October Stamping Challenge #14

Hello!  Here's my latest stamping challenge project - a quick little tag.  I used some leftover parts from my explorations in making my samples for my November class at Heather's Stamping Haven.  The class will be on November 30 from 2-5 pm. The class projects are show below and my class is called Wink of Christmas because I have been trying out the Wink of Stella glitter brushes! They are a lot of fun and add a different sort of shimmer than stickles or twinks.  I quite like them.  My class also uses a great set of Christmas stamps from Penny Black.  Hope you can join us!

The other stamping things I have been doing this weekend are Krista's classes!  I haven't taken a picture (yet) of all my projects, but you can see them on Krista's website here.  If you click on one of the thumbnails, it expands the picture to a see-able size and you can scroll through.  We had such a good time!  Krista teaches a variety of colouring techniques: Tombows, Distress markers, Copics, and Inktense pencils.  It was a blast and the other ladies always make it such a special time.  A great big thank you to Krista, Heather, and all the other ladies for a wonderful weekend!

Well, all this stamping goodness is the reason I have been away from my stamping challenge.  I gave myself a pass since I was spending so much time doing other sorts of stamping.  I think my family might have really rebelled if I had spent any more time stamping and blogging!

Well, time to dash off to work here.  Hope you had a good weekend too and found some time to get inky!

Happy stamping!

Moonlit Castle

This was in my drafts folder from waaaaay back.  Not sure if Heather will run the class again or not, but usually if she has enough people wanting to take it, she will run it.

I'm going to post this now because it's a cute little card and I am cleaning out my drafts folder!

This is a sample for my next class at Heather's Stamping Haven. I wanted to try to make a card in the style of Michelle Zindorf, a stamper whom I really admire. I've spent a lot of time reading her tutorials and looking at the various ways she makes her cards so special. I don't know if this card achieved the goal, but I quite like how it turned out, so I decided that was enough. Michelle loves her brayer, and I love mine, and I love making backgrounds, which I think is why I'm so drawn to her work.

This is a short post because if you want to find out how to make this card, you'll have to take the class!

Supplies: All stamps Heather's Stamping Haven or the Stamp Barn.

Class sample - Distress Markers

Hello!  Here's a card I made for an upcoming class at Heather's Stamping Haven.  The class will be called "Fun with Textures" and will feature this card an another one, and some different techniques (creating texture with UTEE and the new Donna Salazar Mixed Media Inx).  The class is Saturday, May 5 from 2-5. 

The poppy stamp image and background stamps are all from Heather's Stamping Haven and the image is coloured with my .... (insert deep, sonorous, game show host voice here) Brand, New Markers!!!  (cue applause and raucous cheering).   That's right, I got my new Distress Markers and I was prepared to love them, and I do.  A lot.  I love my Tombows, I love my Copics, I love my pencil crayons, and now I love these markers.  The Distress colour palette will be a great complement to my Tombows from a watercolouring with markers point of view.  I'm looking forward to doing some experimenting with them and seeing what kind of things I can do with them.  Have you tried them out yet?

Happy stamping!

Creative Chemistry Tags (Day 2-6)



Day 2 (l-r): Blended Distress/Spritz & Flick,
Brushless Watercolour,
Wrinkle-Free Distress



Day 3 (l-r):  Alcohol Ink Agates,
Archival Resist,
Stamping on Embossing Folder

 Hello!  Here's what I've been doing this afternoon.  I've been taking Tim Holtz' Creative Chemistry on-line card class (link here).  It's been wonderful and I have really learned a lot. He goes into a lot of detail and the techniques are a lot of fun.  Here are my efforts so far - definitely still in the learning phase.  I did go so far as to clear off a big space on my stamping desk so I could get all Tim Holtzy and lay out my craft sheet and have my heat tool right to hand.  I don't think I need it there all the time, but it was handy for drying between applications, etc.  I won't go into detail about the techniques, but I sure did have fun! 

Day 4 (l-r):  Watercolourng with Re-inkers;
Layered Misting,
Custom Stamp Pad

Day 5 (l-r): Stained Kraft Resist,
Stamping with Stains,
Marbled Stains

Day 6 (l-r): Watercolour with Markers,
Blending with Markers,
Stamping with Markers

Almond Blossom Fairy and Weekly Menu Link

Hello!  Here's what I've been busy at in my stamp room for the past few days.  Not that this particular card took days, but arriving at this card did.  Heather got in some more flower fairy stamp sets. These are the famous Cicely Mary Barker flower fairies that I have always loved, and I have several now in my collection.  Heather asked me to do a class with them in March, so this will be one of the class projects for my class on Saturday, March 24th, in the afternoon (time to be confirmed).   The scanner hasn't quite done justice to the colours, unfortunately.  But then Sauron the Scanner and I have never been on particularly good terms. 

