What's a diva to do?

This year our favorite scrapbook store is using a lanyard as a way to capture memories of each crop.  Each month we receive an extra raffle ticket for creating a name tag with the crop them.  January was cropical get away and we were able to use the tropical themed paper we received in our treat bag.  February was the queen of hearts and I printed a great picture of the queen of hearts from Disney's Alice in Wonderland and included a cricut cut Queen of Hearts and a Mary Englebret stamped image of the queen has spoken and it's good to be queen.  I purchased a palm tree and red heart charm for those crops plus I won the Queen of the Crop raffle and received a crown pin.

March was pajamarama and so I printed lots of fun pajama pictures.  I used the playbill from the broadway show The Pajama Game, Barbie in her Barbie doll pajamas, a very old ad from Frederick's of Hollywood which says this can help you marry a millionaire (risque for the time however true), Ralphie in his bunny pjs from A Christmas Story, and favorite stamped image I colored with a frazzled lady in her robe holding her coffee.  The pin this month was Diva.  Since I picked Laura Casey as one of the ladies in my court last month, Laura reciprocated and picked me for her court when she won this month.  Here in my lanyard with all my pj reference.

Next month is April showers.  I see DeNami stamps in my future.

If you live locally and have never been to a Captured Moments crop, it's a great value and great fun.  Create and chat with your friends for 13 hours while enjoying breakfast, lunch and dinner, beverages all day, a treat bag, a project kit, and prize raffles.  The Captured Moments family will make you feel like you're part of the their family.  Here is the link to information about their crops.  Looking forward to April.

http://www.capturedmomentsstore.com/events/

First Card Class at Art Smarts

While I'm sad to lose Captured Moments storefront for my card classes, I'm fortunate that Art Smarts in Latham has agreed to hold my classes there.  We'll continue to have a Saturday morning class and will also have one weekday evening class.

The second Saturday of the month will offer cards in any genre, stamp company, or technique.  It's a way for me to whip up something with materials already in my studio.  You may see some repurposed layouts from the rubber stamp company or something else I've scrap lifted from photos or the internet.  Some will clean and simple and some will highlight a new product or technique.  Class is from 9-11 AM and costs $15 for four cards.

The fourth Wednesday of the month will offer cards primarily using Stampin' Up! products.  At this class, I offer free shipping on any Stampin'Up! order placed that month and $10 credit for bringing a friend that is not already a customer from my previous classes.  This class is also four cards/projects for $15.

Here is a sample of cards included in a previous class.

This clever ladies asks only "hold me, grip me, cherish me......pretend that I'm a golf club".  Many customers say this would be appropriate in their relationship.  It's mirrored from a card previously seen at Stampassion and the image is from Emerson.  It's simply the image stamped in black Memento ink, some coloring with Copic markers, photo corners, cork sheets, and precut scalloped card. Other clever Emerson stamps will be used in future classes.

Stampin' Up!'s Mixed Bunch stamp set is used here.  The basic card is pool party and the flowers are stamped with brown ink on melon mambo, daffodil yellow, and lucky limeade.  The coordinating punch was used to pop out the flowers and they have a color coordinated buttons in the center. The designer series paper is currently in the occasions flyer and the patterns are wonderful.  These sheets show umbrellas and a coordinating green paper.  It could easily be 'April showers bring May flowers' but I used a Stampin' Up! set that included "Spring".  It's topped off with some yellow bakers twine.

This card is a nod to Kiwi Lane's designer templates.  If you aren't familiar with their products, check out their website and they explain framing a piece of work.  In this piece we used some fabulous Stampin' Up! designer series paper and the Sentiments and Thoughtful templates, along with the balloon template, to make this bright card.  Some SU brown bakers twine was tied around the base of the card.  Each piece was varied depending on what paper you pick and how you layer them.  This piece was created by newbie turning pro stamper Theresa Knaspik.  Thanks for sharing your piece.

Last but not least was a little bird house made from the Stampin' Up! milk carton die recently offered in a blog give away and won by veteran stamper Eileen O'Dell.  Sadly I left the sample at Art Smarts to show off to customers but it was modeled after this clever piece I discovered on Pinterest.  OK, we skipped the coloring on the bird and went for plain colored birds but wouldn't this be great with some Easter basket shred and candy eggs?

Class dates and times will be posted on my blog below.  Please contact me directly to register at 518-860-8970 or jetsfan88@aol.com.  Looking forward to the upcoming classes.

Fabulous fun in the second Technique Tag Class

I loved teaching a talk off on Tim Holtz' Creative Chemistry 101 and I hope the students did as well.  It was a full house of 13 people and a whole lot of Ranger products.  Lots of super creative people and we saw some fabulous pieces.  Here are the tags made by Gail Jefts for sharing this picture of her tags.

Lots of friends joined in for fun and four ladies I didn't know but everyone was enthusiastic.  Here is what each team got to play with:

A large black Memento ink pad
4 tear drop Memento ink pads
6 Adirondack acrylic paint dabbers
A new distress paint dabber
6 distress stains
4 distress crackle paint jars including rock candy
4 Adirondack alcohol inks
A bottle of Adirondack blending solution
5 distress markers
A jar of distress embossing powder
6 distress ink pads
5 bottles of distress reinkers
dry perfect pearls
Liquid pearls spray
Adirondack color wash
Dylusions ink spray

To play with all this super cool stuff, everyone had a set of manilla tags, a craft tag, a black cardstock tags, glossy paper, stamping specialty paper (wonderful!), watercolor paper, Gina A pure luxury paper, and Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas.

Starting this month, I'll be teaching tINKer time classes (101, 201, and 301) which includes the same techniques and more.  Let me know if you have any questions about these classes.  You'll have a blast.

