Technique Thursday!

It's Thursday again! Here's this week's video featuring some Framelit dies and gorgeous accents! Enjoy!

New Card Buffet Card

Hi all! Just a quick post today. Today's card will be featured in this month's card buffets. I hope that you will join me. Dates for upcoming Card Buffets are as follows:

June 28 7-9pm

June 29  10am - 12pm

July 4 7-9pm

July 21 9am- 11am

July 30 7-9pm

Come and create as many cards as you would like. And you get to decide which cards you make...up to 20 designs available. Cost is only $15 (minimum fee for up to 8 cards) and $2.50 per card after first 8.

Email me to RSVP

So here's today's card

Technique Thursday!

It's Technique Thursday! Today I have a Stampin' Up! video to share showcasing a Quilling technique. Enjoy!

Thought Provoking

Hi all! Hope your week has started off well.

I read an interesting article last week at Scrapbook Update about the Amazon Effect and how it relates to the scrapbooking industry. If you are in a scrapbooking business I think it is very informative and might hopefully give you some new insights. And if you are just a consumer... how do you feel it relates to you and do you agree with the conclusions? I would love to hear your thoughts on it. The article can be found here. Please leave me a comment below.

Today's project is a card that I created taking inspiration from a manufacturers advertisement. The supplies are listed below. 

Supplies

- Neutrals DSP paper stack

- Word Play Stamp Set

- Labels Collection Framelits

- Antique Brads

- Black Satin Ribbon (retired)

- Alphabet Chipboard (Retired)

- Basic Black & Crumb Cake ink

- Sponge Dauber

- Rhinestone

- Early Espresso & Basic Black Cardstock

- Dimensionals

Not a card!

It's Monday! I didn't get a chance to post on friday but I have been working on some cute projects. It's been another busy week...but then when isn't it?! This weekend I sent my husband to a grilling class and he had a great time and learned a lot. He demonstrated his new skills tonight with his steak cooking techniques and he even made his own BBQ sauce. I was very impressed! And this afternoon we all went to see a classic movie screening... Ferris Bueller's Day Off. We had never seen it in a theatre so we had a great time. Even my teenagers loved it! I love that some theatres are offering the chance to see some classic movies. 

But enough about my life... On to my project today. First a little background... I have been trying to clean up my craft area and use up some of the stuff I have bought over the years. Last week I was starting to clean off one of my shelves and I found a lunchbox tin that I have had for awhile. So I pulled it out and then went searching for some paper... Unfortunately the DSP that I chose to use is expired but I hope that you will gain some inspiration from this project... and I would love to hear your comments.

Technique Thursday!

It's Technique Thursday again! Today Shannon West from Stampin' Up! shows how to create a border element with the Lace Ribbon Border Punch, then shows it off with a couple of projects.

Betsy's Blossoms

Half way through the week and I am very much looking forward to the end.

Today's card is a card that I made using the Betsy's Blossom stamp set and Floral District DSP from the 2012-2013 Stampin' Up Catalogue. 

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During June, new demonstrators not only get to choose the products for their fully customizable Starter Kit, they'll also get products from the brand-new Patio Party Suite for FREE, including the Make a Cake Set, Patio Party Designer Series Paper, and the Patio Party Digital Collection DVD! That's up to $60 in additional FREE products!

Midnight Muse flower

What a beautiful day! Time to finally get outside and enjoy the sun! Except that I am busy getting ready for my last stamper's club next week. And preparing a surprise for my wonderful club members. 

Then it will be time to get ready for my  new summer classes...stay tuned!

Today's card is a two-fold challenge. The card was created based on the Mojo Monday challenge #245 and also the Playing in Paradise challenge to use texture. I also created the flower using Dryer Sheet Flower technique.

So here is the mojo monday sketch...

 

and here is my card...

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During June, new demonstrators not only get to choose the products for their fully customizable Starter Kit, they'll also get products from the brand-new Patio Party Suite for FREE, including the Make a Cake Set, Patio Party Designer Series Paper, and the Patio Party Digital Collection DVD! That's up to $60 in additional FREE products!

 

Hi all! It's Monday! Hopefully the weather will be better and it will be start of a fabulous week. 

