Alpine Adventure Fun!

Happy Saturday!

Ready for the weekend?  I am!  the weather has turned from +32 last week to a chilly +6 degrees this morning ... and I kinda love it!  Yay for sweater weather and movie nights curled up on the couch ... and of course lots of CRAFTING!  Whoot!

I had a productive week last week, chipping away at LONG over due items ... like filling out a form that I have had in my email "in box" since NOVEMBER of 2017!!  How long did it take me to fill in the form?  All of 15 minutes! ... and 10 of that was figuring out what I needed to print to fill out!  Seriously!  All I needed was my name, address and signature.  MAN I am good at procrastinating!  *lol*.  A few more things on my "mega-to-do-list", including pitting 2.5 years worth of pictures in my album but hey ... no rush on THAT, right??  .. mind you, now that I think about it, that WAS one of my "I WILL do this over the summer" task.  Meh.  I still have a week left to do it! hee hee

So ... last night I got to spend a LOT of time in my cave.  I was playing with a new winter set, Alpine Adventure. It took me a while to get into the groove but I eventually got there and have fallen in love with the little sled!

My first attempt didn't blow my hair back.  It's ok but ...

 I DID also try it with a black mat around it ... meh.  Tried 1/8" red ribbon.  Nope.  It's OK ... just not the feel I was going for ... so I tried again.  This time I nailed it!

Card making is more complex for me that one might think.  All the pieces have to "make sense" to me.  The wood texture "goes" with the wood sled; the Pool Party snowflake"goes" with the Pool Party and Silver twine; the big rhinestones goes with the little rhinestones AND the silver in the twine; the plain scalloped circle compliments/offsets the "busy" woodgrain pattern.  I just love how it all ties together!  Any wonder it takes me 3 hours to make a "simple" card?  *lol*.

Today I will play with some more new products from the Holiday Catalogue - my Open House is Sept 7th, if you're in the Edmonton area and would like to pop over!  Other than that I will do a bit more paperwork, set dates for my fall schedule and MAYBE start getting those pictures in albums ... or MAYBE I'll take a nap instead *lol*.

Whatever YOU get up to today, I hope you have a stampy day xo

Tam

Postcard Pal Fun!

Happy Saturday!

I'm so excited for the weekend!  I have not one but TWO out of town friends coming to visit me!!  It's going to be a crafty weekend for SURE! ... plus Craig is still on holidays and that means I don't have to make dinner ... again!  (When he's off he likes to cook - sa-weeeeeet!  That will make 4 weeks I haven't had to cook this summer!  THAT'S a vacation I can get down with!)

Today I'm sharing the cutest little card!  It's not what I consider to be my usual style but I love it!

The pelican makes me giggle!  He comes from the new Postcard Pals set ($27).  I know many people will shy away from this set thinking they have to spend too much time colouring but it seriously took a minute to colour this one.  The shading that is provided by the stamped image itself does all the hard work for you and make you look like a colouring master!  I posted a brief video last week on my Facebook page "Tamara's Paper Trail" showing just how quick it is.  Pop over and check it out!

I used my Crumb cake, Daffodil Delight, Pool Party and Pumpkin Pie Blend Markers

For the water I used a piece of Pool Party cardstock and ran it through the "Seaside" embossing folder.

The wood stump came from the Hedgehugs set - I just trimmed it to look like a straight column rather than a tree trunk.

I stamped a splatter from Artisan Textures in Daffodil Delight and then popped up the 2" circle punched sentiment up on dimensionals.

The final touch were little water drops that I had in my stash.  They are epoxy shapes from last year - can't recall the name but they came out with the rainbow set, I believe.

I should mention that no, I didn't fussy cut the pelican out.  I treated myself to a Brother Scan n' Cut machine for my birthday last month and it cut him (and 5 of his friends) out in about 1.5 minutes flat.  SUCH a fun machine!

That's it for today.  Off I go to watch yet ANOTHER video on how to use the Mailchimp (email) system.  Sigh. WHY does everything lately seem to have a 94 hour learning curve to it?? *lol*

Whatever you get up to this weekend I hope you have a stampy time!


Tam

Animal Outing Fun

Happy Sunday!

