Next Class-Smack'n Acetate technique!

We will be making a fall card and a Halloween card using the Smack'n Acetate technique! See you soon! Class date: October 3, 2007

September Card Class-Theme "Clear sheet embossing"

Today we had our class on clear sheet embossing. We made the two cards posted here. I had asked what the dragonfly symbolizes in Japan and Kayoko said that dragonflies are a symbol of happiness. :o) That's why I love them so much. I have information about embossing in general. Thought I would post it here. There is so much you can do with your embossing powders. For our cards I used a projector transparency that is heat resistant. One side is rough and the other is shiny. Stamp image on the rough side. Hold your heat gun farther away with this project as to not melt the sheet of plastic.

Choose a paper or craft object to Emboss. Don't limit yourself to just plain paper. Rubber stamping and embossing works well on fabric, glass, mirrors, tiles and terra cotta pots. Experiment with a variety of papers and transparencies, shrink plastic, laminated sheets, wood and metal. Ink and stamp your image on your paper or craft object using Versa mark or a slow drying Pigment Ink Pad. Tap your rubber stamp firmly several times on the Versa mark Pad or ink pad in order to completely ink the stamp. Make sure the rubber is completely covered with ink. Always stamp a new rubber stamp onto a piece of scrap paper for the first time to make sure all areas of the image are well inked. Place your rubber stamp firmly on the paper or transparency, being careful not to rock the stamp. Rocking will result in blurred lines. Large rubber stamps require more care in pressing down on all corners of the stamp. Each rubber stamp is different and you will learn how to best stamp each one. Some need more pressure in order to get the perfect image. The difference between pigmented inks and dye inks is evident in that the Pigment inks stay "wet" longer. Pigment inks do not work well on glossy card stock unless you are EMBOSSING the image. There are many choices of slow drying pigment inks with slight tints to dark shades or no color at all. After rubber stamping your image with pigment ink, sprinkle embossing powder over the image. Turn the artwork and gently tap off excess embossing powder. Use a dry paintbrush to remove any stray flecks from surrounding areas. Do this before you heat the image. If the powder is not sticking to the image in even heavy coats check to be sure you rubber stamp is well inked. Embossing powders also come in a wide variety of choices, from Ultra Fine to Tinsel. Both the pigment ink and embossing powder are available in many color choices as well as metallic, pearlescent and other unusual compositions. The final step is to direct hot air from your heat tool over the powder. This will melt the powder and create the Thermal embossed effect. EMBOSSING POWDER comes in many different compositions. Metallic Powders such as Gold, Silver, Bronze or Pewter can be used with the embossing inks, either tinted or clear. Using slightly tinted or clear ink with Metallic powders will produce a true metallic effect. Although the Metallic Powders can be used with colored inks to achieve truly remarkable effects such as tinted copper and aged pewter. Embossing powders comes in many Opaque colors as well as soft subtle Pearlized Powders and Clear and also Glitter Powders. You can experiment by mixing your colors and your effects. Pearlescence are soft and gentle colors that are excellent for pastel effects and baby or wedding themes. Clear Powder gives your image a raised glossy effect and looks stunning on dark papers and objects. Tinsels or Glitter Embossing Powders can be Clear or Opaque. Gold Embossing Powder with flecks of ultra fine gold glitter in it create a very beautiful and dramatic effect. Try mixing your powder colors and adding some glitter or confetti in moderation for your own unique recipes! A heat gun is the easiest method to melt your powders and create the even glossy embossed effect. But if you do not have one, alternative sources of heat can be utilized. Do not use a hair dryer, this does not get hot enough and will blow the powder off the card. You can try using your oven by placing the card face up on a baking sheet and putting it into a preheated 325 degree oven. Be careful you do not over heat or your card stock will be scorched.

World Card Making Fun Day Event!

World Card Making Day Event
Attend my World Card Making Fun Day event on October 6 and 7th. With all the supplies and light refreshments provided. Come spend two afternoons with me and some friends, old and new. We will be making projects using Stampin’ Up® products.

Saturday: We will be kicking off the holiday season and making our Christmas cards!

