It Was +40 Degrees Celcius Here Last Week (+104F)

Since I did a post in January about the temperature being -45C I felt it only fair to let you all know that we also get very hot here too! It was +34C (+93F) one day last week and it felt more like +40C (+104F) with the humidex.
We took the little girls in to a friend's house to go swimming in their above ground pool. I thought it would be a good dry (wet) run before they started their swimming lessons later this summer. They really had fun and she brought out snacks and treats for them afterwards too. They don't have kids but they do have a VERY active dog that thinks he's still a puppy. He will run off with anything that is not up high enough, chewed on one of the girls towels, and will eat food you're eating right out of your hand whether you are done with it or not, lol. My friend says he has very bad manners around company but that it is good for him to be around little ones. His name is Cooper and he is a Golden/Yellow Lab. So naturally he had to be in the thank-you card! I found this doggie digi at Mo's Digital Pencil Too. The little Wryn Beach Babe digis are from Tiddly Inks. I imported them all into my Silhouette and then replicated one of the Wryn's, flipped her horizontally and resized her smaller. Now I have my Kaylee and my Abby. Placed Cooper at the bottom. Then printed them out on the printer. The pool was a Silhouette file that I cut out of colors to match our friends'. The sentiment was written in white gel pen. I colored my digis and my scene using Prismacolor pencils. To create the grass I used my green Zig marker to make all the grass strokes and then my pencils to color it in. For the sky I used my Frost Blue Copic on the top and some darker pencils on the bottom. Used pencils to shade the clouds. It was cloudy the day we went, which was good because it had been very hot, too hot, earlier in the week. I tried to match the colors for the girls' suits to what they wore that day too. I love my little scene and think it turned out very, very nicely.
My lessons learned: I tried again to blend my pencils using baby oil and again it caused my image lines to run/bleed black onto my yellow dog. I tried to heat set my images, still ran. I tried watercolor paper, still ran. I printed my images out a third time and gave up trying to use baby oil for blending. My Copics (and I only have 2) did help blend the lines a bit, especially on the sky. Otherwise I just used circles when coloring different shades and I think everything blends quite well.

The Originals with Daddy

The Replicas with Cooper ;o)

I would like to share my card at:

Great Impressions your best coloring, closes July 31,

Mo's Challenge Blog in the doghouse, closes August 2,

Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges sports and hobbies (swimming), closes August 2,

Polka Doodle summer, closes August 3,

Dream Valley Challenges summer, closes August 4,

Creative Mondays water, closes August 5,

Creative Craft Challenge summertime, closes August 7

A Play Date Thank-You

The little girls and I went to a neighbor's farm Saturday morning for a play date with their granddaughters. I wasn't sure how the big girls (ages 11 and 9) would enjoy playing with the little girls (4 and 2). But they had the most wonderful time. The big girls took such good care of them. And the little girls were so good. This is a thank-you card for the neighbors for inviting us up to play. I'm also taking them some fresh beans from the garden.
I used a Silhouette card file to make my shaped card. Some ribbon and a BoBunny brad are really the only embellishments.



I would like to share my card at:
The Play Date Cafe color challenge, closes August 1

Sapphire Anniversary

Did you know that the 45th Wedding Anniversary was the Sapphire Anniversary? For my parents 45th I couldn't decide between a funny card or a sentimental so I went with both. Our challenge this fortnight at The Poodles Parlour is Anything Goes (and you can link up 3 entries). And because we are sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps (who are having a 50% off sale for all of July) and The Digi Garden (who have just added new digis to the store) I predict we will have a lot of entries for this one!

I used Stella and Gus from Bugaboo Stamps for my image. The sentiment is also from Bugaboo but comes with a different Stella and Gus image. I colored them using Prismacolor pencils. For the record, my mom has never worn a Cheetah print dress, I just thought it might be fun to try and turn Stella's dots into spots. I also put some red Stickles on the heart and some Glossy Accents on their glasses. The fence is a Silhouette file as are the Irises. The Blue Iris is the flower that symbolizes the 45th Anniversary. There's the sentimental part of the card. The grass was cut from grass dp with a pair of decorative scissors. The gate handle I drew on myself. The stitching around the sentiment is supposed to look like x's and o's. The 4 and 5 are Thickers.

