Blast from the Past

Here's a blast from my past... this is one of the first cards I designed myself (instead of just making what the demonstrator at an event made). It seems so long ago! I remember exactly when I made it too, it was at the Pincher Creek B&B scrapbooking weekend (my first and only, man I want to go back soooo badly!!). I scrounged the cardstock since I'd taken only scrap booking stuff to work on.

Garden Whimsey is the stamp set (I bought it after that weekend!) which is from Stampin' Up though now retired. I'm pretty sure that is Always Artichoke green in the background, then Almost Amethyst SU design paper and Barely Banana cardstock.

It's fun when you look back and go, "wow, I've come so far".

Edit to add: wow, I remember I used a hammer on the brads, that's why they look so squished.

Scrap Day

I hereby dub this Scrap Day. This is the day that you work on a project with nothing but scraps. That means you can't make a card base unless it's a left over piece that just happens to be big enough!!



Last week, before I headed out of town, I was working on a kids birthday card inspired by this card made by Libby. I was surprised at just how quick and easy it was to put together the faces!

See how cute they are?! My only pain is that I don't own the 1/2 circle punch (yet) and the 3/4 inch is too big. So I had to cheat and use Alphalicious cricut cartridge and cut out 12 letter i's. Oi! I'd hit "Cut" then "stop" once it was done the dot. (Er, I cut out 12, clearly, because I was doing TWO cards with three figures... hehe). I also need a sharper hole punch cause the one I have is cutting ragged circles.

At any rate, Koen was intrigued with my project and I dug out my scrap bin. I wasn't worried about cutting 1/2 circles for HIS eyes, he doesn't care. I put adhesive on the backs (I put the black dots on myself) and let him stick down the pieces where ever he wanted.



I think he kinda looks like Sid from Ice Age! Koen had fun making a few faces, which Kerowyn then colored for him.

Tools: SU Scallop punch, SU 1-1/4 circle punch (mouth), hole punch, cricut cause I'm too cheap to have already bought the 1/2 inch circle punch.

I'm sorry... with cricut

Here's a card made entirely with a Cricut cutting machine. The cartridge I used comes with the Cricut (George and Basic Shapes) so a brand-new cricut owner can make this card easily!

I started with a 4.24x5 card base in Basic Black. Then I used some of my scrap card stock in Summer Sun, Only Orange and Real Rust to cut out @, # and & in both 1 inch and 1.5 inch sizes. I glued those down randomly (don't mind the still-wet glue in the picture!) on a 4inch chat bubble in Whisper White.

On the inside I did a couple more chat bubbles (1.5 and 3 inch I think) and a 1inch heart. I left the larger chat bubble blank but I'd wanted to stamp an "I'm sorry!" near the top (leaving room for hand written sentiment).

On a repeat of this card I think I might sponge the edges of the chat bubbles, red on the front and a soft pink on the inside.

Ronald McDonald House in Southern Alberta

Did you know that Ronald McDonald House welcomes donations of CARDS and CRAFT supplies? I didn't! I do now though, and I've decided to see what I can do to collect materials and cards for the Ronald McDonald House Southern Alberta (that's cause it's in Calgary!).

My first question was, "what kind of cards? are they all 'get well soon' cards?" Nope! Any kind of card. A parent at a sick child's bedside doesn't need to worry about sending birthday cards or anniversary cards to friends and relatives, they should focus on being with their baby. What about birthday cards or thank you cards? Children's birthday cards especially!

My next question was, "what kind of craft supplies?" Well aside from kids crafts there is a need for scrapbooking supplies for families who find a way of coping with the stress by scrapbooking the experience.

So, do you want to contribute? I'd welcome your help! If you have any cards or supplies for donation please contact me at berkanaisageek(at)hotmail(dot)com. If you don't live in Southern Alberta there's a whole list of ladies accepting donations for other RMH locations over at Splitcoast Stampers!

Custom Card for Warcrafter in Love

Here it is, my first ever custom card! The request came from a woman who plays a Draenei hunter and is in a relationship with a fellow who plays a Draenei shaman in the game World of Warcraft.

Hunters use bows and shaman use totems. It was a lot of fun coming up with a template for a totem (each race has totems that look different). I used a chipboard parenthesis with waxy for the bow. For the "flame" around the fire totem I used white ribbon colored with a SU marker.

The tree embellishment is from SU Thoughts & Prayers and the sentiment is from CTMH Picture Perfect.

