davebrethauer

Chestnuts Roasting...

…on an open fire...That’s what I kept hearing in my head as I was making this card. I often find that when I start making holiday cards, I’m in the mood for Christmas carols. I’m sure you may have guessed, I am sharing another Christmas themed card this week. I am particularly fond of the “branch” papers in the Dewfrost & Spiceberry paper packs. The one used on this card is from the Dewfrost pack. I chose not to place the branch horizontally for this card. I think it gives a unique look placing the branch in a different direction.

 

I originally had 4 photos to share with you today, but somehow, I seem to have lost one of the photos. I’m thinking that I maybe didn’t take it when I thought I had. :) I had my paper pieces set out so I could photograph them & label them with measurements before I assembled my card, & that is the photo I am missing. I think I got sidetracked after I had the pieces out & when I returned, I started assembling my card thinking I had taken the photo already. Oops, sorry about that! :)

 

The first photo is of the Snowy Eve clear set, Dewfrost paper pack & Snowflake jewel stickers I used for this project.

I started with a Vanilla Bean note card & trimmed a “branch” piece of Dewfrost paper slightly smaller. There is a hint of lavenders & purples in this paper on the leaves, so I sponged the edges very softly with some lavender ink. I cut the “polka dot” piece of Dewfrost paper to frame the "word image" stamp from the Snowy Eve clear set. The image was stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa ink on Robins Egg card stock  & then sponged softly on edges with lavender ink. I completed the card by adding some Snowflake jewel stickers. These are so pretty. This is my first time using them & I love them!

Next is a close up of those pretty jewels. I think you may be able to see the lavender edges a bit better here too.

Next, the finished card.

Thanks so much for stopping by! See you again soon!

Rubber Stamp Fantasy Part 1

Maybe it was the cool, rainy weather.

Maybe it was the southern charm.

Or, maybe it was the generosity of my hosts, Debbie and Gary of Rubber Stamp Fantasy, who showered me with all kinds of food and gifts during my visit! Whatever the reason, it felt like home when I was there! My visit to Rubber Stamp Fantasy in Atlanta, Georgia has to rank as one of my all time favorites in terms of food and good company! A handstamped tag was tied to the snack bag waiting in my hotel room - full of peaches, peanuts, drinks and candy. On the second day of classes, Debbie and Gary gave me some delicious peach preserves, crackers and pecan brittle. During classes, Debbie had a huge spread of mandelbrot, Hello Dolly's, banana bread and crudites for students to munch on during the workshops. Southern hospitality was set to a new standard that weekend!

Rubber stamp Fantasy is located in a historic building right off Marietta Square - the store is huge and spacious with a separate upstairs loft. The main floor is stuffed with all sorts of stamp supplies - catering to a wide variety of papercrafting tastes. Sculpted paper flowers, watercolor, embossing paste, copic markers, colored pencil supplies, and thousands of rubber stamps. The class loft is spacious (it even has a sitting area with a couch!) and well lit - a great space to take a class.

The video that I took for the store was so long, I decided to break it into two parts. To see the rest of the entry for my visit, go to Rubber Stamp Fantasy 2!

Rubber Stamp Fantasy Part 2

This is the second part of my video tour of Rubber Stamp Fantasy - be sure and check out Rubber Stamp Fantasy 1 if you haven't seen it yet.

As I said in the first part, Debbie and Gary were terrific hosts! The area around the store is gorgeous too - so if you are planning a stop in the area, grab a hotel and check out all of the historic places. Marietta Square, a fun "town square" within a block of the store, hosts a wonderful Saturday morning farmers market - where I discovered fruits called muscadines and scuppernongs (never heard of them before). I munched on warm greek pastry for breakfast before class and picked up some farm fresh produce.

