Feeling Cocky

I have a lot on the go right now stamping and scrapbooking wise and I'm almost on top of it all. I'm feeling a bit cocky about it truth be told.

I'm teaching my Quick Cards class on Thursday and I have my four samples done. Yeah!

I have my technique figured out for December's Technique Club and I have 4 samples done.

I have two layouts done for my Paper Pack Club for December.

I'm feeling a little cocky. It's seemed to come together. I am hoping this means that I am getting back into the groove and that things will continue to go well and not that I'm due for a smackdown by the Creativity Fairy.

At any rate, I seem to be doing well now, so for today, I'll take it. And to celebrate, I'm going to share a sneak peek of one of the December Technique Club samples.

The technique is called Lumiere Crystal and it's a play on an old technique.

The Dilemma of Unmounted Stamps

For years, I avoided unmounted stamps because I was scared of them. Not scared like a mouse just ran over my foot or like I heard a noise late at night when I'm alone, but scared like I didn't know how to deal with them. I didn't have a bunch of wood blocks to mount them and frankly, I didn't really like the look of homemade mounted stamps (I'm snobby about how stuff looks). Eventually some friends convinced me to get some and I used Tack It Over & Over on them and just used them to stick onto my blocks. That was OK, except, where do you store them? I stuck them to acetate and threw them in a box where I ignored them and rarely used them.

Then the clear stamps came out (OK, they were probably already out, but they became popular enough that I saw them) and I came up with a system of sticking them to acetate and throwing them in the drawers with my regular mounted stamps. While I was at it, I threw in the other unmounteds too. Then I proceeded to not really use them because they'd get buried in the bottom of the drawer.

Then one day at a stamp club meeting, my friend Toni showed us these DVD cases she had found and I was sold. I found a distributor who would sell to me and brought in a ton. That was several years ago and I'm still using the system. I love it. And my Brother Label Machine 1/4" labels fit perfectly along the spine of the DVD case. I titled them and organized them and they sat on a shelf above my work area.

Then I discovered Tim Holtz stamps and fell in love again. I put them in my DVD cases and soon my shelf was full. Originally, my Tim stamps were put in order with my other stamps and all mixed in. I found myself reaching for them most often though, since I'm often doing samples to show off stuff I sell and it's helpful when I can actually bring in the stamps in the samples. And it was like my Tim stamps got lost amongst the other stamps.

Finally, I had a brainwave and put all my Tim stamps together in order and my other stamps together. I wanted to be able to quickly differentiate my Tim stamps from my others, so I put little red dots on the cases. Sometimes, I'd get overwhelmed looking for a set I knew I had that I really liked. Then the lightbulb really went on and I labeled my favorite stamps with little blue dots. So now I have a great visual of my favorite and my Tim stamps amongst a great system of storing my unmounted stamps.

Here you can see how I've labeled them and you can see all the red and blue dots.

And here is a more wide angle shot of my whole shelf.

A Cake for Jayson

My sister's brother-in-law is turning 40 and they were having a surprise birthday party. And what is a party without a cake??

Not a party, that is for sure!

So, Becky, her mother-in-law and I made a cake.

Overall it went pretty well which is impressive. Each time we do this, we learn something new and sometimes it feels like the blind leading the blind, but that's OK. It's still fun!!


I've been organizing my craft room lately and I have a few posts planned out coming up about that. I've also been stamping, so hopefully, I'll have some good content to share soon.

The Cat's Out of the Bag

My sister and I have been frantically working on an album for our parents to recognize their 40th Anniversary. It has consumed us for the better part of a month, but we gave it to them last weekend, so the cat's out of the bag now.

It was a huge album and I loved some of the layouts. Unfortunately, because they all had pictures of other people on them, I don't feel right sharing them here. And as a result of my time and energy being spent on this album, I haven't had time to create as much to share here. The good news, though, is that now I can!

I wanted to share a quick layout I did for Nathalie. It was so simple. I just cut out a background, mounted photos and cut out a title. Overall, I like the simplicity though.

Stained Distress

I sat down to do my technique club the other day and morphed a technique that I love. Here is a sneak peek.

The set is a Tim Holtz set: French Marketplace. I quite like it and can't wait to play a bit more with it.

Paper Pack Club

I've decided to start a paper pack club. I have a few people who are interested, so I'm going ahead!

Each month, you will get a paper pack. They're my new favorite thing for scrapbooking since everything matches!! You just grab papers from the pack and they'll go together. It takes so much of the time and guesswork out of it. Anyway, each month, you'll get a paper pack and some kind of embellishment or stamp or something to go with it. I will use the paper pack and embellishment to create a layout and you'll get a copy of that layout with the instructions for recreating it. Cost will be no more than $30. Some of the packs are a bit cheaper and I'll reflect that in the price. I can't wait to get started!!

