Aren't they cute....

My brother (Reg) and sister-in-law (Emily) arrived last night from Alberta for the wedding. Picked them up at the airport almost without an incident. I had received a voice mail saying they were arriving at 9:05 p.m. We went to the airport waited, watched everybody get off, pick up their luggage and there was nobody for us. I assumed I must have got the day wrong, drove back home checked the message.....no, I had heard right....phone rings......they are at the airport. They were put on a second flight as there had been some plane problems. So went back out, picked them up and proceeded to stay up late trying to catch up on news. Good thing they are here for a few days cause there is lots of catching up to do!

Now onto the project. I decided the table that will hold the book for guests to sign should have a picture of the happy couple. This picture was taken in our backyard about a month ago. The saying at the top is the same wording that I put on the big banner for behind the head table that was posted earlier in the week. I have a scrapbooking program that I did the writing on and printed it off. The doves and the scrolls down the side of the page are done using the cricut. I had found some pretty white ribbon a few weeks ago and it had some gold swirls on it and went perfectly. To finish it off I bought a 3-D scrapbook frame to hold the picture. The nice part about the frame is the picture can be changed at anytime and the one you take out will fit into a 12 x 12 album.

I also did the wedding card last night but I won't post that for a couple days yet!

Plans for the day include visiting and driving around the area a bit before the wind and rain arrives.

Be safe tonight.

Yvonne
PS - Now might be a good time to start having good thought about no rain for Friday afternoon. I'm starting to stalk the weather channel for updates. lol

Polished Stone

HI Everyone - time is getting more valuable each day so please be patient as my posts are getting farther apart. One week today to the wedding. My brother flies in tomorrow night from Alberta so better get the spare room cleaned. Actually it's clean....it's the rest of the house that isn't.

Todays post is done using rubbing alcohol and re-inkers. You ask, "What is a re-inker?" The little bottles of ink that you used to refill your ink pads when they go dry. The technique is called "Polished Stone". You can achieve the same look by using the brand of alcohol inks. You will need an applicator that felt will stick to or simply a piece of felt if you don't mind your fingers getting a little dirty. On the felt apply about 3 drops of ink of one color and then 3 drops of another color. Try not to have the colors overlap. Now find the ink bottle that is metallic (used on the gold or silver ink pads). Apply about 3 drops of that too. Next ger out your rubbing alcohol and apply alcohol to make the felt wet. You don't want it dripping but it needs to be wet. Lastly use a piece of glossy cardstock (yes, it needs to be glossy) and dab your felt all over the glossy cardstock to make a background. You want to cover the entire piece of cardstock. As you are doing this the metallic ink will actually make gold veins on the paper. It looks really pretty. You can go over the area you already covered and it won't hurt it. So if you don't quite like the look you go the first time you can go back and rework it. Lastly take your black ink and a stamp and apply your image. A word of caution - don't overdue the metallic ink as it doesn't want to dry very well.

Time to get ready for work. Have a great week-end and I hope to post tomorrow.

Yvonne

Diamond Stickles

I'm going to start by saying,"The scan doesn't do the card justice." The background is the "Snowflakes" folder from Cuttlebug done on Whisper White Cardstock. I then used the Diamond stickles overtop of each of the snowflakes. Sometimes the snowflakes are covered almost completely and others sparingly. Wrapped a nice wide white organdy ribbon with a BIG bow around the card. Stamped the image twice, once on navy cardstock with white ink and Iridescent Ice EP and once on white cardstock with navy blue ink and Iridescent Ice EP.
The card just shimmers as it sits on my desk.

After my post on Saturday I did both things I was contemplating...I made a big batch of chocolate chip cookies and I did a scrapbook page to place on the guest signing table of the soon to be married couple. I will probably post it tomorrow. I need more sticky tabs to finish it.

Sundays workout consisted of getting the yard in order. I trimmed up all the bushes, got rid of the dead flowers. Wow, I think this is the first year I did yard work in the fall. I usually decide it's too cold to be outside and the work will still be there in the spring. It was a beautiful day to be outside and you know, it only took a couple of hours to get things done. When Kev & I finished that we took a little drive to the beach for some small rocks for the pond and then I got to go out to supper. Perfect....no cooking for me.

