Playing With Pattern Paper

Good Evening....I am a little late on my post today but better late than never!

As promised I'm posting a scrapbook page and I'll give you my take on working with pattern paper.

You can see on this layout I've incorporated a very busy background paper as the base. Along with that I've added circles of pattern green, orange and blue. Each piece has it's own design.

The easiest way to ensure the patterns will match is to use co-ordinating paper sheets from the same paper line. In this case I used "Delight" by Fancy Pants Design. To separate the patterns I layered everything in a chocolate brown cardstock.

The additional flower border was done with the Gypsy and Easter cartridge. There are three orange flower eyelets outside of each of the circles.

All the brown flowers and the word "You" are felt punch-outs.

These are definitely busier pages than I usually do!

These pics were taken in September when Kristen came for a visit. We went kayaking one afternoon. The weather was perfect that day and not too, too hot. Just before we climbed out there to sit on that rock another lady had been out there having her picture taken but when she was stepping back across the water to the sidewalk her foot slipped on the rocks and she fell completely into the water. We from head to toe! There was a lot of algae on the rocks causing them to be very slippery.

Now for my teaser about Wednesday's post.... two words Christmas...Shopping

Off to San Antonio early tomorrow morning. Should be fun and returning on Monday.

Enjoy your week-end!

Yvonne

Bursting With Blossoms!

Well it's Wednesday or better known as "hump day". It's almost noon here so we're sliding towards the end of the week and Halloween. We won't be home for Halloween, DH and I are heading out to San Antonio and plan on meeting up with friends we knew when we lived in Whitecourt, AB. Their youngest daughter is getting married and now resides in Texas. So should be fun.

I sure do like those Heartfelt Creation stamps and co-ordinating dies! This flower set has five sized stamps. I stamped the largest layer twice and the rest once. Inked used - Bundled Sage & Victorian Velvet - Tim Holtz Distress Ink.

The sentiments is from Just-Rite Stamps - Birthday Sentiments

Used some of my hoard of eyelets. Do you notice people don't use eyelets as often anymore? We should...cause we probably all have a whole drawer full of them.

A close-up! :)

If you're looking for any of these supplies you can contact Fargo Cat Shops.

Friday I'll have a scrapbook page to share. I'll be talking about using multiple pattern papers on one layout.

Next Wednesday I be starting a six-week special share. Guess you'll have to tune in next Wednesday to get the details.  Hmmm - Maybe I'll give you a hint on Friday.

Well Gotta Go! 

Bye!

Warm & Fuzzy

Good Morning Monday!

Hope all of you had a wonderful week-end and are refreshed for the start of a new week.

I made a couple of cards over the week-end. Don't you just want to hug this little guy? He does make me feel warm and fuzzy.

Stamp set used: Whimsical Christmas and Vintage Xmas - Just-Right Stamps

Ink used: Momento Black for basic stamping and Tim Holtz - Old Paper for sponging all the edges of the pattern paper and around snowman and snowflakes. Pumice Stone - stamped sentiment.
Copic Markers - just hightlighting a couple of things -
nose - YR16-apricot & E31-brick beige - Colored over the apricot with brick beige to tone it down.
scraf - B93-Light Crockery Blue & BG 34-Horizon Green - The green by itself would never have matched but layering of colors I was able to create a similiar color combination to match the background paper.

Puffy paint for the snow on hat.

Twill Tape ribbon - Used Old Paper ink to alter the color.

Nestabilities - circles and scalloped octagon.

Snowflake punch and pearls for the centre.

That's all I've got for today.

See you later...Yvonne

PS - I used magnets on the back of the cardstock to adhere to the muffin tins.

Advent Calendar - muffin tin

Good Morning Bloggers!

It's Friday! Wonderful isn't it!

I just love today's project. Another advent calendar. It was so much fun to do after I figured out what I was doing.

First start with a 24 mini muffin tin. These can range in price from $25.00 downward...probably upward too but I didn't go to any of those specialty stores. After much searching I located one at Walmart for $4.00.