In the meantime, here is a simple layout that I did for Nathalie.

So Sad

I saw a layout like this in a magazine and loved the simplicity. Normally, the most difficult thing would be to find 4 matching, but different, but coordinating papers to use for the strips. But nope! I grabbed my Basic Grey paper pack (Out of Print) and chose four papers that I liked. I cut them into strips, tore the ends and then glued them down and stitched across the top. Mounted Photos, cut out a title, a quick journal and I was done. And I loved it which was good because the layout before this one (which shall not be named, nor seen) didn't end up in the I love it pile.

Another Pearl Resist

I really like how this card turned out. I did a Pearl Resist with Silver Liquid Pearls and Aged Mahogany Distress Ink and then I just stamped the verse from Urban Tapestry by Tim Holtz. I distressed the edges and mounted it.

Sweet

I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel regarding Nathalie's scrapbook. The pile of photos is going down and I've set a goal to be done layouts to her first birthday by the end of 2011. That may not seem too difficult, but I just don't seem to ever have enough time. So, I'm just going to push hard and see what I can get done on her album.

I saw a layout in a magazine which inspired this Sweet layout. It's very simple; just a 12x12" piece of patterned paper, a scalloped frame which I cut from my Cricut (but you could just cut if you wanted) and 3 small embellishments. So simple, but I love it.

Camping

A couple of years ago, I decided I needed to deal with the plethora of magazines which were taking over my craft room. I almost never looked through them and so they were taking up space which could be used for more product! I kept a couple of magazines that I really liked (Take Ten) and went through all my scrapbooking magazines and ripped out pages with layouts and ideas that interested me. Then I put the pages in a drawer. When I'm not feeling inspired, then I go through the drawer and rifle through the pages.

When I told people what I was doing, they looked at me like I was crazy. How can you get rid of those magazines, they asked? For me, the answer was simple. I wasn't looking through them. I'd get overwhelmed looking at all of them, so now I just have some pages to flip through. I did keep all my Simple Scrapbook magazines since they're totally my style and I decided I'd keep one years worth of Creating Keepsakes magazines. After a year, I'd go through and rip out the pages that I liked. That way, I'd never have a ton of magazines doing nothing.

I went to scrapbook the other night and grabbed an inspiration sheet and it was a cool paper piecing camping type one. I don't normally do paper piecing, but one in awhile, I really like it. This one was quite quick to put together and while it's somewhat cute, I still really like it.

New Product

The kids were off last week and Glenn took vacation as well. You would think that would give me a ton of extra time to stamp, scrapbook and play, right? Well, I did a bit, but since we were both home, we spent a ton of time cleaning and organizing the house. The basement is looking great which makes me very happy, and in turn, feeling much more creative.

Today, I went through two boxes of new product. There wasn't a ton of new stuff, but that's OK. It was still fun.

The biggest news is that I have four packages of the Winter Distress Inks in stock now. These are a limited run and when they run out, they run out. Each store was allowed to order 9 packages and that was it. There are no reinkers for these, but the Distress Pads do very well without needing to be reinked. You could always use some Perfect Ink Refresher by Ranger too. Each set is $18.00. I'm offering them to my blog readers first.



I also have these somewhat cool little 2x2" stretched burlap and stretched canvas things. I didn't read the description very well and I thought it was a package of 2x2" burlap and canvas. I figured they would be cool to stamp on and staple onto a card. Out goes that idea, but they're still kind of cool. I haven't figured out exactly what to do with them, but they're cheap and so I might just play and make an embellishment of some kind. They would be quite cool to decorate and then make into a magnet for the fridge since they're only 2x2" They are $2.50 each.

Lastly, I ordered this cool Tim Holtz Stamp set. I love the script type background and I really like the windmill too. I figured I'd show it off in case anyone was interested. Otherwise, I can't wait to play with it and have some samples.

Peace Card

I loved my calendar page so much, that I wanted to create a card based on it. I didn't, however, want to cut stuff out with the Cricut for it; I just wanted to use stamps.

I did the same basic layout, but I reversed my colours for the script background and used Aged Mahogany and then stamped a flower on top using Versafine Onyx Black. I added a couple silver Dazzles to the centre of the bigger flowers. Then I just used a small stamp in the bottom right corner.

Overall, I really like it. It's so simple. I really like how the Dazzles just finish it. They're flat, so easy to mail, but they have so much dimension.

Peace

I was at a retreat last weekend and my goal was to finish my Calendar Swap pages and my Christmas Cards. I sat down a few days before I left to start my calendar prototype. I was very nervous as typically, it takes me hours to finish a prototype that I like. Well, that day, it just came together. I did a few things and then it was done. It's very simple, but I love it.

I started out by wanting to cut something out of the Cricut and I found some cool flower spray. They turned out to be poppies.

