SPECTACULAR Christmas Card Workshop

I'm back after a long absence... thanks for coming back to visit me!

I have spent several days preparing this workshop, and although it won't take place for a while yet, I can't wait to show it off!

It uses our new Wonderland papers and lots and lots of BLING!

The card box is also decorated a tiny bit on the inside and each of the cards is stamped on the inside as well. The final card, Love, Hope, Peace, Joy is CASEd from Christine Adams from a set of cards she made last year. So many of my customers loved it and asked about it last year that I decided to include it in this set. It was one of my personal favourites as well!

All supplies are listed at the bottom of this post but are not separated by card. If you would like additional details, please send me an email and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. 

As always, you can click on any of the photos for a closer look. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Supplies used are all CTMH unless otherwise noted:

Paper: Wonderland Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Twilight Cardstock, Crystal Blue Cardstock, Amethyst Cardstock, White Daisy Die-Cut Cards and Envelopes, Standard White Daisy Cards and Envelopes

Stamps: Everlasting Life, Snowflakes, Peace on Earth, Card Chatter - Christmas, Adorn-able, Snow Flurries

Inks: Twilight, Grey Wool, White Daisy, Chocolate, Crystal Blue, Versamark

Accessories: Cricut, Art Philosophy Cartridge, Card Box,  Prisma Glitter, Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Silver Embossing Powder, Colonial White Waxy Flax, White Thread, Needle, White Grosgrain Ribbon, Silver Glitter Glue, Bling Assortment, Clear Sparkles, Bitty Sparkles, Icing Top Coats Overlays, Shimmer Brads, Glue Dots, Foam Tape, Cuttlebug (not CTMH), Nestabilities (not CTMH), Branch Punch (not CTMH), Heat Tool

Back Shortly, with SPECTACULAR Results!!

I want to apologize for being away for SO long... I have been dealing with some health issues and hope to be back on track shortly. I also dealt with a dead camera battery today, just when I was ready to photograph some new artwork this afternooon. 

Hopefully there will be something new (and SPECTACULAR) posted here tomorrow! 

Thanks for your patience - please do keep checking back - 

I truly haven't fallen off the ends of the earth - 

at least, not yet!

Alyson

Dreamin' Birthday Cards

I have several birthdays coming up in the next few months and thought I'd get ahead on making my cards. The Dreamin' Paper Pack is perfect for cards this time of year since it ties in so nicely with the fall colours. These two cards were made using the same basic design but one is more masculine in nature and the other is more feminine. See if you can tell which is which :) :)

There are a lot of products used on each card and the insides are also decorated although I didn't photograph the interiors. 

The products are listed at the end and are separated by each card. 

Enjoy,
Alyson

Supplies used are all CTMH unless otherwise noted:

Card #1

Paper: Dreamin; Paper Pack, Pacifica Cardstock, Chocolate Cardstock, Bamboo Cardstock, Goldrush Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock

Stamps: Remarkable Wreath, Card Chatter - Birthday (inside)

Inks: Pacifica, Chocolate, Goldrush

Accessories: Dark Chocolate Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Bling Assortment, Designer Rhinestone Brads, Clear Sparkles, Sunflower Waxy Flax (ret.), Just Blooms Flutter Paper Shapes, Foam Tape, Cricut Art Philosophy Collection

Card #2

Paper: Dreamin; Paper Pack, Chocolate Cardstock, Pacifica Cardstock, Bamboo Cardstock, Goldrush Cardstock, Colonial White Cardstock

Stamps: Cricut Art Philosophy Collection Stamp Set

Inks: Chocolate, Pacifica Marker

Accessories: Antiqued Copper Designer Brads, Hemp, Foam Tape, Cricut Art Philosophy Collection, Border Punch (SU)

Wonderland WOTG - no photos yet

The Wonderland paper is probably my favourite from the new Idea Book. I really haven't decided yet for sure - I love so many of the new papers! 

The Workshop on the Go layouts and cards are posted below. I don't have photos for the layouts yet... I have placed a white paper with the photo size on top of the photo mats - on the first layout, they are white on white, so they are hard to see. I chose not to distress my papers this time - I am liking the cleaner look these days. 

The cards are what caught my eye in this workshop - those Icing Topcoats are just amazing! I altered some of the cards slightly, but nothing major. 

