Second Annual Holiday Extravaganza in NYC...

 My second trip into the city for this wonderful class taught by Cheiron Brandon. The Ink Pad's second annual Holiday Extravaganza. This time, my friend Susan Moll joined me. We left with 21 cards to use next month on our Christmas Card List. There was lots of coloring with Copics. For me, I LOVED it, since I'm so bad at knowing what colors to use for what. We learned a few techniques and used alot of stamp sets I would not have been exposed to otherwise. Overall, a great collection. AND, I learned by driving, it's only 51 minutes away. LAST year, it was a ridiculous 4 hour return trip on the train and PATH...

 

 I LOVED this stamp set from Neat & Tangled even BEFORE I won it as a door prize. Merry Christmas Cindy!!!

 

 Another Neat & Tangled set. We used Distress Inks on watercolor paper for the background.

 

 I'm not sure who made this but I'm guessing either Waffle Flower, Lawn Fawn or Neat & Tangled. Can someone enlighten me? And I will correct it. I thought this was stinkin' adorable AND really more a winter card than Christmas...

 

 The stamp is by Stampendous and the background was technique driven. We used a Tim Holtz stencil and dabbed distress RED paint thru it. I really LOVED this. Susan, not so much... LOL. Very, very messy. And we had enough paint on the table to have used on everyone's card. :)

 

 This is a layering stamp by Waffle Flower. THANK GOODNESS for the MISTI...

 

 An adorable Lawn Fawn set. We used a clear Nuvo drop on the garland on the tree.

 

 A Stampers Anonymous set from Tim Holtz...

 

 Hero Arts, I think...

 

Not sure again... :( 

 

This background paper we MADE using images from a set with four or five different ink colors. Pretty clever.

 

So, once again, had a great time. We'll see you again next year...



Some Autumn and Thanksgiving Cards...

 I stamped this at Avra's when I last visited her out in Columbus in August. It took awhile to get it "together" but it's postal now... :)

This was done with two Impression Obsession cover-a-card's on the last overnight with Deb. The leaves one was mine, the script one was hers. I used distress inks and the MISTI...

 

This was my take on a Catherine Pooler class I've been taking thru Craftsy. I used my Silhouette to make the sentiment. I made three...

 

All of these go postal tomorrow to express my wishes for a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!



Crafty Weekends are the BEST!!

My friend Deb came over again to play from 10am Saturday until 2pm Monday. One of the things we worked on was the Online Card Class, Rainbow Maker, Days 5 and 6. It was JAM PACKED with techniques. We also used our Copics to color some Laura Burch stamps. This whole layout of cards are so incredibly colorful. I'm so pleased to have a healthy replenishment for my stash...

From the rainbow class, I really enjoyed this technique alot. With Distress inks in the rainbow spectrum, we distressed lightly the cardstock. Then using a stencil, we used VersaMark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The stencil I used from Deb's collection is a Tim Holtz layering stencil called Scribbles. I LOVED this stencilso much, it's now in my cart on Amazon... LOL  Then, distressing again over the image, darkens up the areas that were not embossed. What a beautiful effect...

 

We did some "smooshing" and with the finished pieces, I die-cut this Penny Black feather several times. I used my new Wonky stitches and an old sentiment from Basic Grey to complete this card. Behind the die-cut feather is a light colored shimmer paper. I stamped in Delicata Golden Glitz and heat embossed with clear. The result just knocked my socks off...

 

When the extended weekend was over, Deb had completed 25 cards and I had completed 21. I've felt I've neglected my cardmaking creativity since the beginning of September so it was awesome to be back at it.  I've been doing so much pen palling lately that it's begun to feel like a part time job. I spent the better part of the day, sending these creations off to my peeps... :)

 

Let's "WINE" a little...

 I have a friend who Mod Podged enough napkins this week to make 315 cards (you know who you are ANN)... OMG!!! I'm so far behind! I only did enough for six... :)

 

 I was without a "Cheers" die until I went to a Scrapbooking Yard Sale at Paper Anthology yesterday with Susan Hiles. This wasn't in the "sale" but it WAS 25% off in the store. This one is by My Favorite Things. I LOVE it!!! I just may have to Mod Podge MORE of these. I am loving the result...

 

There are TWO napkins here. The one with the corks that I used in the background and the one with two different wine set-ups. This one and the one above. I die-cut the "Cheers" out of a dull gold paper and added orange and cork bling to the top right corner. Can we say CHEERS?!! 



Those DARN Christmas Cards...

