Passionate about Paper Crafting, Vintage items, DYI and just being creative.Release your creative inhibitions today!

Tuesday 31 March 2015

My Dad

Can't think of better photo's that describes this man without adding words.

 


Many elements of texture

Loved friends, fishing, family, fun and the simple life <3




Used Fancy Pants Nautical line and embellishments. My Stamping Studio's are selling these bundle packs that offer over $70 worth of product for $29.99 (option of 6 Fancy Pants Bundles)

Monday 30 March 2015

Publication Notice

Scrap n Art on-line Magazine will be featuring the Wedding Shadow Frame in Aprils publication!!

This is a wonderful on-line magazine that offers lots of inspiration and ideas. Be sure to follow them on social media.

I'm feeling privileged to be featured :)

Find me by clicking on "Monthly Reader Submissions", clicking again on the same title and scrolling down.

Creating Flowers






I find many crafters get frustrated when they don't have matching embellishments for their projects, 
why not make your own! This is an easy way to make your own matching flowers. These flowers go with a 
past projected posted.

Start by priming the tissue paper! Take the ivory tissue paper, stamp all over


Take the tissue paper and crumple in a tiny ball


Straighten out paper and with other chosen papers cut flowers in many sizes


Next sort out the different sizes and colours so it is easier to chose from



Using flower shaping tools, Spitz a little water to make the paper more pliable and gentle shape, set aside to allow to dry. once dry the paper becomes very stiff.


Once all are dry, assemble using a glue gun, fluff, ink edges and add pearl for center




To add a little shine and sparkle I gave a soft misting with Glimmer Mist


I LOVE the tissue paper! It is much stronger then regular tissue paper, when crumpled it becomes a verysoft, durable medium to work with. The Kraft tissue, I find, is a cross between tissue paper and Tim 
Holtz Glassine. It embosses very well, which I plan on showing in a different project.

Materials from Canvas Corp Brands:

1. 7-Gypsies Harmony Collection

2. 7-Gypsies Maritime 6x6
3. Tissue Kraft
4. Tissue Ivory
5. 7-Gypsies stamp Distressed Background
6. 7-Gypsies stamp Dream
7. 7-Gypsies stamp Zig Zag Stamp
8. Abominable Snowman Glimmer Spray
9. Brown Ink
10. Centres for flowers (I used pearls)

Tools: 
1. Flower shaped dies
2. Flower shaping tools
3. water
4. Die cutting machine
5. Glue Gun




Saturday 28 March 2015

Wedding Mini Album

A fun way to tell a story with lots of photo's using a mini album! 

These are so much fun, tell a story without ever recording a word. This particular mini albumholds a total of 28 photo's with room for more and features Canvas Corp Brand Products. 
This is part of a larger product done that can be viewed here.

Mini Album Shown in Frame:


When cutting the chip board to fit the space make sure you cut it 1/2" - 3/4" smaller then 
space as chipboard will swell slightly from adhesive and will bulk up from the product added.As well decide howyou will attach the pieces together for placement of photo's.

From this point on I'll show the pages for inspiration and how pockets were incorporated as away to add more photo's, journalling space and interest to the viewer. I inked all the edges.

There's no wrong or right to your design. It's all to your personal taste. inside cover and 
Page 1


Page 2 & 3. Note the tags that are tucked behind the photo on page 3. There are 3 additional photo's in there.



Page 4 & 5. Used pop up dots on the "His & Hers" which was a tag from the collection that I trimmed 
down.


Page 6 & 7 For texture I added some cheese cloth, CCB canvas that was hand cut, brads and tags.
Page 8 & 9. More pockets added behind photos on both pages


Page 10 & 11, The top photo on page 10 is on pop dots to add dimension. The photo on page 11 has a journalling tag behind photo. I did color in the flower on page 11 and covering it with glossy sccents


Page 12 I created a flip album inside the mini album! See, never an ending to the 
possibilities!


And on the last page there is a pocket behind the photo which holds additional photos and I 
have the tag draped over the front as it's perfect for the photo of the bride, groom and little boy walking away

 




Back Cover


Materials from Canvas Corp Brands:

1. 7-Gypsies Harmony Collection

2. 7-Gypsies Harmony Tags XOXOX, and Harmony

3. E- Flute 6x6

4. Printed Canvas Tile

5. 7-Gypsies Maritime 6x6

6. 7-Gypsies Maritime Mini Ephemera

7. 80# Cardstock Kraft

8. Hemp Rope Dark Blue
Other non Brand Products:
1. Cheese Cloth
2. Distress ink Vintage Photo
5. Twine
6. Charm
7. Chip board for Album

Tools: 

1. Paper Trimmer
2. Adhesive (wet, strong double sided, Pop dots, Glossy Accents)
3. Distress tool
4. Sand paper
5. Sewing machine




Friday 27 March 2015

Summer Sunset

Another Alcohol Ink Card featuring Magenta Stamps!




