Free Christmas Pattern

I've been busy preparing for the holidays but I did promise a free holiday pattern. I decided to make a holly pattern since I had a new Fiskars circle cutter to play with. I did learn that it is easiest to use the circle cutter if you tape your paper down. Then you can focus on holding the cutter in place with one hand and turning the cutter body with the other.

I hope you like the pattern and I would love to see cards made with it!

Fiskars Tool Demonstration Card

I created this card today using the tools I came home with from my Fiskars Roundup weekend. I used 10 tools total including my trimmer, UltraShapeXpress, eyelet tool, texture plate, 2 squeeze punches, circle border punch,embossing border punch, stamp press, tear edger, tape runner, and pop dot. The only tool I didn't use was my craft drill. I created this card for my Fiskars Craft Demonstrator training that I am going to hold in January. I plan to hold one training at my home and I hope to hold another at Provo Craft for employees of Roberts Crafts stores.

I am so excited to teach my Demonstrator classes! There are so many fun things that these tools can be used for and I can't wait to learn more. If you live in Utah and are interested in my class in January, please email me before January 5th. You don't have to be a Fiskateer - but heck, who wouldn't want to be. They send you a free pair of Fiskars scissors with your Fiskateer number engraved on them and they are constantly having surveys, challenges, and drawings for cool Fiskars products. Here is the link to Fiskateers if you've never heard of them or are thinking to yourself "A Fiska-what???" http://www.fiskateers.com/

Winter Fun

I put together these pages last night for a contest at Fiskateers.com. They are giving away a Kodak printer. I would love a new printer for photos. I like my HP Officejet but I'm not thrilled with the picture quality. I actually had Costco print up these pictures.

I used the Heidi Grace Frost Blvd. line of papers for this layout. Thanks so much Heidi for the paper packs at the Fiskateer Roundup! Even my hubby loves these papers. When I showed him the page on the right, he said, "That is really cool paper!" I haven't done very many scrapbook pages and I have so much to learn but its fun to put the pages on cute paper instead of just in an album. I used my new Fiskars paper trimmers and border punches for these pages. I realize that I need to really know how to use these tools if I am going to train others how to be demonstrators. TFL!

Chrismas Wall Hanging

I created this wall hanging based on a project done by Holly on FiskarsTV last year. (http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/tv/ dated 12/01/2006.)It is really quite simple. I used a Fiskars craft drill to drill a hole in the top and bottom of each CD. I taped the CDs to Cloud9 paper and then trimmed the paper using my Ultra ShapeXpress cutter. I went around each CD twice to make sure I trimmed through the paper (I have a dull blade that I definately need to replace). I then embellished with vinyl stickers, chipboard, gel pens, a tea bag medallion and an iris folded ornament. (I folded the tea bag with a fold shown to me by BobbiLynn from Cicleofcrafters.com) Then I threaded some ribbon through the holes and tied a knot at the bottom of eachCD so they won't slip. It would look great hanging in the middle of the room hanging from the ceiling since the CDs have shiny surfaces.

Happy Birthday to my Hubby!

We celebrated my husbands birthday last week, which meant I had a good excuse to make Chocolate Ugly Cake. This cake is so good! Besides the thousands of calories in each piece, the only bad thing about it is the mess. I used 6 mixing bowls, a double boiler and about 5 smaller bowls to seperate my eggs. I had to clean my beaters numerous times during the process and I was left with a giant mess. It was soooo worth it though! My hubby loves raspberry filling in his chocolate cake. This was the first time we have ever added raspberry pie filling. I put it between the layers of cake and mousse. (This picture shows the last time I made it without the raspberry filling.) It was so yummy! I'm trying to be a good girl and not eat it all but it is way hard.

Here is the recipe. I wish I could take credit for creating something this heavenly but I actually found this recipe in the newspaper years ago.

CHOCOLATE UGLY CAKE

UGLY BATTER:
8 (1-ounce) squares
semi-sweet baking chocolate
6 tablespoons butter
6 egg yolks
4 egg whites
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup sugar
CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
FROSTING:
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
2 egg yolks
½ cup sugar (divided use)
2 egg whites
6½ (1-ounce) squares semi sweet baking chocolate
4 tablespoons butter

PREPARE BATTER: Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Fit bottoms of two 9-inch springform pans with circles of waxed paper and set aside.

