CeeCee's Creations

paint by number challenge à la Stampin' Up!

 

oof, talk about getting out of your comfort zone! this PTI challenge was both easy and difficult for me. easy because the sketch with exact measurements we given to us. difficult because i decided to substitute the PTI colors given to us for Stampin' Up!'s.

here are the parameters we had to play with:

 

according to my online name, i was assigned the following colors: kraft, ocean tides, spring moss, lemon tart and vintage cream. i substituted for kraft, taken with teal, old olive, so saffron and very vanilla -- all SU colors -- not my fav combo. these colors coordinate with the new Sweet Pea DSP from the Occasions Mini.

 

things went well at the beginning. i selected my colors, cut my pieces and then things got a little screwy. 

 

i didn't like the look of a very vanilla cardstock on so saffron. so i decided to put a ribbon instead. here is the Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon -- all fine and dandy... 

 

then i decided to be original for the 2nd card and put a brad for my ribbon closure instead of knot. ooops, one of the legs broke! get a new one, start from scratch, struggle quite a bit with bunching everything neatly and ... oooof, got it! but then -- then another boo-boo. i stamped my greeting (from the beautiful Well Scripted stamp set - #118601) and the "birthday" was didn't stamp well. i didn't ink it up properly. no problemo! take a stampin' write marker and go over! Yeah... well, as you can see it's far from being perfect. and for fear of messing it up even more, i left the "happy" alone. But it is what it is and i have to live with it.

after all, what would life be without its quirks :-)

enjoy you day! CeeCee  

PTI challenge revisited

i'm not trying to feed you leftovers but when i made yesterday's card, i had quite a dilemna: should i emboss the butterfly in clear or white? so i made a few samples and today, i'm showing you the other option.

i also used a Summer Sunrise satin ribbon instead of Dark Chocolate, the vellum overlay is using another filler image from the Butterfly Kisses stamp set and i've added a partial line of faux-stitching.

 

i'm just trying to decide which one i like best. what about you? which one do you like best? yesterday's or today's? send me your comments with your choice!

Until tomorrow, CeeCee 

 

a series of cards

if you recall yesterday's post, i went a little nuts with my supplies yesterday and created this series of cards: 

i wouldn't have thought of mixing dark grey with chocolate chip but i quite like the effect.

the ruby red series:

i added a little bit of white gel pen underneath the rub-ons above as well as in the small circles below to tie in with the labels.

then in chocolate chip:

ooh, how i love my polka dots!

so now i have a fresh new batch of cards... 12 of them! aaaaaah, i love it when a plan comes together! what's amazing is that i still have rub-ons to make another pack of cards.

happy tuesday, stampers! CeeCee    

it all started with one card

yesterday, i was reflecting on the good fortune i have being a SU demo. you see every year stampin' up! sends a goodie to all their demos for christmas. this year, all the quebec demos got a pack of Dots & Designs rub-ons. they're gorgeous and the colors inspired me to create.

so i made this card:

of course, i'm using my fav 3" x 6" format. the image you see at the bottom is actually one of the rub-ons. isn't it gorgeous? even the strip of dots at the top is a rub-on! the label and sentiment are from the Sale-a-Bration stamp set called Vintage Labels (Étiquettes d'époque). the Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon is also new from the Occasions Mini-Catalogue.

ok, so if things at stayed that way i could have gone to bed early BUT nooooooo! i looked at the sheet of rub-ons, then at all the new colors of satin ribbon and the image of vintage labels and i went nuts. i got busy. i mean reaaaal busy. i love working series of cards. it's probably my favorite thing to do. the abundance!

i started with the tags

oooh, i love the ruby red and chocolate chip together.

it's so easy to create a series of cards with punches that fit the images. love it!

i'll come back tomorrow with the finished goods :-) CeeCee  

cupcake 18

Mmmmmm, cupcakes. It's a food group, right? If it's not, it oughta be!

Someone ordered birthday cards from me for 3 girls that are turning 18 this month. They are to be mailed out so I had to keep it on the "thin" side... that's difficult for me to do sometimes, especially since I love ribbon. I had those Basic Grey chipboard cupcakes that I was hoarding. Since my resolution is to use up the ton of stuff I have, I went for it! I even cut into my  AC Thickers (gasp!).

