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.

Kylie's Paper Birthday Cake

I realized that I forgot to share pictures of Kylie's paper birthday cake. I made the cake for Kylie's party favors for her 4th birthday. I was able to fit a sucker, squishy ball, Happy Feet ring, and a mini box of Nerds candy in each triangle cake piece.
I got this cake idea from a post at CircleofCrafters.com. I had seen a paper cake before so I decided to give it a try. I found a template at Mirkwood Designs for cake pieces and copied them at 75% so that I could cut 2 from each piece of 12x12" paper. I then made 8 pieces, cut them out, scored, folded and taped them. All of the papers I used to decorate the cake are Heidi Grace from the It's My Party line (thanks Deea for the paper!) I used my Fiskars Lacy Days of Summer border punch on the pink patterned paper and the blue paper is punched with my Fiskars A Dozen Roses embossing/border punch. The blue paper is flocked and reminded me of frosting. The center flowers are layered on some punched Fiskars Oopsie Daisy Xtra large squeeze punch flowers and punched vines that I outlined with Sakura souffle pens. The punch under the candles is Fiskars Bling Bling small squeeze punch.

This took hours to make but even Cameron said that is was well worth the time. And Kylie did have a real cake...strawberry shortcake with fresh strawberries and whippy cream. Yumm!

Art Kits are Ready!

Remember these?

Well, look at this! This is what $180 in art supplies looks like

(with some punch, scissor and paper donations).

Yeah!!! We have 24 art kits ready to deliver to Primary Children's Hospital next Wednesday. Each kit has a sketch book, coloring book, washable markers, crayons, pencils and stickers. We will also be delivering some Fiskars squeeze punches, decorative scissors, glue sticks and construction paper for their craft room. Cameron is excited to deliver them and the hospital is very excited to receive them. This has been such a fun project. The kids helped with flattening craft ribbon and Kylie sharpened lots and lots of pencils (have to love automatic pencil sharpeners =) We just need to decorate the outsides of the bags and they are ready to go.

THANK YOU to everyone who has helped out by buying cards, making extra donations (thanks Mumzy, Shirley, Wendy Jo and Jenna!), and helping to sell cards (thanks Mumzy and Shirley!). Thank you Fiskars for the scissors and sqeeze punches.

We will continue Cameron's donation project with the sales of his remaining cards. We may even make future cards with new drawings. We would still really like to make art kit donations to the homeless shelter and domestic abuse shelters as well.

Trainings and Raindots

First, I have to say that I get really, REALLY frustrated when blogger decides to erase my entire post when I try to post it. Doesn't it realize that I just spent an hour, off and on, trying to get this post typed while taking care of kids and Shirley??? Deep breath......
Here we go again: This past Thursday April 24th, I held a tool demonstrator training class for the local scrapbook store managers and buyers in the greater Salt Lake area. Deea Hobbs, the local Fiskars sales rep, set up the training at Heartland Paper Co. in Taylorsville, Utah. After I showed everyone how the Fiskars tools work, we had some prize give-aways, a wonderful lunch (YUMMY sandwiches), make & takes, and time to play with the tools. It was so great to meet all of these wonderful ladies. I loved to hear how excited they were to learn how to use the tools that they sell every day in their stores and warehouses. Thank you ladies for spending your afternoon with us. I hope you had as much fun as I did! Thank you Deea for the wonderful prizes, lunch, make & take, and just being the sweet you that you are!
Raindots! I LOVE raindots! They are so fun and so easy to use! This year there are new raindots shaped like eyelets. These are perfect for the eyelet challenged like myself. I just punched a 1/8" hole and stuck a raindot over the top. Voila! I was done! That was much too easy and much too cute! Thanks May from Fiskateers for sharing some so I could play! And since my card is all about spring, I just have to say "HAPPY SPRING" everyone! Its finally going to hit the mid-70's here today. I am soooo ready for spring.

Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife

I know that a lot of my posts lately have been about Fiskars tools. As a certified tool demonstrator, I like to try out the new tools that I might get to demo. Here is my review of the Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife that I posted at Fiskateers.com.

I have to admit that the first time I tried the fingertip craft knife, I did not like it. I borrowed a fellow fiskateers at a tool training and used it for about one minute. To me, it seemed like a redo of something that already works. I love exacto knives and have never had a problem with their shape.

When I saw the PINK fingertip craft knife in Target, I figured it was worth buying one. I hadn't used it very much in the first few weeks that I had it. The night before last, I needed to cut out some games for my son's kindergarten teacher. I had an alphabet snake and some cracked alphabet eggs that needed to be cut out. I started out with scissors. It was very tiring on my hands to do that much cutting in circles and swirls.

I decided to try my fingertip knife. I LOVED it! I figured my regular exacto knife would work as well so I switched over for a few minutes. I was amazed at how much better I liked the fingertip craft knife. It was much more comfortable on my finger and I didn't find myself over hyper-extending my finger like I usually do (see picture below ~ my finger bends at a weird angle).

My only complaint is that the hard plastic wrap around puts a dent in my finger and kind of hurts after a while. I solved that problem by wrapping one of my daughters hair ties around the side putting pressure on my finger. Maybe fiskars could make them with softer plastic. I don't know how that would affect the cost - which, by the way, is awesome at less than $5.

