The missing card...and a contest!

Here is the fourth card we made in our Christmas card club last night. I love this corner punch from EK Success and it's so easy to use. The Cuttlebug embossing folder made this a quick and easy card to make with just a touch of Icicle stickles and a heat embossed sentiment. This would be a great card to mass produce for the holidays as you don't need adhesive to attach the image to the blue cardstock...the corners hold it in place nicely saving a little time and money, which is a good thing anytime, but especially around Christmas time.
OK...enough about Christmas....let's get ready for Spring! How about a contest? Beginning March 1, customers can pick up a kit at the store for $2 which will contain items to be used to create a card. You must use the items in the kit, but you can add other items also. The card must be A2 size (5-1/2 x 4-1/4) and the theme is spring or Easter. Cards must be submitted by March 20th and customers will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite until March 31st. A photo of the winning card will be shown here on my blog on April 1st and the winner will be contacted by phone or e-mail to pick up their prize...a $10 Papercraft Cafe gift card! Hopefully we will have enough interest to do this each month and we may switch to a scrapbook layout contest now and then for all the scrappers out there:)

Christmas?????

Well it is snowy outside so why not get a head start on the Christmas cards? Some of the girls who came out to card classes before Christmas thought it was a good idea to make a few each month and save time for other things (like shopping!) when December rolls around again. So here are 3 of the four we'll be making tomorrow evening...( I forgot to take a pic of the last one...oops!..maybe tomorrow?)

Candy Time

How would you like the chance to win a little Papercraft Cafe Candy? All you need to do is to leave a comment here and become a follower of my blog (if you're not already!)
I'd love some help to spread the word about all the lovely goodies we carry here in the store as well as to promote my classes, so if you live locally and you have a blog or facebook page, please consider adding a link to my blog page. Just for leaving a comment and becoming a follower your name will be entered to win some great goodies as pictured above. The package includes:
Bo Bunny "My Word" book, 2 Cuttlebug Embossing folders, Imaginesce Paper pack (Perfectly Posh) Eyelet outlet novelty brads; DCWV adhesive mat stack, Karen Foster bubble brads, Bazzil Just the Edge die cut cardstock strips, Making Memories Flower Tin plus an unmounted stamp from Alota rubber stamps (walking in the rain/umbrella.) The draw will take place on Sunday March 14th so start spreading the word and Good Luck!

Thought I'd share a few things I've been making this week and maybe inspire you to make a handmade card for someone special this Valentine's Day. My creativity took a vacation during the last part of January and I was having a really difficult time coming up with ideas for cards. However, I can honestly say I had a lot of fun coming up with this batch and I'm really excited about trying some new ideas out for our monthly Christmas card class the last week of February:)
The lollipop bouquet was inspired by a picture I saw in an old magazine I was flipping through. It's quick and easy to make and makes a really cute centrepiece. I also "borrowed" the "Lost without you" idea from a card I saw online. I didn't have a compass stamp like the one on the website, but I did have a Tim Holtz mask, which I sponged around with distress ink, cut out with a nestability and added the computer generated sentiment which I cut out with another nestability die. It's the perfect Valentine card for my hubby because it's a standing joke that I get lost every time I drive somewhere! All it needs now is a handwritten message inside about all the other reasons I'd be lost without him...Hmmmm...not sure if that card is big enough!
The birthday card and the bear hugging the heart were both made with stamped images I received in swaps...I think I need that bear stamp..isn't he the cutest? The background was made using the Cuttlebug hearts embossing folder. Don't you think the flower on the birthday card looks like a fabric flower? It's paper and soooooo easy to make...why not sign up for a class to learn how to make this and other cute embellishments for your cards and scrapbook layouts?
I love the bunny hug card and this stamp is available in the store for purchase, along with several other adorable house mouse stamps. They are so much fun to colour. I used one of the gorgeous borderabilities dies on this card...also available in the store:)
The anniversary card is a very simple design using a faux tearing technique...we'll definitely be using this technique on one of the Christmas cards this month!
Finally, the black white and red card is embellished with two metal hearts that I punched out with a cuttlebug die and embossed with the D'vine swirls folder. I also sanded them a little to let some of the silver show through. A very simple but elegant card making good use of the Bazzil Dotted Swiss cardstock which I carry in both 12 x 12 and 8.5 x 11 in lots of lovely colours!
Well, it's time to go and exercise my creativity some more. Wishing you all a LOVELY Valentine's Day and to all my Canadian friends...Happy Family Day on Monday.

Another week has flown by at record speed and here we are gearing up for another card class this week. Everyone needs a stash of birthday cards right? Join us on Wednesday at 6:30 pm to make these four cards and learn a couple of new techniques. The girls who made Valentines last week saw the gatefold card I'd been working on and asked if we could do it as part of this week's class. I used Cosmo Cricket's "Something Borrowed" paper on this one and I really love the soft colours. I was thinking "wedding" when I made it, but I guess you could use it for a birthday or just about any occasion. We'll be learning how to make the lovely paper flower as well as trying out the irridescent embossing powder you see on the outer panel. The green Happy birthday card is an example of de-bossing, which is a technique using ink inside a cuttlebug embossing folder...very cool! I love the froggy card...so much fun to make and great to have on hand for a young (or young at heart)person's birthday. The flower card did not photograph well...the colours are all wrong, but it is an example of two step stamping which gives a more 3 dimensional look to an image.
Well, we are supposed to get a bunch of snow tonight, so I'd better rest up my shovelling arm for tomorrow morning. Have a great week!