Catching Up

Hi Everyone,
I've been really busy doing? Where does it go?  I've been working for some time now converting all my wooden stamps into cling stamps and somedays it doesn't seem like its going to end but it's getting there! I finally see a blank spot on the floor where they were all stacked!
I'd like to share some Christmas cards we made at our recent stamp-a-stack.
I stayed with the same colour theme throughout but changed up the cards.

CRU #6

Thanks for gearing me up for this challenge.  These colours are too dark for me so I thought I would take on the colour challenge and see what I could come up with.  I was inspired by an earlier wedding card we did in class and thought a nice wedding or anniversary card might work.  The close up gives you an idea of the textures used to give it a little more oompf!  Well, here is is.  What do you think? 

 And the finished card!

The colours are black, Basic Grey and Oear Pizzazz.
This challenge came from http://rubberredneck.typepad.com/

Dryer Sheet Technique

Well, it's been two weeks since my last update and I'm so sorry we had to cancel last weeks class.  Had a crazy bout of a cold and was in bed for two days.  Nasty!  We had planned a euchre night as well on the Friday eve and that had to be cancelled too! Big Bummer! Anyways, although I'm still stuffy in the nose, I am feeling a lot better and back on track with the crafting and stuff.

Wendy and I are heading out Sunday to Toronto to take in the Creativ Festival at the Convention Centre.  Should prove to be interesting and I hope to come back with some more inspiration for all of you.

Totally positive feedback from tonights class and so easy peasy to do!  Want to share the two we did.

The first one is done by placing the dryer sheet over the completely glued whisper white base(3.75" x 5") stamped with Lovely as a Tree in Night of Navy ink. (We use this set an awful lot-it has so many uses and applications).  After trimming the dryer sheet, completely saturate the card and rub in dazzling diamonds for a gorgeous glitter effect.  The pictures do not do them justice.  Embelish with ribbon, a punched snowflake in Night of Navy and mat(4" x 5.25") with same and place on card base(11" x 4.25" folded in half).

Believe me, it looks fabulous in person!  The pictures do not do them justice!

Our second card tonight features the same size base, mat and card but in Black and Whisper White. The stamp set used was the Ever After. 1 1/4" square punch and 1 3/8" square punch.

The technique was slightly different and I chose to stamp directly on the dryer sheet all aver and it gave a soft look to the black ink.  I gathered a plain dryer sheet and secured the middle and adhered to the centre with a glue dot.  I placed the "Love" over the centre with dimensionals and fanned the sides out and cut evenly up the edges. Some of the ladies added glitter to the base dryer sheet and it gave an extra glam look.  I would recommend doing that.

Well, I hope you have been inspired to try this technique and I would love to hear from you and see your creations as well.  Until next time!



Petal Punch Box Tutorial

As promised, here is the tutorial for the Petal Card Punch Tutorial.

1. Start with 5 punched Petals

2.Cut one petal or flap off each of 4 of the cut outs.

3. Glue one flap to the cut off edge and repeat making a long piece making sure to glue to the underside of each piece.

4. Cut the flaps off down one side of the piece so the edge becomes straight or flat.

5.  Glue the fifth punched petal at the top of the piece as seen in the photo. Make sure the petal piece is glued to the underside of the long piece. This will be the bottom of your box.

6. Now start with the lower flap of the added piece, turn it inward to the flat edge and glue making the start of the cube.

7. Continue gluing and folding the flaps inward to make the cube box. Fold in the extra flap and glue.

8. Add your treat(Hershey kiss) and close 2 flaps in.  Cut a small hole in each of the remaining flaps and add ribbon of your choosing, making a bow. 

9.Finish decorating to your liking by adding a CS ribbon and stamped sentiment from the Cute by the Inch stamp set. Voila! Feel free to share this with your classes.  Please don't sell this tutorial. If you can refer back to my blog please do so.  Thanks for looking!

Treat boxes galore!

For Thanksgiving, the Pumpkin Pie CS pizza box (size is 2"square) was inspired by Nicole Tugrul.
I'm sorry I can't share the names of those who inspired the bat and the mint holder in the back, but there are many styles of these around. Here are close ups of them all:
This box holds some yummy candy corn

Rockets in Canada, Smarties in the States! In Canada, Smarties are little chocolates like M&M's

Mints in cello!

