Daring to Dream and Design

Happy New Years!

2012-01-04T12:37:00.004-06:00

I want to take a moment to wish friends and family an amazing and wonderful year in 2012.

Like so many others I have chosen not to make any resolutions this year. It is my firm belief that by doing so I set my self up for failure and that is something I do not need help in doing. I don't want to feel the feeling of defeat and frustration or the incredible shame I feel in myself when I fail.

So I am going to like many of my creative friends adopt a word - a word that will guide my life and help me celebrate my 50th year of life. There are millions of great words to choose from, such as :
Joy, Happiness, Peace, Nurture, Fitness, Laughter, Savor, Harmony, Tranquility, Serenity, Calm, Foster, Cultivate, Develop, Support and Encourage.

For 2012 I have chosen the word Change. Many of you heard me say that the winds of change were blowing for me in 2010 and 2011 - in that case I was responding to the will and force of the world surrounding me. In 2012 I am going to be the one altering, modifying, Transforming, Amending, and perhaps Revolutionizing MY LIFE. The decision to take CHANGE into my own life after 50 years of rolling with it and adapting is scary. I know that I can do this, and I will reach new Highs, and new Lows as I make this journey. What I hope is that my choice to change will leave a positive impact on those around me. I will make some people unhappy in the short term...........but I hope that in the long run they will see that changes I made .......will make their lives better.

One of the changes that I am going to be making has to do with my "kids" that I volunteer with at an inner city school. Late in November 10 were moved to another class and that teacher does not have the time to let me share scrapbooking with his class. Its cool those kids will have new and fun experiences...........but in December when I went to wish them a Merry Xmas I was literally knocked off my feet with their hugs, and tears begging me to let them scrap. To get their teacher to continue it. I left the class room heartbroken because at the time I could not think of a way for them to take part and continue the creative journalling, or the scrapbooking.

So after much thought I have decided to gear my blog towards the kids, inviting them to check in and learn new things and be stimulated to continue their creativity. I have been putting together scrap packs together to give after the holiday break so that they will have some supplies of their own and that they will be able to meet with me at noon hours on Tuesday to get new supplies from the generous donations that my peeps have donated, and if they desire a chance to share their work. So I hope that this will allow those kids to continue to express their creativity and the thoughts that run through their precious minds.

I am going to resume sharing my own work as means of sharing my art, and perhaps invoking someone else to a creative inspiration.

Change is a wonderful thing - especially if you can make life better for just one small child.

Happy New Year to Every One!

Wellllllllll it seems as if I have slipped again

2011-09-27T07:15:00.008-06:00

It has recently been brought to my attention that I need to update my blog with some of my goings on. Mostly I have been working away on my 100 page project and I am nearing the end of it.

My other major project is working with an inner city school to teach scrapbooking and creative writing. It has been so much fun...........it feels so good to do and share with others that have so little of their own. This particular school deals with a extraordinarily high population of immigrants and refugees...........and the stories and experiences of some of these kids...........no child should ever go through what they have SURVIVED. Their gratitude and appreciation are beyond words.

I put a call out through facebook and a forum that I chatter on and the response has been overwhelming...........leftovers, odds and ends and abandoned product have arrived and the kids are turning it into cards, journals, and scrapbooks. So if you have any products that you want to share drop me a line and I will send you the address.

This is a photo of the table that was filled with design projects from 7 Gypsies. This was a part of what was called a trunk show at Creative Escape in 2009 - just a little behind on my scrapping LOL
Also from 2009 were some photos of "Shamu" at Sandiego's Seaworld. Did you know that they call all the killer whales Shamu? Thats what they told us during the show. Oh and yes I know that after all the fussy cutting and layering I did spell Believe wrong. ..... just typical Dawn.
This is from Christmas 2008, David was so pleased to be getting his computer.
This is another Trunk show table from Creative Escape, this time featuring the lovely Heidi Swapp.
This is a 3-D wreath waiting for framing and a perfect Christmas photo.
This was my favourite table at the Trunk show - TIM HOLTZ - it truly left me speechless, but that is a whole other story.
Every crop you go to these little fella show up somewhere along the line. At Creative Escape I was introduced to coconut flavoured ones and my new love affair began..........but they are soooooo hard to find.
The Pirate dinner theatre that Bob and went to in January of 2009 on our amazing holiday!
A friends wedding layout..............yes I have since corrected the spelling error - lol
A group shot of the family on Mom's maternal side - from 2001
Part of a 8 sided layout - about my feelings and thoughts........
The pyro technic show that took place labour day weekend in Saskatoon in 2010
My funny little Diesel and his charm
The dream come true of a dear friend as she opened her new store in August of 2011. She is also a big supporter of my kids.
The last Christmas that I spent with Mom and Dad in 2008 - Dad is very photogenic when he is not aware of having his photo taken - thank you zoom lenses.
This is a rare photo of the Wyder cousins - taken under sad circumstances - the death of my Grandpa and there are still several missing but it is a treasured photo of mine.
For someone who didn't want t me to bring home a puppy........... quickly changed his tune .....
A former collegue of mine at her wedding. Figured I better scrap some before I forgot names and dates.
More of her wedding
All the really bad photos that I took of Ladybug when she was a brand new puppy. I sure wish I knew how to take photos then............but you do what you can with the lemons you have.

Well time to head out and make smiles on the faces of my kids with this weeks project. I will try to update some more for those that like to pop in and check out my happenings.

Proud to be published in .....

2011-06-26T23:26:00.004-06:00

and in the June edition of ...

So head over and check out all the amazing talent and incredible inspiration that you will see. Click on the image if your new to these publications.

Just a few more layouts and cards

2011-06-15T11:19:00.005-06:00

My best friend and her daughter a few years ago, now the height difference is reversed.

One of my favourite photos from the early morning photos that I took out at the Cogen.

This trip was a fabulous way for Darby and I to go our seperate ways and let the kids know we were parting as friends.

Just using up some scraps that were left over...but the stars ended up being a indepth project to create LOL

Love those cattails even when the season is over and they have blown up.

Not a lot happening on the war front these days. Have a fabulous week!

What have I been up to?

2011-06-01T16:39:00.010-06:00

So it has been awhile since I had anything to say or show.

Recently a friend posted a 100 page challenge. The challenge is focused on getting us to use our stash of supplies used up and room for the new and exciting things that keep coming out on the market.

The rules are pretty simple.

You must use stock from your stash - no purchases
You may purchase adhesives and cardstock (if your completely out).
For each layout you complete put $5.00 into a stash jar.

So I accepted the challenge and added a few more restrictions for myself. I had to use photos that were already printed off - and I have several hundred or more to use. Not knowing where to start I grabbed a stack turned them upside down and decided that whatever comes up is what is gonna get worked on. Its been kinda of fun. I went through a magazine, marked the layouts that I liked. Then I grab the photo find a layout that would "work" and use it as a sketch. Oh and I grabbed a thick stack of pattern paper, cardstock and decided that I have to use that and I can use any of my scraps in my three scrap paper files. I have a box of ephemera, a baggie ribbons and fibers.

The trip down memory lane have been fun and sometimes a bit painful.....but it is all good in the long run. Next problem is going to be storing them all when they are done.... lololol

This picture was of me and my siblings - the first in quit a long period of time. Ernie had run his first Iron Man and it was one of the worst years for forest fires. In fact in the photo you can see the smoke from one that was less than 5 miles from the condo.

This is a flower arrangement that I received from a gentleman friend and his sons while I was hospitalized. It was HUGE the pot alone was 12" tall. The last time I saw that many orchids was when I was a florist and did an orchid featured wedding.

This layout was about the incredible amount of Callebut chocolates that arrived in my office one day.

Monty is my brothers dog and this was when he was just a couple of months old.

Just some good memories with an amazing lady.
This was fun after having just seen Colton who is now much bigger and far more fun for an auntie to tease and love.More amazing flowers from an amazing man.

The reciepe pulls out from behind the photo.
This photo Xmas card is a few years old but it is a wonderful reminder about how her life and family have changed.

This layout was done at Scrapbook your Heart - there is room for a letter to be tucked in behind the salmon colored layer. If you have never gone you should plan on going to the 2012 session of it.I love daffiodils, I think they are the clowns of the flower world. I tried to grow them in 2005 and had only one of 24 that were planted.

These pictures of Colton trying to hang on to a wiggly new pup were so funny. Of course then there was Dad to the rescue now that puppy doesn't look so big.

Buddy loved to chased his sponge ball and had it in his mouth whenever you looked at him.

This was a very sad day. It was the last day that Buddy and Ladybug were together. Darby had come to pick up Buddy I told them to say goodbye and this is how they stood for several moments. Long enough for me to go and get the camera.

I love introducing new things to the dogs and showing Diesel a lobster was one of them. It was extra fun as this lobster was super feisty and went after Diesel.

I then decided that it might be fun to see things from Diesels perspective.... no wonder the dog was nervous, lol.

Gratitude, Thank yous and Could it be........

2011-03-07T11:14:00.004-06:00

Good Morning Everyone!

It truly is a great morning. Yes it is -27C (holy crap cold for those not familiar with Celsius). Yes, my beloved Daddy Tom made his way to his Lord just two short days ago. Yes there are bills to pay family issues to deal with. Health issues that need resolution and a house that needs to be sold. But..........

Gratitude

The sun is shining and the wind is quiet so walking to work today is going to be pleasant. I know that my Daddy Tom is no longer suffering. He is with those he loves that went before him. I know that while my friends ache at the loss of their father, the burden of daily care and worry is winding down. I know that health issues are being monitored and looked after and when I look at what some of my new and old friends are going through....my ailments are minor and insignificant. Yes, losing my job last summer played havoc financially and I just never seem to be able to get ahead...but I have a job, something many people find themselves without in this economy. I also have the ability to improve my situation with hard work, drive, and determination. I am able to look to the future and see that I can make a difference and I have a few methods of getting there...I just have to choose.

There are relationship dynamics to repair.... but at least I have family and friends and the chance to repair them...with time and love.

This weekend was the first full weekend off in months for me. Wouldn't you know it Bob had to work..... but he did something he has not done in over 18 months. He asked me to go with him for the day. My gut reaction was "are you kidding? Sit in a semi all day when I could be scrapping or blog hopping?" Lucky for me my brain was working faster than my mouth and realized he was making an effort to spend time with me. So I loaded up my camera and some pens and paper dawned 3 layers of clothes and did my best to look the part, LOL. 12 hours of hauling bales.... here I come!

Could it be.......spring is coming?

Well it was a wonderful day, and I even got to see my sign (to me) that spring is here and that soon the cold of winter will soon be a forgotten memory. Look at these little fellas that were just a day old..... how could seeing these awesome little faces all curled up not touch your heart.

There were some slightly older lambs that made me laugh and my heart light. Don't tell anyone but it did wonders to uplift my spirits, more so than anyone human could have. So I apologize for all the sheep and lamb pictures but not really.

Thank you to Peeps!

This past weekend I participated in the Soul Blog Hop and it was truly fabulous to get the chance to chance to see how the same course has enlightened so many people. I am excited to share with you the winning entries for my RAKS but that will have to wait until later as i want to finish them up and photograph them.

Have a fabulous day everyone!

Just when you thought I had vanished........

2011-03-03T23:01:00.005-06:00

Soul Restoration
Blog Hop March 5-6,2011

Well in someways I had. I found that my soul was buried under a pile of rubble and debris and that some where along the line...... I had become angry, resentful and so not the person that I want to be and know that I am.I couldn't design, I couldn't create, I had to argue with myself to join my scrappy friends.... and when scrapbooking took such a beating and I hadn't taken a single photo and not a single card was sent during the holidays........

I knew my soul needed some restoration and my heart had to be healed.

I didn't really know what I was going to do to fix it because while I knew I didn't feel right I was still not certain what was wrong. I knew that somewhere something had to change and I had to put all the horrible events of 2009 and 2010 behind me, to let the pain, resentment, and anger go. I needed to find my self confidence, my sense of self-worth, acceptance of what is and what will be. I had to find the truth and how to hear it when it was spoken.

I was silently lurking on Facebook reading the posts of my friends, respected artists and Christy Riopel posted something about brave girls.........I have to be honest it sort of washed by me. Then Allison Orthner posted something that referred back to this Brave Girl group. Still it didn't sink in - then Leica mentioned something and Trisha posted something. Alright if these gals are all talking about it...... I guess I better pop over and take a look. I watched the videos and thought Melody was crazy..... who does this kind of stuff...this was not for me. Then I saw more ladies I respect talking about it. This lead me to click on this link and that and some of the graduates were sharing their thoughts and feelings. Samples were shown and finally.......something triggered in my heart. I knew that I needed to find the money to register somehow someway.

Well fate must have felt that I needed this chance to get myself back on the straight and narrow. As the money was found and the I signed up at the last moment. I was a Brave Girl . I needed to rediscover and appreciate the good in my life.

Melody and her girls are gonna take you on a fabulous journey so pack your kleenex, and craft supplies and create to your hearts content. Check in with each of the ladies below and see what this course has meant to each of them.

For those of you that visit and leave a comment I will be making a draw for some RAKS that I will create this weekend. I want to pay forward the incredible gift that Melody has given me.

And here are some others who enjoyed Soul Restoration as much as I did! September, Joann, Kathy, Leanne, and Stephanie - be sure and visit their blogs this weekend too!

