Now For Something Altered

On Monday, I attended an altered item workshop arranged here in my condo complex by a friend. The instructor was the Artsy Fartsy Fairy, aka Shirley Seay.

As you can see, we turned a wooden bird house from Michaels into a wonderful illuminated Christmas decoration.

We used decoupage to apply DP to the bird house. Shirley allowed us to choose from her extensive stash of papers which means two things; first, every one had a unique house, and second, I have no idea whose papers I used. Sorry about that. I love the papers I picked out, and I wish I did know whose they are so that I could get more.

This little guy is too darned cute.

This, for me, was the most time consuming part of the day. Once I had all the paper adhered and a second coat of Mod Podge applied and dried, I chose from Shirley's huge selection of embellishments. I decided to go for the 'less is more policy'. I kept it down to a snowman, and tree, a dove, a star, and a bit of gold rick rack for the roof lines, all of which I attached using tacky glue and super glue. We all put some feet on the bottom of the house. (The main reason for the feet is to allow clearance for the cord from the light.)

Finally, I applied a clear-drying glue to the roof and a couple of other surfaces, and sprinkled mica flakes over everything. Shirley's husband had pre drilled a hole in the bottom of each house, and she supplied us with a light kit that we could put into the bottom to light up the inside. I just love the results.

All lit up and glowing.

I know that Shirley took lots of pictures so if you want to see all the finished houses, check out her blog as linked above.

Now the only thing remaining is to figure out how to take this all the way back to Alberta in one piece. Even though we are driving back, this will still be pretty tricky. Wish me luck.

glittery snowflakes

 Well, our time in sunny AZ is starting to wind down and I have already begun to pack up my supplies in anticipation of our departure. So what I have for you today is on of my Christmas cards that I am mailing out to friends this year, an easel card.

I began with a white card base that is 5x5". I then cut a 5 1/4" square of the K&Co glitter c/s and rounded the corners. The snowflake was die cut using the snowflakes #2 die from SU, and white c/s. 

The beautiful border was created with the 'around-the-page' punch set, Large double arches, by MS, and a 6" square of white c/s.

The mirror snowflake embellishment is by recollections from Michaels. I added a rhinestone with crystal effects.                                                            

Inside, I attached a band of glitter that was punched with the same double arch punch. Then I adhered another mirror snowflake and rhinestone.                     As you can see, I made this style in all three colours of glitter paper included in this wonderful K&Co pad of papers

To all my American friends...

I want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. And to all my fellow Canadians who celebrated Thanksgiving in October, it is always appropriate to remember how blessed we are.

I enjoyed making this card with all my wonderful new products from HFC. I started with a rust coloured card base and stamped on it with brown ink and the Elegant Autumn Swirl stamp. I used a q-tip to apply gold Inka Gold (IG) to the leaves in the swirls. Using the Open Falling Leaves stamp set on the same rust paper, I stamped the maple leaf twice with the brown ink, applied copper  and green IG and hand cut them. I stamped three elm leaves on green c/s and applied the IG (gold and green) and three oak leaves on light gold c/s and applied green and copper IG; I hand cut these leaves as well. Finally I stamped the autumn swirl on the light gold as well as five of the small oak leaves. After slowly hand cutting all of these out, I applied the copper IG to the small individual leaves which I then adhered to the swirl leaves.

Finally I traced the largest labels 18 die on the light gold c/s and cut it, then sponged on some IG (copper). I did the same thing to a small rectangle after which I stamped (in brown ink) the greeting from the autumn swirl set.

I used glue dots to attach the cut swirl to the label die and pop dots to raise and attach the oak leaves. The leaves were adhered to the upper right and lower left corners with a combination of glue dots and pop dots. Finally, I attached the label with pop dots.

I should add that I am not really sure what brand of card stock I used - it was in the stash. The brown ink is Memento.

I hope you all have a wonderful day, whether it is a normal Thursday or a special holiday celebration. And I hope no one gets harmed in the Black Friday crush.

BYOB

BYOB stands for Bring Your Own Background. Today I started with a piece of plain ivory c/s and created my own designer paper to go with the beautiful ornament stamp by HFC. I knew I wanted the main colours to be pale pink and burgundy, and that I would be using gold EP but I do not have any ink here in the burgundy range so I had to add brown to the colour scheme.

I sponged some pale pink versamagic ink onto the c/s, then randomly stamped brown ink onto the following stamps; pinebranches are from Stamp-a-mania; 'Joy' is from a Stampendous jumbo set, and words and scroll are from a set by Cloud 9. Joy, as you can see, was stamped in versamark (not brown) and embossed with gold EP.

