The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

She's giving away this adorable overcoat too! Now I want to go and dig out my sewing machine and start sewing again.....

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

Anthropolification Boyer Cream Cardi GIVEAWAY!!!! GIVEAWAY!!!!

I found this adorable sweater offered up as blog candy and wanted to share it with you. I know it's not stamping-related but it's really cute!

Anthropolification Boyer Cream Cardi GIVEAWAY!!!! GIVEAWAY!!!!

Christmas Tin

Here's a quick little tin I made in December for a friend. I took pics of it before I gave it to her so I could share it with you all too, but then I got lazy and never uploaded it.

But I'm less lazy now, yet still lazy enough that I don't feel like coming up with a new project downstairs to show you, and I found this when I was looking at photos to change my avatar on SCS out and I decided I'm less lazy enough to post it now!

If that made sense to you, be worried. LOL



So here is my little tin! Really easy, really fast and really cute! She loved it BTW. I mean, how could she not??? It's from ME!!!! *grins*

I rock and rolled the tree from Snow Swirled in Kiwi Kiss and Always Artichoke cause I love those colors together. I distressed the edges of the Shimmery White c/s (Cause you have to use the Shimmery White c/s or it get sad and weepy c/s is not fun to be with. FYI.) with Always Artichoke ink. Then I matted (Almost typed 'mated'. I'm sure that the SW c/s would love being mated but then who knows what would be running around my table? What if the SW c/s turned out to be a bit trampy....then I'd have Shimmery Old Olive c/s, Shimmery Basic Black c/s, Shimmery Rose Red c/s....Hmmmmm....Might not be such a bad idea. Maybe I SHOULD try and mate my Shimmery White c/s and see if I can cross-breed it!!!) this on Chocolate Chip and Rose Red c/s, also distressed. And I stuck a Gold Brad through the top of the tree to be a star cause I like to do that.

I covered the top of my tin with an Old Olive piece of Holiday Treasures DP and distressed the edges, then I added a strip of the poinsettia stuff too. Also with distressed edges. Duh. You gotta distress or the paper gets suicidal. Little known fact. You wanna prevent suicidal paper and c/s cause then it deliberately cuts all wonky in your cutter, leaving all this crooked and wasted paper that you get fed up with and throw out. See how that works??? And you thought it was your cutter. Nope, suicidal paper cause you weren't distressing it.

Plus, the world will end if you don't distress. So distress stuff. It's just better for everyone all around. (This has been a public service announcement.)

I adhered my tree matte to the left-ish of my tin cause that's where it fit and I didn't feel like putting it on the right cause then it would have covered up that lovely poinsettia.



I used Sticky Strip to adhered the 1" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain around the lip of the tin. It's luscious, I know! *grins*

Then I adhered more distressed poinsettia paper around the tin. Cause I'm awesome. Had to be said.

I finished the top of the tin off with 2 rows of Rose Red Grosgrain, one of which I tied in a pretty bow and left long strands coming out cause I felt like it! haha!



Then I put waxed paper inside the tin, and filled the tin with homemade peppermint bark. It was really good. Not that I ate any. I would never have done that. Much. *sigh*

Here's how I made the peppermint bark cause you KNOW you want to know! LOL

Peppermint Bark

1 pound of white chocolate (Barry Callebault is what I used, it's fabu!)
1 dozen crushed candy canes (you need 1/2 cup, which works out to 1 dozen canes)
1-2 tsp peppermint extract

Melt chocolate in double boiler on stove or in microwave. If you are doing it in the microwave, start at 1 minute, then stir. Do for 30 second increments after that, stirring after each time until all the chocolate is melted.

Add the crushed candy canes and peppermint extract. Stir until it's all mixed in.

Take 2 cookie sheets and line them with waxed paper cause it's cheaper than parchment paper. Make sure it goes up over the sides too.

Pour your melted chocolate mix in the 2 pans. Take a spatula and spread it out. It will fill both pans.

Put in fridge for at least 30 minutes to cool. Or, if you live in Canada like I do and it's heinously cold outside like it was over Christmas, put it outside (covered with another cookie sheet) for about 5-10 minutes.

