WOW! What a Day - What a High!

It was a long day, but so exciting to see the girls dance in their lovely costumes and win awards! 

Rachel danced in two competition dances, jazz this morning and tap this afternoon.  Emily danced her first competition dance this afternoon and it was tap.  They had the opportunity to earn bronze, silver, gold, platinum or diamond awards.  In all three of their dances, they earned platinum!  Pretty exciting for them, but you should have seen Mommy and Daddy's happy faces, they were so proud of their girlies.

It didn't end there though, because Rachel's tap group won not only a cup for highest mark in their category, but an invitation to dance in Europe this summer.  Now although that won't happen for many reasons, the fact remained that it was a great honour to win and be offered the invitation. 

Their teachers Miss Tammy and Miss Megan must have been so proud of all their dancers.  The lowest score the dance studio earned was a gold, can you imagine, with other platinum awards and another group winning in their category and being offered the invitation to dance in Europe too. 

It didn't stop there either, because their teachers won the adjudicators award as well.  A pretty excited group of young people left the theatre tonight knowing they had worked hard with their respective teachers, and had been acknowledged today for that hard work.

Well done to each and every one of the dancers, teachers and not forgetting the parents who shuttle them back and forth to classes all week long.

Though photos aren't allowed during competition dancing, Daddy did get some as they practiced, so maybe we will post them at a later date.

I won't see them dance in their next competition in Collingwood in a couple of weeks, but I will see them dance at their recital soon.  The recital being just for their dance studio isn't as long, but we get the opportunity to see many more talented students from the Muskoka Dance Connection at our local theatre that day.  Looking forward to that.

Lilian

They Are Still Coming In!

I'm so glad that we decided to make this a fun challenge rather than a judged one, because it would be difficult to choose a winner that way.  Every entry has had at least one or two elements on them that have caught my eye.

This is the inside of a card made by Pat and given to ...well you guess on that one.
Pat used the challenge colours on the inside of this card as you can see below.
She coloured the black and white photo using the challenge colours and also placed flowers following the colour choice and all that was done BEFORE we  posted the challenge!

 Joanne has made another pretty card (remember seeing her scored one in an earlier post).
This one she has used some Basic Grey paper and coloured a pretty stamp. Love the punched look on the stamped piece as well as the pearl accents.

Lizette's scrapbook page records the magical time she and her family had recently at Disney.  Naturally enough Aladdin photos will have a fair amount of teal in them because of Princess Jasmine.  Lizette used yellow stickles to make the sparkly title.  (Bet that took some time to dry). What a great memory page.




We are going to have a magical time tomorrow as we will be in North Bay watching Linda's two girlies dance in competition.  Their dance costumes are just so lovely...will show you a photo later, in the meantime enjoy this one.  Rachel's costume requires her hair to be done in a high pony with ringlets, so there was a dry run on Friday night to make sure her hair turned out the way they wanted it.  It was like deja vu for me, because I can recall myself and my three sisters having our hair done like this a few (well maybe more than a few) years ago.  I did the same for my three girls too, the price of looking gorgeous remains the same all these years later.
                                            Lilian

More Entries

It seems like everyone is getting into the challenge mode this week.   Here are six more entries to show you.

Madison has stamped a cute little cat and coloured it with Copic Markers

"Purrfect"

                                                                         

   Evelyn has been very imaginative,    

in stamping her greeting on the fun

pinwheel she created as the focal point.

Bernice has used copic markers to colour                 

this Anne of Green Gables type image.                    

Lots of detail cutting of the stamp to mount her in

front of the stamped and coloured background                                                                

Becky has a great little boy image that she's

coloured with Copic markers.  Hard to see

in the photo, but she's cut out and raised

the fish, boys hat and dog.

Anne has used a large Hero Arts flower                                 

for her focal point, colouring it with

Distress Inks.  The Martha Stewart

punch creates a nice border too.

Tammy has done a lovely job of showing

us the vibrancy of the colour challenge.

See her faux stitching around the bottom

and the use of the Sakura pen in the centre

of the orange flowers.

(Maybe they are tears though, 'cos she's

missing her cardmaking friend this week

who's away on vacation!)

