Riley Moose in da pond!!!

Riley Moose and his gal pal Sophie are now in stock and online!

Check them out here.

Remember, if you are interested in a stamp that is not currently stocked, please send us an email or call the store and we will get it for you!

DT Special Assignment Day!

Another week and another round of inspiration!  This week we have Cherie sharing her talent with us!!

Making a set of gift cards for a loved one's birthday is a beautiful gift idea. Why not make a box for them to go in next time! It's super easy!!

Step 1: For the base of the box, cut a 7 3/4 x 9" piece of cardstock. Score 1 1/2" on each side

Step 2: Cut along the score lines along the long sides of the cardstock base, only up to where they connect with the score lines going the other way (see image). Fold along all score lines.

Step 3: Attach adhesive of choice to the outer tabs and fold to form a box.

 

Step 4: To create your box top, cut a piece of patterned paper to 6 7/8 x 8 1/8". Score along all sides at 1" and fold along scored lines. Use your favourite border punch to create a fancy edge along all sides.

Step 5: Cut along the folded line along the long side up to where the scored lines intersect, glue and adhere to create box top.

Step 6: After placing box top on the bottom, decorate your box with a tag, ribbon, or other favourite embellishment.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mim's Calendar

Just popping in today to share the rest of the calendar that Michele created!  January's page was based on Monday's inspiration piece but the rest of the project is too fabulous not to share all of it!

Enjoy!

Material Used:

Maya Road coaster set

Paper: Nikki Sivils, Max & Mollie collection

Maya Road Bingo card

Bazzill cardstock

Inks: Smooch Spritz-Cherry Ice

Cat's Eye chalk ink

Black Memento ink

Gold Perfect Pearls

Black, brown and white pens for doodling

Copics to recolour here and there

Ornaments: white button, brads and eyelets, metal corner and flowers

Thanks for stopping by!!

Kit of the Week!

The fabulous ladies of Fruits & Nut have done it again!  They are back this week with another amazing "Quic-Kit" perfect for the boys in your life!

Design Team Monday!

A new week = a new challenge! 

This week the team has an inspiration piece for you.  Once again, they have used their Nikki Sivils goodies to create masterpieces to inspire you.

First up, is the picture to provide the inspiration.....

Now, let's check out what the team did with it....

Cherie

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Paper: Nikki Sivils Beatrice

Die Cut Title: Silhouette

Sticker: October Afternoon

Die Cuts: Jillibean Soup

Flowers: Unknown

_________________________________

Julie 

Nikki Sivils paper - We Are Family

Maya Road ribbon

Maya Road coaster

Smooch Sprtiz

misc buttons

Stickles

Cuttlebug embossed cardstock

blue cardstock

______________________________

Michele - Here is mine. I will give it a couple coats of sealant so that this calendar can be carried in a purse without worrying about damaging it. But I took photos first to avoid light reflection while taking photos. So this is before coating with the clear sealant.  The front page (January) is inspired the ad above, oh-so-cool and inspiring indeed!!

Pop back here on Wednesday to get a look at the rest of this gorgeous calendar.

Material Used:

Maya Road coaster set

Paper: Nikki Sivils Max & Mollie collection

Maya Road Bingo card

Bazzill card stock

Inks: Smooch Spritz-Cherry Ice

Cat's Eye chalk ink

Black Memento ink

Gold Perfect Pearls

Black, brown and white pens for doodling

Copics to recolour here and there

Ornaments: button, brads, eyelets, metal corner and flowers

Thats's right, besides the brads, I hardly used anything on this calendar, it's ALL in the Nikki Sivils beautiful papers and a little ink for extras!!! This makes a great gift at Christmas time (this one is for grandma).

___________________________

Virginia - I had SO MUCH FUN with this challenge - I definitely went out of my "comfort zone" of scrapping a clean and simple lined page but that's the fun of a challenge right? I even (gasp) misted freehand! Up till now I've only ever misted on chipboard or through a mask but to me this page is all about how chaotic my life has become since having my son (in a good way!) so I wanted to visually represent that with this layout

Supply list

Patterned Paper - Nikki Sivils Summer

Mist - Smooch

Cardstock - Bazzill

Letter stickers - Cosmo Cricket, Basic Grey

Embellies - Maya Road, October Afternoon, Girls Paperie, Prima

___________________________

Jenn

Products used in the layout:

Nikki Sivils - It's Your Day paper line
Maya Road Bingo Chip and Card
Bazzill Cardstock
Funky Clear Ribbon with Coloured Stars
Thickers - White
EK Success Stickers - Black
Tiny Bright Button Brads

We would love to see what you create using this ad as an inspiration.  Link your projects up here to this post so we can stop by and leave you some love!

Happy Easter!

From the Turtle family to yours we wish you all a very Happy Easter!!   We hope you are all having a wonderful time with family!

DT Special Assignment Day!!