I matted this collaged layer with some wonderful crinkled paper by HOTP. Because I tend to be very stingy with these expensive papers, I cut a rectangle from the middle before mounting the DP on it. I added a 3/4" strip of burgundy velvet paper by The Paper Company . Then I adhered the whole thing to an ivory card base.


Now it was time to make the ornaments. I stamped all three with versamark on ivory c/s and heat embossed with gold. Then I sponged the same pale pink ink onto them, avoiding the poinsettias on the two largest. I coloured the poinsettia on the middle one with a burgundy marker. I remembered about this as a source of ink after I had finished the b/g paper. The ornaments were all hand cut and set aside.

I stamped the two middle poinsettias (from HFC's petite poinsettia stamp set) on the velvet paper with versamark ink and embossed with gold. I was a little leery about how this would work but it came out just fine. After more hand cutting the blossoms, I attached them to the largest ornament with glue dots. This ornament was then put on the card with dimensionals.


The inside is another 3/4" strip of velvet paper and the two smaller ornaments.

The final step was some dots in the centre of the velvet poinsettia on the front with cream coloured Viva pearl pen, and a small bow made from a scrap in my stash.

I am quite pleased with the outcome. It is exactly what I had in mind. I think I will be leaving this card at the here condo for our friends who arrive from Germany in December for a stay.

Fran-taging Fun

Well, the class I took yesterday at Stamp Works in Chandler was great fun. The teacher, Jennifer Dove, is on the design team for Stampendous and she introduced us to the new Fran-tage Essentials. These products give your work a real Wow result.

The first card was stamped with versamark ink and heat embossed with bark coloured EP. (Sorry, I don't know the brands on many of the products we used.) I used a white pencil crayon to highlight the flowers in the embossed image then cut around the outside edge of the image with scissors. Holding the card flat, sprinkle some of the granules of Chunky white embossing enamel randomly on top. Use the heat tool from underneath the surface to melt these granules. This method allows you to adhere EP without any type of adhesive product, but only works through one layer of c/s. Be careful not to burn the c/s or the previous embossing.

I did the shaped sentiment banner in a similar manner, and attached it with glue dots. I added some clear c/s to the card front so that it would sit properly, and attached some dotted DP to the inside of the card. The ribbon was wrapped around a piece of c/s of the same width  and attached to the front this is a method that allows you to attach ribbon to a single layer card without it showing on the inside of the card. Add a small knot of the ribbon to the tag with a glue dot.

For the second card, we again stamped and embossed the image (which I know is a Stampedous stamp because I bought one after the class!). We sprayed the image layer and the card front with water and dropped instant coffee granules (brand unknown!) on. The granules dissolve in the water and dry created a great aged look. Next, I tore around the image and then began apply the EP. I chose the aged copper embossing enamel and created a puddle applying the heat from underneath, then while it was still hot, dropped pieces of the tea stained mica fragments into the puddle. A bit more heat ensures they stay in place. I did this in opposite corners of the image, then added some more of the embossing enamel around all the edges. Finally, I tore some thin cork to create a mat, inked the edged with dark brown ink, and put the layers together.

 

 

These wonderful Fran-tage products come in a wide range of colours. I love the results using them and left a bit of money behind at the store after the class. I will be using them lots over the next little while.

Peace & Joy - Clean & Simple

This is a  quick card that is great for making multiple quantities of and also great for mailing.

The card base (5 1/4" square) is textured olive c/s, and the strip of DP is from a package of retired paper. I used smooth white c/s and the snowflakes #2  die and attached the snowflake to the DP with a red brad before adhering the strip to the card.

More white c/s stock and another retired product, a sizzlet that actually says 'peace&joy&love&hope' (I think) but I only die cut the first half. I added the little knot of narrow red grosgrain ribbon and used Tombo glue to attach the words.

All products are Stampin'Up!

Easy peasy. Well I am off to a card class in Chandler today so I have to get going. It is a long haul over there for 9 am. Thanks for stopping by.

Last minute do over.

Today I am once more creating die cuts without a die cutting machine. I seriously thought about purchasing a second one on sale for 40% off yesterday at Joann but managed to hold myself back. After all, it is only a couple of weeks until I am back home in my well equipped craft room. Of course, that means I will also be back in the snow - not my favourite compromise.

