I really wanted to have this post up on Sunday but, I had a really crazy weekend! I bussed back and forth between Ottawa and Montreal twice and one time I was alone with a cranky toddler and a ridiculous amount of luggage!! As you can imagine I'm a tad exhausted! It was a great weekend despite the insanity, I got to spend time with some of my cousins (who are awesome cooks, in passing) and attend the Stampin' Up! Montreal regional conference! Although I have tons of fun stories about Montreal and visiting my family I think I'll focus on the conference in this post...it is a stampin' blog after all ;^>This was my first official Stampin' Up! event and I had a blast. I brought my friend from Ottawa with me to conference so that she could get an introduction to Stampin' Up! She's really interested in becoming a demonstrator but needs her infant twins to be a little older before she's ready to take it on. We left Ottawa at 5 am to get to the conference on time so we were nearly zombies when we sat down to cut out our free stamp sets. (Yay, free rubber!!). We enjoyed getting to know a bunch of stampers from Abitibi (I think...) and I found out I was the only stamper there from Western Canada! I learn soooo much at this reagional and definately came out inspired. In this post I just chose a few fun things I saw to share with you, I will have stuff to share with you for quite a while!!
I thought this first card was just great, although I'm a little biased because I'm a frog nut! The frog and lily pad here were simply made using a few of our punches. The lily pad is the large oval punched out of certainly celery DSP. The frog (and I think this is absolutely brilliant!) was made by using one of the flowers from the Three for You Punch set (yet another reason I 'need' this punch). The blossom was tucked behind the leaf to look like a frogs face and then eyes were added. I think they used punched paper to make the eyes but you could easily use our Signo white gel pen and a black Stamp'n write marker. If you have discovered any fun uses for your punches send me a photo , I always love to learn new ideas!!
This next card was made using a stamp set we all have... our fingers!! I thought it was a really fin way to make characters and to get kids stamping. Doesn't it remind you of the little creatures you made in kindergarden using poster paint? The stamper who presented this (and I know bad me, next time I will write down names) used all of her fingers and different colours to make her critters. As well as cards and tags she used the thumb print art to make adorable childrens scrapbook pages, I am defiantely going to have to give this one a go!
This last project was brought to us directly from the home office. I thought it was a great home decor idea and even better, in my mind, a wonderful way to recycle something that we all have so many of now days. The circles are simply old CDs covered in DSP, decorated and then hung through jumbo eyelets set in the CD using a Crop-A-Dile (I love that tool!!). And yes the CAD punches through the CD like 'buttah' with no cracking and splitting. The really cool thing about this item, is that it can be multi purpose. You can have a generic welcome message on one side and then flip it over to have a holiday theme on the other side.Well that's it for now I hope you enjoy!
I am at my friend's place in Ottawa, Gabby is having a ball playing with her new little friend Daniel and well, when I said we had a lot of snow this year in Edmonton, I was wrong. I can't remember seeing so much snow at once in all my life and that includes after a crazy Quebec blizzard! There are literally 8ft drifts outside the house I am staying in! Anyways this will be an interesting Easter, definitely no outdoors egg hunt this year... I brought a whole pile of photos of older projects to post while I am away, and if I get a chance I will post anything I get to make out here. Things to watch out for in the next few weeks will be my update from the Montreal SU! regional seminar on March 29th and hopefully some 'Unfrogettable' birthday invitations.
On to my first card: This was a birthday card for my father in-law. I thought considering his personality the pick-up truck from the Loads of Love stamp set with a load of dogs in the back was suiting...Gabby (my nearly 2 year old) apparently disagreed. After having a lot of fun making this card and getting it just right, my sweet little one came along and made a quick 'edit' to the card...apparently her Grumpa (no typo there) needed a convertible not a pick up truck! I don't think I would have come up with this myself but if you tear off or omit the top bit of the trucks cab it actually make a nifty car!! I've found that with a toddler you really have to go with the flow and though that often means dealing with chaos occasionally you find a little treasure in the rubble!
Here is the recipe for this card:
- Stamp sets: Loads of Love & Loads of Love Accessories
- Paper: Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Blue Bayou DSP and retired SU! DSP
- Ink: Basic Black, Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa, VersaMark
- Tools & Accessories: 1-3/8 &1-1/2 circle punches, Crop-A-Dile, Jumbo Eyelets, Silver EP, Wild Wasabi Dbl Stitch Ribbon, Black stamp n' write marker, dimensionals.