Judy	wwwf.bepresentbereal.blogspot.com
2. Pippa	http://pjbear-determinedscrapper.blogspot.com

4. Sandi [tigger]	http://sandi-mybravesoul.blogspot.com
5. Leslie	http://wordsofmeproject.blogspot.com
6. Juel	http://colorfulmoments.blogspot.com/
7. Kai	http://www.enjoytheridetoday.blogspot.com
8. Angie	http://thefeathersinmynest-mommiextwo.blogspot.com/
9. Lacey	www.winterwidow.blogspot.com
10. Kathy Mc	http://shockingpinkthread.blogspot.com
11. Lynn	www.rubyrabbitstudios.com
12. Sandra	www.skippingwithobie.blogspot.com
13. Stephanie	http://mycreativewish.blogspot.com
14. ZuZu	http://www.zuzu.typepad.com/about.html
15. Sami Jo	www.herhousehold.blogspot.com
16. Rebecca	www.flyoverpilgrim.blogspot.com
17. Dawn	http://www.seekingsense.typepad.com/
18. Donna	http://orangalicious1.blogspot.com
19. Rana	http://definitivedesignsbyrwilson.blogspot.com/
20. Judy	http://mycraftingroom.blogspot.com/
21. Trisha	http://adgb.blogspot.com/
22. Kas	http://www.whispersandwishes.blogspot.com
23. Shelley	renaissancewyoming.blogspot.com
25. Deb	www.aswewalkalongtheway.blogspot.com
26. Karen	www.writtenbyangels.com
27. Jennifer	www.studiojenn.blogspot.com
28. Dawn	http://dawnhueser.blogspot.com

It has been awhile....

2010-10-19T22:56:00.002-06:00

There was Mom and Dads 50th anniversary, the passing of my dearly loved uncle Bill, the completion of the 5K CIBC race for a cure. There has been the sorting and packing of belongings sharing of excess goodies with those that would appreciate them. Of course there is work and entering into the management training program that I want to advance rapidly with so lots of time learning.

Next week Diane receives an award for approaching the Holy Cross School and insisting that those in the modified and alternate education programs deserve to be acknowledged on the Principles List just as much as those in mainstream or advanced programs who attain academic excellence. I am so very proud of her and her achievements..........if those same doctors that told me she would never attain a mental age greater than 4 years could see her now.......well lets just say I am glad I followed my mothers instinct and did not pull life support when given the option.

I have signed up for the CIBC Race for the Cure 2011 and have decided that I will create cards and sell them "Cards for a Cure" yes I know that the run primairly supports breast cancer. I believe though that some of the successes that are achieved in curing breast cancer can be extrapolated to other cancers reducing the number of family friends that will have to deal with cancer in their lifetimes. So keep me in the back of your mind if you need to restock your card stash for 2011.

The Pyrotechnics Display for 210

2010-09-06T08:04:00.003-06:00

Those that know me know how much I love to watch fireworks, the past couple of years I have been working on my night photography skills so that I can better capture the fireworks that I love so much. Two years ago when I went I managed to attain about a dozen or so decent shots out of 400+ photos. This year I have over 75 good photos out of 300 so I see that as an improvement.

This years pyrotechnics showcase took place on September 3 &4. The Victoria street bridge was closed so they moved the launch location to the south side of the river bank. Regardless the fireworks were spectacular. This year they offered 3D glasses to watch them with. I personally didn't use the glasses because I personally just think that we should enjoy some things the good old fashion way.

So I thought I would take a few moments to share with you a small number of my favourites. I was mesmerized by the reflection of colors on the river and the silhouettes that the boats created in the photo.

Four Generations and Hits on Every Chart including......

2010-08-15T07:19:00.005-06:00

The medical charts said Danny Hutton as he introduced the members of Three Dog night.Coming into the Grandstand area before the concert I was blown away to see that my Best Buy was sponsring acts at the Ex this year. Noting that there were no crowds yet down at the stage I skipped the seating to get a spot front and center.

I thought maybe this was gonna be the main thing I saw for most of the concert, not that they were hard to look at but event security was not what I was there to see. They soon assured me that they would not be in everyone of my photos lololol

Three Dog Night got their name from Danny Huttons girlfriend at the time. She had been reading about an Australian Aboriginals and the practice of sleeping with a Dingo on a cold night and adding additional Dingo's as the nights got colder. Thus was born Three Dog Night. 1968 saw Danny Hutton and Cory Wells bring together this group of talented individuals that have shared their talents with us for 41 years.

Michael Allsup lead guitarist taking front and center with a solo, Paul Kingery in the background on bass.

Everyone getting into the act with guitars except the drummer and keyboardist.

Cory Wells and Michael having fun with the music.

Cory Wells still has an amazing voice after four decades with Three Dog Night.

Danny Hutton taking a back seat to Cory and playing a little tambourine in the background.

Danny Hutton letting it all go in one of there lesser known songs that Jim Croche released, and made popular.

Then guitarist (Michael Allsup) had a grin on his face from start to finish and interacted with the crowd non-stop....

Guitarist Michael Allsup and Bass Player Paul Kingery hamming up the final bars of the last song.
They had fun with the last strains of music for the night.

That's all folks.............or is it. The standing ovation for them was deaf and in a couple of minutes they returned with.....

Joy to the world, all the boys and girls, joy to the fishes in the deep blue see, joy to you and me. The crowd just belted this song out with Three Dog Night and it really brought memories back as this was another of the ones we sang in Choir .

That's all folks........ for real this time.

Just a few shots of the rides lit up for the night.

And now..........we are done for another year.........next year I think really needs to be Stampede time.

Its that time of YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-08-14T01:14:00.006-06:00

Have I ever mentioned how very much I love the Stampede in Calgary? Well I totally love it and could be down on the grounds each and every day of the 10 days. Well life has kept me from going to the Stampede for several years but there is a great substitution and certainly more than enough to keep me happy.

Yes it is the Saskatoon Exhibition! I haven't been for the last 3 years or so and I was now approaching my breaking point. So I decided that I was going with or without someone to hang with......so without it was and I had a great time. My only mistake.... not going earlier in the day so that I could see more of the exhibits and watch the sights and sounds. So armed with my pocketful of money off I went.

I was determined to eat all of my favourite fair foods, do what ever my heart desired, and generally just have a grand time. So what was on my list of fair foods to eat?

Sno Cones, Mini Donuts, Elephant Ears, Fudge (3 kinds), jerky, corn dogs (min. 2), the fresh made fries, Cotton Candy (with 2 bags to take home - different flavours) and lets not forget the ice cream dipped and rolled in nuts. This year I also saw some new things to try. The make it yourself sushi, deep fried Cheese cake, chocolate dipped frozen cheesecake and every single one looked awesome.

That was a lot of eating but not to worry the only thing that I ate was the freshly made corn dog, 1/3 of an elephant ear and the spudnut that went home and got partially eaten by me and the balance by the remaining fur ball in the house. So the secret to not dying the Ex or Stampede death by Food..........tell yourself you can have it all, and magically your telling yourself you will get it later ........and later never came. LOLOLOLOL

Step two was to play all the games of chance that I like and have enjoyed through out the years. There was the balloon popping game,

the one where you beat the mole or pest of choice for the year, the water gun shooting relays, the fishing ponds, the one that you use to tokens to build up and push out cheap junky little trinkets that are truly junk. Of course there was the cash draw, the boat draw and a hundred others as well. Yup give your self permission to play unlimited games and draws......and the only one I did...........the Kinsmen Cash Draw. Not one balloon busted, no water shot and no tacky cheap trinkets.

But let me tell you about the best part of walking up and down the mid-way. I stopped to watch a fishing pond game trying to eat my elephant ear that my mouth loved but my stomach was saying was done with it........LOLOLOLOL

There was a young girl 5 or 6 and her Dad had just confirmed that kids could play until they won. Up came Bert and his caregivers, Bert was in his very late 70's and challenged but eager to play the fishing game. His excitement about playing was so much fun to watch so out came the camera and photos were snapped.

It wasn't long before the young girl had caught her fish, and truthfully I would have expected a child at that age to be jumping and shouting and generally be excited. Nope nothing as you can see she just stood holding it not saying a word waiting for someone to notice that she had caught this thing.

Then Bert finally caught his fish and he wanted to reel it in but had difficulties but the Carnie was amazing and paitently helped him "reel it in" and OMG the shear joy on old Berts face..... well look for yourself.

The Carnie went and got the little girl her stuffed animal of her choice and still no excitement instead she refused to carry it dropped it on the ground and Dad picked it up and put in his back pack........ Now Bert on the other hand was practically jumping for joy out of his wheel chair and his caregivers laughing and assuring him that he was gonna get a prize in minute. When the Carnie gave him his frog his feable hands could hardly hold it but the joy and happiness was amazing. These few precious moments made my whole trip to the Ex worth every single penny I spent and I would do it again to see that kind of joy again.

So of course I thought I would also do something I had never done before, get on a ride I had never ridden and just have a great time. No rides ridden again the secret tell yourself it doesn't matter what it costs because you have permission to spend it. LOLOL However, I was entirely enthralled with the sling shot. This is the ride that is as close to a bungee jump as this chick will ever get.

I stood watching them load these young fellas into the cage and then watched and captured the trip they took as they flew up through the air. I think that this ride will have to go on to my bucket list for another day...... the line up was long and I had more to see and do before the concert started that night.

As many of you have read, my Ladybug was a fabulous dog when it came to agility but she could never get over the crowds and so my dreams of her being on the SuperDog team was quashed. However, I went and found them and enveloped myself in the environment that is agility at its best.

Now the kind of cool thing about this is that I know a lot of the handlers who have been and remain on the team. Not to mention that my dog club sponsers and mans the booth so it was a much needed healing visit. These people understood my pain over losing Ladybug as many of Ladybugs classmates have also made it over the rainbow bridge this past year.

I watched the show and felt like a proud mama as dogs I knew and those I didn't completed some amazing tricks and skills. Below is a photo of the dogs playing "Hockey" their way - we humans would have called it musical chairs. The dogs walk in a circle and when the music stops the handler sends the dog to grab a team mat and lay down on it to avoid elimination. To me the funniest part of that game was when out of no where this Austrailian shepherd came out of no where and picked up a team mat and took it out of the ring with no apparent handler (of course there was but they were hidden).

Diane is one of the two co-owners of D& S Dogs of Course and she helped me with both Ladybug and Buddies's training. She retired her famous Jack Russel terriers last year as they were getting to be to old to keep up with the young whipper snappers in the ring. However, last night she was running Shirley's dog Chaos who is an awesome agility dog, and I have seen him from the rambunctious puppy to the amazing skilled dog he is today. I felt like the proud Aunt watching them complete and agility relay demo.

Shirley was manning the souvenier booth that night and while waiting for the next run Chaos found his owner and left Diane's side to come and say hello. It was a cute moment because he knew he shouldn't have left Diane but he really did want his "Mom".

Last but not least was an amazing jumping display by this Ferall Hound. That jump is just over 5' high and he cleared it with room to spare. This is why I would like to see young Diesel put into agility with his natural ability to clear my six foot fence.

After all of this I wandered over to the Grandstand to watch Three Dog Night, one of my favourite groups from the 70's. They cross across all genre's of music and last nights performance was stellar. I will share those photos soon.

2010-08-05T11:12:00.002-06:00

Please support me in my fundraising efforts to raise money for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure is Canada's largest single day, volunteer-led fundraising event dedicated to raising funds for breast cancer research, and education awareness programs.

I am running for a number of people and reasons, but mostly I am running for me. I am a survivor and I am proud of it. Grant it I was caught early and I did not undergo the extreme degree of treatment that my mother and several friends have gone through. I was lucky, very lucky....this time.If we don't find the cure for this and other forms of cancer, I may not be so lucky next time.

I can't single handedly turn over a check worth hundreds or thousands of dollars that are needed to fight this disease. What I can do, is take myself out of the comfort zone and work hard to attain a small portion. I can ask you my friends and family to donate to this cause and help prevent it from touching someone that you love and want to protect. I am running with the hopes that my daughter and future granddaughters, my mom and my dear friends will not have go through this or go through it again.

I could choose just to walk the 5K and I know that is well within my abilities - what I am choosing is to make myself work harder and earn your support. So I have started with the survivors running clinic and last night I ran 6 min of the 24 we were out for. I am determined that in 10 weeks, I will along with the other ladies of my team and those in the clinic will RUN the entire 5k but don't expect and speed records (LOLOLOL).

So please take a moment from your busy lives and pledge a weeks worth of coffee at Tim's or take a bag lunch and pledge the amount you would have spent for lunch. Big or small each donation brings us one step closer to never seeing this happen to a loved one again.

Dawn Marie

Bidding Farewell to the Very Best Friend.............

2010-08-03T20:43:00.000-06:00

Ladybug (aka Bugmutt, Buggy, Lady, Turbo Tongue and of course the Dumb Dog lol)
October 15, 1999 to August 3, 2010

Today I walked my sweet loving puppy girl over the Rainbow Bridge. She was my best friend and leaves a huge hole in my heart. Had she been sick or suffering I know I would be sad to have her go, but because of the hurricane of changes I was forced to take this walk with her so there is some feelings of anger and guilt over having to make this walk today. However, I know deep down, and I trust that God, fate or whatever power you want to believe in has made me go down this path for a very good reason........that is yet to be revealed.

She was a special dog right from the start. Her large ears and big brown eyes stole both the heart of my Mom and myself............she was the farthest thing you could think of from the golden retriever that I went looking for.......but she was perfect for me and I like to think that we were perfect for her. She was the runt of a litter of 12 and this litter had been apprehended from an extremely abusive home. Lady was tortured with being swung by her tail (Which was the reason her tail had to be docked) and had been beaten.....so trusting of the human race was something that our family would have to earn. It took a lot of work and a lot of love and patience to help her back and it took several years of it.

She loved to do agility and the help I received from Shirley and Diane with D & S Dogs of Course in her training was awesome. Regrettably her fear of crowds and unknown places and things kept her from being able to compete but her years of going to "school" were some of her favourite.

