My Craft Room Gilding Flakes Demo

Gilding Polish Demo

One of my favorites is not exclusively for holiday cards.  This die is part of the Festive Frames collection and is called "Faith".  It is so delicate and elegant, it reminds me of a snowflake.  I die cut it from Twilight Mirrisparkle paper and Ice Silver metallic cardstock.  I also used one of Sue's new Mini Expressions dies, Warmest Wishes.

Another of my favorites is also from the Festive Frames collection called "Believe in the Magic".  This single die does most all of the work for you! I painted a background using Creative Expressions' Iridescent Watercolor sets and used some foam squares to pop up the die cut above it.  I ran the die through a 2nd time to cut a few extra trees for the background.  The "Believe" sentiment die is from Tutti Designs.

This next card was made using the new Poinsettia Garland and also the Christmas Robin Dies.  The sentiment is another of the new Mini Expressions, From Our House to Yours.  There are lots more to see so be sure to check them all out here!

This charming fellow is known as Grumpy Frankie and I've die cut him from Green Iris Shimmer Sheetz.  His pumpkin is cut from Orange Iris Shimmer Sheetz.  Both colors give him a little eerie-descence!  The Happy Halloween sentiment was cut away from Tutti's Happy Halloween die which is this sentiment surrounded by a spider web.  I just cut the web away to use the words.  You can see the entire die in the sample below.  

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I've also used the Scrolly Bat die on this card and mounted both die cuts onto Orange Iris Shimmer Sheetz.  You've gotta love Shimmer Sheetz for Halloween! 

One of my favorites from last year is the fantastic Witch Shoe.  When I saw Tutti's new Venetian Mask die, I knew I wanted to use them together!  They're cut from plain black cardstock but the mask has some orange sequins added to give it a little pizzazz.  

Hope these give you a little inspiration for your next batch of spooky cards!

This is made with Catherine Pooler's Faithful Flutterings stamp set.  Our Make & Take is done with blues, yellows and purples.

This is one of my favorites, made with Catherine Pooler's Birds of a Feather stamp set.  Both cards feature her gorgeous inks also.  

One giant correction to my last blog post.  The Make & Takes are Free with a $10 purchase (not $20). 

That's all for now.  Need to squeeze some more products into the Subaru!

This one is done with Catherine Pooler's Bloomin' Bouquet stamp set and her amazing ink pads.

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Altenew's beautiful Layered Rose die set.  It doesn't get any easier than this!  This will be back in stock shortly!  If you're interested, remember that you can select it on the website and then will be prompted to enter your email so that we can let you know you as soon as it arrives.

We'll also have some great prices on 2 of Altenew's Scrapbooking kits.  Both the Reflections kit and Our Family kit are 2 of our Show Specials.  Sure hope we see you in Novi!

Reflections Kit

Our Family

This is a new sample using Memory Box's Delightful Daisy and Poppy Stamps' Double Stitch Scalloped Rectangle Frame and Stitched Butterfly Trio. This card was completed inspired by Pam Simpson's gorgeous card on the Poppy Stamps blog. You can see it here. I used Altenew's Glacier Caves beautiful blue inks and a Creative Expression Smoothie applicator to dab on the color.

This is another sample from Poppy Stamps using their new Cute Phone Booth, Brush Hello and Rotary Phone dies along with a really cute little stamp set called Call Me. The snappy black and white background paper is from Catherine Pooler's new 6 x 6" paper pack called Black Tie Gala. If you like black & white, you'll love these papers!

This is done with Memory Box dies Left Hutton Gate and Left Gate Background along with the gorgeous Drifting Side Butterfly. There's no end to the possibilities with Hutton Gate. There's also a Right Hutton Gate. You could use both together for a gorgeous gatefold card. I used the yummy purple iris Shimmer Sheetz for the backgrounds of both the gate and the butterfly. Someday I'll learn to photograph Shimmer Sheetz!

