Bridge Closure

Anyone who has visited Campbellford will now that we are a town divided. The Trent Canal that makes Campbellford such a beautiful place also divides our town and the main bridge that crosses the river needs a face lift. The people in charge have decided to close the bridge for repairs beginning Friday June 18 and it is expected that the bridge will reopen Monday June 21. Since the bridge closing usually means less than normal weekend traffic Tom & Rose-Marie have decided to close the store on Sunday, June 20. We are hopefully all the of the repairs can be accomplished during this time and no further closure will be required.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Blow- Out Sale

"Blow-Out Sale"
June 3 until June 6



Rose-Marie has decided to have a Blow-Out Sale. She wants to clear out all the "one's" and "two's", all the mis-matched items, clear down the shelves for new stock and also make room for a new counter going in. (Tom is supposed to do that some time soon)


So we need your help. ALL stickers will be priced to go. In stock tools will be discounted. Papers will be grouped together. Punches will be piled. We are clearing out "STUFF" - "odds and ends" - "this and that"
Don't miss out on this "First-come... First-pick" ....

Sunflowers & Buttons

After reading on the Simplicity blog about her adventures with buttons, I came across this card Rose-Marie created. Sorry about the washed out image, in person the colours are much nicer.



The background was stamped with Rosewood French Script and run through the CB Swirls folder. The Rosewood Sunflower Script was stamped, the image coloured as desired and the background distressed. Centre the piece of ribbon, layer onto green cardstock base and add the stamped sunflower image as shown. Dig into that glorious button collection to find appropriate size button for sunflower centres. Add more buttons to the ribbon if desired.

Barn Board Not Just a Background

Rosewood Barnboard is featured in these cards from Lauralee.



So I lied, Barnboard makes a great background. Lauralee stamped with brown Distress Inks and quickly dipped the image in clear embossing powder. The Rosewood Daisy Head was stamped and embossed in white on scrap white. Gold glitter glue as added to create the flower centres. The leaves (sorry stamp unknown) was stamped with green distress inks and embossed with clear on scrap. Both the flower and the leaves were then cut and attached to the card. Unknown sentiment, stamped directly on the Barnboard image.



Lauralee created a gorgeous background technique by cutting the stamped Barnboard into strips and then attaching them to a base card either as "shakes" or board, as shown here....



I think the butterfly is a digital image from Hero Arts...beautiful! The "boards" are attached with brads. The Rosewood Friend is on the card in the foreground. A decorative edge was punched, a bit of ribbon and the card is done. Donna told me how Lauralee got the embossing just on the tips of the butterfly wings but I have completely forgotten. I will get in touch with Lauralee next week to find out.

UPDATE - Lauralee posted instructions for these cards on her blog. Making those butterfly wings pop is really a simple technique

Feeling Lazy

The long weekend has arrived. We opened the pool yesterday and although the temperature was in the mid 20's the water was decidedly cold but that didn't stop Jess from getting in. Brrrrr!!! She assured me a few years ago "It's ok Mom, you can't feel your legs after a few minutes."



Since I am feeling a bit lazy, I am going to send you to Lauralee's new blog. She is just getting started but already has quite a few posts. I will warn you however the lady has a sense of humour that rivals mine, very much The Cheeky Stamper. I still have a few cards from Lauralee's work from Kitchener to share with you. Maybe tomorrow.....

First Long Weekend of the Summer

It is the Victoria Day long weekend and the weather looks like it might be decent for a nice change. I wish you all a long weekend full of things you want to do.



(Notice the s'more in the foreground...perfect summer dessert, especially over a campfire)

Keep safe in your travels this weekend.

More Rosewood

These 2 cards are more from Lauralee's creative endeavours for ScrapFest Kitchener. These use the Rosewood Chicken Wire stamp. In the first card, Lauralee stamped the Rosewood Ivy & Flower. Then she stamped and embossed the Chicken Wire in silver. Some twine and a metal tag finish the really lovely card.




