Opinions needed!

I'm going to a huge baby shower on Sunday afternoon and wanted to bring a little gift. It's for our children's pastor and seeing as all of her volunteers and home church members are invited, I'll be one of many. I decided to make a set of thank you notes. I'm always a little unsure of giving thank you notes - it seems a little presumptuous to me, but they're always really appreciated so I'm going with them. So here's my dilemma - I really like the way this card turned out - but I did something that I don't normally do. Usually I make a card front and adhere it to a piece of cardstock that I score and make into a card. In this case, I wanted to use the card itself as part of the design and I wanted to sew the panel on. So the inside of the card shows the backside of the stitching. I kind of like the look, but my hubby didn't. What do you think? Be honest! Is it o.k. that the stitching is showing or not?

Mellow Bella

First off - this isn't the card I was referring to yesterday. That one isn't "quite" ready but hopefully later tonight and then I'll post it. I needed some fallish birthday cards so I used another one of my previously coloured bellas and matched it up to this beautiful Basic Grey Mellow paper. I made the scalloped border with my corner rounder (guide removed) and added a felt flower for embellishment. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things - I really like their sentiments and fonts and they're coming out with a new sentiments only set on Nov. 1st - can't wait to see it.

Posie Bella

This is one of the bellas I sat down and coloured the other day. I think I coloured about 10 of them so I wouldn't have to do them one at a time. I matched this one up to this pretty paper from the DCWV Posie stack - it's really glittery in person although you can't tell from the picture. A little sewing, a prima flower, rhinestone brad, ribbon and some bling in the corner and it's all good! Sentiment is from My Favorite Things and the cardstock is Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie and Certainly Celery. This one is to sell and so I've been trying to cut my patterned paper in 4x4 squares to make them go farther as Michelle Wooderson does (I so want to be like her when I grow up!).
We've had a busy day today and it isn't over yet! This morning we had friends over to ice and decorate halloween cookies. Tonight we need to carve our pumpkins as we're out tomorrow night and Riley has Beavers.
I have a card to post tomorrow that is so far out of my comfort zone - but I'm really pleased with it. Thanks for reading!

Liquid Glue Review

So I've been trying out some different liquid glues lately and thought I'd share what I've found. I've always been a fan of Tombow Mono Multi liquid glue. I love the dual applicator and the ability to use it both as a removable or permanent adhesive. I love that you use so little and it sticks like the dickens! I love that you have a little "wiggle" time to move things once you adhere two surfaces together. But since my local scrapbook store closed, I've had a hard time finding it. None of the other stores in my area carry it. I did stock up on some the last time I was in Calgary - but paid way too much for it. Thus my search for another glue.

The first one I tried was Zip Dry Scrapbook glue. I had heard great things about it online and it was available at Michaels. I can't remember the price but I know I used a coupon for it. If memory serves me - I think it was $10 and cost me $6 after the 40% coupon. The first thing that struck me when I opened it was the smell. This definitely has a strong smell and requires good ventilation. It also had a big flammable warning on it. The glue performed well other than being a little stringy (when you're tapering off the glue and you get a little fly-away string of glue in the air). The part I really dislike about the Zip Dry though is the way the tip gets clogged after each use. I tried to store a pin in the hole, I tried storing it upside down - nothing worked for me. The things I liked about it was that it didn't soak through ribbon when I used it to adhere it, it worked well on metal, and you didn't need very much. It had the same "wiggle" time as Mono Multi as well.

After my trials with the stuck nozzle on the Zip Dry, I tried Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive. I must admit that Julia Stainton's review of this product pushed me to buy it (I love Julia's blog - her work is amazing!). I also bought this product at Michaels and I know that it was $10 and I used a coupon which made it $6. I have mixed feelings about this glue. I liked that it was very economical, the applicator is a nice fine tip and didn't clog between uses. I didn't like that it warped my cards and it oozed through my sewing machine stitching. Perhaps it was user error in that I used too much and shouldn't have glued over the stitching - but I was able to do the exact same thing with the Mono Multi without the oozing and warping.

So my pick is still the good old Tombow Mono Multi. Good news for me - I picked up 4 bottles of Mono Multi at Archiver's last weekend in Kansas City!! That should last me a good long time. I paid $2.99 per bottle. I haven't done the math to see which is the cheapest option - I'm pretty sure the Mono must work out to be the most expensive - but it takes me quite a while to go through a bottle. And I'd rather pay a little extra to prevent the swear words from falling out of my mouth. Liquid glues are so much cheaper than tape runners and stick so much better. If you haven't tried one yet - I would highly recommend it!

Snowflake using Tag Punches

I created this card based on this tutorial posted on SCS. I own the Stampin' Up tag punches and thought it was such an ingenious way to use them! I used metallic paper and glued the outlines of the tags to vellum. I layered two snowflakes on top of each other with a foam square between them for dimension. Although the look is beautiful - it's a lot of work! Definitely not something I'll be mass producing but a special card for someone special!

Home from Kansas City!!

Finally - we made it home! I think I neglected to tell you that we were taking a road trip to Kansas City, MO for a conference. We left Thursday afternoon and got home late last night. I had hoped to blog along the way, but we were pressed for time and I didn't get a chance! I'm busy unpacking, doing laundry, and baking and cleaning my house because we're hosting our Home Church here tonight. I did want to post some of my new goodies!! It cost me $99.60 to buy $100 US. How cool is that?! Needless to say, we took advantage of our strong canadian dollar and did some shopping. Before we left, I placed an order with Papertrey Ink. and had it shipped to my mother-in-law who lives in GA. She met us in Kansas City to take care of our kids while we were at our conference.

