Cat Scrap Fever

WOW! Shery K Designs Cameo Give-a-way!

2012-01-28T20:45:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged for a really long time. But I have to this time. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE to win a new Cameo. And Shery K has one to give away. I've been saving my pennies for a new cutting machine. I love my little Craft Robo, but this was will cut so many more materials than with my little Robbie will.

Here's what the new machine looks like:

I think it would look great in my craft room. I really NEED this. :) You can check out Shery K's site to see the details on how to enter. Check out her digital scrapbooking supplies too. She has some really beautiful papers. I spent way too much money on them just before Christmas. I think I could make all sort of great things by printing out her papers and using the Cameo with them. Don't you? Here's the link to her site: http://www.sherykdesigns-blog.com/2012/01/win-new-silhouette-cameo.html

Cat.

Another Nail Art pic

2011-09-18T12:18:00.000-06:00

While I haven't had much creativity for anything to do with paper lately, I've been under the weather the last few days, so I decided to treat myself and give myself a manicure. I was pretty sick Friday night with a fever, but I sat up anyway and painted my nails. Here's a picture of how they turned out. I think this would be a good one to do for the Christmas holidays. I have an idea on how to do my nails for halloween, so when I do them for that I'll post another picture.

The gold was more like sparkles so I put a couple coats of yellow on first, then a couple coats of the gold. Let that dry completely (I have a spray that accelerates drying). The I cut masking tape in large circles and taped off the bottom half of the nails, then painted the top half with red. Let that dry and then used my embossing stylus and dipped the tip into the nailpolish to make the dots. It was fairly easy to do.

So that's all I have for today. Once I get over this cold I want to do some cards. I've bought so many new stamps that I haven't even looked at for a long time. Plus this new job is taking up waaaayyyy too much of my time. I've only been there a month and already I've had to stay late 2 or 3 nights each week. I'm not impressed.

Anyway, talk to you later, and have a great weekend!

Cat

ATC Card Swap

2011-09-04T11:45:00.000-06:00

Hello! Well, I've been very negligent in keeping this blog up over the last 4 months or so. It seemed that when my back problems started I lost my umph! Well, I haven't gotten it back totally, but I did make something a while ago that I thought turned out really pretty. I've been involved in the Stampin' Canada online community for a few years now. They are a great bunch of people and very fun to hang out with. I hosted the first ATC swap on SC a few months back and it was a lot of fun and turned out to be a nice success. It really gave us all a chance to work well outside our comfort zones. Wendy decided to host this next ATC swap and the theme is "the nature of things". It took me a while to come up with an idea, but one finally gelled in my mind. Here is a picture of how it turned out:

The picture really isn't that great and doesn't show the detail very well. I was quite pleased with the results, especially since I haven't had the inspiration to create much lately.

Well, that's all I have for today. I have a craft date with my niece today over Skype. That should be fun.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Disappointed and a bit of a rant...

2011-08-14T11:58:00.000-06:00

Rob and I went to a restaurant Friday night to celebrate my new job. It use to be (emphasis on "use to be") my favourite restaurant. The last time we were there was about a year ago. My husband's meal at that time was not good. He usually orders the mussels in tomato sauce as an appetizer and he had so many dead ones and lots of broken shells in the sauce that he almost chipped a tooth on one. As his main course, he ordered the special (which sounded really good). It was mixed seafood in a phyllo pastry. Well, the seafood was so over cooked and it was way too salty. He ate about half of the entree because he really hungry because we had to wait about 45 minutes for our meal, but that's all he could stomach. He mentioned it to the owner's wife when we were leaving and the waitress was like "well, he ate half of it" thinking we were trying to get the meal for free. We ate at that restaurant at least once a month and it seemed every time we went, the food quality dropped each time. For my husband, that was the last time he wanted to go. On the flip side, I hadn't had a bad meal there at all. Up until Friday. I'm so disappointed. I loved the stuffed Calamari in champagne mustard sauce. I loved it so much, that rather than order it in the appetizer size, I decided to get the full entree size this time. Well, it was so over cooked, it was like trying to eat a rubber band. And the sauce didn't have any mustard taste at all - and I highly doubt they used champagne in it too. All I could taste was pepper. The stuffing was originally made with ground chicken, pinenuts, and leeks. There were hardly any pinenuts and no leeks at all. As an appetizer I had the dolmades. It had a sauce (I can't remember the name) that was a creamy lemon. It was good. But, my soup was a greek chicken & rice, which is usually a cream soup with lemon. Well, it tasted like they used the sauce from the dolmades as the soup base and just threw in some chopped chicken and rice and watered it down a bit. Rob ordered the mussels in tomato sauce again, and of course, he had a whole bunch of dead ones and 3 or 4 pieces of broken shell - AGAIN. Even after we told the waitress what had happened the last time. His meal was ok (mousaka), but again, they changed the recipe and it wasn't as good as the original.

I understand trying to cut costs, but really, if it means that you're providing lesser quality, is that really what a restaurant wants to do. I don't think this restaurant is going to last much longer. The clientelle was slowly building, and the time before last when we were there, they had a full house. Friday night - not so much. They had three tables (including us) and 5 wait staff. It irritates me a little, since we would talk to the owner's wife all the time when we were there and let her know that we weren't complaining and wanted to just give them some feedback so they could make it better and that we actually really liked the food for the most part. Just seemed the last few times, all she had was excuses each time we mentioned something that was a little off. The only reason Rob agreed to go was because the first restaurant we went to had too long of a wait time to get a table and because I really liked the food at the greek place. Well, unfortunately, I didn't enjoy my meal this time and I won't be going back and they've lost a couple of patrons.

That's it for today.

Cat

So, I haven't had any crafting juice lately....

2011-08-09T23:44:00.001-06:00

I just haven't felt like doing anything with my paper and stamps lately. What I have been doing is reading a few blogs and websites about sustainable living and making/growing your own food. I got the bug last year in the fall when I decided to try my hand and canning some jellies made from fruit grown in my neighbourhood. It was a blast. Over the winter, I've learned to make bread. Its really easy and now my bread turns out every time. I've also been reading on how to try and cut my food costs. Some of you might know that I'm not working right now. I've been unemployed since early last spring so anything that I can do to reduce my household costs is something I need to look at closely right now. One thing I've been exploring is cheaper cuts of meat. The methods I've learned are so easy. Most of the time its either marinating or long, slow cooking, so this has become a way to prepare tasty meals with the less expensive, and usually tougher, cuts of meat. I happened to be watching the food network this afternoon while taking a little break from my cheese making (that will be another post in the near future), and watched two different programs. The first program was Michael Smith's Chef At Home. He made a stew that look so good with a chuck roast. The one ingredient that was highlighted in the stew was beer. Then I watched another show right after that called Glutton For Punishment (can't remember the host's name) and they were highlighting Hawaiian coffee. They showed a recipe for braised short ribs using coffee and cocoa. It looked so good. Well, to make a long story short, I had a huge blade steak in the freezer that I was wondering what to do with. So I decided to make a stew incorporating the ideas from the two shows. How did it all turn out you ask? It was delicious. I paired it with the dark rye bread I made today. The dark flavour from the rye bread matched the stew perfectly. Here's a little picture to get your taste buds going:

Too bad you can't smell it because it made the house smell so good. My husband was super impressed with the meal. Here's the recipe for the stew:

Cat's Beef Stew
1 large blade steak or two small (about 1.5 - 2.0 lbs meat) cubed into about 1" chunks and patted dry (you can use whatever cut of meat you have on hand - I just happened to have blade steaks)
2 large carrots cut into bite size chunks
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large potato, peeled and grated
2 celery stalks, chopped
2-3 Tbsp canola oil (for searing the meat)
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 tsp dried thyme
1 cup beer (dark beer or stout is best, but I just used a lager that I had in the fridge)
2 cups beef broth/stock (mine had salt so I omitted adding any more salt)
1 cup cold left over coffee (make an extra cup in the morning and use it for the stew)
1-2 bay leafs
Salt & pepper to taste
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 can tomato paste or 1/2 cup leftover tomato/spaghetti sauce (which is what I used)

In a heavy bottom 4qt pot, heat 2 or 3 Tbsp oil on medium high heat. Add the beef to the pot making sure it is only a single layer. Brown all sides of the meat cubes. Do the meat in batches if necessary, making sure the pan stays at medium to high heat to sear and brown the meat. You want the meat juices to caramelize and leave those little brown bits in the bottom of the pan. Keep the meat aside in a separate bowl once browned. Add the onions and lower the heat to medium. Sweat the onions so that it picks up all the brown from the pan. Add the garlic, tomato paste, carrots, and celery and cook for a minute or two to cook the garlic. Add the meat back to the pot along with the shredded potato, the liquids, and your spices. The shredded potato will cook down and sort of dissolve into the stew and thicken the liquid. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for at least an hour, stirring occasionally as the ingredients will sink to the bottom of the pot. Once it has simmered for about an hour, stir 2 Tbsp of oil into 2 Tbsp of flour and slowly pour this into the stew while stirring so that you don't get any lumps. This will thicken the stew if the potato hasn't thickened it enough. Cook another 15 minutes to make sure the flour is cooked and serve.

I think this is such an easy and versatile recipe since you can use whatever cut of beef you have on hand; you can switch up the herbs & spices; and you use whatever vegetables you have in the fridge. I was going to add some kale (collard greens), but I forgot. I think next time I make it I'm going to add a little worchestshire sauce and maybe a little dijon mustard just to see how that tastes.

I really hope you try this stew. It was so delicious. And if you do, let me know how you liked it. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

In a slump...

2011-07-03T15:13:00.000-06:00

I've been trying to think of something crafty to do, but just haven't had any inspiration come to me lately. My back has been well enough for over a week for me to get back into my craft room and do something, but all that seems to happen is that I end up surfing the web for some ideas. So I figured I'd take a look at all my digital supplies to see if that would spark any ideas. Not really, but I did find a pretty scrapbook kit that I haven't used yet. I decided to use it to do a page about my dad. He'll be gone 10 years this coming September and I miss him a lot. Its not a very fancy page, but its a start. I have a bunch of pictures that I scanned from an old photo album my Mom has. Mostly pictures of us kids when we were little. But there were also some of my dad's retirement party. That's where this picture was taken and it was 18 years ago that my father retired.

The kit is called La Creme from 300dpi.com. The font I used to do the journaling is Juice ITC. The picture frame was created using stock frames in PSPX and then adding borders, and then finally bevelling the outside border. The little curlicues on the frame are elements from the kit. I used a stock filter to change the photo to a sepia tone picture to match the kit.

So thats all I have for now.

See you later...

Cat

Just the cutest dog in the whole world!

2011-06-19T13:43:00.000-06:00

I was going through some pictures on one of my sd cards and I came across this picture of my little girl Mitzy. She is soooooo cute. Here she is sitting on my lap while I was doing something on the computer. I just had to share this picture.

Just look at that face! That's love with fur!

Cat

Another Nail Art attempt...

2011-06-17T21:47:00.000-06:00

I've been having problems sleeping the last couple nights, so I've been watching you-tube videos on nail art. I tried out one of the tutorials because it looked so pretty and I had the basic colours and embellishements. Here's a picture of how it turned out.

The base blue needs to be lighter, but this is what I had already. Basically, you put on your base coat colour, then with a little darker colour (purple in this case) sponge on some colour about 1/2 way down the nail, then with the darkest colour (cobalt blue) just sponge the tip. This gives a nice gradient effect. I let my nails dry, then I put glitter polish over it, concentrating the glitter near the tip of the nail at the darkest colour and let that dry. I dug out some sequins I have and used the little centres for glitter and some of my tiny rhinestones. To attach the little sequins, I used a wooden skewer tip dipped in a little top coat then touched the sequin/rhinestone and placed it on my nail. I guess I should mention, I put a top coat on and was putting the sequins & rhinestones on while it was still wet. Once I got everything in place and the way I liked it, I put on another layer of the top coat to seal the sequins and rhinestone.

There are thousands of you-tube videos on nail art and I'm finding it fun to have pretty nails again. Its been so long since I've grown my nails out. My old nail polish is getting used again. :)

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be posting up a few past projects this weekend, so come by again and take a peek. I think I might actually get into my craft room this weekend and try do a couple scrapbook pages. I have a couple ideas floating around and there's a couple sketches I want to give a try.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Not exactly a paper craft...

2011-06-13T19:44:00.001-06:00

But I had a little bit of time to kill today so I decided to give myself a manicure. I usually have my nails cut short, but since I haven't been doing to much because of my back/hip problems, my nails have grown quite a bit in the last month. I wanted something a little funky and out of the box for what I usually do (plain colours usually in the pink/red range or a french manicure). This is what I came up with:

I bought some Wet&Wild nail polish the other day when I was at Walmart just because its so cheap. I thought that if I didn't like the way it looked, at least I didn't waste a bunch on money on nail polish I would never wear again. I like the way this turned out. Now, I'm wondering if there are nail stencils out there. I just may let my nails grow a bit. But they're such a pain to type with... :)

Well, that's as far as I got for creativity for now. I've been sketching out a new project that I want to get into. I have some photos of projects I completed before my back issues that I want to edit and post later (hopefully tomorrow or Wed).

That's all for now. Talk to you later...

Cat

Back Issues Update

2011-06-09T11:18:00.000-06:00

I'm still recuperating from my back issues. What happened was that, basically, I sprained my sacroiliac joint. That's the joint that joins the hip to the spine. The inflammation and the pain in the joint has gone, but I'm still having some minor issues with the muscles in the rest of my back seizing up just because they had to work so hard to support my body. As a result also, I now have some pain in one of my knees just because of the way I had to twist my body and use my legs to get myself standing. If I had any inkling that I had to go the bathroom, I started to head there early because it was taking about 5 minutes to get up, walk to the bathroom, and then get seated again. What a chore! :) I don't wish this kind of torture on anyone.

So, needless to say, I haven't really been in the crafty mood for the last 3 weeks. I'm starting to get the urge to be in my room, but under doctor's orders, I'm not suppose to sit for long periods of time. So, I'll have to wait another week or two until I'm completely healed before I can really get some crafting time in.

Well, thanks for dropping by. I'll be back - hopefully in the not too distant future.

Take care...

Cat

Getting better...

2011-06-01T19:57:00.000-06:00

I finally had a relatively pain-free day today. I was even able to take the dog for a short walk around the block this afternoon. Poor thing has been having to wait until hubby got home from work to go for her walk. Its been very draining fighting the pain and using my arms and legs to do everything. My arms & shoulders especially are so tired. I've been going to the chiropractor and massage and that has helped tremendously. Without that, I don't think I would have been able to walk at all these last couple weeks. I'm looking forward to when I'll be able to sit for more than a few minutes at a time and get back in my craft room. But, for now I'm just glad to rest and get better.

I'll be back soon...

Cat

Out of Commission...

2011-05-19T12:50:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone. I just wanted to stop by and let you know that I'm not dead, but I feel like it. I put my back out on Sunday and haven't been able to walk for a couple days. I've only been able to sit up for about 5 minutes at a time with the aid of some groovy pain killers :). I have a few projects I want to post, so hopefully, I'll be able to do that early next week.

Take care & talk to you later...

Cat

Last Card for I Brake for Digis...

2011-05-06T09:58:00.000-06:00

This will be my last "official" DT card for I Brake For Digis. Unfortunately, Della has decided to close the shop. Its too bad. I really like the digis she has available, but if things aren't working out, then she needs to take care of her interests. The good thing is that the I Brake for Stamps shop is still going strong, so you can still get some of the images in rubber. And she just introduced some of the Freddie the Frog images in rubber. They're too cute.

I made this card for the challenge #26 over at the Brakefast Club (which will still be up and running as far as I am aware). The challenge is to use things on your card that start with the letter "B". Here's my card with all my "B"s:

Supplies:
Stamps: Wedding Cake (I Brake For Digis)
Papers: coloured cardstock (Recollections), white cardstock (Wausau Exact Index 110#)
Tools & Embellishments: butterfly trio punch (Martha Stewart), corner ticket punch (SU), embossing folder (Floral Flourishes & Vines set by Sizzix), "Love" brad (Dollar Store), mini flat back pearls (Recollections), rhinestones (Walmart), satin ribbon (Michaels), pop up adhesive squares (Dollar Store), Gloo (KI Memories), ATG, pencil crayons (Martha Stewart), oms, Star Dust glitter glue (Stickles)

The card is pretty basic in design. When I purchased my MS colouring pencils, the info on the box said that they are blendable pigment pencils. So I tested it out on the image. I first used a base of a light peachy skin colour, then near the bottom, I used a darker peach colour, then I used brown along the bottom of the layers of the cake. I guess I'm not that good at blending because I had to go back in with my oms and a blending stump to smooth out the colours and blend them to get the lines to blend away. But I do like the way the colour graduates to a darker colour. The last thing I did was put some stickles on the image. So my "B"s for the challenge are: brown, bling, butterflies, and brads. I hope you like it.

The IBFD shop is still open at the time I am writing this post. If you're at all interested in the image I used for this card, or any of the other images, hurry - no, RUN! - over to the shop to snag it before they're gone for good. Della didn't have a specific time/day she was going to shut down the site. The 10% off discount code is also still available in my sidebar and still valid. Don't miss out on your last chance to get some of the great digis offered in the IBFD shop.

Well, I had a great time working with Della - she's so nice. And I loved working with the images I got to use for my DT assignments. Good luck to the rest of the DT team and I'm sure I'll see you around the blogosphere. :) I still have a ton of I Brake for Stamps rubber stamps I haven't had a chance to play with yet, so I'll still participate in the occasional challenge over at The Brakefast Club.

Take care & talk to you later...

Cat

Long time no see!

2011-05-04T00:54:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone! Well, I've been MIA for a couple weeks here. Life is taking its toll and I haven't been keeping up with blogging lately. I finally said enough is enough and I took some time to create something. It felt really good to play with my paper again. I have two cards I want to show you.

This first card is one I started a couple weeks ago for the Brakefast Club Challenge #24. I got as far as punching the edge along the patterned paper and printing off the image. But that's all I got done. So tonight I picked everything up again and finally finished the card. Its amazing how quickly it came together. Sometimes, a card can take me hours - yes hours... I've been known to spend 8 hours making one card - and this one came together in about 40 minutes once I pulled out the papers and tools. Here's the card:

Supplies:
Stamps: Rosebud Vase (I Brake For Digis)
Papers: patterned paper (K&Company), linen texture cardstock (American Crafts), white cardstock (Wausau Exact Index 110#)
Tools & Embellishments: colouring pencils (Martha Stewart), oms, ribbon (Michaels), flat back pearls (Recollections), Loops border punch (Martha Stewart), Gloo (KI Memories), pop up adhesive squares (Dollar Store), Glue Dots, ATG

I don't remember who the patterned paper is made by - it was in my scraps. The image is coloured with pencil crayons & oms. I've been experimenting with using different colours as a shadow around the image other than the usual grey. For this image, I used a pinky peach colour and I don't think the picture shows it well, but it does look nice with all the pink paper and ribbon.

The second card came together really quickly as well. I always told people I worked well under pressure, so I think I actually proved that to myself tonight. This card really only took about an hour to do. I made this card for the Brakefast Club challenge #25: One for the Kids. Here it is:

Supplies:
Stamps: Jack in the Box (I Brake for Digis)
Papers: Digital Paper (Jeanelle Paige - A Cherry on Top), Presentation paper (Epson), coloured cardstock (Recollections), white cardstock (Wausau Exact Index 110#)
Tools & Embellishments: Pencil crayons (Martha Stewart), oms, buttons (Walmart), Cornice edge punch (Martha Stewart), Corner decorative scissors (Fiskars), Gloo (KI Memories), pop up adhesive squares (Dollar Store), ATG, red Stickles

I changed the line colours of the image in my graphics program to blue so that it would match the papers I chose. After colouring it with my Martha Stewart pencil crayons, again, I used a colour other than grey for the shadow around the image. I used a light bluish green that I thought complimented the colours nicely. I used red Stickles on the crown to give it a little zing. Other than that, the card is pretty straight forward.

Well, its pretty late here and I have an early start tomorrow. Thanks for popping by. I'll have another card or two to show you by the end of the week, so come and visit again. If you're interested in either of the images I used for my cards, they're available in the I Brake For Digis shop. Don't forget to grab your 10% discount code in the sidebar before you head off shopping.

See you later...

