I can see bulbs coming up and lots more birds around. Though we still have a foot or more of snow in some places, I do believe Spring has sprung. On the down side, that means all the winter debris to be cleaned up...Yikes...ah well, you can't have it all can you.
So what have you been up to this past week?
We had a lovely Technique Card Class on Thursday last week.
The ladies were thrilled to learn how to make a card that we'd actually been holding ready for weeks now waiting for the arrival of spring. Gave up on that and taught it on Thursday. Maybe that was what heralded Spring do you think?
We showed them how easy it was to make a box card which looks more complicated than it is and in fact for all it's appearance fits a standard envelope.
It is a little time consuming to decorate but well worth the final effect.
To that end we only made two cards on Thursday.
Look at the two beautiful box cards Linda went on to make for her girlies ready for Easter.
We chose to make this card to fit into a 6 x 6 ready made envelope. You could easily adjust the measurements to make a smaller card to fit into a 4.5 x 5.75 envelope, both sizes we sell at the store.
The other option is to score them as horizontal cards giving another totally different look.
Can you see how this style of card would be great to give as a birthday or bridal shower as well as a special anniversary card. In fact the giving is only limited by ones imagination isn't it.
We also show here how the card lays flat for mailing purposes. Careful placement of the embellishments keep them within the outer edges of the folded card.
Our other card was with my much loved Distress Inks.
Through a number of simple steps, we changed a white piece of card into a piece of art work interesting enough for framing even.
We heat embossed an image, coloured the cardstock with four colours of ink, part stamped a second generation script image, then splashed the whole piece with water droplets.
We also used just a portion of a Nestability Die, Labels Eight, to place the greeting at the bottom.
What do you think? Can't you see this framed and hanging on a wall as a piece of artwork? Minus the greeting of course.
I worked on a scrapbook page for myself this past week.
Taking a sketch as the starting point, this is what I came up with.
I kept pretty much to the sketch, deviating slightly with the embellishments at the top right corner. I placed them closer to the right than the sketch suggestion. Also I chose not to add the embellishments on the right edge.
After first making the cut files, I cut the clouds and the sun beams with my Silhouette Cameo, then detailed the clouds with pen lines.
The small photo, which though you can't see it well here, showed the few minutes of rain that fell, and was mounted onto chipboard to give it some dimension.
The bottom left corner you see a chipboard square with the month on it which suited the colour of the paper well.
I cut into the purple flower of the paper and using Stickles detailed the flower petals and inside as well as adding a pearl to the centre. I then pushed the square under the cut flower and placed more flowers on the top.
You can also see where I punched holes in the border piece, glued purple cardstock behind the holes and filled them with Glossy Accents.
The travel word was again a chipboard piece that I had, but too large for my space so I cut it down to fit.
Here you see some Stickles on the centre of the flower. 
The faux stitched piece, is actually the bar coded edge that I cut off the background paper. I liked how it added interest to this part of the layout.
The final detail I wanted to show you was where I placed some pearls over the printed flowers at the centre top of the layout. Once again adding dimension to the layout.
Here's a copy of the sketch that I used.
The original sketch came from Julie Johnson's blog a long time ago now.
I challenge you to see what you can do with the same sketch this week.
I guarantee with your choice of papers and embellishments it will look different to both mine and Julie's.
Why don't you give it a try and show us your layout?
Remember that I told you we failed to get photos of two winning layouts at the Mega Crop weekend? Well what we didn't know was that Rachel had taken a photo of the one for her Aunty Marta, so here it is.
This layout was made by Candice and it was for the Embellishment Challenge.
So her layout was required to have certain elements on it such as a handmade flower, stitching in the title, and a frame to name a few.
What a lovely beach layout she put together didn't she. If you click here, and scroll down to the Mickey Sailing layout (five photos down) that Linda made, you will see her interpretation of the Embellishment Challenge.
So we are only missing Lisa's layout now and hopefully she will have a photo of it that we can share with you later.
Here's another of the class layouts that twenty of the ladies made that weekend. Did you see the one I already posted on Facebook here?
You may remember that we taught six one page layouts in that one and a half hour class.
This is layout two, where they ladies used some puncinello ribbon to create the random dots across the paper.
The triangles were cut from the paper and contrasting paper added to the back of the layout for further dimension.
The arrow strip at top and bottom of the page were accented with a pen line through the centre and dots at each point of the arrows to resemble a stitched line.
Hop back over to our Facebook page and you'll see another layout from the class.
I was sorting out two closets on the weekend and came across some knitting that I'd started ages ago.
It's a child's cardigan and I'd completed the back and almost one front before for whatever reason it was put away. I loved the pattern when I looked at it again, but didn't know which pattern book I'd taken it from! I did find it though and finished the front last night, so only one more front and the two sleeves to go.
Hopefully it doesn't get put away again! I had to join on some new yarn though to complete the front and I use the Russian join method and wondered if the knitters in our midst knew how to do that. I believe I have mentioned it before some time ago, but a good tip is always worth another mention isn't it. This method saves going back to sew in all those ends when you've finished. All you have to do is basically darn the two ends together before you simply knit them into your work. There's a link here to show you how.
Here's a cute little knitted Summer shrug too that's available free for your personal use for a short time, so go get it here soon if you like it.
I think that's all I have for you this week. Don't forget to try the scrapbook layout I challenged you to.
Share your take on the same sketch.
Have you signed up to join us on Friday for the Crop and Craft Night.
For only $10 for five hours, you get not only to share time with others who love to craft, be it paper crafting, needlework, or jewelry making, but you also get the opportunity to ask us to teach you a new technique or craft. So drop in, phone or email to reserve your spot this coming Friday April 25th.
And words for the upcoming week......
in fact...
~
Happy looks good on everyone, so why not pass on a smile or two to the next person you meet.
Until later, Happy Crafting.....
Lilian
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