Happy Tuesday

Happy Tuesday Everyone! I hope you all enjoyed a great weekend. I am so happy to have a new laptop. My old one stopped working after only four years. I guess nothing is made to last forever. Now that I have my new computer, I can finally post again. Can you imagine being without a computer for nearly a month?

The card I am posting is another image by Dreamerland crafts sold exclusively at http://www.pointerscrapbooking.com/, and it is called Guitar Boy #1109014. I love this image. It is so difficult to find stamps that are geared for boys or men, and this one is so cute and is so quick and easy to colour. I used Prismacolour pencils and odourless mineral spirits to colour, and an embossing folder for the background. I love combining Kraft, baby blue and brown together and I use this combination very often. I put the buttons (die from Papertrey Ink) on at the last minute, but I'm not sure that I'm happy with the way it looks. I didn't really have another embellishment, and since I love the button die, I decided to use it. Even though it is a masculine card, I added a bit of glitter to make it "pop" and I am very happy with how it turned out.

I hope you like the card and thanks so much for stopping by. I would love to hear from you.

Nicky

New Stamp Line

Hi Bloggers,

It's unreal how fast time flies when you are having fun. Summer just flew by, and, can you believe that Christmas is just two months away?

I have been very busy demonstrating and doing make-'n-takes at Scrapfest in Oshawa two weeks ago, and last week, I helped to both teach and demo at the Creative Festival. I've also been designing my Christmas Magical Card class, Christmas Tag class and I'm almost finished designing my Sparkling Christmas Card class. This has kept me so busy.

I am so excited to share with you, that, the owner of Pointer Scrapbooking, Simon, surprised us with an adorable line of new stamps called Dreamerland Crafts. He collaborated with an amazing illustrator and kept it very hush, hush, even from us teachers. I only got to see the entire line the night before Scrapfest, and, of course I had to run home and make a few cards with these sweet little characters. The stamps are deeply etched and are so easy to stamp with, and they have just enough space to colour. They are machine-cut and are mounted on cling. The indexing is also amazing, as they are coloured. So, if you are colour challenged, just look at the indexing, and you will have a great example of how to colour the image. Can't you tell how excited I am about these stamps.

The store also now carries Odorless Mineral Spirits, a beautiful selection of Prisma Colour pencils, paper stomps and the hand-held sand paper to keep the stomps sharp. I am presently working on a class, teaching you all about colouring and shading using these pencils and mineral spirits.

Here is one of the cards I designed using these adorable stamp named Tender Care. I have used this layout before, but I thought it suited the image. I added a bit of glitter, some ribbon and the two pearls. I had so much fun colouring her. She reminded me of one of my grand-daughters.

If you live in the Toronto area, come into the store and see all fourty-five images. If you can't come in, you can shop online, and Simon and Heidi will be happy to ship your order to you. The website is: http://www.pointerscrapbooking.com/

Telephone: 905-940-8900

I am also posting the index, so you could see how fabulous it is.

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think of the stamp.

Thanks so much for dropping by.

Hugs,

Nicky

It's a girl!!! I am back from CHA

Hi Everyone,

It's another girl, and we are thrilled. She weighed 8 pounds 4 oz. and is absolutely gorgeous. All are doing really well and I am beyond thrilled to have my three little grand-daughters. Her name is Nora Taylor. Don't you just love that name. My daughter-in-law is amazing. She is already wearing her regular clothes; teeny tiny, you would never believe that she just gave birth a week ago.

I would like to thank all of you who emailed me privately asking if the baby was born yet.

I got back from CHA last Friday, exhausted, but had a great time. It was delightful to see old friends and meet some new ones. I was so worried the whole time that my daughter-in-law would give birth, and that I wouldn't be there, but she kept to her word that she would wait for me to get back. She gave birth right on her due date July 24th , two days after I got back. Is she the best or what?

The trends, at CHA, still seem to be lots and lots of flowers in all shapes and sizes. Kraft paper is huge, birds and bird cages are still strong and lots of beautiful patterned papers. My favourite booths were Penny Black, Hero Arts, La Blanche, Rangers, Prima's , and My Favourite Things. We bought merchandise from all of them and hopefully they will be at the store really soon . So check out http://www.pointerscrapbooking.com/ to find out when the goodies starts to come in.

It was soooo hot and humid the whole week that we were there, and my hair, well let's just say I had very bad hair days, but I will still post some of the pictures I took. Don't laugh when you see how horrible I look in these pictures.

This was Cheryl's first CHA and I just had to take a picture of her when she first stepped into the convention. The look on her face is priceless, and shows you how excited she was.

The next picture is of Kim owner of My favourite Things and Jodi Morrow one of her very talented Design Team members.

The next one is Jacqueline of La Blanche, an amazing artist and owner of the company. I just loved her and must have spent at least five hours just watching her colour. We became friendly and she gave me one of her fabulous books that she published.

I would like to thank Heidi and Simon for inviting me to join them and allowing me to order all of the stamps I wanted to teach with. We really had a great time. we laughed a lot, worked hard and ordered tons of goodies.

I will post more pictures later on.

Thanks so much for dropping by.

I would love to hear from you.

Nicky

CHA bound

Hi Guys,

Hope you are all enjoying this hot sticky weather. The month of June flew by and it being my birthday month, I was wined, dined, lunched and brunched all month. There are ten of us that celebrate our birthdays in June, and we had a blast.

I am so excited that Heidi and Simon invited all the Pointer teachers to join them at the summer CHA show in Chicago, and we are all able to make it. It should be so much fun. We are leaving on Sunday and returning home on Friday. I hope to come home inspired and full of new ideas.

