Breaking News!!

I have great news to share!

You may have heard that I will soon be teaching in Millington, MI (east of Birch Run).

I will also begin teaching out of my home! These classes will be small, but I will try to help you with new techniques, make projects and more.

My first class will be Copic 101. In this class you will learn what these special markers are, how to use them, how to keep them cost-effective and much, much more. This class is just $20 and is set for Saturday, June 22 at 10 a.m. You must register for this class by e-mailing me at candyspiegel@yahoo.com.

I am also offering to teach at your house, church, business, etc. Wherever you can gather a few of your friends, I can come and teach. I can even work up unique projects just for you.

Until we meet again, here is one of my recent layouts.

Last year, my nephew was obsessed with fireworks. He kept smelling them and telling us how much he love the smell. He was so excited to send them off, I had to showcase the emotions of the day.

This layout features the new line by Authentique and corrugated cardstock by Fancy Pants.

I used cutouts from one of the sheets of paper as embellishments. I distressed them with the Tonic/Tim Holtz Distress Tool and Distress Ink and added staples with the Tiny Attacher.

 

Mellow Yellow

I love color.

And I love it whenever I see monochromatic colored scrapbook layouts.

I have always wanted to try one, but never seem to get around to it.

So, I was excited when Tami Potter assigned a monochromatic layout for the Mosaic Moments Design Team. I chose yellow — although it was not my first choice. To find out why I chose yellow and to see close ups of these pages, visit Journella at http://www.journella.com/storyboard/fullview/id/10682/Other-DT-Challenge-#10:-Yellow

Cheer me on there or let me know here what you think. Thanks!

My Store is Closing

I have been through this before, but somehow it is worse this time around.

The store that I have been working at, teaching at and ordering through, Capture A Memory, is closing.

I have only been teaching there for a little over a year, but I am finally starting to develop a customer base of students who want to learn new techniques, try new products and create amazing pieces. And now my classroom, and store, will be gone.

Yesterday I was angry and in shock. Today I am just sad. Very, very sad.

I am determined to continue my career in the papercrafting industry — and I have many possibilities ahead of me. I need some time to investigate them and determine what is best for me.

In the meantime, I am setting up a little yard sale to get rid of my unused and gently used papercrafting products in order to generate some money to invest in tables, tents and other things I may need for the step 2. I’ll be putting those items up in the next couple of days. If you would like an invite, send me an e-mail with your Facebook name and I’ll get it sent out.

I also would like to extend an invitation: I am willing to travel to teach. If you provide the students and the space, I am more than happy to teach you! Just let me know what you want to learn and I’ll put something together.

Of course, I still have all of my design team work to keep me busy, so I’ll be posting more projects soon. Thanks for listening!

Star-struck weekend

It has been quite a week. In fact, I have been working so hard, I forgot to post!

Of course, my blog isn’t the only thing that has been neglected. I think every surface of my home is piled with clutter and the laundry hamper is overflowing. I am sure I will get to all of that in time …

I have several projects to share with you over the coming days, but first I wanted to share my weekend fun. I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Great Lakes Mega Meet (and spent Sunday recovering from the lack of sleep, 10 hours of standing on concrete each day, caffeine and the stress of driving, or sitting, in rush-hour traffic each day). It was wonderful to see people I hadn’t seen in a while, get tons of ideas and meet some paper-crafting celebrities. While most of my time was spent working in the Globecraft & Piccolo booth, I did escape for a few minutes to see Melissa Frances.

She has launched a new line of rubber stamps (I bought one, of course).

Melissa showed me how to make these amazing flowers (although I neglected to get a photo of her)
And I bought some of these beautiful embellishments to experiment with (I have an idea)

 

Then I found time to visit with Wendy Vecchi …

I learn so many new ideas and great tips every time I watch her … These are a few of her samples … I can’t wait to order a few more of her stamps and stencils (they sold out at the show)Tim Holtz was there, too …

Here are a few samples from him …

And, I got to meet Mario! He was so nice and made me feel like it was an honor for him to meet me!

I also spent some time in the Michigan Scrapbooker Magazine booth. One of my friends insisted on getting my autograph, which cracked me up so much I had to take a photo … here is Carol with the autographed copy of my article in this month’s magazine.

 

This year’s Mega Meet was one of the best ever. Thanks for letting me share some of my excitement! (if you have e-mailed me a question, I am getting to it. I had 295 e-mails when I got back and I am still working my way through them all!)

 

 

 

 

I’m unlaced

This challenge for Mosaic Moments was particularly challenging for me.

Although the sentiments I placed on the final page were not revealing, it brought about all sorts of thoughts that left me feeling very vulnerable and exposed, or unlaced as I called it here …

Click on the image for a closer look and click here to read the story behind this challenge and why it was so hard for me to do …

 

May Graphic 45 Calendar Page

Better late than never, right? It is May 6 already and I am just now getting to posting May’s calendar page. If this is any indication of how the month will go, I am in big trouble!

For May, I decided to keep it simple by using mostly the patterned paper from the back side of the cut aparts page by Graphic 45. I added some of the decorative strips, one image and a premade bow from Webster’s Pages. Simple, but still beautiful!

What do you think?

 

Sketch Challenge

This month’s challenge at Scrap It Girl is a sketch challenge, designed by one of the girls on the team.

I decided to create a layout featuring Matt on his 42nd birthday … tasting five different types of beer at an Irish pub in Holly, MI.

 

I used paper I have been carrying around for quite some time, ribbon from my stash, some bottle caps that have got to be at least 5 years old and some chipboard letters. I painted the letters in Antique Bronze Distress Stain and then went over the tips with Picket Fence Distress Stain … I was trying to capture the look of the foam on the beer. Corny, I know, but sometimes it still escapes!

I hope you will participate in the sketch challenge at Scrap It Girl this month. You have until the end of May to make a page, card or altered item that follows the sketch. And, the prize package is amazing! I wish I could win it myself!

Here’s the link with all of the details.

http://www.scrapitgirl.net/index.php/2013/05/01/its-a-sketch-challenge-time/