Debbi and Gary took me to a couple of places for dinner while I was there - a 24 hour diner where I had Shrimp and Grits (my first plate of grits - yum) and then to Mary Mac's Tea Room. I had fried chicken, cracklin' cornbread, pot likker, fried okra, squash souffle and peach cobbler - and then they rolled me out of there into the car and back to the hotel. The pot likker and cracklin' cornbread was so good that I had to find a recipe for that on the web - so that I could see how to make it. Pork cracklin isn't a big part of my diet (I'm here in Seattle, so it might not be on the same aisle as the kashi), but it was so delicious, I recommend trying it at least once in your life! I did find an actual video of someone making cracklin cornbread, and you can see it here. The food reminded me of eating at my grammie's house!

Web Crawling

 

Hello friends-

Happy Fall.  Hope your week has been a good one.  For me, not so good (car troubles).  I've been thinking fall lately.  Apples, leaves, raking, pumpkins, and sweaters.  The cooler weather is here and my deck is already full of leaves.  I plan to bake pumpkin chocolate chip cookies this weekend and attend a Pink Crop for breast cancer. Good news!!  My laptop is finally fixed however my car broke down on Wednesday and had to be towed.  My *baby* is all better now (new starter) and I have a nice repair bill. Its always something I tell you.  Today its raining cats and dogs and quite chilly.  Its a great day for stamping or curling up with a good book.  I can't believe September is almost over.  This month just flew by.  October is right around the corner and its time for my annual spooktacular Halloween stamping party.  I thought it would be fun to start making a few Halloween cards and begin decorating my house for the fall season.  Halloween is my favorite holiday second to Christmas.  Today's card uses the new Web Crawler stamp that comes with a little spider image mounted on the side.  I do hate spiders but I love this new double stamp and all the great papers in the Twilight collection!!  Have a great weekend and do something fun.  Thanks for stopping by and see you next Friday.  Tami  :D'   

Card Supplies:

Stamps-Web Crawler (E1270), Happy Halloween (B1134), Happy Pumpkin (B567)

Designer Paper-Twilight

Notecards-Jack o Lantern, Licorice

Inks-Versafine Black; Color Box Chalk Charcoal & Tangerine; Color Box Lava Black

Jewels-Halloween

Spica Glitter Pen-Peach

Marvy Southwest Corner Punch

Copper Metallic Thread

Black Stitched Ribbon-Michael's

Card Directions:

Stamp Web Crawler three times on Twilight paper using lava black ink and cut out leaving a tiny border around the spider web.  Stamp a spider on each web and place one black jewel on each spider.  Layer each web with Licorice and Jack o Lantern paper.  Edge Jack o Lantern paper with tangerine ink and Licorice paper with charcoal ink. (I do this to darken white paper edges).  Cut black designer paper (5 1/8" x 3 7/8") from the Twilight collection and punch each corner as shown. Edge paper panel with charcoal ink and wrap a piece of copper thread (1 1/2" piece) in each corner securing thread to back side of paper with Scotch tape. Adhere black ribbon to paper as shown and attach panel to a Jack o Lantern notecard.  Pop up each layered Web Crawler image with dimensional dots and place on panel as shown.  Use peach glitter pen to highlight spider and web.  Stamp Happy Halloween inside card using Versafine black ink.  Take a scrap of Twilight paper and edge with charcoal ink.  Glue strip to bottom of notecard.  Stamp Happy Pumpkin on back of card in lava black ink.  

Inside of card:  

Welcoming Fall

Happy first day of fall!! I am very excited for the fall season to begin. I love the weather this time of the year & watching the leaves change colors. We planted a beautiful Coral Bark Japanese Maple tree this past weekend, and that was the inspiration for my card this week. If you are not familiar with this type of tree, it has a gorgeous "coral/red" bark on the limbs. There are so many pretty Japanese Maple trees, it was hard to pick just one. I was also in need of some thank you cards, so I will be using this card for that purpose. I used the Build a Tree from the latest release & a A2 Soiree note card in Karat. I really love the shimmery finish on the Soiree cards. I colored my tree based on the shades of the leaves of the tree we just planted (green turning to yellow), but you can use any combination you like. That's what makes the Build a Tree stamp so much fun. I have a lot of ideas in my head for this particular stamp, so stay tuned in the future for that. The first photo shows most of the supplies used for this card. A few aren't pictured, but will be mentioned in my card instructions.

