Friday, November 28, 2008

Out of the Box Punch Card Idea and Tutorial

This morning I saw a cute card idea on 2Peas using the new Fiskars "My Funny Valentine" Squeeze Punch to make a Christmas Tree. Since I don't have the Fiskars Scallop Heart, I pulled out my Marvy Scallop Heart Punch and decided to give it a try. Since this was just a quick try at making the Christmas tree, I haven’t decided whether or not to turn it into a card yet. For now it’s just sitting on a piece of cardstock so that I could show it to you.

I love "Out of the Box" ideas for my punches. It's so nice to buy a punch for one purpose and then to find all these neat ideas that you can use the same punch for.

To make this Scallop Heart Christmas Tree

You need:
15 Scallop Hearts (Marvy Scallop Heart Punch or Fiskars “My Funny Valentine” Scallop Heart Squeeze Punch.
white ink (I used SU White Craft Ink)
Adhesive
Ribbon or cardstock for stem
Star punch for top of tree

Just punch out 15 Scallop Hearts, shade the edges with white craft ink and then start assembling the tree from the bottom up. The hearts are all turned upside down. Bottom row has 5 hearts, next row 4 hearts, 3 hearts, then two and the top is one heart turned upside down. Add a piece of ribbon or cardstock for the tree stump and a star on top. Makes a nice Christmas Card or even an embellishment for a scrapbook page.

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Collage Card


While I was making the baby collage cards, I dug out all my Christmas card sets and made a Christmas Collage card. Although it doesn’t show up too well in the scan, this card has red stickles on it as well as a gold cord. Although it’s not one of my favorite cards, it turned out okay.

One thing I have discovered while making Christmas cards is that although I have a lot of stamps, I have very few that just say Merry Christmas. This is definitely something that I’ll have to add to my list.

Another Baby Collage Card

Today I decided to try another baby collage card, only this time in blue. Although they are a bit time consuming to make, they are still a fun & easy card. I couldn’t find a blue flower so I ended up coloring a white one with my SU marker to match the blue cardstock. At least now I have 3 baby cards to put in my card file.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

2009 is the Year of the Baby

2009 is definitely going to be the year of the babies in my family. Three of my nieces are expecting and believe it or not, all 3 are due in May. My oldest niece is due in the early part of May, the second oldest is due around the 23rd of May and my youngest niece is due around the end of May. So far I haven't heard whether any of the girls have found out the baby's sex. I'm pretty sure that my two oldest nieces want girls and my youngest niece would love a boy.

I decided that I had better get working on baby card designs for the new arrivals. It's been awhile since I've made any baby cards. This card is the first design I've tried and I’m quite happy with how it turned out. It’s pretty simple but time consuming stamping and punching out all the squares. I’m going to try a similar design in blue too.

Back in the Groove

Well, I think I’m finally getting back in the card making groove. Since I've declared this to be my card making week, today I made a few more Christmas cards. I’m trying to get back into the habit of making duplicates of each card I make. I used to do that all the time and somewhere along the line I got away from that habit. For me it makes the giving easier as I always had a duplicate card to copy.

Now that I've finally tried out my Cuttlebug, I could kick myself for not doing it sooner. It's not like I didn't have lots of choice when it came to the embossing folders. I have several of them to chose from.

Today’s cards show off my first time using a cuttlebug background with my cuttlebug. I can’t believe that it took me this long to play with it.

This first card uses my favorite Santa stamp again (I hope your not getting tired of it) with a Swiss Dots embossing folder. I had seen a similar card on SCS and liked it so I thought that I would try to do one too. I love the way it turned out.

The next card uses the Snowflake Embossing folder along with Snowbunnybella.

I’ve Caught the “Bug”

Cuttlebug that is! I finally got out my Cuttlebug to play with. I’ve had this toy for months now and it’s been sitting on my shelf staring at me daily. But have I been tempted to use it before today….no!

