Sunday, May 12, 2013
piggies, coffee, mothers day
My Mothers Day gifts from Wolf and Tori. Love them all. The Barrista coffee maker is from Starbucks. It makes great Coffee. The Coffee Wolf bought is from Cuba and he purchased it at the Mexican store on Vine Street. It is very mild and not bitter at all. The piggly looks round like Babe and has a sleepy look. Another piggly for my collection.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Shaker Card
Coloured Image Focal Point
Food Card
Sketch card
Side Step card
Jean pocket with goodies
Thursday, March 21, 2013
This post is about Trends. I hope that you enjoy it.
- Well, this isn't new - last year, travel themed products were everywhere. If you invested, in maps, compasses, luggage, etc. you were wise because that trend remains HOT.
- Do you get a thrill from shopping at Office Depot or Office Zilla? Well, our reporters saw lots of office/stationery stuff too - note cards, lines for notepaper, stuff like that. You might be looking at the stuff in your office in a whole new way.
- Arrows and feathers were hot last year and remain so. I don't get the "feather thing" but whatever, if you do, you're HOT.
- You'll see more companies carrying dies to coordinate with their stamps. Hero Arts has been doing this for awhile, but you'll see more and more of it. I love this but it's expensive -- you have to be careful to pick dies that you think will be used often and have a versatile appeal.
- Project Life is HUGE. It's all over. Companies trying their own lines and if they're not, making elements that fit with existing 3x4 and 4x6 pockets from other companies. I am a big Project Life fan. Great concept for scrapbooking and many of the small journaling cards are still cute popped up on a card front.
- Were you a fan of the chevron? You trendsetter you! Yep -- it's still around. Ditto for Hexagons. In my mind, it's quilt patterns.
- Vintage -- cameras, typewriters, luggage, phones. Here's a Tim Holtz stamp set that I expect to be very popular.
- Felt, embroidery and twine. Think texture. Think sewing. Think "homespun."
- Mixed reviews from my reporters on chalkboard as a theme. I think this is a yes -- it's all over Pinterest and in the digital community, but not yet in stamps.
- WASHI TAPE
- Want to know the hot colors? The picture above is of the Pantone Colors for 2013. Personally, I'm a fan of the "color of the year" EMERALD, as I think it's a neutral like Stampin' Up! Old Olive and will go with everything. Heard lots of groans and signs about it.... but I'm happy. Love the basics and think this will be a color that will stand the test of time.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Day 5:
Here is a tag that I created last year using images from Altered Pages. It was part of one of my design kits.

Day 6
I created this pop up card for a swap last year.

Day 7
This tag was also created using images from Altered Pages using their images. This was the second tag created for the kit.

Saturday, October 6, 2012
Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Monday, October 1, 2012


