Holiday goodies

So here are some great little holiday treats I worked on for the craft shows I did over the past couple of months. These are super cute and easy ideas that anyone can do.

These were made mostly with punches. The ornaments are really easy to put together. The problem is being able to find peppermint patties in the foil paper wrapping and not the plastic wrappers.

Rudolph was made with:

Soft Suede and Crumb Cake card stock

Ovals #2 die (use the 2nd largest oval)

Scribble Swirls sizzlit die

wiggle eyes and red pom poms

The Angel was made with:

Whisper White, Blushing Bride and So Saffron card stock

Butterfly Wings Bigs XL die

Scallop Circle and 1 3/8" Circle punch

wiggle eyes

Blushing Bride Stampin' Write marker

Snowman was made with:

Whisper White, Basic Black and Poppy Parade card stock

1 3/4" circle, Word window, Modern Label Extra Large and 1 3/8" Square Extra Large punch

wiggle eyes and orange pom poms

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you've been inspired to try holiday punch art.

Original Treat box sample

So here is the last installment of my treat box samples. I am sure by now you are probably a little bored with looking at these. Not to despair. I will be back tomorrow with a whole new series of great little projects that you too can create.

For today I have the original box and tag that I came up with for my most recent workshop. Again once you have the base for the idea you can let your imagination run wild and come up with just about anything and everything you can think of.

Take a look and see:

Have you fallen in love with

the paper from the Deck the Halls Designer series yet? If you have and would like to order some make sure you do so before January 3rd.

So this is the two of them side by side. They go so well together. If you haven't also noticed by now I love things that look aged or antique. It's a far cry from where I was many years ago. I hadn't found the look of antique to be inspiring. Maybe it could just be I hadn't been shown the right technique yet.

This is the tag I came up with. As you might be able to see I decided to cut out the medallion stamp from the Day of Gratitude stamp set out instead to give the project a little lift. It is probably a little more layered than it should be, especially for the little pocket I need to squeeze it into. I used the rock and roll technique on the medallion in Always Artichoke and Soft Suede for the edges. I also sponged the edges of the medallion in Soft Suede after I cut it out.

Products used on box:

Soft Suede textured card stock and Deck the Halls Designer Series Paper

Products used on tag:

Naturals Ivory and Always Artichoke card stock

Always Artichoke, Soft Suede and Cherry Cobbler ink, Chocolate Chip ink for antique edging of tag.

Day of Gratitude and Grateful Greetings stamp sets

Linen Thread

Deck the Halls big designer buttons

scallop circle punch

Antique Brass jumbo eyelet

Victoria 5/8" crochet trim

Thanks again for stopping by.

Christmas Treat box tag and sample

Here is yet another sample that I made for that great treat box. I love the holidays. I grew up not celebrating them, that's not really why I love them. To me they symbolize being together with my loved ones and ones near and dear to my heart that I don't get tosee often.

Anyway here is another christmas sample. Hope you like it.

As you can see this time around I didn't cover up Hershey's nuggets. Instead I put 5 of one of my favorite holiday candies (peppermint puffs) in the treat box instead.

Here's a close up of the tag.

Products used on treat box:

Cherry Cobbler card stock and Deck the Halls Designer series paper.

Products used on tag:

More Mustard and Naturals Ivory card stock (if you haven't noticed by now I love this particular card stock a lot, especially for the base of a project)

Stazon ink

Versamarker

Stampin' pastels in cherry cobbler, bravo burgundy, more mustard and always artichoke

Antique Brass jumbo eyelet

Victoria 5/8" crochet trim

Soft Suede classic ink for tag edges

Bitty Buttons

Linen Thread

Thanks again for stopping by. Tune in tomorrow for another sample of this great box.

Thanksgiving Treat Card sample

So while I was in the process of designing the project for my workshop I wanted to also come up with different ideas to help inspire people with what we made. So here is a Thanksgiving design I came up with.

Products used on box:

Chocolate Chip card stock and Autumn Spice Designer Series Paper

Products used on tag:

More Mustard and Old Olive Stampin' Write marker

Cherry Cobbler and Soft Suede classic ink

2 x 1 3/8 Oval Extra Large punch

Victoria 5/8" crochet trim

Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelet

Come back tomorrow and see another sample of this great box.

Workshop fun

I demonstrated for my first workshop in months this past Thursday. My hostess had never been to a Stampin' Up! workshop before so she was extremely excited to see what we have to offer. I demonstrated how to create a quick and easy hand sanitizer gift. The finished product was similar to the one displayed here:

This little cutie holds a mini hand sanitizer. Since it was a cupcake scented sanitizer I thought why not put a cupcake on the front of the box. These hand sanitizers come from Bath and Body Works. Cute huh? I first learned how to make these from my upline and good friend Kimberly's blog.

