janis

A new family member

I have many things to catch up on (CHA, anyone?), but for now, this short post will have to do.

Upon our return from CHA, we were thrilled to adopt a new duck.  This is Eddie, the super cute Call duck.  He was turned in to a shelter in Seattle, fostered by a friend of ours, and flown to Phoenix last Sunday (that's about 4 weeks in one sentence!).  He's a male Call duck and is very tiny...only 1.5 pounds!  To give you some perspective, Dewey, our Mallard, is 3 pounds.  We always thought she was small, but she towers over Eddie!  I know it's difficult to see, but he really does have eyes!  His eye is black and is at the front of that white stripe on the side of his head.  He's been molting recently and his head feathers are coming in a brilliant green...so pretty!  And he is sporting a cute little drake curl on the top of his tail now too.

Eddie is more content with being with people right now and is a little afraid of our ducks so we're introducing them slowly, just a little more each day.  Here's a picture with Eddie on my lap (leg) in their outdoor pen last Sunday.  You can see how tiny he really is! 

Until Dewey & Daisy welcome him unconditionally, he's spending a lot of time in the office with us each day.  So, word of warning:  if you call you may hear his cute little raspy boy-quack in the background! 

One last thing:  you may remember me telling you about the duck house that Todd built for Dewey & Daisy last summer.  You can see half of it in this picture of me with Eddie. It has nesting areas on both sides of the door and the side roof is on a hinge so we can reach in to get the eggs.  And I'm happy to report that after 6 months of them never even going near the doorway, they are both laying their eggs in the nesting boxes.  Finally! 

Three hearts for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is coming soon and will be here before we know it!   We have quite a few templates with heart themes so I thought you might like a few ideas for making a card for your sweetheart.

First we have a very simple card that I did using the Fiber Friend Hearts template.  I used the variegated fiber in the Heart Fiber Pack for the stitching.  The patterned paper has 4 copper eyelets in the corners, placed using the 1/8" Eyelet Friend template.  It's a very basic card, but the great thing about it is that you can do a bunch of these assembly-line style in a very short amount of time.  By the way, this is a fairly large card, 5x7".  You can reduce the overall size by using the smaller version of the heart shape (I used the large).

The second card was created using the Eyelet Friend Frames Heart template.  This was created by Donna Kauffroath.  She traced around the template and cut out the heart.  Then, using the holes in the template for spacing, she punched the eyelet holes in the front of the card.  Donna used a word stamp on lighter paper for the inside of the card (which shows through the opening in the front), pulled ribbon through the eyelets, added a silk flower to the top of the heart, and then stamped the sentiment on another piece of cardstock (matted with hand-made paper).  It's a beautiful card and doesn't take as long as you might think because the spacing has all been figured out for you.

And now the last card for today was created by Dana Florence.  She used the "I love you" stamp from the Greetings Stamp & Stitch set.  The tiny heart was stitched with the silver fiber in the Greetings Fiber Pack.  You may not know this, but metallic fibers are notorious for being brittle, stiff, and shredding all over the place.  We take great care to supply you with metallic fibers that are easy to stitch with and will give you terrific results.  Even though we do that, you might find that stitching with a long piece will tend to fray the ends a bit.  Because of that, I always recommend that you stitch with a piece that's only 12-15" long.  If it's not enough, just tape off the ends on the back of the project and start with a new piece.  Nobody will ever know the difference and you'll avoid some frustration. 

So there you go!   Three very different cards, with three different templates and techniques!  Now get busy and have your cards all ready before Valentine's Day arrives!

ATC

Do you ever make ATCs (Artist Trading Cards)?   I've done a few, but I must admit that I'm nowhere near expert status in creating and trading these little gems.  My primary experience has been to make them for a swap at a few retreats.  Last summer our assignment was to create something that represented our home state.  Well, what better than a gecko!   Afterall, we have them all over our backyard! 

So, took out my Critters Stamp & Stitch set and sure enough, the gecko fit perfectly on the card.  (All ATCs are 2.5x3.5" in size.)  I stamped it in Ranger Distress Ink, pierced the holes for the ridge along the back, then, instead of stitching, I decided to do Tricia Morris' faux stitching technique.  This involves using an erasable pen to create the "stitches", then adding embossing powder for the raised effect.  What I forgot was that Distress ink stays wet much longer than regular dye ink, so when I sprinkled the pewter embossing powder on the ridge, it created little speckles all over the gecko!  That's what I call a happy accident!  You can't really tell in the scan, but the result is a shimmery look that I just love.  I finished it off by stippling teal & copper ink on the background and added AZ (for Arizona, of course!) in copper diecut letters.

