Time to catch up...

Hi Blogland, how are you doing? I know, I've been a very bad blogger of late. These past few Months have been extremely hectic.. The Summer Months are usually our "quiet time", but not this year! Perhaps due to the fact that we really haven't had a summer to speak of Weather wise!! Anyway, in between all of the day to day runnings of Pinnacles I have been kept rather busy finishing off some Wedding Stationery!! No, not for my wedding!!
You may recall back in March that I finished off the Invites and RSVP's.. Well, now it's time to share with you:the Menu's,All 22 of them! I just love how these came out.The order of Service..All 110 of them!The Place Names..Another 110..The Table Names..I knew I'd find a use for the Tim Holtz Small Easel stand!!The couple's Wedding theme was Tea, hence the choice of table names and the shape of some of the stationery...And the Table Plan...
Well, they have all been collected now as the Wedding is this Friday.. So, here's hoping the couple have a great day and a very happy future together!!
In between making all of these I have been "normal" crafting too..
September is a very busy Birthday Month family wise.. With my Dad's, Mum's, Nan's and of course MY Birthday..Here's the card I made for my Dad's Birthday last week...
It was great to get away from the Tea theme of the wedding stationery just for a few hours to put this card together for him.I started off with a Fern Leaf Stencil and some 290gsm weight card stock.I placed the Stencil directly onto my Cuttlebug A plate.. I know, a Green one! Posh eh!!I then placed a Square of 290gsm card stock on top of the Stencil,followed by my No Shims Mat,a couple of Shims of 225gsm weight card stockand finally my Cuttlebug C Plate and passed the whole "sandwich" through the Cuttlebug machine.Not much to see here,but with the addition of a few Distress Inks... the background and the now embossed Fern Leaves come to life!For the base card I took a piece of text paperand coloured it with some of the Distress Inks used to colour the Fernbefore mounting it onto some Gold Mirror card and adding some Leaf embellishments.Finishing off by mounting the Stencil image in the middle of the card..Nice and Autumnal, which is pretty apt for the kind of weather we have here today!! Yup! It's raining!!..
Anyway, have a great day whatever you're up to.
See you soon, promise!!
Andy.

Happy 8th Birthday Pinnacles.....

Hi Blogland... Well, that was a weekend and a half!! We have just celebrated our 8th Birthday here at Pinnacles..
We always try and do something a little bit special for our Birthday and this year we had the wonderful Lynne Gilbert from Creative Expressions demonstrating for us... Now, we have had demonstrations before, I myself have even been known to don my demonstrators hat.. But, I have never before seen a demonstrator hold their audience in the palm of their hand like Lynne did on Saturday... She was demonstration techniques using Cosmic Shimmer Mists, Mica Powders, Stamping and Embossing... Perhaps products that we have all got but never realised their potential and how to get the most out of them?! Well, Lynne certainly pulled out all the stops with what she decided to demonstrate.. I myself learnt sooo much from her as did many of those who turned up to celebrate our Birthday with us.. If I heard "My head is buzzing with ideas" once, I heard it dozens of times.. And the empty shelves of the products Lynne was using is testament to her enthusiasm and creative skills..
Here are some pictures of the day...Sorry ladies, standing room only!!It's a messy job, but someones got to do it!!Someones lost their marbles..(You'll know what I mean if you saw this part of the demo)...Spritzing a Mask,Roll with Kitchen Towel,Eh viola!!This has got to be one of the funnest techniques ever!.. Shaving Foam..Adding some of the Cosmic Shimmer Mists,and a few more colours,mixing the colours with a tool from Maccie D's (McDonald's),In goes the card stock,and out it comes again,a quick clean,
and look what you get...
Thank you so much for coming Lynne and sorry that you didn't get a break all day!! I hope that you were able to get your "Inky Fingers" clean enough to hold your new Grandson for the first time on Sunday!!!
Thanks also to everyone who took the time to come and see us on Saturday. Thank you also for all the kind Birthday Wishes, Cards, Ballons, Cakes, & Prezzies. We look forward to seeing you all again at our next demonstration day on the 09th of October with..... Lindsay Mason.. Yep! She's on her way to Pinnacles...
Thanks for checking us out.. Back later in the week with some crafting..
See you soon.
Andy..

Embossing with a difference...

Hey Blogland.. September already eh!! Soon be Christmas..
Today, I wanted to share with you a project I made as a sample for this weeks lesson here at Pinnacles..
This week we have been playing around with Embossing.. Now, not the traditional embossing i.e with Embossing Folders. You must know me by now? and that I like to try and get a little more out of a product other than it's intended use..So here we go with a project using a Mask... These have become so popular recently due to the increased use of Mists and Inks. But is that all you can use them for?! Me thinks not!!
Here's a "how to" guide if you fancy giving this project or something similar a go..
There are several different ways to emboss a Mask, and this is what works for me using the Cuttlebug.. If you have a Big Shot, Vagabond or Grand Calibur machine then have a play with your plates to get the right combination and see what you come up with..So, I placed the Mask directly onto my Cuttlebug A Plate,followed by my 290gsm card stock,my No Shims Mat,2 x 225gsm card stock to bulk out the "sandwich",finishing off with my Cuttlebug C plate and passed the whole thing through the machine.Mmmmmm, to be honest, not much to be seen here I grant you!But, with the addition of a little bit of London Fog Memento Ink...and a bit of matt and layering.. Viola!!My intention was to make this project into an Easel card.As every Easel has to have a stand I decided to play with one of our new EK Success Deep Edger Punches... So, I took the Flower Burst Punch and a 2.5" wide strip of card stock. Normally if I was just punching a border I would start roughly in the middle of the strip of card and punch away.. But this punch looked like it had potential to do something much more interesting so I had to line it up at a specific point.. You'll see why in a mo..I chose to line up the end of my card stock with the centre of the pattern on the punch and punch a full border along the card stock..Nice eh!!?But, if you turn your card stock over and line up the end of the card stock against the same guide you used previously and punch a border,you get this!! Now, that's getting good use from a punch don't you think!?This Flower Burst border was added to my prepared Easel Card as it's stopper.To add a little bit more interest to the Flowers, and the card in general I punched out a few Butterflies using the Martha Stewart Large Monarch Butterfly Punch.Adding them on top of the Flowersand to the Embossed image which had now been added to the card.And there you go. Quite a soft and subtle project but very effective and a great way to use this Mask in a very different way than it's intended use..So good in fact that I made another one in a different colour...
So, why not give it a go?...
And don't forget, it's our 8th Birthday Celebrations on Saturday (03/09/11).. A Free Demo with the very talented Lynn Gilbert from Creative Expressions, a 40% sale on all 12" x 12" single sheet papers, 12" x 12", 8" x 8", 6" x 6", A4 and A5 backing paper stacks and all Scrapbooking Albums.. Remember, Pinnacle Crafts Club Members can add their standard Discount onto these items making them Half Price.. Not only that!! Enter our Birthday draw with any purchase on the day and you could be one of the FIVE lucky winners drawn at random who can win one of the new release Spellbinder dies of their choice... Wowzers!! Sorry, new word I've picked up!
Thanks for checking us out, and see you soon.
Andy.