Supplies used for hand sanitizer:

Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler and Pretty in Pink card stock

1/8" Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon

Sizzix Embossing Folders Square Lattice and Perfect Polka Dots

After demonstrating this little gem to give to my hostess we began working on the project of the evening. I found the idea for this at Splitcoaststampers.com. It was a featured project and I thought it was really cute. It incorporated both a 3-D design and card-making. I modified the original pattern a little bit and here is what we made:

The box on the side holds 5 Herhey's nuggets perfectly. The pocket on the right makes a good spot to hold a gift tag. What a great gift to give to a teacher, co-worker, or someone special. I am picturing these as thank you's for wedding, birthday, anniversary party etc. as well. The tag below fits nicely into the pocket and you can still write a little note on the backside.

I have a couple of other designs of this box and will post those soon.

Supplies used for treat box:

Soft Suede card stock

Deck the Halls designer series paper

Supplies used for tag:

Naturals Ivory and Always Artichoke card stock

Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede and Always Artichoke classic ink

Cherry Cobbler Big Designer Button from the Deck the Halls set

Victoria 5/8" crochet trim

Antique Brass Jumbo eyelet

Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas Card Crank

Were you one of the lucky few to participate in my most recent Christmas card crank? If you were I hope you enjoy your cards and I hope the recipients of these cards enjoy them as well. If you were unable to attend here's a look at what you missed.

For this first card I wanted to utilize some new fun products that we are offering in our current holiday mini catalog.

On this card I really wanted to make it look more like something from an older era so I gave it a more vintage/antique look to it.

This card was my original sample card used for this years Stampin; for a Cure before I changed it up to the one we used this year. I couldn't see letting a good design go to waste.

On this last card I used my favorite stamp that was introduced in last years Idea book and catalog. I was also trying to go for a more antiqued look but I also wanted to play around a little more with a lighter sponging technique. Unfortunately that doesn't convey well in the photo but it looks like the aurora borealis up close.

For card #1 I used Pacific Point Blue, Basic Gray and Whisper White card stock and Whisper White Craft ink.

Also used: Northern Trim Letterpress plate (120982)

Tags til Christmas (121169)**

Northern Hearts Hostess Level 1 (121145) **

Four the Holidays (116921)

Basic Rhinestones (119246)

Whisper White embossing powder (109132)

Scallop edge border (119882)

For card #2 I used Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and and Naturals Ivory card stock. I used Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive Stampin' Write markers. Shimmer mist (made from Frost white shimmer paint, 116854, mixed with 70% rubbing alcohol)

Also used: Four the Holidays (116921)

Northern Hearts Hostess Level 1 (121145) **

Old Olive 1 1/4" striped grosgrain ribbon (115618)

Top Note Die (113463)

Word Window punch (119857)

Northern Flurry embossing folder (120902)

Victoria Crochet trim (118481)

Basic Pearls (119247)

Card #3 uses Night of Navy, Crumb Cake, Whisper White and Marina Mist card stock and inks used are Marina Mist, Night of Navy and Crumb Cake. Shimmer mist (made from Frost white shimmer paint, 116854, mixed with 70% rubbing alcohol)

Also used: Serene Snowflakes (115483)

Four the Holidays (116921)

Silver Waffle Paper Assortment 1 (120984)

Dotted Scallop Ribbon punch (119275)

Snowflakes set #2 sizzlits dies (113449)

Scallop Squares Duo die (120903)

For card #4 I used Early Espresso, Naturals Ivory, Poppy Parade and Certainly Celery card stock.

Also used: Gold Waffle Paper Assortment 1 (120984)

Dotted Scallop Ribbon punch (119275)

Dasher (116816)

Four the Holidays (116921)

Basic Rhinestones (119246)

Victoria Crochet trim (118481)

Dazzling Diamonds glitter (102023)

** Indicates product code for Clear Mount stamp sets.

If you missed out on this one, don't miss out on the next one. Hope to see you then. Please don't forget to check out my new schedule of events for November and December. I hope you get to make it to at least one of my events and please always remember that if you see something on the schedule and it doesn't fit your busy schedule, contact me and I'd be happy to work out something that works better for you.

One design, three different cards

It's been awhile since I've been able to update. I managed to misplace my camera bag with the USB cable. I always manage to carry my camera around with me but I don't keep the USB cable attached to it. Needless to say I finally found it, buried underneath my craft bag thathadn't moved in about 2 weeks. Oops!

As I'd mentioned in my last post I had signed up to do quite a few swapsthat were all due in a 2 1/2 week period. Each swap was different and the participants averaged about a dozen each so needless to say I had to come up with 3 different designs and I had to pop them out quickly.

This is the second swap card that I came up with. The theme forour shoebox swap was "Get well or Halloween." I chose a "Get Well" card and tried to make it more of a masculine type of card. I don't have a copy of my original card but here is a similar version of the card:

I used sponge daubers to create the blue hues on the card. My flash was too bright so the card looks like it could be daytime. However it's much darker in person so it was meant to look more like it was night time and the yellow is supposed to be the moon but in this it looks like the sun.

