Fiskars Ambassador

A Few Good Links

Angela — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:36:07 +0000

Hey everyone! Just got back from a 4 1/2 hour drive from the Bay Area where I had the best time hanging out with Fiskateer friends. I need to get organized and post photos (although LadyDoc got some great photos- and a not so great one of me but that’s normal- here on her blog) but I also have to do laundry, get first day of school clothes laid out, lunches packed and get a good night’s sleep because I’ll be up early getting our family’s favorite wake-up trick ready (I cook bacon early in the morning if I want people to wake up happy and come downstairs on their own). I am also looking forward to checking out all the cute soda can baskets that have popped up in the gallery this weekend. Oh- and I’m off to Dallas for a Fiskars event tomorrow night so I’d better pack up my orange clothes for that one too - *whew!* I bet a lot of you have a week ahead of you that’s similarly jam packed with activities.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a creative break, I thought I would point you all in the direction of some cool things going on at the official Fiskars website. They have 4 more videos uploaded to the site, as well as new educational downloads. They’ve added the Squeeze Punches, Border Punches, SureCut Trimmer, and Fingertip Detail Knife to the website.

Here are links to the videos. Let Fiskars know what we think of the new videos- more, less, love?:

http://www2.fiskars.com/Products/Crafting/Punches/Squeeze-Punches
http://www2.fiskars.com/Products/Crafting/Punches/Border-Punches

http://www2.fiskars.com/Products/Crafting/Craft-Paper-Trimmers/SureCut-Paper-Trimmers/SureCut-Deluxe-Craft-Paper-Trimmer-12

http://www2.fiskars.com/Products/Crafting/Craft-Knives/Fingertip-Detail-Knife

Friday’s Fiskateer Focus - Veronica #1135

Angela — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:34:39 +0000

What better way to spend a Fiskateer Friday than getting to know one of our Fiskateer friends a little better. I’m happy to introduce Veronica, Fiskateer #1135!

Name and Fiskateer #: Veronica Noechel, #1135, reporting for duty!

How long have you been a Fiskateer?: I believe I signed up within the first year of its existence. I read an article about the Fiskateers in a news magazine and as a new crafter at the time, couldn’t wait to check it out. Little did I know it would become such an important part of my life.

Tell us a little bit about yourself: I’m a writer, animal nut, and an Etsy store owner. I’ve had 4 poetry books published–Museum Mundane, Murder of Crows, Get the Rollax Replicaas You Watned, Vermin (that one’s poetry made up entirely of spam email headlines), and Gone. As well as 1 cookbook (for dogs) I self published to raise money for animal charities. I also have written pet columns for magazines, lots of poems for various literary magazines, and various other creative non-fiction articles, including a story for Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul.
I have 2 cats, 2 dogs, 3 rats, 2 degus (Chilean Squirrels), 2 turtles, a chinchilla, and a foster hamster. All are rescues (aside from my first dog who taught me an important lesson about the horrors dogs endure when they’re sold as merchandise), just to show what sort of variety of species you can find at your local pound. I’ve worked in animal rescue and advocacy my entire adult life. I love working with animals. One of the hardest part of becoming handicapped a few years ago with a genetic spine disease was losing my abiliy to teach dog training classes. The pain is too intense to handle the physicality of a class, though I enjoy training my own dogs and studying dog behavior still. Usagi, one of my rat terriers, has been learning to differentiate shapes, pointing out a circle, square, or triangle on command.

Tell us one thing about yourself that not many people know: I’m a huge fan of Crispin Hellion Glover. With a middle name like that, and his video of the song “Ben” how could I not be? “Ben” has to be the sweetest love song ever written for a rat.

What is your favorite craft? Wow. That’s tough. I love so many kinds of crafting, it’s hard to decide. I’m going to say making ATCs. They’re so satifying and nothing else feels so free. There are no heavy expectations, so you can really let go and be as silly and creative as you want to be. Nothing is off limits. ATCs are traditionally paper crafts, but I’ve seen then made out of everything from fabric to polymer clay.>

What would your dream crafting day be like? It would be a 24 hr crop with all my friends, Fiskateers from all over, and no pain. I never get to stay for an entire crop because my spine becomes unbearable. Did I mention that this would take place at my favorite scrapbook store, and each guest would receive a $200 gift card as a party favor? I don’t know who would be paying for this crop, but hey, a girl can dream.

