Merry Christmas!

Well the big day is nearly here. I'm as all set as I'll ever be. I did manage to get this card done during one of the recent snow days.

I stamped the Impression Obsession image with gold embossing powder on cold press water color paper. I colored the image with Tombow markers. I used colors 990 (tan), 177 & 173 (greens), 451 & 515 (blues).

I matted the image with a scrap of Bazzill cardstock that I cut with my long rectangle scallop Nestabilities. I thought it needed something so I used my Versamark pen and doodled along the scallop edge. I also embossed a long rectangle on my colored image.

Thanks for looking! Merry Christmas!

Up on the Rooftop

Crafty Capers is closed again today due to the snowfall warning on Vancouver Island. We hope to be open Dec 23 & 24 as originally announced.

I had one more card to make for 2008. My sisters and I, made a donation to Habitat for Humanity for my Dad for Christmas so I thought the Penny Black city stamp would be perfect. I stamped and gold embossedthe stamp across a large scrap of white Bazzill bling cardstock and again on a smaller scrap of cardstock. I also stamped and emobssed the Santa in the sky. The santa is from Inkadinkado's current buy 2 get 1 free stamp collection. I assigned my niece to paint the city and santa with Shimmerz paints. When the paint was dry we cut out the city on the smaller scrap of cardstock and using foam mounting tape mounted it on top of the city row on the larger scrap of white. There were some naked spots in the sky so I inked up only the stars from the Penny Black stamp and stamped and embossed them in the bare spots.

Thanks for looking! Merry Christmas!

Naughty and Nice

Ok, I think this may be the worst scan ever but in real life the card and matting etc actually are straight.
I made this card for Holly's vet who has been such a HUGE help with my health challenged girl this year.
I got the idea for the Hero Arts blog, I admit. The main cardstock is Bazzill white bling cardstock (shimmery) and I used Tombow markers directly on my Penny Black Holly stamp. I stamped it multiple times re-inking before each stamping. It seemed like the ink was taking a while to dry so I put some clear embossing powder over the Tombows and embossed them. No, they are not supposed to be embossable! I used a Stampendous tiny clear alphabet and Versamagic red magic ink to stamp the words. I printed off a little photo of Holly and matted her onto red cardstock and I was done. Yeah! One of my jobs today is to sign it and get it in the mail then my cards are all done! Today before I hit Crafty Capers I will be going to Olivers pet supply store in Nanaimo (I NEVER shop in stores that sell pets) and pick up a few doggie presents and some dog food for dogs who are less fortunate than spoiled Holly.

One more bird card

I must admit I did not realize this image had a bird in it. Honestly! This image is by Penny Black and the saying is Impression Obsession.

The card is pretty straightforward. Colored with my current fav pencil crayons. Circles were cut with Spellbinder Nestabilities. I added the glittery snow with Art Institute dries white glue and Hero Arts clear glitter I was trying to use up. It is quite dimentional although you cannot see it in the picture. I added even more bling by adding Ranger's Stickles glitter glue (Diamond) in dots all over the card. I have 4 more Christmas cards to do then I am done (for cards at least). Still more shopping to do. Although I am doing charity donations for those hard to shop for people on my list (men mostly!). Enjoy!

Dalmatian wonder

Here is another one of my Christmas cards. I had to buy him/her when I saw the stamp. The stamp is made by Penny Black. I stamped it with Onyx Versafine and colored with Laurentian pencil crayons. I cut the image out with a circle Nestability and cut a slightly larger red scallop. I cut a message strip with red cardstock using my Spellbinders tag trio dies (largest one). The Christmas joy saying is by Impression Obsession. This was also stamped with Versafine Onyx. I thought the main card looked a little naked so I ran the main cardstock with my Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder. I finished the card by adding Glossy Accents (glossy clear drying glue) to the tree ornaments. I added Stickles to the dog collar, tag and the O's in the Christmas joy saying. I am pleased to say I have completed all my cards and hopefully, tonight I will get them all written up and tomorrow mailed!! I am a machine!

4 Calling Birds

So here is the final "bird" card unless I find some more inspiration. The card on the left is the "closed" card and the card on the right is the "unlatched" card. I really need to knuckle down and get all my Christmas cards done and sent out so I don't have much time to create new cards. This card is done with

Penny Black's clear set 12 Days of Christmas. I did a different sort of layout with the middle bird on the right hand side actually on the inside of the card but pop dotted so it holds the card together. The front of the card is 3.25" and the inside is 5.25". The top and bottom calling birds are attached to the front of the card. The main cardstock is by Bazzill. The striped patterned paper is by Fancy Pants and was cut out with my Scallop square nestabilities. The coloring was done with Laurentian pencil crayons. I had to offset the 4th bird because the 4th stamping of 4 calling birds splotched! See it happens to everyone!

