Merry Christmas!

Well it's almost here...hopefully all your shopping is done and the gifts are wrapped. I have had fun this week getting all my last minute cards made. I made a huge mess, but I LOVE the cards I made and it was nice to just "play" for a change. I hope you've survived all the preparations without too much stress. Now it's time to focus on spending some quality time with family and friends....I know I'm definitely ready for that:) The store closes at 4 pm today and my holiday hours are as follows:

Closed Sunday Dec 23rd through Thursday Dec 27th
Open Friday Dec 28th from 10 - 6
Open Saturday Dec 29th from 10 - 4
Closed Sunday Dec 30th through Wednesday Jan 2nd 
Regular hours resume on Thursday January 3rd 
Classes begin again on Wednesday January 9th

On Friday and Saturday (December 28 and 29) I am having a huge sale with 25% off all regular priced in stock merchandise. That's paper, dies, punches, stamps, inks...everything that hasn't already been marked down. PLUS you will still get points if you pay by cash or debit...that means you will actually be saving 30%! There is method to my madness....I have to do inventory before I re-open on January 3rd, and the less I have to count, the happier I'll be... so come in, grab yourself lots of bargains and save me lots of boring work...LOL!

Once again, thanks so much for a great year. I'm looking forward to another year of fun and creativity with you in 2013. Enjoy your time with loved ones.

Last class of 2012!

 Sorry for the delay in getting these photos posted. Here are the last 3 for 2012... pretty darn cute if I do say so myself! This morning's class was SO much fun. It's amazing how laughter can erase fatigue sometimes. I was so tired before class but spending time with my Wednesday morning ladies always re-charges my batteries. I am so LUCKY!

Look what's coming on Friday.....

.......and this week's special is a whopping 30% off all in stock Spellbinders dies AND Embossabilities. Be sure to stop in on Friday to pick up your FREE copy of Scrapbook and Cards Today's Winter issue, but don't wait until then...come and treat yourself to a new die (or two) and one of the fabulous reversible embossing folders from Spellbinders before your favourites disappear!

Exciting News!

Just had to share the wonderful news! Our daughter Andrea just accepted a position with the Waterloo Region Separate school board as elementary school chaplain. It's a temporary post from January till April 2013, but it's perfect for her and will give her a shot at something permanent for the next school year. I'm off to visit a good friend in Burlington this weekend so Danielle is in for the crop night tonight and will also be taking care of things here all day on Saturday. It's been another crazy busy week and I apologize for not having samples of next week's cards ready to post. It's the last new class before Christmas and I'm thinking that the first glimpse you'll have of the cards is when you come to class... 'tis the season folks...sorry!

Elegant Stationery Box Class

Karen's class this Saturday. Class cost is $20 plus tax and participants will need a paper trimmer, scoring tool and Scor Tape (or other strong double sided tape.) Only a couple of spaces left for November 24 @ 1 pm. This class will be repeated on Saturday December 1st at 1 pm. Call to register.

At the Winery...

What a busy weekend it was. On Saturday and Sunday I had a table at Pelee Island Winery for the Kingsville Christmas House Tour. We had well over 1000 people go through and it was fun to see so many familiar faces. Jennifer and Claudette did a fabulous job setting up the table and Jen stayed for  several hours on Saturday, including covering me so I could duck out to the store for the delivery of my "new" display units. Karen also spent quite a bit of time keeping me company and talking people into signing up for card classes...lol! Yesterday, Jen spent the day helping me get everything moved around...it looks really different in here, and I keep wandering around looking for things in the wrong place, but I LOVE the new units. Special thanks to my amazing hubby Steve for assembling them all in a hurry...even though he had a really long week at work and to Jen for making a long day lots of fun. Thanks also to Danielle for holding the fort on Saturday while I was at the show. Danielle will be here for the next two Saturdays as I am away both weekends. Karen will be here on Saturday too. She has a fabulous holiday project to share with you in a class and I will be posting a photo and class info tomorrow, so be sure to check in again.

