Christmas Extravaganza Open House!

Well, I've had strep throat for about a week now, so I'm scrambling to get ready for my annual Christmas Extravaganza Open House on Saturday. I am so excited about this event! I've invited several of my friends who are consultants with different direct sales companies to come to my house, and we all get a table to display our products. Then we all invite our friends, customers, families, neighbours - everyone! - to come for one-stop shopping! There will be representatives from Stampin' Up! (of course!), Epicure Selections, Tupperware, Home Interiors, Fifth Avenue Jewelry, Arbonne, Discovery Toys, Pampered Chef, Norwex and Avon. We have a big door prize draw that has products from all of the companies, so for every $50 a guest spends, she gets an entry.

Here is something I've been working on for my Stampin' Up! table. They are tins with note cards that I think would be great teacher gifts!
For the cards, I just used the Note Cards that come in a pack of 20. I added some designer paper and stamping accents to those. Each tin has 8 cards and envelopes (I would have put in more, but they barely close with the 8!). I also included a gift card with each tin. I made Christmas and apple themed tins, using the I Wish Scrappin' Kit and Summer Picnic papers.


Thanks for reading, and if you're in my area, make sure you stop by on Saturday! (Just email me for the address.)

Blessings to you,

All About Opals

My mom called me the other day and asked if I would make a clear envelope brag book (click on the link for a tutorial) for my step-dad's mom's 80th birthday. They bought her opals as a gift, and my mom has found all kinds of information about them that she thought would be cute presented in a little album of sorts along with the opals.

So I went online, did a google search and found a picture of opals from the website All About Opals (oddly enough!), and I printed it on some Whisper White cardstock. I chose Tempting Turquoise and Brushed Silver as complementary colours to the photo.

For the cover, I stamped "Opals" with Lovely Letters and embossed it in silver on some vellum paper, then attached it over the image with silver eyelets. I matted this on turquoise and adhered the whole thing to the silver cover. For the edge, I put in more silver eyelets and threaded Whisper White taffeta ribbon and silver elastic cord through it.

And voila! I hope mom likes it!

Blessings to you,

Sparkly Christmas

I've been planning some Christmas projects lately, and I bought a whole bunch of Christmas ornaments to decorate. Then I had to figure out how to decorate them! Well, Amy has an amazing tutorial for making glittery Christmas ornaments. I just had to try them! We'll be making this at my downline meeting on Wednesday, and I'm thinking that this will be one of my Christmas classes.

They do use a lot of glitter, so I'll be ordering tons of that! I did mine a little differently than Amy. I used a little spray bottle to spray some water into the ornament first, then added about eight drops of reinker (Bravo Burgundy and Mellow Moss). I swished the water around and drained it, then added the Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I tied some Whisper White taffeta ribbon around the top and added some silver cord to hang them with.

I'm just loving these! I think there will be a whole bunch on my tree this year!

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings to you,

Sparkle Baby!

This is a baby card I made, CASEing a card that my adopted upline, Winona, made at our last meeting (she made a cupcake birthday card, and I changed it into a baby card).

The stamped images are from Nursery Necessities. I stamped the moon with Green Galore craft ink and added the Celery Chunky Glitter with heat and stick powder before cutting it out and adhering it to the card with dimensionals. For the sentiment, I stamped the words in Certainly Celery on Whisper White, then punched it out with the Word Window punch and layered it on a Barely Banana large oval and Certainly Celery small oval.

The "bubble" images around the card base are stamped from Life's a Breeze.

I made a whole bunch of these in pink, blue and green!

Thanks for reading!

Blessings to you,

Home For Christmas

As soon as I saw this stamp set in the Holiday Mini Catalogue, I knew I had to have it! It reminds me of the Thomas Kincaid paintings.

I embossed the image in black before colouring it in. I've found it makes a crisper image, and the lines don't fade or run as you colour.

I used my AquaPainter to colour it in with Sahara Sand and Really Rust (stones), Glorious Green and Real Red (garland and wreath), Close to Cocoa (door, sled and skis) and Bashful Blue (snow). There's also a little More Mustard in the lamp.

I've found it works for me to paint the lighter colour first over the whole part (I painted Sahara Sand over the entire stone wall), and then highlight with the darker colour (Really Rust at the bottoms of the stones).

To finish, I matted the picture on Glorious Green and Riding Hood Red. The ribbon is Riding Hood Red double-striped grosgrain.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Blessings to you,

Halloween Blog Candy Winner!

The flu has hit our house full force this week! DH, DS and I have all been sick this week. Thankfully, my oldest son did not get it yet (fingers crossed!). We are planning to get our flu shots next week when they are available, so hopefully we won't get any of the other strains that are out there.

