Halloween and the flu!!!

Well Halloween came and went and so did the flu! Poor Jared was so sick that he lasted only 20-30 minutes on Halloween night. He was so sick from the flu this year that he missed an entire week. Poor guy!

Here he is all dressed up for Halloween for school. He decided to be a "Fairy Princess" this year. So we went to Value Village and picked up a dress that we glittered up and altered a touch ( the top was a little too low so we added some fabric), got him a cute wig and some wings.

So what do you think? I think he made a beautiful fairy!!!LOL!

Anize chose to be a "Dead Bride" this year! Her costume was pretty easy to make this too! We bought a beautiful costume and dirtied it up with some brown dye. Then made her a veil and gave her a "dead" rose to carry! Here is the final product!

We all got dressed up at work too! I chose to dress up like a co-worker and told no one at work! They all got a real hoot out of it too when they saw me!

Here I am with my half  "Brother" LOL!

Lastly I guess I show you our pumpkins! Everyone decided to make their own this year. Anize made a ghost, Jared a winking face and Jeff made a Jailbird! LOL!

A little faux sewing

I have a few people who have been asking me how I "sew" on my projects, so I thought I would show you how I do it! It's simple! I don't!!! I fake it like you wouldn't believe! LOL! Here is how I do it!

You will need:

A fine tip pen, an awl, a template to pierce holes evenly, and a sewing marking wheel (not sure if that is the proper name for it, but that is what I call it).

For the first technique and my favorite is to use that sewing wheel. You can do it two ways.
The first is to draw the line where you want your "sewing" to be and then trace over it with the wheel, making sure to apply firm pressure as you trace the line.

The second technique is to make the "holes" with the wheel first and then trace the holes with your fine tip pen. Here is a trick I use to make it look like it's really sewn by a machine, I will often make the lines go a bit off track and leave a leave a little trail at the end of the line.

Now for the second technique: Using the template and awl. I am using the set from Stampin' Up. I love it 'cause they have guide lines, and different widths to work with. This technique is simple, but I find it doesn't give the look of sewing with a machine, but more of a hand sewn look.

Take you paper and place it on the mat, place the template over you paper and choose the pattern that  you want to use. Pierce the holes with the awl.

Now all you have to do is trace a line from hole to hole. Or you could leave it as is a well. Both ways look good on a LO or Card!

Hope this helps you to achieve that "sewn" look on you projects. If you have tried these techniques, I would love to see what you made!

~Have a great day~

A quick little Halloween project!

Over at Scrapbook Star we getting ready for Halloween! Every day we have been posting some Halloween Crafts to hopefully help inspire you!

Here is the latest project that I have made! A Paper Bag Latern!!! I tride to get some photos of it in the dark all lit up, but alas my camera did not like it and only took photos of the dark!!! Oh well just imagine that it's dark and that there is a little candle light flickering away inside! LOL!

I have also made a cute little tag that I am going to put into Jared's lunch bag on Halloween!
(This one was made for a challenge over at We Scrap)

And one last note for today! We Scraps is having a Halloween Blog Hop! Hope you can come over and play!

George has arrived.........and so have the challenges....

I guess will start with the new Challenges over at Scrapbook Star. Yes, it's that time of the month again! Head on over and see what we have in store for you month. This months kit is beautiful, (unfortunately it's not my month with it :o( ) Here is my challenge for you this month = Use a play on words for you title!

Don't forget if you play along at Scrapbook and post your LO, you get 50 Scrapbucks. The one with the most scrapbucks at the end of three months get a nice prize!!! ;o)

Now are you curious about who George is? Well here he is........................................................

Isn't he gorgeous??????? Yup this is my new van! I love it!!!! It has all the bells and whistle that I was looking for! I can't wait to drive to work in this baby!!!!


Well thanks for stopping by!

I will have some Halloween projects posted later this week. Be sure to come on over to Scrapbook Star (scrapbookstar.ca) this week to see all of our Spooktacular Halloween Creations!!!

Congratulations!

To Fleur! Your name was chosen for the RAK. Thank you for playing along on the blog! I hope you all had some fun!

