Featured from the Hop!

Wow, that was so much fun! The Halloween Hop was a huge success, so many fun entries, I am still trying to stop on every blog and leave comments. The hop is still open for a bit longer, so feel free to add more, if you haven't seen it, just scroll down to the post below for all the info.

Here are just a few of the participants that really caught my eye. Thank you to everyone who joined in party!

Christine's masked and sponged card is boo-tiful!

Michele's paper pumpkins will certainly last a lot longer than a real pumpkin, and they're much prettier!

 I fell in love at first sight with this itty bitty witch hat from Craftside. Can't wait to sport one whenver I'm feeling particularly witchy!

Love the wrapped up mummy on Tracey's scrapbook layout. The Hooligans paper from Close to My Heart reminds me of Halloween on Sesame street! Great page for kiddie costumes!

 Angela's M&M stix would test my patience, although her tutorial makes it look easy. I think I could assemble them if I had lots of extra candy. One for me, one for the bag, one for me....

Halloween Hop!

I just love trying out new things, today it's a do-it-yourself blog hop! Usually blog hops take a ton of work in advance, getting everyone up and running on time. I stumbled across this cool site that allows a blog hop to spontaneously generate, someone just has to start it and that's ME!

This hop is all about Halloween! If you've made something for this spooky holiday, show it off! Stamping, Scrapbooking, cards are all welcome, as well as home decor, sewing, costumes, recipes, you name it. As long as it's Halloween, it's all good!

If you'd like to play along, you just need to scroll to the bottom of the thumbnails and click on the "click here to enter" button. It will walk you through the steps to add your own picture and link. If you'd like to participate in the blog hop, get the code and paste it into your own blog post. The blog hop will then be on your blog too, easy peasy! Do me a favor and link back to my blog too, okay? 

Here's my Halloween.... thing. I can't think of what to call it. It's a home decor piece, yeah. But it's not really a banner because it hangs down, right? I don't know what to call it, but it's darned cute. If you have a name for it, leave me a comment! If you'd like to see how to make the center of this... hangey-downey-thing, watch the recorded video on my ustream channel.

Stamp sets used: Fright Night and Beware, plus background stamps Boutique Borders and Spot on Backgrounds. Colors: Garden Green, Smokey Plum, Sunset, Black and Colonial White.

Now it's your turn. Don't make me have a lonely blog hop with just one person participating! Jump in and join the Halloween Hop!

Well, that was Fast!

Whew, it's been a couple of crazy days! Two, to be exact. That's how long it took for Creative University to sell out this year. I thought it would go fast, but since I increased the attendance limit I never dreamed it would fill up so fast. I now have 52 fabulous ladies looking forward to attending CU in Feb. 2011!

If you're kicking yourself for not registering in time, you may be able to still attend. I'll usually have a few spaces open up as we get closer to the date. If you really want to go... quick! Head on over to the website and add your name to the waiting list.

For those who are registered, I'll see you at CU!

I'll be the one in the monkey hat.

Will I see you at CU?

Creative University registration will be open tomorrow on Monday, Sept. 20th. This is my big deal, my grand gesture, my huge hoopla for all. It's a retreat like you've never attended, a perfect blend of relaxed do-your-own thing paired with the excitement and creativity of hands-on classes. You'll faint when you see how affordable the all-inclusive price is. Once you've recovered, get yourself into the registration section and snag a spot. They go fast, the attendance is limited and last year's event sold out in a week.

Check out the website for all the details, including prices and registration.

I could go on and on about how fabulous this event is, but I think that I'll let some of the past students tell you...
Dawn said "Last year was my first year.  I thought it would be fun, but it turned out to be so much more than that!  I met the friendliest, most helpful and wonderfully talented ladies I've ever seen in one place!  I felt completely comfortable and welcome.  I recommend CU to anyone who would like to relax in a gorgeous atmophere with a bunch of truly special women!  You won't BELIEVE how much you'll learn!  I guarantee, YOU'LL LOVE IT!"

Kari said "This will be my second year at CU! I highly recommend the extra day. You start CU completely relaxed. You have time to hang out with the wonderful ladies you will be spending the next few days with. And you get a whole day to play before classes begin! The food was very good and the dinning hall is very cozy! Meal times were almost as much fun as the classes!"

Amy said: "We had the best time ever!!  There was an excellent variety of classes offered.  We met a bunch of new gals who we've gotten to know quite well over the past year on Facebook.  We kept in touch after CU ended.  At the end of CU, we vowed to return this year and we're all coming back with another friend in tow this year!  Can't wait for February!!"

Nichole said: "The Education, Inspiration, & TONS of Relaxing moments were only a tip of the iceberg. Everyone there was so incredibly helpful, thoughtful, sharing, caring, inspirationally talented and willing to show you how they do what they do. The food was GREAT!, The cabins are so cozy and no matter who you room with, it is always such FUN!, The classes & instructors are just TOO AWESOME to miss! You can't help but feel so invigorated by the presence of these talented ladies everywhere you look!

Picture yourself HERE!

Whatever Wednesday

Stick with it, it just gets better and better.


Blogger is cutting off part of my video screens, grrrr. Until I can figure it out, just double click on the video to go to the youtube page. You want the full screen for this one. You'll love it.