This matchbook holds a chocolate dollar

This box holds a Hershey's kiss and the box is made with the new Petal Card Punch and the Cute by the Inch Hostess stamps.  Wendy (one of my Thurs. night gals)and I were playing around one night with the punch (we thought it was broken or something worse) but it punches and embosses at the same time.  We played and twisted and came up with a cute little 1" box.  Well, I went to town putting together the best way to make a box that could hold a little treat and this is what I came up with.  Check back later for a tutorial.  This is really cute and you don't have to measure or score! Just punch, cut, glue, stamp, stuff & tie.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you all and what a beautiful day it is. Actually what a beautiful weekend here in Southern Ontario.
Well, summer is officially over as we put the security cover on the pool.  I was hoping to actually swim for the first thanksgiving weekend ever but that didn't happen.  The nights are too cold to keep the temp up in the pool and the cost to keep it heated can be ridiculous for only a one or two hour dip. Hey, but to say, ya, I was swimming Thanksgiving weekend!?.
That in itself I am very thankful for, that the opportunity is there.
There is sooo much to be thankful for this weekend and every day. My family and all extended families, inlaws and their inlaws and it keeps going.

We were in London with my family for Thanksgiving dinner.
Check this gourd out that was at my nieces on Saturday.
This is one of the coolest types of gourds I've ever seen and sitting in it's try that was designed for it just makes it so cool.  You can't see the tail but there are about 4 or 5 feathers that stick ou the back.
Don't forget Alexandra...you're going to find me one of those holders for next year!

I want to share a couple more cards that we made at class a week agao  when we were working on our thanksgiving cards.  I had so many I wanted to share with the gals that I just couln't resist.

 I saw a card with the layout and background colours as you see here but it had leaves of different colours and the embossing on the vanilla was different. I was inpsired to make a couple nuts(acorns) because we're all a little nuts sometime!  Actually, I thought it was so cool to make acorns from the ornament punch!

A nice leafy wreath made with a maple leaf stamp, 4 colours and a berries stamp and two colours from the Autumn Days stamp set.  What a versatile stamp set!
Think about joining us for a night out of inspiration, stammping, fun and being creative...even if you don't have a creative bone in your body.  It's so easy to do!

Thanksgiving

Hi fellow stampers, scrappers and crafters.  Another night that I can't sleep and decide it's a good time to update my blog. 

I've been working on getting ideas for tray favors for the hospital which the church ladies will produce for Christmas this year.  Again, I'm at a blank because we are not allowed to put any food stuffs in the favors.  That leaves out an awful lot of ideas.  I've got a couple ideas...singing carolers made out of tubes, an ornament book of sorts that wishes the individual a Merry Christmas etc. and includes the Christmas story in short form. They have to be suited for all ages & both genders and is just for the dinner trays on Christmas day.  If you have any suggestions or can point me to a site or blog to help, that would be great!.  Thanks in advance.

Thursday's class was fun.  I actually made 4 cards for the ladies to see and they chose two do make.  I just want to share and teach everything I know, and everything I see on other sites.  Unfortunately I cannot remember who I got the ideas and designs from half the time and I appologize for not giving credit where credit is due.  Specifically this first card.  It is almost identical, if not, to a card I saw sometime in the last week. Well, copying is the biggest form of flattery.  I love this card and so simple to do with the new French Foliage.  I used the rectangle spellbinder and showed the ladies how to make a square from it to use as a background border and  used another form of masking for the sentiment.  I used a satin ribbon as well as a grossgrain ribbon for 2 separate cards.  This one shows thegrossgrain.

I also used Confetti White CS and the little flecks of all the fall colours just pop out in person.

What is Thanksgiving without a turkey?

Not much really and this is my take on the all punched very colourful bird.

Just too cute! 

Hope you can get some inspiration too!

Diamond Crimp

Thursday Night with the gals again.  Gotta love them! The numbers were low but not the spirit. I just fell in love with the diamond crimps by Lynn Pratt and Linda Walsh that I had to make some up for myself and then share them with the gals.  Thanks for the inspiration I get from Late Night Stampers I can hopefully inspire some of you to come up with your own creations.

So many colours and ideas to choose from.  Here I chose CS: Whisper White, Marina Mist, INK: Marina Mist to stamp and edge around white diamond and oval.  I used Pacific Point for the humingbird and to edge around the Marina Mist diamond.  Bird and sentiment raised with dimensionals. Finished with stick on rhinestones. STAMPS: Elements of Style & Because I Care.

It's hard to tell in this card that the red leaves have glitter on them but they do. Here I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to overlay stamped image of wild wasabi with cherry cobbler.  Took my glue pen and outlined one half of the red leaf and added glitter.

This photo shows a much better view of the glitter. This pointsettia and the bird(die cut fromMerry Details) are raised with dimensionals.CS: Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Cherry Cobbler, INK: Same + Dafodil Delight for centre. This technique is really neat! and soooo easy to do.