Dr. Sharon Bruce and her staff at Lakeview Veternary Clinic were her care givers from her first visit post adoption to the time that we took to walk over the bridge. Sharon and her beloved Brew were also agility friends and regretably Brew had to be walked over last year. The compassion and help that have been shown can never be repaid with a simple thank you. So if you need a fabulous Vet give me a call and I will get you hooked up.

Thank you Mom and Dad for the best gift that you have ever given me........Ladybug was truly that gift and you have given me many incredible gifts through out my life. My sweet Buggy Mutt .... thank you for loving me no matter what.

The winds of change continue to blow like a hurricaine

2010-07-26T13:36:00.002-06:00

So its been a long time since last I posted, been a long time since I had a chance lololol

First I have to apologize to those of you wanting to do the Tattered Angel book class, its not gonna be happening because with the release of the exciting new summer and fall line of products items had to be retired and I managed to create a book with almost every single retired color and item......................murphey's law. LOLOLOLOLOL

You are gonna love the awesome new products being released at CHA this week.

I have not seriously scrapped in more than a month, something about working 60 to 70 hours a week for the past 5 weeks......takes the creativity right out of you. On the bright side though I have been loving my new job at Best Buy.

I am in the midst of a hurricane of changes in my life again.......and it will be some time before I have the opportunity to play creatively. So Enjoy your summer everyone and I will see you when the winds have subsided

On Their Way!

2010-06-13T21:17:00.003-06:00

The Saskatchewan Self Advocacy Action Group (SAAG) is on their way to the international convention in Berlin. They will be gone for 10 days and they were pretty happy and excited.

Well its time to share some of my own creations with you!

2010-05-24T15:12:00.011-06:00

Well today is my day to share a couple of techniques on Tattered Angels Educators Blog so head on over there and check out the techniques and see what all the other educators have been doing this month to celebrate Scrapbooking.

Coming up at Paper Trails in the next few weeks are some classes featuring the Tattered Angels products. To give you a sneak peak of what is coming up:

This handmade album is for the intermediate to advanced scrapper and will teach not only some of the BASICS of glimmer misting but some other fun and creative techniques. You can leave your name with Deb and we will let you know the dates.

For those of you looking to just learn some very basic Glimmer Misting this layout will be a a quick and fun introduction to Tattered Angles Product. Again, dates have not yet been set but they will in the next little while.

So what else have I been upto in the last little while................

Using Gesso as a resist, and to add texture this layout is colored with Glimmer Mists and is a celebration of me at 47. I love this photo that my dear friend Sheryl Schmidt took of me at a late night photo shoot at the Saskatoon Inn, last summer.

So in a couple of weeks I get to attend my very first Saucy charm swap. The theme for this one is cherry lemonade. So this weekend I made my charms and then some ATC cards to put them on.Sorry about the lousy photo but I didn't think about the photos until they were all packaged in their cello wrap. I love making serendipity squares, to use up my left overs and the bits and pieces that aren't likely to get used other wise.

Now Serendipty squares aren't just for ATC cards....... no sirreeeeeeeeeeeeee

As I need to deliver them to Saucy and I had leftover material from the charms and cards so I made a re-usable gift bag.

Well after that I still had another piece to use up so it became a greeting card. There is room for me to add a greeting when I am ready, but for now it stays in my generic box.So from a 12 x12 sheet of scraps and odds and ends I created 16 ATC cards, a gift bag and tag and a greeting card. This was a great day and a ton of fun to create.

Vicki is resisting

2010-05-19T21:33:00.002-06:00

Check out the cool technique that Vicki uses on this awesome picture frame. Tattered Angels Educators are sure bringing their game this month.

Canvas Creations by Nat Kalbach

2010-05-16T17:49:00.002-06:00

Nat Kalbach has a awesome video showcasing this and other canvases that she has created. Her step by step guide is gonna have you running for the supplies to create your own wonderful gifts. So dash off and get creative with Tattered Angels.

Have a fabulous week and see what other wonderful things our educators are coming up with.

Lynn is Making Fab gift bags

2010-05-13T20:36:00.003-06:00

Look at this incredible creative gift bag from the talented Lynn Warner. Her instructions are laid out wonderfully for you on the Tattered Angels Educator blog. She is one seriously fun and talented lady.

Cool Creative Canvas Creations

2010-05-11T08:43:00.003-06:00

Hope Everyone had a fabulous and wonderful Mother's day.

Stayce DeWid has been creating some awesome canvas covered mini albums as our month long Blog Hope continues at Tattered Angels. So hurry up and scoot over there and check out the cool projects being shared.

Create your own transperancy overlays

2010-05-08T20:54:00.002-06:00

Cheryl McAdam is sharing her talents over at Tattered Angels Educator Blog with his great little project.

Candy is Creating With Canvas

2010-05-08T06:18:00.001-06:00

Candy Rosenberg takes you through how to take your plan canvas items and make them into a one of kind art works.........your gonna this project and and other canvas items that Tattered Angels Designers created.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Glam it Up!

2010-05-07T07:41:00.000-06:00

Christine Delgadillo is sharing her talents on our Tattered Angels Educator Blog hop today. So jump over and learn some great tips and techniques as you create her beautiful tag.

The Gals are Rocking the blog hop!

2010-05-06T18:10:00.002-06:00

You just have to hurry over to and check out the oh so talented Sally Lynn MacDonald and her incredible Tattered Jewelry. So off you go to the Educators Blog and get creative!

Have a great time creating!

You have to Check this out!

2010-05-04T20:04:00.003-06:00

Head over to Joscelyn Cutchens super cool project at Tattered Angels educators blog.

What a super cool lady she is! Make it a great one everyone.

Check it out!

2010-05-02T15:18:00.000-06:00

Liz Hicks posted this

Liz Del Real Hicks May 1 at 9:58am Reply

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to let everyone know that our fun month long event is starting NOW! We are so excited to share some fun information and prizes with all of you!!! Check out our blog for our first video as well as for what is just the beginning of our day events that will lead off our month full of fun! I have also set up some dedicated discussion threads for you all to ask questions on for the first video. I will do this for each video that we add today. So make sure to check out our blog and our fan page for the most up to date info on this fun event!

Blog: http://mytatteredangels.com/blog/?p=4442#respond
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=49260476482&ref=ts

Liz Hicks
Education and Consumer Relations
Tattered Angels

Off you go folks and win some great prizes!

National Scrapbooking Day

2010-05-01T21:00:00.000-06:00

Happy National Scrap Booking Day!

All of the educators at Tattered Angels are going to be doing a month long blog hop. Each educator will give you a sneak peak at our Educators Blog then follow them to their personal blog to see more of what they are sharing.

Through out the month Tattered Angels will be giving away goodies.

So Celebrate Today by Checking out the super talented and wonderful Liz Hicks project today. Your gonna love her cool floral embellishments.

I spent my day scrapping at a local LSS called Paper Trails. I have to tell you that while the group was small and cozy in size we laughed, created, laughed more and had an incredible day. I was even able to take three ladies to the new Sushi Restaurant in Grovsner Square and get them to try something new and fun! While my day was not personally productive it was much needed escape.

Now off you go and check out Ms. Liz's awesome project and don't forget to leave her a comment (shes the one with the warehouse down the hall from her desk and you just never know when she might feel the urge to send out some stash).

Make it a scrappy day !

2010-04-29T06:23:00.000-06:00

On ...May first Join Education Coordinator- Liz Hicks, Creative Director- Michelle Jackson and kit room supervisor -Rachel Carlson as they share some fun tips and techniques with using Tattered Angels products. The fun will be featured on the Tattered Angels main blog and help support some fun chat and challenges. This is only the beginning... be prepared as through out the month, Tattered Angels has you hopping between their blogs, Facebook and twitter for even more fun and more giveaways. So much fun and OH SO FREE!!! See MoreNational Scrapbook Day (MONTH)Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 10:00amthe comfort of your home or with your friends!!!

I Am Here and I Am alive!

2010-04-15T06:32:00.002-06:00

Good Morning Everyone,

This has been a really crazy month, the range of emotions has been from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. From anger to incredible appreciation.

Having to alter my life in so many ways and so quickly has taken its toll on Mo and Jo.

However, I feel that I am starting to stablize more and hope to have some fun and fabulous postings and show off some sneak peeks of up coming classes.

Winds of change for 2010 are blowing - and I don't think they are done with me just yet.

Make it a great day!

DEFINITION OF DISAPPOINTMENT

2010-03-09T19:22:00.002-06:00

So last week I received this really awesome email telling me that I was a finalist in a competition for a design position. I was very happy to be that far. Well I recently got a call that was from a very apologetic soul on the other end. The letter had been sent to me in error and they were terribly sorry for the disappointment that I must be feeling.

Disappointment, yup that would be the word, at that moment. Upon reflection, I realize that there is reason for things to happen and this is just not my time. I do appreciate the fact that they called rather than send an email.

So thank you for caring enough to understand and add a human touch. You have a hard decision ahead of you all..... one I don't envy.

Exciting news revealed!

2010-03-06T13:50:00.002-06:00

At last I can share my exciting news. I have been accepted as an endorsed educator for Urban Swank. Urban Swank is the north American distributor for the Urban Lily line of products coming out of Australia.

This is going to be a great time combining their papers with all my favourite techniques and styles. So hold on to your hats ladies............Things are getting pretty Swanky around here.

Its been one of those weeks..................

2010-02-28T22:03:00.002-06:00

Its been one of those weeks where you would like to press restart and try again. So when the weekend arrived I felt that I needed to just sit down and start creating from the heart.

It didn't hurt that Love Is In The Details had several challenges for me to tryout. So I thought I would share with you the results of this weekend.

The new Lush line from My Minds Eye is totally awesome. I love the black and white series it works incredibly with the Glimmer Mists from Tattered Angels. I altered up one of the naked chipboard photo albums to hold my work for Tattered Angels classes.

So Graphic 45 has their 2010 Design Team call out and I combined challenges with submission items

There was more but I will save those for another day.

More Exciting News to Share

2010-02-15T13:32:00.003-06:00

But I can't just yet.............. bummer huh? I think so too lollololololol

So instead I thought I would share a couple of pieces of creativity from the weekend.Broken Wings - Song by Mister Mister, this is a layout that I actually thought about doing several years ago when a relationship ended and I found myself without trust. Recent changes in my world over the last several months see me once again wanting to create this layout. So I fished out my antiquated stash and finally built this layout....and it allowed me to shed some unshed tears and fondly reflect on good times too.

This Valentine went unused this year but it was a fun and quick card to submit to Bo Bunny for their card challenge. Wonder if they will even remember this old line from my stash. LOL

Well back to the grind stone!

2010-02-11T04:56:00.002-06:00

I have to tell you that it takes a pretty cool photographer to capture a photo of or with me in it for me to really like it. Karen Pidskalny of KMP Photography is one of those photographers. What I truly love about having Karen as a friend is that she is not afraid to share her knowledge of photography and lend a helping hand to improve someones photo taking skills. She is not beyond taking a bunch of us amateurs out with her and making it a really great and interesting day.

I have to say though (snicker) that there is really only one Angel in this photo even if she is a little Tattered (sorry girls, I couldn't resist).

IT'S SNOW FUN!!!!!

2010-02-07T08:56:00.005-06:00

So its probably one of the nicest Saturdays in the winter of 2010, house cleaning is so not appealing, suffering a severe creative block so scrapping is just not an option. My other half is no where to be seen, kids are busy leading their lives.....and even the dogs are to lazy to come and play with me. So what exactly do you do?

I LEAP at the invite that Karen Pidskalny from KMP Photography extends to go out looking for hoar frost photos to take. Of course one should add 3 more friends Andrea, Cheryl, and Sheryl and what do you think happens? A whole lot of laughing some really great photos from everyone and both some fun and serious photo shoots courtesy of Karen.

I personally can hardly wait to see what Karen has on her camera, and I think there may be one or possibly two incriminating ones of me on some cameras. Ahhhhh well you know at my age.......its all about living in the moment and loving it, leaving with no regrets to find the next moment and live it to the max.

Thistles covered in frost are so pretty but for the record they still prickle ask my tush that landed in a patch.

So often Karen is the one behind the camera when we are doing photo shoots so that we miss getting her. So when she dropped the camera and looked so awesome against the trees I had to snap a couple of quick ones.

Shhhhhhhhhh-erryl what a great gal, I love having serious chats with her and getting her perspective and insight but even more I love seeing her in the midst of a good belly laugh. I have to be honest I am not even sure just what she was laughing at because I was shooting her.

I love the contrast of the white and black in this photo and I was ready to use for a photo competition until I saw the hand of man.......the fence covered in frost. Well I managed to capture some other great photos that I can use.

SSSSSHeryl and CCCCCHeryl were adjusting lenses and debating about heading back into the depths of the snow banks for more shots when I caught them. The walking in knee deep snow gave our muscles a good work out today.

So when you fall down in the snow and need some time to contemplate just how your going to get back on your feet and not get your camera covered in snow.....you might just as well take some photos. This group of cattail reeds makes me think of a construction sight of a highrise building........I know I need a life.

I have to admit that I was having some vision issues yesterday, and I was just going with point and shoot and taking whatever came. Now truthfully I thought I was focusing on the girls but as fate had it............I got a much more interesting photo. So don't be afraid to just point and shoot you never know what treasure you will find.

Well It was a wonderful day filled with many treasured memories and now I have come to the tail end of my tale.

Check it Out People!

2010-02-03T21:15:00.004-06:00

Just got word that two of my card creations will be picked up for the February edition of Scrapbook News and Review.

They are totally Tattered Angels goodness, and I am looking forward to sharing with those attending my Glimmer Mist 101 Cards class, how to create them.