Take the waxed paper out of the cookie sheet. Peel it off the back of the peppermint bark. Break the bark in to small pieces and eat it. Fast, or it will go bad. True story.

Technique Cards

So apparently Blogger isn't broken. Dang. That was my whole entire excuse for not posting for the past 2 months, that my blog was broken. Well, apparently it's not.

So we'll just have to fall back on that old favorite "I am a bad blog mommy and that's why I didn't post...."

But, I have been spaghetti-whipped with guilt by my stamper's group so here I am posting again! Whoohoo!

You know you missed me! *grins*

I had my Stamper's 10 last night and we did stuff. Shocking! Wanna know something even MORE shocking???? I was....wait for it.......

READY! Yes I was!!! I wasn't running around like a chicken with it's head cut off (Which really isn't that fun to watch FYI cause of the fountains of blood spurting everywhere while the headless chicken runs around. Scarring childhood memory. Took about 3 months before I could eat chicken again. So unless you live on a farm which we didn't, don't make your kids watch a chicken getting beheaded. It's mean. FYI. And scarring. And gross.) cause I actually had everything ready in the morning! Hahaha!

Okay, except the techniques being printed off. But I had my DH do that while we stamped cause he's awesome that way.

So in December we started on technique rings for my stampers, cause they always LOVE the techniques I show them but never remember how to do them afterward. So they voted to start doing technique rings this year, which honestly I had meant to start them on like 2 cycles ago but kept forgetting to do it. So we started this in December, I showed them 3 techniques and gave them rings and we got started. So this month they wanted to do more in their rings, so we did 3 more techniques, and cards to match cause that's what I felt like doing and I'm all autocratic like that. Haha!

The first technique/card combo we did last night was KISSING. So we all applied our lip gloss and puckered up....Yeah right! LOL



In retrospect I *possibly* should have done this one last. I thought it was an easy card. And it is, if I am the only one doing it. If 11 people are waiting to do it, it gets a little more complex. So note to self, make things a little easier or actually remember to get Marie to bring her inks along to make things go faster.

Isn't it pretty though? And notice that BRIGHT orange there????? See, I used that! ON PURPOSE!!!! And I let it SHOW!!!! A LOT!!!! I am growing.

Usually when I can force myself to use a bright color like that you can barely see it, cause I hide it and tone it all down. But this time I let it show and I gotta admit, it's really pretty on this card. Yes, I said 'pretty' in reference to a bright color! I'll wait while you get up from your faint....

For this card/technique card combo we used So Saffron for the base. The card is 5 1/4" squared, cause I am obsessed with the square cards right now. Hard to picture me being obsessed with anything, I know. But try.

Of course we distressed it. Cause otherwise the world would end. It's a fact. I distress to save you all. I'm generous like that. This next part we skipped on their card cause we were seriously running out of time and this was just the first project....But on my sample I stamped Sanded in So Saffron on the bottom of the card. It's pretty. But we skipped that for time reasons.

Then we stamped Bella Toile on the Tangerine Tango piece cause it's freaking gorgeous and MUST be used on every project I do. FYI. Seriously, it's gorgeous and you need it. Lots. We adhered that strip about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom on the card.

At the same time we adhered the directions to the smaller Tangerine Tango piece and adhered that to the bottom of the technique card. So they could follow along and stuff cause they had the directions. I'm clever like that. You can be amazed, I'll wait.



And then we got to the technique. Kissing!

On the card card we used Shimmery White c/s for this, on the technique card we used Whisper White.

So here's what we did. We took the daisy stamp from Upsy Daisy and inked it up with So Saffron ink. Then we took the big collagey stamp from Fresh Cuts and inked it up with Tangerine Tango. Then we 'kissed' the two stamps together, by pressing the rubbers together. This allows the darker color to 'imprint' on the lighter color, causing a design on the solid stamp. Cool, eh?

Then we 'huffed' on it (AKA, breathed heavily. Think stalker breathing...) and stamped on our c/s. In between doing the card card and the technique card, they had to clean off the stamp, otherwise it would have wrecked my So Saffron ink pad which would have made me sad. That's what took so dang long! Eek!

