Another Spirelli Technique

While doing a search for Spirelli instructions I came across another version as paper embroidery at http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90557

Playing with my Wishblade and Spirelli flowers

I was playing with my Wishblade and "traced" the spirelli flower shape so it can be cut in different sizes using Inkscape software. It was much easier than I thought it would be. Now off to create something with the shapes I cut. If I did it right it should be a layered flower with 3 sized layers.

The flowers are very close to the size of the Spirelli punches but if I used the middle one to layer you don't see the thread work on the larger one. Each of these flowers were done with green, red and yellow thread. Depending on how it is done they all look very different.

Notice the 2nd one on the bottom is showing you the back of the flower. Its very easy to do. Aaron and Jenna are working on their own. I don't know how many layers Aaron has done on his. Mine just have 3 layers of thread.

Tape the thread to the back of the shape. Bring it forward between 2 of the petals. Decide how big or small you want the center circle to be. The more petals between the thread smaller the circle will be. I often started with 8 petals between and wound the thread around keeping the same number of petals between where the thread comes up and then goes down toward the back. Just keep working around until you have 2 threads around each petal. Tape the thread to the back. Leave it as is or add another layer of thread using a different number of petals between the thread. Sound much more complicated than it is. Sorry. For those of you who are visual, here is a tutorial: http://www.stubbystampers.com/spirellisteps.htm

Splitcoaststampers List of noteworthy links

Who would have thought? My chipboard calendar and address book templates made a couple of lists of noteworthy links this week. Most recently in Splitcoaststampers SCS Weekly Inkling # 84 for November 28. Here is a link to newsletter archives. (the latest one isn't posted there yet. If you want a jest email me and I'll send it to you.) http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/newsletters.php

If you haven't already visited the site, don't say I didn't warn you that it is addictive. You can find the answer to almost any stamping questions there. You will have to sign in but it is free and well worth the stop.

I have picked up so much from Splitcoaststampers over the years its nice to be able to give something back.

December 2007 4" calendar template

Someone requested Dec. 2007 4" calendar template so here it is.

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7853044&posted=1#post7853044

I'm jealous

I'm jealous! Jenna, my 9 year old is going to see Anne of Green Gables at the Grand Theater in London, Ontario this afternoon with school. I had wanted to take her to continue our Christmas tradition we started last year of going to the Theater. I can't even go as a chaperone because I have to go with my husband to the hospital in Newberry so he can undergo a medical test. Oh well, we'll have to skip this year. I told her to enjoy herself. I'm sure I'll hear all about when she gets home from school.

Completed Chipboard Coaster Books

This one is the Chipboard Address Book put together with the Bind it all. Add a beaded pen with the recipient's name on it and you have a cute little gift.

The Chipboard Calendar Book has a pocket on each page where I can put my receipts.

US address book pages for 4" chipboard

I have uploaded the US version of the address book files to be printed on both sides of letter (4)and legal (6) size paper tohttp://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7806797&postcount=5


I have also added the Can. version of letter size to
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7726662#post7726662


Still haven't posted a sample but will soon.

Strathroy Santa Claus Parade

The 1st Strathroy Scouts celebrated Scouting's 100th Anniversary in style with their interpretation of the movie Ratatouillee. The float covered a transport flatbed trailer and went from dining room to kitchen and then Ratatouille in a large chef's hat. (Aaron is carrying the yellow Cub flag.) Awesome job guys!

4 X 4" chipboard calendar template

I took the 2008 chipboard calendar template from http://www.mayaroad.com/new/newsite/...um_insert.html and then transfered it to a word document so that it will print 4 months to an 8 1/2" X11" sheet of paper. I printed them on cardstock. Some of the outside lines are outside of the print margin but there is enough room to cut the calendar sheets 4 X4". The new corner rounder is perfect to round the bottom edges so that it fits nicely between 2- 4"chipboard coasters.

