a breath of fresh air

after making 2 sympathy cards I needed to make something happy! this birthday card is for a wonderful friend of mine.

With Sympathy

Hi everyone!
A few days ago I received a phone call from my oldest son to let me know that his Uncle Ron had passed away from a heart attack (on my ex's side). I feel really sad for his wife, Susan and although I hadn't been in touch with them for a long time, I'd recently re connected with Susan.
I've always kept in touch with my (ex...sometimes I hate that word, I'm not going to use it again in this post) mother in law, sending her cards and notes throughout the year. So it was with great saddness that I had to make these 2 sympathy cards. I can't imagine what they are each going through, 1 has lost her husband of many years and the other has lost another son! How very, very sad.

for my mother in law, Nellie

for my sister in law, Susan

one card two challenges

I'm entering into 2 challenges, PaperPlay Challenges and Allsorts Challenge to make a Mother's day card for someone special.

My first Mother's Day card

here's a pretty Mother's Day card that I'm sending to a friend of mine. I'm entering it in at Inspirational Card Sketches for their sketch. While I'm at it I need to apologize to ICS for linking my last message to them! Sorry about that, LOL!

Butterfly card

I'm into butterfly's lately, LOL! Seems every card I've made in the last while has to have a butterfly on it. I'm entering this card into 2 challenges. The first one is Flutter by Wednesdays to use a butterfly on the card. The 2nd one is Our Creative Corner for their sketch challenge.

RIBBON tastic

here's a card I made to enter in at Cute Card Thursday for their ribbon-tastic challenge. You were allowed to use 1 or more ribbons and as I'm a 'ribbon' lover I had to use all 3!

Great Blog Candy

Hi everyone!
Here is some fantastic blog candy from Paper Hugs. You really must go take a peek at her blog
hugs, Valerie

Jak's Blog Candy

Hi everyone!
I was just over visiting Jak's blog and she is giving some great blog candy away. So please do stop by and visit her blog......thanks!

Friday Sketchers Challenge

This is Penny and she is a free digi stamp, but unfortunately I don't remember where I got her from, so if you see it's your's please let me know so I can give the credit to you...thanks. I'm entering this card as a sketch challenge at Friday Sketchers.

OCC Sketch Challenge

I made this card for friends of mine who are celebrating their anniversary in a couple of months. I'm also entering it into a sketch challenge over at Our Creative Corner

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge

This is Issie skipping rope, isn't she darling! She's a free digi image from Digital Doodling. I'm entering this at C.R.A.F.T Challenge for their sketch challenge.

A Birthday Mouse

I really enjoyed making this card. It's going into 2 challenges. The first one is a color challenge of red, white, choc and pink over at Colour Create Challenge. The 2nd challenge is a sketch challenge at The Sweet Stop Sketches.

It's all about the shoes

I absolutely love shoes! And now with my 2 new knees I'll be able to enjoy wearing heels again, not as cute and strappy as these are but about a 1 1/2" heel, isn't that wonderful! Anyways, I'm entering this card into a RED color challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges

green and purple color challenge

I was going to enter this card into a color challenge, but I didn't write the link down right, LOL! oh well, here it is anyways! I think the green and purple go well with each other. I colored the flowers with a purple and a green gel pen and used medium sized green brads for the center to make the pop out a bit. The little green brads are from Stampin UP. Both ribbons are from my local craft store.

Charisma Cardz

I love how this card turned out! Again the truck is a free image as well as the dotty background paper. I'm entering it at Charisma Cardz for their "MALE" challenge. And again I colored it with pencil crayons and OMS (I seem to have a thing for this type of coloring lately, LOL). The stamp is from KC

2 challenges, 1 card

here again I've used a free image as well as background papers. I'm entering this card into 2 challenges. The first one is at dare u 2 digi where the challenge was to use your punch, the little flowers were punched with the blossom punch from Stampin Up. I colored the little asian girl with pencil crayons and OMS. The 2nd is a sketch challenge over at Friday Sketchers

for Delia

I made this card for a special little 10 year old girl that is very ill. I read about her at Dustin Pike the owl was a freebie from Dustin Pike. The background papers were also free, but I'm afraid I don't remember where I found them. Once again I colored the image with pencil crayons and OMS. The ribbon is from my local Micheals Craft Store and when I was resizing the image I typed the message underneath. I'm entering this card in a challenge over at C.R.A.F.T. Challenge for their digi coloring challenge.