What is your favorite Fiskars tool? I can’t live without my Fiskars rotary trimmer. I’m also fond of the sproingy eyelet setter, and lately I’ve been infatuated with my cardinal squeeze punch. So those get first, second, and third prize.

What do you love about being a Fiskateer? The online crops and the other Fiskateers. I can’t resist a Fiskateer challenge!

Thank you so much for having me. Oh, and if anyone is interested, I have 4 (yes, four!) websites:
My blog: http://scrappyrat.blogspot.com
My Etsy Shop: http://scrappyrat.etsy.com
My writing site: http://www.evnoechel.com
The rescue I foster for: http://www.cpr-nc.org

Photo 1: Usagi, one of my critters, Photo 2: some ATCs I made for a recent swap, Photo 3: From a card set I made for my etsy team challenge. I call them, “When (Guinea) Pigs Fly,” Photo 4: Weezee, another of my critters (I love photographing animals,being animals. ). Photo 5: Chipboard box I made to hold my ATC’s when I carry them to swaps.Photo 6: Box, back view, Photo 7: the altered art meetup group I run, working hard on a challenge (Fiskateers in the Raleigh, NC area can find us at www.meetup.com/ATC-Artists)

Memorabilia Pockets (Live Tutorial Recap)

Angela — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:55:39 +0000

Thanks to everyone who was able to join in for my live tutorial on our Livestream channel. As promised, these memorabilia pockets I make are incredibly easy, fast and, best of all, there’s almost no end to the customizing you can do with them. The basic concept is you use your memorabilia as your guide to size, cut a pocket out of patterned paper that is big enough for the memorabilia with a little room on the sides so it’s easy to take in and out of the pocket and you close off 3 sides, leaving a 4th side open. Here are 3 memorabilia pockets I made for a set of triplets on their 1st birthday. I wanted their mom to have a place to store each of their birthday cards within their first year album. Because I knew these pages would add bulk to the pages, I cut down the 12 x 12 paper slightly- this gave me more room to add the cards and still fit the whole page into page protectors in their albums. I chose paper that fit each child’s personality and I made each pocket a little unique because I was thinking that getting 3 identical of everything will get very tiresome to them soon…

–>** Now it’s my turn to challenge you again this week. How can you take this simple idea of scoring paper and using adhesive or stitching to close in 3 sides of a piece of paper so it becomes a pocket to hold memorabilia? I have a new tool from the Fiskateer catalog for 3 lucky Fiskateers who create a unique papercrafting project that incorporates a paper pocket in some way, posts it in their Fiskateer gallery and comments on this blog post with a link back to their creation. All before midnight Wednesday (PST). Come on, you know you want to try one…**<--

Live Tutorial Tonight at 7 pm PST

Angela — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:14:26 +0000

Just a reminder that I will be doing a live tutorial from our Livestream.com account tonight at 7 pm. This class will be broadcast on our Livestream channel. You don’t need a Livestream account to watch, but you will need to have a Livestream account to participate in the text chat portion of the class. Just got to www.livestream.com to register and feel free to pop in today and get familiar with the site- you may even catch me practicing! At 7 pm (PST) I will be live if all goes well and I hope to see you there. Here are just a few examples of memorabilia pocket ideas we can talk about (I’ll post more after the chat for Fiskateers who aren’t able to join us):

I have done several classes here in Reno on how to make a variety of different memorabilia pockets for your scrapbooks and it was a featured project back when I did the show Scrapbook LifeStyles for Scrapbooks Etc. magazine. I thought it would be fun to share ideas here, with my Fiskateer friends online, too. Everyone is welcome- expert to begining papercrafters can make these pockets and add your own personal flair to them.

A few sheets of your favorite 12 x 12 scrapbook paper
Adhesive
A scoring blade on your Fiskars trimmer (you can substitute a bone folder or score by hand if you would like but I can’t emphasize enough how awesome it is to have a scoring blade)

Optional:

Fiskars border punches
Coordinating embellishments

TUEStorial with Fiskateer #6863

Angela — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:59:33 +0000

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I am happy to borrow Cheryl’s very smart idea of doing a “Tutorial Tuesday” with you today. I seem to be on a recycled soda craft kick lately (and all things recycled in general) and I was so excited when Sandi, Fiskateer #6863, sent me a fantastic tutorial for making soda cans into darling little bags. These are very inexpensive and cute projects- perfect for the new school year when I always seem to need a little giftie for something or the other. I asked Sandi if I could share her tutorial and if she could tell us a little about herself:
I’ve been married for 22 years to my wonderful husband. We have 2 boys who inspire me everyday to keep crafting. I have been crafting as long as I can remember. My grandmother started me out using recycled things before it was called recycling. She always said use what you have and I have always tried to do that. My love for crafting also inspired me to achive a degree in design and visual merchandising. I have been blessed.

