Wrappin' it up!

I always like to incorporate my stamping into my gift packaging when I can. This year for many of the women on my gift list I went to Bath & Body Shop and bought lotions, soaps and other products in my favorite scents and packaged them in stamped cello bags along with soft fuzzy slipper socks. Here is how they turned out.
Bath & Body Works gives the large cello bags if you ask for them. (they also gave me gift tags and ribbon printed with their name, but I opted to make my own tags and use wired ribbon) I stamped the entire cello bag, front & back, using White Stazon and the Serene Snowflakes stamp set. It doesn't show up the best in my photos, but I was really happy with the way they turned out. (click on pic for better view)
I also stamped some Ziploc containers and created matching tags for the cookie exchange party I hosted this past weekend. Again, I used White Stazon and the Serene Snowflakes stamp set to stamp on the plastic containers.To create the snowflake tags I stamped the image using White Craft ink onto Bordering Blue cardstock and embossed them using Winter Wonderland embossing powder. I punched them out using my 1-3/4" circle punch and adhered that to a scalloped circle cut from Shimmery White card stock using Nestibilities and my Big Shot. I finished off each tag with an adhesive backed rhinestone adhered to the center of the snowflake. Here's a photo of all the yummy cookies before we exchanged them.
I still have a few more gifts to wrap and some grocery shopping to do...so I better run! Have a wonderful day!

Bella Blue Dasher

Wow...here I am two days in a row! I feeling like I'm a little more caught up on Christmas things...shopping is done, most of the baking is done, my cards are sent...I don't know where the time went, but I didn't get as many Christmas cards made and sent as I usually do. Yesterday I showed you one of the designs I sent, this is one of the other designs that I made for our Christmas cards this year.
Dasher is embossed in Winter Wonderland EP on Shimmery White card stock so he looks so pretty & sparkly in real life. I dry embossed the background using my Big Shot and a snowflake texturz plate. On a few of the cards I even tried out my new toy...the Scallop Trim Border punch that will be available as a FREE selection during SAB starting next month. Since I was at crunch time trying to get these babies finished, I only used the punch on a few of the cards...but doesn't it add some nice detail? I'm going to love that punch! Here's close up view of the card.
Stamps: Dasher, Holiday Wishes
Card stock: Bordering Blue, Not Quite Navy, Shimmery White & Bella Blue DP
Ink: White Craft, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: Scallop Trim Border, Not Quite Navy brads, Snowflake punch (Martha S), Coluzzle, Texturz Plate, Winter Wonderland EP, Heat tool, Scallop Nesties

I got my shopping all done, but haven't wrapped one gift yet...so it's time for me to get busy wrapping! Have a wonderful day!

I'm a bad, bad blogger

Sorry it's been a while since I posted anything. I'm sure you can all relate as to how busy things get this time of year! With shopping, wrapping, baking, parties, etc...I never even posted the cards we made at my last class.

At my Christmas class the group made 9 cards - 3 each of each design plus the matchbox filled with tags. The ornament card using the Delightful Decorations stamp set had 3 different color schemes, shown below.
The middle card using the Bella Blue papers ended up being one of my Christmas cards this year. I'll show you the other card I sent out in my next post. Have a great day!

Lovely Oak in the Autumn Meadow

Well, if this tree was at my house it would have a dusting of snow on it! We got our first bit of snow here last night...makes me excited for a white Christmas! (that's about the only time I like snow...makes me wonder why I live in Michigan?!) Anyways...here's a quick card I made for a friend using one of my favorite stamps sets...I've had this one since I first became a demo five years ago. Each time SU! puts out it's list of retiring sets I hope it won't be included.
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Teenie Tiny Wishes
Ink: Basic Brown & various others to watercolor
Card stock: Not Quite Navy, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla and Autumn Meadows DP
Accessories: Texturz plate, Word Window & Modern Label punches

Have a wonderful weekend!

