Last Composition Book to share

From Heidi...Here's our last Altered Composition Journal to share with you. This paper is also retired, it's such cute paper! Hope that you're all enjoying the start to your week.

Another Altered Composition Book

From Heidi...Hope you all had a great weekend. We participated in a craft fair this weekend at Vertuccio Farms. We didn't sell much, but the kids had a great time in the corn maze, jumping castle and the tractor train ride. So, it was worth it!
Today we're sharing another one of the three Altered Composition Books we created. We used the same layout on all three, but different designer papers. I forget the name of the SU Designer paper used here, it's retired...but I loved the color combo in it, though.On another note, I'm looking forward to this Thursday. We're holding our Christmas Treasures class. It's so nice to get together and create with everyone again...especially the projects we're making, they're all so much fun. Have a great Monday!

Altered Composition Books

From Heidi...I love journaling...and I love journaling in cute journals!! Back in July when Walmart was having their Back-to-School specials, we picked up a bunch of these Composition Books for 50 cents/piece...quite a bargain! These make great journals because of their size and lined notebook pages, but as they are, they're pretty boring on the outside, so we decided to make them cute! We altered this book with SU's Rockabilly designer paper (you'd never know that the other side of this designer paper is decorated with skulls, huh? I'm just not into the skulls and death look, this side looks much happier and cheerier). Once again, I really wish I could use My Digital Studio (did I mention that yesterday, too?), but since I can't I resorted to using Word for my colored oval and "Notes" title. I used the Tart and Tangy stampset to stamp the cherries. We'll be taking these with us to the craft fair we're doing tomorrow at Vertuccio Farms...they've got a bunch of fun happening tomorrow from 10 AM to 10 PM. If you don't have any plans, come on out with your family. They've got a lot of family fun planned.

Recipe Binder

From Heidi...I wanted to post this Recipe Binder that Adriel has been working on. These smaller view binders are the perfect size for a cookbook and the vinyl sleeves protect the designer covers. We made the covers for one of these binders using all My Digital Studio, but when we found out that MDS is only for personal use and can't be used for business purposes, we were kind of bummed. MDS offers so many fun possibilities! So, we resorted back to Designer Papers, but we've incorporated the computer into this project. Using Word, we were able to create the oval border to fit into our Cuttlebug cutter, and then matched the color of the border with SU's coordinating papers (BTW, I love this paper, too bad it's retired!) and then played around with different fonts and font sizes to fill the oval with. Thanks for looking!

How about some pictures?

From Heidi...I'm finally able to post some new pictures on our blog...YAY! Today I'm sharing some pictures of a Nature Journal Class we'll be teaching at the Veteran's Oasis Park next month. I've kept a nature journal throughout the years and it's fun to look back through the sketches I've drawn and observations I've made about the world around me. This class will be for 8-16 year olds, so we had to keep the journal simple enough for the younger ones, yet interesting enough for the older students. I hope we achieved our goal. We used chipboard for the covers, held together with notebook rings. It includes 6 category tabbed dividers, 2 pocket envelope pages and 4 photo pages along with embellished journal pages.

November Newsletter has been Published

From Heidi and Adriel...
We're still here and are alive and well. We've just been busy. We finished our November Newsletter, if you'd like to view it you can Click Here. We'll be posting some new cards and paper craft items hopefully this week, so check back soon! Thanks for visiting us!

My Digital Studio Hybrd

From Heidi...Here's a set of 10 cards I created the other day for a friend whose mother died. In lieu of flowers, I thought that she could use these "thank you" cards instead. I used My Digital Studio for the flourish and sentiment "a note of thanks," and then created the dimensionaled embellishment using the stampset Circle Circus and the the Scallop Circle punch. I was able to create these 10 cards in 45 minutes! What a time saver and I love how they turned out. I printed the flourish in Old Olive and the sentiment in Chocolate Chip. The stamped Circle Circus is Ruby Red and the Scalloped Circle backgroudn is Chocolate Chip. Thanks for looking and I hope you all have a great weekend.I'm going to go trim some hedges out in the frontyard! The weather is so beautiful right now... I love it:-)

My Digital Studio Share

From Heidi...We're sharing our first published My Digital Studio creation...It's a digitally designed cover for a cookbook binder we're putting together. Adriel and I sat down yesterday and within a half-hour had designed this together. (I don't know what it is about the times that we design together, but we definitely get a lot done in a short amount of time...I guess it's true that two heads are better than one). All I can say is that it was fun! And for our first attempt at something like this, I was very pleased with the results. I can't wait to try it out on other projects.Hope this cheery recipe cover brightens your day. Thanks for looking!

