My sister got me started using Copic Markers last year. Do you use Copics? There is a color chart of them on-line: 

http://www.copicmarker.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/358_Color_Family_Chart2.pdf 

Previously, I posted the link to a blank Copic marker chart so you could color in each matching number as you buy your Copics. This chart gives you all the colors for easy reference. Unfortunately, we cannot pin it (Pinterest).  I am listed on Pinterest under Carol Edholm.


I have a wide variety of designers and manufacturers of scrapbooking papers and bling that I enjoy. Today, I want to tell you about one of my huge favorites -- Teresa Collins. My husband and I were first introduced to her line about 5 years ago. We took a travel journal class at one of our local scrapbooking stores (unfortunately, this store has since closed as the owners retired and did not have a buyer).  The kit we used was a Teresa Collins kit. Loved it!  So much so that we bought the Bind-It-All machine, and keep a stock of book covers and binding wire on hand so we can do more travelogues.  I am putting together a scrapbook from when my husband fell seriously ill 18 months ago, with a lengthy hospital stay and his recovery.  I am putting together a book of my 50th Birthday  last year -- party at the local zoo (you saw the handmade invitations last year), friends and family coming in for visits after, and oh so much fun (and very little work done) for a month!  Over the years, we've done travelogues to Kansas (2008 -- college graduation gift a 12 X 12" scrapbook of her life from birth to this college graduation) and two small vacations in 2009 (Yakima and Sequim, Washington) -- these were small travelogues (5 X 7" books).  Our vacation in 2010 to Canada was a large 12 X 12" travelogue.  These are loads of fun to do! We are currently working on gathering material for a travelogue for our Alaskan Cruise for our 25th wedding anniversary in 2014.

Keith and I took another class from Teresa Collins herself in August 2010.  She is an entertaining teacher and she clearly loves her work. We took the class at Benjamin Franklin in Bonney Lake, Washington (about an hour's drive south of our home).  I even won a door prize!  She did another class at BF a couple of months ago, but we were not able to attend; her classes sold out quickly.  If you have a chance to take a class from Teresa, do so -- you will not regret it.  This Bonney Lake craft store is well stocked with Teresa Collins supplies, so we make a trip down there 1 - 2 times a year just so I can get my Teresa Collins fix (and my husband is just as bad as I am in picking up items)!

The college graduate with 3 of her buddies (she is second from right)!

 A page in the travelogue with the signatures of the Frontier flight crew, including the Pilot and Co-Pilot. They all enjoyed signing!

Erin with her 12 X 12 Life Album. She loved it -- and had forgotten about some of the fun events the photos showed.  Isn't that the purpose of these albums?


Another store I love to visit is Scrapbook Nook in Kent, Washington.  We only get down there once or twice a year.  They used to be well stocked with Teresa Collins goodies, but the past two times we visited (last spring and this past weekend), their stock was pretty weak in this area.  However, if you are a big Bo Bunny fan, they have loads of her goodies!  When we visited this past weekend, we picked up what we could of Teresa Collins, a few items of Tim Holtz and several more items from the Bo Bunny line. Could have spent way more dollars, but we are trying hard to stick to a budget (so we can go on our cruise next year).   When you are in the area, be sure to stop in at Scrapbook Nook -- tons of goodies to take home!

You all know I enjoy doing card kits when I don't feel up to being creative, or just feel plain tired.  Over time, when I am at scrapbooking stores, I always check out their supply of card making kits, and pick up the ones that appeal to me and can use the cards throughout the year.  When I get in the mood, I pull out a kit and go to work.  (This is also great for when I need a quick card for a birthday I almost forgot!)

This past weekend, I pulled out the Anna Griffin Birthday Floral and Butterflies card kit (Think I bout it a year or so ago.).  It contains 15 cards.  They are shown below -- I cannot find a way to do a slideshow feature on this blog site.