I used the Martha Stewart Circle Cutter for making the larger circles in this project. There are many circle cutting tools out there, this just happens to be the one that I have. Punches are much quicker to use, but if you don't have the size you want, a circle cutter comes in handy. I also found a video link on how to use this cutter for those of you that may be interested. I have listed the measurements directly on the picture for you. I stamped the tree trunk using Memento Rich Cocoa Ink. I added some reddish hues (again, using the tree we planted as inspiration for the colors) using colored pencils. I also used a colored pencil to create the "grass" below the tree. The leaves were stamped using the Memento inks pictured. I also added some falling leaves by only inking up one leaf. The Memento Dew Drops make this easy since they have a fine tip on one end. I distressed the edges of the Eggshell circle by sponging with Vintage Photo Distress ink. The "thanks" sentiment was stamped using VersaMagic Jumbo Java ink onto Jack O Lantern card stock punched out with a 1" circle punch (I used a Martha Stewart punch). Daffodil pearl stickers were used under the sentiment. Jewels were added to the corners using the Halloween jewel stickers from the new release. The finished card is pictured below.

I hope you enjoy your first day of the fall season!! See you next week!   

Fall and the Bubble tree!!

 

Oh Happy day, it's Friday!!

Hello friends-

Sorry my post is a little late but I've been super busy these past few days and my laptop has been acting up really bad lately.  It  constantly crashes day after day.  I got so mad at it last night that I wanted to put it out in the trash.  No lie.  I went to a mini album class on Wed. night and a Copic Certification Class yesterday.  Both classes were really awesome but what I really want is Dave's classes!!  Maybe next year even if I have to fly to one??!!  :D  Met lots of nice women recently and had a blast with my friends as always.  Tonight the fun continues with a crop and another one tomorrow night.  Scrapfest is in town at Mall of America so lots of fun things going on!!  I have been spreading the Memory Box love in my travels.  Check my blog (address below) if you want to see the Memory Box ATC (Artist Trading Card) I made this week for our monthly group.  I am a huge Memory Box penguin lover.  That's really how my love for Memory Box began!!  They just melt my heart.  I do own every panda stamp but not every penguin, not yet anyways but trust me I have a lot!!  Have a super duper weekend everyone.  This for sure will mark the last hoorah of summer for me so I plan to live it up!!  It certainly has been HOT this week and our nice weather will continue through the weekend.

Onto the card.  Recently I got my paws on the Bubble Tree stamp (one of my favorites from the latest release).  I wanted to make my nephew (he's 17) a cheery fall card to wish him well at high school this year.  I plan to pick up a Subway gift card (hey Dave we say grinders too where I'm orginally from MA) and mail it off to him in New England next week after all the Scrapfest festivities are over.  Let me add you do NOT find grinders however at a Subway!!  Thanks for stopping by as always.  Tami  : D  *Wicked good* like they say in MA!!   Hee hee!! 

Class Supplies:

Notecards-gourd, vanilla bean

Memory Box Designer paper-biscotti vanilla bean

Stamps-bubble tree (D1272), stipple dots (B1157), missing you (A852), sky's the limit (B1076), you're groovy baby (B1218), hey smarty pants (B1095)

Other Stamp-alphabet (Rubber Moon)

Inks-Chalk inks tangerine, yellow citrus; Memento brown; Versafine vintage sepia 

Copics-R37, R46, Y06, Y38, YG03, YR04, YR16

Spica Glitter Pens-clear, buttermilk, gold, lemon

Ribbon-Creative Imagination

Other Paper-Neenah Classic Crest Natural White 80# cover

Stamps:

 

Card Directions:

Stamp Bubble Tree with Memento brown ink and color with Copics.  Add glitter accents to leaves and tree using Spica glitter pens. Layer colored tree to a scrap of gourd paper.  Adhere brown biscotti paper to a vanilla notecard and attach main image as shown.  Glue on ribbon.  I may add two canary jewels (one in each upper corner) on the Bubble Tree but I have to find them first!!  They are packed for the crop I am attending tonight.      