Speaking of Classes, I hope to have a list of classes and locations for them in the next couple of weeks.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Some Thoughts and stuff to share

2010-02-01T23:15:00.004-06:00

Well its official folks, I am another year older. Yes, this in theory would mean that I am also another year wiser...............I am not so sure that would be a true statement in my case but ........nor did I lose any so lets just call 2009 a wash on the wisdom issue. LOLOLOL

For those of you that know me you know that I have been spending a large part of the last dozen (and thats a bakers dozen this year) years scrapping and as is the natural progression I began to strive to improve my photography. Yes, I am proud to say that I have mastered keeping straps and thumbs out of the photos and have now achieved the milestone of taking most photos in focus ( except when I deliberately blur parts). Feeling rather cocky and assured of my ability to do a photo shoot..........I set out to do my very first baby & family photo shoot. I am incredibly lucky to have a photogenic family but I think I did pretty darn good. So I thought I would share a couple of sneak peeks of these photos.

So I have been doing some playing around with my scrapping and I thought I would share with you some of the accomplishments that I haven't shared to this point. Only I went on a real submission tyraid and then realized that meant I can't share until my answers are in. Sooooooo Sorry nothing fun and exciting to share there for the time being.

I have a dear and wonderful friend named Noelle, she is a wonderful and amazing woman and provides me with incredible inspiration. Last night was no different. She will under go a life changing operation tomorrow and as has become our habit we spent several hours solving the worlds problems. Last night we were comparing what we both hate about having cancer...............and what started as a light hearted banter has now become a full fledged rant...........Are the ideas all mine and mine alone.........nope not even close, but what I did do is gather them up (from all over and from talking with Noelle last night) and personalize them to reflect things that I did not share with so many of you last year. It is not easy to read...I am pretty blunt with many things but...for the past year I have been glossing things over. I shared it with a couple of people and asked them should I post this. As forceful as it is in some points they are pushing for me to share this. I thought about scrapping this rant............but that would exclude some from reading. So I will in fact scrap these emotions but at the encouragement of my friends I am going to share this with all of you. If it causes you to only reflect for a moment and then put it aside until you encounter a new cancer paitent then this will be worth it to me. If you find yourself offended for that I apologize...........but not for the content. Thanks Noelle, for inspiring me to share this.

For those that are easily offended this is a good point to click away from my page.

My Rant!

In February of 2009 I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I went through nine months of trying to diagnose the type and get my body ready for chemotherapy. Then I endured 5 weeks of chemotherapy, surgery and 9 weeks of surgical complications, everything looks really good, and now I have had my post-chemo scans they indicate remission for now. I am finally done with treatments. YaHoo! This is very good news for me. I still have a lots of medical follow up because of the rapid developing nature, but I’m real happy about being clear and I am excited to get on with my life.

I was a good cancer patient, no, a great cancer patient. I was tough. I didn’t curl up in a ball and hide, I faced it, I sucked it up, and got through it. I worked really hard to put up a brave face and assure others that I would be fine. I’m not looking for a medal, I just want to preface what I am going to say with the fact that I am not whiney or self-pitying, and that I realize that I am not the only one who’s had to deal with this crap, and that there are far worse things that could have happened to me. I have a wonderful family and a few caring friends that formed a very good support system for me. I cannot thank them enough for all their love.

That said, here is my rant. This goes out to everyone I know, and those that I don’t know yet but who read my blog and know someone else with cancer.

1. There is no good kind of cancer. Yes, this kind of cancer at my stage has an 85-90% survival rate. That’s great, I am happy about that really, I am, but that doesn’t make it good or any better than any other kind of cancer. Cancer is a scary thing, the treatment is excruciating, and at the end of the day, if you happen to get lucky and be one of the 10-15% that didn’t survive, that statistic turns from a good one to a pretty horrible one. Think about it people, it sucks. That’s one in ten who contract it will die. Can you picture ten family members or friends. Do you have them pictured in your mind? If one of those loved persons just up and died, would you say oh well, the other nine are still alive? I didn’t think so. So please, don’t tell me I got the good kind of cancer, or at least it was caught early, don’t even suggest it. For heavens sake please don’t say, “Well, at least you didn’t get _________ cancer, that would really suck” or “It could have been worse!” Hello People! this pretty much REALLY sucks. The next time you get cancer, I’ll ask you if you think the kind you got is good, or are you grateful that it was caught when it was caught.

2. I wish that people would think twice about what they are about to say before they say it. Please don’t tell me things I don’t want to hear. For some reason people feel compelled to tell me about “my (mother, sister, aunt, grandmother, insert any other relative or even remote acquaintance here) that just died of cancer. Or my all time favourite line.....Right, my (insert distant relative/long lost friend here) died of Breast cancer. What in God’s name are you thinking?? I have been diagnosed with a terrible disease and am undergoing intensive and debilitating treatment, and you are going to stand there and tell me about someone dying? What? Seriously? Give your head a shake! It’s better just to not chime in here. At the risk of repeating myself..... the next time you get cancer, I’ll try this line out on you and you can let me know how that works for you.

4. This is also not the time to insist on taking me, or any cancer patient, to a movie that the hero or heroine has cancer and will die from it. Even if they don’t die........I don’t need to see or hear them going through simulated treatments. I am living this and I don’t need to be reminded in bigger than life format what I will be going through all too soon. Yes, it’s a great movie or story but unless it’s about beating the odds and or developing amazing inner strength.................let’s just save this special time for when you have cancer and you can let me know how it is working for you.

3. DO NOT ask or comment about my hair. With the kind of chemo I had, my hair started falling out around treatment #2, a few hairs at first, then several handfuls at a time until I finally, and very sadly, shaved my head. THAT WAS REALLY HARD TO DO. It’s about a lot of things it’s about vanity and feeling ugly, it’s about the stigma of being sick and that being obvious to the world, it’s about not knowing who you are without your hair/eyelashes/eyebrows, it’s complicated. And, I understand to those of you with hair that this is really superficial shit. But to me, and I am sure there are others, it’s very real and it’s extremely emotional. So making comments like how’s your hair doing? Wow, it’s really thinning out! So is your hair just coming out in handfuls? How come you’re bald so quickly? Why don’t you have a wig? These questions are not helpful and WILL make me cry, when you walk away with your lovely head of hair. If you think this is stupid or oversensitive, let me say it again: next time you get cancer let me know how these questions make you feel.

4. Don’t tell me it’s going to be ok. Bottom line is this I know I want everything to be ok, and I know you want everything to be ok you wouldn’t be my friend/involved family member if that weren’t the case. Unfortunately, we BOTH know that it just might not be ok. We BOTH know that there exists the possibility that it’s not going to be ok and that the disease isn’t going to respond, or in my case there is a high probability that it is going to come back, and that even if I am tough and brave, it could kill me. I am tired of always putting up a false front agreeing with you because I know in my heart....you really don’t want to hear or face the alternatives. I have had to deal and cope with the concept of my mortality since the word cancer came out of the doctor’s mouth, again. In that moment, and in the hours and days to come, I know what could happen that everything may not be ok. If I didn’t know that, cancer wouldn’t be such a big deal, now would it? If death wasn’t a possibility, we wouldn’t have shed tears when we heard the news. So, for my sake and others that you will know, don’t say that line. I know it’s the first thing that comes to mind, and I know you mean well, but try something else that will actually means something, and that you truly mean like: Whenever you need anything I’ll be there, or This is going to be rough but I’m here for you! or I’m on my way over with a good movie and a cold drink or even just say Give them hell!. I know you may not get it, but next time you get cancer we will share a profound understanding. I tell you that I know it may not be ok and that I know that this is real scary.

5. Don’t comment about my weight. Ok, here’s something that many people just don’t know. There is what we call fat cancer and skinny cancer.........your surprised aren’t you? It’s okay because I didn’t know before I was introduced to the world of Chemotherapy.

Despite popular misconception and belief Chemotherapy is NOT a weight loss plan! YES my dear family and friends it is true. They have indeed, discontinued all the fringe benefits from the cancer club membership. Turns out, they give you steroids that make you hungry all the damned time. And, you feel like complete shit and don’t even have enough energy to walk up the stairs, much less to exercise. In the beginning when I was still trying to figure out how to deal with shitty side effects like constant vomiting, painful mouth sores, etc, I lost weight because I just literally didn’t want to eat. But once I got that under control, the hunger would come on, and man, I can eat a lot. I was never a small person with well defined muscles to begin with but none the less I find my clothes size increasing. What little shreds of muscle I did have... have turned into mushy fat and I’m not happy about it, but during treatment there you are not given an option, there is no quick fix, hell there is just no fix at all because your concentrating of just getting through the basics. So before you open your mouth and spew out comments like, the wow, you’ve put a couple on, haven’t you? or I thought you are supposed to lose weight on chemo comments are not helpful and again, they will make me cry, when you walk away. Next time you get cancer, see how you feel when I tell you to hit the gym.

6. Chemotherapy sucks. I thought everyone knew that. I don’t know what the first thing is that pops into your head when you read that word, but I would venture to guess that it’s not something warm and fuzzy. It sucks, it really sucks. You vomit, are nauseated (which is so much worse than vomiting) all the time, you get terrible headaches, your desire to sleep increases tenfold, or if you are really lucky you can be an insomniac, you get sores in your mouth (and not just one or two) and chronic yeast infections, you get seriously and painfully constipated, your brain malfunctions and you can’t remember your name hardly never mind how to get to the bus stop or where you normally leave the toothpaste, your whole body hurts, and if you are really lucky your nails fall off (that’s a special treat that is seldom broadcast and I will thank my lucky stars now that it didn’t happen to me but they are not the healthy strong nails that I used to have) and now they can give you shots to stimulate white blood cell production, that cause relentless, incapacitating pain that made you simply want to give up on living just to make it stop. Ok, I said it, chemotherapy sucks and I am really good at being tough and not letting everyone know all the shitty stuff that was happening to me. I know that people ask how you are but they really don’t want to hear the whole truth. So I will tell you that it is not so bad, or that I am lucky and still show up for work, because somewhere inside you.... you know it sucks. So if I can hide all that I am experiencing, understand that my sympathy levels for your might be coming down with a cold or scratchy throat are not really high. (Not to mention that you shouldn’t be anywhere near me with my reduced immunity). I know you really don’t feel good, but common man, suck it up or at least go tell someone else who doesn’t have cancer. Next time you are going through chemo, you too will want to drop kick the asshole that spends ten minutes talking about how bad their hangover is.

7. It‘s a REALLY long road. Twelve months is a long time to be sick, and get this, I get to live with residual side effects for another 12 to 18 months. It just is, and I KNOW (I really know) that it gets old. In the beginning everyone called all the time, offered to go to chemo with me, sent lots of e-mails filled with promises (but few if any were kept), but after the months drag on it’s like people get sick of it. I understand that cause I got pretty sick of it too. I got sick of not feeling well and having to find the inner strength to do the basics, not being able to do anything fun, not seeing anyone, And always answering that damned How are you feeling? question. I have a wonderful friend and mother who listened, even when it got old, even when they got sick of hearing me say I felt like shit. They still did it because they knew I needed them. I needed other people too, I needed my girlfriends to just come over with a movie or their latest scrapbook creation, or to call me on the days they knew I had treatment, or to just call when they hadn’t heard from me in days. A couple did and most just disappeared into thin air. You know who you are and why you didn’t. Maybe you didn’t feel comfortable or maybe you were too busy. Regardless, I love you, and I will be there for you the next time you get cancer.

I really, really hope you never get cancer. I mean that for everyone even if you are a jerk, even if you really deserve to have something horrible and rotten happen to you I hope you don’t get cancer. It’s awful. I’m not one of those ‘I’m a survivor! types, I’m not one of those in-your-face super tough post-cancer freaks, I’m really normal and I will get over this. That said, if you do get cancer or if your friend or (insert any relative here) gets cancer, you can bet your bottom dollar that if/when I hear about it I’ll be on your/their doorstep with a big teary welcome to the cancer club hug and a mop and bucket to clean the floors, or dinner so you/they don’t have to make it, or whatever it takes, for as long as it takes and you won’t have to ask for it, and you won’t have to say thanks, because we’ll both just know. It’s a special club and we take care of our own.

Thank you everyone for reading and sharing in my world this week.

I Wonder Why?

2010-01-26T18:25:00.002-06:00

I have noticed a distinctive trend amongst my loved ones since Friday.

It doesn't matter who I tell that I am officially an Angel, and they practically choke on the laughter that spews forth as they remind me I am a tattered Angel. Now quite frankly I am darn proud to be a Tattered Angel, so I fail to see why they are rolling on the floor laughing their socks off.

I am just working a a few more things then an approval from the head Angels and we can start teaching and sharing with you the wonders of Glimmer, Glam, Glaze and Chalk not to mention all the great embellishments and journals that they make.

See there goes my family again choking on their mirth as I read this post to them............I just don't understand........after all I am an Angel in every respect (wink wink)

I Finally Have Set Foot Back on Canadian Terra Firma

2010-01-25T19:43:00.005-06:00

Well first off my dear blog peeps I aplogize for not getting my followup post to the educators tutorial up yesterday. Wireless connections in the airports were horrible and despite my very best efforts I couldn't get things to work very well. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I am going to jump right in and share with you finished pages and how to turn "totally ruined" to TOTALLY FABULOUS!

This page background was finished off with laying the chipboard letters from the framed fonts and misting lightly over them and adding a gold sticker sentiment to the heart.

As you can see I gave this layout a bit of a twist and decided to do all the black doodling by hand, and then added the green sparkle to highlight it all.

So right now some of you are sitting there shaking your head going I could never, I would mess it up. Well let me tell you my dear scrappy friends that we never make mistakes what we do is make are CREATIVE ALTERATIONS and we should embrace them.

So here you have my sheet of paper that I was using to try and make the layouts above. Now I admit that I was already to just write this sheet of cardstock off and the glimmer mist wasted. Well shame on me. After some contemplation I decided that there had to be something I could do to make them usable.