Cat

The Brakefast Club Challenge #23 - Three

2011-04-13T22:05:00.000-06:00

I'm back with a new project to show you all. That was quick eh? (Yes, I'm Canadian...) This week's challenge over at the Brakefast Club is to use 3 of something on your project. Three buttons, three different papers... you get the gist of it. I had an Easter card to make for a fellow member on the Stampin' Canada board, so I kinda cheated and combined both projects into one. Here is my card for this week's challenge:

Supplies
Stamps: Lilies (I Brake For Digis), sentiment (SU! Well Scripted set)
Papers, coloured cardstock (SU!), white cardstock (Wausau Exact Index 110#)
Tools & Embellishments: Craft Robo, Elegant Bouquet embossing folder (SU!), embossing ink (VersaMark), clear embossing powder (Stampendous), Copic markers, Liquid Pearls, Onyx ink pad (Stampology - Autumn Leaves), embossing stylus

To create the background on the yellow cardstock, I first embossed it with the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder. Then I took my VersaMark re-inker and used a paint brush to paint on the ink over the design. Initially, I tried to use the ink pad and rub it on so that it only hit the high spots, but that was a disaster. Painting the ink on worked sooooo much better. Then I poured on the embossing powder, shook off the excess, and hit it with the heat gun. I like the way it turned out. I cut my "faux nesties" with my CraftRobo. To finish off the image, I put three little "pearls" with the Liquid Pearls on the bottom side. Its pretty simple in design, but I really like the colour combo. And it also fits into the challenge - 3 colours (also the 3 little "pearls" works too).

Thanks for stopping by today. I'll be back soon with something new to show you again.

Take care...

Cat

Blog Candy Update

2011-04-12T13:21:00.000-06:00

I just got a message from Laura and she did get the blog candy - yay! I'm always worried about sending things through the mail. If they get lost, there's really no way to recover the items. So anyway, here's what she said:

"I did get the package. Thank you so much.I love everything you sent.I can use it all. thanks again..."

I'm glad she likes what was in the package. Ok, Laura, lets see what you make out the shtuff!

Till next time...

Cat

The Brakefast Club Challenge # 22 - Primary Colours

2011-04-10T15:37:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! Today I want to show you my project for the Brakefast Club challenge that ran last week. I know I'm a little late with this, but this project took waaaaayyyy longer than I had expected. The challenge was to create something using primary colours. I love bright colours, and I thought this would be a great combination for a project that had something to do with kids. So I decided to do a scrapbook page with pictures of my niece. Here it is:

Supplies:
Stamps: Beach Toys (I Brake for Digis)
Papers: Coloured cardstocks (Recollections), Domtar Cougar 130# white cardstock (picture matts), Wausau Exact Index 110# white cardstock (journalling), Matte finish photo paper (Kodak), Glossy finish photo paper (Canon), Digital patterned paper (Summertime Designs)
Tools & Embellishments: Craft Robo, Silhouette cutting files, Sharpie Markers, Zig Memory Writer markers, red, green, & gold Stickles, Mod Podge Dimensional Magic, paper crimper, plastic wave template, foam letter stickers, rhinestones, pop dots

The title is some foam letter stickers I've had in my stash for about 5 years (finally used them - yay!) and all the other embellishments were cut with my CraftRobo. The sunglasses have Mod Podge dimensional magic on the lenses to make them shiny. I added a little bit of stickles on the rims to glam them up a little bit. The digi stamp was coloured with Sharpie markers and traced & cut on my CraftRobo. I also created a white mat around it so it would stand out a bit and adhered it to the page with pop dots. The patterned paper is a digi paper from Summertime Designs and cut in a large square scallop on my CraftRobo. The little flipflops (Silhouette cutting file) have rhinestones glued to the strap at the toe. I used a plastic template to trace and cut the wave design, and I used my wavy paper crimper on the banner going across the page. The journalling block is, again, another Silhouette shape.

Here are a few close up pics of the different elements on the page:

Well, that's all I have for today. You can pick up the Beach Toys digi stamp in the I Brake For Digis shop. Its a great stamp to have for all those summer projects I know you'll all be creating here shortly. :) Don't forget to grab the discount code in my sidebar before you head off shopping. Another challenge starts today over at the Brakefast Club. So pop on over there too to join in this week's fun.

Take care & talk to you later...

Cat

Baking Sour Dough Bread

2011-04-04T17:04:00.000-06:00

One of the things I've been trying to learn to do lately is to bake bread. There's something about the satisfaction of soft, hot bread out of the oven smothered in melting butter that just transports you to heaven. I had really good success with white bread thanks to a recipe I found on the Our Best Bites site. They have loads of information that really helped make my attempts a success. I had tried to make bread quite a few years ago (over 20 years ago) and my loafs of bread were more like brick doorstops. So, I didn't try it again. My husband actually got me into it. We bought a big new top of the line Kitchen Aid for ourselves for Christmas. My husband always makes pizza dough from scratch and he was getting tired of kneading it by hand all the time, so he wanted the Kitchen Aid. Then he started to experiment with bread. Well, a few loafs turned out, but for the most part, they weren't that great. So, I thought I would try to see if I could do it (kind of a little bit of competition). Well, I researched how to make good bread first on the internet and that's where I found the Our Best Bites recipe. My first attempt with that recipe was so successful, that I thought, hey this is easy. Yeah right. My next two batches weren't that great. They were heavy - but still soft - so that meant I used too much flour. Then I thought I'd change gears a little bit and try making sour dough bread. I had watched a show years and years ago about a woman who's sour dough starter was from one that had been passed down for a couple generations and was purportedly a hundred years old. I have since read that it is true that some old family recipes today are using starters that their grandmothers started. Well, my first starter started great, but I wasn't ready to make the bread yet, and when I tried to make the sponge, it just didn't work. I was a little disappointed, so I started over. This time, I made sure I didn't have anything happening for a few days and made a starter which worked great, then the sponge and that went like crazy. It was great. It was all going a lot faster than what I had read, so I thought I'm going to have a loaf of sour dough by the next day (it can take up to three days to get a loaf of sour dough). I mixed up the dough and left it to rise. And left it. And left it. It took forever! Then I had to punch it down and let it rise again! It took 2 1/2 days from start to finish to get one loaf of sour dough bread. But it was so satisfying taking it out of the oven. And it looked so perfect. But the best part was cutting off big slices and lathering on the butter. OMG! It was good! Here's a picture of the perfectly formed loaf just after it came out of the oven.

It doesn't look very big in the picture, but that's an XL pizza pan its on, so the loaf was probably a good 10" across. It was enough bread to last us all week. Good thing, because it took 1/2 the week to make it. :)

If you're interested in learning how to make sour dough bread, I found this site (click here) to be a great resource. Of course, if you google it, you'll find hundreds of sites that will help you learn how to make great sour dough bread.

That's it for today.

Cat

The Brakefast Club Challenge #21 - Sewing

2011-04-01T20:39:00.000-06:00

Hi again! I have a little card I made up for this week's challenge over at The Brakefast Club to share with you. The them is sewing - anything that has to do with sewing. So you could use actual sewing, faux stitching, pins, thread, etc., etc. You get the idea. I have a friend who is turning 50 in a couple weeks (I'm not long behind her - yikes!) and I also needed to make a card for her so I combined my efforts and killed two birds with one stone. The image is called Two Friends (how could I not use this image) and its available in the IBFD shop.
Here's my card:

Supplies:
Stamps: Two Friends (I Brake for Digis), faux stitching stamp (Hanging by a Thread set, Technique Tuesday)
Papers: Recollections cardstock, digital papers (Summertime Designs), Wausau Exact Index 110# cardstock, matte presentation paper (Epson)
Tools & Embellishments: pencil crayons (Crayola, Roseart), oms, French Script font, edge distresser (Heidi Swapp), brads, edge punch (Recollections)

I thought the image was so appropriate for my friend since we have been friends since we were about 11 or 12 years old - like FOREVER. Even though we don't keep in regular contact, we do send the occasional email and I go visit her when I go to Winnipeg. Its nice to have a friend that you can pick up right where you left off the last time you talked - even if it has been a year or so. I am actually quite lucky to have two friends like that.

Well, that's it for today. I'll be back in a couple days with something new. Until then, take care...

Cat

ADFD New Releases - Birdwatching & Spring

2011-03-25T06:00:00.002-06:00

Another fabulous set of images released today by ADFD. They are super sweet and you will just love them. Here's a peek at the new images:

For this weeks release, I used one of the birdhouse images. I don't know what it is, but I just adore birdhouse images. I don't particularly like having one in my yard because I have two cats and that just means dead birds in my yard - not good. So, I'll stick to pictures of birdhouses. :) Here's the card I made for this week's release:

Supplies: Birdhouse image (A Day for Daisies), sentiment (Create With TLC)
Papers: Recollections cardstock, Wausau Exact Index 110# cardstock, digital patterned papers (Summertime Designs)
Tools & Embellishments: Scalloped Scallop edge punch (EK Success), Medallion Chain edge punch (EK Success), Zig glue pen, edge distressing tool (Heidi Swapp), bakers twine (Divine Twine), glitter (Craft Decor), pencil crayons (Crayola, Roseart), oms, copics (R35), button (Steam Trunk Craft Works)

To make the background on the image, I wanted to have sky & clouds. Its a technique that is very easy to do with ink but I didn't feel like pulling out my ink and finding a sponge so I used my light blue pencil crayon & oms. I cut a scrap piece of cardstock in a cloud shape. I held the shape down on the image and then coloured along the edge of the cloud - colouring on the image and the cloud shape both. Then I took my blending stump with oms on it and blended the blue pencil crayon. Once it was blended, I took away the cloud shape and that left the subtle cloud shapes. The only other "special" thing I did with the card is took my new Medallion Chain edge punch and punched one of the shapes on a small piece of patterned paper. I then cut the individual shape away from the rest of the "chain". I used my Zig glue pen and glitter on the edge of the image. Other than that, its a pretty basic card.

I hope you liked it. Don't forget to check out the challenge still going on at the ADFD blog - there's still time. The new images are available in the ADFD shop now, so go on over and check out the new store. You'll love the new set up.

That's my card for this week. Unfortunately, I have some sad news. I've had to make the sad decision to give up my spot on the ADFD design team. I've really enjoyed working with all the girls on the team and, of course, Tammy. I will still love ADFD images and will probably spend way too much money on the new images as they come out. Its getting to be the time that I'll have to go back to work so I don't think I will have the time to devote to the DT commitments. I'm truly grateful to Tammy for giving me my first position on a DT. Its been a great experience. :)

That's all for today.

Cat

IBFD - Challenge #20 - Birthdays

2011-03-24T14:00:00.000-06:00

This week's challenge over at the Brakefast Club is to make a Birthday card. I've always loved the Freddie Frog images - they're so much fun - so I just had to use one for this challenge. Here's my take on the challenge:

Supplies:
Stamps: Senior Freddie (I Brake for Digis), sentiment (Create with TLC)
Papers: American Crafts cardstock, Bazzill cardstock, Wausau Exact Index 110# cardstock, digital patterned paper (Summertime Designs)
Tools & Embellishments: coloured pencils (Crayola), oms, Studio G ink, tearing ruler, ZigZag Stitch edge punch (EK Success)

You still have time to get in on this week's challenge over at The Brakefast Club. A new challenge will be posted on Sunday if you miss this one. You can find Senior Freddie over at the IBFD shop. Don't forget to grab your 10% off discount code in my sidebar before you go shopping. :)

That's all for today. See you later...

Cat

IBFD - Brakefast Challenge card

2011-03-18T15:15:00.000-06:00

Hi again! My second post of the day. :) I can't believe I have so much to say lately. Well, I want to share a little card I made for the Brakefast Club challenge this week. The theme is SPRING - and its about time it got here. Its been a lovely couple days here in Calgary and I sure hope it stays that way now. I used the Bunnies & Watering Can image available at the IBFD shop for this card. I hope you all like it. :)

Supplies:
Stamps: Bunnies & Watering Can (I Brake For Digis), alpha stamp (Dollar Store)
Papers: digital patterned paper (Sweet Springtime collection - Summertime Designs), Bazzil, red shimmer cardstock (Recollections), Wausau Exact Index 110#, matte finish brochure paper (Staples)
Embellishments & Tools: Ribbon (dollar store), brad (Recollections), buttons (unknown), pencil crayons (Crayola, Roseart), oms, pink craft ink (Studio G), bakers twine (Canadian Tire)

If you haven't yet, you should get in on this week's challenge before it ends tomorrow. A new challenge will be posted at the Brakefast Club on Sunday. And, of course, you can get the image I used and so many more at the I Brake For Digis shop.

Thats it for cards for today. Talk to later...

Cat

ADFD New Release & A New Challenge

2011-03-18T12:28:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! Its time again for another great new release from A Day for Daisies and another new challenge starts today on the blog. The challenge this time is to Go Green! It will be a lot of fun, so hop over to the blog and join the activities. You will get a chance to win a great image from ADFD and there is an awesome freebie this time to get you going.

Here's a little sneak peek of what in new in store today at the ADFD store:

I also want to congratulate Wendy C. She is the winner of our last challenge. Way to go Wendy!

So, here's the card I made for this new release and challenge. I love love love peacock images. They give you the chance to use so many beautiful colours and just dress them up however you like.

Supplies:
Stamps: Peacock Fairy (A Day For Daisies)
Papers: patterned paper (Amy Buttler Belle collection - K&Company), cardstock (Recollections, Bazzil, Wausau Exact Index 110#)
Tools & Embellishments: Pencil crayons (Roseart, Crayola), oms, glitter (Jones Tones), glue pen (Zig), Floral Vine deep edge punch (Martha Stewart), Leave it to Weaver edge punch (Fiskars), striped grosgrain ribbon (Michaels)

That's it for now. I'll be back later with a couple different posts. :)

Cat

Blog Candy Claimed ! Yay!

2011-03-16T21:09:00.000-06:00

I heard back from Laura and the blog candy is now on route - I can't really say whisking its way because we're talking about the postal service here! I'm glad it was claimed and I hope you enjoy it Laura. And let's see what you do with it, ok? Well, I'll be back tomorrow with a new project (or two). I've been working on something and my other life got in the way of getting it done. You know that unfortunate part of our lives that involve laundry, dishes, cooking... that kind of stuff.

Talk to you tomorrow. :)

Cat

New Winner drawn for the blog candy...

2011-03-12T19:06:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately, Lisa didn't contact me by the deadline so I have re-drawn for the blog candy. Here's the picture of what # was drawn:

and that # corresponds to ...............................................

LAURA CAMACHO

I've emailed Laura and hopefully she will email me back shortly and claim her prize.

Again, I'll give it a few days and if the prize isn't claimed, I'll just keep drawing until someone claims the prize. :)

Talk to you all later...

Cat

Calling Lisa Cox! Calling Lisa Cox!

2011-03-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

Just a post to Lisa.

Lisa, if you stop by, please email me your address so you can claim your prize! You have until tomorro evening - Saturday, March 11/11. I will leave it to you until 6:00pm MST, after which I will draw again and award the blog candy to a new winner.

So, please Lisa, email me! You can use the contact form in my sidebar.

Cat

ADFD New Release Cards

2011-03-11T11:23:00.002-07:00

I'm a blogging fool this week. :) I think I've made 4 or 5 posts this week. Well, here I am again to show you the card I made with this week's new release from A Day for Daisies. This new release is, without doubt, one of the cutest Tammy has put out. Here's a peek of what she has for you in the store today:

Aren't they adorable? You can get them in the new ADFD shop. AND, just for the grand re-opening of the store, there is 10% off all digital stamps now till March 14! How great is that? Also, don't forget about the challenge going on at the ADFD blog. You could win an image from ADFD and there is a free image so you can play along (if you don't already have soooo many of Tammy's creations already like me.).

So without any further dilly-dallying, here is the card I made for this week:

Supplies:
Stamps: Little Fish Child 2 (A Day for Daisies), Pretty Sea Shells Collection (A Day for Daisies)
Papers: patterned papers (unknown), blue cardstock (Stampin Up), white cardstock (Wausau Exact Index 110#), craft cardstock (The Paper Company)
Tools & Embellishments: CraftRobo, Silhouette fern cutting file, Dimensional Magic (Plaid - Mod Podge), white Liquid Pearls, Stardust Stickles, copics, Scalloped Scallop edge punch (EK Success), Quick Dry Tacky Glue (Aileen's)

The ruffled flowers that are so much the craze these days inspired me to create the large scallop shell that the baby mermaid sits in. I used a scallop edge punch along a strip of paper (2" wide), then fan folded it at each scallop. I opened it to create a 1/2 circle and glued that to a piece of scrap cardstock so it would keep its shape. It was quick and a lot easier than it looks. The trick is using a glue that will dry quickly so that it doesn't pull apart. I like the Aileen's quick dry tacky glue, but you could use a glue gun too.

Well, that's all for now. I'll be back again soon with something else.

Cat

Miscellaneous stuff I've been doing...

2011-03-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would put up some picture of stuff I've made over the last little while. It seems lately that I've only been posting my DT stuff, which is great because I love the stamps, but I have done a few other things that I think turned out really nice. Here's the pictures:

Valentine Cards for Ronald Macdonald house:

Before you all starting oohing and awing over how lovely my cards are they're all cased from the Splitcoast gallery. I don't take credit for these lovely designs. I just used whatever paper & stamps I had handy. But, honestly, I think they did turn out lovely and I hope they were able to use them at the Ronald Macdonald house.

So, that's all for now. I'll be back again in a day or two to put up a few other things. Hope you liked them. And remember, I'd love to hear what you think about my work, so leave me a comment.

Talk to you later...

Cat

I Brake For Digis - Brush Horse

2011-03-09T14:52:00.001-07:00

Back again with a picture of the card I made with the Brush Horse image from I Brake for Digis. I used this week's challenge (Challenge #18 - Animals) over at The Brakefast Club as inspiration. Its a very elegant image, very simplistic, and very versatile I think. I chose a western theme for this card, but I know that it would work well with just about any theme. Here's the card:

Supplies:
Stamps: Brush Horse (I Brake for Digis)
Papers: patterned paper (unknown), brown cardstock (Recollections), tan cardstock (Bazzil), white cardstock (Wausau Exact Index 110#)
Tools & Embellishments: Craft Robo, Ribbon (Michaels), Mistral font (sentiment), copics, edge distresser tool (Heidi Swapp)

Thats it for today. See ya tomorrow. :)

Cat

Blog Candy - 50 Followers Celebration

2011-03-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

I just got back from shopping. I told my hubby that I may reconsider what I'm giving away the next time I decide to have blog candy. I had to buy two of everything! I couldn't buy something and just give it away. I had to have one for me too. :) So, I took a couple pictures of the goodies I'm giving to Lisa. Its all new stuff, except for the ribbon & the paper. I've had these in my stash for a while. There are some 6x6 papers, and one sheet of each design from the October Afternoon Seaside 8x8 paper pack. Here's the pictures:

I've sent Lisa a message letting her know she's the winner. If I don't hear from her by Saturday, I'll pick another random follower, and so on until I get some one to claim the prize. :)

I'll be back in a bit with another post, so talk to you later...

Cat

WHOOOHOOOO! I hit 50 followers

2011-03-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

So in honour of this milestone, I have decided to pick one random follower and send them some goodies. I haven't figured out what they are yet, but I will head off to the store tomorrow and get some stuff. :)

So here is the results of the random number generator from Random.org

Follower #40 is.....

drum roll....

LISA COX!!! Yay!! Lisa, I'll contact you through your google profile to get your address!

Congratulations. :)

Have a good night everyone!

Cat

I was a Guinea Pig...

2011-03-08T07:00:00.001-07:00

My friend, Wenchie, was looking for a couple guinea pigs to test out her tutorial to make one of her amazing "furniture" projects. So, I jumped at the chance to try my hand at making one. It was a lot of fun to do.

If you aren't familiar with Wenchie's stuff, you should really get acquainted with her works, because they are spectacular. She is one amazing crafter. You can see her SplitcoastStamper gallery here, and this is her blog.

So, as I was saying I gave one of her projects a test run. Its a sweet little dresser that turned out just amazing. I used plain cardstock (Domtar coated 200#) for mine and when I showed my husband the final product, he thought I had bought a little plastic dresser to store all my little trinkets in. Be on the lookout for the tutorial for this project over at Splitcoast. They have finally recognized Wenchie's talent and asked her to create a tutorial for the members.

Here is how mine turned out:

I think its awesome and the instructions were very easy to follow along. After she does her tweaking on the tutorial, I think it will be even more easy to do.

Like I said, be on the lookout for this tutorial over at Splitcoast. You won't be disappointed making this project. Its fun and functional!

Have a great day everyone!

Cat

IBFD - Catch up cards

2011-03-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple cards I created in the last little while using my I Brake for Digis stamps. Hope you like them. :)

This first card I created using the theme from the BrakeFast Club Challenge #16 - Use something felt or fabric. I've wanted to make a card with yo-yo's on it for a while and this challenge was the perfect opportunity to incorporate this embellishment.

