Monday, February 28, 2011

Heart are Trump Swap


Several weeks ago I was involved in a skinny book swap organized by Jeneen Weekes, Queen of the local ATC Swaps. I met Jeneen several years ago in one of my bookbinding classes.  I quickly learned she is able to pack more into an ATC surface than anyone I know!   
Swap participants were spread far and wide and I had the pleasure of meeting several of them for coffee the day Jeneen first presented the bound books.  Here was my contribution.  Thanks to Jeneen for organizing this wonderful swap!


Page Synthesis:
Spellbinders Grand Calibur
Spellbinders Lacy Squares
Spellbinders Fancy Tags
Spellbinders Labels 4
Suzanne's Favourites, Digital Collage sheet
Fairy Flora Decorated paper
Black Cardstock
Cherish from the Life Journey Words
Puffy Heart
Glue Dots & Pop Dots
Double-sided tape

Thanks for looking!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Hope Perches

This card is this week's Designer's Project!  I just could not stop myself from using the new rubber and these gorgeous Kanban papers!  We'll return to the regularly scheduled real designers next week!

All the directions and supplies for this card are listed here!



Several of the Design Team Members have also had a chance to create using the new Quietfire Rubber. Keep your eyes on their blogs for the next few weeks!
Yogi's first post with the new rubber is here.
Deborah's first post with the new rubber is here.

Thanks for visiting!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

New Rubber Stamps!

Here are some fresh new rubber stamps for your creative enjoyment!  Hope you like them!
Click each thumbnail to see the full image.







All the new stamps are on sale 20% off until March 1, 2011
Thanks for looking!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Thinking of You

Because it's good to have at least one of these around. But it's even better to send one!



Card Synthesis:
Card Blanks
Thinking of You
Kaisercraft Lilac Avenue
Core'dinations ROY G. BIV 
Stamp Positioner
VersaMagic Purple Hydrangea
Ribbon
Pewter Charm
Waxed Linen Thread - Plum

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Grungepaper creations

New to the Quietfire Design shelves is Tim Holtz's Grungepaper. Quietfire Design Team Member Wanda Hentges loves Grungepaper and uses it frequently. She says it embosses beautifully in embossing folders and
"I love that it can be stamped, cut, embossed, die cut, inked, painted, sprayed, sewed and it stays flexible. It can get wet and it doesn't come apart. You can curl/shape it and it will hold it's shape. It's fabulous!!!!"

Here are some of Wanda's beautiful creations combining Quietfire Rubber Stamps and Grungepaper.



Grungepaper comes in a package of 6 6"x12" pieces.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

No One Can Measure

Here is the card I uploaded the other day with no details - though you might like to know!




Card Synthesis:
Core'dinations Cardstock - from the Elements pad
Hearts and Roses Embossing Folder (used on the red Core'dinations and then sanded to show relief)

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Queen of Hearts Valentine Challenge Draw Winners Are...


WINNERS!!

By Random Number Generator:
#18  Pat M
#12 Sandie R
#25 Jo Ann

Congratulations Ladies!  Please email me your snailmail addresses and I'll get these prizes off to you.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered and shared their artwork.  I'm slowly making my way around to them all.  Awesome work.  I am so impressed with all these entries.

Never stop creating!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Queen of Hearts Valentine Challenge 2011

 






The Queen of Hearts Valentine Challenge 2011 is now open!!
Here are all the details for entering.

I thought I'd put this up now to give you lots of time! 












Here is a quick card that I made to show the new Craft-Too Hearts and Frames Embossing Folder.

 
  









Instructions for Linking Your Entry:
Click on the Froggie saying Add Your Link. When the little form drops down....
Fill in the URL of your blog post - please be specific to the particular post!
Add your name and your email address in the form.
Then click Next Step.  You can even choose the thumbnail of your entry.  How cool is that? and finish.
(you will see a red x next to your own entry - no one else sees that and it would allow you to delete your link - but please don't!!!)
Good luck on the draw!
Thanks so much for sharing your artwork! Happy Valentine's Day!
Please enjoy visiting other entries and tell them how much you like their artwork!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Spellbinders - new dies for 2011

Here is a little slideshow of the Spellbinders dies arriving soon!  You can pre-order these here on my site.  So many beautiful possibilities!


While I was at CHA, I was lucky enough to pick up the new Spellbinders 2011 Catalogue.  They should have them available to download on their site soon (but it might be a month or so).  I was delighted to see that they had included artwork by Becca Feeken featuring Quietfire Design Rubber! I've scanned the page so you can see it!  Beautiful project!  Thank you so much Becca.