Simon (Pointers store owner) is making his own line of stamps that are absolutely gorgeous. You can purchase them either wood-mounted or unmounted with cling. They are so deeply etched that your image comes out very crisp and clear. I just love them. So I thought that I would use one of the stamp images to make this card. If you are in the Toronto area, come into the store and check them out, and while you are there check out my sample cards for the next class.

I used Black Onyx Versa Fine ink. I stamped onto craft card stock and then layered it onto embossed layer. I used glitter to frame the layer, and in the center of each flower. I outlined each flower with white Prisma coloured pencil to pop the image t hope you like it.

Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me know you were here by leaving a comment.

Hugs,

Nicky

3rd Bloggaversary

Hi Everyone,

I can't believe that it's been three years since I started Blogging. Although I don't Blog as often as I would like to, I am still having so much fun sharing ideas, meeting great people, and being inspired by all of you. I can't thank you guys enough for all of your support and loyalty for the last three years.

Recently, I have been teaching a class in water colouring with my Distress Inks, and I wanted to use these inks in a different way. So, I took out my sponges, and sponged Broken China, Peeled Paint and Frayed Burlap onto white card stock. I misted the card and got these great water marks all over the card to give it some texture. I then stamped the Hero Arts Envelope pattern in the frayed burlap, and sponged it to distress the edges, added some glitter and a sentiment to finish the card. I am very happy with how the card turned out, but I am not quite sure that all the details will show up on screen.

I used a La Blanc stamp and Hero Arts Envelope pattern .

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Your comments mean a lot to me.

Thanks,

Nicky

Happy Monday

Hi Guys,

I know! I know! I keep promising that I will get better about posting, and I will. It has been a very busy month and a half, and finally, things have quieted down enough so that I could post.

I wanted to share this card with you that I designed for my current class. I used one of my favourite techniques, and then used masking tape and Pebble chalk to colour it. I glittered the edges of the image and embossed the background. I used a McGill punch for the label with the sentiment, and then adhered it all together.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I would love to hear from you.

Nicky

You're a Great Friend

Well , I think it's about time that I Blogged, don't you. The last month has been so busy. I've been to Florida with my fabulous daughter and we had a blast. I'm working on my upcoming water colour class with Distressed Inks and Tombow markers. In addition to my favourite pastime, spending as much time with my adorable two granddaughters, soon to be three.

I would like to share a card with you that I designed for my "Black and White with a Splash of Colour" class. I started by creating a template so that I could trace the black line. I cut the rectangle with my Fiskars cutter. I didn't use my Nestabilities as a template 'cause I didn't have the right size. I used an embossing folder for the dots and a Hero Arts sentiment and flowers. I punched the vase (punch bunch), and used Marvy markers to colour the flowers. I then put a bit of glitter on the flowers. Lastly, I attached a turquoise bow on the vase and a bit of chalk on the words.

I hope you like the card and I have a few more to share with you, so stay tuned and I will post again in a few days.

Hope you have a great week.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I would love to hear from you, so please leave a comment.

Nicky

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Hi Everyone,

Hope you are all showered with lots of love, chocolate and stamping goodies. I bet you are shocked that I am actually blogging, but the last month has been absolutely crazy, what with designing, stamping, cutting and making kits for my classes. Now that I am caught up, I will have more time to catch up with you and blog more often.

What have you guys been up to? How did you celebrate Valentine's Day? I would love to hear from you.

Today, I would like to share a card I made for one of my classes. You could easily change the flower with a heart, and make it as an anniversary card or for Valentine's day. I needed a birthday card, so I stamped the birthday sentiment .

For the card, I used a new Hero Arts background stamp and a PaperTrey Ink polka dot stamp on the strip of red card stock. I have so much ribbon, but I never seem to have the right shade to match, so I cheat and use a strip of card stock and then stamp on it so it looks just like ribbon. A perfect match every time. Does that ever happen to you? The Sentiment is also by Hero Arts. I used Prismatics card stock, Versa Fine black ink and lots of glitter.

To those of you that kept on emailing me with the "knock, knock", it worked 'cause here I am posting. Thanks for not giving up on me. I really will try to be better at posting.

Have a great day.

Nicky

Happy New Year !

Happy New Year! I hope this year brings, all of you, lots of love, health and lots of time to stamp. This is going to be a fabulous year for my family, as I found out that we are going to be grandparents for the third time. My son and daughter-in-law are expecting their third child in July, and I can hardly wait.

One of my New Year resolutions is to post more often and to join some of the sketch challenges. If you have a chance, please let me know if you made any stamping related resolutions.

I have been working with the QuicKutz Fashion Doll die set for the last two months designing a whole wardrobe for these dolls, and I have to tell you that I have been having a blast. It brings back memories of my childhood when I used to play with my paper dolls, designing, cutting, gluing and embellishing them. They make great all-occasion cards and I have been making sets and putting them in clear boxes, and then giving them as gifts to some of my friends. So far everyone has loved them. I have actually been commissioned to make ten sets for a good friend of mine, so that she could give them to her friends for their birthdays.

I am sharing just two of the twenty cards that I designed, with you. I also designed some extra outfits which do not come with the die. I glittered the pink patterned paper and it turned out great. I don't know whether or not you can see it on the screen. I have to warn you that this die set is very addictive and so much fun. This is a great way to use up all of your scraps of patterned paper.

I showed them to some of my students and they insisted that I teach a class, which I am going to do on January 5 and 19. So if you are in the Toronto area come and join us at Pointers (http://www.pointerscrapbooking.com/). I would love to see you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,

Nicky

P.S. The QuicKutz Fashion Doll die set can be purchased at Pointers.