Apple Picking

From Adriel:

It has been AGES since I posted on our blog! I've been MIA for a couple of weeks... took a bunch of pictures today of new stuff! Will share that soon... today I wanted to share pictures with you of our apple picking last weekend. =)

We went down to Willcox to pick apples!

We picked Granny Smith apples.

Some of us sampled them while in the orchard (with permission).

Did I mention we picked apples? Yup! 100 pounds of them! =)

Afterward, some of us had homemade Pumpkin Pie ice cream.

Others in our party chose the homemade apple pie.

We also ate apple-smoked burgers under the apple trees, but I have no picture of that. ;-)

The next day we washed all of our apples and cooked a bunch to make applesauce (which went into containers and into the freezer), kept a few for caramel apples and baked apples, and the rest we used our handy dandy apple corer, peeler, slicer tool. It's an amazing invention and we wouldn't have done all that apple discecting if we didn't have one! Our sliced apples when into ziploc bags (8 apples in each) with a little bit of sugar and some absorbic acid (to prevent browning) and into the freezer. We were able to crank out 24 bags of apples... long enough to last us for awhile! Now, when we want to make an apple pie or an apple crisp (or something apple-y), we have the apples all ready to go! All sliced and peeled! =)

BTW, if you are into apples, you really should have one of these. It's a wonder! Watch it in action HERE. =D

Christmas Card Number 5

From Heidi...Here's another Christmas card. I used the Merry Moments designer paper which gives this card a very cheer look. CS: Very Vanilla, Read Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip; Stampset: Holiday Best; Ink: Old Olive, Real Red; Punches: 2" Circle punch, Wide Oval Punch, Scallop Edge; Accessories: 5/8" Real Red Grosgrain ribbon, Red button, brad.

Christmas Card Number 4

From Heidi...Here's another Christmas card. I used the Big Shot Lots of Tags to punch the red background for the Wide Oval stamped Vanilla piece. It gives the card a festive look. The patterns from the Merry Moments designer paper really looks nice with the Real Red contrast. CS: Real Red, Very Vanilla; Ink: Chocolate Chip; Punches: BS Lots of Tags, Wide Oval; Stampset: Hostess Set - Christmas Punch.
Happy Monday!!

Thanksgiving Table and Stamp-A-Technique Classes

Here are the pictures of our upcoming classes.
Thanksgiving Table, Thursday, October 15
12:30-3 PM and 7-9:30 PMStamp-A-Technique with Watercoloring

Tuesday, October 20
1-3 PM and 7-9 PM
Thursday, October 22
7-9 PM

Christmas Card Number 3

From Heidi...I love this Merry Moments designer paper...it makes a simple card look special! I punched a couple of 5-petal flowers in Real Red and staggered them to create a Poinsetta-looking flower and dimensionaled it onto the Wedding Sweet stampset's small bouquet. Stampset: All Holidays, Wedding Sweet; Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, So Saffron; CS: Very Vanilla, Real Red, Old Olive. Thanks for looking! Hope you all have a great weekend.

Another Christmas Card Share

From Heidi...
Here's another Christmas Card from our upcoming November SAS. The Medallion stampset is so versatile. It makes a great wreath. Ink: Old Olive, Real Red; Stampset: Medallion, Holiday Best; Punches: 2" Circle, 1-3/4" Circle.

Five Christmas Cards

From Heidi...I'm sharing Card 1 from our upcoming Christmas Stamp-A-Stack next month. I started creating these cards based on Sharon Field's One Sheet Wonder Christmas Card class she shared, but once I got into designing, I had some other ideas for the cards. So Sharon became my jump board for these cards. I used Stampin' Up's "Merry Moments" Designer paper...I love all the paper designs. This card uses: Real Red, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip CS; All Holidays, Circle Circus stamp sets; 1" and 1-1/4" Circle Punches. Thanks for taking time to visit us!

Cute Idea

From Heidi...I saw this idea for Gift Card Holder Ornament on Jenni Diercks blog. This is such a fun way to give a gift card at Christmas...Hang it on the tree! Just wanted to share this idea with all of you. We'll be making a couple of these in our upcoming Christmas Treasures class in November, along with other fun gift-giving ideas.

October Tumbleweed Classes

We'll be keeping this post at the top for the next few weeks. Check below for any new posts.

We're including pictures and information on our upcoming October classes at Tumbleweed Recreation Center. Online registration information is at the end of this post.