I was also incredibly lucky to receive a complimentary copy of Spellbinders Nestabilities Basics & Beyond and have it signed by Stacey Caron, owner of Spellbinders. Once again thanks to Becca Feeken for her exquisite artwork.  This project is included in the book with complete directions.  The projects in this book range from cute to 3D to elegant and beyond.  It's a great resource.


 Just a reminder this week that the February Spellbinders Pre-orders are on sale as well as the Wizard.  If you need to know the details of pre-orders, please email me.  (If you already receive the email updates, you'll know all about it!) Click here to see all the Specials.

Here is a slide show of the soon-to-arrive selection of Spellbinder Dies.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Dreamweaver Stencils Update

Just as Becca Feeken introduced me to carrying Spellbinders, Design Team Member Deborah March introduced me to Dreamweaver Stencils.  I'm getting quite the selection in the stockroom!  Deborah is also on the Dreamweaver Design Team so is well acquainted with them!  She wrote a fabulous article a while ago which you can see here.

I was lucky enough to finally meet Lynell Harlow, creator of this oh-so-classy line of metal stencils at the CHA convention.

Below are the new stencils coming in soon.  The Stripes can be used as stripes or can be used a second time overtop of your stripes at 90 degrees to the original orientation and you'll have your very own plaid pattern! You can see that done in the photo to the left.  The Damask stencil comes in two sizes and we'll have both. 

You might want to visit the Dreamweaver Blog for more ideas - in today's entry you can email Lynell for a copy of her Double Glitter Techniques handout shown. (which is the technique shown on the left using the Rooster stencil and sounds a lot like the Burnished Velvet technique)

Happy Stenciling!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Human Target Opening Credits

I love watching movies with creative opening credits. I'm so amused when I can identify the typefaces. It's even more wonderful when the movie title has been hand-lettered such as Dances with Wolves, for example.


I find most TV show credits aren't that interesting, but this one sure caught my attention. I wonder why...? (okay, okay, yes! the lead actor is um, rather captivating, but that's not what I meant!)

Pretty cool, huh? Thumbs up to the designer of Human Target's opening credits!



You can see this better on my QuietfireDesign YouTube Account, but due to copyright, I couldn't embed that version here.

P.S.  February 10, 2011.  These  credits received Emmy nominations for Karin Fong, Jeremy O. Cox and Cara McKenney for "Outstanding Main Title Design".  Hardly surprising.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Queen of Hearts Valentine Challenge 2011 Announcement


Last year byhandartist Judy Lawton suggested we should have a Valentine's challenge with a
Queen of Hearts
theme. It was so much fun, I thought we'd do it again and hopefully have even more players!

Here is what you do:
Create a piece of artwork using the theme Queen of Hearts. It can be a card or an atc or a tip in for your altered book or a journal page or a canvas or whatever you are working on these days.  You do not have to use Quietfire products to play (although I'd love to see your artwork using them!).
  1. Post your creation on your blog.
  2. Then come to the Quietfire Style blog (that's here!) on February 14.  I'll create a special blog post just for it.
  3. Add a link to your blog post displaying your Queen of Hearts artwork to the special Queen of Hearts blog post here! Easy peasy!  Addition of links will be cut off at midnight (PST) on the 14th, so make sure you add it in so you can be eligible for the draw prizes.
  4. Prizes, you say Suzanne?  Yes!  We'll have draws for bags of rubber stamps!  Three lucky people will receive $50 worth of rubber stamps each!  Spread the word to your friends!  The more the merrier
Don't have a blog? Come join us at Quietfire Creations, create a page and add your photo there! (don't forget to come here to add your link back to your artwork.)

Create without Limits!


Feel free to right-click, save and add this smaller badge to your blog with a link back here to the instructions at
http://quietfirestyle.blogspot.com/2011/02/queen-of-hearts-valentine-challenge.html


Have fun, my Valentines!

NOTE: This coming week's Created byhand Challenge is Queen of Hearts, so you'll have a head start when you join that!  Shhhh!  Don't tell Robyn I spilled the beans on that!





Please add your links to the Valentine's Day Post! Thanks!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Kanban Crafts

Another booth I had to visit while at CHA was Kanban Crafts.  I became aware of them just before the conference.  They are a British Company from Shipley, Yorkshire.  (Funny coincidence that I taught calligraphy at the Shipley Museum, but that was in Gateshead, across the river from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne - long ago and far away....).  Kanban Crafts makes exquisite papers and I am delighted to be bringing in a very yummy selection.  Here are the ones which should be here soon!
There is a slide show here!  If you can't see it, try switching browsers!