Well ... truth be told I'm a little sad today.  It's Sunday ... and it's cold ... and it's raining ... and that is my FAVOURITE kind of weather!  I LIVE for cold, rainy Sundays!  The only thing better than cold rainy Sunday's are cold SNOWY Sundays!  "So why are you sad?", I hear you cry! ... well ... cold, rainy Sundays are only my favourite when I get to stay HOME for them ... not when I have a booth at an all-day outdoor trade fair!  Yup, it's been sunny and smokin' hot here for EVER and the one day we have 13 degrees and rain is the day I'm sitting in a field selling animal-themed cards.  Hmmmm ... I wonder if mosquitos have money .... *lol*.

Oh well - it's as fun as you make it, right? ... and I'll have my mini-me in the booth beside me, trying to sell her hand-made dog leashes to those who come by.  Fingers crossed.  I actually want it to be nice more for HER than for me!  This whole "let's start a business" gig has been a great life/business lesson for her and I'd like her to succeed (... and it would be nice if she could at least break even so she could pay her mother back for the cost of the stock! *lol*)

Whatever happens happens.  I'm still going to have a smile on my face.  I DID have a LOT of fun this week making up my cards.  It has been a VERY long time since I created just for fun, without having to thing "do I have enough of this for a class" or "this would be too time consuming to do in a class" or "this set is retired I shouldn't use it in a class".  I just had fun!  Here is my latest batch ...

I LOVE the last two!!  They are all made using the Animal Outing stamp set.  The first one uses Tropical Chic designer paper, the next three used the coordinating Animal Expedition designer paper.  What's SO great about the Animal Expedition DSP is that you can use the coordinating Framelits to cut out some of the animals, as I did here.  SO cute!!

For the last two cards I used leftover pieces from the February Paper Pumpkin kit.  I just LOVE the big, bold letters.  Such clean, simple cards.  Sometimes less IS more!

Well ... it's 7:15 and we have to leave in just over an hour so I'm going to dig out my jeans (ugh) and flannel shirt (double ugh) and start loading up the car.  I hope you have weather to YOUR liking ... and that you have a stampy Sunday!


Tam

Calligraphy Essentials

Happy Friday!!!

I dunno what the weather is like in your part of the world but over here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada it's face crackin' HOT!  "They're" calling for 32 degrees.  GREAT excuse to stay indoors and craft in the cool of the basement!

So I'm still working on figuring out how to send out my newsletter via the Mailchimp system.  (Just as an aside I am tickled PINK at all the requests I've had from people all over the world!  Honolulu?  Australia?  Wow!! ... ok ... back to our regularly scheduled blog post ...)   Now if you know me at ALL you know that I generally put "first things last", meaning I am the queen of procrastination and almost ALWAYS do the least important thing on my to do list first!  I learned Step 1 of the Mailchimp system this week while I was procrastinating on making cards for my Humane Society trade fair this Sunday.  Well, now that I want to master Step 2 of the system (the actual SENDING of the newsletter) I now HAVE to procrastinate on that as the "making of the cards" has moved significantly up the urgency scale *lol*.  Sometimes I really do think I should be a social experiment for some student writing a thesis paper on abnormal behaviour!

Now that I've admitted the "making of the cards" is getting quite urgent I realize I'm blogging ... and not making .. so the cycle continues *lol*.

Wanna see a few cards I DID make?  OK!

Cute, yes?  I made three of these 4-card-sets in about half an hour.  While on vacation last month I had put together the "Calligraphy Essentials" kit ($51 for the kit and coordinating stamp set) and had the cards lying on my desk (taking up valuable real estate!)

I thought they'd make super quick and cute cards for my trade fair if I just added an animal to them.  I was right! (since the trade fair is for the Animal Shelter all goods sold have to have an animal theme).

I used the Hedgehugs ($26) , This Little Piggy ($27) , Bird Banter (retired) and We Must Celebrate (retired) for my critters.  No, I didn't fussy cut them all out!  I treated myself to a Brother Scan n Cut machine for my birthday and that cut the job down from hours to minutes.  I used my Blends markers to color ($6 each) then and in no time had 12 cute cards ready for the show.

So I highly suggest the next time you're in a hurry to make cards grab one of your stampin' kits - cuts the crafting time down but still gives you a great hand-made card.

I guess I should get at it - those cards aren't going to make themselves!

Stay cool and have a stampy day!


Tam

Would you like to be on my newsletter list?