National Card making Day!

Well I have been busy while hibernating in my scrap room this weekend. Over at Scrapbook star we celebrated with out Blog Hop, and over at We scrap (http://www.wescrap.com/home/forum.php) they are having a NCMD crop! The challenges are awesome!!! Plus I finally got time to get to all the challenge blogs this weeks. Like I said I have been very busy! I got something like 10 or 11 cards done so far!!!

Here are some of them that I made for the challenges at We Scrap and my challenge blogs that I like to stalk! LOL!

This first one covers the following challenges:

A sketch over at Sweet Shop (http://sweetstopsketches.blogspot.com/)

Charisma Card:Love theme (http://charismacardz.blogspot.com/)

We Scrap: a recipe.

I love this card! I think it is my fav from the weekend! This one was made for  BAH! Humbug! (http://bah-humbug-christmas.blogspot.com/) They were looking for a nativity theme.

Fab"N"Funky (http://fabnfunkychallenges.blogspot.com/) anothe recipe, we had to use a ribbon, some gems or brads and 2 PP's.

This Joy fold card was made for Simon Says (http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/) with Anything goes. As well as for CES (http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com/) Totally gorgeous/pretty girls! I thought Tilda looked very pretty in her Christmas get up!

These sexy little ladies were made for the sketch challenge over at Sketch Saturday (http://sketchsaturday.blogspot.com/)

And the last (for now) of the challenges are these card which were made for the sketch challenge over at Sweet sketch Wednesday!  (http://sweetsketchwednesday.blogspot.com/)

Well if you made it this far along in the post, I want to say thank you for stopping by and taking a look! I am hoping to post a few creations later this week! Man I tell you, from nothing for months to mega post in the last two days! It's crazy!!! LOL!

National Card Making Day Blog Hop!

I am so excited! Today at Scrapbook Star, we are celebrating our first annual Blog Hop to celebrate National Card making day!  Hop along with us for some awesome inspiration, new techniques, prizes and most of all fun! Along the way the participants will be giving you a word – when you get to the last stop at the Scrapbook Star message board and have figured out the sentence send an email to store@scrapbookstar.ca and you will be entered in a draw for a prize.
 
Today I have a few things for you. First is a card that I have been wanting to make for a long time. Thanks to this hop, I got it done! Yeah Me!!! It is called a Criss Cross Card! You can guess why by the design on the front! LOL!

Do you see the Criss Cross on the front? I know a little hard to see with the belly band on it sorry! Basically this is an envelope with an insert in it. I love how it turned out!

Here is the insert. I coloured this little elephant while at a Copics course. I wish I own it! Don't you think he is just the cutest little thing! I used some Kaiser papers for this one, some mists and of course Copics. Along with some Prima flowers!

Here is the second card I made for you. This is another one that I have been meaning to try to make as well for some time. Finally got it done! Here is secret pop-up card.

Here it is as you would see it just out of the envelope. Kinda boring I think!

But once you pull the tag, this is what you get! A pop-up image and a secret message. Isn't she cute?

Here is a side view!

I have been playing around with my stamps lately, trying to create a 3-D image. Here is a close up of sweet Tilda, showing you the 3-d"ish" image. I still need to practice some more, but I think I am getting there!

And lastly I just wanted to share a little box that I altered to put all my cards into as a gift. It was made out of an old Purex box!

This is the before!

And here is the after!

I am so happy that you decided to join me! I guess you are looking for your secret word now! Well it is............CARD!

I also have a little something for one lucky blog hop participant. If you leave me comment, your name will be entered into a draw for a mini K&Co album with some embellies and papers to match!

Thanks for stopping by and playing along.

Don't forget to write down your secret word and hop on over to all the blogs, and get the rest of the words, to able to win a prize at Scrapbook Star!!!!

Here’s all the links to the blogs in case you get lost along the way.

Fleur -http://www.fleursbydesign.blogspot.com/

Shirley - http://chillyscakesandscraps.blogspot.com/  (You are here)

Janet - http://janetsjoy.blogspot.com/ 

Karen - http://breathenowsmile.blogspot.com/

Jemma - http://jemmasjourney.blogspot.com/

Tina - http://cyberbumz1967.blogspot.com/

Melissa  - http://www.scrapbookstar.ca/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=5

Another birthday party!