Fun with Flock and Glitter!

Get ready to sparkle! You are guaranteed to go home with a little(?) glitter on your face, clothes etc after making these cards. Both the mittens and the snowman image were made using Scor Tape. The mittens were die cut and then the red flock was rubbed onto the exposed sticky side of the tape and Voila!  Fuzzy Mittens! The snowman is a peel off sticker which was adhered to Scor Tape...then Glitter Ritz was burnished onto the sticky tape. We've done this technique before...it's called Burnished Velvet...but what makes this super cute is that you can colour OVER the glitter with markers or gel pens. Thanks to Karen for sharing this idea with me...I LOVE it! I also used Mr. Huey's Calico Shine mist to make the embossed snowflake panel shimmery. American Crafts glitter papers add even more WOW to this cute card. Please bring your own markers and/or gel pens to class.

Another sale!

Today's Special....are you ready Ladies?????????? 20% off EVERYTHING on the first pegboard wall on the left as you enter the store...YES...that's the one with all the punches and some fabulous Sizzix dies!!! The Sew Easy tool and mat are hanging on for dear life at the bottom of the pegboard so I may as well include all the Sew Easy accessories in the sale too! While they last.... come and get 'em!

Deck the Halls...

How would you like to WIN this fabulous Border Punch Kit from American Crafts? Everyone who buys a sheet of Christmas patterned paper ($1.49 or more) and uses it to create a Christmas decoration to help me "Deck the Halls" at the store will

receive a ballot to enter the contest. I am looking for decorations that can be hung from the ceiling or taped to the walls. Nothing free standing please as my shelf space is extremely limited. I will have Danielle draw the winning ballot on Friday November 30th at the crop night...but here's how you can pick up an EXTRA ballot! Pick up your paper by tomorrow (Saturday November 10th) and have your decoration at the store by Friday November 16th! That's only a week, but if you need more time you can still get ONE ballot as long as you bring your decoration in by November 30th. There is no voting for a favourite here...everyone has a chance to win and I can't wait to see what you all come up with:)

Embossing folders Sale

15% off ALL in stock embossing folders ......... Cuttlebug, Sizzix, Tim Holtz, Spellbinders, Darice, Crafts Too and Couture Creations. Check out the great selection. Sale ends Saturday at 4pm.

One sheet wonder class

All 3 cards for next weeks class were made using the same sheet of patterned paper. Simple Stories have a great selection of images on each of their 12 x 12 double sided patterned papers and I had a hard time choosing which of the dozen images on this sheet I would use. I also wanted to use the "B" side of the paper, which is the holly print you can see in the background. Everyone will have their own piece of paper to work with, so you may want to choose different images, but the colours will still work with the solid colours I've chosen. These are pretty quick and easy cards and the class will probably go fast as there isn't a lot of technique, so I'm adding a bonus project to this class...shhhh it's a surprise!

Here we go!

What a busy month October has been! Lots of new products have been arriving and some of them don't even make it onto the shelves...especially when the delivery happens during a class...lol! It has been SO busy that I've barely had time to make samples for class let alone photograph them and upload them here. I'm so sorry for the delay, but this is honestly the first chance I've had to do this. Anyway, we are gearing up for Christmas cards each week now so here are the three we'll make this week and next.

 The first one will look familiar to some of you. Each year we make the origami tree with different papers and a new layout...I hope you like this one. I used Bo Bunny paper and Tim Holtz' tattered banners die for the sentiment. The middle card was actually made by Karen on World Card Making Day here at the store and I love it so much I asked her if I could use it for our class...isn't it fabulous? Last but not least is the Nativity card...the silver embossing looks so elegant on the navy cardstock and there is a little surprise on the inside, but you'll have to come to class to see what it is!

