Happy 10th Anniversary Crafty Capers!

Hard to believe it but Crafty Capers turns 10 years old today! The time has really flown by. About this time 10 years ago my sister Kim (the hairdresser) and I were madly loading up our cars and hauling boxes of stamps up to Rutherford Mall in Nanaimo (now known as Nanaimo's North Town Center). It took us way longer to set up than we figured so we were probably not up and running until 11 am or so. We stayed in the mall until Dec 24. At that time we carried 5 stamp companies:

• PSX (now out of business, I miss their images!)
• Hero Arts
• Peddlers Pack
• Denami Design
• House Mouse (House Mouse was made by Stampa Rosa but are now made by Stampabilities)

We travelled the malls on Vancouver Island in the spring of 2002 and moved into our first storefront May 1 2002 with Creative Images Hair Studio (Kim) in Lantzville. In July 2009 we moved to our current location on Bowen Road.
We have had many adventures and made so many friends over the past 10 years. Thank you to everyone who has supported Crafty Capers and here is to 10 more years!
To help celebrate stop by the store this week and enter to win a free class (maximum value $27)! For those of you who are mail order customers send me an email or leave a comment on this blog and we'll do a draw for a little something for you as well. :)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Tree Trifold

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who came by the store last Saturday for our World Card Day fundraiser for Nanaimo's Food Bank. It was a very successful day. Thank you.

I managed to get a few minutes to play yesterday and decided to pull out my newer Hero Arts/Sizzix Stamp and Die Cut Reindeer set. Unlike the first time I played with the set I decided to go with a more elegant look and use the trees in the set. I heat embossed the trees a few times then cut them out with the matching die. I ripped my 2 front panels of the card so it would look like snowy hills. I edged the ripped edge with Brillance Sky blue ink. The sentiment is by Hero Arts. Hope this provides you with some inspiration.

Holiday Shopping

I was lucky enough to have a friend lend me this super cute Penny Black Fashionista stamp Fashion Delivery (thanks Barbara!) so I whipped out my watercolor paper, Tombow markers and Glue Pen! Once my coloring was done I cut out the gal and set her aside. I wanted to make her part of a scene so I seached my stuff and found a Hero Arts Row of Houses stamp which I stamped and embossed with Crafty Capers Copper embossing powder on my main cardstock. I then took a piece of ripped text weight paper from the recycle bin and used that as a template for my drifts of snow along with Brillance Pearlescent Ice Blue ink. I stamped some Hero Arts snowflakes in the sky with Ranger's Seafoam White embossing powder then sponged Brillance Sky Blue ink over them. I stamped my Penny Black sentiment on a Spellbinder Labels 1 also inked with Brillance Sky Blue I taped the sentiment flat to the main cardstock. I used foam mounting tape to pop up the girl then I used my white Liquid Applique to add some fur (fake, of course) to the gal's coat and boots and heated it with my heat gun. I used my Sakura Stardust pen to add some smoke to the house chimney's as well as hightlights to the gal. I'm very happy with how this turned out. Unfortunately, as I was working on this card I sold the last Fashion delivery stamp however we do have more on order should be back in stock in about 2 or so week. Everything else is in stock currently. Thanks for stopping by!

Winterscene

Wow I think this cards brings my completed Christmas card stash up to about 4 only about 56 more cards to go before Dec 1!
This card is another technique card I was playing with. I found a bottle of light lilac Americana acrylic paint in my small craft stash at home. I'm sure I bought it about 2008 when I was going to become a famous tole painter! LOL For some reason I must have thought I was going to become a famous painter with only 2 colors of paint because all I could find was the lilac color plus a cream colored paint! No idea what I was thinking there! Anyway finally cracked the plastic on the lilac paint. I squirted a blog of paint on my Ranger Craft Sheet then I lightly stamped my stamp into the paint when the stamp was covered I stamped in on a piece of white cardstock. If you are doing this technique make sure you clean your stamp right away. I thought I did this but still had a heck of a time getting all the paint out of the nooks and crannies.
Once the paint was dry I went in with my Cut N Dry foam and applied Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress inks to make the lilac paint pop a bit more. I finished up the card by applying Waterfall Stickles in the sky. I like how the paint stamps up it has a little more texture than stamping with a traditional ink and if you have some acrylic paint in your stash so much the better!
Stamp used: Penny Black Snowscape

