May Card Swap

 Trying to get back into the swing of card making. Keri and I are going to attempt our Monthly swap. I started with a super easy copy card to get my mojo going....

Keri gave me a couple cards from her Paper Pumpkin collection. We are both trying to get back in the game. I loved these sweet cards...

Wish us luck for JUNE!

October Swap Cards

 So I think Keri made her card for the You Pick challenge but as previously stated, I can't find anything or remember where her "real" swap cards is, so I'm going with this. Again, it's a stamp and die set from My Favourite Things and I believe the Celebrate is from Stampin Up.

How cute is that?

I did another Fall card using the Lawn Fawn set....

I love making Fall cards, the colours are always so rich and so nice to work with. Now lets hope my reno is done soon so I can get back to making some cards.

July You Pick Challenge

I'm starting August off right with a Blog Post, a card and a new book.

When I'm in a reading slump, I like to go back to Dystopian Young Adult to get going again. This trilogy got a lot of good reviews so I picked it up. Yes, I actually went inside the doors of my library and did a collect from the Entrance. Couldn't go inside but its at least open now.

Keri and I are continuing the You Pick challenge. For her I picked Sunny Studio Sweet Shoppe from my collection and here's what she made....

I just love the glaze on the donut and I never make Shaker cards so this is a real treat!

Keri picked MFT Birthday Chicks for me to use and I made this card..

I even put a little guy inside...

This is the stamp set that I used...

I'd say August is off to a good start!

You Pick Challenge #2

We really enjoyed picking something from our stash and making the other person create 2 cards with it so we are continuing this challenge...
Keri picked this die set for me from Cottage Cutz...

And here are the two cards I created (using Keri's favourite product line, Doodlebug, of course...

I've already popped the get well soon in the mail.

For Keri, I chose the MFT set Magical Dragons (she actually wanted to use it) and she made not one but TWO cards...

I just love the colour combo and the sponged clouds.

Another super cute variation. SO glad we have this hobby to occupy our time during this crazy pandemic. Stay tuned for next time. We have already swapped our selections (from a distance of course)

May Swap Card

We are going strong with our monthly swap and we continued with our guest this month.
Our exchange, sadly, is still virtual but here's hoping next month we could possible do it in person.

Keri used her cute Lawn Fawn Sloth....

It's so fresh and springlike!

Nicole also used a Lawn Fawn set (funny how that happens) and made a Peek a boo card...

This is the set she used, I think its called Smoothie.

And I used a favourite of mine from WPlus9, I think I've used it before. I've been working on some encouraging cards that I'm calling my Covid Collection. Trying to send out a few more cards to people I don't always get in touch with regularly. ...

My inspiration came from a similar card on the Internet. There is a stamp set and a coordinating die set..

There you have it! Another month in the books.

You Pick Challenge

Entering Week 6 of Shelter at Home and it's getting a little hard to come up with new material. One thing that seems to be easy though, is finding craft time. Sometimes when we do the Challenges it's hard to focus so I suggested that we each make the other person create from something WE chose for them! We did our first one last week and it worked really well.

For Keri, I chose the MFT Mailbox stamp and die set...

And she made this cutey card...

For me, she chose the MFT Gullfriends set. I wasn't too sure when I first saw it, then I remembered an old Echo Park paper called Splash with a wave paper and knew it would be perfect. And I wanted to do a peek a boo type card.  Here's what I came up with...

And the inside...

I have so many great friends helping me through this isolation. Not sure who I should send it to..
This is the stamp set in case you are interested...

Don't worry, we are still going to do our Monthly swap. I had to put the cards away for awhile and focus on getting some chores and Spring cleaning done.
PS. It's quite remarkable how we quite often chose the same company without knowing what the other person has selected.

April Swap Card

Hello from Week 5 of Quarantine. This month we had a special guest swapper and in keeping with the new regimen, we did a virtual swap.
Both Keri and I chose Lawn Fawn, its funny how that works out. We both followed examples from the Internet very closely. We don't claim to do original work all the time. But that's ok.
Here's my card..

Even with a plan to follow, there were so many steps in this card. Lots of ink colours and die cutting. But I love it.

This is such a cute set, I need to use that avacado.

This release from Lawn Fawn was just adorable. A lot of really cute expressions and those Mice! Keri is really loving the Distress Oxides and her blending brushes. Here's another one she did....

