Season's Greetings

Hi Everyone,

I hope by now all of you are finished shopping, wrapping, baking and cooking. I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and all the best for a Happy, Healthy, New Year.

I want to share one more Christmas card I made and I sure hope you can see all of the glitter that I used. It made the silver ink look darker, and, so when you look at the card, it looks like I shaded the image with two shades of silver ink.

The images are from Hero Arts,.I used Encore silver ink and Glamour Dust glitter.

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Hugs,

Nicky

Holiday Tags

Brrrrr!!!! It is freezing here in Ontario. There is nothing more beautiful than being inside, sitting beside a roaring fire, drinking a cup of Earl Gray tea and watching these fluffy large snow flakes falling down. Then, reality hits when I have to go out and shovel that fluffy snow (yuck).

The last two months just flew by and I can hardly believe that Christmas is just a couple of weeks away. I finally broke down and bought a Cricut machine, and, I am having so much fun playing with it. I also got the Sure-Cuts-Alot which allows me to download any font from my computer.

I have also been designing cards with the QuicKutz Fashion Dolls and having a blast doing it. I will be teaching a class with them in January. As soon as my samples are ready I will post some of the cards to show you.

Today I am going to share two tags that were a part of my twelve tag class. When I saw the music note patterned paper from Teresa Collins, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it, and I was so happy it turned out as I imagined. I used distressed ink around the edges and stamped my sentiment. Then I added the scallop border and green ribbon to finish off the tag.

The next tag features a Penny Black stamp, white Versa Magic ink pad and lots of glitter. I stamped the first tree and then masked it . I then lowered the tree a bit and stamped it so that the trees look like one is in front of the other. These two tags are quick and fairly easy to make.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I would love to hear from you.

Nicky

happy monday

Can you believe it's the middle of November already??? Where has October gone ? I have been so busy between preparing for Scrapfest, doing demos and 'Make and Takes" during Scrapfest, teaching Christmas card and tag classes, in addition to lots of baby sitting my two gorgeous grand-daughters, time just flew by. Sorry for not posting sooner. I would like to thank those of you that emailed me personally to see if I am okay and to remind me that I haven't posted in a bit. I really appreciate it and will post more often.

Here is a card from my Christmas card class I would like to share with you. The stamp is from Stampendous , glitter is Glamour dust, the tape I used is Swookwang, and I used a Cuttlebug Swiss dots for the background.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I would love to hear from you .

Hugs,

Nicky

Happy Sunday

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a great weekend. I had my 2 grand-daughters for a sleepover, and we had a blast. We stamped, coloured, designed clothes for the paper doll I bought them, read stories, made up some other stories and just had the best time ever. I love spending time with them.

Here is a card that I designed a few months ago and I thought I would share it with you. I had decided to use some of the G Studio $1.50 stamps which I have so many of . I needed to make a bunch of Birthday cards in a hurry and wanted to design a card that just took a few minutes to put together, and, this is what I came up with . I was so happy with it, and in less than an hour I made ten of these cards to send out.

I used one of my favourite background polka dot stamps from PaperTrey Ink stamps and my favourite scallop punch from EK Success to enhance the card. And, of course I used some Glamour Dust glitter to finish the card. Let me know what you think.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I would love to hear from you.

Hugs,

Nicky

Enjoy

Happy Labour Day! The weather here in Toronto is cool and wet, perfect weather to stay home and stamp.

I wanted to share a card I made for my Beautiful Blooms class that I had so much fun designing. I wish I can take credit for the technique I used, but I can't, it was Tim Holts that came up with it, and I love it. I chose cloud blue, willow & seashell pink alcohol inks, and with the air can, began to aim and press the trigger. I instantly loved the results and decided to pick up Penny Blacks solid image to stamp with Versa Fine Onyx Black (my favourite black ink pad). For the background, I chose Paper Trey Ink script and aligned it three times (very easy to align) to fill up my blue layer. I used a large Fiskars corner rounder and ribbon for extra interest, and to finish the card, I used a bold Hero Arts sentiment and blue baubles to balance out the card.

I don't know how well the colours will show up on the screen, but it is a very pretty and colourful card, and what I love about this technique is that each time you do it, you will get a different result.

Christine and Susan , it was so much fun spending time with you, we have to do it more often.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Hugs,

Nicky

Happy Tuesday

Hi Everyone,

Hope everyone is having a great summer. Can you believe it's the middle of August already? The days are sure flying by, and I can't believe that I haven't blogged since July (oopps). I have been so busy designing cards for my upcoming classes, enjoying my two gorgeous grand-daughters, and the outdoors.

Even though I said that I would never renovate again, I decided to redo my computer room into a guest room/office. So I went ahead and had my wonderful husband pull up the carpet, and then we put wood floors. I bought a couch that opens into a double bed, a new computer table with two shelves and my hubby painted the room a very pale blue. He did a great job, and we are just about finished. I need some art work on the walls, and plan on painting a couple of them myself. If they turn out, I will post them on the blog.