Yesterday was Anize's Birthday Party. We had 4 girls running around the house squealing and giggling all night long! LOL! What was I thinking!!!!

She loved her cake though! She had asked for a fairy themed cake. So this is what I made for her!

We looked high and low for a fairy to put with her cake. We finally found this one sleeping on magic crystal. I think it finished off the cake perfectly!

Here is a close up of the house!

Now onto some creative stuff! Here is a LO I created last week, based off of a sketch over at Let's Scrap. I love their sketches!! They always make double page LO's and use multiple photos! Perfect for me!

A few years ago, we decide to do a spa day for Anize and some of her friends. So she invited some girlfriends over and we did their nails, gave them some pink and purple streaks in their hair, and then they got all dressed up and had fashion show! It was such a fun day! I think maybe will do it again this year!

One last note for today. I would like to take just a little moment to remember all those innocent lives that were taken 10 years ago today! Please take a moment to remember 9/11/01

Another year older!

Yes it's true my baby girl turned another year older! She now 8 years old! It's amazing how fast time goes by when it comes to your kids getting older, yet the summer months seem to drag on indefinitely...leaving you praying for the fall when the screaming kids can return to school! LOL!

Well this year the thing she wanted more than anything was to have a Guinea pig. But with the no more animals in the house policy, that obviously did not happen. So her second choice of birthday gifts were as follows, breakfast out, time with Grandma and Nana, and friend sleep over, plus the gifts!!!

So she spent the weekend before her birthday over at Grandma and Nana's where she was spoiled rotten, and the slept over at friend house the day before her birthday. We then went out to her restaurant of choice "The golden Griddle" for breakfast!

Here she is enjoying her pancakes and waffles. The restaurant had a buffet style breakfast and she took full advantage of it! She actually had a bit of a belly ache when we left from all the goodies she ate! LOL!

Then it was home for gifts.

And some cake. We just made a simple cake for you birthday, seeing that she will be having her birthday party later (in a week) and wants her fancy cake for the party. She chose to have a chocolate cake with Nutella filling and Peanut Butter icing! And man was it good!

New Card

This is just a little post. I had made a whole whack of cards for a bunch of challenges only to find out that the due was past! Sigh! Oh well at least this one will be on time! LOL!

Here is my little Christmas card. It will cover the challenges from

Charisma Cardz: (http://charismacardz.blogspot.com/) We had to chose three items from the Bingo card. I chose Circles, flowers and glitter (in the flower centers)

Simon Says: (http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/) Christmas in August

JUGS: (http://justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com/) Sketch

Paper Variety:(http://thepapervariety.blogspot.com/) Circles

DT call and some cards!

We are sad to see two of our DT members go over at Scrapbook Star. They were great team members and gave us so much to be inspired with. But with them leaving it opens up a new position for you to join our wonderful team over at SS! Here is the information you will need to be able to join our fun team!

Scrapbook Star is searching for a very talented Canadian Design Team Member to begin their terms on September 1st 2011. If you consider yourself to be creative, team oriented and love our site and store please send the following to store@scrapbookstar.ca.

3-5 recent projects that best represent your usual style

Please make sure your name is in the file title such as “janesmithbelieve.jpg”

Please keep files to under 100kb in size

Please include the following:
*Full name, address & phone number
* Other Design Teams you are a member of
* A link to your online gallery or blog
* Why you would like to be part of the team

Here is what is expected from a Design Team Member:
*You must be active on our online message boards as well as in our gallery. (Minimum 50 posts per week)
*You must post your work in our gallery. This includes the project you will make with your monthly kit, as well as at least 2 other items (altered, cards, LO’s etc)
*Projects made with your monthly kit must be scanned at high resolution and emailed to the store (photos are not acceptable)
*Participate in our monthly online crops by posting challenges
*Promote the site to friends and family.
**Design Team members cannot be part of any other Canadian design team (for retail & online stores and communities).