You see, I have a phobia when it comes to this type of tool. I think it’s more of a fear of messing up, breaking it, breaking the dies, folders, etc in my attempt to go through the learning curve. It’s not just my Cuttlebug that’s been neglected….all my die cut machines are brand new, never been used and some have been sitting there untouched for over a year. Well things are going to change around here now that I’ve tackled the Cuttlebug. Hard to believe that after all this time I’ve finally caught the “bug”.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Stories in Hand Online Class

Recently I completed the Free Stories in Hand Online Class by Jessica Sprague. What an awesome class. Jessica put so much time, effort and creativity into this class. I am so glad that I was fortunate to get in on this class and highly recommend it to anyone if it’s offered again. Everything was done up so well and the finished binder is just amazing.

For the Stories in Hand class we were given downloads to create a binder and a mini jotter along with all the necessary materials to go in them. There are thousands of “sparks” included under 3 different categories to help us remember those stories we want to share. The Stories in Hand class is a system used to gather the stories that we want to tell. How to gather those stories and how to remember those stories we want to share.

Since I don’t live near any stores I wasn’t able to purchase the binder that she uses in the class. I created a binder on my own along with trying to do other projects these past few days.

I used 12x12 some chipboard that I had bought in the summer and cut it down to size. Then printed out the cover that she supplied and used my ATG gun to adhere it. I used my Crop-i-dial to punch the holes and added binder rings and of course ribbon. Jessica supplied PDF files for all the inserts, tabs, and inner pages. It was a lot of printing but I love how it turned out. It is so worth it.

Today I created a journal to record my stories. I plan on numbering the journals as I go and will record the page and journal number in the binder on the “Stories to Tell” sheets.

You can go to http://www.jessicasprague.com/ for more information on Jessica’s classes.

Here's a picture of the finished binder:

This next photo shows the finished binder with all the printed pages, tabs and dividers along with the Mini Jotter. It also shows the journal that I created to match the binder/jotter set.

I am so thrilled with how my binder, jotter and altered journal turned out. I am sure that in no time I'll have it filled with stories that I want to tell.

Thanks Jessica for such an awesome class.

More Christmas Cards

This week I’ve decided to spend some time working on Christmas cards. Talk about a struggle. For two years I did nothing but make cards. I belonged to a card group, I joined in numerous online card swaps as well as made and swapped ATC’s. I missed my scrapbooking during this time. About 1½ years ago, I switched back over to scrapbooking.

So during the past 1½ years, I’ve made very few stamped cards. The cards that I have made are more “scrappy” cards with little or no stamping on them. Now that I’m trying to create cards again, I’m having a real struggle.

The other day, I made a card using a Santa stamp that I picked up at a yard sale this past summer. That card came together quite quickly and I was thrilled with the results. Yesterday I spent about 2 hours working on trying to create a card using the same stamp. I ended up giving up as I wasn’t happy with the way the cards turned out.

So today I tried again and managed to put together a card that I’m happy with. Now I at least have a start on my Christmas cards. Here’s that card:

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Holiday Planner for Christmas

This week I worked on creating a Holiday Planner for myself to help keep me organized this Christmas. (Again this is not an original idea) I am really happy with how it turned out. I used Basic Grey Figgy Pudding patterned papers and various punches – SU, Marvy, Fiskars Snowflake and Tonic.

The planner opens up to a “To Do List” that has a pocket to keep the lists in. Each list has a calendar on it as well. Next is the “Christmas Card List” pocket along with the printed lists, then a pocket for “Shopping List” along with the printed Gift Idea pages and the last pocket has an envelope to hold the receipts.


I added a little bit of bling with my glue pen by adding red glitter to the reindeer’s nose and the Fiskars “Oh So Flaky” snowflake punch. The belly band is lose so that it will allow for the extra pages and receipts in the planner. The tabs and the Christmas Planner circle were printed on my computer.

These are so fun and easy to make. I might just have to make a few more.

Heidi Grace Back Pack

I’ve seen several of these cute little backpacks on blogs and in galleries. I have no idea who the original designer is but I have to admit that I thought they were so cute. So cute in fact that I decided to create one for myself.

I used scraps from the Heidi Grace Cherrywood Lane paper as well as Stampin Up Chocolate Chip cardstock to create mine. I also used the Basic Grey Magnetic Snaps to keep the top part closed.

Here's a side view of the backpack.

I plan on making another backpack in more masculine colors for my son who is starting back at college in January. He is an Apprentice Mechanic and works most of the year. As part of his apprenticeship he has to attend college for two months of the year. This will be his second year in college and he'll have one more college semester to go after this one before he can be a licensed Mechanic.