Next I knew I wanted to use my Jovial - Basic Grey and Tim Holtz Distress Inks. The brown used for distressing was Vintage Photo. One of my favorites. I chose 4 different colored cardstocks to work with and then because I was working with one line of pattern paper I knew everything would co-ordinate.

The square is 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 with rounded corners. The pattern paper piece was cut with the Gypsy. It was a shape from Gypsy Wandering cartridge however one of the spellbinders label dies works perfectly for the size of the outside square "Labels One" . Deborah over at Fargo Cat Shops either has the items in stock or can order them in ( I know she has the Christmas paper in stock...for now).

Next distress each piece of paper separately and then glue together. I faux stitched with my copic liner around each piece of pattern paper.

This was the tough part decorating it. My original plan was to have lots of glamour and glitz however it didn't work cause I went with the distressed look and everything looked out of place. Of course I gave it a good try and had glitter all over me and the craft room before I caved in and said, "This just ain't workin."

All the images are cut with the Cricut from the Joys of the Season cartridge. The images were cut on the shadow feature and between 1.10" to 1.35".

The numbers were cut using Sizzix Sizzlets in Script font. Would probably have been quicker to use the Cricut but I had limited amounts of matching cardstock left.

The bow at the top....hmmmm it is a Teflon pan...nothing sticks to it...including glue dots, scor tape, except a magnet. So had to use a small round magnet (a heavier duty one that what I used on the back of the covers on the pan) attached to the bow so it would stay in place. Another idea might be to drill holes in the pan and tie your ribbon that way. I did think about the crop-a-dile but the lip on the pan was too deep.

I cut 1/2" circles from lightweight adhesive magnetic sheets (also Walmart).

Anyway it was a lot of fun to make and I might consider doing another one but this time going for a brighter combination of papers and accessories.

One last note...you can put candy or treats in the little holes or you could always insert messages or things you might do together as a family for the day....such as

Go sledding (not here but somewhere)

Bake cookies

Trim tree

Sing Christmas carols

You get the idea....

Enjoy your week-end.

Yvonne

Life Is Good!

Good Morning!

Tuesday was such an awesome day. Xavier started walking! He took his sweet time but he's there now. I tried to upload the video from facebook but couldn't figure it out or if it was possible. If I get a copy of it I'll post it here.

I spent yesterday getting some recall work done on my car.

This is the scrapbooking page I did on the week-end. Kristen participated in the Ride for Heart event in June. The day of the event it was very wet and rainy...not only did she complete the 50 Km but she did another 20 km. Had to get to the event someway! lol

To cut the sprokets and the heart I used Indie Art cartridge. The sprokets I used the negative images to create the second set.

I've almost got my special project completed...it's a 3-D item. I have to head out to look for some special ribbon.  Hopefully I'll post it tomorrow!

Yvonne

Sweet Treats

Good Morning,

I've been missing in action for a few days. I was scrapbooking and I just couldn't get my MOJO together yesterday. Actually it seems to be more that I don't have a good attention span at the moment. I've been jumping from project to project. Also had to get my hair cut and colored yesterday. She talked me into cutting it as well. It's still long enough for a pony tail but she layered it up some. The jury is still out on how I'm going to like it.

Over the last week I've had some new people sign up as Followers or Subscribers to my blog post. Thank you for your interest. To all of you who read my blog please let me know if there is something you would like me to showcase. I'm up to trying out new projects/card designs/techniques etc. Just tell me what you're looking for and I'll see if I can creating a project with your ideas.

The image on this card is from Just-Rite Stamps. Deborah over at Fargo Cat Shops has a variety of their stamps in stock.

This particular set is called "Something Sweet". It would be quite adorable if you were making small gift baskets for friends and family.

The image was colored with Copics and Stickles for accent areas.

The lacey border in the centre of the card was created with a Martha Stewart punch. Just punch along both edges of your cardstock. It left me about a 1/4" border in the centre that I covered with red grosgrain ribbon. Fargo Cat Shops also had in some Martha Stewart punches and EK Success. Both brands work great.

