Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Here's wishing you all a blessed Thanksgiving Day! May we all be thankful for all the wonderful blessings we enjoy in this country.

I'm thankful for the blessing of such a wonderful stamp store called Fond Memories. Where else would we get such great products, stamps, paper, tools, ideas & great service? Thanks, Kathy!

Enjoy your turkey & pumpkin pie!

-judy

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

New Tim Holtz Stamps

Just in yesterday are 3 cling sets of new Christmas stamps from Tim Holtz: Letter to Santa, Reindeer Flight, and Holiday Collections (ATC size collages). All these stamps are beautiful! I can hardly wait to work with the Santa! He has such a fun look on his face. The Santa stamp is also available on a wood mount.

I really like the reindeer & the trees on the Reindeer Flight set, too. I sure hope I can find time to play with these stamps over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Keep stamping!

-judy

Monday, November 24, 2008

Blessings to You

Today, I put together this card to send to my sister in Ohio. Can you believe that yesterday I totally forgot that I needed to get Thanksgiving cards in the mail..... Well, I did.



So I picked out 2 Graphic 45 papers on my lunch. I had my Cornish Heritage Farms Time to Stamp set with me. It's not exactly a Thanksgiving set but I decided to use the verse. Once I started putting it together, the clocks seemed like a logical choice to fill in. I cut out the "stamps" & "butterfly" to mount separately. There's a subtle background stamped on the brick colored paper created with a CHF stamp called Pretty Pattern. I used the new Versamark Champagne ink pad. It leaves a watermark with gold sparkle. You simply can't see it in the photo. I added a bow & 3 round gems from Hero Arts that I colored with an Aidrondack Ginger marker.

I finished it up after work just in time to get it in the mail... Whew!

Enjoy!
-judy







Thursday, November 20, 2008

Masked Holiday Card


Doreen made this card using a Tattered Angels mask. She sprayed Glimmer Mist over the tree mask. What a great background for this elegant verse from Penny Black! The patterned paper has glitter on it........hard to see in this photo.
Enjoy!
-judy

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Big News....

I have some big news..........for me that is.

I just made the Guest Designer Team for Artistic Outpost stamps for 2009! I'm so excited.

In order to accept the position, I needed to have my own blog. So, last week, I created one. It's called Creating...My Style. I'm still tweaking the layout & adding things. Guess that's a continuous thing....... You can find it here. I've posted more info about the Guest Designer Team there.

I plan to continue to write this blog...... You may eventually read posts from some of the other FM girls, too!

I created this card with stamps from the Artistic Outpost Bluebird plate. Find it at FM!

I used it as one of my submissions for the Design Team. I used Distress inks........again!

It's also posted on my blog with more info........

Enjoy!

-judy

Friday, November 14, 2008

Holiday Open House

FOND MEMORIES IS READY FOR CHRISTMAS!!!

The Store is decorated and filled with a wonderful selection of holiday décor and gifts for everyone on your list. As always, we are proud of our specialty toy selection, packaged foods, jewelry and books for all ages. Stampers and Scrapbookers: we offer a great selection of products for your holiday designing.
FOND MEMORIES CHRISTMAS ON THE PRAIRIE
HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE
FRIDAY, NOV. 21 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
SATURDAY, NOV. 22 9:00 AM – 5:00PM
SUNDAY, NOV. 23 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
COME SAMPLE SOME OF OUR PACKAGED FOODS!!
$25.00 DOOR PRIZE DRAWING
EVERY DAY OF THE OPEN HOUSE
FIND THE PICKLE AND WIN A PRIZE!!!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Little Bird Wreath

New papers from Cloud9Design arrived at the store last week. The collection is called Christmas Joy. The colors range from pale blue to moss green to darker green to dark red. Three of the papers have sparkle or embossed designs. The stickers to match inspired me to make this card.

The little bird in the center of the wreath is one of the stickers. First, I cut the little square of white paper with a Spellbinders square die & embossed it. Then I centered & a new Spellbinders Pinking circle around a wreath on the Christmas Wreath paper & cut it. I cut a petite scalloped circle of dark red (which is the back side of Christmas Boughs) to place under the wreath. Next I cut the large Spellbinders Labels 1 in the dark red paper. I set the cut out aside to use on another card choosing to use the negative space. I trimmed the edges to fit on a 5 1/4" card allowing for a border. The blue card front is the back side of the wreath paper. There are little white pine branches all over it. Hard to see in the photo.


Do you remember this little tool? It was a gift to all our Workshop attendees. I've had this little tool on my work table for .........well, a long time. Today, I pulled it out to punch the little holes along the edge of the red square. It was so easy to use! I centered it along one edge using the guide marks to line it up. I used the top edge with holes every 1/4". I just moved the tool along realigning with previously punched holes until I got near the corner. I left the corners all for last since the spacing didn't come out exactly. I punched a corner hole & filled in with another hole....not quite the same 1/4" spacing but all the corners are alike. It's a design element!
I added a little tag cut with a Cuttlebug die. The "Merry Christmas" is from a tiny Hero Arts clear set. An iridescent bow & some Star Dust Stickles on the wreath berries finish off the design. So little stamping.....only the verse.......and no distressing! So fun!

