Fall 2010 Retreat

The last couple of months have a been a whirlwind for us getting ready for our Fall Retreat. There was a chance I wasn't going to be able to make it due to work. Luckily that didn't come true. I am not sure I could miss one.

This is a picture of one of the Class kits our attendees received last weekend.


The techniques we used are:
- We used a Clear Glaze Pen and doodled on Vanilla Cardstock. Then after it was dry, we used Spanish Moss Glimmer Mist. The Clear Glaze acts as a resist to the GM. If you don't like to freehand, you can also stamp an image with Versamark ink and it will act as a resist as well.

- We cut flowers out of the patterned paper that will be later covered with the brown cardstock. We adhered them to the page, raising their petals with dimensionals.

- We adhered self-adhesive pearls throughout the layout. We used the stencils from the i-Rock tool to make the swirl that is under the cut-out flowers.

I will be listing some of these kits on ebay next weekend. The kit will include the Spanish Moss glimmer mist, cardstock, patterned paper plus step-by-step instructions.. If you are interested, please send us an email and we can make arrangements or check us out on ebay (seller name is inkyfingersdora), The kit will be $15.

We should be able to get back to a weekly posting either here or on Facebook or both.
More posts coming soon... classes I took at Tulsa and Kansas City CKC and more.

Talk to you later, Dora

Croppin' Train Express - September 11

Thanks to EVERYONE that attended the September 11 Croppin' Train Express event! We had a full house, and it was great! Build your own deli sandwiches for lunch and a delicious roast, with carrots and potatoes, for dinner! It was fun to see what projects everyone was working on - so many ideas! We'll rest a few days and then it's on to more planning, etc. for the Fall 2010 Croppin' Train Scrapbook Retreat week-end.

Imaginisce I-Rock

I finally got my hands on the I-Rock tool by Imaginisce! For a couple weeks, everyone was sold out!

The I-Rock is battery-operated, and has a metal stem that heats up, allowing you to adhere pre-glued gems to paper, fabric, etc. The heated metal stem melts the glue enough to allow the gem to stick. If you don't like the placement, you can re-heat the gem (again, melting the glue), move it and there's still enough glue to re-adhere it somewhere else.

The only 'problem' I've had with it is having enough patience to wait the (approximately) 15 seconds it takes to adequately melt the glue. Overall, it's really a cool tool, does a good job of adhering the gems and is very quick and easy to use. Following are some pictures of the first time I used it.

These are some of the accessories I purchased. Each round container has different gems in it. The flowers have gems that can be glued in the flower's center. The templates are made of a light-weight teflon-like 'fabric' - they're not plastic. One template comes with each package of flowers and gems.

Here I'm using one of the Flourish templates on an Independence Day layout I had done earlier. It was very easy to use. You can actually put the gems in the corresponding holes, adhere them and then lift the template away. Well, the pictures and text aren't really cooperating tonight, but, I think you get the idea of how this works. :)

We'll be demoing the I-Rock at the November Retreat.

Back to School Purses

For our freshman college daughter and her three roommates, I made these purses. Each purse contained a matching beaded pen and two binder clip note holders, along with the snazzy sunglasses on the front, of course, These were really fun to put together; surprisingly, the actual purse goes together pretty quickly. You can't really see it in the pictures, but each purse is lined with coordinating paper.

Back to School Backpacks

I have several projects to share with you. For the little grandchildren, I made these miniature backpacks and put a gift card in each one, along with a couple sweet munchies, of course.

Teaser of Freebie Layout

Here is a teaser of the Freebie layout. This is a layout that you will get, in addition to the two class kits, if you pay your registration in full by August 31.


Sorry this image is dark but it was the only way I could get the glitter on the paper to show up.