I have also saved it as a pdf file. *please note that to get the correct size in the print window change from fit to margins to none in the print window

I still can 't figure out how to upload the file here so have posted it at Splitcoaststampers at

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7796718#post7796718

My Wishblade is humming away

I'm playing with my Wishblade and its obediently cutting the files I am sending to it. Sure going through a stack of paper. Now I'll have to go and do something with all these great cutouts! Will post my creations.

Got to like the strength of the Canadian dollar

I picked up a copy of Creating Keepsakes this morning at Walmart and they charged me the American cover price. Much more reasonable to spend $5 something instead of $8.99. Puts me in the mood to scrapbook on this snowy day.

Wish I was packing my bags tonight.

I wish it was me who was packing their bag tonight. Alas the only trip I will be taking in the near future is going with my sister tomorrow to take Mom and Dad to Detroit so they can start their vacation. They will be going on a 10 day Panama Canal cruise aboard the ms Volendam with the Holland America Line. My Dad was pleased the name of the ship was ms Volendam. He sailed many years ago on a different ms Volendam to a different port of call. He served for the Dutch army in Indonesia.

If only I could go with them. Oh well I'll just have to dream and hope that in the not too distant future I too could be going on a cruise. In the meantime, I wish both Mom and Dad a wonderful vacation. I did give mom an extra 1 gig memory card for her camera so perhaps I can live vicariously upon their return.

Merry Xmas Card

Arthur really liked the let it snow card and asked me to make a card for the guys at work to give their team leader. He wanted me to use my Wishblade because John's wife has a Silhoette and he knew she would appreciate it. I found the file at the same place I found the let it snow card. http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/

The dark green is just so you can see the card. It is actually a semi circle with the Merry Xmas in mirror image on the red part so when it is folded in half the letters line up over each other. It will fit nicely in a 6" square envelope.

The patterned paper by Basic Grey inspired the spirelli using the pink Marvy lever scallop punch and silver cording. The greeting is by stamping up in silver with clear embossing powder as I am out of silver.

Let it Snow Card

I found this gorgeous file to use with my Wishblade over at http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/ done by Erika http://www.thephillipsons.net/. Her work is just incredible with all the detail. I hope that someday I will be able to create things even half as detailed.

I cut it this evening and want to add a little glitter to it to finish it off but wanted to share it with you because it certainly is a little different.

The card is actually a 1/2 circle with the words let it snow on the front and the inside back of the white card. (I put the blue behind just because it didn't show up on my scanner without it

My daughter has been stamping

Jenna went to a stamping class at Heather S. http://stampwithheather.typepad.com/

this morning and I must say Jenna is much more creative than I am with her colouring. That's why I've signed up for Heather's colouring class.

Jenna enjoyed using the liquid applique on the snowman gift box. She added glitter snowflakes to her ornament and achieved a cool look on craft coloured tags by outlining the stamped images in white gel pen.

Jenna has a special drawer in our craft room for her own stamp sets. She does let Mommy go use her stamps though so its a win win situation.

When we got home we made 18 beaded pens as part of family Christmas gifts. Its nice now that she is old enough to help me with our projects.

Origami Photo Wallet

Eliz's daughter-in-law, Stacey http://confessionsofastampoholic.blogspot.com/ gave her an adorable birth announcement for Brady. It was complete with lots of pockets which Stacey filled with gorgeous wallet size photos of their adorable son. I must admit I have been doing scrapbooking and stamping a long time and this was something I have never seen before. I did a google search and found it under Origami Wallet but it used different sized paper. Then I did a search through the blogs I follow and have not found it there so here goes: ( To make printing instructions easier, this file is posted as a word document at Splitcoaststampers http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7743674#post7743674

Origami Photo Wallet

Materials required

1 double sided piece of 12 X 12" paper, (I used one sided so it was easier to see)

Assorted wallet size photos,

stamps, brads, eyelets, ribbon to embellish the wallet

Score the paper at 1/2", 3", 6" 9" and 11 1/2"

Turn 90 degrees and score at 4" and 8 1/2"

Turn back to starting position.

Fold in at the 1/2" and the 11 1/2" lines

Fold each corner in so that it meets the next score line

Fold in at 3 and at 9" score lines so the edges meet in the middle.

