June Stamp Club Projects

This month for our Stamper's club, I showed the ladies the Cracked Glass technique, and also how to use a wheel. I have to admit, since I've been so busy lately (wedding invites, vacation, moving), I shamelessly CASED both of our projects! Who am I kidding? I love to CASE! Most of the time though, I change at least a few things about the card if not most of it. These two cards however, are just about Exactly the same as the ones I CASED. Thanks ladies for the ideas and inspiration! :)

The first card we did is from Terri over at http://www.stampinterri.typepad.com/. Check out her blog - she has awesome ideas! She's also my up-upline! When I saw this card, I just knew it was the perfect one for me to demonstrate at my next club. I wanted to do the Cracked Glass technique, and also wanted to use some of our designer papers, as well as use up my Cool Caribbean cardstock. This card allowed me to do all 3! I think the only thing that is different from Terri's card is that I used Old Olive cardstock instead of True Thyme. See Terri's card here. This technique is very cool; and I don't mean that just because you need to put it in the freezer! ;) (SO corny; I know!) The ladies had a great time making this one. The supplies you need are: Glassy Glaze Ultrathick Embossing Enamel (UTEE), a heat gun, and Versamark. Stamp your image on cardstock, and apply Versamark over your image. Sprinkle UTEE liberally over the entire image, then heat. The directions say to apply 3 times, but check it after 2 times; if it's nice and thick, don't worry about doing it again. The UTEE is used up fast, so if you have a larger group, think about buying 2 jars, and use 2 layers instead of 3 (just make sure you instruct them to make the layers thick). Then just put your piece in the freezer for about 10 minutes and then bend the paper, "snapping" it, and creating the cracked look. Here is a closeup of the Cracked Glass:

Hopefully you can see the lines across the image; click on the picture for a larger view. To make the lines stand out more, apply the same colored ink (I used Cool Caribbean ink) over the glaze, then wipe off. The ink will seep into the cracks, making them a bit darker. You can also use a different color of ink, like a light brown, and it will make your image look more "vintage".

The second card we did, I found on Splitcoast, from Kris (parkerquilter). Click here for her card. I loved how she watercolored the jellyfish and used Crystal Effects on his head, so I had to do that too! :) This card was a great opportunity to showcase the Wheel Guide, and also the grid paper. Not many of my members use wheels very often, so I wanted to show them how to do it properly, and make them more comfortable with the technique. I'm just so sad they retired Fishy Friends, so I had to use it one last time!

I Won CANDY!!!!

Look a these beautiful things I won from http://inkerdoodles.blogspot.com/! I entered a few weeks ago in her blog candy contest, and I actually won! I don't win a lot of things, so this blew me away when I saw MY name was picked. Actually I won a $10 gift certificate to Jacksonbelle Embellishments, then off I went shopping! Both pages are double sided, and I LOVE how everything co-ordinates - even the Primas! These are the first primas I've ever owned, and I'm very excited to use them. I love Primas; I think they're SO beautiful - I just hope they don't become one more of those things I hoard! I will put myself to work using them, just as soon as we finish moving to the new house. Did I mention I am moving? Not far, just from one end of the city to the other. A bigger house though, and most importantly - a room dedicated to my stamping! YAY!!! It's been taking up the spare bedroom for a long time now, and has started migrating into my husband's "man room" - which he has not been pleased about! So, it was one of the key things we looked for when house shopping. I can't wait to get in there! I am now looking for storage solutions for all my supplies, and would love to hear/see how you organize your stamping rooms. I would like to buy some kind of wall unit or something to hold all my paper and supplies, and also maybe showcase some extra special projects. Any ideas?

Anyway, check out Jacksonbelle Embellishments; they've got TONNES of stuff to drool over - I had such a hard time picking out just $10 worth of stuff! I must have spent over an hour online just at their store. Have fun!

A Vacation Well Needed

I'm back! Wow, what a vacation! We started with landing in Toronto at about 2:30 Saturday afternoon, then were whisked away to the Toronto Zoo so my little Kaitlyn didn't go too stir-crazy. After the zoo we went to Peterborough to stay with my cousin and her family. Sunday morning, my husband and I got up and (leaving Kate with my cousin) we went into Toronto to see the Hockey Hall of Fame and the CN Tower. It was so nice to spend a day with my husband, just the two of us. He LOVED the HHF, and the CN Tower is always amazing.

Monday morning we woke up and headed to Algonquin Park, to a cabin that belongs to my cousin's husband's family. We stayed there for 4 nights, where my daughter learned to fish, and roaster her first marshmallows! My husband even got to experience shaving in the river, which I don't think he even minded that much!

After 4 days of "roughing it", we left the cabin for Jackson' Point, on Lake Simcoe, where my brother's wedding took place. How beautiful! We enjoyed our stay, and even talked about (just talking, mind you - we'd never buy so far from home!) buying a place on the lake. We can dream, right? Anyway, after an awesome wedding reception (one of the best I've been to in a long time!) and catching up with all my family (my brother and I are the only family out west), we zoomed back to good ole Alberta Sunday night. It may sound like a whirlwind trip, but there was much time to relax too. A great trip!