Croppin' Train Express - September 11, 2010

We so enjoyed our first Croppin' Train Express event, we want to do it again! Join us on Saturday, September 11, 2010 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. at the Christ the King Lutheran Church in Bentonville! Sixteen hours of crop time - lunch - dinner - soda of your choice - all for just $25.00 per person! As before, we'll have our Cricuts there, along with all cartridges, for your use. We'll also have adhesive and paper for sale if you run out of anything. The layout at the Church only allows for a combination of TEN 6' and 8' tables, so, please register right away if you plan on coming! There is a $25.00 Express registration button on the right-side menu. If you have any questions, please let us know. Hope you can join us!

July 17 Express Event - Great Day!

We thoroughly enjoyed the July 17 Croppin' Train Express event. The one-day (16 hours!) was plenty to get lots of little things taken care of. We had 13 people attend, so it was a nice small group. I'm posting two of the layouts I was able to complete - one layout is a success for me! All of the cardstock is Stampin' Up!; I used Life is a Beach, Sports Mania, and Stand and Salute for the Cricut cuts. The "Freedom" page contains the words to the Lee Greenwood song, "God Bless the USA" - I forgot to give him credit on the page, but will add that.

Hope everyone else had a good time, and we look forward to presenting other, one-day Express events!

Thanks everyone!

Croppin' Train Express (July 17)

Don't forget to get registered for the Croppin' Train Express - a ONE-DAY event - on Saturday, July 17, 2010, at the Bentonville Police Department.

For those of you frantically looking for the PayPal registration button on the blog, it is there now! :)

Remember - we only have 16 tables, and we're just at the half-way mark for registrations. If you were thinking about it before, please register now so you don't get left out.

Thanks very much!

Layout Kits for sale (8 out of 20)

We have been busy creating new layout kits for you. The first few we am posting here are from the last retreat but then we will post the many we created last month. We are so excited about these and hope to get some of our own pictures on them soon.

These kits include instructions (including measurements) and a color picture of the layout. We do not precut the cardstock and paper so that you can adjust it to your pictures, if needed.

These kits are $10 each and we have a deal for you, purchase 5 kits and get the 6th half off.

These are first come, first sold. There are limited numbers of kits available. I will mark them as sold out as soon as I can.


Paradise Layout Kit
Green, purple, turquoise, cream with diecuts and Wine colored rhinestones to embellish.

BackYard Fun Kit
Black, Red and White with cute bug diecuts.



Family Layout Kit
Green, brown and cream. Uses a glimmer mist technique for the ruffle (glimmer mist available at our events after purchasing this kit)


Princess Layout Kit
Pink, black and gray with embellishments and rhinestones.



Fun Fair Layout Kit
White background with greens, reds, turquoise, yellow, orange, well probably all colors. Room for two 4x6 and one 4x4 picture. Includes turquoise rhinestones to embellish.


Floral Frenzie Layout Kit
Yellow, Orange, Pink, Green with white mats. I bright layout.

Christmas Frost Layout Kit
Red, green and cream with wooden embellishments and fiber.


Class Kit from Spring 2010 retreat
Kiwi green and blues. The glimmer mist and screens will be avaiable at our events for those who purchase the kit)

You can pay by cash, check, paypal (we will email you an invoice) or credit card.

Life Is a Beach Birthday Card

Here's another birthday card I made recently. I used the Life is a Beach Cricut cartidge for the front of the card. The designer paper is SEI (Juliette) and the card base is SU! (Bravo Burgundy). I LOVE the little flower brads on the flip flops - those are from SU!, too. I cut the image twice - once with each paper, and then cut one apart to piece over the other. I really liked how it turned out. Can you guess what the gift was? :) Thanks for looking! Pat

Cricut - Lacy Labels

I just got one of the new Lite Cricut Cartridges - Lacy Labels; it has some really nice images on it! I used it last night to make a card. Here is the finished 6"x6" card front. I used SU! cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, and Very Vanilla. I also used the Dotted Swiss Cuttlebug Embossing Folder on the Very Vanilla cardstock.








I used the Scallop label, and cut all three pieces at 3.5 inches.



Then I layered the Pink on top of the Chocolate.