Friday, February 4, 2011

CHA 2011 - the Tim Holtz perspective

Oh, this kills me, I'm such a sucker for a music video.  I'm going to have to visit iTunes AGAIN.... (I'm paying attention even more because it's not U2).
If you're a Tim Holtz fan, then you've probably seen this, but it's worth watching again.  Tim Holtz's booth displays were spectactular.  I could have sat on the floor all day and just looked at them, but then I would have been a squashed puddle. 
It's dangerous to watch this just before I place my pre-orders!
Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A Minute of Tim Holtz

Here is a far-too-short minute of Tim Holtz demonstrating at the Ranger booth at the 2011 CHA convention in Los Angeles.  Makes you want more, eh? 
He's charming, witty, informative and able to smoothly multi-task. Not to mention he designs amazing things!


CHA - Sunday January 30, 2011


Day 3 at the CHA started a bit later than the other days. We spent about 3 hours on a sightseeing tour of Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. We found the stars on Hollywood Boulevard, cruised up to Universal Studios, had a fascinating climb via a twisting residential “street” up to Mulholland Drive and exclaimed at the mansions of Beverly Hills.



We drove out to Santa Monica to have a coffee and look at the beach and pier. Driving is pretty easy on Sunday mornings before noon in LA!




Back at the conference, I dragged my husband onto the exhibition floor where one of the first things we saw was the display at Die Cuts With a View was a real show stopper!

My husband hung around with me for a while absorbing the size of the show, watched me fumble through a demo and took note of the number of men attending.  Then he left me watching Tim Holtz to find some lunch!






Marie Browning was at the Tombow booth doing demonstrations – she has a new book hot off the press using Tombow markers. I revealed my klutziness during the creation of my make-and-take by gluing the wrong side of my paper. Marie "punished" me by sticking the ruined piece of paper to my shirt, which I completely forgot about and wore for most of the rest of the day....!  Great projects, great lady!
With a little bit of practice, I could become pretty adapt at using these markers.

















The next stop was back at the Ranger booth. Oh! Look who was there! I was surprised Tim Holtz didn’t have a million women around him!  But if there were any more around, you couldn't have seen what he was doing.

I had been wondering about the formulation of the new Distress stains and I heard it right from Tim that they were basically fluid Distress Inks and are easy to spread.  Mix them on the paper when they're wet, and/or layer them over dry layers.

So I watched as Mr. Holtz wove his magic and took pictures and a short video, then I had to run off to grab some lunch before my classes.




I tend to love little things and instantly fell in love with his little ATC hangers! Watch for them on the site soon!




In the afternoon, I had two hours of business seminars – one was protecting your brand and the other was marketing for manufacturers. The first one was presented by a lawyer and was loaded with information and the second one might require more review to access how useful it was. Asleep yet?


After the seminars, I had a meeting with an advertising person at the Creative Crafts Group, publishers of Creating Keepsakes, Paper Crafts and Stamp It! Magazines. When I first tried to get near their booth, it was impossible..... Something about prizes and cake and a lot of women...   Sounded like heaven to me!

My meeting did finally happen and the information has been tucked away. Anyone buy these magazines? If not, maybe I need to advertise there!









I had a quick little visit with Simply Renee, makers of these very cool organizing tools. I love my spinning organizer and wanted to see what else they had. (One of our cats thinks this organizer is quite interesting, too, but has been fairly reserved about torturing the items on it.) 

I particularly like their swinging wall arm and think it would be a great asset when you are working on mulitple projects - just hang the items for that project together and swing the arm out of the way while you finish another project.  How many of us have more than one project on the go at a time?   Guilty as charged, Your Honour!


My last stop was at Dreamweaver Stencils where I met the lovely and talented Lynell Harlow. Unfortunately she got away before I could snap her picture, but I did get several demos from her assistants and will be getting a selection of her new stencils.

Laura really wanted to demo the rooster for me - and I have to say, she did an amazing job with Glitter Ritz and double-sided tape!
Dreamweaver demonstrator Laura playing with Glitter Ritz!














Another products I watched a demo for is Stampee's Stamping Transfer Foils technique.  Pretty cool stuff!  You can read about it on the Craft Critique site here.

All in all, it was an amazing trip and I didn't do too badly with my "game plan".  I just underestimated how easily it was to be pleasantly side-tracked!  Next time, I'll make sure to add another day to my visit when the exhibition floor is open!