Bad News / Good News (a.k.a. Out with the Old, In with the New!)

Hi everyone,

Well....another month long absence from the blogosphere!  Let's just say between personal life, work life and a ginormous flood all across Manitoba, it was a very busy month of May! 

I'd like to just take a quick break from my regularly scheduled programming to say that I am so impressed with my fellow Manitobans and so proud to be part of such a great, big, giving community.  The Flood of 2011 has been so stressful, especially where I work.  It also affected our family personally as well.  My parents', grandma's, and aunt and uncle's house were all in the "danger zone".  I've only been alive 24 years and never in that time have we ever had to worry about flood water; it simply didn't occur in our area.  But this year was different.  A one in 300 year event occured where the cresting of both rivers happened so close together, combined with major snow storms late in the year, plus weeks of rain...it was a recipe for disaster.  Our Province and community made national headlines for weeks.  People put their lives on hold to go protect their houses, their family's houses, move their belongings and livestock, find places to stay in event of evacuation.... It's been so busy and stressful that sometimes you forget to stand back and look at the good that is happening. 

When I drove down the main street in my little town, it was taken over by a giant row of sandbags, nearly 10 feet tall.  The Canadian Forces, along with just about every able-bodied person in the village, were loading these sandbags into homeowner's trucks and trailers.  We gathered up friends and neighbours to help sandbag around my grandma's house and my heart just swelled.  All these people donating their time and muscles, everyone in the community pulling together.  This was (and is still) happening all across Manitoba, not just in my little community!  The flood is by no means over, even though the threat level has dropped considerably in my area, it's moved on further north now.  To get a visual of how things looked nearby a week or so ago, this is a living complex off one of our major highways:

Those 2 little dark blobs are people and they are walking across a home made bridge of pallets that are floating on waist high water.  It is nuts here!  So now that you know why I've spent so much time away from the craft room and computer, let's move on!

So for today's blog post I have bad news and good news for you guys... Bad news first, always. 

June 1st marked the day that the Last Chance List came out.  This is a listing of all the items in the current catalogue that will not be available when the new catalogue launches on July 1st.  This means if any of these stamps or accessories are on your wish list, you have less than 1 month to purchase them!    Check to see if any of your favorites are on limited time availability!

Good news is that the new catalogue is coming on July 1st and I promise you, based on the super-secret, demo-only sneak peek I have seen, IT WILL BE AWESOME!!!  I can almost taste the yumminess emanating from the 5 new In Colours that will be added to this year's In Colours.  That's right, in July you will now have 10 In Colours to use to augment our regular 40 colour collection!  Also, the designer series paper is totally rockin'!  It is fresh - or is it phresh?! I can't wait to get my hands on it and I know you'll feel the same.

Despite the flood, I did manage to make some awesome Mother's Day cards!  Take a peek:

This one uses Concord Crush as a base and Perfect Plum as accent colour.  The large flower is made by putting the Fun Flowers die through the Big Shot, then slightly curling the leaves for dimension.  The little rose was made by using Julie William's tutorial - isn't it gorgeous! 

The flower is anchored with an Antique Brad - so pretty!  The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes (my go-to stamp set for almost every card) and is stamped on a die cut from the Lots of Tags dies.

This next card I think is really fun!  I used to think monochromatic cards were boring, but as you can see, I'm on a monocolour kick now!

This one is Daffodil Delight and the super cute white patterned DSP is from *NEW* paper that is featured in the summer mini and it's called "Beyond the Garden".  Besides yellow it also has vibrant Wasabi, Melon, Pacific Point and Tangerine colours. 

The two flowers are stamped from the coordinating set "Fabulous Florets". 

I just love the new summer mini stuff!  If you'd like to see more of it, book a party and I'll be sure to show off some awesome new projects you can do!

Happy spring!  To my fellow flood buds, stay high & dry!

Holiday Mini Goodies

Hi everyone! I've been very very busy with the new house lately, if that helps explain the lack of posts!  I have been itching/dying/craving to play with my new goodies from the Holiday Mini...they arrived just before we moved, so I just kept them right in the box and moved them just like that.  Now they've been unpacked for over 2 weeks but I haven't had a chance to play til lately. 

Sometimes when I'm crunched for time, but have that creative urge that I know won't go away until it's satisfied, I will make one or two tiny things that I can feel proud having accomplished something and also not feel guilty about being holed up in my scrap room for hours at a time.

Here are a couple cute little things I made just to 'test out' the new stuff!

The top flower uses the new waffle paper from the mini catalogue.  It's available in brown, black, silver and gold and it is FUN! It's so easy to mold and bend - especially for circular trim, etc.  What I did here is molded it into a circle, punched a flower center, adhered that along with a button and hemp...then took small wedges out of the waffle paper with my scissors to make it look more like flower petals.  I like it! I can see it becoming a new favorite embellishment.

The bottom flower uses a new punch that came out with new catalogue - it's a giant scallop circle! As you can see it layers wonderfully with our smaller scallop circle.  Again, I have a feeling LOTS of these will be made for embellishments!

This shiny little Christmas tag was so fun and easy to make.  It features the new 2 1/2 " circle punch from the Holiday Mini, as well as the regular 1 3/4" circle punch.  Also featured is the fabulous glass glitter!  This stuff is a must have - it changes colour after time to look more vintage and distressed.  When I put it on it was bright silver, now it's a more faded champagne look - I love it! I can wait to bust it out again & make some vintage retro Christmas cards! 

The stamp set is from the very appropriately named Tags til Christmas set.  It's filled with wonderful tag images that coordinate with our punches.  There.  Now YOU have no excuse as to why you aren't making HANDMADE tags this year! 

Hope you like :)