Look how the acrylic block I ordered came in this pretty organza bag! What beautiful packaging they have. I also got spoiled because my mother-in-law bought me this early birthday present.

This is a tool tote that has a rotating base and room for all my stuff I use on a daily basis. I'm looking forward to filling it and being able to see the top of my stamping desk again! The little mini one came with it - how cute eh?

And I was lucky enough to get to hit an Archivers. I had all of about 10 mins. to shop but managed to grab these.

The glue dots and Mono Multi glue were much cheaper there than I can get them here! I have a post coming up with a review of liquid glues - can you guess which one won based on what I bought?

I hope to have time to actually sit down and use some of my new goodies - but it will have to be tomorrow. If I have time today, I have a Christmas card to post, otherwise it will be tomorrow! Hope you're all having a great week!

Christmas Cardinal

I just love these new stamps. They are from Stamps by Judith and I just fell in love with this little cardinal. Even though he doesn't have a face, he just "speaks" to me. I coloured him with prismas and gamsol and embossed the whole panel with irridescent embossing powder (thus the difficulty taking the picture). The papers are Making Memories from a couple years ago and the sentiment is from Stampendous embossed in gold embossing powder. I really like how this one turned out.

I have an extra 2 kids today so I won't be around much. Hope you have a good day!

What's in a Name?

Here is one of the name frames I've made recently. Not much stamping here - just the letters of the name. The rest is patterned paper and various embellishments. Oh and just so I give credit where it's due - my hubby painted the frame and assembled it all together at the end. Be back later!!

A Total No Brainer!!

Did you know that Josh Groban just released a Christmas album (Oct. 8th)?? I just found out today and immediately bought and downloaded it from Itunes. I've been saying for years that he needed to do a Christmas album so this was a no brainer purchase for me! Now if only I could convince my hubby that it's not too early to start listening to it!

Long time no blog!

It feels like forever since I've posted - sorry! I'm just finishing up my contract with the school board and am also trying to fill a card order. I've been thinking a lot about Christmas cards and have finally ordered all the stamps for our family cards as well as sets to make Christmas cards to sell! Can't wait till they all come in and I can play. I did pick a couple up this week and managed to squeak one card out.

I love embossing in silver and gold - it's just so elegant. The stamps are from Stampendous and are embossed with silver powder. The "peace" sentiment is actually embossed onto acetate and then securedon top of the patterned paper with brads. The paper is Basic Grey left over from last year - so pretty! The layout is pretty uninspired, but I think the overall look is pretty.

I have another name frame to finish this weekend - which is good because I forgot to take a picture of the last one I finished. We're off to the pumpkin patch today - have a great Saturday!

P.S. Can I share one pic of my daughter? She's such a ham - yes that's a colander on her head!!

The other kind of eye candy!!

Another blog I visit frequently is called Cookie Madness. Anna posts all kinds of recipes - mainly cookies - and I decided to try this muffin recipe that she posted the other day.

William Shatner’s Cappuccino Chip Muffins
2 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg (room temp)
1 cup milk (room temp)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips or equivalent of other chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with flour-added cooking spray. For bigger muffins, spray 8 of the cups.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, cinnamon and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk egg lightly. Whisk in milk, melted butter and vanilla extract. Make a well in center of dry ingredients and pour in milk mixture. Stir just until evenly blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
Divide batter among 12 or 8 greased muffin cups. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.
Makes 8-12 muffins

I thought they were really good - especially with coffee - although I think next time I'll add a touch more espresso powder to them.

Happy World Card Making Day!

Apparently today is World Card Making Day!! So I decided to make a card - or two, or twenty five. I'm working on a card order so I'm in mass production mode, but I did manage to come up with something original. I'd been wanting to try a criss-cross card ever since I saw the tutorial on SCS, so I finally made it happen. The paper is from the MME Costco stack and the stamp is from the $1 bin at Michaels. I coloured the pumpkins with my prismas and gamsol. I've been so productive so I have lots to show you - a name frame and some treat containers to name a few! See you later!

You're a Hoot!!

I absolutely love these owl stamps and this is the first time this one has seen ink! It was perfect for the sketch challenge at SCS this past week. I think this one also qualifies for the Ways to Use it challenge too since I used twill for my sentiment. Coloured it using my prismas and gamsol and it is mounted on sage shadown cardstock with some MME patterned paper. Hope all you fellow canucks have a wonderful thanksgiving!

Quick Kids Apology Card

My son belted one of his friends in the stomach yesterday. I was beyond appalled (and more than a little embarrassed!). Mind you they were both fried and tired, but no excuses right? So together we made this card for him to give to his friend Kyla to apologize (as he wouldn't apologize yesterday). I already had the image (Daphne from C.C. Designs) coloured (prismas and gamsol) and so together we decided where it should go and what else it needed on it. Hopefully Kyla likes it and accepts Riley's apology!

File Folder Card

I made this card for Beate's weekend sketch challenge. This week's challenge was to make a file folder card. I think this turned out super cute. I used Sage Shadow cardstock and matched it to some Amy Butler patterned paper. I paper pieced the dress on the coffee drinker using the reverse side of the main paper. I made the tab using my Quickutz die since I don't have the Stampin Up tab punch. The stamps are Hot Stuff from My Favorite Things. Speaking of which, MFT has 5 new stamp sets that debuted at midnight and they are awesome. Now to decide whether I need them all! I love the Sweets set and the Boho set.