Happy New Year

Hi again, I got so spoiled this Christmas by the sweet man. I hope you all had a fun and joyful week as well.

I wanted to ring in the New Year with an elegant "timely" card. I pulled out my weathered clock die and the clock embossing folder for this card to create a tone on tone layered piece. For the first card, I used the Iced Spruce distress ink and stain. Loved it. Then I wanted to make the same card with pink and purple tones so I used shaded lilac with the LSG starburst sprays.

After assembling, I threw on some sprigs punched with the Martha Stewart punch.( Man, that punch has paid for itself 100 times over already- BEST PUNCH EVERRRR!)

Happy New Year everyone, now go and enjoy your day.

A Miniature sleigh and 8 tiny reindeer

Hi again, I needed to make a centerpiece for my Christmas table. Ever since I saw what "Jim the Gentleman Crafter" did a while back, I knew I had to bust out the matboard and engineer one of my own.

I googled "sleigh templates" and found a free download to print. (What did we ever do before Google?) I then cut the pieces out from matboard and covered them with paper.

The reindeer were cut 16 times with matboard and 2 glued together for strength. I inked them with "gathered twigs" distress and sprayed them with "picket fence" stain in a mister bottle.

To make the reindeer fly, I cut some heavyweight plastic into 1/2 inch strips and glued them to the back of the deer, creating an L bracket.  I  wrapped some chenille stems around them for a harness - so cute!

Once the general assembly was complete, it was time to decorate (my favorite!!) I added lightweight texture paste to the base and threw on some die cut snowflakes. I used the frostyville border die from Memory Box to glue on the edges.  It was a bit short so I added some Festive Greenery cuts from Tim Holtz. 

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you all have a wonderful week, now go get something done today.

The Painter of light

I was excited when I bought this Thomas Kinkaid stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. I must have stamped it 5 times and tried to color it, but it looked horrible. Finally I stamped it with charcoal fluid chalk ink and added just subtle hits of color using distress inks and markers.

I embossed cardstock with my new embossing folder and cut out and oval mat and some spruce trees from "cottage cuts", added lots of rock candy dry glitter and voila - a tonal card that is frosty and pretty.

The sticky embossing powder from Ranger is just awesome. I had used a different product years ago, so I was a bit sceptical as to whether it would work. Let me tell you, it works like a hot damn! I put it all over the picture, the sentiment and even the a few hits here and there on the trees.

The ribbon was taped with Sookwang tape and glittered. I hope the pictures do it justice. Glitter is so flippin hard to photograph.

Thanks for looking , now go get something done today.

12 Tags of 2012 - December

I love making Christmas cards. I had most of the supplies that Tim Holtz used for his 2 tags this month so I just went ahead and followed his post. I will make my own version in the next few days. The only difference was the pointsettia. I had the Heartfelt Creations one, so I used that instead.


http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2012-december/

A "Jack" frost card

Hi! I wanted to share the card I made for the SM (sweet man) this Christmas. As you can tell from my profile pic, we have two awesome Jack Russells. They are a source of constant entertainment and love, every single day.

When I saw the patterned paper from FabScraps, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I 3D'd the Jack Russell image and put it behind the Tim Holtz bell jar die cut. I added some festive greenery and a few sprigs of cedar with the Martha Stewart punch. This little punch has been my "go to" tool of the season. It's awesome - one of my faves. I mounted the showpiece on an embossed piece of cream cardstock (I used the Holly Branch one from Tim Holtz) and added a slight bit of color with distress inks just to make the background pop.

Enjoy. Now go play.

Disco Reindeer

Hi everyone, i had so much fun making these cards. Shelly Hickox (See link) http://shellyhickox.blogspot.ca/2012/11/splitcoast-tutorial-3d-dies.html made an awesome 3D reindeer head that I couldn't resist trying myself. I used the new mirror sheets from Tim holtz for Ideology to cover the outside of the deer. I didn't want to waste any of the scraps, so I made a mosaic background mirror as well. Check it out.

First up is the "traditional looking" cards made for the big game hunters in my life. Followed by the funky and fun mirrored reindeer. It was really hard to get a good photo of the mirror, but I gave it the old college try.

A vintage card that makes me smile

Last year, during the 12 tags of Christmas, I was looking back at the previous years' tags. The photos of the children screaming on Santa's lap just crack me up. While making the cards in my craft room, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. The sweet man heard me upstairs and came up to investigate. Here's what he found me creating...

http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-christmasday-9s/
Tim Holtz graciously enabled us to right click and save these great pics so that's where my jumping off point was.

