Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Cococat Image Swap card

Each month on Cococat's Cardmaking site someone takes a turn sending out an image and then we post the results in the gallery. It's amazing the different ideas everyone comes up with for the same image. This month, this beautiful wagon image was sent out. I was a bit intimidated as I'd never colored an image as detailed as this before. But as I got going, it was actually a lot of fun. I used Twinkling H2O's and I really like the watercolor feel of the finished image. The paper is from K&Co., the ribbon and the heart are from Making Memories and the buckle is from Rusty Pickle.
The buckle and the heart are re-purposed from a card that I made many moons ago for a Simply Sentiments feature I did on Rusty Pickle. I've had the card since then and never could use it for anything, so I took it apart and used the buckle here. Here's the original card:

I think that I like the buckle much better in the new card. I'm glad I finally put it to good use.
Hope you have a great evening.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Cherish Wedding Card

I feel that I've been extremely lucky to have been part of 2 cardmaking message boards where I've felt like I belonged and where I've made some wonderful friends. One of these cyber friends Amy, recently got married. This is the card that's on it's way to her. Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned Paper: My Mind’s Eye
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug
3D flowers: K & Co.
Ribbon: Offray
Paper Frills: Doodlebug Design
Charm: K & Co.
Finished Size: 5 ½ x 4 ¼ ″



Congratulations Amy and Larry! Wishing you a lifetime of happiness!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Christmas Card Class

Yesterday I went to a Christmas card class here at Angela's Craft Center. All of the cards we made had stamping on them and I loved that as I dabble in stamping at the best of times, so I was glad to have so much hands on time. Here are the cards we made...



This one was my favorite, it was 2 tags that come attached. The stamps are from Inkadinkado. We distressed with Walnut Stain, Faded Jeans and Spiced Marigold ink and embossed the angel with Cranberry Adirondak embossing powder. I broke down and bought the two stamps, so you may be seeing a lot more of them in the coming months.


The Believe stamp is from Inkadinkado and the Pine Tree Star stamp is from Penny Black. Here we stamped the tree onto glossy cardstock with VersaMark. Then we applied Stamp n' Bond like you would embossing powder and heated it until the image turned clear. Then we took the image and pressed it into a box of gold leaf. We brushed off the excess and wiped clean with a tissue. I really liked this technique and it was pretty easy to do. Funny thing is that I have some gold leaf that I bought last year but never used. I'll have to dig it out and have a 'leafing' session!

For this card, the stamps are from Inkadinkado, we used silver and gold detail embossing powder and Denim Blue Adirondak embossing powder for the trees. We edged the paper with Blue Permapaque pen and added Stickles. The patterned paper is from Basic Grey. I loved this one too, was tempted to get these stamps as well, but I held out. (may have to go back!)

Here the paper is from K&Co., the peace stamp is from Stamp Barn and the tree stamp is from Art Impressions. The images were embossed with silver powder.

The paper here is from Basic Grey, the Christmas background stamp is from Stamp Barn, the sleigh stencil is from Dreamweavers, gold embossing paste, and teal blue StazOn ink. It was fun working with paste. I added glitter to mine while it was still wet, so it doesn't stand out so well. I'll have to try this again.

The paper is from Anna Griffin, stamp is from Inkadinkado. We stamped the image over the 2 pieces of paper, then punched out an oval from ivory cardstock and stamped the image on that, then mounted it over the already stamped image, trying to match it perfectly. (I didn't quite do it perfectly though!!) I really liked this too and will be trying it again...you know to achieve perfection...
The Three Kings stamp is from Inkadinkado again. We used a Southwest punch for the corners.


There, it's almost like you were in the class with me!! I had so much fun and learned a few new things as well. Now I'm pumped to start making Christmas cards...


Thanks for stopping bye...hope you have a fabulous week.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Paper Crafts-Holiday Cards and More

My issue of Paper Crafts Holiday Cards and More came within the last week. It's a great issue full of really great ideas and inspiration. Not that I'm ready for winter, but I'm looking forward to starting to make some Christmas cards using a few of the ideas I've seen it there.

I'm excited to say that I had 2 cards and a gift box published in this issue. Here's one of my cards.