If you do card kits, you already know that each card kit is different, depending on the manufacturer.  This is my first Anna Griffin.  The kit contained all folded cards with matching envelopes.  There were 15 papers to put on front of cards and another 15 smaller papers if you wanted to mat.  There were 20 foil stamped card sentiments (all birthday), bows in pink, ivory and gold satin (already made -- yeah!), and foam squares.  I only needed to punch out the 30 two-layer die-cut roses and butterflies.  There were no instructions on how to put the cards together, so my creative juices had to wake up anyway!

Below are my 15 cards (sorry about the lighting).  Enjoy!

Even though the lighting is not very good for these cards, it shows great shadows so you can see the 2-D effect.

Some of our friends and family members will be the lucky recipients of these cards over the next year or two.

I love to use my tri-fold greeting card design for special events. Today's tri-fold card is a wedding card for a lovely young lady in India and her soon-to-be husband.

Front of card with counted cross stitch Rose. Used some metallic red and green in outline and stitching (light green).  Standard dark red brad and Gold Kaiserscrapbook Rhinestones.

Close-up of Rose stitching.

Inside front flap of tri-fold card. Small red Rose (close-up below). Stock flowers with Silver Hero Arts Gemstones glued in center of each. The chipboard "Always and Forever" sentiment is from Narratives by Creative Imaginations. The tri-fold card stock is red; did not put additional background paper on this side.

Close-up of small Red Rose. Again, used DMC Metallic red and green threads for outline and design enhancement.

Second flap of tri-fold card. Used Doves in Double Hearts stickers (Dazzles) from Best Creation. I used copic markers for coloring. The corner Dazzles are from Wedding & Anniversary Dazzles set by Hot Off the Press. Stock pale pink shimmer ribbon tied in a bow. Sentiment is from Love rub-on "quote stack" by DCWV.  If you cannot read it, it says "Love is the Golden Thread that Ties our Hearts and Souls Together" [Mother Teresa]. I edged this piece with Ice Jade ink from Color Box chalk Cat's Eye ink set.

Inside the second flap:  A third counted cross stitch Rose, Yellow this time. Still used DMC Metallic Pink for outline. The Dazzles border and roses are from the two above mentioned Dazzles/stickers sets.

Close-up of Yellow Rose.

 

Center of tri-fold wedding card.  Sentiments are from Cardmarker's Love Card Quotes by Hot Off the Press.  "Only from the heart can you touch the sky. Rumi" and "with best wishes on your wedding day." I used Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink by Tim Holtz around each sentiment.

All counted cross stitch Roses were stitched with DMC cotton floss and DMC Metallic thread on 14 count light green aida.  The Rose designs are from the Jeanette Crews Designs, One Nighters, 44 Roses chart.  I've used many of these roses in various special occasion cards, and they have all made the card look great!

All paper used on this tri-fold wedding card are from the 6 X 6.75 inch "Devotion": Iron Orchid designs paper pad by Creative Imaginations.

Couple days ago, I posted a holiday greeting card that went to Belgium. I used Belgium Dazzles that our Belgium friends gave us a year or so ago. 

The translation for the words on the card:

fiin feestdagen = fine holidays (top text)
prettige feestdagen = happy holidays (bottom text)

Thanks for the translation Greg & Dominique! Glad you are enjoying the card!

Happy New Year, everyone!

My husband and I made a ton of greeting cards for the holidays (okay, 60).  And guess what?  I forgot to take photos of them before we mailed them out!  That's what happens when you spend 4 days in bed with a nasty bug and then try to get them out before Christmas (mailed on December 24).  Oh well.....

One of our recipients did take a photo of their card and emailed it to me.

Notice that the card writing is not in English (I live in the US).  These Dazzles were part of a large set given to us a year ago by our Belgium friends.  I love the polar bear and gifts dazzles.  Add the Dutch words, and perfect holiday card for our Belgium friends!  I used copic markers to color in the bear and gifts, and a brown glitter ribbon to "tie" it all together.