Supplies:
Stamps: Teapot (I Brake for Digis), sentiment (Create with TLC)
Papers: digital patterned paper (Energy Kit - Summertime Designs), blue & pink cardstock (Recollections), white cardstock (Wausau Exact Index 110#)
Tools & Embellishments: Corbel corner punch (EK Success), Paisley embossing folder (Cuttlebug), Blossom die (Spellbinders), ribbon (Michaels), fabric (unknown - stash), button (unknown - stash), pencil crayons (Crayola, Roseart), oms

This next card uses the theme from Challenge #17 - Make something green. In honour of St. Patrick's day this month, I made this card:

Supplies:
Stamps: Rock Out Freddie (I Brake For Digis), sentiment (CatScrapFever Designs)
Paper: black cardstock (SU!), green cardstock (Recollections), white cardstock (Wausau Exact Index 110#), digital patterned papers (Summertime Designs)
Tools & Embellishments: Ribbon (Michaels), Craft Robo, glitter (dollar store), pencil crayons (Crayola, Roseart), oms

I created the sentiment in PSPX and printed it out on white cardstock. The little 4 leaf clover was cut on my CraftRobo and covered with green glitter.

Even though these challenges have "officially" ended, there is nothing to say you can't still join the challenge and create something for these challenges. Give them a try. :)

That's it for today. I'll be back tormorrow with some other projects I've been working on the last little while. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

Playing catch up! ADFD cards

2011-03-07T15:46:00.002-07:00

Well, lets just say I still alive. I've had a few things going on, but the one that's really put me off my stride in posting is my printer deciding it doesn't want to work anymore. It would work for a little bit when I printed off test pages, and then when I wanted to print off my images to make cards, it wouldn't print. So, I had no images to play with. Its all worked out now and its life has been spared - for now. So I'm going to post a couple cards here right away. I've also decided that I'm not going to go into full detail on my cards anymore unless I use some really specific or complicated technique on my cards - which is usually not the case. It was taking so much time to write up complete instructions that I was getting to the point that I didn't want to post. So, from now on, I will be just posting the supplies I used under the cards.

Here is a card from the new release for Feb 25/11.

Supplies:
Stamps: Vintage School Girl (A Day For Daisies), sentiment (Create with TLC)
Paper: Tempting Turquoise cardstock (SU!), black cardstock (SU!), white cardstock (Wausau Exact Index 110#), digital patterned paper (Energy kit - Summertime Designs)
Tools & Embellishments: Corner punch (unknown manufacturer), rhinestones (Walmart), ribbon (Dollar Store), Photoshop shape, CraftRobo, Matte Medium (Liquitex), black embossing powder (Stampendous), white embossing powder (Stampendous)

There are only a few things that I did on this card out of the ordinary. The image itself is digitally paper pieced with digital papers from Summertime Designs. For the frame, I used the shape from Photoshop and cut it out 4 times with my CraftRobo and glued them together so they would be the thickness of chipboard. I then used black ink and black embossing powder on the shape.

TIP: If you don't have any chipboard and want a piece the thickness of chipboard, cut/punch 4 or 5 pieces the same out of cardstock and glue them on top of each other and the piece will be almost exactly like chipboard. You can then finish it with patterned paper or other techniques as you would with chipboard.

The second technique I used is something I found recently on Mel Stampz blog. Its a technique & product used on your paper so that you can emboss images/sentiments printed off on your printer. I never had luck embossing things, even trying to dump the powder on as it was coming out of the printer. It just absorbed into the paper to quickly. So, what you do is brush a light coat of matte medium onto your paper, let it thoroughly dry and then run it through the printer. The matte medium prevents the ink from soaking into the paper. You still have to work quickly to get the powder on the printout, but at least it gives you a couple seconds. I have found that you do need to use high print quality settings and it doesn't always work for light colours. To get the white on a black background (because you can't print in white), I just printed with black and then dumped white embossing powder on it. Since it was black cardstock, the black ink doesn't show and just the white embossing shows up.

My next card is from this past Friday's new release. These images are so sweet.

Supplies:
Stamps: Butterfly Pony (A Day For Daisies), sentiment (Create with TLC)
Papers: patterned paper (DCWV), light blue cardstock (Recollections)
Tools & Embellishments: Floral Lace edge punch (Martha Stewart), rhinestone sticker (Michaels), ribbon (Michaels), waterfall glitter glue (Stickles), star dust glitter glue (Stickles), pencil crayons (Crayola, Roseart), oms

Have a great day everyone!
Cat

Until Blogger gets their issues fixed...

2011-02-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

I'll have to settle for this template. Hopefully, its not too hard on the eyes. I might try a different colour scheme, but the layout is ok for now.

Come on Blogger - get your $h!t together!

Ack!!! My blog is still messed up...

2011-02-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

And I can't seem to fix it. There must be something wrong with blogger or they changed something because everytime I try to edit the HTML I get a stupid error. I may have to go back to one of their templates until I can get it sorted out. Bummer.

IBFD - Brakefast Club Challenge #15 - Bare or Bear

2011-02-18T23:25:00.001-07:00

This week's challenge at the BrakeFast Club is to create a card that either has a bear on it, or is bare - as in clean & simple. I'm not feeling the clean and simple thing theses days, especially since I've been making a lot of flowers to put on everything, so I had to settle for a bear. :) Here is the card I made for the challenge:

Supplies:
Stamps: Buzzing Bee Bear (I Brake For Digis)
Papers: Wausau Exact Index 110#, Recollections cardstock, Gratitude papers/digital scrapbooking kit (Summertime Designs), matte finish brochure paper (Staples)
Tools & Embellishments: Waterfall & gold Stickles, home made flowers, CraftRobo, Copic markers, black sharpie marker, Scalloped Scallop edge punch (EK Success), Baby Kruffy font, small flower punch (Fiskars), small daisy punch (Fiskars)

I printed the image on Wausau cardstock and coloured it with my copic markers - pretty straight forward. I double matted it; the first mat is cut from the digital papers I had printed out and then the bottom mat is from plain Recollections cardstock that I used the Scalloped Scallop edge punch on. Luckily, I happened to get it lined up pretty much perfect and I had nice neat corner scallops on it. The background paper is also a digi paper from the scrapbooking kit I printed out. The sentiment is lettering I cut on my Craft Robo using the Baby Kruffy font out of the same patterned paper I used to mat the image. I also cut a mat for the lettering in white. It didn't show up that well, so I took a black sharpie marker an outlined the letters, and now it stands out better and makes it look more like paper piecing. Finally, I made the little flowers using a couple small Fiskars flower punches I had been neglecting. I used gold stickles for the centre of the flowers. The scrolls are Sizzix die images I recreated in my RoboMaster software and cut with my Craft Robo. The final touch was to use Waterfall Stickles to highlight the bumble bee's flight path.

So, I don't think I really I accomplished bare with this card. But, at least, I have a bear on it. :)

Take care and have a great weekend everyone!

Cat

A Day For Daisies First Ever BLOG HOP!!!

2011-02-18T04:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Its the ADFD first ever blog hop. We're going to send you along an exciting trail to see some great works from the design team. You have a week to work your way through all the blogs, so take your time and visit (& comment) along the way. :)

Make sure you leave a comment at each stop. Anyone who leaves a comment at all the participant stops will be entered to win a set of images from the new releases today! Yay! And they are fantastic as usual. There are three sets to choose from. Here's a peek of this week's new images:

Aren't they great!? Don't forget that today also marks the start of a new challenge on the ADFD blog - Very Vintage. This is the card I made with the Vintage Rose Blooming image (available now in the ADFD shop).

Supplies:
Stamps: Vintage Rose Blooming (A Day For Daisies), Hanging by a Thread set (stitching around edge - Technique Tuesday), How Do I Love Thee digital paper (CatScrapFever Designs)
Papers: Recollections cardstock, Domtar coated 200# ivory cardstock (base), Matte finish brochure paper (Staples), Wausau Exact Index 110# (main image printed on this)
Tools & Embellishments: CraftRobo, rhinestone corner sticker (Dollar Store), gold glitter glue (Studio G), homemade glimmer mist (DecoArts paint - Rich Espresso), crotchet ribbon (Dollar Store), ivory satin ribbon (Michaels), white Liquid Pearls, pencil crayons (Martha Stewart), oms, heat gun, black Stazon ink

The card itself is fairly simple in design. However, the little embellishments are where all the work was. I made the little roses out of scrap cardstock. I researched about 50 different ways they were done on different tutorials and you-tube videos. Once I figured I knew what I needed to do I created a cut file and cut them with my CraftRobo. I sprayed some of my homemade glimmer mist onto a piece of sponge and sponged the edges of all the flower pieces, let them try, and then assembled the flowers. They really are easy and once I get my craft room cleaned up, I want to do up a little video tutorial to show you how easy they are. The corner pieces were also cut on my CraftRobo. (I found the cut file on ukscrappers.com. They have thousands of free files there if you have a CraftRobo/Wishblade/Silhoulette. Its a great resource for cutting files.) Once cut from cream cardstock, I put gold glitter glue all over. I was impatient and used my heat gun to dry the glitter glue and it made the glitter glue bubble which was kind of a happy mishap because it gave it a really cool texture that you can't see in the picture. I hand cut the main image out after I coloured it using my Martha Stewart pencil crayons and oms. Again, I could have used my CraftRobo, but I already had the image printed, so I didn't want to reprint it with the cut&print feature on my CR because it uses more paper and I don't like to waste paper - even if it is fairly inexpensive. The Nestability shapes were cut on my CR and I used my "faux nestability" templates to emboss the edges to make them look even more like the real thing. I used my How Do I Love Thee valentine paper for the top layer just because it has a nice vintage look to it and it worked well with my colour scheme. I used the sponge again with my homemade glimmer mist around the edges to give it a little distressed look and some glimmer. I put small pearls on the scallops using white Liquid Pearls.

TIP: To get the Liquid Pearls to dome properly without the little "horns", I flicked the backside of the paper gently and that gets rid of those pesky little "horns".

Once the Liquid Pearls was dry, I used pop dots to adhere the image to the centre of the nestability shapes, and pop-dotted the focal piece to the cardfront.

I should mention that I also used the sponge and glimmer mist around the edges of the "stitched" cardstock as well. I love this colour of homemade glimmer mist - Rich Espresso. The "stitching" was done with a stamp and black stazon ink.

If you're following along the path of the blog hop, you should have arrived here from the talented Candy's blog. The next stop on the hop is the amazing Jen's blog. Don't forget to leave your comments along the way to be entered for the grand prize. :) If you miss a stop or get lost, you can head back to the ADFD blog and the list of participants for the blog hop will be posted there.

Have fun everyone!

Cat

Guess what's coming tomorrow!

2011-02-17T11:34:00.001-07:00

ADFD first blog hop! Yup, I'm excited. I've never been part of a blog hop. So, starting tomorrow, get on over to the ADFD blog and start hopping. You'll have one week to finish the hop and at the end, there will be a draw from all the participants to win a set of images from the new release. That's fantastic! Looking forward to seeing everyone along the way. :)

Maintenance...

2011-02-16T04:50:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a little work on my blog, so if things look a little wonky, it should only be temporary - I hope. :) Everything for my side bar is now at the bottom after all the posts. I'll have that fixed up in a day or two. So, please, don't let the "construction" keep you away. I will still be posting my regular stuff for you to see. :)

Valentine Gift to You

2011-02-14T20:42:00.003-07:00

SORRY! THE FREE PAPER IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

I was busy making some Valentine's cards today and I needed a paper, but I didn't have one of the design I wanted, so I had to design it myself. I haven't taken a picture of the card yet, so I'll post that later this week, but I wanted to share the paper I designed. Here is a small preview of it:

I used a few "stock" brushes in PSPX and then typed in the poem "How do I Love Thee" over top, and then did a little more distressing and overlay blending. I really like how the paper turned out. Now, if you would like to receive a link to download the paper, use the contact me form in my sidebar, with the subject "How do I Love Thee" and provide a return email address, and I will send you the link to download this paper. The paper will be offered until February 14, 2011 and I'll keep this post on top. I'll delete the file after that date and it won't be available for download.

I hope you like the paper, and if you use it, I'd love to see your creations.

Take care...

Cat

Just a Quick Reminder

2011-02-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

I you want the link to download the How Do I Love Thee paper, you will need to email me before the end of tomorrow (use the contact form in my sidebar). After tomorrow, its gone. :)

ADFD New Release 02/11/11

2011-02-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Its time again for another great release from ADFD. This week's images are, as usual, very pretty. You just can't go wrong with them. Here's a peek at the new release:

The card I made this week is in my usual style: simple and straight forward.

Supplies:
Stamps: Daddy's Little Princess (A Day For Daisies), birthday sentiment (Michaels clear stamp)
Papers: Recollections cardstock, Wausau Exact Index 110#, Energy digital paper collection (Summertime Designs), Staples matte finish brochure paper
Tools & Embellisments: Prisma pencil crayons, oms, ribbon (dollar store), coral craft ink (unknown - dollar store), paper crimper (Fiskars), edge distresser tool (Heidi Swapp)

I really like using digital papers these days. There are thousands of talented designers out there and they put out some beautiful work. What I love about digital papers is that I never run out of a cherished design because as long as I have paper and ink to print with, I have another piece of that gorgeous paper. It really isn't as expensive as you think. How much do you pay for a piece of patterned paper at the craft store? Usually, anywhere from $0.50 to $1.99 for name brand designer papers (plus your time and gas running around to the craft stores). Even if you pay for a digital paper (because there are thousands of beautiful free ones), plus the cost of of paper and ink, you will end up paying anywhere from $0.45 to $0.75 for a sheet of letter size paper. I don't think that is all that much. So anyway, I'm not going to go on about the benefits of digital. I'm digressing from my topic today.

Like I said, this card is pretty simple and straight forward. I printed my patterned paper out, cut it down to size to cover my card front, then tore it in half. I used a coral colour chalk ink and sponged around the edges to distress it a little more. For the ribbon treatment, I adhered my ribbon to a piece of cardstock, then I ran it through my crimper. Make sure the ribbon is well adhered to the cardstock, because it will pull away from the cardstock as I learned in my first attempt. I used Sobo white glue the second time and let it dry for about an hour before running through the crimper. I used my edge distress tool on all the edges and then assembled my card. Pretty easy.

I hope you pop over to the ADFD store and check out these images as well as all the other fabulous images Tammy has in the shop. And don't forget, there is still another week to get in on the challenge over at the ADFD blog. You could win yourself an image from the store, plus there is a free image for you on the blog just for playing along in the challenge.

Have a great weekend everyone! Talk to you later...

Cat

The Brakefast Club Challenge #14 - Fancy Folds

2011-02-08T22:46:00.001-07:00

Woohooo! I'm ahead of schedule this week with this card. Last week was a disaster for me trying to get caught up. I got through it and now I've hit the pavement running. The Brakefast Club's challenge this week is to use a "fancy fold" - something other than your plain card. The I Brake For Stamps shop has a Technique CD you can purchase that has tutorials and examples of a lot of different card folds. Here is my card for this week's challenge:

Supplies:
Stamps: Pot of Flowers (I Brake for Digis)
Papers: DCWV, Recollections, Office Depot (cream cardstock for the image)
Tools & Embellishments: Dotted Scallop edge punch (EK Success), Scallop Trim edge punch (Stampin' Up)generic dew drops (Dollar Store), paper flowers (Dollar store), Marvy markers, fine paint brush

This is called a spring card because of the way its folded the card springs up. I altered the dimensions a little from a tutorial I found on the Splitcoast Stampers. For the card base, I cut my cardstock 5" wide and 9" long. I cut and folded according to the following dimensions:

Both fold lines going straight across the cardstock are valley folds, and the lines that make the "x" are mountain folds. The top two triangles are cut off to create a diamond. Put adhesive on the bottom triangle formed by the folds and adhere it to the very bottom rectangle. You should have a diamond that stands up on the base. (If my instructions aren't clear to you, you can search for the tutorial in the Splitcoast resource section of their website - it haqs pictures you can follow along with & a video).

I hadn't used my Marvy markers for a little while, so I decided to use them to colour this image. But I didn't want the dark bold colours they would create by colouring directly to the paper with them, so I decided to use them to watercolour with. I got a very thin fine paint brush and a little cup of water and a small acetate sheet I had left over from a stamp set (any piece of plastic will do) to use as a palette. I scribbled the colour I wanted to use on the acetate and then wet my brush and picked up some of the ink off the acetate, then painted my image. You can't use too much water on regular cardstock (which is what I used) since it will warp quite a bit from the water. If you use watercolour paper, you could probably do quite a bit more shading than what I was able to achieve with the paper I used.

To make the matting around the image, I cut my first colour cardstock 1/2" larger on both sides, then the second colour 1" larger on both sides than the dimensions of the image. On the first mat layer, I used the dotted scallop punch, and on the second layer mat I used the scallop trim punch. Glued all the layers together, then adhered it to the top diamond of the card base, centering it on the diamond. To finish it off, I used a couple generic dew drops on either side of the image on the points of the diamond, and layered a couple paper flowers together with a matching brad, and adhered those to the sides on the base.

Once you get the way the folds are suppose to go, this card is very easy to do. If you're going to give this card a try, I would suggest practicing on a piece of copy paper first so that you can practice the folds and not ruin your good cardstock. If you want to use the same image I did for this card, you can get it at the I Brake For Digis shop. They have a lot of great images.

Well, that's all I have for today. Take care...

Cat

BrakeFast Club Challenge - Book Marks

2011-02-05T12:39:00.001-07:00

This past Sunday, a new challenge started at the BrakeFast Club. I know. I'm running behind with all my stuff - again - this week. I did make a book mark from the tutorial the Chrissy posted on her blog. She has it laid out nicely with easy to follow instructions and pictures (which is great for me since I look at the pictures more than read the directions). These bookmarks are also a great way to use up scraps which I also love to do since they are taking over my storage area. Here is my version of the bookmark:

Supplies:
Stamps: Purse (I Brake for Digis)
Papers: patterned paper (I think its Daisy D, but I got it at the Dollar Store), Recollections cardstock (pink & red), Wausau Exact Index 110# (white cardstock), glitter cardstock (unknown - ordered it a couple years ago from a lady in the UK), paper flowers (Prima), brad (Recollections), rhinestone (Michaels), Wrought Iron corner punch (EK Success), Tulips deep edge punch (EK Success), Butterfly trio punch (Martha Stewart), copic markers

These bookmarks are fun to make and they take very little time. The most complicated thing on this particular bookmark is my trim and the swirls I created. I took the guide off my corner punch, and then punched the edge of my cardstock, visually lining up the design by turning the punch over and looking through the bottom. I hand drew some swirls on scrap cardstock and cut those out with some small scissors. Then assembled all the pieces. Quick & easy.

There is still today left if you want to get in on this week's challenge. There will be a new challenge up tomorrow and the fun starts all over again. If you're looking for this cute purse stamp, you can find it in the I Brake For Digis shop.

Take care...

Cat

ADFD - New Release & a New Challenge

2011-02-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

Its that time again. ADFD has released some more awesome images. With spring (hopefully) around the corner, the images are perfect for getting ready for gardening, flowers, and warner weather in general. Here's a peek at what is up for new images this week:

I'm still in the Valentine mode, so I wanted to incorporate some of these images into some of the cards I needed to make to send to family & friends for Valentine's Day. Then all of a sudden, two cosmic forces came together: this week's stamp releases and a new movie release. There is a new movie being released called "Gnomeo & Juliette". Fabulous! Just the quote I needed to get my idea off the ground. Here it is:

Supplies:
Stamps: Daisy Gnome, Mushroom Gnome, Potted Gerber Daisies (A Day for Daisies)
Papers: Recollections cardstock (red & pink), Wausau Exact Index 110# (white), Bazzil (yellow), Angel Mother digital paper collection (Summertime Designs - printed on brochure paper), matte finish brochure paper (Staples)
Tools & Embellishements: CraftRobo, Doily edge punch (Martha Stewart), Edwardian Script font (sentiment), ribbon (Michaels), copics, Lace Heart edge punch (Martha Stewart)

I used my CraftRobo to cut the circle, scalloped circle, and oval shapes. I created my "faux" nestie templates to make the embossed rims around the circle and scalloped circle. The main image is coloured with my copics. The little boy gnome's wheelbarrow originally had mushrooms in it, but I thought he should be hauling a load of hearts to his sweetie for Valentine's. I used the lace heart edge punch to get all the little hearts since I didn't have a single punch small enough. Other than that the card is very straight forward. You can get any of the new released images in the ADFD shop along with all the other fabulous images for sale there.

