New Spring & Summer Collection

Can you believe it??? My catty arrived today! I can't wait to get five minutes to sit down and go through it uninterrupted by phones, shopping, doctor appts., emails, cooking, cleaning, etc., etc. It has been very hectic the past 3 or 4 weeks; I've had several classes, made dozens of cards and 3D items so it's been hopping. I hope to post some pics here soon, and I'm trying to get a watermark done but everything takes time because everyone is busy. So, have a very merry Christmas and, although I know it's impossible, try to take some time for yourself. Talk soon.

Lynn

'EH'mazing Stampers

'EH'mazing Stampers

Bits 'n Pieces from Card Class

Well I have one more official card class to go, on Nov. 22nd, with the most recent one on Nov. 1st. I've possted three designs from classes - the wreath card, the quotation/tree card, and the blue Noel card, along with one of a set of 12 I made for a customer of mine. The idea came from my 'ehmazing upline, Kerry, who's blog is at 'ehmazingstampers.blogspot.com. Go there and check out some of her great stuff. But I digress! (as usual) The wreath card is a take on one I made last year for my own card but uses Purely Pomegranate, River Rock and confetti cream cs and stitched ribbon instead of Really Red and Mellow Moss cs and red gg ribbon; also the wreath is much smaller and the Merry Christmas sentiment is from a newer stamp set, Season of Joy. The card beside it uses the new Sidekick Sayings stamp set, Dashing DP and River Rock, Really Red and VV cs. I also used one of the stamps from Snowflake Spot for the background. A little SU gold cord finished it off along with some glue and Dazzling Diamonds. The tree was colored with markers before the glitter was added. The blue card was adapted from a design of Kerry's as well, changing the colors and layout a bit. I was getting a tad overloaded with River Rock and Purely Pomegranate so I opted for Night of Navy and silver embellishments (embies?) instead. The sentiment is from Many Merry Messages and the silver stars are courtesy of Background Basics and SU Encore silver. The tree is embossed with Detail White ep on glossy white cs, the background was sponged/daubed with Night of Navy and the spritzer tool was used with a Night of Navy marker to add some bg texture. The sentiment was also embossed with Detail White. The silver stars were embossed on glossy white with silver detail ep and cut out INDIVIDUALLY!!!! 30 of them.....thought it would never end. They were attached with dimensionals cut in half.

The burgundy/sahara sand card came from an idea Kerry used for a card wherein she masked off the edges with an oval vellum template and stamped off with the tall evergreen from Lovely As A Tree. I decided to forego the template and just stamped off, using my SMJ to make sure the trees were all in a row and properly spaced. I had made a set of 12 cards using the same plan but with Mellow Moss and River Rock cs and Happy Holidays from Many Merry Messages. I had bought ribbon from Mike's some time ago and it was the perfect olive-y shade to go with that card. So I used it. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right? But I digress again! That set of cards I sold to another customer who promptly showed them to this customer who promptly ordered a dozen for herself, but with a different color scheme. Women! Sheesh! She chose Bravo Burgundy and I chose Sahara Sand so I put 'em together and this is what I came up with. I sponged the edges and punched the corners and used another Mike's ribbon and SU gold cord to finish it off. This one's sentiment is also from Many Merry Messages. Now this same customer has ordered a set of a dozen of the blue Noel cards so she's helping my bottom line immensely.

Anyway, the card classes have gone well so far and have been a lot of fun. My ladies said the other night that they would like to try some 3D projects so my class on Nov. 22nd will be just that and in the meantime, one wants me to put on a class at her place in Aldergrove for her friends and rellys who don't want to drive to Mission. Sometimes I feel like I live in the farthest reaches of Nunavit when I tell people I live here. That's a very common reaction from those folks on the south side of the Fraser, believe me. In any event I said I would love to put on a class for the group, just pick a day/night and we'll have at 'er! I am very excited about doing it as it gets more ladies interested in SU and that's my goal. I just had to stress that I need an accurate number of people, no more than 10, and a rough idea of what they might want to do and if they're all newbies or not. Makes a big difference when you're teaching the totally uninitiated as opposed to the "oldies" in terms of what you can show them and what's just too much for them. Don't want to put anyone off right at the starting gate.

