Happy New Year!

I hope all of you are busy celebrating the New Year in your favorite way as I type this. My favorite thing to do for New Years' is to go to bed at my normal bedtime and so I can get up early and craft all day. Guess that means I'd better type fast and get to bed!




I got a head start on my crafting day by making these two cards today. I belong to a group on SplitCoast Stampers called WishRAK that shares stamped images and other craft elements. WishRAK has a monthly card contest, these are my entries for December.

The first one entry was to use a favorite stamped image. I used an image from Stampin' Up's And Everything Nice, which retired last year. I really like this set, but was unable to get it when it was current, I really appreciate being able to get these images. I colored it with Watercolor Wonder Crayons, and covered the rain slicker, boots and coat with Crystal Effects, although you can't see it in the scan. The designer paper is from Fall Flowers, which is still available.

The second card was a sketch challenge. I like sketch challenges so much that I'm making a book of them for reference, they're great for me because I have a terrible time coming up with new arrangements of images and paper. It uses Punch Pals which is still available, and Dashing designer paper, which just retired. It's accented with glitter glue and snowflake brads that I received from my WishRAK Secret Santa.

One of my New Years' Resolutions is to post to my blog more often. It probably won't happen until after April 15th, but I plan to post at least three or four times a week then, and will aim for at least once a week until then. As a thank you to my few faithful readers for hanging in there even when I seldom post, I have a little contest. The first person to contact me with an order of $25 or more from the new catalog and mention this post will recieve their own copy of the catalog free. The new catalog will be visible on line beginning January 2nd. I only have one copy at the moment, but should have several more next week.

Again, happy, happy New Year! May you have a wonderful 2008!

Christmas Comes Early to Alberta

The new catalog doesn't become available for another three weeks, but the first copies were sighted today in Alberta, Canada. Some of the ladies who received their catalogs were generous enough to spend several hours sharing the high points of the new catalog. It's going to be a great one! There's a 6x6 pallet of prints designer paper in new colors, only available as a level 1 hostess set, and a beautiful large flower stamp. Several new sets to watercolor (yea!!!!). New sentiments and backgrounds. Striped ribbon. Chunky glitter. New glitter assortments. It's so exciting!

Sleigh Bells Ring...

I'm learning to watercolor, and I love it. When I had a chance to get this stamp from an online friend I grabbed it right away. I don't know how I missed it in the catalog. I'm really glad it isnt' retiring. It will take months of practice before I get an image that I'm really happy with. This will do for a start, though.

Ingredients: Cardstock: Brushed Gold, Garden Green, Watercolor Paper. Ink: Black Stazon, Garden Green. Stamps: Sleigh Bells Ring, Flannel Plaid Background. Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, Hodgepodge Hardware, Real Red grosgrain ribbon, Coluzzle cutting system and corner rounder punch. It's a very simple card, choosing the colors was the hardest part.

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. I'm having so much fun with my stamps and Christmas ideas. I may make Christmas cards all through 2008.

Jolliest Shaker

I decided to try something new to me today, a shaker card. Does the snowman look a little blurry? Like you're looking at it through an icy window, or maybe the snow is falling? Its microbeads, which do have other uses than beaded pens. Now that I've done this one I'm going to have to try some different shapes, too. There are several beautiful examples in the Splitcoast gallery if you want to see them.

This one is made with 2 1/2 x 3" pieces of Whisper White cardstock and 2 9/16 x 3 1/16" piece of Real Red. I used my paper cutter to cut a rectangle out of the center of the Real Red leaving a 5/16" border. I attached the acetate* to the Real Red frame with sticky tape, and put 1/4" foam strips (not SU, but available at any craft store) on the edges of the whisper white, sprinkled beads in the box formed by the foam strips and mounted the frame on tope of that. The hardest part is lining everything up, other than that its real simple.

This card uses - cardstock: Real Red, Glorious Green, Whisper White. Inks: Silver Encore, Basic Black. Accessories: 5/8" Real Red Grosgrain, acetate (window sheets, transparency sheets...), silver embossing powder, micro beads, markers, foam tape.

Have fun making your own!

*Stampin' Up! no longer carries acetate, but you can get it at an office supply store or craft store. Or if you know someone who's getting a new computer monitor you can recycle the piece put over the monitor to protect it from scratches, that's where I got this piece. Unfortunately, the monitor is at my work not my house.

