Birthdays are Fun!!!

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t get a chance to post because of how busy I was during my vacation . My husband spoiled me as usual a new jacket, a spa gift certificate, dinner at my favorite Greek restaurant but the biggest surprise this year was this painting.

He had it painted for me by local artist Jaime Gervais. For those of you not familiar with the TV Show True Blood, it is of my favorite characters from that show Sookie & Eric. I had no idea he was having this done for me. I have the best husband in the world. He manages to surprise me with something totally unexpected but absolutely perfect every Birthday and Christmas.


I was supposed to have something else to post tonight as well but our staff crop became a bit of a birthday party for me as well and I didn’t get as much accomplished as I wanted. I do want to send a huge Thank You out Shelley, Naomi, Kelly, Marie & Brenda for all the lovely presents they gave me. I have the best friends!!! We had so much fun Friday night.


I’m off to prep my class that I’m teaching tomorrow night but I hope to have more to post on Wednesday. I’ve also been trying to come up with a new challenge for myself. Until next time, happy crafting and thanks for stopping by.



Deanna

Happy Blogaversary to me

I really can’t believe it has already been 2 years since I started this blog. Where does the time go? I wanted to do something special for my blogaversary which is technically today but I haven’t been in my craft room for over 2 weeks. I had family visiting for a couple of weeks and I didn’t have time to plan anything.

I did get to play tourist for the past couple of weeks and had lots of fun taking pictures while we were out.  We went to many beautiful spots, so here are some pictures from my adventures.  These pictures are from Yale, Harrison, Lake of the Woods, Stanley Park, Vancouver Aquarium, Vandusen Gardens.

Well that's it for now, I'm sure that I will have something more to post by Sunday.  We are having a staff crop tomorrow night and I hope to get at least one project finished lol.  Until next time, happy crafting everyone!
Dee

Blogaversary coming up!!!

Well I was checking out some of my favorite blogs tonight and discovered  that Green Goddess Creations is celebrating her 2 year blogaversary with some blog candy pictured below. Just click the link to her blog to see how to enter.  So while I was reading about that, I started thinking, when did I start my blog....well...it just so happens it will be 2 years on Sept. 30th.  What to do?  Well I'll just have to think about it for the next week or so and see what I can come up with.  I think I may have skipped right over my 1 year blogaversary completely and then I was going to do something special for my 100th post, well that never happened.  I was going to do something special for the end of my challenge and well....we know how that turned out LOL.  I really must start posting more and procrastinating less. I am working on a Halloween card class for mid October so who knows.  Well here is the picture of the blog candy over at Green Goddess Creations go on over and check it out!

Until next time, happy crafting and thanks for stopping by.

Dee

Down to the wire...

It is now 11:15pm on Wednesday, Sept. 15th and I am finally able to post the rest of the pictures for my challenge.  I have been in my craft room for the last 3 nights trying to make it to 30 and tonight I finally made it. I really don't have time to write much, I just wanted to make sure the photos went up.  I wanted to have 30 projects complete and posted by Sept. 15th and here they are. #20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 & 30.  Finally all done, maybe I'll try another challenge next month.

Until next time, happy crafting and thanks for visiting my blog!

Dee

Sooooo very busy!!!

So you may have wondered (or not, lol) why I haven't posted for awhile, I have been so busy lately I haven't had much time for crafting.  See I told you this would be a challenge for me to get 30 projects done by Sept. 15th.  I have family coming to visit for a couple of weeks, work, classes to prep and a whole list of other things that need to be done.  Where does the time go?

Well I have managed to get a couple of projects done and after I finish this post I have to go prep for the class I am teaching at Scrap Arts tomorrow.  Once that is done I hope to be able to get at least 2 more cards done.

First of all I think this card should count as at least 2 projects (but I won't).  It took a very long time to plan and make. I used black & dahlia card stock.  The other was done on white card stock.  I measured how big each panel would be and then cut one large piece of white.  I inked the paper with lavender, cyan, midnight and black color box inks. I masked the moon but decided I wanted it to stand out, so I cut out a second circle and inked it with momento dandelion and cantaloupe.  The stamps are from Basic Grey, Crafty Secrets & Inkadinkado.  The trees, bats & cat were stamped with black momento ink.  The haunted house was stamped with Archival black ink and the windows were colored with cantaloupe momento marker, I added a few accents with grey marker, white gel pen and silver marker.  I also added some black Archival ink to the ground level of the card to add depth.

Project #18

The other card I did with all inks as well.  I used a brayer to apply red color box ink to white card stock.  I then sponged on more red as well as gold brilliance and black momento ink.  I used a few different stamp sets for this one as well, stampin' up grunge rock, basic grey and I'm not sure of the third set (I don't have the packaging anymore).

Project #19

Well I better go get my class prepped for tomorrow and hopefully I'll have another post for tomorrow or Sunday.  Until then, happy crafting and have a great weekend.

Dee

Sneaky Girl!!!