All the circles were cut with Nestabilities.

I'm working on a specail project that might take me a couple of days to complete. But it will be worth the wait.

Congratulations to Marilyn Mercer....Marilyn is teaching classes for Fargo Cat Designs as well as working on the design team. Welcome aboard!

I'm off for a walk this morning and then hopefully work on that new project.

Yvonne

All Dressed Up - Stampsmith Challenge

Afternoon...

Well I've been trying to get a card done for the Stampsmith Challenge. The theme was all dressed up.

I didn't have any Stampsmith stamps but you can play along using any stamp you might have.

I have to say it didn't turn out to be my favorite card and I fiddled and fiddled but decided I just needed to get it done. There are yellow stickles on the little girls necklace and the centre of the flower border is pink bling. The flower border is an EK success punch.

Thanks for checking in today and I'll have something else for tomorrow.

Yvonne

Just A Lot of Hot Air

Morning,

How are you feeling after the turkey yesterday? Okay...we all know it's not the turkey that gets you but everything else that went along with the turkey. You know...you could have skipped the pumpkin pie or at least the ice cream and pumpkin pie. I know how it works.

Finally getting a scrapbook page up. The paper is from Basic Grey - possibly Olivia? On PEI this summer there were hot air balloons that floated right over Xavier's house. So cool.

The chipboard pieces were from Bo Bunny. I've really stretched that package a long ways. If I don't like the green (in this case it was perfect) I just sand it, paint it, cover in pattern paper or distress it to the color I want. Keep those odd pieces handy so you can use them. Flower was from the Basic Grey sticker sheet as was the frame below and the borders. Title cut from the cricut.

I think ink this picture they were actually watching the balloons but it always makes me think they're maybe waiting for Daddy to get home from work. It's cute how they are looking at each other, almost like they are having a real conversation.

The background here is called a doily. It has adhesive on the back so all you have to do is lay it down. It's not too sticky though so you can re-position it first if you have to. I laid it across both pages and then cut it. The goal was to have it look continuous.

I'm off this morning to check out the YMCA. Going to go to a yoga class. I'll start out slow.

Enjoy your short week.

Yvonne

Happy Thanksgiving & A Christmas Ornament

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home celebrating! Hope you are enjoying that turkey and the trimmings. It's one of the holidays that I always really enjoyed. it was always relaxing. There was only the prep work for the day...unlike Easter or Christmas.

My day so far has consisted of taking my car to the dealership for an oil change and inspection. Coming home and doing housework. Still not done the housework but taking a little down time here to post.

I started this project out first by choosing the pattern paper and the cardstock. I wanted something elegant looking. The ornament and frame are both embossed with detail silver powder. I used only two different copic markers for coloring. Spellbinders for the circles.

Blue embossing powder for the Merry Christmas. If you look closely you can see tiny pearls on the ornament.

The snowflake border was my last remaining piece from Bazzill edge border packs. I see Deborah still has some of the half the edge which are great for cards too. These were white and I spritzed them with silver smooch. Placed a pearl in the centre of each snowflake and some pearls under the Merry Christmas to balance everything out.

That's all I've got for today and I think tomorrow is a scrapbook page.

Go easy on the turkey...you do want leftovers.  Mmmmmm..so good!

Yvonne (who has turkey legs dancing through her head)

Blue & Silver - Mojo 159

Hi

Just getting my card in for the Mojo Monday Challenge.

Do you ever have one of those cards that you work and work on and no matter how hard you try your original concept just isn't going to fly. I spent all day today going back and forth to this project. After many pieces of paper I finally scrapped the ornament I was trying to put into the corner and went with a simple snowflake. I really like the pattern paper...it's soft and has a collage look to it. I picked it up at a Hobby Lobby. The snowflakes and labels are both from Spellbinders. The stamp was puchased many years ago and was a PSX design. Image is embossed with silver detail and both pieces of cardstock were edged in silver pen.

Here's the sketch from Mojo Monday.

For more inspirations you can check out Mojo Monday here.

