Midnight Madness Stamp Sale

Due to popular demand (one request), I have posted this set of stamps which I purchased at the Midnight Madness sale at "I'm Impressed" on Granville Island. I like it. It's an elephant-themed birthday set. The birds, grass, and tree elements can also be used in a non-birthday context. I guess the elephants could be used that way too... WeEEeEeE! New stamps! My wallet is a little thinner, but my heart is a little happier. Worth it.

Baby Girl Card

A friend of mine is having a baby girl - well, technically she should have already have had it already. This is a little card for her. The carriage stamp and sentiment is from Michael's 1.50 spot, and the embossed paper is from Michael's as well. I love Michael's. Nothing too terribly remarkable about this card, except that I made it with my friend Angela, who is very particular about everything on a handmade card being 100% perfect. If a cut of mine is off by 1/32nd of an inch, I'd still use the piece. She would start over again. Yeeeeesh. No need to be THAT perfect! It's handmade, all part of the charm.

Owl Card

I made this card with my friend Eunice. That's her owl stamp there... Love it! At approximately 9:30pm at night, this is the conversation that went down:

Eunice (with caution): "Sooooo... are you... finished buying stamps for the year?"
Me (with caution): "Nooooo..."
Eunice: "Soooo... The stamp store at Granville Island is having a midnight madness sale tonight, the whole store 40% off - 50% off, if you wear your pyjamas..."
Me: "You waited THIS LONG to tell me!?"

Less than 15 minutes later, we were on our way. :D Weee! I love stamps!

Hip Hip Hooray

This is one from the archives. I had my friend Sandy and her sister over for a card making extravagaaaanza a little while back. I pre-cut some designs for them and we spent the night putting the cards together. This one is one of the cards from that night. The bird stamp is from Imaginesence, the Hip Hip hooray is from the Michaels $1.50 spot. The bird has clear acetate over it with a white diamond Stickles border. Black dots were done with a Gelly Roll Glaze pen. I love pens. But that's another post, for another day.

Fruity Card

This card was inspired by a 3D apple sticker I saw at the store. The apple sticker was similar as shown, but much smaller. I decided to cut out my own (by hand!) and give the apple some friends - the pear, and orange. The metal embellishment says "happy" - not that visible. The green dashed border and cloud border are from a piece of patterned paper, that happened to the same color as the blue cardstock base. I think the fruits are pretty nifty myself...

Flower Cutout

Sorry, could not think of a good title for this card. This card took FOREVER. The petals were all cut out freehand, and different patterns from various stamp sets were stamped in black. The petals were then mounted on white cardstock and cut out again. A jewel brad for the middle mounted on black then pink cardstock completes the flower and an extra petal is popped up on dimensionals on the side with "enjoy" stamp from Michael's $1.50 spot. Thin black ribbon with dots of crystal "Stickles" <-- "professional" glitter glue (Yeah. That's right, I just wrote that.) finishes off the card. Phew.

Retro Flowers

Phew! It's been a while. But I'm back. After a last-minute trip to Vegas for my birthday, and then immediately following a course in Management... and then working on the studio (as opposed to IN the studio)... things have been a bit nutty. But it is returning back to normal, and so I will find time again to post regularly.

This post is thanks to my friend Angela who instigated a card-making night earlier this week. This one was designed by her... and I just went along for the ride. The paper is from a giant "My Mind's Eye" paperpad that I lugged home from Oregon a couple years ago. The stamp is from Stampin' Up. It took about 4 hours to make 2 cards that night. Heh heh heh. So I'm not the fastest card-maker in the world. But the other one had a lot of cutting n' stuff... will post later. Need to take a better pic of it in natural light.

Fairy Lily

Pink Cat Studios is a local stamp company that makes AWESOME stamps... Right in Burnaby! (Usually all the good stuff comes from the states... not so in this case). Pink Cat Studios has new releases every month or so and for this new release, it was their character "Lily" dressed as a fairy. There was a contest to celebrate the release of the new stamp. You have to create a card using the image provided (which is a 'sneak peak' at the stamps to be released) Note: Lily herself is cut out. I had hand spasms after cutting that out with regular sized scissors. 'specially those antenna. The wings are in the background. Lily herself is popped up for that 'dimensional effect'. Yeah. I know. Many of you are not at all excited by this... soooo.... moving on. This card was for my friend Eunice's bday... Happy Birf-day Eunice!

Tin Can

This is an "altered Altoids tin" as they call it in the craft world. Or something of the sort. Basically they sell these small metal containers in craft stores that you can decorate yourself. So... here 'tis, one I decorated up myself. As the picture denotes, it's for my friend Mandy in HK, part of her Christmas gift. Inside there's a little charm thinggy from Hawaii. Made from random leftover paper and some prima flowers. I don't think there's much else to say about this...