Flip over and fold at 4" and 8 1/4" score lines

Slip the piece that has been scored at 4" in behind the corner flaps of the 4 1/4" piece
This is the inside of your wallet. Note all the pockets to put photos. Decorate as desired.

Chipboard address books

Eliz and I have spent the last week trying to figure out how to print address book pages on both sides of a 12" paper to fit a chipboard coaster book . We downloaded the template from http://www.mayaroad.com/classes/AddressPages.pdf
and played with that one unsuccessfully. We even had the girls at Staples trying to get it printed out on both sides of legal size paper and have them line up when you cut them. No success.
Finally on Eliz's suggestion I retyped the pages eliminating the cutting lines and got it to print properly. Don't know how to attach it to this post so will post it at Splitcoaststampers and will add the link to that. The one I have is a Canadian version with city, province and postal code.
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7726662#post7726662
For an American version you just have to change to State and Zip code.

Setting up a craft room?

If you are local and setting up a craft room this might interest you.

18 drawer Wooden storage unit perfect for stamps. 52 inches high, 10 inches deep and 14 inches wide. 12 small and 6 Large shelves. The top 12 drawers would hold at least a layer of stamps. The bottom 6 drawers are about double the depth. A friend of mine has 1 unit for sale. $125.00 Make an offer. Email me.

More $1.50 stamps and gorgeous winter ribbon from Michaels

I stopped at Michaels yesterday to see if I could find any of the $1.50 Christmas stamps the girls at http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ were talking about and Michaels did it to me again. In addition to the Canada stamps they had out they also had brand new all occassion stamps in their assorted bins. I did show restraint and only picked up only a few this time. Thought I was doing well until I spied gorgeous Winter ribbon in the bin right next to the checkout.

For those of you in Canada there is a bonus 50% off coupon for Friday as well as their 40% off one for the whole week.

Glitter

Glitter. I love it and hate it all at the same time. I consider myself an experienced stamper/scrapbooker but for the life of me cannot use glitter without gettting it all over my card, work surface and me. It follows me everywhere. Even to bed. I can have a bath or shower and its still with me.
I even went to a Tuesday Bargain class at the Rubber Room in London yesterday to do a card with glitter hoping they would have some magical system since 95% of the cards on display have glitter on them. They used coffee filters to hold the glitter. Again it followed me home somehow.
I use a shallow tupperware type container with a lid to store and use all my embossing powders and glitters. Still every time I use it my husband says I have a sparkling personality.
Any suggestions? How do you contain your glitter?
Or should I just take my young friend Braedon's take on things. She says "you can never have enough glam!"

Chirstmas Cookie Decorating Kit

I have one of these left from the craft sale and my kids can't wait to get into it.

You can't see the jar of frosting tucked in it with the gingerbread stamped on the lid. A matching gingerbread was attached to the Pill container filled with holiday sprinkles.

Back online painlessly

For anyone in the area, I would highly recommend Superior Computers in Lambeth for sick computers. I dragged Arthur with me in case we had to make a decision about the fate of our computer. I should have let him go to bed after coming off nights. The technician cleaned out the inside of the computer. Dust bunnies had gotten in the way of things and now everything works fine. What a relief.
They didn't even charge us for the time he spent on it.
I have taken other computers {even ones bought 2nd hand elsewhere) there and received wonderful often on the spot service.
Good thing I didn't have to leave it at the shop. As it is, I already have 300 blog entries to go through before I'm caught up! Not to mention countless emails.

some craft show items

Just a few photos from yesterday's school craft fair table. We were pleased with the results.

