Sept Cards - Continued

Cassie used a photograph she took at Algonquin last year, cut it into the nine patch and layered onto cardstock. Very simple but extremely effective. Man it was cold in Algonquin last year but still so very beautiful.

I used an Outline stamp for my background. On a separate sheet of white cardstock I punched a deocrative edge with a MS deco edge punch. Some ribbon, a dollar store silk flower, a black gem and piece of stunning black cardstock for layering finished my card.

Jacqui's card is simply adorable. I will share a secret here, Jacqui is our non-stamper. Can you tell by her card? I didn't think so. Jacqui used a Stampendous clear stamp for the snow man, cut him apart and layered him onto black cardstock. I love how she set him slightly off the card. I'm not sure what stamp she used to create the bottom border. The hat stamp is from the same cleart set she coloured and layered onto black cardstock. I don't think I believe Jacqui is a non-stamper anymore.

Sept Challenge

Finally I am getting around to posting our last challenge cards. I am missing Barb's work however. Apparently she was scurrying around to get ready to go to play day and she forgot to pick up her cards. I will post it next week after play day on Sunday.



First is Darlene's card. She really captured the spirit of this challenge. I love the little dragonfly punch she used on the corners of her silver squares. In the next photo you can see that she dry embossed a beautiful flourish for added interest.




Jess reversed the design somewhat for this card. Somehow she managed to punch the nine patch and under the opening added some designer paper to create the base and then she used more paper from my stash to cut Tattered Florals from the Tim Holtz die. A gem in the centre of her layered flower finished her card.

Donna took a slightly different approach to this challenge and used really cute Nestibilities circles for her design. She used the clear Penny Black Beach Day set for all of her stamped images and an EK border punch to create the ocean bottom. Such a fun card!

Lauralee used Scattered Straw and Tumbled Glass Distress inks to create the background of her squares, alternating lines of colour to create a rainbow design. The stamp set is Set of Four from Stampin'Up that she stamped repeatedly altering the position of the stamps as she went across the inked page. The entire page was then embossed with clear. She punched out 1" squares and popped them across the top of the card. She stamped the dots and then punched from the inked background from above and popped a MS butterfly over the dots. Add a black gem and sentiment from Papertrey Ink. One beautiful card.

Birthday Wishes

My niece is celebrating her 8th birthday next week and I needed a card to send to her. Cassie is on reading week so I asked if she could fit making a card into her busy schedule while I was at work on Tuesday.

She coloured the Penny Black stamp with Copics and used a clear set of Hero Arts letters to "write" the sentiment. She tells me that was harder to do that she thought it would be. First she had the letters perfectly aligned but backwards and so she rearranged the letters but overlooked the "b" in birthday that should be a "d". Oh well Shannon is as I said 8, we are hoping she won't notice (sheepish grin). Shannon loves to stamp so in this card I sent a set of clear stamp that are only words for her to create with. Let's hope her birthday cards won't have stamped spelling errors.

ScrapFest Oshawa

I have been off sick since Rose-Marie & Tom got back from ScrapFest. This is the first time I have been able to get to the pictures Tom took while they were there. Shows are curious creatures, you can never be sure what the buying public will want nor can you be certain many people will visit your booth. ScrapFest Oshawa was fabulous, not only did people come they stayed for the day. Congratulations to the team at ScrapFest for taking the leap of faith and taking the initiative to launch a new show east of the GTA.

Kathy & Ray (aka Twink) worked the show with Tom & Rose-Marie. Twink & Kathy are often comedic relief in a what can be a long day.

A quiet moment before it really got busy. People came and went all day. It is always interesting to see what people have in their basket when they get to Kathy on cash.


Rose-Marie is a gracious host. She spends a great deal of time at these events doing demos and sharing different tips and techniques.

Thanks to everyone who came to Oshawa. We have already signed up to attend ScrapFest Kitchener and expect to be in Oshawa next fall as well.

Fun, fun, fun

The Open House has been so much fun. Everyone has enjoyed Rose-Marie's demos for the gorgeous Tim Holtz Distress Inks. Those inks have simply endless applications.

For next month we have a new day planned, the Pretty Paper party. Join us Nov. 20 from 2:00 until 4:00 for an afternoon of playing with paper. This is not a card or scrapbook day, you will be creating gift boxes or bags. The cost of this day is $5 (pre-paid) which includes a kit of paper, a template and instruction. I still need to get a few more details from Rose-Marie and possibly a photo of a sample project to share with you but this should be a fun afternoon.

We ask that you bring a basic class kit with you to the party.

Get Well Wishes

One of our Campbellford group plus one recently had surgery. We want her to know that the rest of the group is thinking of her and wish her a speedy recovery. Hugs girl.

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.