Update on Ethyl!

Good Evening Friends!

It's been a very busy week at the shop and I've been neglecting e-mail and blogging.. not by choice! 

Ethyl's husband came in to the shop on Saturday to fill me in on how she's doing.  It seems that there were more complications with the last surgery she had on July 6th.  She skin slipped down to her neck so... more surgery!  For the second time in two years they have shaved Ethyl's head.  She was in surgery when he came into the shop so I haven't heard how she's doing.  All going well... Ethyl may be able to come home in a week or two.  I'm praying that nothing goes wrong with this operation as she's been over there for two months now!!
In my original post I told how Ethyl was helping in the burn unit with patients and the nurses.  She never stops!!  It seems that the nurses told her husband that they have never met anyone like her and she is loved by everyone... staff and patients in the burn unit.  She has gone through soooo much and still sees the beautiful and brightness in everything.  Wow!
There's two cards coming and I'll be boxing them all up to take over to her.  Don't worry.. I'll wait for the last two! 
The Stampscape stamps for the three draws are on their way.  I believe they are in Customs right now and Victoria thinks they'll be here by this coming Thursday which is when I work in Nanaimo again.  Then... the draw will happen!  I can hardly wait to e-mail and post the names of the winners!  I'll be putting them in the mail straight away!!

Have a great evening and wonderful work week!

Hugs,
Sheree

Stampscapes - Moon Rising

 

Good Evening Chickees!

 

We have a long weekend here so our shop is closed Sunday and Monday... Woo Hoo!

 

I've been playing with the brayer again and remembered a picture I took in December of 1999.  I was on Quadra Island, which is a short ferry ride from Campbell River, with my boys visiting a dear friend of mine.  She had a home on the east side of the island, right on the ocean!  It was very cold that year and something like minus 10 degrees so everything was frozen.  It's not common place to have stretches of cold weather here!  While we were cleaning up after dinner I looked out the wall of windows and saw the moon rising, just as this Stampscape shows.  It was absolutely an incredible moon that night!

I took a few photos of the night sky and brought them back to the farm to play with.  My girlfriend used the shots in the realtor's ad for her place as well.  The negatives went missing somehow and my step-brother decided to steal the photos and take them back to Alaska with him and he wouldn't return them.  Arggghhh!

The lighting wasn't the greatest for photographing yellow tonight so we'll have to pretend that it looks fantastic!  haha!  The blues are actually a lot darker and the sentiment as well.  Here is a closer look at the scene ....

 

 

I started brayering with Aqua and gradually added many layers of Stonewashed until I had the desired effect.  The trees are done with only two stamps!  After the scene was done I decided that the moon needed a little bit of yellow sponged in to give it some depth.

Once everything was finished I sprayed the acrylic varnish on and then added the white highlights from moonlight!

 

The recipe for this project is:

Stamps:

Stampscape -

196F - Pine Tree

222F - Twisting Pine

302A - Gulls (Over the sentiment)

Sentiment -

Stampendous - Dream Forever (Dream as if you'll live forever, Live as if you only have today) I picked this up at Crafty Capers in Nanaimo last Thursday!

 

Paper:

Staples 110 lb. white, Recollections Black, Stampin' Up! Yellow, Glossy White

 

Ink:

Adirondack Dye Inks - Aqua, Stonewashed

Memento Black

 

Martha Stewart photo corner punch

White paint pen

 

There you have it!  Thanks for looking!

Hugs,

Sheree

 

 

 

 

Same Card.. Different Post! lol

Sorry Chickees!

 

I couldn't post this card on The Outlawz Inlinkz because it was in the same blog posting as the last one.  Now I can enter!

 

Sorry for the confusion...

 

Hugs,

Sheree

The Outlawz Card Challenge Entries

Good Evening Chickees!

It's been a suuuuper busy week for me and I apologize profusely for not commenting on blogs as much as I should and.. I haven't had time to check e-mail either!  Hope to get caught up on that tomorrow at work!  (It's okay.. I'm the boss!)

The first card is for the Sunday CAS Challenge, CAS0724,  at The Outlawz!  The colours we were to use were orange and bright yellow...well... I sure found those in my stash somehow!  The card is super simple to the point it could be boring but!  I tried!

The ribbon is from WalMart and the stamp from Stampin' Up!  The embossing was done with the CuttleBug.  The only ink I used was for the sentiment and it was butterscotch Adirondack Dye Ink.