Don't forget if you are in the Lantzville area Saturday Dec 13 Crafty Capers will have new 2009 Hero Arts stamps. Come check them out! We'll also have 2 free make and takes that day 1 at 10:30 am and 1:00 pm. Please contact the store at 250-390-1107 to register. I have a dog card for tomorrow!

Another Bird Card

I'd almost forgotten penguins are birds so here is another bird card. All the penguins are from a clear set by Art Impressions. I love these penguins! I started out my stamping the candy cane penguin then cut him out with a circle Nestability and my Cuttlebug. I cut a matching scallop circle out of a scrap of Fancy Pants cardstock. I colored the candy cane and hat with my Tombow (water based) markers. I made my background by stamping other penguins from the set on a piece of Bazzill Bling (shimmery) cardstock and colored all the winter attire red. I used a small Stampendous tag that I colored by rubbing with Ranger Cranberry die ink then stamped a Stampendous Happy Holidays saying in black.

Nothing too fancy but I am getting under the gun to get my cards done! Enjoy.

Birds Day 3

I bought the Penny Black set 12 days of Christmas back in Sept and had not yet used it so figured I should get at it. I made this card for my knitting fiend sister's birthday. I think it is pretty self explanatory. I used my new Spellbinders labels for all the cut peices. I used my Towbow markers for coloring. I used Stampendous Balboa Blue fun flock for the "turtle dove's" hat. I found a bit to DMC embrodery floss that I rolled into a yarn ball and attached it with Ranger's Glossy Accents. I added the clipola to represent a row marker. The striped paper is by Fancy Pants. Thanks for looking!

Bird Day 2

This picture is not the greatest. I must learn to take pictures when the light is good not at 7 am! This partridge is made by Impression Obsession. The lights are by Stampendous and the saying by Penny Black.

I stamped the partridge 3 times, yes 3 with Versafine onyx ink and colored them all with my Prismacolor pencil crayons. I used a small standard Spellbinder circle to cut out the partridge once then a larger scalloped circle to cut him out again. I layered the 2 cut out pieces with foam mounting tape onto the full sized partridge. I mounted onto blue then light blue Bazzill for my main cardstock. I thought the main cardstock looked a bit bare so I stamped the Stampendous light string at the top of the card (and colored) and the Penny Black saying with Ranger Denim dye ink. I finished off the piece with diamond Stickles on the pears and stars. Hopefully, you can see everything a little better with the close up image. All stamps are available at Crafty Capers in person or via mail order.

My Name is Victoria and I have a bird fettish!

I just started looking at my recent stamp purchases and realized I have bought a lot of bird stamps!! Here is the first bird stamp. It is made by Impression Obsession. I specifically ordered it for me when I was doing the order. I chose this one because of the holly. :) I stamped it with Versafine Onyx (your really do need Versafine for this stamp). I colored him with Prismacolor pencil crayons. The back ground was done with a Penny Black Holly stamp I stamped with Versamagic white ink on dark green Prism cardstock. Then I went over the white ink with more Prismacolor pencil crayons. I mounted the chickadee on a scrap of red cardstock that I punched with Marvy's Southwest punch. I belive the main cardstock for the card is by Coordinations. The chickadee stamp is sold out at Crafty Capers. A staff member told me after the order came in "don't you know everyone loves chickadees??". Well, no I didn't and I wish I had got the memo BEFORE I did my order!

I have another bird card for you a little later and even another one before the week is out.

If you are in the Nanaimo area, don't forget the free make and take Friday Nov 28 between 1-4:30. Just drop in! Strangely enough more bird projects!!

Mega Merry

I'm finally getting down to making my Christmas cards and thought I would play with Stampendous' Mega Merry Clear set for the first time. I also just bought Spellbinder's Illumination Borderabilities die so wanted to play.

