Best of Card Creations

Best of Card Creations – Easy keepsake designs for hand made cards that show how much you care.
Published at Leisure Arts

About the book

A handmade card can express personal sentiments like nothing else, and card makers will find this 288-page collection invaluable for its wide variety of inspiration and ideas. It offers more than 500 card projects from recent special issues of Card Creations, published by the editors of Paper Crafts® magazine. Topics include the all-important birthday card plus anniversary, baby, congratulations, encouragement, Father's Day, friendship, get well, graduation, hello, miss you, Mother's Day, season's greetings, sympathy, thank you, travel, valentines, wedding, and more. This irresistible card-making resource will help all through the year, including major holidays, traditional family milestones for all ages, and special occasions. There are cards full of impressive techniques, and quick and easy varieties for last-minute designs. Paper crafters can create to their heart's content!

My Thoughts

I love making cards when I can find a few minutes.   It helps me to recharge my batteries and just spend some time alone in my office.   Though I must admit that as much as I like making cards, sometimes I lack the creativity that goes with the activity.

So when I had the opportunity to review a book offering ideas on making cards for various events in life, I didn’t hesitate and jumped on it.  More than five hundreds ideas can be found in these pages.  Ideas that will cover any special event in the life of someone you love – anniversary, baby, Valentine, birthday, congratulations, Easter, encouragement, Father’s Day, friendship, get well, gift cards, graduation, Halloween, hello, miss you, Mother’s Day, season’s greetings, sympathy, thank you, Thanksgiving, wedding and much more.  You will definitively find something for the event for which you want to make a card.  

You could do the same card as shown in the book or simply take one idea and create your own personalized card.   My mom’s birthday is next Monday and as usual I wanted to make a special card for her.    So as I flipped through the pages of this book, I stumbled on an idea that I could easily adapt with the items I had at home (Rainbow Stripes at page 16 of the book).   I took a patterned paper which I cut slightly smaller than the card.  Then I used another cardstock I made a rectangle on which I stamped two-steps stamps to make a flower.   On top of the flower I stamped a French stamp with the words “Une Pensée Pour Toi”.   I decided to include a ribbon and glued everything in place.   Inside the card it said “Joyeux Anniversaire” in it.   I wrote a little personalized word and signed with my husband. Our kids had made homemade cards as well and we mailed them to her along with fresh homemade donuts and a jar of homemade chutney.  

She was delighted to get the loving notes from everyone and received the homemade products.

I am looking forward to dig more into this book and make more original creations for family and friends.   It has numerous ideas that I am interested in and I look forward for more time by myself to create.  I would recommend this book for anyone who loves to make their own cards.

Best of Card Creations is available for purchase at your favourite bookstore, even amazon.ca and amazon.com.

  

Disclaimer: Thanks to Thomas Allen for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

GAK

Do you remember http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_(toy)from the 1970s where you had green or purple sticky mess going through your hands.   I do.   I had both colors – the green and the purple – and loved playing with it.   My mom never quite understood my fascination with the thing.   

Today a similar product is coming back on the market – the GAK from Nickleodeon.    When I saw what it could do and how to use it, I immediately thought about my childhood slime and wanted my kids to experience it.   (Now I understand my mom concerning the product though…)

What is GAK?

Gak is a product that is quishable, squeezable, swashable, stretchable, bounceable, ploppable, and poppable.    It makes crazy noise when you smoosh, twist, bubble or mix it.  

Our Thoughts 

Apparently, once your kids pick up Gak, they won’t want to put it down.   So I have given my four kids they own color of Gak to see if this was true.

 

After a great morning of homeschool, I surprised them with Gak and ask them to play with it.   It didn’t take long for them to figure out a variety of things to do with it. SIGH

  

They quickly unpacked their Gak and starting squishing it…

 

throwing it, bouncing it, and stretching it…

 

and let’s not forget the bubble you can make with it.

They played for quite some time with it.  Even though it is sticky and you have to make sure you pick up everything after.   I personally like to have supervision with this particular product because our home has carpet everywhere.   So the only place the kids can play with it is the kitchen.  

Since we played with it, they keep asking to play more with it.   I don’t have the time for supervising their playtime every day.   And the kids understand it.    This product is perfect to reward them on good work and behaviour while we homeschool or go to a field trip.  

