Blue Roses

We get to do something with our Copic markers that nature cannot! We get to create a blue rose. Apparently, roses do not have the gene they need to enter the blue spectrum. They have come to symbolize mystery and longing for the unattainable. So, if you see a blue rose at your local florist, it is most likely a white rose that was dyed blue somewhere along the way.
     With all the end-of-the-Mayan-calendar predictions, what is more fitting for a new year Copic floral class than one that features the unattainable blue rose? In this case, our rose is part of the SparkleNSprinkle collection (Stamp # 3184-402N also in Stamp Set #402). This is also the first of our four-marker classes that we’re introducing to our students in 2013. The four colors in this care are B12, B24, B26 and Y15. The Colorless Blender is a staple and she be brought to every class.
     My $17 kit includes everything except the markers, adhesive, foam dots, Memento Stamping ink, Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink . It also includes a step-by-step illustrated instructions, the cushioned-for-acrylics stamp and enough product to complete three cards. Visit our website at www.scrappigators.com for ordering instructions.

New Classes: Latte Monkey

I'm busy, busy, busy trying to nail down our 2013 plan. I had grand ideas about how I was going to be working two months ahead on everything. It was a plan, but it's not quite going as I expected. Here we are on the 15th of December and I've only almost finished two kits; not the eight I intended. My first project falls under two separate categories (I have about five). For some strange reason, it took me four days to nail down the coloring technique for this little guy. I designed him so my students could color him with either Copic Ciao or Sketch markers. My little caffeinated monkey boy falls into one of two categories: Critters or  Coffee, Tea or Me. My other Copic categories are: Florals; Aquatics; People; Birds; Faithbuilders. I will be teaching a minimum of four Copic classes a month with most of projects fitting into these categories. For those who cannot attend a class, kits will be available to purchase.

Latte Monkey is a CC Designs stamp and my first product kit for 2013. The kit includes the stamp, illustrated directions and enough product to complete three cards. The kit will be available on our website after January 26th. It requires the following markers: 0 - Colorless Blender; BG000 – Pale Aqua; E000 – Pale Fruit Pink; E00 – Skin White; E02 – Fruit Pink; E33 – Sand; E37 - Sepia; E53 – Raw Silk; R85 – Rose Red; Y28 – Lionel Gold. I will be teaching our Latte Monkey class in Dover and Millsboro. Check our website (www.scrappigators.com) for additional details and options.

While I plan to post my second project on Monday, I do want to extend Christmas blessings to you all and pray for joyful family time and traveling mercies as you handle the many details of the holiday season.

Copic Adds Blending Trios to Set Inventory

I just saw on my Facebook home page that Copic is adding some new kits to their line -- Color Fusion and Sketch Blending. These are actually three-color blending sets designed to take the guesswork out of building your inventory. The markers still cost $6.99 each but you're purchasing them in groups of threes. Copic is offering 13 color combinations.

Instead of buying the set, check your inventory and see what you need to purchase to add these blending trios to your toolbox:
Sketch Color Fusion :
Set 1: V20, V22, V25;
Set 2: RV000, RV52, RV55;
Set 3: E04, R56, R59;
Set 4: YR20, YR23, YR27;
Set 5: G40, G43, G46:
Set 6: B01, B04, B06.
Sketch Blending Set :
Set 1: G40, G94, G99;
Set 2: B12, B14, B16;
Set 3: RV63, RV66, RV69;
Set 4: R12, R14, R17;
Set 5: Y00, Y13, Y18;
Set 6: E95, E97, E99;
Set 7: E70, E74, E79.

Copic Green Poinsettia

I love this stamp. After I created six red poinssettia kits for my students, I decided I wanted to make a white one. The project took on a life of its own and became a stunning green.

 

PRODUCTS:

Copics Markers:

• BG0000 Snow Green
• BG000 Pale Aqua
• BG90 Gray Sky
• BG93 Green Gray
• G20 Wax White
• G99 Olive
• YG03 Yellow Green
• YG95 Pale Olive
• YR38 Honey

Tools & Supplies

• SparkleNSprinkle Stamp Set 475 - Holiday Foliage
• SparkleNSprinkle Snowflakes Stamp # 3383-414A 
• Memento Ink, Rich Cocoa
• Memento Ink, Love Letter
• Memento Ink, Bamboo Leaves
• Paper Towel
• Foam Dot
• Micro-Tip Scissors
• Embossing Tool
• Adhesive
• Copic BLENDING CARD X-Press It cardstock (4" x 4")
• White Cardstock (3 ½” x 4 ¼” )
•  Christmas Print Cardstock (4” x 5 ¼”)
• Card Base folded (4 ¼” x 5 ½”)
• Green Print Ribbon (4 ½” long)
• Small Green Crystal
• Sentiment Stamp

Directions

Stamp image on 4”x 4” white Copic BLENDING CARD X-Press It cardstock. Place stamped image on paper towel to before coloring.