Then I found that I was missing some texture, so I stamped a little background script stamp (Stamping Bella). I wanted a stamp for the bottom right and I chose a scripty Peace one.

I had November and I wasn't even trying to do a Remembrance Day theme, but it just happened. It was so bizarre, but I love how it turned out. So simple. So perfect for Peace.



Take a moment today to remember all those who have fought and who are still fighting for our freedom. One of my strongest, most powerful memories is from standing on Juno Beach in Northern France. It is the beach the Canadians landed on for D-Day and imagining what happened there years ago really hit me hard.

Pearl Resist

A couple of months ago, I did a Pearl Resist for my technique club. I love any kind of resist and if it is shimmery, then even better!!

For this one, I used Ranger's Liquid Pearls. I only had the Pearl, Silver and Gold to play with, but they make a bunch of different colours, so it could be quite cool.

I squished some of the Liquid Pearls on my craft sheet and then just used it to ink my stamp and I stamped. I heat set it, cleaned my stamp right away and then just used Distress Inks overtop with my Ink Blending Tool.

I love how this card turned out. I really like this set (Curtain Call 3 by Hampton Arts).

Chalkboards

I was so excited when I saw Chalkboard paper in the new stuff at one of my distributors. I ordered a couple pieces and instantly had an idea.

I thought it would be fun to make cool chalkboards for the kids so they could write notes and such. Kayla loves to write us notes and have us write them back. She had this little pouch thing on her door, but it always fell down, and wasn't ideal.

I ordered a couple of nice 12x12 black frames by Prima and just put the 12x12" chalkboard paper. The tricky part was trying to figure out how I was going to adhere it to their doors without wrecking them. I didn't want to put a nail in the door and I wanted the frame to be more stable and secure. I finally settled on the 3M Command Velcroe Strips. These are the removable ones; they have the hooks too. I put the velcro on the door and on the frame and it works great. We can take it down off the door if we want, but when it's on the door, it's really secure and sturdy.

The kids love it and were so excited. I hung them and then just wrote Kayla's Room on hers and Eric's Room on is (original, huh?). Within minutes, the kids had erased them and Kayla had hers all allocated for comments.


Eric had written Star Wars on his, along with characters and Transformers.


They've since added more stuff and changed them several times, but they love them! I have ordered more of the chalkboard paper as I think it would be cool to punch out pieces and attach them to cards with a handwritten note.

More Goosebumps

I remember when we used to ink a whole piece of cardstock with Versamark and then put clear embossing powder on it, heat set, repeat to get a texture on our panels.

I liked the look; hated the work. Now, I can get the same idea with Goosebumps. I cut a panel out of one of my Spellbinders Labels and stamped on it. Then I sprayed quite a thick layer of Goosebumps on it and let it dry and when it did, it had a nice coated layer to it. So cool.

Just remember when you use your Goosebumps, cover your work surface well so that you don't end up with sticky stuff everywhere (it's not easy to get off when it's dry - believe me!!) And also, clean out the sprayer with hot water. I didn't do that and mine is now permanently clogged. It's almost all gone, so I'll just get a new bottle and swap out the nozzle.

Elmo

When Nathalie was born, my friend, Melanie made her the cutest card. It's a Sesame Street card with Cookie Monster, Elmo, Oscar the Grouch & Big Bird all done from punches. It looks so cool and I imagine it would have taken forever to make (probably not forever, but it's a lot more finicky than I could ever do). I've kept it on display in my craft room because I just love it.


On Saturday, we celebrated my nephew's first birthday. He is quite the Elmo fanatic. I used Melanie's card as an inspiration and then checked out the internet for ideas on how to make it just an Elmo card since there was no way I'd have the patience to make 4 faces. In the end, I just made an Elmo head card. I used my Spellbinders Circle and Scalloped Circle sets and it was very quick.I cut two scalloped circles and then just cut a piece of white cardstock to 2x2.5" and scored it at 1" and folded it in half. I then attached it to each scalloped circle to join them into a card that opened. The mouth is a large circle cut in half.

Overall, the card was so quick, I was surprised.

Spider Goodness

It's been awhile. Again. And I feel guilty about that, but with three kids and a business, sometimes I don't get here. That's the bad news. The good news is that I have several blog post possibilities lined up, so I should be able to hang out here for at least the next little bit.

Hallowe'en was on Monday and I wanted to make some cool cakes for the kids to take for their Hallowe'en parties, so I made spider cakes. All told, they were some of the easier cakes I've done and overall, I was fairly happy with how they turned out. I bought the sparkle spiders from Michaels and lucked out getting blue (Eric's favorite colour) and purple (Kayla's favorite colour) since they were almost sold out by the time I made it there to buy them.

The kids were thrilled with them and they were a bit hit at the parties.