Thursday is here again and that means another Design Team member is here with some fabulous inspiration.  This week Julie is going to give us some more ideas for making your own handmade flower embellishments.  Learning to make these are fabulous.  You no longer have to go on a crazy hunt for flowers that match when you can just use your patterned paper and have instant matches!!

Alright, let's get to it.....

Continuing on from Jenn's tutorial on flowers, I have 3 very easy flowers that I like to do also.

Flower # 1

The first is a "lolli-pop" flower. First cut 5-7 circles of decreasing sizes (my smallest here is 1 inch wide). Here I've used kraft paper, but any paper can be used.

 Then stamp each circle with the colour and stamp design of your choice.

Spray each circle with Smooch Spritz or a glimmer mist.

Scrunch each circle into a tight ball, then unfold and let dry

Ink the edges and raised portion of the wrinkled bits to highlight them.

Secure with a brad or with glue dots and a button or gem in the centre.

Flower #2

The next flower is a spiral flower. I started with a 4" square, a 6" square and a 1" circle.

Using a pair of scissors, in this case I used a scalloped edge pair, cut the square into a circle. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Keeping the width of your piece as even as possible, start from the outside edge and cut towards the centre in a spiral. At the centre you want to leave a small circle as this is what you will glue the flower to.

Starting from the outside edge, roll the paper towards the centre, keeping the bottom edge even. Roll fairly tightly.

One you reach the middle, hold the flower in the cup of your palm and allow it to slightly unravel slowly until the desired size is reached. Spread glue on the little circle and press the spiral into the glue to secure. Once set, I like to squish the edges down a bit by pressing the flower down with the palm of my hand. Ink the edges, spray with glimmer mist, use Stickles, add a little gem to the centre...the possibilities for finishing these off are many and varied...just go for it!

Flower #3

I haven't shown the step by step process for these, because they are very easy, and it's really just to show that you can mix and match patterned papers to achieve the effect you want for your layout. For these I cut the flower shapes using my silhouette, but any die-cuts or punches can be used. Use 2-5 layers for the best effect. Inking the edges gives depth to your flowers. Curl your petals slightly using your fingers to give it more shape. Finish them off with a brad, gem, button or other embellishment in the centre.

 and lastly, a quick peek at something to come...Pop in on May 2nd to learn more!

Thanks for stopping by!!



Design Team Monday!

Today the Design Team brings to you a technique challenge.  Product of the Month for April is Smooch Spritz so the team decided to teach you what they know about spritzing!!

First, let's start off with a fabulous in-depth article written by Michele......

YOU GOTTA LOVE SPRITZING!

Smooch is our favourite product this month! Why? Simply because Smooch is awesome and versatile! Smooch is an alcohol-based dye ink that comes in the form of a spray. It’s fast drying and easy to use. It contains shiny metal pigments which most definitely add a special touch to your projects!


The first thing that is fun to do is to just squirt once or twice on your background paper before you place other papers and ornaments. You should have a prior idea of where you will place everything so that you don’t hide all of your spraying.


You can also use masks with your Smooch. This is a great way of adding texture while getting the perfect colour for your project because the bottom colour from your paper remains if you don’t squirt too much. You can use any mask, make your own with any punch, cut out a silhouette, use the fancy ones that you can purchase, use a fancy chipboard to mask or even use items from nature such as tree leaves, etc... Let your imagination go wild!


You can use Smooch to colour elements or change the colour of elements such as papers, chipboards, letters, flowers, grunge board, I mean, the sky’s the limit! Smooch dries so fast that you can instantly get the colour you want. Since I discovered spritzing, I keep stock of all kinds of white things. When I struggle to find the right colour, I just grab my beloved Smooch!

Another fantastic asset of the Smooch, which makes it so versatile, is that it has a «high concentration» of dye ink and metal pigments, it’s thicker than other misters, the alcohol in it evaporates quickly and this enables you to color plastic or glass ornaments. It takes a wee bit longer to dry than it does on paper but besides the Copic markers, this is the best product on the market to do just that. Again, it allows you to get the colour you want to match your projects.

You can use more than one colour of Smooch, just one squirt of each colour in layers can give you really fun effects, very much like the inks you spray with compressed air, and it’s a lot cheaper as you can imagine! You start with red on one side and blue on the other and you will have purple where they overlay.


A touch of Smooch can really make your projects come to life, it gives you the bling you need on wedding layouts or anything fancy, it brings that funky look on teenagers’ layouts, again you have to fall in love with this kind of versatility with one single product!

Hints with using Smooch:


1. Use paper (newspaper is great or any scrap paper) to cover an area of the table (or the floor), a couple of layers minimum (because it will go through the top layer and more depending on how much you spray), before you spritz with your Smooch. While it will dry on plastic, if you’re not careful and spritz a lot; before drying, the liquid might run and stain your project where you don’t want it to, so yes, a paper behind absorbs and is better to avoid messes. I use white paper behind my project and sometimes I use pieces of it in my next projects... Talk about being cheap!! LOL I mean, try squirting and afterwards, look at what you’re left with underneath, you’ll see what I mean, it can be interesting!


