Wendy's Little Inklings

Liam's Birthday Picture Frame - courtesy of Michy!

My daughter Michelle was invited to a birthday party this afternoon for one of her classmates.  The invitation clearly stated that she wasn't supposed to bring a gift, but both she and I felt terrible that she wasn't able to bring something for Liam.  He's one of her favourite people, and Michelle wanted to give him something special.

We created a picture frame for him, using a frame that we had bought at the big M.  The funny part about it is that Liam's mom works at the big M!  Anyhow, we covered the frame with some Designer Series Paper that I had left over from last spring, added a ribbon, and Liam's name.

Michelle wanted to add a special picture, so she drew a picture on the heart that I cut out for the opening, and printed her name (she's 4 after all!).  Hopefully Liam likes his special Michy gift!

Short post tonight... it's been a long day, and the Olympic Closing Ceremonies are on.  There's a big Canadian Party going on across the country.  Cheers!

Cleaning, Purging, and Creating. Not necessarily in that order!

I've started to spring clean my house.  Yes, I know that spring hasn't shown up yet, but we've had such an odd winter that I have felt the urge to clean and purge.  The latest room to be subjected to the clean and purge is the office.  Up until New Year's, this was a combined office/library/stamping storage room.  When I moved the stampy stuff out, I had good intentions to go back in and reorganize the room right away.  Apparently "right away" meant two months later.  But I did it!  Here's the problem though... some of the stuff that was taken out of that room has ended up in my dining room.  And I now need to either do something with it, or get rid of it. 

My task for the next week (among many others!) is to do something with these things.  Here's a sample for you...

I love the Dollarama.  They have great stuff for stamping on.  The memo cube above?  I've had it for at least 2 years.  Time to do something with it!

It gets better.  Here is the current "box" of cards that are half finished, as well as a few favourites that I want to make again using current paper and colours.

Pathetic.  I really need to get this stuff out of here.  It's bothering me, and invading my stamping space!

One last photo for you.  This is much more fun than the first two.  It's the pile of stuff that I am going to play with for my Mom & Me Easter Class.  I found some more wonderful stuff at the Dollarama yesterday.  Combined with the pastel bags & fun foam that I already have, I think I can come up with some very cute Easter projects for the young stampers in the crowd.

Watch for details in my March newsletter.  If you're not on my mailing list, sign-up now in the upper left corner of my blog.  My next newsletter will be out next week!

Time to finish the planning for tomorrow's downline meeting.  I've got some great topics planned, as well as a couple of fun projects to complete.  I'll share photos after it's over.  If you ever want to come to a meeting, just to see what we do, we're always more than happy to have you here!

Happy Stamping!!

Scallop Trim Border on a Handmade Box

When I was designing boxes for this month's Boxes Galore class, I decided to try and create a box that had a Scallop Trim Border along the sides - just to see what it would look like.  The result is this box.

I love the colours on the stamped lid for this box - the other box that I've posted used Orchid Opulence, while this one is stamped in Rich Razzleberry.  The design is fairly common at this point.  The original was posted on SplitCoastStampers by Lori Rider, but it has been CASE'd by a lot of people.  All of the stamps come from the Vintage Vogue stamp set, currently available in the Occasions Mini Catalogue.

I punched the edges of the box using my Scallop Trim Border punch before assembling, and cut off any of the "not quite full" scallops to ensure a clean finish on the edge.  This is a great box for gifts - it holds up to 20 cards and envelopes, and it's an easy box to construct.

Tonight's a big Olympic night.  The Canadian Women's Curling Team are currently battling for Gold, there's some great Speedskating tonight, and Canada plays Slovakia for a chance to play for a Men's Hockey Gold medal on Sunday.  I wish all of the Canadian athletes the best of luck as they push for a great finish at these games.

I am taking some stamping into the other room though so... Happy Stamping! 

Another Sneak Peek of the Postponed Boxes Galore Class...

My Boxes Galore Class on Monday evening was postponed due to weather.  Yes, you read that right!  The ladies that came in the morning had wonderful weather, but by the time rush hour hit late in the day, it was nasty outside.  Most of North America has been snowed under this winter, but this part of Southern Ontario has received almost nothing.  Until now.  We received a few centimetres on Monday, and we're going to see quite a few more tonight and tomorrow.