Sunday, September 30, 2012
Promise of Daily Halloween Creations
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tips and Techniques for March
TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
Here’s some vellum techniques if using this parchment
1. Always use special adhesive such as Helmar’s Vellum Spray or one of the following techniques to avoid visible adhesive behind vellum
2. Brad and eyelets, always cute, functional and helps dress vellum up for elegant pages or dress it down for a rustic or vintage look.
3. Wrap around, cut or tear vellum a little wider than your project and wrap ends around tags, photos and flat embellishments and adhere ends on back of project. This allows you to use regular adhesive without it showing.
4. Glue edges, chalk edges of vellum with Powder Puff Chalking Inks from Quick Quotes (which we now sell) and run a regular glue stick lightly along the edges of your vellum. Glue is hidden by the chalking ink.
5. Use windows, place vellum words or poems behind laser pieces and border punchouts and adhere on back.
Here’s some tips on using the Quick Quotes Chalk Ink Pads
1. These inks are beautiful to apply on canvas when using light smooth, horizontal strokes, avoid scrubbing motion
2. Holding the ink pad, put your thumb in the curve and hold onto the back of the ink pad.
3. Chalk edges darker and centre of canvas lighter. Allow the texture of the canvas to show through. To mix color, start with lightest colour and work to darker color.
4. Use on vellum, chipboard and cardstock. Chalk entire piece of vellum and chipboard or just edges. Try tearing cardstock edges before chalking and hold pad at angle against edge instead of perpendicular.
5. Use on glossy paper, transparencies and smooth surfaces. Pat the chalking ink pad on glossy surfaces, do not scrub or drag ink pad. Allow to dry.
These hints and tips come from Quick Quotes
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Tips and Techniques
1) With the intricate dies, rub a dryer sheet, like Bounce, in/on the die...not just a light wipe, but not like you have to put all your muscles into it. It cuts at least twice before you need to use the dryer sheet on it again. Deneen Treble
2) How to stay organized...article from Scrapbook Etc.
1. Clean up your space between layouts.
2. Invest in a labeler or create labels using return address labels. Use the labels to identify where your supplies belong.
3. For digital elements, create a filing system on your computer. Tag the different files you download so you can easily search for whatever element you need for a page.
4. Keep your oft-used items close at hand-either in boxes on your work surface-or nearby in a drawer or closet.
5. Purge on a regular basis. It might be hard to let go of some of those old supplies, but you can donate them to day cares, preschools, classrooms, or service
organization where they will be used and appreciated.
6. Commit to an organization system for three months. The only way to learn what works is to experiment. If you commit for a short period of time, you give yourself
mental permission to like or dislike the system without regret.
7. Determine your top three go-to items and store them together so you won't have to dig through your stash.
8. Dedicate a chunk of time to implement the system for ALL your supplies. If you only organize 10% of your supplies, you won't reap the rewards.
3) Painters tape comes in colors and different sizes. It can be used for masking. Painters tape releases easily from surfaces & does not damage cardstock unless the paper is delicate. Tear or cut to the right size, overlap it at the edges to create larger mask, apply the mask where needed, and when done stamping, remove the tape. To use painters' tape as a stencil, adhere the tape to wax paper and cut out or punch out the shape you need. Remove the wax paper and use the painters' tape stencil as you would any stencil. On the subject of masking when cutting masks cut them slightly smaller than the image you want to mask to avoid halos.
4) Plumbers tape (comes in a roll in different sizes) . Cut 2 pieces about 5" long. Peel off adhesive and attach to cardstock for a background and then sandwich in a Cuttlebug folder and run through. Daub with alcohol inks. You could also attach to cardstock and die-cut and cover with alcohol inks.
5) If you have no use for the baby's crib any longer, take it apart and mount the side rails (slat) as a single unit horizontally on your stamping studio wall. One set of rails can fit at least one hundred small, medium, and a few large wood mounted imaged and get them into view so you can find them easily.
6) Monoprints sound familiar but you can't quite place the technique? Essentially, you get a plastic folder, apply a dye ink pad, open and close the folder to trap air and 'blob' things up; insert glossy cardstock and press with your hands, Voila!!
7) Perfect Pearls Mist...when you spritz some glimmer on a card and have access on the mat underneath blot it up and transfer the blotted up residue onto another piece of cardstock. Don't drag just pat.
8) Instead of purchasing a large acrylic block for those big cling stamps try using your b & c clear plates from your Cuttlebug or any die cut machine
9) Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
10) If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.
Just added these last 2 as I thought they were pretty neat
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Gothic Arch
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Swaps Cards and Orlando

This card fold is called "Double Dutch Fold" and was made for a swap for "Card Swappers". This directions for this fold may be found on the Splitcoast Stampers website. The image I used is from Altered Pages Collage sheet #198 titled"Life in the 60's"

The two ATC"S are for a swap for Altered Pages. I used Collage Sheet #1714 called "White Collage" for the lady on the bed and #1855 called "Beauty in Green"

I thought I would show a picture of my kitty called Orlando. This is the first decent picture I have ever taken of him. Because he is all black with just a little white under his chin, he usually looks just like a black blob. In this picture he has his eyes wide open.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Organization for the New Year
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Man's Best Friend

Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
SteamPunk Cards
The second card uses a picture from the same collage sheet. Again I ran the cardstock thro the cuttlebug after I had layered the printed paper on it. The picture of the wheels and cog that is on the bottom is from clipart.


Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Halloween ATC for Altered Pages
Sunday, October 9, 2011

These cards are for a Card Swappers Swap. The first one is HotAir Balloons and the second one uses Altered pages Collage Sheet #1401 Glorious Green. The card with the silk leaves is an Autumn card for Card Swappers.