Apply BG0000 on the top level of leaves as a base coat.

 

With a flicking motion, shade the veined area of the top level of leaves with BG000.

Color over the top leaves with G20

 Apply base coat on remaining leaves with G20

Shade veins with BG93

Shade veins with BG93

Blend petals with G20.

Apply YG03 to leaves as base coat.

Shade veins with YG95.

Deep vein color with G99.

Blend leaves with YG03 AND G99.

Color center with Y38.

CARD ASSEMBLY:

1.       Apply adhesive to the back of the green print cardstock; center onto white card base.

2.       On white cardstock 3 ½” x 4 ¼”, second generation stamp red and green snowflake.

3.       Stamp sentiment on lower right hand corner of stamped cardstock and accent with green crystal.

4.       Adhere green ribbon to left side of cardstock, folding one end over top.

5.       Glue cardstock back and position on card front.

6.       Cut out poinsettia image and back with large foam dot.

7.       Remove the protective top from the foam dot on the poinsettia and place your image on the card.

8.       Stamp the inside of the card with the sentiment of your choice.

For more information about this project or to purchase additional Scrappigators kits, contact Diane Cook at Christian Lifestyles/Scrappigtors:

diane@scrappigators.com

302-734-0572

www.scrappigators.com

Autumn Greetings

 

Product used:

Copic Markers: YR04 Chrome Orange; YR07 Cadmium Orange; BG02 New Blue; BG05 Holiday Blue

Tools and Supplies: Recollections cream cardstock, 8 ½” x 11; Orange cardstock from my stash; Ranger Black Soot Distress Ink; Range Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink; SparkleNSprinkle Clear Embossing Powder; Inkadinkado Autumn Foliage Stamp Set (Item #: 98549).

 

The Challenge:

We had a wonderful opportunity to vend at a day crop in Millsboro, Delaware on Saturday. One of my tasks was to develop a new make-and-take to share with our guests. This simple card is a representation of our project. I wanted to see how the Copic markers worked on standard cardstock if the image was heat-embossed. The results were awesome!

I found that using colored heat-embossed powder resulted in the color bleeding into my colored image. Jill from SparkleNSprinkle suggested that I use a colored Versafine Ink and Clear Detail Embossing Powder on my project. Since I didn’t have any Versafine Ink, I decided to use my distress inks which work well with embossing powder. This is the version of our Make-and-Take using SparkleNSprinkle’s clear embossing powder. And what’s totally awesome is that the Copics didn’t feather beyond the embossing.

 

I love it when a plan comes together.

Bravo Stamping Gear

I love the Inkadinkado Stamping Gear product line that EK Success launched in August. I don’t have nearly enough time to play with it, but I can love it all the same! I am currently working on samples for a workshop using the Intro Kit (Item #: 65-32019), I couldn’t wait to share the first card I created using cardstock, ribbon, and a K&Company sticker from my stash, Ranger Distress Chipped Sapphire Ink and a Close To My Heart Bravo sentiment stamp (A1122).

So, what is Stamping Gear? It is a tool that enables us to create symmetrical designs using notched cogs and a stamping paddle designed to fit into the notches. The Intro Kit includes a circle cog, a clear paddle for mounting your stamps, and four cling stamps. I started out with the intro kit but quickly graduated to the Deluxe Kit (Item #: 65-32020) which includes a circle wheel and an oval wheel for stamping inside the ring or out along with a circle cog, an oval cog, a clear paddle for mounting your stamps and 18 stamps.

The neat thing is that this tool lends itself to heat embossing and glittering techniques. I’ll be posting more on that later. We do carry the stamping gear line in our studio and will be featuring some totally awesome classes in the near future. Till our next post, happy craftin’ . . .

 

Copic Winterbirds

 

My friend, Margaret, came by yesterday for my first Copic Winterbirds class. We had a wonderful time and managed to finish these two cards in two hours. Our goal was to create a relatively realistic representation of these winter birds using short strokes and shading. I’m rather happy with these cards (except for some red smudges on the ribbon) but that’s what I get for rushing. My third card for my “Winter Birds” collection is a cardinal, but I’m opting to add that in later because it strayed from the color scheme I used in the “sparrow” and the chickadees. The real beauty is that we were able to finish the cards in two hours. I love it when a plan comes together.