Off to tidy my crafting space as DH should be arriving home in about an hour. Guess that means I should probably cook something that doesn't come in cardboard container and is microwavable.

Have a good week-end. I'll see you Monday.

Yvonne

Treats!

Good Morning,

Deborah asked me to pass a message on:

Please note:


Fargocat Designs blog may be down for a couple of days until I secure the domain name.

Just keep checking back and I will have Yvonne post when I am back up.

Sorry for the inconvenience. I will post my open hours on my Facebook Page.

Thanks,

Deborah
 
Onto todays project...I was finishing up my other "Boo" basket for another neighbor. They have children so I made up some treats for the cauldron.
 
I'll start by saying "Sorry" for the fuzzy pic. I guess I was in a hurry.
 
I put candy inside a cellophane bag and created a cover.
 
Directions: 4 1/4" x 11" cardstock,
Scored at 1", 5 1/2", 6", 6 1/2" (the last three score line create an accordian fold for the base. You can omit the 6" score line if you want it flat.)
 
Pattern paper 3/4" x 4 for flap
                      4" x 4 1/4"
 
I used Spellbinders circle to cut a hole in the front through both layers (pattern paper and cardstock). When you are positioning the circle keep it closer to the bottom of the container cause you will lose and 1" from the top when the flap is folded down.
I tape the top part of the cellophane bag in place folded the flap over, punched two holes and threaded ribbon through to hold it tight.

These little treats have a chocolate that are round like a peppermint paddy.

The spider legs are done using two different sizes of a photocorner punch. The eyes and nose are 1/2" punch with the black dot on the eye 1/4" punch. I used a scallop circle punch but any of your nestability circles or scallops would be great. The other treats are pretty self-explantory.

If you've left me a comment and I haven't replied directly to you it's because I don't have an e-mail address for you. Please check back to the comments section where you left your inquiry as I responded there.

Off to finish that scrapbook page.

Yvonne

You've Been Boo'd!

Good Morning,

Well I'm determined today will be better than yesterday.

I was finishing up a scrapbook page yesterday and needed just a little more green cardstock so decided to head out to pick it up only to get in my car and have my car tell me I had low tire pressure. I found the air compressor and all that good stuff in the garage but couldn't find the adapter so I could put air in. I got so frustrated I decided to stay home cause I figured the way my luck was running yesterday that if I took DH's car I'd probably get into an accident. So I stayed home and finished some other projects.

A few years back...and for me that seems like a couple of years...but in reality it's probably six or seven years (lol) I found a cute idea on a Halloween Gift Basket. I've decided to give a couple baskets to my neighbors here. The first basket is for my next door neighbors. So the whole idea behind this is you create a gift basket of sorts, give it to a neighbor, then they are to do the same and give it to someone else in the neighborhood.

If you want the word file with the poem and everything on it contact me at ybalmer@hotmail.com and I'll send you the file. I can't upload a word document here or I can't figure it out.

So the cauldron pot and wine glasses were from the dollar store. I used orange vinyl for the BOO wording on the cauldron. No need to explain where the wine came from. There is a bag for each of them with oatcakes enclosed.

The spider was cut from black glitter cardstock and goggly eyes put on. Gypsy Wandering cartridge used.

Happy Halloween stamp from Stampin' Up retired. The pattern paper was from Target. Great deal, eight sheets for a dollar. Four of the sheets actually have glitter on them but the sheets are paper weight so very light.

The directions on the tag attached to cauldron.

Close - up of my wine glasses. I'm pretty sure they will get a kick out of this.

Give one of these a try and let me know what the neighbor thought!

Just a reminder that there is a scrapbooking crop happening on October 16 in Truro and YOU get to pick your GOODIE BAG!

Doesn't get any better than that. How many times have you gone to a crop only to receive your goodie bag and it's full of stuff that nobody else wanted to buy?

There's a link on the top right hand side of my blog or you can click here.

I'm off to put air in my tires, pick up a couple more of those adorable wine glasses (I have another cauldron to decorate) get my cardstock  and go to the post office. I am definitely put those vinyl wall hangings in the mail today. They are now in the envelope and sealed.