Since I am craving for warm summer nights and light breezes I took my imagination to those evenings that are not that far away :)

You may not recognize many of these stamps because I do not put the stamp on a block as I like to control the part of the stamp that touches the card front. I ink only a small portion of the stamp and use that point to add grasses, limbs and wild flowers. An excellent way to get more uses out of the same stamps!

Close up:



To view the stamps used please follow this link to Magenta's Blog!

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Spellbinder Challenge

So as most of you know I've attended Crop & Create in Moncton this past weekend and it was awesome!!

Stacy, AKA, Mrs Spellbinder as I like to call her :) was very generous with the gifts as well challenged all of us to create something using the Palm Tree die that was given to us.

Here is my take...




Here are the supplies I used as I used everything Spellbinder except the green core'dination which is Tim Holtz. I even used the nice ribbon the dies were wrapped in from the crop, since it was too nice to not!


Tuesday 24 March 2015

Crop & Create Moncton 2015



With the vast availability of paper crafting events to join and attend in our great Atlantic Provinces (feeling blessed about this), choosing which one(s) to attend can certainly be dependant on a variety of factors. Time, Location, Cost, Who will be there, past experiences, loyalty, etc all play largely into the decision we make.

Since closing my store, I've teamed up with a partner in crime sort-of-speak, and we have made a promise to each other to try as many crops as we can. Going to places that are not familiar to experience others peoples take on what makes a great crop weekend.

The below comments are my own personal thoughts, feelings and opinions which I will share with you. I plan on doing a little summary of all events I go to in the future :)

In Canada we have two very polished publications for paper crafters, Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine and Scrapbook & Cards Today Magazine (SCT). Both compliment each other and offer different information and content. BOTH are huge supporters of Canadian Paper Crafters and do their best to keep the preservation of memories alive!

From SCT website:

Scrapbook & Cards Today is thrilled to announce the launch of "Crop & Create" - a series of spectacular events to be held in various Provinces across Canada! Designed with the papercrafter in mind, these events will combine fun and educational classes from some of the industry's top teachers, with loads of cropping time, make n' takes, and a host of fabulous prizes! Sound like fun? Then please join us for a weekend full of classes, camaraderie, creativity, and cropping!

I believe this was year # 5! Crop & Create travels to a variety of locations across Canada with our closest location being Moncton NB.

The organizers of this event have made it bigger and bigger each year, getting the attention of many manufacturers who donate generous prizes and designers who attend to offer classes at superb prices! It has been my experience that you get back more in product then what the class cost was plus you are taught by the designers of the products and receive first hand tips and techniques that you may not find anywhere else....the entire weekend was truly an experience! Thank you Catherine!





Catherine Tachdjian, Creator, Envisionary and Publisher of Scrapbook & Cards Today Magazine!

The event in Moncton has always been held at the Delta Beausejour. This has been one of the best hotel experiences as the staff are oh so super friendly, from the front desk to the housekeeping staff! They will do whatever they can to ensure your stay is as pleasant as possible. They have top notch restaurants/bars and cafes, as well as other services such as pool, exercise facilities and massage on location. Located downtown, walking to all the favorites is only a few steps away. The event pricing per night was $148 (for a 2 queen bed room, which includes parking and tax).

The food at the hotel was excellent as we dined in house both Friday and Saturday ($25/meal which included taxes and tips). Of course should you wish to go out there are more options then you can imagine within walking distance.

The event provided lunch Saturday as well as a dessert bar both Friday and Saturday night (sorry forgot to get a photo of these but OMG!!! wasn`t it delightful! Included items such as brownies, cheesecake, puff pastries, bread pudding, tarts, etc)

There were 3 stores on location for our shopping pleasure: My Stamping Studio; The Scrap Shack and Let's Capture Our Memories and they all were fabulous!

Onward to the classes that I took as those are the only ones I can speak to:

Spellbinders: I took 2 classes,  Spellbinding Elegance & Giggles, Laughs and Fun Cards




We were so blessed to have the Mother of Spellbinder herself, Stacey Caron as well as her #1 teacher Kim Hupke and 2 local gals Marielle LeBlanc and Tina MacDonald who are on the Spellbinder team, walk us through 2 amazing classes!