Thanks Fiskars for a great tool that I didn't even know I needed but LOVE!

Fiskars A Tisket, A Tasket Border and Corner Punch

Ok, so I'm lovin' these new border and corner punches. I can't seem to do a project lately without including them in some way. My newest corner and border punch is A Tisket, A Tasket. Although I don't LOVE it quite as much as Comin' Up Roses, I still really, really LIKE it. I really like how you can trim the outer edge of the punched border for a pretty edge vs. a squared edge.

The layered card was super simple. I cut 4 squares: (2) 4", 3", and 2". After using the border and corner punches, I inked the middles lightly so that the punchouts would show. I then glued the layers together and added a flower and brad.

Fiskarscrafts.com has some great examples of using the new Border and Corner punches. Check them out for some more great ideas.

Cameron's Donation Cards are Here!

Cameron's cards are finally done! I ordered them with the cheapest postage so that we could keep the card cost down. It felt like forever for the order to arrive but we finally got them today. I also decided to only do sets of 4 cards and took the 4 pictures that had the most votes via email and message boards.

The cost will be $7 for a set of 4 notecards with envelopes. The insides of the cards are blank and Cameron's picture is on the back. Half of that cost will go towards the cost of printing. (It cost $3.52 per set to print them.) The other $3.50 will go towards art supplies for kids at the local children's hospital as well as the homeless shelter.

I ordered 12 sets of cards to start with. Cameron has already sold 4 sets to family and friends. He is really excited to get the art supplies so that we can take them to the hospital. A friend of mine who works for Fiskars is also sending some children's scissors to include with the art kits (Thank you May!). Cameron also wants to include a small toy which I think is a great idea. If you are interested in ordering cards, please email me. Thank you everyone who has been supportive with votes and suggestions.

Fiskars Comin' Up Roses Border and Corner Punch

I've been watching for these punches ever since I saw them demoed at CHA on the Pink Donut Fiskars video. It looked so easy to use and so beautiful. My lss (local scrapbook store) got them in yesterday and I ran right over to get one. I was NOT disappointed. I LOVE it! It really is SO easy to use. I love the layered effect. It looks beautiful as just a picture mat too but I just love to layer them. Just cut your borders one inch larger than the previous one and start layering.

I do find it easier to punch the corner individually from the border if I'm using cardstock but with regular weight scrapbook paper, you can punch both at the same time. And according to Cameron (my 6 year old), they are a "one man tool!" I accidentally pinched his hand when I tried to punch the corner while he punched the border. Ooops! Sorry buddy! From now on, its a "one man tool" when he's working it. TFL!

North Ogden Demonstrator Training A Success!

I had such a great time training the ladies who joined me for a Fiskars Tool Demonstrator Training this past Tuesday. Erin drove clear up from Payson. Jeri drove down from Willard, and Amaryllis drove down from Logan. I also got to train two of the store employees, Amy and Jen. They were ALL so much FUN to train! I wish them the best of luck in finding many demonstrator opportunities and I KNOW that they will definately use their new skills. They were all so amazingly talented. I wish I could sit around and play with the tools with them some more because I'm sure that I would learn so much from them.

They all loved the UltraShapeXpress! They also really liked the rotary trimmer and how easy it is to change the blade. I had a scallop blade in it that they all just LOVED. Other favorites were the craft drill, stamp press, and squeeze punches.

Thank you ladies for a wonderful, crafty, FUN afternoon! I hope I get to meet you all again soon!

All About Me

I finally made an All About Me scrapbook page. I never make pages just about me. I'm glad that I made it though. It was a real growing experience to think about where I've been, where I'm at right now and what I want to accomplish.

I used all Cloud 9 Chocolate Chalet and Sorbet Villa papers and embellishments. Now I need to figure out a cute/fun way to hook the folder closed. The folder actually has pages inside.

Thanks for stopping by and looking!

Playing with My Fiskars Tools

I have had a lot of fun playing with my Fiskars tools the past week. Prepping for my training and then remembering what fun the tools are has inspired me to do a lot of crafty things this past week. I finished my CD calendar that I started in Texas, created several cards, made a scrapbook page for the January challenge at http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/ , and played lots with my texture plates and squeeze punches (http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/tools/t_thats-amore.aspx). Here is a sampling of the fun I've had:

My CD calendar pages

The calendar in the CD case

January sketch challenge

for FiskarsCrafts.com

Cards made with my squeeze punches, UltraShapeXpress, and texture plates.

Fiskars Tool Demo Training

I had my first Fiskars tool demonstration training on Saturday January 12th. I had 11 wonderful ladies join me to learn all about how to use the wonderful tools (and a couple more) that I brought home from Texas. It was great getting together with 6 other Fiskateers and some others that we hope will join us at http://www.fiskateers.com/ . Each of the ladies went home with a knowledge of the tools as well as a crafty prize from me and Fiskars. I wish we had more time to just play with the tools and get to know each other. I've invited all of the ladies who came to come over and play with the tools some more and do some actual creating. My picture is of 8 of the 11 (I forgot to take a picture before 3 of them left :( I love the opportunity that Fiskars has given me to share such fun products and share my love of crafting. I look forward to finding my 9 other ladies to train soon! If you live in Utah and are interested in training, please email me!

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.