 

 

The second card is going into The Outlawz Tuesday Color Challenge, CC0726.  This week we are to use the colours Blue, Yellow and White.  Well.. sometimes I think out of the box, but I'm way out in left field with this one!  hehe! 

 

I used yellow gold smooth finished paper instead of sunshine yellow.  The tree is from Penny Black (Fantasy) and was stamped in VersaMark and embossed in white.  The sentiment was done the same way and the maker unknown.  I used alcohol inks for the background in three different blues.  The brads were the last four gold ones I have.  The sheer gold ribbon is also from WalMart.

My camera is not doing this card justice at all.  For once I'm happy with what I made and I can't show it off properly!  Eeerg!  You'll just have to take my word for it!

 

Thanks for looking and don't forget to check out The Outlawz!

Tips For Letterpress Debossing Ink Plates

I have been playing with my new Letterpress Ink Plates and have tried a few different inks that each give different results.  I like the rainbow dye ink pad effect the best with this plate.
I'll add to this post as I play with the plates more and more.  As these Sizzix plates are new there aren't many examples out in webland.

These two examples shown above are the best inks that I've found as they give a crisper image and not blotchy images like the other inks.

This set that includes Stampin' Up! Classic Ink and Adirondack Dye Ink was highlighted more so that you could see the blotchy ink pattern achieved.  These may look fabulous with the right design.

Keep in touch for more hints as I figure them out!

Thanks for looking!

Hugs,

Sheree

Christmas Bunny - Watch Out For Snowballs!

Good Evening Chickees!

This is another image from the Inkadinkadoo set that I coloured a couple of nights ago.  I had the idea of using kraft paper in my head so used colours that would go with it.  It only took one flip through the overabundance of paper stash to find the ones to use!

Here's the recipe:

Stamp - Inkadinkadoo - Snow Friends

Paper - Basic Grey, Unknown Cream Cardstock, Recollections Kraft Cardstock
Copics

Ribbon - Michaels From The Christmas Rack Last Year

Diamond Stickles For The Snowballs

Sentiment Dimensional Sticker - Recollections - Happy Holidays

Ink - Distress Ink Old Paper

I'll be entering this card into The Outlawz Monday Greeting Card Challenge - GC071811

Thanks for looking and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
 
Hugs,
Sheree

The start of Christmas Cards!

Well... The challenges lately have been dubbed Christmas in July' so thought I'd better get on the bandwagon!  Once again I'm out of my element and coming up with the right layout is tough for me. 

I started this card a couple of days ago.  The first night I coloured a bunch of the snowmen for fun to try out different colour combinations.  This one turned out the best.  Night number two had me picking out papers that would go with it and playing with different layouts.  Thank goodness I waited until evening number three where I came up with something decent!

Here's the recipe for this card...

Stamp - Inkadinkadoo Snow Friends

Papers - Staples 110 lb. white, S.E.I. Christmas paper, Stampin' Up! Next to Navy

Copics

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Corner punch

Diamond Stickles

Wilton Paper Doily

M. Stewart Snowflake Punch

Recollections adhesive decorative edges from Michael's clearout last January

Recollections Tag With Sentiment

Diamond Stickles

Red Perfect Pearls

I will be entering this card into The Outlawz challenge for greeting cards - GC071811

Thanks for looking!

Hugs,

Sheree



Copper Christmas!

Hello there Chicks!

I'm wondering if you all can now guess what my favourite Christmas element is???  You guessed it.. copper!  I went on another wee shopping spree at Crafty Capers in Nanaimo today.  I just couldn't help myself and purchased two more of the Letterpress Ink Plates ... well.. someone had to!  Besides, I now own the gas cap of Victoria's new car!  I'll be playing with the Ink Plates tonight and tomorrow to see what I can do with them and will post whatever I create!

**Note to self...  Do not attempt to design cards after eating dinner when you're already tired.  Brain blood goes to join the stomach digesting blood ... One cannot be responsible for ideas that come from such an altered state!

So... This is a card I created for the sketch challenge over at The Outlawz.  Everything was going fine until I had a brain fart and thought I should sponge some copper around the edge of the oval!  Of coarse I decided to do this after adding the pearls and stickles to the wreath which meant.. post it anyway!   With the shading, the eye is draw to the wreath and if you LOOK at the card you will see that the wreath is even crooked haha!  Here is a closeup of the embossed wreath..

 

I also learned last night that if you emboss with clear powder over Brilliance Cosmic Copper ink.. it washes out the colour of the ink.  This is why I went to work adding stickles and pearls.