Just wanted to post so you know I'm alive! I'll post again soon, but now I've got to get ready for a stamp club meeting. Life doesn't look like it's slowing down anytime soon! I'm SO thankful for that vacation! :)

And The Winner Is...

I have to say I'm quite pleased with the responses I received for this blog candy! One of the reasons I did this candy offer was to see who was reading my blog, how many regularly, and what your thoughts were on my blog and stamping in general. Well, it turns out that there are more than a few of you who visit very regularly, and I received some nice comments on my most recent wedding card as well as my cards in general. Thank you to everyone who left me a comment; I now have a little extra spring in my step and a pleased little smile on my face! Anyone who needs a little extra sunshine, and some positive thoughts thrown their way, should give away some blog candy! Sure makes a girl feel good about herself! :)

So, the winner of this round of candy is: Claudia F. who said "Congratulations! You have a great blog and I'll be back often." So Claudia, please email me your address, and I'll get that candy out to you right away! If I don't hear from you by Friday morning, it will take a little longer to get it out to you, since I'm going away for a week. But I WILL get it to you! :)

Thanks again everyone!

Fishy Thanks - Shadowbox Technique

While we're in Ontario next week, we'll be staying with my cousin and her family. We're going to her family cabin for 4 nights, which has no electricity, no running water (we pump it in from the river) and only an outhouse for a bathroom. What fun, I say! My husband on the other hand is less than enthusiastic, but then, he's not from a "roughing it" kind of background. Sure he likes to camp for a day or 2, but I think he's a little frightened of what we're getting ourselves into. I've been there before; in fact I took my then 6 month old daughter, and stayed there a whole week with my cousin and her two children (then 2 1/2 and 9 months)! We had a great time, and I expect nothing less this time around. So, to thank her family for being such great hosts, I made them this "Fishy" card. I am in love with the Shadow box card, and have been making them non-stop for a little while (I'll post another from a swap I'm doing soon, and I've also got another one on the blog here). So here's a little tutorial for how to make this card:

Step 1: Cut 2 pieces of cardstock into 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (regular card size). Then score at 1/2" and 1" on each side. You can do this width-ways (on the 4 1/4" side) or length-ways (on the 5 1/2" side) as shown on this card. Fold along scored lines, so that when put together, your pieces form a "box". I started with some "Naturals White" and Tempting Turquoise cardstock.

Step 2: Cut a circle into the Turquoise cardstock using a Coluzzle. Using a piece of Saran Wrap, dab into turquoise ink pad then apply liberally on front of turquoise cardstock for background.

Step 3:Decorate inside piece of cardstock. Make sure when you place your background, you line it up with the circle you cut in the other piece. I used Fishy Friends here, and then cut out some pieces of Green Galore and Gable Green cardstock to make "seaweed". I punched out 3 little circles for bubbles, and put Crystal effects on each of them. I also waterpainted some turquoise "waves" behind the fish, and added some Dazzling Diamonds on each wave with a 2-way glue pen.

Step 4: Decorate the outside of your card. I cut a piece of Naturals White cardstock and folded it in half, so I would have somewhere to write a note (otherwise, on these cards you need to write on the back). I covered it with a Gable Green piece that I had dabbed Green Galore and T. Turquoise ink with the saran wrap. Then I added my "Thank you So much" tag and the little seahorse (with my attempt at watercoloring - I really need to practice that more!).

Sorry this picture is so blurry!

Final Step: Place Sticky Strip along the edges of your card (see picture #1 for placement), then put together for this great card! I must say, I'm pretty happy with it - considering I thought of it all by myself. And I did it in the 2 hours my daughter slept for her nap (which is good - it usually takes me that long to make a regular card if I have to think of it myself!)! :)

Have fun with this technique; if you're like me, you'll be using all sorts of stamps and making tonnes of these cards too!

Who Wants Candy??

Holy Moly! It's only been about 4 hours since I posted about blog candy, and already we're at 2000 hits! I didn't even have time to get the picture up! Well, here it is! This candy includes: 6 - 6x6 pages of designer paper, about 4 yards of ribbon and fancy fibres, a package of gold brads, and a bag of googlie eyes. How's that for celebrating 2000 hits? I'm already thinking about what to give for 5000 and 10,000!

Well, I did say that I'd draw a winner when we got to 2000 hits, but since that happened way faster than I thought (I thought sometime tomorrow!), I will continue the draw until 2:30 pm tomorrow afternoon (mountain time). At that time, I will draw and post the winner! Click here to get to the original post to leave a comment, or scroll down. Yay candy!!!

My First Blog Candy! - 2000 Hits!!!

Wow, my blog is almost at 2000 hits! I've been visiting some blogs lately that have had some great candy posted for all kinds of reasons, and I figure what better reason than because I've reached 2000? Of course, this idea just came to me about 5 minutes ago, and I have no idea what the candy will be - but I DO know it will be good! I will hunt around today to see what kinds of things I will include, and then will post a picture later today. In the meantime, leave a comment here, and I will choose a number once the counter gets to 2000 - I'm thinking that'll be sometime tomorrow. Leave any comment you want; it could be about my blog, about why you love to stamp, what your favorite technique is, what your favorite color combination is, or anything else! :) Good luck!