I Ain't Afraid of No Ghost!

This is the next installment in my Secret Sister's Christmas present and a birthday card for a co-worker. The background is made using the Ghosting technique, a really simple one that gives great results. Stamp simple bold images with versamark on Whisper White cardstock, then brayer over it with classic ink. Then stamp some images in a coordinating color on top and you've got a great background. Make sure you use high quality white cardstock with a smooth finish (Stampin' Up's really is the best) and clean your brayer first. Aren't you ladies glad you get to learn from my mistakes?

For this card you need: Stamps: Fun and Fast Notes, Fabulous Flowers. Cardstock: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Whisper White. Ink: Versamark, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum (stamped off once). Other: Black embossing powder, heat tool, white signo gel pen, flowers and rhinestone brads from the Pretties kit.

Apparently the whisper white and colored cardstock have different reflective properties because the ink on the white and the center cardstock are supposed to be the same color. Very interesting.

Can you help me?

I have a Christmas question. I want to get a movie for my sister-in-law, niece and nephew. My niece is 20, nephew is 17. I'd like it to be something all three of them can enjoy. My plan is to put it in a paint can with some hot chocolate and popcorn packets. I'm doing one for my sister, too, who is raising 3 small children, I got them "Happy Feet" and have collected a bunch of penguin images to decorage their paint can with. Please let me know if you have an idea for a good family movie for a family with older kids.

Lovely as Acetate and Tissue

Acetate and tissue is a very sticky, somewhat messy technique, and it takes some practice, but it turns out really pretty. You'll need a piece of acetate, a piece of white tissue, whisper white cardstock, Crystal Effects, reinkers and Stazon ink. Cut your tissue a little bigger than the finished piece, wad it up, then straighten it out and save for later - keep it pretty wrinkly. Cut your acetate to the desired size and stamp your image on it with Stazon, turn it over and apply Crystal Effects to the whole sheet and spread it evenly (I used my fingers). Dot a little reinker in the Crystal Effects and spread it around too. You can use more than one color, but don't use a lot. Too much ink will be too dark to see, and if you're using more than one color can quickly turn to mud. Once you have the colors the way you like them, put your tissue paper on top of the colored Crystal Effects and press it down so there are no air bubbles, leave the wrinkles in though. Set it aside to dry. I've used it after it sat for only an hour, but longer is better. Back the image with a Whisper White cardstock, if you put it on colored cardstock the colors in your image will change.

This card uses: Cardstock: Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, River Rock. Ink: Black Stazon, Basic Black, River Rock. Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Hugs and Wishes, Weathered Background. Other: Crystal Effects, Wild Wasabi and Soft Sky reinkers, acetate, tissue.

Dazzling Diamond Dust Birthday

My step-sister and her husband have birthdays this month. He's plenty-nine, she's a few years younger but plenty-nine, too. Actually, I think it's kind of funny. There was a time when they were quite a bit older than me. Now we're all the same age. This is her card, tomorrow I'll show you his.

I've always wanted to try a lot of different techniques, but never quite got myself going. My secret sister requested things made in different techniques, so I'm making her a book of technique cards, so all of the cards I'm making for the next few weeks will feature different techniques. This card features "Dazzling Diamond Dust", a beautiful sparkly but very sparkly technique. Unfortunately, the scanner doesn't do it justice. To make the focal image, stamp your image with classic ink on whisper white cardstock. Cover the piece of cardstock with Versamark, then pour Iridescent Ice embossing powder generously over it, then use your heat tool to heat it until it shines. Make sure your Versamark pad is clean, the first one I did had pink spots on it.

To make this particular card you need: Stamp Sets: Garden Silhouettes, Hugs and Wishes. Cardstock: Whisper White, Old Olive, Lavender Lace. Ink: Lavendar Lace classic ink, Versamark. Markers: Lavender Lace, Old Olive, Summer Sun. Accessories: sponge, Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon.

Stamping is Always Time Well Spent

Shelli Gardner, owner and co-founder of Stampin' Up, and a very sweet lady, recently sent all demos a gift - a Level 3 hostess stamp set from the upcoming catalog, Time Well Spent. It's a really pretty set, a little on the doodly side, with flowers, a butterfly and a heart and some cute sentiments. I needed to make one more card for my Secret Sister this month and couldn't resist using it. Here's a sneak peak.

