Christmas Must Be in the Air

I know November is not even done but I seem to be in the spirit of it all this year, much earlier than I have in the past.  I've been crafting up some holiday projects and thought I would share them with you.

A few weeks ago at Pointer Scrapbooking  I took a class with the every talentated Virgina Nebel (if you get a chance to take a class with her - do it!  She is full of incredible knowledge).  In this class she taught us several techniques in brushed velvet glitter. It was so much fun!

I also put together my quilt from that swap I did on All Things Tim yahoo group. We got back some fabulous pieces. I didn't quite put it together as was planned because I tried to balance out the colours. There is so much technique and vintage goodness on this quilt.  I can't wait to sit down and make my "regular" Tim quilt.

A few years ago I made an advent calendar for my son using the Karen Foster kit. I was cleaning out my room and  I had an extra calendar sitting around, so I  decided to make one for my nephew. These are so much fun to make and you can use up all those extra bits and pieces of Christmas ephemera to decorate.

I think I will tackle Christmas cards next!!!!

World's Slowest Knitter

I love sweaters and I love yarn. So I taught myself to knit about 10 years ago (yikes that long ago?!?!).  I had learned to knit when I was really young but did not pursue it much after that mutilated scarf I made as a child. I held onto the needles from my childhood and coveted the knitting book my mother gave me.  As an adult, I decided to re-teach myself this skill.   I've made many of scarves, hats, mitts and one disaster sweater for myself, but I figured I could take on a child's sweater - easy right? 

I started this sweater when M. was about 2 years old. That was 3 years ago. Good thing I had the forethought to perhaps make it bigger and in fact I checked, it was a size 6 - perfect for right now. So what was holding me up - no clue. I just have to finish the sleeves and then the collar. So by blogging about it, it makes me accountable, I need to finish up this baby! Keep posted, I will get it done before he turns 10 or 18......  Maybe my nephew will get this!

Scrapfest Fall 2012

This past weekend I had a fantastic time, hanging out with my Scrappy friends at Scrapfest out in Oshawa.

My friend Rana (a card maker extraordinaire) made this awesome collage in Instagram. 

I love seeing all my friends and all the inspiration. Like I've said in the past, the make and takes alone make this totally worth a visit!   I also got about 3 layouts done at the crop, which considering I had only one real day to crop, is not too shabby. When I get a chance I will try an post those here.

My Friday I spent helping Heidi and Simon out at the Pointer Scrapbooking booth with set up,  and later did this make and take in their booth.

I was inspired to use the Collage Glue stick technique that was shown on Ranger's site.  Here are the steps, all supples are available from Pointer Scrapbooking.

I made a foam stamp out of Tim Holtz's Flourish die and stamped using the collage stick as my "ink".  Dried it with a heat gun, followed by a heavy dose of Barn door distress ink.  I then used a baby wipe and pulled off the collage stick mask, dried the tag again, and added a bit more ink.  The paper line I used was the new Teresa Collins' christmas line, the bird is the Prima resists canvas and the twine is from Queen & Co.

How to Unclog your Sprays

I openly admit that I have a problem. I'm highly addicted to the spray mists that are out in the market (as can been seen with my "small" collection).

The thing is that these babies get clogged pretty easily. So after some colourful language that has left my mouth, I think I finally figured out what everyone was talking about when they said "just run it under water" to clear the nozzle! Here is a mini tutorial with photos to maybe help some of you that ran into the problems that I had. I will say that in the end, I unclogged all my sprays....Happy Dance!

Remove spray top and run warm water over nozzle hole to get rid of ink.  Pump until all ink has cleared the transfer tube.

Pull off top and run warm water through nozzle cap


Also run water through transfer tube from top area, pushing down the "exit tip".  Should clear out all the "gunk"

 Replace the nozzle cap and start pumping warm water through. If the first run does not work, repeat again. Usually by the second try, it is working fine for me.

ATT Swap

Crazy me, on top of all my other obligations, I decided to join the swap on the All Things Tim group - Christmas Pandemonium canvas.  I think this will be loads of fun and inspiration.  I was responsible for a 2x3 section and that was actually a challenge for me because I didn't have lots of room for what I originally envisioned.  But I did it and here it is!

I covered the grunge board with text paper, inking the edges with distress ink. I then stamped one of Tim Holtz's flourish stamps using archival ink in the corner. The tickets were cut out using Tim's die and stamped followed by a coating of distress Stickles and the "25" highlighted with regular Stickles. The pearls were originally pink and I coated them with white and silver alcohol ink (I think that was my favourite part) . Next the ribbon was  inked with spray inks and all attached to the paperclip.  I finished all 27 in time and into the mail it goes!  Looking forward to all the others coming back! Stayed tuned.

Getting Inky with Anna Dabrowska

I was so happy to have participated in a Prima Marketing workshop with Anna Dabrowska ,who travelled all the way from Poland, to teach at the Art House Studio in K-W.  We spent several hours getting inky and it was tremendous fun.  Here are some photos from that fabulous day.


The cover I made, with all the mixed media goodness. So many fantastic layers and ink. Love it!

Nadya and I with our inky goodness. Check out Nadya's blog for her beautiful cover.

And my lovely hands afterwards. I took me 2 days with a craft scrubbie to get that stuff off!

This class was so mucih fun. It was interesting to see Anna's process and the ideas we got from just doing that cover alone, was well worth the class. I have 2 pages done for my book which I will post shortly.  I plan on using this album as a document of my mom's life but we'll see. It seems to be speaking to me in that way.

I am so fortunate

To be surrounded by loving people. July I reached my milestone birthday and celebrated it first at the crop at Pointer Scrapbooking.  Lots of lovely cards from the customers and a great cake to share with everyone.

Thanks to Heidi and all the wonderful customers at Pointer's who kicked off my celebrations.

I was then given a great party from my family. And even though the surprise of the party was up(thanks to some forgetful friends), what was a big surprise was the fact that it was 80's themed. Almost everyone showed up in costume - it was awesome!

Love my family and friends!  It has been an awesome birthday!

Abandoned

Yikes, I have been a terrible blogger. Too much on my plate these days to keep up. I will say though that I have been trying to incorporate crafty things into my week, so I have plenty to share.
First up is this fabulous tag I won from Christine Urias' blog which she got from the amazing Tim Holtz at CHA winter 2012 show. I'm such a happy camper!
More craftiness to share this weekend for sure!

Tim's new online class

I know I can't stop talking about this guy but I think he is a creative genius and a marketing machine. I can't get enough. So Tim Holtz will be teaching this online class over at Online Card Classes in March and of course I've signed up.  (And come on - it's got Chemistry - I have to take it!)  I've taken Jennifer McQuire's class previously and it was fantastic.  I'm guessing this will be the same calibre and I'm so looking forward to when it starts.

Seems I'm up to one post a month

I'm a very happy crafter! I was a very lucky commenter on Tim Holtz's blog and won these awesome stamps from his CHA Winter release. Happy dance!
I will try and post some of my most recent work shortly but thought I would do a shout out on my blog cause I'm just a happy crafter now!

My Tim Tags - finally!

Happy New Year - 2 weeks later

Wow! Happy New Year blog readers! I have no idea how time is escaping me these days but it all seems a blur. I can not believe we are in 2012 already! I have been pretty busy these days and have plenty to share in the next little bit, including some of the tags I did for the 12 tags (I got up to 10). Off to scan and photograph my stuff to share!