I want to share this card with you . I started with Bazzil metallic purple card stock and punched a 2" circle out of it. I stamped the cluster of flowers (Imagenese) with Versafine onyx ink pad (my favourite black) and coloured with odorless mineral spirits and Prismacolour pencils. I used fine glitter around the flowers, and, for the background I used a new line of stamps made by Simon and Heidi which you can order at http://www.pointerscrapbooking.com/.

He is designing gorgeous stamps, especially his background stamps, which I love. They are great quality and so easy to stamp with. I used Versamagic white ink and the plaid background stamp.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I would love to hear from you.

Nicky

Wish Big

Hi Guys,

I hope you are all relaxing and enjoying the sunshine. I have been very busy designing cards for my August classes, and wanted to share one of them with you. I first used this technique about eight years ago, and decided to try it again with this Hero Arts Butterfly.

I love this image 'cause it has just the right amount of space to colour. I used my Dove Blender with Lyra watercolour crayons to colour and shade. I don't know how well the shading will show up on the butterfly, but I am happy with how it turned out. I used blue chalk with a cotton ball, and applied shading around the images. The background image is also by Hero Arts, and I randomly stamped the circle in Memories baby blue. I then added green rhinestones to the heads of the butterflies for a little shimmer.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hugs,

Nicky

Happy Monday

Hi guys,

Hope you are all keeping cool on this very hot and sticky day. I can't believe that it is July already. I had such a long list of things I wanted to do this summer, and I feel like summer is just whizzing by.

I wanted to apologize to the wonderful ladies that came to my Birthday Party at http://www.pointerscrapbooking.com/ for not putting up their pictures and the rest of my birthday cards. I forgot to bring my camera, and, Heidi (owner of pointers) took all of the pictures and sent them to me, and for whatever reason, we just couldn't download it. however, the pictures are on Pointers website. Thanks so much for your support and good wishes.

On the today's card, I decided to revisit one of my layouts that I did last year by punching out this gorgeous BoBunny patterned paper with EK success circle punches and Gina K "Friends Are Forever" stamp set which I love. http://www.ginakdesigns.com/

I stamped the flower with black Memento ink and then stamped the heads of the flowers again, cut them and then layered them onto the card. I coloured the flower with Prismacolour pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I used green rhinestones in the flower and pink rhinestones on the side. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. I don't know how well the rich colours of the paper and my colouring will show on screen, but the colour is a rich plum, pink and green, and ,I coloured the flower with plum and pink.

Hope you like my card and thanks so much for stopping by.

I would love to hear from you.

Hugs,

Nicky

Birthday Bash

Hi Guys,

I hope you've all been enjoying your week so far. My week just flew by and was so hectic with getting together with friends to stamp, designing cards for up-coming classes and teaching.

I wanted to share with you pictures of the Birthday Party that the owners of the store where I teach, Heidi & Simon, threw for me. Check out their website for more pictures http://www.pointerscrapbooking.com/ .

I really want to thank Heidi and Simon for inviting me to teach at their store and for their kindness and generosity. Heidi really out-did herself, and, made me the most gorgeous autograph book and she got all the 28 people that came for the whole day, and other friends that dropped by but couldn't stay, to sign the book. We had a great lunch (pizza, sushi, wings) and Heidi even made loot bags and gave them out to everyone whom attended. There were specials and make 'n takes, and everyone had a great time. This meant so much to me. I am so grateful to have been able to spend the day with everyone.

These women are so talented and so wonderful that I will share with you some of the cards I received. Thanks so much ladies for the beautiful cards, flowers, gourmet cookies, home-made biscotties, gift certificates, a fabulous stamped pad. Your generosity and friendship means the world to me.

Here are the pictures, in no particular order, of the most wonderful friends ever. Enjoy!

Have a special day

Hi Guys,

I hope you all had a great weekend and had lots of time to stamp. My weekend flew by between teaching on Saturday, and, Sunday was spent with my kids and grand-daughters. We had a blast.

There have been such fabulous challenges and sketches in blogland lately. I fell in love with this one sketch by Mercy, and I was so inspired by a card my friend Irene made, that I just had to try it out and see what I could come up with. This is the card I am posting . What do you think ?

I used a Hero Arts thistle stamp and coloured it with a Dove Blender and metalic Pebbles chalk. I also glittered it with glamour dust. The polka dot image is by Great Impression and I used soft baby blue by Memories. I wanted a very soft and subtle look on the kraft card stock.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hugs,

Nicky

The winner is.......

Thanks so much to those that left me a comment sharing your favourite colour combos and favourite techniques. I had my husband pick a name out of a hat and he picked......... Nancy.

Congratulations Nancy ! Please email me and give me your address.

I have been busy working on cards for an up coming class and I will post one tomorrow. Hope you all have a great night.

Hugs
Nicky

2 year Bloggaversary & Blog candy

Hi Guys,

Hope everyone is well and enjoying our beautiful hot weather. I am so excited and thrilled to tell you that I am the Guest Artist for the June issue of Take Ten Magazine. This is the best Birthday gift I could have received ever (june 2). Can I tell you how excited I am? If anyone wants any of the images that I used on the cards, they are all by Stamping Bella. For some reason, it wasn't mentioned in the magazine.

