Happy New Year!

Whew! Now that the stress fun of the holidays is over, I finally have time to post again! Since my last post (yeah, I know, MONTHS back), I have made a few cards I wanted to share.

First, cards I created for the gals at work celebrating birthdays (click to biggify):

This card features Magnolia's Tilda with Gifts over some patterned paper from my stash. The flower is from Michael's, and some silver Stickles were added to the presents. Copics used on Tilda were: E0000, E01, E55, D57, E59, V91, V93, V95, C0, C3, Y32, Y35, Y28, B91, B93, B95, RV91, RV93 and RV95.

Happy Spring Tilda adorns this card on top of some Bo Bunny "Unforgettable" paper. The sentiment was cut using my Cricut and the "Simply Charmed" cartridge. Copics used on Tilda were: E0000, E01, B0000, B32, B34, Y21, Y28, C0 and C3. The flower is from my stash... I cut a circular shape, coloured it in and glued it over Tilda's hand to make it look like she is holding the flower stem.

Obvioulsy my favorite paper is the Bo Bunny line... here it is again. I used "Sophie Bouquet" on this card. A few flowers from Michaels tied with a sheer ribbon were added along with a simple stamped sentiment.

This card began with Fancy Pants' "Little Sprout" paper, # 310 "Baby's Breath". I used some Sheer Elegance hunter green ribbon, the Martha Stewart Leaves punch, a Provo Craft corner die cut on my Cuttlebug, some flowers from my stash with a brad coloured with Copic's G99 pen and some Tim Holtz "Peeled Paint" ink.


Then I needed to create something for hubby's birthday (on Christmas Eve!):

Cards for guys are always harder to do it seems. I decided to go black and white; and featured a tiger stamp a good friend gave me! The ribbon is from my stash and the stamped image and sentiment are cut using my Spellbinders dies on my Cuttlebug.

Oh yeah, I did a few Christmas cards too:

Good thing I have a Cricut... I made the snowflakes on it using my "Tie The Knot" cartridge (now, what a snowflake has do with weddings is beyond me....). Both cardstock and vellum were cut, and stickles were added to the edges of the flakes. A clear gem was glued to the center of the flakes and snowflake brads attached the sentiment to the ribbon. The paper and ribbon were from my stash, and I cut out the sentiment using my Cuttlebug.

Whew! Here's hoping I get more time to both craft AND post about it in 2012.

Just as a teaser though... there will be an upcoming post about my craftroom soon... since moving downstairs to a larger room, I have been decorating it and I am very eager to share some photos of the results!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Two Valentines I made this year.

For Hubby:For this card, I punched out the heart shapes, ran a length of packing tape on the back and sprinkled Martha Stewart glitter on the front, pressing it down to make it stick to the tape showing through the heart openings.

And for Daughter:
For this card, I tried a technique I found on Splitcoaststampers; a folded paper frame. I added white heart brads and mounted it onto an easel card. Martha Stewart's heart punch was used to make the swirly hearts, topped off with white Stickles.

Christmas Cards 2009

This year I used new techniques thanks to recent purchases: One, I used my new Cuttlebug to emboss and die cut the front of the card, as well as die-cutting the red Bazzil mat. I love it! The snowflake embossing folder was wonderful and so easy to use.

I also used my new Martha Stewart border punch Aspen Snowflake for the front of the card, and used the larger matching snowflake punch to make the embellishment on the "Let It Snow" tag.

Of course, I used Copics to colour in all 30 stamped images (Penny Black stamp).

Stickles on the tag, ribbon slipped through and glued down, and with a bit of patterned paper (Peppermint Twist by K and Company) and these were done!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Five Easter Cards

Five Easter cards for the family; each one has a different coloured flower and matching inked edges.

Happy Halloween!

Every Halloween we carve a few real pumpkins to set on our doorstep. I illuminate them with electric lights so we don't have to worry about candles and the kids love them.

Oh, and I LOVE toasting the pumpkin seeds too.

But for the past few years, I've also done foam ones so we can keep them to reuse year to year. Hey, if I am going to spend hours on these suckers, I want to keep them longer than 1 day.

From 2006: I did this Jack Sparrow pumpkin from my own design. I'm posting it especially for Jay 'cause she's a Johnny Depp freak er, FAN like me (okay even MORE than me, if that's possible):


Okay, maybe it's for moi as well....

Last year I did another Jack.

Jack Skellington, that is. This one I am posting for my niece, Ashley... cause we are both Nightmare Before Christmas lovers:

Now if youll excuse me, I have to figure out what the hell I am going to do this year. I have no idea yet.

Good thing I took tomorrow off as a vacation day...

Don't Call Me Martha

Just because I spent the entire weekend washing floors, scrubbing toilets, doing laundry, dishes, vacuuming, dusting and shopping,

Just because I hand-made six family Easter cards,


Just because I decorated the house with baskets of eggs, bunnies and spring flowers,

Just because I blew out two dozen chicken eggs to decorate,

Just because I created little Spring Chicks for each place setting at our family dinner table,


Just because I organized an Easter egg hunt for daughter and her boyfriend,

Just because I put together Easter baskets for hubby and daughter,

Just because I made dyed devilled eggs, served on a platter with a matching larger Spring Chick,


Just because I cooked a ten pound ham with a Merlot brown sugar glaze, scalloped potatoes, and all the trimmings for the family Easter dinner,



And just because I set up Egg Decorating Class with Grandma and Grandpa after dinner,


Don't call me Martha.

In fact, don't call me at all today.

I've collapsed and am recuperating on the couch.

Good Friday Traditions

I really look forward to Easter... and no, it's not because I'm what you'd call Religious per se.