Crafty Creations Challenges

First I need to apolgize because the cute tiger and cub is a free digi stamp but I don't remember which blog I got it from! I don't want to take credit for something I didn't make. This goes for the background paper as well. I love to visit blogs and see what kind of challenges they have and some of these blogs have freebies which is wonderful and when I first started to save the images I neglected to save the blog name as well. I have since started to do so. Now on to the challenge! I'm entering this card over at Crafty Creations Challenges. Their challenge was to make a "friend" card. I colored the image with pencil crayons and OMS. The stamp is an old one that I bought in a set from Zellers.

2010 Olympic Torch comes to Anmore, BC

Hello everyone! Well this morning hubby and I were up at 5:25 am to go and watch the Olympic Torch come to Anmore (our little village). We are about 45 mins outside of Vancouver. It was very chilly but no rain, yeah! Here are some pictures from this morning. This was so exciting, a once in a life time thing and well worth getting up for, LOL!
here were are outside our little corner store just around the corner from where we live.

the pics are out of order....this is the Olympic Torch after just being lit.

here's the young girl walking past us

this was first thing this morning when the young girl got off one of the shuttle buses.

here's a pic of one of the Olympic vehicles

here's a shuttle bus

Flowers for Valentine

I haven't entered any challenges lately. Made this card the other night and am entering it into 2 challenges. The first is The Secret Crafter Saturday challenge to use monochrome colors: 1 color plus white (I hope the tiny bit of pink is ok). The 2nd one is at Cupcake Craft challenge which was red & white.

Sunday Brunch photos Feb 7, 2010

Hello everyone! Well last Sunday (Feb7) hubby and I went to brunch with my son Mark, his girlfriend Rachel, their kids and my older son Matt. We were celebrating Marks' 31st birthday. Mark and Rachel had wonderful news for us! They are engaged to be married in 2012! What a wonderful surprise.
Mark & Rachel, newly engaged

baby Madison loved her Valentine card I made for her.

here's Madison sucking on a creamer, LOL!!

Madison with her brother Sebastian

here's Madison with brother Sebastian and foster siblings, Jesse and Kassandra

after brunch while we were outside, Madison took a little fall, which didn't phase her in the least, but sure did a number on her pretty white coat, LOL!! She loves to be outside and just loves puddles.

Angie's Blog Candy

Hello everyone, I've just been visiting Angie's blog and she has some lovely blog candy available. Please have a peek at what she's giving away and give her some love too!
hugs, Valerie

blue hearts, glitz and glammer

Here's a couple more Valentine's. I think I'm about ready to stop making Valentines although tomorrow morning we're having brunch with my son and his family so I've printed off some Valentines for the children to color while we have our brunch. Anyways I'm entering this one into a sketch challenge at Inspirational Card Sketches.

Here's one I made for a group I belong to. We were to have glitz and glammer, so this is what I came up with.

for my granddaughter

I think this card turned out so sweet! It's for my granddaugther, Madison who is almost 16 months. The darling giraffe is a free digi stamp that I got from Paper Cupcakes. Nina over at Paper Cupcakes has a new challenge as well as a free digi every Monday, so please stop by and visit her blog, thanks!

4 challenges

I think this is one of my favorite cards so far. I used my cricut to cut the LOVE as well as the little heart. The black and white backing is flock, nice and soft. So I'm going to enter this into 4 challenges! That's a first for me, LOL! Here are the challenges:
Papertake Weekly for "Love Actually" a mushy card
C.RA.F.T. Challenge for "Valentines or Love"
Paperplay Challenges for "Love Notes"
Charisma Cardz for "I Love You"

2 in 1 challenge card

this card is going into 2 challenges. The first is A Spoon Full of Sugar for their sketch challenge and the 2nd is Cute Card Thursday their spots and dots challenge. I must give credit for this darling free digi stamp to Paper Cupcake. thanks!

sketch challenge

I'm entering this sweet little bunny in at Our Creative Corner Weekly for their sketch challenge.

A new challenge

I'm entering this card into the Cupcake Craft Challenges. The challenge was to make a "four legged & furry" card. I need to give credit for this darling free digi to dzdoodles.

A Cute Cat Valentine Card

this card is also being entered into 2 challenges. The first is a sketch for The Character Cafe. The 2nd challenge was a Valentine theme for Paper Sundaes.

2 challenge cards

I'm entering this card into 2 challenges. The first is for Stamp Something Challenges. Their theme was delightfully delicious and you were to use a food stamp. Well the only stamp I had was this apple, so I colored it as a red delicious apple. The 2nd challenge is over at Stamp With Us, their challenge was to make a thank you card.