Obviously I couldn't post the picture until the woman gave the card to her love, so here it is... a month later! I'm happy with how it turned out (and I kept the template for the totem!) I just hope HE likes it too!

For more information on how to get a custom made card or craft of your own please check out my post detailing the process.

Blogaversary give-away

Woo! this is some SWEET candy! Thank you Gini for the chance to win... and the day after my birthday too!

Check out Gini's blog!

World of Warcraft: More DoTs

Last night my daughter, Elora, inspired another World of Warcraft card. You may recall the "I've Got the HoTs for You" card I did a while back. DoTs are the opposite of HoTs and her blanket was covered in them!

DoT stands for "Damage Over Time" and means a type of damage dealing spell that... well... does damage... over... time. The phrase, "more dots", is something a group leader might call out when coordinating 10 or 25 people to take out the same bad guy. (It's FUNNY because of a recording that was passed around the internet long ago that I won't link in my blog... but most Warcrafters will remember the "More Dots" clip).

DoTs are also usually fairly small amounts of damage, so the sentiment is funny... to anyone who plays a warlock at least.

All I did for this card is punch out 3 sizes of circles (3/4inch, 1-1/4inch and 2inch) from my scraps bin... essentially anything with a dot on it... and used my Creative Memories bubble punch on some of them. Then I started layering. I had some sticker letters to do the text and done! The longest process was punching out all the circles.

Since she was my inspiration (or at least her blanket was) here's a picture of my cutie. She was 2 months on the 21st! They grow up SO FAST!

She's so coy hehe.

Kids Can Blog Too!

Our morning routine involves getting the kids breakfast, making a pot of coffee and then Kerowyn and I head down to my computer. She sits on my lap and colors while I view check out my blog feeds in Google Reader (best invention EVER!). Kerowyn often comments on the blogs... especially if there's flowers; fairies; anything sparkly or... pets.

One of her favorites is Lucky Stamper because the image of Lucky is different (if not every day than close to it). The video below isn't from the morning but it shows how she responds none-the-less... the blog on the screen is Crafty Girl 21.

First WoW Card, revisted

Some of you may remember my first ever Warcraft themed card... I've sent out and sold enough of them that I had to make more! This is a good thing. I always said that if I had to make more I'd adjust them a bit.

In the game, World of Warcraft, you can pick up and complete quests that earn you rewards. A character that has a quest is shown with a large yellow ! over his or her head. When you've completed the quest that person then has a large yellow ? over their head, letting you know to come collect your reward.

On the original design I'd put an exclamation point on the front and a question mark inside... because of how quests work and the sentiment I chose, it made more sense to do it this way.

I used Barely Banana paper with Summer Sun ink. The stamped sentiments are from Full of Life and Congrats. All products are from Stampin' Up.

Sorry for the dim pictures, it's horribly overcast today! I think the weather is a contributing factor to the series of unfortunate events that occured while making this card. Things I learned today include...

1. Even if you have a seperate embossing tray for your black powder, it WILL contaminate all other powders. Your white will never be white again, even if you didn't open it during the same project as the black.
2. It doesn't matter how careful you are... black emobossing powder WILL smudge.
3. You really do need an embossing buddy, the other crafters aren't making it up.
4. If you're having One of Those Days and something could go wrong? it will.

Hey look! Another one of those nifty detailed shots! Now I just need a photo box!

Happy Birthday - for a friend

Calanthe wrote, "I would kill for a birthday card with that hedgehog on! He's so sweet, and my mother loves hedgehogs... :)" on my last blog entry. Well, she's my best friend so I can hardly deny her! But I assured her she doesn't have to kill anyone. Here are the fruits of my labours.

I used a Close to My Heart scrapbooking kit called "Miracle" which has made an appearance previously in one of my crafts. The irony here is that I'd originally made that craft FOR Calanthe but wasn't happy with the quality once I'd finished it.


Look!! I'm trying to take more creative photos... I keep seeing these nifty detail shots in other blogs. Mind you, I don't have a fancy photo box (where would I put it that the toddlers wouldn't get to it??) so I just use two pieces of cork. One on my desk, the other leaning against my monitor. You can usually tell if I've taken the photo at night since the natural light makes daytime photos more vibrant.

At any rate, as you can see I used two different sizes of dimentionals again so that the middle balloon is slightly higher. Loving this stamp set!! CTMH's "Happy Forever". The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's "Full of Life" (I use this stamp set SO MUCH!)