Spellbinder Elegance Class


 Giggles, Laughs and Fun Class


All the dies you see, we got to keep!!! Each class tallied to over $100 in just dies that we got to take home! Talk about excitement. They also brought with them 12 spellbinder machines that they raffled off for $50 US at the end of the weekend. These machines sell at Michaels for $189+tax! Along with the giveaways we got first hand tips, tricks and ideas around creating with spellbinders which are invaluable.

Stacey's keynote presentation on how her company (Spellbinders) started and grew was certainly moving and created a few tears among us. She is truly an inspiration and maintains a very high level of excellence for the products with the name "Spellbinder" on them.




Angie works with Unity Stamps and has her own line called "Angie Girl" These stamps are so much fun and I instantly fell in love! Angie has a great way of teaching that makes water colouring relaxing and oh so easy :) With her class we received a full 6x6 pattern paper, embellishments and other goodies. She also had Unity place a HUGE sale for the weekend with awesome shipping just for us Canadians!







Who doesn't know about this Canadian gal! Vicki is our Canadian, female Tim Holtz! She has a vast resume and has taught all over the world. She is certainly a people person and ALWAYS has everyone in stitches!



This class was all about techniques and learning about products that we love so much in the mix media world. We got to take home a Tim Holtz portfolio, rub-ons, embellishment as well as a lot of paper...which seems to be missing from this photo (sorry)

A few more photo's from the weekend:





Event: Would I go again to Crop & Create??? ABSOLUTELY!!! I had to save for this weekend as it is more expensive than most crops I've attended in the past but I feel the worth is definitely there for what you are getting! It is a totally different experience, in an elegant and prestigious sort of way.

Classes: Would absolutely take classes again. No more than 4 though and maybe even decrease to 3 as there was not enough time for me to do "my own thing". But then again, if I stayed out of the stores on site and didn't get distracted so easily, maybe :)

Hotel:  There are other hotels near the event but I would continue to stay here. I was told that by the time Crop & Create comes around next year the hotel would have gone through 18 million $$ worth of reno's....WHATTTTT??? I thought the present was excellent so I can't wait to see that! One word though of the conference rooms...the lighting was very poor (maybe this will be one of the upgrades) but in case bring a good table light.

Thank you for reading about my experience at Crop & Create and I hope to see you the next time!

Wednesday 18 March 2015

Tranquil Night




It's really hard to put a name on this technique using Alcohol inks and Magenta's gorgeous Nature loving stamps. I would NEVER be able to get this same look twice. Paper Crafting IS Art in it's purest form <3

Close Up:





Products Used: Alcohol Inks; Blender Pen; Blending Solution (lots of it!) Liquid Pearls; Archival inksMagenta Style Stamps and Paper

Please click on Magenta's Link to view this posting on their blog and view the stamps used.

Sunday 15 March 2015

Happy Craft Month!

There is a special group of ladies who gather once a month and craft together. We have fun, laughs, share ideas and inspiration.

Feeling blessed to be able to be a part of this.

To express my gratitude I surprised everyone yesterday with a "goodie" bag





I used a die from Lawn Fawn called the "goodie bag", so much fun!

Happy Craft Month to all :)

Saturday 14 March 2015

Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine Blog

Was so excited to be asked to be the featured Guest Blogger for Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine! I was even more honoured to be requested to feature Magenta Style Stamps!! As two very prestigious Canadian Companies it's my pleasure to do this :)

You can view the article here!

Saturday 7 March 2015

Cup Cake Anyone??

Looking through photo's of past projects I felt this one deserved a second début!



So fun and delicious looking.

Made these fun cupcakes a few years back as a window display at my store and ended up selling them to a Mom who's daughter begged her to purchase them for her :)

Such happy and forever memories of days gone by

Thursday 5 March 2015

Transformation Begin!

One of my greatest, current passions is to create projects using wood.

I pick up items "of interest" at yard sales, auctions, etc that I think may come in handy some day.

This piece was picked up a few years ago and has been waiting patiently for the perfect time to transform into something amazing!

Stay tuned!!


Tuesday 3 March 2015

"Get Tangled" March Challenge

One of this months challenge over at canvas Corp Brands was to create something using their new "Tattered Tangles" line!

This is such as fun paper line with many many qualities that allow creators to use all types of mix media products such as paints, sprays, mists, water colour and Alcohol Inks.

Order directly from Canvas Corp or ask your LSS to get in these fun papers!



Products used:

Tag from Tangled Pack  (the sentiment as well as the frame around the photo)



Manilla Tag

Water Colour Ink/Markers



Used Paper from Gypsy Moments