The Canadian Collection

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Can you believe it??? We are days away from Christmas and only about a week away from the start of a brand new year!  Time passes so quickly that we must grab every second of life awarded us and live it as if we will not get another one. I'm always amazed and filled with joy at the beginning of each year because I celebrate another birthday and realize I have been blessed once again.

I'm sure you all have heard of John Next Door or you have seen his wonderful work at least on Pinterest.  Well he uses alot of dies by Creative Expressions (Sue Wilson) which are very intricate and just beautiful.

Well I managed to get my hands on a couple from the Canadian Collection and did my best at scrap-lifting his design.  He gives you the basic construction of his design but you have to figure out the measurements yourself and other details about the card just by looking at it, so to say the least my version didn't quite turn out exactly like his, but I'm pleased with it overall.

Here is the original design by "John Next Door"

I thought this was absolutely gorgeous although it is a larger card than what I am accustomed to making.

The impact of this simple card is amazing with its strong colors and elegant flair.

I say if you want to try something that would work for almost any occasion give this one a try.

Now to show you my version of this masterpiece....please don't judge me but give me credit for trying instead.

Well here I go cautiously unveiling my rendition of  the Canadian Collection card.

My accent color is more of a teal or turquoise combined with white. (I didn't have any paper close to the color he used). 

Additionally, since I didn't have any actual measurements I tried using the die as my starting point but the card was going to be bigger than I wanted to go so I had to made adjustments.

My margins/borders are much smaller than the original and my card base still ended up being a 6 x 8, which for me is quite large.  My comfort zone usually ends at 5 x 7.

Anyway he has another one where he used the same dies so I think I'll give that one a try as well.

In the meantime give me your thoughts on how I did and as always thanks for stopping by.

Hugs from Texas

~Lesia~

Easter and Spring

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Spring is here and that means there will soon be birds singing and flowers will start to add color to the world. For those of us who believe and celebrate the birth of Jesus, we also prepare to celebrate Easter to commemorate his resurrection.

We also have the Easter Egg hunt and the best decorated Easter Egg contest.  Just another holiday for families to remember, share stories and have fun bonding time with each other.  I say grab each second and savor the moment for the next one is not promised. 

Of course there has to be time to add a bit of crafting time in, and with crafting you can always find a way to follow the theme at hand.  This time its "Easter" and here is what I decided to create as part of my contribution to this season.

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I decided to create one card around the arrival of Spring, so using lavender and white card-stock, some bling and an array of flowers I came up with this Easter card.

I do like how it turned out and I was very pleased that I was able to use my Creative Expression dies to create this.  This particular collection came with 6 pieces and the detail on each piece is just amazing.

I truly think I am going to have a lot of fun playing with these dies.


I can feel my imagination running wild and I'm anxious to start sketching and seeing what all I can get to fall out of these old gray cells of mine.






I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Boots - Challenge "Spring"
Crafty Cardmakers - #135 "Spring Has Sprung" (4/10)
Craft Your Passion - "Anything Goes" (3/29)
My Creative Moments - Challenge #4 "Think Spring" (3/28)
Get Creative - Challenge #11 "Must Use A Die Cut" (4/3)

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My second creation was more around Easter with the bunny and all.  This image is from Mo Manning and I think she is just a little darling. She was colored with a combo of Copic and Spectrum Noir markers.

The designer paper is Graphic 45 combined with standard card-stock from Hobby Lobby.

I added lace ribbon, a few flowers from WOC and a sentiment I typed out on my computer.

On the inside I used the remaining paper and added a blank space for a personal message.

The little strips of lavender was cut using a really old edger I had from MS, back when they were green.








I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Dream Valley - Challenge #102 "Easter" (3/27)
Crafting From The Heart - Challenge #52 "Anything Goes" (3/29)
Artistic Inspirations - Challenge #128 Anything Goes/w "A Twist of Easter" (3/28)
Love To Scrap - Challenge #50 "Anything Goes" (3/30)
Eureka Stamps - Challenge #133 " Think Spring" (3/28)

Hello Creative Expressions

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Hello my crafty friends and followers.  I have been feeling a bit under the weather with temperatures that are up one day and down the next, and my allergies aren't making things any easier to deal with. Between COPD and allergies I'm not real sure which one is causing me problems these days.

I do have a bit of good news though.  Through all this confinement to my house I decided to try out one of the Creative Expressions die by Sue Wilson.  They were a bit outside the price range I am accustomed to investing but nonetheless I went forward with my purchasing mumbling and complaining the entire time and then they arrived and I did my happy dance while the memory of the price I paid floated away.

They are really very nice and excellent quality and the cut was clean after two passes.  I did get confused when one of the dies didn't cut but silly me it was an embossing die included to compliment the cutting dies.  I can't explain the many ways you could use this die but I did see several on YouTube and pinterest and then decided to give a go.

Here is my bright and cheerful card that I think turned out pretty cute.  Oh and did I tell you the dies are large enough to create a 6 x 8 card easily.  Anyway let me move along to the sharing part.

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I created this card using Creative Expressions "Noble Dies" Collection - Classic Adorned Rectangles.

The collection comes with an embossing die as you can see in the white frame.  I also used the small oval die for the sentiment and the center die was the intricate die in the center of the card.

At the bottom of the card I used one of my EK Success edgers to create the flourish outline.

On the inside I used the same colors and added a piece of designer paper stamped with a sentiment and silhouette butterflies.  For the personal message space I used the negative from the original die I used on the front.

This was the first of many cards that I hope to create with my new dies but for today this is truly all I have energy to do.

Don't forget there is still time to join in our "Anything Goes" challenge and don't forget to vote and add your name in our "Bonus Challenge" for more chances to win.  

Sending Hugs From Texas

Lesia