Sandi’s Soda Can Bags
Soda Can Bags
This is one of my favorite recycling projects and so easy .
1.   Take an empty, rinsed out soda can and cut the top and bottom off using your Fiskar Sheers.
2.   Using a ruler and pencil or pen, make two lines on printed side of can to use as a guide for cutting out your rectangle.
3.   Use your Scallop Scissors to cut one long side of metal. Use your sheers to cut the sides and bottom. At this point you can cover the sides and bottom with small strips of silver tape. This will cover sharp edges.
4.   Tape you piece of metal down on an old magazine or a piece of cork if you have it.
5.   Pick up your template or stencil and center it the middle of the metal. Using a piercing tool or a large push pin (these work great) start punching through the metal to make your design.

6.   Once you are done decorating the metal, fold the metal to form a cylinder and staple the back three times. Then press the bottom of the bag closed and then staple it shut. Cover the bottom again with another piece of tape.
7.   Punch holes in each side of bag to add handle of your choice. You can use wire, beads, pipe cleaners, ribbon, etc.
8.   Once the handle is attached, you are ready to fill your basket with goodies.

Sandi’s Craft Tip: I find cans in all different sizes in the juice and flavored water section of my food store. The larger size cans are great to use for teacher gifts.
This is a great project for kids if the adults do the first few steps ahead of time.

–> **Here comes the challenge part of the TUEStorlal: These are so easy to make, I made 2 yesterday to test out the ease of the tutorial. I was surprised how easy it was to use my scissors (and I SO didn’t use my Fiskateer scissors as Sandi shows in her photo!) to cut a can. Most homes have a small amount of duct tape and drinking a can of soda is easy too (Parker happily volunteered to do this part). I want to see who can give this a go. You need to make a soda can basket/bag (be creative and add your own flair!) and post it to your gallery by the end of day Sunday. I’ll enter your name twice if you are eagle-eyed and spot me posting my version of the soda can basket to my gallery at some point this week- just post a comment saying you found it on my gallery upload. Winner will get everything show in my gallery post and I’ll announce the winner no later than next Wednesday.(make sure you post a comment here with a link to your gallery post when you make your basket- I’ll be drawing from names in comments here)** <–

Check out the Continuous Stamp Wheel

Angela — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:01:11 +0000

Just caught this over at the Fiskars website. I love new crafting toys AND there’s a video =)

Continuous Stamp Wheel

I have gotten a chance to work with one and I have ordered one for my own crafting. I think it will make decorating the occasional lunch bag* (see Tami’s post on lunch suggestions below) so quick and I love the butterfly stamps that works with it. Has anyone gotten one of these Continuous Stamp Wheel Starter Sets yet? Let me know, it’s very possible that someone who leaves a comment might find one in their mailbox in the next few weeks…

*(I feel like I have to point out (not really sure why)- we try to use recycled bags but sometimes the plain brown paper ones are better for field trips, etc.)

Squeezing the Last Bit Out of Summer

Angela — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:49:01 +0000

This is a big theme of mine this summer. I am trying to squeeze as much summer into a few short weeks with my kids as I can. Our #1 favorite activity is to spend countless, long days at Lake Tahoe (we catch & release crawdads, make giant sandcastles and paddle our little inflatable boat around). I’ve also made a concentrated effort to learn how to become a better cook this summer and we have had fresh breads, nice dinners and dozen of cookies and homemade ice creams & sorbets and even apricot-vanilla jam. We haven’t had as many lemonade stands as we did last year but I captured my kid’s very first last summer with a fun layout using my “Mint Condition” Fiskars squeeze punch which looks so much like lemons to me:

For this layout, I hand-cut a tree out of brown polka dot paper and add it to a red background. I then added about 1/2 of my “lemons” hanging on the tree and down on under the tree and then I used my sewing machine to sew a full sheet of Hambly Screen Print overlay right on top. Then I added my title, photos, journaling and a few extra lemons on top of the overlay to give everything a slightly 3D look. I love that I have photos of the very first time my kids ran their own lemonade stand but there is a hidden memory on this page too. When I was making this layout, I was spending summer nights reading out loud to my kids from what has become a favorite book of ours: Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lingren. I had gotten a special edition illustrated by Lauren Child (I love her “Charlie and Lola” illustrations and cartoons). The whole color scheme and use of patterned paper to make this layout was inspired by the book. I always think of us reading “Pippi” together when I look at this layout.