Hope you enjoy looking at all the entries.  Take time to look at the details, they are very good.  Don't forget this challenge is just for fun, so won't be judged, but there is a prize for a randomly drawn name....

it could be yours if you've entered the challenge.

Lilian



Okay Blogger's Up and Running Again and So Are We.

We have so enjoyed seeing the creativity of those who have joined us in this blog challenge.  The entries have come from far and wide,  from new carders to experienced carders as well as a scrapbooker.

Here are the latest entries...hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

Deanne has designed a card with
quilled flowers on the corner.
Love the interesting detail of the faux
stitching on the side too and the
distressed edge on the patterned paper.

We see again the use of the Martha Stewart punch on Liz's card.  The Prima flowers look like they are resting on a garden fence, very springlike. She's added great detail with the scoring along the top of her card too.

Evelyn designed her card using scraps from her stash!  Now isn't this a great way to put them together.  This same technique could be used on a scrapbook page too, creating your own paper.

Raquel has been playing!  Raquel is one of our customers from far. Living in Kitchener, she came up last Saturday to pick up her new Cuttlebug and we had a lovely visit.  As you can see, she's been having some fun with it.  Love the way she's put the Fleur de Lis folder and stamp together.  The little teal ribbon on the bottom really adds a lovely contrast colour on the white.

Christine is another one of our customers from not just far, but wide.  Living in England, we craft together via Skype. (Love that program!)
She makes many different styles of cards, this cute child's card fits the bill for the challenge with the orange flower accent on the greeting.



Well there you are for now.  I know another customer is working on a mini album and hopes to be done in time for Monday.  For now we have 20 entries for the challenge.  If you're teetering on the edge, or think you don't know how to blog, get in touch with us, we'll help you through the process.  You don't have to know about blogging and we can take a photo of whatever you've made if the technology is overwhelming to you.  Linda plans on having her camera at the store on Monday for anyone that needs a photo of their entry taken. 
For now....Happy Crafting.

Lilian

Coming Soon!

Blogger's been having a problem since yesterday, so I wasn't able to post the lovely cards we received yesterday.  Will do that tonight, so stay posted.....they're coming your way soon! 
Only three more sleeps and a day and our first challenge will close....are you done your entry?

Lilian

Silhouette Totes

     Our Silhouette Tote Bags just arrived the other day and they look great!  A fantastic deal at only $49.99 - and so adaptable ... mine is going to be used as a dance bag for this week's competition and Martha is using her's to store her Cuttlebug machine and folders.  We've already sold a few, only have a couple left and may not be able to get more - don't wait too long!



                                                                                                         Linda

Lots More Fun Being Had With the Challenge!

Well there's a number of crafters having a great deal of fun with this challenge.  It's lovely to see them when they come into the store to share their work with us.   How about you?  Have you looked in your stash and found something that you've already created that just needs a little extra something to make it work for the challenge?

Here's a few more entries for you to enjoy.... 

                          
Bev's enjoyed using Stickles on this new

Kaiser Craft Stamp.   Such a simple yet

effective way to use all       

the colours she needed to.

                   

Dont' you think that Bev's having

way too much fun with this challenge?

With some ribbon, stamps, stickers

and a punch she's created

another lovely card.

Christine used both a Spellbinder die and
a punch to create the mat for her focal point.
She coloured her cute little giraffe with pencil
crayons and made a double punched flower
to complete her card.
                              
  

                             Lynda created a fun scrapbook page that

reminds us to share our hugs freely. 

And last but by no means least, Tara created a lovely cuttlebugged tree which she highlighted with a Sakura Glaze pen. Many of those lovely butterflies have been embossed too.  On the greeting she used a teal ink to complement the colour of the cardstock.

Don't forget to look at the other entries too.  You'll find them here, here, here and here.

For more ideas and inspiration, look here, here, here and here.

Less than a week to go now, so get that Mojo moving, we'd love to see what you can create with a few simple guidelines.  Don't find yourself wishing you had participated - it could be as simple as digging through your stash!

Lilian

     

                              

Another Week Has Passed!

     The passing of another week brings us around to E-Newsletter day again! ... it also means we are one week closer to the closing of our first Blog Challenge - have you joined in the fun yet?

