I Blew My Stack

That's right.  I was going to design 4 card styles for my upcoming Christmas card stack but I got a little carried away. ' So many ideas, so little time', to coin a phrase.

Accordingly, I have decided to do 4 different designs on each of the two days I am offering the stack. You can choose the day you like best, or if you feel the need, come both days. There will be no card switches.

DAY ONE - Friday, September 13th:

DAY TWO - Saturday, September 14th:

Here are all the details. It is the same for both days. You will make 12 cards - 3 of each design - for $30.00. The class begins at 9 am sharp. Please try to arrive 10 min early - I will have coffee on to help you wake up if this is quite early for any of you.

There will be a break for lunch at noon. Again, I will provide coffee, tea, or water. Please bring a bagged lunch which you can store in my fridge until we eat. If we are lucky, we will be able to eat on the porch or the deck. I live on an acreage so the closest place to eat is in Devon, 5 minutes away. Work resumes at 1 pm and we should be finished by 4 pm.

I will send you directions to get my home when you confirm attendance by email.        jszyn@tbwifi.ca
Attendance must be confirmed by the evening of Sept 9th. I will begin making up the packages the following day.

You need to bring the following:

-paper and pen to take notes
-PERMANENT adhesive tape runner (or other two-sided adhesive) and a refill (I no longer carry extra stock)
-a liquid paper glue with a very small tip for adhering fine details (I recommend Zip Dry or Dries Clear by Artglitter). You will be able to find the tape runner and glue at Michaels
-Magic tape or other easy release tape for die cutting. (Post-it makes a good tape for this purpose as well but you don't need to go to that expense if you don't want to)
-a roll of wax paper (for die cutting of fine detailed dies - there will be lots of this, especially on Saturday)
-if you own a craft work sheet like the one Tim Holtz sells, you will probably want to bring it to work on but don't go looking for one if you will not have further use for it.
-a regular crafting kit with HB pencil, white eraser, fine point scissors. bone folder, etc.

If you are not a regular paper crafter and don't own some of these items such as a bone folder (what the heck is that, you ask), do not worry about it. I do have a few to share.

Just a note about my cards. If you follow or check back on my blog, you will see that they always have a coordinating finish on the inside. They are all either 5 x 6 1/2" or 5 3/4" square. And you will be supplied with envelopes. Also, this year, I have made absolutely sure that they can all be mailed for standard postage. Nothing over-sized and no lumps that stick out so far, the card won't slide through that ridiculously skinny 'test' slot at the post office.

I guess that is about all. I will be out of town for a few days but will be checking my emails regularly so if you have any further questions or wish to confirm attendance, I will be sure to get right back to you. Sorry, no phone calls for a few days at least.

Hope to see some of you in mid-September. Until then, don't forget to get your fingers inky!

BYOB Redux

As I promised a couple of posts ago, I have a card I created using my own designer paper.

When I made the Delicate Asters card, I had some leftover fancy lattice die cuts so I thought of using them as a stencil to ink up card stock for a background. I used Tattered Angels Glimmer mist in walnut gold and randomly sprayed some areas of the blush c/s very lightly. Then I stamped an over-sized peony (Stampendous) a couple of times with sepia Archival ink. Using an old, retired SU stencil, I added the swirls with TA olive vine glimmer mist. Finally, I added a bit of rose colour to the flower images by water colouring some gelato on them. I cut this final work to fit a 5x7 white card and taped it to the front.

I die cut the butterfly (SB's Les Papillions) from white c/s and added gelato to it, then sprayed it with the gold glimmer mist . By now, the lattice scrap I had been using as a stencil was very pretty, sprayed with both the olive (from experimenting) and gold mists. I attached it to the card front with art glitter dries clear adhesive, then added the butterfly, to which I attached some adhesive pearls.

The bottom layer of the sentiment motif is two dies using SB Antique Frames and Accents largest die. I removed the center piece, cut them both and used only part of each pieced back together to get the shape I wanted, Then I sprayed everything, including the center rectangle with the olive glimmer mist and adhered it all to the card base.

I die cut a tag from the blush c/s with a die from SB Fancy Tags 2, stamped my  sentiment (HFC) with pear pizzazz ink, sponged some of the same pear ink around the edges of the tag, and attached it with dimensionals.

Inside, which I failed to photograph, I put a vertical 2' band of blush c/s with a strip if the lattice over it, then wrote in my own message. You will have to use your imagination for that.


I have included another close up of the lattice in which I tried to capture some of the beautiful sheen created by the glimmer mist.

Well, that is the result of my little light bulb moment. I hope you liked it. See you again soon, and meanwhile, get your fingers inky.