Last Chance Sale at Heather's Stamping Haven

Hello,
Just thought I would share Heather's most recent blog post about her retirement sale.

SATURDAY 22ND LAST SHOPPING DAY!

Hi Everyone, we will be starting to pack up the inventory on Sunday the 23rd, so the last day for shopping will be the 22nd.  The wood stamps will be 75% off and the cling stamps will be 60% off.  Any dies will be 50% off and regular card stock will be 50% off. Come in and see the all the specials.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE FIXTURES 

LIKE PAPER RACKS,

RACKS FOR STAMP PADS, COPIC MARKER DISPLAY CASES,

ETC. GIVE ME A CALL TOMORROW.  

Retirement Sale at Heather's Stamping Haven

Hello!  If you are in the Ottawa area, you will be sad to hear that Heather's Stamping Haven will be closing at the end of February when Heather retires.  She asked me to tell you about her retirement sale and there are still lots of goodies.  You'll want to stock up on your staple cardstock (lots of Neenah and gold and 130 lb which is perfect for Copics) and tape and you will still find some great stamps.  Drop in and wish Heather well in her retirement and go home with some great deals.  For you mixed media types, she has some new substrates in - canvas, yupo, etc. Cool stuff!


RETIREMENT SALE CONTINUES 
25% TO 75% OFF EVERYTHING IN THE STORE 50% OFF ALL CLING STAMPS 60% OFF ALL WOOD STAMPS

January Stamping Challenge #3

Hello!  Here's my next card for the challenge.  This one was also completed, except for the assembly, leftover from the same class I taught at Heather's Stamping Haven.

For this card, I made my own unique paper with chalk inks and a brayer, and then heat set with an iron, and stamped the flower image (Heather's Stamping Haven) twice and embossed in detail silver.  One of the flowers is trimmed out to the four whole petals and layered on top of the full flower.  I added some Cherry Ice stickles to the centre.  The rest of the card is straightforward - same flower stamped in chalk ink on the card base in an allover pattern, a dark purple mat, and a light purple fleck mat.  I did a sketchy doodle border to finish it off.  In the class card I had a light purple shimmer backdrop for the flower, but it was too beat up to use here, having languished a little too long on my desk.

Well, must dash!  This is late because we were out last night at the National Arts Centre, listening to a Mendelssohn violin concerto and a symphony by Bruckner.  It was a lovely evening out, always wonderful to hear beautiful music played live.  The solo violinist, Karen Gomyo, played a Stradivarius!  I don't know that I've ever heard one played before - it was neat to think of how old it was and how much music it has uttered in its life.  What a wonderful thing recorded music is - it's like the printing press - allowing so many more people access to a new world at any time and any place.

Thanks for stopping by!

January Stamping Challenge #2

Hello!  Here's today's card for the January stamping challenge. I had all the parts finished, it just needed to be taped together.  To be honest, it felt a bit like cheating, but it was languishing, incomplete, on my stamp desk, so it was good to get it finished.

This was one I did for a class at Heather's. The flower (Heather's Stamping Haven) is stamped three times and embossed with Golden Sand embossing powder and watercoloured with Tombow markers.  The flower is cut out twice and the petals interwoven.  Then that part is adhered to the third flower.  I embellished with some Gala Glitz (from Art Institute Glitter.  That stuff is incredible!  shards, gold balls, glitter, chunks, all different colours within the shade - if you don't have some, you should scout some out and you will quickly find it becomes a favourite embellishment).  Wow - that last bit is not going to win any  grammar awards now, is it! Good thing this isn't the January Good English Challenge!

The flower is resting on a piece of celadon cardstock that has been run through an embossing folder and lightly brushed with Golden Glitz Delicata ink.  The mat panel is metallic gold and the card base is a white metallic paper with a gold lustre to it.  Gorgeous stuff.  It is so shimmery and wonderful.

I love the sophisticated and elegant palette of this card, which is tempered by the whimsical swirls and flowers so it isn't too stuffy.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you are finding time to stamp.

More poppies

Hello!  I have a real weakness for poppy stamps.  I have quite a few in my collection.  Not as many as my pear stamps, but I still have quite a few.  I love to use my poppy stamps so here is a variation on a project I've taught at Heather's Stamping Haven, but in a different colourway.  I quite like the smoky sage and dark teal with the red poppies instead of the golds and oranges of the class project.  I like both, but it's fun to experiment with different colours.  Red, teal and kraft are a particular favourite combination of mine.