I am also celebrating my second year Blogg-aversary (where has time gone), sooooo, I am in a mood to give someone some blog candy. All you have to do to win, is to leave me a comment telling me what is your favourite colour combo, and, what is your favourite technique. You won't regret it. I will pick a winner and post it on Tuesday.

I also wanted to share this card with you. I used both an embossing folder and EK success border punch. The stamp from Penny Black was coloured with Tombow markers and the sentiment is from Hero Arts. Ribbon is May Arts.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,

Nicky

Boxes, Boxes, Boxes

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all enjoyed a fabulous weekend and had lots of time to stamp. My weekend flew by, spending time with my two beautiful grand-daughters, my kids and designing these boxes.

I wanted to design boxes that fit my A2 and my 5 x 5 square cards, and after ruining ten sheets of card stock, I finally figured out how to make these boxes which fit my cards perfectly. I decided to teach this box class for the month of May along with five cards and matching envelopes . It's a perfect gift for any occasion and is so easy to make. I had so much fun making these sets, that I couldn't stop making them. If you are in the Toronto area, come and join us at Pointers Scrapbooking store http://www.pointerscrapbooking.com/ for this fun filled class.

I fell in love with Basic Grey Kioshi paper, Graphic 45 and Fancy Pants paper. Aren't they gorgeous. I also used EKsuccess border punches, Maya Roads satin ribbon and Jollee's rhinestones.

The cards are packed away for my class but I will post them in a few weeks. 'till then I hope you enjoy the boxes.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,

Nicky

TGIF

Hi Guys,

Scrapfest was a HUGE success for everyone. Our booth at Pointers Gift and Crafts (http://www.pointerscrapbooking.com/ was so busy the whole time, that you could hardly fit into our booth. If you want to see some of the pictures, go to Pointers website and you will be able to see them. It was great to see so many familiar faces and really nice to meet new ones. Especially those that insisted on having pictures taken with me (wink, Trish Hill and friend).

The card I am posting today features a Hero Arts stamp. I used a new Martha Stewart Punch for the border, and stamped a checkered image on the purple card stock with Versa Mark, but I am not sure if it will show up very well. I wanted a very subtle background and I was hoping it would show up on the computer. I coloured the roses with Prisma colour pencils and odorless mineral spirits. For an embellishment, I used three purple baubles to finish off the card.

Hope you enjoy the card and thanks so much for stopping by.

I would love to hear from you.

Have a great weekend.

Hugs,

Nicky

Faux tearing

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all enjoyed celebrating Passover and Easter with family and friends . I know it has been awhile since I blogged and I apologize for that, but I have been so busy designing new classes, preparing both samples and Make and Takes which I will be doing for Pointers Gift and Crafts at Scrapfest in Kitchner next week. If you are going to attend, please come and say "Hi", watch the demos, and make the fabulous Make and Takes with us. We are going to be in booth 630, and I'm looking forward to seeing you there.

I decided to incorporate some old techniques and change them up a bit for some of my classes, (I am now teaching at Pointers Gifts and Crafts http://www.pointerscrapbooing.com/). Here is one of the cards I made using distress inks. Did you guys see the 12 new colours? Of course, I had to buy them all, the colours are gorgeous, and I plan on using them often.

I used Hero Arts leaf stamp, Rangers Distress Inks Broken China and Shabby Shutters, Sizzix embossing folder, and torn masking tape to create this card. Let me know what you think. I am working on a few other cards which I will post in a few days, so stay tuned.

Hope you are all having a great weekend.

Hugs,

Nicky

I'm baack!!!!!

Hi Everyone,

Firstly,I would like to thank all of you that have emailed me privately to see how my husband is doing after having both his knees replaced and also,how I was doing after fighting the flu for the last 5 months. I am thrilled to say that my hubby is home and doing really well, He is walking around with the aid of one cane and getting stronger every day. I'm finally starting to feel like my old self again. And, let's not forget the renovations from Hell that were supposed to last 3 weeks and lasted 4 months instead. They are finally finished except for finding a vanity and sink for my powder room. I have been trying to unpack and organize my house, on top of trying to take care of my husband and myself. Things have been very crazy hectic around here.

It is so much fun to unpack my crafts and organize them, although it's a lot of work. Every time I open up a box, I get so excited about the stuff in it. I purged a lot of paper, wool, old stamps that I donated to friends and a school. There is no way I could have kept all of the things I have accumulated over the years, and I feel so good that my things were so appreciated.

I know that I am late, but I hope that everyone had fun on Valentine's Day. Since I haven't unpacked my colouring mediums yet, I decided to make a card with the supplies I had on hand.

Can you believe that I actually designed a card without either colouring or glitter .....

To make the card, I used an embossing plate to emboss the red heart, and to cut the heart I used a Quickutz cookie cutter. The white ploka dot heart was cut with a Marvy punch and stamped with Penny Black polka dot border stamp. The large scallop was done with EK success border punch and the bauble was from Stamping Bella.

Let me know what you think about the card, and I will post more often as I unpack my stamping supplies and start stamping again.

It feels so great to be posting again.

Huge Hugs

Nicky