Maybe it's just me, but I thought the pictures in the 'book' were a bit misleading. The 'words' are right, but I think the pictures make it look like (using my cuts as an example) the Pink piece (with the hole-punched scalloped edge)should be on the bottom, and the Chocolate on top of it. In the picture it looks like the holes in the scalloped edge are 'open', and not laying on top of another cardstock. If you see the picture in the book, what I'm saying might make more sense. :) At any rate, I think it's a cartridge I'll use often.

Pat

Football Layout

Well, it looks like Dora and I had the same thought today - we have been very remiss in posting ANYthing the last month. I'm posting a football layout with my grandson - this was their final game of the season. No special techniques on this layout. I used SU! cardstock - Summer Sun and Basic Black. I also stamped a football, with Summer Sun ink. Nothing earth-shattering, but I wanted to highlight Joseph in the pictures, so I used punches to make a 'circle highlight'. You can do this with any punches of graduated sizes. Always punch your smaller punch first, then eyeball line up the larger punch, and punch. You can really see it on the second page - the top picture on the left. Unfortunately, the light caught that picture, but it does show the circle highlight quite nicely. A pretty easy technique, but very useful!

Pat

Where is it....

Where does the time go to? OMG, we haven't posted since May and now it is mid-June. What happened. Everything is such a blur to me - so fast. Tomorrow I get to scrapbook and stamp all day, so I will have new things to post :)

Dora

more Christmas pages

I cut the names using the Cricut then I outlined them in Stickles to make them stand out. Really not much else special about this page, but another layout done. That is what is important.

(faces blurred to protect the innocent :O)

Glimmer Mist Sale

We have the following colors of Glimmer Mist for sale for $5.40 each (includes 8% tax). Buy 5 and get free priority shipping. Buy 8 and get the 9th free plus free priority shipping.

Besides getting great new colors of glimmer mist and/or restocking your empty bottles of your favorites, there is an opportunity for a prize. The info is on the original email notifying you of this sale. (just too much to put on here.)

Go to http://www.mytatteredangels.com/ to see the colors.

If there is a season and year after the name, that is when it was available. So it may not be on the website site anymore. Let me know if you cannot find one and are curious about the color.

Don't delay - we only have 1 to 3 of each color (I will delete the colors as they are sold out)

At this Fall retreat, I will demoing more ways to use glimmer mist to create your own embellishments. I will have a beginners demo and an seasoned demo. But of course, everyone is welcome to attend both.

(Payment note: email us your order at croppintrain@aol.com and we will email you the amount you owe and hold your order until payment is received. You can mail us a check or we can send you a paypal invoice. )

We have two limited edition colors at the bottom of the list - they have different pricing but can be part of this sale.

Aspen Yellow
Auburn - Fall 08
Black Gold - winter 08
Black Cherry
Cherub Pink
Cinnamon - Fall 08
Coffee Shop
Coral - Summer 08
Cranberry Zing
Carribbean Blue
Chocolate Covered Cherries
Copper
Coral Reef
Crushed Shells
Dazzling Diamonds
Frost
Frozen Lake
Gingerbread -Winter 07
Gold
Golden Terracotta
Haunted Shadow
Harvest Orange
Juniper
Kiwi - Summer 08
Lavendar Wisp
Lemon Grass
Marshmellow
Merlot
Moonlight
Mustard Seed
Old Lace
Olive Vine
Oriental Poppy
Pashmina
Peppermint Stick
Pink Taffy
Popsicle
Raven
Red Maple
S.W.A.K
Sage - Fall 08
Sand
Sapphire
Simply Khaki - Fall 08
Slate
Snow Angel - winter 08
Spanish Moss
Spring Mint - Spring 08
Spring Violet
Suede
Sugar Cookie -Winter 07
Sunshine
Sweet Clover
Tattered Rose
Tuscan Sun
Twilight - Fall 08
Walnut Gold
Watermelon - Summer 08
Waterslide
Wheatfields
Wild Currant - winter 08