Click HERE to link to our E-Newsletter!

Hope Everyone had a Happy Mother's Day Today.

Whether you have children or not, no doubt there is someone in your life that you care for or have cared for, so I hope as a woman you celebrated Mother's Day and that it was a happy one for you. 

Mine certainly was, with phone calls from my daughters this morning and this evening they came around to our house with all the fixings for our first barbecue of the season.  How nice was that!  That was after they had had lunch with their respective Mothers-in-Law.  In there they hopefully enjoyed a little time for to celebrate their own motherhood.

Are you getting closer to completing your entry for the blog challenge?  One of the cards I received today fit the bill perfectly, so I'm posting it for you to see.  Do you suppose the colours were by happenstance or design.

We also received a submission from overseas, so I've posted that one too for to encourage and inspire you.

Linda has used distress inks and heat embossed on this card.  I love that Impression Obsession flourish background stamp that she used.  Don't you love all the little button centres on the flowers too.

Di has designed a card that allowed her to use some of her scraps in a very fun way.   She's stamped her orange background paper, along with many of the circles too.  Look at those lovely buttons again such dimensional embellishments.  Love the look Di, and thanks for the entry.

You still have a week left to enter the challenge so get busy and let's inspire one another with our artwork.

Lilian

Are You Working On Your Challenge Entry?

     We encouraged everyone at our Thursday card class to participate in our Blog Challenge and received lots of positive feedback.  We thought we would share some more inspiration with you just in case you haven't already started.  Like we have already mentioned, this Blog Challenge is open to any entry of any type of craft so long as you have included our three colours: teal, orange and yellow.

     Here is a scrapbook layout from our recent Mega Crop Weekend that just happens to qualify with these challenge requirements.

     You may recall that last fall we had made a bunch of friendship bracelets for each of us to wear on our Disney vacation.  This bracelet is looking pretty tropical so I think we may have to make nine more for this year's family holiday!

     If you have any questions regarding our Blog Challenge, what's expected of you or how to enter your project then please get in touch with us.  Entries are due by Monday May 16th!

                                                          Linda

What have we unleashed?

Is it a monster, or a very creative lady who loves to card make? 

Methinks it's the latter!

Bev contacted us to see if she could enter the challenge more than once and we said...

YES...Go For It!

She did just that and it wasn't long before we received her second challenge submission....here it is.
Don't you just love that little girl, I think it's a Stampavie stamp.  Nice colouring job to tie it into the challenge Bev. So different from your first submission too.

Here's another card this time made by Shaina.  She could hardly believe when she read the colours for the blog challenge, because she'd just made this card the day before for her son's friend.  Don't you love the way she created the greeting on the front and good dimension with it being raised too.   Great job Shaina...thanks for playing with us.

I heard of someone else today who had just made a birthday card for her daughter and curiously enough it had the right colours!  We can hardly wait to see that submission too.

Are you going to play with us?  There's still lots of time.  The challenge doesn't end until May 16th.  Click here to take another look at the original posting about the challenge.  It doesn't just have to be a card, but whatever you make....happy crafting!

Lilian

PS.  Happy Birthday to Anita today

First Blog Challenge Entry!

     Our Blog Challenge was just announced yesterday but this avid card maker doesn't waste any time!  Our crafty friend Bev was a busy lady yesterday as she created this beautiful card - one I'd be thrilled to receive if I was under the weather!  But, I think the real reason for making this card was that Bev just had to play with her new cutting die!

     Bev is now eager to make yet another card for our Blog Challenge and we are anxiously awaiting entries from the rest of our crafters as well!  Remember that this challenge is meant to motivate you and all entries will get a chance to be our random winner.

Thanks for joining in the fun Bev!

Linda

Grab A Coffee!

...or your breakfast, tea, maybe a smoothie!  It's E-Newsletter day - Click HERE for a direct link to this week's update.

Wanna Play with Us?

Well as we promised here's our first blog challenge.

Linda's told you about it in the last two newsletters and we're hoping you'll play along with us.  There aren't any real rules to our first challenge.  It can be a 3D project, card, scrapbook page, home decor item,  jewellery piece, a knit or crochet item.    There is not a particular product or technique that must be used this time.   You are limited this time only by your imagination and one simple rule.........

you must use the colour combo below.