Skating Hedgehogs!

Yeeps! Where did the time go? December is always so crazy... it's Christmas Card Making Monsoon Season. I apologize for neglecting my blog duties. I will be off work soon 'til Jan so hopefully that will mean more time in the stud(io). But for the time being, my home currently looks like a Michaels store threw up in the main living area. Every horizontal surface is covered with stamps, ink pads, spools of ribbon, loose strings of ribbon, gluesticks, glue dots, glue in tubes, double sided tape, scotch-tape, brads, eyelets, stickers, paper, paper trimmers, cardstock, punches, chalk, markers, pens - you name it, it's here on my desk, couch, bookshelf, kitchen counter, floor, chairs. It's bad. But quite a sight to see. It's like driving by a bad accident... you don't want to look, but can't help it....

Ok, so this card is skating hedgehogs! Got the stamps at making mems a couple years ago, inaugural inking (can you say that?) last night. "Oh yeaaaah!" <-- like how Kool-Aid guy says it as he breaks through the brick wall with ferver holding that red pitcher of kool-aid. Whatever happened to kool-aid anyway? Don't see it around anymore. Maybe it's because I'm not looking. I was only ever allowed to buy Kool-Aid once. ONCE. in my entire childhood life. Don't remember what the occasion was, but I chose Orange. And boy was it ever orange. Packed to the brim with artificial flavour and coloring. Heh heh... it will probably give me diabetes later in life... good times.

Gotta get back to it. I'll post again soon. <--and now I really have to because I wrote it down...

Christmas Tree Card

Yes... Christmas is near. A little TOO near. Every year, I vow to 'start early'. It never happens, despite my best of intentions. In any case, last Friday, my friend Eunice came over to do a little carding. She is leaving for HK in Dec and well, her cards are to be in circulation this Friday. YEEPS! I am piles behind.

This Christmas Tree card is pretty simple. The trees are from It's Snow Time, a stampin' up set I bought a couple years ago and never inked up. Stickles for snow, and merry christmas ribbon (which, admittedly, Eunice and I went on an after-work run to Michaels in Richmond the previous night, followed by Won-Ton noodle soup, then Superstore, and then Daiso, then bubs - Bubble Tea that is! :P It was GREAT!) The Merry Christmas ribbon is from said shopping excursion.

NSR (non-stamping-related) Sidebar: Went to the opera for the first time this weekend. The opera. It was Eugine Onegin by Tchaikovsky, a story about unrequited love. (Cliche, right? LOL) Many, many old people. I can see how the opera is an acquired taste. Even having studied the history of opera, and a good number of operas in depth, down to memorizing the libretto (the words), the music, the acts and scenes, it was a stretch for me. I suppose it didn't help it was in Russian. But there were subtitles. It was a cool experience - thanks Gabriel! :)

That's all for now. More to come soon. :)

Clipper Street Christmas Open House

Over the weekend, my couz and I went to Clipper Street's annual open house event. You sign up for $5 and go around to different stations where you make mini-projects. It was a madhouse, and I must say... this will be the last one I sign up for. Story to follow, but first, here are the projects:

The first thing we made was this gift card holder. I think it's slightly ug.  Cuz it was just an envelope folded up. There was all this excess paper causing it to pop up. Maybe I was supposed to trim some of it out.

 

Next we made a card with these giant paper flowers. It's okaaay.... 

Following that, we made this mini-book using the "Bind-it-all" coil binder. It's aight.

Lastly, we made this ornament card...

... and this was the one that did us in. There was this super-annoying anal retentive girl leading the session. She talked really slow, and insisted that no one move ahead on any step, until everyone had completed. She gave a giant schpiel (talking painfully slow) about how everything was made from punches which were available for purchase downstairs, and she kept on reiterating how she had a single-file lineup going and wouldn't allow anyone else in the room while she was giving her session, insisting she was claustrophobic and did not want any unnecessary bodies people hovering around. OMG. Just shoot me. That experience was so painful, couzin and I did not even attempt the final project, which was with glitter nazi elderly lady. 

Anyway, those were the projects, and... I will never return to such an event again! Clipper St. Open House events are going downhill fast. 

And in other news, got a piece finished so will be posting the audio file soon. Unless I decide it needs changing... which is not uncommon... Stay tuned. 

UBC IT Christmas Cards

Every year at Christmas, UBC IT gives their staff a Christmas card (signed by the senior management team). Since I have been working there, and a part of the Christmas celebrations (about 3 years), they have given out Costco cards. Now, Costco cards are pretty cool. They were the 3D ones with hand embellished details. Pretty fancy stoof. However, I thought it would be an excellent idea if this year, Senior Management MADE the cards for all the employees (about 150 people). This way, the cards can also incorporate characters from our marketing campaign, and it shows a little more personal effort on the part of Senior Management (often viewed by employees as distant and apathetic - typical feeling in a lot of organizations).

