It's just another New Year's eve...

...another night like all the rest.  It's just another New Year's eve, let's make it the best.  This is one of my favorite Barry Manilow songs because it wraps up all that I feel every year at this time.  I'll be spending my evening with Adam as we watch movies and snack on all sorts of appetizers.  We'll wait for the ball to drop, give each other a kiss and then go to bed.  We are such party animals!

I took quite the hiatus from my biz since my last posting in November.  Part of me relished the freedom I felt not having to design or cut anything but another part of me felt incomplete.  I guess I'm not truly happy unless I'm creating something - whether it's out of paper, yarn, fabric or cupcake batter!  That being said, I'm gearing up for more classes and projects so stay tuned!

Happy New Year everyone!  Yes, let's make it the best!

Smiles, Caron

Gettin' crafty

I love all the cute ideas there are for holiday crafting!  I just wish I had time to try all of them.  Here are three that I recently did.  Super simple, super quick and super fun!

These adorable snowman are made from Rolos!  It was much cheaper to buy a bag of individual candies and glue dot them together (I used six).  The hats are made out of a pair of gloves I found in the dollar bin at Joann's.  Just cut the fingers off and roll the bottoms up!

The ever popular sock cupcakes.  I made these a couple years ago and had to create my own cupcake liners.  Now that Close To My Heart has the Artiste cartridge for the Cricut, I can make them so much faster and in any size I need!

I used acrylic 5x7 frames that I got at Walmart for 97 cents apiece.  I love making these paper flowers!

Smiles, Caron

Grateful!

My annual holiday workshop was a huge success!  I just love all the ladies that come out to create with me and am so thankful that they are a part of my life.  Here are some pics from the day:

Smiles, Caron

Holiday Workshop is Almost Here!

Hi everyone!  Can you believe it's the middle of October already?  I told you that once we got to September, the time was going to speed up and I was right!  I've been slaving away happily creating in my studio to come up with some amazing projects for this year.  I hope you like what you see!

This year's workshop will be on Saturday, November 3rd.  There are two sessions.  You can come to either one (or both!).  The early session is from 11am to 2pm and the late session is from 5pm to 8pm.  There will be music, snacks and lots of fun!

As always, let me know what you want to create and how many of each.  You can see anything close up by clicking on the picture.

Here we go!

Cards $1 each:

Christmas Circles

Joy

Ornament

Snowbird

Snowmen

Wreath

Gift Projects:

Tealight Cakes (colors/patterns vary)  $2 each

Tic Tac Holders  $2 each  (designs MAY vary)

(TicTacs included)

 

Magnet Board  $5 each - Avonlea (shown) or Clementine

This board is not quite finished but I wanted to get it online so you could see it.

There will be a ribbon added for hanging it.  The Clementine version will be posted soon!

Don't delay in getting your orders to me.  The last day to reserve your kits will be October 27th.

I can't wait to see you here!

Smiles, Caron

It's a Mask-erade

Here's another card idea that I saw on Pinterest.  I loved the technique but of course didn't have any of the stamps the original artist used so I got out my book of stamp images and searched for those I thought would work.  This is actually four different stamp sets, proving that you can mix and match to your heart's content!  The first step is to mask off the portions of your cardstock that you want to leave blank.  In this case, I masked off the bottom 1" and the top 2" of the white cardstock (post it notes are great for this).  I sponged Sweet Leaf ink all over the part that wasn't covered, daubed it a bit with some Cashmere ink, then stamped all the black images that you see.  After that I removed the masks and continued with the happy birthday and the roses.  It looks tricky but it's so easy!

Smiles, Caron

Welcome Autumn!

Yesterday was the first day of Autumn, my favorite time of the year...well, it was when I lived up north.  Down here it's mostly the rainy season and the temperature is still too hot for my liking.  However, that doesn't stop me from creating with the season in mind as shown in the card above.  I used A1130 Quick Cards - Bountiful Season stamped in Autumn Terracotta.  The dimension comes from stamping the image twice and then cutting out the leaf and pop-dotting it on top of the other one.  A little sponge daubing on the edges and tracing of the leaf veins with a brown marker and voila!  I finished it off with some dots of our Glitz Glitter Gel in bronze (Z1483).  Now if only I could see some leaves like this in person...

Smiles, Caron
PS: You can see a larger picture just by clicking on it.

Thrifty Thursday

Take a look at the card above and see if you can tell why it's a thrifty one.  Give up?  It's made with scraps and it comes together in no time which means I save not only time but money as well!  I saw the design on Pinterest (my favorite spot for inspiration) and knew that I wanted to recreate it with my own spin.  It's a very simple design but figuring out how to not only make this card but also how to stretch my supplies so my customers could make it in class...now, there's where I had trouble since I've had to be very strict with my spending of late so my supply is limited.  Then I came across my pack of Pemberley papers.  I had a bunch of pieces left over from other projects and I realized that most of them were just big enough for the flower and the squares.  A snip here, a snip there, careful placement of my Cricut blade and voila!  I was able to stretch those little bits to create 17 more cards just like it.  I felt like I had squeezed every last ounce of usefulness out of my paper and it was awesome!

The moral of this little story is to save your scraps!  You never know when that little 1 inch square will be the perfect touch for a work of art :o)

Smiles, Caron

For Keeps!

Several of my students have asked to make a keepsake box using the My Creations card box.  This little beauty is the perfect size to sit on a desk, on a bureau or anywhere you would like to add a little extra something.  I used the La Belle Vie papers and our opaque flourishes and this is the result.  I think it's quite pretty if I do say so myself!

This is such a simple project but it packs a lot of punch.  At only $4.95 for the box and just one or two sheets of paper, it's also a bargain.  You can bling it up like I did or just add a few stamped images.  This is one time you can think outside AND inside the box!
Smiles, Caron

Strange happenings!

I don't really know how or why but my other blog just disappeared.  Rather than tear out any more of my hair trying to fix things, I decided to just start a new blog.  It's kind of like moving to a new house.  You have to unpack everything and figure out where it goes in the new place.  Bear with me as I do that here.  Please take note that the blog address is changed.

Smiles, Caron