Beverly's Stamping Beehive

Wow I looooooooooove this stamp!  Its really pretty and its been my challenge this season because I am not used to colouring stamps this large!!!  Gasp - turns out all those Copic lessons are true, you DO need to know how to blend, lol. But I did pretty good because instead of trying to be what I am not {a copic/marker colourist extroidinare} - I did what I do-do best and that is just wing it!  Hee hee!  And I heard about 'frantage' so I now have another new interest - that is what is great this year, I actually have been learning or rather exploring new things - yeah for me! SO enough chat - here is the stamp above: AND here are my efforts - I really enjoyed being set loose with the embellishments! I painted this green one using watercolour pencils after I stamped and embossed the image with White Embossing Powder.  So it looks wildly bright - but I went with the whimsical nature of it all and I think its rather "artsy"!  Well, I en

Good Morning Crafters! Another snow-less December day in our parts - which is good for me as I've been hanging the outdoor lights on our front entrance and today I need to put up a swag as well - lots of fun! Meanwhile I am keeping my thoughts to cards that need to be mailed away!  No sense making great hand-made cards trouble and then missing the important Due Dates - so sorry I am not posting as much because I am simply busy-busy! But this card is for a good guy!    'Andy'  kindly went through some trouble while I stayed at his home visiting his mom, and making him a card was fairly easy when you think of 'natural' materials {nice flecked & off-white cardstock for starters}...and I think its fair to say that wildlife is a popular choice!!! I love this deer - plus its one of my first sets of stamps, long ago from FLOURISHES  c 2007!  Goodness even the name of the set is FLOURISHED CHRISTMAS ,  and at the time, the scroll/flourished antlers was a pr

CHRISTMAS  BOTTLE  TAGS TUTORIAL Here is one of the items which sold out fast at the craft fair I participated in Nov 10 [see earlier post]. I was told by my friend Maria, a fab crafter in her own right, t o do these but I didn't really think I needed to make that many - boy was I wrong! The nice thing is you can put th ese on WINE or WATER BOTTLES, and I think on any present which they could slip on to....maybe bubble bath bottle. right?  They are super easy to make - I used the following: Stampin' Up! Punches  2.5 inch Circle Punch 1. 3/4 inch Circle Punch Holiday Stocking Punch  Scallop Border Punch Corner Punch or Small Circle Punch Small Oval Punch {optional} Cardstock in minimum of 2 colours for tag Cardstock scraps for stockings   Glitter Cardstock for a ccents   {optional} To: and From: rubberstamps {optional} Instructions  [using cardstock of choice]  TOP OF TAG  1)  Punch a 1. 3/4 inch Circle from cardsto

SWEET!   SHORTBREAD BLISS CONTEST! Hi! Just wanted to share a contest from Gaylea and their partners in which YOU  could win a KitchenAid Grand Prize {beautiful range, fridge and dishwasher - sweet!} and many other opportunities to win one of their fab stand mixers!  I have one, but I am hoping for the Grand Prize because boy, could I use some new lovely appliances! Here is the link: SHORTBREAD BLISS CONTEST HURRY!  Contest Deadline: DEC 13th gOO d LucK !

  HOLIDAY CRAFT FAIR!   HOLIDAY CRAFT FAIR! Hey hey crafters! I am busy today making more projects for my part in the West Rouge Holiday Artisan Sale this coming Nov 10th.  i am really looking forward to setting up my table, bringing my lovely daughter....wish I could bring Pepper {my adorable pooch}....maybe I can sneak him in - in a large Christmas Stocking, hmmmm..... I love christmas fairs - they are so homey and it feels great to be doing a shared event with others from your community as well as visitors from elsewhere!   If you're looking for hand-made gifts and stocking stuffers....and holiday cards, tags....come on down SATURDAY Nov 10th!     Location = 270 Rouge Hills Drive in the West Rouge Community Centre. Scarborough  {east end before Pickering} Directions :  drive to Port Union Road and enter through Lawrence Ave East or Island Road which both lead to Rouge Hills Drive.  The West Rouge Community Center is in a very unique-looking building and

