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.