I'm dreaming of a White Christmas!

And it looks like my dream may come true!!!  Holy SNOW!!!  We have been dumped on and more is expected!  Here in Beautiful British Columbia we don't get A LOT of snow!  Usually only one or two light snowfalls a year and it is gone in a day or so.  We get more "liquid snow" aka RAIN!!

Here's a few pictures from last night!

Kasey is NOT enjoying the snow as much!

Justin, on the other hand is thrilled to get a SNOW DAY! He built a snow fort in the front yard and a little toboggan hill!


We're in for more this week too! Driving was a bit challenging (yes, I got stuck in front of our house!) but the main roads are "okay"! So looks like the first white Christmas in over a decade!!

I was sent a very cool link to a Santa Video message for kids and I wanted to share with all of you that have little ones!! It is super fun, and really easy and quick to do. Santa will email your kids and they will LOVE it!! Trust me--Justin was so excited and a little confused as to how Santa had his picture in his book! Follow the link and surprise your kiddies and then let me know what they thought--I'd LOVE to hear from EACH OF YOU!! Here's the link
A special Thanks so my good friend Bobby Jo for sharing it with me!! Don't forget to let me know what your kids think!!

I'll leave you with a quickie Christmas card that I taught this past semester. Sorry--no time for new cards at this time of the year!!

Happy Holidays!
dee

Look what Santa left!!!!

I think I'm on SANTA'S "good" list!!!  Check out all this amazing product under my Christmas tree from CRATE PAPER!!

The two cardboard boxes in the background are also FULL!!!

Isn't it just BEAUTIFUL!!!

This is the product for the "TECHNIQUE TREASURES" for all the croppers on the CROP AND CRUISE!!  Can you believe it!  Each cropper will get one of each of these amazing products from Crate Paper's Prudence Collection--A retail value of almost $20 per person!  For your make and take!!  You will have so much product left over, you'll be doing the happy dance!  Not to mention a ton of layouts and cards!!

So now my biggest  problem is HOW the heck am I going to get all of this to Florida???  I somehow don't think that these boxes will fit in my suitcases!

Maybe I can borrow Santa's reindeer:)
SO......in other Crop and Cruise News......MARVY ROCKS!!!  A huge thanks to my friends at Marvy--they are spoiling you ladies like CRAZY!!  You will not believe what they have donated to EACH AND EVERY one of you!!!  (Steve and Gary, you guys are AWESOME!) Here's a sneak peek to help you guess.......

A special Thanks also to CLIPPER STREET SCRAPBOOK COMPANY, for teaming up with Marvy to put the icing on the cake!!  You ladies will not be disappointed!

So life around here has been Crazy busy which is to be expected the week before Christmas!!  Every year I promise myself to be more organized and have all my shopping done in November, but that never happens.  I never really get to "enjoy" the holidays!!  The kids are excited and Justin keeps revamping his growing wish list!  Aaron is keeping busy with Hockey, school and the Christmas dance:)  no stress there!  

I am excited for Sunday--it's our family's traditional Christmas Brunch at Newland's Golf Course--oohhhh sooooo much food!!!  and yummy!!  Santa even arrives via Helicopter!!  Although that may not happen this year--we are in the midst of a cold freeze and it is suppose to get colder and be snowing this weekend!  What the heck--we rarely get snow!!!  I honestly can't remember the last white Christmas--I think I was a teenager (okay, so not that long ago I guess!)  

So to add more mayhem to the last week before Christmas,  the boys are in a big Christmas Hockey tournament this weekend! We could end up with as many as 10 games between the two of them.  We're really hoping this doesn't effect our breakfast on sunday--I'd hate for them to have to eat and run.  Keeping our fingers crossed:)

Well that is enough rambling for today (guess I made up for the last month!)  I will however leave you with one more YUMMY Crate Paper project--this is one of the cards in my new upcoming classes at Clipper Street (Jan 12, Jan 31 and Feb 7)  The class is called Dee-lightful Designs and they are almost SOLD OUT!  

Let me know what you think!!