Unless you consider strictly adhering to two traditons a Religion, though.

Then I am. Oh yeah.

No, my giddiness involves two activites our family has upheld for years:

1) Painting Easter eggs.

A full-day affair; for we don't simply dip each egg in solid colors.

Oh no. I have to make it complicated, messy and time-consuming.

Daughter and I go full-out: I carefully blow out real chicken eggs for our Ukranian style decoration, using melted beeswax and six highly-stainable food dye colors.

All the while, futilely attempting to keep little feline paws OUT of the six highly-stainable food dye colors.

Each year I also hand-draw and paint a few eggs; using an airbrush, acrylic or even oil paint. I have done Star Wars eggs, Captain Jack Sparrow and cartoon eggs, whichever obsession er theme I decide upon that year.

Yup, they are works of art that I haul out of storage each year to display with pride.

Unless of course, they become sad victims of Feline Abuse... stealthly abducted from their basket on the table and batted about the floor until they are smashed into hundreds of tiny eggshell shards.

The other tradition?

2) Watching Jesus Christ Superstar.

Whilst trying, in vain, to NOT sing along to each and every line I know by heart.

At full volume.

To my family's horror.

I fell in love with this movie (and Ted Neeley) back in the early 70's when I first saw it in the theatre.

And since both daughter and I met "Jesus" after the stage show in 2007, it's a movie we hold near and dear to our hearts.

Actually, last year was my second time meeting Ted... back in the 90's I was ushered backstage to meet both he and Carl Anderson (RIP, Judas) too.


And I even admitted to him that during the show, I was singing along with every word.

At full volume.

Much to my family's horror.

Again.

Not your typical Easter eggs

Although daughter kept the family tradition of doing her eggs in Ukrainian style (hot wax and dyes), I decided to do two eggs of my favorite men. Unfortunately, they look so distorted when photographed; because of the curve of the egg, they look much better in real life. Done in oils, they actually dried quite quickly!

Ted Neeley in Jesus Christ Superstar (singing Gethsemane)

Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Easter cards

Another holiday, another opportunity to make cards! This year, I hand-drew my own bunny design on gray cardstock and colored them in with pencil crayons and outlined them with black Zig pens.

Next I took some patterned paper and glued it to thick board cut in egg shapes. I made the paper a bit larger than the egg shape, glued it on and then used a sanding file to sand off the edges...it worked great!

I added Bazzil cardstock to the front of each card, glued on the bunny and egg, added patterned paper to the inside and stamped a flower and "Happiness" on each.

Easter table decor

Here are two things I've made for my Easter Sunday dinner table:

Easter Egg Candles:

Easily made using real eggs, blown and washed out. Color the egg as normal, then break open one end. Make sure you seal the bottom of the egg if there is a hole. Melt parafin wax and pour into egg, using a toothpick to hold a wick in place until it sets. I also used white glue on the bottom of the egg to seal it well. Display in egg cups!

Easter Bunny Baskets

One of these cute bunnies will be at each placesetting at our table. Made using paper muffin cups, I cut green Bazzil cardstock just a bit taller than the cup (in this case, 2 inches high) and long enough to wrap around the cup with a 1/2 inch overlap. Using scissors, cut out the grass shapes, varying lengths as you go. I also used the same paper to cut the handles of the baskets, about a 1/4 inch thick. Before assembling, I attached white Prima flowers with yellow brads to the handles for daisies. I used my Cropadile to punch holes and set rivets to attach the handles to the base of the basket. I then painted the inside of the basket with white glue and slid the muffin cup inside to attach it. Once dry, I added Easter grass, little Lifesaver jelly bean Easter eggs, and sat a Lindt chocolate bunny on top.

I can't take credit for these ideas; they both were found at Martha Stewart's website...I just improvised with what I had on hand. Happy Easter!

Christmas Crafts

Even with the chaos of the season, I try to do SOMETHING "crafty" each year, especially if I am hosting either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day dinner. In the past I have cross-stitched placecards and created a tiny "forest" of Christmas trees for the table.This year, since I am having dinner on the 24th, I made reindeer placecard holders - inspired by some metal reindeer from Chapter's catalog - unfortunately they were sold out :( so I made our own:
As well, I am making gift tags this year. Each one will have a tiny wooden reindeer (can you see that reindeers are my favorite theme?) attached that can be used next year to decorate the recipient's tree. I bought the "raw" wooden reindeer at our scrapbooking store. Hubby drilled holes in them for their hangers, and I stained, sanded and varnished each one (each step shown below).

Lots of fun to do, especially while watching some seasonal movie favorites!

Cards for 2006

This year, I made two styles of Christmas cards. One version is for friends and family, the second, a specific design especially for my Star Wars buddies.

Here's the family version (which were made in October, but I can finally unveil here as they are now in the mail). I tried a brand new technique with this one, using markers to "paint" the rubber stamp thereby getting multi-colored images. I also used non-Christmas paper which was double-sided:



Here's the inside (click for a larger view):


Here's a card I just thought up and made yesterday. I did a Star Wars "snowglobe" using two sheets of plastic page protectors sandwiching some fake snow inside...they can be really shaken up!





I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I did making them!

Easter Eggs

Easter may be over, but I wanted to post some of my "not so traditional" traditional eggs..."not so traditional" meaning they are Star Wars Easter eggs....but this is a tradition for me as I have been doing these for years and have done 26 so far. They are real chicken eggs, blown out so I can keep them (if my two cats will quit playing with them, that is!) Here are the two I painted this year:

To see the others I have done over the years, go here: http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~kuppem/artgally.htm