We used the following products for this project:

Copic Markers:

0 - Colorless Blender, C1 – Cool Gray 1, C2 - Cool Gray 2, B24 – Sky, E51 – Milky White, E53 – Raw Silk, E55 –Light Caramel, E84 – Khaki, G29 – Pine Tree Green, R27 – Cadmium Red, R29 – Lipstick Red, W3 – Warm Gray 3, W5 – Warm Gray 5, YG23 - New Leaf

Stamps:

Northwoods “Four Chickadees On Pine Branch” and SparkleNSprinkle Nestle In For Christmas

Tools & Supplies:

Memento Tuxedo Black inkpad; Paper Trimmer; Adhesive; Starform Text Stickers, Silver #351; Flower Soft Peel Off Borders, Silver #306

Cardstock

Copic Express It Cardstock; Paper Cuts Red Hot Cardstock

 

Morgan's First Christmas

Who says Christmas has to be red and green? I'll be using this layout to teach a Christmas Mosaic at Clare's Keepsake in October. While looking for decorated Christmas trees online, I stumbled across one with such an unusual color pallet that I had to incorporate it into a design. Guess what! It was the perfect color scheme for my grandbaby girl's first Christmas. I'll be using traditional colors for the class sample which I'll post next week.

I used Mosaic Moments Bahama Blue grid paper and Paper Cuts Razzle Berry to mat my photos. I used Elizabeth Crafts Alphabet 2 upper and lower case (1251 & 1252) in silver for my title and Numbers 1 (815) in black to note the year.

September Background of the Month

 

I've been talking about it and talking about it -- now I finally did it! I've created my first to backgrounds which I will conform into scrapbooking pages a bit later. My little sun guy above I stamped with Inkadinkado's new Stamping Gear product and used SparkleNSprinkle's embossing powder to bring it out. I think next time I do this page, I might spritz in a bit of yellow. I used Copic Various refills to spritz in the sky and a The Crafters Workshop template to lay in the birds. I also used Ranger Distress inks for color and a cream Pearl Pen to add dimension to the centers of the flowers.

This one is all about spritzing and masking. I'll come back in later today or early tomorrow and update the product details.

Pengies Card Class

 

I finished my Christmas Pengie Card Class samples last night. This is a darling Stamp Set (#438) from SparkleNSprinkle, a Florida-based papercrafting storefront. I also used Marvy Uchida's Liquid Applique to add texture to the caps and Colorbox Silver and SparkleNSprinkle's Clear Embossing Powder (EP120) for the sentiment on the front and inside of the card. I managed to reduce my Copic colors a bit to include the following: 0 Colorless Blender; BG000 Snow Green; E50 Egg Shell; G21 Lime Green; G24 Willow; RV25 Dog Rose Flower; RV 29 Crimson; T2 Toner Gray #2; T10 Toner Gray #10; W00 Warm Gray #00; YR21 Cream; YR24 Pale Sepia. All my cardstock was 8 1/2" x 11" which and came from my stash.

 

My next Copic project will be my Copic Skin and Hair class which I plan to post by Thursday (four days from today).

My first Pengie Christmas Card

This is a sweet Christmas image from SparkleNSprinkle (Stamp set 438). As you can tell by the bundle of markers beside it, this little fellow is a color-rich project. He is one of three I'll be using in a card class I'm teaching at our Scrappigators studio in September. I used the following Copic markers:
0 - Colorless Blender; BG0000 Snow Green; E50 Egg Shell; G21 Lime Green; G24 Willow; G29 Pine Tree Green; RV25 Dog Rose Flower; RV 29 Crimson; T2 Toner Gray #2; T10 Toner Gray #10; W00 Warm Gray 00; YR 21 Cream; and YR 24 Pale Sepia. I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Copic Express-It cardstock and cut it out with the largest die in the Spellbinders Labels Eighteen (S4-310) set. Of course, the neatest part of that was cutting it out on my Vagabond!!!! Yeah. As an added touch, I used Colorbox silver pigment ink, liquid applique on the Santa hat sentiment and heat embossed an inside message in silver as well. I promised one of my sample cards to my hairdresser. It seems that her son, an expectant father whose baby girl is due in October, loves pengiuns. He's lamenting the fact that he can't find an infant/newborn penguin costume for halloween or maybe a penguin snowsuit for the upcoming winter. Perhaps the card will help take away the sting of disappointment in his penguin-deprived environment. If all goes well, I'll have some more pengins to post next week. Have a wonderful day.
 