Card Contest

Probably not everyone who reads my blog subscribes to my monthly newsletter, so if you are reading this, you may not know about my anniversary card contest. On Saturday October 20th I will be celebrating 3 whole years in business...YAY ME!!!!! Since we haven't had a contest in a while, I asked customers to make a card (front only) with a birthday or anniversary theme and to use only products purchased at Papercraft Cafe. I think the last part is what stumped everyone. We are so used to just reaching into our stash of goodies when we create something, that it's a bit of a chore to go through paper, punches, stamps, dies etc and figure out what we bought where. My reason for insisting that only products from the store are used is simple....people look at the cards and often ask, "Can I buy this stamp" (die, punch, flower etc) and I feel pretty silly telling them that I don't know where it's from or that it's from a company whose products  I don't or can't sell. That's all there is to it....I'm not trying to get people to buy a whole bunch of stuff to make a card...just show me what you can do with the stuff you've already bought here. Please list the products/tools you used to make your card on the back. A few customers have already submitted their cards because today was supposed to be the deadline, but I've decided to extend it until next Friday, because I am really hoping for a nice BIG display of cards to help celebrate my anniversary and to inspire other people to make cards. Voting will begin on October 20th and the winner will be announced on October 31st...BOO!
The winner will receive their choice of 6 x 6 paper pad and bragging rights of course. I hope you will consider entering the contest and be sure to stop in next Saturday for some fantastic specials and the chance to win a free card making class!

Memory issues!

I can't believe it! I completely forgot to post photos of the class cards here. I was late uploading the third card to Facebook and after I finished searching everywhere for my camera (which was right where it's supposed to be!) I took the photo, cropped it and uploaded to FB, then headed over to Blogger to add the same card here. What did I find......LAST WEEK'S cards which I uploaded 2 weeks ago...YIKES! Sorry folks. I really did think I had already put the first two on here already. Oh well...here are all 3!

The first one is a very quick  and easy card, thanks to Spellbinders Cut, Fold and Tuck dies. I used my Silhouette digital cutter to create the leaf shape for the second card, then had some fun with distress inks and a fabulous background stamp. Speaking of backgrounds...take a look at the wood panelling on the third card. It's not patterned paper...it's kraft cardstock which was scored at 1 inch intervals. Then I simply dragged a distress inkpad down the cardstock until I got the coverage I was happy with...easy peasy! That's the last fall card for a while. Starting October 24th we'll be doing three Christmas cards in each class....get ready to sparkle girls...the glitter's coming out to play lol!

World Card Making Day SALE

We are celebrating World Card Making Day today with a super sale! 20% off all Sizzix dies and Framelits, 20% off all punches and 20% off all embossing folders...WOW!  One day only folks so don't miss out! While you are here picking up your bargains, why not sit down and make a card for someone special. Bring your own adhesives and everything else will be provided. Tons of patterned paper, cardstock, stamps, punches, dies etc to help you create your own little work of "heart." Come and join the fun anytime between 10 am and 4 pm today

Pointsettia Peace

Woo - hoo! All 3 cards uploaded before closing on Saturday! It's been a while since I managed that. I love the simplicity of this card. Thanks to Jennifer for loaning her Spellbinders die for the pointsettias. I started out using some of the new Tim Holtz mirrored sheets on this, but it just wasn't working for me with all the white and silver. It is FABULOUS to work with though, so I'll be sure to  have a sample die cut and embossed to show you at class. My boys are on their way here from Cambridge to celebrate their Dad's birthday, so now my card samples are finished, I can relax and enjoy some family time. Have a wonderful weekend:)

Fall cards

It's almost the weekend and it's almost fall, so today I played with fall colours and images for two of class cards. I had fun making these and I like that they could be used for a variety of occasions. Lots of technique here including spray inks...so make sure you wear old clothes..lol! You can't see the detail in the top card, but that background paper has a subtle leaf pattern created by spraying Mister Huey's spray ink over a Crafter's Workshop template. I used scattered straw, fired brick and rusty hinge distress inks for the sky, but you could substitute other colours. Please bring your own distress inks and blending tool if you have them.