The next card is one I created for the new challenge running Challenge #11 - "Heavy Metal Rocks". The challenge is to use "metal" in your creations. The image I chose for my card is an image that was offered as a freebie a while ago. Its such a sweet image and I have plans to use it again when Stampede rolls around here in Calgary. Here is the card I created for the challenge:

Supplies:
Stamps: My Little Cowboy (A Day For Daisies)
Papers: Stampin' Up (black cardstock), Angel Mother digital paper collection (Summertime Designs - printed on brochure paper), brushed gold cardstock (Dollar Store), shiny gold cardstock (Dollar Store), matte finish brochure paper (Staples)
Tools & Embellishments: Scroll Lace edge punch (Martha Stewart), Sheriff's badge image (coloring-pages-kids.com), flat back pearls (Dollar Store), embossing stylus, copic markers, black sharpie marker

The hardest thing to create on this card was the sheriff's badge. I found a free colouring page and printed it off in mirror image. Then I taped it to the back of my shiny gold cardstock, and followed the lines on the image with my stylus so that it would emboss the image through to the front of the cardstock. Once, I had the image completely embossed, I cut it out, then I traced over the lettering with a thin black sharpie. The image is matted with a scrap of black SU! cardstock, and then with a piece of brushed gold cardstock. I seem to be on this theme of simple cards lately and this one fits into that category.

I hope you join in on the challenge. Its a lot of fun and as usual, Tammy has a great free image for you to play along. You can also win an image of your choice from the store for playing, so join in.

Talk to you later...

Cat

ADFD - Very Special New Release Image

2011-01-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

It's new release time again at A Day for Daisies and this one is very special to me. The DT was asked to send Tammy their favourite picture, so I sent one of my wedding pictures. Its a picture of me and my husband kissing after we were announced husband & wife. Tammy took the picture and made a digital stamp from it. How cool is that! I think its beautiful! So here's the card I created with "my" new stamp:

Supplies:
Stamps: My Story Begins and Ends With You (A Day for Daisies), Sentiment & floral flourish (unknown - clear stamp set)
Papers: Recollections card stock (red & brown), Wausau Exact Index 110# (white), patterned paper (CatScrapFever Designs), Staples matte finish brochure paper
Tools & Embellishments: Fleur De Lis pennant dies, Renaissance Hearts border dies, Fancy tags dies (Spellbinders), Cuttlebug, Walnut Stain distress ink (Tim Holtz), Red & Star Dust stickles, rhinestones, crayola markers (red & brown - to ink the stamp), PSPX

So first, I didn't have the paper I wanted for this. I couldn't find anything in the stores near me close to what I wanted, so I had to design it myself. I use PSPX to do 95% of my graphics work and I used it to design the paper. The paper was done using a bunch of stock brushes on the background layer. Then I typed the poem "How Do I Love Thee" over and over on the top layer of the paper. I used a couple different blending layer options to get the paper to look the way I wanted and it was done. I really like it. I printed it out on matte finish brochure paper. I like the look of matte finish papers for this type of thing rather than glossy or semi-gloss. However, I do prefer to have my photos printed on glossy. Once I got all the layers for the card cut, and the patterned paper edges distressed with ink, I cut the shapes with my Spellbinder dies. The frame for the image is two dies glued together. I cut one large shape from the Fleur de Lis die set and then 2 of the next largest die. I glued the two smaller shapes to the top & bottom of the large shape - making sure they were the same height and centred. Then I glued rhinestones in the centre design on the top and bottom of the die cuts. For the sentiment, I first stamped the flower in red, cleaned the stamp, inked the sentiment, lined it up and stamped. Then I cut it out with the Fancy tag die making sure the sentiment was centred. Then I cut off the curly queues on it and sanded down the edged to smooth off the scissor marks. I cut the same shape again in brown and layered the white onto the brown tag. For the heart border, I cut the red with the bottom border die, then with brown cut the top layer. I had to trim the bottom layer since the die doesn't cut the entire shape out (I guess its meant to just go along the bottom edge of the paper).

Next was to work on the image. This was actually fairly simple. I used a couple filters in PSPX to make it look like a cartoon (Posterize & Pencil lines filters), then I lowered the opacity to about 40%. I layered the new stamp over top of my photo and deleted any of the original photo that didn't fit inside the stamp. Then I printed it out onto my white cardstock. I used stickles on the image for the flowers in my hair and what looks like "confetti" floating down. I think this image is so cool.

Tip: remember to make a duplicate of your digital photos before you work on them. If you make a mistake and have saved the image, you still have the original as back up. Never use your original and always back up your photos.

So that's it for this one. Remember that there is still time left on the challenge, so get your entry in. You could win yourself an image of your choice from the store.

Take care.

Cat

IBFD - "Love or Valentine's Day" Challenge

2011-01-25T20:40:00.001-07:00

Hi again! I have a very cute little card (if I do say so myself) using one of the adorable Freddie the Frog images from I Brake For Digis. This one is Frog Prince and I thought the way he has his lips puckered up to give you a big kiss is just too darn cute.

Supplies:
Stamps: Frog Prince (I Brake for Digis)
Papers: Recollections cardstock (Valentine collection), Smitten Heart Stripe (K&Company)
Tools & Embellishments: Scallop Trim border punch (Stampin' Up!), red & gold Stickles, Copic Markers, Bic Mark It markers, quilting ruler, rotary quilting cutter, Occidental font (sentiment)

Even though this is a very plain card, I think the colours pop just because there is so much white space. And, luckily, I picked the right shade of pink when printing the sentiment. Its a good thing I calibrated my monitor to get it to match as closely as I could to what actually prints on my printer. I didn't use my paper trimmer this time because I needed to make some very small strips (1/2" & 1/4"). Instead I used my quilting ruler and rotary cutter. I also used them to do the matting around the image. They're pretty handy tools, but you do have to watch because that rotary blade is very very sharp. I've sliced the skin off a couple knuckles a time or two when I was still quilting. Not good to get blood all over your fabric (or your card making supplies either).

I hope you like this little card I made. You can purchase this darling little frog at the IBFD store. You can also still get in on the fun with this week's challenge over at The Brakefast Club. They're a really nice bunch of people there and I'm sure you'll have some fun.

Thanks for coming by and taking a look at my stuff. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

A New Challenge & A New Release at ADFD

2011-01-21T22:41:00.001-07:00

This week starts another new challenge on the A Day For Daisies blog. The new challenge is "Organic Soul" - use something organic in your creation. You can use pressed flowers, handmade paper, pieces of twigs... Whatever you want. There is also another great new release of images this week and they are, as usual, simply great. Here's a peek at the new images:

You can find these images in the ADFD shop. Remember, there is a freebie on the blog for you to play along with the challenge. So check it out. :)

I'm always delighted with the images Tammy puts out week after week. They're so easy to create with. The card I made this week just sort of popped into my head when I saw the images. Here's a look at the card I made with one of the new images:

Supplies:
Stamps: Making Friends (A Day For Daisies)
Papers: patterned paper (DCWV), Recollections cardstock, Wausau Exact Index 110# cardstock
Tools & Embellishments: Copics, 3-in-1 Classic Butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), glitter (Craft Decor & Glitter Ritz), Lace corner punch (Dollar Store), pressed flowers (Recollections), ribbon (Michaels), Tulip large edge punch (EK Success), Zig glue pen, Zip Dry glue

Again, another straight forward card. The dried flowers are a little tricky to work with. If you decided to use dried flowers or leaves, remember they are quite brittle. You will need to use a pair of tweezers to handle them since they are so fragile. I used my Zig glue pen to put small dots of glue down where I wanted the little fern and then used Zip Dry to attached the other flowers.

I hope you join in on the challenge. Not only do you get a free image to play along with, but you could win another image of your choice from the shop. Its going to be fun. :)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Talk to you later...

Cat

IBFD Laughing Hyena

2011-01-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hello again! I've decided this year to build up a stash of birthday cards for myself. I have a lot of cards left over from the craft shows last year, but no specific birthday cards. So, when I get time each week, I'm going to make a card with someone particular in mind. That way I won't be rushing at the last minute to get it done and then have the card arrive late (I hate that). So I made this card to start with. I won't say who its for since I don't want them to know if they read this post. ;)

Supplies:
Stamps: Laughing Hyena (I Brake for Digis)
Paper: Recollections card stock, Wausau Exact Index 110#, patterened paper (unknown)
Tools & Embellishments: ribbon (Michaels), copics, EZ Cutter oval templates, Bradley Hand font (sentiment)

This card is very straight forward and really needs no instructions. I thought the image was a blast and easy to colour and get great results. If you're interested in this image or any of their great digis, you can find them in the shop here.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Fairies Play Here - Version 2

2011-01-17T03:46:00.000-07:00

I really love this release from ADFD. I have these pictures of my niece when she was 5 years old wearing wings, a crown, and holding a "magic wand". She looked so cute and I couldn't help but make another scrapbook page of these photos with a couple images from this new release. Here's my layout:

Supplies
Stamps: Fairy Mushroom, Quiet Fairy (A Day for Daisies)
Cardstock: DCWV, Recollections, Wausau Exact Index 110#, Domtar Cougar
Tools & Embellishments: star dust stickles, rhinestones, small scallop decorative edge scissor (Fiskars), frond punch (Martha Stewart), French Script font (title), Craft Robo, Marvy markers, Crayola markers, iridescent medium (Windsor & Newton), ric rac ribbon (Dollar Store)

I've been wanting to make some of the large quilled flowers that are cut from circles. They look so pretty. I decided to cut some with my deco scissors for a little bit of a different look. To make the flower, you cut a sprial from a circle. You can use a quilling tool or just roll the sprial to the centre and then glue in place. I glued a rhinestone into the centre of each flower. You have to use a good strong adhesive with these. I used Aileen's fast grab tacky glue. It works really well. The big green leave are hand cut from scraps of green cardstock, and the smaller ones are punch outs. These flowers and leaves are a really good way to use up those smaller scrap pieces. The largest flower is about 1" across and the starting circle I cut was about 2.5" across. You don't even need to be all the accurate cutting since a little deviation here and there gives the flower some "petal" shapes. Here's a close up of some of the flowers:

I've been trying to use my Craft Robo more than I have lately. Its a great tool and I'm always impressed with how nicely (and easily) it is to create with it. I used it this time to create the frame which is pretty straight forward, and I also used it to create the title. I love the matting & the print & cut features in the RoboMaster software. I printed the title, then used the mat feature a couple of times, making a larger mat each time for the different layers. Here's a close up of the title:

And finally, the images that inspired me to make this scrapbook page: the Fairy Mushroom & Quiet Fairy images. I combined the two images, then imported the jpg into my RoboMaster software and used the autotrace feature with a little bit of a margin to create the cutting line around the image. This is SOOOOO much easier than hand cutting all those little crevices. Plus its always exactly the same distance from the lines all the way around. Here's a close up so you can see some detail:

I used my Marvy markers on the mushroom because I had a marker colour called mushroom, so that worked. I then sponged some iridescent medium over it when the marker ink was dry, but that seemed to wash it out, so I took some Momento rich cocoa ink and sponged that on to give it a little texture. I used Crayola markers to colour the little fairy, and once the ink was dry I put stickles on her wings because all fairy wings sparkle.

A couple other things I did was I cut the big scalloped circle on my CraftRobo with a font called 09KutUps. Its a font with shapes with some similar to Nestabilities that you can cut directly from any cutting machine that will cut true type fonts. Secondly, I wanted it to look like there was "fairy dust" coming off the wand in the first picture, so I drew some swirls on the cardstock very lightly with pencil. Then I used my star dust stickles and went around the lines with little dots. Once the stickles were dry, I erased the pencil lines, then I glued little flower shaped rhinestones in amongst the swirls.

Well that's it for now. Its pretty late here, or I should say, its pretty early here (3:40 am). I'm having another one of those nights were I can't sleep, so I thought I would post this layout. Hubby doesn't have to go into work until later in the afternoon, so I'll be able to sleep a little later.

Take care & thanks for stopping by...

Cat

ADFD - New Release - Fairy Dress

2011-01-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hi again! It's another new release at ADFD. This time around, there are some pretty special images. They appeal to the little kid in me and the way I use to play dress up when I was small. They're so sweet and whimsical. I know you'll just love them too.

I've started to develop a really strong liking for kraft card stock lately. I really didn't like it at first. I got a couple pieces of Stampin' Up kraft cardstock last year, just to see if I liked it and I didn't - at all. So, I just never bought any because I thought I wouldn't like it. Then, for my Christmas cards last year, I thought that kraft and teal would look great together (which they do) but I didn't want to order anything from Stampin' Up, so I kept my eye out around the stores whenever I was out shopping. I happened to stop into Zellers one day for something and thought I would take a quick browse through the craft section. I've gotten some really good deals on punches and stamps on lines they were discontinuing, so I was hoping I would find some more of those good deals. I happen to find a pack of Kraft cardstock on the shelf that had the corner opened so I felt it and it felt like brown card board. This is exactly what I wanted. I know a lot of people turn their nose up at buying inexpensive/no-name cardstock. Well not me. I'm not a craft snob. I use everything and anything as long it works and I like it. So, I've been using this on all most all my projects lately. And this next card has it too.

Supplies:
Stamps: Fairy Dress (A Day for Daisies)
Papers: Kraft cardstock (The Paper Company), red & yellow cardstock (Recollections), white card base (Staples 110#)
Tools & Embellishments: CraftRobo (Nestability shapes & oval), red pearlescent fabric paint (Tulip), lemon yellow Liquid Pearls, large Hydrangea & Hydrangea trio punches (Martha Stewart), embossing stylus, ribbon (Dollar Store), Edwardian Script font (sentiment), pop dots, Star Dust Stickles, artists chalks (Loew Cornell), eyeshadow applicators (Dollar Store), liquid glue (Zip Dry)

This card is fairly straight forward. I cut the Nestability shapes with my CraftRobo. I then used the print and cut feature to print the stamp image and then cut the oval around it. I coloured the image with artists chalk, and then coated the wings with stickles. I attached the image to the Nestability shapes with pop dots. I used my Liquid Pearls on the top & bottom scallops of the Nestability shapes. Then I punched several of the hydrangea trio punches from yellow and one from red, and one large hydrangea from red. I used an embossing stylus on the petals by going over them on top of a piece of fun foam so that they would curl. Once they were the shape I wanted, I glued them together with Zip Dry. I used red pearlescent fabric paint on the centre of the yellow flowers, and yellow Liquid Pearls on the centre of the red flower. While the liquid pearls were drying, I cut my kraft cardstock and ran it through the printer to print the sentiment. I usually use Paintshop Pro for all my digital work, and like to create my own word art, so I did that for the sentiment. I cut my length of ribbon and tied my bow. It took me several tries to get it the right shape.

Tip: I ran a straight piece of ribbon through the knot before I tightened it so that I could slide the bow back and forth once the ribbon was adhered to get the positioning just where I wanted it.

I glued everything together, and, voilà, my card was done. I am really liking this colour combination. And, I'm sure you will see a few more projects from me using kraft cardstock. It is my new best friend in my supplies.

Don't forget that the ADFD challenge is still going on. You could win a free ADFD image, plus, there is a free image to get you started if you don't already have any of ADFD images. If you want to check out the store, there are tons of beautiful digi stamps to choose from. Any ADFD image will be accepted in the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today. Looking forward to seeing you again...

Cat

IBFD - It's a New Day

2011-01-13T20:46:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone! I'm a little late on this post. My husband has been off for the last 3 days and has been making a mess of the kitchen. He's been baking bread. While I appreciate having nice hot, fresh bread, I don't like cleaning up the kitchen every time he steps in there. I spent 2 hours cleaning the stove top the other day, and it looks like it hasn't been cleaned in 3 months. I don't know how he is so sloppy when cooking stuff. He certainly hasn't adopted the "clean as you go" method, that's for sure. Usually, we can wait and run the dishwasher every second day, but I've had to run it every day this week. And that sucker is full! It will give me a bit of a break from cleaning the kitchen when he goes back to work.

So anyway, I have a new card to show you. Its for this week's challenge at The Brakefast Club - Challenge #10 - Ring in the new. I saw this rooster image that I thought would make some really cute country cards. This card isn't exactly country, but I thought the rooster would work well for the challenge since it rings in each new day. Here's my card:

Supplies:
Stamps: Rooster (I Brake for Digis)
Papers: DCWV (red cardstock), Bazzil (yellow - sun rays), Recollections (sun), The Paper Company (kraft), Wausau Exact Index 110# (white), Cougar 110# coated (vanilla card base)
Tools & Embellishments: Swirling Lace around the page punch set (Martha Stewart), Classic Frame die (Spellbinders), black Sharpie marker, artists chalks (Loew Cornell), eyeshadow applicators (Dollar Store), kitchen sponge, light blue & green pigment ink (ColorBox Catseye), pop dots, spray fixative (Prismacolor), large corner rounder (EK Success)

This card was fairly simple, but there are a lot of pieces. The first step is to sponge the sky. I took some scrap pieces of cardstock and cut some cloud shapes. Then, with a piece of sponge, I lightly tapped on some blue ink using the cloud shapes as masks on a 4x4 piece of white cardstock. I sponged the sky & cloud background about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way down my background piece so that my "ground" layer would overlap it. Next I assembled my sun and sun rays. I used scraps of cardstock again, and cut five long triangles of yellow cardstock. I made sure they were fairly long since I wanted them to hang over the edge of my background. I cut a circle from another scrap of orangy yellow cardstock. I then used the little flower die from my Spellbinder's Classic Frame set to make the centre of the sun. I glued the flower shape to the centre of the circle and glued the sun rays to the back of the circle, spacing them out evenly. I decided where I wanted my sun to be on the card - about 1/3 way from the top - and glued it on the background. The rolling hills are then made and applied. To do this, I cut wavy pieces from scrap kraft cardstock. I then used green ink to ink the edges to make it look more like grassy hills. I cut the waves 4" long (same width of my background) and layered them on the background, slightly over lapping the bottom of the sun so that it looks like the sun is just rising up from behind the hills. Next, I coloured the rooster with artists chalks using eyeshadow applicators, then spraying it with a fixative so the chalk wouldn't rub off. Once the rooster was dry I cut closely to the edge of the image and attached it to the front with pop dots. I attempted to make a rub on for the sentiment, but the ink didn't transfer very well and was too light to see very well, so I just took a sharpie and traced over the printed sentiment. Once everything was glued down where I wanted it and the way I liked it, I trimmed the sun rays with sharp scissors even with the background cardstock. I then took a corner rounder and trimmed the corners, cutting through all layers at once.

In order to get the right size mat for a 4x4 piece, I cut my red card stock 5x5 and used my Swirling Lace punch set (yay! first time using it). I adhered that to a 5x5 card base, and then attached my "picture".

It may seem like there's a lot of detail and steps to make this card, but all in all, it probably only took me about an hour to make the card. And I got to use up a few pieces of my ever growing scrap stash.

I hope you like the card and try making a paper piecing project yourself. It is a very fun way to use up your scraps.

Take care...

Cat

New Release and a New Challenge at ADFD

2011-01-07T13:00:00.001-07:00

Its time again for a new release and a new challenge over at ADFD. This week's new images are spectacular. Here's a sneak peek of them, and you can purchase any one of them (or all) at the ADFD store.

Don't forget the $2.00 release image. This week is it the ballerina slippers and is a super deal for $2.00

We are also starting a new challenge at ADFD - Challenge #9 - "A Fresh Coat of Paint". So get creative, get messy. Its a lot of fun. And congratulations to the winner of our last Challenge: Sabina. You can see her entry here.

This week I got to play with some acrylic scrapbooking paints that I've had in my stash for a very long time. In fact, I've had them so long (and not used them) they were drying out and came out about the consistency of toothpaste. I was annoyed with myself for not using them since they're such pretty colours and letting them get to this state, I tried to look on the bright side. Now instead of just coating my paper with colour, they were also going to give it some texture. :) First I'll show you my card, then I tell you how I made it.

Supplies:

Stamps: Delicate Dancer (A Day for Daisies), You've Got Flair sentiment (You've Got Flair set, Close to My Heart)

Papers: cardstock (Recollections & Bazzil), watercolour paper (Canson 100#)

Tools & Embellishments: scrapbooking paints (Making Memories - Anthology collection), plastic stencil (Pebbles - Fancy Frills set), fancy tags shapeabilities dies (Spellbinders), ribbon (Michaels), classic ink (SU - Night of Navy), Stickles, paper flower (unknown), brad (Michaels), Iridescent medium (Windsor & Newton), sponges, rhinestone (Recollections), watercolour paints (Loew Cornell), Twinkling H20s

So, to make the background paper, I took a piece of grey cardstock and painted some of the green shade of paint in streaks on it leaving some of the grey showing through. Then I took a stencil and put that in the corner and used some of the blue paint and stencilled the shape. Since the paint is really thick, the stencil really stands up off the page and the streaks make the paper look aged. Once the paint was dry, I took a few drops of Night of Navy ink and mixed that with some iridescent medium and sponged it on the part of the card front opposite the stencil. I let that dry and then sponged over the entire card front with the iridescent medium again. To use up the left over ink mixture, I sponged it on the petals of the paper flower. While all that was drying, I cut my tag with my Spellbinder die and stamped the sentiment with Night of Navy classic ink. I had to stamp each word separately and mask the other words since the sentiment wouldn't fit the way it is and I only had room to put it on the left side of the tag.

