Eleonor's Stamping Blog

Who can resist.....

...chocolate??? Every year at my craft fair, I make these nugget tins.  Basically, they are tins with a clear window on top and I fill them with Hershey's chocolate nuggets that have been wrapped with handstamped labels.  This is not an original idea, rather one that has been floating around the web for at least a few years....not sure who originally thought of these, but thank you whoever you are cause these are a great seller for me!
 
I make a belly band to wrap around the tin with a scalloped circle label on top.  Here's a close up.
 
I make this every year and also make some as gifts.  Friends and family always appreciate it!  Trouble is I always end up sneaking some of the chocolate and several of them find themselves in my mouth while I am making these.  Oh well.....it's all good!
 
 

One Card - 3 Looks

I'm playing in my studio today....just designing cards and making some gifts.  Today I played with a retired set called Wonderful You to create 3 different cards using the same layout.  The differences are subtle, but I like the last one best.  Here are all 3 of them.

First one:
 
This one has the brown ribbon and the gold cord.

Second one:
 
This one has the brown ribbon and the gold brads.

Third and last one (I like this one the best):
 
This one has the white brads and the leaf stamped on the green layer with white pigment ink.  
Which one do you like the best?

Doug left yesterday for Japan.  He has been travelling a lot, only just returning from Italy and London last week and then off again this week to Asia.  Thankfully, this is the last of his long trips till the New Year.  Isn't it just murphy's law that when he's away, everything goes wrong.  Last week while he was in Italy, our heater died and it was freezing in the house -- had to call the heating guy to come and have a look....then for some reason our internet just died and we had no internet service.  In this house that is worse than the plague itself -- and I almost went into panic mode not having my connection to the virtual world.  Thank goodness it was temporary and it came back a couple of hours later.  I sometimes wonder how we handled it when there was no internet at all??  What did we do to stay connected???  Hmmmm.....I don't even remember now!

Have a good Monday and a good week ahead everyone!
 
 
 

Here's the Poop!

Here it is again....by popular demand.  Each year at Christmas this item is a fave at my craft fair table.  I have so much fun  making these, and I do try to concentrate on making them, rather than eat them!

 

The snowman poop jar is full of milk chocolate balls wrapped in silver and the reindeer poop jar is full of chocolate covered raisins.

 

I'm just about ready for this weekend's fair....just gotta pack up the car and get set up.  Hope to see some of you there!
 
 

Craft Fair this Weekend....and a pet peeve.

This weekend I will be at the St. Thomas Moore Collegiate Craft Fair.  The address is 7450-12th Avenue in Burnaby.   If you live in Metro Vancouver and want to visit a great fair, come on by and see me at my table, as well as all the other talented crafters at the fair.  This fair is a good one, hosting hundreds of tables filled with handmade items ranging from jewellry, to knitting to paper products.  A great way to get some Christmas shopping done.  The event runs from Saturday Nov 28 from 10 - 4 and again on Sunday, Nov 29 from 11 - 4.  I will have lots of handstamped items as well as stamping kits complete with stamps and paper and embellishments, ready for you to create your own greeting cards.  Here is a sample of one of the little goodies I will be selling -- this one is a popular one with the little girls!

 

Arent these adorbale???  I fill them up with miniature Lindt chocolates.

 

It will be a fun weekend, and even more fun if I see some of you there!

 

Pet Peeve:  Self checkouts
I had to buy batteries at Home Depot yesterday and I only had the one item.  The lineups were long, so I decided to use the self checkout.  I've done this before and I think it is a great idea if you are in a rush....problem is there should be a sign by the machine saying, "Please read instructions on screen..." ....cause the woman in front of me kept scanning her item over and over again and the machine did nothing.  Yet she continued to scan the same way.  She did so about 10 times, each time with a bewildered look on her face.  I finally went up to her and told her that she had to actually scan the item with the barcode facing the scanner.  This isn't rocket science.  The machine cannot read something if it is facing the other way.
The thing is, the screen gives clear instructions on how to do this, yet people just DON'T READ.  This woman had 6 items and it took her freakin' 20 minutes to checkout.  I wanted to throttle her.   I was so glad to finally get out of there with my one pkg of batteries that took me half an hour to pay for.....25 minutes of which was spent watching someone ahead of me try to get herself checked out.  Geez.  

Aside from that, my day yesterday was fine.  How was yours??
 

Go Away Cough

I've been battling a cough for the past 5 days.  I hate when I'm not 100% well.  I like to stay active and do things and being sick, or even a little bit sick is the worst.  I've been taking Neo Citran warming syrup -- it is so comforting and soothing.  No fever has come, so the doctor says I'm okay.  No H1N1 concerns here, thank goodness. 