 

To jazz everything up, I added Stickles to the numbers and on the cupcakes. I love the pink/yellow/brown combo. 

Oh, and I cut into a fresh new Basic Grey pad of paper (double gasp!). I'm almost over hyper-ventilating and I'm sure I'll feel better in a couple of days. Since I'm waiting for my new Stampin' Up! products to arrive I decided to play with other brands of products. So you'll see a variety of things here for the next couple of days. Also, I'm still trying to make a big dent in my scraps of patterned paper and I wish there were more hours in a day to play with that. 

I'm still in the process of putting together 3 new clubs and I'll update on that soon. Because of everything that's happened in my personal life in November and December, I'm way behind on everything but I'm starting to see some results. 

Have a great Thursday and I'll see you tomorrow! CeeCee

 

whimsical wishes and banter

Why do I always do that?! I know I'll regret it but sometimes this girl just can't help herself. I'm talking about eating junk food for dinner. Or more precisely, a burger dinner from what Stuuph and I refer to as "crappy McDoo-doo"... As I was leaving from the hospital tonight, I realized that I didn't plan anything for dinner and the "golden arches" is on my way. Well, it's on everyone's way actually, but tonight they were beckoning me.

Anyways, I ate - I cramped - I snoozed... that seems to be the pattern. Must be allergic to something in their food. All this to say that I'm late (again!) in sending my 12-Weeks of Christmas Newsletter -- DON'T LAUGH! I know some of you are shaking their heads... I see you! But I just need some cheerin' up right now and I think these cards will do the trick. One of them I already gave away to Maman KoolAid for her birthday -- I made it with her in mind - she's nuts about flowers!

 

Oh, I added a "Bonne fête" underneath the pot after I took the picture. All of today's cards were made during my Copic Certification a few weeks ago. That's right, girlfriends! I am now Copic Certified... please bow in front of me from now on. No, no, no... not all the way down. Just a head-bow will do. 

She puuuuurdy!

Now this gnome was stamped on the wrong kind of cardstock and you can see major bleeding in the beard and on the boots. But he's still cute. Now don't ask me to list the supplies since I have no clue what they are or where they come from. This was all supplied for the class.

OK, I'm going. I'm going. Onwards to the Newsletter Statioooooooon!!!

Thanks for listenin' and lookin' :-)

CeeCee  

 P.S.: My apologies if I've offended anyone that works at the fast-food chain referred to herein. I mean to harm... really!

 

build-a-bear boy, build-a-bear girl

I was never into bears like some of my friends and family are, but I must confess that I am now converted. These are so cute and when I heard Stampin' Up! had teamed up with the Build-a-Bear Workshop, I was thrilled.

Here are some more cards we did at my World Card Making Day event. The first set is done with the Bear Best Friends and Seal of Pawthenticity stamp sets.

I really wanted to punch out the sentiments but both of them were too large for the Modern Label Punch so I decided to punch out what I could out of that punch and then overlay the missing word with the 3/4" Circle Punch. I thought that was pretty clever on my part, if I do say so myself :-D And I love the added dimension. The balloon and the gift bag are both stamped on pattern paper from the Pawsitively Prints DSP, also from the Holiday Mini Catalogue. The images are stamped with Jet Black StazOn on Watercolor Paper and colored in with an Aqua Painter and the Watercolor Wonder Crayons.

The second set of cards was die-cut with the Stampin' Up! Bear Bigz Die and the Big Shot machine.

The background paper is also from Pawsitively Prints. I love these guys! Their clothes were made with Stampin' Up! Beary Essentials Bigz Die. So simple and fun!

Have a wonderful Wednesday. I'm having my Glitter Sisters over for our monthly meeting tonight and I can't wait to see them all again.