There's a set of coordinating dimensional stickers that I want to try next!

Come back soon!
-judy

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Spellbinders Extravaganza Wrap Up

Our Spellbinders Extraganza was a big success!

.......despite the weather. We had snow Thursday night & Friday........roads were still good. Then the cold NW wind howled & blew snow across the wet roads........icy spots & treacherous driving this morning. It always amazes me how we can go from a record high of 78 on Monday to howling winds, rain, snow & icy roads in just a couple days. We certainly know it's November now.
Now for more cards......

Doreen created this Thanksgiving card using oval dies for the pumpkins. Three ovals make up each pumpkin. The papers are Graphic 45.


How appropriate........snowflakes. I certainly didn't expect this card to fit in so well with the weather when I made it. All the snowflakes are cut from the same die and embossed. If you look closely you may be able to see the raised areas. All the Spellbinders dies cut & emboss. The background is created with a Cuttlebug embossing folder called Swiss Dot. The "Believe" stamp is from B Line.

Everyone had a chance to try out the dies & make this card on Thursday. All stamps are from Cornish Heritage Farms Joyeaux Noel set. The card was cut with a new Spellbinders die as well as the mats.
On Friday & Saturday, this little gift tag was the free card......
The Pinking Circles used for this card is a new die set.
A big THANK YOU to all of you who came for the Spellbinders event. We enjoyed showing you all the new dies & how to use them.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

A Fun Day........

We had a great day with Spellbinders today!

I was there for my lunch to help with the noon start. There was a nice group ready to learn about the dies & see the new ones. Doreen & Mary said they were busy all afternoon. I was there again after work. It was fun!

Tomorrow is day 2 from 10-5. I sure hope the weather isn't too snowy! Yes, it's snowing here tonight!


Doreen created this wonderful design using 2 oval smooth dies & one scallop oval. This is one of the cards available to make for $2.00. The card front is stamped with a burlap texture stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. I think the wheat is CHF, too. The verse is from My Sentiments Exactly. A popular card today!

This star card is my creation.......a simple design. Yet, the Reminisce paper & foil star make it elegant. I used 2 star dies to cut the foil frame. To create the embossed edge, the die with the foil in it is run through the die cutting machine again using an embossing mat from Spellbinders. That little embossed edge really adds to the classic elegance of the star. There's another star of dark green paper behind it. The verse - from Cornish Heritage Farms Christmas Expressions set - is stamped & embossed in gold. The Reminisce paper has a sheen which didn't show up in the photo.
Check back for more photos.......... Better yet, stop at the store to see these in person!
Keep creating.......
-judy

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Tomorrow's the Day

Tomorrow is the start of the Spellbinders Extraganza! The new dies will be out at the store! There are some really nice Nestabilities sets plus other great designs. The Nestabilities dies are my favorites!

Doreen & I put some finishing touches on the cards today. It seems no matter how early we start getting ready for an event like this, we end up finishing at least one design at the last minute. Today, we had 2 that needed tweaking. We hashed over a few ideas & scrapped some original ideas.......and came up with 2 great cards by late afternoon!

There are 4 cards that you can make for $2.00 each. Plus, there's a free card! You have the opportunity to make 5 cards. All the cards feature at least one element cut with a Spellbinders die.

We hope to see many of you at Fond Memories on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. For all our blogger friends too far away to visit, I'll post photos starting tomorrow.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Spellbinders Extravaganza

Just a quick reminder! The Spellbinder Extravaganza is this Thursday-Saturday. The hours are Thursday: 12-8; Friday: 10-5; Saturday: 10-5. Doreen & I have been working hard to get some great cards ready!

All the Spellbinders dies will be on sale! The new dies will be available starting Thursday. There are some great new designs. If you're a blog checker.....like me..........you've seen many of the new dies featured. It was frustrating not being able to get them. Well, you can get them on Thursday.

I wish I had a card to share........but I don't. I can't show you the cards for this weekend.......not yet anyway. I'll be sure to post them on the weekend.

See some of you at the Extravaganza!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Home for the Holidays

A Holiday card to share........

Isn't this big house on a hill grand?
B Line stamps
Prismacolor pencils
StazOn Stone Gray
Bazzill papers
Glue pen
Glitter


The house is stamped in StazOn Stone Gray ink. I colored the trees, house roof, sky & road with Prismacolor pencils. I added glue to some areas with a glue pen & then added crystal glitter. I chose to keep the whole card in muted colors: soft blue & green and white. I wanted to create the soft, quiet beauty of a first fallen snow.