Today I began with one of Just Rite's newest stamp sets; Kaleidoscope Medallions. I stamped one of the motifs in brown ink on Core Dinations Merry c/s ( both the outer ring and the inner motif. Then I cut around this image with scissors. I also stamper just the inner section of the same set of images on CD Sandstorm c/s with the same brown ink and, when it dried, I used two Marvy markers to colour the image. Again I cut the circle by hand. The last stamping was one of the inner sentiments from Just Rite's 'You are my Anchor' with brown ink on Sandstorm c/s. To get the circle size I needed here, I centered the label die from SB's Parisian Accents over the words and traced the inside opening. Once more, I fussy cut the circle.

The next step was to create my die. I used the largest die from the Parisian Motifs set, tracing it on Sandstorm c/s. Then I did my fake die cut thing. Remember, if you are ever in a position to need to try doing this, to place the right side of the c/s against the cutting edge side of the die. I marked where I wanted some holes to make the die cut look a little lacy, and used a Fiskars' 1/8" circle punch. Using the brown ink pad, I sponged around the die cut and the two Sandstorm circles.

The card base is 5 7/8" square. The printed paper is from my scrap stash so I regret to say I don't know whose it was. The lace is from Joann. I used glue dots to hold the lace on, and to hold the die cut to the lace. Finally, I used dimensionals for the center of the largest motif and doubled up on the dimensionals for the label.

Well I am off like a terd of hurtles this morning. Diffucult day planned with my 'acquisitions' cohort beginning with breakfast out. Then tonight, company for a barbeque. Another tough day in paradise. Sucks to be in Alberta right now.

Post Script - as I was loading the pics, I decided the card did not look quite finished. So I set everything aside to go for breakfast and shopping. I just now finished the touch ups and here is what I added:
     -Stamped 3 smallest blossoms from HFC petite poinsettia set with brown ink on ivory c/s. Fussy cut them, sponged them twice (first with brown ink, then with old gold Inka Gold. Hand cut a small circle of some scrap burgundy velvet paper and shaped the blossoms and circle with the stylus. Attached everything with glue dots.
     -Added some gold satin ribbon (from Michaels) at the top of the lace.

Now it looks finished!!

Limited Supplies Round Two

I was working on this card a week ago before the rubber stamp show when I had no rubber or ink. So it is a little late getting posted but I had fun with it and may use it for my granddaughter who will love the little 'snowglobe' snowman.



That was my starting point and then I chose coordinating c/s, dp, trim and a label/sentiment. This was fairly simple to do, as most of the elements are from K&Co who coordinates their products so seamlessly.

 

The card base is Core-dinations canvas texture Merry. The ivory satin ribbon is from Michaels. The vanilla c/s for the small mats is SU. To create those mats, I used a washer from the small tool kit we have here in the condo. With a pencil in the centre of the mat, I ran it around the outer edge of the Happy Holidays label. It gave me a perfect 1/4" mat. I made a second one to layer behind the snowman snowglobe.
The candy cane trim came in a separate package of borders and trims.

That is about it. I hope my DGD likes it.

Glitter, glitter, everywhere

You know it was a good day when you have sparkles all over your face, and so does your husband. It was a drive by glittering.

I was up a little early this morning and decided to sit down and make a card. I had planned to spend yesterday stamping but that did not happen.

I was inspired by a design by Angelica Turner. I began by stamping the two images from the HFC set, Magnificent Spruce Trees. I coloured the stamps with a pine green Marvy marker, then added Memento Cocoa ink on top. For the background trees, I stamped off  before stamping, masking the larger tree while I did it. This was all done on a piece of smooth white c/s. Next I cut a piece of two sided adhesive sheet to fit and applied it to the front. Then I covered the whole image with shell white micro fine glitter. I used my SB labels 18 die to trace the corners on the back and then I hand cut them. On a piece of lighter green c/s, I traced around the largest labels 19 die twice, side by side, then hand cut the whole thing as one die cut. Using my stylus, I impressed around the edges of the die cut to make it look like I ran it through the Big Shot to emboss. (See my entry from November 9th). I attached the glitter tree image to this die cut.

The card base is a darker green, and the DP mat on top is from K&Co. I off set the mat in the top left. Then, before attaching the tree and die cut panel, I made a small hole in the top right corner and feed the wires from a poinsettia through to the back where I taped them in place.


The final step was to stamp the sentiment from the Peace on Earth stamp set by Just Rite in green (marker) on White c/s. trace the labels 18 die, hand cut it, attach some two sided adhesive sheet, and cover the tag in the micro fine glitter. I used dimensionals to attach this label to the card.