For the focal image, I printed it on watercolour paper and used regular watercolour paints on her body and the bodice of her dress. For the skirt, I used my long neglected Twinkling H20s. Once the image was dry, I put dark blue stickles on all the flowers. I decided since my background was kind of aged looking that I would take my distressing tool to the edges of it and the edges of the main image.

I matted the ballerina on dark blue Bazzil cardstock, ran some navy blue satin ribbon through the tag and attached it all to the card front. The main image is adhered with pop-dots.

I had a lot of fun making this card. I got really messy and used some products I hadn't used yet. My only problem with the process is that I just got a set of gel nails the day before I made this card. Now my nice pretty french manicure is stained Night of Navy blue. Most of it came off in the shower and the shampoo really takes ink off your fingers well, so its all good. I had fun and that's the most important part.

I really hope you all join in and get messy with your paints for this new challenge.

Talk to you later...

Cat

IBFD - Star with Baby Bear

2011-01-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

Hope you all are doing well. It seems that there has been a few issues with blogger. I've been pulling my hair out thinking my computer was getting hung up everytime I tried to post something. Well, at least now I know it wasn't me and that makes me feel a whole lot better.

I have a new card using the ever so cute Star with Baby Bear image from I Brake for Digis. There aren't a lot of young children in my family. My niece is it and she's 10, so baby cards are a little too young for her (although I know she would find this image adorable too), so I don't make a whole lot of baby cards. To top it off everyone I know is waaaaayyyy past the point in their lives where a baby would even be considered. :) So I saw this image and I just had to make a card with it. And I had to use one of my favourite colour schemes for it - blue & yellow.

Supplies:
Stamps: Star with Baby Bear (I Brake for Digis)
Papers: coloured card stock (Recollections), white card stock (Wausau Exact Index 110#), patterned paper (Costco)
Tools & Embellishments: ribbon (Michaels), Lace Heart edge punch (Martha Stewart), Classic Butterfly trio punch (Martha Stewart), Perfect Pearls, Copic markers

Its a fairly simple card, but I really wanted to show off the image. Also, I needed to make the image large enough to show all the great detail, which meant there wasn't a whole lot of room left on the card front. I usually don't make cards that are "off size" since its a chore to either find an envelope or make one for the off size. I think this card turned out pretty nice. I hope you all like it. :)

Take care & I'll talk to you later...

Cat

Just a Reminder...

2011-01-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

The A Day for Daisies challenge is still open until Thursday night and then the new challenge starts on Friday. Make sure you get in on the current challenge though. There is a great free image for you to use to play along, and you could win another image of your choice from the ADFD store.

So lets see those beautiful creations! I know you can do it!

Cat

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-01-01T00:00:00.002-07:00

I want to wish everyone a wonderful, happy new year! All my best to you and yours in the coming year.

Cat

A Day for Daisies New Release

2010-12-31T13:48:00.005-07:00

Hi everyone! We have a new release at ADFD and they are spectacular. They're so inspiring that I actually made two projects with them. I'm actually going to make two separate posts because the second one has a surprise for you too.

So this new release is all about the beach. I know I'm ready for some nice warm weather here in Calgary. Its -20C here and even colder with the wind chill. I don't know how it works with all you other ladies out there, but my husband isn't what I would call the romantic sort. And I guess I've let him off pretty easy over the years in regards to buying me gifts. I usually buy what I want and tell him what "he got me". I'm also not a really big jewelry wearer either, but I do like to gussy it up once in a while and wear a necklace or some earings. So, needless to say, I didn't get any jewelry for Christmas this year. I decided to make my own and here is what I made using the new release images Pretty Sea Shells collection:

Supplies:
Images: Pretty Sea Shells collection (A Day for Daisies)
Tools & Embellishments: Inkjet Shrinky Dink, Bic Mark It markers, Sharpie markers, shell beads, glass beads, jewelry findings & chain, earing shepherd hooks, jewelers pliers, jewelers wire snips

I've had the square beads for a really long time and didn't know what to do with them. They're made from shells and I paid quite a bit of money for them. I bought them online about 5 years ago when I was really into jewelry making. I didn't want to really use them on just anything, so I've held onto them. Once I saw the new images, I knew that they would be great with these images.

I printed the images onto the shrinky dink, then coloured them with my Bic & Sharpie markers. I didn't use copics because I find that they don't work that well on plastic for me and I can't get the intensity of colour with them as I can with Bics or Sharpies (however, in this case the colour was a little too dark). After I finished colouring, I cut the images out. I should note here that I printed the images 2" on the largest side, and once I heated the shrinky dink, the pieces shrunk down to about 3/4". If you haven't used shrinky dink before and want to try this, you have to remember to punch a hole BEFORE you shrink them. The plastic ends up being quite thick and brittle, so you won't be able to pierce a hole afterward. When I was cutting out the images, I added a little extra at the top of the image and used my 1/8" hole punch. This left a pretty small hole - just big enough for the head pins to fit through. Once the shrinky dink was cooled down, I used my jewelry making tools and supplies and created these earrings. I wore them out yesterday and got a couple compliments on them. That was fun.

Check out the next post for my second project. I have a little surprise for you. :)

Cat

A Day for Daisies New Release - Version 2

2010-12-31T13:48:00.004-07:00

Hopefully, the order of these posts comes out the way I want them.
I've had the same wallpaper on my computer desktop since I bought the computer. Its a lovely forest scene, but I was getting bored with it. So I thought I would make a new one for myself and incorporate a calendar because I'm always clicking on the time thingy (technical term) on the task bar to get the calendar up. I know its not that big of a deal, but it is an annoyance to me. And since its been so cold, and usually its pretty cold throughout January here in Calgary, I wanted something that would remind me that warmer weather will eventually come back. And the image I used is so pretty and serene, I had to use it. Here is the second project I created with the ADFD new release image At the Sea with Sister.

Supplies:
Images: At the Sea with Sister (A Day for Daisies)
Papers: Digital background paper (Corina Nielsen - Memory Makers)
Tools & Embellishments: digital elements by Cuddlebeez & Becky Young Designs, Corel PaintShop Pro X

I imported the calendar grid from Microsoft Word into my graphics program, and then created the aged paper using various brushes and textures to make it look aged and worn. It was really fun to use my graphics program. I don't do that much digital work for crafting anymore other than resizing and printing my digi stamps these days, so it was fun to get back to my "roots" so to speak.

I really hope you like the desktop wall paper. As a little bonus, if you want it for your own computer, you can download the full size version (1024 x 768) here.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a safe and wonderful New Year!

Cat

Raggedy Ann Card

2010-12-29T19:06:00.001-07:00

I've always loved these doll images, but have never known exactly how to incorporate them into my style of crafting. This image is from I Brake for Digis and is a very versatile image. Since I didn't know what to do with it, I just thought I'd go ahead and colour it and see what happens from there. Its a rather plain card, but now that I've used it I can see a whole bunch of other possibilities for this card. I think with some "props" like maybe baby blocks or baskets, or even chairs, or stumps, I could use this image for just about any occasion for a card. I just needed to do something with it to get the imagination going. Here's the card:

Supplies
Stamps: Rag Doll (I Brake for Digis)
Papers: Daisy D's (patterned paper), cardstock (Bazzil, Wausau Exact Index 110#)
Tools & Embellishments: Ribbon (Dollar Store), Square Steps corner punch (EK Success), Floral Vine deep edge punch (Martha Stewart), copics

Well, that's all I have for today. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and that Santa was good to you all. If I don't "see" you before the year is out - Have a wonderful New Year!

Talk to you later...

Cat

ADFD New Release

2010-12-24T06:00:00.004-07:00

Its that time again! Another release from A Day For Daisies. That girl keeps putting out some amazing stuff doesn't she? I really love this image. But then again, how can I not; it has a cat in it... The image is called Tiger and is available here in the store. Here's the card I made this week with the new release:

Supplies:
Image: Tiger (A Day for Daisies)
Paper: Bazzil cardstock, Recollections cardstock, Patterned paper (unknown), Wausau Exact Index 110#
Tools & Embellishments: Ribbon (unknown), Craft Robo, Tulip corner punch (unknown), Paper flowers (unknown), rhinestones (unknown), Curlz MT font

Well, that's it for now. Everyone have a wonderful Christmas!

Talk to you later...

Cat

New IBFD Card

2010-12-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Whatcha think of the new blog template? I love it. Its so festive. Its time for a new challenge over at the Brakefast Club. This week is Snow or Winter theme. I have the cutest little Snowman digi from IBFD and thought it was perfect for this challenge - he's sooo cute. I know I'll be using this one over and over again. Here's my card:

Supplies:
Stamps: Snowman (I Brake For Digis)
Paper: patterned paper (Mom's Diner Salt - Recollections), pink & teal card stock (Recollections), white 110# cardstock (Wausau Exact Index)
Tools & Embellishments: Drippy Goo edge punch (Martha Stewart), Snowflake punch (Martha Stewart), Christmas candy ribbon (Michaels), Star Dust Stickles, Copics, Rhinestone (Walmart), white glitter (Doodlebug), Zig glue pen

I love this colour combination for Christmas colours. I love the patterned paper I found at Michaels. Its actually suppose to be a retro pattern, but to me it looks more like a Christmas pattern so I went with it. I found this paper a while ago and wish I bought more. I only had 1/2 a sheet left since I used it on some recipe swap cards (which I think turned out totally cute - I'll post those once everyone in the swap gets their cards). The icicles along the top were very easy to create. I used the drippy goo punch and put two layers - one longer than the other. Then I put stickles on the drips to make them look icy. I know there is an icicle punch, but I haven't seen it in the stores around here for quite a while, and I really should try using what I have on hand instead of buying new tools all the time. The snowflake is punched with one of the new(er) Martha Stewart punch and stamp combo sets. I didn't use the stamp part of it because I wanted to coat the snowflake with white glitter, which I did by using my Zig glue pen and then glitter. I glued a little Rhinestone to the centre of the snowflake just for a little extra sparkle.

I really like the way this card turned out. You should check out the challenge over at the BrakeFast Club. If you want to pick up this cute little guy, he's here in the I Brake For Digis shop. Don't forget to get the discount code in my sidebar if you're going shopping.

That's all for today. Take care...

Cat

Bummer... I lost my hit counter

2010-12-19T21:31:00.002-07:00

I've been changing my blog template around a bit, and I lost my hit counter. Bummer. I guess I'll have to start over. I do know it was getting close to 6000 since I installed it a couple months ago. Oh well. That will teach me to not pay attention to little details...

Don't you just love this blog template for the Christmas season? If you want to see other free blog templates, scroll to the very bottom and you'll see a link to the designers website. She has some really beautiful templates.

Now to figure out how to put my signature at the end of my posts.

Talk to you later...

Cat

EDIT: I found it. I didn't lose it, it just moved. :)

New Release & New Challenge at ADFD

2010-12-17T17:05:00.003-07:00

Today is a good day at ADFD. There are two new events going on: a new release with some gorgeous images, and a new challenge. The new challenge is Tinsel & Tags. This challenge is really great for this time of year since, in my experience, this is the time that I use a lot of tags. I really liked the process of planning and making all the elements for tag. Here's my tag for the challenge:

Supplies:
Image: Tina, Trina, & Tim: A Day for Daisies digital stamp
Paper: Cougar smooth white 130# card stock (base), brown kraft mailing wrapping paper, patterned paper (K&Company), DCWV card stock, Recollections card stock
Tools & Embellishments: MS branch punch, Family Treasures corner punch, 1/8" circle punch, small corner rounder (EK Success), Ribbon (Michaels), chip board shape (Making Memories), Brads (Michaels), Scalloped Daisy border punch (Fiskars), EZ Cutter knife & oval template, gold gel pen, black gel pen, Tim Holtz distress inks (fired brick, bundles sage, walnut stain), iridescent medium (Windsor & Newton), Embossing pen (Making Memories), red & gold glitter embossing powder (Stampendous), red Stickles, Prisma pencil crayons, oms, mini tinsel pompoms (Dollar Store), Create-a-shade pearl paint (Close to my Heart)

I wanted the chipboard piece to shimmer, so I used the Create-a-shade pearl paint by CTMH. It gave it a nice shimmery silver finish. I popped the coloured image onto this, then I added the tinsel pompoms as the furry trim to the sock. I bought some iridescent medium about 2 weeks ago and I am loving that stuff. I've been using it on everything, so I had to use it on this project too. For the background of the tag, I had some brown paper left over from wrapping up parcels I was sending through the mail. I took a piece larger than my tag and crumpled it up a few times so that I would get it really wrinkled. I adhered it to my tag and cut off the excess. Then I used the walnut stain distress ink and went around the edge of the tag. Next, I mixed some iridescent medium with water & a couple drops of fired brick distress ink in one container, and in the other I changed the ink to bundled sage. This made some nice "glimmer mist" that I painted onto my tag. I put red on the top half and green on the bottom half. I used my heat gun to dry the paper since I'm too impatient to let it sit long enough to air dry. Then I took my embossing pen and drew swirlies on the top halve and covered it with green glitter embossing powder, then I did the same on the bottom half with red glitter embossing powder. The tree on the tag isn't hard to make. I took some scrap green cardstock and just punched about 30 branches with my MS branch punch. I also cut a triangle out of the same scrap cardstock. Then, starting at the bottom, I glued the branches onto the triangle, working across then up the triangle, making sure my little branches hung over the edges a little bit. I did two layers like this because I didn't want the base to show through. One that was done, I put little red stickle baubles all over the tree and used a star shaped brad with the prongs cut off and used pop dots to adhere it to the tag. I didn't have a small enough stamp and I really didn't want to fuss with the computer and printing for the sentiment, so I just cut a piece of scrap white cardstock with my EZ Cutter knife & oval template and hand wrote the sentiment. I used a gold gel pen to go around the edge of the oval, then I used the red homemade "glimmer mist" and painted over top of it to give it some sparkle. Once it was dry I attached it to the tag with pop dots.

Wow! That seems like a lot of steps, but really it wasn't that bad. I think all in all it took maybe about an hour to make the tag. I'm not excited about the way it looks in the picture, but in real life, it is very pretty and shimmery and I think a pretty good start for my first "Tim Holtz style" tag.

My next project is a scrapbook page using one of the new release images. These new images pulled at my heart because we have a little dog that is pure joy for us. She is so sweet natured and affectionate and we just love her to death. Here is my layout:

Supplies:
Image: Family Pet (or Good Dog) - A Day for Daisies digital stamp
Papers: Pets paper stack (Imagine That), Exact Index 110# white cardstock (Wausau), corregated cardboard, matte photo paper (Kodak)
Tools & Embellishements: Dog theme stickers (Dollar Store), Ribbon (Dollar store), Brad (Michaels), Letter stickers (Paperbilities), Floral vine deep edge punch (Martha Stewart), Iridescent medium (Windsor & Newton), Red brick distress ink (Tim Holtz)

For the layout, I wanted to get as many cute pictures of our little baby as I could fit in the middle of the heart, so I made a collage of her pictures and printed it out on 8 1/2 x 11 matte photo paper. To make the heart frame, I cut a piece of cardboard to the size and shape I wanted (about 7"x8") and then ripped off as much of the top layer of paper to reveal the corregated paper underneath. Then I took the homemade glimmer mist in red and sponged that onto the heart frame. (here's a close up pic)

While the cardboard was still damp, I distressed it a bit more by rolling up some of the edged and tearing it a little bit as you can see in the picture above, but here's another close up pic:

I glued the frame onto the printout in the spot that got as many of the pictures I really wanted. I then trimmed away the excess photo. I took about 12" of grosgrain ribbon and tied a bow in the middle of it and added a brad by bending the prongs and putting them through the knot in the centre of the bow. I cut off the bits of the prongs that stuck out past the knot. I used Aileen's fast grab tacky glue to glue the ribbon to the frame. I like this glue because it really does live up to its name. Since I was folding the ribbon over and scrunching it up, I needed a glue that would hold it in place and this glue is one of the best I've found for this (other than glue dots which I'm out of right now).

To make the lacy mat for the background, I took a piece of 9" x 9" paper and puched around it with the MS floral vine deep edge punch. I wish there was a corner punch for this punch, or if there is one I haven't seen it in the stores around here, so I just went to the edge and just let whatever happened to the corners happen.

For the Good Boy image, I first coloured it digitally in my Paintshop Pro program, then I printed it out 3 times. I cut the various layers of the image and used pop dots to make the image 3D, kind of like making a paper tole image with it. Here's a close up of that detail:

The title for the layout was done with letter stickers I've had in my stash forever. I think I bought the package when I first started scrapbooking about 6 years ago. I've only used them on this layout and one other layout. They're usually not my style, and I usually use my CraftRobo to create titles for my pages, but the colours seemed to go with my layout and they're convenient.

So other than the couple of doggie dollar store stickers I added, that's it for my layout. I had fun creating all the different elements I did for this layout. And, of course, I love doing layouts about my little doggie. She takes such cute pictures.

Thats it for today. Talk to you later...

Cat

Things that make you go "hmmmmm"...

2010-12-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

I just had stop and think today. I had to go and do some grocery shopping, so I thought this would be my opportunity to slip out and stop off at Michaels. I printed my coupons and away I went. Well, I wandered around the store for about 20 minutes wondering what to get with my coupons. Then I thought, why am I buying stuff I don't need or want just because I have a coupon. I don't know why I feel I have to buy something if I have these stupid coupons. What's even more sad is that I couldn't find anything to buy because I have so much stuff that almost everything I looked at, I already have. And if I didn't have it, I know it was something I wouldn't use. It makes one shake their head doesn't it?

Talk to you later...

Cat

BrakeFast Club challenge - Anything But a Card

2010-12-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

Another challenge is on at the BrakeFast Club. The challenge this week is to make a project other than a card. I love making altered items, so this was an excellent time for me to make this cute little altered domino. I am really into altering dominoes for some strange reason the last few months. I made a bunch a couple months ago for a craft show and realized how easy they were to do and now I'm hooked.

Supplies
Image: Sun & Stars - I Brake for Digis
Paper: Wausau Exact Index 110# cardstock
Tools & Embellishments: Copic & Sharpie markers, Iridescent medium (Windsor & Newton), plastic domino game piece, Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

I printed the image out on white card stock 1" x 2" then coloured it with copic & sharpie markers. I painted on a little iridescent medium on the sun & stars to give them a little sparkle (doesn't show up very well in the picture. Once everything was dry, I glued the image to the smooth side of the domino. Since the image had square corners and the domino has rounded corners, I just saturated the corners with white glue and shaped them to the domino. After the glue dried, I used a black sharpie and coloured the sides of the domino (mine are white) so that it matched the image better. After I was sure everything was dry (I let it sit overnight), I coated it with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. Mod Podge Dimensional Magic is a clear coating just like crystal effects, but you can get it at Walmart. I did a product review on this stuff in this post if you're interested in reading it. Once I get a flat back bail for it, I will adhere that to the back and run a chain so I can wear it as a necklace.

You should get in on this challenge. It really is a lot of fun. You should also try making an altered domino if you haven't yet. They're fairly inexpensive. I found mine in the cheap bins at Michaels with a bunch of kids toys. I paid $3 for a set. If you want to use the same image I used, you can find it here in the IBFD shop. Remember to grab the 10% off code in my sidebar if you're going to go shopping. :)

Well, that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Talk to you later...

Cat

IBFD - Patchwork Angel

2010-12-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

Hi again! I'm back with a new card using the Patchwork Angel from I Brake For Digis. I wanted to make a card with totally non-traditional colours - I'm kinda like that - non-traditional. :) I thought this image was perfect because of the style and it gives you the opportunity to really mix up the colours. I entered this card into the BrakeFast Club's challenge this week: Christmas or Holiday. Even though the colours aren't your normal holiday fare, I think they made a pretty festive card. Here's what the card looks like:

Supplies:
Stamps: Patchwork Angel - I Brake for Digis, sentiment (SU!)
Paper: Recollections card stock, American Crafts card stock, DCWV patterned paper
Tools & Embellishments: paper flowers (unknown), rhinestone brads (Michaels), Ribbon (Offray), corner punch (Dollar Store), Copics (Y06, B29, Y02, BG10, RV23, BV00, B00), Shapie markers (orange, teal, lime green, pink, blue), Bic Mark It markers (key lime), gold glitter pen

Don't forget, if you head over to the I Brake for Digis or I Brake for Stamps store, grab the 10% off coupon code located in my right hand side bar. Every little bit helps!

