Back from Camping...

We were away camping again this past week.  We were going to go out to the Drumheller area this time, but Rob really loves camping in Banff so we went to the same campground again.  We didn't do a blessed thing this time. We lazed around the campsite the whole time we were there.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  It did get a little chilly at night, but we have a honkin' big hunting heater so that kept the tent really warm.  I didn't take any pictures this time because I forgot my camera.  So part of the reason we didn't do anything and just stayed at the campsite is for that reason.  Rob said that there's no reason to go see any new sites if we can't take pictures.  I think he was quite content to nap and eat the whole time and didn't really want to admit that's all he wanted to do. I didn't mind either.  I was completely wiped out after getting ready for my craft sale.

Now, the craft sale.  It wasn't as successful as I had hoped.  I did sell a couple things, but only a couple things.  I sold $41 worth of stuff and my table fees were $35.  I haven't figured out what my material costs were yet for the stuff I sold (I do have all the info to do - just haven't yet), but I'd say I probably just broke even for the stuff I sold.  Now, all I have to do is sell the stuff I have left to make back the money I spent on supplies. I think there was probably only about 100 people (and probably 40 of them were kids and men - they don't buy stuff at these things).  For the first couple hours, I was the only one who sold anything.  That was fun.  The only other thing that sold were home dec items. One lady had a table with sofa pillows and pillow covers and she was really the only other person who sold things. I was talking to a couple other vendors at the craft sale and they said that this particular one doesn't do that well because of the location, but that there are two others in the south end that do well.  So I will be booking tables for those ones for next month.  I'll do up some Halloween and Thanksgiving items and see how well it goes.

So, here are a couple more pictures of some of the things I had up at the craft sale.  This first card is one of my favourites I made this last month.  Its a free colouring page I downloaded and coloured with copics.  I added glitter to the tail feathers.  The background cardstock is embossed using a Fiskars texture plate with a feather design.  Its a fairly simple card, but its very vibrant IRL.

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Recollections brand
Ribbon:  Dollar store
Glitter:  Craft Decor brand
Copic Markers
Fiskars feather texture plate

This next card is a variation on the previous one.  Its the same image, but I wanted something different than the typical blue/green peacock.  In person, this card is actually really nice if I do say so myself.

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Recollections and Bazzil
Pattern paper:  paper stack from Michaels 
Stamps:  Darcey Collection - Anna Griffin
Glitter:  Craft Decor brand
Copic Markers


Another card design that I really like how it turned out is this next card.  Again, its a downloaded colouring page.  I tried to make a lot of masculine cards since most of my cards tend to be very feminine.  I think this one really hit that target.

Supplies:
Cardstock:  DCWV (brown), Dollar store (foil), Office Depot (cream & white)
Pattern paper:  Graphic 45 
Stamps:  Studio G, SU!, Downloaded colouring page
Copic Markers
Fiskars Threading Water border punch

I did make a few altered items, but not that many.  Here is one of the altered journals I made (I made 6 altogether).  There is a matching pen, but I didn't take a picture of it.  Again, I tried to make it more masculine. What is interesting about the stamp I used on this item is that the stamp is actually a soap stamp.  I've been making soap for about 5 years and I was checking out the soap making supplies at Michaels one day and saw this stamp.  It works excellent as a rubber stamp.  What is also nice is that it was part of a set of 8 stamps for about $8.50.  With their usual 40% off coupon you can get it for about $5.  They have two different soap stamp sets and they both work great for stamping.

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Stampin' Up
Pattern paper:  DCWV 
Stamps:  Life of the Party soap embossing stamps
Ink:  Colourbox black pigment ink
Stampendous black detail embossing powder
Martha Stewart Arch Lattice border punch
Fiskars Threading Water border punch 
Ribbon:  Michaels 

The next cards are sets that I made using a 6"x6" One Sheet Wonder template from Verve Stamps.  I made them very simple so that I could price them reasonably in a set.  I made 4 sets in different colours, but I like this set the best:

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Stampin' Up
Pattern paper:  unknown 
Stamps:  Studio G
Ink:  Stazon black


These two next card sets were made with another 6x6 OSW template by Susan Roberts.  I only made two sets, but I made them a little more elaborate than the other ones.

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Recollections
Pattern paper:  paper stack from Michaels 
Stamps:  Lots of Thoughts - SU!
Ink:  SU! Creamy Caramel
Ribbon:  Walmart

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Stampin' Up
Pattern paper:  Daisy D 
Stamps:  Lots of Thoughts - SU!
Ink:  SU! Not Quite Navy
Ribbon:  Walmart

The next altered item I made were coasters.  I made round and square.  I wanted to make tile coasters, but I didn't make it to Home Depot to see if they had the tumbled marble tiles, so I used cork ones I bought at the Dollar store and covered them with 130# coated cardstock (Domtar paper).  These are the one's I like the best.  I'm surprised at how well they actually turned out.  I used the Adirondack alcohol inks to make the background (I've never used these inks before).  I wasn't sure I'd like this colour combination, but it really looks like stone in real life.

