Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Sapin en Neige

Je viens de finir une de mes cartes de Noël préférée jusqu'à maintenant!

J'ai utilisé le set "Lovely as a Tree" et rajouté quelques paillettes pour donner un effet de neige. Cette année je suis prise par l'intensité de la couleur de rouge-rouge. C'est si riche!! Voilà la nouvelle!

J'ai utilisé le format offert sur Stamping 411 cette semaine. Mais en fait, j'avais commencé l'arbre et les couleurs avant que j'y ai regardé des idées. C'était un effort partagé! Et bien sûr, j'ai changé des tailles etc et le placement du sentiment.
I think I just finished my very most favourite card of the season...so far, anyway! It seems like every card I do is my new favourite!! I used "Lovely as a Tree", which I tend to gravitate to often. Yes, I'll admit I'm a bit of a nature-lover...especially at this time of year! I had started the card with the tree and thought I'd hop over to Stamping 411 to see what their challenge of the week was like and it just fit right in with what I was doing. Love it when things just fall together like that!

I'm so taken with Real Red this year...something about its intensity and no-nonsense celebritory spirit. It goes so well with every other colour. I couldn't help finishing off the tree with a dose of sparkles...a little snow to remind me of Canadian Christmases. We had snow here, but it's all melted by the rain this week. Maybe it will snow again!

Thanks for taking a look! Happy Christmas preparations everyone!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Christmas Cards

Un petit post pour vous montrer des cartes de Noël que nous avons faites au dernier atelier. Cela c'est super bien passé et nous attendons la fête un peu plus maintenant! Les voici:

Les voilà! Peut-être plus tard je peux rajouter des détails pour comment je les ai faites...si je ne suis pas trop prise dans le prochain projet!
Merrillee

Friday, November 12, 2010

C'est le temps de célébrer!


C'est toujours l'anniversaire de quelqu'un, et cela me convient!! Comme ça j'ai toujours de quoi à m'occuper. Alors, au boulot, mais un boulot de bonheur! Voici la carte qui sera bientôt envoyée à mon beau-frère...avec tous nos vœux, bien sûr!

C'est une explosion de couleurs, n'est-ce pas?! J'aime comment le design n'est presque pas organisé, mais tout s'arrange au coin. Qu'est-ce que vous en pensez?

Pour réaliser cette carte, j'ai utilisé tous les matériels de Stampin' Up! J'ai fini avec un tampon du set Douces Pensées.

La deuxième carte est une de mes préférées que j'ai crée dans ce dernier temps. C'est pour fêter l'anniversaire de mariage de mes parents...cette année marque leur 36ième année! C'est quelque chose à célébrer n'est-ce pas?! Encore, j'ai crée cette carte avec les fournitures de Stampin' Up...une de mes couleurs préférées, même si c'est une des anciennes In Colors, Groovy Guava. Mais les bonnes nouvelles...le set de tampons, si joli, est de la nouvelle collection. Je me suis régalé en faisant cette carte...j'aime les fleurs et les possibilités diverses qu'il y a avec ce set! C'est la première carte que j'ai fait avec Greenhouse Garden, mais pas la dernière!!

Les mots et les designs derrière les fleurs à gauche sont embossé en blanc avec un traitement d'encre avec une éponge. C'est la première fois que j'avais essayé ce technique et il me plait. Finalement, j'ai mis les perles pour donner un peu d'élégance et une allure romantique. Qu'est-ce que vous en pensez?

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Experimenting with Easel Cards


The last few cards, I have been experimenting with easel cards! They are so fun. I love how they stand up on their own. Here in France we celebrate Mother's Day two weeks after Canada, so this one for my mother-in-law is my most recent. We phoned to see if it had made it there yet (so Papa could hide it until tomorrow!!) and found out that even though I sent it a couple of days ago, it still isn't there. Usually the postal service is amazingly fast...but not so when the there is a national strike. Gotta love France!