I've got a few more cards to share, but that will have to be for next time--I've got to get these boxes out from under the Christmas tree before hubby gets home!!!!!!!

dee

Time flies when you're having fun......

or just too darn busy!!! I can't believe it is almost mid November!
I had a very busy and FUN weekend at the BC Creative Expo this past weekend. Clipper Street had a booth and we were busy doing make and takes and demo's all weekend long! Very long and busy days, but we had a blast! Eleonor created a very cute Sleigh Bear stamped card and I did demo's on the Slice and the Marvy Trimming Buddy--two of my very favorite tools!! Here I am unpacking a whole bunch of them!!

On Saturday night, Stacey, Cory and myself hosted a Clipper Street crop at the expo. We had a lot of laughs and the ladies were so amazing and inspiring (love that African album!!!)  I taught a class on behalf of Making Memories using the Noteworthy line--yummy!! They sent us kits and I designed this layout using some of the product:





Some students made different variations of this layout and they all looked amazing--it helps when you have such cool product!!

So the weekend was a great success and truly fun, despite being exhausted!  It was great to  see so many of our regular customers--dear friends, really.  Thanks to all who stopped by and made our day--you know who you are;)

Now for the next busy weekend--THIS weekend!!  Clipper Street is holding it's annual Christmas Open House and if you haven't been to one of these before you have no idea what you have been missing!!!  We will be doing 5 super cool make and takes, 2 demo's and door prizes and refreshments!  All this for only $5!  Phone and register today--604-514-2229 for the Langley location.  Coquitlam will be hosting theirs on Nov 22nd!

Now for some exciting crop news!!

November booking SPECIAL BONUS!!We currently have only 18 spots left on our Crop and Cruise Scrapbooking Cruise for Canadians and have a SPECIAL BONUS for anyone booking in November...

Receive a FREE on-board credit or FREE cabin upgrade!!

AND... if we sell the last 18 spots, someone on board will win this!!!!


How fun would that be to get a new Nikon Digital SLR camera and receive hands-on instruction on how to use it while sailing through the Caribbean on vacation!!!

So those of you who have been talking about joining us in Feb. 2009, NOW is the time to do it!! Simply go to www.CropandCruise.com to register!! And know that we are matching up singles so this can also be a great opportunity to meet fellow scrapbookers and make new friends from across Canada!! 

I'm so excited to have some great customers/friends joining me on this cruise and I can't wait to meet a whole bunch more!!

Well that's it for me tonight--hope you enjoyed the layout and hopefully we'll see some of you at the Open House on Saturday!

dee

Not so "Swell Noel"

Substitution alert!!!
If you happen to be in one of my November or December classes at Clipper Street, I've had to remake a card for the Christmas Bliss Class. Unfortunately one of my cards is using the not yet released Swell Noel from K & Co. It is a beautiful vintage type paper and has some really cute embellishments to compliment it. In July at CHA Chicago, I got a sample of the product and really liked it. Pinks are hot for this Christmas and the vendor assured me that we would have it sometime in October. I took a chance and created this little card as part of the class:

I was looking forward to making this card as everyone was going to get a different sticker (that's what the trees are) and different mat colors so they would be unique. Not only that but you can make a TON of these cards for quite a reasonable price. Because of the size, it also works great as a tag or a card.
Well the bad news is that the whole line has been delayed until the end of November so we won't have it in time.
The good news is that I really am liking the new card I created! It is using the new My Mind's Eye Be Merry line and I think it is just as cute--hope you all like it too!

It too is a quick and easy card--perfect for mass producing this holiday season! It measures 4" square and yup, it's pink too!

