Christmas Cards!

This was our 2010 Christmas card (sent to 45 of our family & friends!):

Really love the blue & brown combo. I used paper from Fancy Pants and Bazzill cardstock to match, with Prima pearls, embossed the cardstock with a Tim Holtz folder. The sentiment I believe is from Impression Obsession.

And this is one of two matching cards I made for the two amazing ladies who take care of my Ben at the daycare:

I embossed the centre of the card with a Tim Holtz folder, added some stickles to frame the embossed section, the penguin stamp is from Sparkle & Sprinkle and is coloured in with pencil crayons and mineral spirits. REALLY like this one!!!

Layered Embossing

Here are a couple of tags showing some variations of layered embossing.


The fall tag is what I demo'd for the make n take at Scrappin' Great Deals last Saturday. Stamped Tim Holtz script with clear embossing ink, sprinkle with tea dye distress powder, heat emboss, stamped leaves in pine needle distress ink, sprinkle with peeled paint distress powder, heat emboss, stamped the pumpkin in spice marmalade distress ink, sprinkle with tea dye distress powder, heat emboss; then sponge on layers of distress ink, and stamp the sentiment in ColorBox black ink. Lots of steps but I love the result!!

This next tag was my second choice:

I used a cuttlebug embossing folder first for the spider web, sponged some black soot distress ink on top, stamped the Tim Holtz witch hazel script with red ink, then clear embossing powder, stamped the crow with a glue pad and sprinkled on some fine black glitter; then sponged around the tag with various colours of distress ink.

Happy Crafting!!!

September Scrapbooking Kit Reveal!!

I was thrilled to be asked by Sheila to join Sarah as a resident designer at Scrappin' Great Deals!! So I get to create layouts every month with her fantastic kits. As a bonus, I get to help her select the incredible products we put into the kits. The kit is on the website now to purchase so I guess I can show you what I created with it!!!

Here is September's kit:
Lots of gorgeous double sided patterned paper, cardstock, ribbon, title cards, designer Tim Holtz key, glitter alpha, buttons, brads, dew drops....and the potential is there for either boy or girl layouts!! What is not to love!

Layout One: Memories
I used PanPastels to colour in the leaf stamps on this layout, distress inks from Tim Holtz, dry embossed some of the paper with my Cuttlebug, heat embossed the title card and journal tag, used my scor-pal to add some texture to the cardstock base.

Stamped directly onto the photo with Black Soot Distress Ink.




Layout Two: Nature Boys

Lots of distressing, stamping and embossing on this one!! Went a little nuts with it! I used a resist embossing technique on the tag which is just a manilla packing tag from Staples.

The leaf embellishments were made from Shrink Plastic, alcohol inks and my maple leaf Nestabilities. Very cool technique!! And the little red dots were made with a marker and glossy accents, little black dots are an embossing marker and clear embossing powder. Both types of dots were added once the rest of the layout was finished.


Layout Three: First Day o' JK!

SO many layers to this one, it took forever to place it all, then remember what I did when I took it all apart to glue down!! I used a technique that Kim showed me: using ink inside a Cuttlebug folder before you run it through the machine, ink and emboss at the same time!!
I added some Bo-Bunny Mama-razzi alpha stickers to this layout. A couple extra sheets of the Vanilla cardstock were used as well, I just loved the reds and greens with the creamy tone of the cardstock. I also coloured some chipboard circles with ink and added them as well for extra dimension.

I am really loving the distressed inks by Tim Holtz: I used Barn Door, Black Soot, Tea Dye, Peeled Paint and Pine Needles.

I have another layout in the works as well with some more of the kit, using more of the PanPastels.

Please pop over to Sarah's blog to see her creations. (She might not post until tomorrow though!!) Any questions on the techniques I used please leave me a comment and I will get back to you!! Stay cool!!

Happy Birthday Big Sis!!

It was my sister's birthday yesterday, and we are going out for a couple cocktails this evening to celebrate...just the two of us! I love this stamp from Kraftin' Kimmie, I embossed the image with holographic embossing powder. My sister likes shiny things!! I found in my hoard a pack of glittery black and white alphabet paper that worked well with the simple image, and mounted it all on black Bazzill cardstock.

Hopefully Kathy doesn't check my blog today! She'll spoil my surprise!! I made a reference inside about bottling up the fountain of youth! Where do the years go??!!

Welcome Baby Girls!!

Welcome to the world little girls! A friend of mine had twin girls a month or so ago and I finally got around to making her a card. I am such a rotten friend. Her son is in my son's SK class and will be over for a play date this afternoon so I got my butt in gear last night and made a card. I used my favourite Whiff of Joy stamp and some swirly stamps, stamped in unknown gold ink and embossed the images with clear embossing powder. The paper is from the Road Show line from Fancy Pants. (Fast becoming my favourite Paper Co.) I coloured the image with pencil crayons, highlighted with an opaque white pen, added some pearls, used my one and only Martha Stewart border punch and voila!


Inside the card, a sentiment from the same paper line:

Next I need to work on still life photo taking! Have a fabulous day!!