Limited Editions ($6.75 each including tax)
Lucky (from St. Patrick's Day - great green - used on layout kit at Spring retreat)
Pieces of Heart ( A percentage of proceeds from this unique color will be given for autism research)

Another Christmas layout

I am still working on Christmas layouts. I only have two years left then I will be caught up - On that holiday anyway :o)


I did pleating down the left side and near the bottom of the right page. It is quite easy and I like the effect when I need some texture. The green envelope on the right page will hold a small CD with the video of the cat playing with the box. It was so funny yo watch her. It ws like she was on a treadmill.

the other two cards

Ok, my scanner is up and running again.

For this card, I placed the coral screen on the white cardstock then misted with Coral Reef GM. As I was picking up the screen, I dropped it back on the cardstock. It landed in a slightly off it's original placement - so I left it there and used the Crushed Shells GM. It created some dimensional to the image. I think it is super hard to see in this scan. I then roughed up the edges of the cardstock and adhered to a mustard cardstock card. I used a punch for the greeting and ran the edges in the mist that was on my mat.


For the Seahorse card, I sprayed Crushed Shells on white cardstock. Then I placed the screen on a paper towel (you can also place it on your mat) and I used Pieces of Heart and Lucky GM to coat the screen. Then I picked up the screen and held it, mist down, for a few seconds to allow the glimmer to move to the bottom, then I "stamped" it on the cardstock. I used tweezers to ensure I got all the image stamped. (Note: if you wait for the Crushed Shells to dry, the seahorse will be sharper/crisper. I don't wait and as a result get more of a watercolor look) I then stamped a greeting with brown staz-on and adhered it to turquoise and teal cardstock.I REALLY want to go to the beach now.

Cards with new product

I finally got to play with some new Tattered Angels product we have for sale. It is the new Seaside collection. I love it - I love the beach.

The first one is with the sand dollar screen from the "Under the Sea" set. I used a new color "Pieces of Heart" (see previous post about this amazing color) First I placed the screen on the cardstock then used the Pieces of Heart GM. Then I used some tweezers to pick up the screen and then I stamped with it twice on the top and right edge. The shimmer in this mist is so pretty. I wish you could see it in the picture. Where the stamped sand dollar seems dark - that is actually glimmer. (the blue is a little darker in person)

For this card, I sprayed Sand GM on white cardstock. Then I placed the sea oats screen from the "On the Beach" set and used the Pieces of Heart GM. Then I inked the sea oats stamp from the "Coastal Breeze" set with Brown Stazon. Next I ran the edges of the cardstock in the sand GM I had on my mat.

After I made the card above and before I cleaned the screen, I sprayed a little Lucky (another Limited Edition color) on the screen in three places. I then flipped the screen over, held it in the air for a few seconds to allow the glimmer to move to the surface, then I placed it on the white cardstock. I used the tweezers to ensure it was "stamped" down in all places. When I lifted the screen, I held it above my cardstock and tapped the back with the tweezers to get the dots splatted here and there. The scan doesn't show the Lucky very well. It is in the bottom left and on the tips of the sea oats
I have two more to share, but my scanner has went to bed for the night - I guess. So I will try again after class tomorrow.

We have these products for sale - email us for info.

Glimmer of Hope

My favorite company/product has done it again. They have created a new Glimmer Mist in honor of Autism Awareness called “Piece of Heart” representing the “puzzle pieces” that Autism Awareness is known for as well as for the beautiful of art/heart that each child represents.

This limited edition color will sell exclusively on their site for $5 and part of the proceeds for the sales will go towards Autism Speaks .

Check out their story here: http://mytatteredangels.com/educators/?p=827
Buy it here

Layout Contest - 1st Place

Layout Contest - 2nd Place

Layout Contest - Honorable Mention

Layout Contest - Spring 2010

We had some wonderful layouts entered in the Layout Contest Saturday night: