What a Winner!

I had an open house play date last week where we got together to work on our Holiday cards. Our friend Theresa, (who has recently moved to Phoenix) stopped in with her daughter, Brittany, her Mom, and her Grandson, Bronson. Brittany made her first card ever and was the winner of the stamp set I gave away, The More The Merrier, which is a level 3 hostess set! Here is Brittany's first card, didn't she do great? Theresa is holding her card.

Several people dropped by during the day to design their cards, it feels great getting this far when it's still October! Definitely a first for me, usually it's mid December when I'm working on these!

I am doing another open house this Monday (November 2nd) This is a free open house play date, bring along your Holiday ideas/projects and feel free to use any of my stamp sets or non-consumables. We'll just be playing and having fun. Let me know if you'd like more info!

Happy Halloween, Brenda

Field Trip to Arboles

I have been invited to Arboles to introduce a group of ladies to stamping. Many of them are quilters so I tried to incorporate some materials they may already have on hand into the designs. Here are a couple of the cards they'll be making: This one is pretty simple, the skaters are from the Stampin' Up! stamp set Winter Post and I cut a scrap of fabric using the Top Note die and my Big Shot. My lovely neighbor Tiffany gave me this cute polka dot fabric. I ran over there to beg from her, I knew she'd have something adorable, which she did, and she's so nice she just gave it to me! Thank you Tiff! You should all go check out her blog to say thank you: http://www.thechildrensnest.blogspot.com/

This card uses the Autumn designer series paper from the Holiday mini, I LOVE this paper, it's actually a bit painful to me to cut it up and use it I'm really tempted to hoard it. We will be using a sewing machine to stitch the paper to the card, easy peasy but looks hard, my favorite kind of card!

I'll let you know how we get on, have a great week, Brenda

Are you sick of seeing frames yet?!

Last night Susanne, Cayli & Wendy came over and made frames. This is Susanne with her finished picture, Sooz is the person who introduced me to Stamping - she was my babysitter (10 years ago now!) and a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. She used to invite me to her events and try to get me into stamping with her but I was adamant I didn't want to. I told her that I liked scrapbooking and had no time for a new hobby. Also, I didn't even like the look of stamping, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Ha ha, little did I know! As time went by she kept GIVING me things, an adorable birthday card, a tea-towel with my baby's handprints on (a dirty trick you have to admit, what mum could resist that?!), more super cute cards. a "watch me grow" wall hanging. Then I would see all the cute things her kids were making for their classmates and the gifts Sooz was making for her kid's teachers. I kept hearing myself say: "I don't like stamping but I LOVE this ONE thing..." Eventually I agreed to host a workshop for her and I was like Paul on the road to Damascus - I LOVED everything, was totally blown away by all the lovely stuff and wanted just about everything in the catalog (that hasn't changed). Eventually Susanne left Stampin' Up! to work at central dispatch and I signed up to be a demonstrator - she kindly had me sign up under Tara instead of her which was really generous of her - being a direct of Tara's has been a total blessing to me. So I am forever grateful to Susanne in lots of ways. Cayli is one of her daughters and when I met her I believe she was five, look at her now! Can you believe how cute she is? And if you were one of her grandparents wouldn't you just love to get this picture made by her? Here's a close up:

Cayli's on the Bayfield High School cheer leading team so she made little glittery purple pom poms for her person, they don't really show on the picture but they were SO CUTE!

I promise I'll start posting other things instead of frames, I'm just loving how everybody's are coming out so different and how lovely! Here's one final image for you, Wendy made 4 frames and they're all different, this one is for her parents, isn't it so lovely?

Have a wonderful day, Brenda

Finlay's Name Picture

Now I've started making these I can't stop! Here's one I made for Finlay, I'm saving it for his birthday though so don't tell... Poor kid is completely obsessed with surfing, which would be great, if only we lived a teeny bit closer to the ocean! Finlay loves the whole surfer dude scene, the clothing, the music, the movies, you name it... but he's never surfed in his life, shame! Still, I'm confident that when he DOES get the chance, he'll know exactly what to do! Have a wonderful week, Brenda

Look What We Made!

This week I started our personalized name frame class, OH MY! This was SO much fun and everybody came up with SUCH cool pictures! Two ladies made three pictures! And I stayed up until 1 a.m. last night making my own I got so inspired... So here are a few examples for you to peek at. I am doing this class again next Tuesday at 10am or 6pm, both sessions are close to full already so please let me know ASAP if you'd like to come along and how many pictures you'd like to do... The cost is $20 for one or $17.50 for two or more, including frames.

Some are framed already and the bottom couple aren't mounted or colored yet. I did the bottom picture as a Christmas gift for my 2nd grader's teacher, it took ages to do all the little people but I love how it came out!

Please let me know if you have any questions, have a wonderful week, Brenda

Two Similar Cards

I've had this stamp set for a while and haven't really played with it much, this month I pulled it out for a couple of specific cards I needed, a get well card for a man, and a congratulations card - I love these old fashioned images! They're not my usual style but I the little pun expressions that go with them lighten them up. They come with the words right below the image but I cut the words off and mount them on the end of the wooden block so I can stamp the picture separately from the words when I wish.

I sized these cards to fit in the open end envelopes, it's fun to use a different shape sometimes. I added felt flowers and the new wide stripy ribbon, I like it so much I keep hoarding it so I'm proud of myself for opening the roll :-)

Have a wonderful day!

Brenda

My Digital Studio

As demo's we were able to order this a little early and I've been playing with mine this week. It's my Dad's 70th birthday next month, he's in England so I won't be there and I wanted to send a special present - I decided to make him an album about his life so far... it's a secret so don't tell...

Here is a sneak peek ;-) I don't think I'm done with this page yet - I think I'll grow the picture a bit bigger and I need to add the date - I am having so much fun with the program! The hardest part has been gathering the pictures and a lot of them are old so I've had to scan them but my Mum scanned and sent me some and I have a big batch of originals my Uncle Ian sent me so I have plenty to play with. I love how you don't have to get all your stuff out, it's so convenient! And they've made it super easy to change the size of your pictures and crop them etc. That's the kind of thing that usually takes me AGES to figure out on the computer - this seems very user friendly to me so far...

You can purchase the program for 1/2 price during October or November if you host a qualifying workshop - please let me know if you are interested...

Have a great week, Brenda