I believe there are a few spots still available in November and December--you can register here. Once the Swell Noel papers come in, I will have the card in store and give out the instructions to any of my students that would like it, so it can be kinda like a bonus:)
I have to tell you all that when my youngest son, Justin, saw this card lying on my desk last night he tried to stand it up and it fell over. I picked it up and then stood it up and told him it was a "spreader"--the card needed to be spread open a bit more to carry the weight. He said, "ya--you have a bit too much paper on that card, don't ya think? That's a lot of layers!" What could I say? I gave him a big hug and kiss (I think he is the only guy in my family that got it!) and told him "yup, that's what I'm known for!!" I think my students would all agree--I love my layers:)

I've got a super busy week for teaching coming up--I'm wrapping up the last of the Quick and Easy Christmas Card classes. Langley on Tuesday night (sold out with 48 people!), Wednesday night in Coquitlam (sold out at 42 people!) and then I added one more class for the wait listed on Saturday, Nov 1 in Langley. If you want to get in to this class, there are still a few spots available (call 604-514-2229) Somewhere in the week I also have two hockey games, Halloween and a trip to the SPA!! Now that is worth all the craziness of the week right? I figured if any week this is the one! I received a Spa Utopia (fav place in the world!) gift certificate for my birthday last week so I'm going to go get massage on Thursday! ah--that should keep me going this week:)
P.s. it's worth checking out Spa Utopia's link just to hear the relaxing music!! I may need to click on that a few times at work this week--hehe!
hope you like the cards! Enjoy your week!
dee

Making Memories and One Year Older!

What a crazy busy last week--full of lots of fun!
Clipper Street hosted the amazing Jodi and Megan from Making Memories this past weekend--can I just say how much I love them? They rock it out! Jodi pulled out all stops to get us the new SLICE machine in for the weekend and we were the first to get to play with it--I'm loving mine:) Jodi and Megan did two amazing classes and hosted our crop at both stores--little energizer bunnies they are:) Sheila was the big winner of her very own SLICE machine too! She won it at Clipper Street Online and she was so excited--it's she cute?

Here's a picture of the class (50 very happy students) in Langley when they received their Falala Album class kits! These kits had a retail value of almost $50! All this for only a $5 commitment fee--Yes, Making Memories spoils us!! I hope everyone enjoyed themselves--I wish I could have taken that class!!

We received a huge amount of SLICE machines and they ALL sold out by Saturday!! don't worry though--if you didn't get one, give us a call as we have tons coming in again for our Open House at Clipper Street in mid November! Check out this You tube for more info on the SLICE!!

So I did get a Slice--for my birthday! Yup, I turned one year older on Tuesday and had a great day with my family! We had a wonderful family dinner at the Olive Garden (yum yum) and two cakes!! so much for watching what I eat! And, yes I was spoiled! I'm really looking forward to the year ahead and I have lots of little goals I'll be working towards! Not to mention the CRUISE!!! can't wait for February!!
Speaking of the Cruise--for all you joining me, I'll be bringing TWO SLICE MACHINES (like I said--I love Making Memories!) with me!!! We're going to use them on my CRATE PAPER make and take and you are more then welcome to use them for your projects during crop night!! And guess what showed up at my house the other day?!?! A HUGE box of Crate Paper products for our Technique Treasures (aka make and takes)!! The line we are using is Prudence and I am soooo in love with it--you are going to love it too! (I'll take pictures of all the goodies and post next time!)
Well I better get busy making dinner and getting the kids to Hockey! It's another busy night:)
dee

Punkin Patch!!

It's that time of year--time to head to the Great Pumpkin Patch and get the bestest pumpkin in the patch!  This is one of our favorite family traditions and Autumn would not be the same without our annual trek--we have never missed it and I love that the kids still enjoy it!  We had a great time--our only problem was it was too sunny!!  how's that for a problem!  Every time we tried to get a picture, Justin was squinting and complaining it was too sunny!!  It was however, the PERFECT weather for choosing pumpkins as the fields weren't muddy and the pumpkins weren't rotten.  This was the first day that the patch opened so we had a fabulous selection!

We love going to the Country Pumpkin patch in Richmond--they do it right!  We took a hayride out to the patches and love the entertainment onboard.  Each wagon has a different staff member that plays an instrument (banjo, fiddle, flute) and we all get to sing along--what great fun for all!  After we got to the patch, we decided to try the corn maze first--that way we didn't have to lug around our pumpkins!  Then we hit the two bright and beautiful fields for some photos and the great hunt was on!  

We tried to get some good photos, but sometimes the kid have their own ideas!  My niece and nephew had a bad case of the giggle, so it was easier to let them get their sillies out first!!