Thanks for stopping by. Make sure you pop over to The BrakeFast Club (link in my sidebar also) to check out what next week's challenge will be. The new challenge will be posted tomorrow. :)

Talk care...

Cat

ADFD New Release - Tiny Brother

2010-12-10T18:50:00.001-07:00

I have another adorable image to show you from A Day For Daisies new release this week. Its called Tiny Brother. Its such a sweet image and really shows the beauty of pregnancy and the curiosity and caring an older sibling has when a new baby is expected into the family. I really hope you get a chance to take a look at (and perhaps pick up a couple) of the new images Tammy released today. I think you'll love them just as much as I do. Here's my card made with the new image:

Supplies:
Image: Tiny Brother - A Day For Daisies digital stamps
Paper: K&Company, Recollections, Other unknown, Wausau Exact Index 110#
Tools & Embellishments: Crayola, Prisma, & Roseart colouring pencils, oms, Spellbinders Fleur de Lis die, Offray ribbon, Martha Steward Doily edge punch.

Thanks for stopping by...

Cat

Stuffed Calamari Recipe

2010-12-06T16:33:00.004-07:00

I love seafood. I am not, however, the greatest when it comes to cooking it. I usually over cook it and then it ends up being rubbery. There is a little greek restaurant about 2 blocks from our house that serves the most delicious stuffed calamari. I order it in the appetizer size every time we go there. We haven't been to the restaurant in a few months because my husband was put off with something with his last meal there and doesn't want to go back. I've always enjoyed their food, but some things have changed and it isn't quite the same, but I'd still go if he would go with me. So, I've been missing the calamari and decided I would try to make it myself. I couldn't find a recipe anywhere on the internet for this dish, so I had to "wing it". I think it came out very tastey - not quite as tastey as the one at the restaurant, but nonetheless, tastey. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the dish, but here's the recipe:

Suffed Calamari

Total cooking time approx. 1 hour. Total prep time (after thawing the squid) approx. 30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Ingredients:

Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup white wine
1/2 tbsp finely ground white pepper
2 rounded tbsp dijon mustard
salt to taste

In a heavy bottom sauce pan, on medium high heat, make a roux with your flour and butter, then slowly add the cream to make a very thick white sauce. Turn the heat down to medium - medium low and slowly add the white wine, mixing with a whisk so as to not get any lumps. Add the pepper, mustard, and salt and continue to cook until the alcohol is cooked out and the sauce has re-thickened.

Tip: If you don't have white wine or don't want to use wine, you can substitute it with no/low salt chicken broth. (edit: you will need to adjust the amount of salt you use if you use chicken broth with salt)

Calamari:
6 small whole calamari (squid - with tentacles and head removed - I used frozen)
2 lb ground chicken (you could use veal or turkey, but the restaurant uses chicken in theirs)
1 small leek, chopped finely (about 2 - 2 1/2 cups)
1 cup finely chopped pinenuts
1/2 tbsp finely ground white pepper
salt to taste

If you're using frozen calamari - thaw in a bowl of cold water, drain and pat dry. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl. Stuff the calamari with the chicken meat mixture.

Ladle some of the sauce into the bottom of a shallow baking dish. Arrange stuffed calamari in the pan and ladle over remaining sauce. Cover with tin foil and place baking dish on a cookie sheet (the sauce may bubble over). Bake in pre-heated oven for 45 minutes. Remove the tin foil and finish cooking for another 10-15 minutes to brown up.

Serve with rice and vegetables of your choice.

You'll notice there is quite a bit of pepper in this dish. Its the one spice I could definitely pick out in the restaurant version I didn't add any other spices/herbs to the meat mixture because 1) I didn't want to ruin it, and 2) I could never tell if there was any other spices in it other than the pepper. The pepper should make it a little spicy, but not over powering. You may have to adjust how much pepper you use according to your taste, but I like lots and lots of pepper and those are the amounts I used.

I really hope you all try this dish. I thought it was very yummy and quite easy to prepare. If you try it, please let me know how you like it.

Talk to you later...

Cat

I didn't know...

2010-12-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

that people could post comments on your profile at SSC. So a whole bunch of people sent me birthday wishes and I didn't even know so I didn't acknowledge the well wishes. To everyone who sent me Birthday wishes, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I didn't want anyone to think I was snubbing them or being a snob. I didn't know they were there until today. I guess I should check at CDAC as well since that site has the same structure as SSC. In my defense, I'm not use to those sites and find the architecture very confusing...

Thanks everyone!

Cat

New Released Images & a New Challenge at ADFD

2010-12-03T18:48:00.001-07:00

Just when I thought Tammy's images couldn't get any cuter, she releases some more fantastic digi stamps. The image I chose to work with for this release is sooooo cute. There is something about babies that just melts my heart. Its probably because I don't have any human babies of my own, that I just adore little baby pictures. Here's the card I made with the Tub Time image available now in the ADFD store.

Supplies:
Image: Tub Time - A Day For Daisies digital stamps
Paper: SU! tempting turqoise card stock, patterned paper (unknown)
Tools & Embellishments: Copics, Ribbon (Michaels), Glitter thread, quilling tool & quilling paper, Marvy Uchida Southwest corner punch, Fiskars corrugated wave paper crimper, Fiskars wave edge scissors, Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

Here are a couple close up photos of the detail on the bubbles and the little fish.

The next card was made for the current ADFD challenge. You all should head on over to the challenge page for ADFD (here). Tammy has a really super cute image for you so you can play along. The challenge this week is "All About the Wrapping" - in other words, you need to incorporate wrapping paper somewhere in your design. I have this beautiful purple foil wrapping paper that I've been hording for the last couple years. Its so pretty that I haven't wanted to use too much of it because I wanted it to last. So I decided to use it for the background on my challenge card. I think you'll agree that its gorgeous paper.

Supplies:
Image: Dressed up for Christmas - A Day For Daisies digital stamps
Paper: Wausau Exact Index 110#, SU Elegant eggplant
Tools & Embellishments: Copics, Ribbon (Michaels), ribbon (Michaels), purple & gold stickles, EK Success Venetian Corner Punch, Glittertex mica flakes

So, hopefully, we'll see your entries into this week's challenge. Its a lot of fun and as always, Tammy will have a little something special for one lucky person as a reward at the end of the challenge. Check out the new images too! You'll love them.

Talk to you later...

Cat

I was Awarded and Award!

2010-12-02T23:13:00.001-07:00

I've been chosen to receive the prestigious "Stylish Blogger Award" by Lisa over at her blog Land of EnCRAFTment. Thank you Lisa. Its an honour - truly. It makes me happy that there are people who actually visit my blog and take the time to leave me a message, let alone pick me for an award. There are some stipulations in accepting this award, however. I think I have fulfilled the first one already, but I will list them here because others will need to see what they are (also part of the stipulations).
In accepting this award I agree to
1. Thank the person who bestowed the award on me and link back to them; (check)
2. Share 8 things about yourself;
3. Pay it forward to 8 bloggers you recently discovered;
4. Notify those 8 bloggers and let them know about their award.

So, 8 things about myself. Well, this was hard one because I don't think I'm really all that interesting, but here they are:
1. My favourite colour is Royal Blue. It's just such a rich and regal colour.
2. My favourite flowers are Gerbera Daisies because they're pretty and fun.
3. My best friend since I was about 16 years old is Janet.

4. I love ice fishing - I even have my own ice auger. :)

5. I wanted to teach music before I decided to become and engineer.

6. I had drawings on display in the Winnipeg Art Gallery when I was 12.

7. I'm the oldest of 3 - one sister and one brother.

8. I'm named after a little girl that died from tuberculosis. She had red hair and freckles and my dad told my mom that is what their daughter was going to look like - and I did. This was before I was even born.

Now for my pay-it-forward awards. I have only met one of these ladies in person: Gail. She's a sweetheart. She's one of the founders and a member of the Stampin' Canada on line community where I hang out most of the time. Donna is another member of Stampin' Canada, but I have not had the pleasure of meeting her in person yet. Ruth is another lady from Calgary that I met on line through the Splitcoast Stampers blogger group the Paper Palls. We haven't met in person, but I like to check out her blog - she has some cool projects. All the other ladies on my pay-it-forward list are new friends I've "met" on line through my new adventure on the I Brake For Digis design team. Here's the list:

1. Gail: http://jackpineridge.blogspot.com/

2. Donna: http://yellowdoggreetings.blogspot.com/

3. Ruth: http://stampoffeh.blogspot.com/

4. Nancy: http://nancyscreativemess.blogspot.com/

5. Lisa: http://www.lisasparkleandstamps.blogspot.com/

6. Karin: http://karin-withaniforpaper.blogspot.com/

7. Danielle: http://missdaniellerenee.blogspot.com/

8. Barb: http://papertherapyponderings.blogspot.com/

Again, thank you Lisa. I'm off to let everyone know I've awarded them the Stylish Blogger Award.

Have a great night everyone!
Talk to you later...

Cat

I Brake For Digis - First Card as a DT member

2010-12-01T02:54:00.000-07:00

Well, my term on the I Brake for Digis DT starts today. :) I thought I would start off with a card I made for the challenge running right now over at the BrakeFast club (link is in my side bar). The challenge this week is inchies. I've only every made two cards with inchies, so this was not my usual style of card. I got these images a little while ago to make some little goodies for Christmas (some re-packaged tea - ssshhh! don't tell my sister) and thought they would work well for an inchie card. Here's a picture:

Supplies:
Images: Tea Pot, Tea Bag, Tea Cup - I Brake For Digis digital stamps
Paper: Bazzill Coredinations, Recollections Kraft cardstock, Patterned paper (unknown - I think it may be Daisy D's), Wausau Exact Index 110# white cardstock (base & images)
Tools & Embellisments: Prisma pencil crayons, oms, Fiskars small scallop edging scissors, EK Success edge punch, Ribbon (Moderne Home), Curlz MT font (sentiment), sanding block, Cuttlebug embossing folder

The images are adhered with pop-up foam squares. I wanted the images to look a little old-fashioned, so I used the small scallop edge scissors as a corner rounder and set one scallop in slightly and nipped off the corners. I had to put my reading glasses on for that task!

Overall, I like how the card turned out. It was fun making my first card for the IBFD design team.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Birthday Card from Jasmine

2010-11-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday last week. I can't believe how old I'm getting. Well, this was, officially, my last birthday. I am not going to have anymore. I still want all the presents and cards, but I don't want the actual turning older part of it. I never thought I would be this "old". When I was young, I thought that I would go on feeling great for the rest of my life. I couldn't understand "old" people when they said they couldn't sleep because they had heartburn, or even more gross - gas! I secretly thought they were stupid. Why didn't they just take a tums or fart and be done with it. Now I know. While my ailments these days are a little more complicated than heartburn or gas, I wish there was a pill that I could take and just be done with it. My eyesight is getting worse, I have the beginnings of arthritis in my wrists and hips, and now I think menopause is starting to creep up on me too. For all you "young" people out there: TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODIES!!! You'll need them.

Well, back to a more pleasant subject matter - my niece - and the absolutlely cute card she made for me for my birthday. She's getting a lot of use of the supplies I sent her in the summer for her birthday. I'm just about ready to do another sweep of my supplies. The shelves in my cabinet let go because of the weight of all the paper last night. It was like a pancake reaction. The top shelf went, it hit the shelf below, and that one let go, and so on. So I had to sort some of my stuff - more or less pick it all up off the floor!! What a royal pain. Now all the stuff that was on those shelves is sitting out in my dining room. I have to walk back and forth to get something and then put it away. Hopefully, hubby will help me fix it tonight.

Anyway, I digress again. Jasmine is getting to be quite good at making cards. We haven't had a Skype craft date in a while. I think I'll have to come up with a project so we can have a craft date soon. Here's a picture of the card she sent me. If you have a minute, please leave her a comment. She's always thrilled to hear what people have to say about her work. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

P.S. Tomorrow is the start of my term on the I Brake for Digis DT. I'll have a new card up to show you, so stop by again tomorrow to take a peek.

ADFD New Release Images

2010-11-26T11:38:00.003-07:00

I have a couple new projects I want to show you. ADFD has released some new images and I think they're just great. I'm really liking these new images. The image in this first card is called Bright Eyed. I could just imagine a little kid sitting bolt upright in bed Christmas eve when she thinks she hears Santa downstairs and her eyes getting big with excitement.

Supplies:
Image: Bright Eyes - A Day for Daisies digital stamps
Paper: SU Elegant Eggplant, DCWV (patterned paper), Bazzill shimmer card stock (matting), Wausau Exact Index 110# white (image, base, & sentiment)
Ribbon: Offray
Tools & Embellishments: MS Snowflake punch, Star corner punch (unknown), Crystal glitter (Glittertex), Artists chalks (Loew Cornell), Blender Pen (Whisper Strokes by Sugar Loaf), Juice ITC font (sentiment), Gold glen marker (unknown - edging around sentiment)

The picture's colours are a little off. The background is the SU Elegant Eggplant card stock and it shows up here as a dark navy blue. I tried colour correcting it in my graphics program, but then all the other colours would go off, so I decided to live with it. The image itself is printed on the Wausau Exact Index 110# card stock and then coloured with artist chalks and a blender pen. I wanted it to feel light and faded, kind of old fashioned looking. It does look that way in real life, but because of all the post processing done to the photo, it looks really washed out. I may try to take another photo of it in daylight. I usually take my photos at night using my homemade light box, so that may be the problem too.

The next two projects are calendar pages. Tammy is going to have blank calendars available for you to make your altered calendars. These two are very simple:

Supplies:
Image: Bird Blossom - A Day for Daisies digital stamps
Paper: Wausau Exact Index 110# white
Tools & Embellishments: Koh-i-noor pencil crayons, oms, Studio G glitter glue, GiddyUp font

This was very simple to make. I typed in the month off to the side, then once my Bird Blossom image was coloured, I edged it with a green copic, then I adhered it to the calendar with pop dots. The little pink flowers have glitter glue on them.

Supplies:
Image: Dreaming of Her Wedding - A Day for Daisies digital stamps
Paper: Wausau Exact Index 110# white
Tools & Embellishments: Copics, Glitter pens (HiJell), French Script font

Again, this was very easy to do. I added a fake list onto the calendar to show how much room there is to keep track of your notes and appointments. I only used copics for shading and the skin and used the glitter pens for the colouring. I only outlined the dress with a silver glitter pen. Here is a close up under better lighting to show you how glittery the image really is:

I though the image was perfect for this month, since June is the most popular month to get married. I wanted the font on the calendar to be more formal and to look silver, so I only used the font in outline in a medium grey colour. I love the French Script font - its one of my favourites.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my creations. Get on over to the ADFD and check out her new releases. Plus, on Friday until noon, Tammy has her new release images marked down to $3.00! Check it out, they're really pretty.

Talk to you later..

Cat

Bugaboo Round 2

2010-11-23T15:50:00.003-07:00

Well, I got the news last night. I didn't make it through for the Bugaboo DT. Somewhat disappointing, but given that I hadn't really intended to apply and was a last minute whim to enter the DT contest, I'm ok with it. It just means that I'll have more time to put my energies into the DT's I'm already on. Well, here is my losing card.

All the supplies I used were scraps, so I cant tell you who made the patterned paper, but the card stock is scraps of SU and I haven't a clue what shade of pink it is (I think it may be pink pirouette). I think the darker pink is either DCWV or American Crafts card stock. I used my CraftRobo to cut everything. The stamp image is 3 layers and each layer is coloured. I don't think the picture does the card justice though. I just couldn't get a decent picture of it. It really is pretty and sparkly in person.

Well, on to the next adventure. Just wanted to show you my card.

Talk to you later...

Cat

ADFD Challenge #6 - Attitude of Gratitude

2010-11-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

With Thanksgiving coming up for our US friends, this week's challenge at ADFD is all about gratitude. The catch to the challenge is that you must create your own sentiment for the challenge - and of course use an ADFD image. There are so many great images in the store that could be used for this challenge. I'll admit I had to "force" myself to get into the Thanksgiving frame of mind again, since we have our Thanksgiving a month earlier here in Canada. But, with all the beautiful images Tammy has available, it wasn't that hard once I came up with my sentiment. Here is the card I created for this challenge.

Supplies:
Stamps: Roast Turkey & Flowers
Papers: Digital Paper (300dpi.com), SU Close to Cocoa cardstock, Recollections cardstock, Wausau Exact Index 110#, Staples brand matte finish brochure paper (used to print the digi paper)
Inks: Coffee Dye Ink (StampCraft), Walnut Stain distress ink (Ranger - Tim Holtz)
Tools & Embellishments: Ribbon (American Crafts), Copics, Brads (dollar store), Vivaldi font (sentiment), CraftRobo

This card is actually a half fold card so it measures 8.5" x 5.5". I didn't want to lose any of the detail of the stamp on the different layers when the card was put together, so I decided to make it as large as I could (and still fit in the premade envelopes I have on hand). You may not notice it in the picture, but the focal image is 3 layers. I used the print & cut feature of my CraftRobo to cut the layers because of the intricate cuts around some of the flowers. That is another reason I love digi stamps. I don't have to hand cut them. The paper printed out a little lighter than I had anticipated, so I used some distress ink & coffee coloured ink to go around the edges to darken it a little bit and to match the colour of the turkey. I think I need to re-calibrate my monitor, because it looked like the perfect shade of golden/beige on my screen but printed too light.

Well, I hope you get on over to ADFD and get in on the challenge (here's the link: ADFD Challenge #6.) Tammy has provided a great free image to use if you don't already have some of her images. Take a peek at the new releases too while you're there. They're fabulously retro kinda art nouveau - they remind of me of the starlets from the 1920's Hollywood. You can see her new releases here in the store.

Talk to all later...

Cat

Good News!!!!

2010-11-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

So, I have been waiting to post this announcement and then my computer decides to go haywire on me (that's a long story for another post) so I haven't really been able to do any posting for the last little while.
Well, my good news is I was accepted onto the I Brake for Digis design team. YAY! YIPPPEEE! Doin' the happy dance!

I'm really excited to be a part of this team. So, check back here in the next couple days, cause I'm going to get to work on making up some new cards.

I will still be participating on the A Day for Daisies DT as well so, this new venture with I Brake for Digis will bring more variety to my cards here. I am really excited about this.

Talk to you later....

Cat

I Brake For Stamps Design Team Call

2010-11-11T01:20:00.003-07:00

I put my name in for yet another design team. I'm trying out for the I Brake For Stamps design team. I only have 3 of their images and really like them. I made 3 cards using each stamp, so here are some pictures of them.

I absolutely love this image on this card. It can be a challenge to colour because the bears are suppose to be white.

Supplies
Stamps: I Brake For Stamps
Paper: patterned paper (unknown), coloured card stock (Bazzill & Recollections), Wausau Exact Index 80# (image), Office Depot 110# card stock (base)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Tools & embellishments: Copic markers, iridescent glitter glue (Studio G), crystal glitter (Glitterex - snowflake), EK Success corner adorner punch - Venetian, star & rounded corner punch (Dollar Store), glitter organza ribbon (Michaels), brad (Dollar Store)

The next stamp image is one I bought to make my mother's birthday card. Unfortunately, I haven't sent it yet - her birthday was last week (I know, I'm a lousy daughter).

Supplies
Stamps: I Brake For Stamps
Paper: patterned paper (K&Company - Amy Butler - Belle paper stack), coloured card stock (Bazzill & Recollections), Wausau Exact Index 80# (image), Domtar 130# coated card stock (base)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Tools & embellishments: Copic markers, stickles (Waterfall), dimensional pearl fabric paint (flower centres - Dollar Store), Martha Stewart Hydrangea & Hydrangea Trio punches, crotchet lace ribbon (Dollar Store), texture plate (feather pattern - Fiskars), Martha Stewart floral lace edge punch

The last card I made is with a very cute snowman stamp. I think about 75% of my Christmas stamps are snowmen.