The stamps come from Teeny Tiny Wishes (115370) and Just Believe (120453*) I also use the square lattice texturz impressions folder (119976), Daffodil Delight 1 1/4" Striped Grosgrain ribbon (119770) and a button from our Neutrals Designer Buttons (119743)

Here are the other two cards. As you can see the main part of the card stayed the same. The ribbons were changed up. On the second card I used Marina Mist 1 1/4" Striped Grosgrain ribbon (119772) The buttons come from our new Deck the Halls (121002) and Candy Cane (121718) Big Designer Buttons. I love these things. They are really nice. I am hoping we continue to offer these.

Thank you for stopping by I will update my swap from the new holiday mini catalog in my next blog and then after that I will update about Stampin' for a Cure 2010. Till next time. Happy Stamping to you.

Inspiration for swaps

So I have been looking around for inspiration for swaps. I'm not color challenged, I do love to play with color. Sometimes I'll use home decor as a way to find colors to put together when I am trying to come up with a project. For several months now I've been thinking of testing out a color combination that was inspired by a friend of ours. Their bathroom has this really distinct look to it. I love the walls in their deep mustard color and the towels in the brown and red that they use. I stored that combination in my head till recently.

I had to do a swap using a stamp set from our new catalog. Normally I would use stamps from multiple sets because there are so many that work well together, but this time around I chose to use a set that I absolutely love . It's called Notably Ornate (120561 Please note this is the product code for clear mount)

Here is what I came up with. Hope you enjoy.

As you can see I used a red, Cherry Cobbler to be exact. I have my brown in there as well, I went with Early Espresso for it's deep brown tones and of course I used More Mustard. I used the crumpled and color technique that I love to add more color to the paper. It also gives it a slightly more aged and worn look.

The note section of was stamped in Early Espresso onto Naturals Ivory paper. I just can't get enough of this paper. It looks like it was made from recycled fibers so you can see the natural spots throughout the paper. I then stenciled using the Elegant Trio stencil (118262) I love this stencil. This was the first time I've been able to use it, I sort of misplaced it for awhile. I sponged the entire stencil in More Mustard and then went around the edges and used Cherry Cobbler. This color is simply a must have. I am not a huge fan of reds, but this one is a very nice red to use. I tore the edges around the note stamp, distressed it some using the distressing tool, it comes with our Cutter Kit (106958) If you don't have one you could get by with using your nail to rough up the edges, though it won't give you the same look. Afterwards I took and rubbed the edges directly into the Early Espresso Ink pad to make the edges look almost as if they had been singed and this was all that was left of a larger document. I used the oval stamp from the set and stamped that into Early Espresso onto the Naturals Ivory then cut around the edge. I then punched out in Early Espresso the Extra Large Oval punch. I mounted the stamped part using Stampin' dimensionals to give it some pop and then took snail adhesive around the bottom of the Early Espresso oval so I could attach the Chantilly Crochet Trim (118480) Then I stamped in Cherry Cobbler with the Just Because stamp and stamped that onto Naturals Ivory. I punched it out using the Modern Label punch (119849) Then I sponged the edges with more mustard. That was placed over the center to cover up the lines on the oval stamp and I popped those up as well. To finish it off I used the flower punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack (118309) and pushed a vintage trinkets brad (118764) through the center. I pinched the edges of the brads back to the center and popped up using a mini glue dot (103683)

You would think I was stuck in a time warp right? Wait till I show you my next swap. I wanted to a Get Well card and thought of doing a slightly more masculine card. I'll post that one soon.

Hope you enjoy your day or evening, wherever you may be. Till next time. Happy Stamping.

Monogram Matchbox

Oops I think i may have skipped a day. You'll have to forgive me. The past day and half has been rather hectic and today was no exception. I was up till 2 working on a few things and spending some quiet time watching some tv with my hubby. Our 2 oldest daughters started back at school today. Our oldest is in the 8th grade and our middle daughter is in the first grade. Our baby starts school tomorrow and she'll be in Kindergarten. I am looking forward to a quiet house and the freedoms and responsibilities that come with that alone time. For one thing I can focus on my business more and I can get out and meet more people, especially people of the adult variety. Of course the house should be a lot easier to maintain since I won't have kids in the house all hours of the day.

For today's project I used the Matchbox die. I think it is a really nice die to own. I've created cute little party favors using them, not to mention that when it first came out it was during our 2009 spring mini catalog period and it was so close to Easter. I came up with a little bunny and chick that stood up. I suppose I could have filled them with candy but they were just really cute when they stood up.



