Fall Thank You

I really wanted to try and capture multi-colored leaves. It didn't quite turn out the way I imagined but I'll play with it a bit more.  ;)

Using a Make It Monday technique from Erin Lincoln, I impressed the cardstock over the die. Turned out fabulously!! And I am completely in love with this Herringbone impression plate!!

Thanks for peeking!

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Rustic White
• Stamps: Leaf Prints, Think Big Favorites #19
• Ink: Memento Dandelion and Pear Tart (Tsukineko), Scarlet Jewel, Simply Chartreuse
• Dies: Leaf Prints
• Other Tools: Herringbone impression plate, scoreboard (Martha Stewart)

Christmas Crackers - Scrapbook Parade Class

This is going to be such a fun class! Who doesn't like cracking open a Christmas cracker to get the surprises inside? What I like is you can keep them as simple or make them as elaborate as you like! And, they are so easy to make. Right now sitting on the counter at Scrapbook Parade is a basket full of what looks paper strips. Well those are the strips that make the loud pop when a cracker is pulled open. They are just sitting there waiting for you to take them home and make some creative and personalized Christmas crackers for your friends and family.

Here are the four that we'll be making in class. And feel free to use your own creativity once we've made the basic cracker.

These are so fun to make! I could have kept going with different papers and embellishment ideas!

Here are photos of each one individually for you to see more detail.

If you are interested in a tutorial on how to make this kind of Christmas cracker, leave a message in the comments and I'll put together a tutorial after the first week in November, once the class has been completed. You have to let me know though if you want one.

Thanks again for stopping by. Love hearing form you and I hope you find some time to craft!

Clipboard Recipe Mini - Nov 2012 Stay-At-Home Retreat - Scrapbook Parade Class

I mentioned in an earlier post that Scrapbook parade is having a Stay-At-Home Retreat for those who are unable to attend the Honeymoon Bay Scrapbook Parade Retreat held Nov 22 through the 25th and wish to have some fun here at home. I've posted a couple of those classes already. Boxed Vintage Card set, here, and the Perpetual Calendar & Journal, here. Today I'm posting something that I've had ready for quite a while, but haven't posted yet.

A while back, when I made the first Stack-the-Deck Mini-album for a class, a customer asked if we'd ever do a mini for a cook book. as I thought about it I was inclined to think that I had to have something special about the mini to make it interesting. As I thought about using recipes I realized that I often wished I had a stand or clipboard or something to keep the recipe off of the counter and more easily seen while working. I would want a way to read the recipe card with out having to handle it too much while creating the recipe.

Ah ha! A clipboard cover to hold the recipe while the book acts as a stand! I also wanted to make the experience of putting it together more fun. So I thought that the pockets and tags should be pieced so that every bit of paper gets used and if someone makes a cutting mistake it would be no big deal as everything is pieced together any way.

So here it is.

You can see how I used a small clipboard to make the front cover with for this recipe mini. I also love that I found paper that has the same hounds tooth plaid pattern as the the chefs wear on their pants, but on a larger scale.

You can see how thick this mini is. For a Stack-the-Deck mini I wouldn't go any thicker than this. It has 10 pages which makes the spine a little loose when the mini is on it's side like this. This recipe book holds up to 100 recipe cards/tags!

In this next shot you can see one of the cards on the cover clipboard.

See how it is pieced together using two different papers?  And I love how the min acts as a stand with the clipboard for hands-off-the-card cooking/baking!

This next photo shows the book open to the first page.

The teal with black frame is part of a folded tag that is inserted into the page side pocket leaving the front side of the tag out on the front of the page. I could have taken a ton of photos for this album, but opted to leave at this since it's a paper piecing job in class and there is no need for page by page directions. Put each page is a pocket page holding a folded tag, and the other side of the page has two band pockets holding a card tag in each. I see I didn't take a photo of that for some reason.

This will be a great family favorites recipe mini to keep or to give as a gift to family members and friends. I look forward to the retreat. I'll be teaching 5 classes over those three days! It will be great fun!! I have two more retreat classes to post, but I'm waiting for some product to come in before I can make it.

Thank you for checking in and having a look. Enjoy dome crafting time, too!