My August Flower of the Month

 

 

There's nothing like a bright yellow sunflower to perk things up, especially this month. I completed my Intermediate Copic certification class, had surgery the following week, had to cancel a weekend event I had my heart set on attending the week after that, and am now forced to wear a clumpy boot on my right foot (not related to surgery) for at least a month in hopes of calming the bursitis and tendonities in my right heel. Yes, perky sunflowers are a perfect way to end the month and usher in a new season of Copics and classes.

This was the a Close To My Heart Stamp of the Month (S1205) that I simply fell in love with. My background paper is from the Dotto collection that was a bonus pack from several months ago. I used the following Copic markers to color this image: E37 Maroon; G94 Grayish Olive; R29 Lipstick Red; Y08 Acid Yellow; Y17 Golden Yellow; YG23 New Leaf. The buttons came from my Close To My Heart button stash from maybe their 2010 collection.

One final thought -- while I used Close to My Heart products here, I am now at the place where I intend to "divide" some of my samples. I have another blog -- ourscrappinglife@blogspot.com -- in which I will showcase my CTMH projects and devote this blog to all things scrappigators as evidenced in our webste -- www.scrappigators.com.

Okay, I'm done. Have a great day!

Lolly Garden Card

I had a wonderful time at Intermediate Copic Training in Lyndhurst, NJ this past weekend and have been practicing with some of my new images. Alas, I need to finish some new samples so I decided to work on my August Flower of the Month, I planned to post it today. Then I stumbled upon my SparkleNSprinkle Lolly Garden (Set397) stamp set and decided to go town! Sadly, I had to nix it after the project was finished because it requires 13 markers! But, I'm going to do four more myself because it's such a cute card. I used the following Copic colors:
BG11 Moon White
BG13 Mint Green
FYG1 Fluorescent Yellow
C2 Cool Gray 2
C5 Cool Gray 5
E000 Pale Fruit Pink
E01 Pink Flamingo
R22 Light Prawn
R24 Prawn
BG0000 Snow Green
BG000 Pale Aqua
0 Colorless Blender
100 Black

I made my card base from a Recollections paper pack I had in my stash. For the flowers on the front, I stamped three each of four colors on paper scraps and used a 3/4" punch (I think) to cut out the flowers portion.  I stamped the flowers around the bottom of the card and covered the flower portion with my punched colors. I used EK Success Repositional adhesive on the overlaping edge of the larger flower to keep the front closed. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next ones look like.

Ladybugs

This is a "just for fun" card I did when I probably should have been doing something else. It's from the Inkadinkado 99121 Mindscapes stamp set. Inside the ladybug shell is a fantasy pattern that begs for some kind of special treatment. I used five Copic colors plus At  You Spica 00 Clear. The cardstock came from my stash amd the sentiment was from a Close To My Heart sentiment stamp set. My marker colors are: 

• R27 Cadmium Red
• R29 Red Lipstick
• G20 Wax White
• G24 Willow
• Y08 Acid Yellow

I'm going to play with this one some more, I think. 

Flowers of the Month - June-July

This is my first flower of the month; it just took two months to get the classes going. Unfortunately, I discovered two distinct flowers using two unique techniques -- so I suppose these were the June-July Flowers of the Month.Both project-sets used Copic markers, but not any specific ones. The violet patterns were part of my morning class with the oranges came from my late afternoon class. The featured flower in the center cards was from Gina K's Year of Flowers. Not only to we color the "magnified" petals with Copics, but the backgrounds were created with the same colors. The outside flowers are from Elizabeth Craft Designs. In this case, we used the burnished velvet technique to create totally awesome flowers.

Copic Butterflies

These three cards are from SparkleNSprinkles Fancy Butterflies (Set 437) collection. I created the cards using The Paper Cut Lemon Drop, Blu Raspberry, Sour Apple and Sweet Tooth colors with matching envelopes. My Copic colors were BG01 Aqua Blue, BG05 Holiday Blue, Y15 Cadmium Yellow, and Y17 Golden Yellow. Of course, I used Memento Tuxedo Black to stamp my Copic images onto Copic Cardstock. I thought about adding bling in the form of glitter, maybe embossing, and more, but couldn't bring myself to it. This seemed to work well, espcecially with the Paper Cut colors. I'll be adding this workshop to my August selections.

