Father's Day Weekend

We're getting ready to leave to the Dell's on our mini-vacation.

The kids are so excited to go see Yogi Bear. I've got to admit of all the campsites we've stayed at over the years Yogi Bear is by far the coolest, CLEANEST camp resort around.

This year I decided to order some of Mark's favorite spices and sauce from our favorite BBQ joint, Iron Works in Austin, Texas.

The brisket is to die for.....

For those who know Mark, you'll understand the card I made for him this year. For those who don't know, once the warm weather arrives 80 - 90% of our meals are cooked on the grill. Mark loves and I mean LOVES grilling! He makes everything from your traditional BBQ meats to grilled banana's, pineapples, veggies, etc....

The man even made an omelet just for the heck of saying he did it! LOL

Here's his card along with some of Iron Works products. I need to package it all so its ready for the kids to give to him Sunday morning.

Happy Father's Day!

Apron and Chef stamps are from too much fun rubber stamps

to make it more realistic I stamped the apron on white linen cloth and I also stuffed the top of the chefs hat. The sentiment is foiled in red.

Last day of school at Six Flags Great America

What a way to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation! SAC celebrated by taking the kids to Six Flags in Gurnee, IL.
It had been years since Mark and I went so we decided to tag as chaperone's. Let me tell you though, we were the "COOL" parents. Why? Because we were the only two not only getting on every roller coaster with our kids but we dragged them to the first seats of the first cart on every ride! The kids were a bit nervous at the beginning but we told them the only to get over there fear was to get on the scariest ride first and face their fears. They did it and boyeee did we convert them into roller coaster junkies!! LOL
The school left around 3pm but lucky our kids got permission from their parents to stick around with us until it closed at 9pm. Around 8:30 we were quite a site to see, all of us were dragging our bodies across the park on the way back to the car.
We indulged in day of roller coasters, Italian lemonades, burgers, funnel cake and more.....

What a great way to start off the summer!

Malik, Abraham & Zack getting ready to go on the Superman coaster

My hubby and me waiting in line for the Superman coaster

So how were we the next day????
......yeah......
35 years of roller coasters, bungee jumping all came back to haunt us the following morning. Sports creme and Motrin did absolutely NOTHING to alleviate the soreness in our backs! OUCHIE!!!

.....but the boys had a blast and that made it all worth while!

Welcome Warm Weather!!

I just had to show off my prized Peonies. These are from Asian Peony tree that grows 3' - 4', the flowers it blooms are "MAMMOTH" size, the picture below shows a close up, the largest Peony it blooms this year had a 10" diameter!

Malik's lounging around with our neighbor Christian after an afternoon of swimming.

Lunch Break for my munchkins!

After playing with the sprinklers Ian, Miranda and our other little neighbor Alex are chilling inside their clubhouse and big brother Malik watches over them.

Hello again!

Wow, it's been forever since I've posted anything on here.
For starters Malik is finally out of school, yippee!!
He got all A's and a B+ in social studies.
We're getting ready for a couple camping trips this summer, the first will be this weekend for Father's day. It'll just be our little family but it'll be so much fun and relaxing!!
Then we're going to the Dells for the 4th of July in a big group of 14! We've got our sites all reserved it's going to be sooo much fun I can't wait for this trip.
The card/ invitations has been going very well also, I've had a steady amount of orders ranging from wedding, graduations, Luau's and birthdays.
Here are some previews of my orders:

(This is for my friend's hubby's Graduation/ Birthday party)

(This is an order for a 50's party)

(This is a completed wedding order)

(This is an order for a student at Malik's school)

365 Cards

Lately I've been wondering if it's "ever" going to get warm in Chicago again. The weather has been rather cold and rainy creating many stuffy noses within my family.
What started with one child ended up almost 3 weeks later with everyone having shared the lovely flu bug.

Now that I'm the last to entertain this pesky bug I'm really hoping warm weather is right around the corner so we can open the windows and air everything out. :)

Getting back to my papercrafts...

