Wednesday, October 2, 2013

A little bit of Rag

I like to think of myself as an artistic and creative person all around. I will give most things a go. I'm not good at everything I try either. For example... my drawing & painting skills, are laughable. Other things I have tried out and found out I wasn't too bad at it afterall and continued to practise and become skilled in those areas. 

One artistic skill that you might not know about me, is I have been playing the piano for almost 20 years. I haven't had lessons for a good 10 years though, and that shows in my skills now-a-days because my playing is 'quite' rusty. But I can still sight read a little, so all is good in the world. 

I have a BEAUTIFUL piano. Here she is..


Growing up playing piano, I played all the typical pieces you hear kids playing. Once I hit high school, we moved house, and changed piano teachers. Our new piano teacher was young, and fabulous. She had some seriously awesome taste in music and knew how to pick some music that would kick my butt suited my flamboyant teenage personality. No more boring pieces coming from these fingers! 

One of my first well known pieces to master was Moonlight Sonata, which to this day I can still play as long as I have my sheet music in front of me. I used to think I was pretty special, but I wanted my next piece to have more "bounce". Oh boy, I got bounce alright. Have yourself a little listen to this...

(Courtesy of YouTube)


Believe it or not, I used to be able to play that. I will admit, I could never get the speed up to what he was playing at (and my version was ever so slightly different from what he played), but it certainly became my party trick!! 

Listening to that piece makes me miss my mad piano skills. I might just go have a bang on the old beauty tonight!

What is your hidden talent? I'd love to hear about it!


Christy

Monday, September 30, 2013

Winter Frost Inspiration

I love that Stampin' Up! brings out several designer series papers (DSP) in different colours & styles for Christmas. This year they have 2 different sets of DSP, one is Seasons of Style which has the traditional red, green & brown colours in it, and then there is Winter Frost!! This is my favourite set this year. It is silver/grey, aqua/turquoise. The DSP comes in a pack of 12 double sided sheets and they are 12" x 12". Something I love is that they also have the option of a Paper Stack, with both DSP's. It comes in a little rip off pack which is 11.4 x 16.5cm (perfect size for card fronts).


I asked my on Facebook page recently which was everyone's favourite DSP this year, and the clear winner was the 12" x 12" Winter Frost DSP. I too love it and have been starting to experiment with it. 

Project recipe below.

This is the card that we made at Ronda's Christmas Workshop a few Saturdays ago. I love it. Such a lovely combo of colours but as usual, the beautiful DSP is doing all the work here! I have used strips from the Winter Frost Paper Stack for this card. 

When I punched out the ornament from the gorgeous glimmer paper I couldn't throw it out. It is just too pretty and it seemed such a waste. 

Project recipe below.

So I made a matching envelope!!! How sweet does that look? I am loving it.

Project recipe below.
And here is my second card using this beautiful DSP. I CASE'd this card from the Holiday Catalogue, but did change it up a little and used what I had. I can't decide which card I like better, though. They are both so pretty, and so my style of card. 

Which one do you like best?


PROJECT RECIPES:

Christmas Wishes Card
DSP: Winter Frost DSP Stack (#132183), Silver Glimmer Paper (#124005)
Cardstock: Whisper White (#106549), Smoky Slate (#131291)
Ink: Island Indigo (#126986)
Stamp Set: Joy to the World (#131799)
Other: Christmas Ornament Punch (#132152), 2-1/2" Circle Punch (#120906), Whisper White 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon (#109070), Dimensionals (#104430), Glue Dots (#103683).

Envelope
Cardstock: Smoky Slate (#131291), Silver Glimmer Paper: (#124005)
Punches: Christmas Ornament Punch (#132152), 2-1/2" Circle Punch (#120906).

M is for Merry Card
DSP: Winter Frost DSP Stack (#132183)
Cardstock: Whisper White (#106549), Smoky Slate (#131291), Coastal Cabana (#131302)
Ink: Smoky Slate (#1131179), Coastal Cabana (#131175)
Stamp Sets: Occasions Alphabet (#123598), Evergreen (#127973)
Other: Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons (#127555), Whisper White Baker's Twine (#124262), Silver 1/8" Ribbon (#132137), Dimensionals (#104430), Glue Dots (#103683).



Christy