TIP FOR INSIDE DIAMONDS: After I folded and put the CS through the crimper, (don't unfold) I outlined the diamond shape on white and the colour I used. Here, Wild Wasabi. Cut out and  trimmed the coloured diamond 1/8" all around and then I took the white diamond and trimmed 1/4" all around.  This was the only way to get the diamonds to be symetrically shaped and in line with the crimped diamond.  Also, make sure to rub any pencil marks off the edge after tracing from your crimped piece.
Hope you like these cards.  Happy Stampin'!

Marvelous Masking Techniques

Week two of classes and we're moving along.  Missing a few to holidays though. I must say, I'm impressed with myself and the masking technique. However, the more things you want to add using this technique, the more you have to stop and think about what you want at the back or behind the other stamps. I managed to make a couple CASED projects and recreate with a few twists. Thank you out there. I often save many pics at a time to the computer and look for inspiration or ideas at a later time so I don't know who to give credit to, again, but thank you for the inspiration.

Summertime sweetness!

I am loving all the new colours by SU.  This one using Dafodil Delight, Old Olive and Very Vanilla.

The two half slices are mounted with dimensionals.

I absolutely love the way this one turned out with the branch like background in Crumb Cake. The stamped image uses Early Expresso while CS on the rest of the card uses Cajun Craze, Wild Wasabi, Tangerine Tango and Very Vanilla. And below, another take on the pumpkins in a different shade using Very Vanilla, Wild Wasabi, Cherry Cobbler and Pink Pirouette.



And here's a special card I made just for my hubby!

Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White card stocks. The middle heart 'love' is raised and attached with dimensionals.  I was really suprised at how nice these 4 colours go together.

I can't wait to get into other combination of colours with the NEW colours available.  I still like the old ones too!  Leave comments/constructive criticism always welcomed.  Thanks for looking.

Classes have begun

Well I'm so glad that September has finally arrived.  Although I have been on holidays, it doesn't quite seem like it.  Everything was way out of wack for me but is now back on track.  The kids are back to a routine of sorts, I'm back at work again, and best of all, Thursday nights have arrived for the ladies;cards and scrapbooking! YAHOO! I love teaching the women new techniques and am so excited when I learn and can show them what they can do with little effort.  I wouldn't be able to do it if it weren't for all the great other crafters out there in cyberville.  I truly don't know how all you out there keep up with everything.  Literally, I could spend every minute of every day surfing and CASEing and not make anything but, I do love creating.
Our first class of the season was tonight and although the class was small I think all enjoyed getting back together.

We made two cards tonight that were CASED.  I don't know who to give credit to on these ones but thank you for the flower inspiration on both and the idea for these cards.  Hope you like them.

Holiday Mini is here

The Holiday Mini catalogue is here and hopefully all of you have received it via snail mail.  My wish list is way too long.  I just put an order in from the summer mini and the 2010-2011 catalogue and have blown the budget again!  However, classes will be stocked with the new colours in paper and ink.  I'm really excited about the new colours.  They are so rich looking and the various combinations are sooo yummy and elegant. 
I've been working on our new schedule for classes which will be starting Thursday September 9th and we'll indulge ourselves each Thursday til the spring with the exception of Christmas holidays.  And, if I'm lucky enough, maybe a vacation to the sunny south to an island or two sometime in the new year?  I've been surfing (the net) alot and have been inspired by so much talent out there.  I can't wait to share it all with you.  I wish I could do this all day, every day! 

Flower power is the buzz this fall and I plan to help you get inspired with new techniques and designs by introducing you to a different flower technique at least once a month.  From the very simple and plain to the large and elaborate.  Crafty classes, stamp-a-stacks, new product and much more. Looking forward to posting a few more pics of cards/scrapbook pages in the next couple days.

Cath

Oh ya...try out the bubbles game at the bottom.  It's so addictive!!!

Birthday Wishes

This was a recent August birthday card made for a family member.  Used SU Favorite Thoughts and a new item for embossiing found on a recent road trip.  Hope you like it. Thanks for looking. 

Recycling

Here is a card I made for our recycling class in the spring. I cut the flower images from an old card and used dimensionals to raise it on a scalloped oval. The ribbon actually goes around the whole card and ties closed. It is blank on the inside.

Welcome!

Often, change is a hard thing. Adjusting can be difficult. We become comfortable in our boxes. Although routine can be a good thing, it can be boring and I think that's why I like to change things up on a regular basis. Tom would go away fishing for the weekend and he never knew what he was coming home to. A new styled room, a new peice of furniture, a new garden, rearranged furniture. It was the change that made it exciting.

I'm always looking for change...new creativity, that something 'new', revitalizing the old or updating it. Learning a new technique or skill. Finding a better way... whether it be more efficient, more affordable or better looking.

I love to share what I know and I hope you can be inspired, find something 'new' to unleash your creativity and share as well.