More Wedding Pages

Week-end is almost here. I will be gone on Sat & Sunday so thought I best get a post in today.
The scalloped edges are done using Stampin' Up's new border punch. I also pierced a hole in each scallop for a little fancier look.
The flourishes, book and lettering are done with the cricut. I think I used the Wedding and the Storybook cartridges.
If the pages seem out of focus that would be me taking a picture with the camera. The original photos are just fine. lol I'm too tired today to go back and re-take the pics.


There are still a couple spots left for Monday's Christmas Card Class. If you're interested e-mail me at ybalmer@hotmail.com. Samples can be seen at the top right hand side of the blog.
Have a good week-end.

Yvonne

New Toy

Alright then, I'll get right to my new toy! I bought the Nestabilities Label sets 1 & 2. lol Pretty self-explanatory on the card. The background is the weathered background stamp from Stampin' UP. Not much to explain on this card.
Some of you wanted to know where I bought my battery operated tealights. Dollar store.

Other big news though....The Cutting Garden has a new owner. They will publish the name in the next day or two so I don't want to mention who it is until it's been announced there. The store will re-open mid-late January in a new location. On a sad note it was my last day yesterday at the Cutting Garden with Catherine. It was so much fun working there. It's fun to be able to visit with people who are really interested in the same things you are!
More news...I'm not finished yet. As of December 31st I will be officially unemployed or I like to think of it as retired! I finally gave notice yesterday at the other two places I was working. Just think of all the time now I'll have for scrapbooking. :) Might have to work a thorough housecleaning in there too.
That's all I've got for today. Later on I may post a scrapbook page. I have a few more of those done from the wedding.

Yvonne

Daughter "B-Day"

I had a fairly productive week-end. Went and saw the new James Bond movie. I'd rate it as just okay. My biggest complaint were the action scenes. They have so many special effects and they switch the angle, the shot, the whatever so quickly that you don't have time to visually focus on anything. My impression of the action scenes was a kid with a video recorder who zooms in then out and tries to capture everything in thirty seconds or less. lol
Today's post is a birthday card for my daughter. She will turn 24 next week. Wow...my baby is growing up.
I wanted to do something different than the usual flower, earth tone cards. So I thought bold. Taken with Teal is never a color that I use but I did have a little pattern paper left with the teal and rose together on it so that's where the start came from.

The cupcake was stamped on watercolor paper and colored in with Twinkling H20's and then I cut around it. Put dazzling diamond glitter over the icing and then used stickles to make some raised up dots. Mounted that onto the pattern paper with dimensionals. The little dragonfly in the corner and been stamped and colored some time ago and the colors matched so I thought it would be cute on the card. The ribbon around the centre I've had for a couple of years. It actually was part of a set that matched the pattern paper. The ribbon is crinkly and stretchy. I cuttlebugged the background with the birthday folder. Had to do it twice cause the paper was too large....can you see where it joins? Added the little circle - punched out the centre and layered it on a dimensional and put a clear acrylic bubble overtop of it. All in all I think it is pretty cute.
I mentioned last week that I had some new toys. Well I bought a score-pal. I used it to score the folds in those illuminated Christmas Cards. I really like it cause it makes everything so accurate and you all know me and my need to be exact. lol Hope to get a chance to try out one of those grid cards soon. Tomorrow I'll post something using the other new toy.
Yvonne

Second Post of the Day - Another Lighted Card

This time I used patterned paper for the backside instead of cardstock. This was "Wassills" line from Basic Grey. The stamps and rest of the paper is from "Stampin' Up". I've included a shot this time from the top down so you can get a better idea of what it looks like.




The plow has finally come by and Kevin is now moving snow from the end of the driveway. This will mean we'll soon get to go and have some coffee. While I'm out I'm going to look for some of those battery tea-lights.
Gotta run.......

Y

Illuminated Card

Saturday morning and I'm in my craft room. Power was out earlier on however there was enough sunlight to stamp. Winter certainly came with a big bang last night. Our side road hasn't been plowed yet so I'm unable to leave the house to go and get my Saturday morning flavoured coffee at "Second Cup" and a cinnamon bun. I maybe going through withdrawal here. However, even with the power being out and our stove is electric my hubby went to the garage found a little camp stove that we used to use, oh so many moons ago, and made coffee. The power has now come back on(obviously as I'm typing this) but no sign of the snowplow. We live right on a corner and the adjecent road to us is plowed but not us.
So in light of our recent snowfall I made this card. The card was inspired by a picture that was forwarded to me by a friend a couple of months ago. I knew I wanted to CASE it but just hadn't gotten around to it yet.
This picture would be the inside. I used 12 x 12 cardstock cut two pieces 5" x 12" and scored both pieces at 3",6" & 9" and then folded accordian style. I made a cardstock template to make the two holes. It's easier to make one accurate template that you can just trace around rather than measuring each time and that way you're not nearly as accurate. Trace and cut out the two holes in the middle section. I stamped on vellum cardstock and then used double sided tape to adhere the vellum on the inside. Stamped my images on white cardstock for either end.