Scrappigators Flower of the Month

Hiding behind their Copic project cards, Elaine G and Carolyn S are holding up the Copic Card Project we did last Wednesday. Two of the cards are mind, the orangy/pink one Elaine did, the lavendar one was Carolyn's creation, and the third blue one came from Sharon G's pens. We started by creating our own backgrounds using the same markers we used to color one single flower. We then stamped the floral images on our background paper, colored one whole flower on Copic cardstock, punched circles in the colored one and strategically placed them on the design. This is definitely a class I will teach again and again.

Copic 101 Revised

After almost a year of teaching my Inkadinkado Copic Floral Class, I decided it was time to refresh my Copic 101 class and start to work on Copic 102 -- Birds and Bugs OR Birds, Butterflies and Bugs. While the cornerstone of the class is working with these IN-CRED-BLE Copic markers, I'm also integrating some primo products from SparkleNSprinkle. In this case, I used the Celestial Glitter to set off the floral centers. I also used SparkleN Sprinkles Blossoms Stamp set to create this WONderful card bouquet. My papers came from Bazzill, Paper Cuts, Melissa Frances and Recollections. I'm also redirecting my color blending pallete embrace the balance of threes. in this case, my "threes" are pink and blue -- selected to embrace Copic Blending rules. Best of all, I got to use my Sizzix Vagabond (brand new happy dance for major progress on decluttering my craft room) to cut out the Spellbinders Nestibilities. That's when I discovered what I ddin't have but is now on order to maximize the awesomeness of my Sizzix. Another big bonus lies with my newly revamped website (www.scrappigators.com) -- a continuing work in progress. I've streamlined the site a bit and am excited to see what the changes will bring.

Copic Flower of the Month Test Drive

I'm  revisiting, revamping, and reworking our Copic program. At the recommendation of one of my students, I'll be offering a 3-5 tiered teaching program with each having its own monthly club offering. I'm totally excited about my Copic Florals class. I cardlifted the circle call-out element from the Annie's Attic Copic 2 book but scaled it down to a 4.25" x 5.5" card. After watching a Copic Sketch DVD from Imagination International, I decided to create my own background. I also decided to use At You Spica pens for the center of the flowers which are from the Gina K "A Year of Flowers" stamp set. So you see, it's totally a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a cool techniques. You can't really tell on this photo, but the center flower's call-out element is backed with foam dots to give it some extra dimension.

I used the following markers to complete this project:

* B000- Pale Porcelain Blue

* BOO - Frost Blue

* B02 – Robins Egg Blue

* BG05 – Holiday Blue

* At You Spica 02 - Pink

* At You Spica 10 -  Black

* At You Spica 14 – Blossom

 

Scrappigators Copic Club Dover project

Aren't these little guys just too cute? This is our Scrappigators Copic Club, Dover project for the month. The stamps are from Gina K Designs and I used the Don't Worry, Be Happy design elements featured in the Copic Coloring Guide by Colleen Schaan and Marianne Walker. The set requires five copic colors: BG11, BG72, BG74, YR04, and YR07. Of course, I changed things up a bit and used the same color scheme for two additional cards. Besides creating my own original Copic projects, I like incorporating designs from books and magazines into my teaching mix so my students can see they can replicate publication-worthy projects. I also used Paper Cuts Blue Raspberry cardstock and embossed them with both Cuttlebug and Sizzix embossing envelopes. I made my envelope base from white cardstock.

Dave and I had a wonderful time at the Garden State Horse Show in Augusta, NJ. I used Mosaic Moments Forest Green grid paper for the background and Recollections Burgundy cardstock for the mat. I used an off-white letter-size cardstock my journaling and t itleing. I still plan to create some traditional pages documenting this event, but am somwhat happy with the outcome. 

More Footloose

This is the second layout I put together from my Close To My Heart (CTMH) Footloose Workshop on the Go. Since there wasn't enough product to put together a third project, I cut the remaining pieces into quarter-inch strips for paper weaving projects later.

I also made six 4.5" square cards using one piece of 12"x12" sheet from the Footloose Bulk Paper pack. Since I distressed every edge of the cover paper, I'm hard-pressed to find one card that appears evenly centered.

My next CTMH WOTG project will be Stella. I ordered my kit two days ago, so I should have it finished by this time next month.