Card Making: In the Mist (324TW.139) Tuesday, 10/6, 10-11:30 AM
Tumbleweed Fee: $3 Instructor Fee: $8 Supply Fee: $2

Cardmaking: All Cracked Up (325TW.139)

Tuesday, 10/13, 10-11:30 AM
Tumbleweed Fee: $3 Instructor Fee: $8 Supply Fee: $3

Papercrafting: A Thankful Table (328TW.139) Tuesday, 10/13, 12:30-2:30 PM
Tumbleweed Fee: $3 Instructor Fee: $10 Supply Fee: $2

If you'd like to join us for any of these classes at Tumbleweed Recreation Center, 745 E. Germann Rd., Chandler, AZ (Germann/McQueen Rds., just 1 block south of the 202):
1. Go to: http://www.chandleraz.gov/default.aspx?pageid=182
2. Click on "Register Now" which takes you to the Activity Page
3. Enter the Activity Code on the right side of page, click "Go"
4. Class details appear, click on "Add to My Cart" which will lead you through the registration process.

View Our October Newsletter

We've just posted our October Newsletter. You can Click Here to view it, or scroll down to our newsletter button. We've got lots of fun pictures, news, and a tutorial inside. Enjoy!

Too Long...

From Adriel:

It's been too long since I've posted something on here! My problem is I don't have pictures of new projects... I'm going to go dig around in my photos and see if I can find something to share... be right back...

Okay, I found something! I intended to share this a couple of weeks ago and never did! So, here we go!

My mom was creating cards a couple of weeks ago for the Cracked Glass technique class we are teaching soon. Of course, I had to try my hand at it! =) I used the pretty new set "Charming" from Stampin' Up! and did the cracked glass technique on just the punched accent of my card. For those of you unfamiliar with the cracked glass technique, you basically apply several layers of special embossing powder (Glossy Glaze enamel) and then you apply a cold pack to it or put it in the freezer. When it is very cold, you can quickly crack it and it has this neat effect of "cracked glass". You can go back over the cracks with ink to add to the antique look. Anyway, neat effect and fun to try! Here's a link to a tutorial on SplitCoast.

I like how this card turned out, but after I made it into a friend card I looked at it and wondered why I didn't make it a Christmas card. It looks more like that to me. Don't know! =)

We doing our Tropical Stamping Bunco tonight! I worked on the tag directions this morning and am looking forward to our evening with some of you!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great day! =)

Holiday Gift Tags

From Adriel:

Now it may seem a little early (okay, a LOT early!!) to be thinking about holiday gift tags. You're right, it is. But we have to stay ahead of the game! We've got a holiday gift tag class in November (I think... or is it October?). We try to make our projects ahead of time so we know how many supplies to order and also for pictures and such. In addition, it's wise to make these projects ahead of time so that you can work out all the details and design, blah, blah, blah...With that being said, I worked on the project for our gift tag class. I've been eyeing the cute box with tags in the SU catalog. I found some directions that produce a box that is very similar. I had to tweak the acetate lid a bit, because it didn't fit properly, but I don't remember my changes at the moment. Perhaps I can share those a bit later. =)

All in all, it makes a cute little set. The multi-colored stamped images, however, are not going to be conducive for a class setting. I'm going to have to re-design the actual gift tags that go in this box. But at least I have the box pretty much figured out and the whole set made a cute picture. =)

For more details, read further... =D

You can check out the tutorial for the box and lid HERE at Valerie's blog. As I said, I made some changes to the lid. It was too tight, I thought. I just added a bit more give... easy enough. =)

I made the box out of SU Kraft CS and the acetate I made out of some transparency sheets (had some lying around) that you can buy at an office store. The lovely red ribbon is sadly (sniff, sniff) retired Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon from SU with vanilla trim. I'm sure we'll put it to good use for the holidays and miss it immensely when it's gone! =( All of the tags I made are from the SU Hostess set "Christmas Punch" that coordinate with the punches the sell. So cute and easy to create with! =)

Almost forgot to mention that the white "twine" I included with the gift tags is a fine crochet thread that you can find at a local craft store. I've wondered about that myself and read a response somewhere about it and bought some the other day. It does the trick and it's better than embroidery floss... too thick in my opinion. ;-)

Anyway, that's my sharing for the day. I hope you enjoy your Monday and the rest of your week. =)

We Moved This Weekend

We moved our craft room into its OWN ROOM!!! Yay!! =D

Here's a shot of the room in the middle of the process:

And here's the "After" picture of the room all done:

Glitter, embossing powders, Big Shot stuff, cardstock and paper:

Shelves of stamps, cardstock scraps, storage drawers with all kinds of things!!, and hey, look! There's 2 empty shelves at the top of the bookcase! I'm sure they won't be empty for long! =)
Extra desk for when the kids want to make cards, for the sewing machine, for die cutting, for "extra" work space! My mom made me promise we wouldn't use it for cluttering. heehee =)


Our work table with the awesome wall organizer shelf peg board (I don't know what it's called!) that my dad made for my mom last year... it's awesome! Did I mention my dad is awesome, too? =D This is where we will be doing our creating! =)

Anyway, had to share our new room with you! Thanks for stopping by! =)