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm back to tidying up my stamp room and trying to figure out what to make for dinner.  Last night's effort was suffered in polite silence by my crew.  I found a recipe on line for salmon casserole with canned salmon, peas, peppers and eggs, sort of a crustless quiche idea.  This recipe was ideal because I had all the ingredients on hand and the exact amount of preparation time before dinner.  With this auspicious start, I knew that I had used up all my luck before dinner even started.  It was ok, they ate it (heavily bribed with the other half of their piece of cheese toast), remarking only that it was a dinner that didn't require chewing, only squishing through their teeth.  I don't have an exact quote as the daughter in question's memory is failing now that this is Going On The Blog.  Tonight I have less in the pantry than yesterday, and even less inspiration. Maybe we will have Pancake Day early!  Speaking of dinner, I did find a great website that does menu planning.  It's free, it includes recipes and it's nutritious, and the whole works.  It's put on by the government of Ontario and I would highly recommend it.  Had I been out shopping today, I would have the ingredients for numerous tasty meals.  Here's the link: Eat Right Ontario.  It's a bit wordy with a lot of links to get to a 40 page download (did I mention this was a government site? she said snidely), but it's top quality, full of great resources, and worth it in the end (did I mention I am a public servant? she said smugly). 

Thanks again for stopping by!

Calendar Class

Calendar - closed

Hello!  Happy New Year!  Hard to believe 2012 is upon us, isn't it.   Here is my first class this year at Heather's Stamping Haven - a 2012 desk calendar.  It will be a two-part workshop on Saturday, January 14th.  Please contact Heather at the store to register. 

In the morning, we will do the images and you will learn the essentials of Krista Schneider's popular technique for watercolouring with Tombow markers.  In the afternoon, we will make the calendar pages and assemble the calendar. 

Calendar open to January 2012



Calendar Pages











I really had fun making this calendar and I would be hard pressed to pick a favourite page.  I think I could narrow it down to three contenders: the bunny, the witch, and the poppy.  I used Sunshine Designs and Heather's Stamping Haven images as they lend themselves so well to the technique, but also because there is tremendous variety to choose from, seasonal and floral and birds...gorgeous.  This calendar also has two bonus pages for 2013, which presented some challenges to DH to understand (in his engineer's world, calendars have 12 months you see).  I said it was because years are only randomly selected points in time, roughly timed to include one trip around the sun and any old pope can make one up.  Plus, we are making this later in January, so the two extra months are to make up for that.  Also, a calendar that will go to February will allow people to purchase their 2013 calendars at deep discounts in February, thus offsetting the cost of the class.  He remained unconvinced.  I, on the other hand, thought it was great to be able to include the extra months, which is the whole reason you *make* things, not buy them, because then they get to be how *you* want them. 

Hope to see you at Heather's on January 14th!  It's going to be a great class and a lot of fun. 

ATC Class Nov 12th

Hello! Just a quick post this morning before I dash off to work. Here are the ATCs I made for an upcoming class at Heather's Stamping Haven. It's going to be from 2-5 on Saturday, November 12th. If you'd like to take the class, please register with the store.

I tried to make ATCs in several different styles, and I will also give people some sketched designs for how to use ATCs as card-starters.

I love all of them, but I think my favourite is the Snowy Day one, which has some surprises hidden inside.

Hope to see you on the 12th! In the meantime, I am going to be a parent volunteer on the kindergarten field trip. Naturally it's the coldest day we've had so far, 8 degrees, windy and rainy. Good thing I'm made of stern stuff. Then tomorrow and Saturday are the all-day classes with Krista Schneider at Heather's! Can't wait - two full days of colouring with Copics and Tombows, 18 projects over the two days. I love it.

Thanks for stopping by!

PS. Stamps: Heather's Stamping Haven, Sunshine Designs, Hero Arts (gold flower), Stampers Anonymous (butterfly ATC). Sorry about the formatting. Ran out of time and patience to get it any better.

Faux Japanese paper

Hello! My mojo is back! And almost in the nick of time. I needed to have my July samples done yesterday, and Heather won't get them till tomorrow, but better late than never I hope. I'm really pleased with how this one came out. There were lots and lots of trials, but I finally figured out what worked. I love it! That big stamp is amazing.

