Cards for Fun

So, today I was pretty excited about being asked to teach in the scrapbook garden store ( its my fav of the 3 local stores ) and i came home from work and made these 4 cards this afternoon. top card the love stamp is from Inkadinkado. pp is Basic Grey from the blush line. the orangish colored pp. is alcohol ink backgrounds left over from a Thanksgiving card class i did a few months ago... Happy Easter is Fancy Pants PP. the sentiment (MSE) is done in Worn Lipstick (distress ink from ranger) and the Prima's have buttons from Joanns with Scrappers floss in the centers.

This was actually the fourth card and i dont really like it much so, its when i decided to call it a day. the colors are super but. its just a little forced or something. not sure how to put it. the flowers are from doodlebug. Stamped a MSE sentiment on the canvas tag with India Black Ink. Swirl clips are from MM and the green leaf ribbon is from May Arts. PP is Flair designs. this one is 5X7 in real life.

I think this one could be my favorite from the day. the sentiment stamp is from inkadinkado ( or stampendous forgot ) most the PP is from we are memory keepers but, the red ribbon like pp is from Flair. Not sure on the brad its either MM or Joanns. the red leather trim is something i picked up in a beading isle a long time ago so no idea on who makes that either.

All of the PP in these cards can be found in the scrapbook garden's store so, I am thinking of taking them by her store if i dont get an email by Lunch time tomorrow. told her i had to read the details of what she wanted and she claimed she is a person who actually uses and answers her email so...

we'll see. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Did a post last night at peas with some cards that are on display at scrapbook studio. My fav of that batch is the blue without you heart card. It seems to be the fav from people who have had time to peek at it and post a feedback too.

anyways, more later,

Me

upcoming Valentines Class

So, Ive been having some trouble getting photos to load in here, its not that i have not been busy... Scrapbook studio finally got the pp from Friskars {that was ordered last nov.} last week, so i ended up making 5 quick cards with that and these are the three that made it into the January Class. top card has stickles glitter glue on the MM heart frame ( ha its so cold here it pops right off ) the lows in the am for tomorrow and the next day are guessed at 3 and 4 degrees. this card is 5X7 the frame is painted with ranger cream dauber paint then over stamped. thinking to take a small wallet sized photo to tuck into one corner of the inside frame (so that the pp still shows behind it)

This is the fun one for me, got new Punchies and the diamond paper crimper just after X-mas from Joanns online sale ( the store here may as well re-name it self as joanns fabrics not crafts haha) at any rate got free shipping too! :) I really like the red paper in the bottom one the best.

I'm going to post this one and try to upload some more. oh fun news too, the lady who bought the scrapbook garden has asked me to teach card classes in her store too. Havent answered her as yes or no yet though, because i dont know what she wants or what she expects or how she wants it to work, but basically when the store changed hands on the begining of the year the entire design team that Theresa had ( the old owner ) has quit. so, she has no ideas in the store or no teachers except for what she has done herself.

okay more later,

Me

Todays card

This is a card i did this afternoon I am supposed to teach a Valentines card class in January at the store. {but the store still does not have the papers she ordered in November yet } so, i have started playing with hearts and love stamps i have just to get into the idea of making valentines because once she gets the paper (if it happens) its going to be a hurry hurry thing. did a 12 tags of Christmas class in December and it was Long but, fun. this card has printed paper from fancy pants, colorbox red lipstick chalk ink, versafine vintage sepia ink and distress vintage photo inks. the stamps are from Stampington & Co., Hero Arts, Stampin Up and Inkadinkado. That heart is felt and from a pack at Joanns that has quite a few of them in it for $1.00 ( i have a pack of smaller hearts and think it said there should be at least 30 of them in that pack ) so a good deal. The big brad is either MM or Joanns. ( not sure, i dumped them all into one glass bottle a while back figured i would remember haha )

Testing

I joined Ethel's card swap at 2 P's last week and surprised my self. I think i only joined it because she is the hostess & because i have never swapped there before... the background stamp on these cards was in my stocking and its from Inkadinkado. I was the host of the SU club i am in this month and so two days before Xmas we received the orders back and the ribbon stamp ( with all my heart ) is from that. the name of the set escapes me but, there are 3 other ribbon type label's with words in the set.