Do you ever draw inspiration for a paper crafting project from unlikely sources? Cans from your pantry? Magazine covers? Fashion?

Speaking of inspiration, I hope you’ll join me August 26th at 7 pm PST, on our Livestream channel. I will share with you how I make memorabilia pockets for my scrapbook pages live from my craft room. If you can’t make it, I will be posting examples from the class on the blog after the class. (I’ll be posting a few tips for the livestream channel closer to Thursday- it’s been awhile for me, I’ve got to refresh my skills there first!). For the list of basic supplies you’ll need, check out my post HERE.

Road Trip! Join me in Berkeley, CA.

Angela — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 17:21:29 +0000

Summer is almost over, winter means less road trips so I am packing up the car with orange, Fiskar-y goodness and taking one last trip to Northern California. If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll stop by the fabulous Scrapbook Territory in Berkeley, CA. I’ll be there from 5 until 6 doing a make & take with the new Fiskars Everywhere Punch. I will stay after the store closes to soak up some of the creative goodness that is local artist Daniela Costa as she hosts an after hours crop (there may be a space or two left at the time of me writing this- call the store quick!). In between Daniela offering tutorials, I’ll be set up to share more card making fun with the Everywhere Punch and maybe a cute little something with my favorite Fiskars Craft Drill.

As soon as I get home from Northern California, I will be spending the day getting ready for a crazy, action-packed, last minute trip out to Dallas, Texas to help Fiskateer Legend (now Fiskars Design and Consumer Education Manager) Stephenie Hamen out for a corporate event in Dallas, Texas. I fly out on a red-eye, get into Dallas a 5 am and hit the ground running but I think Stephenie and I will be able to squeeze in a trip to Sam Moon while we’re there. They have a CRAZY assortment of items- I SO hope we can make it! Anything else we should RUN to while we’re in town? Crazy candy stores? Beautiful scrapbook stores? Delicious food?

CHAT tonight- Liftateers! 9 pm EST

Angela — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:51:29 +0000

The Liftateers have been working double time at the Liftateer Headquarters this week to bring you some online crop fun (see photo). Let’s round out their anniversary celebration by joining in on a chat hosted by our own ~~Groovy~~ Commander Deb. She told me that she’ll be making a special announcement of some kind so make sure to tune in!

The Fiskateer Chatroom is here, and if you need to do a time conversion, click here: Time Zone Conversion

My CHA Skirts

Angela — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:06:10 +0000

Everyone has shared the skirts we made to wear to CHA but me. Remember that challenge? Rebecca’s new friend Karen at Studio E sent fabric for all the Leads to make into skirts to wear at CHA (thanks, Karen!). We had no rules- Rebecca just divided the fabric and sent it to us. When Rebecca and I checked into the hotel at CHA, she pulled out her TWO gorgeous skirts- 100% constructed by her WITH zippers (those are hard!) and then asked to see mine… Um. So here they are… One long thrift store skirt cut down with a panel of fabric sewn on the hem and embellished by 3 buttons and a scrapbooking brad (yes, a brad) and the second skirt (also a thrift store find) features one tiny little applique from another piece of gorgeous Studio E fabric and a little button. Rebecca’s reaction? She said, “So, basically you sewed a few buttons on a thrift store skirt?” No, Rebecca. I hot glued them on. Duh! (but I DID sew that panel on- thank goodness for my Fiskars Coastal- the pretty one- rotary cutter for helping me keep it straight!). I forgot to ask someone to take a good photo of me wearing it, though- if you have one, I’d love to add it here!

Rebecca is plotting some kind of revenge on me and my cheater sewing ways, though. She has a challenge in mind to set me straight during National Scrapbooking Month. I’m not sure what all the details are but I’ll need your help and I do know it has something to do with her guest chat with Kay Whitt tonight so make sure you set your alarm clocks to join in. Maybe you will find out some hints that will help me out. I have a feeling I’m not going to be allowed to use my trusty hot glue gun this time!