I joined 365 cards as a guest designer and my date finally arrived (yeah) :)
My challenge was to create a card using some kind of fruit. While I do have a few fruit stamps, I've got to admit I've only used them once so this truly was a challenge for me. I created my card using the peaches stamp from Lockhart stamps. I colored them using a super soft water soluable pencils from Caran D'Ache. These pencils are totally unlike any watercolor pencils in the market, I love the way you can blend colors flawlessly. I kept my layers simple with Bazzill textured cardstock and kept it clean by adding some additional texture using my Scor-it.

Tea Please

I fell in love with this stamp set from MFT when we received their catalog at the store. I knew it was one I had to have in my life. After I designed the cards for class I couldn't wait to take my set home with me and begin playing with it.
I've been on a "pink" kick lately so I decided to make a little gift for my good friend Selvi, she'll be receiving this later on this morning. :)
The card is made using Prism card stock and Pebbles pattern paper. I stamped the image on Quartz card stock, I colored the image w/ Copic markers and added white flock to the bunny with my glue pen. Of course I couldn't pass up the chance to further embellish him by added a pom-pom for his tail and black glass beads for his eyes.

I made the box using my scoreboard from Crafter's Companion, I embellished the box with Azalea Stardream Card stock, Pebbles pattern paper, grosgrain ribbon and I printed the sentiment and used my oval and scallop oval punch from Marvy.

Now comes the goodies.....

I absolutely LOVE Cherry Blossoms, so when I ran across an online tea store that sells 100% Cherry Blossom tea I jumped and order a few packs of tea and some French pink sugar.
I know Selvi would enjoy it also so I wrapped up a few of them and created little labels for them.
You can also eat the actual Cherry Blossoms once they been soaked in your cup, they also provided some Youji Sticks for this purpose.

I really enjoyed making this for her, I hope she enjoys it. :)

Commencement Invitations

Wow! Time sure flies by... I didn't realize so much time had passed since my last post.

The weather is "finally" getting warming in Chicago but boyeee is it living up to it's nickname, "The Windy City":)

I've been running around as usually not knowing whether I'm coming or going, unfortunately, it's left me little time to sit and create until this week.

I've been commissioned by my son's school to design their commencement announcements and a parent and very good friend asked me to create a personalize announcement for her son Adem who will be graduating from 8th grade.

I want Adem's cards to be unique so I started googling templates I could use as a reference point, boy, did I find a lot of them! I decided to use this a template I found on SCS. My pockets are an A6 however, I may enlarge them to an A7 once I get Adem's photo and adhere it to the side of the announcement.

I the patterned paper, "Hats off" and "Graduation" by Reminisce, these papers retail at $2/sheet, I got REALLY lucky because I only paid $.10/per sheet on clearance! Woo-Hoo!!!!

I made the tassel. OMG! Talk about tedious work! I used metallic embroidery thread, each tassel will be about 2". They took time to make but WOW, I think they came out pretty good especially for it being my first time making a tassel!

Here's a my sample:

Once I get wallet size pics of Adem in his cap & gown it will be placed right next to the announcement. I conveniently covered that half right now so it wouldn't look lonely in the photographs.

Just for fun - perfect the bachelor in your life!

After a long conversation about "strippers" with one of my "single" friends I decided to make him a card just for fun. Squigglefly provided the PERFECT gal for the job, the Disco Daze image was dressed up with plenty of bling and I added a pole to fit the occasion.

While this card is on the "wild side" it's perfect for bachelors. LOL

Onyx & Jupiter Stardream Cardstock was used for the main card and base. Silver reflective cardstock embossed with my trusty cuttlebug provided the "disco environment".

Image was colored with copic markers and spica markers. I traced and cut out her clothes using Onyx Stardream cardstock and applied adhesive and glitter, her shoes were enhanced using 3D crystal laquer. I used a skewer for the pole and spray painted in Copper using Crafter's Metallic Spray by Krylon. Last but definitely not the least I added some bling.

I computer generated the inside and created the envelope using Jupiter Stardream Cardstock.

I've been MIA

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since my last post, shame on me...

So much has been happening in "Vianney's world". Through the lovely world wide web I've reunited with quite a few old high school & college friends. As you can imagine my time has been spent on the phone, emailing and meeting up with long lost friends catching up on 10 - 15 + yrs.