Well here they are !
I grabbed my favourite black sharpie and started my doodling. But now I have to tell you that I then made a HUGE doodling creative alteration that I thought for sure would write this off ........but some rooting around in my sticker collection made me realize that I could use these to finish off my creative alteration.
For this Creative Alteration I pulled out my Tattered angel swirl stamps, and Sharpie and the two together have given me an amazing card front. This time I used a opalescent glitter to accent flourishes and curves.

So don't feel bad about using your Glimmer Mist because even your oooops will become beautiful works of art.

LOOKS LIKE WE MADE IT!

2010-01-22T07:50:00.001-06:00

And that is more than I can say for many of my Scrappy pals that were trapped at various airports around North America. I must say that in all my years of air travel this is the first time that I have experienced such severe delays and cancellations due to weather. However, I find that I am not really as upset or put out as were many people that I encountered yesterday. I knew that sooner or later we would get here. Face it, we humans think we control the world but realistically it is Mother Nature and Old Man Winter and if they are bored with their lives you know that they are going to be throwing curve balls at us for their amusement. I mean who ever heard of +5C in Saskatchewan in the middle of January...............-50C yes, +5C not until this year.

So after a long day of not eating Bob and I were ready to head off to this restaurant that we discovered last year and were eager to return to this year. BUBBA GUMPS. I lurvvvvve this place. So I thought I would share with you some photos of the cool memorabilia that you find.

Here is the front of the restaurant.... I must admit that I am totally clueless as to why this person had an umbrella open because it was a wonderful night and very dry.

This has to be the most fun about this restaurant are these license plates. As long as your license plate is blue.........staff go about doing their thing.
But if you flip it to this plate no word of a lie, the very first staff person to walk past your table will stop and attend to your need. Your not told I will get your server to do that or any of the other standard lines one gets in this situation. In our case the manager was walking by and she took our order for dessert and brought the drinks we asked for. Speaking of drinks.....Not sure how this all started last year but I took pictures of Bob with all these cool glasses that we got. So here is this years photo I actually really like these glasses they are nice and heavy.....oh and we did not have to take the dirty ones home with us......They sent us to their little market and gave us brand new ones in their boxes.......that alone was worth the cost of the glass.I apologize for the crappy photo, I so have a lot to learn, but the tables are covered with Forest Gumpisms. This is so cool.I love the movie memorabilia that is all around the restaurant. What I hate was that there are these low hanging lights that hang in front so its really challenging to get a good photo of them. Guess when they designed the restaurant they never thought of us crazy nut bar hobbyists (to quote Rambling Dave from C95). I will give great ackolaids to our server Andrew who did not flinch or give me the `dumb` tourist look when I asked for sheets of the printed paper that they use in their tin buckets and baskets they serve the food in. So watch for some really fun layouts coming up with it.

Before we headed home we stopped in the market place and acquired the Bubba Gump wear, and I picked up some cool stickers and Postcards to use in my layouts....had to have them you know they were so dang perfect!

Well Friday is CHA Supershow day so I hope to have some photos to share with you all in the next 24 hours or so.

Thanks for stopping by!

Good Morning From Calgary

2010-01-21T11:51:00.002-06:00

Well my journey down to Los Angeles has certainly been interesting and certainly not what I was expecting.

We arrived nice and early at Saskatoon airport (Wednesday night) just like all good international traveler's should. We stood in line to check in, we stood in line to go through security, we sat for 90 mins to find out that due to bad weather conditions in Calgary our flight was canceled. Ok, back down stairs to the check in counters to get re-booked. An hour later... we are going home for the night only to find out that 4 does come twice in one day............oh my goodness. Well the dogs were happy to see us back home....and one very sad daughter and mother combination because the redirect although through Calgary did not allow for time to visit.............in theory.

Well..........here we still are in Calgary the airport brought to a standstill by thick fog, flights are delayed by hours so not sure when we will get to leave and finally be on our way to LA. Not even able to spend the delay time visiting with my parents because we are in the US secured area...........sheesh

I thought I might provide you with some Tattered Angel facts to pass my time in the air port.

1. When you purchase a Tattered Angel Misting Mat, a part of the proceeds goes to Breast Cancer research..........and why it is pink. The owner of Tattered Angels lost her mom to breast cancer, and of course with the recent transpiring's in my life this past year and that of my Mom three years ago, and now one of my best scrappy friends this means a lot to me.

2. Do you get so wrapped up in your misting of projects that you fail to notice you have misted your favourite t-shirt? Never fear......Glimmer Mist is water soluble so you might have to wash it twice but it will come out. As per Heidi 's recent mis-adventure it doesn't come out of carpets so well when whole bottles are dumped on it.....Check out the recording of Heidi's live telecast to get the whole sad story.

3. If you go to the main web site for Tattered Angels and click on the Educator's blog you will find lots of cool projects and useful information. If you check there on Sunday January 24th My technique will be there for you to try............ here's hoping I pushed all the right buttons in the right sequence to make it happen LOLOLOL

Well it looks like some planes are moving so off I go to stand with all the tired travelers hoping that there plane will be the lucky one.

See you soon!

The Winds of Change are Blowing in 2010

2010-01-19T01:05:00.003-06:00

Hi Everyone,

Hope your all doing well and enjoying your January.

My blog has been pretty sketchy for the last year as I battled with Cancer. I am happy to say that treatments are over, surgery is done and I am on the road to recovering (oh, there are still gonna be some bad days but fewer of them) from a very trying year. I have hair now, and in a couple of weeks I hope to have some cool new photos to share with you. My hair came back with a whole lot of grey......and mice have nicer looking fur than what I was getting. So Last weekend Sheryl (my very good scrappy friend) gave me a trim (not there was much to trim) added some cool color (gold and Ginger), so now I have this realy zesty strawberry blonde hair color. What my Grandma Wyder wouldn't have given to see this. So there was one of the changes for 2010.

In just a few days I will be a Tattered Angels Endorsed Educator, see I told you guys a million times I was an Angel, and nobody believed me, so now I will have proof! Seriously for those of you that know this has been a dream that I dared to reach for in 2009, and a dream of mine for many years before! So another change for 2010 as I begin a year of sharing Tattered Angels scrappy goodness with those that would love to learn. More about this later.

In the next few months I will be changing and expanding my blogging capabilities so watch for that change because I am excited about it!

Each month for 2010 there will be a tutorial featured each month, and sneak peeks for upcoming classes.

I am going to be switching up my style of scrapping somewhat and making my presence known in the scrapping industry - this is my year to start making my dreams into goals, and taking my goals and making them a reality. If you have been keeping an eye on The House of Three you will have heard about the Simply Amazing Year for 2010. I have to be honest I am not sure if it was the title, Heidi's passion for this when I heard her talking about it or just that I had this incredible new lease on life and I wanted to make it the best one that I could.......... Doesn't really matter what the reason was, what matters is that I have chosen to make 12 changes in 12 months to make my life better......and as Heidi said... I wrote them in pen so that I couldn't just change them.

Jumping backwards abit to oh say December 14,2009 I was supposed to announce a winner for my questions when we were announcing that Heidi was the newest Angel. The winner was Sherbear and Braunc 13. I got in touch with them and they each received one of the winter release Glimmer mists.

I am going to leave you with a little sneak peak of something that you will see more of on the 24th of this month.

Check out this chance to win!

2010-01-16T23:14:00.001-06:00

I was doing some blog hopping tonight and found this great little blog Posh Scrapbookers she is giving away an amazing prize pack......so run check it out!

They did it again!

2010-01-11T21:00:00.000-06:00

So if you have no idea what we are talking about when we refer to Marshmallow, Marshmallow Glimmer Mist is a semi-opaque Glimmer Mist that was white and had a beautiful Glimmer. Because of it’s popularity, we have decided to continue in the fun and add 11 more colors to create a 12 color collection. This art medium will give you the same beautiful Glimmer as Glimmer Mist, yet the base will give you a semi-opaque finish that blends just like chalk. This is just like using art pastels or chalks! it will blend nicely with other Chalkboard colors or even with the original Glimmer Mist to create a variety of transparencies and add depth to your project.

OH MY GOODNESS THE ANGELS HAVE BLESSED US

2010-01-04T20:25:00.002-06:00

SHHHHHHHHHHHH DON'T KEEP THIS TO YOURSELF TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY ABOUT THIS SPECTACULAR NEW PRODUCT BEING RELEASED AT CHA 2010.

This innovative product will give you that beautiful vibrant color and Glimmer of Glimmer Mist, yet will also offer you the versatility of being a more permanent medium that will stick to any surface. This also will offer you a variety of finishes in this one bottle, this product will give you a matte glimmer finish if applied finely yet if you continue to layer the Glimmer Glaze, you will receive more of a gloss finish giving you so many more opportunities in just one bottle! Each bottle will come equipped with a brush attached and a wide enough opening so that you can easily pour the product directly onto your project if you wish.

This product has a water base so it works wonderfully with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist to provide you with a multitude of blending options. As well we have developed two clear based Glimmer Glazes to also offer YOU a brand new “resist” agent that can be paired with Glimmer Mist. These will be amazingly versatile colors that will work well to resist Glimmer Mist offering you that much more of a technique based mediums.

Tattered Angels has also announced the new Educator Team and the launch of the Educator Blog, drop on by, leave a comment and have a chance to win some great prizes!!

http://mytatteredangels.com/educators/?p=35#comments

Just One More Day Until.....................

2009-12-13T16:28:00.004-06:00

And I draw for my Tattered Angel Goodness. I just know that you will love all the sneak peeks and fun on the Tattered Angel Blog. So pop on over and check out the great design ideas and get in on your chance to win a prize package from them.

Just a Reminder

2009-12-08T21:08:00.003-06:00

You definitly want to visit the Tattered Angel blog this week and check out the amazing give aways as we count down to the reveal of our new Angel........... and not to mention that there are going to be sneak peeks coming up from the new CHA product release.

Those of you that know me understand what a huge part of my life scrapbooking is. I am excited and grateful beyond words to experience this oppurtunity.......I am in some MIGHTY fine company too.........and as long as you don't tell anyone how nervous I really am ......I don't mind telling you that I feel like a little kid waiting to see Santa or for the candy store to open. These people are so very talented.......and I have to be honest.....I never thought there would be two of us in the same city and given the talents of Leica Forrest. So I repeat I am super excited.

I was talking stock of my glimmer mist tonight so I know what I needed. Okay, now some of you might not be surprised........but I sure did surprise my self as to the large number of amazing colors both past and present that were in my clutches.

So I decided that in honour of our new Tattered Angel
Being Revealed this week I would offer you a chance to win some Tattered Angel Goodness.

There were 95+ colors of glimmer mist including the 60 year round colors. Of those 95+ in my hot little hands are 32 from 2009 line up. For your chance to win a mystery pack of Tattered Angel Goodness I want you to answer the questions below.

From the 60 year round colors can you guess 12 of the top 24 colors?(2 are red, 2 are orange, 2 are yellow, 2 are brown, 5 are greens, 6 are blues, 2 purples and 2 are pinks)
What is the kit of the month?
Share with us your favourite Tattered Angels Project.

You can post your answers in the comments and on December 14th after the reveal of the new Tattered Angel I will draw a name and then reveal the lucky winners name.

Have a great week everyone!

THERE's a NEW SECRET AND I'M NOT TELLING

2009-12-06T17:46:00.004-06:00

Your going to have check out the Tattered Angel website on Dec. 14, 2007 to see who the new Angel is. While your their click on the blog and take a look at the really awesome December Daily Journal that was created with Tattered Angel goodness.

I am really getting excited about becoming a certified educator for Tattered Angels.....Poor little me has to fly all the way to LA and endure the nice warm temperatures......and play with my favourite scrapping tool and supplies. Poooooooorrrrr Poooooorrrrr me. Is that not the most awful thing to have to do.........LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL but for you ladies.........I am willing to bite the bullet!

Tattered Angles and Tim Holtz are so awesome!

2009-11-23T10:00:00.005-06:00

You have to check out the Tattered Angels website and Blog, the folks at TA are rocking out the projects with Graphic 45 papers (Be still my beating heart!!!!!!!) . There is so much talent coming out of the TA designers so hop over to the Blog and check it out.

Are you looking for some great new ways to use your glimmer mist for the holiday season? Well don't forget to check out all the great gift ideas and tutorial videos. You are going to be sooooooo inspired by these ladies. So follow the links and get busy creating with your Tattered Angels products.

After having a really crappy week and feeling beaten Tim has found the inner strength and fortitude to once again share with us his amazing talent. Get on over to his blog and check out the details...........Live the Life You Have Imagined.

Something Scrappy that takes me out of my box

2009-11-21T12:10:00.004-06:00

Those of you that know and love will know that scrapping anything that is not distressed, inked, misted or glossy accented is as far out of my box as I can get.

So have I done one page out of the box...........perhaps two.........are you all sitting down.......we are in the midst of a WHOLE 12x12 album........yeah you read it right people......

One of my colleagues is off to soon give birth to a wonderful new baby girl....and I wanted to do a baby album. Well Mom loves all things Winnie the Pooh so here are some samples of the pages.

A Princess is born was created from the desire to play with my new Copic Markers that were recently acquired..........thats a whole new addiction that I will have to post on later. So all the doodling is my freehand doodles. Don't tell anyone but all the stickers, cardstock and ribbon are sooooooooooooooo old that I can't even vaguely remember where they came from or what product line they belong to. My goal for this album is to scrap with scraps and stash and I am pleased to be successful so far.
Just One Look....will let you know that this is not my typical form of scrapping, the Cricut characters are flocked (Roo and Rabbit) and glittered or Glimmer Misted (Owl). I know that that first glimpse of this little bundle will have Mom and Dad melting and wondering how they got along without her all these years. I have to admit that I am really hoping that I can do the family photo shoot in the next couple of weeks when this bundle of joy arrives.

