New Catalogue Open House & Retired Product Blowout!

I'm hosting my annual New Catalogue Open House and Retired Product Blowout Sale this Thursday, July 11 from 3:00 - 8:00 pm!  If you're in my area, please feel free to stop by and check out the great deals.  For whatever you spend on retired merchandise, you get half that amount FREE towards your new catalogue product purchase!

Huge Door Prize Draw:
Enter for a chance to win a basket of free products worth over $75, including the new In Colors! Receive an entry for each of the following:
- Come to the Open House
- Bring a friend
- Sign up for a Club
- Book a workshop
- Purchase the Starter Kit from me
- Every $25 in new catalogue merchandise ordered

Retired Products:
I have tons of retired stamp sets, ink pads, paper, embellishments, ribbon and more that I will be selling at discounted prices. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED - arrive early to have the best selection of retired products. Door will open at 3:00.

New Catalogue Product:
- Free make & takes - come and try out some new products!
- Receive a free catalogue
- Book a workshop and choose a free stamp set from my bin of new, unmounted sets
- Receive a free handmade card for every $10 in new products ordered
- Sign up for a monthly club and receive a free designer paper sampler
- Purchase the Starter Kit and choose a free stamp set from my bin of new, unmounted sets

 I have 73 retired stamp sets to sell!

 There are hundreds of sheets of 12 x 12 designer series paper!

 I have tons of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock - both individual sheets and full packages.

   There are 39 Classic Ink Pads for sale - almost all of the colours!  (Theses are the old style of ink pad.)

 I have tons of buttons, brads, rub-ons and other embellishments.

There is lots of ribbon - both by the metre and in full rolls.

I hope you'll be able to stop by if you're in the Edmonton area!

Blessings,

Thank You Teacher!

This is the card I made for my boys' teachers this year.  I CASEd this card by Connie Babbert.

I used the chalkboard technique - sponging white craft ink over Basic Black cardstock to look like a chalkboard.  The books are made with the Word Window punch with the end punched out with the same punch.

I made one with handwriting for my older son's teacher and one with printing for my younger son's teacher. I wrote the words by hand with a white watercolour crayon.

Blessings to you,

"He is Mighty to Save" Frame

I've been meaning to post this photo for awhile.  This is a project I created for our church's Ladies Retreat weekend.  They wanted a quick, easy craft that costs less than $5, so here's what I came up with!

I made the Bible verse, which was the theme verse for the weekend, on My Digital Studio.  I then printed it out on Very Vanilla cardstock and cut it out to fit a 5 x 7 frame (which I found at the dollar store).  For the quilted piece, I cut a large square of Soft Suede cardstock and one of Summer Starfruit to fit inside it.  Then I punched out a bunch of 1 1/4" squares of the now-retired Comfort Cafe designer series paper and glued them onto the large squares.  I then ran the whole thing through the Big Shot with the Lacy Brocade embossing folder.  To finish it off, I tied some lace ribbon around it and glued it to the Vanilla Bible verse piece before popping the whole thing into the frame.  Quick and simple, yet a gorgeous reminder of their retreat weekend.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings to you,

June Stamp Club Cards

Here are the cards my Stamp Club ladies made this month.  The focus was on new catalogue products.

This first card features the Mosaic Madness product suite, including the stamp set, designer series paper and embossing folder.  The greeting is from the Petite Pairs stamp set, which is on sale this month for 25% off!

  

We also added a flower using our new clay molds and Simply Pressed clay.  It's sprayed with Pool Party ink mixed with rubbing alcohol using our spritzers.

The next card features our Wildflower Meadow stamp and embossing folder.  We coloured the stamp using Old Olive, Rose Red and Daffodil Delight Stampin' Write markers before stamping, then embossing it.  The card is finished with some Gingham Garden Washi Tape.

Our final card doesn't actually feature new products, but it includes a greeting from the Sassy Salutations stamp set, which is on sale this month for 25% off!  My mother-in-law, Margo, made a similar card for my son for his birthday, and it was so cute, I had to CASE it (I know she also CASEd it from someone else, but I'm not sure who, so I'm sorry I can't give credit to its creator!).  The cute little monsters are made using the Owl punch.  The arms are the same punch, just the feet of the owl cut straight down to give long arms (if that makes sense!). 