Have a beary fun day! CeeCee

Gen's birthday card

Hello again! I hope you're having nicer weather than here in Montreal. It's been raining quite a lot lately, with huge downpour. Yesterday was my friend (and partner in crime) Geneviève's birthday and despite being doused with a torrential rain, we had a great time. Especially the amazing lunch with had at  La Piazzetta in old St-Lambert. What a pretty setting; century old stores, gorgeous houses. We had the most amazing entrée -- hot homemade focaccia bread that we dipped in fine olive oil and then in Egyptian spices that we ground ourselves in a mortar. Then we shared a rolled up Mexican lime chicken pizza and a focaccia pizza dressed with Gruyère cheese, proscuitto, hot peppers, sweet peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Yummie! Dessert was waiting for us at Gen's house -- a whole Rockabrownie pie from Rockaberry's! Unfortunately though, the tea house we usually go to was closed because it was Monday. Oh, and we got to watch little William play in the water puddles. Lots of laughter and giggles ensued. He's the cutest thing!!!

Here's the card I made for her with non Stampin' Up! products (that was a challenge I issued to myself... more on that later):

The card was not a totally good experience for me and here's why. Since we're always using SU products together for work, I thought it would be fun use other companies' products for a change: I used a photopolymer stamp set from a small local store here (which will remain nameless) and I realized that no matter how I stamped it, the image came out pixelated.  I know that it's difficult to get good fine line art stamps with photopolymer but some other companies have done it -- like Papertrey Ink for instance! My point is, if your product is not of the utmost quality, don't bother selling it! Anyways, it was 3 a.m. when I made this card and I was very tired and ticked off. Needless to say, I much prefer rubber stamps! The rest of the products are all from Papertrey Ink except for the tiny rhinestones which are from Hero Arts and the border punch from Martha Stewart. Oh, and I stamped on Whisper White cardstock from SU... I guess I can't completely stay away from them. Hehe, can't help it -- it's the best!

I like the design of this card though and Gen seemed happy with it. That's what counts. 

I had a wonderful day and I hope Gen's rest of the day was as fun. 

Bonne fête encore, Gen!

CeeCee

open house make & take **Updated**

Hey everyone! I gotta run but I wanted to show you very quickly the make & take we did on Saturday during the Open House. It was a complete success and I have to thank my 3 awesome helpers for it: Sophie, Angelle and Kathy. I'll have more pictures at the end of the week and more info on this card at the end of today. Oh, and the special of the week details too!

***Updated: July 14, 2009***

Alright, I have a few minutes to myself so I'm posting more info on this card. First of all, I have to admit that I bought the Movers and Shapers when it originally came out and was totally intimidated by it. So it sat there... Last week, I found the courage somehow and went: "What?! It's THAT easy and fun?!" Yep! Here's why:

1) It cuts the whole card, scores it AND cuts the shaped window all at the same time!

2) You can choose the exact spot you want to put the punched window since the magnetic board where the shape sits is magnetic and is a true representation of the space you have.

3) Stampin' Up! punches coordinate with all of the Movers and Shapers "shapes", punching 1/8" smaller than the Movers & Shapers shape.

4) You can also use the punched out shape from the Movers and Shapers to mat the same shape punched with the coordinating punches!

It's quite amazing! My guests could not believe how easy it is to use. If you own a Big Shot, that is the item to get! Call me or email me to order. They're literally flying off the shelves.

Loooooooooooove the Movers & Shapers for the Big Shot!!!

Recipe for Happy Birthday card (all supplies by Stampin' Up!) -- stamp sets: kind and caring thoughts, teeny tiny wishes; inks: bermuda bay and melon mambo; cardstock: certainly celery, bermuda bay, pretty in pink; punches: modern label, scallop edge, corner rounder, movers & shapers with modern label die, big shot die-cutting machine; ribbon: melon mambo polka dot grosgrain; other: paper piercer, stampin' dimensionals, snail adhesive.

Chat with you later!

CeeCee

a card for Marie Précieuse

A couple of weeks ago, it was Marie-Pierre's birthday. Marie-Pierre is a special friend I met through the internet and I consider myself very fortunate to have met her (she lives in Switzerland). She is a very special person so I wanted to make her a special card. 

I don't own the stamp I used;  another friend, Angèle, has let me use it. Unfortunately, I don't remember which company it is and when I find out I'll post an update. Anyways, I colored the image with my Copics and the paper is the Slumber Party DSP and the ribbon is Baja Breeze from Stampin' Up! On the red portion of the DSP, I used the Priceless Classy Brass stencil to dry-emboss and pierce the paper. I love the effect. It's very subtle. On the envelope, I used some of the Atyou Spica markers from Copics to add a tiny bit of glitter to the flowers.