Compensation:
Each second month you will receive a kit valued at over $30. On opposite months you will get an allowance to use on any product you like. All Design Team Members receive a store discount on all purchases.

The position will be for a 4 month trial at which point both parties may chose to terminate.

Call deadline is August 8th 2011 at midnight EDT. ***************************************************

Scrapbook Star a besoin de vous !

Scrapbook Star est à la recherche d'une Canadienne très talentueuse pour se joindre à l’équipe créative dès le 1er septembre 2011!. Si vous êtes une personne créative, aimez le travail d’équipe, notre site et notre boutique, envoyez votre candidature à store@scrapbookstar.ca

Vous devez expédier de 3 à 5 projets représentant votre style ¬ assurez-vous que le fichier inclut votre nom, ex. “janesmithbelieve.jpg”. Vos fichiers doivent être de 100kb ou moins.

Veuillez fournir les informations suivantes :
Nom complet, adresse et numéro de téléphone
Autre(s) équipe(s) créative(s) dont vous faites partie
Un lien vers votre galerie ou blog
Pourquoi vous aimeriez faire partie de notre équipe.
*Les membres de l’équipe créative ne peuvent faire partie d’une autre équipe canadienne que ce soit pour une boutique (en ligne ou non) ou une cybercommunauté.
*Les membres doivent compléter 1-2 pages par mois avec l’ensemble reçu, soit une pour le début du mois et une pour le crop en ligne ainsi qu’un défi (challenge) qui accompagne chacune des pages. Les pages doivent être numérisées à haute résolution et envoyées par courriel à la boutique (Les photos ne sont pas acceptables). Ces deux pages doivent demeurer une exclusivité à Scrapbook Star pour une période de un mois. Nous demandons aussi aux membres de notre équipe créative de créer un « mini » défi à chaque semaine (voir la section Daily Inspirations de notre forum).
*Nous demandons également aux membres de l’équipe créative de prendre part à notre galerie ainsi qu’à notre forum de discussions en ayant un minimum de 50 messages par semaine et un nouveau projet par semaine afin de maintenir l’inspiration de notre communauté.

À chaque 2 mois, vous recevrez un kit d’une valeur de plus de 30$. Pour les autres mois, vous recevrez une allocation que vous pourrez utiliser sur n’importe quel produit que vous désirez. Tous les membres de l’équipe créative reçoivent un rabais sur tous leurs achats en magasin.

Nous demandons que les membres de l’équipe créative de Scrapbook Star soient exclusifs et ne fassent pas parti d’autres équipes créatives.

Il y aura une période d’essai de 4 mois pour le poste au terme duquel l’un ou l’autre des partis pourra décider de mettre fin au contrat.

La date de tombée pour votre soumission est minuit le 8 août 2011.

Now onto some challenges that I have been able to finish this week!

Here a few cards....

This first one is for the challenge over at Simon Says. ( http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/). We had to make a shaped card. I didn't want to make just the standard circle card this time, and I've seen these snow globes around on the internet for a while, and have been dying to make one. So I gave it a go. It took some work getting all the right sized pieces, but I love how it turned out!

This sympathy card was made for the Saturday sketchers (http://sketchsaturday.blogspot.com/) challenge. I loved working with this sketch. I will definitely be using this one again!

I love Precious Moments, I think I got my love of these little critters from my mom! She used to draw them (or something very similar to them) all time for me. She made some that were at least three feet tall and had them laminated to decorate my bedroom walls when I was little. So you can imagine how happy I was to find a site that had them as free downloads. I downloaded them ALL!!! This card was made for the sketch challenge over at the Sweet Shop (http://sweetstopsketches.blogspot.com/). Yet another great sketch!

And last but not least we had to make a humorous card for the challenge at CES (http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com/). I don't know how humorous this card is, but it almost made my husband spit out his coffee when I asked him "Is it too late to be good?" While I showed him the picture! LOL! So I figured it was somewhat funny!

Well that is all for today! I am hoping to get in some quiet scrappy time this morning, as Jared is sleeping in, Anize is off on a sleepover and Jeff is at work! Yeah Me!!!