I haven't stopped my designs though... on top of working on a wedding in Canada I've also made a few cards for some of my friends. Here are a couple cards I've made:

This card is for my friend Irene, she threw her husband a birthday party two weeks ago and their home. What fun actually hanging out and having drinks with friends! I'm not much of a "hard liquor" person and I don't like Tequila at all but after a few shots, I forgot why I didn't like it. LOL

Unfortunately, I remembered the following day as I prayed to the porcelain Gods. hee! hee!

It's a simple but a adorable little card featuring a little Asian doll by Hero Arts and an intricate paper lace background by Kodomo Inc.

This card was made for one of my re-found friends Lucy. I used a digi stamp by squigglefly, I absolutely love them! She made me dinner last Tuesday and OMG can she cook! She makes my cooking skills look like Chef Boyardee! lol

It was such a great night chatting with her and another friend Irene. No kids, no whining just 3 gals hanging out at home.

Drum Roll Please.......

Thanks to everyone who participated in Cut Card Stock's Blog Hop Giveaway.

I had so much fun reading everyone's comments.

I was amazed at how many of you enjoy the silence when creating. I tried that Friday night and I've got to admit it drove me crazy :) I think it's because I'm so used the the kids running around all day so when it's quiet I crave for some kind of noise to keep me on my toes. LOL

Anyhow, I'm sure your interested in knowing who is the winner from my blog so here it is:

Here are your random numbers:26
Timestamp: 2009-02-17 00:12:30 UTC

Congratulations to Elizabeth, you were the 26th person to leave a comment.

Please email me at cuamor@gmail.com so we can send you your prize package.

This is what you will be getting:

(Brown Bag Hand Tinted & Kraft Assortment Pack 12 Sheets 8.5x11)

(Basis Cardstock Sample Pack 20 Sheets 8.5x11)

(Kraft Brown Bag Envelopes 25 pack in a A7 sz )

Have a terrific day!

Happy Valentine's Day

Today was also a big day for my daughter Miranda. We dropped off the boys at grandma's and had an official, "SPOIL ME DAY" just for her. She went to get her hair cut for the first time at Kids Snips then she got to pick out some patterned paper at a local scrapbook shop and then she got her ears pierced! OMG, did she cry! Thank goodness it once her adrenaline kicked in all she wanted to do was shop at Claires. LOL (Just like a girl)

Daddy bought her a bunch of necklaces and hair clips, a hello kitty purse and some pretty nail polish and flavored lipstick. She won't let me take her picture today because she says her ears hurt so as soon as she lets me I'll post some pictures of my big girl.

In the mean time, here's the card I gave to Mark, it's on the "wild" side! I used a stamp set I ordered just for this occasion from Pink Papery Studio. I have to admit she did take a long time to make but it's because I used several layer of glossy accents to give the glass a true dimensional look, in between layers I also dabbled some of PPS shimmer it paint. Just the right touch gave it the illusion of Champagne. I tried to capture the effects as best as I could but this is definitely something I am going to have to work on. In the meantime enjoy your day with your sweetie and for all the single ladies go shopping and spoil yourself silly today.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Card Making Day at School!

Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to teach 5th - 7th grade girls at Malik's school an intro to rubber stamping and how use them to create greeting cards. Eight out of the nine girls were completely new to the "stamping" world, I have to admit these girls blew me away! Every single one of their cards were phenomenal below are pictures of them hard at work unfortunately, because we were running out of time and we had the bus drivers waiting for them I forgot to take pictures of their finished work. I've asked the principal to take some pictures for me so hopefully I'll have that on tomorrow's post.

(Here are the cards I designed for the girls. Easy stamping, with lots of coloring and detail cutting and dimension)

(These are our 7th graders listening to me give the instructions for their 1st card)

(Our 6th graders focusing on their card)

(Our 5th graders in action)

(Manka, (the one on the right) is my little stamping sidekick)

I think I converted Selvi (Manka's mom & my good friend) into a stamper! Woo-Hooo!

Even the boys wanted a shot at stamping, we had to kick them out this time.

I think the next class will have to be a co-ed stamp class. LOL

P.S. If you're looking for the sign up for Cut Card Stocks' Blog Hop click here! Remember it ends 2/14/09 so follow my blog for a chance at some cool prizes!

My name is Chilly Willy, I'm frozen through and through! My head is hot, my feet are cold... HA HEEEE ACHOOOOO!