Footloose Splash Zone

This is my first CTMH Workshop on the Go project this year. I'm featuring the Footloose WOTG at my May 21st Workshop at Scrappigators Country Store.

Here’s what the kit includes:

·        My Reflections Footloose Paper Packet (X7151B)

·        My Acrylix Footloose Workshop Stamp Set (C-size)

·        2 White Daisy Cardstock sheets

·        1 Wooden Badge Buttons (Z1703)

·        1 Instructional Brochure

We will also be using these additional products:

·        E1002 My Acrylix Rustic Alphabet

·        Z2167 Crème Brulee Exclusive Inks Pad

·        Z2195 Lagoon Exclusive Inks Pad

·        Z2135 New England Ivy Exclusive Inks Pad

·        Z2164 Sorbet Exclusive Inks Pad *

·        Sanding Kit

·        3-D Foam Tape

·        Y1000 1”x1” My ACrylix Block

·        Y1003 2”x2” My Acrylix Block

·        Y1006 3”x3” My Acrylix Block

Scrappigators Copic Club Project

This is a fun card based on a project designed by Jeanne Streiff in the CardMaker January 2012 magazine. Of course, I had to make a few adjustments, but I used the same color pallet that she did in the article. In the original article, Jeanne used an Eclips electronic cutting machine. I used Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page.

This stamp is from Outlines Rubber Stamp Company. Unfortunately, Outlines is going out of business. All their stamps are currently 20% off at their website: http://www.outlinesrubberstamp.com.

I used the following Copic markers: BG11, BG15, R20, R24, and YG13. We'll be making this card at our Scrappigators Copics Club meeting this Thursday at Sharon G's house in Potts Net (Millsboro), Delaware. This is our third (or fourth) Copics Club project.

We've been busier than we can be between vending at Crop Classix Cape May two weekends ago, Becky & Clare's Day Crop last weekend, and preparing for the opening of our "country store" yesterday. Getting ready involved moving an overly-filled classroom upstairs and resetting everything for "retail." We anticpated having more stock, but were pleasantly surprised by our sales at two prior events.

These photos represent two of the four walls in our former living room minus carpet. We have lots of changes we want to make in the future depending upon the reception we get in the months ahead. We are only opened one weekend a month -- the first Thursday (noon to 6PM), Friday (10AM-6PM), and Saturday (10AM - 4PM). We hope this small effort will lead to bigger and better things for our Delaware customers. We are focused on selling product that you don't normally find in the big box craft stores.

Three people stopped by on our first day, which is great since we're relying on word of mouth and social networking. Two of the three drove up from the beach to see what we had to offer. Of course, one had a $50 gift certificate to Dover Downs and a gift card for Applebys, so we were the perfect excuse for her to make the drive to Dover. The other heard about Bylers (about 4 or 5 miles from our home) and made us the reason to drive up on Thursday. The third was Tina who came to rescue Melissa's 4-year-old. She wanted him to help her bake cookies. When I first told her about our new venture, she asked if we had enough stock. After a quick walkaround, she said, "yes, you do have enough stock."

We're quite proud of our inventory. We're not carrying a lot of paper, but we do have a good array of cardstock along with Melissa Frances' "First Avenue" collection and several Graphic 45 paper pads. Of course, we also have Mosaic Moments papers since this is one of our featured projects at retreats and day crops.

We're also expanding our Copic services. We have pens (a growing inventory), refills, and nibs. We're also offering a refill and pen-cleaning services.

We also have an active dollar bins (the little green bins) which Melissa keeps full one way or another. Here, our friend Elaine is checking out the offerings.

We're particularly proud of our "checkout" counter which we created with a table that has telescoping legs. It's a perfect fit. What we hope to see more of are smiling customers at the counter like Pat, one of our downstate friends.

Some of our other products include but are not limited to: Scraponizers, Paper Cut, quilling products, Herma Dotto Repositionable Adhesive, Zutter, our own Accessories, ETC product line and more.

All it all, it was a very good day. We hope to have many more which will support our sense that 2012 is going to be a very good year. We're tickled to say that we're off to a great start!

Scrapperfect!

Look what I did! I got inspired by an article in Scrapbooks, Etc and started taking it to the next level. These weave backgrounds didn't take too long and I used scraps from old projects to create the sensation! I even wove some letters, but thought that would be overkill for this project which I'll be teaching in a one-hour class. My background paper is Mustard, Black Licoric, and some old purple I bought in a super pack from Sam's Club. I cut 5" tags from the Mustard on my Cricut Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.