I used Crumb Cake card stock for the drawer part of the matchbox. The lid part was cut out from the new Love Letter Designer Series Paper (DSP) 117162. I used the Victoria Crochet Trim(18481) to tie a bow around the lid. then I decided it needed something. So of course I reached into my new Neutrals designer buttons (119743) and grabbed an Early Espresso one. I tied it up using linen thread (104199) and then I used the 1 1/4" circle punch (119861) to cut out a piece of Early Espresso card stock. Then I stamped in Riding Hood Red Classic ink onto Naturals Ivory card stock using the Monogram Sweet (115462) Of course I had to use an S for my initial because at the time I had no idea what other letter to use. I punched that out using the 1" circle punch (119868) Then I punched a hole through both using the crop-a-dile (108362) then finished it off using the linen thread that had been pulled through the button. So simple.

Of course the matchbox couldn't be left empty now could it? Of course not!

.

I used some leftover scrap from the Love Letter DSP and wrapped it around 2 pieces of Ghiradelli chocolate squares, you can also use Hershey's squares since they're the same size. I tied it up in a little bow and stuck it in the box. I didn't realize till now that the candies are upside down so you can't see the little bow, but you get the idea.

Getting back to the outside of the box itself. I was tired of doing all of my projects with only the neutral colored crochet trim so I pulled out my new Early Espresso Stampin' Write marker (119680) I rubbed the marker along the crochet trim to give it some color. You can still see some of the neutral underneath but I think it added to the project some.

Thanks for stopping by today. Tomorrow I hope to finish off this series with a card that I came up with as well. Till then Happy Stamping!

Vintage Two tags gift tag holder

Continuing on with my vintage/antique demonstration projects here is another one. The idea came from a design by Jacque Craig of Craft Project Central. I did a project similar to this one last year that was designed by my up line Kimberly Van Diepen. Papers and colors used have been changed up as much of the product used in the original piece has been retired.

So here is my creation. Hope you like it.




The base of the project is done in Early Espresso, my new favorite neutral color, besides Chocolate Chip and Soft Suede. I used some of the Love Letter DSP (117162) I fell in love with this sheet of paper before I could even order it. The paper itself was pretty bland but I love the fact that I can stamp on it to add color and dimension to it. I used the flowers from the Razzle Dazzle set (116714). I inked it first in Riding Hood Red and used the rock and roll technique to ink it up in Basic Black ink. I stamped it 4 times in each of the 4 corners and after I was done with that I took the Crumb Cake ink pad and dragged it across the paper to achieve the desired aged look that I was looking for. After I mounted it onto Basic Black card stock and then added the flip side of the DSP in the hounds tooth pattern and applied it about an inch from the bottom. The top was tied off with Victoria Crochet Trim (118481) and added one of our Vintage Trinkets safety pins (118764) into the knot.

Here is the scallop part of the box front up close:




I punched out the scallop circle in basic black and attached a 1 3/4" circle punched out of Riding Hood Red on top. Then I colored in the circle stamp from Matchbox Messages (113800) using Riding Hood Red and Crumb Cake Stampin' Write markers and stamped it onto Naturals Ivory card stock then I punched it out using the 1 1/4" circle punch. When I had that part assembled I flipped the scallop circle over and use snail on the back to create the ruffled edge around it using the Victoria (118481) Crochet Trim. I love our new Crochet trim. They are absolutely fantastic.

These are the tags that go into the bag:

The originals are kind of plain since I didn't use the aging technique on the scalloped tags before I put them together. I demonstrated these at our meeting on Saturday though and decided that I would age those. They turned out much better. I find there is a bigger difference in taking a sponge to ink up a project then to use an actual ink pad on the project instead. If you haven't already tried it I recommend it the next time you stamp.

The tags are all cut from the Two Tags Bigz die (115954) I love this die it is super versatile and there is a lot you can do with it. I also used the Lots of Tags sizzlits die (114508) after stamping out the greetings from Matchbox Messages (113800). I also used our pewter jumbo eyelets (108432) and more of the Victoria Crochet Trim.

Hope you enjoyed. Till next time, happy stamping.

Jewelry from Stampin' Up! brads?

Yes you read right. The title is not a mistake. I have some really talented friends who are not only great with stamps but great with making Jewelry using Stampin' Up! products. When our new catalog came out and I saw our new Antique brads (117273) I just had to make some jewelry with it. I am not a jewelry maker but I figure it couldn't be too hard especially since I knew what I wanted to use. I used the three larger brads from the set of five styles. We don't sell links to make chains out of or clasps so I did use some non Stampin' Up! product on this but I still think it came out pretty good. I think this would look pretty good if it were longer and made into a chain belt. :)



Here is a close up of the brad designs. They are really nice I love them and they look great on paper too but it was nice to try them for something else too.



Thanks for stopping by again. Till tomorrow. Happy Stamping friends.

Notably Ornate Antique Box

Did I mention how much I enjoy making boxes out of paper? I'm sure I have and this is no different. Remember my Monkey's box that I made for my friend? Well during the process of putting the measurements together, which were done in my head and not on paper, I realized after I put it together that I hadn't measured right. Needless to say after all the work of putting it together I now I had a box that was too small for what I needed it for. I put it off to the side and figured eventually I would need it for something or other. Well the something or other came up on Thursday. I decided to work with the blank canvas I had in front of me and this is what I came up with.