The finished card has such beautiful sparkle to it. I tried to get a photo that showed how pretty it is. You can also apply the glitter to your c/s and then stamp right onto the glitter. This gives a much bolder image but I wanted it to look like the trees were just visible through the snow.

I had this blog entry half typed this morning when I found out I was going out to golf, So I had to finish it late this afternoon. So much for getting started at 6 am!!

Oh yes, and the ingredients. C/S is Bazzil, and the poinsettia is Ashland from Michaels.

Holiday Bells

Here is a card that I made back in Canada last month. It features a digi-stamp from Squigglefly called Holiday Bells. This is my first foray into digi-stamps.

I started by printing the image onto smooth white c/s three times. I ran the first image through the Big Shot with Spellbinders labels 4 grand. The second and third layers were fussy cut to create a paper tolle look. This was quite fussy around the ribbons and pearls. Definitely not a card design for mass production. To colour the images, I used SU's platinum and frost white shimmer paints. For the ribbon, I added some drops of Not Quite Navy re-inker to the frost white shimmer, and I did the same thing with garden green re-inker for the pine sprigs. Once all the layers were painted (and I did not paint some of the inner areas that I knew would be hidden), I began to put them together using both mini glue dots and dimensionals to get the look I wanted. 

The card base, light blue layer and mat are all bazzil shimmer papers. After I had everything put together, I began to add the self adhesive pearls, one at a time, to the pearls on the image, to the bells, and to the corners of the card. 

This was not a card for the impatient or the rushed, but I had fun creating it.

A Heartfelt Thanks

On Monday, I got to play with some of the new product I picked up at the Rubber Stamp Event and I had so much fun.  I started with the gorgeous shaped blossom from the show (see my post from Monday for details) and built around it pulling my colour scheme from the green and copper colours. Next I dug through the paper stash and found some My Mind's Eye papers to coordinate. I cut a layer of green and stamped on it with two of the stamps from  the Elegant Borders and Swirls stamp set from HC. I used a gold coloured marker by Marvy (I only have 3 basic ink pads here) for almost all the stamping on this card. I sponged some of the copper Inka Gold around the edges of this layer, then attached some ivory satin ribbon (from Michaels) and adhered the whole panel to an ivory  5x6 1/2" card base.

The next part is what I am most proud of. I do not have a die cutting machine here which is making me crazy because I just got a bunch of new dies in addition to my new rubber. Can you tell by looking at my sentiment tag that I did it all by hand? First I traced the die and hand cut the tag shape using two sizes of the Labels 18 die set, one on some coral c/s, and one on ivory. Then I taped the paper to the die to hold it firmly and used a stylus to do the empressing right on the die. I think it turned out pretty darned well if I do say so myself. I sponged more of the Inka Gold on both die cuts, stamped the word with brown Memories ink on the smaller one, then layered them and mounted the whole works to the card with pop dots. 

Last steps were to make and mount a bow, attach the blossom, and stamp the inside with the same border stamp as I used on the front. I am sorry this last photo is a little out of focus - okay a lot out of focus. I hope you enjoy my creation as much as I enjoyed making it. 

Well I am off to get my fingers inky. I hope you find time today to do the same.

Limited Supplies Experiment

Yes I really do have limited supplies here. Only one box of papers and one dresser drawer of widely varied accessories. So this is a real challenge for me. I am so accustomed to a huge choice of stamps, ribbons, inks, papers, etc...I really made me think.

The card base is from Die Cuts With A View. The green mat paper is from My Mind's Eye (29th street market), and the other two DPs are from K&Company (Floral Dreams). You can just see the sparkle on the patterned paper on the front panel - it is much prettier IRL. I found some turquoise rhinestones (Colorbok) and added them to the design on the front panel as well as to the corners of the card and to the greeting. They really play off the glittering DP.

The greeting was created using my computer using SU's My Digital Studio. I printed it first on plain paper, then attached my rectangle of c/s over the printed words and ran the same piece of paper through the printer again. I was a little concerned when the printer seemed to stall - I had visions of the whole works jamming because the c/s is quite heavy - but everything worked out just fine. I popped the greeting up with some dimensionals. This little experiment worked out great and I already have a recipient in mind for this card.


I must add a post script to this entry. I prepared and saved it on Friday evening. The next two days I spent at the Rubber Stamp Event (as I may have mentioned before) and I am definitely back in the rubbah, baby! I may have spent a few dollars there but I feel I have to do my share to bolster the economy, right? I am off to golf with my husband this morning, but I have already turned one of the infamous blossoms into a card and will post it on Wednesday. See you then.