Happy Tuesday ... again!

This is unprecedented!  Two posts in one day! *lol*

I just wanted to share with you the link for my Newsletter.  I'm pretty stoked that I have managed to fumble my way through Step 1 of learning the "Mailchimp" system!  First I need people to sign up for it and then I can figure out what to SAY in it *lol*.

The Mailchimp system is simply going to replace my old-fashioned (and WAY too long) emails.

If you would like to be on my list please subscribe through this link.  You can unsubscribe at anytime!

Tamara's Paper Trail Newsletter

Have a stampy night!


Tam

Let's Catch Up!

Happy Tuesday!

So much for blogging more often, eh?  Geez!  I try ... honestly, I try! *lol*

It's hard to believe it's already more than half way through summer, isn't it?  What have we been up to this summer?  Well, if you saw my last two posts there has been some travel involved.  My youngest went to Phoenix with her BFF and family for 9 days and then, once she was home we packed up and headed to Kelowna for 12 days.  It was forced relaxation for this multitasking maniac!  I handled it PRETTY well but, not gunna lie, it was JUST long enough to chill a bit but make me want to get home.  I'm a Cancer ... and they are renowned for being "homebodies".  I missed my dog!  (Naturally he was mad at me for leaving him.  He greeted everyone except me when we got home (even the cat!) ... until I came back from the grocery store with a cooked chicken.  He decided then that he had punished me enough and was ready to forgive me (of course it cost me a few pieces of breast meat!).

We got back July 24th.  Craig had the rest of the week off so it was more relaxing "Bertram Style", which means gardening for him, cooking, cleaning, driving the kids around, and crafting for me.  The last few days of July were INSANE as the Stampin' Up! promotion with 10 free ink pads included in every starter kit bought drew to a close.  My team EXPLODED and we have welcomed 21 ladies to "Tamara's Trail Blazers"!!!  I only JUST finished the "welcome" cards and paperwork for is all last night!

Today I'm turning my efforts towards making cards!  Alicia and I both have tables at the "Made for Pets" even at the Edmonton Humane Society this coming Sunday.  She had about 12 more dog leashes to make and I have a LOT of animal-themed cards to make ... not to mention planning out out booths as far as posters, flyers, layout and so on. 

So that's what' I've been up to ... and (as I procrastinate on that) I thought I get caught up on projects old AND new that I had HOPED to share along the way.  Alas ....

I won't go into fine detail on how they were made, dimensions etc, but if you have any questions just leave me a message and I'll get back to you.

This first card is quite old! ... and a total case from Ceal Pritchett ... using Petal Palette ...

CASEd this idea from Allison Okamitsu using our new 2018/2020 In Colours ...

CASE'd my own layout ... (Petal Palette for the flower card - Picture Perfect DSP for the birthday card)

A card from my friend Joan Jeffery ...

A card from my friend Lisa Henderson ...

Cards I made in Kelowna using the Calligraphy Essentials kit ...

Card I made using the July Paper Pumpkin kit ...

Belated birthday card using the retired "Bird Banter"

Card from my friend Genevieve Parrent ...

Card from my friend Stephanie VanDorp ...

Card made using the July 2018 Paper Pumpkin Kit ...

Card CASEd from Diana Gibbs ..

Card from my friend Marcy Denning ...

Another card from my friend Marcy Denning ...

Card from my friend Tracey Stewart ...

Card I made using the new Rooted In Nature bundle ...

A card my daughter made my mom for her birthday ...

A card my daughter made ME for MY birthday ...

LOVE THIS CARD!! 

Made with Abstract Impressions bundle ...

Made with the Notes of Kindness it ...

A card from my friend Susan Philips ...

LOVE THIS ADOPTIONS CARD ... made with the Animal Outing designer paper and new tufted embossing folder (the sentiment is retired from Cuddles & Kisses set)

More baby cards using Precious Delivery ...

Phew!  OK, that was a lot!  I have an hour before I have to take Doodle Dog to the vet for another round of treatment for a raging ear infection.  This will help establish if his too-frequent ear issue is just that we haven't 100% cured it in the past or is something more serious, like a burst ear drum. I'm thinking it's the former.  Time will tell!

Thank you for popping in.  I'll do my best to post again before too long!  I hope you have a super stampy day!


Tam