Beautiful January

Posted on January 27, 2012 by

It’s always good to be home. We left last Sunday for a quick trip to Saskatchewan – drove there in under twelve hours which is a record for us. It was a good trip: we spent lots of time with family, celebrating the life of Wade’s grandpa on Monday, and our oldest girl’s birthday on Tuesday.

Can’t believe she’s nine! Isn’t she lovely?

We drove home on Wednesday and first thing Thursday it was back into life – dentist appointments and then a trip to check out my brother’s new house. He and his wife bought a fixer-upper and we helped them a bit with some flooring removal, and then drove back home again to celebrate my grandma’s 92nd birthday. And this morning I got up early to meet Sassy’s ride – she’s going downhill skiing for the first time today! So it begins – the journey to independence which I hope will include lots of adventures like this for her.

Consolation for the other two kiddos is my job today. Scooter and I are making a mini album, and soon we’ll have to run to town to pick up the photos we ordered for the album. And I’ve a bag of watercolour supplies for my upcoming class (space still available!) which starts Tuesday, and a brand new video camera which I’m hoping will enable me to post some watercolour tutorials for you all!

And I’ve a card on the Scrapbooker’s Paradise challenge blog today – while I was away I missed telling you about a two-day sale they ran earlier in the week – you really should subscribe to their blog and then you wouldn’t be dependent on me for this stuff! Anyhow, the challenge is “Clean & Simple using hearts” and so I did clean and simple – for me, which means there’s still a lot of detail.

The stamps I used are from Stampin’ Up! and the paper is My Mind’s Eye Stella & Rose. And the marbled hearts were punched out using my cardstock from my alcohol ink marbling technique.

You have until noon on Thursday, February 1 to participate in the challenge and I would love to see what you come up with! Enter here.

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Subdued Thoughts card

Posted on January 21, 2012 by

There is a part of me that wants to harass My Mind’s Eye, pleading to join their design team. I love their products so much! I do try to work with as much of their product as I can get my hands on, but their new lines are always so extensive, it’s never possible to get all of it.

I’ll be in Saskatchewan this weekend, spending time with my husband’s family as they celebrate the life of Wade’s maternal grandfather. How special it is to be surrounded by family, especially when facing the loss of someone dear. While the card below isn’t strictly a sympathy card, the muted tones make it appropriate, and I’ll likely include it with the other sympathy cards I’ll be bringing on this trip.

Paper & doily stamps are from My Mind’s Eye and the dies (including the flourishes which are my newest purchase!) are from Spellbinders. The sentiment is a Close to My Heart stamp, heat embossed. I used this sketch, a current My Mind’s Eye challenge, flipped sideways:

Have a good weekend – it’s supposed to warm up around here which will make tomorrow’s 14 hour drive to Saskatchewan a little easier!

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Cake Wrecks

Posted on January 20, 2012 by

Somehow when I printed my photos this year, I missed birthday photos of my oldest girl, and her 9th birthday is next week so I’m really quite behind. My sassy girl’s birthday last year was quite an “explosive” event, which you can read about here.

I used My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found 2 paper mostly, and the stamps are also from My Mind’s Eye – I just love their stamps! And they are having a sketch challenge right now so I’ve entered it in that. The theme is “NEW” and I guess the “new” part would be the very new experience of having a cake explode during a birthday party – not to mention  the immediate need for a “new” cake to replace it!

Do you think my layout translated the sketch okay? I have a hard time finding a balance between rigidly sticking to the sketch or doing my own thing completely, and I didn’t have enough of the pretty pink paper to cut full circles so I did partial ones and layered them. I’m happy with how it came out and that I got three photos onto the layout as well.

Just a shot of the title treatment – the banner is stamped, and the button is from the Lost & Found 2 collection as well – they have beautiful buttons!

Here’s the story on the birthday fiasco – a little abbreviated. I usually hand print my journalling – don’t know what got into me!

I would love to try this sketch again using different colours and photos – but I don’t think I’ll have time. We’ll be leaving Sunday for a funeral in Saskatchewan and so tomorrow will be a blur of packing and organizing. Have a great weekend!

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Friday Stuff

Posted on January 20, 2012 by

Being sick is really boring, you know? This cold has sapped my energy and I’ve done nothing but try to rest this week. I did get to see the first episode of the new season of American Idol, and I’ve read two books, and I’ve eaten a lot of things I couldn’t really taste. I keep hoping I’ll be able to taste it, so I keep eating, you know?