This is Tim and I yesterday afternoon, he gave me a cannon digital camera and it came with a photo printer too! Plus some odds and ends for it. Very cool. I totally love the instant gratification of seeing these photos. Didn't make it to the store to drop off the film i shot all weekend yet... but, i have printed one photo with the printer and i am impressed. There is a lot to learn on this camera. I have always shot an SLR so, all of the programmable things are like wow. I think what i may do is take one option at a time and shoot a couple of cards of photos with that and just see what it looks like. I need to go see about getting more photo paper and maybe some extra ink cartridges too... Fun stuff.

I have been taking cold meds for a few days now so, i haven't done much today despite having the day off. Just loaded some fonts into the computer { it is pretty naked still } since we got it back with the new hard drive in it. we had it completely wiped and just the XP and a few other programs re-installed. oooh and now we are on broadband. totally cool how much faster this is then dial-up. If your on my emailing you photos list and you are on dial-up still probably it would be a good idea to remind me of that because i am shooting these photos at the highest setting and a few of yours email servers rejected them yesterday...

J made out like a bandit too and is totally immersed in the whole Capt. Jack Sparrow thing at the moment. watching the movie and playing at being Jack. he even staggers around like he's drunk on rum haha.

so, next up for the store class will be a Valentines card class sometime in the end of January but, the last time I had checked in before Christmas she had not received her new papers yet. Not sure yet what i will do, but maybe something with brass stencils and paste. alot of the gals that come in really don't know what they are or what they can do with the stencils ( besides dry emboss with them ) the only hard part will be the drying time factor its just so cold here right now. been snowing all day, but it hasn't amounted to anything yet, the wind is really bad too.

It's Almost Thanksgiving!

I know I have a couple of people who peek in from time to time that are not in the US. {Tomorrow is a national day of gratitude.} And on a personal level it always involves the cooking and eating of too much food... We're not going to go the traditional Turkey route though, Roasted one a couple of weeks ago and then we did a "Turkey day" luncheon at work today. Tim's oldest brother deep fried a turkey all morning and that was the first time we had eaten it that way. the Pea nutty taste was OK, I was a little surprised and alot relieved that it was just moist and not greasy when it had been mentioned to me ahead of time that Joe wanted to deep fry the turkey this year i was thinking "oooh ( yuck! shh! ;) )" But, it was really good. so, tomorrow we will bake a Ham. (and hopefully find some quite time to create) So for the rest of this year i only have one class left to teach I came up with the idea last summer and its called "the 12 tags of Christmas" Funny thing right after i started making the tag proto types i started seeing tag swaps for Christmas packages left and right so that was like oh no maybe thats too dumb, but so far so good they have people who have reserved their spots for the class at the store already. I am feeling really stressed about the upcoming holidays. more then usual i guess. In the past i have spent a considerable amount of time and energy and money trying to make sure that the gifts we gave either really reflected the person receiving it or that we assumed they would really enjoy it. No assembly line gifts ever. and this year. Nada. do not have a single gift done, bought wrapped or anything. Christmas cards are partially done. (the ones that are done are ok to mail out but there are not enough cards done) I say to Tim on a regular basis, what do you want to do for Christmas? whats the plan? he says Christmas has been canceled. ha! could you just imagine the relief if that was really true? So, the next few weeks are going to be less and less posts as the free time goes into baking and making and wrapping and such... This is starting to feel like reading the run down on the local news where they list crime after crime after crime... With that thought in mind, James is enjoying his time off he had no school today and then has the next 4 days off in a row. he recovered from his flu bug really quick and managed to give it to me. I am thinking i don't have to worry about a flu shot now... :) Our dog still has a little bit of an ear infection but, shes getting better too. The cat thinks he's a dog and is getting quite chubby eating the large breed iams dog food. { oh yeah the dog likes the kitten chow better too} My guess is it probably doesn't really matter as long as they are eating something. Tim is hoping to get a few more pheasant to break his previous bird count record. ( he's real close) and the season ends Friday... So he will go out at the crack of dawn and hope to get lucky. Me I'm hoping the snow they have predicted for us doesn't amount to much so that the roads will be not too bad on black friday morning... ( got a couple of places i think i want to go to) including the fairgrounds for a really large craft fair. I have been kicking around the idea of doing craft fairs next year with handmade gifts but, at this point i don't know how well it would go over, so far the bazaars that Alice and I have gone to have not had any kind of a paper crafter or party plan consultant at them ( seen all the other party plan and then some though) The lady who owns the store where i teach has suggested to me that I could bring in cards to her store and she would sell them in there for me... ( but she has not mentioned how much this will cost me) so i have not done anything with that yet. Seen some totally cute reproduction post card spinning holders in the pottery barn catalog that would be cute to display cards in but... still thinking about this. OK this is long enough of an update right? More later, Me