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Domtar 130# coated 
Stamps:  Garden Delight - Inkadinkado
Ink:  Stazon black, Adirondack Alcohol inks (Butterscotch, Meadow, Slate)
Mod Podge

These next coasters are done using the same technique with the alcohol inks, but the colours came out way more intense than I had anticipated.  Even using the blending solution didn't tone them down that much.  You can just barely make it out in the picture, but I stamped dragonflies with gold ink over the background. They're kind of almost holographic looking.  It looks cool in person.  

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Domtar 130# coated 
Stamps:  Life of the Party soap embossing stamps
Ink:  Colourbox gold pigment ink, Adirondack Alcohol inks (Wild Plum, Stream, Currant)
Mod Podge

This next item was one of the items that sold at the craft sale.  I actually sold two of these (to one of the other vendors).  I made 6 of these altered note pads with a matching pen.  I think they turned out really well.  I created the cover from ideas I saw on various blogs to suit what I had for the note pads and dimensions.

Supplies:
Cardstock:  Recollections 
Patterned paper:  paper stack from Costco
Ribbon:  Michaels 
RSVP pens 
Sentiment is computer generated
Medallion designed & cut with my Craft Robo

This last item (you're probably getting bored by now) is an altered coaster/sticky note holder.  I've seen these all over the place so I just adapted my design to what I had.  I used the 130# coated cardstock as the base.  I just cut squares and used my corner rounder, then covered the base with pp and decorated; attached the sticky notes and added a big paper clip.  They were pretty easy to make and very quick, plus as an added bonus they use up your paper scraps.

 I tried taking pictures of the beaded RSVP pens I made, but the patterned paper doesn't show up very well through the beads so I'm not going to bother posting a picture right now until I can get one that shows up well. Could be that I didn't use pp with a strong/dark enough pattern.

So that's all I have for now.  I'm going to work on some Halloween & Thanksgiving stuff over the next couple weeks.  I'll post pics as I go along.

Take care & talk to you later...

Cat

Sugar Bead Disaster...

I'm really po'd at myself.  I've had that jar of sugar beads for at least 6 or 7 months.  I take it out yesterday to work with and don't put it back where I got it from, so what happens?  I was getting something off the shelf where I put it and knocked it down on the floor - from the top shelf - about 5 feet.  The jar broke and I had sugar beads all over the place.  So there I was at 1 o'clock in the morning vacuuming!  I lost about 1/2 the jar.  Not that they're that expensive and I can't replace them.  Not that I use them all the time.  I just need to learn to put things away in their proper place when I'm done and quit being so damn lazy.  Oh well, at least I got into the corners and around the mouldings with the vacuum - its been a while - and got the dust bunnies that I've been ignoring. My, how they grow....

Talk to you later...

Cat

Comparison - Sugar Beads vs. Micro Beads

So, for the last 3 weeks I've been making cards like a crazy person. I've make close to 200 - yes 200. I've booked a table at a craft show this coming weekend.  I'm pooped out and can't make another card. I figured I better get started on the altered items I want to take. They never seem to take as long to make as a card does - at least not for me. Sometimes, it can take me about 5 or 6 hours to make a card. I can whip out an altered journal in about 45 minutes. I thought I would start small and work my way up today, so I started with beaded pens. Quite some time ago I bought a jar of sugar beads from Paper Pastimes (Heritage & Elbow). They had a card on display that used them and it looked so nice. Its a pretty big jar and, like glitter, a little goes a loooong way. I don't have very much micro beads on hand, so I thought I would test out the sugar beads to see how the pens look with that. I like the look, but not quite as much as the micro beads. Using the sugar beads gives it more of a frosted look. The micro beads are bigger, so more light gets into the little bead to bounce around and makes the pen look more sparkly. Here is a picture of two of the RSVP pens side by side (the sugar beads on the left, micro beads on the right):

Here are close ups (cropped out of the picture above so they stay in proportion).  You can see the size difference of the two beads quite well:

sugar bead pen

micro bead pen

I'll use up what I have of my micro beads first, and then switch to the sugar beads. The sugar beads will make beautiful Christmas cards if you cover a winter scene with them, or covering images of fruit - a lot of things. They were very reasonably priced. I got a 4 or 5 oz jar for $5.95. The label on the jar says the brand name is Be Creative. It looks like the label was printed off a home printer, so its probably packaged and sold by a small Canadian company. I've never heard of Be Creative. I'll have google them. :)

That's all I have right now. I'm under the gun now to get all my stuff finished for the craft show, so probably won't post again until that's over. I've take photos of most of the cards (I've been doing multiples of most of the cards) and will post a few next week.

Take care...