Thanks for checking in with me!

Yvonne

Wedding Banner

Less than two weeks to the "Wedding Day"! It's coming so quickly....and still lots to do/create. lol This is the banner that will hang in the hall. The saying I saw posted on a chat group. She had cut the letters out of vinyl and put them on a wall.

I used the Cricuit to cut out the letters and shapes. The doves are from the Wedding cartridge, the burgundy letters from Storybook and the black writing is from the Jasmine cartridge. I love that little machine....so quick. To make the font into handwriting I also used the Cricut Design Studio. Everything is mounted on white paper however my photography seems to have altered the nice white a bit.

Off to work on my next project or bake, not sure which yet.

Enjoy the week-end.

Yvonne

Snowflakes

Good Morning....Some of the posts I do for the next few days maybe from cards/items I've made sometime ago. Okay, more than sometime ago. Maybe the phrase should be "Once Upon A Time"! Wedding preparations and work are taking up crafting time.
To make this card you will use two different colors of paper. You could use two different patterns of paper and not have to do any stamping. Either way you will need 8 square pieces of paper - 4 of each color/design. The squares are probably about 1". I don't have the card in front of me to measure but they can't be very large cause it won't fit on a standard card. You alter it into a pinwheel by glueing the squares together - one pattern is placed diagonally and the other is placed as a square.. If you have one of those crafters mats that you can cut on (also called self-healing mat) some of those have a line graph printed on them. There will be your standard lines for measuring, like a ruler and then there are lines that are diagonal. Use those for lining up your squares. See the mat below. Thought you might need a visual as my directions (well I don't think I could even follow them) are lacking clarity this morning. I did place a brad in the centre when I was finished.

Must run...the clock is ticking and I need to get out the door. Have fun crafting today. If you have questions about how to do this, drop me an e-mail and I can try to be more descriptive.

Bye!

Yvonne (I'm really late now...let's hope for no traffic)

Fall Is Here...

Boy I wish a day had more than 24 hours. I seem to be on the run from 6:00 a.m. till 11:00 p.m. everyday. Oh well, I know it will slow down soon.

The background on this card is done using the cuttlebug leaf folder. It's been embossed on cardstock that has been covered with tinfoil and alcohol inks to alter the tinfoil. The leaves are embossed with a real rust embossing powder, cut out and raised with dimensionals. The card shows better in person as you get the depth perception better.

Another busy day and I teach tonight at The Cutting Garden. Another Cuttlebug class and one tomorrow night too! This is a similiar version of one of the cards we'll be doing tomorrow night. I've also managed to cut out, so far, two of the three leaves to go on their cards! If you're reading this bring good scissors to class.

Enjoy your day and I hope you get some time in stamping.....BTW nobody told me what was new on my blog.....here's a hint....rub her tummy!

Yvonne

Lace Tree

Must be time to start thinking about Christmas cards. I used the Cuttlebug folder "Lace Tree" on this card. I did see a similiar card on another blog that prompted me to make this one. There are little pearls on parts of the design (click on the picture for a close up), the salutaton is embossed in gold and the stamp is from a retired Stampin' Up set. The ribbon is from Walmart. I used ivory cardstock and the gold paper is paperweight. Very nice as it doesn't add extra weight to the card.
This design on this particular folder takes up the full length of the folder so if you want to use the whole image you are going to have to make larger cards or not layer.

That's all for today.

Yvonne

Birthday Boy

Finally I got the two-page layout done. Probably a week late.
This is Adam and his birthday cakes for different years. Had to count candles for some years to figure out just how old he was. Should have wrote it on the back of the picture but I thought my memory was good. Just goes to show not as good as I thought.
I really wanted to use this birthday paper but it was a little busy as I was using so many pictures too. So changed the layout a few times and ended up going to black cardstock to help pop things off of the page.

