Welcome

I have just been to the Close to My Heart Opportunity Event in Auckland last week and I am very excited about this opportunity.  The career pathway looks great and the products will allow people to be a lot more creative.  I have put a Cricut Expressions 2 on layby and can’t wait to get the cartridges from CTMH to play with.  They look so cool and it will be nice to be able to make my own embellishments to match my scrapbook layouts and cards.  I am also looking to the three dimensional elements on the cartridge and will be looking at doing some workshops at Make Shift when Make Shift gets established.  The other thing that is really cool is that I can just do parties online as well as doing parties with people.

We had a little play with some inks, papers and cute glitter embellishments and the papers and cardstock are lovely.  It took a while to work out how to use the ink pads, but I have got it sussed now.  The stamps are great and easy to use and I will be looking at building up my CTMH stamp kits.  I am also looking forward to playing with the alcohol markers as well.

Just as well I have joined a de-stash Facebook site to start clearing out some of my old stock to make room for Close to My Heart.

In the meantime I have got back to basics and will be teaching heat embossing at my card making class tomorrow at the Upper Hutt Library.  When I first started doing cards too many years ago to remember I started with heat embossing and I still have my heat tool as well (which is starting to get a little sick and I will finally get a new one once I sign up with CTMH).  I remember a lot of hit and misses then, but I have discovered using a embossing buddy (a kind of chalk in a bag) that helps with keeping the card clean and my endeavours are much more successful now.  Here are a few of the cards I have made with heat embossing:

 

I found some papers that I bought years ago as a 6 x 6 paper pack at The Warehouse and they matched perfectly with the pink cardstock from Stampin‘Up.  I also like the combination of gold and pink and the result is some very retro looking cards, but some people still like these classic cards so I will be putting them in Make Shift as well.  I have coloured the images using a watercolour pen and Stampin’Up inks.  I have also used my artist quality paints in the past with good effect as well.

The materials I have used here are:

Stampin’Up Cardstock – pink

Stampin’Up ribbon – Light Pink

Stampin’Up inks – Old Olive, Artichoke, Regal Rose, So Saffron, More Mustard

Kaisercraft stamps

Kaisercraft rhinestones

Peelcraft stickers

Creative Memories Custom Cutting System – ovals

Creative Memories Border Maker – Twinkle Chain Cartridge

Cuttlebug and embossing folders – Swiss Dots and Edges

Cuttlebug Die – Whimsy

For the heat embossing I have used a versamark ink pad and the powder is Ultra Detail Embossing Powder – gold.

I hope the ladies tomorrow get inspired to branch out and do more with their stamps and inks.

I am now going to look at doing some digital scrapbooking to get put onto canvases for Make Shift to sell.

Happy crafting

Patricia