October Colour Series - Purple Velvet - Scrapbook Parade Class

I've had a very busy day today!! I've been working since 10:00 am and it's now 2:30 am! I've made the six A2 cards for October's Colour Series Card Class, as well as three of four Christmas Crackers for a future class, and started on the Advent! No wonder it's the next morning! I'm not a bit tired though. Having so much fun with this all.

I'm not going to write a lot of details for these six cards, but I do have more than one photo for each card so that you can see a few of the details.

Here is a photo of all six cards together.

So these are they, and I have about another 15 photos. Hope you don't mind. But I like to post each card and a one or more detail shots for those who can't finish the class and need a reference from home, or for those who buy just the kit.

So, the first one I'm showing you is the one with ruffles made from paper. I've done that before, here, and there's a link there to Claire Buswell's blog who shared the idea with a tutorial.

I just have to brag a little here. Those pearls you see on this card, the rest of them too, are Liquid Pearls! I think I did a great job on this one.

And a detail photo showing the three popped up layer and the ruffles.

Next we have the purple and bright green card with some ink resist.

Made a mistake on this card that I didn't want to take the time to fix. Since the card is on a cream card base and the snetiment is stamped on like colour, I used the same for the ink resist and once the colours soaked in it doesn't look right. I should have done it on white. the class will get white.

In this following photo can you see the three layers and the bowed sentiment banner?

Now comes the purple and brown with the huge bow!

A couple of detail shots for this card. First from the right side...

...and now from the left side.

Here's a good card for a special anniversary. 50th would be good since there's gold with the purple.

And a side view...

Love the Labels 28 on this card. Next we have a "Wish" card that could be for a birthday, get well, wish you were here, miss you, etc...

And a side shot...

Again, love that Labels 28. And the last card is quite wild. Purple with turquoise and bright green. We'll be doing a little bit of water colouring on the flowers. As for the carnation, you've seen me do that a couple of times now. I got this idea from Claire's blog as well when I entered a challenge, here.

I tapped the Versa Magic Purple Hydrangea Dew Drop ink pad on the carnation ends. I like the look and will try it on others in the future. Here is a view from the bottom...

...a view from the right...

...and  view from the top.

I hope you had fun checking out these colour combinations and card designs. There are so many colours a person can use with purple. What colour would you like to try with purple?

Thank you for stopping by for a visit today, and I hope you've been inspired too. Happy crafting!

The 4th Oct. Monochromatic Card - Scrapbook Parade Class

Hello everyone!

 I promised that when I got the paper for the last of the Oct Monochromatic cards, that I'd complete the 4th card and post it for you to see. Because of the very soft pink, I thought wedding for some reason. No, not baby girl, but wedding! Any way, this time I decided to use my Cricut a bit for the card. I don't use it that often, but felt in the mood for it. Plus it can save time preparing for a class. Here it is.

Here is a side view that shows the dimensional pop-up layers and the fact that I did a little something on the inside of the card.

The Webster's trim is certainly a fun touch. I cut the word "Wedding" and the bird from the Cricut cartridge "Heritage", and the following are close ups of that.

I punched the hearts and inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress ink Tattered Rose, and stamped the Mr. & Mrs. using Pumice Stone.

Here is the inside of the card.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I have a lot more to do, and hope to get most of it done before leaving for Phoenix Oct. 11th. When I've completed them, I'll share them all with you.

Bye for now, and have a great day! Happy crafting!

October Monochromatic Cards - Scrapbook Parade Class

Hello blog friends! Today I'll be sharing with you the cards we'll be making for the October Monochromatic Card class that has now been changed to November. Since I'll be away October 13th at my eldest Son's wedding in Phoenix, we'll combine both the October and November Monochromatic card classes on the same day!

I decided to go ahead and show you the three of the four cards for October's class now. I've had the photos for a while, and we were waiting for the order to come in with the back order of the cardstock required for the fourth card. It arrived today, so I hope to soon have a photo of it to add to these three.

The fourth one will be a very soft pink.

For the Violet card, I a lot of velum and tried for a lacy look using a deep edge Martha Stewart punch and My Favorite Things Die-namics Butterflies.

There also is a surprise when you open the card.

The metallic silver card I used on of Spellbinders cut, fold, and tuck dies and tried for a contemporary look.

