Here are two more cards we'll make in class this week. The top one uses the "kissing" technique. If you haven't tried this one before, it's a great way to get more mileage out of stamps you have sitting around feeling unloved...lol! You need a solid, silhouette type stamp and a line art stamp. I used the leaf stamp for the solid and inked it up with a lighter colour of ink. Then I inked up a script type stamp with a darker colour and "kissed" the two together. I used distress inks so the ink stays wet enough to stamp, but if you use regular dye based inks, you may need to re moisten the ink before stamping, by breathing or "huffing" onto the inked stamp. The line image transfers onto the solid stamp and adds some extra interest and dimension. I used the Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves die to cut out leaves from Kraft glassine paper for the second card. This paper is so much fun to play with. the more you scrunch it up and wrinkle it, the more leathery it becomes. The wrinkles will accept ink, which I added by swiping a memnto dew drop inkpad over the leaf. The panel behind the leaves was run through the Cuttlebug using a Tim Holtz Texture Fades embossing folder which had a tree bark pattern. As trip of dotted swiss cardstock and three little matching brads and there's our third "leafy catd for the week. Hope you can join us to make these. Tuesday OR Thursday evening at 6:30 pm or Wednesday morning at 10:30 am. Call or e-mail if you plan to join us:)

Indian Summer

It's pouring rain today, but I'm looking forward to those crisp fall days ahead, so I thought I'd use Basic Grey's Indian Summer paper to make a card for next week's class. This paper has been around for a while, but I don't have too much left and I really love the colours! I also used Tim Holtz' Tattered Leaves die to cut out the leaf, which I ran through the Cuttlebug in the D'vine Swirls embossing folder and popped up with foam dots. I got the layout from the sketch challenge on Splitcoast Stampers today and I like it so much I may just use it for the other two cards...we'll see!

Watercolour class with Linda

I'm taking a week off from classes next week so I don't have any new cards to share with you, but here are the cards that Linda designed for her upcoming watercolour class on Saturday September 17th at 1 pm. Aren't they beautiful? Space is limited so be sure to book early. The store will be closed on Monday September 5th for Labour Day. Have a wonderful long weekend:)

Telescoping card

I've been seeing these cards around a lot lately so I thought I'd give it a try for our upcoming Christmas card class. It's a fun technique and would be a great way to add extra photos to a scrapbook layout. The other card is very simple and makes great use of an embossing folder and a white gel pen. Bring your own white gel pen to class if you have one....there's a lot of dots on that card and you may not want to wait around for someone else to finish:) Just have one more card to do, but I'm off to enjoy some of this wonderful sunshine first...have a great weekend!

Even when I'm early I'm late!!!!

Believe it or not, I had all 3 of my cards done by Saturday afternoon and here I am uploading them on Monday afternoon! I do have a good excuse....really! I have spent the majority of the weekend and all Monday morning (it's now 1:30 pm) re-arranging the store! It's still not finished, but at least I have all the important stuff where I need it! I think I'll really enjoy the new layout...hope my customers do too:) Anyway...here are the 3 cards we'll make this week. You can't really tell in the photos, but the shell is heat embossed and then sponged and stamped over. I added a little bit of Flowersoft to the centre of each flower on the butterfly card and the "happiness" card uses the distress Core'dinations cardstock, which I dry embossed and sanded. Hope you like them...now I need to get back to organizing stuff!

Paper Inspirations

I was looking through my patterned papers for some inspiration this week, because I wasn't getting any ideas from my rubber stamps. I picked up the Basic Grey butterfly print with the intention of using a strip across the card for starters, but then I looked at all the beautiful butterflies on the sheet and thought it might look more striking if I die cut them individually. As soon as I cut this one out with my square nestabilities, I knew I "needed" to open the Fleur de Lis Nestabilities dies and use the large die cut as a mat. (That's my excuse any way:)) I also swiped my versamark pad across the butterfly square and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. Both patterned papers are patterned on one side only and cost just .99 cents a sheet. This is a 4.25 inch square card so you could make a lot of these cards using one sheet of each paper, plus your card stock base and solid colour mat. The Good Friends card uses paper from Basic Grey's Nook and Pantry collection. I've used the plainer back-side of this paper for several cards, but I could never think how to incorporate egg beaters into a card until I was flipping through a card magazine and saw a card with the caption "Good Friends can't be beat." Well...I don't have that sentiment on a rubber stamp, but it was pretty simple to type it out on the computer and then die cut it with the Nestabilities pennant die. The other small sentiment is from a Stampin' Up set which I'd never used before, but it worked well with this card. I've been blessed with many good friends so I may need to make few more of these, but first I need to come up with an idea for our third class card.....

Feelin' hot, hot,hot!

The dog days of summer are here with a vengeance, but even though hot humid weather is not my favourite, I'll take it over snow and rain anytime. I've been going for my walk earlier each morning to avoid the heat and I love looking at the changes in the neighbourhood gardens (the only change in mine unfortunately is an increase in the number of weeds..lol!) This week I saw several fabulous sunflower displays, so I decided to make a sunflower card for our upcoming class. After stamping the image, I cut it out with a nestabilities circle and coloured it with watercolour pencils and a blender pen. After sponging a little tumbled glass distress ink, I mounted it on a brown petite scalloped circle. I used a piece of Kaisercraft's Spirograph paper (remember playing with Spirograph when you were young? I used to love mine)and the Morrocan lace edger punch. Finishing touches are the narrow satin ribbon and rounded corners. The other card uses a technique called rusted enamel which I learned at a Ranger workshop a long time ago and had forgotten about. The small squares were punched from a piece of cardstock which was treated with the rusted enamel technique. After I embossed each one with one of Tim Holtz' small folders with gears on it, the squares almost look like tooled leather ....very cool for a masculine card. The patterned paper is from Prima's Moulin Rouge Collection. Our third class card is square card with a butterfly image....but you'll have to stop in to see that one:)Have great week!