Have A Great Day and I Will TOO!

Yvonne

More Vinyl and a Rant

Morning All,

I need to take five minutes this morning to rant about my crappy day and then I'll be fine. I'd rant to my DH but he's away and the phone bill would be too high.

Morning started off just fine. A little coffee, checking my e-mail, thanks to all who comment on the post...I do love reading those. Then I get a phone call wanting to know if I've been using my debit card at Net Flix or something like that. Apparently at 3:30 a.m. somebody was using my debit card or debit number. They were for only small amounts but they would freeze those charges. I am VERY grateful to that monitoring company/system or I may not have noticed those charges till much later. So this phone call made me go back and check my bank account. I admit I don't monitor it closely and if something goes through I usually assume it is DH who has made a purchase and unless it is large I ignore it. Well I find a week later a charge for $399.76. I try to get a hold of DH to see if he purchased something on-line and in the meantime I call the company to try and find out what has been supposedly shipped to me. Apparently I wanted two MP3 players and head sets. If it had been one I might have chalked that up to DH cause he's been wanting one but two????? I finally get in touch with DH and he assures me he hasn't been shopping. lol

So now I'm on the phone with credit card services cancelling my card and then my bank getting replacement card and having them send out fradulent forms so I can claim for my money back.  At the end of the day I can't get a replacement debit card for 5 - 7 business days. It comes in the mail. It's a good thing that I had some cash in my pocket book or I would be out of luck cause DH has his debit card with him.

Apparently they were also trying to make some purchases to play their Sony Playstation. Don't think I'm dealing with real hardened criminals here.

I feel better now....I guess it could have been worse.

I did some more of these little vinyl characters for the walls. Pluto is really cute and so are Chip & Dale.
I hope to get these in the mail today to Christine for her children.

Going to go and try and craft a bit now...still pumped up....but a little paper and glue should calm me down.

Thanks for listening today.

Yvonne

I Built A Snowman.....

Hi There,

Start of another week. Hope everyone had a great week-end. I spent all day Saturday making cards. I was celebrating World Card Making Day and playing some on-line challenges. For all you gals who subscribe to my blog feeds I didn't send all of the entries out, but just posted them so you may want to check back through Saturday entries to make sure you didn't miss anything! I've still got a couple more to share too.

I built a snowman....isn't he cute. It's pretty much the only type of snowman I'm going to build down here but I'm okay with that. My temperatures have dropped off considerably from where they were a month ago. It's still nice but not hot, hot.

I made my snowman from Basic Grey paper - Jovial. I know I've been using Basic Grey a lot but I have a lot. There's a few really neat things on this guy. See his nose....I stamped one of the snowman stamps from Just Rite Stamps and cut it out. That was just too easy. His eyes, mouth and buttons....I'm so smart...somethimes. Didn't have any black bling so I used some of my pearls and my black Copic marker and altered the color. Now it does take a while for those to dry completely. Almost 24 hours.
The pom pom on his hat was two circles cut out and puffy paint applied and then heated to give it dimension and texture.

Inside the big box I made some Christmas Tags to fit. The back side is stamped To & From:

Scroll down and I'll give you the dimensions.

Large Box - 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 - scored at 2 1/4" all four sides.

Lid - 4 x 4 - scored at 1/2" all four sides.

Middle Box - 5 3/4 x 5 3/4 - scored at 1 3/4" all four sides.

Lid - 3 1/4 x 3 1/4 - scored at 1/2" all four sides.

Small Box - 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 - scored at 1 1/2" all four sides.

Lid - 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 - scored at 1/2" all four sides.

For the HAT:

                                      You will need 4 cardstock pieces cut 1 1/2″ x 1 3/4″.

This gets a little tricky so try it on scrap paper first. Score the 1 1/2" side at 1/4". ONLY SCORE ONE SIDE. On the opposite side that is 1 1/2" find the center point which is 3/4" and make a tick mark. (First square in picture.)
You will now need to score between the tick mark and the 1 3/4" score line.( second image). You're forming a triangle.

