Fruits of My Labour...

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...

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...

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

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

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....

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

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...

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

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

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...

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

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...

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!

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..

 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

Finally finished...

I finally finished a baby afghan my mother asked me to make for my cousin and his wife.  I started it in April, but only worked on it here and there.  My mom had wanted me to get it done before they had the baby, but I really wasn't into it, so I only could work on it for about an hour at a time before I got bored with it and put it away. Well, they had the baby, so I had to force myself to get it done.  Well, its done.  Not that I begrudge doing it for my cousin, but it was so tedious.  I don't know how I made so many of these when I was in my 20's and all my friends were having kids.  For all you crotchet-ers out there, all it is, is one big granny square.  I crotchet 8 rounds of white, and then 4 rounds of whatever colour you want.  I always start and finish with a white section and then add a knotted fringe all around.  They're always a big hit.  All I have left to do now is make a baby card, wrap it up and send it out.  Here's a picture of the finished afghan:

My next "textile" project is going to be a shrug for my niece.  I bought some beautiful pink yarn and some hot pink fun fur yarn for the trim to make it.  I was looking through the Lion Brand yarn website in the free patterns section the other night for inspiration.  I seldom use a pattern anymore for any of my plain knitted or crotcheted stuff anymore.  I've been doing it for about 40 years - my Gramma taught me when I was a little kid - so I can figure it out by myself.  I do use a pattern for "guidance" if its a complicated stitch though.

That's all I have for today.  Take care and talk to you later....

Cat

Back from Camping...

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Take care & talk to you later...

Cat

Sugar Bead Disaster...

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

Talk to you later...

Cat

Comparison - Sugar Beads vs. Micro Beads

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

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

sugar bead pen

micro bead pen

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

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

Take care...

Cat

My First Product Review

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

Talk to you later...

Cat