Yesterday, I pitched the idea to the HR Manager and the Director of Support. They approved, and so the HR Manager will in turn will pitch it to our Associate Vice President and Executive Director later this week. Imagine getting a card from the Executive Director that was made by him personally, and on the back, it will say "Made By... " I suppose some employees could view that as a bit creepy, but it shows that they cared enough to put a bit more effort into it. And also do something a little FUN (dear God NO!)

Mind you, if this goes through, I won't just throw a bunch of Bazzil cardstock at them with some glue and a few papercutters. I am anticipating that the card pieces will have to be pre-cut and semi-fabricated to some extent. After all, these are complete non-crafters here. I don't think 150 cards will be that bad... I've got some people from my team roped in to helping me already...

As mentioned before the characters are from our marketing campaign. I just worked a little santa hat on them in Adobe Illustrator and color printed on cardstock. The paper is also just printed off the computer.

And yes, at my place of employement, I usually take initative to force something like this upon the mostly dry and no-fun IT folks. It's part of my duty as one of the few employees under 40.

A few more sample cards:






(Sidebar: Sorry this posting is late! I tried to post yesterday, but my inet was being sporadic. But I feel like I can't really complain to Telus because I get a pretty good deal on it...the student plan from Telus: $19.99 a month for High-speed Enhanced. Oh well. It's back up and running fine today.)

Halloweeny

This is a halloween card for my cousin! Card people make cards for all sorts of occasions - Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Left-Handed People's Day, Nurse Appreciation Day, St. Patrick's Day - just about every occasion or non-occasion you can think of. I'm not THAT hardcore, but I did make this card because I thought it would be funny. Who makes Halloween cards? And for what reason? "Hey, good luck with trick-or-treating..." 

Earlier this year I received a Valentine's card from my cousin so I thought I'd return the favour with a spooky Halloween card. The ghost and candy corn are from my "Sticker-a-Day" Calendar. 

More music stuff to come soon. Working on a couple things at the moment. Also waiting... waiting... for better monitors (not the visual computer kind... the audio reference kind... ah, nevermind... just stay tuned.)

More Purple Stuff

My friend Angela got sucked into buying these Stampin' Up sets from someone who was a Stampin' Up demonstrator (Sidebar: For those of you not familiar with Stampin' Up, think Avon lady, but with stamps instead). Since they had been sitting around her house for a year or so, and she hadn't really touched them, she thought they'd get more use sitting around in my house, and lent them to me. So here I am, using them :). 

This card uses the sets Carte Postale and Delight in Life sets. In retrospect, the mounting on the dark purple should have been done in lavender to match the ribbon, but uh.. it was glued down already and I didn't want to change it. Dots were embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. Ribbon is from Fabricland's closing out sale. Heh heh. Boy, if I wrote that on the real stamping forum, people would probably shun me. That's not even a craft store - I used "no-name brand" ribbon! It's like saying "This sweater is from Army and Navy." All the ribbon and supplies used by the 'pros' are from specialty online shops that do "new releases" every month or so, of a new product, a new color, a new stamp set. And you can sign up to automatically buy everything that is new from them. And they have online parties to celebrate the "release" of the aforementioned items. Some of you may think I'm a craft nut... but... this is nothing! 

It's a Bomb! Aw, Thanks!

Here is my second Christmas card of the year entitled "It's a Bomb! Aw, Thanks!" See, the captions fit with the picture. Anyway, thought I'd go with more non-traditional colors, with the purple glitter + color scheme. The background snowflake stamp is from the Michael's $1.50 bin, and uses the technique where you stamp, and then stamp again without re-inking for a depth effect. The snowman stamp is from Stampin' Up's "It's Snow Time," bought in my "baller" crafting days, pre-mortgage. Got it a couple years ago, but never inked, so here 'tis! The paper is from Wal-marto in the States. A giant pack for $6.88. Love it!

First Papercraft Posting!

Yes! Finally had a bit of time to make paper stuff. This is a Christmas card, but with non-traditional colors. The whole light-blue/brown/white colour scheme seems to be quite hip nowadays. The tree stamp is one I got at Michaels in a set by Rubber Stampede. Never used it on a card 'til now. The white dots are pearl white 3D Paint. There is this stuff called "liquid pearls" I keep on seeing everyone use. I think this is pretty close to it. 

Yes. I sewed the button on. I'm not okay with gluing buttons - they have those holes in them; they were meant to be SEWN! Incidentally, the button came from a random pair of shorts I bought. One of those buttons that come attached in a little plastic baggie, should something happen to the 'original' button. I'm sure people buy special 'crafting buttons' - in fact, I have some - but, this one seemed to fit perfectly. YEAH!