Alcohol Inks Backgrounds Card Class

hmm, first post on the new blog... seems to have two of each photo in it. not sure how this will publish but, these are cards made from a sheet of alcohol ink background that they will do in a class at the store next Tuesday night. the card above they will also make a vellum envelope for it and it will have toggle ties punched from the background sheet also. Stamp above is an Emmerson from American Art stamps.

Not sure that i have mentioned this but, by the end of September i had intended to stop teaching at the store with the October class. Not because i don't like teaching ( which i do ) but, mostly because the store had no policy's in writing about people paying for their class spot in advance and you know asking me to make so many packets and telling me there were so many people then having no one at all come to the last class in Sept. was like what? there is a story there but. the gist of it is, when i was doing the October class ( which was sold out) the store owner put me on the spot right in front of all of these ladies with oh what are you going to teach us next at the next one and i said i don't have a next class. i think its better that i just make samples for the store and if you get three people who really want to know how its done then maybe we can plan a class... that shocked her i think she expected me to keep making these classes and packets for nothing and having the not sold packets stacked up was not very funny to me. ( not when i could have used the money on things i wanted for my self) So, now the store has a policy that if they want in a class they have to pay for their spot 2 days ahead of time. and she also sells the packets that don't sell in the store. so i am at least getting the money back out of them when they don't sell. The store now has in stock every color of alcohol ink (the ones Tim Holtz uses) sold by the bottle. so i have done an altered stampendous clear can ( inked the metal lid and bottom) a few cards. and these cards on the blog post today are for the class then a few extra cards that i think i posted at 2P's a couple of weeks ago...

This one the sentiment is Hero arts, the brads are lasting impressions and the leaf is from Impression Obsession.

they are not really fancy and i surprised my self that i don't own a single thing (or stamp) that says happy Thanksgiving or the word Thanksgiving at all...

This one the oval at the bottom was punched out then the sentiment is over stamped on that then there is gold leafing on the edges and it is re-inserted to the place where the oval was punched and its up on pop-dots. The thank you is from Hero Arts and the wreath is personal stamp exchange.

The December class is " the 12 days of Christmas" so they are not cards but, i have 13 or 14 done for her to pick 12 out of them for the class and will go down there later when they open to do that.

It snowed here last night again, not enough to do much more then make everything white and roads slippery.

James is getting better he had a 24 hour stomach thing the other day and had to come home from school with that. & Slick had to go to the vet ( she has an ear infection) its still duck and pheasant season here and she you know dives in and swims with her head under the water...

The whole week has felt like just one thing after another so, I'm looking forward to having the time to just play today. Tim finished the bakers rack to hold stamps for me last weekend and if the sun comes out i will try to take some better photos of it.

More later,