The Forgotten Video

I swear I am losing my mind. I made this video and put it up on youtube more than two weeks ago. Then promptly forgot about it. I could have sworn I'd put it up on my blog, but I guess not. Now I'm not only forgetful, I'm imagining things.

Anyhoo... enjoy!

Beautiful Bird

I've been on an embossing kick lately, here's the latest. This pretty peacock stamp is embossed in Silver Pearl, and then sponge colored in CTMH's new summer colors: Gypsy, Lagoon and Pacifica. I love the resist technique, so easy and yet it always looks fabulous!

It's really hard to capture glitter on camera, the tail feathers look a little gloppy above, but they're much prettier in person.

And just in case you missed it, I embossed glittery peacock feathers onto the light colored patterned paper background. It's just a subtle touch, but it really sparkles up the card. To achieve the look, stamp your design in versamark, then mix together clear embossing powder and prisma glitter. When you heat set, the prisma glitter is trapped in the embossing powder, and the heat increases the colored effect of the prisma glitter. Perfect for peacock feathers!

Looking for a tutorial on this card? You betcha! It was the feature on my live ustream class last night, so if you saw it live, hooray and thanks for watching! The recording feature on ustream was giving me fits, so I'll be re-broadcasting the show again for a second try at saving the recording. No broadcast time or date yet, hoping to carve out some time this weekend.

A Shot of Red

I'm always drawn to this color combo. Pale blue with a pop of cherry red. Just can't get enough of it. Adding neutrals and a few more shades of blue helps extend the color pallette, but the focus still stays on that dynamic duo. Blue 'n red, a perfect pair.

Like my little silver spoon? I stamped and heat embossed in silver. The spoon, cup and sentiment are all included in the "A Sip" stamp set. Just $7.95 for the entire set! I also added mini blue sparkles to the handle. Want a tip to get those tiny self-adhesive babies onto your project? If you try to pick them up with your fingers, you're going to feel like gigantor with huge clumsy ham-hands. Use a paper piercing tool, or the tip of your micro-tip scissors to lift the itty bitty sparkles off their backing sheet. By poking underneath the adhesive and lifting, you'll be guaranteed to get both the sparkle and the adhesive all in one piece. Then, with the sparkling gem still stuck to the tip of your pointy paper piercing tool, just transfer it to your project and use your finger to press the sparkle firmly into position.

Don't forget to make the inside of your card pretty too! So easy with coordinating paper packs!

Want more card loveliness? Join me and guest host Aaron Brown for a special back-to-back evening of card-making, TONIGHT!

Aaron will be broadcasting on my ustream channel at 6 pm pacific (7 pm mountain/ 8 pm central/ 9 pm eastern). Afterwards, stay tuned for my show at 7 pm pacific (8 pm mountain/ 9 pm central/ 10 pm eastern).

That's Hot

Wondering how to make this gorgeous flower? Turn up the heat!

Sorry, that was a little corny. But you do need a flame to create this Singed Flower. On the video class, I created a four layer singed flower using alternating colors. For this one, I cut 8 circle layers. It's a much fuller flower, I like it a lot. So, I decided to stitch it onto a bracelet and wear it proudly. Coming soon, the tutorial for the bracelet!

Creative University Online, Lots of Pictures!

This is going to be a big one! It's been almost a week since Creative University Online and I haven't posted all the teacher's photos and links, so I'd better get crackin'!

Haley Dyer created these adorable button bracelets. And she showed off her new kitten, also adorable. Haley also has a follow-up video on her own channel showing how to create the closure on the bracelet.

Denise Anderson Turley presented a class on Close to My Heart's clear cards. Her class was full of tips and tricks to make the most of these sometimes intimidating cards. If you caught the live show, you will know what I'm talking about. If you didn't, well... there was a technical difficulty and the show was not recorded. But Denise promises me she'll try to reschedule the show and you can tune in live or watch the recording at a later date.

Christine David blew me away from the moment her episode started, with her professional intro. In her class, she created a beautiful scrapbook page. Doesn't that picture just make you melt?

Aaron Brown was scheduled to teach, and she also had technical difficulties (live broadcasting is often unpredictable but we do our best). The good news, you can catch her make-up show on Wednesday, Sept. 8th. She'll be broadcasting her show in the timeslot before my regular weekly show, so you can tune in for Aaron's class and stay for mine, two hours of crafty goodness! Aaron's show time: 6 pm pacific/ 7 pm mountain/ 8 pm central/ 9 pm eastern. If you miss the show, it will be recorded on my channel for later viewing. A sneak peak of Aaron's paper sack Christmas card:

CU-OL, Pinwheel Technique

More highlights from Creative University Online! Guest host Sheila Bennett demonstrated a super way to use those tiny scraps of paper that you can't bear to part with. The Pinwheel technique look complicated, but it's simple after you learn how! Watch the show here. There are two recordings, the link will take you to part one, then just click to get to part two.

Love this one with the contrasting colors, really shows off the pinwheel. One of the things I love about the ustream classes is the interactive element. Teachers aren't just talking to a video camera, they are talking to a live audience. For this last card, Sheila took suggestions from the chat room and built the card with their input. Nice job, chatters!

Want to join in the next class? If you haven't become a ustream member and joined my "crowd", do it! It's free! Then tune in every Wednesday at 7 pm pacific (8 mountain/ 9 central/ 10 eastern) for my live show.