Long Time Friend

Today is the birthday of a long time friend of mine. I thought this card was perfect to send her not just because of the name of the set, but also because she is really into gardening. I had to dig (no pun intended, ha!) into my stash of already stamped images from this set to find this one of the basket and pots because I didn't purchase this set. I know!...what was I thinking!? Long Time Friend is on my list of sets I should have purchased, but for some reason did not. Oh well, at least I have a few images left, plus I know a few people who probably wouldn't mind if I borrowed theirs. ;-) Anyways...I'm sure you didn't come here to listen to me whine, now did you?

There's not a whole lot to describe as far as how I created this card...just stamped the image with Basic Brown and watercolored with my re-inkers and aquapainter. I had a strip of designer paper left from the retired Spring Flowers collection that went perfect with the colors I used so I added that. Hey, it pays to re-organize the stamp area every so often...I found all sorts of good things I had forgotten about!

Stamps: Long Time Friend, Everyday Flexible Phrases, Fine Lace background
Ink: Basic Brown, Mellow Moss
Card stock: Mellow Moss, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Spring Flowers
Accessories: Pewter Hodge Podge, Mellow Moss grosgrain

Have a great day! I'll be busy making pies for tomorrows feast!

Festive Punch Pals and a Dashing Snowman

Here are the other half of the workshop projects I showcased at the mother/daughter workshop this past weekend. The 2nd card I did was using the cute snowman from Punch Pals and some of the Dashing designer paper. This is another quick and easy card, but with the use of punches and the designer paper it looks more detailed.

Tip: When water coloring snowmen, I have found that Soft Sky is the perfect color to add a bit of shading & shadowing on my snowmen. I feel just a hint of color adds that little detail and really finishes him off rather than leaving him plain white. Don't forget to add a bit of shadowing underneath him to ground him...we don't want floating snowmen!

A hostess gift to the mom half of the Mother/Daughter team was a Christmas version of card candy using Punch Pals & Festive Favorites. These two sets work so well together! I figured she could use the pieces on her scrapbook pages, cards or even on gifts if she chooses to. On this one I even stamped the cello bag with White Stazon snowflakes. I just got the white Stazon so I had to try it out, right?!

For the make & take project everyone had a choice between two styles of bag-a-lopes. I showed you the floral version yesterday, today I will show you the other choice. These were made using 6x9 catalog envelopes. First cut the flap off, then score on 3 sides at 1". (not on open end) Wheel with your design of choice, embellish and fold into shape. This is a fun project that can create all sizes of bags depending what size envelopes are used and how you cut and fold them. The past several years I have made lots of different bag-a-lopes at Christmas time for my Christmas cookies.

Have a great day!

Big Bold Polka Dot Birthday

I had a Mother/Daughter workshop over the weekend. Most of the daughters were little girls around 10 years old. They were so cute, and I had so much fun teaching them how to stamp! They were such an attentive audience and I could tell they really enjoyed the projects we did. One of the cards I demoed was this one using the Big Bold Birthday set. Of course I had to use pink and other bright colors since that's what most little girls like! (and some of us big girls too!) It was a nice change because I've been using mostly all Christmas colors the past few weeks.

This card was really quick and simple. The background polka dots (on the Regal Rose layer) were stamped in White Craft. The Turquoise layer is from the Petals & Paisleys designer paper pack, as well as the striped piece that I added in place of ribbon. The hardest part to this card was cutting out the candle! This is such an easy set to work with and it's great because it has so many pieces.

I gave my little hostess I pack of card candy I made using the set In the Spotlight. Since each piece is mounted on acetate using a pop dot or temporary adhesive, she can easily peel them off and use them in her scrapbook or on cards. I also made a pack of card candy for my grown up hostess as well. Hers was made using a combination of two of my favorite Christmas sets: Punch Pals and Festive Favorites. I'll share that and the other card I demoed at her workshop with you tomorrow.

For the make & take project, we wheeled envelopes and then I showed them how to fold them into a bag-a-lope. they got to choose between a bag with flowers or one with snowflakes. Both bags used the All Through the Year set. The bag with flowers used the matching wheel: Garden Annuals.

Have a great day!

My Festive Favorite

I've got a million projects going right now! It's like that for me every year at Christmas... hopefully I'll get most of them finished in time! Since I can't share any of my half completed projects, or things I created for upcoming classes, I'm going to show you one of my favorite cards I made last holiday season. Since I didn't have a blog last year, this card will be new to most people, right? Anyways... I think this is my favorite out of all the cards I've made with the Festive Favorites set so far. The tiny snowman tag is just too cute!

The background on the card was first stamped with Print Pattern inked in Artichoke for half of the card and then I stamped over the entire base with Linen inked in White Craft. I like the way this turned out.