World Card Day Sat Oct 1

Next Saturday is Oct 1 and World Card Day!!! World Card day was started to celebrate the "kick off" to the winter card making season. Realistically I think September is actually the kick off but what do I know??? Crafty Capers will be having it's annual fundrasing event Oct 1. Drop by anytime between 10:30 am - 1:30 pm we will have a bunch of instructors each teaching a different card. Each card is $3 and all tuition will go to Nanaimo's Loaves and Fishes food bank. Please bring your class kit wiht you to class. All cards are suitable for all skill levels bring a friend and make it a fun girls day!

This card was done using my Versamark ink pad using it as a resist on glossy cardstock. I began by cutting a Spellbinder Labels 2 shape out of glossy cardstock. I then stamped my Penny Black flower stamp, that I seem to be using for every card lately, with my Versamark ink pad. I heated the cardstock to make sure my ink was dry then I used a piece of Cut N Dry Foam and applied Distress Broken China ink over the entire piece. The Versamark inky areas will resist dye inks. Pretty cool. I rubbed the piece with a tissue to get the ink that was sitting on top of the Versamark off the piece. I used a Want 2 Scrap Labels 2 rhinestone embellishment around the edge of the piece. I stamped the sentiment using the Broken China ink. I had some white with blue Hero Arts flowers I thought they looked a little white so I used my Broken China ink and made them less white. I matted everything as shown. Hope this card inspires you to use your Versamark ink pad for more than embossing!


Card Recipe:
Stamps: Penny Black Lace Edged & Hero Arts sentiment

Life is not a matter of milestones

I might not have been happy with yesterday's card but I LOVE today's card! I'm so happy with how it turned out.
I began with a piece of Radiance vellum (shimmery) available from Crafty Capers then I stamped a Hero Arts leaf stamp with Brillance Pearlescent Sky Blue on the vellum then I stamped with the same stamp right over the top of the blue ink with my Versamagic Cloud White ink. Brillance inks don' t dry very well on vellum so I heat set it. I then stamped the wheat sort of stamp in the white ink as well without the blue and stamped the dragonfly with the blue ink. I heat set this as well. I stamped the Penny Black sentiment with the white ink as well. I then jazzed up the card a bit more by adding some Glitter Ritz Cool Highlight glitter with my Tombow Glue pen. I matted everything as shown.
Card Recipe:
Stamps: Hero Arts Delicate Leaf clusters clear set & Penny Black Milestones
Inks: Brillance Sky Blue & Versamagic Cloud white
Paper: Radiance Vellum, BoBunny Double Dot & Et Cetera

Just saying hello

Not sure I am in love with this card but it will work for what I need. While at a funeral last week, I got a lecture from an aunt about how I need to send her more cards! Given that she is a fiesty "Reeve gal" thought I had better get on that sooner rather than later or she would be likely to kick my butt!!
I thought the old fashioned telephone image by Hero Arts would be a good image to start with. I stamped it with Memento Bamboo Leaves ink on a piece of cream cardstock then I cut it out. I matted it on a piece of white cardstock embossed with a Crafts Concept embossing folder. I used my NEW Spellbinder Picot Edge Circles. It goes perfectly with my older smooth Spellbinder circles. I stamped a Penny Black flower stamp on a piece of pink cardstock using Brillance Pearlescent Orchid ink to add some interest to it. I stamped the green cardstock with Versamark ink using a Hero Arts Hello stamp. I added a sentiment onto a piece of Spellbinder Labels 1 with more Memento ink. I added a swirl from my Sizzix Butterfly mini album die.
Thanks for stopping by.