Class at The Crop Shop...

Hello followers!  I just thought I'd post a class that I'm doing at The Crop Shop (see note on this below) on Friday, December 2nd.  Many of you may have seen the new Authentique paper line -- it is really too, too beautiful.  Although they carry many somber colors, they definitely lend themselves to doing masculine cards, so that's what I did!

Underneath each card you will see the 6x6 pieces of Authentique that inspired me.  The great thing about this card stock is that you can purchase individual pieces.  So hop on over to The Crop Shop and grab some -- there are soooo many different designs -- you 'll be thrilled!

So about that "note" as mentioned above.  The Crop Shop has announced that they will be downsizing.  What this means is that a good portion of the retail section will no longer exist.  However, you will still be able to choose from a great selection of products as well as attending crops and card making classes.  They have a wonderful, large classroom with big comfy office chairs to sit in.  They will also be known as Creation Destination and dropping The Crop Shop name.  It will always be The Crop Shop to me, so if I slip up in a post once in a while, you'll still know what I mean.  And, by the way, they're having a fantastic sale right now so that they can consolidate their merchandise into smaller quarters.  So get on down there right now!

Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella!

Hop on over to the Crop Stop...

...and there you will see this card I created for their Halloween Challenge as a Design Team member.  I had more fun doing this card.  The background is a brayered technique using all the Distress inks mentioned on the Crop Stop post.  I started at the top brayering with Mustard Seed, then placed a post it note cut in a circle shape for the moon and brayered once more with Mustard Seed.  I then proceeded to layer Spiced Marmaladr over that blending toward the horizontal center of the card, then used Fired Brick and Rusty Hinge to top it off.  The bottom "murky" layer was done using Weathered Wood and brayered and blended into the top colors.  Brayering is so much fun once you get started.  I stamped all my images using Versafine Black ink and penned in some bats over the moon.  A black punched border placed at the top finished off this spooky card.

So drag out that brayer that's collecting dust and experiment!  It really is a lot of fun!

Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella!

November 12th class at the Community Center...

Hi all,
Just in case you haven't checked KD's Crafty Concepts blog, this is what I'll be offering for my November 12th class at the Whitman Community Center (WCC).  We'll be doing three cards in this class.  You can do it!  We've got some great combinations of different dies & punches from several companies.  It's so much fun interchanging dies with different companies to see what you can come up with.

So here are the three we'll be doing.

Spellbinders and MFT.

Martha Stewart and Memory Box.

Spellbinders, MFT and PTI.

So, pop on over to KD's Crafty Concepts and click on the PayPal button under the October 12th post.  This class is almost half full now, so you'll want to get a seat!  And there are still openings in my October 21st class for Halloween and Fall cards.

Hope to see you there.  Caio for now!

Ciao Bella!

Classes at the Community Center...

I just wanted to let some of you know that I'll be holding my first class at the Whitman Community Center  next week and in the event that you had forgotten Kim's and my joint blog, KD's Crafty Concepts, then you can catch up here.  But all students should definitely be putting KD's Crafty Concepts into their Favorites to stay abreast of what we'll be doing in the upcoming months.

I've scheduled the first class for Friday, October 21st from 7 to 9pm and my second class will be held on Saturday, November 12th from 1 to 3pm.  I'll be adding more classes as we go along.  I've just had a few commitments to take care of before I fill the schedule up.

So, here's what you'll be doing on October 21st:  a little Halloween and a little bit of Fall...

And here's a sneak peek at one project for the November 12th class:  a jump start on your holiday card making...

So make sure you check KD's Crafty Concepts for my schedule -- we've made it convenient for you to use PayPal when signing up!

I hope to see you soon!

Ciao Bella!

That old saying...

...when one door closes another one opens.  There's something to say about truisms rather than groaning.  I know, I know, I'm the first one to put down these sayings or "mom-isms" as I like to refer to them.  However, with the closing of the Scrapbook Cupboard, I have been invited to teach at The Crop Shop in Rockland and my first class is coming up this month on Thursday, the 20th from 7 to 9 pm.

I'd love to see my students from the Cupboard in my new venue and invite you all to call the store at 781-792-2767 and reserve your seat.  It would be a homecoming of sorts just to see you all again.

So without further adieu, here are the cards I'll be doing at The Crop Shop.  I thought I'd choose a holiday theme using several sets of Spellbinder dies in a different way and using some of these new gorgeous papers just in -- can you pick out ALL the different patterns used?

The Crop Shop newsletter will be going out this week and I look forward to seeing some familiar faces!  Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella!

Feline Frazzled?

Just a little play on words.  This funny cat image is from Stamps by Judith and his name is Frazzle.  This has got to be one of my favorite images in my stamp collection.  He's so versatile and will fit just about any occasion.  Here are two examples of Frazzle that I did for one of my last classes at the Scrapbook Cupboard.  People had been asking me for years to please duplicate the Frazzle series.  So I picked these two out of the dozen or so that I've made.  It was a really fun class and we had a blast.

Here's Frazzle!  This is one of my favorites and is in the Stamps by Judith catalog.  It was too cute not to copy with a few added twists of my own.

And for those difficult "guy" cards...  I know, I know -- the colors are quite girly, but they still work so well with the theme, don't you think?

Check out what the inside says (below).

There was a lot of laughter at class that nite.  Soooo many of you had the perfect man in mind to give this card to.  

Stay tuned for more info on future classes and where you can find me.  Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella!

The Last Hurrah...

Well, it's been a roller coaster ride this past week with 5 classes in as many days.  I am plumb tired.  I have one more class this week at the Scrapbook Cupboard (it's full as they all have been) and my LAST class forever at the store will be next Monday (big sad sigh!).  Since I just got the product to work with, I had to throw something together really fast in order to advertise this class.

The product I'm using is a new set of heart dies from Cheery Lynn Designs and it was worth the wait.  I just wish I'd had more time to put something together and not be rushed.  I really have lots of ideas for these dies, but time has been my enemy with all these classes and late product arrival.  So, without further ado, here are the two cards I put together.  How fitting that they are hearts as my heart will miss my students in a very big way.  We've had 8 years together and have had more fun than I can ever tell you.

This first card is a cupboard fold (how appropriate) to which I added some designer panels to jazz it up and then edged them using a gold leaf pen.  I then put a very different twist on the smallest of the heart dies and created this flower and decided to push it toward the holiday look.  The large white heart is the largest of the dies and after cutting it out, I ran it through a holly leaf embossing folder and edged it in gold leaf.  Next was die cutting the hearts for the petals and constructing it in a flower shape.  It went a lot faster than I thought.  A few die cut holly leaves, a little glitter and it was done!

The second card was based solely on this beautiful designer paper.  It just begged me to use it.  So I constructed this card using the various dies in the set.  I knew I wanted to use silver mirror paper, but gee, I seem to have run out of it.  What do to?  Aha!  Go grab the tin foil, glue it to a piece of cardstock and die cut the heart.  It worked great and continued the inspiration for the remainder of the card.  I topped the entire image off with a triple-loop silver bow made with my E-Z BowZ of course!

Well, if you haven't signed up for this class, you'd better pick up the phone!  It's bound to be a full and fun last night for me and my students.  

That's it for now -- all but the crying part, that is.  Ciao for now!

Ciao Bella!