I do love this photo of the two of them though

Aaron is getting so old on me, but still loves the patch. and yes he needs a haircut, but I pick my battles:)
Here's the best picture I could get of the four of them!

This is one of my fav's of TayTay--I see a layout in my future!

We had such a great and special time together--gotta love those days when you take a break from the craziness!!

We had a fabulous weekend with a great dinner Thanksgiving dinner last night. Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!
dee

Cruise Planning!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!  The Crop and Cruise is just over four months away and we are all planning like crazy!!  It so exciting to see this coming together and all the amazing Vendors that are supporting this super fun cruise!!  

Making Memories is my Featured Class sponsor and I'm so excited to be using them in my class! Looks like I will be using the brand new Paperie line (love it!!) and the participants are going to be getting A LOT of product to use and play with--woohoo!!  In addition, I will probably be bringing the new SLICE on board for all to play with too:)

Crate Paper is my major sponsor for the Make and Take nights at the crop and for this I will be using the "hot off the press" Prudence line--Can you say YUMMY??  This line rocks it out and they are being so incredibly generous for our project---it will be like a mini class!!  You will get to play with every embellishment in the line and make a whole layout as your make and take--HOW COOL IS THAT!!!  

We're also working out a few details with Marvy and Clipper Street (can't spill the details yet!) that you will be SO EXCITED about!!  Trust me--they both are going to rock it out!

All the other instructors are pulling it together too and this will be such and amazing event for everyone involved!!  Check out this cool prize that one lucky cropper will win:

So many details to share!!  I'll keep you all up to date!

So I promised my lovely Edmonton ladies a few images of some projects!  Below is a spin off of the Christmas Enclosure Card we made in class.  This is a card that I taught in the Summer at Clipper Street and it was VERY popular!  For my Christmas class I just changed the paper and added the big snowflake instead of the dragonfly.  Love this card--super easy to make and change for any occasion at all--Bridal shower, Birthday, Baby, Thank you--whatever!  You'll make this card over and over again!  (sorry the pictures aren't great--bad background color!)

From the front, it just looks like a regular card--which it is that too!

The "front" portion of the card opens to reveal a gift card enclosure card--two cards in one!!

And this is a photo of the gift card portion fully open! Too fun and easy too. I personally like it when mine has a spa gift card in it:)
So that's it for tonight!  I'll add the ones of the JOY canvas by the end of the weekend--I still need to take photo's of those!

An update for those local gals hoping to get into one of my upcoming Christmas card classes at Clipper Street--I am currently sold out of all my classes until November!  I have my brand new Christmas Bliss card class then and you can check out here for the dates.  Classes have started filling up, so call the stores to sign up soon!!

Have a great week!

dee

Whirlwind Weekend

What a fabulous and fun weekend I just spent in Edmonton for Trisha's Sail Away Fun crop!! I had an amazing time visiting with friends, teaching classes, making new friends, and yup...eating lots of yummy home baked fudge! (thanks Tracy!!)

I am now soooo super excited to be going on this cruise--I can't even begin to tell you how awesome the rest of the Crop and Cruise team are!! This was the first time I got to meet the Amazing Allison and let me tell you--she is FULL of ideas that will make this scrapbook cruise like no other!! We are going to have a blast and if laughing burns up calories, then I will be able to eat every buffet on that cruise and come back 20 pounds lighter--yippee!!

Leica is the one of the most beautiful, caring and talented people I have every met! She is sooo amazing to be around and has a fun loving spirit. I also got to meet her super cute baby girl, Ireland. Wanted to eat her up!!!

Ireland is such a good baby and loves to assist mom in her scrapbooking classes!!  

Tracy (baker extraordinaire) won the best dressed!!  She was a very cool and chic "Marley" and had us in stitches a lot of the time.  Check out her costume!

We also had a contest for the best dressed "table" and that was way to much fun--this group of very talented ladies took the prize with their hilarious Global news report!  Great going girls!!

Trisha did an amazing job organizing this fun and fabulous crop--I want to thank her for having me and all the laughs we shared!  This chick is so talented and if you ever get a chance to take a class with her, DO IT!!  

