My Birthday Crop

Hi everyone,
I would like to share some pictures from my all-day Birthday Crop, that Heidi and Simon, the owners of Pointer Scrapbooking store where I teach, hosted for me. I was so very much spoiled with birthday cake, cup cakes, gorgeous cards and gifts. Thanks so much to everyone who came, and, for all of the cards and gifts. I especially want to thank Heidi and Simon for being such great hosts, and Heidi for making me a fabulous Copic Marker holder. I just love it!  You can see it in the picture along with some of the cards I received.

Thanks again to everyone who showed up and helped make my birthday so very special.

I will post one of my cards in a few days

The samples of my Big Shot and Cuttlebug class are posted at the store. so come on by and check them out. This is going to be a fun-filled technique oriented class. The first class is on Wednesday. I hope to see you there. Register at www.pointerscrapbooking.com

Thanks for stopping by,

Hugs

Nicky

Hello again

Hi everyone,

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted. To make this short,  I went on a cruise on the Allure of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world (picture a seventeen story floating hotel with more than 10,000 passengers and crew), and then onto Florida to spend some time with my sister. I had a fabulous time.  When I returned home, I baby-sat my two older grand-daughters for a few days, and then renovated my two upstairs bathrooms (that took a month; wow, what a mess), but the end results are amazing. I absolutely just love how it turned out. I then had to get ready for Scrapfest, where I designed and packaged my "make and take"; designed my new classes for April, May and June, and finally, here I am. Time just flew by.

My email has changed to nmanel@bell.net so put me in your address book.

Simon, owner of Pointers Scrapbooking store, has done it again. He's launched the cutest characters from Dreamerland designs, and I just love them. They are exclusive to Pointers, and I am teaching a class called "New Stamps, New Cards" featuring these adorable little girls. So if you are in the Toronto area, I would love to see you.

I'm using the ballerina image on the card I'm posting. I had so much fun designing her, especially because this is the card I gave my oldest granddaughter Maya for her 7th Birthday. She takes ballet and has to wear her long hair in a bun, and it really reminded me of her. I wanted the card to have some dimension so I added ribbon for the tutu. I used Cheerylyn flourish die, and stamped a script over it with pink ink. I am so happy with how she turned out, and Maya just loved it.
Thanks so much for stopping by. I would love to hear from you, so leave me a message and say hi. I will be back in a few days with more cards.

Hugs,

Nicky

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi Everyone,

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you all had a fabulous day and had a chance to spend time with your loved ones.

I know it has been awhile since I last posted, but beside being busy with preparing classes, babysitting and teaching, I have also had trouble with my new laptop. I might have to change my email addy as of the 16th to nmanel@bell.ca and hope that everything goes smoothly.

If you guys are in the Toronto area and would like to attend one or any of my three classes; "Colouring Class", "Share Your Love Class" and "Card Holder and Four Cards Class", and I also give you a template for making a square envelope to match the cards. If you want to register email Heidi at http://www.pointerscrapbooking.com/.

The card I posted is embossed with a Cuttlebug Heart Embossing Folder, Hero Arts Large Friends Background stamp with Versa Fine Onyx black ink, and, I used lots of glitter all around the heart. I free-hand drew the heart and made myself a template which I then traced onto the stamped background, and cut it out. I hope you like it.

I would love to hear from you, so let me know that you have stopped by. I am going to post again in a couple of days so stay tuned.

Much love,

Nicky

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