Melt chocolate and butter in top of double boiler over simmering water. Cool. Pour chocolate mixture into large mixing bowl. Place egg yolks in small mixing bowl and whisk lightly. Whisk yolks into chocolate and set aside.

In small bowl of mixer, beat egg whites. As whites begin to stiffen, add salt and sugar and continue beating until whites are stiff and glossy, about 1 to 1/2 minutes. Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture. Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans and bake in oven 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and cool. (The cake WILL drop. Don't panic! It is supposed to do that.)

PREPARE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE FROSTING: Whip cream and set aside. Place egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar in small bowl of mixer and beat until frothy and doubled in volume. Set aside. In large bowl of mixer, beat egg whites. Add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until whites are stiff and glossy. Set aside. Melt chocolate and butter in top of double boiler over simmering water. Stir a bit of hot chocolate into yolks and immediately stir back into chocolate mixture in double boiler. Stir continuously. When mixture begins to thicken, slowly pour hot chocolate over egg whites, folding gently to combine. Cool. Gently fold in whipped cream.

TO FROST CAKE: Spread Chocolate Mousse Frosting overtop of first cake layer. Top with second cake layer. Frost and refrigerate. Makes one 9-inch round flat cake, so rich it will yield 12 to 16 slices. (For variation, spoon several tablespoon of pie filling over cake layers under the frosting.)

Pattern Suggestion?

I just realized that both of the patterns I have shared recently on my blog are hearts. I would like to create a seasonal pattern that I can share with everyone but I would love some suggestions as to what my readers would like to see. If there is a Thanksgiving or Christmas shape that you would just love to do an iris fold card of, please let me know. I will pick one of your suggestions and make up a free pattern to post here.

Here is one idea for Christmas cards. Do a basic circle pattern and top it with a small piece of shiny gold or silver paper that has been trimmed with scalloped scissors to look like an ornament topper. I also used ribbon in place of one of my papers. It has a nice shiny finish (although I have no idea if it is acid free). I cut this circle out with my Fiskars ultra shapeXpress and a circle template. It is much easier and cleaner than cutting freehand. The circle at the bottom edge of the card front was done using an old CD. I didn't think about it then but I could have used my CD as a template with my shapeXpress. Instead I cut it freehand with scissors and I can see that its not perfect. Oh well, live and learn...and make another card the right way this time!!

I would seriously love to hear some suggestions for holiday patterns you would like to see.

Iris Folded Heart Tag

In this video, I demonstrate iris folding a basic heart tag.

Heart Tag Pattern

Here is the pattern to my heart tag that I exchanged at the Fiskateer Roundup. I actually used my Sizzix die for Hearts, Primitive to punch my tags. Enjoy!

Fiskateer Roundup

Yee Haw!!! It was such an awesome weekend in San Antonio, Texas. I headed down on Friday morning and arrived in the early afternoon. The first people we met (besides the other Fiskateers on the bus) were the really awesome Fiskateer leads Holly, Cheryl, and Stephanie. This picture is of me and Cheryl. She is just as sweet as I expected her to be! I headed up to my room on the 19th floor (I really do not like to be up that high!) and met my roomie Ramona. After lugging my 50 pound suitcase through the airports and hotels (thank goodness for wheels!) I was ready to do something relaxing for a while. I met up with Amyre in the hotel lobby and we decided to head out and see a little bit of San Antonio. We took the riverboat ride, not knowing we would be going on it again with the Fiskateers on Saturday. The scenery was beautiful and it was neat to hear the history of San Antonio. Afterwards we headed into town in a search for the Alamo. We were only a few blocks away. I was suprised that it was in the middle of town and so big. After taking a ton of pictures, we headed back for dinner and our welcome from Fiskars and Brains on Fire.

I was so shocked at how many tools we were given to bring back to train other demonstrators. When we entered the salon for dinner, we each had a rolling tote and an orange cowboy hat. The totes had papers and mini albums in them. Over the course of the weekend, we received more tools than our "horses" could carry.