Anyway, it's really pretty don't you think? Yes, of course you do! LOL

This part we skipped too due to time constraints, but on my sample card I sponged Tangerine Tango around the edges of the Shimmery White piece.

On the technique card we adhered our Whisper White kissed piece.

On the card card we adhered the Shimmery White kissed piece to a distressed piece of Sahara Sand.

Then we skipped the brads, again cause we were running out of time. But I put 4 Gold Brads on my sample.

Lastly we used the Double Rectangle Punch in the bottom left corner and then threaded Very Vanilla Taffeta through it and trimmed the edges (I made them do that part. Can't skip ribbon!) and then stamped a saying beside it in Tangerine Tango from Upsy Daisy. And we were (finally) all done the first project! Whew!



The next technique we did went MUCH faster! We did Polished Stone! :)

This is a manly Valentines' card despite my DH calling it girly. It's grey, therefore it's manly. End of discussion. *men*

So this one starts with Basic Grey c/s. For both the card card and the technique card. And we distressed it. Like you even had to wonder! LOL

Then we distressed the Rose Red pieces (the little one for the technique card and the big one for the card card) and adhered them on. The little one on the bottom of the technique card and the big one on the side of the card card. And then I made them stamp En Francais in Basic Grey on some Pink Pirouette Prints DP--which is really cool and pretty in a very masculine way. FYI. Despite what my DH says. VERY masculine. *men*

So that went on top of the Rose Red c/s. And of course we adhered the instructions for this technique on the little piece of Rose Red c/s on the technique card.

And then I had them stamp the flower from Always in Basic Grey 3 times down the right side of the card and we put a Silver Brad through the center of each one to give it some metal. Cause metal is manly. And these are manly flowers cause they're grey. Despite what my DH says. *men*



And then we did the actual technique. So to do polished stone you take rubbing alcohol and cotton balls. Use gloves if cotton balls creep you out or if you don't like your fingers getting all inky.

Soak the cotton balls in the rubbing alcohol, then drop a couple of drops of 2-3 different colored re-inkers on the soaked part. I used Riding Hood Red, Rose Red and Pixie Pink. Then blob them all around your Glossy c/s until it's covered the way you like it.

Either let it dry on it's own or use your heat gun for a few seconds to dry it. Guess which method I prefer? Yup, heat gun! LOL

When it's dry, stamp on it as you wish. We used Basic Black ink and the set Always. I used the heart on the card card and the bird on the technique card. So pretty!

The technique card one we adhered to the top of the card. The card card piece we adhered to a Basic Black matte and then adhered it to the bottom left corner of the card. And we were all done this very MASCULINE Valentine's card! Despite what my DH says. *men!*



This last technique we did is Poppin' Pastels. It's one of the first techniques I ever learned and it's super easy!

This time we started with Old Olive c/s for our bases. And we distressed them. Then we stamped Simply Stripes on the card card base in Old Olive. I love that BG stamp, it's so versatile! And it gives a fun look and it doesn't matter if you see where it ends because it's stripes and they're supposed to end like that!

Then we used the White Gel Pen to draw some dots along the top stripe, to make it stand out a bit more and we tied some Rose Red Grosgrain around the middle-ish of the card in a knot. And trimmed the ends so it looked pretty.

Then we distressed the Close to Cocoa matte and the Regal Rose matte for the technique card.



And then we got to the technique. I used Whisper White c/s for this. And Inspired by Nature cause it's the BEST stamp set made EVER!!!!

We stamped it in Versamark on the Whisper White c/s and then we used eyeshadow applicators to daub on the Pastels. We used Close to Cocoa, Regal Rose, Pixie Pink, Mellow Moss and Always Artichoke for this.

We daubed on the lighter color first, then went back over with the darker color and just added a bit of depth.

Lastly, we lightly rubbed with a tissue to take off the excess pastels. And done! I had them adhere the technique card one to the top of their technique card.

For the one for the card card we punched out the corners with the Ticket Corner Punch cause I'm also obsessed with that. It's fabulous!!!

I had them skip this part due to being totally out of time, but in my sample I had used the Close to Cocoa marker and my Air Spritzer to splatter marker all over the image and soften it.

