27 Friday Apr 2012
So yesterday was crazy and I’m only now getting to post Wednesday’s Week in the Life pics – enjoy!
Still loving the process, though it is getting harder to motivate myself to write everything down! I know it will be worth it when the album is all put together.
S.
25 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted in Cards, Classes, ScrapBook, Techniques
Tags
Butterflies, Distress Stain, Moxie Fab World, Ranger, Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L, The Paperie, Tuesday Trigger
I’m playing along with the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger again this week. It’s a fun one that inspired one of the cards I made for last night’s Hero Arts/Studio Calico class at The Paperie.
The trigger was watercolour butterflies:
Butterfly Reverie
As soon as I saw the border of butterflies in the Calico Borders set we were using in class, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
Watercolour Butterflies
I misted watercolour paper then coloured it with Distress Stains while it was still wet. As I was drying it with a heat tool, I kept misting to blend the colour and get water spots. I then stamped my images with black Archival Ink. I cut around the wings of two butterflies, coloured them with my favourite Sakura Stardust pen and bent the wings for dimension. I coloured the string with Distress Stain and wrapped it around the card front several times. To finish, I adhered the card front with dimensional adhesive for depth.
Love how it turned out – easy but fun and colourful!
S.
02 Monday Apr 2012
A new week is here, much too soon I might add – where did last week go? Oh. I remember. It went in a haze of sickness, and crankiness, and all around no goodness.
And P & C had their last day here. Boo. 😦
I’m really hoping to get back on track this week. I have two new little girlies starting with us, which may throw me off, but crossing my fingers that we can stay on schedule!
On Friday I had a guest blog post at The Paperie go live – go check it out, fun times with paint!
This week I’m redoing a LO that I will be teaching later this month, the original had a slight mishap with a cup of Starbucks hot chocolate. Guess who won?
So, making a new version, with a couple of fun tweaks added – water is a great medium! Sign up at The Paperie, I’ll have sneaks of the new, improved LO tomorrow, I hope.
I’m still having a blast with the Online Card Classes Creative Chemistry 101 by Tim Holtz. I need a ream of tags, not just that measly pack of 20 they sell. And who knew all the cool stuff glossy paper could do? I thought I loved it before but now…
Here’s a bad phone pic of a 3 minute card for C’s birthday party yesterday. Seriously, not kidding. Very cool resist technique on glossy paper – love it!
happy dirtday!
And some of the Perfect Pearls stuff? Way cool! Those who know me know I love Perfect Pearls anyway – now I may be obsessed!
Basically, if you own any Ranger products at all, even one, go take this class, it’s worth it and you’ll learn to use your supplies in ways you could never even dream of! This is an intro video about the class…
Finally, we’re heading over to say goodbye to P & C tonight before they get on the road tomorrow for their big move. And who wants to make a long drive with no cookies?
My kitchen smells good!
S.
13 Tuesday Mar 2012
Posted in Cards, Techniques, Tuesday Techniques
Tags
American Crafts, Amy Tangerine, Distress Ink, LilyBee, Papertrey Ink, Ranger, Scor Bug, Scor Pal, techniques
I thought I would do something a little simpler the next few weeks for Tuesday Techniques – Finishing Touches. Sometimes it’s that last little thing that holds us up but is the perfect thing to finish off a project when we do figure it out. Over the next few Tuesdays, I’ll show you a couple of quick, easy things that work for me!
Today, one of my Mom’s favourites when she sees it – Scored and/or Perforated Lines.
You need:
Supplies
A scoring board, a bone folder, a perforating tool, and cardstock. If you don’t have these items, you can use the ridge in your paper trimmer, your finger nail, and a thumbtack – I just like collecting supplies!
Put your cardstock in the upper left corner, making sure everything is straight, then press the bone folder firmly on the cardstock, letting it run down in one of the grooves; I went 1/2″ in for this step…
Scoring...
…and 1/4″ in for the perforating.
Perforating...
Then I did some masking, inking to pick up the perforations, and I was finished!
And a closeup of the details:
I like how the scoring and perforating, with a little inking, makes it looks like a stitched luggage tag – perfect for this one!
To give you some more ideas of how this technique would finish off a card, here are a Sympathy and Birthday card I made using the same Papertrey Ink set and the ScorBug:
Sympathy
Birthday
And finally, a card with scored lines and another Papertrey set:
Chickadee
I scored over the drawn lines to give them a little something more. It’s hard to see here, but adds a lot IRL – just a little oomph!
As always, I’d love to see what you do with this, or any technique I’ve shared. Leave me a link in the comments where I can view your project and I’ll take a look!
I’ll be back tomorrow with my 12 on 12 pictures!
S.
29 Wednesday Feb 2012
Posted in Cards, Classes, ScrapBook, Uncategorized, Yearlong Album
First off, this is for all of you:
thanks!
