Honey Pop

Look at the fun and quirky card that I created with Honey Pop stamps and COPIC markers. They come in cute sets of coordinating stamps that can be used like any clear mount stamp...

 ...or used with their honeycomb paper to make a 3D popup card like below.

Fun! Fun! Fun!  You can find the stamps and COPICs at the Hen House!

Pennant Punch Tree 3-D

I just had to make this card after seeing the one on Mary Fish's blog.  I used a retired SU DSP and of course, the pennant punch and Pennant Parade stamp set.  The star is a old silver brad that I bought ages ago.  Glad to be able to put it to use.

September Hen House Swap Club cards

As promised, I am sharing the awesome cards created by the ladies that attended the September Hen House swap last Saturday.

This first card was made by Kelley, a self-proclaimed stamping virgin.  :-)

 Kimber made this cute Halloween card while she was recovering from her recent car accident!  What a dedicted card crafter!

These two autumn cards were sent in by Trish and Liz who were unable to make the class on Saturday but still wanted to participate in the swap.  Notice the stitching around the scarecrow?  Love the pairing of sewing and card making!  And the colors in the leaf card are some of my favorites.

 Mary made this card using the distress stain resist technique on patterned paper.  I love the way the stains allow the pattern to show through.

 Gloria made this card using a unique plastic flower embellishment.

 Peggy spritzed her stamp before stamping the wild flowers on this purple beauty.  It gave it a watercolor effect.

 Sandy used the distress resist technique to make the gorgeous green paper band and the paper pieced centers of the flower.

 Cynthia used punches and sponging to create this cute cat card.

 Stephanie cut out hats from some decorative scrapbook paper and made a series of unique Halloween cards.

Hope you enjoyed seeing their work.  I look forward to next month!

Vellum window

I am finally done with the fourth card for my October 15th Fast and Fun class.  This time I stamped on vellum using Stazon ink.  I cut out a frame using two Nestability dies and the magnetic mat to insure that they stayed in place while I cut.  Last but not least I cut strips of yummy MME Lost and Found paper and stacked them on the background of the card. 

Sticky back canvas

For my October Technique class (Fun with Texture), I thought it would be fun to play with sticky-back canvas.  I love the look and feel of canvas on card projects.  Here is a close up of the butterfly that I created on the canvas with a Unity stamp.

By embossing with clear and then coloring the canvas with inks and stains, you get kind of a batik look and feel. I used my fingernail and a nail file to fray the edges.  This is easier when you have a square piece. 

A canvas tag from Maya Road was stamped with the sentiment.  The body and the antennae are stickled (is that a real verb?).  If you haven't played with canvas, you should give it try.  Better yet ...come to my class on Saturday, October 22 at 1pm at the Hen House.  Due to popular demand, we are planning on having a Tuesday Technique Swap class.  Stay tuned for more details.

Baking is not my cup of tea...

I have family visiting from out of town so I thought that I would bake something for them.  Saw this "easy" recipe for Carmel Apple Upside Down cake...so I decided to make two.

Here is the first one...

 The second one didn't fare much better.

 But "Upside down"  they don't look half bad.

Fun with Texture

I decided to have the Hen House Swap Club play with texture techniques in October.  Here is one of the two cards that we will be making.  It uses puff paint, velvet flocking and glossy paper.

Here is a close up so you can see the puffy paint.  If you are in the mood to play with texture.  Be sure to sign up for the technique swap club on October 22nd at 1pm.  If you can't make it but still want to come, just drop off your cards and call me to schedule a make-up class.

Paper pieced leaves

I just love leaves.  Doesn't that sound weird.  But I do.  I had fun with this whimsical "itty bitty" by Unity and lovely Nestability dies by Spellbinder.  This card will also be in my October 15th Fast and Fun class.

Copic dragonfly

Take a peek at another card for my October 15th Fast and Fun class.  I used copics to color the dragonfly from Unity and all the pearls.  Isn't the MME Lost and Found paper just yummy!

Lynn's Project Extravaganza!

Last Sunday, Lynn had our SU swap club do 4 really awesome projects.  The first one uses the spotlight technique.  Notice  the snowflake on top of the polar bear.  We colored two bears and then punch a snowflake out of one to layer on top.

 Here is the whol card.  Cute! Cute! Cute!

The next card had some fancy scoring and cutting to make a gorgeous stand-up card. 

Here's a closeup look at the snow man and birdies.

 Here is the card in all its glory. :-)

The last two projects were super cute ways to give Halloween treats.  One in a box...

...and one in a long skinny bag.  I can't wait to see what projects she comes up with the next time!

Daisy on glossy

Here's a card I made for my October 15th  Fast and Fun class.  Glossy paper and Marvy markers with this beautiful Unity flower and lovely ledger stamp are a match made in heaven.

