Yule Trees

This tree is decorated with Ornaments that I have received in swaps.  The majority are from SSDS a group where we made 25 ornaments and sent each ornament to a different person.   We each received a different ornament.  Some of the members made greeting cards,  knitted dishcloths, a small runner.  It was exciting opening each little package.

This is our small hall tree. 

Here a photo's of Wolf cutting down the small tree for our entrance way.

The small tree is a juniper that was growing wild beside our irrigation ditch.  

Fathers Day Tool Card

This is a Fathers Day card that I made.  I used aluminum foil for the background and ran it through my cuttlebug.  The little apron was made from card stock and attached with Brads.  The ties are small pieces of leather.

The little tools are metal that I purchased from a dollar store.  They can be removed from the apron for use.

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.

Shaker Card

This is a Shaker Card for a Just Cards Swap.  I received the large bingo sheet as a RAK and the small bingo card is from a collage sheet from Altered Pages.  The clear circle is from a packaging and I used Martha Stewarts glitter.  Wellbond was used to attach the round acetate to the card.

Coloured Image Focal Point

This card used a coloured image as the focal point.  I received this image in an image swap awhile ago.  The cupcakes she is holding in each hand are brads. The yellow flower is a made from glitter foam. I used two sided foam tape to attach each item to give a 3D effect

Food Card

This was for a swap using Food as the theme.  The large strawberries were cut from a newspaper ad as was the word Strawberries.  The word was layered onto a piece of polka dot paper.  The center where the strawberry is was cut using two different dies.  The center strawberry was from a swap a long time ago.  It was included in a card kit.

Sketch card

This was for a swap called Sketch card. The main picture is the Large Cupcake and then the little cupcakes 3 of them along the side at the bottom and 3 along the side at the top.  The large cupcake and the little ones were cut out and attached with foam tape to make them dimensional.

Side Step card

This is a sidestep card with an oriental theme.  The Geisha is from an Altered Pages Collage. The card was for a swap called "A Different Fold".   Instructions for making this card may be found on Splitcoast Stampers

Jean pocket with goodies

Jean pocket filled with goodies for Art For the Creative Mind Swap.  The pocket was cut from an old jean shirt.  No sewing needed.  I cut a 12 inch strip of material and gathered it to make the flower.  I made three of these and then used a brad to attach them.  I used weldbond to attach the flower and the other embellishments

 

Well so much for my Halloween Commitment to create one Halloweeen piece per day.  I got so far behind, I will leave it until next Halloween and then catch up.  I may start making things for Halloween a few months in advance. 

This post is about Trends.  I hope that you enjoy it.

WHAT TO SPEND YOUR MONEY ON THIS YEAR:

• 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. 

Halloween Blog continued.  Only one day behind.

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.

Here is Day 4 creation for my 31 Days of Halloween.  This is a Telescope Card for a swap that I am in.  I hope my swap partner likes it.
The picture shows the card closed.

This shows the Telescope Card open.

Sorry that I am late with my Halloween posting. I forgot how to load my pictures from my camera to my computer.  My son came home this weekend and helped me.  I wrote down the instructions, so I should have no more problems keeping up with my posts.
 Here is Wednesdays Oct 3rd's update.

Here is the card for the 2nd day of 31 Days of Halloween.  It may be large, I forgot how to scale down the image in Gimp.  The stamp is from Recollections and the image of Poe is from Altered Pages.  I stamped on an old book page, coloured the crow a little darker and added a few stickers.   I edged the printed page with a black marker to give definition.

My card for today will be posted tomorrow.  My son is not here and I cannot remember how to download from my camera to Gimp to size and then add to blog.  I have managed to get it on to Photobucket, but now I am stuck.  Sorry

Here is the coffin that I created for my Art For The Creative Mind Group coffin swap.  The close up of the coffin lid shows a picture of a Sea Captain in an oval frame.  The image is from Altered Pages.  I covered the image with Diamond Glaze and put it in the freezer until it dried than bent the image a few times to give it the illusion of cracked glass.  The coffin I made myself from a pattern I found on the intenet and the rest of the decorations are from the Dollar Store.  I sure hope that my partner will like it.

Promise of Daily Halloween Creations

I can't believe that I haven't posted on my blog since March.  I am going to make a promise to myself.  I will post a Halloween Creation every day starting October 1 to October 31st.  Will start tomorrow showing the Coffin that I made for a swap.

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

Tips and Techniques

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

Gothic Arch

This a Gothic Arch ATC size 2 1/2 X 3 1/2. The theme is At the Races. The lady with the large picture hat is from Altered Pages.

Swaps Cards and Orlando

This card card is a monochrome Blue Card that was made for a "Just Cards" Swap. I used an image from Altered Pages collage sheet #1855 titled "Beauty in Blue"



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.

Organization for the New Year

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.

Man's Best Friend

Here is a card I made using a digi image from CDAC #8 Challenge. This Challenge is so much fun and the digi are sent to you free as long as you take part in the challenges. If you miss a set they may be purchased for just $1.00. When you get your images, you have 2 weeks to get them posted on the CDAC site.

Christmas Bull

Here is the card I made using a Digi Image for the CDAC Progressive Freebie Challenge.

Center>

SteamPunk Cards

Here are two cards that I made for a monthly swap I am in for CST. I used pictures from the collage sheet from Altered Pages #1732. I attached the printed paper to the cardstock and the run it thro the cuttlebut using a Tim Holz folder Cogs and Wheels. I layered the picture on plain cardstock and then attached it to the card. The cog is from swap that I received awhile ago.
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.