It uses Cameo Coral, So Saffron and Tempting Turquoise cardstock and markers, and Cameo Coral, Tempting Turquoise and Basic Black classicinks. It doesn't show well in the scan, but the So Saffron dots and five inside petals have Crystal Effects on them to add dimension and shine. This color combination is straight from the Color Coach, which is a tool I could not function without, and I really like the way it turned out.

The new catalog coming out in January has some really gorgeous stuff in it. I'm really glad my birthday is not to long after the catalog comes out, as I know I'm going to need a lot from it. Call or e-mail me to reserve your copy of the catalog or reserve a date for a workshop!

An Apology, and A Card for You

I ran into a friend on Halloween who commented on the fact that I haven't updated my blog for a really long time. I couldn't decide to whether to be apologetic or excited. Excited because now I know someone actually reads my blog, or apologetic because I haven't posted for so long. So, I'm offering a public apology to Perry and anyone else who's missed my posts, and I'll just smile to myself while I post this next card.



This card is for my DDSS (a Secret Sister for SU Demonstrators on SCS), so I hope she doesn't read my blog. Her favorite color is turquoise. It's not a color I use a lot, so it was hard to come up with something. I started with a sketch I found on SCS (SC 142, but I changed it quite a bit) and played with my Color Coach to find a color combination I liked. I wasn't real impressed with it's recommendations for turquoise, so I looked around for a combination turquoise as a coordinating color and found this. It's Green Galore with coordinating colors Garden Green, Rose Red and Tempting Turquoise. A simple card, but I like it. And amazingly, my daughter likes the color combination and she usually doesn't like the Color Coach combinations.

Stamps: Fabulous Flowers, Background Sampler, Itty Bitty Backgrounds. Card stock: Tempting Turquoise, Garden Green, Green Galore, Whisper White. Ink: Regal Rose, Rose Red, Green Galore, Taken with Teal and Versamark. Accessories: Tempting Turquoise 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, clear embossing powder, glitter, liquid glue and stamping dimensionals. The flower is Regal Rose rocked with Rose Red, then the petals are highlighted with liquid glue and glitter.

Hope you like it!

Hannah's Journal

The hardest part of any project for me is coming up with the color/layout. I'd planned on using burgundy and pink florals for this project (Susan's favorites), and I love the hostess set Garden Silhouettes. I had a terrible time coming up with a good layout, though. Splitcoaststampers gallery saved by bacon though, I spent about fifteen minutes looking there, combined elements from a couple different cards, and came up with this. I love it! There's no pink though.

Stamps: Garden Silhouettes. Cardstock: Whisper White, Mellow Musk and Bravo Burgundy. Inks: Bravo Burgundy, Mellow Moss. Accessories: Antique Brass Hodpodge Hardware, Bravo Burgundy grosgrain ribbon, sponge, markers, corner rounder punch, small oval punch, crafters tool kit.

The focal image is inked with markers and stamped, then the edges were sponged with bravo burgundy. The mat is bravo burgundy stamped off once and stamped around the edges. The mellow moss is stamped with two generations of mellow moss ink. The ribbon on the bottom is just a little too far from the edge to use a handheld punch or Cropadile, so I used the anywhere punch from my crafter's tool kit. Fortunately it was in the middle of the day so I didn't wake anyone up with my hammering.

I used to use my Xyron 900 to adhere the covers to composition books when I did these, but lately I've seen too many new stamps I must have so I haven't been able to restock my Xyron. The last couple journals I've made I've used Stampin' Up Anywhere Glue Sticks, and they've worked great. The secret is to be very generous with the glue stick and cover every bit of the back of the cardstock before you adhere it to the journal. One advantage the glue stick has over the Xyron is that you can move the cardstock around for a little while to line it up perfectly which was impossible with the Xyron.

Moving day...

I'm not moving, but my blog is. Unfortunately, that means I lose previous posts, but I will make sure all the samples I've posted get moved.

Right now I'm working on a project for Hannah to give as a gift. It will be a coordinating clipboard, pen, journal and jr. legal pad. I have an idea floating in my head, but am having an awful problem finalizing it. As soon as I do, though, I will post some pics of it for you to see. Until then, I'm off to the gallery at Splitcoaststampers, hoping for some really good ideas using Garden Silhouettes.