His backpack will be a “Student Survival Kit” to help him get through those rough spots. lol

Finally...a Christmas Card

Ok, I finally made a Christmas Card. Just one! But I'm slowly getting in the mood for creating some cards.

When I first started paper crafting, I started out scrapbooking. After about a year, I joined a stamp group hoping to get some ideas to add to my pages. I had no intentions on collecting stamps or getting into making cards. Yah right! (I still blame my BF Bonnie for that one!) Needless to say I got hooked on card making, card swaps, etc and over the next 2 years I created very few scrapbook layouts.

About 1 1/2 years ago, I started back into scrapping and now I find it a real struggle just to create a card. I guess that old saying "use it or lose it" really applies to me. I haven't used my "card making" skills in so long, that I've lost it. lol

I found this Santa stamp at a yard sale this summer and I couldn't resist it. I've always loved this stamp. I used some Heidi Grace Frost Blvd papers, my silver pen & of course adding some silver bling with my Sakura pen. It's simple but pretty.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Addicted to Punches

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am addicted to punches. I love the convenience of them, being able to layer them, the shapes, sizes and how you can take a punch that is made for one purpose and go outside of the box to create something else.

I'm working on a project (for myself of course) that involves punches. Here are a few of the punch creations that I've done so far. How cool is this??

Thanks for looking!

Monday, November 17, 2008

In Search of The Fair

Debbie, Fiskateer #2852 challenged us to create a scrapbook page which documents something nostalgic for you.

Yesterday, I decided to take her up on this challenge and knew exactly what I wanted to create a layout of.

A few years ago, I found an invitation to the Spring Millinery Opening to The Fair at a yard sale amongst a pile of paper goods that I bought. I was curious to find out more about this store "The Fair" that was part of my town's history in the early 1900's.

A trip to our local harbour museum was the first stop on my list. After speaking to the curator, I traded a copy of my invitation for a copy of a photo that he had of The Fair.

I was given a bunch of old newspapers from my town (most were in rough condition) and after sorting through them, I came across an advertisement for The Fair dated 1906. I was thrilled to add this advertisement to my file.

So far I haven't uncovered a lot of information on The Fair's history. I am trying to get in touch with our local newspaper editor to see if I can uncover some more of the history.

Surprising enough, this layout came together pretty quickly. I used copies of the original documents and scanned them, resized them and printed them off. I also added a pull out tab underneath my photo's where I've recorded the journaling and the history I've undercovered so far.

Creating vintage layouts is one of the things that I struggled with. Hopefully after this one I'll be inspired to create more as I have a stack of vintage family portraits that I want to scrap.

RAK CRAZY WEEKEND ON THE FISKATEERS MESSAGE BOARD

Not only did Rebecca's Online Nashville Fiska-Friendzy on the Fiskateers Message Board have lots of RAK's and challenges, Cheryl had a couple posted from her Regional event aboard the Queen Mary.

Queen Mary Online RAK #1 STAMP FACTORY
Your assignment, mateys, is to show us your Fiskateer spirit by performing a Fisk-a-Deed. Examples of Fisk-a-Deeds were posting comments on gallery pics, adding a new project to the gallery, helping someone add a pic to their profile, make a new Fiskafriend or send off a card to a friend or loved one.

Queen Mary Online RAK #2 – SCALLOP PUNCHES
Tell me about your Fisk-a-Friendzy experience, or your lack of one.
Did you attend a regional event? If so, what was the highlight or a favorite memory?
Were you not able to attend a regional? If so, tell us your sad story.

Then another challenge went up....TWO if by Land, ONE if by Sea...then you might get an RAK from ME

Jennifer and I thought in the spirit of Fiska-unity we would issue a JOINT CHALLENGE!!!
So you have to complete -Two if by Land (2 Nashville challenges) One if by Sea (1 Queen Mary Challenge) and you can get an RAK from me!!

Regardless of the day, there is always something happening at the Fiskateers Blog and Message Board. There are so many talented crafters on the message board who share their talent and are continually inspiring us. Stop by today for a visit or better yet join the Fiskateers at http://www.fiskateers.com/blog/

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Online Crop Challenges 6-10

Well, I'm back with more of the awesome challenges we had on the Fiskateer Message Board this weekend for the Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Online Crop.

Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Challenge #6

Black Friday is just around the corner. I am one of those crazy wake up at 3 am shoppers. So Just two questions for this Challenge--

1) are you a Black Friday shopper, and

2) What would your ultimate Black Friday Fiskadeal be? Post the answers here to be entered into this Challenge

Since Black Friday isn’t something we do here in Canada, I can’t say that I’m a Black Friday shopper. But if it was here….I’d definitely be a Black Friday shopper. I love a good deal!

My ultimate Black Friday Fiskadeal would be finding the “hard to find” new Fiskars Punches. I love the Halloween, Christmas and the Scallop Squeeze Punch shapes and would love to collect them all. So far I have “A Total Flake” – snowflake; “Scaredy Cat” – cat shape; “Cameo Appearance” – XL scalloped oval shape and Square-a-licious” – Large scalloped square shape. What can I say…I’m addicted to punches.

Check out my blog post New Fiskars Christmas Squeeze Punches on October 28th for more info on the sizes and shapes of the new Fiskars Squeeze Punches.


Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Challenge #7

Give it up, do with out, find another way or use it out. With the economy the way it is, many people are tightening their belts. This includes scrapbookers! Now for this challenge we are going totally BACK TO THE BASICS! The Bare minimum to create a Layout.

What are those basic supplies you need to create a scrapbook page? Cardstock, photo(s), adhesive, scissors, and a pen. YUP that's it, Create a project/page using only these 5 items and post it in the fiskateer gallery.

Surprising enough, this was a tough challenge to do. For the first couple of years that I scrapped, I did so with minimal supplies & tools. I had very few choices in paper & cardstock, I used stickers, hand-cut titles and what few embellishments that I could afford to buy on my strict budget. No punches! Really now how was I able to complete a layout without a punch. Me, the punch queen addict!!

Trying to go back to the basics wasn’t easy as I wanted so badly to add some punches, flowers…something else to the page. I did end up adding a “paper pieced” embellishment to it. Not my best work but then again I could only use the supplies listed.I've also covered up my journaling in the picture.


Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Challenge #8

You can never be thankful enough! Faye reminded us to thank Fiskars for all they do for the Fiskateers. I would like you to think of someone you are thankful for this year and send them a card. You don't need to create a card, (but you can!!!) just use one you have, but you do need to go stick it in the mail box!

For this challenge I sent off a card to my sister and my mother both who are recuperating from surgery they had in September.

Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Challenge #9

You know you wanna!!! Our fiska-sisters (and brother) are learning to line dance! Since we can't get the private instruction they are we'll just have to do the next best thing. YOU TUBE!!!! Join Helen and Nita as they show us how to do some common steps to some not only country western hits but some 50's hits and 70's disco as well. Here is their home page.. http://www.helenandnitalinedancing.com/

After you have two stepped around her site, sign her guest book (so we know you visited). Then come back and comment to this thread to complete this challenge!

Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Challenge #10

For the last dance of the evening it's Ladies choice. Create a project of your choosing. Using any materials you want.

For this challenge, I decided to use a sketch from my Got Sketch Express class. I love this sketch and it goes perfect with these adorable pictures of my two great nieces Chloe and Dakota. This way I was able to complete this challenge as well as complete the sketch for my class. I love how this one turned out.


Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Challenge THE BIG ONE!

So are ya'll up for it??? I was told if anyone complete ALL TEN of the challenges that are being issued today they get entered into win something REALLY cool!

I was so thrilled that I was able to complete ALL ten of the challenges this weekend.

What a great way to spend a cold, rainy day. Why don't you come and check out the Fiskateers for yourself. We'd love to have you join us for all the fun on the blog and message board. Just click on the link on the side or http://www.fiskateers.com/

Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Online Crop Challenges 1-5

Well, this weekend there were 2 Fiskateer Regional Events. Some lucky Fiskateers gathered in Nashville, Tennessee with Rebecca and others on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California with Cheryl. For those of us unable to attend the regional events, were treated to another Fiska-rific online crop. Betsy #2572 was the online correspondent for the Nashville Fiska-Friendzy and she did a fabulous job challenging us and keeping us updated on the Nashville Fiskateer event.

Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Challenge #1

For this challenge we were to go to countrystarname.com/ site to get our “star” name. All you do is type in your name and the site gives you a new country star name. Then you are to create a name tag with with your new star name of course and post it in your fiskateer gallery. It can be digital or paper doesn't matter but make sure to change it to your main profile photo!

Well, my “star” name is Bettie Burnette and here is the tag that I created for the “new” me.

Isn’t it funny how sometimes when your working on a challenge, the idea immediately pops into your head and everything goes together so quickly. This was one of those times. As soon as I got my new star name “Bettie Burnette”, Betty Boop popped into my head. I love how the tag turned out.

Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Challenge #2

Every STAR needs a top 40 hit. In the spirit of the Fiskateer record.... Create your own scrapbooking gold record. Come up with your song title and then create a page/project showcasing your gold record. (Some ideas could be a fake newspaper, a poster with the band, how about your own gold record it's up to YOU).

Ok, now I must admit that I misread the instructions for this challenge. I thought that I was supposed to create a layout based on the “new” me. Anyways, here’s the layout that I created about the “new” me. This layout actually came together pretty quickly too!



Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Challenge #3

Miz Angela wondered if the Virginia City Fiskateers could be out oranged?
Well the Nashville Fiska-Friendzy is so Fiska-oranged out that it carried over all the way to the message board! Deck yourself out in Fiskateer Colors and snap a quick photo of yourself. Post it to the gallery and link it here! Let's show Miz Angela how orange and green we can really be!!!!

I don’t have any orange attire in my wardrobe so I decided to create a “Flat Bettie” dressed in her Fiska-Orange attire. Drawing people isn’t one of my talents lol but for this challenge I did draw a “self-portrait” of my alias. It’s just too funny!

Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Challenge #4

Turkey Day is just around the corner. Do you have your Turkey yet???
www.southbank-design.co.uk/turkeyshoot/index.htm

Well go shoot your turkey down and then come back here and post your score to be entered into this drawing. (Bonus RAK from me for the highest score)

This was a fun challenge! My score was 14263. I guess that Turkey Shooting isn’t one of my skills.

Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Challenge #5

Back in my day Record albums were the same size as 12 x 12 layouts (I wonder if that is why so many scrappers use that size cause they are all my age) For this challenge use a Record album (or CD cover for you young-uns) as the inspiration for a Layout.

Ok…so I’m not exactly a “young-un” but I went with the CD idea and created my own CD cover & CD. Probably another one where I didn’t quite get the instructions right. This is what happens when your PC is downstairs and your “studio” upstairs…or when your rushing to beat the deadline. lol Either way, I was quite happy with the way it turned out. Here’s my take on the challenge:


I'll be back later with Challenges 6 to 10 from yesterdays Nashville Fiska-Friendzy Online Crop. I'm off to complete some other projects and challenges that I'm working on.

Christmas Tree Box Photo

Christmas Tree Box

Another cute project I found during my recent blurfing was this adorable Christmas Tree Box by Brenda Quintana. I used Basic Grey Figgy Pudding to make both trees. These tree boxes open up and you can fill them with candies or goodies. They’ll look so cute hanging from my Christmas Tree this year.

My Bucket Handbag

During my recent blog blurfing I came across these two cute projects that I knew I had to try.

This first project is called a Bucket Handbag was so easy to make. I used Stampin Up Chocolate Chip for the base and then covered the cream color one with Heidi Grace Cherrywood Lane scraps that I had. The pink & brown handbag was also made with Stampin Up Chocolate Chip for the base and then covered with some pink & brown scraps that I had.

The Bucket Handbag template I found at www.melstampz.blogspot.com. She has so many awesome tutorials and projects on her blog.

How cute would these be covered in Christmas papers and filled with goodies?

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Virginia City Fisk-a-Friendzy Challenges 1 to 5

I thought that I'd post my comments for the Virginia City Fisk-a-Friendzy Challenges 1 to 5.

Virginia City Fisk-a-Friendzy Challenge #1
Trivia Question: "What TV Show featured Virginia City as site they visited often?"
Bonanza – I used to love watching this show. (I’m dating myself here lol)

Virginia City Fisk-a-Friendzy Challenge #2
Getting to know each other: Find 5 blogs belonging to Fiskateers, make a comment on each blog and post the Blog address, name and Fiskateer number of each one you visit.