This paper here was even busier - even double matting the photo wasn't enough so I devised the black border/frame in the centre of the layout to help break up the background without losing all of the background. Redid the numbers on each picture a couple of times too - at one point they were double matted and had glitter on them but it was too much. It takes me a long time to complete pages as everything has to be just so, but I do love scrapbooking cause it's a part of me and someday my grandkids will be able to look back at these and get a better sense of who their parents/grandparents/family really were. As for right now I get loads of enjoyment myself at looking back through my completed pages. To somebody who's not a scrapbooker you may wonder why you would flip back through the albums regularly - for the shear enjoyment of looking at your creations.

I used my cricut machine to do all the lettering, numbers and the party hats. It's such a wonderful little machine for scrapbooking.

Well I must get back to life and do some work. I'm busy baking for the upcoming wedding. I have company coming before the wedding so lots to do. Posts may not be as frequent as we get closer to the end of September, please know that I'll get back on track after that. Today I need to do a sample of a mini scrapbook (we're actually calling it the "lotus book") for The Cutting Garden that I'll be teaching in Ocotber. I've already done one sample so it's more just re-creating using different paper. Maybe that will be my next post.

Stay tuned - I'll be back and in the meantime create something, send me a scan of it and I'll post your creation to my blog of course giving you the credit!

Yvonne
PS - Leave a comment about what's NEW to my blog! Go ahead look around. he he

5 Minute Card

Well first about last night....remember I was teaching a class. Well I must admit not my most organized class. Started out I had cut most of the stuff a couple of weeks ago (thought I was being efficient but forgot I was waiting on paper to finish some of the cutting so ended up having to cut more paper.) Didn't like how I had the tables arranged so will change that for the next classes. Then we got a new debit/visa machine at work. I do wish they would have left the old one. I fought with it last night and I think it one. Of course when it's 9:30 at night my brain is no longer functioning at its peak and logic thinking is out the window. Oh well, today is another day and I'll sort out what I did last night to Catherine so everything is back in sinc. lol

Onto the card.....really simple to make. I started with 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 piece of ivory cardstock scored at 4 1/4". Fold the card in 1/2 and then on the front panel cut it on the diagonal so you will have a triangular piece. Cut a piece of patterned paper 4 x 5 1/4" and cut that on the diagonal as well. Now glue those pieces to the card front pieces. Next rotate the piece that is cut off so it will form a V on either the top or the side of the card and glue the diagonal piece back to the card. I placed a piece of colored cardstock on the inside and embossed my sentiment in gold. The added embelishment at the bottom of the card was a flower punch. Punched twice in two different colors, layered onto a brown circle punch and an eyelet to hold it all together. Used a dimensional to raise the embellishment. Go ahead give it a try!

Almost time to head out the door to work. See you tomorrow.

Yvonne

Simple & Elegant

Good Morning.

Early, isn't it? lol Actually about 6:30 a.m. early. I have a busy day so this will be the only time I get a chance to post.

Worked at The Cutting Garden yesterday and made this card. So quick to make but very classy.

That Cuttlebug just does such a great job. Used the Birds & Swirls on about the top 7/8th of the card, then used my scorer and placed a couple of grooves in the cardstock just below the embossed image. Finished it off with a little 1/8th inch ribbon and of course gold embossing powder. I used ivory cardstock and gold paperweight paper for the layer. It looks just as nice as the heavy cardstock weight but keeps your card a little lighter.

Can you picture the lace tree Cuttlebug folder done up this same way. I can! As soon as I have a moment or two I'm going to try that.

I also remember I told you I would post a scrapbook page soon. I'm still working on it. It's in pieces...I need to set the eyelets and glue things in place. Probably won't have it up tomorrow as I have a class at The Cutting Garden tonight. So for any ladies reading this and coming to class tonight....6:30 sharp.....don't forget your adhesive, a small paint brush (if you have a favorite one...if you don't I'll have some there).

Have a great day, get some stamping or scrapbooking in and I'll see you tomorrow.

