Friday, December 30, 2011

Lean on me...Mojo Monday challenge

In 8 days I will be having my technique night!  That means that I am working really hard now to find a "wow" technique and make a card using that technique.  Today I started looking around my craft room for ideas, and decided that I would use my new "Lean on me," stamp set and my new circle die.  I fell into a bit of a stump and thought I would look at some challenge blogs.   I decided that the challenge at  Mojo Monday would do very nicely.  I quickly set to work and this is what I came up with.
 Now, when I say I quickly went to work, I mean that, however, this card did not "quickly" come together.  I spent several hours trying to come up with the right combo of paper, stamp set, ink, colors, brads, ribbons.  It was a very hard card for me to do.  I have never done a scallop circle card, and really struggled with this one. 

As I was putting it together, I decided that I would just do the card and let it be what ever it became.  It ended up being a perfect card, but not for what I had initially set out to do.  I now still have to figure out a technique and a card to do for my Friday class, but as this card was coming together, I was thinking about my mom and my aunt who very suddenly passed away just days before Christmas.  (my aunt, not my mom).  I am very sad at our loss, but also worry about my mom, my aunt Janet was my moms younger sister, and one of her best friends.  She was always looking after my aunt, never letting go of the big sister role.   As I was trying to figure out which of my new stamp sets to use, I felt drawn to this "lean on me" stamp set, and as I  let everything come together, a beautiful card just emerged.  I will be sending this card to my mom tomorrow.  This stamp set reminds me of a picture I saw of my mom and my aunt when they were both very young.  I think it will be a perfect card to send to my mom just to let her know she's very loved.  Here's a closer picture of it.
I used the scallop circle die 113468 (IBC), the lean on me stamp set 122285 (C) and the 1 3/4 scallop circle punch (119854). (All in the IBC, Idea Book and Catalog.)  Then as a sneak peak for any of you who are not Stampin Up! demonstrators, I used several goodies from the sale-a-brations catalog.  I LOVE all of the FREE goodies Stampin Up! is offering this year during sale-a-brations.  If you don't know what that is please contact me, I would love to let you in on all the amazing details and goodies, and if you do, now is the time to sign up.  I've still got some open dates for workshops! 

As always thanks for stopping by!  I really love all of the kind words and support!  Thanks all!!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas Journal

This month has been crazy busy!  I wish I had thought to take pictures of everything I made, but as usual I was running behind on everything and barely got the last of the gifts handed out on Christmas Eve.   So here's the pictures I did take.
These are the poinsettias that I made for the cover of the Christmas journals.  For these I used all 3 of my different sized oval punches, (the large, small and scalloped).  I used real red cardstock punched out the different sizes, and then used some scissors to add shape to the petals, (except the scalloped edged ones).  I then painted them with the cherry cobbler dazzling details, and let them dry.  Then I glued them to a circle, added the brad in the center and whalla.  It looked awesome!  You can't see it in the picture, but they are sparkly and very pretty.




I used the new Cherry Cobbler dazzling details.  (coming out January 4) to add some sparkle, and the Antique brads from the main catalog.  (117273)  They are on pg. 198 and are $5.95 for 4 each of 5 designs.  Gorgeous brads!

 On the inside front cover the poem said, "The tree comes down, Christmas is past, Use this book, To make Memories last, Record special moments, maybe a picture or two, unpack it each year, and remember a new.
I found this idea on accident while looking for something else, but loved it and had to do it for some Christmas gifts.  You can find the tutorial and all the details here.  In her search bar type in Christmas journal and it should take you right to it. 

I'm sorry for the delay in getting this posted.  I thought I had set it to automatically post, but it didnt' work.  So this might be one of those amazing ideas you tweak for another occasion such as a baby's arrival, or a wedding, or just save it for Christmas to roll around again.  Either way, I thought it was too good not to share.   Thanks as always for stopping by!


Okay, here's the direct link to the instuctions for this project.  Sorry, I thought the above one would be easy to find, but it turns out you'd have to hunt for it.  Any other questions, please let me know and I'll get to them as soon as possible. 

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Packed for Dad

I have ordered a TON of stuff this month from Stampin' Up!  TONS!  So I decided that I have to try to make something using everything I have just gotten.  (not all at once though.)  I surfed the Internet today looking for blogs with challenges on them to help me get going.   I found a ton of them, but decided I would try the one at Pals Paper Art, you can find them by clicking this link.   http://www.palspaperarts.com/.  
I really struggle with masculine cards, so to really challenge myself I decided that I would use the sketch challenge and come up with a masculine card.

 Here's what I've used.  The "Packed for Dad stamp set. 125452 (It will be coming out in the new mini January 4.) 
Chocolate Chip paper 102128
 Island Indigo 122923
 More Mustard 100946
I used my brand new water color pencils 101879
the 1 3/4 circle punch, 119850
and the 1-3/4scallop circle punch. 119854

I of course had to use my big shot (113439) and add a little somethin to the Island indigo strip, so I used my square lattice embossing folder(119976).  I also used staz-on ink (101406), and the Island Indigo ink (122937). 

Oh, and almost forgot, I also used the  "Sprinkled Expressions"(125130) stamp set.  (It's also a sneak peak, this one from the Sale-A-Bration's catalog.)  In case you don't know what Sale-A-Brations is, with every $50 you spend, you get to pick something for FREE out of the sale-a-brations catalog.  (Going on January 24th-March 31st).  Great time to book your own show!  On top of all the great hostess perks, you get even more FREE goodies! (If your interested in booking a workshop, just scroll to the top of my blog, click on the "order stampin' up" button located on the right hand side and it will take you to my demo website where you can contact me, and get more info.