Blessings to you,

June Scrapbook Club Layout

This is the layout my Scrapbook Club ladies made this month.  I CASEd this layout by Sandra Wingate, but I changed out the designer series paper and colours and changed a few of the details to feature lots of our new catalogue products.

We used the new Gingham Garden suite for this layout, including the designer series paper, washi tape and the Wildflower Meadow stamp and embossing folder.  We used small strips of designer paper for the "flags", snipping the ends to make the tails.  The title is stamped with the Notable Alphabet stamp set.  I added some washi tape under the title to add an accent. 

The oval piece is the Wildflower Meadow stamp, inked with Melon Mambo, Old Olive and Daffodil Delight Stampin' Write markers and embossed with the matching embossing folder.  I then cut it out with the ovals framelits using my Big Shot.

The little flower embellishment is made with our new Simply Pressed Clay with the Buttons & Blossoms Clay Mold.  We made the flower our of clay first, then used a spritzer filled with Melon Mambo reinker and rubbing alcohol to spray it and dye it.  (I have found it works better to spritz it to dye it instead of kneading reinker into the clay because the clay's consistency changes when you add liquid to it.)

I love the bright colours in this product suite, and I know I'll be using it lots this summer!

Blessings,

Candy & Coffee Teacher Gift

I can't believe I haven't posted since May!  Subbing is keeping me way busier than I had anticipated!  I guess it's a good problem to have.

Here is the teacher gift that I made for my boys' teachers this year.  The poem is all over the internet in lots of places; I just tweaked it a little bit to fit with Smarties instead of M & Ms.

I found the little jars at the dollar store, and they are the perfect size for a large bag of Smarties. 

I wrapped some washi tape around the lid (how perfectly easy is that?)  and punched an Island Indigo flower with the Fun Flowers Bigz die for the top of the lid.  The circle is punched with the 1-3/4" circle punch - it's the Sale-A-Bration designer series paper from this year.  I know it's no longer current, but I love the bright colours, and they go so well with the Smarties!  To finish it, I tied some white baker's twine through a Daffodil Delight button and adhered it with mini glue dots.

The finishing touch is the poem, which is on a card this large because I glued it to a gift card for Starbucks (the gift card came on a 4 x 5 1/4" piece of cardboard).  This would be the "coffee" portion of the gift!  I attached it to the jar by tying it with some Island Indigo baker's twine.

Hopefully the teachers will love their candy and coffee gifts!

Blessings,

May Stamp Club Cards

May was all about showcasing some retiring products.  It was also about CASEing because I didn't have a lot of time to come up with my own projects!  I'm glad there are such talented demonstrators out there who share their creations with all of us!

I'm afraid I can't remember who I CASEd this first card from.  I had pinned it on my Pinterest board, but the link takes me to a photo instead of a website, so I apologize to whoever made this beautiful card that I can't give you credit. 

It uses lots of products from the Spring Catalogue (only available until tomorrow!), including the Tea for Two designer series paper, Designer Brads and 5/8" Flower Trim.  I also used Calypso Coral ruffled ribbon, which is retiring.  The bottom portion is vellum embossed with the Honeycomb embossing folder, which did make its way into the new catalogue!

The next card is by Janice Warhank.  I found it on Mary Fish's blog.  It uses the Just Believe stamp set, which, unfortunately, is retiring.  I stamped it in Baja Breeze and Certainly Celery, two beautiful colours that I am very sad to say good-bye to!  It is embossed with the Tulip Border embossing folder and tied with some Old Olive Striped Organdy ribbon (from the Spring Catalogue).  The Celery pieces are punched with the scallop border punch.

This final card is by Mary Fish, from whom I borrow a lot of ideas!  She's amazing!  It showcases a new product, the A Round Array stamp set, along with some retiring items, including the Nursery Time designer series paper, In Color Designer brads and Riding Hood Red (taffeta ribbon & cardstock).

I'll have some great projects to show you using new products in the coming weeks!

Blessings to you,

May Scrapbook Club Layout

This is the "outdoors" layout my Scrapbook Club ladies made this month.  I CASEd it from this layout by Brenna Anderson.