We adhered the image to the Close to Cocoa matte and then adhered it to the left top of the card. On the top right of the card we used a saying from Inspired by Nature in Close to Cocoa ink.

And then to finish it off we used the Large Oval Punch with Whisper White c/s, then folded it in half and stuck it around the bottom right hand edge of the card. Then we used the Cropodile to punch a hole through it all (Like buttah!) and put a large Antique Brass Eyelet in the hole and once again used the Cropodile to set it. Awesome!!!

And then, cause I have a Chocolate Chip writer, we used it to make some dots along the outside edge of the grommet piece. And that was it, we were done!

So now my stampers have 6 techniques on their rings that they can use and remember! And that was our night!

New Catty

So here is the new Spring/Summer SU Catty! Whoohoo! Isn't it pretty? If you would like one and are in the Calgary area, let me know!

And I suck. Yeah, it's been almost 2 months since I blogged. *blushes*

I am actually working on some stuff cause I have a class tomorrow night (Funny how that works isn't it?), and I shall valiantly (kinda) try and upload it tomorrow in betwixt and between all the other stuff I have to do to get ready for tomorrow and the aforementioned party.

See how I can pull out big words and use them correctly? Cool, eh? Nice to know my brain isn't total mush ALL of the time! LOL

Oh, I'm using scary colors too! Scary for me anyway....

In the projects for tomorrow. In case that wasn't clear. Yes, I am using....Wait for it....

BRIGHT COLORS!!! EEEEEEEK!

But I gotta admit (albeit reluctantly) that they are pretty on the projects I have come up with. Now you are all teased and titillated aren't you? LOL

Service Auction Stuff

So 2 weeks ago we had a service auction at church for the women. You were asked to donate a service or an item for the silent auction.

The 'money' you bid with you earned by doing certain things--like making your bed for a week, exercising in the past week, drinking 6-8 glasses of water a day, reading scriptures, having Family Home Evening, getting your Visiting Teaching done, etc.

I chose to make stuff for the silent auction. Cause it's easy to do....LOL

So I made a couple of sets of cards and some scrapbook layouts. Wanna see them? *grins*



This first card set (There were 5 cards and envelopes in each set) is my Snowflake card.

Easy peasy to do. Seriously!

Start with Glossy c/s. Stamp image in Versamark all over it. I used Snow Burst. Use White EP on top and heat set. Tends to be important with EP. Just saying. Then soak a cotton ball in Rubbing Alcohol. Do not sniff it. Or eat it. Just covering my bases here....

Now drop a couple drops of re-inker on the cotton ball. I used Baja Breeze and Not Quite Navy. Purdy :)

Blob it all over your c/s, including the embossed images. When it's colored the way you like, heat set to evaporate the ink off of your embossed image. It's called Magic Snowflake technique and it's one of my favs. *grins*

For the card base I used Baja Breeze and distressed the heck (It's a church thing...can't distress the hell out of it. That would be bad. Just saying.)out of the c/s. Like all over. Looks cool.

Then I matted my snowflakes on Whisper White and then Not Quite Navy c/s. And adhered it to the top-ish of my card. I stamped the saying from Heard from the Heart in Not Quite Navy ink on the bottom, then doodled some dots in the corners with my White Gel Pen and doodled some on the Not Quite Navy matte too.

There was a bit of a war over this set. A friend got it for about $1200. I did point out I could make her a set if she wanted so she could save her money, but she decided to outbid everyone instead. Silly! LOL



Here is my Nativity card. It's a church thing so I had to a Nativity card. Just saying.

It's an Elegant Eggplant card base, distressed and stamped with Bella Toile. Cause it's freaking gorgeous!!! Is too. Neener-neener. Yes I am mature....maybe..LOL

Then I stamped my nativity image from Holy Triptych in Versamark on Shimmery White c/s and used Silver EP and then watercolored it with my WWC and Aquapainter. I matted this on Brushed Silver c/s and then tied White Taffeta around the bottom. So pretty!

I think this one went for $600, there wasn't as big of a war over it.

Then I made these 3 scrapbook layouts and they went together:



I used retired Simply Scrappin' kits for these. No idea what they are called and I'm frankly too lazy/tired to go downstairs and look. This first one I called Travel Layout.