Then I just stamped the main image in Stazon and colored away! Since these images are so tiny and fairly detailed, I found it easier to color using my blender pen and inks. I had a bit more control this way.

I need to get down to my rubber room and get busy!!! Have a great day!

Folded Wintergreen Tree

This is a fun project to use up some of your scraps of Double-sided Designer papers. I learned how to create this fold last year at a group meeting where a member of my downline explained how to do it after I said it looked way too complicated for me to figure out! Thanks for teaching me Jodie!

Doing this fold reminds me of making a cootie catcher (remember those?) or a paper airplane. I guess the correct name for this fold is the Water Bomb Base Fold. There is a diagram with instructions if you want to download it here. However, I found it easier to follow by this list of instructions rather than looking at the diagram.

Cut 4 squares of Designer Paper: 3", 2-½", 2", & 1-½"

Fold each piece as follows:

• Fold in half- open up
• Fold diagonal- open
• Fold diagonal other way- open up and lay flat
• Now fold in the sides so you have what looks like a triangle
• Fold left and right sides of the triangle in towards the middle
• Stack on top of each other to form a tree

For the stamping part of this project: I first stamped the Celery card stock with the Canvas background and then added snowflakes with one of the stamps from Snow Flurries inked in Celery and then filled in with the little snowflakes stamp from Punch pals inked in Artichoke. I layered the tree on Artichoke and Soft Sky card stock, added a bit of Artichoke grosgrain for the trunk and a cute little snowflake button for the tree topper.

Give it a try!

Wintergreen Notebook & Cute Flower Clips

Today I thought I would share some projects that can be created using some of the beautiful double-sided designer papers that are on special this month. Since these papers are so nice and heavy, they are great for altering a number of items. The little monogrammed notebook was covered in some of the Wintergreen paper. I think these are my favorite papers right now! I love the colors...they are suitable for the holidays, yet can be used for any occasion I think. I just brushed a thin layer of decoupage medium (I like Royal Coat) on the covers and laid my paper in place. It dries pretty quickly, so I was able to apply more decoupage medium on top of the paper. (I use a foam brush to apply the decoupage medium) This seals the paper and acts as a protective cover to guard against fingerprints and dirt...they can just be wiped away. I gave this little notebook and bag of goodies to the November hostess of my stamp club. I made these cute flower clips a while ago to give as a little treat to my stamp club group, but I kept forgetting! I finally remembered to give them out at this last club meeting. I punched out the flowers shapes when I was visiting with my upline one day...she has a Cuttlebug and I never tried one before. (I know...what rock have I been hiding under, right?!) Thanks Karman!

I used some plain, medium weight coasters and some of the monochromatic Prints Designer papers in Rose Red & So Saffron. I was able to easily punch a hole through the coasters using my crop-a-dile and then added a Rich Regal brad to the center of each one. I glued the largest flower layer onto the big clip and then added the other 2 with pop dots. A bit of Wild Wasabi double-stitched ribbon tied to the clip finished these off. Cute, huh? I've got several projects in the works right now using more of these beautiful papers. Will share more soon!

Thankful

With today being Veteran's Day, I thought the topic of being thankful is a good one. Along with with being thankful for all the brave veterans who have defended our country, and those who still are, there are many things to be thankful for in life! Of course family, friends, health & happiness would top my list, but I am also thankful for all the creative fun I have because of Stampin' Up! On Friday night I enjoyed the evening visiting and sharing my November projects with my hostess club group. Our November hostess treated us to some scrumptious snacks...fondue with both chocolate & cheese and a beautiful tray filled with goodies to dip plus a nice bottle of wine. Thank you Cheri!

We did this Thanksgiving scrapbook page with a cute paper pieced turkey and pumpkin made from the Pick a Petal set and different punches. I have been wanting to use the spiral punch to create a film strip mat for a series of small photos since I got this punch months ago...I finally remembered to use it on this page. This works great for scraps of cropped photos like the oak leaves and bowls of food I used on my strip. All I did was punch them out with my 1-3/8" square punch and they were ready to adhere to the mat.

We used a strip of the Creepy Crawly designer paper to create the border along the bottom and photo corners on the title. Since there are white stripes on this paper and I was using Vanilla card stock for the rest of the project it looked kind of out of place. I easily fixed that by distressing the paper with my favorite jumbo wheel: Rough Around the Edges. I inked it up in Creamy Caramel and went right over the printed paper to give it some texture. I also used it on the journal block and title after I was done stamping those. But I didn't stop there...I also used the wheel inked in Old Olive to texturize all the Old Olive card stock. I can't say enough about that wheel...love it!!! All the edges of the card stock and paper were then "aged" by using the direct to paper technique with the Earth Elements chalk ink pads (retired) or a Chocolate Chip craft spot. For me it's a lot easier handling either of those smaller inks to distress than it is a full sized pad.