What a BAD afternoon I was having with this card yesterday. On my monthly mission to make five Christmas cards, everything that COULD go wrong with this, did. First, I put way too many sequins in the window so you couldn't see the sentiment. That card was completely destroyed trying to open the back to get them out. Then, I didn't attach the gold cord properly (it was an after thought) but thought I could hide it with the branches I was planning to use, so kept going. Then Score tape was sticking more to me than the tulle and I almost destroyed another before I switched to my ATG gun. Then this! I incorrectly opened a new bottle of glue of a brand I'd never used before and SPLASH!! A big mess!

 

I wiped it off and left the Studio for the rest of the day. In the light of a new day, I found it was quite salvageable. The new glue I was using is called "Art Glitter". I was shocked that it wiped up cleanly. Just wrinkled the paper a little where the biggest blob was and dried clear, not at all sticky, as if nothing was ever there. A couple of those sequins will NEVER move but who will know?!! I'm not telling...

But, instead of five for September, there will only be three. I'm okay with that because I am NOT attempting this one again for a long, long time... :)

 

More cards, different times...

These were done the weekend Hurricane Irma was messing up the Caribbean and deciding whether or not to hit Tampa head on (September 8, 9 and 10). As I was at Cozy Crop (the other house that I've never been to) TRYING to not worry about Joshua and crew, I worked on and completed these...

 



Another Crafty Weekend with a Friend...

 Another crafty weekend with a friend... this time Deb Fischer. Here's what we accomplished. My take-away was a dozen completed and Deb's was seventeen. We did great!

 

First, we started with fabric. These are from a bolt Deb just picked up recently at Farmhouse Memories in PA. I made five with the kittens and therefore, completing my personal challenge to make five Christmas cards every month. The background is an embossed piece AND white paper, ripped to appear like snow. The sentiment is from a Stampin' Up set...

From the same bolt of fabric. I added Glossy Accents to the hanging stars but the fabric soaked most of it up. There are also Stickles randomly about the background to appear as snow...

 AND, I did what Deb does alot, fussy-cut images to "pop" on to the original image. The fox, deer and his scarf are popped. WAY out of my comfort zone but outstanding result...

 

THEN, we decided to start working on the Online Card Class called "Rainbow Maker" that we are both signed up to do. Here's us being goofy with our GIANT lollipops. It's a rainbow class, right? CAN'T do it without rainbow lollipops... :)

 

 

  From Lessons 1 and 2. We made NINE backgrounds in Lesson #1 but were only shown what to do with three of them. Maybe something comes up later? The far right card is from Lesson #2. We didn't finish Lesson #2 so I'll be getting back to that shortly... 

Then Sunday, we worked on the Gina K. Designs kit, Sentimental Summer, that I purchased while at Junkie Fest. We followed her video which can be found on Stamp TV (link HERE) and used my Prismacolors. I really, really loved this. I liked the technique we used to make the background fence too... AWESOME SAUCE!

 

Such a versatile and adorable kit. There's still a whole nother stamp set to play with...

 

SOOOO, another fun weekend with company! Thanks for taking a look and I'd LOVE you to leave a comment and tell me what you liked best... :)

 

Weekend Productivity with a friend...

It wasn't this past weekend, but the weekend before, when Susan Moll came to play. Here's the cards I completed when the weekend was done. FOUR Christmas cards for July in that bunch! We did LOTS of foiling, some fabric cards and I completed my first evah Whippers with matching envelopes...

Gina K's "NEW" BoHo Kit...

 This is the "NEW" Boho Flowers Mini Stamp Kit by Gina K. Designs that was released last night (see HERE). This was one of our classes at Junkie Fest last month. Gina, herself, taught it. She showed us how to use a stencil to create the background with her lovely, lovely ink colors which are included in the kit. Then we heat embossed the Boho flowers and leaves and die-cut them with the matching dies, also in the kit...
 

Once we returned home, I just had to duplicate what we had learned. I also used the stencil to make matching envelopes which you can see in the left corner of the first picture. I LOVE this card... alot! I'll certainly be making it again. In her release last night, Gina showed another color combination that was just stunning. Go check it out on Stamp TV...

JUNKIE Fest 2017...

 

Shamefully, I've  been back from Junkie Fest for three weeks and haven't finished this blog post... my bad! This was an event sponsored by the Facebook page, "Stamp Junkies" and hosted by Gina K Designs in Greendale, WI at Gina K's brick and mortar, Village Paper and Ink on June 23rd and 24th. I drove from New Jersey, picked up Sherry in Ohio and continued on to Wisconsin. Can you say "ROAD TRIP?!!"...