Copic Intermediate Certification

Yeah!  It's taken me two years to get into an intermediate class relatively close to home and didn't clash with another major event.  Myself and two local friends drove to the Boston area to take certification training and we learn a lot.  We were so excited that we've signed up to go back in May for an advanced type of class, the 2013 Color and Ink workshop series.  Can't wait.

As part of the event, Copic offered two air compressor systems at half price to do air brush work with the markers.  So many people wanted them that they held a lottery and I won the lottery.  Needless to say, there will be air brushed cards in future classes.

So we'll continue to add new colors and have a blast coloring.  Very relaxing.

Winner of the blog give away......

is Eileen O'Dell.  Eileen will be receiving a fabulous big die from Stampin' Up! that cuts a milk box.  Eileen, I will turn it over to you when I see you my class or I can mail if to you if you won't be class in the near future.

In the meantime, make sure the sign up to follow the blog by email.  Thanks to the new followers.

Special on Michael's classes this Saturday

On Saturday March 9th, Michael's will be offering a 25% discount on all classes.  Registration must be done in person at the store.  You can register for any of my classes on the schedule through May which includes:  Card Tricks, Sketched Out, Scrap In, Monthly Crop, Sizzix/Cricut/Spellbinders test drive, Martha Stewart Glitter or Punch around the page, and tINKer time.

I won't be available during the actual open house hours as I'll be in Boston attending intermediate Copic training (yeah!).  But the discount can be made any time during the day.  Take advantage of the sale and sign up Saturday.

Finished March Scrap In page

Always good to add pages to a layout, Anne Snyder took the double page layout from yesterday's Scrap In and added photos of her girls.  She added the titles to match her photos and a few small changes and additions to personalize it.  She made her own unique pages.  Thanks for sharing Anne.

It's easy to make the double page spread at the Scrap In.  Next month's event will be April 6th from 3-9 PM.

March Scrap In page spread at Michael's

With the new Saturday night Scrap In at Michael's you receive a handout with a layout for a double page spread and card.  People that attend the Latham crop will receive this page kit free, on me, as a thank you for your patronage.  Here is this month's layout.

Each month there is a new layout.  Enjoy.

Final Card Class at Captured Moments, sniff....

Today I completed my final card class at Captured Moments.   I've been doing this class for exactly one year.  My first class was March 2012.

In that time, I've really enjoyed working with the Captured Moments family, most especially Tara. She's helped post class samples and notices, sent out email announcements, scanned cards and displayed them in the store, and holds down the store while we have our class.  Kudos to Nick, scrapdaddy, for covering when Tara is at Crop A Lot.

I'm also thrilled to have met so many new people, some previous Capture Moments customers, and others that had never been there but love making cards.  We've even had customers new to the store that never stamped before.  I've loved teaching and I hope everyone learned some things alone the way.

Best of all, I've had folks follow me to Michael's and will be following me to Art Smarts.  I'm lucky to have a chance to do something I love with like minded people and I've learned from them as well.

So.....here are the Easter/Spring cards from today's class.  Since February's class was cancelled due to snow, I've decided to rework them a little for the April class.  I'll be posting them as well.

First up is a Memory Box card that features both their stamps and their luscious papers.  Their samples tend to be simple, highlighting the stamps and paper.  For this card, I used three papers from the 'Frond' paper pack.  Each was edged with a different color Memento ink.  The bunny was stamped on the darker green paper then stamped again on a lighter green paper.  The bunny is cut from the lighter paper and layered on top.  A little moonlight Smooch on the tail and a little purple Smooch on the watering can.  Finally a few pastel tiny buttons on the side and a Memory Box spring sentiment in the bottom corner.

Next up is another Memory Box stamp perfect for Easter.  Hard to believe I bought this stamp and never used it.......ever done that?  The tree is stamped with ColorBox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan.  The 'Happy Easter' is on the side of this stamp and it's added to the piece with purple Memento ink.  The piece is edged with the same ink.  Then the eggs were painted with PearlEx pastel paints.  Perfect for this image.  It's popped up on a layer of heart patterned paper, a little carmel paper layer, then the purple paper base.

The third card is a DeNami card.  My first class was all DeNami cards and I had to have one for this class.  The Easter egg set was used with Versamark ink on the lilac pastel base.  I omitted the basket and only used the grass and two eggs.  The center piece has a layer of purple paper punched along the edge, a light green layer, the the top layer of white paper.  The chickie basket was stamped three times with Memento London Fog ink then colored with light colored Copic markers.  A little glue on top with some glitter and the Happy Easter stamp from DeNami.  This card was featured in one of there previous card kits.

Finally, a card with really no stamping, which was featured on the Authentique facebook page.  I love their paper and scooped up this kit when it came in.  I love blue and brown together and I was so glad to have Easter paper that's not too cute.  A beige card based was used with the right two corners rounded.  The bunny layer is a 1/4 inch less than the base and layered flush on the left side to show as strip of the base card.  The bunny layer also has rounded corners on the right side.  Then a layer of the dotted paper is added with beige rectangle on top, all corners rounded.  The center bunny was punched form the same paper as the background.  The top right has two small flags, dotted paper then beige, with a beige button added.  Finally, we died white seam binding with Distress Stain in blue, crinkled it up, and made a bow.  I LOVE this card and I'm going to need more of this paper.  I'll be watching Authentique for more card ideas.

That's it.  Again, this class will continue on the second Saturday of the month at Art Smarts at Hoffman's Playland, but will start at 9 AM.  Register for my Art Smart classes directly with me.  The fee is $15 for four cards with envelopes.  Looking forward to seeing you there.