The pumpkin on the second card was stamped with the Bo Bunny Apple Cider stamp set and the acorn on the narrow strip is from the same set. The patterned paper strip is also from the Apple Cider collection. The tiny leaves were punched from a scrap of the ink sprayed paper in the previous card and the leaf on the green background paper is also from the Apple cider stamp set and is stamped in Versamark for a watermark effect. that's 3 stamps from one set on this card and there are still 4 others in the set for just $5. It's such a great set that I can't keep it in stock. I've reordered it twice and I'm sure some of you will want it after you use it in class, so I think I'll order a few more. Let me know if you think you'd like one so I have an idea how many to get. You'll also need scissors to cut out the pumpkin and a brown marker (if you have one) for the faux stitching. I'll upload the Christmas card for this class by Monday at the latest. Classes this week and next are on Wednesday morning and Thursday evening. No classes on Tuesdays.

Have wonderful weekend!

Is it Christmas yet????

It really felt like Christmas at the store when two large orders arrived with some of the  fabulous products that I've been impatiently waiting for since CHA in July. If you don't follow me on Facebook...what are you waiting for???? There just isn't time to upload the photos here as well, so if you're not a Facebook user, just click on the link from my web page and you should be able to see all the new goodies. Don't forget...the new Fall issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine is available tomorrow...be sure to pick yours up ASAP! Now I have to decide which of all my new toys to use for next week's classes...... stay tuned!

Love that sparkle!

Our Christmas card for this week's class is simple but elegant. I resisted the temptation  to add more embellishment, although a think a little paper piercing in the corners might be a nice touch if anyone wants to add it. The snowflake is die cut from American crafts glitter cardstock. I think I need to stock up on this product now I've see how fabulous it cuts with the Sizzix dies. The blue and grey layers are both Bazzill bling so the card has a lovely shimmer that doesn't show in the photo. The little snowflake in the centre is heat embossed with silver embossing powder. I had to make it a square card because of the size of the die cut...too bad the post office charges extra for mailing square cards because this would be an easy one to mass produce, and wouldn't THIS be a lovely surprise to receive in the mail????????

Late again!

I think if I could change one thing about myself, I would be one of those plan ahead, get everything prepared in advance kind of women! I have a few friends (and relatives) who are like that and I'm sure my life would be much less chaotic if I could be more like them. In reality though, no matter how good my intentions are, I'm always pulling things together at the last minute...like my card designs for class. I started early (honest!) but nothing was coming together until today, when I got into this creative frenzy, opening new products and making a huge mess (you know, generally having a great time...), BUT... as is the case when  store is open for business, customers tend to come in (thank goodness) and I get distracted and forget what my brilliant idea was and it just takes a whole lot longer than it should! Which is why I should start MUCH earlier......! Anyway, here are the first two cards for class this week...nothing like what I had in mind when I began, but I did have fun making them and I hope everyone who comes to class this week and next will too. The third card will be a Christmas card, but I probably won't get it posted before Monday!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Honeypop paper ideas from Tim

Check out all the cool stuff Tim does with Honeypop paper from Inky Antics. Lots of colours in stock...the possibilities are endless!

Sunflowers and butterflies

I decided to go with a simple die cut design for the image panel on the final card for class. This sunflower paper is fabulous (on both sides) but it's a very busy pattern and everything else I tried was getting lost in the background. I realized after I uploaded this photo that I didn't ink any of the edges ( I can here your shocked gasp from here...lol) I also may add another element on the lower right corner of the green paper OR a matching diamond shaped panel on the inside which will sit directly under the butterfly panel (if I glue it down straight....) Z fold cards make great gift card holders if you make a pocket behind the front panel. All you need is some narrow scor tape..... bring some to class and I'll show you how! You'll also need your white gel pen, bone folder and dimensionals (foam dots) If you have a brown distress ink and applicator, bring it along too.