I stamped and embossed with Crafty Capers Pixie Dust embossing powder (clear w/glitter) the Merry. I then colored the letters with a Tombow marker. I then realized the Merry would not fit on the 5x5 card I had hoped to use!! So my friend, Lorri suggested cutting out the letters and pop dotting them (thanks Lorri!). I had taken a green square of Co-ordinations cardstock and cut a Illumination border out of it and was going to use that but liked the look of the "left over" pieces so used that as a mat instead. I embossed the "and bright" in Ivory Embossing powder. Lorri and I thought the card needed something so Lorri suggested we add Stampendous silver Geoshapes stickers around the border and that was perfect! Hope you enjoy.

November Make and Take

I finally got around to completing the Crafty Capers Make and Take card. If you would like to take this free class it is being held Friday Nov 28 6:30 pm, Saturday Nov 29 10:30 am & 1:00 pm at Crafty Capers. This class is free but please contact the store to preregister at 250-390-1107. Space is limited.

The snowflake and Reindeer stamps are both by Penny Black and are embossed with Silver Dollar embossing powder. The green and red cardstock is by Bazzill. The patterned paper is from an 8x8

stack by Die Cuts with a View.

Also, don't forget the Bonus Make and Take Friday Nov 28 drop in anytime 1:00 - 4:30 pm at Crafty Capers to learn a new stencil technique. It's free as well!

New Spellbinders!

Sorry no new card today but we did receive a shipment of Spellbinders dies today! Lots of the new designs including all the Labels and Mega Curved Rectangles! Can't wait to play with them!

Snow Joy!

I must admit that snow rarely brings me any joy unless it is on a day where I don't have to drive but this guy is very cute!

I started out making this card by using Cathie Allen's Stamp and Smoosh technique whereby you take an inked stamp and put it on your paper and twist. It is an excellent way to apply ink for a background. You kind of get the pattern of the stamp but not really. The stamp I used was by Inkadinkado (a swirly one) with Brillance Pearlescent Ice Blue it makes the background shimmery. I over stamped a Inkadinkado snowflake with Ranger's Weathered Wood distress ink. I also did this technique on the rectangular piece I wrapped my ribbon on.

I stamped the Penny Black hedgehog with Onyx Versafine ink and colored him with Silver Bells and Bubble gum Shimmerz paints. I used Diamond and Waterfall Stickles glitter glue on the snowball. I used my Nestabilities squares (scallop and smooth) for mounting. I wrapped a piece of Offray ribbon from YEARS ago on the extra rectangle piece and mounted it all. Hope you enjoy.

Bad Blogger!

Once again I am a bad blogger! Crafty Capers will be at BC's Creative Expo at Vancouver's Trade and Convention center THIS Friday and Saturday. I have no idea how the big days came about so quickly!! We've been working around the clock getting stuff ready. I've made a bunch of new cards but have not had a chance to get them scanned. My humble apologies. Perhaps I can get something scanned over the weekend. Hope to see you at the Expo. If you cannot make it don't forget you can always stop by the store in Lantzville to keep Lynn company!

October Make and Take

Lynn is teaching Crafty Capers' October Make and Take and here is what you will be doing (if you are registered). It is a free class but you must preregister. It will be held Friday (tomorrow) at 6:30 pm, Saturday 10:30 am and at 1:00 on Saturday.

She used a Stampendous Penguin for the main image, Nestabilities, a Cuttlebug die and, of course, Stickles Glitter glue.

If you would like to take the class please make sure you preregister!

This one is for Lorri!

I have a die hard friend/fan, Lorri who takes the time to comment on my cards so this one is for you!

I've been receiving LOTS of Dreamweaver stencils lately and they sent instructions for a new technique - Ink Transfer.

It's kind of hard to explain but I'll do my best and one warning, this technique takes practice. Thanks to Kathy for helping me practice!

You can do this in a spray box (to protect the dining room carpet) if you wish. I sprayed my glossy cardstock with Gold Memory Mist. This will be your image color. Remove paper and allow to dry. Place stencil inside your spray box and spray with Cherry Smoothie and Merlot Memory Mist. You want the stencil quite wet. Remove stencil from the box and place ink side up on a paper towel. Place pre-sprayed glossy cardstock onto inky side of the stencil and lightly brayer. Peel the cardstock off the stencil and you should have an image of the stencil! Too much ink or too little and you get mixed results!

I then cut out the orchid using my oval (large) Nestability and cut a coordinating scallop. I scored a frame around my card with my Scor-it and stamped the saying with Ranger ink. Finally, mounted my orchid onto the card.

As usual, all supplies are available from Crafty Capers.