 

So, there you have it!  Here's the recipe for the monstrousity!

 

Paper:   White heavy cardstock from Staples.  Copper is unknown.

Ink:  Brilliance Cosmic Copper Pigment Ink

Spellbinder:  Oval

CuttleBug: Snowflake

Pearls:  Dollarama

Stickles:  Copper

Ribbon:  Sheer Copper - WalMart

White brads.. the holey kind lol

M.Stewart Scor Board

 

Thanks for looking and I'll see you over at The Outlawz!!

 

Hugs,

Sheree

 

Hint:  If you are looking for the holey brads (can't think of the proper name right now) and you like the metal finish... head into the hardware store!  Mega cheap!

Mom's Birthday Card!

Sorry about the crooked picture!  I'm full from dinner which sends my brain on vacation!

This card started by me playing around with a new toy!  Yes, once again I treated myself after a long day working in Nanaimo haha!  My favourite stamp store in Nanaimo, Crafty Capers, has new toys!  The technique is 'debossing' and done with Letterpress Plates that you can use with the CuttleBug.  The plate I used is called Corner Trellis and for my first try it turned out pretty kewl! 

For debossing on this card I used a Brilliance Piment Ink Pad in Cosmic Copper.  After I debossed the paper and heat set it I used Copper Stickles to make it sparkle!  The rest is pretty easy to figure out... stamp the sentiment, add ribbon and presto!

Here are two close up pics so you can see what the Letterpress plate does!



Supplies used:
Stamps:  Unknown (I discarded the packaging before I learned that you shouldn't so you know what you're using!
Ink:  Brilliance Cosmic Copper, Memento Black
Stickles:  Copper
Ribbon:  Michaels Christmas
Eyelets:  Canadian Tire Hardware Dept.

Thanks for looking and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Update on Cards for Ethyl!
I received eight in the mail today... one from Australia, New York State, Iowa, Revelstoke, Nanaimo, Courtenay, Calgary and Gail in Nothern Alberta where they live in igloos!  Thank you sooo much my Chickee friends!!  This is soooo exciting!

Hugs,
Sheree

Challenges entered:
UnstampaBelles Challenges - The only stamp allowed is the sentiment!

Stampscapes - Masculine Generic

Good Evening and Happy Hump Day!

It's finally Wednesday and we're on the downhill slide to the weekend!  WooHoo!

I started this scene the other day.  After a few botched tries I finally have a scene I like.  I started inking it right afterwards and things were looking kind of dark (along with the circles under my eyes) so I set it aside until this evening.  The dye inks had faded to something I could work with so started applying colour where needed and this is what I ended up with!  Once the scene was finished I was going to put a bear or stag in the meadow but they would have looked too large and as far as I know there aren't any Kong Deer here in Canada haha!

This is a close up of the bottom left corner so you can see where I put the colour.  After spraying the image with a glossy varnish I got out my JellyRoll pens and added some red flowers and faint bits of glitter on the tree tips.

Here is the recipe for this:

Stamps:

Sentiment - Little Paper Shop (Moments)

Scene Stamps - Stampscape

057G - Meadow Large

196F - Pine Tree

251C - Sedge Filler

211C - Rocky Peaks

Paper:  Recollections, Glossy White & Stampin' Up! Kiwi

Embossing Folder:  Couture Creations - Entangle

Inks:

Adirondack Dye Ink Pads - Lemonade, Willow, Citrus, Meadow, Stonewashed, Butterscotch, Mocha, Pesto

Memento Dye Ink Pads - Summer Sky, Cantalope, Cottage Ivy, London Fog, Black

Distress Inks - Frayed Burlap

JellyRoll Star Pens - Red & Clear Star
Clear Embossing Powder
Dried Spanish Moss - Dollarama

Pop Dots

Colorbox Stylus

Thanks for looking!

Hugs,

Sheree

First Try At Bamboo!

Good Morning Everyone!

When I stopped at my favourite stamp shop last Thursday I saw a beautiful card that Victoria made!  At first I thought it was a stamp but it turned out to be bamboo that she did with TomBow marders!
I just loved that card but, now that I'm getting older and my brain functions have slowed to almost nil I couldn't remember exactly what it looked like!  I brought out my Copics and started playing and this is what I came up with.  I don't think my bamboo resembles Victoria's at all and I can't remember the layout she had also.  This is my take on her card!
The sentiment is from Stampin' Up Upsy Daisy and the papers used are unknown from my stash.  I highlighted the bambook with JellyRoll Star pens in green and clear.
I'll be entering this card in the UnstampaBelles Challenges for the month of July.  I couldn't get at my Cricut so drew the bamboo and only used a stamp for the sentiment. 
Have a wonderful week and I'll keep everyone posted as to Ethyl's progress!