Sunday: We will be making Christmas cards to give to our local nursing homes. When it gets closer to Christmas you can come with me and our base chapel to give them out to the nursing homes in our area! What a wonderful way of letting them know how much our Iwakuni community cares about them.

I will be having a few door prizes but most of all FUN! Space is limited and I will need to know early how many are going to attend!

When:
Saturday and Sunday, October 6th and 7th, 2007

Time:
The 6th 10:00- 4:00 PM
The 7th 10:00- 4:00 PM

Where:
Community room number to be announced

Cost:
Pay by September 29th for Saturday and pay only $10.00 or 1150 Yen. After that date, the cost is $15.00 or 1650 Yen.
If you spend $100 on Saturday, your cards are FREE. In addition, Stampin’ Up is offering a 20% discount for the Simply sent sets - pages 12-14 in the current Stampin’ Up catalog. These kits contain all you need to make 10+ complete card sets, purchase more paper, and the gift continues to give! These make excellent birthday and Christmas gifts. If you don’t have a catalog, please ask me how I can get one to you by sending me an email: Theburkebrood@aol.com

On Sunday the cost will be $5.00 or 600Yen to cover my supply cost.

September card class-Theme "Out of The Box"

We had our class on Wednesday the 19th. My class was on the "Out of the Box" technique. If you have not tried this, you need to! The result was just beautiful! My students were thrilled. There are different ways of doing this but I just like to use a pattern, it is just easier to me.
1. I stamped my image on a blank piece of scrap paper.
2. I Decided what part of the image I wanted hanging out.
3. I used a ruler and a pencil and Drew a box around all of the sides where I wanted my image to hang out.
4. Once I had my lines drawn, I measured my box on the scrap piece of paper. With your paper cutter and another piece of scrap paper cut out the measurement of this box. This will be your pattern. Stamp your image on card stock and use your pattern box to lay on top of stamped image. Adjust box on your image to where you want it and pencil around box. Cut along the lines and anything "outside of the box" you cut around and leave everything else inside. Erase any pencil lines and you are done.
I was inspired by an AWESOME card by Linda Bullard that is truly incredible!! I used a lemon stamp instead of her apple and changed my colors to use Groovy Guava card stock. I have had this stamp set forever and have never used it. It is one of my favorite cards.

"Scratch'N Sniff" Oranges

I loved a layout that DWQ had done that is called "fruity thanks" on SCS. I wanted to try out the scratch and sniff technique with this card. I used orange flavored Cool Aid mixed with clear embossing powder. When you take the card out of it's envelope you can really smell it, even more when you scratch it! Just don't try to do it on a humid day the powder was clumping together which made it hard to sprinkle on the heat and stick powder. The Instructions on how to make your own:

You ill need:

• A bold-style stamp set
• A VersaMark pad
• A Sugar-free drink mix
• Clear embossing powder
• A heat gun

Picking the scent, you need to select a sugar-free flavored creamer or drink mix. I used Cool Aid, you could use crystal lite, cocoa or others. If you happen to get a powder that is NOT sugar- free and use your heat gun, the sugar in the powder will bubble and burn. When you are picking a powder mix think about what color or flavor would work well with your stamps and paper you choose to use. Colored embossing powder will also work but may mix strangely with the color of the drink mix. hen using a cake stamp you could choose cocoa mix to make it a chocolate cake or strawberry mix to make it a strawberry cake. Fruit stamps are fun, you can alays find orange, lemon, lime, berry, pineapple, etc. drink mixes.

1. Mix 1 part sugar-free drink mix to 1-1/2 parts clear embossing powder. example= 1 teaspoon drink mix and 1-1/2 teaspoons clear embossing powder.
2. Stamp your bold image in VersaMark ink on your card stock.
3. Heat Emboss the image using the scented embossing powder.
4. Finish your project!

My Stamping Room

My stamping room closet:o) I had bugged my husband enough to build me these shelves. They are on the other side of the desk, too. It is a small space but I like it a lot. I can shut the door and have some time to myself to be creative.