Ohana Means Family, and family means your never alone..........I know its not from Winnie the Pooh's writings but it is one of my favourite sayings. I can't begin to tell you how many times I have had to pull together basic family tree information for my kids, so I hope that this little one will never forget where to look for her start. Each tree has approx. 200 hand punched leaves from all sorts of green pattern paper scraps. The tree trunks are curved out to add my manditory need for dimension (oh come on people you didn't expect me to scrap flat too?). Glimmer mist is everywhere to provide shimmer and shine on leaves, trunks and grass. I will be honest with you all this is one set of pages that I am gonna have a hard time letting go.......... I know that the new Mom and I have also talked about the possibility of having this layout framed into a shadow box for the babe's room......A real keepsake.

I have some more pages in progress and I will share them with you as they are completed. I might have to make myself a duplicate book.......and wait for the FAR OFF DISTANT (all of my kids are noticing the FAR OFF DISTANT is emphasized?) Day that a grandbaby blesses my world.

While I have your attention................

Thank you to everyone for your words of encouragement, support and prayers. The surgery has been completed, and while there were more tumours than expected (6 small and 1 large) they have happily all been removed (which was not what was expected) there remains the waiting time for the biopsies to return with the official results but a positive outlook is predicted. So now time will be my allie as my body regains its strength for the next challenge life throws our way.

So watch out everyone.........I am getting ready to create and design and teach and share the wonders of Tattered Angels Products. Just look below and see what wonderful things Bob bought for me last night........I am so excited to play!

I tell you folks this stuff is so much fun! Well off to rest for a bit

Make it a GREAT WEEKEND!

Something a little different for me

2009-11-15T17:38:00.003-06:00

Hi Everyone,

This posting is a little bit off the wall for me but as my surgical dates approach all to rapidly I find myself doing a little bit of reflecting.

First I am blown away with all the kind words that I have received from the ladies that I attended Creative Escapes with. Many of you I spent but a few moments and at most a few hours with and your support and well wishes have touched my heart. I am really looking forward to being more active on the boards and seeing many of you next year.

I have had amazing support from my collegues at work....I honestly felt that I could disappear and wouldn't be missed but this week I discovered how valued I was. I wish for everyone that at some point in their life that will experience this feeling.

I miss my Mom.......yes she is just a phone call away....but she is the only person that is really close to me that can understand that you can look one way in the morning and in the evening your not quite as you remember. She is my best friend and while I know the move to Calgary was the best for her and my Dad, I do miss her like heck.

Will I miss my breast itself.... no, I miss my hair way more and yes it is now growing back but it is very very dark brown and alas it now contains grey. But even though I know I may not lose the whole breast there is something about the process that plays with your mind.

Please don't get me wrong........I am in no way complaining, because I truly have nothing to complain about.....I look at Noelle and follow her never ending battle to stay alive and I know that this will be a walk in the park of life. I look at the hardships suffered by my Mom and Grandmother's and I know that this is but a blip in the radar and that I have the genetic material and fortitude to handle this with all the grace that they did.

Life does change in ways that you least expect....and a few hurt a lot....but for each person that has pulled out of my life or backed off to a safe distance I have had people that I least expected to step up and take my hand over the rocky bits. It has brought my children back to a point where I can enjoy spending time with them again not because they think I am dying......but because they have seen the importance of forgiving and moving past old hurts. I would do this all again for that reason alone. I had the greatest gift of all from someone that I didn't expect I would and that was a discussion of discovery and understanding.....what I mistook for indifference was a deep seated fear that caused them to keep me at arms length. After hours of talking and chatting there is now a potential to repair what I thought was broken and soon to be thrown away. I look forward to the day when those that are to afraid to be close now......feel safe to come back into my life...I understand.

I am strong.....or stubborn call it what you will........but I have learned that if I concentrate my will and effort I can overcome anything. So when this battle is finished I feel that I can now dig in and make some other goals and dreams a reality........so look out scrapping world I am gonna be out there sharing my passion for scrapping and start teaching not just big urban stores but for little communities that would like to have a someone come and teach them new techniques. From there I will plan my next step.........and I will achieve and succeed.

Well its time to go and rest......don't want to be run down now. So thanks everyone for letting me ramble and reflect on how lucky I am to have this life, challenges and all.

Hugs
Dawn

Looks like there is a change in the wind

2009-11-08T22:10:00.003-06:00

I want to thank everyone for the well wishes.

What I really miss is the energy and ambition to post and keep sharing the learning process. So I thank you all for your patience.

Just to let you know the next posting is likely to be aways off as they have decided to perform not one by two surgeries in short order then closer to xmas the final one. Then we will know what the balance of treatment is going to be.

Take care and make it a wonderful day!

Main Pages from a Calendar for a friend

2009-10-23T23:12:00.005-06:00

These are some ATC cards that I created. from odds and ends left from a project and a magazine.
This is certainly not something you would normally see from me but those scraps needed to be used and so did the wacky butterfly that I inherited. I am using up the stash of scraps.

So I have finally managed to get my mind to function long enough to trouble shoot why I couldn't up load yesterday. I hope you enjoy this little bit of a teaser. Each page has a fold out or pull out with some very special journaling for that friend.

Surprise.....I am still alive and kicking

2009-10-22T23:09:00.004-06:00

Its been awhile since my last post.
Again those of you that pop in frequently I apologize for the lack of eye candy and educational information. I thought it appropriate that I should share a bit of my world with you.

I am currently dealing with cancer, and while we are facing a few challenges with treatments I know that once these are completed........it will be nothing more than a small speed bump in the road of life.

I have not done alot of scrapping as I have been working coming home and sleeping till the following morning. Weeks of unread emails are currently awaiting me, and will wait a wee bit longer.

I would like to share with you a few things that I have created in the last few weeks.

Three circle journals pased over my desk...
and these are now completed and ready for viewing,

Alas Mother Nature is calling me and I too am succumbing to its song.

Well just to let you know..........

2009-09-28T20:18:00.002-06:00

I am not dead..............feel like it might be a viable alternative somedays but I am here and still kicking. Things are a weeeeeeeeeeeeeee bit tough medically but I am so not ready to go coffin shopping yet.

So bare with me folks and I will post on my next good day.

Wishing you all the determination and desire to make each day a day to remember.

Whoops we will have to try that again!

2009-09-13T07:18:00.002-06:00

Sorry everyone!

I apologize for the break but regrettably treatments have me moving slower and thinking slower. But I haven't forgotten!

Chapter 3 - More Shopping and Starting the Weekend

2009-09-08T19:58:00.002-06:00

So It is WEDNESDAY and BAZZILL Day!!!!!!!! Yahooo!!!!

This is the day that we get to see the factory and buy from the warehouse at severly reduced prices. Then continuing in the Bazzill theme we will head over to Scrapbooker's Etc. the retail division and the reason that Bazzill was created.

I have some fun and facts and I am going to bore you with them as I take you through my day LOL LOL

Creative Escape Chapter 2

2009-09-06T04:23:00.029-06:00

The Shopping Spree

So bright and early Tuesday morning we all gathered in the lobby to go on the Lux shopping tour. We were to go to ten (yes 10) of the local area stores that were related to scrapping or papercrafting in some manner. The goal was to meet at 8 and return at 8:30 that night......snicker snicker well we did meet at 8 as you can see by the photo, but we did not get back until almost 10:30.

This is all of us except for four ladies that caught up with us at Melrose Vintage because their plane didn't get them here as early as they might have liked. It was funny because as all good scrapper we had a line up of cameras and so a bellman, and a non-shopping scrapper went through the line up twice and took pictures on each camera. I am sure it was not the last for that fella during the week.

Krista was the organizer and she did a fabulous job. From having coolers filled with water and softdrinks to bags of wonderful snacky goodness. Lunch was great and supper was tasty. She had us all covered and that in and of itself was the sort of thing that makes spending $85 for the tour worth it

So off we go into the wild warm (okay dang hot) blue yonder and after about a 30 minute drive we arrive at the very delightful store called Melrose Vintage. As you will see from the following photos that it is filled with Incredible Vintage Goodness for the home, office, and what you don't see is the scrappy stuff. While there is a little bit of something for every scrapper I have to tell you that if you like the look of Anna Griffin, Seven Gypsies, Prima etc. Your gonna love this little store. I did manage to empty my hands long enough to take a photo of what I thought was the coolest "ribbon" I didn't buy any because it was $10/yd. However, I am thinking that I can maybe make my own version..............

Now this has nothing to do with the scrappy fun of the store but outside was a wonderfully and beautifully bright tree with rich pink flowers. I loved taking the photos and was about to reach my hand into them to hold a flower closer, when I was stopped by Bill the bus driver. Who then warned me of the long inch to two inch thorns that were hidden within. Looks like the photography gods were on my side.

(This photo is from Leslie who was on our tour, probably the only photo that I appear in sort of LOL)

Next was the fabulous Mystic Paper - oh be still my beating pocket book.

This store is a bit deceiving when you first walk up........In no way does it elude to the wealth of scrappy and vintage goodness inside its doors. Nor does it prepare you for the wonderful and giving nature of the owners.

I walked in not expecting very much but my breath was taken away the moment I walked in the door and met with a display of vintage maps, drawings. The display cases are filled with the scrap talents of the store instructors and designers. It blew me away that they allowed us to photograph in detail the mini albums - and of course very thankful.

It was here that I first encountered the three new lines from Graphic 45 and I amongst others stood by snitching papers as they tried to put them on the rack. Not sure if much made it to the rack when we were done. We were also besieged with a plethora of ephemeria to make our mouths salivate. I am telling you this is a vintage, chabby chic designers heaven on earth. What I know for sure is that the next time I visit that place it will be with a large UPS box and fully charged credit card.

Featured below was the famed Rufflers Roost this was the one store that was mentioned to me as a must visit place for the avid Ribbon Collector (another name was used but....that is not suitable for a PG rated Blog.) I was told it was a ribbon lovers mecca and yes indeed there were many tasty ribbons availble. I was a bit disappointed because the few ribbons that had me drooling were well above what I was willing to pay. The rest were run of the mill and there weren't any that consituted a bargain compared to Canadian prices.

There were a few more stores but I must admit that while they were all nice and they all had there niche or they tended to cater to the non-vintage scrapper so that made a lot of my fellow shoppers happy and that is what this whole tour was about letting us see and feel the scrapping community in the Phoenix area.
The last store of the evening for me was Stamp Works, this is an absolutely fabulous little store that is filled with loads of stamping goodness. This is another store that I am returning to with a fully charged card and a big box............... Aside from incredible stamps, an amazing selection of accessories they have the one thing I was hoping to get.........Copic Markers. They had their Copic Marker certified instructor their and the things she should me...... ok us but I honestly feel that she was put there to show me what I was missing. So I may not have bought the most - come on cut me some slack.......9 stores before this and still two more stores for Wednesday - but I probably came out as one the ones the most passionate about them and the desire to play and incorporate them into my scrappy world. So I bought a parakeet green color and a more vintage green (darker) and the blender pen This blender pen is what sold me. I will acquire a few more and then do a write up on the virtues of Copic Markers.

So its been a really long day......we straggled into the hotel around 10:30 a couple of hours later than we expected to be but all still smiling and laughing even if it was not as energetic as we were at 8 in the morning. Krista should I be lucky and priviliaged enough to be able to attend next year I will be making sure that I am amongst the first to sign up for your full day tour. Your attention to detail, willingness to admit there were a couple of flaws that threw things off and that you would take those into consideration for next year won me over!

Well I will close this posting and get to work on Wednesday and maybe even Thursday of this fabulous trip.

Creative Escape Chapter 1

2009-09-03T03:25:00.006-06:00

This was such a wonderful journey, yes there were some minor hiccups during the week but overall it was a jorney that every scrapper should experience. When my pal Corinne came back and told us about it last year I only heard about the trip to the Bazzill Warehouse with the terrific opportunity to buy cardstock for next to nothing. Then I remember thinking that the projects were the sort of thing I would like to make. I don't recall her telling us about much more. Not because she didn't tell us........just because I didn't understand and hear her. Well Corinne........I understand now.

I have to tell you that this journey started long before the day we boarded the plane. It started with my notification that I had been accepted and that I was able to bring someone with me. I chose this oppurtunity to take my good and close friend Janet. The excitement we shared was pale incomparrison to what we experienced later on.

I joined the Yahoo Group of women that formed the community to share in the wisdom of past attendees and to get to know people before arriving in Phoenix. There were more swaps to partake in than you could shake a stick at.....I chose to partake in two Charm swaps, the ATC and finally the Candy Swap. This group was invaluable to me. I learned alot about standard protocol for the event, I learned about Sprinkles Cupcakes, I learned that this group of women
was a sincere and caring group. I learned that they are amongst the most generous and genuine people I will have the privilage to meet.

I have a collection of memories that need to be scrapped but I don't want to wait to share them with you. The memories start with me moving my parents back to Calgary after almost 10 years. We were pulling back into Saskatoon late on Sunday night when I called Janet to make arrangements to meet only to discover that she had forgotten we were leaving on Monday and she thought we were leaving on Tuesday. I will chuckle over this moment for years to come imagining the look on her face on the other end of the phone as the realization sunk in.

I spent the entire remaining evening washing clothes and packing. Despite having been up in excess of 36 hours I am proud to say that the only thing that was forgotten was the autograph book that I had been building with the downloads from The House of 3. Our flight left at 5 in the morning whisking us off to Calgary where we cleared US customs and then from there we zipped down to Denver. Upon landing in Denver we HUSTLED our tail feathers from one end of the terminal to the other (for those of you that haven't been in Denver it makes anything in Canada look puny) and got there just in time to jump on the connecting flight to Phoenix.