Lea Sanders # 3703 http://leasanders.wordpress.com/
Karin #4472 http://mudnet.dyndns.org:9000/crafts/
MaryNSC #1121 http://cricutcrazy.blogspot.com/
Debby #2852 http://debbysdares.blogspot.com/
LynD #1110 http://www.lynd.typepad.com/

Virginia City Fisk-a-Friendzy Challenge #3
Keeping with the Western theme of this weeks FiskaFriendzy, create a new name for yourself. (i.e. I will now be Hop-a-long Faye)

My new name is “Canadian Kid”.

Virginia City Fisk-a-Friendzy Challenge #4
Fall is here and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Post a yummy fall / Thanksgiving recipe here for all of us to enjoy.

Jellied Carrot Salad

Pkg Orange Jello
1 can crushed pineapples
shredded carrots (1 or 2 cups)

Prepare jello by dissolving in one cup of hot water. Add can of crushed pineapples (juice & all in place of cup of cold water). Add shredded carrots. Let set for several hours. (This recipe can easily be doubled).

Virginia City Fisk-a-Friendzy Challenge #5
Tool review - write a review for 3 Fiskar tools.

Each review must include the name of the tool, what it is used for,

3 things you like about it and at least one idea thinking outside of the box - what else can you do with it.

The tools that I chose to review were the Fiskars Squeeze Punch, Craft Drill and the Leave it to Weaver Border Punch.

Fiskars Squeeze Punches

I love the Fiskars Squeeze Punches and they are one of my favorite Fiskars tools. One handle is fixed and by squeezing the other handle towards it allows the shape to be punched with ease. Insert your paper into the slot at the top of the punch until you have it in the position you require. Then apply light pressure to squeeze out your shape. Since the Fiskars Squeeze Punches are made with the shape side up, it’s easier to position on your page/paper, there is less waste and it makes it easy to position over a pattern or shape you want. They stack nicely and this makes them convenient for storing. They also have a picture of the punch shape on the front so that you can easily see the punch you want. The Fiskars Squeeze punches come in a variety of shapes and three different sizes. Also by thinking “outside the box” a punch that is for one purpose can be used for something entirely different. You can take the “heart” squeeze punch and use the hearts to create flowers or even scallops for your cards.

Three things that I like about the punches are: 1. easy to use and for someone with arthritis in their hands I have no problems working them. 2. lots of different shapes to chose from and 3. I can actually see what I’m punching.

Fiskars Craft Drill

Recently I hauled out my Fiskars Craft Drill for a project that I was working on. This little craft drill is just amazing. It is light-weight, easy to use and will drill through anything. First thing you want to do is grab a piece of wood or a thick phone book and place it underneath your project. This will drill right through the table or desk otherwise. Next attach your drill bit. Locate the spot that you want to drill a hole in your project and mark it. Then I place a couple of clamps on the item that I’m going to be drilling into and attach it to the block of wood. This keeps the project from moving around on me. Then a few cranks of the handle and your finished. Also by thinking “outside the box” you’ll be amazed at the items you can use this with. My recent project turned an acrylic photo frame into a flip file for sketches just by drilling holes in a stand up acrylic picture frame.

Three things that I like about the drill are : 1. easy to use 2. light-weight and 3. can drill through acrylic/record albums without cracking it.

Fiskars Leave it to Weaver Border Punch

The Fiskars Leave it to Weaver border punch is great for adding ribbon to a page or card. It’s easy to use and with a little practice you can turn out perfectly punched borders in which to thread ribbon through.

I cut a strip of paper using my cutter that measures about 1 inch in width by the desired length. Then starting in the middle of the paper, I line it up in the border punch making sure that the edge touches the back edge of the punch. I tend to flip mine over so that I can easily line up the punched holes. Continue punching until you’ve come to the end and then repeat punching on the other side. When finished you can thread ribbon, a different color of cardstock, material strips or even crepe paper through it. Also by thinking “outside the box” you’ll be amazed at other things you can create with this. By trimming off part of the punched holes, you can turn the ribbon border into “grass” for a layout or project.