Hugs,
Sheree

Get Well Cards Needed!!!

Update!  August 7, 2011

Hi Everyone!

Well... it seems that I've received every card except one and I know that one is definitely on it's way!

Thanks to Brenda, I have some cutouts done with the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Birdcage Die!  If you head on over to her blog, this die is being offered as her birthday candy this month!  Two of the birds are stuck together as you can use more than one paper at a time with this die!
Thanks soooo much Brenda.. For your card and the addition of candy!!

There is a wonderful, generous woman named Regina who resides in the United States and is a friend of Brenda, who generously offerered to add to the candy! 
When I received her e-mail in the beginning, Regina mentioned that she'd like to send along some flowers to be included in the candy that I was offering.  I arrived home from work a few days ago and there was a good sized box on the porch.  Here I was thinking that an envelope would arrive along with her card with a few flowers in it.  When I opened the box.... This is what I saw!!!

I am still in shock!! 
There are jars of gorgeous flowers, nexted containers of gorgeous flowers, a huge pile of loose flowers on top and then a pile of stamps!!!  Wow!!  I e-mailed Regina and asked how she would like the candy distributed and she answered back... whichever way I like... So, this is what I'm going to do!
I'll be adding stamps and flowers to the original three candy prizes.  Then I'll add a bunch more flowers to the Tim Holtz cutouts along with a prize of stamps and flowers!!  How does that sound?
The winners names will be put on this post tomorrow... Monday, August 14th.  I will also be sending an e-mail to everyone who sent the cards as there are some non-bloggers that participated.
Good Luck Everyone!  I'll be announcing names late Monday evening!

Hugs,
Sheree




I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!  Canada Day was on the 1st and Independence Day is on the 4th so both of us have long weekends.

Now... here's the reason I'm hoping Blogland can help me!

One of our customers at the shop is Ethyl Sanders.  She and her husband come over from Quadra Island to Campbell River for supplies and we work on their equipment. 
Approximately 1 year ago, if I remember right, Ethyl was in her kitchen cooking and tripped over one of their dogs.  Her head hit the woodstove and knocked her out so she didn't know one side of her face was being burned by the hot cast iron stove.  When she came to, she went to the mirror and was mortified to see that half of her face was severely burnt! 
Since the accident, Ethyl has endured four surgeries for grafting.  Skin was harvested from her head for one surgery, back for another, front for another, with these three surgeries each being rejected.   She is in the hospital right now going through hell with the fourth operation.
Being that she rejected the first three graftings for her lips, jaw, cheek and ear, the specialist in Vancouver decided to try another approach.  For the past few months Ethyl has had a balloon inserted into her neck to stretch the skin slowly.  Everything was looking fantastic and she once again went to Vancouver for facial reconstruction.  This fourth operation took place on June 24th.  The operation was a success until... somehow she came into contact with a virus floating around in the hospital and her new face became infected!  Since Saturday, June 25th, Ethyl has had to endure the surgeon pulling the skin away and scraping all the affected tissue three times, without any freezing.  I found this out when her husband came in on Friday the 1st of July.  His eyes were teared up as he explained everything to me.  He was heading home to find out the news of whether that day's operation was a success or not.  She had talked to him on the phone Thursday night and said that if they were going to do it again without putting her out she was going to get up and leave.
That is the horrible part of Ethyl's ordeal.  I met Ethyl when she came in one day and had a gorgeous silk scarf around her neck and tied in a bow.  It was obvious what the scarf was concealing.  Now, keep in mind that Ethyl must be in her mid to late 70's because they are great-grandparents!  I have never seen anyone look so regal and taking everything in stride!!  With her hair done and makeup on, donned in a suit and scarf she was absolutely gorgeous!  She is funny as heck and her eyes dance when she talks!  We talked for quite a while that day and she promised she would come show me the results after what was supposed to be the last operation.
Her husband and I spoke for quite a while on Friday.  It turns out that Ethyl is loved by everyone she touches!  Ethyls is not only gorgeous on the outside... but twice as gorgeous on the inside!
I am in possession of Ethyl's address on the island as I wanted to make a card to send over because I think of her so often!  While making the card tonight I thought... wouldn't it be wonderful if I could have cards sent from all over to let her know she is being thought of!  Which brings me to.....
If you would like to send a card you can e-mail me at sheree29 at telus dot net.  I will give you the address of our shop as I'm always there it seems!  All cards will be forwarded on to their Quadra Island address.  Everyone who sends a card will be entered to win some goodies!  I'm not able to give out huge candy right now but was thinking about some Stampscape stamps so you can try making scenes of your own.  What do you think? 
Because of our postal strike/lockout, Victoria at Crafty Capers in Nanaimo, won't have Stampscape stamps in for a few weeks.  I'll stamp the ones I'll put in a bundle so you can see what the candy will be once it comes in!