A special thanks to all my awesome students that came to my classes--you guys made the event for me!!  I had a blast getting to know each one of you and remember what I said--"no excuse for a flat card!!"  And like I promised, I'll get those images up on my blog this week for you all! A big hello to Carole and Monique who came all the way from BC (Quesnel and Parksville) to participate in the crop and take my classes!  And a special Hi to Nicole and all of her (grown-up) daughters--you guys are the cutest family and I'm soo glad that you got to spend some special time together and we were a part of that!  You all rock!!  (If you took some great pictures of us, send them my way and I'll post them!)

And if any of you still want one of those trimmers, check it out here!  (Don't forget the extra blades!!)  And if you were a fan of that tape/glitter, that's here!  Sorry--I am a bit of an enabler:)  And you know what I say about adhesive--yada yada yada!!  I'll bring a store in my suitcase next time!!

So the weekend was a huge success--very tiring--but worth every bit of it!  I did miss my flight home though!  I was late checking in for my flight by ten minutes and even though my plane wasn't leaving for 20 minutes they wouldn't let me thru!  oh well, I got to go for a great lunch with Trish (thanks chickie!) and then caught a later flight home thru Calgary.  I believe everything happens for a reason and I just wasn't meant to be on that flight, so no worries.  That's never happened to me before (I'm always the one at the airport 3 hours before!) but now I can say I've done it--hehehe!

Well, that's it for the weekend roundup--thanks again to all that participated!  I've got to hit the sack--I'm still a bit sleep deprived!!

dee

Living on the West Coast

We are truly spoiled here in Beautiful British Columbia! Our September has been absolutely amazing, as it often is--one of my favourite months for sure! Yesterday after I got home from work, Geord and I packed up the kids and headed to White Rock beach for the evening.  It was awesome!!  We had a picnic dinner on the logs by the water and enjoyed the view and relaxed for a bit--ahhh heaven!  It was quite busy there and you would have thought it to be summer if the sun hadn't started setting by 7pm!  Evening light is the best for photos so I shot off about 75 of them!! Not all of them are keepers, but a few are pretty good:

Aaron wasn't much in the mood for photos today, but I did convince him of a few:)

I'm going to need to hit up Kathy and Allison on the Crop and Cruise for some professional help on sunset pictures!! I'm sure they'll have some great tips to capture the best Caribbean sunsets!

And so ended our day.


This has been a busy, busy week for me!  I had a large Christmas card class on Monday and on Friday night I taught at the BC Crop for Kids.  That was a blast and I had a few of my favourite students in the class, so it made it even more fun!  Saturday morning I was up bright and early for another Christmas card class and then worked the rest of the weekend!  I'm heading off to Edmonton on Friday and am looking forward to teaching a few classes at Trisha's Crop and Cruise Crop during the weekend.  Can't believe how fast time has gone--seems like this event totally snuck up on us and now we are almost in October!

Well that's all the time for now!  

dee

Happy Autumn!

So yesterday was the first day of Fall and it seemed like all at once the leaves started to change!  Today was beautiful--sunny and cool--AND I had the day off !  I saw some beautifully colored trees (while I was out and about running a ton of pesky little errands) and unfortunately didn't have my camera handy:( They say we are in for a nice weekend so maybe I'll get a chance to capture nature's beautiful art!

Speaking of the weekend--I have a big Christmas card class to teach in the Coquitlam Clipper Street store on Saturday!  This is my Quick & Easy Christmas Card class and I just taught my first one last night in the Langley store--we had 48 students!!!  It got a wee bit crowded in the classroom when we had to do our "stations", but thank goodness we have BIG classroom tables! I love seeing all my regular students at my classes and last night I was thrilled to have some awesome people join me from North Carolina (Hi Karen!!),  Toronto (Hi Sheila's sister!!--sorry, you know how bad I am with names, but I do know you are younger--haha!) and Prince George (Hi Sandy!)  You ALL rocked it last night and thanks for being so loyal!!