Supplies
Stamps: I Brake For Stamps
Paper: patterned paper (My Minds Eye - Countdown to Christmas paper stack), shimmer card stock (red background card stock - Recollections), coloured card stock (Recollections). Wausau Exact Index 80# (image), Domtar 130# coated card stock (base)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Tools & embellishments: Copic markers, stickles (frosted lace, stardust, gold, silver, red), Martha Stewart double loop edge punch, satin ribbon (Michaels)

Well, thanks for looking at my cards. I have to start getting a few more Christmas cards done for the craft shows I have at the end of this month and the beginning of December. After these ones, that's all I'm going to do. They're a lot of work and a lot of fun, but I don't think that they're worth it for the money you make on them. So far I've more or less have broken even on the stuff that I've sold, but I will probably have a couple hundred cards left over and a bunch of altered items that I'll never be able to use. I guess everyone in my family will get a nice big set of cards for Christmas if I don't sell them. I'll send some to the Canadian troops too.

Well, its late, so good night. Talk to you later...

Cat

Bugaboo DT Call

2010-11-10T22:03:00.001-07:00

I decided to put these cards together at the last minute. I had the ideas in my head and the images already coloured so I decided I would throw my name into the hat for the Bugaboo DT call. Here's the first card using the "Santa Called" image. I thought it was too funny.

Supplies:
Stamps: Santa Called & sentiment - Bugaboo Digital Stamps
Paper: Bazill card stock (red), SU card stock (Kiwi Kiss), Wausau Exact Index 80# white, Base 130# Domtar coated card stock, Provo Craft paper stack (patterned paper)
Tools & embellishments: Copic markers, twill ribbon (Michaels), organza ribbon (dollar store), silver & gold stickles, Fleur de Lis edge punch (EK Success), Craft Robo (frame)

The next card is done with the Bride Sunbonnet image. I did alter the image and removed the veil part since I wasn't making this as a wedding card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Bride Sunbonnet - Bugaboo Digital stamps, sentiment (Inkadinkado)
Paper: Mother's Flowers Digital papers - Delicious Scraps (printed on HP glossy presentation paper), Wausau Exact Index 80#
Ink: Studio G
Tools & embellishements: Copic markers, yellow glitter glue (Michaels), ribbon (Dollar store), buttons (unknown), Lacy Doily edge punch (Martha Stewart)

The next card is fairly plain. I wanted the image and the sentiment to be the focus on this card. The sentiment is probably meant to be for a baby card, but I think its also appropriate for the Christmas season.

Supplies

Stamps: Mary & Joseph - Bugaboo Digital stamps, sentiment (Inky Antics)

Paper: patterned paper (unknown), cardstock - Recollections & DCWV, Wausau Exact Index 80#
Ink: Versa Mark embossing ink, walnut stain distress ink (Tim Holtz)
Tools & embellishments: gold detail embossing powder (Stampendous), button (unknown), rafia

I really like the way these cards came out. I have so many Bugaboo images, but I haven't used them very much. I hope you like them too.

Talk to you later...

Cat

A Few More Cards...

2010-11-06T14:24:00.001-06:00

I finally got my room cleaned up to the point that I felt I could make something again. Unfortunately, I'll have to clean it again. I don't know what it is about me, but every time I do something in my craft room, it looks like a tornado went through the room. Well, I'm hoping its a sign of a creative person because if I try to keep it tidy, then I can't seem to create anything at all and it all just falls apart. So anyway, I couldn't sleep again last night, and I had this image from ADFD called Can't Sleep, so I though why not try to use it to get my creative thought process going again. This is such a cute image. Here's a picture of the card I made with this image:

Supplies:
Stamp: A Day For Daisies - Can't Sleep, Inky Antics (sentiment)
Papers: SU Tempting Turqoise, DCWV paper stack, Glitter paper (unknown), Wausau Exact Index 80#
Ribbon: Dollar store
Ink: Studio G
Tools & Other: MS Swirling Lace border punch, MS Hydrangea Trio punch, Frosted White Liquid Pearls
Copic Markers: Y02, Y17, G00, BG15, RV02,E00, E33, E37, C5, C0

The next image is such a beautiful image and I hope I did it justice. I had originally intended to use this image on the current challenge at ADFD (check out my side bar for the link). It was a real toss up between this image and the Leaf Girl image, but I ended up using Leaf Girl for the challenge. So, I had to use this image, just because it is so pretty. The image is called Wind in my Hair. Here's a picture of the card I created with it:

Supplies:
Stamp: A Day For Daisies - Wind in my Hair
Papers: Recollections cardstock, patterned paper (unknown), Wausau Exact Index 80#
Tools & Other: SU Scallop Trim border punch, Waterfall stickles
Copic Markers: BV00, E33, E35, E37, C0, 0
Bic Mark It markers: pastel purple
Sharpie Markers: medium purple, dark purple, medium red brown, dark red brown

I made the card very plain because I really wanted the image to be the focal point. Since I didn't have any pale shades of the Bics & Sharpies, I used the Copic colourless blender to remove some of the ink to create highlights on her dress and her hair.

TIP: Did you know that the Ranger alcohol blending solution will work in your Copic colourless blender? The solution is virtually identical in composition. I've been using it and it works beautifully in my blender pen. I think its a little more expensive than the blender refill, but its what I had on hand.

The last card I made last night is a little late in coming. I had the Spooky Fall Tree image and just couldn't think of what I wanted to do with it. And, some of the cards I've seen done with this image left me thinking that I probably couldn't do anything that hadn't already been done - and done well. So I was finally getting tired around 2:00 this morning and for some reason, that's when ideas come to me. Not that this card is all that unique in the layout, but its a design that I thought would look good so I went with it. Here's how it turned out:

Supplies:
Stamp: A Day For Daisies - Spooky Fall Tree
Papers: SU Kiwi Kiss, Black cardstock, patterned paper (unknown), Wausau Exact Index 80#
Tools & Other: MS Arch Lattice border punch, Green, Orange, & Black stickles, Olive Green Studio G glitter glue, EZ Cutter circle templates & swivel knife
Copic Markers: E43, E47, E49, YR02, YR04, YR07, C5, C3, C0, 0
Sharpie Markers: medium green, olive green, black fine tip
Ribbon: Michaels

I wanted the scene to come out darker, so I used the C5 Copic as my first line of shading around the image, then I widened out with C3, then C0, and then finally the blender to fade to white. The sentiment is hand written with a black fine point sharpie marker.

Well, I hope you like my cards. I also hope you'll be able to use my little tip about the alcohol blending solution. Its come in handy for me.

Don't forget to get in on the ADFD challenge going on right now. Its a lot of fun, there's a cute free image for you to use, and some other great rewards up for one lucky person. :)

Talk to you later...
Cat

ADFD Challenge #5 - Please Pass the Traditions

2010-11-05T00:40:00.000-06:00

A new challenge has started on the A Day For Daisies site. This one was a real treat to work on. I got to brush up on some of my digital graphics design skills. The challenge is to create a project with, of course, one of the ADFD images, and your favourite recipe. I saw a couple of Tammy's images that just invoked this sort of remembrance of my heritage. It was a real toss up as to which image I was going to use for this challenge, but in the end "Leaf Girl" won out. I love the look on her face and the leafs in her hair reminded me of feathers a young indian princess would wear. I was quite involved in the Aboriginal community for a long time. Unfortunately, I haven't been in about the last 10 years. I really enjoyed my work with the non-profit organization I use to be involved with. The organization was called CASTS - Canadian Aboriginal Science & Technology Society - and I sat on the Board of Directors as Chairperson for a few years. The goal of the organization is to promote education in the Aboriginal communities, and in particular, in the science fields. Sadly, I have lost contact with the people I worked with on the board and involved with the organization, which I must admit is my doing and had nothing to do with the fine and hardworking people involved in CASTS.

But I digress, back to what this post is about - ADFD challenge #5. I started this whole paper crafting thing when I started on digital scrapbooking. I still love using digital elements in my crafting. One thing I really love doing is making my own patterned papers. For this challenge I needed something that was more uniquely "Canadian Aboriginal" than southwestern or "US Native American", so I had to design it myself. I created a design that reminded me of a dream catcher. Then I had to choose colours that are prevalent in the aboriginal arts - a deep red, almost blood colour, tan, and turquise. Once I coloured the digital image, and put my design together, I realized I needed another element, so what better than to create an actual dream catcher for the project. So, it finally all came together and this is the results - a digital scrapbook page with my recipe:

Supplies:
Stamp Image: A Day For Daisies - Leaf Girl
Font on recipe card: Bradley Hand
Leaf image on recipe card from Ask a Biologist website
All other elements created by CatScrapFever Designs (background paper, dream catcher, recipe card)

This recipe is the one my mother taught me. Bannock was a real treat when I was younger, especially with hamburger soup. When I was little, I loved it with butter and jam when it was still hot and the butter and jam would melt and make my fingers and face all sticky. Once in a while, my Mom would fry the bannock, and then when it was still hot, roll it in sugar, or sugar and cinnamon. Kind of like Indian donuts. :) This bread is very very easy and quick. I often will make a bannock if I'm out of bread and too lazy to go to the store. I hope you try it. Its really good.

And, of course, I hope you enter into the ADFD challenge. It is running from today, November 5th through to November 18th. You can find the links on the right hand side in my side bar. Show us your favourite recipes.
I'm hungry!

Before I sign off, I just want to say:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Wish I could be with you to celebrate!

Talk to you later...

Cat

Cards from Jasmine

2010-11-03T17:31:00.000-06:00

I received a very pleasant package in the mail the other day. My niece sent me a couple cards she made with the loot I sent her for her birthday this summer. The first card is really cute and I think she is on to a new trend. Where about 99% of the cards we create and see in the on line galleries have most of the decoration on the outside of the card, Jasmine decided to decorate and put the surprise on the inside of the card. Very clever little girl! Here's a couple pictures of it for you to see:
The front:

and the inside:

I'd like to point out the little ghosts in the corners. She drew them herself. :)

The next card is very a simple, and clean card. She used an image that I drew last year at Christmas for the focal point.

I think she's well on her way to becoming a fabulous card maker. What do you think? Please leave her a comment. I know she would absolutely love to read your comments.

Thanks for looking. Talk to you later...

Cat

Paper Romance DT Call

2010-11-03T14:04:00.000-06:00

If you haven't heard, Paper Romance currently has a DT call running. Its a great opportunity, so if you're in the market for showcasing your talents as well as the excellent products that Paper Romance carries, check out this post on their blog: Paper Romance DT Call. Check out their challenges as well (here). It looks like its a lot of fun.

Take care & talk to you later...

Cat

Can You Tell the Difference?

2010-10-31T13:44:00.000-06:00

I was making some clear ornaments the day before and I was using my polar white Flower Soft inside to make it look like there was snow inside the balls. All I had on hand was the one little container and I ran out of Flower Soft. Luckily I had bought a package of the white foam balls to test out making my own Flower Soft. If you haven't heard of this before, you take the foam balls and rub them together to grate them, and it looks and feels just like Flower Soft. You need to use the foam that's hard and looks sparkly - not the styrofoam one like the stuff styrofoam cups are made out of. Here's a picture of the foam balls I used:

Here's a picture of one of the ornaments with the Flower Soft inside. I put the container from the Flower soft beside it in case you haven't seen this product yet. Its actually filled with the grated foam and not Flower Soft.

For the ornaments, you cut a circle of acetate just slightly smaller than the diameter of your ornament (just a hair smaller). Stamp your image with Stazon ink, and then colour on the reverse side with Sharpies, Bics, or Copics. If you colour on the same side as you stamp with the Stazon ink, your maker inks will wipe away the Stazon. Once the inks have dried, you roll your acetate into a tube small enough to fit through the opening at the top of the ornament. Push the acetate through and it will unroll, going across the inside of the ornament. You can put your Flower Soft, or glitter, or confetti in before or after you put your acetate in there, either way works. I used long nose tweezers to position the image inside.

Now here's a picture of some Flower Soft and foam gratings side by side (click on the picture to open it up full size to get a good look at it). Can you tell which one is which? If I didn't know, I don't think I would be able to tell the difference...

Since both look pretty much exactly a like, I think I'll be using the foam balls from now on. You can also use re-inker to custom dye the foam. I do have one other pot of Flower Soft - Sweet Pea - which is multi-coloured, but I think you could also just make your own custom colour mixes as well. The little pot of Polar White Flower Soft cost me $9.99 ($10.49 with tax). My little pot of the Sweet Pea was $8.99 ($9.44 with tax). I was able to get 6 foam balls for $4.99 ($5.24 with tax) at Walmart. Out of 3 - 2.5" balls I got enough "Flower Soft" to fill 3 Flower Soft containers - so basically one container for every 2.5" foam ball. That works out to about 87cents in total for a container. Sure a lot cheaper than $10 a container... Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't support the craft companies and buy their products. But, this is a much more economical way to achieve the same results as Flower Soft and is great for the people with very limited budgets.

So, do you want to know which one is which? The one on the right is the Flower Soft. If I didn't tell you, I don't think you would be able to tell the difference. Am I right?

That's it for today.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Fruits of My Labour...

2010-10-25T12:36:00.001-06:00

Pun intended! I have a couple pictures I wanted to show you of the canning I did with the fruits I picked from around my neighbourhood. My first batch was from all the apples I picked. I made apple sauce and apple syrup. The only reason I ended up with apple syrup is because I tried making apple jelly that didn't set. I wanted to use the natural pectin of the apples, but I guess the apples weren't fresh enough (they sat for a couple days before I could do anything with them) and lost their pectin. I boiled that applejuice for hours and it still wouldn't set, but made very nice apple syrup. The apple sauce is so good. Absolutely no sugar was needed for it. All I added was a little bit of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. Here's a picture of the applesauce & the syrup:

I had a lot of apple peelings left still after trying the first batch of apple jelly, so I figured I would add powdered pectin since I didn't need a lot of apple syrup. The jelly came out beautiful. I stewed up all the apple peels and cores for about two hours - until they were just mush. Then I strained them through a jelly bag and let that drip over night. Most of the articles/blog posts I read about making jelly said not to squeeze the bag or you would get cloudy juice. It really didn't make a difference to me, so I put a pot full of water on top of the jelly bag to add weight to press more juice out of it. I don't know how much more juice it really squeezed out though. Once I did as many full batches of jelly as I could from the juice I had, I had 2 cups of juice left over. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I added pomegrante juice to make up 5 cups of juice and made another batch of jelly. This jelly is really good! It has a very nice flavour. And I love the colour it has in the jar. The apple jelly is so good too. I'm looking forward to using it (and the apple syrup) as a glaze for some ham or pork chops.

If you recall, I posted a little while ago about one of my neighbours growing grapes in their back yard. Well, I had picked about 2 pounds of grapes from them. I made juice out of the grapes (they were really small - about the size of large-ish blueberries) and from the 2 pounds I made 5 cups of juice - exactly enough for a batch of jelly. The jelly turned out great. I had about 1/2 a jar too much, so I just let that set up in the fridge over night in a small plastic container. Rob and I finished that off the next night with PB&J sandwiches for dinner.

So, once I finished with all the fruit I had picked in my neighbourhood, I was still hyped up about canning. I decided I would try my hand at making marmelade. I was on the hunt to find directions on how to make marmalade. As a kid, my parents used to eat marmalade all the time. I didn't like it - it was too bitter for my young palette. I have tried a few store bought ones and always found them bitter, except for one brand (which I don't remember the name of anymore). It was sweet and orangey and so delicious. I read the ingredients and too my surprise, it wasn't just orange peel in the marmalade, but also had lemon peel and lime peel. In my research, I found that what makes the marmalade bitter is the pith. With this information in mind, I bought a couple oranges, a lemon, and a little bag of key limes (I used 6 limes for my marmalade). The trick I found to not getting any pith on the rind when you're peeling it is to use a potato peeler on the thick rind fruit - the oranges and the lemons. The little key limes, however, were too small and the skin seemed to be very tough, almost leathery. Luckily, I have a good zester and used that to get as much rind off those little wee limes. I took all the peel and chopped it into as fine slivers as I could, then boiled that for about 20 minutes in 1 1/2 cups of water so that they would soften and extract the essential oils.

The second important thing about marmalade making is to not get any of the tough skin around the flesh segments into the mix. I peeled off all the pith from the oranges and the lemons, then cut the segments away. I managed to only get 3 or 4 pieces of skin in there, but was able to see them when I was cooking the fruit and fished them out. I had this big juicy mess left in my hands from the skin and what was left of the pulp I couldn't get out. I just used my hands and squeezed it over a strainer to get as much juice as I could from the fruit. The limes were another story though. They were so small and the pith was so tough that I wouldn't be able to cut it away with out sacrificing all the pulp, so I just cut them in half and squeezed as much juice as I could out of them over a strainer to catch the seeds. Oh yeah, another important point to remember when making marmalade is to not get any seeds in there or they will make your marmalade bitter too.

I added this to the pot and let the fruit boil for about 20 minutes. Once it was cooked I measured out enough of the fruit and peel and added enough water to make 5 cups and then added 2 tsp vanilla extract. This seems to be the magic number for 1 package of pectin - 5 cups juice/fruit, 5 cups sugar, 1 package pectin crystals. After it was all cooked with the sugar and pectin, I put it into jars. I couldn't wait until it was cooled and set so that we could try it. Finally, the next day it was ready to try. It was loosely set which was ok. I didn't want it really set hard like jello, but it was a little softer than I would have liked. Hopefully, the other jars will set up a little more as they age a bit. Now, the taste, however, unbelievable. It is soooooooo good. It tasted even better than what the one I liked from the store tasted (from what I can remember). I think what put it over the top is the vanilla. I've been having this on toast almost every morning. I will definitely make this again. Its a little more work than jelly, but so worth the effort. Here's a picture of the jellies I made:

You can't tell from the pictures, but they look so pretty in the sunlight. The colours are so deep and rich - almost jewel like.

Well, thats all I have for today about my canning escapades. If you haven't tried making jelly you should. Its really quite simple and all you need is some juice (but not juice from concentrate). You can pick up real fruit juice at the grocery store really cheap. After I slaved over the stove making my own apple juice, I found a litre of apple juice (not from concentrate) at Walmart for about 90 cents. Its not the same as making it from scratch, but it will work if you want apple jelly and no apples. :)

Ok, so talk to you later...

Cat

Terrible, Terrible news...

2010-10-18T13:25:00.000-06:00

I'm absolutely devastated this morning. I can't believe this. Its so tragic. MY DISHWASHER BROKE LAST NIGHT!!!! I have a full load of dishes and now I'm going to have to wash them by hand. Ugh! And to add insult to injury, the parts place has to order the part in and that will take 2 weeks to get here. My husband wasn't all that understanding either. He told the clerk I didn't know how to wash dishes by hand. Its not that I don't know how... I just don't like doing it. That also means I'll have to do most of the cooking because when Rob cooks, he dirties every pot & dish in the house and if I'm the one having to do the dishes, he's not going to step foot near the stove. Other than whining because I don't like doing dishes, there is the fact that when I stand in one place for more than about 10 minutes, my hips start to scream at me. And, my back hurts because I'm taller than the average person and I have to be bent over to reach into the sink. I guess I better stock up on my NSAIDs until my dishwasher gets fixed.

Ok, that's enough self-pity for one day. I'll have something better to post about next time.

Talk to you later...

Cat

A Little Gift For You...

2010-10-17T01:37:00.001-06:00

I have these images I drew that I never got around to using. I thought I would offer them to you. Hopefully, you can use them. Please, if you download them, do not share them. If someone asks you for the images, please send them here for the link. Also, these images are for personal use only. I would appreciate a little note back with a link if you use the images. I would love to see what you make with them. :) Here are previews of the images. The link to download will be at the end of this post. Enjoy & create!

And here is the link to download the non-watermarked, full-sized images: CatScrapFever Digi Stamps

Talk to you later...

Cat

ADFD Challenge #4 - Black Out

2010-10-15T11:33:00.000-06:00

The new challenge at A Day for Daisies starts today! The challenge this time is to use black. Lots of black. In keeping with Halloween coming at the end of the month. All the kids I know can't wait until Halloween gets here. They love all the candy they get. Well, there is a little piece of "candy" for you over at ADFD website. Tammy is offereing a very cute little witch for this challenge. Its so cute - and along with the rest of the prize package, this challenge will be so much fun.