We arrived on time and my luggage arrived on time but alas poor Janets luggage just didn't have the stamina to get to the connecting flight on time so about 10 hours later it was delivered to us.
We were met at the airport by the Lovely Veronica (from the Yahoo board) she lives in the Phoenix area and was gracious enough to pick up Janet and I, and my other new friend Debbie from Texas.

I was tickeled pink to discover that Veronica was taking us to our first Creative Escape (hereafter referred to as CE) photo oppurtunity. We were headed to the legendary Sprinkles Cupcakes. I don't know how to portray to you the excitement that was generated on Yahoo over these little tasty treats but they are indeed some of the best your tastebuds will encounter.

After we devoured our cupcake and took a few dozen photos of the Sprinkles store we were off to the hotel.

The Sheraton Wild Horse Pass (here after known as WHP) is an awesome 4 star resort that gives you the feeling of being out in the desert in with a Pima Indian band not to far off. Oh wait we were in the middle of the desert. For the first night there my excitement was to get set up in the room and then fall asleep and leave poor Janet to wander around on her own. It might have had something to do with me being up for almost 40 hours.

Back from Creative Escape 2009 and Life is never gonna be the same

2009-09-01T22:15:00.004-06:00

Ohhhhhh my gosh Ladies and Gentlemen

I have just had the thrill of a lifetime............................... attending Creative Escape 2009. I have certainly attended my fair share of crop retreats and conventions. What I have to tell you is that never ever, have I had this sort of experience.

I am back now for two days and I remain speechless and just not where to start sharing this fabulous weekend.

I think I am going to start with sharing a few moments that will never ever leave my mind.

How about being like a giddy little tween and speechless with Tim when I gave him the journals for him and Mario. That's a whole story for another night.

How about the amazing woman that donated $29,000.00 USD for this lamp decorated by Tim. That WAS a tear jerk moment bar non during the weekend and trust me there were a ton of those moments.

Or the appreciation on Heidi Swapp's face when I gave her the journal I gave her.

I will return with more from Creative Escape

What A Weekend

2009-08-24T00:21:00.002-06:00

Well its done.
With mixed emotions, a few drops of blood and a lot of sweat. My parents are now living back in Calgary where they resided for 30+ years before I kidnapped them 9-1/2 years ago to live in Saskatoon.

So now I have 3 hours remaining to pack and get to the airport for my trip of a scrapping lifetime..............Creative Escapes 2009

I will share plenty when I return!

Have a wonderful week everyone.

Tattered Angels and Graphic 45 Goodness

2009-07-29T07:18:00.004-06:00

Good Morning Everyone. I have been busy creating lots of scrappy goodness as I create a wedding gift for some new friends of ours. They chose to have me scrap an album from the photos I took of the cruise that we shared. So here are some of the pages that I have completed.

Do I really need to tell you all how wonderfully Tattered Angels and Graphic 45 work for this book........I don't think just take a look for yourself.

This first page is at sunset in the Mazatlan Harbour. The use of shells, netting, seaglass, lace, its hard to see but glimmer mist was used to tone down the cream colors to more of a tan.

Cabo San Lucas is one port that I would like to return to and explore more. The Grungeboard shapes are glimmer misted with Black gold. For the Title, I pulled out three colours of glimmer mist. First I used the darker blue across the top of the letters, then the lighter blue was used across the bottom and of course the two marble together in the center. Then just before the letters dried I grabbed The black gold and lightly misted the black seemed to migrate to the edges and when it dried I didn't have to ink.

Then I coated the letters with glossy accents and let it sit for about 30 min. While it was a bit moist I sprinkled pigment powders on and some was absorbed deep into the moist glossy accents and other parts stayed on the surface.

Well I am off to work but I will share some more Tattered Angels goodness with you tonight.

Make it a great day!

Its Friday! And Therefore more TA fun

2009-07-17T18:52:00.006-06:00

Well finally I can get these photos posted so you can see the finished project.

Have a great day!

Here is the inside of the card I masked off the one side before laying down the mask and using GM in two shades to make it rock.

So here is a close up of my bird cage that I free handed from decorative wires. This one was a bit out of scale but I have learned and will

Well here is the front of the card Love using scraps, and using the Glimmer Mists and Screens to make them look like something right off the presses.

Due to some technical difficulties the pictures will follow shortly - ahhhh love when a machine is smarter than me.

The end of another week, and lots of happenings going on.

My Aunt and Uncle will be celebrating their 50th anniversary this summer and while we won't be joining them in Calgary for the celebrations I did want to send them a card to congratulate them.

So I hauled out my scraps and Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and Screens and with a spritz here a tear there, a twist here and glue there I came up with the following card.

I did something I don't typically do so that I can show you all yet another way to use the screens and Glimmer Mist.

Once I was done spraying my patterns on the screen I left the saturated screen to dry over night. If you are not as attached to your screens as I am you could take this beauty and create a marvelous layout or cut it up and use bits as embellishments. Now as much as I would love to do this and show you an actual finished piece....................I love this screen way to much to do it even for you my dear friends.

So the secret is to let your piece sit for twenty four hours until it is good and solidly dry. You should note however that if you don't put some form of sealant on it, a little bit of moisture is going to cause it to liquefy and rub right off on your hands or nearest absorbent material.

Do you want multiple colors? Here is where I cheat, I pray that the tattered angels don't strike me down for doing this. I grab a glass dropper and fill it with the color of choice and then gently drop by drop place the colors where needed. I then let it sit again for an additional 24 hours. I do this step for each color that I add. Call me fussy but I don't want a lot of color blending from a lot of moist or wet colors the blending the occurs at each addition is what I want. I am betting there are several of your out there going welllll silly broad why doesn't she heat set the colors and speed things up. Well feel free to try this out, but the funny thing about plastics.......they tend to warp and occasionally just plain melt. LOL and you thought I was just another pretty face LOL LOL.

The Finished Flower on a card and more

2009-07-12T16:44:00.003-06:00

So here is the finished half-fold card that I made with the flower from our tutorial. I took a cream backround and misted it with GM and then added the necessary embellishments to make it fun. I used the leftover scraps of paper to make the flourishy parts.

This Weekend The Paper Passion is having another Scrapweekend and so I have done a few things for that while do stuff that I needed to get done anyways - You know there are days and there are days..........

Challenge #2

Was to make two cards with a generic nature - apparently a twist is coming so ........ I guess Faieryrocks will be letting me know soon.

Challenge #3

You were to use The name of a Movie. I chose the 1935 movie - Musical Memories. This animated movie - is about a old couple that are dancing and recalling memories as the songs play. As I do the very same thing when a song comes on.......... I felt that this was fitting.

This layout is part of a circle journal and to the right is a sign in tag (this shows the actual colors way better)

I am using this layout for yet another circle journal that I had to complete this weekend.

Challenge #9 - Fast Scrap

I managed to do this layout in 62:017 (min:secs) which for me is fast. What I love about this layout - The doodling - I didn't have near enough white rub on swirls to do what I wanted so I filled them in with my trusty Uniball. I also hand wrote and colored the title........... Tim Holtz Butterflies with Bling round out this little fella.

So that and working on 200 ATC cards is what has been happening around here this weekend.

Ohhhhhh Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy the way we had a Birthday party for my pal Sheryl. We laughed so very hard.........

I will get some photos up in the next couple of days.

Part two - First Project with Glimmer Mist, Screens and Spellbinders

2009-07-11T21:23:00.006-06:00

So is everybody practiced up and ready for the rest of the tutorial? Great then lets get going!!!!

Step 1:

I had asked you not fold the nine pieces that you had cut from the double sided Pattern papper because we want to use TATTERED ANGELS GM and the screen on our cutouts.

So grab your spray mats and the largest and smallest of your "flowers" Lay them on your Spray Mat - take your TATTERED ANGELS screen and lay your screen on top of the diecuts. Now as you can tell I wanted a heavy return on my two layers. Keep the bottle about 4" away from the paper and spray short quick sprays. Don't worry about the GM that is pooling on the screen because we are actually going to use that on the middle size layer.

Step 2:

So now that you have your pieces misted take your plain medium pieces and lay them with the opposite side showing and lay that side on the screens. Once your paper is on the screen - press slowly and firmly.

Slowly peel back your paper and either set it aside to dry. Lift the screens off the other papers. You now have a choice to let them air dry or you can get out your heat dryer speed and the whole process up.

Step 4:

So now go ahead and jump in and make your petals as per the http://dawnhueser.blogspot.com/2009/07/part-one-first-project-with-glimmer.html. I love to use Zip Dry for all my gluing needs. So Get all those flower shapes folded and glued together.

Step 4: Once you have your three folded and Misted shapes lay them on top of each other until you like the arrangement pattern. Glue in your bling or stamens to the center of your smallest flower. Then start gluing it to the middle sized flower. Take the new multi layer and attach it to the front of the largest petal.

TaDa Your Done your first flower!!!

Below I have taken leave shape Cardstock inked, crumpled etc. and pinched them together to make a flower base for my creation.

Of course that too was not to my liking so I have added my petal flower to the center to create my own one of a kind flower.

Part one - First Project with Glimmer Mist, Screens and Spellbinders

2009-07-09T23:39:00.000-06:00

Well here we go lets make ourselves a handmade Flower and put it on a Card.

To make this project you will need:

1. A Die Cut Machine - I use the Cuttle bug - love that little critter
2. Spellbinders Nestabilities - Scalloped Octagons - You can use which ever size combination you want.
3. Patterened Paper of your choice - I use a 12x12 double sided but you can use two complimentary pieces as well.
4. Glimmer Mist the color you choose should co-ordinate with your project.
5. Tattered Angels Screen of your Choice
6. Cardstock for the card - or a blank card of your choosing.
7. Bling for the center of the flower, but you can use what ever you like to fill it out.
8. Ribbon or Fiber of your choosing or alternatively you could use another co-ordinating piece of paper.
9. Scissors,
10. Glue, I strongly reccomen Zip Dry but any liquid or glue stick will work.

PLEASE READ ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS ONCE THROUGH BEFORE CUTTING ANY PAPERS!!!!!!!

**** Note for the cutting and folding information I am just using cardstock so you can see better for the actual project I did use Patterned Paper (double sided).

Step 1.

Choose your three sizes of nestabilities that you would like to use. For those of you cutting with the Cuttlebug use A, C below the die cut and B on top. If your using thicker substances you may have to play around to find the right combination.

Step 2.

***** I am assuming that you are using the double sided Pattern Paper (PP)

You need to cut three of each size of Nestabilitie (Nestie) that you have chosen from your 12"x12" sheet. You will have to cut it down to strips that will fit through your machine.

*** You might want to cut three Cardstock scrap of one size to practice the folding technique before folding up your good paper.Step 3.

On this sample piece I have drawn the first two fold lines for you to see. On your actual flower you would not draw lines.

I start by folding exactly in half so that the bumps all line up with each other. Then count three bumps or two valleys which ever is easier for you to follow and then fold in half again. Crease well (bone folders are an excellent assist here but a popsicle stick works too). Continue counting and folding until you have gone around the entire cutout.

*** You are going to do this with all nine pieces that you have cut out for your flower.Step 4.

Take your scissors and cut into the CENTER only from the outer edge. You will only do this once on each of the nine pieces.

Step 5.

Now you are going to fan fold each of your sections as shown. Note I marked the sections off for you to see and you would NOT do this on your flower. Accordian fold each of the nine pieces for your flower.

Crease each of the folds very well or it gets a little bit hard to keep it flowing when it comes to putting the flower together.

Step 6.

Take three of the largest size that you cut out. Put the other six pieces well out of your reach so that you don't end up gluing the wrong pieces together.

You will notice that I have marked the last section on the cutout for gluing on each end. Take your second piece and matching up the "ONE" end with the shading with the shaded one end section on numer two. *** You can use a pencil to mark your ends for the first attempt. For the hundreds more that you will want to make you won't need to.*** The glue the shaded end of number three to the unshaded end of number two, finally glue the unshaded end of three to the unshaded end of one. You should now have a wonderfully pleated circle.

Repeat this process for the remaining two sizes.

I am going to stop here for now and let you practice with scrap paper. If your gonna cut your good flowers pieces for the project DO NOT FOLD them and glue together just yet. We have some Tattered Angel fun to do before folding.

I Remembered - to bring the card reader home!

2009-07-08T17:30:00.004-06:00

So lets get busy and do some learning about Tattered Angels products.

At the risk of repeating what you already know I am going to review some basic information

Glimmer Mist (GM)

WARNING: The Scrapbookers Anonymous has declared Glimmer Mist to be a highly addictive but amazingly fun substance. One or two colors will not be enough for you not to mention the need to test out how things will hold color or look with GM on it. You will find your self reaching for it frequently without thought.

Store your glimmer mist standing up, storing for long periods on its side can result in the shimmer clogging up your nozzle mechanism.
To blend the shimmer into the color gently swirl/swish it back and forth. Hard rapid shaking will create air pockets that will affect your ability to spray a fine mist.
For a light, evenly misted look hold GM away from your project about 10 to 12 inches. Then moving from left to right in a smooth stroke spray, I like thinking of it as the way you move back and forth with your arm when you use a spray paint or maybe your hairspray.
Do you like that irregular spatter spray look? Move your GM about 4-6" away from your project and spray. Use a shorter stroke, but move slowly. Not heavy enough for you move in even closer.
Are you looking for the solid color with out the drops. Put your GM down wander off and find your Papertowels. Hey while your at it pick up the baby wipes as they are awesome for cleaning your beautifully tinted appendages. So now we are ready make that smooth solid color. Move in close with your GM spray your project. Then quickly take your paper towel and WIPE the color back and forth. If you want a Faux finish to your project feel free to blot with the wadded up paper towel.
This probably should have been at the top of the list but at least I remembered. Clear away all items that you don't want to color. Use a spray mat from Tattered Angels or if you need to GM before you can get one shipped a XL pizza box is awesome.

