Fisk-a-Teers Fiska-Friendzy ~ Virginia City

When I heard that there would be a regional Fisk-a-teer event close enough to drive to, I signed up immediately. In fact, I was the first one to sign up. Friday November 7th, my hubby joined me on my trip to the Virginia City Fisk-a-Friendzy 2008. After stopping to get some travel food and look for more orange clothing and accessories, we headed down the road. Our trip from Boise, Idaho took us about 7 hours (not including the ½ hour or so that we drove around lost looking for the right highway out of town).

We got into Reno about 7:30 pm and were disappointed to find that the first scrapbook store we stopped at was closed. We decided to try one more and found the girls at Treasured Memories having a private crop. They let us in to say “hi” and a few of them were excited to report that they would be there on Saturday, including the sweet owner Kathy. They gave us suggestions for dinner and we were on our way. Contrary to popular belief, although Reno is a gambling town, not everything stays open all night, including the buffets. We finally ate a wonderful, leisurely dinner at Outback Steakhouse and Dennis enjoyed (and shared) his birthday dessert. We stayed at Circus Circus in a very nice quiet room.
We headed up the mountain to Virginia City early the next morning. When Angela told us it is a winding road she wasn’t kidding. I’m not a fan of heights and the switchbacks and drop offs were a little nerve wracking. The view of the valley was beautiful though. We arrived just in time for everyone to check in. My hubby high-tailed it out of there (too many women, too few men) and I got to work helping Angela set up her prize display. I was shocked at how many prizes Fiskars had donated. I didn’t even try to count them. There was a Rock, Paper, Trimmer; Frankies with ink, Ink by Steph skull scissors, Heidi Grace flower scissors, squeeze punches, paper packs, magazines, swivel craft knife (how do I find one of those cool knives??!!), and so much more. Angela also had tools set out that the ladies could try out. I watched Julie play with Frankie and decided I would love to get one. Wasn’t I surprised when I found out that I won one for my website idea :)

I only created one card the entire day. I was a little jittery from too much caffeine and Fisk-a-friendziness. It was so great to meet every one and I had fun just walking around talking and helping out when I could. The popcorn, hot cocoa, orange licorice, and chocolate were all delicious. Lunch and dinner were wonderful. My hubby joined us for the shredded barbeque sandwiches at lunch and I asked all 100 ladies to join in singing Happy Birthday. He ran out as quickly as he could enjoying his cute birthday cake (thanks Angela!) and he even let me sleep in the same room that night ;)
One of the highlights of the day was the train ride. Angela asked me to be ready to film because our cowboy friends were going to “rob” us. I thought Julie was just the unlucky victim of a silly skit and joined in the chants of “hang her.” It wasn’t until I realized that the large box Suzanne was holding had a pair of very large scissors that I knew we had a third Fisk-a-teer of the Year. I couldn’t scream in delight since I was holding the video camera for Angela but I was very excited for Julie. She is so deserving of the award.

I couldn’t believe how orange everyone was! I had picked up some orange sweatpants to go with my orange shirt but orange is not a flattering color on my behind (they will be going back to Wally World). I loved Donna Jean’s orange wig, Totally Tami and Kathi Jo’s cute embroidered sweatsuits, the Fiskar Floozy and the girls with the Fisk-a-crowns. We were a sea of orange! I even borrowed Ms. Jackie’s camera guide and relearned how to use my PowerShot color accent mode. I have some very orange pictures I’ll have to share.

It was so great to see Stephenie and Suzanne again. I know it was a really long flight for both of them but it was great to have them there. I was really sad to find out that Cheryl was too sick to join us but I know she has her own event next weekend. I loved getting to see five other Nifty Fifties. It was like a mini-reunion. I hope Fiskars lets us do it again next year. If they do, I hope we can do it earlier in the year in hopes of avoiding snow. Coming down off the mountain in snow was even more nerve-wracking than the trip up when I could see the drop offs.
Sunday morning, we headed out early and stopped by Treasured Memories Too on our way out of town. They had really cute gift bags for the Fisk-a-teers and the employee there was really sweet. She helped us look up our driving route on MapQuest and we were on our way.

Once I got home (after another 7 long hours and getting lost trying to find where I95 was in Winnemucca) I happily unpacked my loot and started a thank you card for Fiskars. I used my Leave it to Weaver and Threading Water punches. I stamped it with my new HG Cherrywood Lane stamps; and I embellished it with a flower and button from our make-and-take. I included one of my ATCs that has my Fisk-a-teer picture framed by the Coming Up Roses Border and Corner punch.

Thank you Fiskars for a wonderful weekend full of fun, food, and friends! Can we do it again next year?!

Iris Folding for Kids

Recently I taught my 6 year old's 1st grade class how to iris fold. First of all, I have to say it was crazy! We had 19 children and 3 adults. It was a pretty good ratio although I would recommend another adult if I did it again. I really simplified the folding for the kids. I numbered all of their paper strips beforehand. We had enough tape rolls that each pair of students had a roll. The hardest concept for them to grasp was the "edge" of the paper. I don't know how many times I said line up the "edge" of the paper with the lines while pointing to the "edge" and the lines.

I practiced with my 4 year old Kylie before I attempted it at school. She did a great job. (Of course, she has seen me iris fold for the last 4 years so she had a little bit of an advantage.) Still, I think she did a great job and I loved her drawing on the front afterwards.

I video taped her doing a simplified iris fold but deleted it from my camera after I downloaded it to the computer. I moved the video segments and now I can't open them. Hopefully I can revive them but if not, I will do another video. Kylie loves to iris fold so she won't complain.

The computer I am on won't let me convert my instruction sheet to a PDF file. I am just going to post the instructions here and you can click on the pattern and print it up. I made mine 3 inches and used my Fiskars circle cutter to cut them out.

IRIS FOLD CIRCLE PATTERN
Instructions for younger children.

Material List
Template (3” circle cut from center of 8 ½” x 11” cardstock – save the page with the hole, not the circle)
Single Sided Tape (one roll for every 2 students)
4 Colors of Cardstock (11” x 1” strips)
Holographic or sparkle paper (1” square)
Extra materials in case some get lost.
Several extra sets of hands (1 adult per 4 or 5 children)

Parent’s/Teacher’s Instructions:
Tape template to paper with pattern
Cut each paper strip in 4 - two 3” strips and two 2 ½ ” strips
Number strips following the color pattern, starting with the 2 longer strips of each color first.
Have children tape paper pieces, face down, to template following the number order.
Tape the holographic paper, face down, over the iris.
Child can turn over and decorate the front side of his/her paper when he/she is done folding.
I strongly recommend practicing this technique before teaching it to children.
For a demonstration of iris folding, you can watch this video.

Color Pattern:
Color 1: 1, 5, 9, 13
Color 2: 2, 6, 10, 14
Color 3: 3, 7, 11, 15
Color 4: 4, 8, 12, 16

Child’s Instructions:

Please listen to your teacher give instructions.
You are working on the back side of your picture so your paper strips should face down.
Tape your paper strips in the same order that you count 1 to 16.
Line up the edge of your paper strips along the lines and tape on both sides.
Tape your glitter paper over the “iris” when you are done taping all of your paper strips.

By the way, for those who follow my sporadic blog postings, our daughter Kylie has almost fully recovered from her horse accident. She only has some minor hearing loss.

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.

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.

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.)