I don't normally work with a lot of black except at this time of year. Don't get me wrong. I love black. The majority of my wardrobe is black (it very slimming you know). It can make a project look very elegant. Thats the reason I love doing these challenges. It pushes me outside of my creative comfort zone. Here is a picture of the project I made for this current challenge:

Supplies:
stamps: Wildflowers digital stamp - ADFD
card stock: SU! Black, Wausau Exact Index 110#
Flowers: unknown
Brads: Michaels
Rhinestones: Michaels
Inks: Versamark
Tools/other products: Pencil crayons, oms, Stampendous black sparkle embossing powder, black copic marker, stickles (black, silver, white), CraftRobo

For this chest of drawers, I first cut the bracket shape thats the bottom and top on my CraftRobo. I made them two layers thick and I also cut one extra for the top to prop up the image. I made 3 tubes, just slightly bigger than 3" x 3" x 1" and stacked them - these were the sliders for my drawers. I them made 3 box bottoms 3" x 3" x 1". I cut a swirl pattern on my CraftRobo, used xyron adhesive on the back and covered the front with Versamark ink and embossed the swirl with sparkle black embossing powder. The big black rhinestones on the drawers didn't start out as black rhinestones. I didn't have any black ones that were big enough for the project, so I used clear rhinestones and coloured them with a black copic marker. Once the ink was dry, I glued them to the front of the drawer on top of the swirls. For the top, I scored the bracket shape in half and then at the quarter mark. I folded it and then adhered it to the top only putting glue on half, so that the folded flap was free. I then attached the coloured image with pop dots to the part of the folded bracket shape that was upright so that the image would stand up and then tacked down the little point with some glue so the image would stay upright. I then glued paper flowers with brad centres to the top for a little more embellishment.

I think I'm going to fill the drawers up with little embellishments, like buttons, rhinestones, & brads and send this along as a little gift for my niece. I know she'll love it and it will help out build up her craft stash too.

So check out the challenge at ADFD. Don't be shy - its all fun and good people. The link to the challenge is in my sidebar, but just in case here it is for you again: ADFD Challenge #4 - Black Out

Talk to you later...

Cat

Thanksgiving & A Bounty of Local Fruit

2010-10-10T18:08:00.000-06:00

Its Thanksgiving here in Canada tomorrow. While I haven't been working for the last 7 months, I've been trying to learn to do a few new things - like this year I wanted to learn how to can fruit & vegetables. I decided to see what fruits grow locally, within my neighbourhood. You would be surprised at the variety of apples grown in Calgary. There are two trees in my neighbourhood in particular that have beautiful apples. The one tree (my favourite) has big sweet apples about the size of a red delicious with crisp white flesh. The other tree is a crabapple tree with large apples about the size of small macintosh apples. The flesh was a lot like a macintosh apple as well. From all the apples I picked, I canned a dozen 1/2 ltr jars of unsweetened applesauce. The apples were sweet enough that I didn't need any sugar. I also made and froze some apple pie filling - probably enough for about 4 large pies. I saved all the peelings and cores and attempted to make apple jelly, but it didn't set. But, I do have some very yummy apple syrup for my pancakes this winter. Its also quite delicious drizzled over vanilla icecream. There are two plum trees in the neighbourhood also. One tree is wild red plums - which makes beautiful jams. The other is the nice round blue plums which would make nice prunes and stewed plums. I didn't ask to pick any plums this year because I didn't want to overwhelm myself. Also, I want to make sure I have the process down so that I don't risk poisoning myself or wasting all the ingredients. The last thing I'm really surprised to find growing in the back yard of one of our neighbours are grapes. I noticed them the other day when I was walking Mitzy. I didn't think we had a long enough growing season here to grow grapes. Then I thought they must be just an ornamental variety. Well, today as I was walking Mitzy again, the neighbours were out in their yard, so I stopped and asked them what kind of grapes they were. They're concord grapes. They're very very small and at first I though they would have been champagne grapes. Here's a picture of one cluster:

You'll notice a few missing from the cluster. I tried them. They're very tart, but very flavourful. However, they have a couple of seeds in the berry that make them almost impossible to eat as a snack. I have about 2lbs of the fruit that I will juice and make into jelly.

I'm so happy that I decided to ask my neighbours if I could pick these fruits. They were more than willing for me to take it away. I think most of the time, they don't want to be bothered to clean it up when it falls to the ground and starts to rot. All it cost me so far was the cost for some canning jars and a 10lb bag of sugar for the jelly. So, look around your neighbourhood. I'll bet there is lots of "free" fruit if you just ask.

Talk to you later...

Cat

So, I Caved Today....

2010-10-09T19:46:00.000-06:00

I had a 50% off coupon for Michaels, so I used it to get:

Its not as heavy as I thought it was. I tried a couple different ones before (a big yellow clunker) and they were really heavy and hurt my wrists when they flopped over to the side. It could be that my wrists aren't as bad with carpal tunnel as they were before since I've been off work for so long now. There are a couple of Michaels stores within about 15 minutes driving between stores and my house, so I think I'll take a couple more 50% off coupons and get some refills while I have the coupons. I can't believe how much more they charge at Michaels in Canada for these things. This gun is about $30 in the states, but was $54.99 here. That's why I never buy anything at Michaels (except the $1.50 stuff) without a coupon. I think I'll try to limit myself now to when they offer 50% off coupons. I had tried to put off my purchases before to when they were offering the 50% off coupons, but it seemed just as I decided to do that, they didn't have one for months and months and all they were offering were the 40% coupons. Really, I have soooo much stuff I should be ashamed of myself for wanting to buy more and thinking I can't make another thing unless I go shopping. Oh yeah, I bought some more card stock. Like I need that like I need another hole in my head. :) I've been using Tombow dry adhesive runners and, honestly, that stuff sucks the big one. I have a card here that I made only about a month ago with the Tombow and its already fallen apart. I had to go and re-glue a couple albums of scrapbook pages I put together using that glue. It was getting expensive cause I had to use so much of it to get things to stick.

Well, anyway. Wanted to share my new toy with you all. I'll post a picture of something as soon as I use it to make something.

Talk to you later...

Cat

P.S. Have you checked out the sketch challenge at CDAC that A Day for Daisies is sponsoring. You have until the 20th to join in and you get a free image to work with. Go check it out: CDAC You'll need to register - but that's free, then just look under the Challenges to find it. See ya there!

Jasmine's Crafts

2010-10-08T19:49:00.003-06:00

My niece is a talented little girl and she loves doing crafts. Every once in a while I send her a bunch of craft stuff that I pick up for her, or stuff that I'm not using. I usually have a box under my table that I keep the stuff in and when it gets full, or its a special occasion like her birthday I send her the box. Well, for her birthday this past summer, I sent her a bunch of stamping stuff. I bought a stamp kit at Walmart and it was really nice. There were I think 8 stamps sets and a few other things. I pulled out a bunch of paper from my huge stash and sent her a whole whack of patterned paper and card stock and some ribbon, embellies, and ink pads I wasn't using. She loves it. So now, we have crafting dates over the internet via Skype (my family uses Skype a lot to keep in touch). So, I told Jasmine that I would post her projects on my blog so she can show the world her creations too - just like her aunty.

This is Jasmine's first project we did together over Skype. Its a little gift bag/box. I think she did amazingly well with it considering I was giving her verbal instructions and trying to show her over the webcam how to do it.

Front:

Back:

She used a stamp I had sent her on the front (the teddy bear - from the dollar store) and she coloured in a stamped image I sent her.

I think she did a fabulous job. If you have a minute, please leave her a comment. She's only 9 and I know it will thrill her to death to know people are looking at her crafts.

Have a great day!

Cat

UPDATE: Here is what Jasmine wrote in an email to me:

something amazing
today i cheked your blog and seen the comments they where AMAZING. i am so so so happy about the nice comments that people said about my crafts
from jasmine

Thanks everyone who commented on Jasmine's crafts. I'll be posting more in the future.

Blog background change...

2010-10-07T00:05:00.000-06:00

Just a quick note. I meant to do this at the beginning of the month but I kept getting side tracked and kept forgetting, so I made myself do it tonight. I changed the background to pink in honour of Breast Cancer Awareness month. My family has been affected by cancer too many times as I'm sure so many other families have been also. My prayers go out to those families dealing with this right now and to those of you who have lost loved ones to this horrible disease.

A Couple Cards & a Product Review

2010-10-06T22:45:00.005-06:00

Hi all. I want to show you some cards I made for a challenge over at Crafter's Digital Art Centre being sponsored by A Day for Daisies. The challenge starts tomorrow, so don't miss it. It is a sketch challenge that is quite easy to work with (if I can do it, you all can do it I'm sure). You will also get an amazing free image to work with. How great is that eh? Here are the cards I made. The first one is using the Fall Fun image (this will be the image Tammy is offering for the challenge - its so fun!).

Supplies
Stamps: Fall Fun - A Day for Daisies digital stamp (main image), Inky Antics (sentiments)
Papers: Wausau 80# Exact Index cardstock, Recollections, Cat Scrap Fever Designs (me - patterned paper)
Inks: Studio G pigment ink
Embellishments: Paper flower, brads, rafia, & silk leaves - dollar store, button & ribbon - Michaels
Tools: Craft Robo, pencil crayons (prisma & crayola), oms

I used pencil crayons & oms to colour the main image. I also used my Craft Robo to design and cut the pumpkin and leaves. The little tendrils are created by putting some scrap cardstock in the cutter and then cutting very thin slivers of the cardstock. They will curl on their own, but I wrapped these ones around a pencil and shaped them. I don't think they'll stay nice and springy once they've been in an envelope and gone through the mail. Its a shame because they look so cute.

This next picture is another card using the same sketch, but in a Halloween theme.

Supplies
Stamps: Pretty Witch by A Day for Daisies (digital stamp - focal image), Studio G (sentiments)
Papers: Wausau 80# Exact Index cardstock, Recollections, K&Company (patterned paper)
Inks: Studio G pigment ink
Embellishments: Paper flower, rhinestones, & brads - dollar store, buttons - Michaels, black & green stickles
Tools: pencil crayons (prisma & crayola), oms

This card is pretty straight forward. I coloured the image with pencil crayons & oms. Other than that, the only thing "special" is that I glued rhinestones into the buttons because I couldn't find my black embroidery floss to thread into the holes. I also put glitter glue on the hat ribbon & black stickles on the cat on the witch's lap.

I really like this next card because the image is so cute. Again, I really didn't do anything spectacular for this card, but I did add glitter glue to the wings because all fairies wings sparkle. :)

Supplies
Stamps: Little Nimph by A Day for Daisies (digital stamp - focal image), Studio G (sentiments)
Papers: Wausau 80# Exact Index cardstock, Recollections, S.E.I. (patterned paper)
Inks: Studio G pigment ink
Embellishments: Paper flower, ribbon, & button - Michaels, pink & orange glitter glue - Studio G
Tools: pencil crayons (prisma & crayola), oms

PRODUCT REVIEW - STUDIO G CRAFT INK

So, I found a new ink that I'm really liking for my clear stamps - especially the cheap Studio G stamps. A lot of people have problems getting these stamps to ink up properly and problems getting a good image from them. I haven't had too much of a problem myself, but sometimes the image isn't just so. I bought some Studio G ink cubes quite a while ago and just used them the other day - on the cards I just showed you and some Halloween cards I made for my craft show (I didn't have time to take pics before the craft show, but I have one left that I'll post later - maybe tomorrow). Since my Halloween cards have a lot of black cardstock, I thought I would try out the white Studio G ink cube. This ink is really really good for a white ink. If you look at the Halloween card I posted above, the white is bright and crisp. Most any other white ink I've tried soaks into the paper and doesn't stay nice and bright unless you emboss it. Also, what is so great about this ink is that it dries completely! Yes, within minutes I was able to rub my finger over the stamped image without smearing it. A lot of the other craft inks I've tried always take forever to dry (if they ever even dry) and once they're dry they will still smear. Another thing that I like about these is the price - $1.50 in Canada (they'll be in the $1 bins in the US). Plus, they have $1.50 glitter glue to match the ink colours. Aaaannnd, (I know - it keeps going) it also matches some of the new recollections card stocks. If you look at the first card, the ink I used for the sentiment matches the rusty coloured cardstock, and on the last card the ink for the sentiment matches the green cardstock (although its hard to tell since I stamped it on blue cards stock - but I did test it out to see how closely it matched). The only thing is that I haven't seen a black ink cube yet. If I ever do, I'll be snatching up one of those too. I'm contemplating going back and picking up a couple more white cubes I like it that much. So if you see these at a Michaels store near you, give them a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed - especially at this price point. Just so you know what you're looking for, here's a picture of what the cubes look like:

Well, that's it for today. Make sure you get over to CDAC and check out the sketch challenge ADFD is sponsoring tomorrow. It will be fun and you get a great image to boot!

Talk to you later...

Cat

ADFD Challenge #3 - Layers

2010-10-01T20:37:00.003-06:00

Well, I'm back. Things are still up in the air as far as the health issue I've been dealing with, but I'm not going to let it get to me any more. Worrying about it isn't going to make things better - will probably aggravate it if anything. So, thank you to everyone for sending their well wishes. I really appreciate it.

Today is the start of the A Day for Daisies Challenge #3. The theme this time is Layers - lot of layers. I usually don't use a whole bunch of layers so this was going to be a stretch for me - but I guess that's why its called a Challenge huh? I really wanted to use the Babe Basket image. It is so cute. I also wanted to use it on a scrapbook page. I had the perfect image for the layout - a picture of my niece I took only 12 hours after she was born. I took artistic liberties with interpreting the challenge and decided to use "layers" (= shades) of a colour. I have layers of purples and pinks in this project. Here is the layout I came up with for the challenge plus a few close up shots of some of the elements:

Supplies:
Image: Babe Basket - A Day for Daisies (printed on a Canon MP560)
Cardstock: Recollections, Wausau Exact Index 80# white
Patterned Paper: unknown
Flowers: Michaels (large pink silk flowers), unknown (paper flowers)
Buttons: Dollar Store
Brads: Unknown
Ribbon: Michaels
Studio G glitter glue, Stickles, Liquid Pearls, Tattered Angels Sherbert Glimmer Mist
EK Success Tulips Large Edger Punch, Copic Markers, Sharpie Markers , Cats Eye ink
Velum tag: Deja View

I printed the image 3 times and then cut out the various layers and popped them up on pop-dots so that the blanket and flowers would have some dimension. I used my CraftRobo to cut the butterflies and glued little rhinestones to the wings and put purple stickles on the body. I also used my CraftRobo to cut the title from the patterned paper and then used pink cardstock and cut the matting for the words. It doesn't show up in the photo, but I used glimmer mist on the purple cardstock. Once that was dry, with a pencil I lightly drew some large swirls and then used stickles, glitter glue, & liquid pearls to create some "bling" swirls on the background. I've had the vellum tag for a really long time so I thought it was time to use it. I tore the edges and then inked them with purple Cats Eye ink. Assembling the layout was pretty straight forward. The only thing I had to do was mount the layout onto a heavier piece of Domtar 130# card stock. After using the glimmer mist, the purple card stock warped a little. I cut a piece 11.75" x 11.75" and glued the layout to it so that it will lay flat.

I didn't get this next project completed on time, but want to show you a really pretty image from ADFD. I'm such a sucker for Christmas images and this one is so cute I just had to have it. Its the Christmas Elf image and its a great image to work with - so many colour possibilities. Here is a card I made with it:

Supplies:
Image: ADFD Christmas Elf A (printed on a Canon MP560)
Stamps: Studio G (sentiments)
Ink: Marvy markers, Copic markers, Sharpie markers
Cardstock: Wausau Exact Index 80# white, SU! Whisper White, Recollections
Patterned Paper: DCWV
Punches: Martha Stewart Branch, EK Success Snowflake Edge, Marvy Uchida Snowflake, Marvy Uchida
Southwestern corner punch
Ribbon: Dollar Store, DMC floss
ProvoCraft Snowflake embossing folder, stickles, glitter glue

I coloured the image with Copics and Sharpies. I then put stickles and glitter glue on the hat and pompoms to jazz it up a bit. I used the Southwestern corner punch after I double matted the image and wrapped embroidery floss around the edges through the punched corners. I punch both sides of a strip of Christmas patterned paper to make it look sort of like lace and adhered that over the embossed whisper white card stock. I punched a few branches with the Martha Stewart punch and glued them into a "swag" and glued that to the card and then glued a punch snowflake on top to hide all the glue. I put stickles and glitter glue on the swag and snowflake as well.

That's all I have for today. You should head over to ADFD and enter into the challenge (the link is in my sidebar). There is a great prize offered to one of the lucky participants of the challenge. I have another craft show this weekend and have a couple things I want to prepare for it so I will post pictures of the new items next week.

Take care & talk to you later...

Cat

I'll be back soon...

2010-09-25T16:48:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to post a little something to let you all know I'm still around. I've been going through some personal/health issues for the last few weeks. So with doctor's appointments, ultrasounds, and just plain emotional turmoil, I haven't done much creating lately. I will be back - soon - and uploading my projects. So don't quit coming to see me, k?

Talk to you later...

Cat

ADFD Flower Basket Challenge #2

2010-09-19T23:46:00.002-06:00

A Day for Daisies is having their 2nd challenge. Its running now through to the 30th of September. The theme is "Let's Celebrate" so anything goes. You can use any of the images Tammy has for sale in her store. She also has sneek peek freebies every week on Thursday, but they're only available for a very limited time, so you need to hurry over to the A Day for Daisies group on Crafters Digital Art Centre to grab the freebies. You can use the freebies if you like for the challenges as well. One lucky person will be chosen at the end of the challenge and will win a fabulous prize. You can get all the details on the prize and information where/how to upload your submissions for the challenge HERE (click to go to the challenge blog). The link to the challenge blog is also located on the right side panel if you ever need it. There are also some links to other fun places for ADFD. So let's see some of that wonderful art that I know you all do. I'll be back to post mine. I want something really special, so I need to plan it out, but I'll post soon....

Talk to you later...
Cat

Craft Show stuff & other ramblings...

2010-09-18T20:54:00.000-06:00

I have another craft show tomorrow that I've been trying to get things sorted out for tomorrow. I really wanted to play with my new images from ADFD. I don't even want to go to my craft show tomorrow, but its already paid for and I'd loose the table fees. I had so much to do today and it seems I didn't get anything done. I did finish off a couple necklaces and a pair of earings for the craft show that I started a little while ago. I saw something similar last year and thought these would be nice for for the craft show. They're bead spiders. Now, I seriously have arachnophobia, and even holding these creeps me out, but I thought they would go over well for Halloween. Here's a picture of the necklace:

Its about 2"x2" and I just used some plain beads I had on hand. I have some nice Swarofsky crystals that I might make a few special ones for the next craft show in a couple weeks.

Here are the earings:

They're about 1.5"x1.5". I didn't feel like doing them black, and I really like pink, so they don't creep me out as much as the necklace does. They're not the highest quality beeds or findings, but they look cute for costume jewelry and I suppose that kids will probably buy them, so that's why I didn't use my swarofsky stuff right away. I want to see if they'll even sell.

Well, craft show tomorrow and then I'll have lots of time to catch up and play with my new A Day for Daisies images and start fulfilling my commitment to the DT. I keep telling my husband that I can't believe I've been chosen. I'm so happy today. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

Awsome News!

2010-09-17T22:00:00.000-06:00

I am so excited about this! I've been accepted onto the design team for A Day for Daisies. I stumbled upon this site and just loved the images Tammy Thompson created for her digital stamps. I took a chance and sent in my submission for her DT call and was accepted. I'm totally blown away. This is my first time serving on a DT and I'm soooo looking foward to being a part of the A Day for Daisies team. Its going to be really fun. There is a challenge running right now so why don't you all head over there and join in. It'll be fun! Here's the link: A Day for Daisies Challenges. There is also a group on Crafters Digital Art Centre (CDAC) that will be a great place to hang out and Tammy will be posting freebies every now and then. Here's a link to the group: A Day for Daisies CDAC Group.

Things have been little hectic on the home front, but I just wanted to put up a quick note to share my fabulous news and I'll be back later to post more.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Sleeping in the tent & Baby Afghan card..

2010-09-02T16:26:00.000-06:00

My husband is crazy for camping. We probably won't be able to get out camping again this year since my husband has to cover off for the people taking vacation at work and someone is on vacation through this next long weekend. So he set the tent up in our back yard last night. We had bought a new air mattress this last camping trip and the stupid thing leaked like crazy. We practically ended up sleeping on the hard ground by morning, so Rob took it back last night and bought a big new queen size, double high air mattress. We tested it out last night. With the 3" foam pad we have over it, that thing is more comfortable than my bed. Its quick and easy to pump up with the electric pump that comes with it. It will work very well if we have guests - our hide-a-bed is horribly uncomfortable. It was way more than I would have paid for an air mattress (over $100 for this one), but its guaranteed not to leak. We'll see....

I wanted to quickly post the card I made today to send out with the afghan I made for my cousin's new little baby boy. The image is by Inkadinkado and is coloured with copics. I saw the designer papers online by My Mind's Eye (Lush collection). I didn't have time to go out to see if I could find these papers, so I designed some myself to recreate the one's I saw (the checked & striped - easy enough to do quickly). The sentiment is a free digi stamp from Create with TLC. Here's my card:

Well, that's all for today. Take care and talk to you later...

Cat