the photo, but the wine velvet paper adds a soft and cozy feel, as does the Fun Flock/snow.

 

Stamp set: CTMH Snow Days; CTMH watercolour brush and pencils: CTMH Fun Flock; wine velvet paper from sei; gold ribbon and green cs from my stash.

I was trying to achieve a stained glass look with the following two cards, so I decided to heat emboss the images and colour them in (wish I had Copics!) and finish them off with Liquid Glass.

Stamp set: CTMH Gloria; CTMH watercolour brush and pencils; CTMH Kraft cs; CTMH Liquid Glass; Versamark watermark stamp pad; Stampendous blk embossing powder; cs from my stash.