So, thanks for dropping in - we'll talk again soon.

Will October Birthdays Never End?

Just a quick note with this card, made for DH younger sister who lives in Nova Scotia. She's quite crafty herself so I always stress about cards I send her. But what the heck, I'm crafty too so I just make 'em and send 'em, hoping she likes 'em. This was done with Perfect Plum and Pale Plum cs and a stick pin from the Pretties kit. This was an attempt at coloring the flowers with an aqua painter - big mistake. Do not try this at home unless you have many flowers to waste. I was trying for a dark center getting lighter towards the edges. I guess I was having delusions of being Monet or some other famous painter! In any event it ended up looking like a dead flower but I figured with pearls and sparkly things from the kit it wouldn't look so bad. No way was I throwing it out! So I stuck it on there with some SU organdy ribbon and a key tag punch with a sentiment from Hugs and Wishes in silver encore ink. I sponged around the edge of the tag as well to set it off. Sponged around the Pale Plum with Perfect Plum and that was that. Except for the flower it didn't turn out too bad. Maybe the sister-in-law will think I planned it that way. One more friend has a birthday this week so I have to get busy with that one too. Creativity, don't fail me now.

More October Birthdays

This creation was for the husband of Joyce, one of our camping group. His birthdays is (I think) 3 days ahead of hers but I made both cards for the same day. His uses Bashful Blue and Chocolate Chip cs and a really cute stamp set called Happy Camper. The sentiment is just the words from Fast and Fun notes colored with a Chocolate Chip marker. The campfire was colored with markers also - black, choc. chip, ruby red and more mustard - in an effort to make it look like flames. The trees were stamped off with Handsome Hunter and Chocolate Chip markers and stars were added with the silver Encore ink and the star stamp from Background Basics. I lightly sponged with Bashful Blue all over the BB cs just to give it a little texture and added some Antique SU brads to the right bottom corner. Again I tried a little presentation and DH took the picture, etc., etc. Malcolm liked it a lot, especially the envie which I stamped all around two edges with the hiking boot from the Happy Camper set. On Joyce's card I stamped a Sassy Stem on the envie which looked nice, too. I really enjoyed making these cards so I must have been in the groove or something. You know what it's like when you sit there, trying your best to be creative but nothing happens? Not today; today it all worked!

Birthdays Keep on Coming

We go camping from Easter to Thanksgiving with four other couples, one of whom have birthdays just a few days apart. Perfect excuse to make cards, right? I had bought some Avon pink ribbon purse/cellphone charms that sent the proceeds to breast cancer research and so here was a reason to make a mostly pink card. I used Pretty In Pink textured and VV cs, adding two flowers from the Pretties kit that I colored with pastels and a sponge dauber. It works so great, the best way I've found to color them, and believe me, I've tried many different ways. I added a half pearl covered with DD and made a stem using Sassy Stems and a couple of markers. The sentiment is from Hugs and Wishes, the ribbon is SU pink organdy. I tried to "present" the card with an arrangement of the supplies I used and DH took the picture for me and posted it to the desktop so I could add it here (see previous post on my clueless self) so I hope you like it. Joyce loved it which was the whole point of the exercise!

Gone So Long

I really have to apologize for not posting for so long but the reason is that I am so technically challenged where computers are concerned that I cannot, for the life of me, post pictures to my blog. At least, not until today. Before, I would scan in a card and save it to what I thought was a f0lder that was actually there, with a name and everything, but when I went to add it to my blog entry I couldn't find it :( That's the truth! I would search and search and try to add photos or scanned cards that I thought were saved and I would end up with entries that had to be deleted because they were the wrong picture, or the same picture twice, or blank spaces or whatever the error du jour was for that blog entry. Anyway, to shorten this a little, DH took the picture of the treats, saved them to the desktop and bingo! there it was when I wanted to add it to my narrative. I guess now I have to move it somewhere and get it off the desktop but at least it worked and I'll let DH worry about that part of it. Yippee, I'm blogging again. Thanks for looking and I hope to be back sooner, maybe before Christmas.