Waiting on the doors and drawer fronts

Thought I'd give you all a little update on the progress of my room.  Almost everything is in its new home, I am just waiting on the doors and drawer fronts to be made and installed.  I am LOVING my new crafting cave!!!  My husband, daughter and I each have our own desk areas...  This first one is Sami's.  Note the six letter slots...that is so that we can all have a place to put our work-in-progress neatly away.  I covered the little bulletin board with some scrap fabric.  You will see lots of pops of green throughout the room.

 This is Sean's desk and work area.  I love the way the printer and CPU are tucked away.  Each has a pullout shelf for easy access.

 This is my desk area.  It is anxiously waiting for its own computer.  Maybe Santa will bring me one?  The cabinet above has all my card kits for classes and swaps.  When I design a card, I keep all the paper, stamps, inks, punches, embellishment, etc... in one container.  It makes it easy to start and stop a project.

The key to a productive craft room is "zoning".  My dear friend, Sandy taught me that.  Zoning means that each area of the craftroom is dedicated to one theme.  For instance, my adhesive zone is these upper cabinets.  Everything that I need to stick one thing to another is in these cabinets (glues, Xyrons, double stick tape, glue guns, etc..)

This is my color zone.  These lower cabinet have everything that I need to add color to a project.  The drawers on the left are ink pads sorted by type (permanent, distress, chalk, dye-based, pigment, etc..).  The lazy susan on the right has all my paints and markers.

This is my die cut and embossing zone.  The drawer on the left has my die cut pads and tools.  The cabinet on the left has dies (eg., Sizzix).  The drawer on the right has all the stuff I need to powder heat emboss.  The shelves below have folders full of cuttlebug embossing folders and thin dies.  My zutter in on the bottom shelf.  Note on the wall to the right are all my nestability dies in shadow boxes lined with magnetic sheets.  The shadow boxes have hinged fronts so that I can open them and easily get the nestability die that I need.

This is my cutting zone.  The drawer on the left has small cutters and blades.  The right side of the cabinet has a pull out drawer with my Cricut.  The Cricut cartridges are all stored in the drawer below.  The shelves on the left side of the cabinet are actually adjacent to the color zone so these shelves contain sponges and brushes and other color related items.

This is my favorite zone...the ribbon and punch zone.  This tall cabinet will have glass doors so that I can easily see my ribbon and punches.   The small cabinet to the right has extra punches.  On top of this small cabinet is my sewing machine that is ready and easily accessible for use.

 This is just a photo of the adhesive and color zones.

This last photo is of the work table that is in between the ribbon/punch zones and the adhesive/color zones.  There are four large drawers under this table where I store border punches, sewing stuff, hand tools and other tools that I use a lot.

Hope you enjoyed the tour.  Once the doors are on I will post again.  Also still need to show you my stamp closet and embellishment closet.

She is becoming quite crafty

My daughter is going to a dear friend's birthday party this weekend and decided that she wanted to make the card.  She drew the image and also colored it with Copics.  The birthday greeting is an old SU one that coordinates with the scallop circle punch.  The ribbon is some scrap felt ribbon that I have had for years.

Tomorrow is my September Fast and Fun card class at the Hen House.  It's gonna be a full house.  I am really looking forward to it.  Sunday I will going to SU swap club at Lynn's.  I am so excited to see what great projects she will have us do and also to see the swap cards.  I will try to post tomorrow night to show you all the loot!

Baby shower card

Something must be in the water at my office.  We have a bunch of pregnant ladies...all due around the same time. :-)  Next month is the first of many baby showers.  I was delighted when the counseling team asked me to design a baby shower card for their happy mother-to-be.  A few of them will come over today (Labor Day...hee...hee) and we will have a baby shower invite assembly line.  Take a peek at what we will be making...

We decided on some "neutral" colors since no one knows if the baby will be a boy or girl.  I personally loved yellow and green when my daughter was a baby.  I had a lot of fun with this card.  I paper pieced the blanket.  Used Copics to color the baby and the tag.  The background was made with one of my favorite IO Cover-a-Card stamps using SU pear pizzazz ink and paper.  I used Nestabilities to cut out the scalloped oval and oval.  You can't tell but I used some puff paint on the socks to give them a fuzzy feel.  The stamps are some I bought over 10 years ago but glad that I kept them.  The name on the tag was hand written using a COPIC multiliner 0.03 black pen.

Triple Layer Flower

I got to play with some of my new toys on Sunday.  This was the inspiration image:


And this was the clean and simple card sketch....



The end result was the card below...

The colors did not scan well at all, so I apologize.  I used my new triple layer flower stamp from SU and the striped embossing folder.  I also used my  Iroc Heat Setting Tool to attach the 3 white metal embellishments.  Fun! Fun! Fun!