The paper is by Stemma from Masterpiece Studios I love this Holiday Cheer line and I've used it a ton. It's so bright and cheery, it just makes me smile every time I pull it out to work with it.
The rhinestone gift is from Me and My Big Ideas.

Thanks...hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Thank You!

So here we are again, Monday. I really have no idea where the time goes, I just know it seems to be flying by. We had a nice and relaxing weekend but it was nice to have the girls leave for school this morning so that I could catch up on some things around here. One of the things I needed to do was to get a thank you card out to our Black's Photography lady, and that's what I'm sharing today. It probably seems like a strange person to give a card to, but she really was amazing in helping us when WalMart messed up Julia's pictures from her trip to Arizona and Mexico. We had bought 4 single use cameras for her trip as that was what was suggested to them. She has a digital, but didn't want to take it because they were going to some community centers in Mexico where their things may have been stolen. So we picked up these single use cameras that included developing and a CD of the pictures, and I thought it was great deal. And it was, right up until the time that they messed up the developing. Apparently all 4 cameras got stuck in the machine and no one noticed till it jammed and the film was ruined.

Needless to say we were all upset. Now she had no pictures from her trip. WalMart refunded the price of the cameras but that really didn't make us feel better.

So on the off chance that my local Black's store could do something with the negatives, I took them all in. In retrospect, I have no idea why I didn't get the instant cameras at Blacks, but I think we were doing other shopping at WalMart so it just seemed easiest. Not always the best choice, I guess. So Pat, who has been with our local Black's forever, took the negatives, but couldn't make any promises. About a week later, she called and said that the pictures aren't the greatest, but you could make out the images in them. When we picked them up, she didn't charge us anything as I'd been a long time customer. Holy cow. We now had pictures from the trip and she didn't charge us for them. You really don't get service like that anymore. We were so grateful that we felt that a thank you card was needed. We inserted a Tim Horton's card in there for her as well. Needless to say, I'm a Black's customer till the end. Not only for the amazing service we got, but also because I think their pictures really are the best.


Patterned Paper: October Afternoon
Cardstock: Prism Papers
Stamp: October Afternoon
Ink: ColorBox
Blossom: Making Memories
Brad: K&Company


Monday, September 8, 2008

Boo!

I don't know about you, but when September comes, it feels like fall. We may still have a few hot days, but it cools off at night and fall just seems to be in the air. As much as I hate to see summer come to an end, I love fall. Fall colours are so warm and welcoming, and nothing beats coming in to a warm kitchen when it's chilly outside. Especially when something wonderful is baking in the oven!

Here's my Oldie-Moldie Monday project. It's been a while since I've posted one.


Patterned Paper: Adornit, Carolee’s Creations
Gift Bag: DMD Industries
Inks: ColorBox by Clearsnap
Brads: Hot Off the Press
Blossom: Making Memories
Ribbon: Bo-Bunny Press

Happy Monday!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

New Blog Header

My friend Wendi is amazing with all things digital...and I have her to thank for my new blog header. All I had to do was email her to see if she had some ideas and in no time at all, she came up with this perfect creation for me.

Thank you so much Wendi, it's perfect and I absolutely love it.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Hey...

Hey, can you believe that it's September already?! Where has the summer gone? The wait for summer seems so long and then when it arrives, it's gone so fast. I have nothing to complain about today though, it's simply beautiful outside. Still hot and sunny, a good way to end the summer vacation and enjoy the last bit of freedom for the kids. It's off to school tomorrow!! Yay!

Yesterday we finally made it to the CNE Air Show in Toronto. We've been wanting to go for years, just never made it. We made the trip by boat and enjoyed a beautiful day on the water. We took pictures, but didn't get any good ones, so I found these amazing shots to share today.

The water bomber demo was very cool!

And the Snow Birds are always impressive.
So here's my card for today. The background is made with a Sizzix texture plate which a wonderful lady (Debby) shared with me. They are very cool backgrounds.
Cardstock: The Paper Co.
Patterned paper: October Afternoon
Mini Shimmer Alpha stickers: Making Memories
Round Scallop Punch: Marvy Uchida
Small Daisy punch: Paper Shapers, EK Success
Weave Texture plate: Sizzix
Rhinestones: Me and My Big Ideas
Ink: ColorBox
Till next time...Ivanka