Recipe:

Dreamweaver Orchid Stencil

Memory Mist sprays - Cherry Smoothie, gold and Merlot

Stamp - Inkadinkado

Ink - Ranger Adirondack Lights Pink Sherbert

Paper - glossy and scraps of Bazzil

Other - Scor-it board and Oval Nestabilities

All for me!

I love this card and especially the Stampendous Fluffles stamp. One for all and All the rest for me - so my motto! :)
I stamped this stamp with Espresso Ranger dye ink and colored it with Laurentian and Primsma pencil crayons. I matted the the stamp with a scrap of Bazzill cardstock. I drew the spider web with Designer's Dries clear wet glue and covered it with Gun Metal Glitter Ritz. I drew a spider coming down from the web using my new Ranger Inkessentails white gel pen! I really love it. It shows up very well on dark cardstock! I finished the card with white gel pen dots along the left side of the card. Thanks for stopping by!

Final World Card day card

Sue Stone taught this final card at Crafty Caper's World Card day. The angel image is by Stampendous, the swirly snow is by Inkadinkado and the saying is by Stampendous. The saying and snow swirl were stamped in Crafty Caper's Silver Dollar embossing powder. The angel was stamped on vellum and embossed with Ranger's Seafoam White. The angel was colored with Shimmerz paints. The faux brads are Stampendous' Geoshapes stickers. Enjoy!

Another World Card day card

Isn't this card cute? Kathy Sullivan made this one for World Card day. It is a shaker card using a CD envelope. How easy is that and fiddling with double sided tape. Simply stamp an image, in this case a snowman from Inkadinkado and color it on a piece of cardstock. Then slide the image into the CD envelope. Stamp the outside of the envelope if desired and put tiny beads inside the envelope. Attach the envelope to your main cardstock and Voila! 1 finished card. Kathy actually added some tiny silver snowflakes in with the beads to add some extra "jazz". All supplies available from Crafty Capers.

Lynn's card World Card Day

Lynn whipped up this beautiful card using a new Perfectly Clear Stampendous (Winter Trees) set. She did have to resort to using Art Impressions clouds since the Stampendous set did not have anything like that. She stamped the set with black Memories dye ink and colored it with pencil crayons then used various Stickles glitter glue colors to add the finishing touches. She used snowflakes from the new Penny Black clear set called Crystaline and stamped them with Versamagic Cloud White. The blue cardstock is by Bazzill and probably the striped paper is Fancy Pants. Another neat thing about this card is that is has a different fold. The front panel is actually smaller than the back. The long striped piece is actually on the inside of the card and the deer part of the card is only attached to the front blue cardstock. Hope you are enjoying the World Card day cards.

Leslie's Card World Card Day

We've been so busy at the store I had a heck of a time finding the time to get the World Card day cards scanned. Anyway, now it's done!

This card was done by Leslie Graham. She is Crafty Capers resident "Punch Girl" and can do amazing things with punches. This card used 3 punches plus the scalloped oval Nestabilities. First off Leslie used a Punch Bunch mitten punch and punched the white card. She applied Be Creative tape to the back of the cardstock covering the punched out hole. She then applied Glitter Ritz glitter to the tape. She used Fiskar's Threading water border punch (scalloped with holes) at the top of the white cardstock and Marvy's Southwest notch punch on the corners of the patterned paper (if memory serves me right it is Fancy Pants paper). The let it snow is by Art Impressions (clear penguin set). Ribbon by Crafty Capers.

World Card Day Lolly's card

I've had a request to post the cards the store did for World Card day on Saturday.

This is Lolly's card. It was done with the "sledding" Cuttlebug folder on blue cardstock. The snowflake punch is by Punch Bunch. I think the rest is pretty self explanitory. This card is very easy to make but looks impressive. A perfect card to mass produce for your Christmas cards. All supplies are available at Crafty Capers. Thanks Lolly for letting me post this!