Speaking of tasting good, have you tried Popcorn Indiana popcorn? It appeared at the grocery store just after Christmas and MAN is it good. That is, when I can taste it. I like the Black & White flavour – it’s drizzled with dark and white chocolate.

I don’t think that popcorn is actual size.

I’ve been very unproductive this week – too tired to craft. But I have a bunch of new products to play with – the kits for my upcoming “Year in Scrapbooking” class arrived and it will be fun to put that together! And I have a card on the Scrapbooker’s Paradise blog today for their current Playing in Paradise challenge.

In other news, I made this. It’s a cute little box – about the size of a credit card, and it’s filled with adhesive backed bookplates. Fun! Paper’s from Cosmo Cricket.

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Bitty Love Zipper Pulls

Posted on January 18, 2012 by

My children are quite happy that this latest project didn’t get picked for a recent publication call. Now they get to keep what I made!

I was thinking of “back to school” when I made these little zipper pulls from shrink plastic. Have you ever used shrink plastic? It’s pretty fun and addictive, once you get started!

The pulls are two part, the top is stamped with the Bitty Love stamps from Paper and Such and die cut before shrinking. I also made sure to punch my holes before shrinking, one at the top and the bottom of the circular elements.

I lightly sanded the shrink plastic before stamping, and then stamped with Staz On ink, finishing off by adding colour with Faber-Castell Pitt Pens. Don’t use Copics, since they will lift off the Staz On ink. If you only have Copics, you can add colour by colouring on the reverse side of the stamped image – though I think the effect is more colourful if you can use a water-based marker and colour directly on the stamped side.

The alphas are from {ippity} by Unity Stamp Co. and they were super fun to colour! I used Spica glitter pens to add colour as well as the Pitt pens and they get super glittery when shrunk down. Again, don’t forget to punch that hole, before shrinking.

You can use your oven to shrink the plastic, but I find the fastest way is by using my heat gun. It will curl and act freaky, but most of the time will flatten back out without mishap. A few times I had to redo because the curled plastic wanted to stick together.

I decorated a little tin to keep the zipper pulls in using October Afternoon’s Five and Dime paper and embellishments. I’m imagining making a whole punch for the kids to give to friends. Of course, my kids are homeschooled, but they still use backpacks, or maybe they’ll attach them to their coats! I used jewellery findings to put the whole thing together and love the way it all turned out!

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sunlit.

Posted on January 17, 2012 by

The sunshine outdoors tells only part of the tale – the mercury in the thermometer the rest. It’s 37 below zero and while outside the world is frozen, indoors life is happening. Lego and tissues litter the floor – Wecco and I are both fighting colds – and while the school buses aren’t running, homeschool doesn’t halt for weather. We have been known to halt for baking, or for sledding, or for visits with friends, though.

I am keeping a gratitude journal – One Thousand Gifts style – though I secretly fear that a third of those gratitude jottings will be “the smell of fresh coffee” for lack of anything creative to be grateful for. I am grateful for my life – it is a gift from God – but often I am just repeatedly thankful for the same things every day. A warm house. Healthy (albeit sniffly) kids. A hardworking (and hunky!) husband. Perhaps my gratitude list will vary on in adjectives – how many ways there are to say “I love this life, even if its goodness is unvarying.”

I’ve had a head full of multi-coloured mucus since New Year’s Day and just when I started feeling better, my throat rasped with a suspicious hoarseness. How glad I am that I can be home today, that there’s nothing that can’t be cancelled or rescheduled this week, that my mom came with bread and milk and eggs so we could stay home. How glad I am that my children are able to help when my energy is low! And how wonderful the treasure trove upstairs, filled with paints and paper, ink and stamps! A place of refuge, creative abandon and inspiration, and it’s right here!

It’s a beautiful day. Despite the frigid temperatures, the sun makes everything sparkle. Gratitude is like that too.

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Love Came Down and a Watercolour Question

Posted on January 16, 2012 by

I really want to feel more confident about this mixed-media thing. But what do you do with all the not-quite-amazing canvases when you’re done with them?

I think this little canvas will be part of my Christmas decor. I love the blues.