This would be the outside of the card. I used white craft ink and embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. The sparkle doesn't really show up well on the picture. I then folded accordian style again but with the opposite fold and joined the two pieces of cardstock on each end leaving the middle unglued.

When it's put together and standing up there's about a 3" x 3" square centre that you can put a light or a tea light into to illuminate the image. I'm planning on going and getting one of those little tea lights that's battery operated. I'm sure I saw them at the dollar store. I did see them at Michael's last night but they were way to expensive there.

Well I think I'm going to have to try a few more of these in different themes as well. I'm thinking a nice stained glass stamp would be nice for the window. If you have any ideas let me know or better yet share a photo of your card.

Hope everyone is well considering the snow. Enjoy a day of stamping - that's what winter is for.

Yvonne

Winter - Who Needs It?

Happy Snow Day.....Not!
I really dislike winter and yesterday just reaffirmed that. I was teaching a final class with Catherine at the Cutting Garden. It was actually a large event with about 30 people and was being held at the Holiday Inn.
Well it starts to snow in the afternoon and just won't quit. The roads were so yucky I made my DH come and pick me up last night which of course resulted in me going to work very early this morning cause I had to pick up my car.

These are the four other cards that I made a couple of nights ago. Thought I would post them all at once as they are all the same style just a little different layouts.
I like the red and green one as they are different colors. Those are the new "In Colors" from Stampin' Up!. Kiwi Green and Red Riding Hood are the color names.





Looking forward to picking up my mail tonight as I have some new toys arriving. Won't tell you what they are....yet. I'll make something and then I'll share with you.

With the weather yucky you should take a craft day, stay inside and play.

Yvonne

A Rose Is A Rose

Todays post is going to be short & sweet. The rose is colored in with Twinkling
H20's and I played with the cuttlebug again. I like adding the score lines on either side of the sentiment.
I do have four other cards to show you using the same stamp just colored in different and the layout changed slightly. I'll try and get those uploaded for tomorrow.
I couldn't sleep on Sunday night so I got up and crafted for a few hours.

Have a great day.

Yvonne

Baja Breeze & Chocolate Chip

Sunday already. Don't know what happened to the week-end. I did go scrapbooking on Friday night with the gals from the Cutting Garden. Lots of fun and I managed to get two pages completed and a start on another layout. More pages for the wedding album.
Went to the craft fair at Exhibition Park. It was a little different this year. Not nearly as many vendors and no antique tables. They are trying to change it back so the items sold there are handcrafted. I did buy a large tin star with a pine swag at the top. Maybe I'll have to take a photo to share. It's pretty cute....besides that, if I wouldn't have liked it I wouldn't have bought it. lol

Todays card is in the Christmas theme again. I so like making Christmas cards. Same stamp set that I posted a card done in burgundy earlier this month. The stamp set is call Snow Swirled from Stampin' UP.
I used Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip ink and cardstock. The scalloped edge on the Chocolate Chip paper is done with their new scallop edge punch. I just got it and really like it. I just had to add a little bling to the card and the snowflakes and the tree are raised up on dimensionals.
I'm going to head back over to my craft room now and work on some more cards. Maybe I'll have something else to post later.

Yvonne

Same Stamp - Different Cards

No playtime yesterday. Went to Antigonish to see Adam & Stephanie and our friends Pam & Bob. Had to see Pam as it was her "Big Birthday". Won't say anymore as too how many candles she was going to have to blow out. lol Returned back home about 6:30. I don't like driving at night anymore.

Have to be quick posting as I should be getting ready for work.
I made both of these cards on Sunday and I used the same stamp set, Artifacts, that I used on the posted card from a couple days ago. The cardstock and ink are the same on both cards - however, I sharpened the color on one card via the computer after I had uploaded it. Couldn't believe what a difference it made and it is much closer to the actual color on the card. The brighter of the two was edited.


My favorite of these two is the card directly above. I liked how I got the little strip of blue between the clock and the words. I know you can simply cut a little piece of cardstock and glue it overtop...but Iwas looking for something different. I used my Fiskars cutter and made two slits 1/8" apart and then slid the stamped rectangular cardstock through the slit. Pretty esy to do.
Will see you on Friday. I work till late tonight so probably won't get back to the craft room until Thursday evening for creating.
Gotta love these short work weeks!

Yvonne

Snowflake Star

Sunday was such a good crafting day! I completed four cards (I'll have some to show all week) this being one of them. I've also scheduled a Card Class - see class schedule located on the right and also the samples of the three cards we will be doing. To sign up for classes e-mail ybalmer@hotmail.com or 860-3727.

This card has some 3-D work on it. The snowflake is embossed and layered as well as the cute little tag at the bottom. I just love the snowflake embossing folder with this card. I've made some score lines at the bottom to create a banner look.

Well it's late or early depending on how you view 2:38 a.m. I should try and get some sleep.

Good Night
Yvonne

Faux Metal With A Twist!