I think maybe I went a little crazy but it looks pretty old to me don't you think so too? I used the new Notably Ornate stamp set for this box. So the base of the box was made using Crumb Cake, for those of you who have been with Stampin' Up! for a long time, this is the new name for Kraft. I used Early Espresso and ran it through the Big Shot using the Perfect Details Texturz Plate (115962) Next I used our new Crochet Trim, this one is called Victoria (118481) to tie a bow in the upper right hand corner. The bow was just too plain so I found one of our new Early Espresso Designer Buttons from our new Neutrals collection (119743) and tied it up with some linen thread (104199). Of course I couldn't seem to stop there it seemed like it was still missing something. So then I decided I wanted to use some of our new Vintage Trinkets (118764) I used one of each of the colors of safety pins. Here is a closer view of what the finished section looks like:



Next I took some of our new Marina mist paper and gently started to crumple it up to break down the fibers so I could roll it up into a ball without actually tearing the paper. When I was satisfied with it I took the wadded up ball and rubbed it around first in Marina Mist classic ink and then rolled it around in some Night of Navy. What you can't see from the photo is how those colors were picked up by the paper. Only a little of it actually shows up in the final product. When I was done I unrolled the paper and flattened it up some by rolling it through the Big Shot. If you make the standard Big Shot sandwich, but without the paper inside you can put the paper on top and roll it through. It helps to flatten out whatever you're working on. In this case because the fibers were stretched out the paper had little ripples in the edges so it was perfect when I went back in to crumple it up along the edges of the paper. Then it came down to the corners and they were starting to open up so I decided to curl the top layer up into itself and curl the bottom layer down repeating the same process. Next I stamped the note paper stamp in Marina Mist, did a sort of rock and roll into Night of Navy and then very lightly rubbed Early Espresso around the edges and then stamped that onto Naturals Ivory paper. I love the Naturals line of paper because you can see all the tiny flecks of color in them. Next I took the Crumb Cake ink pad and rubbed it across the paper till I achieved the desired aged affect. I slowly tore along the edges to make it look worn and then rubbed them directly across the Early Espresso ink pad. It made it look almost as if the paper had been burned and this was all that was left.

Now for the bottom section I used the same rock and roll technique on the Take Note oval stamp from the set but omitted the step of adding Early Espresso to it. Next I rubbed Crumb Cake across the top to age it. Then I cut around the edge as close to the stamped image as possible and then used the Extra Large Oval punch to punch out a piece of Early Espresso then I matted the two together. It still didn't look finished though so then I took some of the Chantilly (118480) crochet trim and started to stick it to the back of of the oval creating a ruffled skirt around it. Now it looked done. This is a close up:



Lastly I wanted to add the bird from this fabulous stamp set to the project. The bird was rock and rolled in the same two colors and edged again in Early Espresso. I cut out the bird and then added one of the smaller of the new Basic Rhinestones (119246) for an eye. I popped it up and mounted it on the bottom left of the box like so:



Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed looking at this project, as much as i enjoyed creating it. I hope tonight I'll have the opportunity to post some more. Till then have a great day and Happy Stamping.

Been busy

Okay so I haven't been able to post recently. It was intentional as I've been working on projects for the Colorado Springs Stampers by the Sea and adoptees demonstrator meeting. It wasn't until today and I was asked to demonstrate our new vintage and antique accessories. I was also asked not to share any of what was created until after I had demonstrated these projects at today's meeting. It's been hard let me tell you. Here is the first of several of the projects that were created.

This project came from Michelle Ueligitone of Craft Project Central. I saw this little gem and was inspired by it. I had to tweak it to use paper from the current catalog. The paper for my design comes from the new Newsprint DSP (117166) The stamp set used on the top comes from the Vintage Vogue set (117690 wood mount) (118598 clear mount)














The top of the desk has a little plaque. This is a great little gift to give to your child's teacher or to someone who has inspired you or who you've learned from. The "gratitude definition comes from the Define your Life stamp set (114950) The flowers were colored in using both the new Poppy Parade and returning Riding Hood Red inks. The vine was stamped in Garden Green and the definition was stamped in the new Early Espresso.













The apple tops off the desk and comes from the Tart and Tangy stamp set (111514) The apple was colored in with a Riding Hood Red outline and Poppy Parade. When it was done I went back in and filled the seeds and the border between the apple and the skin.



















Thanks for stopping by. I will post more samples tomorrow so don't forget to come back and look for some more. Till then Happy Stamping and have a wonderful evening.