Next week is a busy one--I'll be heading to Edmonton next week to teach at Trisha's Crop and Cruise Sail Away Fun crop!!  Can't believe this has snuck up so fast on us--It doesn't feel like it will be October next week!  I finally got my canvas project complete for the class--I wanted to wait and use the newest and bestest from Cosmo Cricket--Oh Joy! Christmas line!  It's a quick Canvas class (90 minutes) and you will all leave with your project complete!  Here's a peek--

This class was designed just for the Edmonton Crop (based on a similar project I have taught before)  If you are signed up for the class and would like me to bring you an extra kit (they make fabulous Christmas gifts--hint, hint!) then please email me and I will bring one for you!

And for my local gals--I can tell you that I do have an AMAZING project for you this fall!!  I just finished a 3-piece JOY Christmas canvas using the above new line from Cosmo Cricket!  This will be a fast paced three hour class (not for the faint of heart!) and we will complete all three 12x12 canvases from scratch!!  They truly are amazing to see and they will be in the Clipper Street stores this week for signup.  Space is VERY limited, so call and sign up as soon as you can!

That's all the update for now!  

Enjoy the rest of the week!

p.s.  just saw on the Crop and Cruise website that there are ONLY 25 SPOTS LEFT!!!!!!  Don't delay--sign up today!

Sensational September!

Wow!  Has the weather ever been beautiful!!  We have been truly blessed to currently be enjoying a couple of weeks of hot summer like weather!  No complaints here--and in some ways it's even better then summer as the nights are cool so sleeping is much more comfortable.  Geordie and Justin were even in the pool yesterday as the temperatures hovered in the high 20's (upper 80's Fahrenheit) Alas, all good things must come to an end and they are saying the weather will start to change on the weekend.  Then maybe I will feel like being inside and getting some housework done;)

In just over two weeks I'll be in Edmonton!!  Heading over to teach three classes at Trisha's Crop and Cruise Sail Away Fun crop!!  Can't wait to attend this fun crop--Trisha has some amazing classes lined up and tickets are selling like crazy!  I'll be teaching these three classes:

WINTER WISHES CHRISTMAS CARDS

Now is the time to get started on making those Christmas cards! ! Join Deanna as she guides you thru a NO STRESS Christmas card class! With these four fun and easy cards, you’ll see how effortless it is to make the holidays joyful, festive and bright! You’ll even get a chance to play with the popular Ultra Fine Glitter to make your cards shimmer and shine!  From traditional to Bling, we’ve got the holidays covered! You simply can’t afford to miss this class—this is the year to make your Christmas cards shine! 

HOLIDAY GIFT ENCLOSURE CARDS

Tis the season for giving, and if you are like the majority of us, gift cards are a popular choice!!  With so many places offering suitable gift cards, the problem is not WHERE to get it but HOW to give it!!  Deanna's Holiday Gift Enclosure Cards are the perfect answer!  Deanna will teach you three popular designs that do double duty--a beautiful Holiday greeting card and a holder for the gift card.   You will even get to play with the popular Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist as you make cards that you will find yourself recreating over and over again for ALL occasions throughout the year!!  Join us and learn how to make the most practical cards of the year!

CHRISTMAS JOY CANVAS

This is an Exclusive class you don't want to miss!!  Create an amazing 12x12 Christmas Canvas using the brand new Cosmo Cricket "Oh Joy" paper line!  This project will easily become your favourite work of art in your home and will garnish oodles of compliments from your friends and family.  The Christmas canvas theme will be "US" and is suitable for families, couples, siblings and friends.  This will make the perfect Christmas gift to give, share and receive--you'll want to keep it up all year long!  Price includes 12x12 canvas and all the paper supplies needed!

Here's a few pictures of the cards we will be making:

As well we will be making this card that I designed for CardMaker--It is in the May 2008 issue on page 26.I've been kitting like a crazy fool for my upcoming classes at Clipper Street!!  I just finished 150 kits which will hold me for my first three sold out classes, but I still have two more classes to do!  If you haven't signed up yet don't wait--there is only a handful of spots left in the Langley (Oct 28) and Coquitlam (Oct 29) classes!  Plus I'm almost finished my card class for November and December so stay tuned!!
Have a great day!!

dee