Hi Daniel, You're 3 today, Happy Birthday!!! This is a picture of the birthday card that I made you but was too silly to put it in the mail on time...It's filled with lot's of love and happy birthday wishes from Will, Gabby and I. I hope you have a great day today and a yummy Bday meal with mom and dad and your brothers.-
For anyone else who is interested, here is the recipe for this card:
Stamps: Bugs and Kisses
Paper: whisper white, blue bayou, pumpkin pie, soft sky.
Ink: same as ink + old olive
Tools & Acc.: Spiral punch, circle punches, pumkin pie marker, number sticker from retired simply scrappin kit.
Ack!! I almost forgot to mention that I will be having an open house Saturday April 26th between 2-5pm. Anyone in the region is welcome to join me. We will be making a mother's day card and a mini scrap book page, plus there will be special offers, door prizes and light refreshments. If you can pop by, even for a moment I would love to see you. Come and see what Stampin' Up! and I have to offer you this spring! for additional info, e-mail me at nlt@shaw.ca.
Almost every month the team of demonstrators I belong to gets together for a fun evening of visiting, sharing and of course stamping! Here are a couple make and take we made at the last meeting, I thought I'd better share them while they were still fresh.
This first card I think is just gorgeous. I would have never thought up this colour combo but, it has definitely got to be one of my new faves. I believe the combo is Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, River Rock and Ruby Red (it's this last colour I'm not positive on). Isn't it striking? This card uses one of my favourite background stamps Tres Chic and the Stitched Exotics bundle available as part of the current Free Wheelin' Promo .
I was supposed to put a beautiful red rhinestone brad in the centre of the flower but I lost mine on the way home so I used a Build-a-Brad instead. Not quite as spanky but, it will do.
This next card is so fun and cheerful, if I look at it long enough I can almost delude myself that there isn't two feet of snow outside! The stamp set is Tart and Tangy and the DSP is Summer Picnic, both are from the current mini caty. Now, as cute as this card is there is more to it. This is a 'Scratch and Sniff" card! We used craft ink to stamp the strawberry and then embossed it using a mixture of clear embossing powder and strawberry flavoured sugar free drink mix. It worked really well I was quite impressed, and this is just the perfect stamp set to use with this technique.
That's all I have from this meeting, I wish I had my camera with me as people shared some wonderful projects. Next month I should have much more to share with you since it will be our quarterly Extravaganza...Too much fun!!
Yay, I'm proud of me, posting two days in a row!! I have to celebrate the little victories...Now, today i decided I would share with you the fantastic make and takes we made in Montreal. They were all quite simple but, really inspiring! The free stamp set we received at the regionals was called 'So Much' (we got the French one, which is why all the pics say 'merci' instead of 'thank you'). This was a stamp set that really didn't fizz with me when I first saw it in the catalogue but, after playing with it a little at regionals...I'm in love!! The other stamp set that was featured at the conference was 'Live Your Dreams' from the mini catalogue. This one too didn't do anything for me...sigh...the dangers of playing with stamp sets...now, I love this one too!
This simple but elegant card showed me how much fun the different elements in this stamp set are. Don't you just love that little bird? I really like how they coloured the one flower and added a rhinestone brad to the centre it makes it stand out.
This is a sweet little 6x6 scrapbook page we made using the same stamp set and my favourite design from the Afternoon Tea DSP pack. Stampin' Up! has been using some truly beautiful quotes in their newest stamp sets, this one is particularly inspiring.
Here is a neat and very simple card. All we did to make the outer portion was take a regular kraft envelope, seal it and cut off the top inch. It makes a perfect little sleeve for the card with no gluing and fussing! On this card I used the French quote, I was act
Once again they came up with another fun, simple and yet really unique card. I just love this one, it's so whimsical. Mixing the textured CS with the flat CS and particularly the kraft CS adds great interest to this piece.
This is another super cute card, I won't go into to many details for it now though because I have a little tutorial to share with you soon. You won't believe how simple is is to make.
Here is the final project we made. This is a 12x12 scrap book page which I am just itching to fill with black and white photos of my little one. It was this project that really made me appreciate the circles found in the So Much stamp set. I love how easy it was to make a subtle yet fun background with these stamps and a little bit of VersaMark. At the conference, they did not have an alphabet set available to us so I filled in the green bar myself at home. The title simply says "I love you" and "So Much". I stamped the letters using the Jumbo Outline Alphabet, then coloured them in using my VersaMarker (just to make them stand out a little more), then I added some doodles with my Signo white gel pen, and finally I made the cute little apostrophe with a punched flower and a black brad.