I used gesso to create the snowy texture, and Faber-Castel Gelatos for the colour. I really like the way Gelatos work as watercolour crayons – I can scribble the colour onto the canvas or onto a palette and then use water to blend. I also used Faber-Castel Pitt pens to add finer details.

This week I will be preparing for my upcoming watercolour classes. I’ll be teaching a few students in my home, and we’ll be doing step-by-step paintings as a learning exercise. This week I will be preparing the student materials – it can be so intimidating for a beginner to purchase supplies, especially as I stress buying good quality materials. It can be nearly impossible to make poor quality paint and paper do what it’s supposed to do, even for an experienced painter.

Seeing as I am putting together watercolour kits, I have a question for you: Would you be interested in ordering watercolour beginner kits from me? I could make them available in my etsy shop – they would cost about $50 and would be jam-packed with everything you need to get started painting right away. Paint and paper would be artist-quality and I would include my three favourite brush sizes. And I am online right now researching camcorders so I can start making how-to videos for you!

 

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Mini Treasure Box

Posted on January 14, 2012 by

First off, did you know that Paper and Such is having a big sale? 25% off including the January stamp releases that I designed! Sale ends Sunday Jan 15 at midnight!

Each of my children received a paper crafted gift from me this Christmas. Maybe I should make it a tradition – I am so glad I made time to make gifts this Christmas – it was so much more meaningful than purchased items. 

This box measures about 4″ square, and I wanted my boy to have a “treasure box” to keep his little trinkets in. He loves Lego men and small, fit-in-hand action figures. I dampened kraft paper and crumpled it up. Once it was dry, I inked the crinkles with Desert Sand ink and decoupaged the paper to the box. I inked the box edges once the paper was adhered, and painted the inside of the box black.

For the closure I had bought a thin belt from the thrift store, but I ended up only using the buckle. The vinyl was just too thick and looked clunky, so I made my belt from two strips of cardstock, stitched on my sewing machine. The one wraps right around the box and the box fastens shut with the buckle. Which was a mistake because my son couldn’t manage the buckle and ripped the cardstock right away. I will have to alter it a little and just use the buckle for show. The other “belt” portion, going crossways, is just on the lid.

I’m quite proud of how I did the nameplate at the top of the box – I used a metal frame from Close to My Heart and I wanted his name spelled out inside the frame. So I adhered letter stickers to cardstock, glued aluminum foil over the letter stickers and embossed with a stylus so that the letters look like they are embossed into a metal plate. And then, just to add more detail yet, I painted the embossed foil with black acrylic paint, and gently sanded off the paint from the raised letters (note: use two or more layers of foil so that you don’t sand through to the paper). And then I attached my name plate behind the frame and filled it in with glossy accents.

A few cute metal corners (Tim Holtz) and my box was done and ready to be filled. I put a mini Spiderman in it and my boy was thrilled on Christmas Day to have a mini pirate’s treasure box!

 

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Capture the Moment

Posted on January 13, 2012 by

 

Today my first challenge goes live for Scrapbooker’s Paradise! I’m looking forward to being part of this design team and there are prizes up for grabs so make sure you check out the post and participate!

I made this card using leftovers from a few other projects, and it’s weird for me because there’s no stamping at all on it. Just a die cut made using my Silhouette and paper from Cosmo Cricket Odds and Ends. I’m liking my Silhouette, kind of wish I’d waited and bought the Cameo which cuts larger sizes, but on the other hand, I’d have been too cheap to pay the additional $$!

Tonight I’m going to a crop at a friend’s house. Any suggestions on what I should bring? I’m not used to having to pack and plan ahead like this!

 

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Baby Love

Posted on January 11, 2012 by

My friend Sarah had a baby in December – the sweetest little doll. It’s so weird to hold a newborn after so many years! Do you have a tradition for baby gifts? I like to give fresh baked buns – new moms need all the meal help they can get – although if it’s a first baby I give clothes since it’s so fun to shop the baby aisles.

This card uses almost no patterned paper. I used background stamps to create the “quilted” background, and just masked off any area that had already been stamped to make the different sized patterns fit. I love the soft combination of pink and brown.

All stamps are from Close to My Heart. The quality is so good, and their stamp sets just keep getting cheaper – love that! I got into stamping because of CTMH and that was many years ago.

 

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