Catching up

I see I am still behind on posting our challenges. I did take the photos of our latest work but must have deleted them some time. I also discovered, quite by accident, that I haven't responsed to some comments that were left here on the blog.

To Sharon who commented way back in May, the challenges are issued by members of our little group. If anyone who reads this blog would like to participate that's great. If you have a blog just post your work there and let us know. If not send me a pic of your work and I will post it on the FWI blog.

To Maria, who posted in July. Great card! Your cards are amazing and I hope you are now fully recovered. I really need to get in touch with you to pick your brain about a couple of different things regarding blogging. :)

I will try to be better about responding. I am still quite new to blogging and forget that someone might actually have a comment about something I have posted to the WWW. Thanks for reading and thank you for commenting.

For anyone who might be interested in this months challenge, it comes from Donna. She has asked us to decorated a gift bag and make a co-ordinated card or tag. It must have one stamped image. Sounds simple enough right?

Annual Open House

Join us for our annual Open House Wed. Nov. 20 until Sat. Nov. 23 during regular store hours. The latest designs from Rosewood stamps will be available. Demos will be set up for you to try. Many items will offered at sale prices. Rose-Marie has brought in some beautiful new inks that are going to be perfect with the new designs.

Free Stamp Giveaway

If you are attending ScrapFest Oshawa this weekend, we want to meet you. So here is what we want to you do. When you get to our booth, stop in and tell Kathy (she will be on checkout duty) that you read our blog and that Liz sent you. That is all you have to do to claim your free stamp. It will be a stamp of our choice but it is one that is versatile and appropriate for the season. This is sure to be a show not to miss. So many goodies and so close to Christmas.

Packing Up

We have been busy, busy, busy packing and getting everything ready to go to ScrapFest this weekend. There is a lot of excitment about this show both from retailers and our customers. It has been a long time since we have had a show of this size on the east side of Toronto. We are really looking forward to this one.

The plates finally arrived to begin production of the new stamps. Circumstances beyond our control caused the delay and we do apologize. Tom was sent to the workshop yesterday to get some of the images ready to take with them to ScrapFest. Due to time constraints he will only be able to get a few images ready to take. The poor guy will be spending a lot of time in the workshop when he gets back too.

Creative Challenges

Making cards isn't always easy. Often I find that the great idea I have in my head just doesn't work out on paper. Donna was creating cards recently and made these 3 cards, that are the same but different.

Donna has embraced the Nestibilities and uses Label 8 to full advantage for these cards. I'm not sure if she cut then embossed with a CB folder or the other way around. She then dragged an ink pad across to the surface to define the embossing. I'm not positive but I think Label 4 was used to create the sentiment tag. I don't know where the sentiment is from but a bit of ribbon layered on a black base makes for a very striking card.

Here she used only Label 8 to create a series of mats. A dollar store flower and more ribbon. The same but different.

This one is almost identical to the first card shown. I am not usually enamoured of paisleys but I like this CB folder. Ribbon and bling are the finishing touches. The same but different.

I should have asked which was the first card she made. All based on the same basic design but the end results look rather different.

Testing Products

Donna loves new stuff. Rose-Marie recently brought in Tattered Angels stencils that caught Donna's eye.



She simply laid the stencils over the paper and applied ink with a sponge or a dauber.

The Fleur de Lis and the red frame above are set on a 5 1/2 x 8 piece of paper creating a very large image. We decided that maybe if they were cut into pieces they could be used to accent another stamped piece.

This crown didn't photograph well but this just says little girl card.

For the card below she got really creative. The gate looks particularly spooky on the black background, so she decided to "open" the gate to reveal a ghostly scene. Wouldn't this make a great invitation for a Halloween Party?

New Designs from Rosewood

The new designs from Rosewood stamp are being added to the Frog's Whiskers Ink website. We are currently taking pre-orders and hope to begin production next week. Victorian charm is very evident in this collection, including a charming group of carolers, a lamp post and a street that will remind you an old fashion village Charles Dickens may have written about. If Victorian isn't your style the stamp Birch & Stream (L746)

or Candles and Holly (L740) may catch your attention. I am looking forward to see what Rose-Marie has in mind for this collection.