2. Shake really well to get the metal pigments loose. Spray once on the table/floor covering paper before you spray directly on your project or elements. This tells you where you are aiming, it gives you control over your spray. Most say you should spray at 8 to 12 inches but spraying closer gives you a different effect. Spray farther away to avoid big blotches.


3. Practice squirting fast or slowly (while pressing on the spray with your finger), you will get very different effects.

4. If you are trying to get a particular colour on paper, spray a tiny sample of your paper first to see if it matches, to see if it’s what you want.


5. Unless you really want to colour an item, such as a chipboard for example, don’t over spray. When you squirt too many times, the colour becomes solid. Again, maybe that’s what you want but maybe not.

6. Always replace the cap on your container right after use. Don’t leave it off because if you do, your spray may clog. Although that’s not the end of the world if it does. All you need to do is unscrew the top (you could cover the container in the meantime with a small piece of Saran Wrap so the liquid doesn’t evaporate) and run the top spray under hot water and squirt away until it unclogs and all the colour is out. Be careful though, alcohol inks stick to most surfaces including your porcelain sink, so wash fast or do this in a stainless steel type sink, or it might stain. You can let it soak in a hot water filled bowl (apparently Windex works well too, soak for 20 minutes.) and squirt it outdoors to avoid messing up the sink if you want. Or simply transfer to another small spray bottle. You can clean stains with alcohol but some surfaces will retain a bit of the colour.


7. If your layout curls a bit, sprays can do that if you put a lot of it; that really doesn’t matter because once your layout is inside the album plastic, it will not show at all and it will flatten over time. No problems there!

Okay, now that you know all there is to know about spritzing, let's get to the eye candy.....

Julie - Sprayed Smooch onto bubble wrap and pressed onto the paper

Products used:

Nikki Sivils paper: We are family

Smooch Spritz

Maya Road bingo chip and bingo card

Bo Bunny rub-ons (arrows and circles)

Bo Bunny chipboard flourishes

EK Success border punch

______________________________________

Virginia - I wanted orange letters but didn't have them so I covered plain white fabric thickers with snapdragon smooch

Supply list:

Patterned Paper - Nikki Sivils Summer

Snapdragon Smooch

Cardstock - Bo Bunny, Kraft

Punch - EK Success

American Crafts Thickers

_________________________________

Cherie - I placed letter stickers down for my title, sprayed over them and then removed the letters once the ink dried to create a negative title.

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics

Paper: Nikki Sivils Beatrice

Tag & Die Cuts: Nikki Sivils Beatrice

Ink: Smooch Spritz

Brad: American Crafts

__________________________________________

Michele - Technique - Butterfly: The shape is from Tim Holtz's cutting die and cut into clear plastic. Spray with Smooch, let dry.

Technique on white cardstock: First get a damp cloth ready nearby. Then choose an embossing folder, spray the top portion inside the folder with Smooch and quickly wipe off the ink on the surface only (leaving the ink on the lower cuts), place your paper in the folder and run through your press. Then run to clean up your folder! Alcohol cleans it well. This is for all white and pink pieces below. You can add detail by stamping a Memento pad gently over your detail to make it stand out, as shown on the pieces that also have black. You can get even more detail if you start with a cardstock that has shiny features on it, which is what I did for some pieces here, the ones that shine white.

I also Smooched the background a bit, everything Smooch on this LO!!

Material Used:

Paper: Nikki Sivils, Max & Mollie collection

White and Pink Bazzill card stock

Inks: Smooch Spritz-Cherry Ice

Crimson Cat's Eye chalk ink

Black Memento ink

Ornaments: 1 black button, 2 pink brads and 3 dew drops

Also 2 little pins with hearts and clear plastic for the butterfly

____________________________________

Jenn - Technique - a very simple technique of using Smooch Spritz by Clearsnap to colour flowers! Using white Prima flowers, I smooched each of the 3 flowers with 3 different Smooch colours. I also coloured the letters, which are fabric Thickers, with Smooch.

Simply place them on cardboard or other surface to ensure overspray is caught. Spray item you want coloured with any Smooch colour your desire! For a lighter misted colour/texture, just a couple of sprays. For a deeper more solid and vibrant colour spray more.

Products used:

Nikki Sivils "It's Your Day" Paper

Prima White Flowers

Smooch in Tickled Pink, Electric Blue and Sun Kissed

BoBunny Candy Jewels

White Fabric Thickers

Kaiser Rhinestone Butterfly

Jute

Clear with Multi Coloured Stars Ribbon

EK Success Border Punch 

Bazzill Cardstock