Back to the beach

This card was actually a Make and Take held in May??? Can't remember exactly when now. This was done with a Dreamweaver metal stencil and glitter on double sided tape sheets. I believe I used Peel N Stick for this card but now like Dreamweavers Double Sided Adhesive better because it is not as sticky. So I cut a square of adhesive about the size of the stencil. Be careful if you stencil is smaller than your adhesive because you can get colored glitter on exposed adhesive and that might not be the look you are going for. Using soap (bar) made of 100% vegetable oil rub the back of your stencil. This will make your stencil less likely to stick to the adhesive. If you have any soap bits in the bridgework (spaces) of your stencil brush them out they will stop the glitter from making contact with the adhesive. Peel off one side of the adhesive and stick to your matting cardstock. Peel off the other side of the protective backing for your adhesive. Lay your stencil down on the adhesive. LIGHTLY press the stencil down so it has contact with the adhesive. Pour your colored glitter (you need to use Ultra fine, good quality glitter, no Dollar Store stuff) onto your stencil it needs to fill all the holes in your stencil. Press the glitter down to ensure good contact with the adhesive. With a soft paintbrush or blush brush wipe away extra glitter and return it to the container. Turn your cardstock and stencil upside down and remove the stencil (hopefully if you have put enough soap it will fall off). Pour a clear or light colored glitter over the entire piece and press down this will fill in all the spaces on the adhesive that the colored adhesive did not cover. Mat as desired. In my sample I finished off the card with a clear Hero Arts saying.
Don't forget World Card Day Tomorrow at the store! It will be lots of fun!

Seasonally appropriate!

I've been making quite a few Christmas cards lately because most of the new stamps coming into the store have been that theme. I thought I should probably wake up to reality and 1. admit it is no longer summer (although I did wear my capris to work yesterday!) 2. admit fall is here!

Here is another card I did with one of Magenta's new fall cling format sets. These stamps are in the same set the pumpkin is in that I used on a card a few weeks ago.

First off I stamped the 3 images, they are all separate stamps but nest together) with Versafine Onyx black ink and let dry. Then I colored the images with my Tombow (waterbased) markers and blended. I also used a warm grey (n79) and edged around the images and blended to warm up the background. I mounted onto a scrap of Bazzill cardstock I got out a bigger piece of Bazzill cardstock and stamped a wheat stamp, also from Magenta, using Rangers Adirondack Latte and Terra Cotta on the background. I mounted the mushroom images onto this piece in the lower right corner. I thought the top needed something so put a Magenta Peel Off's border in copper at the top. I mounted onto my main card and finished it off with a border of Cinnamon Stickles. I quite like how this turned out.

Just a reminder that this Saturday Oct 4 is World Card Day and Crafty Capers is celebrating by having 1 card classes all day for $3 each. All tuition will go to a Nanaimo Food Bank. Hope to see you there!

Partridge

I'm on a Christmas card "kick" at the moment. Here is a Dreamweaver stencil I've had for a few years now. I thought I pull it out and play again. I used gold embossing paste on the stencil and when it was dry I used Brillance Pearlescent Ivy on the leaves. I then used my Glue Palette to glue the pear and partridge. I heated the glue ink on the image until it was sticky then I added gold leafing. I finished off the card with a Penny Black word stamp and edged the oval with Distress ink Tea Dye ink. The back ground is done with the new Leafy Branch Cuttlebug folder.

All supplies are available at Crafty Capers.

Back at it

I think most of the orders are in and priced for the next while so I have some time now to play.

This card was done when Lolly and I were playing. The flower is a Dreamweaver stencil with gold embossing paste. When the paste was dry I used my Glue Palette ink and inked the pot part of the paste. I heated to make the glue sticky and put Black Leaf on it. I embossed the saying by Penny Black with Crafty Capers gold embossing powder. I thought the card looked a little naked so I used my Versamark pad with an Inkadinkado swirl stamp and stamed the background brown to fill it in. All supplies can be bought from Crafty Capers. I have a couple other projects to post so come back over the weekend for more!

Lost my Muse!

The store has been super busy with customers and new orders but when I have had a chance to work on cards my work has been crap! This card is a total CASE from the Stampendous site. This is the Make and Take project for tomorrow and Saturday. I used a new clear Snowman set from Stampendous, Tombow markers, Fun Flock and Glossy accents to create this card. Thanks for looking! Hopefully, I will be more creative in the next few days.

Bird Card

Not really sure what to call this card. It is done with a new Magenta set. First off I stamped 3 stamps from the set onto a scrap of Paper Adventures paper with Memories black die ink. I cut each image out then highlighted the images with pencil crayons. It is quite subtle. I then mounted the pieces onto a scrap of copper cardstock, in fact, the back of the cardstock has a stenciled image on it that was not good for some reason! I then ripped one edge. I found a blue scrap and riped the edge of that. I then took my 3mm Sook Wang tape and put 3 stripes down near the bottom and poured Crafty Capers Copper Embossing Powder on it and heated. I mounted the copper/blue combo onto my main copper cardstock. I thought it needed something so used my Scor-it board to make a frame around images.
Thanks for looking!

