I have moved....

Hi there! I have moved to a new blog. You can visit me at http://thestamperunderthestairs.blogspot.com/ . See you there!

Stamps for Sale

Hi Everyone! Here are the stamp sets that I am selling. Let me know if your interested in any of them. Please just send me an e-mail at clmalay@shaw.ca.

Free Local Delivery.

Thanks for looking!


Your Neat $5



Tags So Much $5 Sweet Stems $10 Sidekick Sayings $15



Pretty Petals $15


Out of the Box $5 Measure of Life $15 Hip Hip Hooray $15



Happiness Always $15 From the Garden $15 Fresh Cuts $10




Fall Flair $10 Drawing on Nature $10



Dream a Little $15 Dad's Day $15



Botanical Blooms $5 (I have two of these)

A Little Bit of Scrapbooking........

Thought that it was about time to do a little scrapbooking.


I decided to try to create a page for a photo of my daughter Laura and I wanted to try and use all Stampin' Up products. I used pages torn out of a book(the ONLY non-Stampin' Up product) that I would never read for the paper for the roses. We made these roses the last time my Stampin' Up group met and our leader and good friend, Jodi showed us this technique. I do believe the tutorial can be found here at Beate's website. I (we) used a six petal flower template that we made ourselves.

I used the new Stampin' Up Summer Mini Designer Paper Presto Patterns. I used Baja Breeze and Pixie Pink Classic inks with a finger dauber to apply color to this paper and watched the embossed design pop out.

This was the end result. I was inspired by a layout from a new lady I was steered to by Urban Scrapbook. This lady is at Karola Witczak Handmade. She uses alot of Webster's Pages product. She is an absolutely gorgeous designer. Her cards are very uniquely done using different card shapes.

Next is a page for Tara.

Well that's all for now, have to clean up the creative mess before my appliance guy, Tony, comes tomorrow to fix the washer, the dryer AND the dishwasher.


Thanks for looking!

Just a couple of quickies.......

Just a couple of baby cards that I made yesterday to post today. I made one that is vintage and one that is modern.


First the vintage. The Buggies and Booties stamp set is a retired stamp set from Stampin' Up. This was one of my first stamp sets that I ever ordered from them. It's still one of my favorites. I used the polka dot deep impressions folder, kraft (now crumble cake) paper and pink pirouette paper and chocolate chip craft ink from Stampin' Up. The rose is from Prima. The ribbon is one of my favorite things, it's hand-dyed and antiqued from Marilyn Healey of Memrie Mare on Etsy.com. This is a wonderful site where people sell all sorts of handmade items. The crocheted cotton lace is a Dollarama special (where I buy ALL my lace)

This one is a little modern, I made it for my lovely neighbour, Kendra, for a baby shower she is going to this weekend.

This was made using the Bundled in Love stamp set, polka dot deep impressions folder, Sweet Pea DP and Pixie Pink and Whisper White papers, Pretty in Pink ribbon from Stampin' Up. The pearls for the duck were a dollar store find, button from Papertrey Ink. The white ribbon roses I found in Fabricland. You can also buy these by the metre (yard) at most scrapbooking stores. Webster's Pages also has packages of ribbon roses in beautiful colors. I haven't had much opportunity yet to use them, but I will plan on using them more on upcoming projects.

My dear hubby is on his way back from Kelowna, B.C. (McNugget Open, golf tournament for MacDonald's Western Canada) so I feel compelled to clean the house up today and make a nice supper. This is mainly so that it looks like I have done something other than blog the past four days!!! Ahhhhh the tricks of the trade.

Happy Creating! See you later.

It's good to be back.......

Over a month since my last blog. How very neglectful of me! Actually, I have been very busy and yet I can't quite pinpoint how. Needless to say on with show........


I found myself at the beginning of May on a roadtrip with my sister, Linda and my Mom. We went to Naicam, Saskatchewan for 4 days. We spent the majority of the time with my Great Aunt Edie, 89 and Great Uncle Roy, 98. Probably 4 of the most cozy days ever! Her home was small and old and filled lots of things that I remembered from visiting them as a youngster. Seeing the boundless energy of my Aunt was very inspiring, watching and listening to her I found that I now know where alot of who and how I am is from.

She has a very common sense and calm approach to all things in life. One thing that she put in from of me is as I was sitting at the table over about the 40th cup of tea and a bar/cookie treat (I gained 5 lbs while I was there) was this lovely book, Mrs. Beeton's Cookery Book.


Published in 1906, it belonged to my Great Grandmother. Not only is it filled with wonderful recipes, but wonderful directions on being "The Housewife" which includes everything from directing servants to table napkin folding. Sometimes we "housewives" receive "looks" when asked what it is that we "do". The opening of this book summed it up for me as to why we should (if we don't work outside of the home) and why it's important.

"It is not given to us all to become famous, but in this busy world there are few who, metaphorically speaking, need "waste their sweetness on the desert air," or, in less poetical language, lead a useless life." (Ha, ha, love it, so upfront!)

"Far from the humblest or the least dignified one is that of a housewife in whom, if she faithfully fulfills her duties, will center all the home interests and cares; while to her and to her alone is given the power of making her house, however humble, the embodiment of our ideal, "Home, Sweet Home" (That's right girl, be in control, make it happy, paint that wall and buy that couch!)

"Unselfishness, industry, patience, perseverance and thoughtful care for others are most needful qualities for the good housekeeper to possess, for with her rest many responsibilities." (Wow, will those things transfer well to a resume? They should!"

It's a lovely little gem, too bad she gave it to my sister! It sucks being the baby sometimes.