I won't give too many details on this one, other than to say that's a gorgeous new stamp in the Jumbo line by Stampendous (the Dahlia set), with a sentiment by Sunshine Designs (Frog's Whiskers Ink) and background stamp (Fluff by Impression Obsession). If you want to know how to make this, give Heather a call and sign up for the class on July 16th. My class is at 10 a.m. I'll also be doing faux batik featuring mulberry paper. That will be a trip down memory lane - it was the first class I ever taught at Heather's! I've re-vamped that sample though to showcase the new stamps from the summer line and a great bamboo stamp from Hero Arts. Also, the faux batik class will give a brief introduction to watercolouring with Tombow markers if you are interested in trying that out. While I'm shamelessly plugging my classes, I have another one running tomorrow morning, with a couple of masculine cards suitable for Father's Day.

Thanks for dropping by! It's Friday tomorrow! Yay! Fun Friday is always a hit at our house. Its DD2's turn to choose the movie, so probably Tangled would be a safe bet. It was DD2's concert at Kindergarten this afternoon - so cute! I loved it. Her teacher is amazing. It was also a good opportunity to connect with some of the parents and talk about summer playdates. I'd like her to be able to keep in touch with these new friends over the summer.

Well, it's one minute to midnight so I'm going to sign off and thank you for your patience during my dry spell. Looks like you were right, Nimmy, my mojo came back with a bang! Thanks, all, for the encouragement :-)

Moonlit willow

I made this card for a class at Heather's on April 11th so I won't be giving the details here. (You'll need to sign up for the class for that!)

I used a palette of my favourite colours of fluid chalk ink and a willow tree silhouette stamp (Cornish Heritage Farms). The swirl is by Sunshine Designs. I love the peaceful look of this card! I wound up adding a shimmery sheer ribbon to the left side, but not till after this was scanned in. You'll have to take my word for it that it looked better with the ribbon :-)

This afternoon I got to play with some stamps. I was experimenting with Polished Pigments. They're a lovely pigment powder, but boy-oh-boy, does that powder get everywhere. I will need to do a big clean up because my next experimenting was with watercolouring and misting and all the little flecks of pigment powder were dissolving in the water and spoiling my projects. The flecks are too small to see until you mist them with water. I usually avoid cleaning up my stamping area too thoroughly because (1) it never stays clean and (2) it cuts into my free stamping time. It's probably time for a big tidy up since my working space is getting smaller and smaller, and we want to swap the craft area and the tv area in the basement.

Tomorrow DD1 and I are going to see the Wizard of Oz at the National Arts Centre. We've been madly reading the novel in advance. I remember loving that book as a little girl. DD1 has been enjoying it, but she has also frequently let me know that she prefers non-fiction, because it's about real things and she learns something. It's funny because in so many other ways she's a lot like me, but not in this one. I really love a good story and don't often read non-fiction. (Unless you count stamping magazines!!!!! lol)

Have a great weekend.

Thanks for stopping by.

3x3 Notecards and Box

Here's what we're making at my next class at Heather's Stamping Haven. If you're interested, it's on Saturday from 10-1. We'll be making this origami box, and jazzing it up with Lumiere paint and fancy foam that you can mold into any texture. There are 4 notecards (3x3), all made with just two stamp cubes (the cute bug one and the sentiment one, both Sunshine Designs). I've coordinated the box by using the same Lumiere paint on the card and bringing it all together with the colour scheme. Have I whetted your appetite? If you'd like to join us, I'd love to see you there.

The exciting conclusion to the preceding post....

Last time I asked you which card you preferred. You unanimously chose the mobile one and I wound up going with the one that no one chose. Now this wasn't at all a display of blatant disregard for your opinion, it's just that I didn't have time to check my blog before I left for work and I needed to take the card with me that very day. Also, I decided that the one you chose wasn't too babyish for a first birthday card, which I also needed to send out asap. The pram was certainly too babyish. So although I agreed with you all that the mobile was nicer (and nicer even in person), the pram one got chosen. Thanks for reading this far - I realize that as exciting sequels go, this rivals Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, but there you go. At least you don't have to pay to read my blog ;-)

In other news, one of the reasons I haven't had time to post a lot lately, aside from being back to work full-time, is that we are moving. I know there are other bloggers out there who take this sort of thing in stride, but I am not one of them. I stamp when I can, and post when I can. Thanks for sticking with me :-) I'm hoping that I'll be able to post more when we're in the new place and the dust has settled a bit. (That's a turn of phrase, not a comment on my housekeeping, which due to the constant state of readiness for viewings, has had to rise a few notches.) We are downsizing and moving closer to work in an effort to reduce our footprint. Anyone need some junk from our basement???