I can't remember who I first saw using the jumbo eyelets as wheels on the truck but, I just thought it was brilliant! Cute, eh? The one thing I really wish I could go back and change is the road. At the time I just drew it in but it looks so flat and blech... I think it would have looked better if I had made another layer of torn paper or laid down a strip of black grosgrain ribbon, what do you think? I'll be back with something else soon, until then, Enjoy!
I mentioned that I have really been enjoying working with this stamp set. This is the Valentine's day card I made for my darling. I always find it challenging to create a romantic card that will still appeal to a guy. I thought these plants/flowers/weeds had an interesting rustic feel to them. Apparently I was successful in my attempt because my husband really liked the card. I stuck to dark dramatic and masculine colours (Blue Bayou, River Rock and Always Artichoke). I did a few different things on this card,
- I made slits in the card with my slit punch to insert the ribbon.
- I stamped the sentiment (The essence of love is kindness) on the ribbon then attached it to the card using brads.
- The butterfly stamp was first pressed into Versamark then into the coloured ink so that the stamped image would be tacky enough to hold on to embossing powder ( a good cheat when you don't have the right colour of craft ink or embossing powder). Each butterfly was then embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder and really shimmers IRL.
I hope you enjoy there will be many more with this stamp set to come!Recipe:
Stamps: The Essence of Love
Paper: Blue bayou, Always artichoke, Very vanilla.
Ink: Blue bayou, Always Artichoke, River rock
tools & acc: Slit punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1" circle punch, River rock double stitched ribbon, antique silver brads, Iridescent Ice EP & dimensionals.
I made this card for a friend who suddenly lost her Mom to cancer. In these situations you feel so helpless, you go to the funeral, hug your friend and try to offer some words of comfort. It can be frustrating to realize that there is not much more you can do to ease your friends grief. I found creating this card helped me deal with these feelings in a way that signing a store-bought card never could. I hope that the love that I put into it will be felt from my friend when she receives it. The stamp set I used is "The Essence of Love" from the new Occasions mini caty. I fell in love with this set the moment I saw it but, I was afraid it would not be very versatile. It turns out to be one of the most flexible sets in this mini. So far, I have made this sympathy card, a valentine for my husband and a number of all-occasion cards and each card has a dramatically different feel! Hopefully I can post a few more over the next little while.
Recipe:
Stamps: Essence of Love, Baroque Motifs
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Tempting Turquoise, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Tempting Turquoise, Taken with Teal, Night of Navy, VersaMark
Tools & accessories: Ticket corner punch, Designer label punch, 1/16" circle punch, Clear Embossing Powder, Brayer, Silver brads (coloured with a turquoise sharpie), Chocolate chip Poly twill ribbon from Occasions mini catalogue.
I thought this first card was just great, although I'm a little biased because I'm a frog nut! The frog and lily pad here were simply made using a few of our punches. The lily pad is the large oval punched out of certainly celery DSP. The frog (and I think this is absolutely brilliant!) was made by using one of the flowers from the Three for You Punch set (yet another reason I 'need' this punch). The blossom was tucked behind the leaf to look like a frogs face and then eyes were added. I think they used punched paper to make the eyes but you could easily use our Signo 
This next card was made using a stamp set we all have... our fingers!! I thought it was a really fin way to make characters and to get kids stamping. Doesn't it remind you of the little creatures you made in kindergarden using poster paint? The stamper who presented this (and I know bad me, next time I will write down names) used all of her fingers and different colours to make her critters. As well as cards and tags she used the thumb print art to make adorable childrens scrapbook pages, I am defiantely going to have to give this one a go!
This last project was brought to us directly from the home office. I thought it was a great home decor idea and even better, in my mind, a wonderful way to recycle something that we all have so many of now days. The circles are simply old CDs covered in DSP, decorated and then hung through jumbo eyelets set in the CD using a Crop-A-Dile (I love that tool!!). And yes the CAD punches through the CD like 'buttah' with no cracking and splitting. The really cool thing about this item, is that it can be multi purpose. You can have a generic welcome message on one side and then flip it over to have a holiday theme on the other side.