Monkey's on a box

So I told you I was busy with baby showers didn't I? I have another great friend that I've known since grade school and she and I found each other about a year ago and reconnected through Facebook. We found out we both moved from our small town in Hawaii to Colorado and we live about 76 miles away from each other. I offered to help her create unique baby shower announcements for her shower. I came up with a few samples for her to choose from and the final one was this made with the little monkey from Fox and Friends. I am so happy this set is not retiring and has made it into our new catalog. I thought I would make a box to put the cards in afterwards, just wanted to test out my box making skills a little more so here'swhat I came up with:

Just to customize them to the baby's room I asked her what the nursery looked like. She said it was more sophisticated with blues and browns. I love to use Bashful blue and since blue's and browns go well together I decided to use Soft Suede as well and very vanilla on the cards. I used the diamond patterned textures plate on the background and spritzed each sheet with shimmer mist before running it through the Big Shot. I finished it off with a few brads and stamped the greeting in Very Vanilla Craft ink.

Here is a close up of the box lid, I love these little monkeys.

I used the tree and leaves from another favorite stamp set, Season of Friendship. I stamped the trees down on the box first and then stamped them out again on Very Vanilla, cut them out and then popped them up over the other trees. The Old Olives Leaves were stamped directly over the trees on the box and then the leaves in Certainly Celery were individually stamped and cut out to be popped up onto the tree. After I was done placing the leaves where I wanted them I stamped the monkeys out in Soft Suede and cut each of them out as well. The banner was spritzed in shimmer mist after "rock-a-bye baby" was stamped on it using Soft Suede. This greeting comes from the retiring set Nursery Necessities. If you like this set you still have a few days to order it before it goes away forever.

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend and I will post some new ideas soon. Been working on some things for the Falcon Days/Falcon Festival being held 4th of July weekend on Saturday out here in Falcon just off Stapleton Road. Come stop by and say hello if you happen to be in this part of town. Come say hello to me and my friends.

Happy Stamping

Scrapbooking on canvas

So this is a fun technique I learned how to do . Instead of scrapbooking on a page that goes directly in to a book why not scrapbook directly onto a canvas instead. This is so much fun. It's super easy and the longest part of the whole thing is actually allowing for the paint to dry, pun intended.

I learned to make these from a fellow demonstrator and good friend Christy, who learned it from our fabulous upline Kimberly. I really have learned from the best and I am so grateful that I have been blessed to know both of them. We're bidding a fond farewell to Kimberly as she moves across the country. It is however not a forever goodbye but more an until we meet again goodbye.

I took this photo of my girls last year when we hiked up to the top of Seven Falls. It was a rainy day and the girls were drenched but I wanted to remember the beautiful hike we had up to the top and thought it would be perfect for this canvas. The paper is a retired paper in Red Riding Hood Red. The ribbon is our 1" double stitched chocolate chip grosgrain which is retiring on July 1. I haven't checked our last chance lists so it may already be gone. I tend to say goodbye to the last chance list iems when they are announced and will use only what I have left and won't buy anymore of that particular item, especially because I have never been disappointed when the new catalog comes out. The letter and circle were cut from long board chipboard pieces that we sell. Both were inked in craft inks and embossed with clear embossing powder. I used both Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip inks. I tied it off with linen thread through the bow so that it gives it a little motion and will dangle from the canvas. The stencil in the background comes from our Definitely Decorative home decor line and is Kind Thoughts Brocade (S) Item number 116572. Stencils add great definition to not only your walls but they look fabulous on cards and canvases alike.

I have another canvas class listed on my Stampin' Up! website for the month of July http://samanthamalchow.stampinup.net Check it out if you're interested.

Stamper's appreciation night

As promised here are the projects from my Appreciation stamp night. Mostly for my downline but also for a few other great stamping friends to come by and stamp with me. As well. The box design was inspired by a card I received from my upline Kimberly. I am sad she will be leaving us soon and moving on to DC. She has inspired me to do so much over these past 3 years and I love her for it.

So what you are looking at first is the cover/lid to the gift box. I used some of my favorite current products as well as colors since I will be saying good bye to Bermuda Bay shortly I thought I would use it on this project, as well as using Soft Suede and Crumb Cake (Kraft)

I used stamps from the new Summer Mini catalog. Elements of Style. It's a really pretty set. I also used the Fleur de Lis stencil from the Elegant Trio stencil found in our Definitively Decorative 2010 catalog. I love how stencils have been able to enhance my stamping experience even more. There are a few things I will point out, since I photographed this under less than perfect lighting conditions. For one thing the Fluer de Lis were first stenciled and then before removing the stencil I shot it coated it with shimmer mist. I used a paper towel to wipe off the excess from the stencil before lifting it off the project. Then I repeated it on the other s

ide. This gave it a less shimmer effect and allowed me to only shimmer the parts I wanted to. The second thing is that this first sample was spritzed with some gold glow smooch spritz and you can't see it very well. For the final project we decided to try Log cabin smoo

ch spritz as well as the gold glow. I think for future I would probably recommend just using the spritzing tool with soft suede instead. It's a little less messy. The last thing we decided to change on the finished box was that we used the new square lattice textured impressions folder on the Bermuda Bay scalloped strip at the bottom of the box. It matched what I had done to the card that came later in the design process.