World Card Making Day

World Card Making Day is a holiday for us card makers around the world to celebrate the creativity of handmade cards and the joy they bring to friends and family. It is the day to get started on your holiday card-making! We will kick off the season right by working on our own cards and then we will be making cards for our nursing homes. There will be refreshments and fun all day! It happens every year in October, the first Saturday of the month. The people who celebrate this holiday are our worldwide card-making community. It is a day to get together with other card makers like yourselves, to celebrate the creativity that powers the craft, and it provides an opportunity for card makers to connect and find resources that will empower, inspire, and encourage them in their card making. I will be participating in the World Card Making Day the weekend of the 6th. Friday we will be making Christmas cards. Saturday we will be making Christmas cards for our nursing homes in our area. For more information e-mail me at theburkebrood@aol.com

August Stamping Card Class- Theme Ice Cream!

August 17th, 2007

My class theme today was Ice cream! I showed my students how to use liquid applique on our cards and on the Ice cream box we made. Liquid applique will always have the "Wow" factor. They had never seen it before and were so Amazed! It makes great icing and snow.

September ABC Class-(Anything But a Card)-Theme Secret Garden Envelope Book

My ABC class was on the 5th of September. I had preordered the Simply Scrappin' Secret Garden kit for the ladies that attended. I was able to make 2 envelope books out of one kit. The picture on the cover of my husband was tinted green to match the colors of the papers. I have been asked to post directions for the envelope book. Look for them coming soon!

My August Cooking Class-Theme BBQ & Dragonflies

I held my cooking class on the 29th of August. There were 13 people in attendance. My theme was dragonflies. Summertime, in Japan, they are everywhere. So beautiful! I of coarse used my Stampin'Up! products for my gifts, menu, recipe cards, and name tags. Anywhere I can use it :o) My gifts to them were homemade BBQ sauce in canning jars and the rub for the ribs so they could make them again at home. I try to use ingredients that they can find out in town in my recipes. The Pierogie recipe was given to me by my daughter Shelby's Grandma. Her Grandma spent a day teaching me how to make them.

The menu :

Two day pork spare ribs

Apple slaw with Poppy seed dressing

Grandma's Pierogies

For dessert they made

Southern Caramel-applesauce Cobbler

with Bourbon-pecan Ice cream

and our drink was

Summertime Apple Ginger Spritzer

My July Cooking Class-Theme "Frogmore Stew"

The MENU:

Appetizer

Blue Crab Dip

Bread

Cheddar Bay Biscuits

Entree

Frogmore Stew

Dessert

Cool Lime Napoleons

Beverage

Non-Alcoholic Beer

My May Cooking Class-Theme "Garden Party"

The Menu:

Beverage

Southern Fruit Tea

Bread

Yeast Rolls

Salad

BLT Salad with Basil Mayo Dressing

Entree

Sweet Pork Ribs

Sides

Lazy Man's Pierogi

Green Beans with Shallot Butter

Dessert

Banana Cream Supreme

My March Cooking Class-Theme "Lemon,Lime & Oranges"

The Menu

Appetizer

Corn Salsa

Entree

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Side Dish

Sweet Corn Cake

Salad

Garden Salad with Basil Dressing

Dessert

Margarita Cake

Beverage

Mock Sangria Tea

My January Cooking Class-Theme "Italian"

The Menu

Appetizer

Chocolate Chip Cannoli Dip

Sweet & Crispy Tortilla Chips

Bread

Garlic Butter

Black Olive Tapanade

Italian Herbed Dipping Oil

Sides

Italian Sausage Soup

Antipasto Pasta Salad

Entree

Manicotti Alla Romana

Dessert

Tiramisu Layer Cake

Amaretto Cake

Beverage

Plantation Iced Tea

My November Cooking Class-Theme "Thanksgiving"

The Menu:

Beverage

Warm and Spicy

Autumn Punch

Bread

Honey Butter

Apple Butter

Dinner Rolls

Salad

Winter Fruit Salad with

Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing

Entree

Deep Fried Turkey

Sides

Sausage, Apple and Cranberry Stuffing

Giblet Gravy

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes

Vegetable Bake

Fresh Cranberry Orange Relish

Dessert

Pumpkin Rolls

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Pie