I used Comfort Cafe designer series paper with Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade, Cajun Craze, Summer Starfruit, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede cardstock accent pieces.  The leaves were cut with the Autumn Accents Bigz Die and embossed with the Woodgrain embossing folder. For the Crumb Cake piece, I tore the top and side edges and stamped it with the Woodgrain background stamp in Soft Suede, and then sponged ink around the edges.  To finishe it off, I added a bronze button tied with linen thread.

Blessings to you,

April Stamp Club Cards

I seem to have gotten behind in my posting again!  Two weeks ago, I ended up getting called in to sub for a teacher whose wife had a baby, so he was with her for several days.  Then last week, I ended up subbing three of the four days of school (Friday was a holiday).  So once again, I've fallen behing on my stamping, blogging and house cleaning!  Anyway, these cards are the ones that my Stamp Club ladies made last month.  I'll post May's cards soon!

This first card uses the Moonlighting technique and was designed by my upline, Winona Semler.  Here are the steps:

1. Stamp your image (from Serene Silhouettes here) in black Staz-On on glossy white cardstock.
2. Punch a 2-1/2" circle out of a post-it (make sure some of the sticky part is left in the circle).  Place it over the area you want the moon to be.
3. You will need two shades of blue (Baja Breeze, and Midnight Muse here).  Begin sponging from the masked circle outward in the lightest colour (Baja Breeze).  Sponge the darker colour from the outer edge of the glossy piece inward to meet the lightest colour.  
4. Take the darker ink and sponge it on the outside edge.  Make sure you blend the colours.
5. Remove the post-it circle and you will have a beautiful moon!

This card is on a Midnight Muse base with layers of Basic Black and First Edition dsp.  To finish the card, I tied some Midnight Muse stitched satin ribbon around it and added a silver button.

This next card is a little tissue box card.  That's a real kleenex in the box!  My friend, Bea, showed me this card from LeeAnn Greff's blog, and I had to make it!  LeeAnn has a great tutorial on her blog, so I'll just fill you in on the supplies I used.  The designer paper is from the new This & That collection.  I used Confetti White, Pool Party and Basic Gray as accent colours.  The sentiment is from Sassy Salutations, stamped in Pool Party on Confetti White cardstock and punched with the Large Oval punch. This is layered on a Basic Gray Decorative Label punch.  I embossed the Basic Gray piece with the Honeycomb embossing folder.

This final card has a heated ribbon flower, again designed by Winona Semler.  To make this flower, here are the steps:

1. Cut a circle out of our Jumbo Sticky Rounds using the second smallest circle on the Circles #2 die and the Big Shot.
2. Cut a 15" piece of ribbon (here, the Pink Pirouette/Rose Red 1-1/4" ribbon).  Snip at every one-inch interval about half-way up.
3. Starting at the outside edge, begin pinching the ribbon around in a spiral until the complete circle is covered.
4. Use the heat tool to apply heat all around the ends of the ribbon.  You need to be close, but be careful not to burn the ribbon!  The ribbon will shrivel as you heat it.  Keep going until the desired look is achieved.

To finish the card, I used Pink Pirouette and Basic Gray cardstock.  The greeting is from the Oh Hello stamp set.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings to you,

April Scrapbook Club Layout

I know I haven't blogged for quite awhile!  I came down with strep throat about three weeks ago, which put me out of commission for about a week.  Then I was filling it for our church secretary, who had surgery, and subbing lots for the past few weeks, so I've basically been treading water keeping my family fed and my house in reasonable condition!  Needless to say, I haven't had much time for stamping or blogging!

Anyway, it's time to get back into it.  This is the layout that my Scrapbook Club ladies made last week.

I wanted to use the Sent With Love paper, which was only available until the end of April, and lots of the ladies were asking for a travel-themed layout.  The bottom two strips of designer series paper are adhered with sticky strip along the bottom and up both sides so they make pockets on the layout.  I thought they would be a cute place to slip in tickets and other souvenirs.  The ladies were able to use the Big Shot to cut out their title letters for whichever place they wanted to scrapbook.

Hopefully I'll have more time over the next little while to get caught up on my stamping and blogging!  Thanks for reading today!

Blessings,