The following three samples are of the cards we did to complete this boxed collection. I designed much of the color theme and c

ards around the box itself so that they'

d form a more cohesive unit.

So this first card is actually the hardest of the group because it uses a lot of tools and

embellishments.

I did the same technique again on this card w

here I used the Fluer de Lis stencil first in soft suede and spritzed over it with shimmer mist before blotting and lifting up the stencil.

I also used stamps from Elements of Style and a little stamp from the Charming stamp set. I used the sp

ritzing tool on this in soft suede. If you notice along the bottom of this one the Bermuda Bay scalloped st

rip was run through the square lattice textured impressions folder for just a little extra oomph that was needed.

This next card was inspired by another great demonstrator Jenny. I recently receive

d a card from her that inspired me to use a technique I haven't used in quite a few months. The Elements of Style stamp set is a great set to really show it off with too.

I stamped the flowers from Elements of Style in Versamark and then used Taken with Teal on the flowers and Certainly Celery for the leaves and stems. Next I sponged with Soft Suede. I didn't want to sponge only the edges I thought it would look better if I sponged all the way to the edge of the flowers to give it that really worn vintage look. For the hummingbird I used Bermuda Bay and used the Rock and Roll technique on the outer edges in Soft Suede. After cutting it out I went back in with a sponge and Soft Suede and added a little more to the edges to really make it look worn. The flowers

in the background behind the greeting were stamped in Bermuda Bay. I love how so many of our colors are so close that they all would work so well together.

This last card was another borrowed idea. Hey no one ever said I had to come up with ideas on my own.

I mad a card similar to this, with a lot less stamping involved, at Passport to Success. It was Kimberly's last big event she put on for us demonstrators.

So for this card I used a stencil from the new Mostly Vintage stencil set. Notice a trend here? Vintage is Tres Chic. I also used Elements of Style and dusted off my Heard from the Heart stamp set. I haven't used it in quite some time. I finished it off with some of our black satin ribbon. Yummy. If you notice it's a "no layer card".

Well thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy your evening and "Happy Stamping."

My new catalog and stamping goodies arrive tomorrow and I hope to have some new samples for you in my next blog post.

Boxed gifts

So did I ever mention how much I love paper crafting?

I finally had time to clear my head recently and really

concentrate on making boxes. I'd always have a moment when I'd try to calculate the measurements of the boxes I wanted to create in my head. They never came out right. So recently I decided to keep a notepad near my stamping area. This allowed me to write down measurements of what I wanted to box, figure out how tall I wantedthe box to be and to make calculations for cuts and score lines as necessary. Now I'd like to think I'm a pro at it.

My most recent samples are as follows:

This first box I made for my friend Angela's baby shower. It is one of the many gifts she'll receive from me that day. I thought that since I helped her create her baby shower invitations and for the sake of continuity that I would also help by making her Thank You cards for her. The baby room colors are in a light and darker plum color with a hint of green. We have both Perfect Plum, and Pale Plum (which after creating all these projects with) I am a little sad to see go. The Stamp sets used are Wedding Sweet, Dreams du Jour and Great Friend. I also used Certainly Celery ribbon. This particular ribbon was from last years Sale-a-bration and was free. I still have quite a bit of it leftover. I would have used my satin ribbon in the same color if I would have found it.

This second box is actually used to contain the 8' "It's a girl!" Banner that I designed for the shower. I will post photos of th

at when the shower is over. Right now I have no place to put the banner up so I can't photograph the whole thing in one shot.

So for this box I used the new Elements of Style Stamp Set from our summer mini catalog. If you don't have it you'll have to get it. I also used the Butterfly wings embosslits die that came out in the Spring mini catalog. You can still order this if you'd like. Spritzed with some shimmer mist and smooch spritz and added a few of our new bitty buttons to the butterflies and voila!

This last box top goes to a gift box I made for my daughter's Kindergarten teacher. I put a stamped nugget filled tin inside the box. I will post photos of those in another post.

The stamp sets I used were the new All a Flutter, single stamp from the new Summer mini catalog. Inspired by Nature and Flight of the Butterfly. Since I have a lot of our Designer series paper (DSP) left over I thought it would be a good idea to start using these scraps up so I can make room for new stuff. This is the Thoroughly Modern DSP. I used water color crayons to add color to the butterfly and used a blender pen to even the color out. I chose colors as close to the colors in the DSP as possible.

My daughter took it to school yesterday and gave it to her teacher. She loved it. My daughter came home and said her teacher said "Thank You." and gave her a big hug too. She was very happy that her gift was a success.

I will post the accompanying pieces to all of these boxes in future blogs so stay tuned.

Friday is also my Ladies Night Out appreciation night to say Thank You to all my stamping friends for their friendship over the past couple of years. I will post photos of those projects in my next blog. Stay Tuned.

How do you make simple look beautiful?