Friday and Saturday evening, we were given the opportunity to share any Christmas, Valentines, or family projects we have done. I shared a few of my iris folding cards and scrapbook pages. It was a little nerve racking to get in front of the camera and introduce myself and talk about my projects. When I was introducing myself once, I couldn't even remember my Fiskateer number. "Hi, I'm Jennifer B from Salt Lake City, Utah and I'm Fiskateer # ................duh............... what's my number...........Can I start over?" Hopefully they don't decide to show bloopers on FiskersTV :)

I decided to be bold and ask Suzanne Walker of FiskersTV if she would be interested in doing a segment on iris folding. Before I could even ask, she asked me if I would be willing to film a demonstration of my iris folding. She had seen my tags and really liked them. Trying not to scream, I told her I would love to. We ended up filming late Saturday night when my eyes were bloodshot and my hair was not looking it's best. (When I asked the camera guy if he could edit that out later, he laughed and said he was not a magician.) I was worried that I rambled a lot but they said it went good. I'm not going to get too excited for it to actually go on FiskarsTV but if it does, that will be way too awesome! This picture was taken before the segment shot.

I took several projects and way to many tools and hardly used any of them. We had plenty to keep us busy. We did a minibook and scrapbook page on Friday night. Saturday, we had four classes with projects in three of them (one scrapbook page, a round album, and a frame). That evening we had classes with Nancy from Cloud 9 and Heidi Grace from Heidi Grace Designs. We started a CD calendar in Nancy's class and made an altered notebook in Heidi's class. I just have to say that Heidi is so darn funny!!! I was laughing so hard that I was crying and could hardly see. Thanks Heidi! I haven't had a good laugh like that in a long time! This picture is of Holly and me holding my frame I made in her class.

Saturday day we also went to lunch and dinner as a group, saw the Alamo again, and took a riverboat ride again. It was great to hang out with such a great group of ladies! By Saturday evening I had had enough socializing and was ready to just be creative. I'm really good at socializing and being the last one at the party if it is with people I know well, but when I am getting to know people and worried about what others think, I find it very, very tiring. (Am I being too honest here?) I headed back to the hotel a little early from the dinner party and just tried to organize.

We were trained on so many really cool Fiskars tools. I can't wait to use my border and circle punches more. My squeeze punches are awesome! My kids love them because they are so easy to use. The trimmers are all really cool. The new paper lines we were given are really cool (each night we came into our rooms with paper packs from the different designers). I can't wait to find 20 people who would like to be trained as Fiskars demonstrators as well. It will be so much fun to share the fun and excitement of this past weekend!

My trip home was fairly uneventful. I did get to spend an hour chatting with Heidi Grace and Jenifer (another Fiskateer) as we waited for our flights. Dragging my 75 pounds of luggage through the airport was not fun and well worth the $3 for a luggage cart. The smiles on my kids faces when they saw me at the airport was priceless.

Thank you Fiskars and Brains on Fire for a weekend that far exceeded my expectations! It was so much fun! Thank you Holly for considering me worthy to be one of the Nifty Fifty! Thank you Ramona for being a great roommate and being understanding of my coming in late at night after you were already asleep. Thank you Amyre for hanging out with me. Thank you everyone for a weekend that I will never forget!!! I hope to see some of you again in the future.

Where I've Been....

I'm in the process of creating 60 tags to exchange at a training session for Fiskars next weekend in San Antonio, Texas. I was invited, with 49 other Fiskateers, to be trained as a Fiskars product demonstrator. I am way excited for my trip and my training! I can't wait to meet all of the wonderfully creative people at Fiskars and from the Fiskateers.com website. I decided to iris fold my tags since I am one of the few people on Fiskateers who knows the art of iris folding. I'm still debating whether it was a wise idea since I have put hours into creating them. Hopefully they will be appreciated.

The heart was punched with a Sizzix heart punch. The papers are mostly Cloud 9 card stocks (that I didn't fold the edges). The picture was taken while I was in Florida two weekends ago with my hubby.

Our trip to Florida was wonderful! We stayed with BobbiLynn, the site administrator of CircleofCrafters.com. We had great plans to do lots of crafts but spent most of our time at the beach looking for shells while our men fished. The weather was sunny and warm. It was so hard to come home. I only created one card while I was there - a 3D card with an image from http://fred-she-said.blogspot.com/. I created this card for a black and white challenge at CircleofCrafters.com. The purple was behind the card when I scanned it so that the border would show.

I still have plans to work on putting my Simply Folding book on disk. I'll get started on it once I'm done with my training next weekend. If you are interested in the book or CD, please feel free to email me.

RAK Winner!

Thank you so much everyone for your comments on my blog! It really means a lot to me that you've all taken the time to visit. In fact, I'm going to give away 2 books!

Congratulations Monica-FC and Cathy aka cathynurse on CircleofCrafters.com!