Razzleberry Kitty

I've been doing a lot of stamping, I just have not been too good about blogging lately. I've been busy working on Christmas cards, decking the halls and of course Christmas shopping...this is such a busy time of year! I took a break from Christmas cards to make this card for my Aunt who unfortunately lost her kitty cat last week. She was 16 years old, so that is a long life for a kitty. She was well taken care of and very spoiled so she had a good life. My Aunt took it pretty hard, but this card cheered her up a bit.
Stamps: Peace Within, Patterned Pines & Teenie Tiny Wishes
Card stock: Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White and Razzleberry Lemonade designer papers
Ink: Black Stazon, Rich Razzleberry and various inks for watercoloring
Accessories: Rich Razzleberry Polka dot grosgrain, Modern Label & Word Window Punches, Aqua painter

Thanks for stopping by...enjoy your day!

Thanksgiving Splendor

I'm just loving the easel cards I've been seeing all over on other blogs and SCS, so I decided to make another one...this time for Thanksgiving.
The More Mustard base is cut to 4 1/4" x 8" and then scored at 2" and 4" to create the easel stand for the 4-1/4 square card to be adhered to. I used the Bright Blessings Jumbo wheel inked in Really Rust for the base. I also used Autumn Splendor along with the coordinating papers - Autumn Meadows. I really love the colors and the distressed look to these papers...I took that a step further by also distressing the edges of all my layers with Chocolate Chip ink. For even more texture, I used one of my Texturz Plates that looks like tree bark on the Really Rust layers and paper pierced the edges of Chocolate Chip layers. The greeting is from Teeny Tiny Wishes cut with the Word Window Punch and layered on a Modern Label punch. Also used: Aqua painter, Button Latte, Chocolate Chip Grosgrain, Copper Vintage Brads (retired), Copper Cord (retired)

Here's a close up view.

Love the colors, paper and the stamps, but just don't have much time? Here's a card we did at my last card class which uses the same supplies, but is much simpler.
Have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!!!

Easel Card for a Friend

I created this 6x6 page using My Digital Studio (MDS) and then had it printed through Stampin' Up! I originally was going to put it in a frame and give it to my friend, but after searching for a 6x6 frame with no luck, I had to come up with something else. So I made it into an easel card.
I made the easel part of the card by cutting down a 12x12 piece of Baja Breeze textured card stock to 6x12 and then scoring it at 3" and 6". I used some of my favorite patterned papers which are now retired...Parisian Breeze. The only stamping on this card was the word friends shown inside the HPH Designer Label.

Since MDS uses some of the retired In Colors, like Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze, as shown on my layout, I pulled out some of the accessories I've been saving...Baja Breeze Corduroy Buttons, Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon & Baja Breeze Striped Grosgrain...I also used a chocolate chip flower button from the Button Latte pack. All of the "real"embellishmentss are used on the base of the easel card. The buttons and brads on the 6x6 layout are all digital...it's hard to tell, isn't it?
I'm going to have a lot of fun with this program! If you are interested in learning more about MDS, please contact me. I am now officially certified, or certifiable!? ;-) SU! just released several new digital downloads to use with MDS with a holiday theme. You can purchase these instantly from my demo website.

Well, need to run...I'm getting together later to celebrate my friends birthday (the reason for this card!) and I'm in charge of bringing the lasagna...so I need to get busy making it! Have a great weekend!

Bella Blue Patterned Pines

I've been loving the colors of the Bella Blue papers so here's another version of the card I shared on my last post.

As you can see, I just changed the stamp set, using the Level 1 Hostess set Patterned Pines. I inked the stamp with Not Quite Navy Craft ink and then embossed it with Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder. It has such a beautiful sparkly look in real life. I tried to capture that in my photo, but it made the color look a bit off. I guess you'll just have to pretend. ;-) The Corduroy Button is one of the Baja Breeze buttons I had left...I used some NQN ink and my aqua painter to darken it up a bit. The paper pieced scalloped background was made my punching out 6 scalloped squares with the Scallop Square Punch and trimming down the sides so they fit together nicely.