Well the weather has finally started warming up in Chicago and of course now I've got a cold!

Miranda is doing much better however, because she loves us so much she shared her germs with Ian and with me. Now it's our turn to mope around the house with sneezie, watery eyes. JOY!

I haven't had a chance to finish my next card and this afternoon I'll be teaching at Malik's school the joys of card making to 5th - 7th grade girls. It should be fun. Stay tuned for the outcome :)

Have a great day!


(REMEMBER YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO SIGN UP FOR CUT CARD STOCK'S BLOG HOP GOING ON RIGHT NOW! CLICK HERE!)

Sneezie, Wheezie, Little Girl

The joys of motherhood, waking up in the middle of the night to crying 2 yr old!

My baby came down with a cold and her stuffy nose kept her and I up half the night. Of course, by the time she finally fell asleep at 6:30 this morning Mark and Malik were waking up to get ready for their Klondike event for the Boys Scouts. There goes my sleep!

Well, they finally left, Miranda is finally sleeping comfortably and Ian should be getting up shortly.

In tribute to my sneezie daughter I put this little card together, it seems to fit the moment just right. hee! hee!

Don't forget to check out our current Blog Hop at cutcardstock.com, for more info click here!

It's a Valentine's Day Blog Hop Party!!

Hey everyone,

Have you heard of Cut Card Stock? They are an amazing online store that carries a wide variety of cardstock including my personal favorites the “Stardream” collection and Green Grocer’s Brown Bag products.

Cut Card Stock is having a blog hop party February 6th- 14th.

Here are the super easy ways you can WIN:
Add Cut Card Stock as a reader thru feedblitz or blogger. Then you can blog over to our 7 participating sites. “Subscribe" to each blog and leave comments at each blog you follow.

You have the opportunity to WIN up to 7 different prize packages including a $30 Cut Card Stock gift card!

Here’s a sneak peek at what you can WIN from my blog:

(Basis Cardstock Sample Pack 20 Sheets 8.5x11)

(Brown Bag Hand Tinted & Kraft Assortment Pack 12 Sheets 8.5x11)

(Kraft Brown Bag Envelopes 25 pack in a A7 sz )**Remember every blog will offer different prize packages so head over to these other blogs to increase your chance of WINNING! **

Danielle

Cindy

Linda

Roree

Norma

Cut Card Stock Blog

If you want a chance to WIN - Just leave me a comment and tell us what you listen to while your stamping, scrapbooking or creating your cards…

I enjoy listening to songs from the 80’s!

How about you.....

(Winner will be chosen by random generator and posted on my blog so remember to check in)

Want to see what you can create with Green Grocer's products? Check out my previous post.

Watercoloring Technique

I've tried water coloring with stamps several time however, I was never satisfied with the results SO I decided to take a class a local stamp store to see what I was missing in my technique.

WATER! That was the mistake I kept making, I didn't dilute my colors enough causing them to fight for 1st place with one another and creating a "muddy" appearance. (Can you picture these colors fighting? hee hee)

I've got to admit, I was very happy with 4 out of the 3 cards! *The 4th card needs to go back to the drawing board :)

The stamps used were English Countryside set 1 and set 2 from Art Impressions.

(These are the 4 cards I made)

(These are the 3 cards I liked the best)

I used Marvy Markers to stamp the main image (huffing technique), I also used this same technique to stamp on the leaves & branches however I stamped off first to create a 2nd generation image, I soften my lines with a damp fine tooth brush. I also used a fine tooth brush and a wide brush for adding color to the background and to blend in the foliage. It's handy to have a palette to mix your colors and plenty of paper towels to blot off excess water from your brush and to stamp off images to produce 2nd & 3rd generation images. Remember, watercolor paper works the best for this technique because it absorbs the colors and allows them to blend.

Now I just have to keep on practicing.....

I've gone Digi Stamp!

Okay, so I've tried my very first one!

I've been reading and seeing cards designed with Digi stamps however, I was a bit apprehensive about trying it. After all, I'm a stamper, I like having the option of selecting my different types of inks and colors. However, after seeing more and more beautiful cards designed using Digi stamps I decided, "What the heck!"

OMG! I love them!