The c/s for this layout is one of the In Colors from last year--I think it's called Buckaroo Blue? That's not right but I can't think of it right now. And again with the tired thing and the stairs....LOL

I cut out some of the DP into swoopy lines and made hills out of it. Cause I like doing that. Then I stamped some trees from Lovely as a Tree in White Craft Ink on the hills and used my Stampin' Pastels to make them green. Cause I'm awesome smart like that. *grins*

Then I just used some bits from the SS kit to finish off the page. Easy peasy! :)



This next one the c/s is Soft Sky. I remember that one! LOL

I stamped the grass from Inspired by Nature on it cause it's fabulous and I love it! I think I used Garden Green for the grass. Not sure though...

Then I stamped a bunch of bugs from Bugs and Kisses all over the grass and the sky cause they're cute. I used a lot of colors, don't remember them other than Real Red for the ladybugs. And Basic Black for the ants. I think it was Creamy Caramel for the worms, don't remember which orange I used for the caterpillars.

And then again, just used some bits and bobs from a SS kit to finish it off.



This last layout is done with Mellow Moss c/s. I stamped Organic Outlines on it in the same ink and distressed the edges. Then I used the DP from the SS kit cut into different sized strips and some of the bits and bobs from that SS kit to finish it off.

Pretty, eh?

So these went for about $700.

And that was my contribution to the Service Auction. I didn't get anything, but I had fun and gave all my money to someone else so she could win a lasagna dinner--she didn't win though. Oh well!

Stamper's 10 Layouts

Wanna see what we did at my last Stamper's 10? This was 2 weeks ago. There is another one tonight...

I'll *attempt* to blog what we're doing tonight sometime today. No promises though, haven't taken pics of it yet. Yes, I actually have it planned though! LOL

So last time my hostess asked for scrapbook layouts. Christmas, girlie layouts, or dog layouts she said.

I chose Christmas and dog layouts. Go figure. LOL

We'll start with the dog layout--I call it 'Grass Layout' and it will work quite nicely with pictures of children too. Or nature. Just saying. But I made it for my hostess' dog pictures. She has a girl dog, so it's a girlie dog page. With me so far?



It's a pretty straightforward layout really. But it's pretty which I like. *grins*

We started with 12x12 Bordering Blue c/s. We did NOT distress the edges!!!! *gasp!*

It's okay though, the world didn't end. Cause I distressed elsewhere on the layout! LOL

We started with the grass. I'm obsessed with it. You probably hadn't noticed that though. Seriously, if you are a scrapbooker you NEED this grass stamp. You will hate yourself forever if you don't get it because it's fabulous and you can do so stinking much with it! Oh, it's cool on cards too BTW, but it rocks the bestest on a scrapbook layout where you can see the whole magnificent effect of it! *not biased at all*

So we stamped the grass from Inspired by Nature in Kiwi Kiss. Then we stamped it again (working on not lining it up) in Always Artichoke. Then I distressed the bottom with Kiwi Kiss. And that's why the world didn't end two weeks ago. You're welcome! *grins*

Then I used a strip of Kiwi Kiss (cause I used it in the grass, see?) colored paper from Bella Rose DP and distressed it's edges too. To further keep the world from ending. I'm nice like that.

I can get into the whole 'the world will end if I don't distress things' theory if you want, I explained it a while ago though. No idea where. Someone can feel free to find it and post a link. Or I'll explain again later. Though it's pretty self-explanatory I think.

I tied a piece (see how I went back on topic there?) of Whisper White Taffeta around one side of each of the Kiwi Kiss DP strips, then adhered them down just above my lovely grass. You know it is! *grins*

Then I made a couple of mattes (4 1/4" x 6 1/4") out of Whisper White c/s and did not distress them. But since I had already distressed other stuff it's okay, the world didn't end. *phews*

I adhered them crookedly on the layout. Cause I felt like it. You could do yours all straight and geometrically though. It'll be wrong, but whatever......LOL

I tease my stampers all the time that if they change what I'm doing on my sample that they're wrong. It's fine, just wrong....Tee hee!



