Signs of Spring

in our garden.

Pansies planted(by Steve)in our urn.



Aren't they sweet?



And don't they make you happy just looking at them?



Mini daffodils.



Crocuses



Mini Iris

'Bee' Happy!

My mojo has been a little missing lately so I decided to make a card based on this week's sketch by Kazan at 2S4U. I did change it up a little but overall you can see Kazan's sketch 24 has been followed.



I used bits of Fancy Pants and Basic Grey paper along with cardstock. I embossed the base layer using the leafy embossing folder by cuttlebug, then popped up the bee on a foam dot making it the focal point with a ribbon bow. I stamped the sentiment using Raintree stamps that I've had forever.

Overall I pretty happy with this card, not sure if my mojo is completely back though!

Asparagus Casserole

I tried a new recipe for Easter, an asparagus casserole.

I found it on AllRecipes.com where I tend to find lots of great recipes.

This version uses 4 ingredients, its soooo easy and tastes excellent.

Ingredients:
2 pounds fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 pound provolone cheese, shredded
2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed golden mushroom soup
1 (2.8 ounce) can French-fried onions

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Place asparagus in baking dish; cover with cheese. Spread mushroom soup over cheese.
3. Bake, covered, until hot and bubbly, about 35 minutes. Remove from oven; remove cover and sprinkle with onions. Return to oven and bake, uncovered, until onions are lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Rockin' Easter

We finished up our Easter Celebration with a little karaoke and air guitar compliments of You Tube.

Here's a few highlights!

Easter Faces and more Easter Faces!

As I mentioned Steve took a lot of Easter Photos!

Here's some of them over two slideshows!

Easter 2009

We celebrated Easter at my sister's this past Friday. We held the annual outdoor egg hunt, that the kids still love and enjoyed a yummy dinner! We also celebrated Brayden's birthday. Steve took a LOT of photos of which I've created several slideshows. I'll spread them over a few posts!

Happy Easter!

may all your eggs be coloured!(made by Brianne and Jesse)

My Favorite Idol Performance Ever!

Even slightly over this one:



But they're close, I love them both!

Use It! Challenge Number 5

This week Use It is old, neglected and thrifty!

Our challenge is to:
1/Dig out those OLD scrapbook die-cuts.
2/Scrounge around and find a piece of patterned paper that you've been hanging onto for a minimum of two years.
3/Think back to a tool or technique you used to use ALL the time and bring it back to life.
4/Incorporate something bought on clearance.



So I dug through my stash and found this old, old paper that I believe is by Basic Grey. Then I found some matching die cut tags, copper brads, a matching resin sticker and ribbon. In fact I think the paper, die cuts and sticker were on sale when I bought them many years ago! And I used to tear my paper ALL the time but have really gotten away from it. I really should tear more often!



I layered all the paper then the die cuts(some on foam) and, voila, an old, neglected and thrifty card! Hopefully it doesn't look like any of those things though.

Layouts Using Jillybean paper

A new line of paper, Jillibean, has been sweeping through scrapbook stores so I had to try it out!

I used some of their kraft line of papers,sticker letters and coordinating felt flowers then embellished with what I already had.

The first layout is of us(and Kathryn and Dave) on a Sunset Cruise while in Costa Rica.



The second shows some of the wildlife, birds,monkeys and I'm not sure what animal the prints belong to.



I'll definitely be using this paper again as well as some of Jillibean's other lines too!

Be Inspired 25

I did have a chance to create a card for this week's challenge at Cuttlebug Challenges which follows the sketch provided by Sheetload.



This card is created from various Prima papers. I've embossed the background piece with swiss dots and the rose pattern with swirls. The sentiment is stamped with Technique Tuesday stamps.



The roses are cut out of another Prima paper then tied with some vintage ribbon. A few roses are mounted on foam squares to create dimension.

I think this would be a lovely card for a female relative or friend.

A Successful Scrapbooking Weekend

I'm back from my scrapbooking weekend away hosted by Two Scrapbook Friends! I completed several layouts and only one card!

This card is based on a sketch provided at the crop and uses some scraps from a layout I made using my Bad Girls supply kits.




I also created several layouts using my Bad Girls kits, here's some of them.
These all feature photos from last year's trip to Costa Rica. I'll post more layouts soon!






And I may be back with another card for the Cuttlebug Challenge later.

Seventh Photo Tag

Joanne tagged me!

Here are the rules:
Go to the photos folder on your computer.
Go to the seventh folder of photos.
Go to the seventh photo.
Put the seventh photo on your blog along with a description.




My photo is from a trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls back in 2007. It is a fun place to take the kids, our girls sure enjoyed it! Anyone standing underneath this bucket will be drenched!

Now I tag Janet and Karen! You're it ladies!

Altered Mirror

Earlier this week was the second meeting of the Dollar Store Club at the Go Scrapping Studio. This month's challenge was to alter a dollar store mirror. My mirror started out baby blue. I covered it in alcohol inks(cranberry, lettuce and stream with some pearl mixative).



Then I adhered Prima flowers, and added some lace and ribbon from my stash! Not bad for a few dollars and a couple of hours work!

Of course, I don't think mine was nearly as creative as some of the others. Some of the ladies used dry wall compound, tile, beads, feathers, tassels and one even mounted her mirror on a canvas frame to create a truly funky art piece. Karen will be posting pics on her blog soon!

Then Karen taught us some fun techniques using Perfect Pearls and sticky back canvas with which we created a card.



We painted the canvas with acrylic paint mixed with perfect pearls, let it dry then cut out a flower using a Sizzix. We also sprayed our card with a mix of water and perfect pearls to give our card background some shimmer. Then we painted the white flower with a water pen and perfect pearls to give it a coppery finish. Wonderful techniques Karen, thanks!

I am quite taken with all of these ideas and did purchase some sticky back canvas from Karen to create something as I already had perfect pearls!

Next month's challenge is to alter a wooden look eyeglass case........should be fun!

Tizzalicious!

Isn't that a fun sounding word, come on, say it out loud just for fun, Tizzalicious!
Tizz of Tizzalicious makes the most wonderful things including this apple brooch that I won in a giveaway! And it came all the way from Denmark! Thanks so much Tizz!



Check out all her other cute things here.