Stampin' Up! demonstrator site and online store

You've got to check out the Clearance Rack from Stampin' Up!  It's amazing.  Right now they have punches that are up to 80% off.  Remember, it's only while supplies last!   

Stampin' Up! demonstrator site and online store

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Stampin' Up! demonstrator site and online store

I am very excited to say that I now have my own web site where you can order right on line, see what events are coming up, and get ideas!  Stop on by and take a look!  Stampin' Up! demonstrator site and online store

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Chapstick holder

I am so stinkin excited!  I have been racking my brain on Christmas gifts, and what to make for weeks now.  I had a few ideas in mind, but wasn't sure how to go about making them.  So I decided to just type in to google one of my ideas.  "Chap stick holder."  There are a ton of ideas and tutorials out there, but  when I came across "Create! with Dee"s tutorial I knew this was the perfect one.  She was so simple to understand, and it was visual for me, and so much better than what I had in my mind.

Here's my version of her "Chap stick holder".
I used the new Cherry Cobbler scalloped ribbon, (124138), the Northern Hearts stamp set,(retired), and the Snow Swirled stamp set, (111690).  Dazzling diamonds (102023), the 3/4" circle punch, (119873), the NEW Simply Scored Scoring Tool, (122334), and retired DSP. 

I have to say that I LOVE our new scoring board.  I have the Martha Stewart one and there's no comparison.  The simply scored is so much smoother to use.  The stylus isn't moving from the grooves, and my lines are perfectly straight.  It's the best tool (other than the my Big Shot) that I have bought from Stampin Up!  If you'd like to order any of these products, leave me a message and I'll get right back to you! 

Thanks as always for stopping by!  I always love comments, and any feed back is always appreciated!  Oh, and before I forget, if your interested in the tutorial I used, you can find it here.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

As promised...

In my last post I mentioned that I would show the prizes that I had for my Advent Calendar event.  First let me say that it was a ton of work to put it all together, but it was so great to see the finished product in the gals hands.  They were so proud of what they had done, and they really did turn out amazing!  I was very excited about the entire thing.

Now, for my prizes.  I made some tile magnets using the retired "Define your life" stamp set.  I love that stamp set!  It was actually the one I picked for free when I signed up as a demonstrator.  So I'm glad that I could still use it.  I did bake my tiles for 30 minutes after stamping them up with Staz-on. (I read somewhere that sets the ink.)  Then the very next day I read that your not suppose to bake staz-on because of a harmful fume.  I'm not sure which is right,  so if you ladies know, let me know which is correct.  Thankfully no one was harmed.  (LOL). 



The next prize I did was a beautiful ribbon book mark.  I found that on Dawns website.  I LOVE HER!!!  She shows you how to make it, super simple!  You can find that here.
Next, I just made random Christmas tags.  I used all of my Christmas punches, the stocking punch, the ornament punch, and whatever else I found.  Here they are.

Super, super, simple little prizes.  I think everyone was excited with what they picked.  I wrapped them all up in little goodie baggies.

Super simple and fun!  If you haven't already seen my advent calendar, here's what that looked like too.

Cased it right out of the Mini catalog.  It was very time consuming the first time.  Having to write all the directions, measurements, colors, shapes.  Wow!  Anyhow, I love how it turned out, and I think the ladies all loved it too.  They really are cute! 

Well as always, thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Dryer sheet technique

So every month I have a technique class.  That means that I spend a ton of time looking around for a unique techique that I hope they haven't heard about.  Last night, I showed them the dryer sheet technique.  I think it went over pretty well, EXCEPT, the one time I had procrastinated all night to set up everyone showed up early.  Somehow FB put my event for 6:00 on some pages, and 7:00 on my page.  So other than not having everything out and ready for everyone to stamp, I think the technique went well, but I have learned a valuable lesson.  I won't procrastanate even if I think I have plenty of time.  (thankfully my club gals were really sweet about it.)

Anyway, here's the card that we did last night using a dryer sheet.
I used Old Olive cardstock, ribbon and ink.  White CS, versa mark, and silver embossing powder.  The stamp set is Snow Swirled.    First on the Old olive CS I stamped snowflakes using old olive ink.  Then you tie your ribbon around the card.  Next, using versa mark stamp your greeting, add silver embossing powder over it and emboss.  Then taking your white CS you stamp your image in Old Olive ink, get a glue stick and cover the entire piece of white cs with glue.  Next put your dryer sheet on top of it, smooth it out and either cut it down to fit, or as I did cut it down but leave enough to fold your sides down in back.  I think it gives it a more finished look if it's folded behind, but it looks nice cutting it down too.  Next, sprinkle on alot of dazzling diamons,  (I coverd my enitre white CS) and then shake it off.  The dazzling diamonds will stick to the glue and dryer sheet, and gives a very pretty sparkly effect.  I kinda thought it looked like snow.  (The really pretty one when it first snows, and you wake up to it when the sun is just shining, and nobody has walked on it.)  It made a beautiful christmas card. 

I would love to see what you come up with, send me your blogs, and I"ll add a link so others can see what else you can do with dryer sheets.  Thanks as always for stopping by!  Stay tuned for my post on the prizes I gave out for my Advent Calendar Event.  I think they all turned out super cute.

I also entered this card into a blog hop.  Take a look at all of these beautiful cards!  .