Birthday Wishes for my Wonderful Mom!

Hi again! Time for post #2 and a little bragging about what a fantastic mom I have! She really is the greatest mom a girl could ask for. She dedicated her life to raising me and my 4 brothers and little sister and for that, we are forever grateful! It's nice now that we are older, we can give back just a smidgen of what she gave to us all these years :) Below is my favourite pic of my mom and I on the Stanley Park train :) and also a couple pics from my convocation two years ago and a shot from a mother-daughter photo shoot we had last fall:

I know it is safe to post this card a few days before my mom's birthday (it is on Saturday) as I know she does not read my blog and isn't on Facebook! *lol* The card I made fit two challenges perfectly, Colour Q and The Paper Players:

My mom is an avid lover of the ocean. She grew up in Victoria, BC. I remember as a child that every chance we could, we went to Vancouver Island to visit relatives and comb the beaches. I have seen the island from the most northern point accessible by vehicle right to the most southern point, as well as east to west :) It really is a beautiful place to explore! Keeping all things ocean in mind, I made this card for her special day:

Love it! And so will she I am sure :) Since my stampin' stash doesn't contain any certainly celery or soft sky, I substituted pear pizzazz and pool party. I used a window sheet to emboss the coral, giving it that nifty transparent look. Shells and seahorses are so ocean-y, that I can practically smell the salt water waves from here. I made the second tier of the stair-step (instructions from this lovely lady's blog) card into green and gray waves. This reflects the ever changing look of the ocean. And the large panel on the last tier of the card was perfectly made into a lighthouse. Mom LOVES lighthouses and I know she will love this too.

Here's a view of the stair-step:

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Supplies used:

Stamps: By the Tide, Uncharted Territory (ret), Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Pool Party, Island Indigo, Very Vanilla, Pear Pizzazz, Michael's Gray

Ink: Basic Grey, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz, Versamark

Tools: Scoring Board, Cloudy Day Embossing Folder, 3/4" Circle Punch (mask), Cropadile

Accessories: Blender Pen, Linen Thread, Dimensionals

Inspired by... An Ocean Photo!

Hello there! I am late, again, for Inspired By... but I had a very good reason this week! I just got home from Vancouver Island, about 12 hours from home including the ferry ride, and celebrating my grandma's, Nana to me, 90th birthday!!!! What a huge milestone!!! She was so happy to see everyone. The party was intended to be a surprise, but with 90 years comes a lot of wisdom, and my Nana knew something was going on. She was still surprised! She was not expecting the amount of people who were there and some of the guests were a surprise as well! Mainly, my Nana's last surviving sibling, her 84 year old sister flew in from Saskatchewan, bringing my Nana to tears. It was a very touching party and I was so glad to be able to have been a part of it! Here's a couple great photos from the celebrations:

The top photo is of Nana and her six children, the furthest on the right is my dad :) and the second photo is Nana, all her children, her grandchildren (not all of them), and her the littlest ones in the photo are her great grand children! :) Wow! So many families and generations in one photo!

We had a few hours before the party to explore Victoria, and we went to one of our favourite places, Beacon Hill Park. There are some neat things in this park! Here's a few snapshots:

I love all the blossoms around Victoria! We certainly don't get the beauty of spring here in the north. Above is a beautiful cherry tree in bloom that I thought was just gorgeous! And then of course, there were cute ducklings, the great blue heron, and a whole whack of turtles in the park! We also saw a submarine in the bay close to my Nana's house, I thought that was so cool :) It was such a great afternoon topped off by a great party and an awesome reason to celebrate!

Anyways, that's enough about me :) onto the challenge! Of course, it's time for Inspired by... and I also wanted to play along with Freshly Made Sketches:

This week was Charissa's pick, which, coincidentally, was a lovely ocean picture! This fits perfectly with my weekend at the ocean! :)

I was inspired by the colours and, of course, the theme of the photo. Here's my final product:

I like the final product! I added the darker island indigo for some more variety. The highlight of the card is the lovely coral embossed on a window sheet and snipped out (Charissa had mentioned that she saw this on a card somewhere on the web, but neither of us could find the original source). I really like the way it turned out!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to pop over to Charissa's blog, Snippets by Design, to see how this photo inspired her!

Supplies used:
Stamps: By the Tide, French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Window Sheet
Ink: Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Versamark
Accessories: White Embossing Powder