I even tried it myself.   I find the Gak is even better than the slime back in the 70s because the product is not as liquid and would stay more in your hands – not ooze between your fingers while playing.   The design of the container is funky and very attractive.   Various colors exist for the Gak.   We received the Rebel Red, The Yakkity Yellow, The Goo Green and the You Blue It!   Other colors are the Tickled Pink and the Purple Panic.

Watch the video to discover what Gak is.  

Honestly, I don’t know what is the fascination for weird things with kids but this product grabbed the heart of all my kids.   I remember when I was younger having the time of my life with the slime.  Now as a mom myself, I shake my head and try to control the craziness when the kids are playing with Gak.  It is weird.  It is somewhat disgusting to touch.  Still the kids are having a blast when playing with it.

Other Gak products related would be the Gak in the Dark, the Gak Copier, the Gak Color Mixer and the Gak Vac.  It would make a perfect item to put in the stocking at Christmas. 

Disclaimer: The product has been provided for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

Plate It Forward

Plate It Forward
From Boom Boom! Revolution
While on facebook one day, I saw an announcement on the Boom Boom! page for a product that was coming.   I thought it was a genius idea and message them to see if it could be possible to receive one to review.   They said yes!    So I waited patiently until it was available and sent to me.

What is Boom Boom! Revolution?
The idea is simple.  The objective of their products is to build community, improve humanity, and champion the belief that doing good is what needs to be done.   Their moniker Boom Boom! is inspired by a boomerang.   What does a boomerang do?  It comes back to you.   The hope is to generate thoughts, actions, and words that will go full circle once launch to someone.

We have experienced this in a different way.   We have the habit to pass along clothing and toys that are not for our kids anymore.   Well believe it or not, this comes around as well as other people have passed along clothing and such to us.
   
When I received the Plate It Forward, I was excited.  Now I only had to pick someone to receive the plate.

What is Plate It Forward?
It's the newest (and tastiest!) way to "pay it forward"…Plate it Forward! Inspired by Card #13 from the Family Deck, this colorful and durable plate lets you pass on two of the most vital joys of life: love and food. Perfect gift for the holidays or any time!   A special message on the plate will give your the steps that need to be done to bless someone.

Step ONE
Make something delicious for someone you care about.
Step TWO
Place your treat on this plate.
Step THREE
Plate it Forward! Deliver the plate to your unsuspecting (and lucky!) recipient.
Step FOUR
High five yourself (and anyone around you) for keeping this act of guerilla goodness in motion.
Now that’s good work!

Our Thoughts
This plate was inspired  by the Family Edition Boom Boom! Card # 13 which encourages you to make something yummy and give it away to your neighbors or friends.   We love to bless others in various ways.   We had recently made homemade donuts which I intended to share.   But when we received this fabulous plate, we also made banana breads (two different ones) and we decided to give a variety of yummy goodies to a friend of our who recently had a surgery.
Here’s the plate before I wrap it up.



One disappointed thing though.   With the cards you can register the one you use on the Boom Boom! site and submit the registration number on each card as you pass them along.   Not so with the plate.   There isn’t a registration number behind the plate so you can’t really register it.   For us, we decided to pass the card along with the plate and I took a picture showing them together with the goodies we were giving our friend and her family.



What I particularly like about this kind of product is that you can do this together as a family.  The kids get excited when they bake something for someone and love to bless others in the process.  In a time and age where often people are self-centered and selfish, it is nice to raise kids who are willing to sacrifice for others. 

I thought it would be nice to include the thoughts of my friend as well.  So here they are:

I’ve been away for the week and haven’t had the time to pass the plate on to someone one.   I like the idea of blessing someone and the plate has a pretty design.

Watch this little video that illustrate perfectly how to use Plate It Forward.


The price tag attached to the Plate It Forward is 16.99$ for one and you can also get a set of two for $29.99.  It can be purchased at their site boomboomcards.com.  The Family Edition of the Boom Boom! Cards is also available on their site for the price of 14.95$

So now our Plate It Forward is gone.   Maybe one day it will come back here.  But even if it doesn’t we have been blessed recently with banana chocolate chips muffins from another friend who came to drop off the Sunday School lesson I will be teaching on Sunday at our place.   So in a way it did came around.  I hope that our Plate It Forward will bless others for years to come!

Disclaimer: Thanks to Boom Boom! Revolution for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.