In Print: Sari Inspired Journal & Bookmark

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Standing at the magazine racks in the grocery store, I am always tempted to move any magazines that include my artwork front and centre. And possibly to announce to random strangers, “Guess what? I have a project (or two or four) in this magazine!” I’m learning self control.

350 cards and gifts

Last week I received my copy of Paper Crafts magazine’s 350 Cards & Gifts issue and it’s quite wonderful. Lots of great inspiration and I especially love the gift ideas since I love making gifts, altered items and paper crafted pretties. My journal and bookmark project was accepted and looks great in print!
journal bookmark and pen

Pick up your copy of 350 Cards & Gifts at news stands this spring or order it online here!

Handmade Home Decor

Over the last couple of years, I’ve regularly submitted paper crafted items for publication to several magazines. It’s always a thrill to see one published, and I’ve found that creating for publication always stretches my design capabilities and challenges me in good ways.

What a treat to have not just one, but four projects picked up for Paper Crafts magazine’s Handmade Home Decor issue, which is on newsstands today!

Paper Crafts Handmade Home Decor

Decorating using handmade items is something I do naturally, and not only my home, but my mother’s and sister’s homes are filled with items I’ve designed and made, from cushions to wall art to shelving (I designed and built a moose silhouette shelf for my sister that I’m particularly proud of.) My mother has a hand painted Nativity scene that I made when I was sixteen that we all consider a treasure.

scrabble tile coasters

I was preparing projects for the publication call when my sister came to visit me. She lives 45 minutes away and her children are close in age to mine, so the days we can get together are really fun for everyone. I dumped out the Scrabble tiles on the table and we worked together to find words that would work for four tile coasters. Our tiles were limited so we had a lot of laughs as our possible words got crazier and crazier. She really deserves partial credit for this project, which looks great on page 36 of Handmade Home Decor.

Watch for this fun issue (and my other three published projects) in stores or order here. 

Charity Crop & Scrapbook Sale!

My birthday is this week and for the second year in a row, I’ll be hosting an open house/fundraiser in celebration of turning 36. (Yikes!)charity open house ad

I’ve cleaned out my paper crafting supplies and will be clearing them out at garage sale prices, taking sign ups for my classes, giving away something fun and just enjoying a little crafty time with friends and customers. Come out if you can!

Claire Birthday Card

I’ve been having a creative week. Held a card class Tuesday night, teaching watercolour tonight and tomorrow I’ll be meeting with the Peace Watercolour Society for their AGM. I haven’t been to one before so I’m not sure what to expect and how much candy to sneak in in my purse. I wouldn’t want to run out!

I’m also rocking a purple and silver manicure (I love my nail stamping kit!) and turquoise eyeliner. I’ve put in 2 hours of exercise this week and my birthday party is on Saturday!

One of my best friends celebrated her birthday last Sunday, and I took time to make a special card, rather than picking one out from my stash of over a hundred!Claire Card detail | Angela Fehr

I really believe that paper crafting has made me a better painter. The process of creating a strong design for a card or layout has improved my composition skills when I paint. Reason enough to keep crafting, though I also do it because I enjoy it. It’s so satisfying to spend an hour creating something special for someone, to record a memory or just to make something pretty.claire card

The supplies I used here (except the doily and baker’s twine) are the Claire paper line from Close to My Heart and two stamp sets, Sweet Moments and Joyful Birthday (which retails for only $9.95!) I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment using Versamark ink and heat embossed it with clear powder. Then I inked it with Slate ink to make it stand out against the lighter grey (Whisper) cardstock. The cameo was stamped on pink using white heat embossing powder. I’ve linked up all the supplies to my Close to My Heart web site so you can purchase them and create your own stunning card!

February/March Class Schedule

Note: Date Changes to Birthday Card Class and Scrapbooking Class (updated 02-11-2013)

Want to get creative this winter? It’s not too late to enjoy a little Paper Therapy! I’ll be teaching several great classes over the next couple of months and registration is open!

clementine card butterfly

February 19th, Tuesday, 7-9pm: Clementine Birthday Card Class $25
In this fun two-hour class you’ll make 2 each of 5 different card designs. Techniques covered include creating your own backgrounds using stamps, stamping on embellishments and die cutting using the Big Shot.

clementine rose bkgrnd card

clementine edge card

clementine polka dot cardclementine doily card

March 5th, Tuesday, 7-9pm: Scrapbooking Basics Class, $30
There is nothing basic about getting started in scrapbooking! It can be intimidating to start a new layout with a stack of photos and an empty page. In this class you’ll learn how I make my photos the stars of my pages, using sketches as inspiration; create titles using stamps; how to keep a unified theme in a single or double page layout, and more! We will make both a single page and double page layout in this class with lots of paper left for future projects.