 

Inside of card:

Stamp Stipple Dots (another one of my favorites) using orange and yellow chalk inks.  Stamp Memory Box sentiments as desired with Versafine vintage sepia.  Note:  alphabet stamp is from Rubber Moon.  I wanted to include it on the card.  I promise you the entire card looks so much better in real life!!  

My blog if you want to check out the Memory Box penguin ATC:

www.tamiwood.blogspot.com

Sparkle Tree

 

Hello & welcome!! I love using shades of blue for holiday cards. I find it very peaceful, so I thought it would be a nice color scheme for my project this week. I actually started on this project several weeks ago & set it to the side, and thought it would be a nice card to finish up & share today. I was playing around with different types of white ink on dark paper & ended up finding the chalk ink worked best on this particular project. It is another fairly simple card to put together. I like having ideas for quick cards to make around the holidays when I'm feeling pinched for time, so I hope you will find it helpful as well. I used some Frost card stock from the Soiree collection on this card & it has a really pretty pearlescent finish to it, giving your cards an elegant look. We have had some ideal weather for taking photos outside, so I was actually able to capture some of the sparkle added to the tree image in my photo. YAY!

Start with a Soiree Scalloped Lake card. Cut a piece of Sapphire card stock to apx. 5.25" x 4" & adhere to the scalloped note. Cut a piece of Soiree Frost card stock slightly smaller than the previous Sapphire piece. Use a Scor-Pal or another scoring device to score the Frost card stock at apx. 7/8" up from bottom & again at 1.75", making sure to score across the entire width of the card stock. I used the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder to emboss the top & bottom section, leaving the space inside the scored lines empty for my ribbon. I tied a piece of blue ribbon across the open space & adhered to the Sapphire piece. Stamp the tree image from the Night Before clear set onto a piece of Sapphire card stock cut to 2.5" x 3" using white chalk ink. Add a touch of ultra fine glitter to the tree & adhere to the card & you're done. :)

Since I didn't have as many photos to post this week, I wanted to share a link for a neat tool for making bows that I used in this project. I believe Dave had mentioned in a previous post where he used this tool as well. It was that post that inspired me to dig it out & try it again. I think I wasn't able to figure out how to use it before, so it was put away & forgotten about. It is particularly helpful in making tiny bows.

Thanks for visiting my post today. Have a nice day & see you next Tuesday!!

Welcome to the South

After doing a lot of travelling this summer, I began to take notes on the language differences that were coming up as I moved around the country. From stamp store to stamp store, there were differences in the basic names for items as well as local expressions that I hadn't been familiar with - but loved learning about. It began on the plane trip to Boston, where luck would have it that I was seated next to a really interesting couple from Scotland, Allan and Fiona. Allan was a High School language teacher and Fiona had been a doctor for 30 or 40 years - and they had just completed a vacation along the west coast. We talked almost the entire flight about a number of things - the porcupine they had seen in Idaho, Dr. Fiona doing house calls as a regular part of her practice, bird watching, stamping and a comparison of language.

Here is the Scottish to American list I came up with there:

The surgery - the Doctor's office

Trousers - Pants

Pants - Underwear

Bonnet - Hood of the car

Petrol - gasoline

Boot - the trunk of the car

One amusing one - Fiona was asking if I had visited Mt. Hood, which led to this translation:

"Have you bane to Moon Toot? ("Have you been to Mount Hood?), so

Moon Toot - Mount Hood

We laughed about how an accent can cause some confusion - my wife, from Seattle, will ask for a shopping bag (pronouncing it "beg").