I managed to spend some time in my studio yesterday and thought I better finish off these pages I had started last week. We had a mini crop challenge and I started this then and didn’t get a chance to finish it. For the challenge we had to do 2 pages with at least 3 patterned papers, bling, ribbon, buttons, flowers and journaling.


These are pictures of Kit sneaking up to see what I’m doing in the kitchen. I was taking pictures of some flowers and she just had to know what was going on.

The patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Cappella line. The letters were cut out on the cricut using Ashlyn’s Alphabet cartridge. I used a lot of flowers, bling and buttons. I don’t like a lot of empty spaces on my page for some reason. I also like to use at least 2 photos on a page, when a challenge calls for just one photo I find it really hard to do.

So here are projects 16 & 17 of 30. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Dee

A Few New Pics

I haven't had a chance to do any crafting since last Wednesday, but I have a really good excuse...I was on a camping trip for 4 days.  We went to the 2010 Fraser River Gold Panning Championships.  We had a great time.  I of course had my camera with me and took over 400 pictures.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

Unfortunately I can't use these as projects for my challenge, but I do love taking pictures as well.  Well I'll have at least 2 more projects for my challenge by Thursday.  I have some time tomorrow to work on them.  Until then happy crafting and thanks for stopping by.

Deanna

Happy Birthday!!!

I made this card for a friend of mine, she already has the card so it is now safe to post it online.  The picture is kind of blurry because I took it outside at night.  This is project #15 of 30....halfway mark.

This card was done with a couple of different stamp sets Basic Grey Flourish Edges,Crafty Secrets French Mail and the Happy Birthday is from the tag line stamp set by Flourishes.  I used many different distress inks on this card (peeled paint, broken china, spiced marmalade, vintage photo & walnut stain.  The tower was stamped with black momento ink.  You can't tell from the picture but there is gold perfect pearls on the swirls and the fleur de lis. 

Well that's it for now, off to get some work done, happy crafting everyone!

Dee

Class Samples Complete!!!

Well I was up till 1:00am working on them but they are finally done.  My deadline for class samples was today and I did manage to finish on time.  I just might even be able to complete my challenge by September 15th.  I hope so because I have guests arriving on the 16th.  So I needed to do one more card for my fall class that I am calling "Autumn in Paris".  The other 3 cards for this class are in the post dated August 19th. This is what I came up with for the final card.

The centre image piece is glossy white card stock and alcohol inks (rust, butterscotch & metallic copper).  The stamps (Crafty Secrets "French Mail") are done with black momento ink.  For the background I used copper metallic bazzill and a pumpkin cuttlebug folder.

The next 3 cards are for my Christmas card class which I am calling "Blue Christmas",  The first card for this class is the snowman card I posted on August 20th.

The main image stamp for this card is a Santa face stamp by Rubber Stampede (Delta).  I use this stamp a lot at Christmas it is one of my favorites.  I guess you would call the fold of this card a Z fold, I just wanted to do something different for this card.  I embossed the front white panel with the ornament cuttlebug folder and used some tumbled glass distress ink on it.  The stamp design & greeting on the inside of the card are done with stamps from the Crafty Secrets "Vintage Christmas" set.  Although it doesn't show up in the picture there is glitter on the snowflakes on the Santa image.  When the card is closed, the greeting is hidden.

The next card is done with a tree from the Stampin' Up set "Lovely as a Tree".  The two colors of ink for the trees are Tim Holtz distress inks broken china and tumbled glass.  The Merry Christmas greeting is from a Bombshell stamp set.  I also used a few rhinestones to decorate a few of the snowflakes in the background.

The final card for this set has a little more color on it.  I used starmist and parakeet bazzill and some basic grey patterned paper.  The stamps for the image part are from the "Vintage Christmas" set again and the greeting from Bombshell.  I stamped the image and then cut it our using Spellbinders Labels 1 die.  I colored the image with watercolor pencils and added a little bling for decoration.

These 4 cards are #'s 11, 12, 13 & 14 of 30.  I may even get a project or two done tomorrow.  I'm almost certain I'll have to come back tomorrow and correct something in this post, as I am falling asleep at the keyboard as I type this.

Well I think that's about it for now.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting everyone.
Dee

More Samples

I'm going to teach a Christmas card class in October.  I have been looking for ideas for this for awhile now.  I'm not all that thrilled with the Christmas paper this year.  The last couple of years the papers for Christmas have been awesome and this year I haven't seen any that I just have to have.  So I've decided to try to avoid the patterned paper this year.  I will probably use up some stuff from the last couple of years on my cards I make for family or to sell, but for my class in October I will try and keep the patterned paper to a minimum.  Lots of stamps, embossing and a few items from the cricut.

Here is the first card for my new Christmas card class.  It a tent fold card, I found the instructions on Splitcoast Stampers.  You can make any size you like this one is 4"x4".  The snowman is from the cricut cartridge Doodlecharms.  The snowflake stamp is from Crafty Secrets and the tree stamp inside is from Stampin Up "lovely as a tree" set.  I covered the snowman in white flock and the trees have been covered in transparent micro fine glitter by glitter ritz.

I'm not going to teach a Halloween class this year but I will be making a few for sale.  I just love, love, love Halloween.  Very few people I know give out Halloween cards but, I just can't resist making some up each year.  Here is a sample I made for Scrap Arts using pigment inks, perfect pearls and Basic Grey stamps.

Well I better get in my studio and make the rest of my class samples.  I have to have them ready for Sunday.  I guess these cards make #9 & 10 of 30.  I should have more to post tomorrow or Sunday, until then happy crafting everyone and thanks for visiting.

Dee

New class designs in progress

Here are a couple of samples from my new fall classes.  I won't post too many details just yet but I will add to this post soon.  These classes are full of techniques that are hard to explain.  Well...hard for me to explain anyway LOL. The first card is done with the "French Mail" set by Crafty Secrets. 

This second card is similar to the tag I made for my other class but it is a full card size and also done with perfect pearls.  I followed Tim Holtz's video tutorial to make this card.

The next card is a CASE of this card,  I really liked her layout and colors so I made one with totally different techniques but a similar color scheme. All pieces on this started out as white card stock and I used different techniques to create them.  It is hard to tell in the picture but the flower image is popped up with 3d dots.

I still need to make one more card for this class, I try to get that done tomorrow night and then post it and more details for these.  So these are projects #6, 7 & 8 of 30.  I do have two more to post, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Until then, happy crafting all and thanks for stopping by.

Dee

Ok so I went shopping again!!!

I couldn't help it, I watched some more Tim Holtz videos and had to try some of techniques he has on there.  Another problem is working in a paper craft store.  I tell the owner what I like and she orders it.  So...I have to buy it right??  I'm sure that's the way it works LOL.  So this week at Scrap Arts we got in Inkessentials glossy paper, perfect pearls, smooch spray, tattered florals dies.  I therefore had to buy them.  I've been trying to get my hands on the glossy paper for awhile now and had to try my alcohol inks on it.  This led to another problem, I only own 3 colors of alcohol ink what a dilemma.  Off to Scrap Arts to buy some more.  So now I have a few more colors I'm sure to be able to come up with something fantastic,  I hope!!!

I did however come up with a new card last night.  I know I had hoped to do more but I was just so tired.  I played with the alcohol inks and made a piece for another card but I didn't get it finished.  Anyway here is the card I made last night.  The pirate girl image is from Bombshell, the background map is by Local King and the greeting is by Jillibean. The map was stamped on french vanilla cardstock with rich cocoa ink by momento,  I crumpled it up a bit and distressed it with distress inks antique linen, vintage photo and walnut stain.  The layer of cardstock under the map is also french vanilla edged with brilliance gold ink and walnut stain.  I stamped the pirate girl image on white and colored with my prisma markers (dress = driftwood, light mocha, dark mocha - belt = sepia & cocoa bean - skin = pale peach & light peach).  I then cut her out and attached her with 3d dots.  The chipboard frame around the greeting was white so i inked it up the the vintage photo and walnut stain inks and then added some perfect pearls gold to it.  It shows up a little bit in the photo.  So I guess I better add that this is #5 of 30.  Did I mention that I tend to procrastinate!!!

Oh...just in case you think Kit has been neglecting her duties as my assistant, here is a picture of her lending me a paw the other night.  I had buttons and flowers all over my desk but, it was a cork lid (you can see it on the desk beside the roll of white tape) that she ultimately ran off with.  She left it in the middle of the living room LOL.

Well that's all for now, I have to go prep for the class I'm teaching tomorrow.  Until next time, happy crafting and thanks for stopping by.

Dee

Project #4 of 30

…..in 12 days….yeah at this rate I’ll never finish. I so need to get busy. However, I did get lots of new goodies today that are sure to inspire some creativity. I finally got my hands on some Inkessentials Gloss paper by Ranger, some Perfect Pearls, a new color of distress ink, and a bunch of new ribbon.

I confess I am a bit of a Tim Holtz product junkie, I’ve bought so much lately. I just bought the Tattered Florals die the other day. I’m sure to be able to get some good stuff made this weekend. I do have to prep for a class on Sunday. I plan to spend tomorrow night in my studio I have one project started and plan to do at least 2 more tomorrow.

Here is the project I completed last night. I googled free digital stamps and it is amazing how many there are out there. I’m not sure where this image came from but I thought it was really cute. I used prisma markers to color it in. On the boys jacket I used sky blue light, light cerulean blue & cerulean blue- girls jacket mint cream, green tea & spearmint, boots warm grey 20%, 30%, 40% & 80%. Other colors pale peach, light peach, mocha light, cocoa bean, cold stone & muted turquoise. The patterned paper is from the Bo Bunny Abbey Road collection and the cardstock is bazzill sprout & true teal. The flowers were white and I colored them to match with my prisma markers.

Well off to play with my new goodies now, until next time, happy crafting all.

Dee