Since I had to reschedule the class, I thought that I'd release another photo of one of the boxes that my class participants have made (and will be making!).

The class has been rescheduled to Monday, March 15th at 7:30pm.  If you'd like to come, you can register now by sending a quick e-mail to wendy@wendyslittleinklings.com.  I'll be more than happy to save a spot for you!

I'm loving the Olympics, but I'll be happy when they're over.  I've spent far too much time watching TV in the last two weeks, and I haven't gotten to bed before midnight since they started!!!  I'm off to watch more skating.  Until tomorrow, happy stamping!!! 

Happy Moments, Happy Birthday!

Sunday's Mom & Me Stamping Class participants each created three cards.  I've posted photos of two of the cards already, and here's the third.  This card is perfect for one of the men in your life because for the most part, men (and boys) don't like pink. 

This card is very easy to make, and the kids LOVED running their Whisper White Cardstock through the Big Shot using the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder.  Given the chance, I think that some of them would have been happy embossing paper all afternoon.

I gave the girls some Blender Pens, and demonstrated how to use them.  I was a tad nervous as it was the first time that I had ever given these pens to a group this young, but the girls did very well with them!  The girls found it a challenge not to over-work the colour on the card, but they did very well with it.  Over-working colour on Whisper White cardstock results in some balling of the paper - not something that you want on a card!

The Happy Moments set is one of the Sale-a-Bration sets that you can earn for free with a $65 purchase before March 31st.  It is perfect for colouring, and there's an image for every occasion.  Call me at 905-655-9347 or e-mail me at wendy@wendyslittleinklings.com to place your order now!

Happy Stamping! 

A Girly Build-a-Bear "Beary Best Friends" Card

Sunday was my monthly Mom & Me Stamping Class.  This month we had a crop of girls come over to make some birthday cards.  Every once in awhile I see a boy or two, but most of my younger stampers are girls. 

Today was a lousy, grey day to take photographs, so I didn't bother trying.  I really need to put together a good set-up to take photos of my projects inside of the house, and for tonight this table suited the purpose.

The girls stamped the bear from the Beary Best Friends stamp set, as well as the envelope on a scrap piece of paper.  The envelope isn't in the main Build-a-Bear set, but can be found in the new Beary Best Times set.  This is a great companion set as it includes many additional accessories that you can use with your Bear.  I stamped the Beary Nice Wishes sentiment using Brocade Blue ink ahead of time.  It was a fairly narrow strip of paper, and I didn't want any of the girls becoming frustrated with the process.

My sample card was coloured using ink and blender pens.  For the class, I left a pile of pencil crayons on the table as the bear is a tricky thing for adults to colour with Blender Pens. 

Watch for my Build-a-Bear special in March!  I will have some great Easter kits, as well as a promotion on the stamps themselves.

It's Olympic Hockey Time, and Team Canada is on the ice.  Happy Stamping, and Go Canada!   

A Brayered Blue Butterfly Accent

It's always nice when you find two different items that work very well together.  In this case, it's the Butterfly Accent stamp from the Occasions Mini Catalogue, and the Beautiful Butterflies die for the Big Shot.  They are the same size, and both were used to create something very soft and unique on this card.

This is the third card that we created during in my February Stamp Club class.  The brayer was used to layer the Bashful Blue and Brocade Blue ink onto the Glossy White cardstock, and the Brocade Blue 5/8" Grosgrain ribbon was added to finish the card off.  The sentiment is from the Sale-a-Bration set Whimsical Words. 

There's always space in my monthly Stamp Clubs for more stampers!  The Club is a terrific place to learn new techniques for your papercraft projects, and to build your collection of stamps, ink, paper and embellishments a little bit at a time. 

The March Stamp Club dates are:  Monday March 8th at 9:15am (full), Monday March 22nd at 7:30pm, and Thursday March 25th at 7:30pm.  Call me at 905-655-9347 or e-mail me at wendy@wendyslittleinklings.com to secure your space!