Jordan has started driving lessons with a driving school.  After trying to teach him myself, I realized that I was either gonna kill him, or he was gonna kill me in the process.  I just don't have the patience to teach....and I get nervous not being in control with a new driver.  He senses my nervousness and then he gets annoyed and nervous himself.....so in the end I just decided having someone else qualified teach him was the best.  He's been on 2 driving lessons so far and his teacher has made him drive all the way into central Richmond via the highway -- something I would never have had the courage to do!  He is doing really good, so that is great news! 

I am teaching some new classes, including this one below featuring the Winter Post set from Stampin' Up.   If you live in Metro Vancouver and would like to get on my email list for classes, just send me a note and I will add you to my email blast.  If you live further away, out of the province or in the U.S., you can still get on my email list for kits.  You can reach me using the email me link on the left margin of this blog. 

Dreary Weather

It's been raining here in Vancouver.   It's perfect weather for staying home and sleeping and today I wish I could do just that!  The thought of staying underneath my goose down comforter surrounded by fluffly pillows is just dee-lightful!.......but sadly, I have to go to work  Oh well.....

I have a new kit available for purchase and you can view the details here.  In the meantime here's one of the cards in the kit.

 

 

 
 

Lazy Sunday

Today was a nice, lazy day.  Well I guess lazy isn't exactly the right word to describe it cause it did start with a visit to the gym where I worked out with Doug for almost 2 hours.  So invigorating to start the day like that.  We go to the Steve Nash Sports Club almost everyday -- it is an addiction!

Then when we got home, I took a very long nap -- almost 3 hours!  It was well deserved after such an exhausting (but exhilirating...!) workout.  The rest of the day was spent crafting away.  This is what I made.  First, the pieces to make the card.

 

This is the final card.  I used 2 stamps to create it.

 

I went with one of my favourite colour combos -- turquoise and red.  This card is quite simple, a look that I really love.  I do create more complicated cards with lots of layers.....but in the end I always go back to simple and classic.  It's just me.  Here's a close up.

 

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend....have a great week ahead everyone! 
 

Anatomy of a Card.

Many of my friends and students ask me how I create cards.  There's no real good answer to that cause when I make cards, I just seem to go on autopilot....and I just do it.  Ideas come from many different things -- a magazine ad, a window display, a shirt I saw at the mall.....it depends!  So rather than explain how I create a card...here it is in pictures.

First I stamp the focal point backgound, below:
 

Then, I make my base card and add another detail to my stamped image above...in this case, it's a flower.  I like to test what colours I will use to colour in my image by scribbling on white cardstock and holding it next to my card that I've used patterned paper on.  For this card, I've used copic BG72, ice cream and then I watecoloured the inside of the flowers using Stampin' Up's chocolate chip reinkers.
 

And below is the final card.  I cut out the flowers and then popped them up using 3D dots on top of the flourish.  
 

Popping up the flower brings attention to it and further brings the eye to the focal point of the card.  Here is a close up.
 

Happy creating!

 

Halloween!

Yesterday was Halloween and it was a busy one for us!  Alyssa went trick or treating with her friends, Jordan was at a party and both Doug & I went to a party.  It's the first time in many years when no one was home on Halloween!  Here are some pics.

 
This was the display we had at work....the dry ice was so, so cool!

 
Science experiment, anyone???

 
Gypsy girl!  The necklace is just made out of gold metallic cardstock, using different sized circle punches.

 
Dracula was my date.   FUN!

Assembly Line Stamping & the Dollar Store!

I've started a yearly tradition: assembly line stamping!  Every year as I get ready for the holidays, my stamping style turns into factory mode.  I have so many people on my list who expect the same thing every year: a set of handmade cards!  I usually give everyone the same thing - a set of 8 handstamped cards.  This gift is a staple and one that is expected and valued more than anything I could buy at the store.  It is inexpensive for me to give, but expensive timewise.  It takes a lot of time to make the hundreds of cards for everyone who is expecting them -- I give all my sisters and my kazillion girlfriends this gift for Christmas every year.  They love it.  See below how the pieces to one card start off as.....

 

To save time, I make cards I've designed throughout the year for my classes.  This eliminates the designing part of the creative process as I'm just remaking previously taught cards.  For this card, I used the direct to rubber technique for coloring in the stamp.  Simply take a marker and colour in each parts of the stamp image in the colour you want....then stamp it.  So easy and people always ask, "how'd you get the different colours on one stamp???" ....(note: see how stained the wood is on my stamp.....that's how much I use my stamps....I always thought a stained stamp is a well loved  stamp!)

 

And this is the final card:

 

I made 30 of these last night.  Tonight I make 30 more of another design.  My hand is already tired just thinking of it.....

I was at the dollar store a couple of days ago and see what I found!

 

A calculator and ruler in one!  Just for $1!  And this one didn't even need batteries cause it's solar powered.  I was so excited.....further proof that as I get older, it really doesn't take much to excite me.  Aaaahhhhh....the benefits of age.

Have a good weekend everyone!