I would like to share my card at:

Come and Get It Challenges bingo (die cuts, free, glitter), closes July 27,

Paper and Such stitching, real or faux, closes July 31,

Crafts and Me Challenges anything goes, closes Aug. 1,

Fresh Brewed Designs photo inspiration, closes Aug. 1,

Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge wedding/anniversary, closes Aug. 1

Cupcake Party Favor

I made these as a thank-you for coming to my party gift from one of my little girls. The heart cupcake wrapper is a Silhouette file cut out of white cardstock. Wrap gumballs in plastic wrap and place in a regular cupcake liner. Then put the whole thing into your cupcake wrapper. I put a toothpick into a big red gumball and inserted the toothpick right through the plastic to create the cherry on top. They make such a colorful little giveaway!
My lessons learned: you need something to contain your gumballs while you are putting them into the plastic wrap or they roll all over before you can gather the sides of your wrap. A small cup or even a firm cupcake wrapper will do.

I would like to share my project at:
Sundays Are Lovely linky party, closes August 1,
Monica's Creative Madness cupcake project, closes August 2

Late To The Dance

Well, the good news is my computer is back up and running, oh how I missed my Silhouette and digi files *cheers*. The bad news is I'm late with my DT card for this fortnight's challenge at The Poodles Parlour *shame*. Feels a little like when you stay up late in High School to finish a project due the next day *guilt*. But here we are. The challenge is to use a digi stamp *easy*. We are sponsored by Wonderstrange, which are very appropriately named, and The Digi Garden, who have updated their site and it looks fabulous! Please play along, link up to 3 times, and I look forward to visiting!
I imported Macy and Izzy from the Digi Garden into my Silhouette program. They look so much like my girls *cute*. I resized Izzy and then used the print and cut feature to print and cut them out. Paper pieced the girls and used purple and pink glitter gel pens to add the sparkly highlights. The Grad card giftcard holder is a Silhouette file, cut out in my nephew's school colors (red and black). He graduated from Grade 8 in June. The "Just For You" tag was also a Silhouette file. I used the delete points feature to take the tag part off of the image and used the offset feature to make the background circle. All that's left to do is to insert the giftcard.
My lessons learned: when your less than 4 year-old HP computer quits turning on because the switch is gone and you find out HP no longer carries the part because your computer was deemed "end of life" 6 months ago and it takes over a month to get the part from Heaven only knows where (I'm guessing/hoping eBay) and it costs just as much to fix as buying a new computer you had better make sure you have enough gel in your purple glitter gel pen to finish the accents on your image because your card is already late and you don't have enough time to remake all the paper piecing you've already done. I know there was not enough punctuation there, but I was ranting, so I didn't really need any ;o)

I would like to share my card at:

Tammy's Scrapin Corner anything goes, closes July 15,

Cameo Creations anything goes, closes July 21,

Creative Stamp Friends paper piecing, closes July 22

Sponge Bombs

These are so awesome. Of course I found them on Pinterest. And when I found out my nephew was having a water fight down at my parents farm for his 7th birthday party, I knew I had to make these as his present.
I got all of my supplies at a dollar store (where everything is $1.25 now): Carwash style sponges, J cloths and zip ties. You can use several other styles of sponges too and I did, but I liked these ones the best.

Start by cutting your car wash sponges into 1/3rds.

Cut a J cloth into strips the same length and width as your sponges.

Get your zip tie handy. Then start to gather your sponges and cloths, pinching them together as you go. This will give you an idea of how they will look when tied together.

Tie around the middle with a zip tie. Tighten as tight as it will go. Don't go too tightly though or it is possible to rip your sponges.

Snip the zip tie close to the center. Then flouf. Just move the pieces around to fill any gaps.

We bought a plastic tub with handles at Wal-Mart. Filled it with Sponge Bombs and then your tub can be filled with water for your water fight.

Total cost per bomb: 1.46

Zip Tie - .04

Sponges - 1.25

J Cloth (1 cloth will make at least 2 bombs) - .17

Tub $5 at Wal-Mart

They did not all survive the fight though. 7 year-old boys are not known for 'gently' water fighting and our Border Collie kept trying to 'fetch' them too. But there were still some intact at the end of the battle.

These would be great for any summer family gathering!

Happy Canada Day

It's Canada Day! I am so proud to be Canadian, I think we do a lot of things right and that we don't celebrate it often enough, because we're Canadian, that's just not like us. But on Canada Day we really let our pride shine through and you'll see the Maple Leaf flying everywhere today. So what better day to celebrate my 1 Year Blogaversary!
It has been an amazing year full of fun and learning for me. Every new follower and every comment makes my heart smile. I am just so grateful to you all. 
Thank-you so much for joining in the fun!