Catching up

Months, it's been months since I have posted anything.  I have been hoarding my paper stash rather than using it. I once described the desktop in my studio as a landfill: layers of unfinished projects, and the deeper you go the older the project is. 

The CropFest weekend ...

I had the amazing opportunity to attend my first CropFest in Kingston Ontario with some amazing gals that I originally met at Crop & Create in Ottawa two years ago, we became great scrappin' buddies, they are two of my Peeps!  I also invited a long-time friend who has recently gotten into scrapbooking.  The theme was Garden Party - and we were encouraged to get into the theme, which we did with our garden hats, fascinators and tea party dresses.  It was an amazing time;  a full weekend of scrapping - challenges and games but no interruptions, no classes, no schedule; very different from what I had been attending recently.  And don't get me wrong, I love the intensity of full day classes, but I also love to be doing my own thing too.

I got a lot accomplished; 3 layouts, two cards and a mini album.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Moose You!

A friend from the village has asked me to put together some cards that are going into a silent auction for a conference she is going to.  Her daughter has Chromosome 15q Duplication Syndrome and is attending  a conference in Minnesota in support of Dup15q.  What an honor to say the least that something handmade of mine will be debuting at this event.  Since we are from the village of Moose Creek, she asked me to do up some cards with a Moose theme.  Challenge accepted!  Now to find a Moose ... does a beaver count? No?  Damn, now what?  I borrowed a Cricut cartridge that has a moose on it, and put together this card.  Now for a sentiment ... I wanted it to be a little humorous ... so "I Moose You!" 

I hope she likes the cards, and I hope the person who wins the silent auction enjoys them too.

 

You should also check out her blog, she is amazingly well spoken and side splittingly funny, such quick whit.  You will love it.  http://rachel-nudemommy.blogspot.ca/

 

Well what do you think?  Be kind, leave a comment - it free!

 

 

Round Two! - Simple Stories Christmas Cards class - December 5th

The moment I saw the Simple Stories Handmade Holiday line I got excited about it. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas in general, and I love Christmas paper in general, and believe me I have hoards of it, I have 3 entire shelves devoted to Christmas lines of past. This line spoke to me with the olive green and deep red with beige and music notes. Love it!

I have put together a 6 Christmas card class that I will be teaching at Tina's Scrapbooking in Winchester on November 14th. This class is now sold out - a 2nd class has been added - December 5th, 7:00 - 9:30!
This class is full of different techniques including heat embossing, and paper quilling.

First class sold out - 2nd class set for Dec 5th, call the store to reserve your spot today, don't be dissapointed! To reserve your spot call Tina today at 613-774-4611.

Hope to see you there!

Christmas Card Exchange + some RAK!

Time for another card exchange at Auntie Em's Scrapbooking ... this time it is Christmas Cards!

Yay, I just love Christmas and love making my handmade cards so much too.  I know there are people who look forward to my cards ... I'm sure there are others who just don't give a damn weather they get a card from me or not, let alone weather it was lovingly hand made or not.

I scraplifted this design from this website - I loved the simplicity of it, the white space, the embossing ... everything about it screamed LORENA!  So, here is my take on it.  It was more than a 3 step process ... but then again, what card isn't??

The dove I heat embossed with UT 3 times, then after it cooled I cracked it and inked it to bring out the cracks.  The wreath is embossed in white, then the leaves coloured with my Copic Markers and then a touch of Distress Ink (Antique Linen) to bring out the embossing.  A twine bow and an embossed sentiment (embossed in a mixture of gold and pewter powders to give an antiqued gold colour) The ornaments or little dots, whatever, on the wreath are Liquid Pearls in Platinum Pearl.

I have to admit, I had fun with this card.  Usually when you are doing 20 of the same card it drags you down after about 5.  Every time I made a card I looked at it and exclaimed "I love this card"

So... for those of you who will be receiving a Christmas card from me ... you may end up receiving a card from the exchange.

If you would like to receive a handmade card from me, leave me a comment with your email address and I will contact you for a mailing address - how is that for RAK??

In the meantime, let me know what you think of this card!

Two new Copic techniques

I was inspired to make a Vintage card by a very creative talent; Lacey Stephens - see her blog HERE.  I used her tip of stamping the image in brown ink instead of black.  It made a world of difference.  I would love to have made my card with the new Bo Bunny "Snowfall" collection, but I haven't got my hands on it yet... so I settled for their 2008 collection "Winter Whisper"   I'll tell you something, Bo Bunny has come a L-O-N-G way in three years ... from single sided very thin paper, to double sided cardstock and all the 'fixins'!  I love the brown and blue together, so it worked well to give the vintage feel I was going for on this card/image. 

I stamped a Magnolia image, Fairy Dust Tilda, and coloured her in all blues and browns.  I double mounted it with Spellbinders and a bit of Webster's Pages trim.  I used a Bo Bunny trinket which was originally a dark tarnished copper colour, and heat embossed it white.  A little bit of glitter and twine and finished.

My second card encompasses a totally different technique, it is called "no lines" colouring.  How you achieve this is by stamping the image in a very pale colour, usually blue.  However I don't have any light blue ink, but I do have a Stampin' Up ink called Pink Pirouette.  It worked very well for my needs.  Everything I was reading online suggested that this technique is very difficult.  I didn't find it as difficult as I feared ... but I will say that this first image is NOT my best work, and practice will make perfect (or at the very least, better)  I decorated this card with some various Prima flowers and a pebble.  Some very old paper from my stash, from one of those large packages the your non-scrapbooker friends give to you for Christmas thinking that this is an awesome gift because it is 100 sheets of scrapbook paper.  What they don't know is that you will be using the backs of the same paper for white backgrounds as the fronts of the paper are such a Dog's Breakfast of colours and shapes that you will never use more than 3 or 4 sheets.  Well I think this was sheet 5 out of that package.

Let me know what you think of these techniques, please leave a comment; they are free, just like smiles at McDonalds!

~Lorena~

Bo Bunny Card Sketch Challenge

Three cards to share using the Bo Bunny Forever Fall Collection.  I'm really liking the colours in this, especially the teal blue with all the rusts and browns and oranges!  What a great colour combo!

The Happy Anniversary card used the stamp collection too!

Christmas cards & Vintage Tags

So ... what have I been doing with my time recently you ask?  Well I've been making all my Christmas cards, and tags ... I'm too cheap to buy them LOL!

I used a Basic Grey card kit and made a few of my own from the Jovial line.

I made my tags with my Cricut using the Plantin Schoolbook Tag1 at 3 1/2 inch and used a Bo Bunny stamp with Tim Holtz Distress ink in Peeled Paint, then distressed the outside with Worn lipstick distress ink.  I stamped with a Hero Arts snowflake using Stampin' Up Craft in in Whispter White and finished it off with a piece of twine for the tie.

I hope you enjoyed these.