Hi Crafters! Here I am getting a start on Christmas projects!  One of my chosen themes to run with this year is the snowflake as I love them!  Pure and white, they add a touch of the true holiday spirit in my opinion. I am positively dripping in them around our home - crystal snowflakes are on the swags, on the tree, even my jewellery!  So I started by buying Martha Stewarts Punch All Over The Page " Scallop Snowflake " and here is two of my projects using it!  Its my first 'all over the page' [is there a shorter name for this? lol!] ...and once you get the hang of it, it can go pretty fast.  But I won't even say what happened to me the first time using it - but it cracked everyone up who saw it!!! My first card is also using some of my other more recent buys - YNS's  Tall Globe Stamp & Die Set and Ellie Loves to Skate Stamp .  On top is a border die from designer Donna Salazar for Spellbinders. It is called Creative Pages Tw

Hi everyone! I am still enjoying a laid-back crafting season while focusing on my home. We moved into a new place and started re-decorating in a new style - well, blending old elements with new elements is more like it, and editing out more possessions. Terribly hard at this stage because everything still holds possibilities doesn't it - to an ol' recycler like myself!  Saturday is the rummage sale where we donated a massive amount of our belongings in July and I have been making a new pile to give them tomorrow. So tonight is all about digging through things and being tough [meanwhile I found the most amazing ceramic lamps discarded....I am going to do something awesome with them I know it!]...but we'll see how well I've done in awhile, only time will tell! Since Christmas is on my mind.....[I know Halloween hasn't happened, but you know we really start planning with Christmas, really we do!...:)] So to the point of this post!  I am spiraling around on the

Hey Everyone - I am finally back in crafting action!  Actually I have been getting up in the wee early mornings and doing small things in transition to fall such as making my fall floral arrangements, putting away the summer dishes, digging up the seasonal clothes....you know....but I have also been making the odd craft project with all sorts of things!  First off I have been having fun shopping!!!  I am finding all sorts of craft items everywhere....from the usual places to bargain spots such as Winners and Dollar stores!  My biggest score was finding some Spellbinders Nestabilities in Winners!  Which has me scooting around to the various Winners to see if there are more lurking about, but I must of found them a wee late cuz I've only found 2 - but hey @ 7.99 that's two that cost a whole lot less! My other score was a $155 dollar soup pot for only $30 at Winners also!  Gotta love Winners some days! So, in honour of the 'bargain bin' - here is a card I made from

Another of  my SUMMER cards where I chosen a sea/ocean theme!  I love-love-love doing these kinds of projects at this time of year....which is why I buy stamps and equipment to equip me to make them and I buy the supplies from all over, no particular favorites. Here I have used a 'Your Next Stamp' stamp set - Happy Birthday Mermaid' paired with a simplier stamp set of sea creatures {the starfish, fish and seahorse} and even a foam leaf stamp for the background.  I also have entered this for COLOR THROWDOWN  whose celebrating their 200th Challenge - so, CT200 naturally!  The colours chosen were: Pink Passion Certainly Celery Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pie Tempting Turquoise  I have used all of the above colours in one way or another on my card.  Certainly Celery is on the Mermaids's fins but also is sponged around the card's edges and overtop of the Turquoise water! Chocolate Chip is in one's hair, and fome finer detail on another mermaid. Pu

If you have not done so, please take a moment to read my post " A Sweet Songbird Needed Compassion and Received it! " And if you can, please DONATE to the TORONTO WILDLIFE CENTER - all animals need our compassion when they need it the most, and your contribution will be awesomely appreciated! Thank you!

Another fun challenge over at Your Next Stamp's Blog ....and I made a very simple card for my entry!  More simple than my normal choice but I have tons going on right now, so this was a quickie for me! But I just received two teeny-weeny stamps from YNS last week....and I am anticipating getting a jar die  soon and thought these little Fiona stamps would look adorable stamped 'inside' the jars - so I am using one of them for today's card. The challenge asks for a colour trio of lime green, pink and teal.   My card is just a simple one that I cut in a different way other than normal and added a pink pocket containing a blank tag which could be used for a gift tag or a bookmark perhaps. My embellishments are a mix of ribbons....and that's it! My pictures are a little darker than in real life as I took them tonight - sometimes I wish I was  a much better photographer, sigh!   The little gal is MINI DAY DREAM FHIONA Thanks for stopping by! 