Then I stamped some butterflies from Happiness Always (Level 3 Hostess Set) in White Craft Ink randomly in the grass. I just stamped the butterfly made out of words--cause he had a body and a head. It's a little creepy to stamp a butterfly without a body and a head. Just saying. I heat set it to dry it. Like you're surprised! LOL



Then I did the title cause we all know that my scrapbook pages have to have titles or they're wrong. I have issues okay? Like you didn't know that already if you have ever read my blog before....LOL

And if this is the first time reading my blog, this post is a total anomaly, I totally don't post like this EVER! (shuddup the rest of you, they could believe me that I'm all normal and junk!)

So the title I came up with so that it could be used for children as well as doggies is 'just playing.'

I used White Craft Ink and Schoolbook Serif Alphabet to stamp it. Then I added some more butterflies cause I could. And cause I felt like it. So that's my dog layout! *grins*

Then I chose to do a Christmas layout. So here that is....I call it "Gingerbread Layout" cause the c/s looks like the color of gingerbread. I'm clever like that. Or so the voices tell me.....LOL



This one started out with 12x12 Creamy Caramel c/s which we distressed. Actually we distressed the heck out of this layout. They loved me anyway....LOL

We used Real Red and Always Artichoke, so any red pieces are distressed with Real Red (Yup, I'm using a Bold Bright! The world might just come to an end even though I distressed everything...sorry. I'll refrain from using them anymore.) and the green pieces are distressed with Always Artichoke. Cool how I work that, eh?

The DP is from the Hostess Level 1 set--the paper pack. They're all distressed too.

So this layout I made a kind of patchwork quilt thing. I had 4 squares of DP on each page and 4 pieces of colored c/s on each page--opposite colors. So red and green on each page. I'm clever like that. And then I had an empty square. We'll get to what I did with that later.



This first square I stamped snowflakes from Snow Burst on it in White Craft Ink and then used Iridescent Ice EP on top. Sparkalay! *grins*

There's a red one on the other page. I did each of these squares in red and green. It's cause I'm freakishly clever. Just pointing that out. BTW, it's like 9AM and I'm half asleep. Otherwise I'd be more sane. Maybe....



See, now in the empty square I stamped the tree from Snow Swirled in Versamark and then used Gold Glory EP on it. And put a Gold Brad on the top for a star. I'm smart. It's pretty. It's early. I wanna sleep more. I have to take kids to the dentist today though. Lucky lucky me. *sigh*



This square is the middle on each page. I stamped the central word from Warm Words in the color that matched the c/s it was mounted on. So one 'be merry' is green, one is red. Again, I'm just that clever.

The other 2 words are stamped in the opposite color. And so are the snowflakes. I distressed the edges in the color that matched the middle word. I hope this makes sense, if not look at the picture and you'll get it. I'm running out of steam here. Fortunately there is only 1 square left to tell you about. *phews*



This last square was soooo hard! Okay, it was super easy. But it looks pretty!

I tied Gold Cord around it a bunch of times and then knotted it. That's it. Cool, eh?

And then I doodled around the 4 corner squares and the middle square. So it looks like an 'X'. I used my White Gel Pen cause it rocks and it gets sad if I ignore it. And a sad and mopey gel pen is a pathetic thing to behold. Just saying.

The pictures are meant to go on the DP squares FYI.

Christmas Card Stamp Camp

It's that time of year again, time to start thinking about making Christmas cards! Eeek!

If you would like a head-start on your cards and you're in the Calgary, Alberta area, then check out my Christmas Card Stamp Camp! The following are the cards that we will be making this year:













The details are as follows. I will run the Christmas Card Stamp Camp on the following days at my house:

Wednesday, December 3rd from 6:30-9:00pm (limited to 6 participants)
Friday, December 5th from 6:30-9:00pm (limited to 6 participants)
Saturday, December 6th from 1:00-4:00pm (Up to 10 participants)

Cost is as follows:

8 cards (2 of each design)--$25
16 cards (4 of each design)--$40
24 cards (6 of each design)--$65
32 cards (8 of each design)--$80

You *must* be pre-registered by Friday, November 21st and payment *must* accompany registration to take part in this camp. Cash or checks only.

For further details (like my address) or to register for this class please email me--email address is on the left-hand column.