Happy Stamping!

Vellum, a brayer, and a stamp. Sounds like a plan!

As you know, we were playing with my brayer at this month's Stamp Club.  Brayers are totally underused, very misunderstood, but they are a valuable tool in our stamping arsenal.

Today's card is the second that we created during the Club.  It is a very big contrast to the Pretty in Pink card that you saw yesterday, but something that's always good to have in your box of finished cards.  Sympathy cards are never easy to make, and they're especially difficult when you have to make one quickly.

The subdued Old Olive and Chocolate Chip give the right kind of feel for this card.  The stamps are from the Thoughts and Prayers stamp set.  I love the tree in this set, and have used it four times on this card.  I didn't have a good option for the quiet stamping on the left side of the card, so I stamped it twice on an angle.  It gives it just enough without being overwhelming.

If you look closely, you will see a shadow on the vellum behind the tree.  We inked up the vellum using the brayer, and pulled the ink from the vellum.  Chocolate Chip 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, and piercing using a paper piercer and the Mat Pack finishes the card. 

A very solemn card, for a very solemn occasion.

Tomorrow we'll be back to something considerably brighter - butterflies!

Happy Stamping!

A new way to use your iron - Wax Paper Resist

One of my favourite ways to create an easy but fun background, is to pull out my iron (something that truly doesn't get used all that much in my house!), some waxed paper, and some Glossy cardstock.  When you combine this with your brayer and some ink, you can creat some very interesting pieces of art.

All of this month's Stamp Club projects used the brayer, something that sits in drawers everywhere, pining to get out and have a bit of fun.  This was our first project!

The Wax Paper Resist technique is something unique, yet fun!  To create this background I simply balled up the waxed paper, unwrapped it, and rescrunched it to ensure that I had a large number of creases in the paper.  You could easily fold the paper accordian-style, and then open it to have lines in your paper.  Folding it again the opposite way will produce squares. 

We used the Sale-a-Bration Happy Moments Clear-Mount stamp set, and the "D" Clear-Mount block for this project.  I chose a larger block so that we could mount both the birdcage and the sentiment on the block at the same time.  It allowed us to ensure that both stamps were straight, and we could cut our stamping time in half by stamping both at the same time - truly a benefit to using Clear-Mount stamps.  The ladies in the club LOVED it!

The 5/8" Satin Ribbon finished the project off nicely, and we used the super-secret-it was in my newsletter-ribbon saving trick.

Time to cut some paper for Mom & Me Stamping tomorrow!  The girls that are coming are all making birthday cards.  I posted one earlier this week, and I'll quickly post the other two after the weekend is over (maybe I'll even have some sunshine to help take decent pics of the cards!).

Happy Stamping!

Did you know that these Mini Catalogue Items are still available?

I know that I've posted this list before, but I saw it again this morning, and there are MORE of our favourite items on it!  Yippee!  I've been thinking about pulling out my Ornament Punch to make something spring-like with it, so this will give me that kick in the pants to do it.

Item # Description Price 116794 Ornament punch $22.95 116806 Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint $8.95 116854  Frost White Shimmer Paint $8.95 116807  Platinum Shimmer Paint $8.95 116829 Décor Elements Blocks $13.95 116824  Stampin' Up! Textured Impressions Folder Petals-A-Plenty $10.95 116821 Stampin' Up! Holiday Windows Magnetic Movers & Shapers  $39.95 116819 Stampin' Up! Table Setting Bigz XL die $57.95 116820 Stampin' Up! Embosslits Merry die $15.95 116823 Stampin' Up! Sizzlits Merry Details die $7.50 116822 Stampin' Up! O Christmas Tree Pop-Up Bigz XL die $57.95 118140  Stampin' Up! Tree Decorations Sizzlits die $7.50 118108 My Digital Studio $106.95 116519 Charming stamp set  $26.95

If anything on the above list catches your fancy, and you have to have it NOW, click on my Online Ordering button in the top right corner of my blog.  Alternately, you can drop me an e-mail to wendy@wendyslittleinklings.com or give me a call at 905-655-9347.

Happy Stamping!