So off you go and practice those on papers that you can turn into unique one of a kind projects.

I am going to continue on behind the scenes here creating a card using GM, Tattered Angels Screens and the Spellbinders. See you all in a little while.

Good Morning Everyone

2009-07-06T21:47:00.003-06:00

Just a brief note to let you know I have not forgotten about my Tattered Angels tutorial.

Can I just admit that I am an idiot and leave it at that?

No, I didn't think my Bad Girls would just let it go. LOL LOL

Well the truth is I took my camera card to work last week to try and work on the tutorial and I didn't get the opportunity and I left the card and reader there all weekend, then today I walked right past them again.

Hugs to you all and I will attempt to put my grey matter to better use.

A Tattered Angel Came to Me This Week

2009-07-02T20:21:00.002-06:00

I have to tell you that I am so incredibly happy Tonight.

After a very rough start to the week I was tickled Pink, Blue, Red and any other color that you might like when I received an email asking me to be their Featured Artist for the Month of July.

So what does one do to celebrate this incredible honour?

We play with Tattered Angels Products this month and share with you tips, techniques and ideas and I will be creating some projects to share with you step by step.......

So grab your Glimmer Mists and lets get ready to Spray our way to creativity!

The Paper Passion Blog Hop Rak Winner

2009-07-02T19:21:00.007-06:00

So who is ready to win a Rak?

laterg8r
Susan
Melissa
Rosa
Fairyrocks
Sue D
Kimberly (pierides)
Grover
Nicole
Wendy Sommers
Jocie
Gigi
Crazy4scrappin
ScrappeeDiane
Sheri
Bel
Aihara Ramintessah Sanchez
Wendance Designs
SK
Hayley G
Laina
Kathy

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2009-07-03 01:32:10 UTC

Congratulations to SK please email me your snail mail addy.

NOW we will draw for the RAK from those folks that choose to follow my blog.

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2009-07-03 01:40:10 UTC

scrapbaby333
Aihara Ramintessah Sanchez
Laina
Amy Beaver
Sheryl
SK
scrappygirl
crazy4scrappin
Sheri Wilson
Kathy
Jen
coRinne not connie
faeiryrocks
Susan Roh
Hayley G
carrie
Sue Dombrowski
KweenScrapper69
Nikki Love
Bel

Congratulations to crazy4scrappin please send me your email address for your RAK!

Just a couple of Housekeeping items to attend to.

2009-07-02T06:41:00.003-06:00

Belated Happy Canada Day everyone! I still have a long ways to go in learning how to capture fireworks in all their glory and brilliance, but it sure is a ton of fun trying. Testing new settings and time delays. I thought these two were sort of cool - the top one was the result of slowing down my shutter speed to 3 seconds. The second one was 1/15 shutter speed but I increased my aperture so you can see the smoke trails from it.

I just wanted you all to know that I haven't forgotten about my RAKs from the Blog Hop. I have been very busy with Mom's knee replacement and dealing with my own little health issues.

So tonight I will be back on here and using the random generator will get those draws made.

Also I have a wonderful bit of news and I am sure you gals are going to love how it will spill over.

Make it a great day everyone.

Get your clay out and ready to play!

2009-06-20T11:40:00.003-06:00

You will need to make a trip to your local craft store and purchase your favourite color of Fimo clay. Now there are other brands and you can certainly use those as well. What you need to watch for is that some are air dry and some you bake. I am relatively impaitent when it comes to drying times so the baked one is right up my alley. You will also need some of your favourite stamps and of course...........your inks.

The first thing you will want to do is get your clay soft by stretching and pulling it folding it up on top of itself and repeating the process over and over. This process is called conditioning.
Take a piece of your conditioned clay and for this project roll out a 1/8" piece and then cut out a 3"x3" sqaure.
Place this square on a non-stick cookie sheet as per the package directions. Before putting it into the oven take your stamps and press them firmly into the soft clay. These are the designs that will remain indented.
Back your clay as directed or out to air dry.
When your done and it has cooled get out your favourite permenant ink. I like Staz On and Tim Holtz Archive Inks. Stamp on your surface images, the ones that are there only on the surface.
Next get out your inks and metallic rub-ons and rub over top of the indented images to help your image POP. I personally allow every thing to dry over night before putting the item on my design.

Note: You will need to use up all of your clay once opened so make up a ton of embellishments and store them. I love doing this.

You can use alcohol inks on the smooth surface, permenant markers, glossy and crackle accents. Just let your imagination fly!!!!!

I hope you have a blast with this fun technique!

Good Morning Everyone

2009-06-20T10:39:00.011-06:00

Last night Paper Passion had a TGIF crop, there were lots of challenges and lots of fun to be had. I didn't have the time to do a lot of participating last night as I had a hot date with a project that I have been working on for a couple of months. Yesterday I found the items I needed to finish the exterior of it. I will give you all a sneak peek but this one is being submitted. So you are going to have to wait for the rest. Using some of my favourite companies, Graphic 45, Tattered Angels, Tim Holtz, and Prima.

Now Back to a couple of the challenges that they had for all of us.

Challenge #2

Was to make two different cards using the same paper. So I bent the rule a bit and used the one card with the humming bird (which was done for a client) and then used the leftovers to make the second card. The paper is from Prima and the teal side was the back side. I used a screen and glimmer mists from Tattered Angels. Throw on some Tim Holtz stamped images. I used glossy accents over the word sweet (this was not dry at the time of the photo). I have a handful of companies that I absolutely love Prima, Tattered Angels and Tim Holtz work so very well together.

Challenge #6

Was to create a card with the following requirements:

Must contain 4 colors: I have yellow, orange, red, green and brown
Must contain a die cut: That is my green bracket that got a hit of glossy accents on it.
Must contain a chipboard element: That is the oval that I inked and used my sharpie on and then accented with Glossy accents.
NO FLOWERS!!!!!! of any sort.

I used Glimmer mist and Screens as well as Tim Holtz clock stamp with distress inks.

I will chip away at the rest of the challenges but they were awesome.

As if that wasn't enough for a day of fun....look what came in the mail from Tattered Angels and Cosmo Cricket Papers!

Tattered angels pairs up each month with another great company and there is usually a challenge competition that they invite you to enter. Well I submitted my layout called Destiny and it was one of the two winning submissions on how to use glimmer chips.

Thank you Tattered Angels !

I am looking forward to using up these delightful additions to my stash.

A couple of more cards

2009-06-18T23:26:00.005-06:00

First off make sure you scroll down and follow the blog hop going on. There will be lots of Raks and Prize packs for the winner if you hop to all the blogs and then back to The Paper Passion Blog.

I was asked to make a couple of more cards for a client so thought I would post these for you to all see!

I have been asked by a number of people how the plaque on the Fathers Day card was made. So I will do a mini tutorial here on line ready for you to view on Saturday night. Be prepared to find a whole new use for your favourite stamps and inks.

So until then Happy Blog Hopping this weekend.

2009-06-17T22:49:00.012-06:00

FATHERS DAY BLOG HOP!!!!!!!!!
With the amazing Designers from
The Paper Passion.

This is a great way to read some new blogs as well as what.... EARN A PRIZE...what! Yes, that's right... of course there is a prize available! They will be posting a picture of the prize on The Paper Passion Blog.

There are 3 ways you have a chance to win a prize. #1, is just by going on the blog hop and leaving a comment on each person's blog! Don't forget the secret word from each blog. #2 The second way is to share with me and the other reader's your most unique fathers' day gift. I will randomly draw from all comments posted on for a Rak Pak of goodies. #3. Become a follower of my blog and I will put your name in a draw for a second Scrap Pack Rak.

You will have 3 days to complete the blog hop, so that's lots of time to play along at a leisurely pace!

This is my My contribution is to this an exciting event. I hope you will all enjoy it.

Now toddle off and go see Carrie: http://laterg8r.blogspot.com and her creative creations -
If you forgot to leave a comment on the talented Laina:jump back and do just that. http://lainamillson.blogspot.com

Your secret Word from my blog is Saskatchewan Crops

This week in Scraps and Stash

2009-06-14T09:30:00.006-06:00

Just did some simple and fun layouts using my stash and sketches from Just Crea8 and The Paper Passion. It was fun to rack off a bunch of pictures that needed to be done.

Having done some quick and simple work it is now time to jump back to my beloved Scrap Art and create a tutorial or two.

2009-06-07T17:37:00.004-06:00

So Finally I have some Energy and MoJo and have gotten around to making some fun Journal books for people that were on the Bad Girls Group, responded to my challenge to use the water distressing technique and from the The Paper Passion. I still have a few to make but thought I would share these plus the envelop (first image) for a fellow Scrapper who was unable to make it to the Saskatchewan Crops in March.

I still have some more to make but I am off tonight to try and photograph my son's band very first concert. I have mixed feelings about the location and the music genre but it makes my heart sing to see him so very happy.

I can so scrap in a simple and efficient manner

2009-05-26T17:46:00.005-06:00

I just choose not to because it is harder for me than my standard style. So this past weekend I along with hundreds of others were challenged by Amanda Lepage to make four layouts from 4 pieces of pattern paper, and 6 sheets of cardstock. Toss in a few flowers, a few brads (or in my case I used buttons - because I am such a rebel LOL LOL) a few letters of your chosing and Bingo! 4 layouts in 2 hours from start to finish (including chosing of photos and papers).

Oh I hear all you Nay sayers disbelieving my word so here is the living proof.

This weekend was very productive one for me with 8 pages of layouts, and an altered book but I am not done yet........I have until Thursday to complete the rest of the challenges and I am determined to do just that. So watch as I share and reveal more finished work and perhaps a tip, trick or technique or two.

Oh and get my new camera battery charger so I can take those photos.

Saskatchewan Talent Rocks!

2009-05-22T17:15:00.008-06:00

Just went and picked up the summer edition of Canadian Scrapbooker and you are not going to believe the amount of amazing and talented Scrap artists from Saskatoon and area that are adorning the pages. You know what the best part of it all is........... I get to call them my good Friends.

I am so proud of this issue, did I mention that yet? Ah, right lets get on with the recognition of these amazing women.
Here are our top winners from Saskatoon Scraps Andrea Hipkin (right) and Sheryl Schmidt (center) with Canadian Scrapbooker Editor and Co-founder Jackie Ludlage. This is first time enteries for both girls and they just swept up the awards.

Look at this award winning layout and the this photo does it no justice (the magazine is better)
Sheryl Schmidt entered for the first time and not only this winning layout but several honourable mentions at the Saskatoon Scraps Event in March.

This cute and funny layout is by Amanda Lepage she won the Saskatoon Fall Crop'n Cruise Crop with this wonderful tribute to her family friend.

This darling little wild one is Corinne's first publication and it is so awesome. Using that 45 record was just the perfect touch for the title.

Leica Forrest is rocking out with her contributions to the magazine these two are my favourites of the several she had featured.
Karen Pidskalney is recognizing a first as she did an amazing job of taking photographs at Saskatoon Crops and provided these photos for Canadian Scrapbooker so congrats to her on her first publication.

I will also add that Jackie was very gracious to include a fantastic shot of the journal that I made for her and to add to my glowing face a wonderful photo showing all of the journals that were made for Saskatoon Crops. This is my first time to be published in print and I am flattered by it. Thank you Jackie for making my dream a reality.

2009-05-22T09:59:00.002-06:00

Come and join all the fun at Just Cre8 for the 2009 Happy Be Scrappy Online Crop! It is a wonderful way to get your mojo flowing and meet some fantasic scrappers! You never know who will drop by and participate.

Maximize your Letter Stickers

2009-05-20T22:19:00.002-06:00

Hi Everyone,

So today on The Paper Passion board one of the gals asked how to make a letter out of other letters. She was talking specifically about the thicker letters but many of these tricks will work with a lot of letter sets. I thought I would share my tricks here with you as well.

a = take a p turn it up side down nip off the excess and you have an "a"
b = take a "q" turn it around for a "b"
c = take an "o" and nip out a side piece for a "c" - save the piece for other letter creations
d = take a "p" turn it around for a "d"
e = take an "o" nip out the side, then glue the side piece in to make an "e", you can do this with a "c" and a spare bit you have. You can also get out your favourite sharpie and draw in the line if you are using black.
f = take a "j" turn it up side down and use extra bits for the line or use the sharpie pen
g = take a "b" or a "q" turn upside down, warm up the heat gun and after heating gently pull into shape (works for foam style thickers only) otherwise just clip the stem and curve it to the side.
h = take an "m" trim to one hump, then use the remaining straight piece (trim off the curve) to make the back
i = take the back of any letter
j = take a "f" turn it up side down and remove the extra bits from the line.
k = take a straight back from a letter and attach a "v"
l = take a straight back from any letter
m = take two "n" remove one back and glue whole "n"
n = trim down an "m" or an "h", take your "z" and turn on its side.
o = take an "e" remove the line and fill in the side gap
p = take a "p" turn it around for a "d"
q = take a "b" turn it around for a "q"
r = take an "n" and remove the side piece, or you can trim down an "m" or an "h"
s =
t = take the back of any letter and add extra bits
u = turn the "n" upside down, trim down an "h" and turn upside down
v = take to straight segments from any excess letter.
w = take two "v" and trim one down to fit up against the other.
X = never needed two of these
y = take a straight piece and glue small bits to complete,
z = have never needed two of these.

Of course it won't always work for all fonts but at least it gives you a starting place. and don't forget that you can also use numbers to build letters too.

If all else fails.........have a mixed font title LOL LOL