Here's my card for Ethyl!

Stamps used:

Stampendous - Agapanthus Cluster

Stampin' Up! - Greeting

Papers - Vellum, K & Company, Stampin' Up!

Ink - Brilliance White, Distress - Old Paper

Ranger Alcohol Inks used on vellum

Embossing powder - Burgandy and White opaque

Flowers - Home made using Nancy's tutorial here (Nancy's are waaay better!)

Diamond Stickles

Corner rounder punch

Pop dots!

Thanks for looking and I'm hoping everyone has a safe but wonderful long weekend!

Update!!

I will be adding a photo of the candy I am putting together for the draw from names of card submitters Monday morning.  It has been hard choosing which Stampscape stamps to put together so... I have decided that I will put together TWO batches of candy!  If I win the lottery this coming week I will send a full set of Stampscapes to all that send Ethyl a card!

Update: July 10, 2011

Those e-mailing me, or messaging me by Wednesday, July 13th will be eligible for the prizes!  Sorry but, I have to do a cut-off date lol!  All cards sent will be taken over to Ethyl on Quadra Island once they are received. 

I tried to get an update by phone on Saturday but there was no answer.  I'm hoping that everything is going fine at the hospital in Vancouver (city of the 2010 Olympics).  As I find out information I will post it on the blog!  Thank you for all of the responses!!  I'm so excited to gather them all together and present them to Ethyl!

Here is the candy to be won... so far!!  There will be two winners drawn.....make that three!!



Oooops... Having a little glitch!  I will post the pics tomorrow morning on my work computer.  Blogger can act up at times for some reason no matter which browser you use....Dont forget to check back!

For the first prize the winner will receive:

             Stampscapes Nature Sheet #6

The second prize winner will receive:

Stampscapes Nature Sheet #8

              

There is a possibility that I'll be adding to these prizes.  I'll have to see what Victoria has in stock at Crafty Capers in Nanaimo!

The third prize winner will receive:

Third prize is a set of two stamps... two of my favourites... Lakeside cove and Pines and Rocks.  Just these two stamps create beautiful scenes for those hard to do 'Guy Cards'!!

Nancy is adding some cash  to the loot so will pick out something for prize number 4!  Thank you to my wonderful friend Nancy!

Gina is sending along some flowers to add to the loot as well!    Thank you sooo much Gina!!



Good Luck Everyone!  I haven't had many replies sooo.. your chances are pretty darned good of winning!

Here are links to cards being sent!

Sherri  -  This card is gorgeous and a lot of love and talent has gone into it!  Check out her other work as well!  Thanks so much Sherri!

Shaz - You've never seen calligraphy like this before!  It's incorporated into her stunning cards.  This link shows the lily card she is sending.  Thanks Shaz!!

Nancy - You should see the card Nancy has made!  The colours are so pretty and I love the layout, the beautiful sentiment and all of the embellishments!  Nancy has beautiful cards for you to check out!

Angela - I've gotten to know Angela through The Outlawz!  She is on the design team there but also has a fabulous blog to check out as well!  I just LOVE the butterfly on her card for Ethyl!

Brenda - Brenda has created a beautiful card for Ethyl!  I really love how she used the Tim Holtz die for the birdcage and bird!  I've followed Brenda for quite a while now and her designs never cease to amaze me!

Happy Canada Day!!

Happy Canada Day!!

Woo Hoo!!!  There are so many things going on here today.  The carving contest is being held in Willow Point by our house.  This is where carvers come from all over the world to carve huge pieces of wood with chainsaws.  Every year the carvings become more elaborate.  Transformations On The Shore runs for 6 days.  We sponsered a few carvers this year and I can hardly wait to head down there to check things out later today.

Enough of my blah, blah, blahing.  Just wanted to wish everyone a good one.  Must get back to work here.  It's actually busy considering it's a holiday today!

Hugs,

Sheree