I used the ScorPal to score the two lines and placed jewels along the lines. After cutting, folding & tucking I used Star Dust Stickles and Silver Stickles to add some bling to the silver. Here's the die cut in a close-up.

The third card I made into a baby card.

I love the paper charms and tiny tags I hung from behind the elephant I stamped and cut out.

Here's the closeup of those details.

 Isn't the little elephant adorable? After stamping and cutting it out, I looped some ribbon behind for a floral effect.  The leaf paper charms and the tiny tags where fun to make.

In trying to come up with something a little different when using an embossing folder, I thought to cut along the pattern line and use only a portion of the piece I dry embossed  which in this case gave me a somewhat zig-zag top.

After attaching the tags and charms, I added the two large pearl pins in behind the ribbon.

The whole time I made this card,  I couldn't help but to think of my daughter Eva, who will be having a boy in December, my 7th grandchild. Babies are just so special.

Well, thank you so much for coming by to have a peek. Hope you have a great week, and of course happy crafting everyone!

CASology and My CoDesigner ;)

My seven-year-old son saw this die on my craft desk and immediately commented that it looked like a piled-up ice cream cone. I thought that was a terrifically creative idea!

It took some time to get around to it but I decided that CASology's "white" challenge worked well for a vanilla super-cone!

I don't think I did my son's idea credit, perhaps multiple ice cream scoop colors would be better. ;)

Thanks for visiting!

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Stamper's Select White
• Stamps: Sugar Rush (Paper Smooches)
• Ink: Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate (Tsukineko)
• Dies: Simple Circles border, Sweet As Can Be ice cream cone
• Felt: Vintage Cream, Fine Linen
• Other Tools: scoreboard (Martha Stewart), E__ Copic marker

Perpetual Calendar & Journal In A Box - Scrapbook Parade Class

Hello bog friends! I can't believe that we have only one more week left in September! Where did the time go?

I'd like to share with you today a project I just completed for one of Scrapbook Parade's Stay-At-Home Retreat classes coming up at the end of November. I'm so excited about this! I came up with a box idea, figured out the diemensions, cut out the parts from chipboard and then covered it with light, neutral, and cheerful paper. I glued the two boxes together, and attached them to a little platform with legs.

Why don't I just show you the photos!

You can see that the papers for this project are mainly Basic Grey. Next is the side with the clothes-pin clip, for notes and such.

Next is the side that holds the pens, a notebook, an ink pad and date stamp.

And the back...

Each month starts with either a yellow or blue cardstock tag that has a perpetual calendar on it to mark or list birthdays. You could make one for anniversaries and put it on the back of the card too. That is followed by a yellow library card to show that it is a new month. The rest of the days of the month have a white library card.

What are the library cards for? That is the 'journal' part of this project. We're all so busy that no matter how determined we are to keep a journal, it almost always falls by the wayside. But, if you had it accessible, and only had to write a line or two each day, it would be so much more easier to do, wouldn't it.

All you do is date stamp the date on the card and write a line or two, then put it to the back exposing the next day's card ready to write a couple of lines on the following day. And again it gets put to the back, and this continues till you're back to the start and you date stamp again, write a little something and put it to the back again. The following year you can see what you did the year before andwhat happened! I can hardly wait to use mine. ;)

The next photo shows a perpetual calendar card pulled up.

Dana, as you can see, with October 22nd not filled in, I haven't filled the calendars in yet. ;)
Next is the day card (library card) pulled up for you to see.

Even if you just write an appointment on the day's journal entry on the library card, or "I cut my finger onpening a cardboard box today", it is something that will be of interest the next year when you pull that card again.

There are 366 library cards in this box with 12 monthly calendar cards. 12 of the 366 cards are yellow marking the first day of the month. If your wondering why 366 cards, I put one extra in February for leap years.

I think this would make a great orgainzational tool as well as a perpetual calendar & journal since you could write appointments and such on the library cards too. I like the fact that since the library cards are made for books that they are acid free, & etc, too.

Hope you like this little project. If you want to know how I made it, let me know in the comments and I'll have a tutorial for you the beginning of December after the class.

Thank you for stopping by. Have fun crafting, and happy Fall!