Here are the Copics I used:

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this card. I certainly had a lot of fun making it. Bonne fête encore, ma belle Marie-Pierre!

CeeCee

a funny and a card

 

*** if you scroll to the end of this post, you'll find a hilarious YouTube video about a man and his man-made card ***

Made this little birthday card in no time at all since the flowers were already stamped and embossed. I had a very bad night -- got no sleep at all -- and I think it worked for me. I came back from driving the Stuuphster to the bus and got right down to it and put together this little card in 10 minutes! Not much to say about it except that one of the stamp sets, the ribbon and the DSP paper used were ALL FREE!!! Can't beat that! Email me at creations-ceecee@videotron.ca to find out how YOU can get those for free too.

 

inside...

 

Recipe (all supplies by Stampin' Up!) -- Stamp sets: Polka Dot Punches (SAB), On Your Birthday; Inks: Bordering Blue, Versamark; Cardstock: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery; Ribbon: 5/8" Certainly Celery poly-twill ribbon; punches: 1 1/4" Circle, Scallop Circle and Eyelet Border; Paper piercer, Detail White Stampin' Emboss powder, heat gun, Signo white gel pen, Stampin' Dimensionals, Snail Adhesive.

And here's for the humour portion of this post... a very funny video that a few have already seen but I'm always laughing every time I see it. This is about a man and his man-made card. Have a good laugh! CeeCee

wcmd - 3rd card

 

Pretty butterfly, where are you going? It came to visit us last Saturday. The ladies did some 2-step stampin' and it was fun to see who was "eye-balling" it and who was using the Stamp-a-ma-jig. Personally, I can't do it without the Stamp-a-ma-jig ...

 

Again, the idea was to keep it simple but not boring. I love those sentiments that are wavy or circle-shaped. It makes everything so interesting.

Talk to you soon! CeeCee

Recipe (all supplies by Stampin' Up!) -- Flight of the Butterfly and Garden Whimsy (for English sentiment) stamp sets; Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Whisper White cardstock; Kiwi Kiss Patterns Designer Series Paper; Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze and Pacific Point Classic inks; 1 3/8" Circle, Scallop Edge, Trio Flower and Ticket Corner punches; paper piercer, white gel pen, Stampin' Dimensionals and SNAIL adhesive.

wcmd... cont'd

 

Here's the second card we made during World Card Making Day last Saturday. I love this stamp set of course because it's my favorite topic: food! The set is called Crazy for Cupcakes and is part of a 20% off promotion until the end of the month. Just click here to get the full details.

 

That was a lot of fun to color. I kept it simple though; we just used the Stampin' Write markers, a bit of white gel pen and some glitter. Here's what it looks like from up close:

 

Have a happy Tuesday! CeeCee

Recipe (all supplies by Stampin' Up!) -- Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set; Whisper White cardstock; Pink Pirouette textured cardstock; Sweet Always DSP; Basic Brown Classic ink; Regal Rose and Close to Cocoa Stampin' Write markers; White Gel Pen; Corner Rounder punch; rose Red and Chocolate Chip 1" Double-Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon; Dazzling Diamonds glitter; 2-way Glue and Snail Adhesive.

happy birthday, Jeanne!

 

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday and I made her a very simple card, all soft and happy. Yes, I have sinned! I used retired colors but they are her favorites.

 

The main image is stamped with VersaMark and then embossed with clear powder.

 

I like the way it turned out. Happy birthday, Jeanne!

Recipe (all supplies by Stampin' Up!): Inspired by Nature and Sincere Salutations stamp sets; Groovy Guava and Very Vanilla cardstock; Versamark and Groovy Guava inks; Soft Sky double-stitched ribbon; Stampin' Dimensionals and Mini Glue Dots.

happy birthday, son of mine!

 

Nineteen years ago, I gave birth to my first born. What a joyous and blessed event! Where has the time gone? Was I here the whole time? Wow, I am looking at him and can't help but shake my head. This is a non SU bad/card combo I made for him in a few minutes this afternoon:

   

The paper I've used is an old My Mind's Eye leftover I had from way back when I used to work at my local scrapbook store. The saying is from Michael's and it's embossed with a "psychedelic" powder on the front of the card.