Cat

My First Product Review

Every once in a while I take a little stroll through the craft section at Walmart.  Usually, there isn't anything much since they've really downsized the department. Occasionally there will be the odd Martha Stewart punch on clearance (I love my edge punches), but about a month ago I found this product I hadn't seen before.  Its called Mod Podge Dimensional Magic (I'll refer to it as DM).  I have a few of these types of products already that really didn't work the way I wanted them to or the way the info claimed they would.  And for the price of this one bottle (about $3.50) I thought if it doesn't live up to its claim, then I can at least use it as glue.  Well, I'm really liking this product.  I tried it out the other day on a card with a picture of car.  I wanted to put something on the headlights so they would look like glass and thought this stuff would do the trick.  It worked just as I wanted it to.  The little headlights are little bubbles.  I was really really pleased with the results.  Here's a picture of the image laying down so you can see the dimension:

As you can see, the DM kept its shape and made little clear domes on the headlights of my little race car.  Here's a picture of a finished card with the same image (but coloured a different colour):

Supplies:
cardstock:  SU! (black), Bazzill (red), Dollar store (silver), Staples (white)
stamp:  Dollar store (sentiment), 
Car (downloaded free colouring page) coloured with Prismacolor pencil crayons & oms
brads:  SU!

Then, I started to wonder if I could make my own dew drops  (or rain drops, or skittles, or whatever they're called).  I put small drops of the DM on a piece of acetate and let it dry over night.  The one thing I noticed that, this time, wasn't a big deal, but I couldn't control the size of the drip of glue coming out of the bottle.  I wanted to try making tiny little drops.  I have this picture of a rose with dew drops and was thinking I could use this on the dew drops, but if I can't get them that small it won't work.   So, after letting the drops dry over night on the acetate, the little drops flattened out somewhat.  I think they flattened because the acetate is a little slippery, whereas paper has a more tooth to it so the DM has something to hang on to and can keep its shape better on paper. But they were nicely shaped and a nice size.  I was making another card, so I coloured a few with a copic marker to match my card.  They took the colour nicely.  I did put on two coats since it does go on a little light.  I'm sure you could use any alcohol ink - which I happen to have a few brand new bottles of that I haven't used yet so I might have a bunch of new little embellies in colours to match my cards.   Here's the card I made with the coloured dew drops:

Supplies:
cardstock & pp:  SU!, Dollar store (silver), Staples (white)
stamp:  Studio G (sentiment), 
Race Horse & Jockey (downloaded free colouring page) coloured with Copic markers



I used a teeny little bit of DM on the end of a pin to glue the dots down.  And that stuff really grabs fast and sticks well.  That's why the top one is a little crooked - I couldn't slide it over after I put it on the glue.  But that might be because its gluing to the same glue the dot is made of.  I'll see if I use a different kind of glue if I can get a little wiggle time.

So, as you might be able to tell, I'm pretty impressed with this product so far.  I've only found the few things I mentioned to be the only negatives about this product.  I think I can alleviate the problem of not being able to control the drip size by putting one of those super fine metal glue tips on the bottle.  I have a spare and will try that out sometime in the next little while and let you all know how it work.  I'm going to see if using wax paper will help it keep its shape better also when making the dew drops.

Well, that's all for now.  If you need some new stuff to add to your collection, give this stuff a try.  Just so you know what to look for when you go to get it, here's a picture of what the bottle looks like:

Talk to you later...

Cat

I'm sooo addicted to coffee...

I'm so addicted to coffee that I've had a splitting headache all day because we ran out of coffee.  I usually drink about 4 or 5 cups a day and I haven't been able to function properly all day.  I finally made it to the store and got some coffee (I forgot it on my earlier trip - d'oh!) and just poured myself a big cup.  My eyesight is still a little blurry from the headache.  I'm sure it will start to go away by my second cup.  Now, I'll just be up all night running to the bathroom.  Caffeine doesn't keep me awake anymore.  I have too high a tolerance.  Pretty sad huh?

Anyway, The Stamping Boutique has all these really cute digi stamps.  I try to snag the freebies when I can and really should buy a couple since they're so dang cute.  Well, she's having a challenge on her PCP Group and is giving away a free digi stamp.  So to enter her challenge (the prize is a bunch of her images! how cool!) I made this card.

supplies:
card base & white cardstock:  Staples 110#
colour card stock:  SU!  Tangerine Tango & Tempting Turquoise
ink:  SU! Tangerine Tango & Tempting Turquoise
patterned paper:  unknown
Stamps:  Digi stamp by The Stamping Boutique
              Harmony Classic set by Just Rite Stamps
Ribbon:  Michaels
Flowers & Brads:  unknown

Well, I just wanted to get this card done so that I could get it up for the challenge.  I think I'll go hook up an inter venous now so I can get the coffee in a get rid of this headache.

Talk to you later...
Cat

For my Friend Janet...

Just in case you pop by, this is for you Janet!