As always, click on the photo to see more detail. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

All supplies are CTMH

Papers: Wonderland WOTG Kit, White Daisy Die-Cut Cards and Envelopes

Stamps: Wonderland WOTG Stamp Set

Inks: Twilight, Chocolate, Grey Flannel

Accessories: Clear Sparkles, Foundry Pin Clips, Top Coats Icing Overlays, Silver Glitz Glitter Gel, Foam Tape

A Destroyed Title, Disappointment, and a Second Try...

After devouring my new Idea Book, I fell in love with the layout on page 23 and I wanted to recreate the title on that page. You may recall this layout of mine, posted about a week ago.

This is just the left page with the title. 

I followed the instructions in the Idea Book, listed just below the layout, as to how the paint the Dimensional Elements letters and applied the letters to my layout very carefully with our new tweezers. They were still wet when I photographed the layout. Well, it has been 10 days and they have not dried. I tried heat setting them, leaving them in the sun, and they are still wet. I finally removed them yesterday, along with the photo and paper beneath them that had to be replaced (no big deal) and replaced them with different letters since I didn't have enough of the same letters to do the same exact title (bummer). For these ones, I tried mixing our Pearl Paint with Staz-On Black reinker, but when they dried, they turned a dark shade of purple. I then had to use Black Staz-On ink to colour them and had to do them twice to cover the purple stain. I am afraid to cover these with Liquid Glass but I really want the shine that comes across in the book. 

The new title is shown below. 

For some reason, the new Dimensional Elements did not include the same size "t" as the rest of the letters in this font. I checked and double-checked! 

So this is the end result. I am not super happy about it, but I guess it goes into that category of "I will have to live with it."

Any thoughts or suggestions? Has anyone else tried this technique or has plans to try it out? I would be really curious to hear what your results have been!

Alyson

Dreamin' Layout - Live, Love - Camp!

My friend, Janet, had never been on a REAL camping trip until this summer when she went on a canoe trip with us! She wanted to help with everything, from preparing the food, to packing the backpack. She was a hoot, asking all sorts of questions and wanting to learn about how to do everything. She had a great time, even though we got rained on, and the weather was pretty cool. Her dog even came along, and as you can tell from the last photo in the layout, he was exhausted after the final portage! 

Hopefully she'll join us again in the future - it was fun teaching her all the skills and chores of camp life 

(and not having to do it all ourselves)!

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Supplies used are all CTMH

Paper: Dreamin' Paper Pack

Stamps: Love Life, Togetherness, Campin' Fever (ret.)

Inks: Pacifica, Chocolate, Goldrush

Accessories: Cricut Art Philosophy Collection, Bronze Glitz Glitter Gel, Mocha Opaques, Foam Tape

Rainbow - Celebrate Blessings Layout

We paddled all day in the non-stop rain, only to get to a campsite and face a storm. It didn't last long but the result afterwards was this gorgeous rainbow. It started out just on one side and before too long, it stretched from one side of the lake right across to the other side. You could pick out the individual colours in the rainbow, it was so brilliant, but it only lasted a couple of minutes. These photos really don't do it justice. It's times like this when I wish we had a better camera, but we got the best shots we could. 

 As always, click on the pictures to see more details. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Supplies used are all CTMH unless otherwise noted:

Paper: Sonoma Paper Pack

Stamps: Harvest Happiness, Token Alphabet, Beautiful Things (ret.), A Little Everything (ret.), You and Me (ret.)

Inks: Olive, Cocoa, Smokey Plum

Accessories: Cricut Art Philosophy Collection, Foam Tape, Lace (not CTMH), Green Ribbon (not CTMH), Brown Marker (not CTMH)

Dog in a Backpack - by Choice!

Kelsie loves to curl up and sleep just about anywhere. His favourite place when we are camping is on a pile of dirty clothes or just off the ground somewhere. In these photos, we caught him deep inside the backpack - we actually had to lift him out of the pack to get him closer to the top to get these pictures. He is pretty comfy - he can barely keep his eyes open!

As always, click on any of the pictures to see more details. 

