3 birthday cards

I'm very frustrated with my computer right now! It's so slow...I guess it must be time to do a little spring cleaning on the computer as well as the house (groan!)
Anyway after much thumb twiddling while my photos uploaded here are the 3 cards we'll be making on Thursday evening. It's always good to have a few birthday cards around for those times when you turn the page on the calendar and realize that someone's birthday is the next day...not just the next month LOL. The colours on the bugs and kisses card are WAY OFF! The background paper is Basic Grey Limeade and it's so bright and funky looking especially after running it through the Cuttlebug in the swiss dots embossing folder...the picture really doesn't do it justice. I really like the argyle paper on the chocolate cupcake card, but I think we may add a bit more detail on the brown scalloped border in class...it needs a little something else ... not sure what yet, but I'll figure it out before class! The frame around the other cupcake card was made with a Spellbinders frameabilities die. It took longer to poke the holes out of all those scallops than it did to make the rest of the card LOL! Well, there's a little bit of sunshine left so I'm off to read my book in the sunroom 'til supper is ready. Have a great week!

No Foolin'

Drum roll please............ Congratulations to Lynn Joncas, the winner of our first Design a Card Contest. Her beautiful "Hello Spring" card, pictured above, received the greatest number of votes and so she will receive a $10 Papercraft Cafe gift card. Many customers told me they couldn't choose just one favourite as they were all fabulous. Although there were several entries that received multiple votes, none came close to the number Lynn's received and I'm sure everyone would agree that her creativity really shines through this card.
It make me smile just to look at it.
Well here we are starting a brand new month and we have a brand new contest for you. Since April is "Earth Month" our contest will make use of Cosmo Cricket's "Earth Love Elements" paper. Customers can pick up a sheet of this paper for $1 and create a standard A2 size card using one or more of the elements on the paper. They can use any other products they wish, but as an added challenge, they need to include one element that has been re-purposed. For instance, a piece of old lace, trim or fabric; an odd button; wrapping paper or anything else that you wouldn't have purchased for card-making or scrap-booking. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with, but there are only 20 sheets of this paper available so hurry in and pick yours up if you'd like to enter the contest. All cards must be submitted by Saturday, April 17th and voting will begin on Monday April 19th. We'll count the votes at the end of the day on Friday April 30th and declare a winner!
Today is the first day of our V.I.P. program. Pick up a V.I.P. card when you make a $15 purchase, and for each $15 (before tax) you spend in the store your card will be stamped once. When you have 10 stamps on your card you'll receive $10 in free merchandise! Class fees count as a purchase too, so whenever you attend a 3 card class you'll get a stamp on your card....is that cool or what?
Wishing everyone a Happy Easter full of blessings.

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.