Swan Lake 2nd act

 Here is another sample created with Swan Lake stamp set.

No swan on this card, just the cat tail image and 3 dragon flies.  On this sample I used colored pencils to color in the design.

Swan Lake 1st Act

This is a stamp set that I won when I attended a Stampin' Up! event in Phoenix!

I was not too sure of the swan image, as I think of swans being white, but in reality they are a dirty white/gray.

There is a field in our town where the farmer grows corn, and has a corn maze at Halloween time, then then the stalks are removed the field floods with our rains, and give it just a bit of time and a huge number (not sure what you call a lot of swans, not a gaggle, not a pack, not a litter...) of swans, but they just love that muddy field.

I think it is pretty special to see this gathering of swans, and sometime Canadian Geese join the swans, now with the freezing cold of December the swans have moved on.

The local paper ran an article about our swans and they like flooded corn fields, and they are digging into the soft mud to get bugs, and in the process then can ingest lead shot that my have been buried for years, but since they are digging down so far they can come across the lead slugs, then they die from lead poisoning, and any animal who eats the dead swan can get lead poisoning also.

In the front of the card I did fussy cut the swan out, (there is not a coordinating framelet for this image/set) and I used my blender pen and ink and made a gray/yellowish shadow on the swan.

On the inside I stamped the cat tail image, Lilly pad image and the small dragon flies. I then colored them with the blender pen and ink.

Sometimes I have to use a set, and refer to Pinterest to get ideas for the cards!

A New Year, 2017 Here I come!

Well the New Year is here, seems like I was very busy in 2016 and expect the same to hold true for 2017.

Getting ready for my Stampin' Up! workshops in January, I hold workshops on the first Wednesday and subsequent Thursday of the month. AKA today!

Over the weekend I was busy in my stamp room, forsaking un-decorating the house, much to the surprise of my dear husband!

What I came up with was a Baby Card! I borrowed the stamp set from my friend Bobbie, and went to town.

 I like to create the card we will be making, the blue one shown here, although the colors we will be using will be more neutral, boy or girl.  I have a lot, a lot of DSP and I need to use it!  That was my focus on these first 2 cards.

While I borrowed the stamp set from Bobbie, I own the framelets for this set, so I stamped then punched out the images so now I have a small box of ready to go images when I need a baby card.

The blue card is not even using the stamp set, just the framelets, so you don't 'have to buy' the matching stamp set, the framelets can be used on their own.

 I made my own background on this card, this way I could coordinate it to the ink/paper color exactly.

I used an older set of borders, stamped the 2 lines diagonally, (so you can't tell that I am not straight!) then stamped the diaper pins, then borders again, both images on the same block, then diaper pins going in the opposite direction.  Hint if you are not going to see the middle of the card, (the large medallion covers up much of the center of the card), and your borders do not go across the whole card, stamp from the center to the left side, then after reinking, stamp from the center to the right side, if the images so not match up perfectly, no one knows!

Here I layered a white card with a white layer, just slightly smaller and again made my own background to match the ink and paper.

I hope this inspires you to create something today!

Calendar pages from 2016 completed

Created by Seriny

Here are the last 4 pages from 2016.

Each page was different, awesome and reflected the personality of each crafter.

I look forward to receiving and creating the completed calendar pages for 2017.

In 2016 you might have noticed several pages created by me, which was great, I actually received 3 completed calendars this year!

As I got players for 2017 I realized that more excitement was created and there was NOT room for me to create even 1 page!  This makes me happy as I like to see others get excited by crating/stamping!

This is a hobby that I enjoy very much and am glad that I am able to share my love of crafting with so many people!

Created by Bobbie

Created by Karen (me)

Created by Gloria

Second set of Calendar pages 2016

Created by Karen (me)

 Good Morning!  Continuing with the calendar pages from 2016.  These pages were created by my stamping friends in Washington.

Appears that my photos were added in mixed up order!

Hope you enjoy the next 4 months of pages!

Created by Diane

Created by Jessica

Unsure who created, back not marked

I believe this was created by Mary (not marked on the back!)

 Happy Thanksgiving 2016!

YIKES! it has been a looooong time since I posted anything on this blog. I guess life has gotten in the way of blogging.

I am preparing to complete the Calendar Project for 2017 and I discovered I had taken these photos back in November 2015 so I could show off the calendar pages that were created for 2016.  As we approach the end of 2016, I thought what the heck lets post these pages!

Created by Carla

I got involved with creating calendar pages with a friend who I got to know via the internet and a stamping club on Yahoo, Bonnie.  She has a group of friends who create 12 pages all the same, give them to 1 friend who compiles the pages into a calendar.  You submit 12 pages all the same and get back a completed calendar! How awesome is that!

I have joined Bonnie and her friends for several years and the shape of the calendar has changed as the years passed.  This current format is what we currently use.

Created by Anita

 1/4 sheet of card stock as a base, usually set on Landscape and the rest is up to you.  Using rubber stamps, DSP, embellishments, stickers whatever.  We ask the that top 1/2 inch or so be free of bulky embellishments as we need room to insert the page into the binding machine!

I began stamping with Bobbie, a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and eventually joined Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator myself.  She has a great group of ladies who stamp with her, once amonth so I presented the calendar idea to them, and they love it!  So these pages were created by my friends from Washington.

Created by Karen (me)

I have selected the first 4 months from 2016 to show today.  These designs are all great, you never know what kind of page will be created, sometimes the page corresponds with the Holiday for that month, others are just fun.

I hope you enjoy seeing the pages, I always look forward to seeing what each crafter creates, and enjoy using my calendar at my desk at work and on my craft table at home!

I hope you have a GREAT Holiday Season, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas!

2017 Here we come ready or not!

What to do when you don't have enough paper for everyone!

I have Stampin' Up! workshops at my house once a month, and one of my problems, is that I design a card and then I look and I don't have enough paper for everyone to do it EXACTLY the same 10 more times!   Especially with the DSP, there are only 2 sheets of the 'same' paper is pack, and depending on how many samples or trys I make, I might end up being short!  The gals that come like to make the card just like my sample, but sometimes....

I need to give out kits that are different papers, Stampin' Up! makes it easy as usually the pack of DSP coordinates well with each other, you can also turn over the paper to for a whole new design. That is what I usually do when I am at a class, I look at the sample then think, hmmmm, can I turn this over? Will it still work?

 Different words, but the same punch, and the 'shadow' punch behind is the same punch cut in half then pieced together so that just a part of the punch shows.

I used colored staples to hold the flap back on the front, and the leaves were die cut, while the flower was stamped then punched out.

This card the fold back was larger, maybe the yellow strip of DSP was thinner? and I used eyelets to hold the flap back, this leaf has 2 sizes in 2 colors for dimension.  I used the word window punch to punch out the words and the modern label punch to put behind the words.

The top 2 cards also used leaves punched from the Stampin' Up! bird punch so they have a stem and 'viney' look.

Don't be afraid to do a card different than the sample, the sample is just a guide, just an example, it is your card and ultimately all of the choices are up to you!

Thanks for stopping by!