If you like ATCs, you'll have a couple of opportunities to see a whole collection of them soon.  For you retailers, be sure to stop by our CHA booth #5080 in Anaheim in February.  And if you live in New Mexico, you'll want to be sure to check out a brand new store in Farmington next week.  Altered Art Memories is having their grand opening celebration next Friday, January 25th, and our very own Donna Kauffroath will be there to share her knowledge and expertise with our products.  Altered Art Memories carries our full line, so if you see something on our website, you're sure to be able to find it there.

A few cards

As promised, here are a few more cards to show you.  Once again, Dana Florence is the one who shared her talents with us.  For the first one, she created a background using several colors of Glimmer Mist, then stamped the butterfly from the Critters Stamp & Stitch set in a random fashion.  Then she used the matching butterfly from Greetings and stamped that on an oval that was cut and matted using the Nestabilities dies from Spellbinders.  Instead of stitching on all of the butterflies, she added interest to the sentiment by stitching only on that one.  You can't tell it in the scan, but it's all assembled on top of a long, tie-clasp envelope!   

For the second card, again created by Dana, she once again used a stamp from Critters, this time the cute little bumble bee. Instead of stitching on this one, she shaded in the wings and then used Stickles to add some shine and sparkle on the wings.  I love how versatile the stamps are.  You can choose to stitch accents, or just use them as regular stamps.  And did you notice that she used those Nestabilities again?  I think I'm going to have to get some of those!  I just can't imagine trying to get scallops like that with decorative scissors.  It makes me cringe just thinking about the time and wasted paper it would take for me to get it that perfect!

If you have signed up for our monthly newsletter, the January edition just went out this weekend.  It includes information about upcoming events as well as an easy Valentine's card to make.  If you're not on the list, head on over to our home page and sign up.  It's free and you'll get regular updates on ways to use our templates and tools.

Leaf notebook

Over the holidays, I was super busy making gifts for family and friends.  That's right:  I made all of my gifts this year.  Fortunately, my list wasn't very long and I truly enjoy being creative.  After I was done, I noticed a little spiral notebook that I had received in a trade show bag a couple of years ago.  It had a camera company logo on the front and was black...hardly what you'd call attractive, but it was free and I still had it.  Hmm...time to spruce it up a bit!

Since it was spiral, I knew I'd have to remove the binding to be able to alter the entire cover.  I carefully bent back all the little coils just enough to remove the cover.  I had thought about covering it with patterned paper but then I saw the Forest Stamp & Stitch set still on my table from another project and decided to use that instead.  I envisioned a pile of autumn leaves, but I didn't want just a mixed up jumble of stamped images so I decided to mask a few of the leaves.  This technique gives the appearance of some of the images being in front of the other.  I pulled out the Eclipse Tape that I had purchased at a convention awhile back, stamped a few images and cut them out.  This worked like a dream, even with the skinny stem of this leaf.  If you haven't tried the masking technique before, it's well worth the few minutes it takes to cut out the mask.  In a nutshell, you stamp the "front" images first, cover them with the mask, then stamp the rest of the images.  The mask keeps you from stamping over the previous images and makes them look like they're on top (or in front of) the others.

When I was done stamping the leaves, I inked the bare spaces between them (this started out as a white piece of cardstock), then stitched my "top" leaves.  I added Zip Dry glue to the back (awesome glue...I use this whenever I know I want it to last) then put it on the cover.  Since my cardstock was about an inch larger than the cover, I turned it over and used my Multi-Tool to cut around it.  Then I repeated the entire process for the back cover (but I didn't stitch on that).  When I was done with both covers, I put them back on the notebook and squeezed the wire binding back together.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  Instead of being a generic black notebook (with an advertisement), I now have something I'll enjoy using.  And, it was fun to do!

Catching up

Where have the last few weeks gone?  It seems like everthing from Thanksgiving until now is just a big blur. 

The first week of December I was in northern AZ at a mini retreat of sorts, crafting all weekend.  We had a fairly small group so we got a lot of personal attention from our teacher/friend, Donna, who had prepared several projects to keep us busy.  I'd love to show you what we did, but either they're going to be Christmas presents for people who might see them here or they're going to be incorporated into a class project for the upcoming Mesa CK Scrapbook Convention in April.  However, I will tell you that the projects were so fun and the project for the convention class is going to be awesome!  I can't wait for you to see it and can't wait to teach it!  And as for Donna, well, you're going to be seeing a lot from her in the coming months.  I've got her busy with product design!  Just wait until you see what she's come up with for our 2008 product release!  I'm so excited!

