Wednesday 25 July 2012

Faux Batik butterflies

Hi!  Here's a card we'll be making at Heather's Stamping Haven in August for her anniversary celebration make and takes.  I'll be running this class on August 25th, but it may run during the week as well.  Keep an eye on Heather's calendar for the schedule.  The stamp I used is a butterfly image from Impression Obsession (copyright Hannah Davies/Impression Obsession Inc) and I did a number of these in different colours over the past few days.  It was fun!  I like how this looks like faux batik.  So colourful!  The colours in the top card are: spiced marmalade, seedless preserves, salty ocean, peacock feathers (card base More Mustard).  The middle card: mowed grass, shaded lilac, salty ocean (card base Cool Caribbean).  The bottom card: peacock feathers, mustard seed, spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon (card base Bermuda Bay).    Thanks for stopping by!




Sunday 15 July 2012

Darkroom Door ATC Swap July 2012




Thanks to all the ladies who came out to my class yesterday!  I had a great time and it was fun to see all the beautiful cards people made.  Last night I had a bit of stamping time after the kids were in bed and I made some ATCs for the July swap at Darkroom Door in Australia.  I always enjoy those swaps when I get a chance to participate and it's fun to get ATCs back from all over the world.

The cupcake ATC is the one I made to swap and I made nine other ones similar to that one using the Sweet Treats filmstrips and companion wordstrips.  The theme for the swap is "For the Ladies", and all the ladies I know have a sweet tooth, so that's how I'm interpreting this theme, complemented by a very feminine colour scheme.  I started with some manila tags trimmed down for ATC size, then covered them with Spun Sugar Distress Stains.  Next, I sponged on some Salty Ocean and Dusty Concord Distress Ink, and stamped on some words in Dried Marigold Distress Ink.  I felt the backgrounds were still a little bare under the other elements, so I sponged on some Soft Lilac shadow ink through a Crafter's Workshop swirly template.  The trimmed down photo strips are distressed lightly around the edges and the word strips are tinted with Dusty Concord ink.  A little tab of ribbon (stitched grosgrain in Groovy Guava) and a black mat completed these.  For the black base I used Heather's new matte black, which is absolutely gorgeous.  International swap participants can choose to send two extra ATCs in exchange for return postage.  I made two extras using some scrap paper I had on hand from blotting up excess Dylusions spray from another project.  The tulip and bird are embossed in black.  The tulip is coloured with Copics and the bird is bleached out.  I added a bit of ground with a gray Copic marker for the bird and clipped out the words, ransom note style and inked the edges.  (Why can't I have such obsessive attention to detail in other areas of my life?  Like balancing the cheque book or making grocery lists?)  For the tulip ATC, I added a flourish stamped in white paint (hard to see - Sauron the Scanner is being uncooperative today) and a doodled border.  Now to get these in the mail and hope they get there in time!

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Two classes on Saturday





Hi! Here are the two classes I'm doing on Saturday at Heather's Stamping Haven. The Distress Marker class runs from 10-12:30 and the Inktense Stamping class runs from 2-5.

Click here for all the details and call or email the store to register.

Saturday 7 July 2012

Keep Calm....

Tee hee!  I fell in love with this stamp the moment I saw it, and it didn't take long to succumb to its charms.  It's one from Fred B Mullett and I've stamped it here on red cardstock and embossed it with white embossing powder for that (almost) iconic look.  I trimmed it closely then popped it up on a piece of white shimmer cardstock, then layered on matching (but textured) red cardstock.  This was then taped to a card base in pastel aqua.

I love this message, both the original sentiment, and the lovely pun.  My friend tries to tell me that puns are the lowest form of humour, maybe she's right, but I just can't believe that.  Puns are just too funny!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you are enjoying your summer.

Non-stamping related.  We had a great long weekend last weekend (Canada Day was on Sunday, so Monday was a holiday).  The family went camping to Murphy's Point Provincial Park, which is on Big Rideau Lake.  We had a great camp site, which had a nice place for a hammock.  We took the kids to see the fireworks in Perth on Sunday night and they loved it.  (We all did!)  It was their first time seeing the fireworks and the volunteer fire department in Perth put on a spectacular show.  It was lovely to see their rapt faces.  This weekend is shaping up to be  a good one too, with a stamp class at Heather's this morning and then my brother's family over for a barbecue this afternoon.