Tilda Loves Me

I was in a "create a card with Tilda" mood this afternoon. These little images are almost addicting. I opted to have Tilda "sit" on a strip of cardstock. This is a great trick for the large number of "sitting Tildas." My coloring medium is Staedtler watercolor pencils and a Dove blender pen. This method has been my favorite way to color for over 10 years. I love the Copics, but I can grab a container with the 60 pencils in the complete line, a blender pen and a bottle of refill fluid and color almost anything. It's a great way to pass time on an airplane!

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall into Metal Cards

I finally finshed the cards for the upcoming "Fall Into Metal" class! I've been looking for the appropriate dies for creating the cards for this class. I used "Glue Foil" by Streuter - they were cut out with various dies and then colored with alcohol inks. As you can see, the metal pieces can be the focal point of the card, a main element, or a smaller accent piece. This is a great way to get a totally different look from the dies you already own. The best thing about using Glue Foil is that it comes in larger sheets, so you are not limited in what size die you can use.

Dewfrost Cards

The card samples from Memory Box have arrived and these are the new Dewfrost card samples! Memory Box always comes up with simply elegant designs. These cards will be taught in November. The samples and stamps arrived last weekend and the stamps and paper have been selling like hotcakes. In fact, we're placing a re-order for the ones that we have sold out of. Be sure to check out all the stamps from Memory Box (including some fun designs for Halloween).

Halloween Cuteness!

Penny Black is truly one of my all-time favorite companies! I have been using their stamps since 1996 and this is one company that continues to produce great images. The hedgehogs are ledgendary and I love the cats! I have a very soft spot in my heart for tabbies anyway - especially the slightly overweight kind! These cards are a combination of new images and some older ones that have been re-released in a clear stamp format. Just fun, fun, fun! The cat on the broomstick card uses an EK bat border punch and some great ribbon from May Arts. I took some of the bats that were punched out and used them around the words. The hedgehog ballooon card uses the Cuttlebug pumpkin embossing folder in the background. The vampire cat card uses some great glitter paper from The Robins's Nest and one of the new border dies from Spellbinders.

Tilda in Paris

The main stamp is "Tilda in Paris," which is one of the older Magnolia images, but she is very cute and I just had to do something fun with her. On this card, I used paper piecing for her clothes, hair ties and hat. The image is stamped on print cardstock, then the separate parts are cut out and put together as they are attached the base image. The trickiest part of paper piecing is finding print that are sized appropriately for the size of the image. These pieces are pretty small, so you need to find something with a pretty small pattern. The rest of the image is colored with Copic markers. I used 3 colors of Bazzill Swiss Dots cardstock - the 2 layers are cut out with the Spellbinders Dahlia dies. I distressed the edges with Ranger Distress Ink - Worn Lipstock color. I went a bit out of my comfort zone for colors, but was pleased with the result.

Memory Box Twilight Studio Cards

Time for some fun, new designs from Memory Box! These cards will be taught in a couple classes at the beginning of October. The class schedule should be out next week. the stamps and new paper packs are on order. If you want anything held as a special order, please let me know and we'll put them aside for you. These are always popular classes and stamps, so sign up early once the schedule is out! I'll post info on the paper pack and cards on the website soon.

I-Top Tool is on order!

Want to make your own custom brads to match your project? Well, the "I-Top Tool" from Imaginisce is the product for you! This tool allows you to cover a brad blank with the paper of your choice! There are punches coming out in September that will allow you to punch the pieces for a perfect fit. Those are also on order and I am hoping will ship with the tools later this week. My supplier is not listing them as a "pre-sell" so I am hoping that they were released earlier than Imaginisce anticipated on their website. A template set is also available - a more frugal option - but you have to do all the cutting yourself. The link below will show you a video on YouTube with a demonstration of how the tool works. There are 3 sizes available - small, medium and large. The small brads are 16mm, the medium are 22mm and the large are 28mm. Now, for those of you that struggle with metric conversions, the small is 0.63 inches (between 5/8 and 3/4"), the medium is .86 inches and the large is 1.1 inches. Hopefully they will be in the shop next week. And yes - we'll have one to demo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFs1fi-2Omw