E-Z fold cards (as in easy!)

I made a Z fold card for my friend's birthday last week and I really liked the way it turned out so I decided to go with the flow and make all three class cards using a Z- fold pattern. All three cards show off both sides of the beautiful patterned paper, which is a bonus as I always hate gluing a pretty pattern face down don't you? I'm still working on number 3, but I have the base done so here's a sneak peek and I'll upload the finished piece later tomorrow.

Fabulous Penny Black card samples

While I was at CHA in July, I ordered a Penny Black Christmas board set and it just arrived today. I chose this display because of the non traditional colours and because several of the stamps and stamp sets included could be used for other occasions. If you are anything like me, you find it hard to resist buying Christmas stamps, but feel like you can only use them so many times for friends and family cards. The stamps that arrived today, (some of which were used on these samples) are a bit more versatile than many other Christmas sets and I'm so inspired by these samples, that I can hardly wait to try them out. I only ordered  a few of each so far, so be sure to stop in soon and see if you can resist snapping up these beauties. Don't worry if they are gone before you get here...I can order more, and there are still ALMOST 19 weeks until Christmas! Yikes!

A new video from Tim Holtz

Pour yourself a nice beverage and enjoy all the great ideas Tim shares in his latest video. If I don't currently have the products he uses here, they are on order. Let me know if you're interested!

So proud!

Just a quick post to share a few photos of my nephew Michael's commissioning at Sandhurst last Friday. The top picture was taken at the parade, the centre one is (L to R ) my brother-in-law Roy, Michael's fiance Charlotte (also commissioned as an officer that day), yours truly, second lieutenant Michael James Pennington, and his sister, my niece Charlotte (yes...two Charlottes just to add to the general confusion...LOL. The last one of Michael and Charlotte was taken just before the ball. they had to wear their "mess kits" for the ball....doesn't look too messy to me!

It was a wonderful celebration and I'm so grateful to have been with them on such a special occasion. I know my sister Joan was smiling down with pride throughout the day and she had the best view possible.

Now to get back to reality...it may take a few days so bear with me folks!

Karen to the rescue!

I was so happy to see Karen walk into the store this morning. She's been on vacation and not only have  I missed her smiling face and sense of humour, but I needed to ask her if she would teach a card class when I get back from England. I knew I wouldn't get around to doing samples this week and I was right! I didn't even upload a photo of the third card from the last class!!!! If there was an Olympic event in procrastination I'd definitely walk away with a gold medal...LOL! Anyway,  Karen said yes (insert happy dance:)) and the samples shown here are all her designs, but we will probably tweak them a bit...changing colours, patterned paper, sentiments etc. for the class.

I will be flying out on Sunday and returning on Tuesday August 14th. The store will be closed other than Saturday the 11th, when Danielle will be here. If you would like to call on that day to book your class, please call her between 10 and 4 pm, or if you already know when you would like to attend give me a call today or tomorrow. Thanks and have a wonderful week:)

Two cards done...

Here are the first two cards for this week's class. If you have wild honey, tumbled glass, and stormy sky or faded jeans distress inks and a blending tool, please bring them along. I probably won't get the last card up until Monday evening so stay tuned:)

Ranger Booth at CHA

Thought I'd share a link to Tim's recent blog entry which has photos of a far better quality than the ones I took (go figure!) If you want to see the Joy tag up close, stop in and check out the one I made at the make and take session:)

http://timholtz.com/cha-summer-2012-show-highlights/

For the scrappers out there...

Here are a few of the fabulous layouts I saw at CHA...there are LOTS more! I like seeing these in frames because they are definitely pieces of art. If I did this kind of work, I couldn't bear to have it between book covers. I'd want to look at it all day long. I hope you are as inspired as I was, when you look at these!