Happy Halloween

One of the supervisors where I work asked if I would make some little Halloween treats for her staff and since I had just gotten a package of Creepy Crawly DP in my SU order I knew it wouldn't be difficult to come up with something. The little plastic bags were a perfect size and the card toppers went together in a snap. All supplies used are SU except for the bags which I bought at the dreaded "M" store because they were cheap like borscht and I need to make so many treats. She has quite a large staff, 30 or so give or take, and of course when other people at the place see the treats they want them for their kids, etc. So, the recipe is Only Orange cs, Creepy Crawly DP, All Year Cheer III (I know, I know, it's retired but I'm not planning to demo it anytime soon, trust me :) I also used the small oval punch, the M bags, staples and lots of snail adhesive.

Textured Thank You Card

This little card, although it hasn't scanned very well is a real cutie. I used one of the new textured 3x3 note cards in Wild Wasabi; snailed on a slightly smaller piece of Ruby Red DP and then stamped on Shimmery White with Lines and Doodles and Just So Sayings for the flowers and stems. I shaded them in with SU Metallic Art Pencils, giving a little shadow behind and below each little flower. I added some bling to the centres, raised them with dimensionals and did some faux paper piercing in the lower left corner to complete the triangle thing. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out and can't wait to give it to someone. I think a lot of stampers are using the little flower from that set so it certainly isn't a new idea, I'm sure, but I still enjoyed putting it together. Welcome everybody (Ruth) back from convention - hope you had a great time and learned lots. The next downline meeting we'll all be waiting with breath held for your report! Enjoy the long weekend, whether you're going away or not, all you stampers, and pray for nice weather. We're off camping so of course we don't want it to rain. Bye for now.

Pinwheel card

Hello!

This is another card in my series of realtor cards that i'm working on.

It uses my new punch - corner punch which makes 2 different sizes of photo corner holders.

I used the small tag punch to make the petals of the flower. I also used the Prints designer paper in Rose Red.

Have a great weekend!

Lynn

Punch Holder

Well yahoo and yippee.....DH has got going when the going got tough, when the rubber hit the cardstock, and all that! I now have a very efficient, very compact, very versatile punch holder that he dreamed up in about 60 seconds. He stood in my stamp room, looked at the various components of the problem (i.e. size of punches, # of punches, available space, available supplies and urgency of the situation - me whining nonstop) and came up with a solution. I don't think it would win any major design awards but it wins a super husband award from me. I don't give a worn out blender pen what it looks like, all I'm concerned about it whether or not it works, and believe me, it works! Now all my punches are off my work table and out of my oh-so-valuable work space, and there's room for many more if I need it. This reminds me of "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" where the author states that men are problem solvers, that's what they do, what they're best at, and I guess this proves his theory. My solution was to talk it to death, his solution was to solve the dilemma. Yay George!

The Turquoise Card and the Barnaby Card

Remember I said I wasn't sure what to do with the Turquoise card? Well, I thought and thought and finally decided to give it to my granddaughter for her graduation. The card was so pretty and turquoise is one of her favorite colors so without thinking it to death I just decided to do it. She was very pleased and liked the card as much as I hoped she would. As for the Barnaby card, you'll note that his name is spelled Barney on the version I added to my blog; rest assured that I changed it and the one we sent to him and his owner has his name spelled correctly. I didn't want anyone to think I made a huge mistake. I should have rescanned it with the correction but I didn't, probably because I didn't have time. I'm working part time again even though I retired in April. We're planning a trip to Fiji next March so every extra dollar will help to make it a really special trip. Our anniversary is in March, as well as our BFF anniversary, so we're tripping together. They won a trip for two but we're on our own, paying for it on our own, so that's why I'm working again. Whew! Big explanation. Talk soon.

Brianna's Birthday Card

I made this card for my granddaughter's 16th birthday, using Ruby Red cardstock and a piece of K and Company DP that is sort of plaid on one side and a matching green on the other side. I used the Double Line Doodles and Doodle That sets and added Irid. Ice to some of the images that I colored with markers. I stamped the two chipboard images with So Saffron craft ink and added irid. ice to them as well. I added the happy birthday sentiment with Everyday Flexible Phrases and put a little bling in where the chipboard hole is. Fancied it up a little....I used my slit punch to attach the top layer of the card and called it a day! She liked it a lot and of course the birthday $$$ helped.

Barnaby Returns!