March 12th, Tuesday, 7-9pm: Stencil and Stamp Photo Canvas Class, $35
Mixed media meets home decor meets scrapbooking! In this class we start with a blank canvas, using spray ink, stamps and die cuts to create a gorgeous photo canvas in colours that perfectly complement your photo and decor. You choose the colours.

Happy Saturday! Just wanted to say Hi and remind you that there are still a few days left to bid on my remaining charity auctions on eBay. You can check out the current auctions here.

I hosted a release party last night for the Spring/Summer 2013 Close to My Heart Idea Book. I’ll be holding three new classes over the next month and will show you photos soon! One is a photo canvas that is fun, trendy and customizable! And I’m already taking registration for my spring watercolour painting classes. These are step-by-step classes for beginners and they start April 4th.

I don’t get as much scrapbooking time as I would like any more, especially since I’m trying to make lots of time to paint, so I’m hoping to set aside a weekend or two this year and attend a scrapbooking retreat. Calgary is a little far away, but I’m so tempted to just commit anyhow and attend Scrapbooker’s Paradise’s Camp Croppin’ retreat. Completely uninterrupted creative time? Check. Unlimited chocolate? I’ll have a suitcase full! Great ladies to work with? You bet. Hosted by one of my favourite stores? Absolutely! Registration opens on Tuesday, so I have the weekend to persuade my husband to let me escape in April for a few days.

Hope you are having a great weekend! I may not be able to walk tomorrow after a long afternoon of cross country skiing with my sister and brother-in-law. Such good exercise! And since I have futsal (indoor soccer) tomorrow, I’m hoping for an overnight miracle recovery!

8 Entries in Spellbinders Explore Beyond: Craft to Win Sweepstakes!

The week before Christmas is always a busy time, but the kids and I had started our Christmas break on the 14th, so we had time to bake, clean, shop and (for me), get caught up on the many little things that seem to slide during a busy homeschool week. Like bookkeeping.

I also grabbed every available minute to create. In addition to painting a vintage sign for my husband, I made eight entries for a big competition held by Spellbinders.The Spellbinders Explore Beyond: Craft to Win sweepstakes gave me the opportunity to create using my favourite dies and because I challenged myself to enter something in each of the six categories, I really stretched my abilities as a crafter.

The jewellery making challenge was the hardest for me. I wanted to make something that I would be willing to wear, and something that was real jewellery, and that eliminated anything too “paper crafty”. I ended up die cutting shrink plastic and colouring it with alcohol inks to create this bracelet, but I would say it’s more something I would give my girls to wear than me. It’s cute though!

Next I made a scarf and brooch for the fabric arts category. I used wool felt and a thrifted sweater to create the scarf, and the brooch is die cut using felt as well. I love the rich colours. Again, I don’t want to ever make anything I wouldn’t wear myself, so I made it to coordinate with my new winter coat which is a rich emerald green.

For the mixed media category I made a banner that is meaningful because of what I’ve learned about gratitude this past year. I have been more joyful than I’ve ever been in my life because I’m learning to look for a gift in every circumstance, and little reminders like this help! I painted canvas sheets and layered them with die cuts, and my hands were stained with ink for days after this project!

This was my entry into the home decor category, and it’s the project I am most proud of. This photo frame has three sides, and each one features a photo of one of my three children. I used my dies the most creatively for this project, even die cutting fancy “legs” for my frame using the negative shape of a die. I would be proud to display this in my home.

Working with paper is definitely more in my comfort zone. I made two cards for the competition and two layouts.

I enjoyed the scrapbook layouts the most, and am excited about working on more album pages in the new year. I’m planning a series of classes focusing on scrapbooking as well, and I love the way that documenting memories through scrapbooking helps to make me a more thankful person as I cherish family memories.

