A new technique

I'm so excited because tomorrow night, I get to take a class instead of teaching it..:) Marie Palmer will be showing us the iris folding technique she used on the samples above. Not only is this a fabulous technique, but it's very earth friendly as it makes use of recycled paper. It's also a great way to use up all those little scraps that you just can't bear to throw away, even though you have no idea what to do with them (at least if you're anything like me LOL) We'll also count the votes in our Design a Card contest tomorrow evening, so be sure to check here for the announcement of the winner on Thursday April 1st as well as for details of our April contest.
I'll be busy today as there is a HUGE order of new paper due to arrive and it all has to be put into inventory and then comes the really fun part....figuring out where to put it all.... wish me luck!

March Contest Entries

Here are the fourteen fabulous entries for our March "Design a Card" contest. The cards will be on display in the store throughout March,and customers are invited to come in and vote for their favourite card. The card with the most votes at closing on March 31st will be declared the winner and the card creator will receive a $10 Papercraft Cafe Gift Card. If you live too far away to visit the store, we'd still love for you to share which is your favourite card by leaving a comment here, but online votes will not count in the contest. Because my computer skills are somewhat limited (....OK... VERY limited!!) I was unable to number the cards here, but the top card is number 1 and the last card is number 14 so I'm sure you can figure out the ones in between... lol! I am completely blown away by these cards. The variety of designs is amazing, considering everyone began with the same materials ( they were allowed to add extras.) Anyway, I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I have and don't forget to check in for the announcemnt of the winner and a brand new contest for April!

Easter Cards

March break was a crazy busy week (in a good way) and so I didn't get a chance to update any info here...sorry! This just a quickie post to share a couple of cards we'll make in class this Thursday evening. Tomorrow I hope to have time to upload the fabulous cards that have been submitted for our March card contest. They are all so bright and cheery and make me smile just to look at them. Anyway here are 2 of the 3 cards for this week's class...hope you like them (especially you Kim...LOL!)

And the winner is......

Lucky Fiorella! Send me your address and I'll send you your goodies. Thanks for playing everyone...we'll do it again soon! Happy Mother's day to my friends in England!

Almost time to pick a winner...

Tomorrow afternoon (Ontario time) I'll announce the winner of the blog candy contest. You still have a few hours left to become a follower and leave a comment under the "Candy Time" post. The deadline is midnight tonight (March 13th) My friend Marie (yes we share the same name) is visiting from St. Catherines, so I'm going to ask her to pick the winning number. Good Luck to everyone who enters!
Well March Break has begun with a rainy Saturday, but it's great weather for crafting LOL! Thursday night was another very enjoyable class and the girls in the group decided we'd make next week a "play date" being as it's March Break and we're not going anywhere! We are going to be experimenting with some fun techniques and focusing on the process rather than an end product. I expect we'll all have ink on our fingers and smiles on our faces as we laugh our way through another class...it's so much fun! The week after will be our monthly Christmas card club so I need to get busy creating some samples so I can post them here. A few customers have mentioned how much nicer the cards look in the store than they do online. I think my lack of photography skills are to blame .....I'll just have to keep practicing! Meanwhile, if you're in the neighbourhood, be sure to pop in and see the "real life versions" Over half of the kits for the "Design a card" contest have been picked up and one card has already been submitted...it's a beauty. If you haven't picked up a kit yet, they are just $2 and you have until March 20th to submit your entry. The card with the most customer votes gets a $10 Papercraft Cafe gift card and bragging rights of course:)
Hope you're enjoying your weekend.

Lovin' this weather!

I know it can't last but I'm absolutely loving this weather. I actually considered doing some yard work yesterday but considering was as far as I got LOL! Hope you're all enjoying the unseasonal temperatures and sunshine as much as I am. Here are 3 cards we'll make in class this Thursday. I was going with a green thing in honour of the upcoming St. Patrick's day and the spring weather, but then I got side-tracked (as I often do)by this yummy orange paper from Basic Gray's Nook and Pantry collection. It's called "Measuring Cups" and the flip side has quite a bit of green in with the bold floral pattern. Anyway in the midst of playing with my design I turned the paper over and decided I like the other side better so that's what I went with:) The St. Patty's Day card was made with an image from Riley and Company stamps. I love this little moose guy and couldn't resist him raising his glass of Guiness (at least that's what I think he's drinking...) The green background was created using Core'dinations paper which I ran through the Cuttlebug with the floral fantasy embossing folder. Then I sanded it a bit to get the two-tone effect. I didn't realize what a rotten job I did on the colouring till I saw him larger than life on the computer screen...it looks as if I'd been drinking the Guiness!!!!I may have to stamp a new image and do it again without the beer... (just kidding!) Last but not least is my spring tulip card. I love the Bazzil dotted swiss cardstock which I used for the purple panel, but I didn't have it in a green I liked , so I ran the narrow green panel through the CB in the Swiss dots folder and Voila! This one's quick and easy and would make a nice Easter card, but I left it without a sentiment so the ladies can choose to add one if they like. Lots of new goodies should be arriving in the store this week so I'd better get busy making room for everything. Have a great week and thanks for visiting.

Spring is in the Air

We've had some lovely sunny days lately so I broke out the flowers for our next card class. The blue and green one didn't photograph well because of the glare from the glossy cardstock. I had to darken the photo so the colours aren't accurate, but it's very "springy" looking in real life. I embossed the flowers with Versamark and clear embossing powder, then sponged distress inks over the top. I love the ribbon stamp from Stampendous. It's one of a set of four clear stamps, each one is a different ribbon. Great for when you want the look of ribbon without the bulk for mailing.
I had fun making the Tri shutter card. It took a while to decide where to place each element so the card will look good when folded as well as opened, but the results are worth it. I'll let you know if the girls in the class agree with me..lol! The butterflies on the two cards are made using an Martha Stewart punch. One is punched from solid cardstock or paper and adhered to the card and the other is punched from vellum and layered over top. I folded the vellum wings up a bit for a nice 3-D effect. For the pink card I coloured directly onto the stamp with Memento markers, then misted it lightly with water from a mini mister before stamping the image. I love the slightly blurry watercolour effect you can get with this technique. Let me know if you're interested in learning more about any of these techniques. Classes can be arranged to focus on a specific technique and private classes can be arranged during store hours.