Yvonne

Three Looks, Same Supplies

Hi All,

Made these three cards in the last couple of days.
Used the same paper, inks & flower stamp. I did change around the sentiment.
The purple color is a retired "In Color" from Stampin' UP. Vintage Violet. The green is from the Core'dination line. This paper has a different colored core from the outside of the paper. Two of the three cards I Cuttlebugged using the Argyle folder and then sanded. I really like that folder. Think it would be good for masculine cards too!
The flowers were stamped on watercolor paper with Stazon ink. Colored in using H2O's. All the images are raised up with dimensinals, which maybe hard to see but does give a nice effect.


This card I used the border folder to jazz up the edge. Did you know, that if you emboss your paper and the image moves just a little bit so you don't have a crisp image (one that makes you think you are seeing double) you can fix it. On the border folder there were a couple of stems that had been fuzzy. lol I used a popsicle stick to smooth back out the paper and then lined up the folder again and ran it through and it fixed it so nobody would know I made a bo bo. Guess I shouldn't have told you! It was on the right hand side so look closely and tell me if you can see it.


This card was a bit more of a challenge trying to figure out the measurements to cut out the centre of the frame. Added some brads for a little pizazz.

So the point to this whole post.....is you can have limited supplies and still produce cards that aren't all the same.

Got lots to do this week-end...like a scrapbook page!

Yvonne

PS - The kids are coming for a visit tomorrow so I might not get to the computer until Monday. Enjoy the weekend.

Worm Wishes

This card is a little different from my usual. I don't get to make too many juvinile birthday cards. The Cutting Garden is having a card swap and I signed up for children's birthday card. I love the bright colors. The stamps are from a retired SU set called "Bugs & Kisses". I used craft ink and clear embossed the bug and the little orange areas are done using a glaze pen and dazzling diamond glitter sprinkled overtop. When the pen ink dries the glitter stays attached. To create the two toned words I used markers to ink the image on the rubber stamp. A card isn't finished if you don't add an eyelet and some ribbon! There are dimensionals behind the caterpillar too so there's a little more depth to the card.

Just popped in to post...in the middle of making supper as I worked till 5:00 today. Think I'll try a post a scrapbook page tomorrow.

Yvonne

Set Sail

Yesterday was a busy day cleaning and organizing. Cleaning up the garage, re-organizing my craft stuff that lives in the garage so it doesn't take up the whole garage! lol I did make time for some cards though.

I did another version of this card without the Congratulations at the top. This card is for my brother-in-law. He's been building a sailboat for 52 months and launched it on the week-end. A lot of person hours went into that baby.

I used the stamp set Winds of Grace from Stampin' UP. I liked the red eyelets going across the card but I like pretty much all embellishments.

Makes for a nicely quick manly card.

Yvonne

Happy Birthday Son!

Today is my sons 27th birthday. Hard to believe where the time goes. The country song"Don't Blink" by Kenny Chesney says it all. "Happy Birthday, Adam". I made him a card but didn't scan it!

Todays card was from Deborah M. Yesterday I posted the card I swapped at our get together. This is the one I received. Beautiful card using the cuttlebug folders on the background and on one of the circles. I'm pretty sure she used the nestabilities to cut out the other circles. Notice the card at the left hand side - there are eyelets there making a spinelike look to the card. Very neat idea. The pearls add a touch of elegance and you can go wrong with a prima flower.

Looking down you can see the circle rotates to review another picture underneath it. I didn't scan the inside but there was also a lovely white insert with a verse and the edge of the white paper was punch with a border punched and there may have been some paper piercing there too. Thanks again Deborah for the lovely card.

If the weather will co-operate hubby and I will be outside painting today. We're staining our gazebo and deck. Looking pretty good. Should have done it when we first moved into the house but the natural look seemed to be just fine. We're cleaing up the look a little as the kids will be married in our backyard. Hopefully the leaves will be turned just a little and of course, no rain please.

Enjoy your Labor Day week-end.....and don't work to hard on your day off. lol

Yvonne