 

 This was the FIRST surprise we received Thursday night at the hotel that the majority of us were staying. I was BLOWN... AWAY!!! The bag, the mug and button were to us, from the ADMINS of the "Stamp Junkies" group. The bag itself was STUFFED with not yet released stamps from Gina K Designs (ALL have since been released). All four classes we took, Friday and Saturday, used these stamps.
 

We received other goodies from various retailers too. Glue from Brutus Monroe, sequins from Pretty Pink Posh (our table divided them all between us and put into ONE little bag. Don't think for ONE MINUTE that OCD me won't be separating all that), Foils and another canvas bag from Therm-o-web and a paper pad from RINA K Designs (Gina's daughter). Now, understand, there is really NO Rina K Designs. It was a WELL PLAYED comedy routine between Gina and her daughter...

 

Each night, there were door prizes back at the hotel. I was again BLOWN OUT OF THE WATER when I won this "Not Yet Released" bag for my MISTI. And are you ready for this???? Presented to me by the creator of the MISTI, Iliana Myska. She was a surprise guest at our event. Before the weekend was out, I had her sign my MISTI...

 

Of course, along with all the freebies, I dropped a few bucks in Gina's store! I still haven't cracked most of this open yet but, I'm still overjoyed at all the friendships I made, the techniques I learned and rubbing elbows with Gina K herself. I was TRULY star struck!

 

 

Isn't she the cutest thing?!! I LOVED hanging with her for three days...

FABRIC Christmas Cards...

 While at Cozy Crop in April, I picked up some more fabric to play with at Farmhouse Memories in Paradise, PA. I've asked my friend Deb to remind me of what I want to accomplish with fabric before we return to Farmhouse Memories in September. She's been a great conscience... :)

 

These are two different fabrics, die-cut with stitched dies. Mounted on black cardstock, I added the sentiment from a Concord & 9th set called "Christmas Cottage". Sequins were added from Pretty Pink Posh for added interest. And so completes my five Christmas cards for June... YAY! I seemed to have missed May altogether. Who took it?



My Cozy Crop cards...

 Not all the cards I made were photographed in the two pictures above BUT, I ended up with 43 completed by the time the week was over. I was delighted! Usually, I'm horrible at taking all the supplies needed to complete a card but somehow, it all worked. Of course, it didn't hurt that another crafter had brought EVERYTHING but the kitchen sink. I leaned on her alot... (thanks Deb)
 

 This was the first card I made from a brand new (to me) stamp set from Concord and 9th. I used my MISTI on the four I made but when I went to put the sentiment, I planned poorly. I put HELLO below "lovely" instead of above. This kept Susan awake until 3am contemplating how to fix it. Finally, she felt that putting "A" above the whole "lovely hello" would make more sense. She's absolutely right but I'm afraid if I remove the two Nuvo drops that the paper will rip. Maybe I just need to send these four to people who wouldn't notice? It's a dilemma...

 

The next cards I worked on were these lighthouses. I purchased the two fabrics the first time we visited Farmhouse Memories during my FIRST Cozy Crop visit in 2013. I never quite understood what to do once I got home. Deb, however, is an expert with this, so she pretty much held my hand thru the whole process. To say I was blown out of my chair with the result, would be an understatement...

 

Then I moved on to what I purchased last year... NICE! If you're able to look closely at this, you can see the fibers of the fabric.  AND, I guess I'm sending some "4th of July" cards... LOL

 

I had started these at Stamp Camp in March, so finished them up at Cozy...

 

 These were deli paper monoprints that I backed with white then mounted on black. Deli paper is see through so, where you see white, is the paper underneath...

 

Susan and I split a package of Dylusions "creative dyary" die-cuts. She challenged me to turn some into cards. The backgrounds on these are tissue paper, book pages and patterns, Mod Podged onto cardstock. The girls are colored with Susan's Derwent Inktense blocks. I kinda surprised myself. I did good with this challenge! All sentiments are from Deb's Tim Holtz "Hipsters" collection. They fit perfectly...

One extra background became home to this... a one of a kind.

Along with the 43 cards I completed, I also completed four Project Life pages and four Mixed Media pages. Going for a whole week was awesome! We had two days where we visited places throughout Lancaster County. We also had a pajama day. By the time we got to the "hosted" part, the time flew like lightening. As usual, I had a great time and can't WAIT to go back next year. The friendships you forge while there, run deep... I LOVE those ladies!