You're creating tabs so you can glue them all together so you need to cut away some of the cardstock and also angle the corners for a better fit (third image).

Fold on all three sides.
Assembly - Using a good sticky tape adhere all the 1 3/4" sides together. The other piece you see there is from a photo corner punch and help to form the tassle on the hat. So before you glue the remaining side together be sure to insert the photo corner. Once you have the triangle formed glue the bottom pieces and attach to the lid of the smallest box.

This was not my design ...I got the directions here. I re-wrote the directions as a couple of the measurements seemed to be off. Check over there to see how the boxes are folded.

I think I may try the Santa too.

Hope you enjoy!

Yvonne

Challenge #2 & #5

Completed two more challenges and I'm going to post them under one post.

First Challenge #2 - The challenge was to create a card mostly pink. I choose a pink Christmas card. The stamp is a Precious Moments stamp. Image colored with copics but used to many to list. The brad is a sparkle burst from Karen Forester.

Challenge #5 is a Christmas Tag or Christmas Gift Tag

This will be a sneak peak. The tag is part of a project for next week....

Click on over the Creations with Christina to see more samples.

Back to work. I'm still one challenge behind. lol

Y

Happy World Card Making Day!

Hi Again.... I know two posts in one day.

I will be posting to my blog a few times today however I am NOT going to send them out to all subscribers via Feedblitz as I don't want you to get to many posts in one day. So please check back directly to my blog to see what I'm creating.

I'm spending some time today at Creations With Christina . There are great give aways and challenges. Pop on over and check it out.

The first card was a sketch challenge. This is my take on it and I'm about two cards behind now. lol

Stamp from Just-rite Stamps. Pattern paper is Basic Grey - It's either the Pyrus or the Curio line. I've cut off the tab.

.

Copics

Y11- Pale Yelloe

Y15 - Cadminum Yellow

YG 03 - Yellow Green

YG06 - Yellowish Green

YG95 - Pale Olive

E43 - Dull Ivory

E77 - Maroon

Later

Yvonne

Christmas Bells

Hi There...it's Saturday, just in case you didn't know. I don't usually post on Saturday but yesterday I created a card for Mojo Monday's Challenge and the challenge link closes on Sunday. This card also qualifies for the challenge over at Creations with Christina.

I'm getting there on my Christmas cards but still have quite a few to go. How are you doing? I won't tell you how many days until Christmas but it's coming a lot faster now that October is here.

Here's the sketch to follow:

Went with a different color combinations again. Basic Grey's line - Jovial had some little blue flowers in it so that was my inspiration for the color blue. The large blue square was cut using Spellbinders Lacey Square. The border on the left was edged with a Stampin' Up border punch. These punches are like Martha Stewart or EK Success punches. Great for lining up to make borders. Martha Stewart also has sets so you can do corners and borders.

The image stamp is from Just Rite Stamps.

The bling was from my stash. I needed something square to follow the rules of the challenge but rotated them for a different look.

My label at the bottom of the card was cut from my Cricut. How many of you crafters out there have some form of cutting tool? Are you using them? If you do have a Cricut or such you can make great borders/frames/labels with them. I used Home Accents. I also have a gypsy that links to the Cricut and used the hide contour feature. What's that you ask?...I cut the image twice. Once as it was where it cuts out the blue border and once where I hid the inner line so it wouldn't cut that and just cut out the entire image in white. Make sense??? You can also use this feature if you have Design Studio on your computer.

The image was colored with my Copics. I don't have a listing of all the markers I used but I can't remind you enough to layer different colors of markers to get the color you want. I usually find this out just by trial and error. You see that green color around the edge that looks like a postage stamp. That wasn't originally green...I had colored it blue like the bow and didn't like it so I then took my yellow marker and colored overtop and it matched the yellow-green on the Holly leaves perfectly. Now if I was really smart I would write these color combos down when I find them and have them for ready reference...if I was really smart....

I think I have something special for my share on Monday...gotta keep you wanting more....

Yvonne