This card is one of my personal favourites. I have always liked the Larry stamps and Lauralee created a really funny card using Rosewood Hello Larry. She created the hole by masking a central point in card. The Chicken Wire was stamped and embossed. Distress Inks were used to dragged across the bottom to create the barn floor. The side panels are scrap strips of brown, run through an embossing folder for texture. Rosewood Hello Larry was stamped on a scrap piece, coloured, cut and popped onto the base card. Lauralee chose to trim off Larry's arm for this card. And Larry's escape is complete.

Today's Flower - Daisy

The Rosewood Daisy Head is a cute little stamp that can be used a number of different ways. Lauralee created these cards to demonstrate the versatility of the stamp.

This card shows the image stamped across the bottom of the card. Coloured and trimmed to create a decorative edge. Lauralee then scored the card just above the stamped images and slightly below the fold for dimension. I believe the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. Gems and ribbon were added to complete the card.




This card uses the Rosewood Daisy Head and Wildflowers to create the central image. The Daisy Head was stamped and embossed in white and inked to add colour. The images were cut out and gems added. The Wildflowers were stamped with 2 colours of green for interest. The pool of green at the bottom of the Wildflower image anchors the image on the card. The Daisy Heads were added and the card was distress with a soft yellow ink. I don't know who this sentiment is from.



The card with the orange ribbon shows a similar technique the to first card I've shown. The card on the right shows the Daisy Head stamped in lines across the card; coloured and a black gems added to finish. I don't know who this sentiment if from either. Lauralee uses a corner rounder on many of her cards. It adds a little something from the traditional square cards. A wrap of black ribbon and you are done.



I have also used the Daisy Head to create an all over background with a soft coloured ink.

A Few Last Dandelions

These are the last few cards that Lauralee created with the Rosewood Dandelion.

This first card has the dandelions stamped and embossed with white. Yellow ink was added to highlight the stamped imaged. I believe the sentiment is Hero Arts stamped in red. The corners were rounded and the stamped images were layered onto red cardstock. A couple of red brad and a wrap of red ribbon complete this beautiful card.



Close-up of same card. This photo really shows how much the addition of the yellow makes the dandelions pop off the card.



This card is so elegant. The dandelion was stamped and embossed in white. A scrap piece of white cardstock was punched to create an scallop edged layer. The addition of the red ribbon creates a classic layout. Sorry, once again I don't know who the sentiment is from.




Next post....daisies

More Dandelions

These cards by Lauralee are slightly different than the ones I shared here in the previous post. It does however show the versatility of the Rosewood Dandelion stamp.



The image was stamped and embossed in white on the reverse side of the vellum and highlighted with white ink. I don't know who the sentiment is from but it also is stamped and embossed in white. The vellum was layered onto the base card and some sewing store pearls added to accent the corners.



For this card, Lauralee stamped and embossed the image in white on the base card. She layered a piece of vellum over the stamped images and wrapped it with coordinating ribbon. A very simple yet elegant card.



These 2 cards show similar layouts to today's cards and yesterday's cards. The green card is stamped and embossed on the reverse of the acetate (both images are Rosewood stamps). A bit of coordinating ribbon and you are done. The blue card uses the same technique as the red (pink?) card above. The scarf yarn adds a nice fluffy look to the card. The faux stitching was created with a white Uniball pen. Sorry I don't know the origin of the sentiment of this card either.

A New Blogger

The most talented Lauralee has taken a leap of faith and created her own blog. She is just getting started but stop by and take a look here. The timing for the launch of Lauralee's blog is perfect. She sent Donna an album full of her samples from the Kitchener show that I will be sharing with you over the next few posts.

Lauralee was kind enough to help out Tom & Donna while they were in Kitchener. In Lauralee's conversations with Rose-Marie, Rose-Marie asked to her to create cards that would showcase the Rosewood Dandelion stamp. These are just the beginning of what she created.



The dandelion was stamped and embossed on acetate and the image was mirrored on the base card in a plum ink. The sentiment is also a Rosewood stamp that Lauralee has purchased as a cling mount and cut apart to make 2 images. A coordinating ribbon was added to complete the card.