At the nursing home where I work there is a group of pet therapy dogs that comes to visit the seniors from time to time. One of the dogs, a Bernese Mountain dog named Barnaby, got very sick about 6 months ago and we were worried that we would never see him again. Then, on Tuesday the 5th of June he showed up at the door, leading his owner who carries his water dish and follows him around the Manor as he visits his elderly friends. Barnaby is a loving, big, goofy, happy dog and everybody loves him back. Barb Stamelias, the activities co-ordinator, thought it would be nice to send Barnaby and his owner a "welcome back" card and asked me to make one for her. I did that very night and here it is. I used Yo Yo Yellow for the main card, along with bits of black and shimmer white. The stamp set is Loads of Love and the Accessories for it; I used a silver gel pen, black journaler, and various markers to color in the dogs. There is a silver brad from the Antique Brads collection, some yellow gg and black/white gingham ribbon for trim. I think it turned out pretty well and I hope Barnaby and his owner like it too. Welcome back Barnaby!

The Turquoise Card

I partially made this card, while camping in the rain this past long weekend, by stamping, coloring and cutting out the "Doodle This" flowers. After we got home I assembled the Cool Caribbean cardstock by scoring and folding back half the front and using the corner punch to scallop the edge. I added a piece of designer paper first and hole-punched the scallops before adhering it to the front. I stuck the flowers on with dimensionals and raised the petals to give them more of a three-dimensional look. Then I used "Doodle This" again to add swirls to the inside right of the card. I stamped them with Taken with Teal and outlined them with a white gel pen. I haven't decided what sentiment to add but I think happy birthday, thank you, or thinking of you would all be suitable. All in all it was a little tedious but it sure helped to pass the time while it rained!

Iris Fold Birthday Card

Here is a birthday card I made with the Iris Fold technique, something that looks a lot more difficult than it is. There is a template that is numbered and basically all you do is lay the folded strips down according to the layout. It's all done from the back so of course it looks messy but once you turn it over it's a real "wow" effect. I used Sarah designer paper because there are five different patterns, which I needed for this layout, and just because it's so feminine and pretty.

I used Noteworthy for the centre flower (with a little bling added to the centre) and for the corners. The cs is Almost Amethyst and Barely Banana. There's a webside you can go to, www.irisfolding.circleofcrafters.com where you can find lots of patterns and templates, copying them to your heart's content. They don't mind you printing them off as long as you aren't selling them, which is fair. I'm going to transpose mine to vellum cs so they last longer since I'd really like to try a few more. Give it a try and if you need a hand let me know. It really is a snap.

Doodle This Thank You card

This is a card I put together yesterday. It took so long I couldn't believe why I kept working on it and didn't just throw it all out. I wanted to use my two ladybugs on a thank you card but couldn't come up with a knockout color scheme. Many thanks to Charmaine from Oodabug Alley for the ladybug idea. I tweaked her design, put them together a bit differently and covered them with crystal effects but otherwise the idea is all hers. Anyway, I stamped my Really Red cs with the Soft Swirl bg stamp and covered the left end with black/white gingham ribbon where the bg stamp didn't quite cover the cs. Then I cut out a piece of black cs, stamped it with Doodle This in craft white, attached a scalloped edge with 1/2 " circles out of whisper white cs and doodled around the edge with white gel pen. I hole-punched each scallop with my smallest hand punch to make it look more lacy and less solid. Then I covered two ribbon holders from Hodgepodge Hardward with black Stazon and let them dry. While waiting I made a scalloped oval using Coluzzle and the corner rounder punch. I also hole punched all around the edge and doodled with a black marker. Then I cut a ribbon slot in each end, threaded more black gingham ribbon through the slots, pulled the ribbon fairly tight and secured it with glue dots. Also, I attached the ladybugs with dimensionals and added gel pen antennae. The oval is sponged around the edge with Real Red.

Getting Some Expert Help

My upline, Kerry Schwenneker, is going to show me how to upload photos, etc. so maybe things won't look so blank after that! Keep standing by......

Brand New

So this is my first effort but with any luck, not my last. I'm basically stumbling around in the dark here since I'm new to blogging and such, but once I figure it out, and learn how to post pictures from the digital camera then I'll be away. Stand by for now and bear with me!