A Gerbera Daisy

I made this gerbera daisy a couple of days ago out of DecoClay and looking over the photos, it is one that makes me happy! No special reason for posting, just thought you might enjoy it. Looking for Spring (even though it is mid-Feb).

I also thought with the tiffany blue background that this is a lovely colour combination for a spring/summer wedding....maybe a hairclip? or part of a cake topper?

There are so many uses for DecoClay flowers...in arrangements, home decor, scrapbooking and hair flowers! Enjoy.

Meeting Steven & Chris at CBC

Last Friday I received an invitation to see the taping of an episode of the "Steven & Chris" show at the CBC downtown Toronto. Not ever wanting to pass up the chance to go to the 416 area code, I jumped at the chance! Lisa (ScrapFest) and I ventured downtown and had great seats, lots of laughs and a new insight into television production!

We met up with some very fun and talented scrapbookers, Karen (Go Scrapping), Sheri & Judy (In A Pinch Designs), their friend Janet as well as Jackie (co-founder of Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine). What a great day - thanks ladies!

Steven and Chris are true pros who enjoy what they do, have an appreciation for their audience and put on a great show (in front of and off-camera). They allowed and encouraged photos at the breaks and they were gracious and accomodating!

If you are interested to see the episode (we are in the 2nd row, center for the audience shots) set your PVR for this episode of the Steven and Chris Show. It will air on Tuesday February 17, 2009 at 2PM on the CBC. Be sure to check it out...

ScrapFest - Registration is OPEN

I am very excited to announce that the registration is now OPEN for ScrapFest! Visit http://www.scrapfest.ca/ for details. Look under registration, classes, teachers (then my photo) to see my workshop details - I hope you can join me on Sat April 18th in Kitchener, Ontario!

We'll learn the basics about custom-tinting DecoClay and creating fabulous embellishments for greeting cards and scrapbook pages. While the pieces air-dry we will make greeting cards and tags with some of the prettiest patterned paper and embellishments by Melissa Frances. Imagine these everlasting embellishments on greeting cards & layouts to showcase the ultimate in tactile embellishments! DecoClay is a product that can enhance the hand-designed elements of your card making techniques and scrapbook pages.

Happy Birthday to my friend, Kim! I wanted to make some greeting cards to give, but was a little short on time. I have a few wedding invitation orders underway, so I did not want to jeopardize their timeline...yet needed to find time to do both.

Here is my idea...I found some pre-made greeting cards with a graphic black and white stylized floral design. I usually MAKE my greeting cards from cardstock, however these would be perfect for my fashionable friend, so I gave each of them a bit of bling!

Using stickles, prima flowers, ribbon, rub-ons, crystals and chipboard in various colours, I was able to make some 'one of a kind' card designs, eight in total, but I only photographed six. Each is printed inside with a sentiment - I hope Kim sends them all out to her family and friends! Maybe you'll get one! ;)

Happy New Year Everyone!
I am making the committment to 'blog more often'...so today is the start! The wintry COLD weather (currently MINUS 22 degrees) we are having here in Ontario, Canada, has inspired me to get working on some Spring flowers to warm things up a bit! After the Christmas clay arrangements and decor got packed away, the house looked like it needed a bit of colour!

Here is a vignette of clay flowers that I hope will make you feel that Spring is coming. I will soon be making them into an arrangement for sale, but thought they made a nice photo. Later today, I will be working on some Valentine's inspired flowers.

Finished Christmas Arrangements

Sorry I have been missing in action - there has been a lot of work going on in the studio! Here are a couple of finished arrangements made with hand-designed flowers (DecoClay), some very realistic looking greenery (from Michaels) and some ceramic latte and compote bowls - very elegant pieces for Christmas! Another fashionable look for the holidays is to wear a clay hair flower with an updo - I have recently delivered an assortment of hair flowers to a local hair salon...gardenias and orchids!

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with one of Toronto's Best Wedding Planners - more to come on that later.

In the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of meeting a young couple who will be getting married in the summer of 2009 and another couple who are planning a destination wedding for late spring 2010. As their invitation designs come along, I may post them (with permission). If you are recently engaged - Congratulations! I am booking appointments for 2009 or 2010 wedding invitations and flower arrangements.

Work in Progress

This week I have been busy making some festive holiday clay flowers!

Christmas-white amaryllis (still needs centers), deep red roses, holiday red poinsettias as well as some elegant off-white gardenias. As I laid them out on the worktable today with some of the ornamental fillers, cranberry red bowl and life-like greenery garland, they took on a very pleasing Christmas look - so I had to take a photo. It is very cold here today, but the sunshine is gleaming in - perfect for taking some good, detailed photos!

This is certainly not a finished piece, but often my customers ask where I get my inspiration for design. Here is a perfect example of 'work in progress' whereby I look at the pieces (of paper, ribbon or clay) and they somehow magically seem to configure themselves. I will finish up some arrangements and post them...as soon as they are ready 'for their close-up'!