Of course you can adhere the gate to the background with Stick-It but I've discovered another great adhesive for your intricate die cuts. It's called Grafix Essentials Artistic Tac Dot Adhesive. They're sheets covered with micro dots of adhesive. Just lay your die cut on the adhesive sheet, rub it a bit and lift it up. Your die cut is not covered with tiny dots of adhesive on the back! Works like a charm.

Last but not least, is Country Rose Corner and Double Stitch Square Frames from Poppy Stamps. I also used the Mini Expression Hello & Hi die from Sue Wilson for Creative Expressions. I cut the Country Rose Corner twice out of green cardstock because I wanted a little more foliage then again out of pink to piece the petals into the green flower outline. (Used the Grafix Essentials Artistic Tac Dot Adhesive again on the pink petals.)

That's all for now! Be sure to check back soon. 

This is the easiest technique ever!  Scribble with 2 or 3 of the markers on watercolor paper, spritz with water, dry and die cut.  This is the done using Memory Box's new small and large Billow Flowers.

Here I just brushed the markers right on the Penny Black "Standing Ovation" stamp, spritz with a tiny bit of water and stamped.  You can't see the Stickles very well but it made me feel better to put a little more effort into this card!

These beautiful butterflies are from the Altenew Set "Bejeweled".  I stamped them with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder.  All that's left to do is brush some water onto the images then add just a tiny bit of the Sugared Almond Pink marker color.  The water moves the color just enough to soften the lines.  I decided to brush some of the same color over the "Just Because" sentiment and spread it with a damp brush.

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Last but not least, this card features one of my favorite new stamp sets from WPlus9, "Happy Birds".  Here  I stamped the birds with Tuxedo Black Versafine and embossed with clear embossing powder.  (Embossing helps hold the color in just the areas where you want it).  Put down a little water with a damp brush then drop in the marker color.  

So, I can't wait until the next bunch of new colors arrive!  There are about 80 in all and I should have about 50 or so by the end of the week.  (There are 28 on the website now plus 3 different sets of 4 and one set of 12.)  Of course, you can mix these together to make loads of other colors!

Two things to keep in mind - best to use watercolor paper when there's much water involved or your cardstock will pill.  Also, it's usually easiest to blend the colors if you put the water down first.  Other than that, go crazy!

These two tables can easily seat about 12 students.  Please note:  card makers do not get the pretty white table cloths!

Lots of Valentine stamps and dies plus card samples for upcoming classes or just a little inspiration.

Lots of yarn, lots of sample garments and the winder is waiting!

More yarn!

And still plenty of your favorite needles!

Wonder whatever happened to the rest of the ribbon?  Stop by - there's still loads to choose from!

Hope you enjoyed the tour,

Welcome to My Craft Room's Blog.  You're witnessing a first here so please understand if this isn't as spanky as you're accustomed to seeing on other blogs but I sure hope to get there eventually .

It was a heartfelt day today.  The cards for the Hero Arts class on Friday, February 5th are finished AND I managed to make a couple of Valentine samples to share with you here.

First up, here are the 3 cards we'll be doing in the Hero class:

We'll do some die-cutting, stamping and a little water coloring with Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals so I really hope you can join us!

Next up is a quick and easy card I made using just 2 stamps from Impression Obsession.  

If you're interested in making this card, you can find the 2 stamps here.

The second sample card was created using some of my favorite new dies from Memory Box, Glorious Hearts and Elliana Heart.

Still leaving the paper in the die, I stenciled some Angel Pink Memento ink through the openings. The Elliana Heart was attached to the Glorious Heart with Tombow Mono Aqua glue.

The background was done by simply brushing some Yasutomo pearl watercolor paint across my watercolor paper card. I used pale pink and peach colors.

These are the dies I used and a quick link to them here.

So there you have it!  Not exactly Jennifer McGuire but it's a beginning.  Thanks, Joyce Hice, for the encouragement!