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope to see some of you over at Scrapbook star with some submissions!

Welcome to the Bergsma Animal Rescue

Yesterday as I walking past the patio door, I caught a glimpse of something "swimming" in the pool. At first I thought it was a bird using our pool as a bird bath. But then I took a closer look and saw that it was in fact a little chipmunk who was drowning!!! So I ran out in my cute little nightgown, grabbed the skimmer net for the pool and pulled him out. The poor little thing was so tired that he just layed there in the net! I grabbed him and wrapped him a towel and placed him in a plastic container and did my best to dry him off and warm him up. I even warmed up a towel in the microwave to cover him up. Poor little thing was shivering so hard he could hardly stand up!

Here is his makeshift heater bed. The first time I put the heated towel on him he literally cling onto it! I had to tear out of his claws to re-warm it! LOL!

After about an hour, he started to stir and then got a whiff of the dog and bolted for the back door. This was the only photo I was able to get of the little guy, before he fled the house!

On another healing note, here is a photo of Anize exactly one week after her biking accident! It's amazing how quickly she is healing!

And one last little note! I was features as the Layout of the week over at Let's Scrap for this LO!

Am officially stress free......

Well at least for a little while! On the 8th of July I went in for an interview for a new position that is opening up at our school, and came out feeling not so good about my chances.....then on Monday morning I got a phone call from the board to tell me that I am to present myself at the school on September 1st to start my new job!!!! I was totally shocked! I cried and jumped around the living room living little school girl who just found out a boy liked her! I tell you this is amazing! I no longer have to worry about what I am going to be doing the following week, this is permanent and full time!!!

OK and now that I have been stress free for a week, I have been doing some scrappy stuff! Here are a few challenges that I have entered!

I made this easel card for Sweet Shop's (http://sweetstopsketches.blogspot.com/) challenge of a sketch and Christmas in July. As well as for the challenge over at Bah-Humbug (http://bah-humbug-christmas.blogspot.com/). They wanted to see a shaped card. This was my first time making a round easel card. It was quite easy, I just might have to make some more of them in the future!

This cute little card was made for Saturday Sketchers (http://sketchsaturday.blogspot.com/) I loved working with this sketch, I will definitlely be using this one again! I also combined it with the colour challenge over at JUGS (http://justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com/) and the anything goes theme over at Simon Says (http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/)

Oh! I almost forgot! My poor little baby took a nasty flip on her bike last week. She hit a very loose gravel trail, and was going a little too fast and lost control of her bike. She flew right over the handle bars and skidded face first into the gravel path. She has some nasty cuts on her face, arm and leg. (yes only on the right side of her body).

But I am very happy to say that she is healing up super quick. All the scabs on her face are already gone and all she has to show for her tumble is some pretty pink skin. I think all her swimming in the pool has helped to heal up faster.

Such a long time!

I am such a terrible blogger, I am sorry. But for some reason I must really remind myself to blog.

Well much has been going on here. We celebrated Canada day with Jeff's parents here in Barrie as well as his birthday.

We now have a new pool and it's bigger than the one last year. The kids are loving it! I think Anize just might become a Mermaid if she pends anymore time in the pool! At least with the pool being bigger and deeper, she is really swimming well this year!

Jared finally got his hair cut too. It was getting so long that is was totally covering his eyes and nose! LOL! I can't believe how much older he looks now!

We also went Strawberry picking last weekend, and the strawberries were so plump and there were so many! I don't think we moved more than feet to get all the berries we got!

One full flat and two adult sized shoe boxes were filled up in only about 20 minutes. I made three batches of jam and froze several bags of berries. We still had enough berries to last another 2-3 days.

While we taking the wagon ride back to the farm from the fields, we saw this nest with 6 barn swallows in it! I love how they are all looking down at the camera! LOL! I was amazed that none fell out of that cramped little nest!

Well that is all for about now. I do have some scrappy stuff that I need to post soon, I am hoping tomorrow or maybe even a little later this evening. Gasp! 2 posts in one day, you say! LOL! You never know it could happen!

Hope you are all enjoying you summer!