All stamps are from Heather's Stamping Haven's line of stamps.  The focal image of poppies is embossed in Bavarian Bronze embossing powder.  The background stamp is a Shakespearean sonnet in script, and stamped in Bundled Sage I believe, or possibly one of the soft shadow inks from Hero Arts.  The background on the poppy panel is one of the genealogy stamps from Heather's line.  The poppies are coloured with Distress Markers and some more Distress ink is sponged around the edges.  The whole panel is covered in Distress crackle paint (rock candy) and when it dried, more ink was rubbed into the cracks.  The dark teal strip was embossed with one of Tim Holtz' texture fades folders and all the card stock pieces were edged in Memories Art Print Brown.  Lastly, some dots of Adirondack liquid pearls completed the effect.

Well - it's time to get ready for church!  Must dash.  I just looked at the clock and it's 9:00 and the girls need to be there at 9:15 for choir practice.  I'd better get moving!

Thanks for stopping by.

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!

Heather's Stamping Haven

Hello!  As many of my readers will know, I teach classes at Heather's Stamping Haven in Ottawa.  I have been a customer for many, many years and Heather and her store are very dear to my heart.  It was with very mixed emotions that I learned of her intentions to retire this winter (click here for the post on her blog).  I am so pleased for her that she will be starting this new direction in her life and enjoy the freedoms that come with retirement.  That said, I will really miss her at the store!  It really has been a haven, in so many ways, and I have had such good times there with so many very dear people.

I know Heather is looking for a buyer for the store, so if you are someone with an entrepreneurial streak or know someone who has one that is looking for an active business with great growth potential, please connect with Heather.  I am sure I am not the only one hoping that someone takes over the business and keeps a wonderful stamping store in Ottawa!

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!

Mastering Twinks & Scrap Sunday on Saturday

Hi!  Here's a quick stamped project to show you.  I was cleaning off my desktop (!) to make room for my large craft sheet, and I came across this coloured image.  I think I'd done it for my calendar class and switched to a poppy image for the calendar page.  This little beauty needed its own home!  I had a few other scraps that I incorporated into the design, and presto-change-o, this card was done!  The image (Heather's Stamping Haven) is embossed in black on watercolour paper and coloured with Tombow markers.    The sentiment is a rub-on, and the light green panel is embossed with the Tim Holtz brick wall and enhanced with some iced spruce distress ink.  So, here we have a Scrap Stash Sunday card on Saturday.  I'll slide it in on a couple of technicalities:  I can't actually remember what day  I made it, so it might very well have been a Sunday.  Also, it's Saturday morning here so it must surely be Sunday by now in Australia, if not Monday or Tuesday. 

In other news, I signed up for this on-line class, Mastering Twinkling H20s, and so far it looks great.  I have read over the first lesson, but not done the exercises.  The exercises look like a lot of fun.  I have always loved my twinks, and I'm looking forward to learning more about them.  I'll try to post my exercises on the class's Flickr group, and I'll post a link here if the group is an open forum.  Now it's off to feed the kiddies and get ready for my class at Heather's this afternoon.  I might even try to get the kids' hair cut this morning, but we'll see how the time goes. 

Have a great weekend! 

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. 

Christmas Card

Hello!  It's been way too long!  Since I've last posted, there was the church bazaar, my daughter's birthday party, my daughter's family birthday party, my parents' visit, and the hurly burly of daily life.  Good things, all, but no time for blogging, and precious little for stamping.

I had gotten this stamp and the Christmas colours of Distress Ink at Heather's recently and I really wanted to try them out.  It's a gorgeous brush stroke poinsettia (Penny Black), with a holly sprig.  I've tried it a few different ways, but here I started with a piece of sage green, sponged in some Iced Spruce and stamped on the old script (Impression Obsession) in Memories Soft Gold.  Then, the poinsettia on top in Delicata gold (that stuff is fantastic!  dries instantly on porous paper - cue foreshadowing music here), the Merry Christmas (Heather's Stamping Haven) in black.  Doodled a frame with a Micron too.  I edged the panel in the gold ink too.  This piece is n a dark grey linen mat, then a lighter grey linen card base, on which I stamped the poinsettia again, this time in a sage pigment ink.  The accent bit is a piece of Ionize metallic paper (my new favourite since Krista's class this fall), which I zipped through the Cuttlebug (why don't I have a holly folder????) and applied more delicata ink.  Most of the ink is off my fingers now, the next day, and I found that delicata will eventually dry on metallic paper, but not quickly enough not to make a bit of a smudgy mess.  Next time I will set it aside to dry for five minutes or so.  The final element was some artful application of Champagne Stickles, mostly in the centre, but also here and there, as I've been seeing done with sticky-back pearls on lots of blogs.  This will mail more easily, and helps put a tiny dent in my stickle supply.  Well, this card has been percolating for a while, and it was good to get it out.  I might make a few more tweaks to size of panel, etc,., but I think this is in the running for one of my Christmas card batches this year!