Fly

It has been so busy at the shop the last week or so with new orders I have not had a moment to get any cards done! Anyway, here is one I did manage to get done last week but didn't get around to posting.
The saying is done by Paula Best. I did the background with 2 Dreamweaver stencils and Memory Mist sprays (copper & green tea). It is quite shimmery in person. I stamped the saying with Adirondack Ginger dye ink and edged the vellum with Brillance Cosmic Copper ink. I used 3M Vellum Adhesive to attach the vellum to the main cardstock. The green cardstock is a scrap of Crafters Workshop.

Tomorrow should be a little quieter at the shop so I can do some playing.

Pumpkin Patch

We got a new order of cling stamps from Magenta last week. This cute pumpkin stamp was in a fall set. I had to color it. I used cheapie Laurentian pencil crayons to color it and popped up the various pumpkings as seen in the close up photo. I made a background paper using a Magenta mask. I have seen these demoed before but never played with one myself. I quite like it. For those who don't know what they are. They are basically 6x6 (or 12x12) plastic stencils. First off, I used Ranger's Cut N' Dry foam to apply Ranger's Adirondack Terra Cotta dye ink in the swirls. I left the stencil in place and used a mushroom stamp from the same fall set from Magenta and used my new Brillance Copper ink. I removed the stencil and used Adirondack Ginger dye ink around the edges. I used a scrap of copper cardstock on the spine of the card and mounted the pumpkins on black.

Thanks for looking!

Finally a new post!

It's been a crazy week with at least 1 order arriving every day this week! I did manage to get this card done though it did take a week! I started out by stamping a Stampendous Clear butterfly on vellum using Shimmerz paints (magenta). I did this 3 times. Then I overstamped the image with Grey Memento ink. I cut these butterflies out. I took a piece of DCWV "elegant" cardstock and stencilled "Thank You" using a Dreamweaver stencil with white paste. While the paste was wet I sprinkled Stardust Glitter Ritz on it. I let the paste dry then used my Scor-It to score a border around the cardstock. I cut out the butterflies and attached them to the left side of the patterned cardstock. I used Co-ordinations grey cardstock for the main card and used a Swirl Dreamweaver Stencil to ink swirls around the edges of the card with Brillance Platinum ink.

Thanks for looking!

Glam!

I have a friend turning 65 in a week or so and thought a "Glam" girl would be perfect for her. The girl is done completely with Punch Bunch punches. I embellished her with Stampendous Geoshape stickers for her earings and Ranger Stickles for extra glitz. The blue background is Cuttlebug's Floral Fantasy embossing folder. Ribbon is sold at Crafty Capers.

Thanks for looking!

Impression Obsession Owl

This Impression Obsession owl always gets comments so I thought I'd do something with him. I actually go the idea from my friend Angela. Thanks Ang!

I stamped the owl on brown cardstock with black ink. Afterward I used my circle Nestabilities and cut the owl out of the cardstock but left the "bark" lines. I ran the brown through the Cuttlebug using the Distress Stripes embossing folder. I stamped the owl on a scrap of white and colored the background with Prismacolor pencil crayons. I place the white owl inside the hole in the brown and stuck down. I matted the brown with black cardstock and put the whole thing onto matching brown cardstock. I used my brown Liquid Applique as faux brads. Thanks for looking!

Holly dalmatian update!

I've had people asking how Holly is doing. For those who missed the drama, Holly stopped walking the Friday night of the May long weekend (why do emergencies happen on long weekends??) Anyway we could not figure it out and ended up going to 3 vets and many weeks later she was finally diagnosed with an infection in her back hock. We carried her around for about a month before she was walking. I am very thankful to Dr. Heather at Tree of Life vet clinic in Courtenay who took lots of time with us to solve all Holly's problems.

I am happy to report she is back to normal and has even lost 10 lbs! I took these pictures on Saturday morning. I think I will make them into a scrapbook page titled "Berry Hungry". Holly sure loves her eating especially fresh produce! These berries are in our yard and Holly will go missing for hours while she has a "little" snack. We've also had to be very careful about keeping the vegetable garden gate closed or she is in there picking the peas!