Have a wonderful day!

Double Delightful Decorations

This card was inspired by a scrapbook page shown on page 26 of the Holiday Mini. They used Bella Blue Designer papers cut with the scalloped square punch. I really hadn't noticed the papers before and I just loved the colors and patterns used for holiday/winter theme. I paired the paper with one of my fav new sets...Delightful Decorations.
I created this card with an upcoming card class in mind. However...I started adding too many details like the textured background using the Perfect Details Texturz plate, the paper piercing, and fussing with the cord, etc... I decided if I were to do this in a class, where they would be making several, I'd have to come up something a bit simpler. Also, I didn't have any SU! ribbon that worked with my design, so I also had to change my colors and work with what I had on hand. Here's the card that my class will be making tomorrow.

As you can see, I used the same stamps and idea, but totally changed the whole look of the project. The top one looks elegant and the bottom one looks fun & festive...I like them both and I hope you do too! Have a delightful day!

Christmas Cheer

I heard a heartbreaking story about an adorable five year old little boy who is in his last stages of a 2 1/2 year battle with cancer. This year his family is celebrating Christmas early, and Noah loves to receive cards, so I got busy and made him one I hope he will like. I just loved this old fashioned image of Santa and his reindeer from the instant I saw it.If you want to hear more about this story here is the link. If you would like to send Noah a card, here is his address:

Noah Biorkman
1141 Fountain View Circle,
South Lyon, MI 48178 USA

His family has asked that if you would like to, you can also include $1 inside Noah's card which they plan to donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and to U of M for Neuroblastoma research. They have already received thousands of cards and gifts from around the world.

I inked the stamp using my Colorbox petal point chalk inks (which SU! unfortunately retired several years ago.) These inks worked perfectly in that I could easily color the area on the stamp in the colors I wanted without it drying too quickly and then I could still watercolor the other areas without the ink bleeding like it would if I had just used my markers.

Stamps: Good Cheer, Christmas Punch (hostess set)
Card stock: Ruby Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip & The Write Stuff Specialty paper
Ink: Colorbox petal point chalk inks, Old Olive & various for water coloring
Accessories: Aqua painter, Boho Blossoms punch, Earth Elements brads, Chocolate Chip & Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, mat pack, piercing tool

Thanks for stopping by and if you send a card to Noah, thank you for that as well!

Happy Halloween!

I've been busy playing with Stampin' Up!'s new My Digital Studio program. I have a LOT of photos from our Halloween party from last weekend so I thought I'd make a scrapbook. Let me tell you...this is the quickest scrapbook I ever made! I learned quite a bit about the program as I went along...so it's been a fun learning experience.





I downloaded the Cast A Spell designer paper add on and used those for my background. I also used the Eat, Drink & Be Scary stamps on most pages as well. The cool part is that I could even add music...so turn on your speakers if you like Alice Cooper. ;-)


When uploading as a movie and viewing at such a small size, you lose a lot of the quality & detail of the original, so here are a few pages to get a better idea of what it looks like.



Have a fun & safe Halloween!

Autumn Thank You

Here's an Autumn thank you card made with the Bright Blessings jumbo wheel. I took the photo quickly before I popped it in the mail and the card is kind of at a weird angle...but you get the idea.
This was a quick and easy card to make. The hardest part was inking the wheel. All I did was roll it over my More Mustard ink pad and then just added additional color where I wanted it using my markers. The More Mustard background was dry embossed using one of the Texturz plates and my Big Shot, then I just sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip ink. A little paper piercing along the edge add some detail and a scrap of Autumn Meadows DP and some Old Olive Grosgrain ribbon added the finishing touch.

Thank you for stopping by...sorry I haven't been posting much lately or visiting any of your blogs, I've just been super busy! After this weekend things should slow down a bit for me, and hope to visit you soon.