Today I wanted to share a post that Terry from Classy Cut-Ups Creations shared with her blog fans. This article was originally posted at Misty's Mess. I hope that you will also find the conclusion very  interesting.

Tim Holtz Distress Inks Vs Stampin’Up! Classic Ink

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Theresa Miers

I thought it would be an interesting experiment to make two cards the same, one using Tim Holtz distress Inks and the other using Stampin’Up! Classic Ink. They are both dye inks, and they are the inks I use almost exclusively. The card is made using three different techniques, wrinkle free distress, direct-to-paper stamping and watercolouring and I used Stampin’Up! Whisper White cardstock.

Fisrt I did a colour selection from both brands so I could get the closest colour match for my experiment. In order of the photo, naming SU! first; PerfectPlum – DustyConcord, RidingHoodRed – FiredBrick, RegalRose – WornLipstick, PumpkinPie – SpicedMarmalade, MoreMustard – WildHoney, Old Olive – PeeledPaint.

I used the Wrinkle Free Distress Technique for the backgrounds. The top is made with Stampin’Up! Old Olive and More Mustard. The bottom on is made with Distress Ink Peeled Paint and Wild Honey. I was surprised at how well the Stampin’Up! inks worked using this technique. I was expecting a less intense colour and for the colours to mix more for a more ‘muddied’ colour blend, but the colours stayed bright and layered nicely. I added a ‘fingertip splash’ of plain water over the top to see what would happen, and both papers gave the same result with the whitish patches showing up. It maybe worth doing this technique again with more contrasting colours. I may have played it safe using closely related colours.

I should have photographed these two together, because despite taking the pics at the same time, they have a different cast of light. Anyways, here I have shown the Jumbo Peony by Stampendous, stamped with the two different inks. I was never overly fond of using Distress Inks for stamping crisp images, but this particular stamp lends itself well to using them since the image has a nice sketchy feel to the line work. A bit hard to tell from the photos but the Stampin’Up! impression is crisp with even colour, and the Distress impression has some fuzzy edges with a blotchy colour, but it doesn’t detract from the stamping.

Next I move onto the watercolouring. Both colours were easy to use, layer and blend using this technique. It’s hard to objectively say how they were different, but they did have a different ‘feel’ when it come to laying down the colour. The Distress Inks felt smooth, but they were both up to the job of giving me a pleasing and like-for-like look.

Next came the layering and shading with other colours. Both sets of inks were up to this job as well, giving me a watercolour look I was after. I liked the way the yellows from both layered brightly over the pink, and the purples blended when creating my shadows.

And this is what the finished cards look like side by side. I stamped the florish from the Jumbo Peony onto the background before the final assembly. So what do you think? Does one look better than the other? Can you tell that each is made with different types of ink? On these cards, using the techniques I have, I can’t see the difference. My initial purpose was to show how these inks were different, but it didn’t turn out that way, with this card.

Summer Fun!

Friday Finally! It has been another busy week this week but productive too. And I finally took off my snow tires last week, so today I am celebrating summer with a thank you card.

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During June, new demonstrators not only get to choose the products for their fully customizable Starter Kit, they'll also get products from the brand-new Patio Party Suite for FREE, including the Make a Cake Set, Patio Party Designer Series Paper, and the Patio Party Digital Collection DVD! That's up to $60 in additional FREE products!

Technique Thursday!

Happy Thursday all! I have another fabulous Technique Thursday video to share with you today. Today's Stampin' Up! video features the Spreading Ink technique. 

Gift Box

Happy Wednesday! I have been working hard on some new Card Buffet Cards this week and also trying to finish up some projects so that I can get my craft area more organized. I hope that you are able to join me for a class or workshop. The next Card Buffet is June 9 at 9am!

Today I have a cute little gift box for you. It is made using the Labels Framelit Dies, Floral District DSP  and Betsy's Blossoms stamp set.

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Make sure that you get your extra Hostess benefits in June and July when you host a workshop during the We {Heart} Our Hostesses promotion.  

During June and July, hostesses who hold a minimum $575 workshop will receive an additional $60 in hostess FREE merchandise dollars-that's in addition to the $90 they already receive for a $575 workshop!