My Grandma's Teacups

One of the absolute best parts of having a craft business is that you meet the most talented people. The other day I was fortunate enough to have Denise Marchetti in my studio. Denise was telling me about this amazing calendar that she had created using her Prima Stamps. I was intrigued and she promised to share pictures of her masterpiece as soon as possible. Well guess what, she sent them to me Thursday. So knowing me as as you do, of course it took me until now to to get everything organized to share them.

Here we are: Denise Marchetti's Prima Doll Calendar.

January, is birthday theme as my daughter and granddaughter are  both January babies I used anything I had on hand that  would go with my theme.great idea to use scraps and from your stash!

February: Valentine's Day

March: Easter is in March 2016

April: Vacation theme

May: Bring in May flowers from stamps I have

June: Used stamp of the month from close to my heart  and SU lovely as a tree

July was paper piecing to create a scene at the beach

August is stickers from leftover packages I had

September is back to school

October: My favourite one is large spider web stamp embossed  with black and then spiders are from die and so are pumpkins

November: Leaves falling (some distressing and inking)

December: Waiting for Santa santa in window is fussy cut from paper  and then place behind acetate and then window die cut.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful calendar with us Denise. It is wonderful to have a chance to see the versatility of these adorable stamps.

I have a small confession to make. I never got the whole Washi Fever everyone seemed to on this past year. It seemed every papercrafting company and craft direct sales line was toting a boatload of washi tape in every width, colour and pattern imaginable. I did not get it....its paper on masking tape right? I was mildly intrigued when I started to see videos pop up on YouTube with people making their own washi tape using markers and inks on medical tape.I even went so far as to purchase a few rolls of it from the dollar store, but alas I have a couple of rough and tumble boys that required it before I got a chance to alter it.

I have always loved planners and as I watched all the instagram and Pinterest posts go by I noticed a new trend. Washi Tape seemed to have taken over the monthly and weekly calendars of all my friends.

It did not stop there. I started noticing it in home decorating posts and party favours. How did this simple combination of scrapbook design and tape gain such notoriety???? The short answer is...because it's so simple. Without getting out your scissors, paper or glue you can personalize everything from planners to light switches. Now a $1 notebook from the dollar tree can be customized to look like the high end journals from Indego and Chapters.

So this is my official surrender. I am jumping in. My next order that should come in next week will include a large assortment of Washi Tape. I have no definite plans for it yet, but you can be sure that I will be scouring the pages of Pinterest for ideas. Be sure to watch out for my next haul video (hopefully on Periscope) to see what I have to work with.

Leave a comment with your favourite use for Washi Tape, or post a link to a picture of your Washi Stash. Be sure to follow my Wonderful Washi Board on Pinterest to get some inspiration on how to use this sticky wonder tape.




Follow My Grandma's Teacups's board Wonderful Washi on Pinterest.

I have officially caught my first really bad cold of the season. It has been a good excuse to cozy up with the September New Goods Catalogue and preview the new lines available for Christmas crafting. I know you don't want to think about Christmas yet, but if you are planning on creating homemade cards or papercrafts its time to start thinking about supplies.

Fabscraps: Christmas Joy Collection

Fabscraps has become one of my favourite paper suppliers. I love the vintage feel and muted colours in this collection. I can see some lovely cards being created with this paper.

Graphic 45: Twas The Night Before Christmas

This collection from Graphic 45 was previously released but I am glad to see it make a comeback. It features all the traditional colours and themes that I remember of Christmas' in my childhood. I have purchased the stamps and paper for a mini album I want to make before Christmas. If you are looking for a more Victorian feel for your crafts, the new "A Christmas Carol" line is already available.

Kaisercraft: Yuletide Collection

My Minds Eye: Joyous Collection

Don't forget the trim and twine to finish off your projects. Maya Road makes beautiful twine.