After I got home from my fun weekend, Todd got sick.  He was sick that entire week and I dreaded the possibility of getting his cold.  You see, sometimes it's as though we're immune to each other's bugs.  It's quite common for one of us to get sick without the other getting it.  Just when I thought that would be the case this time, I got it full force.  I've been down for the count this entire week.  And yes, it's "just" a cold, not the flu.  But head colds can be nasty too, and so inconvenient.  But, better now than over Christmas or at CHA. 

In ducky news, Dewey is in full molt right now.  She only has a few scraggly feathers left on her wings.  She looks pretty pathetic, a shell of her former glory, and is quite embarrased.  Molting ducks are typically very fearful as their main defense, flying away, is gone.  Let's just say that she's grumpy right now.  Daisy has been losing a few feathers too, but not her flight feathers, so she's not in a true molt yet.  She's enjoying being able to boss Dewey while Dewey isn't quite so feisty.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to be posting some cards that have been made with our products and submitted by various designers.  While I'd love to say that they're all my creations, I have to give credit where it's due!  Today's cards were created by Dana Florence.  She was a contributor to our idea book and I've always loved what she does with our products.  The top card uses our Flourishes template along with fiber from the Hearts fiber card.  The lower card features the gecko from the Critters Stamp & Stitch and fiber from the coordinating pack.  I just love her style.  It's clean and simple, but not boring.  You'll be seeing more from her in the coming weeks along with some other designers too, so be sure to check back often.

Until then, I hope you're having a fun & productive December.  It's always such a busy month but don't forget to stop and reflect on what we're celebrating.

Holiday cards

It's that time of year when crafters everywhere are looking for ideas for their holiday cards.  If you haven't made yours yet, don't fret.  Here are a couple of ideas for you. 

The first one is a simple Christmas tree using our Pines template and fibers.  You know, lots of people think stitching is really hard and time-consuming.  Those are the people you can "wow" with this card!   Shh....it only takes about 5 minutes to stitch the tree and the rest is a piece of cake.

The second card was done using our Stamp & Stitch Forest set and fibers.  I just added some red French knots and gold ribbon to make it a little more festive for the holidays.  From start to finish, this card only takes about 12 minutes, and that's with using three different colors of fibers!  What's the trick?  Our handy dandy needle threader!  It makes quick work of color changes.  I would be completely lost without it.

So there you go...two fast & easy ideas for holiday cards!  Now, if you would like to get project ideas like these, complete with step-by-step pictures, on a monthly basis, then be sure to sign up for our email newsletter.  You can find the link for this on our home page.  Don't worry...we won't bombard you with spam.  We only send information you can use, not the junk you don't want.  And we won't share your email with anybody else.

Have a great Thanksgiving!  We all have many blessings to be grateful for and it does our soul good to pause and reflect on them.

Phone issues

We're having trouble with our main phone line and cannot call out or receive calls on it.  Instead of us, or our voice mail service, you'll get a rude recording stating that it's due to a telephone facility issue.  They're coming to work on it tomorrow afternoon, and we're trying to have your calls forwarded to another number in the interim, but if you can't get through, please email me and I'll call you right back.  Thanks for your understanding!

My wild side!

Did you know I have a wild side?  I try to reign it in most times, but thought I'd share it with you today.

You can go to this site and build your own wild self.  According to them, I'm a Rein-gib-condor.  That's because I have reindeer antlers, gibbon arms, and condor wings.  They have all sorts of things you can add, like ears, legs (I tried on the duck feet for size), teeth, etc.

Here's Todd's Wild Side:  

He has bat wings, stingray tail, frog arms, duck feet, a lion mane, and more.

Give it a try!

(And now we'll get back to work.)

Rubber Stamp Fall Fiesta!

Todd & I got a wild idea recently and as a result we're going to be exhibiting at the Rubber Stamp Fall Fiesta in Mesa next month.  Now, don't let that "next month" part fool you!   It's a mere 10 days away!  The show will be at the Mesa Convention Center on Saturday & Sunday, November 3 & 4.  The hours are 9:30-5:00 on Saturday and 11:00-3:00 on Sunday.  We're going to have all sorts of fun stuff in our booth:  Timeless Touches products (of course), the Home Pro tools and accessories (metal corners, eyelets, mini brads, etc), some awesome Christmas ribbon, assorted tins to alter and embellish...trust me, you haven't seen these before!...CD folder mini album kits, and much, much more.  We'll have all sorts of project ideas for holiday cards and gifts, both for the crafters and non-crafters on your list.  I hope you'll stop by to do our FREE make & take, shop our awesome show specials, and to say hi.  You can get tickets at the door or at most of the local stamp stores.  See you there!