I added some punches of pine sprigs and some half pearls and voila, cute vintage looking cards to make you smile - not scream at Santa (but if that's your thing, then go ahead)

My Favorite Stamp

Do you have a stamp that you keep coming back to year after year?  I do.  This particular stamp distributed by "Stampa Rosa" years ago, is my all time favourite. There is something magical about it that pulls me back every Christmas season. I use it on some of my cards without fail.

I tried a technique that Shelly Hickox posted on her blog a while back called "Tarnished Silver" you can check out the link here....http://shellyhickox.blogspot.ca/2012/10/new-tutorial-on-splitcoast.html
I loved the effect, very cool, thanks Shelly!

I made five of these cards to give away, so without further taunting, here's what I did...

I made the frames with the "Tarnished Silver" however I used silver ink and Platinum EP. I didn't have the small Baroque die so I had to hand cut the inside to make a frame.

 I then stamped my image on Specialty Stamping paper from Ranger and cut the shape out on both the paper and on the packaging that we don't throw away. Right?!

 Add colour with distress markers and distress inks to give it a vintage feel

 add denim and silver alcohol inks around the plastic to create a Mercury glass feel

spray background paper with Heidi Swapp spray and emboss with  texture fade
add some silver ink and embossed lines to highlight.

Kaisercraft Advent Calendar

Whew! I haven't posted for a few days. The Kaisercraft Advent Calendar took waaaaay longer than I had anticipated. I did get a little carried away though, and I love the final result, but I'm keeping this one. LOL!

I used a bunch of different techniques here. I painted, sprayed, glued, 3D'd and decorated to the max.
My sprays were Heidi Swapp, the main paper collage was from Kaisercraft. (LOVE that paper) and I went on a shopping spree at Michaels for the decorative elements on the top.  I threw on some snowflake die-cuts from Memory Box and Tim Holtz. I used  Mahogany, Black Soot, Vintage Photo, and Broken China Distress Inks to antique the edges of the boxes.

Don't you just love the lanterns from Tim Holtz's ideology line? I bought 4 as soon as they came in.

Now  I just need to fill the little boxes with some treats for the S.M.

12 Tags of 2012

I was so excited to see the resist faux batik on this months tag from Tim Holtz. I have been using that technique for years now. It's fun watching the magic happen when you iron off the embossing powder.  Back in the Western Ed days, Cathie created a fabulous class called "pressing out the details". I think that was in  2005?  Hummph, I still feel like 2001 was only a couple years ago. I'm Gettin' OLD.  Anyway, I digress. Here is my tag for November, one for Tim's layout and one for what November represents for me here in Canada

I love weddings...

My friend/coworker got married this past summer. Her wedding colors were royal blue and gold. I wanted to make a really elegant shower card for her. This has been my most popular pin on Pinterest. Lots of detail to take in- enjoy.

Punk Rock Flea Circus...or my dabble in mixed media



 while dogsitting one week, it got a little crazy around here.  The pups were all lined up outside the patio door. SM (sweet man) took a picutre after I said "oh that is so punk rock".
Remember when Jack Black said that line in "School of Rock"?  It made me laugh and totally reminded me of this picture.

Enjoy!

My first blah blah blog

Greetings to you all. Wow, my first post ever! I have so much I want to say, and yet where to begin?

I've been stamping for about 15 years now.  I love it and I never get tired of it.  We were so lucky here in Edmonton to have a wonderful resource store  "Western Educational Activities", a family owned business that started out as a teacher supply store and grew into a rubber stamp heaven thanks to my friend and inspiration, Cathie Allan (talk about a master at her craft).  As my passion and collection grew, I started teaching classes there (to fund my diminishing bank account). I met so many great women over the years at my second home. I miss you all.

Then the divorce happened. I lost everything. My home, my kids, my dog, my lifestyle.  However, I did get all my stamps, inks and papers (part of the divorce settlement) LOL! I was emotionally drained and creatively drained as well.  I don't think I picked up a stamp for 2 years after that gong show.

About a year ago, my new man/BFF, bought me a Big Shot for my birthday.  I found the "12 tags of Christmas" posts from Tim Holtz, and never looked back.  I renewed my love for the whole creative process and now stamp/create almost every day. I read all my bookmarked blogs as I consume copious amounts of coffee on my days off.  Can I just say that there are soooo many talented and inspirational crafters out there.  You guys ROCK!

And because of those blogs, I now dabble in mixed media, tag art, home decor, you name it.  I went Rogue. Oh don't get me wrong, I still incorporate stamps into my art. God knows I have hundreds of them, but I am having so much fun exploring other techniques. Die cuts are my new love.

Thanks for stopping by today, now go and get something done.

My Creative Space

 

 

Here's a shot of my renovated art room.  I did the wallpaper myselt, installed a fab chandelier and altered the plain white cabinet for my stamps.