I love my upline. She's a great friend and a great mentor. She posted a challenge on her blog on Sunday to create a card using no layers. No layers means you can't use any other card stock than the piece you use for the base of your card. To most of us, this is simply unheard of. Here's her original challenge: Kimberly's Challenge I didn't do anything till Monday because i really had to think about this concept.

How do you make something pretty with just stamps and a piece of card stock? I gave myself an extra day to really think about it and here is what I came up with.

Now I really had to think about this one for awhile and the entire design of this card came together in my head. Originally i didn't know what kind of greeting I wanted to use but since my dad and stepmom's anniversary is coming up here pretty soon i thought i would make this card to give to them.

I think for someone just starting out in stamping, this is the perfect inspiration for them. There's so much you can do with very little. Maybe it helps that the stamp set I used is very versatile and you can come up with some really nice backgrounds using it. The circle stamps on the top all come from the Circle Circus stamp set. I versamark and white embossing powder on the larger circles. The medium circle was stamped in basic black craft (pigment) ink and for the smaller circle i used versamark for the tone on tone gray color. Basic gray was used for the base of the card and I tied it off using a ribbon slide from the silver hodge podge hardware and basic black satin ribbon. The greeting comes from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set.

Here's another one I came up with today.

The challenge didn't end there. I wanted to do something else. I don't know if I like this one as much as my first one but it's not bad.

I used Naturals Ivory card stock as the base of the card. I stamped the first flowers in Old Olive craft ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then masked off each of the flowers and stamped over them with the roses in Melon Mambo ink. I went back over the roses with Passion Pink watercolor wonder crayon and pulled color from the edges into the center of each petal to add color to them. Once I was done with that I shimmer misted over the top half of the card and kept all the masks on until it was dry. I went back over the green flowers and filled them in with Old Olive watercolor wonder crayons as well and lightly filled in the color. i finished it off a bow and stamped happy birthday, also from Teeny Tiny wishes, in Melon Mambo.

I think this is a great challenge for anyone to do and I challenge everyone to try it out and see what they can do.

Super easy easel cards

Okay so they look complicated at first but once you get the hang of them you’ll be amazed at how quick and easy it is to put an easel card together. I found photo tutorial first that showed me how to make a 4x4 easel card using 1/3 of a piece of 12x12 card stock. I tried that one out and it’s cute but a little smaller than I’d like. For some reason an extra quarter of an inch makes a difference.

I’m always looking for new ideas and things to try. This was something that caught my eye and I wondered if I could do it. Besides the shoebox swap that I just completed I thought I’d make some cards to send to my grandparents and aunt as a way to let them know I was thinking of them and I hope it will brighten their day while they read it and afterwards when it’s set up for them to see it.

This first card I made for my aunt. She was always like a second mom to me and I love her dearly. I used the Thoughts and Prayers stamp set. It’s a double mounted stamp set so it works out perfectly for another card I’ll show you shortly. I love melon mambo It’s a very pretty and bright pink color and I thought I would use it on this wonderful little card. The base is close to cocoa card stock. I made the vase on the card using the ornament punch. I just trim off the bottom edge a little bit and voila it’s now a vase. To make the vase even fancier I emboss it in the finial press embossing folder first and then I sponged the embossed areas to bring attention to it more.

This next card is for my tutu (grandma).

Tutu loves the color purple. I do like the way the perfect plum and pale plum work so well together. I really hope she enjoys her card. I don’t send cards out very often, however I have just made a promise to myself that I will t

ry to send out least 3-5 cards a month. I hope to send out more. Even if it’s just a card to say hello.

This last card I had to make a little more manly looking. It’s for my grandpa.

I also used the Thoughts and Prayers stamp set. This time instead of using the floral branch I flipped to the other side of this double mounted block and there was this beauty of a tree. I thought I would keep it simple and not so frilly. I didn’t like it at first but the more I looked at it the more I fell in love with it.

This last easel card was made for a friend. I’d made another card for her for when she has her baby but I wanted to make one to give to her with the gift I was unable to give since her baby shower was the same day as our last demo meeting and I found out about it long after I’d made a commitment do demonstrate products at our meeting in February. I felt bad that I wasn't able to go so I made up for it by getting some really cute outfits and a few other necessities along with making this cute little guy to go with the whole package.

Don’t you just love this little turtle? He comes from the Fox and Friends stamp set in our occasions mini catalog. He might not be in our next idea and catalog book that comes out in July so if you like him you might want to get him now. The greeting comes from the Fundamental phrases stamp set. Hello is by itself on a stamp and baby actually come from the stamp that says New Baby. Of course I just colored only the baby part of the stamp and omitted the word New. The large scallop circle comes from the Scallops circle #2 die. The larger green circle was cut using my circle scissor and the small circle was from the circles die and is the largest sized circle. I also used a couple of stamps from the Circle Circus stamp set to tie it all in together.

I hope I was able to inspire you with these little creations.

Thanks again for stopping by. Till next time.