As I began my tour from New England down to the South, I could hear differences along the way (of course, everyone probably thought it was me who had the funny Colorado accent). In New England a sandwich might be a grinder or a sub and a pop is called a soda. And when I went into New York City for the day, I stopped by a Whole Foods grocery store, where the computerized voice that told the next person in line which cashier to go to directed me to, "Registuh three."

It was once I got to the South though, that I really began getting a lot of material. Conversation is sprinkled with gentle terms of endearment like "honey" and bless your heart. A waitress asked me, "What can I get you baby?". 

It was in a class at Stamper's Alley, where someone gave me the phrase, "Ugly as a mud fence, dabbed in misery."

I asked if I could record the phrase because this was pure culture! So you can click on the clip below to hear it.

So I really started compiling a list, because when I brought the subject up during workshops, everyone was excited to talk about their local slang and common expressions. When I brought up my wife's pronunciation of a shopping bag (beg!), the locals in North Carolina said they would probably ask for a sack instead - and they would put that sack in their buggy (rather than a shopping cart!). One person, who came from rural North Carolina, said that people have said the rural parts of North Carolina have language based more closely on the King's English from several hundred years ago. She said rather than a bag, or even a sack, she would put her items in a poke (think pig in a poke). Another surprise - a knit cap that you would wear on your head is sometimes called a toboggan in the south! 

There's also some subtleties to certain expressions. Saying "Bless your heart" might mean a general term of endearment, or it might mean you are foolish - depending on the context!

Of course, as much as I love food, I experienced all sorts of cuisine this summer. Sandwiches in the north have about 10 slices of meat on them. New York and New Jersey Italian foods are an eating experience, rather than simply a meal. Southern foods - they are fried, homey and delicious.

I ate my last dinner at Mary Mac's, where I was treated by Debbie and Gary from Rubber Stamp Fantasy to some down-home Southern food. In one sitting I had

Fried Chicken

Pot Likker with Cracklin Corn Bread

Squash Souffle

Fried Green Tomatoes

Fried Okra

Georgia Peach Cobbler

It was liking eating a meal at my grandparents house - delicious and very filling. The menu was filled with all sorts of interesting foods:

Spicy Deepfried Mudbugs (crawfish)

Butter Peas

Hoppin' John

and you could wash things down with a tall glass of Buttermilk or Sweet Milk (regular milk).

While I was in the southern part of my class tour, I dined on shrimp and grits and boiled peanuts,and I learned about muskadines and scuppernongs. With so much good food, I didn't want to come back!

If you decide to do a trip from Boston to Atlanta, please email me if you discover any new things along the way - it was an amazing trip.

Jumping for joy!!

 

Hello friends-

Its that time of the week again, time for another Memory Box treat.  This week I decided to ink up Rudolph and show him a little love.  I have quite a few reindeer in my Memory Box collection from last year but this little fellow is one from the latest Holiday release.  I especially love the stamp not only because of the *cuteness factor* but because the sentiment is attached to the top of the stamp.  No more digging around to find the perfect sentiment!  Isn't he just so handsome with his scarf and his nose all shiney and bright?  That's me jumping for joy whenever I get some new Memory Box stamps and coincidentally that happened on Thursday so I was for sure doing the happy dance!!  I hope your week has been a good one and that your weekend will be terrific.  I am finally getting a new driveway today and will be teaching stamping and Copic classes over the weekend.  Thanks for stopping by and see you next Friday with a spook-tacular card.  I can hardly wait as Halloween is a favorite of mine.  A BIG shout out to Dave for being such a kind person and for having such awesome stamps, notecards, designer paper, and trimmings!!  You rock, Memory Box rocks, and you certainly make me jump for joy!!  Keep on keeping on!!  Tami :D  (The red noser)!!  