I hope you find the projects as fun and inspiring as I did. I will be back tomorrow to share some swaps and other items!
Well, I've been waiting for a sunny day to take pictures of some of my latest projects but, this (on the left) is what it looks like outside my studio window today...you can't tell in the photo but, the snow is really coming down, and the forecast is calling for more!! Anyhow, the project I am going to show you today is what we will be making on May the 8th at our Mother's Day class. I had to break down and set up a few fluorescent lamps so I could actually get the pics taken!
This is my version of JanTink's Carousel Notes purse. She has a wonderful tutorial that you can find on her blog here. When I saw this project I knew imediately that this would make the perfect Mother's Day gift and so the perfect Mother's Day Workshop Project. I had a wonderful time making this purse, it fairly easy to make but the results are really impressive. I actually was not fond of this DSP when I saw it in the mini catalogue, I also thought the carousel notes were kind of usless (I know, I know, I can be kind of negative sometimes) but the moment I saw this project I knew I was sold on the whole lot!!
The wonderful thing about this purse is that the real treasures are inside. There are great mats for photos and spots for journaling, and because it is actually built out of the carousel note envelopes, there are two great pockets to hold the actual decorated note cards. I have not added pics to mine yet but, I thought that black and white photos of a few generations of mother's and daughters would be perfect for it!
If you would like to take this class I need registrations by Saturday April 26th so that I can order the materials. The cost of this class will be $30 and will include a full pack of the Afternoon Tea DSP ($12.95) aswell as a full package of the carousel notes (14.95). You will complete a purse in class and take home complete instructions and more than enough paper to make at least 2 more purses! If you have any questions or would like to take part in this class please contact me.
My SIL who is an avid blog reader gave me a poke this afternoon and pointed out that it had been ages since I've posted. I was actually shocked how long it had been, have I really been back home for a whole two weeks now? I guess so! Anyways I will blame it all on being exhausted after a cross-country trip alone with my toddler (Yes, I know I was crazy!). An almost 2 year old, multiple buss trips, a five hour flight and far too much luggage is really a recipe for being frazzled, don't you think?
OK, now back to the matter at hand, I have soooo much to share with you, here are some more samples from the Montreal regional conference I just returned from:
this was a cute little tag made by one of the Quebec based presenters. ( I really need to remember to take down names next time!!) I thought it was really sweet and so simple too. All it took to make this one inked up fingers and a black Stampin' Write marker.
This next card was also made by a Quebec demo at the conference. She used the spray and smash technique, shown here, on glossy paper before stamping and cutting out the flowers from Bloomin' With Happiness. I think the effect is really gorgeous, don't you? The other neat thing is is that this is a z fold card and the floral medallion tucks under the greeting to stay closed.
I'm a big fan of daisies so I really liked these two cards. The yellow one on the right is made using the Pick-A-Petal set. I love the one on the left, it's so cheerful and they did a great job of using DSP (check out the grass!)
Isn't this a fun card? I really like the retro feel of it. The colour combo is really sharp but, not one I would have thought of with this stamp set. This is why I love seeing other peoples projects, I can really get stuck in a rut using the same colours and styles etc. but all it takes is to see one fresh idea and I'm off on a new creative tangent!
Well I think I will leave things there for tonight, I have tons more to show you though! If I manage to keep on top of things, I hope to post a few new pics from the conference everyday for the next while. So come back, ya hear?
My daughter loves frogs, and I couldn't be happier, because I'm a total frog nut too! Gabby will be turning 2 in May and I thought, a froggy birthday party would hit the mark. This card is my current invitation prototype. I had soooo much fun making this card I tried out the "No Copics No Problem" tutorial on Julie's blog.
If you have the SU! markers, or if you have ever considered getting them, you have to check this out. the only tip I can give, that is not mentioned in the tutorial, is that you should really plan the order you apply your colours to your project. Not only do you absolutely want to go from lightest to darkest, you also want to make sure that anything containing red (purples, browns...) is also done very near the end because, they bleed everywhere if you not careful!! Can you tell I learnt this from experience? (the red toadstool on this card is a good example ). The base of this card is the Wild Wasabi textured card stock that is on special this month. It was a bit of an oddball size but turned out to be just perfect for this kind of pocket card. Now I don't think all the invites will be this elaborate ( I don't have that much time on my hands!) but, I will use this card as my point of inspiration.