Thanks for stopping by.

PS  Sorry about the wacky formatting - Blogger updated their interface while I wasn't looking and I don't have time this morning.  Really I should be getting everyone ready for the day and not blogging, but there you go.  We'll compromise with wacky formatting and a mad scramble for the bus.

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.

Glimmer fish

Here's another card I made with a glimmer-misted sheet. I embossed the fish image (Heather's Stamping Haven) in black and matted on a blue-green piece, then black. The card base is more of the same sheet of glimmer misted paper, but I sponged on some sequin waste, stamped a shell (Stampin' Up) in orange distress ink, and a fan coral (Coronado Island) in black. A little piece of netty looking mesh ribbon is an accent. I misted that with light yellow to tie it in. Overall, I like it, but it's a bit busy. If I had my time back, I'd re-think the black fan coral and the really dark sequin waste. Still, I like it well enough. In real life it has a life of its own with all that sparkle.

NSR: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are in town today, but we're not battling the crowds. We went last year to see the Queen, but that was enough for a few years. We'll watch on TV. I had my last day of work at my old job yesterday - very emotional. Was there way too late cleaning out my filing cabinet and backing things up. That always takes longer than you think it's going to. Backing up is a pain in the neck - and the program we use at work won't allow you to take out the disk without turning everything off and on again. That adds a lot of time and headache. I made stern vows to myself to become paragon of organization and order in my new job. This may be a vain hope, but hope one must. Well, must dash. 1001 things to do today and I forgot to add blogging to my list so it would "count" as a legitimate activity.

Inkurable Stampers June Challenge

Here's my entry for the June challenge at Inkurable Stampers, which is Spots, Dots and Circles.

I recently took a great class at Heather's, featuring Glimmer Mist and I used that technique here, misting and spraying and bleaching out selected portions. I coloured some back in with pencil crayon too. I chose the bird image (Hero Arts) for the circles on it. I also added some paint circles, and the background has a circular motif on the stamp (Stampers Anonymous). The message (also Stampers Anon) is embossed in black. The paper is from a Tim Holtz pack, two sides of one sheet. And a little round clock brad to finish it off. In real life it's quite sparkly. I'm not sure about it - maybe the square is too square. Still, needed to get my entry in before the end of the month, which arrives early due to time zones in Australia being several days ahead of us here in Canada. (I love to say things like that to hubby, who is an engineer and immediately starts to explain the quantum mechanics of time zones and how it's not actually time travel, it's to do with the curvature of the earth and Sir Sanford Fleming trying to catch a train. It's at this point I normally tune out so I can't exactly say how time zones work, other than it's either much earlier or much later somewhere else, and will always be the wrong time to call.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday card

Hello!

Here's a card I made last night for DD1's dear friend's birthday. The focal image (Heather's Stamping Haven) is stamped and embossed on watercolour paper and coloured with Tombows using Krista Schneider's watercolouring technique. It's matted on black, with a little border doodled in. The card base is stamped with a daisy (Stamping Bella) and accented with patterned paper (Basic Grey) and Adirondack dimensional pearls in Butterscotch. The focal image is liberally accented with stickles, which really adds pop in real life. Nothing too out of my comfort zone here, but that's the way I like it right now. I'm on the brink of a significant change in jobs, so I'm way out of my comfort zone there. Some happy colouring time was just what I needed.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy stamping :-)

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 :-)

Upcoming Class

Hello stampers! If you are near Heather's Stamping Haven, here is my next class, scheduled for 10 am on Saturday, April 16th. (I'll try to schedule an afternoon one soon, just this one I had to do morning to accommodate prior obligations.)

This class is called Quick and Easy Collage, and we'll be making these two projects. Hope you can come and join us!

Japanese Doll

I don't know how the colours are showing up for you, but in real life, this is a fresh celery green (like celery hearts) and cameo coral for the pink. It's gorgeous and I love it!!!!! That's extremely immodest, but I love this card. And look at the acres of hoarded Japanese paper I used! Acres! It's a lovely background, and I actually coloured her to go with it.