Good Morning All,

It's been a few days since I've been able to post. Taught my final Cuttlebug class at The Cutting Garden on Thursday and I spent a couple of nights getting the paper ready for the Lotus Book class for this coming week. That will be my last class to teach there. I've met lots of great people by working and teaching at the store and in classes we've certainly had a laugh or two.

Todays card....well I started out wanting to play with the three new colors of alcohol inks,(I had a little shopping theraphy) so I used some household tinfoil and covered a piece of cardstock. I cut the tinfoil about 1/2" larger than the paper I'm covering. Put glue stick on both the tinfoil and paper. Fold the tinfoil around to the back of the paper. I'm now thinking I want this to be a manly type card so I used the Argyle folder for embossing. Oooops I put my tinfoil paper in the wrong direction and I didn't get the right texture on the embossed piece. Okay, line it up in the folder again and see if I can re-emboss it so the image is reverserd. Hey, it worked. I used Rust, Stonewashed & Pitch Black alcohol inks to cover the tinfoil.


Next, deciding what stamp to use. Masculine cards are so much more limiting than femine cards. Artifacts is the Stampin' Up set I used. The stamp looks like part of a clock face. For this part I cut a CD into four pieces (the ones that go in your computer or DVD)and did the Faux Metal technique. This requires putting multiple layers of embossing powder onto the CD and heating. You'll start my using your Versamark pad and covering the CD, then embossing powder (silver), then heat. Apply more versamark, the powder, then heat repeating the process about five times. Once you've heated the last layer have your inked stamp ready (stamp with versamark as the stamp will release from the melted embossing powder easier) and stamp your image onto the CD while the melted embossing powder is hot. It won't damage your rubber stamps but I have not tried it with arcylic. Apply firm pressure as you want it to make a fossil like impression.
At this point I'm thinking.....wonder if I can apply the alcohol inks to my faux metal CD piece. I gave it a try and it worked like a charm.
If you click on the picture you can also see on the navy cardstock I versamarked the stamped image and the silver brads, well they are now a rust color, I alcohol inked them too.
All in all I really liked the way it turned out. If you decide to give this a try yourself send me a picture of your finished product!
Think I'm going to have a little more crafty time today. I'm working on some cards for a Christmas card class.
Happy Crafting,
Yvonne

Soft & Subtle

Well I did get my hair cut. If I get around to taking a photo I'll post it. Had about 6 inches taken off. It is now cut into a bob, however I wish I would have left it just a little longer. On the up side give it a couple of months and it will be exactly where I want it.

A question today for anybody who blogs or just might know the answer. I'm wanting to put a class list on the side of my blog, either a calendar that I can type stuff into or just actually listing the classes. I go to the gadget area but can't seem to find what I'm looking for. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Onto today's post. The colors I used are Certainly Celery and Regal Rose. The celery is very soft. I brayered the CB folder with dye based celery ink and then placed my cardstock into the folder and put it through the Cuttlebug. I used vanilla cardstock for that process. The other layers that have been stamped with celery ink are also on vanilla cardstock. The smallest piece on the front just has the leaf stamped and then the edges sponged to soften the look. The remaining vanilla piece I randomly stamped the leaf over the entire piece to create a background. I would ink the stamp and then make 2 -3 stamps before re-inking to get a range of color and depth. Tied a bow around for an embellishment and stamped "Hi There" for a salutation. I'll be popping this is the mail for my daughter. (The last card I sent I forgot to put the postal code on it so I hope she gets it. It has her Halloween treat in it!)

Time to get a little more creative and showcase some techniques. Watch in the coming days.
Enjoy your Wednesday.
Yvonne

Oh, Chocolate Box

Speaking of Chocolate... How was everyones Halloween? I must say we didn't get nearly enough children. Each year I keep track of how many kids come to the door so the next year I have a better idea of how many treats to buy and each year when Halloween comes around I can't remember how many kids came the year before so why do you think I still continue to make little tally ticks on a piece of paper. Well we only had about fifty kids and I think I had treats for about 125 or more. Needless to say I need to get the chocolate out of the house so Kevin loaded up the treats and took them to work today.

Sunday was a great day. Adam & Stephanie came up for a visit. Steph and I went shopping and the guys went shopping. Everybody came home with something except me. Hmmmm, maybe I'll have to shop today. Bob and Pam came up later in the day and had supper with us, a little wine and then were picking their daughter Katelin up from the airport.

Enough chit chat and onto todays post. The brown paper used on the card is called "Chocolate Box". It's like the "Black Magic" paper in that it's colored on one side and brown on the other. When you sand off the brown it reveals the color of the paper underneath. In this case the underside was pink. The flower is colored using Twinkling H20's and the butterfly is too. I stamped the butterfly on vellum and then painted on the backside of the image. Two things happen...by coloring on the underside the water on the vellum cardstock makes the wings curl a little thus giving it a nice 3-D effect and the other thing is it creates a much softer finish to the butterfly. I sponged a little ink around the vanilla cardstock just to soften the look.

That's all for today...getting my hair cut this afternoon. Verdict is still out on how short I'll go.

Yvonne