As a crafter I try to make sure that I invest in products that I will be able to get a lot of mileage from. That is why I tend to to shy away from buying oodles of premade embellishments, single purpose tools and basically anything that I am not going to be able to use for many years. There is nothing worse than buyers remorse after purchasing a really cool crafting supply only to see it languish on your workbench waiting for a purpose.

 One of the most versatile papercrafting tools that you can get are embossing folders. You can buy the expensive sizzix or cuttlebug folders (and I have many times) but if you want to build a large selection Darice makes a huge collection of folders that are just as good (and about 1/3) of the price). The reason that I am so crazy about embossing folders is their versatility. You can do so much more than just dry emboss paper.

 

These are five of my favourite techniques.

Wax Resist:

As I was organizing my studio (ok, I lost some stamps and was just moving piles of paper around), I came across our club layout from August. I wanted to be sure that I shared it with you because if you have not worked with this line yet drop everything and go get some before it retires. It is very vintage and classy in true Graphic 45 style. I did find the colours a bit 4th of July but it was fun to work with as a beachy backdrop to some of the summer pictures I snapped of the kids.

The collection was challenging to work with from a design perspective because even the "solids and stripes" type patterns were very busy. The images were so cute though that it was definitely worth the effort.

The layouts are from the Cricut Artbooking cartridge and I think that they were a perfect match for the playfulness of this line.

Scrapbooking

Have you been practicing with your Copic markers this week? I hope you are following along with our club as we explore the wonder of working with alcohol markers.

We attempted two new techniques in this session:

Copic Markers

Our first Copic club was in August and we had so so much fun practicing colouring random stamped images. We began with an overview of the copic colour code. Bet you didn't know there was a code did you? Well, there is, and once you understand it you will be able to follow the rules or throw caution to the wind and create beautiful pieces of art.

So what is the Copic Colour System?

The Copic Colour System identifies and labels each Copic Colour based on the color’s individual: Colour Family, Saturation Number & Brightness Number.

• The Colour Family indicates what sort of color, i.e. red, blue-green, orange, etc.

• The Saturation Number indicates how “rich” or how “dull” the colour will appear (higher number = more dull)

• The Brightness Number indicates how “dark” the color will appear (Higher number = darker)

As I told you I have been enjoying my free time at the camp with my family. This year the children are just that little bit older and I am finding that I spend much of my time on my deck overseeing the activities of the kidlets and their friends and less time actually being right on top of them supervising. It has been a strange shift. I have been monitoring the activities of wee ones for so long I don't remember what it is like to just sit and relax. I have to admit, I am enjoying it.

I promised my hubby to limit the amount of craft material that I take to the trailer this year. Last year he would arrive for a relaxing weekend only to find his side of the bed had been taken over by my cricut and loads of paper. This year I stick to one 12x12 thirty-one bag which holds my marker bag, stamp block bag, paper and stamps. The stamps I have been carrying all summer are my Julie Nutting Paper Doll Stamps. I was talking to Julie a couple of weeks ago about the possibility of joining us here on the blog, but lucky for us she is busy with getting the new designs out. Its ok Julie, we love your work!

If you have not tried using alcohol markers for your stamped images yet, you are in for a treat. Alcohol markers are very pricey so if your budget does not allow you to go out and buy a collection there are some great alternative. Bic makes a great line of alcohol markers that work really well. You won't get the colour variety of some of the big lines but it is a great place to start. If you are ok with slowly building your collection, try to purchase your markers in 3s. You always want to have a light , medium and dark for each colour. I started with flesh tones as I am a huge fan of Magnolia Stamps and now all the Prima Paper Dolls stamps. By using the alcohol markers to define the skin tone I am able to use other mediums to colour the clothing and accessories.

These are a few of the designs I have been working on:


Bridesmaids Prom Queen First Day of School

Prima Doll Paper Piecing Prima Doll Paper Piecing Prima Doll Paper Piecing Prima Doll Paper Piecing Prima Doll Paper Piecing