This is basically the same card but she chose not to add the mirrored image on the base of the card.

Decisions

Our last challenge proved especially challenging for Donna. She chose a card design that was slightly different then the sketch but she couldn't decide which card she liked best. In the end this was the card she chose to submit for the challenge but these are the equally as beautiful cards that followed much the same design.






The same Cuttlebug die & embossed butterfly and sentiment with different bling. All were great cards but just slightly different with different appeal to each person she asked to choose a favourite.

Happy Mother's Day

A customer came into the store last week to exchange some duplicate stamps. She also had stamps that she had purchased at another store. This stamp from Hampton Arts spoke to me, so I bought it from her.

I stamped the image with Distress Ink Fired Brick, Memories Artprint Brown and Distress Ink Vintage Photo. I then stamped a set of matching butterflies from the stamp and enameled the butterflies. I didn't know until recently Distress Inks could be embossed. I popped the coordinating butterfly over the butterfly in the image. I ran the brown layering cardstock through the Sizzix Floral Flourish embossing folder. I am still amazed at how deep these folders emboss. On the first image, I chose to put the raised embossed layer face down and on the second card, face up. I didn't get the Fired Brick image finished. I just didn't have the right layering paper out and decided to finish it another day.

The first card is for my Mom, whom I will never be able to thank enough for all she has done for me. Happy Mother's Day Mom.



Distress Ink Vintage Photo




Memories Artprint Brown



Distress Ink Fired Brick

May Challenge Sketch

This is the sketch Laurilee sent us for this month's challenge but she has added a twist. She has stipulated that this sketch be tone-on-tone. Meaning all elements must be tints, shades & tones of one colour, examples white on white, green on green, red on red. You get the idea. Play along with us if you like.

April Challenge Cards

The April Challenge was selected by Darlene this month shown here.
These sketches are really challenging for us.

Barb asked if she could join our challenges and this is the card she created. Barb has a Cricuit and used it to cut the images as well as the word "love" which she cut and layered to give dimension. My photo really doesn't do Barb's card justice.



It was Jess' turn to participate in the challenge this month and she made this rather quick card. The bows are from dollar store hair ribbons as is the bling. The sentiment is Inkadinkadoo stamped on a Spellbinder tag which was popped onto the base card.



Laurilee's card was beautiful as always, although she said this challenge was really difficult for her. She cut the 3 scalloped circles with a punch and ran it through Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and layered onto some gorgeous Bo Bunny paper. Then she used the Martha Stewart butterfly (her favourite punch all time the note says) from the same paper and added glitter. Co-ordinating ribbon was attached under the punched strip. The tag is a Nestibility stamped with a sentiment from Papertrey Ink and edged with Martha Steward pink ink. Laurilee always send great instructions with her cards.





The front of my card was embossed with the Sizzix Floral Flourish folder. The images from Inkadinkadoo Round Frames set were stamped 6 times; one set was cut out and popped over the bottom 3 images. The edges dragged with Memories Midnight blue and layered onto blue cardstock.



Darlene's card this month is quite different from her previous cards. The images are cut from her Cricuit and embossed with gold. She also embossed the edges of the green paper she used underneath the images. The stamped sentiment is Rosewood stamps also embossed in gold. Darlene used the most interesting wood grained paper layered onto her white base card. I will have to ask her exactly how she did the embossing on this card when I see her next.



The card Donna finally settled on turned out beautifully. She cut the butterflies from a Spellbinder Shapeability. She layered them onto the brown ribbon and added dollar store bling. The sentiment is Hero Arts.



Cassie decided she wanted to make this challenge as well. Her card made use of a Martha Stewart edge punch and a Spellbinder Nestibility Scalloped Cicle. She alternated the circles over a piece of ribbon and added a sticker to the centre circle.



I guess I will have to show the results of next month challenge brought to us by Laurilee in 2 posts next month. If you would like to join our challenge, let me know and I will let you know where to send your images. I will post the May challenge tomorrow.