Whether or not any of my projects are chosen to win the competition, creativity is never wasted. I had a great week creating these projects and found new and interesting ways to use my Spellbinders dies. Fun!

Champion Spark Plug Sign and a Farewell.

Today is my final post with Scrapbooker’s Paradise. How fun it has been to share projects weekly over the past year! Visit the blog for a host of Christmas memories from the rest of the design team, and a special farewell from two of us. I’ll certainly do my best to continue competing in the challenges, and you know I’ll continue to shop their site and take advantage of the frequent special offers.

I’ve been feeling like it’s important for me to make painting a higher priority, and to do that, it will help to have fewer non-watercolour commitments. I’ll still be teaching paper crafting and making projects that I will share on this site, but I’m hoping paintings will be appearing more frequently on my web site as well.

With that in mind, I’d also like to share another type of painting that has been occupying me this week.

My husband loves vintage signs to add colour to the walls of his shop, but getting a large vintage auto sign is tough around here, and my jaw always drops at the prices they command. Several months ago he had me print the Champion Spark Plug sign above, enlarged to four feet wide, and he attempted to paint his own sign. Wade is not a guy who gives up on a project, but he gave up on that one. Things just did not go smoothly, and he finally stuck the sheet of wood in the lumber shed and forgot about it.

I thought it would make a great gift to surprise him by finishing the sign, and so I pulled it out of the shed and went to work. It didn’t go quite how I thought, and it took so long, and was so large that it didn’t remain a secret for long.

All Wade had done was paint the yellow, leaving white for the spark plug and the “bow-tie” shape of the logo. Turns out he’d used a special mix of paint for the yellow, so I couldn’t paint over any mistakes were I to get paint on the yellow part. I used a paper stencil for the Champion letters and the navy blue paint seeped under every part of the stencil and made a huge mess. I ended up using a large quantity of a special dry paint remover to clean the letters after painting them.

I was able to use my Silhouette machine to die cut a stencil from adhesive vinyl for the block printing at the top and bottom. This prevented that awful seeping and went much more smoothly.

And I freehand drew the outlines for the large spark plug, and then painted it in. Just after I had finished the last coat of black paint and left the room, my six-year-old son came in and just had to touch that shiny black paint. Aarrgh! Deep breath, more paint remover, and a few hours drying time before I tried again, and finished it. I think it will look great on Wade’s shop wall, and he says I am his new official sign painter. He already has an idea for the next one!

PPC97: Love of Family layout

Hi friends! Today is the last day of school for my kids before we start Christmas vacation, and we’re all looking forward to a couple of weeks off school. I’ve got big plans to spend lots of time just hanging out. It’s been a busy fall/early winter.

Today I’m sharing a layout built from Allison’s sketch #97 for Scrapbooker’s Paradise. I love this photo of my son and his great-grandma. Grandma will be 93 next month and she’s always been a special part of my life, and now my children’s lives.

I handled this layout a little different, only using two pieces of patterned paper, and stamping with a distress stamp from Tim Holtz to create the large half-circle at the side of the layout.  Then I used several doily stamps from my large collection, heat embossing them on the page. The zigzag patterned paper is from Authentique.
I stamped the title on adhesive backed canvas and frayed the edges a little before adhering it to the page.

The rest of the design team has created projects inspired by Allison’s sketch as well. Head over to the blog and check it out and don’t forget to link up your own project for a chance to win!

Frosty Girl Photo Card

My December email newsletter went out yesterday. If you didn’t receive one, you can view it here, and sign up on the sidebar so it never happens again.

I wanted to share a Christmas card that was such fun to create! My studio has been an explosion of Christmas papers and stamps, inks and glitter, and in the chaos I pulled out a wintry photo of my middle girl, taken last year during our Christmas tree hunt. 

I trimmed it slightly to fit on a 5×7 card, stamped a sentiment on it with Staz-On (dye inks won’t dry on photo paper) and used my last bit of silver glitter paper to die cut a few snowflakes. It’s such a fun, fresh card that I might have to use the rest of the photos from that day’s shoot to make cards as well!

This one would make a fun card:

Have you made photo cards before? (Even if you have, mine are cuter. I do have the cutest kids in the world.)