 

Lo and behold, the paper was a perfect match to the box his gift came in (external hard drive for his iBook). funny thing is I wasn't trying to match it; it just happened that way! I hadn't noticed until the kids pointed it out to me.

Here's a picture of the handsome dude, "Finkus" (adoringly nicknamed so by his sister):

 

and silly pictures...

 

 

that's where the whipped cream mustache comes from -- homemade strawberry shortcake. Yum!

 

Happy birthday, Francis. I love ya lots! Mommy XOXOX

treat night

 

I received the loveliest phone call this morning while I was reading outside. My friend SophieThé (Miss KoolAid) asked me if I wanted to join her and her mom (Angelle, Maman KoolAid) cake and tea to a restaurant tonight. Isn't that nice?! I felt so blessed to have such good friends, not to mention fun friends.

 

Here we are after we stuffed our faces with yummy chocolate cake and cheese cake. They made me this beautiful card...

 

... and gave me a big bag of my favorite candies. Yes, I am addicted to those tiny eucalyptus candies from Monk's. I eat so many of those, it's not even funny... here's the proof:

 

I wasn't in the house for more than 10 minutes that I had already made a big dent in my bag. I could eat a gazillion of those at a time. What can I say, I'm a bad girl :-) Anyways, thank you Angelle and Sophie for a lovely evening. You girls rock tons!

Have a lovely evening! CeeCee

birthday wishes for Carole

This card was not intended for anyone in particular but since it is one of my Glitter Sister's birthday, I'll take this opportunity to wish her a Happy Birthday, Carole. Much many happinessess... happinessen....anyways, a lot... throughout your day. I saw this ribbon flower card here at Crafters Kitchen and decided to try my hand at it. It wasn't easy to find the right circle combination on which to center the slots for the ribbon to go through just right, but I've made myself a little template with the different sizes of Coluzzle circle cutter templates (you'll need the Companion Circle Coluzzle for that one; don't think that SU sells it though). Many attempts were made and lots of paper scraps later, this is what I came up with: (my apologies for the poor lighting; I need to adjust my white balance again)

To make the slots, I used the Notch & Die Cutting Tool by Basic Grey. I decided to go along with Basic Grey for the paper as well since it matched the ribbon I was using. OK, gotta jet to see my newest Glitter Sister, Diane. Full day today; hubby is taking me out to a restaurant (surprise location) for our 21st wedding anniversary. Yummmm!!! I love to eat :-)  I'll talk to you later. CeeCee

Recipe (all supplies by Stampin' Up! except otherwise indicated) -- Stamp set: Sincere Salutations; Ink: True Thyme (retired); Cardstock: Very Vanilla, True Thyme (retired); Patterned Paper: Basic Grey; Ribbon: Regal Rose Gros-grain 5/8"; Punches: Scallop Edge border punch, Scallop Circle, 1 3/8" Circle, Oval; Others: Notch & Die Cutting Tool (Basic Grey); Circle Cutting System (Coluzzle); Cotton Candy Stickles (Ranger); Leftoever rubber from cutting stamp sets; Snail adhesive.

ribbonned pattern paper

I don't know if you're like me but I hate to throw away anything, especially bits and pieces of ribbon. Well, here's a way to use them up: make your own pattern paper. Here's what I mean-- On a scrap piece of cardstock (another leftover from a previous project), I've glued small bits of ribbon one after the other. Then I've trimmed the edges with a good pair of scissors and adhered the piece to my card. I love it!

Recipe (all supplies by Stampin' Up! unless specified otherwise)-- Stamp Set: Unfrogettable; Ink: Old Olive; Cardstock: Soft Sky, Pumpkin Pie; Patterned Paper; Jersey Shore; Ribbons: Old Olive 5/8" gros-grain, Pumpkin Pie 1/4" gros-grain, Bayou Blue Double-stitched gros-grain; Punches: 1", 1/4", scalloped circles; Others: Old Olive Stampin' Write marker, Ice Rhinestone Brad, Stampin' Dimensionals, Snail Adhesive.