The Morning After

This morning, I am looking back on my weekend working at the Make-n-Take table in the Heartfelt Creations booth at the Mesa Fall Rubber Stamp Show. I had an awesome time. I met lots of wonderful stampers, some who I know from previous stamping events. The stamping community is a small and very friendly one. I also enjoyed working with Mitch and Caleb, the two very enthusiastic young men who are running the  booth for HC. I was impressed with their knowledge of the product and company, and also how well they related to the public. They are wonderful ambassadors for the company. A few visitors to the booth thought they were my sons!! And it was great to meet Lisa Blastick, a member of HC's design team who worked the booth on Saturday. I love her work which you can check out on the Heartfelt Designs blog or on Lisa's own blog here.

Above is a picture my good friend took of me working at the booth. Left and below are some of the beautiful blossom pins we created. They were made using the Flora Grande stamps sets (the three largest blossoms) stamped and cut from some vanilla c/s with the  Blossoms 3 Nestie. The blossoms were coloured by sponging Inka Gold (avail. in 10 shades) on to the c/s. Then we cut the petals apart and used a stylus and molding pad to shape them. Next, the layers were adhered with pop dots and a pin back was attached to the back. Finally, the centre of the flower was covered with Dries Clear Art Glue and some Elements.

The result was (is) lovely and was a big hit with everyone who saw them. Even Stacey Caron from Spellbinders stopped by and nabbed one of the finished blossoms to pin to her sweater. I brought home a few of the many I made throughout the 2 days; I plan to turn them into cards. Watch for those later this week.

All in all, it was a great experience and I want to thank Heartfelt and Emma Lou for allowing me to be a small part of the team.

Getting Ahead of Myself

I have some posts saved and my plan was to eke them out over my stay here,  I don't expect  to do much card making during my 5 weeks in Arizona.Because of the fact that we go back home for 10 weeks and then return here in Feb. I don't tend to drag all my supplies here for the shorter stay; therefore, the reduced output.  However, I am so happy to be back blogging, I find I can't wait for a couple of days to post another entry. What can I say?

I made this card a few months back with some supplies I picked up at the last Rubber stamp Event in Mesa in the spring. The stamps were from a set by Rubber Stamp Concepts. I stamped the images and words on some DP by K&Company using black Memories ink, then applied some double sided adhesive in the middle and dropped some glitter on the adhesive. Finally I attached an image from Magenta.  Black fibers from my stash were tied around this panel which was then attached to the black card base..This was a fairly simple design but I liked the vintage feel due to the sepia tones of the image and DP.

I was just listening to the weather report as I typed this entry. They are talking about very high winds and possible reduced visibility here in the valley tomorrow. I guess I will be staying close to home. This will be a new experience for me. . I  want to push myself to try a couple of  'limited supply' cards. I have one box of papers and a drawer of very assorted accessories (only black ink and no stamps!) so we will see what I can come up with. Should be interesting.

Settled in and back on board

Sorry to be absent for so long but we have been on the road and settling into our place here in Arizona. It is good to be back in our second home.

Now that the bags are unpacked and the pantry is stocked, I can get back to some level of crafting. I did get out to one of my fav stamping stores here yesterday, only to find a 'Going out of Business' sign on the door. Happily, they are not disappearing altogether, just a change of location. But it does mean no classes for the next month. Rats.

Today I am showing the last of the cards made by attendees at my workshops last month. I had promised to have them all on my blog so that those who were unable to finish at the w/s could refer to them here.

The snowflake was cut using the large snowflake die from SU and their wonderful glittery silver c/s. We used waxed paper between the die and the c/s, and the snowflake (and all the little scrap bits) literally fell away from the die. Thanks for the advice Glenda.

The eggplant scallop circle is also die cut with an SU die. The ribbon tag is from Spellbinders ribbon tag trio and the sentiment is stamped with eggplant ink on white using a stamp from SU. We tied the tag on with white seam binding from SU and added a gem stone to the snowflake (Recollections from Michaels).

As you can see in the second image, this is an easel card. On the inside we added a strip of the glitter paper edged with a scallop border punch (SU) and a strip of the eggplant. Don't forget to only attach the scallop circle to the bottom half of the front when assembling.

Okay, I have almost exploded with the effort of holding off 'til the end of this post to tell you my exciting news. I will be working at the Heartfelt Creations booth at the the fall Rubber Stamp Event in Mesa this weekend. I will be working at the make and take table so maybe I will see you there. I can hardly wait!