The second is of course my dad's birthday card...which is of course late due to--wait for it!--the postal service. Okay, probably it is also my fault for not getting it mailed soon enough. `

On this card I tried the double stamp technique. The first time I stamped it in the base colour and the second time I coloured the stamp with my markers and re-stamped the sections in the middle. That stamp-a-ma-jig is a fabulous tool. There is one section which jiggles a little bit, but that's okay. It sort of gives it a 3D effect!!

What do you think? Aren't easel cards wonderful? Go ahead and leave a message. I love your comments.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Gift of Friendship


One of my dearest friends here just celebrated her birthday. We had a wonderful meal just last night to celebrate another year. Here is the card I made for her.

Purple and yellow is my favourite colour combo...and putting them on a white background makes them just pop! I got my inspiration from this page of one of my favourite blogs, Trinity Designs. Of course, I changed things up a bit! But thanks to Robin Merriman for all her work and inspiration.

Then I needed a box to put the gift in, so I modified a project spotlighted here. I needed a bigger box, and of course I didn't have all the tools to make the boxtop as it was, so I made my own.
Isn't this fun?
Mer


















Babies, babies everywhere!


It seems everyone I know has just had a baby, is expecting a baby or thinking about expecting one! I suppose that makes sense in the chain of events, as two to five (or more) years ago the theme was weddings. As a result, I have been working on a lot more baby-oriented projects than wedding-oriented ones. This has really stretched my collection of stamps and materials since of course I haven't specifically collected baby stuff. Imagination is a good thing: it helps you look at your materials in a whole new way!!

Unfortunately for you, I am in such a hurry to pack up my little cards that I sometimes forget to take pictures. But I have taken a few. The project I am most excited about is the scrapbook calendar I made for my new little niece. I will post some of my pages so you can see them. I got the idea from Lindsay over at thefrugalcrafter and it is something I will likely do for myself when we get around to having children. The benefit is that you don't hum and haw about what colours coordinate with the photos when you're making the page AND you don't have to take the time to make pages when you are busy taking care of new little Johnny. I know lots of busy moms who have millions of photos on their computers and none in albums. I'm sure I would easily become one of them, seeing as I still have a box of printed wedding photos waiting to go in their album! And there's no children in the house!!

Here are some of the pages. Some of them have the accompanying calendar page which would be facing the picture page in the album, and some are close-ups of the single picture page. I didn't do anything exciting with the calendar page, so I didn't include them all. I did use photo corners to attach the calendars so my sister-in-law can remove the sheets to put on the wall for that month. The idea is to record any little notes about baby right on the calendar days. Then she puts them back in the album after the month is finished.

For this project, I mostly used Stampin' Up!'s DS paper (Tall Tales and Tea Party) and then added a few other things here and there.
The best thing about this whole thing was that my sister-in-law, unbeknownst to me, had picked animal safari for her decorating theme, with brown as a dominant colour. Love how these things just work out!

Anyway, do enjoy the pictures and if they inspire you to take a couple days to scrap a year for a friend, all the better. I think this is the best gift a new mom could get...as long as she doesn't get too many!!

Mer


































































Monday, April 19, 2010

Picking up the tools again

In taking on my new job, I have had to let my cardmaking go a little bit. To all of you who work AND do something crafty each day...whew! Hats off to you! I keep telling myself that eventually I will find the balance and fit in everything. In reality, I think you always have to NOT do something to add in one more thing. Is that why the dishes are still waiting in the sink?

Well, the result of my housework strike is this little lovely. Just pulling out the stamps and the sparkle was so refreshing! But even better, it is to welcome a new little guy into the world. An old friend emailed me out of the blue to announce his arrival and I just had to make a card to send over the ocean in celebration! For inspiration, I caught up a little with some of my favourite stamping blogs and thought I might just try the sketch from Stamping 411 out. I'm pretty happy with the springy design, especially as I got to use my all-time favourite stamp set Summer by the Sea. Is this little guy not too delightful for words? I couldn't resist adding some sparkly sand just to give the card an even more whimsical feel.

Ahhh...it feels good to pick up the ol' tools again. I'm starting to size up the next photo album project. Only a few more months until my first wedding anniversary and I haven't even touched the photos. Sigh. Too many projects...so little time!