Send us an email photo of your completed project, or if the techie side of things baffles you, drop into the store (assuming distance isn't a problem)  and we'll photograph it for you and your done.  You'll be entered into the blog challenge.  Can't be easier than that can it?

The challenge will close in two weeks on May 16th.  The winner will be chosen using a random drawing and announced on May 17th.

Here's my sample to get your creative juices flowing.

  Bottom line though is...have some fun!

 

In this project I've used Coredinations embossed cardstock, which I sanded to show the core.  An EK Success Border Punch, Hero Arts Stamp, Glossy Accents, Black Thread, Flowers are Dazzlers by Petaloo, Sticky Web Tape, Starform Sticker, and some scraps of patterned paper and cardstock.  All available of course at the Craft Nook.

Lilian

What Did You Do This Weekend?

(Note: this post comes to us from Lilian's sister-in-law in England)

     I cut, stuck, dry embossed and heat embossed, used my cuttlebug to cut and emboss, scratched my head and thought a lot!!

     Then I used my tombow pens,  glossy accents and crackle accents,  identipens,  embossing folders, liquid pearls, foam dimensionals, shaped scissors,  guillotine and my score board.

     Finally I used my camera!

     What will I do tomorrow, did you ask?   Major tidy up!!!   I couldn’t have made much more mess......well perhaps I could,  I’ve been well trained!  (by Lilian perhaps??) 

                                                          What did you do this weekend?

                                                                                             Di

    

Meanwhile, the dear husband was .....

making the most of his weekend????

     This card was created to celebrate three occasions at once.  Take a look back to our March 24th post to see the original inspiration for this card made by another UK paper crafter - Lilian's sister, Christine.

Click HERE

                            It's great to share ideas - please send us your's!

                                                                                     Linda

Did you? Were You?

Did you get up early, were you watching the Royal Wedding live?  Our household was up at 5am and watched as the closest Royals and Middleton family members were arriving at Westminster Abbey.  Then of course we had a glimpse of Kate getting into the car, but waited patiently to see her gown as she and her father stepped out of the car at the Abbey.  What a stunning gown she wore, beautiful in it's simplicity as was her sister Pippa's dress too.  Did you see all the hats as well?  What an assortment of fashions there were.

Last night Linda and I created hats for Rachel and Emily (Linda's two daughters) to wear to school.  With a barrette, some tulle, feathers, silk flowers, hot glue and some well placed stitches they had their own creation to go with the dresses they will wear for the celebration at school today of Kate and William's wedding.   Jonathan (my grandson) will be dressed in suit and tie with boutonierre and will no doubt look very handsome too.  Maybe there will be photos to follow on the blog later.

Getting up early this morning means it's going to be a long day because we have a midnight crop today.  Still no regrets at getting up as I've not missed a royal wedding yet and this one was spectacular too.

Lilian

A New Twist

Recently we held our Special Folds card class where we created easel cards with a twist.  During our Mega Crop Weekend Anita was making cards for her sister-in-law-to-be and she added another twist by creating a rectangular easel card where as we have always made square easel cards.  Nice work Anita!




     We sooo like to share your creations!  Here's a card that our friend Elaine made for me - she and her daughter Tracey spoiled Lilian, Sandra and I at our Crop Weekend.  Thank you ladies!

                             Linda

A New Twist

Looking for the close-up of Anita's card??  We're having some troubles uploading it but if you'd please check back later this evening it should be up!

Thanks,

Linda

Something To Brighten Your Day!

It's a rainy ole Tuesday but I'm sure our E-Newsletter will perk you up!  Click HERE for a direct link ...

Lovely Weekend

Did you all enjoy the lovely weekend?  The weather changed daily, but still I thought we fared pretty well.
We enjoyed our family dinner on Sunday evening with extended family at the table too, though some missing due to illness.  Over the weekend we were able to talk to all the immediate family in England either by phone or Skype.  (Love that Skype).
I wanted to share these cute cards Linda and I received from Yvonne.....aren't they nice and very Easter colours too.  Thanks Yvonne.

Lilian