A little more about Holly. We rescued her 2.5 years ago from Big Heart Rescue. She was found running on the Chilliwack freeway at Christmas. She was 20lbs underweight, had 2 ear infections, pusy sores, broken teeth, extremely bad hip dysplasia and had obviously had many litters of puppies. If you are thinking about adopting a dog please consider a rescue there are lots of "Holly's" out there needing homes. Also, don't believe pet store owners or internet sellers when they say they do not deal with puppy mills. Someone must - where did Holly's puppies go?? Off my soap box now. :)

Beautiful Iris

I really love irises. I've had this stamp for a while now but have not used it in ages. I saw a similar card layout on someone's blog but don't remember whose.

First off, I stamped the iris and embossed it with clear powder on white glossy cardstock. I used Ranger Adorondack Terra Cotta dye ink and rubbed it all over the piece and set aside to dry. I took 3 other strips of white glossy cardstock. I used my Ranger Craft Sheet and put drops of Lettuce and Pesto Alcohol inks on my sheet in approximately the shape of my 2 strips. I gave the sheet a squirt of blending solution to lighten the colors a bit. I put the cardstock glossy side down and gave a 1/8 of a turn to blend the colors well. I did this with 2 strips. For the third strip I used a wooden handle with a piece of velcro on it. I attached a piece of inexpensive felt and put a few drops of Terra Cotta Alcohol ink as well as a few drops of Butterscotch with a bit of blending solution. I then daubed the felt onto the remaining glossy cardstock until completely covered. I mounted everything on black as shown then felt the iris piece needed something so I took a fine black Sharpie marker and drew 2 lines at the top and 2 at the bottom. I then took a clear Hero Arts butterfly border and stamped it on the left side of the card with Black Archival ink. Thanks for looking!

Lazy Daisy!

I have the day off so I had to really hustle to get a few cards made yesterday. This image is by Magenta. It was colored with inexpensive Laurentian pencil crayons (twice) and I cut out the inside of the circle with my new love my craft knife! I used foam mounting tape to pop one image on top of the other. I used a Nestability square as a mask so I could make a Versamagic Eggplant square on my Bazzill yellow cardstock. I mounted my flower on top of it.
I then thought the card looked a little naked so I stamped a Penny Black flower border with the Eggplant ink again. I finished off the card with little flowers punched out with a Punch Bunch punch.

Reindeer

This is a card I made a while ago using a Dreamweaver stencil, copper embossing paste and a touch of glitter. The patterned paper is by Die Cuts with a View (elegant 6x6 pack).

Flower Power

What with unloading the new order it's been quite busy. I'm glad I got an extra card done yesterday. These stamps are by Magenta. First off, I stamped and embossed both images with Ivory embossing powder on watercolor paper (140lb, cold press). The long panel was stamped on a 4x5.25" piece and the square flower on a scrap. I really like heavy watercolor paper for coloring because it does not warp or pill when coloring with paints or my Tombow markers. I used Luminarte's Twinkling H20s for coloring this card. Twinkler colors used: Tanzanite (background), Wintermint and Midori Melon (leaves), Fuzzy Peach and Pink Anthurium (flowers) and Lemondrop for the berries. To get a fairly smooth flow on the background I prewetted the paper then applied color. This helps the color blend smoothly. I thought the larger panel looked a bit "naked" so I used my Scor-it board and scored a frame as shown. I still thought it was missing something so I carefully rubbed the raised edges of the frame with Denim Adorandack dye ink. I mounted the square onto a scrap of blue then black cardstock then mounted it onto the larger panel. I hope you enjoyed this card.

Penny Black order

We got a new order from Penny Black today! It includes some of the new Christmas images including the 12 Days of Christmas. How cute is this set?? I had to buy it! Watch the blog for samples. Stay tuned for a non-Penny Black card later today.

Christmas in July!

We're getting near the end of the Crafty Capers Christmas in July. All month all Christmas stamps and stencils have been on sale 20% off and I have been teaching a Christmas card class every Wednesday. For some reason I still feel like making Christmas cards! Probably because the Penny Black Christmas catalogue came in today. This card is CASED (copied and shared with everyone). A very similar card is on the back cover of the new catalogue. :)
I used a scrap of kiwi Bazzill cardstock and stuck it onto a piece of white Bazzill Bling (shimmery) cardstock. I then took the bird stamp (made by Stampendous) and stamped it in black. I highlighted the birds, and leaves with a combo of Stickles and Liquid Pearls. I finished the card with a Merry Christmas stamp made by Inkadinkado embossed with gold embossing powder. Thanks for looking!