I have happy memories of colouring this doll - DD1 and I made dolls together one happy afternoon. She loves to blend and make colours with Tombow markers. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree ;-)

The image (Hero Arts) is embossed in black and coloured with markers, and the message is Papertrey Ink. I struggled a bit with the layout, but settled on this. The card base is a lovely celery tsumugi square card, and the pale paper is more hoarded paper (Soft Sky). The girl is festooned with Stickles - yum yum!

Well, it's going to be a short post tonight. I've been slacking on my getting to bed early so it's time to fix that. Starting tonight!

If you're in the area, I have a class coming up at Heather's on January 29th called Lily Splendour. I also have my February class project done and it will be a great class - lots of fun. It will be Feb 19th.

NSR: I made a yummy dinner tonight - roast chicken with lemon and garlic. I got home, whipped it in the oven with a pan of potatoes tossed in olive oil and dashed out to work out. When I got home the kitchen smelled amazing, micro'd some veggies and dinner was delicious. I will have to remember that a roast chicken is that easy and self-minding. I used a great herby-salty-rub, Tuscan blend, to season the chicken. Very nice. I got it in the impulse purchase section next to the cash at LaPointe's (fishmonger) but I have also seen it at the Butchery. Great stuff to jazz up a meal. And really, nothing smells better when you come in the door than roasting chicken. Mouthwatering! As far as recipe went, I saw a bunch of variations on line and just did a version of those. If I were a Kitchen Jedi, I would say I used the Force, but then the Health and Safety vigilantes would close down my blog and start wittering on about inner temperatures and food safety. So I won't. (Besides, who are you going to trust - me, or the people who say leftovers only keep for two days?)

? of butterflies

Hello! Does anyone know what the collective noun for butterflies is? Flock? Swarm? I have no idea. If it were up to me, it would be "a drift of butterflies". What do you think?

I woke up early this morning (coughing, not personality transplant) and thought I would spend some time stamping. I had this panel leftover from various stages of trying to find something to do with it. Much like a butterfly, it has gone through many stages before it emerged onto this card. It started out as a page in my new booklet for a class at Heather's Stamping Haven, but it wasn't going to work for that purpose. Then I stamped some more on it. Then I stamped some more on it, then I stamped words and tried some distress crackle paint (rock candy). Then stamped the butterflies. Then it was time to go to bed last night. This morning it found a home on a black mat, some sequin waste really spruced it up (man, that stuff can rescue any project), as did some punched butterflies from another discard from the class project. I also doodled a border with my black Micron (also another guaranteed rescuer of ailing designs). I quite like this now - lots of texture, colours, etc.

Some details: I stamped that grungeflower frame (Hero Arts) and embossed with Old Paper Distress embossing powder, sloughing off the release crystals. Then I sponged on various colours of Distress Ink with my ink blending tool. I stamped on the ship's register stamp (Heather's Stamping Haven) and the butterflies (Stampers Anonymous) and the words (Stampin' Up!). The punched butterflies were from another image (Sunshine Designs hydrangea) that had been sponged and crackle painted, also with rock candy. The butterfly punch is the one with three butterflies on it (Martha Stewart). The ribbon is the two-tone kiwi kiss/vanilla ribbon from Stampin' Up. The card base is PTI (#enchanted evening).

Well - now it's time to click on "publish post" and go get ready for work! This was definitely a better way to spend an hour than lying in bed coughing and trying not to sleep in.

NSR: So, here we are, two weeks into January. How are your New Year's resolutions holding up? Mine are hit and miss. I have been hitting the sack before midnight (usually with just minutes to spare, but sometimes as early as 11) and eating more fruits and vegetables. I have been more patient with the children, but it's early days yet. On the miss side, we haven't had any friends over, I have one basket, two hampers, and one dryer full of clean laundry and #flashmobs seen=0, though apparently there was one at daycare when the kids had a big dance party to "I gotta feeling" by The Black-eyed Peas (I cringe as I write that, even though this blog isn't exactly good grammar's last bastion). BTW, the muffins from last post were disliked by the children, despite the chocolate chips. Apparently they took exception to the fig seeds, which, I thought was the best part (other than the orange-spice-chocolate-fig taste). Sigh. Good thing I resolved to be more patient! In other news, I'm reading a very interesting book about the history of the English language (The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way, by Bill Bryson). It's a fascinating collection of facts about English and how it got to be the way it is, and if history is anything to go by, there is no last bastion for good grammar and "I gotta feeling" will soon worm its way into the canon by virtue of popular use. Ain't nothing like the English language!