I tried out Alice Anya DS from The Greeting Farm, it took all but a few seconds to receive my download with this adorable image. I was able to play with sizing and if your the computer savvy kind you can even color the image right on your desktop. I printed it on my laser and my ink jet printer using various types of card stocks to see what effects I liked and didn't like. My fav by far was the option of printing on Quartz Stardream. Inkjet printers don't dry very fast on stardream card stock giving you the option of throwing on some embossing powder for a raised effect. I love it!

Here's a quick little card I threw together to send to a friend.

I'll always be behind you

After exploring and joining several groups on PCP I decided to enter in my first challenge.

Pink Cat Studio is having their 1st DT Challenge for 2009.

Here are the details:

Challenge Description

Since Valentine's Day is coming up fast, I have a LOVE themed Challenge for you! But this isn't any old love themed challenge, this is a special one! My challenge for you is to create a card or project with at least four elements (you can have more if you would like), but four of your elements have to spell LOVE. For example, you can use Layers, Ovals, Violet, and Embellishments; see spells love. Or you could use Lily, Owls, Very pretty sequins and Emerald brads. Spells love. The possibilities are endless and yes, V can stand for very! Just remember that four of your elements must spell LOVE. Have Fun, can't wait to see what you come up with!

Date the challenge ends:Tuesday February 10th, 5 pm EST

Requirements:

A Pink Cat Studio stamp must be used as the main stamp on the card or project. It is okay to use stamps from other companies as well. Your entry can be a card or any type of 3D project.

To be eligible for the prize you must upload your card before the deadline to your PaperCraftPlanet gallery and include the tag PCSDTC1. You may enter only 1 project for this challenge.If you have questions about this challenge, please post them in this discussion thread.

Prize:

On February 11th, a winner will be chosen by a random draw from all of the challenge participants. The winner will receive a grab bag of Pink Cat Studio stamps. The winner will be announced in the PCP challenge discussion thread and on the Pink Cat Studio blog. Some cards from the challenge will be displayed on the PCS blog and all entries will go into the PCP gallery.

I got creative using the elements of, "LOVE"

L - Long Walks L - Lots of Layers

O - Open Heart O - Olive Chalk

V - Very best friends V - Velvet (Doodlebug Crushed Velvet flock)

E - Essence of Rose E - Embossing

Lily & Billy stamps (Pink Cat Studio), Cherry Blossom (Rubber Stampede) Grass (Stampscapes), Ink (Versafine), Embossing (Clearsnap), Flock (Doodlebug), Markers (Copic), Chalk (Pebbles), Quartz Stardream Cardstock , Blue & Brown (DCWV), Rose scent (card-scents)
I "love" versafine because of its detail it produces however, it doesn't dry very well on stardream since its a coated cardstock so I found a way to make it work to my advantage, just sprinkle some clear embossing powder and Taa-Daa! Crisp detail with embossed detailing!

Paper Craft Planet

Last week I fell in love with the the, "Lily & Billy Sweethearts Stamps" from Pink Cat Studio, so of course I purchased them. After receiving my confirmation I received a thank you from P.C.S and they suggested I join PaperCraftPlanet.com to join on challenges and contests. OMG!! I can't believe I had never heard of this site before!! I LOVE IT!
This site has it all for all you stamp/ paper craft lovers.
I won't go into details, I'll let you discover it for yourself just trust me you'll love this site. If you do join stop by my site and add me a friend, http://www.papercraftplanet.com/profile/Vianney

Ciao!

Kids Class

I've been a little under the weather this week. :(

I'm pretty sure its a stomach bug but I'm also sneezy and achy. I've been on the couch most of the week, too weak to eat much less create.

Enough about my germs :)

my son's school asked me to teach a cardmaking class for about 10 girls (5th-7th grades).

I've always been a technique kind of person so to switch my way of thinking and come up with designs for beginners has been a challenge especially since all but one girl are new to the stamping world. I eliminated heat embossing , piercing and other lengthy techniques and came up with these 3 cards last night:

(Stamps from SU)

(Stamps from Cat's Pajamas & MFT)

(Stamps from MFT)

All three of these cards consist of dye inks and lots & lots of cutting. I'll be putting together class kits of 3 for 10 girls so I guess I'll have a lot of preparing ahead of me too. :)