Three things that I like about the “Threading Waters Border Punch are : 1. easy to use 2. light-weight and 3. makes a pretty border for adding ribbon to a page or card.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Virginia City Fisk-a-Friendzy Online Crop Long Post

This past weekend was the Virginia City Fiskateers Regional Event. Anyone that is a Fiskateer knows that there have been 5 huge Fiskateer Regional Events planned by our awesome Leads. I would have loved to attend one of these events but living in Canada it's hard for me to do at this time of the year.

Kelly Jo in New England
Wendy Jo in Hershey, PA
Angela’s Virginia City
Rebecca’s Nashville, TN on Saturday, November 15th
Cheryl’s aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California on Saturday, November 15th

This past weekend was Angela’s Virginia City Event and along with it was an Online Crop for the Fiskateers who weren’t able to attend the regional events or anyone who wanted to play. Faye (Fiskateer #1157) who was unable to attend Angela’s Virginia City Event due to an injured foot ,took over as hostess for the online crop & the at home correspondent. She did an amazing job!

There were 10 Challenges and a bonus challenge that were to be completed (5 for Saturday and 5 for Sunday). There was also a grand prize draw for those who were able to complete 10 of the challenges (the bonus could be substituted for any one of the challenges).

I totally amazed myself by completing all 10 of the challenges PLUS the bonus challenge. I did the first 5 challenges Saturday morning. They were pretty easy & didn’t involve any crafting. Lol

Sunday morning I headed upstairs to my studio with a mission to complete the remaining 5 challenges Plus the bonus before the noon deadline. That was my goal. I started off by doing the Ultimate Fiskateer challenge, then the cards, the USX challenge, western theme 2 pg layout and by the time I got to the orange 2 pg challenge it was getting close to the noon deadline. I still had to take the pics, upload them to my camera, edit, upload to my gallery & then post on each challenge. So I was really pressed for time. I'll probably add more to it later.

Challenge #6 – Create something using at least 4 Fiskars tools.
To make my card, I used my Fiskars Stamp Press, Heidi Grace stamps, "That's Amore" Fiskars Heart Squeeze Punch, "Leave it to Weaver" Fiskars Border Punch and of course my Fiskars Scissors & Trimmer.The paper used was Heidi Grace Cherrywood Lane.

Challenge #7 - Create a 2 page layout with a western flair to it.

Challenge #8 – Create a 2 page layout using orange and only orange. See how many shades you can actually use. But since they use green too, you can use a little bit of green, white or black to accent. Just remember that orange is the primary color.

Challenge #9 - Create the ultimate Fiskateer. We were given a paper doll pattern to download & print. The instructions were to get her ready to go the crop. Make sure she has at least 3 Fiskar tools with her. Remember the Fiskateer color is orange.

I had so much fun creating the “Ultimate Fiskateer”. To make her skirt, I misted my cardstock with water & used my Fiskars Embossing templates and then cut out the skirt and pocket. Her tools (scissors, squeeze punch & drill) I just drew a pattern on paper & cut them out. I used my silver signo pen where the tool had silver on it. Then I just colored in her hair & shoes with markers.

Challenge #10 - Create a great card to send to Fiskars.

To create this card I once again used the Heidi Grace Cherrywood Lane paper. I also used the "Threading Waters" Border Punch, Heidi Grace Stamps, Fiskars Stamp Press and my Marvy Punch. I'll probably send the other card that I made for challenge 6 to Fiskars.

Bonus Challenge - Create something using the Fiskar Ultra Shape Express.

Although I have the Ultra Shape Express, I only have 2 templates plus the alphabets. I used my Leaf template to create the leaves on the card, the Fiskars oval squeeze punch for the petals and the center. I also used my paper pricker to poke holes in the center piece for texture.

The ROCK, PAPER, TRIMMER was the Grand Prize. If you were able to complete all 10 of the challenges your name was put into the drawing for the Grand Prize. You were able to substitute the Bonus challenge for any challenge but #10.

It was a great crop with lots of fun challenges. I was so excited to see that my name was on the winners list too! How cool is that!!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Got Sketch New Challenge Sketch #70

Earlier this spring I discovered Valerie Salmon’s Got Sketch blog. Since discovering her blog, I’ve taken 3 of her classes that she has had along with Janna Wilson (Got Sketch 101, Got Sketch 102 and Got Sketch Express). I love her sketches and her style. I'm currently enrolled in their email class "Got Sketch Express".