 

Card Supplies:

Notecards-Dill, Vanilla Bean

Designer Paper-Spiceberry

Stamps-Jumping for Joy (D1292), Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (B1166), Sparkle (A1208), Every Little Thing (B898)

Punch-Marvy Southwest Corner

Inks-Memento Black; Color Box Chalk--Chestnut Roan, Creamy Brown, Warm Red 

Memory Box Jewels-Cherry Red, Christmas

Sukura Glaze Pen-Clear

Copic Markers-E33, E50, R000, R27

Prismacolor Marker-Avocado 

Metallic Thread-Gun Metal 6"

Ivory Yarn

Spica Glitter Pens-Buttermilk, Clear

Other Paper-Classic Crest Natural White 80# Cover

 

*See paper measurements below.  For some reason I could not cut and paste using Typepad.  User error?

Card Directions:

Cut Spiceberry paper to 3 7/8" x 5 1/8" and punch each corner.  Edge designer paper with creamy brown ink.  Cut metallic thread into four 1 1/2" pieces.  Wrap thread in each corner and secure ends on back of designer paper with Scotch tape.  Takes a little time but I love the results!!  Stamp reindeer (black ink) on natural paper and color with markers listed above.  After coloring the bulbs go over each one with a clear glaze pen and let dry.  Edge sides of main image with creamy brown.  Stamp sentiment (black ink) and color holly leaf and berries.  Use clear glaze pen on berries or you could adhere two red cherry jewels.  Edge sentiment with creamy brown and adhere seven green jewels from the new Christmas jewel stickers on left-side as shown.  Darken white edges of both vanilla bean brown paper panels using chestnut roan ink and layer paper to each stamped image. Add a red cherry jewel to nose.  Cut two slits on each side of the reindeer's neck using an Exacto knife.  Take a piece of ivory yarn and thread it through a large needle.  Feed yarn down through one slit and bring it up through the backside of the other slit.  Tie yarn in a double knot and glue down scarf ends with glue if desired.  Adhere layered reindeer image to Spiceberry paper.  Pop up the sentiment with dimensionals.  Add glitter accents with Spica glitter pen(s) to reindeer and edges of natural white paper.  Remember, its all in the details!!  LOL!!    

Inside of card:  Stamp holiday sentiment in black ink and add a couple tiny sparkles (A1208) stamped in warm red ink.  Add glitter accents on each sparkle and place a red cherry jewel in the center of each sparkle image if desired.  An alternate sentiment would be every little thing is going to be all bright.  I especially love that one and I just got the stamp from *Santa* because I've been a good girl!!  Woo hoo!!  :D         

*Paper Measurements:

Sentiment- 3/4" x 2"; Brown Layer- 7/8" x 2 1/8"

Reindeer- 2 x 2 3/4"; Brown Layer- 2 1/8 x 2 7/8" 

Stampers Alley

Brenda, who owns Stampers Alley in Mooresville, North Carolina, is just as charming in person as she is over the phone. Custom shelving full of lots of inventory, a separate classroom and friendly customer service are just a few of the reasons to stop by this store.

Brenda began her retail career teaching painting classes and then switched to the stamp world when she saw all of the creative possibilities with stamps. As you'll see in the video, some of her painting projects are still hung around the store, including a really amazing painted mirror that she has taught as a class. Brenda aims to please and there's plenty of ideas and products for a wide range of customers - stampers, scrapbookers and artists.

Here's one of the country scenes that she's painted - shading and color are beautiful (especially in person).

I received more education on Southern terminology - more on that in my next post, where I'll discuss all of the exciting words I learned on my trip this summer! The students here were an instructor's dream, one even bought me lunch (thanks again!) and this is one store I can't wait to return to.

I had a little time to explore the area - and one stop you might want to make is in downtown Mooresville (main street I think) at the old Hardware store. I talked to the proprietor who had run the store since the 1960's, and he had taken it over from the previous owner who opened the store in 1895. It was american retail at it's best - products that were built to last, things you could never find anywhere else, and an owner who was there to guide every purchase. He had me convinced that I needed "the best ice cream maker in America" when he told me that he gave one to his son as a teenager and they still use it 40 years later.