Stamps: Pick a Petal, Trimtastic, Lovely as a Tree, Letterpress & Typeset alphabets, Rough Around the Edges jumbo wheel

Ink: Old Olive, Really Rust, More Mustard & Pumpkin Pie

Card stock: Old Olive, Really Rust, Very Vanilla, Creepy Crawly

Accessories: LOTS of punches! Artichoke grosgrain, Vintage brads, markers: Old Olive, More Mustard & Pumpkin Pie for journaling

The other project everyone did was a Christmas card using Lovely As A Tree. I was inspired by this beautiful card from a blog I visit regularly called Paper Pleasing Ideas. Julie is so talented and does beautiful work!

To created this card a reverse masking technique was used. First, a mask was cut out of a piece of scrap paper using the coluzzle and the oval template. After I cut the oval out of the center of my scrap paper, I used a bit of 2-way glue on the corners to hold it in place on my white card stock. Then I sponged inside the edges of the oval with Soft Sky ink leaving the center mostly white. Keeping the mask in place, I added the 3 trees inside the oval with Versamark. Then I used the poppin' pastels technique to make them soft and appear in the background. After I was done with this I removed my mask and stamped the last tree image and the sentiment (with the help of my stamp-a-ma-jig). This card just has a simple, elegant feel to it...I love it!
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Holidays & Wishes
Ink: Soft Sky, Versamark, Blue Bayou, Handsome Hunter
Card stock: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Whisper White
I need to run and getting busy on some Christmas cards for a class I'm doing. I need to get busy and make my own cards too! Enjoy your day!

Wintergreen Penguin

Brrr...it's cold outside this morning! It feels like penguin weather! I think I got spoiled with the gorgeous weather we had all through October, so these cold temps are a rude awakening to what we have in store for the next several months.


I just can't get enough of Punch Pals...especially this cute little penguin! This set is so much fun to stamp and color. I paired this set up with some of the Wintergreen Double-sided Designer Paper that is part of this months SU! special. I like being able to fold over the paper and have a different pattern show - like the stripe on the left of this card.


This is one of the cards we will be doing at my Christmas Card Class on Sunday. The shimmery white card stock I stamped the penguin images on is so pretty and nice to watercolor on.

Stamps:Punch Pals

Ink: Black Stazon, Sage Shadow, Soft Sky & Purely Pomegranate

Card stock: Shimmery White, Soft Sky & Purely Pomegranate, Wintergreen Double-sided Designer Paper

Accessories: Scallop, Ticket Corner, 1-3/8, 3/4" Circle Punches, Pomegranate Double Stitched Ribbon, Rhinestone Brad

Have a good day...stay warm!

Playing with my Punch Pals

I knew when I first saw this set in the new catalog I had to have it! Sad part is I haven't had much time to play with it yet...but so far I do know it is very versatile and fun to use. I love the snowman and penguin images the best. I made this card using the same colors and some left over sparkley paper I created after making my first punch pal card seen here. (The description of how I created the background with the Emboss Resist technique is also described in the post.) I saw a super cute card on SCS and that inspired the layout I used here. I thought it was so cute how she cut out the snowmans head and had it popped up in the middle of the "tis the season" stamp, so I just had to try that too.

Unfortunately the colors are a bit off because I photographed the card rather than scanning it. I had hoped the photo would show more of the sparkle from Irridescent Ice embossing powder I used for the background on the main image. I think this color combo is a bit different than what you would traditionally think of for Christmas colors, but I like it.

Stamps: Punch Pals, Bold Snowflakes Jumbo wheel

Card stock: Sage Shadow, Lovely Lilac, Bashful Blue & Glossy White

Ink: Black Stazon, White Craft, Lovely Lilac, VersaMark, various to watercolor

Accessories: Silver eyelets, Blue gingham ribbon, Vintage brads, Ticket Corner, Scallop, 1-3/8", 3/4", 1/2" circle punches, Aqua painter

Have a great day!

Happy Halloween!

I promise...this is the last Halloween oriented post I will be sharing here for a while (probably at least 11 months! ;-) This card uses the Autumn Apparitions set from the Holiday Mini catalog. It is so cute and easy to work with. I bought it for my Halloween invites...which I never got around to making! (I sent out e-vites instead...can you believe it?) ***hangs head in shame*** Oh well, I had so much going with the party etc...I had to cut out something to keep what left I have of my sanity. hehehe

I used Jan Tink's Bib Card instructions for the base of the card. However, to fit the whole scene, I had to go with a 5-1/4 x 5-1/4" sized card. I used the stamp-a-ma-jig to align the vine images on the side, and the moon is actually the pumpkin without the stem. When I was finished with the stamping of my scene I used my pastels to color in the background. I think I used every image from this set to create this card! (the Happy Halloween image is stamped inside) I also got out my beloved Cheese Cloth background (retired) for this one because it just screams Halloween.