Hoot if You Love Canada!   This is my latest 8x8 inch scrapbook page for Canada Day! Puffy Chipboard, Glittered die-cut alpha, hand-made Ladybugs, Patterned Paper, Scallop Circle, Skittles It was my idea to start a small album of Canada Day projects back in 2010. Then one year after the next, on this special day I will sit down and organize a new addition for the album hoping that one day my grandchildren will have a fond little album to look at! So I started with Sock Monkey in 2010 and returned with him - [cuz he's just so darn cute for kids] - again in 2011.  Strictly RED and WHITE!  I think I had thought I might keep him up for a really long time, Sock Monkey in his various celebrations of our "glorious" land......BUT....as we know how 'buts' have a habit of finding their way in to our lives.....I decided to make a departure on this idea and together with the help of my daughter decided on a WOODLAND theme [esp after we found these awesome chipboar

Hi folks, Having fun this week playing with my fav summer theme of sea creatures!  And to justify it even more, I am playing along with YOUR NEXT STAMP's CHALLENGE #3 "Anything Goes"!   You can see their challenge details HERE ! Deadline is Weds. midnight. I already was toying with ideas involving 3D projects lately and wanted to do something within a frame, and so I put two'n'two together and here is my entry....my " Mermaids Playing in the Sun Shadow Box ". The frame was one I had for awhile, maybe two years?  And my stamps from Your Next Stamp are the adorable mermaid set, Happy Birthday Mermaid which I acquired about two years ago also! Coincidence - I think not! LOL! Later I plan to embellish this even more once I find my darn box of tiny shells!  Maybe some charms? Heck who knows! :) I am going to write up a more detailed post about creating this by the week-end, so return here if you care for that.  Tomorrow I am going to be trainin

Hey !  Hello......... Its been awhile since I have wandered away from my usual Stampin' Up! projects....chalk it up to time I guess! But I did dig around my 'other' favourite stamp sets to dream up this BIRTHDAY CARD for a relative who loves cats! Isn't it a real cutie-pie image of the cat and her pal just  ridiculously spoiling themselves!  I think so :) Now.... if you want to make a fun birthday card, then think of making a simple folding card - but then colour choices and embellishments will help to define your card and then the 'whole' card really delivers! Its like knowing that a group of " simple " parts - add up to one " perfect " card which will charm your recipient! The front image is stamped on a separate cardstock panel which is attached to extend beyond the first fold.  Unfolded....the fun continues!   So that is how I approached this card.....basic cardstock folded simply, added some pretty background paper,  a

Hello Crafty Friends! I hope by now you know that this is my 'in-between' blog now - where I can show off some non-related Stampin' Up! material I am working on!  Yep, I am the lucky recipient of craft gifts as I hope you all are - and I think the general feeling is that they would like to give me something else besides SU products and so from time to time I have been oohing and aahing over punches, or chipboard albums which I adore - or fantastic stickers, papers, ...well, you name it!  My daughter also finds things for me when she is out shopping and will be a great daughter and buy them for me!  Thanks sweetie!  Plus - I still have stuff from before my days as a SU member! And finally, honestly, who can resist a good Dollar store find, lol! All together I looked through my 'stash' and is how I found myself doing this.... First - a word to let you in on the owl .....my daughter started to luv the owl thing awhile ago and it extends to decorations ...and jew

Can ya believe it - its 2012!!!  Wow, we are getting right up there with this new millennium are we not?  Someone close to me was saying that they feel like its still the turn of 2000 but a reality check is that we are zooming right along - so here we are again! What will be your NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS?   Especially CRAFT RESOLUTIONS!  The really fun stuff! For me:    1. more dies for my Big SHot - cuz after all, why have a cool machine and not have all the dies you can muster!    2. organization - say it every year, but ....well, we all know what happens!  Unless Steven Hawking can help me expand my walls automatically everytime more than 10 lbs of craft stuff materializes - there will always be piles and piles!!! 3. to dutifully craft on time every week ---- yah, I said it!  But will I do it? I must, I must try! 4. to get those drat projects done that are calling from the closet like ghosts o christmas past!  Scary indeed! 5. to get out of my craft comfort zone - and to evo