Recipe:
-Stamps: Unfrogettable
-Papers: Wild Wasabi textured CS, watercolour paper, Cutie Pie DSP, Rose Red
-Inks: Stazon Black, Wild Wasabi, Rose Red, So Saffron,
-Tools & Accessories: Wild Wasabi double stitched ribbon, corner rounder, markers, aquapainter.
This is a simple watercolour card we made at some of my recent workshops, if it looks familiar it's because it's a direct CASE from the Occasions Mini Caty. I really rarely do that kind of thing but I was soooo in love with the card I knew it would make it into my repertoire! I did change it up a bit, I did not have the pretties kit at the time so I went for a more rustic hemp to tie on the image, and I added some bling down below by embossing the word 'bloom' in silver EP bellow. For some reason I cannot recall, I didn't use the spiral punch on my sample piece but my students did and it looks great. Another thing I added was to stamp the bee from this set tone on tone on the blue paper, it just adds a touch more whimsy! I really think Stampin' Up! did a great job at putting together this stamp set besides simply being gorgeous it has all the elements you might want to make cards. For the two main images, one is long and narrow while the other one is square so there is sure to be an image to fit your lay out. The definition and the script-like word "Bloom" work really well together and then you have a bonus bee to through in for an added touch. This set is a real joy to work with!
Recipe:
Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful
Papers: kraft, bashful blue, watercolour paper
Inks: Stazon black, bashful blue, Sahara sand, creamy caramel, VersaMark
Tools & Accessories: Rich regal and earth element Watercolour Wonder Crayons, aquapainter, hemp, Silver EP, Spiral Punch
I've been wanting to share these cards for ages! My techniques class last month was an introduction to watercolouring using Watercolor Wonder Crayons and Aquapainters or Blender pens. I had so much interest in this class that I had to split it into 2 separate classes. One class was in march and the next one will be on Thursday April 17th at 7pm. There is still a little space if you are interested. The class costs $15 or $10 for Stampin' VIP members and you can RSVP to me by e-mail or phone. 
This is the first card we did to get used to moving around the colours. We created a sunset background using the colour wash technique Then we embossed the wild flowers and butterfly from The Essence of Love set with black EP so that it really popped! I pushed myself out of my colour comfort zone with this card, did you know that before making this card I had never even touched my Bravo Burgundy? I'm still not in love with this colour but I see that it has its uses ;^>.
Recipe:
Stamps: The essence of Love
Paper: not quite navy, bravo burgundy, so saffron, watercolour paper, Spring break DSP
Inks: Versamark
Tools & Accessories: Rich Regal Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, spray bottle, black EP, needle tool.
This is the second card we made. I always struggle a little with masculine cards so I was thrilled to see the set 'For Father', this image with the puppy was the one that really sold me. I really enjoyed putting this card together. I tried to echo the boot laces with the jumbo eyelets on the right what do you think? One of the really cool things about this image is that you an easily change the dog breed based on how you colour it. I've seen black, chocolate and yellow labs but I also saw the puppy turned into a beagle. You can turn it into pretty much any kind of short haired hound, hmm... my brother is trying to become a fire fighter, this could be a great image to congratulate him using black boots and a dalmatian.... I'll let you know how that goes!
Recipe
Stamps: For Father
Papers: watercolour, bordering blue, always artichoke, chocolate chip
Inks: Stazon black, creamy caramel, basic grey
Tools & Accessories: Earth Elements Watercolour Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, Crop-A-Dile, jumbo eyelets, hemp, piercing tool
This was the last card we made at the 'Watercolour I Wonder..' class. I think it's my favourite. The colour combo and basic layout was inspired by someone at SCS . If you love to colour you can't get much better than the Bloomin' Beautiful set from the Occasions Mini Catalogue . I created a weathered look on this card by tapping the edge of a creamy caramel ink pad in a random fashion, while this looks OK I prefer the look achieved by my students with the actual Weathered BG stamp talk about instant vintage...yet another stamp I now must order for myself!!
Recipe:
Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, French Script, Weathered
Papers: Watercolour paper, ruby red, old olive, whisper white
Inks: same as paper + creamy caramel & Stazon Black
Tools & Accessories: corner rounder punch, Earth Elements Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, old olive polytwill ribbon, styled silver hodgepogde ribbon slide, circle punches, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, 2-way glue pen.
Remember if you can't attend a scheduled class contact me and see about hosting a class for you and a few friends when it's convenient for you!
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.