Friday, February 19, 2010

For the Nature-Loving Guy


Another assignment: a birthday card for an uncle. It can be tricky to make a guy card. I popped over to Stamping 411 to see what was up and was happy to see colours that were perfect for the stamp set we had chosen. I also used their Saturday Sketch for this last week, although I think I might have missed the cut-off time for Mr. Linky. Anyway, it is simple, but natural. Isn't that what guys like most?

Wednesday, February 10, 2010



I just can't help myself! I've been working on my Valentine's Day cards and even though they are simple, they just need to be shared! Just don't tell my valentines! They'll find theirs in the mail.








Enjoy and happy Valentine's Day!


Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Colours of Encouragement



Yesterday I was given an assignment. My husband needed a card to encourage someone. He even gave me the word I needed to use as the sentiment...and then I could "whatever else I wanted to add, like I do with paper and stuff" (his words...translated because, of course, he said it in French).

Now, I didn't have any stamps that said "courage," so I had to make that on the computer, but I'm not sure you'd ever know if I didn't tell you...it turned out not bad at all. I was trying to use the layout for this week's Stamping 411's challenge, but I kind of modified it a bit to work with the plaque and moved the ribbon, etc.

The end result is beautiful (in my humble opinion) and in colours that I just love. I finally restocked my paper and supplies so I have Garden Green again. I had a bit of trouble with the lighting in my house last night...the colours didn't come out true to life when I took the pictures. This morning was much better (as the above picture shows). With this card I got a chance to use my Groovy Guava ink and paper, which doesn't happen all that much. Old InColours can be complicated. I like them and I want to save them, but if I save them too long, they are hard to use with other things. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with this card. I think it turned out cheerful and elegant, the two objectives I had. It should be just the ticket for our friend!

Saturday, January 30, 2010



What better reason to make a trip to the post office than to mail a card to someone? I am convinced that we don't say thank you enough. I love to create a unique card for those special people who take the time and effort to make our lives better.

Here's one of my favourites of the last week. I just love Elegant Eggplant in general and this River Rock and Very Vanilla combination is just beautiful. I layered the stamp from Carte Postal (an old stamp set that I just love) at the top and tucked a jewelled brad in the centre.

Whatever the reason, don't forget to say thank you for the little and the big things people do...you might even send them a card!
-Mer

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a cardmaker. And a scrapbooker. I am many other things, but this site is dedicated to this "other half of my life". For, as all you who are cardmakers understand, I have two identities. One is Mer, the citizen *out there* in the real world and the other is...

Mer, the cardmaker, the person I discover as I stamp, cut, arrange and combine paper and all those fun little elements. The cardmaker who delights in bringing all of her creativity together in one masterpiece, who loves to reflect on the qualities of the people around her and then look for ways to make one of those special people come alive in paper, colour and light. For a card is much more than paper and glue. It is a reflection of how I see someone and our relationship. It is designed to be given. It is a message to be sent. It is a sentiment to be cherished. It is an expression of friendship, love and caring. I rarely make a card with absolutely no one in mind.

Unfortunately for that little philosophical speech I just made, the first card I'm posting missed its intended audience. I was trying to fix up a Valentine's card for my cheri, and at the same time try my hand at Stamping 411's Saturday Sketch challenge. In the end I thought it ended up being a little too "girly" for him so I had to think up another combo. I do like this original however...so I guess some lucky girly will end up with it! (Shh...! I actually used the same sketch for his, but I don't want to post it yet...in case he sees it before V-day!)

As for all the ingredients...I don't really know the names for the papers and colours anymore. Some of them were an old "In Colour" from Stampin' Up! which you can't get anymore. I just did a great big move and I had to give away all my catalogues to lighten the load. (Notice I took all my stamping supplies so the load was still heavy enough!) My new catalogue should arrive any day now.

As I'm not trying to sell you anything, perhaps that doesn't matter. I can tell you that my stampin' desk holds very little else but Stampin' Up! stuff. And if you really want to know how I did something, I'd be happy to answer questions that you send my way.

I'm excited about my new little blog corner. I'm looking forward to sharing with all my old stamping friends, and maybe making a few new ones too. Cheers from my stamping desk to yours!
-Mer