Craft sale is over

Our school craft sale is over so we can relax for a while. Our table looked awesome and Aaron and Jenna worked hard setting up and selling until about 1 pm when they walked home. I stayed to finish up. Our biggest sellers were This Years Version of Chocolate Fudge, Tooth Fairy Boxes, Snowman seeds, Pet Treats, Hot Chocolate, Mints and Christmas Coookie Decorating Kits. Took lots of pictures but that will have to wait until I have access to another computer. Aaron and Jenna were well rewarded for their contributions, Jenna for her stamping and both Jenna Aaron for working today. They both took care of the selling, the money and making change.
We contributed to the school fundraiser by buying the table space, decorations the children of the school made, raffle tickets for prizes donated by vendors, cookies from the grade 8's table and having pie with a beverage in the Tea Room.
It was nice to see so many kids manning the school booths and the Tea Room. Great Job guys! Thanks to the many familiar adults volunteering their time and the ever suportive teachers who supported by their attendance to make the event a success.
PS: I heard this morning that the craft sale raised $700 for the school. Way to go!!!!!

I'm still here

I have not updated my blog this week because we have been busy preparing for the school craft sale and tea room this Saturday. I have lots of cute things to show you and will post them when I get a chance later today or tomorrow. In the mean time here is a list of some of the things and the verses I have used.

This Year's Homemade Christmas Fudge,
A day or two ago
We thought we'd make a treat
For all our special friends
A Christmas gift to eat
Our intentions were top notch
But our schedules would not budge
Hence, here's this years edition
of homemade Christmas Fudge.

Dog Treats
acetate box with rawhide bones

Cat Treats
acetate box with cat toys

Snowman seeds
To have a merry Christmas
Peek inside this bag here
Filled with seeds for snowmen
to bring your winter cheer
No, you can't really sow them
But "plant" one on your tongure
and if they make you grow a smile
Then their Christmas job is done

Rudolf's nose repair kit
Rudolf's nose is very bright
He helps guide Santa's sleigh
Without it in the dark night sky
They might not find their way
So just in case dear Rudy's nose
is kaput and goes on the blink
We hve these spare "Red Nose Seeds"
to repair him in a wink

Tooth Fairy Boxes
Dear Tooth Fairy
I have a little tooth in here
Which I barely lost today
And I will not even shed a tear
If you will kindly come my way!

Christmas Cookie Decorating Kits
Decorated pail filled with
shortbread cookies
white icing
candy decorations


Magic Reindeer Food
Sprinkle on the lawn at night
The moon will make it sparkle
As Santa's reindeer fly and roam
This will guide them to your home

ps: Thanks Eliz for your generous contribution of striped mints, hot chocolate and
hand knit dish cloths. It was much appreciated.

Great template site for journals, perpetual calendars, recipe cards

Was looking for a file on my computer for a perpetual calendar but could not find it. I gave them as Christmas gifts a few years ago but didn't keep one for myself. Thought it would be nice to make some more. Searched Splitcoaststampers and they recommended this site. It had exactly what I was looking for. And since I am going to pick up my bind it all on Tuesday think I may find some ohter things useful
http://www.heartprints.net/gallery/templates/

Take note of the little things

Enjoyed the sunset this evening on the way home from London. The photos don't do it justice. It was a lot more vibrant.

Taking a small break from cardmaking

Here are some of the cards Jenna and I created for for Southdale School Craft Sale and Tea Room next Saturday. (Eliz, I have 95 cards made so far and Jenna stamped about 30 of them.)

The first is cased from Heather Summers did at her Merry and Bright Class. http://stampwithheather.typepad.com/stamp_with_heather/2007/08/enough-teasingm.html

The second one from her fundraiser projects http://stampwithheather.typepad.com/stamp_with_heather/2007/10/fundraiser-proj.html

Jenna helped with this one.

The third one Jenna stamped doing masking and she also embossed the Season's Greetings on some of the cards.

The last ones were creations using the snowman. glitter and a gem for the pom pom on the hat.

Still have lots of projects I could do depending on the amount of time I have this week.

No Hallowe'en Photos

I've been spending a little time blog surfing and looking at all the kids in cute Hallowe'en costumes. I'm very sad to say I didn't even take photos of my 2. I don't know what I was thinking (or not). What are the chances of getting them to model the kitten and the pirate costumes? Wish me luck!

November page maps are available.

Just received an email that the November page maps are up. www.pagemaps.com
Check them out.