Thanks so much for the wonderful birthday greetings and love for the stitched tag tutorial – it’s ones of my faves now and I know I’ll be using that technique a lot. And it was so nice to get happy messages in my comments all day! Also, Lawn Fawn stamps and Sakura pens? Perfect pairing!
Second, let’s talk about Sunday and the first 2012 Yearlong Album Class at The Paperie!
(As an aside, I believe – but I could be wrong – there are a few slightly modified Yearlong Album kits if you want to join in but can’t make the time commitment or live too far away or just want the paper and album to play with! Just contact Meghan at The Paperie if you’re interested and we’ll see what we can do.)
We were an almost full house – 20 people are registered for the 11 classes and 18 were able to make it on Sunday. It was a tight fit but we all got cozy with each other – I know some new friends were made pretty quickly in those close quarters!
Close Quarters!
We got a lot done – the cover page,
Cover Page
the January spread,
January
and the February spread.
February
It was fun and productive though I’m sure for a couple of the newbies it was a bit overwhelming – these classes can get loud and they’re pretty fast paced! Everyone got through it though, and we got a start on all of the calendar pages too – I call that a successful class!
Working away...
Finally, I got a couple of surprise birthday cakes near the end – my friend Lori and my mom both had the same idea and brought in the chocolate, which was definitely well received by all!
Chocolate Cake!
I hope you all have a wonderful Leap Day!
S.
27 Monday Feb 2012
Tags
Distress Ink, EK Success, Fiskars, Hero Arts, Moxie Fab World, October Afternoon, Papertrey Ink, Studio Calico
I was going to post about the first 2012 Yearlong Class we had yesterday (complete with two birthday cakes for me!), but when I saw the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World last night, I had to play along!
We’ll talk about the class on Wednesday.
I loved the red and blue polka dots, the little bird and the woodgrain door. This is what I came up with, while managing to keep all those elements.
Tuesday Trigger: Home Sweet Home card
The door opens…
… so you can see the sweet little bird inside!
I used an old Hero Arts stamp set (I cut the crown off the bird – yes, I cut up my stamps!), and a Papertrey Ink sentiment. Bazzill and Stampin’ Up! cardstock, with October Afternoon SprINKlers, Cavallini paper tape, Ranger Distress Inks, EK Success circle punch, Studio Calico/Hero Arts stamp set, and a large Fiskars cloud punch to finish it off.
Hope you enjoy it, head on over to Moxie Fab World and play along yourself!
S.
16 Thursday Feb 2012
Posted in Cards, Family, ScrapBook, Things on Thursday..., Yearlong Album
Tags
Distress Ink, Embossing, Family, Hero Arts, kids, Paperie, Papertrey Ink, Ranger, Scor Bug, Scor Pal, Simple Stories, Stamps, Year Long Album
1. We have a bunch of tired kiddies here this morning. P & C, the two I take care of, are having a sleepover for “3 sleeps” while their parents are in New Brunswick house hunting. That boils down to mean M & G are losing their buddies mid-March – we’re sad. 😦 Last night was the first “sleep” night here and we’re all dragging a little today!
2. I’m looking forward to Crop Night at The Paperie tomorrow – it’s fun to be with friends and there’s always a midnight snack afterwards! Call and sign up by this afternoon if you want in on the fun too – come on, you know you want to! 🙂
3. I started on the March LO for the 2012 Yearlong Album last night using the amazing Year-o-graphy line…
March sneak peek
4. And that leads me into… I love having my Scrap Cave (which it will now be officially know as) almost cleaned and organized! I’m actually getting work done and not messing up the kitchen! And that means I don’t have to pack everything up and drag it back to the Cave all the time! Yay! When I get the bags of donations out of there and the final bits tidied away, I’ll post an updated picture. Oh, and it really is a cave as I share it with the storage room and the freezer, but it has a door. A real door! That keeps little children out! Can you tell how exciting that is to me?!?!
5. I made this quick card the other day – super simple but I love how it turned out. More clear embossed resist (told you it was a good and effective one!) but without the trapped stamping underneath. Of all the types of the cards there are, I really hate making sympathy ones at the time I need them. Those, I like to have a stockpile of and I’m all out. This one was a prototype that I liked so I think I’ll churn out a few this evening, or tomorrow at the crop night.
With Heartfelt Sympathy
Scor Bug Detail
I used Papertrey Ink stamps, Hero Arts embossing powder and heat gun, Ranger Distress Inks, and a Scor-Bug.
6. As I was typing this up just now, my computer rebooted for “necessary updates.” Really computer? In the middle of my blog post before I saved it? Hmmmm…
Hope you all have an interesting thing-filled day – tell me some of your good things!
S.
sarathings 