And the inside sentiment...

Such a cute detail. This is the stamp set...

And Guest Swapper Nicole used a Sugar Pea set for her card.The little typewriter had lots of die cut pieces. I love the font for the sentiment inside the card....

Here's the set that she used....

Stay tuned for next month's swap. At least there seems to be a lot of time to craft these days.

March Swap Card

Whaaaat? I'm ahead of my regularly scheduled posting.  We decided to move our monthly card due date to the beginning of the month, rather then the end. It always seemed like we were behind. So our April card will now be due at the beginning of April rather then the end. Looks like we are going to have some time to make that happen with the current Pandemic that is going on in the World.

Keri had requested a Pet Sympathy card to have on hand so I obliged with this one using my favourite kraft and a lovely sentiment from Taylored Expressions...

Keri used her Splotch stamp and then heat embossed it for extra sparkle to make this card....

And some cute little butterflies from Michaels. So nice to see the fresh Springy colours. May the little things, bring you joy!

Stay calm, people and clean your door handles!

February Swap Card

Let's keep it going....
I always get asked for Sympathy cards and I just love the monochromatic tones of this card. Very classy!

I used the MFT stitched blooms that I just LOVE. I didn't have the right size sentiment so guess what? I did it on my computer. I have no knowledge of how to download fonts etc, I just choose one in word that looked pretty good and it worked out great.

Keri used a stamp set from Simon Says Stamp... I just can't get over how cute that little puppy is in the bicycle basket and the rainbow clouds. Stunning!

And the inside...

We have so much fun every month revealing our cards and its a good reason to get together and catch up.

March Goals and Habits

Before we get to the March goals, lets see how February played out...


1. Send one card. (I actually sent 4 cards; 1 Sympathy, 1 Thinking of You, 2 Valentine

2. 15 minutes of stretching or yoga or strength training (Hard FAIL!) I think I did this twice although I did locate my weights and bands, I'll keep trying this one.

3. Spend 15 minutes cleaning up computer (emails, photos etc) I regularly try and delete emails but I need to spend a little more time cleaning up this old computer

I also did pretty well, keeping up with my Jan Goals; keeping sink clean, Reading( 3 books in Feb) and blog posts (only 6 so short by 2 but not too bad)

March Goals
1. Go the the Gym once a week. After keeping my gym on hold for over 3 years, I needed to make a decision. I'm committing to once a week, likely Aquasize but we will see how it goes.

2. Do 5 Donation requests for Loonies for Lindor (I'm a little early with this but it's very time consuming so I wanted to get a start. Plus you have to approach a large number to have any success.

3. Find a Retail store(s) to sell some of my cards. I finally got around to organizing my cards and I found that I have over 500. So I pitched my product to one store and was successful. More on that once I sign the contract and have gathered a sampling together to pitch to another store. Well I don't expect to make a ton of money, it's fun to see if someone will buy your product and I really need to make room for more.

January Swap Card

We are getting caught up. FUN FACT! Keri and I started this exchange in August 2016. We've fallen behind but we've never missed a month. I think that's pretty good. Surprisingly we both did Lawn Fawn cards.
Keri used the Skating Mice that she actually won in an on-line give away. So cute...

Here's the stamp and die set she used..

I used the Taco Birthday set. I found my card a little basic but I added some stickles to the party hat and some sparkly enamel dots and I thought it ramped it up a bit...

Here's the stamp set that I used....

I'd better get posting. I'm falling behind in my biweekly post goals. Where does the time go?

December Swap Card

We are sticking with it! Almost caught up now.
I needed more Thinking of you cards to go with my February Goals (sending more cards) and I wanted to use my Stitched Blooms set that I purchased when I was in Florida. I've already used it a few times (borrowed from a friend) but it was a must for me to own as well.

Here's the card I made...

I was going to use it for Sympathy but I thought it was a little too chipper, I changed the flower colour and I think it works...

I also added a little impression? along the top of the blue paper using another set from MFT. I think it finished off the edge.

Keri used the fun YETI set from MFT. Funny, that we both chose MFT sets this month....

She paper pieced those cute Yeti's and used paper from her favourite company; Doodlebug. The best is Yeti to come. I love the sentiment, you could use it for so many occasions.

We are both really happy that we didn't give up on our monthly Swap. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be making cards right now since I'm lately obsessed with working on my Planner.