Card arrived in 6 days in Belgium; package took another day or two.  They enjoyed it all.

I've got lots of greeting cards to create this year, so you will see plenty of postings over the next 12 months.  (Hopefully, we can make the holiday cards ahead of time and get them posted for you to see.)

Have a great new year!

Just completed two birthday cards, so thought I would post them:

I hand cross-stitched this hot air balloon design a year ago, but never got it mounted into a card.  Now it is complete so I can send it to a friend whose birthday is later this month.  Sometimes simple is best!

After more than 20 years, my college roommate and I reconnected earlier this year.  We spent the day with my husband and her cousin touring Pike Place Market in Seattle.  Found the very first Starbucks ever!  We enjoyed our visit, but it was too short.  Now her birthday is here, so I hand cross-stitched this Teddy Bear for her.  The chocolate chips on his cookie are actually beads.  

These designs took about 8 hours each to stitch, but they look great!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Safe New Year everyone!

Just to touch base with you, hope you are all doing well.  Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. 

Our holiday craft show Thanksgiving weekend went well.  Our last holiday craft bazaar on December 1 also went well.

Now we are getting ready for Christmas.  Gifts are mostly bought, working on making Christmas/Holiday Greetings cards (almost done) and started doing some baking, on which I am way behind schedule.  

I will post some of our Christmas cards here next week.  In the meantime, my husband Keith and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah and a Safe New Year!

Come join us this weekend for a Holiday Craft Bazaar at

Edmonds Masonic Center

515 Dayton 

Edmonds, WA

Friday and Saturday (November 23 - 24, 2012)

10:00 am to 4:00 pm

My husband Keith will have his etched glassware and handmade chocolates available, and I will have my greeting cards, and (postage) stamp magnets and buttons for sale.

Hope to see you there!

Hi Everyone!

Can't believe it is Thanksgiving time already!  I have not been making Thanksgiving cards, but Birthday cards as November is a heavy month for Family and Friends' birthdays.  This one is for a friend.

Supplies:

• 5 X 7 inch white card stock
• Copic markers for coloring -- G14, G07, G28. Y06, Y13, Y19. YR04, B29
• Yellow Stickles glitter glue
• French Blue from Cat's Eyes Color Box for edging
• K9-1656 Rose by Stamp Rosa rubber stamp
• Transparent Yellow Ribbon
• Happy Birthday cuttlebug folder on green paper
• Green "blotchy" background paper is from a pack bought from Craft Warehouse in Yakima, WA, last summer. Pack has really nice paper!

Did a One Direction (boy band) birthday card for my 12-year old niece, and a Kitty Cat birthday card for her mother, my younger sister.

This card is for my brother-in-law (my husband's older brother). He served a couple years in the Coast Guard way back when...:

  Supplies:

• 5 X 7 inch white card stock
• Stars cuttlebug folder on blue paper (which came from the same paper pack as the rose card above)
• Turquoise/Grey flouish from Reminisce Accents by Creative Memories. I love this cartridge!!
• US Coast Guard stickers from Life's Little Occasions stickers (by K and Company) on Friend's Blue Sky paper (by Junkitz)
• 3 blue stock buttons

I still have another Birthday card to make before the month is over -- her birthday is actually day after Thanksgiving this year. Wonder how many times it has fallen on Thanksgiving Day over the years?

Those of you who live in Washington state with me, stay warm and dry. With all the rain we're getting, I'm ready to get the pontoons out for the house! :-) LOL!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

New challenge offering:

My card for Sentimental Sundays challenge:

I did over 20 greeting cards using embossing paste and/or gold leafing. These pumpkins are first silver embossed (a paste), then gold leafing over the top. This is a two-day process as I like to let the embossing paste dry overnight. I think it makes a better card.

I will post more details on this card on Monday, as I need to finish getting ready for our first Holiday Craft Bazaar this weekend, where this card will be available for purchase!

Have a good weekend everyone!  I will let you know if I win anything from this challenge!