Ramdom.org chosen your comments as the winners! I'll be shipping you both your free copies of my new book "Simply Folding."

For those of you not lucky (or random:) ) enough to win today, please remember you can still purchase a copy of my book! I ship oversees as well. In fact, I have two books I'm shipping tomorrow to France and the Netherlands! To order, just email me here.

Please check back often as I plan to post new cards, iris folding tips, and other creative card making techniques in the future. For now, I'm going to mail two free books and go pack for my long awaited trip to Florida! I leave Wednesday and I'll be back next Monday!

They're Done!!!

Here they are! I am so happy to say that my iris folding book is done!! So here is a picture of my first five books ready to ship.


Here are the patterns included:

• Heart
• Double Heart
• Circle
• Apple
• Football Helmet and Ball
• Baby Rattle
• Birdhouse
• Maple Leaf
• Frames
• House
• School House
• Tudor Home
• Lion
• Giraffe
• Horse
• Eagle
• Labrador Retriever


The book also includes illustrated instructions on how to iris fold so if you've never iris folded but always wanted to try, here is your chance.


Because I am so happy to have these done, I am going to RAK (random act of kindness) one of my samples to someone who comments here before next Monday at 9 am MST. Mind you, the sample is far from perfect because I ran low on ink as I was printing it up. The pictures aren't as sharp, but the patterns are all there and its free! So please leave a comment to enter the drawing and I'll announce the winner Monday.


So how do you order a book if you don't win the RAK? Just click here to email me and we'll make arrangements for payment and shipping. The cost is $10 plus the cost of shipping and the cardboard mailer. I prefer payments by Paypal or US money orders. Also, I'm curious how many people would be interested in a CD instead for $10 that includes everything in the book or possibly a download? I haven't sold downloads before so that would be something new to learn but if there is interest I will gladly look into it.



Oh, and because I am so happy, I am going to post a free pattern. Remember, it is copyrighted, so if you want to share, please share my blog address instead. Thanks again for everyone's support!

Sneak Peak!!!

Here is the cover photo for my upcoming iris folding book "Simply Folding." I forgot how much time it takes to make all of the little changes to finish a book. I am so close to being able to say it is done. I hope the long wait hasn't discouraged any of you who are interested. I wondered this past week when I would ever get it done. Lucky for me we had rain on Saturday so my deck building hubby couldn't work. He took the kids to IKEA while I folded and folded and folded!

Almost There....

After sitting at the computer half of the day, I have 14 patterns done and only 2 needing numbering. Yeah!!! I'm almost done. Then comes the process of putting the books together. My last book was 8 1/2" x 11" with a plastic spiral binding. It looks nice but is harder to ship because I usually put it in a box to protect the binding. I'm thinking that I may print this next book on legal size paper folded in half so it would be 8 1/2" x 7". I would staple the binding so the book would lay flat and could easily mail in a cardboard envelope. Any comments on whether that sounds good? Most of the patterns would be a good size for a 5x7 card.

Thank you!

I just want to thank those of you who are reading my blog. I know a lot of you come over from CircleofCrafters.com and Fiskateers.com and I just want to say thanks!! (I think there might be a few of my family stopping by too) I also want to say thank you so much to those of you who leave comments!

I will try to keep my blog updated and share new cards as I create them. I took a break from patterns today but hope to get some more done tomorrow. I did get one more done last night so I have 8 ready to go! I have a busy week ahead but still hope to get my patterns done and ready to publish by the 1st week of October.

Eagle Cards

These cards are for a challenge at CircleofCrafters.com. The challenge was to make two cards, one an iris fold and the other from the leftover bit cut out from the template. This is something I have never done before but it ended up being a lot of fun.

This is one of the patterns that will be in my upcoming book. I created this pattern almost two years ago. My hubby had mentioned how great an iris fold of an eagle would be. One and a half days later I finally had a pattern and card done. It was 96 folds when I first created it. I have cut the number of folds down to 56 for my book. The pattern is a little more challenging than some but well worth the effort.

It is also a great pattern for boy scouts when they become an eagle scout. I have made several for friends for that very reason.

Update on my upcoming book: I have 7 patterns done and at least 5 left to prepare to publish. Over half way!!!