The last picture is a close up of one of the clusters on the layout. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

All supplies are from CTMH

Paper: Roxie Paper Pack

Stamps: Instant Memories Stamp Set

Inks: Black, Tulip, Desert Sand, Black Staz-On, Black Re-inker

Accessories: Liquid Glass, Tulip Mini-Medley Accents, Colonial White Designer Ribbon, Art Philosophy Collection, Canvas Badge Buttons, Licorice Opaques, Pewter Mini-Medley Collection, Foundry Pin Clips, Bling Assortment, Just Blooms Flutter Paper Shapes, Foam Tape, Colonial White Ribbon Slide (ret.), Black Marker, Dimensional Elements Monograms P, E, R, F, C, T, Craft Jar, Embossing Stylus

Portage Trails Layout

I apologize in advance for my long write-up before the photos, but this requires some explanation for those of you who are not familiar with wilderness canoe tripping. I have always wanted to do a layout on the realities of what it is like to portage gear while on a canoe trip. Many people think you just pack up gear and stuff it in a canoe and off you go. That is so untrue. Everything has to be carefully thought through and packaged in certain ways. Some things have to be packaged in special places inside the pack due to the weight or size or even their shape; for example, the saw has to go in directly against my back as it is the only place it will fit due to its height. Things like the food (which we dehydrate and prepare ourselves) and the cookware must go in against my back and as close to the top as possible as it is heavy and I want it to sit high as it is easier to carry that way. Things like the sleeping bags can go at the bottom of the pack as they are lighter. There is a careful method to packing a heavy backpack, especially if we are unfamiliar with the terrain we will be traveling. We also portage ALL our gear in ONE trip. That means that whatever doesn't fit in the backpack does not go on the trip. My backpack usually weighs around 100 pounds. The big bag on top of my pack is our tent. Hiking boots are a necessity and rain gear, water and a first aid kit must be easily accessible at all times. My husband, Dave carries the canoe and a small backpack with some other necessities. We do fly-in trips as well. This means that we hire a float plane and the canoe gets strapped onto the pontoons of the plane and we choose a lake to fly into. The plane drops us off there and he picks us up and a pre-arranged destination lake usually about 150 km away 7-10 days later where we flag him down in the center of the lake in our canoe using our PFDs.

The title reads "Portage Trails... it can be changed around to read Portage Trials..." as well because this often can be a trial... it is often a very difficult process and Dave and I have walked some extremely difficult trails - some have been very long - others have been very steep and rocky. Some have been so steep that we have had to lower the canoe and pack on ropes. We have had to slide down others, jump from rock to rock, use our GPS to find the correct route, walk through waist deep mud (and pick of the dozens of leeches afterwards), wade through waist deep rapids holding the canoe over our heads... you name it.... We have walked a 6.5 km forest trail to reach the mouth of a river on the hottest day of the year with a full load, thinking we would never reach the end... THAT was a trial if there ever was one!   

Anyways, these pictures were taken by a friend who recently joined us for her first canoe trip EVER (brave sole, isn't she?) That is why there is a barrel in the photos. It shows the process of Dave helping me to get the pack on my back and him balancing the canoe. 

I hope you enjoyed the story. Feel free to ask any questions or make any comments. I know people think we're crazy but this is the way we spend our vacation time!

As always, click on the photos to see more details.

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Supplies used are all CTMH
Paper: Believe Paper Pack, Animal Cookies Paper Pack (ret.), Pear Cardstock, White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps: Trinity Alphabet
Inks: New England Ivy, Pear, Sweet Leaf, Cranberry, Dutch Blue
Accessories: Art Philosophy Collection, Sweet Leaf Mini-Medley (ret.), Corner Rounder, Micro-Tip Scissors, Foam Tape

Majestic Moose!

On our last canoe trip, we encountered this gorgeous moose grazing in the shallows just before the entrance to a portage trail. We managed to get quite close to him and took several photographs. We just watched as he ate the weeds and shook off the bugs. It was threatening to rain at the time and it was quite humid. We tried not to move or to put our paddles in the water. Eventually, our dog, Kelsie heard him and let out a little growl. At that, the moose turned his head our way. We had to make a pretty hasty exit as were were pretty close to him and we were a little afraid he might charge our canoe. As it turned out, he just returned to his grazing and we continued on our way to our portage. Sometimes, I wonder about Kelsie - he seems to think he is a lot bigger than his little four pound frame sometimes... 

As always, you can click on the photos for more details. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson

Supplies used are all CTMH unless otherwise noted:

Paper: It's A Guy Thing Paper Pack (ret.), Bamboo Cardstock, New England Ivy Cardstock, Cocoa Cardstock, Olive Cardstock

Stamps: None

Inks: Cocoa, New England Ivy, Cocoa Re-inker, Brown Staz-On Ink

Accessories: Cricut Art Philosophy Collection, Spray Pen, Brown Satin Ribbon (not CTMH), Antiqued Copper Brads, Pewter Mini-Medley Collection, Notable Chipboard Alphabet, Sponge