I spent some quality time at the Naicam Thrift Shop as well and found these little vintage lovelies for 50c apiece

I had two vintage aprons that I found at a tag sale about 8 years ago and have been wearing them for a long time and now I have these to wear. I'll take a couple up to the cabin (that now I have gone back to my Aunt's house, I know why I love so much and find so comforting to be in)

I love the apron on the bottom right it inspired the card below. It has a different kind of matching envelope.




The envelope is made by sealing a regular size card envelope shut, cutting off the top. Cutting paper to cover the bottom and top. I saw the original idea for this card on Splitcoaststampers from this crafty little gal. I used the Itty Bitty Buds stamp set from Stampin' Up. Little accents of white on the flowers was some 3D paint in an iridescent white. All paper and ink was from Stampin' Up. The sweet blush vintage button was from Papertreyink. The sentiment is from Favorite Thoughts, a new clear mount set found in the Stampin' Up summer mini.

I know exotic warm locations are a wonderful place to be (especially to escape the winters here in Canada) and our immediate families and the lives we lead can occupy a lot of our time, but I highly recommend making the time to be with extended family and older generations if you can, you may find some comfort and inspiration while your there!

One of my favorite things........

that I did in Orlando last week, while my husband attended the MacDonald's Worldwide Convention, was finding a Fresh Produce store at Universal Studios.

In this store I was introduced to a line of handbags, totebags and accessories by the designer Vera Bradley





They had so many wonderful things in this store and everything was wonderfully displayed. I fell in love immediately. From gift sets consisting of an apron in a recipe box to nifty flip flops that you can change the ribbon to be what ever you feel like and happen to have handy in your craft room. If you are taking the kids to do the Disney World/Universal Studios thing, make sure to find this store at Universal on their CityWalk Shopping.

Doesn't this just inspire me to make purses now??? Yes, it does.

But despite my craftiness, I couldn't help myself, I just had to run back and grab this one..



It's definitely become one of my favourite things!

I did manage to be a little creative last night. I made a thank you card for my Orlando buddy and fellow DSL Inc. wife, Tammy Retz. Not only did she chauffeur us around everyday, she was a wonderful shopping companion, and I had a lot of laughs with her and her daughter Melanie.



Using Stampin' Up's Three Little Words stamp set. I used Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Whisper White textured 12 X 12 and Barely Banana paper. The Baroque Motifs scroll stamp was embossed in white . A white gel pen was used for the dots and the mat pack template and piercer for the sewing line border. Chocolate Chip satin ribbon and Prima Marketing Forever Flowers with a Papertrey Ink New Leaf button in the center finished it off. It's hard to see, but I used a little Dazzling Diamonds on the "T".

I was inspired by a card on Pickled Paper Designs for this one.

No matter where you are, who you are with or where you look, inspiration is everywhere!

I'm back.......

I have been pretty busy (who isn't?) with kids, babies being born, a baby shower, birthday parties, and preparing for a trip to Florida that I went on with my husband. I'm just now settling down to update.

Firstly the babies!

This is my great niece, Caelyn Meredith born on March 26, 2010 to my niece Selena and her husband Paul. Caelyn has a sister, Ainsley and a brother, Brayden.




This is my great nephew, Zack Malay, born on April 4, 2010 to my husband's nephew, Kenan and his wife Stephanie.



Congratulations and love to all of my wonderful family!





The baby shower to celebrate Zack was a lot of fun to plan and have. I tried to just base everything on the colors used in Zack's room. A pale bluish-purple, chocolate brown, cream and a light green. It was the first time I was ever the hostess for a baby shower, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves, including Stephanie, my wonderful niece-in-law. I was able to Skype in her mother-in-law, Avril from Barrington, Nova Scotia and her sister-in-law, Glynis from Detroit, Michigan. Technology is wonderful!







I was inspired by so many creative people on some wonderful sites.

This was the cake that I ended up making for the shower.


I used a great White Layer cake recipe I found at BusyCooksAbout.Com. I was inspired to decorate it by a cake that I saw on the Wicked Cakes website. I made sure to frost the cake with Buttercream first. I have my own really simple recipe for Buttercream Frosting. I have been using it on cakes for many years and just add 1/3 cup of good quality cocoa to make a chocolate version. My recipe is as follows:

2 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. Epicure Pure Vanilla Extract
2 - 4 tbsp. cream

Mix with hand mixer until a smooth spreadable consistency. This will be enough to cover a double layer 8" round cake.

The fondant recipe turned out to be very easy and quite tasty, made with marshmallows. I found it at Peggy's Baking Corner. It was a lot easier to work with than I thought it was going to be. The light purple color of the cake was used to match the of the walls in Zack's room. I used gold cardstock and just ran the letters off with my Big Shot and an embosslit alphabet die. I found the whole cake to be a very enjoyable challenge and it tasted great!


The diaper cake was a cinch and took about 20 minutes and about 84 diapers. I rolled the ones in the middle and secured them elastics and then just layered the outside diapers evenly all the way around. Tie with chocolate brown ribbon, stick in a stuffie and done!




These were the baby shower favors. They are simply glassine bags with perennial sweet peas, the flower for the month of April. I printed Zack's name and birthday, the meaning behind and simple instructions on kraft paper. I was inspired by one of my favorite creative persons, Amy Sheffer on her blog Pickled Paper Designs. Check her blog out when you get a minute or two, she has wonderful layering techniques and insides of her cards are almost as beautiful as the outside!




The banner was inspired by Connie Tumm at Splitcoaststampers. This was so quick and easy to make. All supplies used were from Stampin' Up, with the exception of the letters. I just printed them off the computer. Hung up over the mirror was probably not the best place to have put it to take a picture though.


I truly loved being able to share in Stephanie's happiness in the birth of Zack with her mother, Linda, friends and family. It was a great day.

Well, it's late now on Saturday night. I am hoping to get downstairs and be a little creative and will check back in tomorrow and share a fabulous find from my trip to Orlando!