New Iris Fold Book

Well I am working furiously on my new iris fold book of patterns. I plan to have 10 - 15 of my original patterns in my book including:

Baby Rattle

Birdhouse

Maple Leaf

Double Hearts

Eagle Landing

Horse

Giraffe

Labrador Retriever

Lion

Tudor House frame

Schoolhouse frame

I have all but one of these patterns completed and I am now in the process of creating jpeg images that are clean and easy to read with computer generated lines and numbers. I hope you are all as excited as I am to see the final book! Keep an eye here for the latest updates.

Books No Longer Available at Scrapbook Store

I have picked up all of my books from Heartfelt Creations. They sold quite a few in the beginning but they had them priced pretty high so sales slowed down dramatically. If you are interested in a book, please feel free to email me at janddbybee @ hotmail . com (no spaces) or call 302-0827 or 631-6815 (area code 801). The price is $10 plus shipping if you need it mailed.

Here is the link to the post with the pattern list: http://cardsbyjen.blogspot.com/2007/08/iris-folding-for-lds-crafter.html

Iris Folded Lion - Wishing U a Happy Birthday!

I created this card from a pattern I created at least 1 1/2 years ago. I have always liked the pattern but I never got around to making a card from it. I am currently working on making a book of non-religious iris fold patterns and I had debated on whether or not to include this pattern. Since I don't like to pass on a pattern I haven't tried, I decided I had better make this one up. I turned it into a card for my son to give a friend turning 5. What do you think? Feel free to comment (the link is below this post). You don't even have to be a blogger to comment - just mark anonymous. TFL (Thanks for looking!)

Here are some pictures from the free Make & Take at the State Fair last night.

What a wonderful group of ladies (and one man) to teach such a fun and easy technique. I hope they all had as much fun as I did.

I was excited to see that my iris fold temple took a first place ribbon! My photograph is really bad and I'll have to take a better one later. My 5 year old son also took a blue ribbon for his iris fold of a pink river dolphin. He was so excited to get another ribbon! This picture is of him right after he had completed folding it. Here is a link to YouTube that shows him creating his dolphin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msGSMV1f47k

Thanks again everyone for joining in the fun last night. Hope to see some of you again soon at classes or to deliver books!

State Fair Make & Take Patterns

Here are the patterns that we did at the state fair Make & Take. I want to thank everyone who stopped by my table and joined in the fun.

To use these patterns, double click to bring up the full size image. Right click and save to file. Open up in a word or photo program and print the size that you want. (I'm not sure how to save to file with Mac computers.) These are copyrighted patterns so please do not sell the patterns to anyone. You are more than welcome to sell cards you make from the patterns though.

There was a lot of interest in my Iris Folding for the LDS Crafter book. If you are interested, please email or call and we'll make arrangements for delivery. Please scroll down to the blog posting about my book to see the patterns included. My email address is listed above in the blog description or below in the book post. Of course "dot" should be replaced with a "."

Thanks again for a really fun evening. Tomorrow, I'll post some pictures from our classes.

August Iris Fold Challenge

Here is my entry for the August iris fold challenge at CircleofCrafters.com. This was a fun but challenging pattern. I used my Fiskars Wisteria Lane oval punch for the green oval behind the fairy. The background is brown mulberry paper stamped with gold ink. The fairy is folded with white see-thru paper for the wings, purple vellum for the dress, iridescent paper for the skin, and gold moire for the hair.

Welcome to Cards By Jen

I will be doing a free make-and-take iris fold class at the Utah State Fair on September 11th from 5 - 8 pm.

If you're in town, I hope you will stop by my table in the Creative Arts Building, scrapbooking room and say hi.

Iris Folding for the LDS Crafter

My self-published book Iris Folding for the LDS Crafter is available for purchase. This book is full of original patterns as well as basic instructions for the beginning iris folder. Iris Folding is a simple and inexpensive technique that is very easy to learn.

Patterns included:
Sun, Moon, and Stars
Salt Lake Temple
Salt Lake Temple Frame
Angel Moroni
Jordan River Temple
San Diego Temple
Mt Timpanogas Temple
Salt Lake Temple Side View

Patterns range from beginner to very advanced and each pattern includes a supply list and instructions. Cardstock cover with color photo, 18 black and white pages, white plastic binder. The cost for the book is $10 + postage. To purchase my book, please feel free to leave a comment or email me at janddbybee @ hotmail dot com.

My book is also available for purchase at Heartfelt Creations, located at 9400 So 700 E in Sandy, Utah. (Their price is slightly higher to cover overhead.)