I thought I'd share a couple photos that were taken at our party on Saturday, since I've gotten a few inquiries as to what I dressed up as. I was an evil witch (not too far of a stretch, eh?) that turned my prince charming husband into a frog. Doesn't he make a cute froggie?


Hope your day is filled with treats...and maybe a trick or two!

Thanksgiving Planner

I just noticed as I logged into my blog account today that my last post over the weekend was my 100th post! That is quite a milestone for someone who wasn't quite sure when starting out if I was going to keep this blog thing going or not! Actually some days I still don't know if it's the best use of my time, since it can get pretty time consuming by the time I photograph or scan the projects, transfer them to the computer, add the watermark and then take time to try and come up with something interesting to say, only to wonder if anyone actually looks at it. But then it makes my day when I log in to see I have a few nice comments now and then...so I guess some people are looking. So here goes post #101! :-)I'm really happy with the way this project turned out! My Mom plans and cooks THE BEST Thanksgiving dinner for the family each year, so I just knew she would love this! I started with a cheap-o school folder as the base for this planner and with the help of my stamps and embellishments, you would never know! The school folder works great because it has the pockets inside. Here is what it looks like opened up:

I added a card stock insert punched with the slit punch to hold the place cards. (a few extras had to be placed behind the card) I just found out over the weekend that I have to make another place card because my cousin is flying in from Vegas. It will be great to see her, so I'll gladly make another place card. Luckily I have a calligraphy pen that matches Really Rust almost perfectly, so I was able to coordinate the place cards well. I sure wish Stampin' Up! would sell calligraphy pens in a selection of SU! colors! I've been suggesting that since I've become a demo...maybe some day they will listen.

For the other pockets I just created a menu card, a covered shopping list pad and a giant paper clip for her to keep track of her coupons. (hopefully she is better at that than I am...I clip them occasionally, but never remember to use them until after they expire!)

See the napkin rings? Those are the only two I've made so far...I need to get on the ball and make the other ten...I've got 23 more days! Actually, I might forget the paper ring and glue the scalloped shape onto some mini grapevine wreaths I have. Just have to find where I stashed them and hope I have at least a dozen.

Stamps: Autumn Harvest, Trimtastic, Typeset Alphabet (lower) Print Pattern & Weathered backgrounds, Holidays & Wishes, Rough Around the Edges jumbo wheel

Card Stock: More Mustard, Old Olive, Really Rust and Very Vanilla

Inks: Black Stazon, More Mustard, Old Olive, Really Rust and Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Coluzzle, Punches: Ticket Corner, Slit, Scallop, 1-1/2" & 1-3/8" circle, Crop-A-Dile, Jumbo Pewter eyelets, Aqua painter


I gave this set to my Mom last week and she absolutely loved it! I plan to make some of these as Christmas organizers using Wintergreen or Dashing designer papers. I know I can use one to help keep me organized for shopping! I will be offering this as a class in November. If you are interested, please contact me.


Looks like another beautiful fall day...ENJOY!

Spooky Booquet

Last night was our Halloween party. We had a great time! As usual, everyone came up with some awesome costumes! Good thing we had ballots for everyone to choose their favorites, because we couldn't have decided on our own! Each year I like to make a little something to give the best costume winners. This year we gave out these Halloween Booquets. I think they turned out pretty cute, and they were simple to make. The bases are metal luminaries. I cut a piece of floral styrofoam to fit snug into the cup and on top of that I added some shredded paper found in the gift wrap section of Target. So that you don't see the styrofoam showing through the cut out face of the cat & jack-o-lantern, I just covered the opening with some card stock.

The suckers were easy to arrange since they already have a stick, and for the candy bars I just bought lollipop sticks in the baking/candy making section at Michael's and glued them onto the wrappers with tacky glue.
I decorated the Halloween suckers with punched out shapes from my much used Batty For You set. This set sure has gotten a work-out since I've gotten it! It's just so cute and easy to use...I LOVE it! I also tied a bit of Halloween ribbon onto the suckers. Isn't that ribbon cute? One of the ribbons has cats, moons & stars and the other one has ghosts, moons and bats. (found that at Michael's too)
Stamps: Batty For You, Autumn Apparitions (Boo stamp)Card stock: Basic Black, Only Orange, Summer Sun, Green Galore, and Marvelous Magenta - that color was retired a couple years ago, but fortunately I still had a couple sheets because it matched the paper shreds I used almost exactly.
Ink: Black Stazon
Accessories: 1", 1-1/4" & 1-3/8" circle punches, & scallop circle punch, plus other stuff mentioned above
I also thought I'd share a photo of the pumpkins we carved this year. Have a spooktacular evening!