Now that I’m caught up on my GSE layouts, I thought that I would pop over to her blog (http://gotsketch.blogspot.com/) and see what’s new.

This week Valerie Salmon posted a new challenge on her Got Sketch blog. She is having another challenge for Sketch 70. All you have to do is upload any layout you create using Sketch 70 and your name will be entered into a random drawing to win one of a few prizes. You can create more than one layout with this sketch and your name will be entered for each layout you create. All you have to do is upload your layout with the Sketch 70 tag on it in the Got Sketch gallery.

I love this new sketch and was immediately inspired to create this layout of my youngest great nephew Andrew. I have been a little lapse in creating layouts of little Andrew. I have so many of his big brother Jeremy and sister Jaden as well as of his cousins Chloe and Dakota that I am going to have to start creating more of him.

Once again I pulled out the Scenic Route papers. This line is just fabulous for all those water and pool layouts.

I was so inspired by this sketch that I pulled out some more cute pool pictures of the kids and did another layout. This second layout is of my great nephews Jeremy and Andrew and their sister Jaden. These three are just too cute and so photogenic.

Thanks for looking!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

More Organization and Storage

Since setting up my scraproom/studio, I am constantly changing things and trying to find new and improved ways of storing my stash. Some methods have lasted and others have been changed when I come upon a new, more improved way of storing things.

I store all my ribbon in jars. I first take the ribbon off the spool and wrap it around the round style clothes pins. Once it's wrapped the ribbon is then placed in a jar with similiar colors. This way I just have to grab the jar I want and chose my ribbon.

All my Prima Flowers are now stored in plastic rectangular cases that have various sections in them. When I first started collecting these gorgeous flowers, I loved displaying them in their jars and original containers. After accumulating several different colors and styles and having my stash of Prima's grow, storing them ended up taking an entire shelf. I knew that I had to come up with a new and improved method of storing them.

I decided to use these plastic containers and store one color per container. I like this method as it takes up less space, it's easy to find the color I want with just a glance. All I have to do is grab the container and chose my flowers. This method also makes it easy if you wanted to take them to a crop. So far it's working for me and my small space.

Halloween Inspiration Station


I saw the idea for an Inspiration Station on a few different blogs and thought I’d give it a try. I gathered up all my Halloween supplies and put them in a basket. When I started sorting things for my Inspiration Station, I was surprised at how little I had in Halloween goodies. I had to put in an order with Sheila at Scrapping Great Deals (www.scrappingreatdeals.com) to help fill my basket. lol

By having all my Halloween goodies in one place it definitely saves me time not having to sort through everything to find them. Now that Halloween is over I’ll put all my Halloween goodies in a labeled plastic pull-out drawer with lid. Next I will pull out the Christmas goodies to fill the basket.

It definitely helps to have everything stored in one convenient location. I think I will continue with this idea for each special occasion and holiday. I do have to make myself an “inspiring” tag to attach to the basket.

Weekend Organization


I spent a lot of time over the weekend trying to organize and clean up my studio. I have a real small room upstairs that used to be my son’s bedroom until he decided to move into the basement. The room measures about 8x9 which, is definitely a small space. One of the long walls has a window and one of the short walls has 2 doors. The closet isn’t really very big and isn’t really usable for craft storage as there are only 2 closets in this place. Trying to organize this space is so difficult. Sometimes I think I spend more time organizing than I actually do crafting.

In the summertime I converted one of the wire cube racks into paper storage. I used the plastic ties to make the shelves and love how it turned out. Originally I had planned on using it to store my kits that I’ve been accumulating but then I changed my mind. This past week I started cutting up pizza boxes and labeling them to use as pull out drawers. I also keep my Stampin Up Designer Papers and cardstock as well as the Cloud 9 and Heidi Grace papers on this shelf. I also have a “drawer” for my SU Ink Refills & Wheels. I love this idea as I know right where everything is when I need it.

Kelly Jo’s Biggest Halloween RAK Ever!!!


This layout was my entry for Kelly Jo’s (one of the Lead Fiskateers) Biggest Halloween RAK’s Ever. This one didn’t need much as I didn’t want to take away the beauty of the photo’s. I am so in awe of all the gorgeous fall colors – there is beauty all around us. Have a great day!
Thanks for looking!!