Anyway, I know you're waiting to hear who the winner of the blog candy is. Thank you to all of you who visited and commented. It was nice to read about your favourite Halloween memories. Random.org chose #5: Kathy Brown! Here's Kathy's memory:

I remember all the hussle and bussle of us 5 kids getting into our outfits for Halloween, piling into the family station wagon and being dropped off at the end of the street with Mom,and Dad would drive to the other end of the street and wait for us to go from door to door gathering up loads of candy then going to the next steet, etc. That was when Halloween was about treating and not so much tricking. Candy was safe to eat, alto our candy was still looked over, and kids were safe. Oh how times have changed. Thanks for the chance for some fun blog candy!!

Kathy Brown

Email me with your mailing address, Kathy, and I'll get this out to you ASAP!

Thanks for playing!

Blessings to you,

Designer Flowers

When I saw these tag punch flowers in this month's Stampin' Success magazine, I knew I had to make them. Yes, I'm a chronic CASEr. I even copied the cards from the magazine (I did change the colours, though!)

To make the flowers, use the small tag punch to punch eight tags out of designer series paper (Bella Rose and Summer Picnic here). Fold them in half vertically, then fold the top half back from the bottom-left corner to the top of the vertical fold on a diagonal. There is a 1 3/8" circle as the base, to which I adhered the "petals". Then punch a 1 3/8" circle out of textured cardstock (Riding Hood Red and Bashful Blue) to cover the center of the flower.

The flower image in the center circle is from Simply Said, covered with a button tied with linen thread (Button Bouquet and Soft Subtles, respectively).

I think I'll be making a lot of these

Blessings to you,

Spooky Spider?

Don't forget to leave a comment at my Blog Candy post for your chance to win some yummy Halloween Blog Candy!

This is a card I'll be demonstrating at my SIL's workshop this month. My group leader, Christy Harsch, showed us how to make this adorable spider using punches, and I had to try it! She credited them to Lindsay Mahon, but I don't know where the idea originated.

The spider is two Basic Black scallop circles with some photo corner "legs" adhered between them. These legs are Basic Black layered with Old Olive. The eyes are 1/2" Whisper White Circles with 1/4" Basic Black circles, and the nose is a 1/4" Pretty in Pink circle. The "web" is a piece of 1/4" Basic Black grosgrain ribbon.

For the card, I used Tangerine Tango as the base, then layered Basic Black and Ghostly Greetings dsp. I tucked the ribbon behind the black layer with some adhesive so the spider could hang out! I did put a dimensional on the back of the spider to keep him in place.

How cute is this little guy?!

Thanks for reading!

Blessings to you,

Stamp Club Cards

Don't forget to leave a comment at my Blog Candy post for your chance to win some yummy Halloween Blog Candy!

Since I had stamping time this weekend, I was able to plan this month's stamp club cards. Here's what we'll be doing:
This first card uses watercolouring with the Harvest Home set. I saw on Splitcoast that someone had embossed the image before colouring it, so we'll be doing that. The image is embossed with black ep. It stands out much better, and the outline doesn't run when you colour it! I used my Aquapainter (which is on sale this month!) to colour using Tangerine Tango, More Mustard, Old Olive and Close to Cocoa ink. The sentiment is stamped in Old Olive, then the picture is layered on Old Olive, Basic Black and Tangerine Tango as the card base. I used some More Mustard ribbon as an accent.

For the second card, I used a combination of techniques. I started with Splitcoast's sketch SC188 with Brocade Blue and Elegant Eggplant (just because I haven't used my Rich Regals for a long time!).

I used Faux Shaving Cream technique for the hearts (which are from Simply Said). I use this technique a lot for stamping letters for my scrapbook layouts, but I haven't used it yet on a card. I like the effect! I also used Masking for the hearts to "layer" them across one another. I used direct-to-paper to add some Elegant Eggplant ink around the edge of the white cardstock before completing the card.

For this final project, I have to thank Alex for the inspiration. She posted her Pumpkin Poop treats awhile back, and I laughed so hard I had to CASE her! I used her poem that she found online and added it as a topper to some pre-packaged candy corn that I found at Wal-Mart. Then I made a diaper fold pouch using Ghostly Greetings designer series paper and tucked the candy in there (I'll have some Haiku paper available for those ladies who don't do Halloween). Finally, I used the small pumpkin and pumpkin faces Sizzlets dies to make the pumpkin, and I attached it to the pouch with a dimensional.

So that's what we'll be making this month! I hope everyone enjoys them!

Thanks for reading!

Blessings to you,

Blog Candy Time!

Well, in my busyness, I didn't notice that the counter turned over 30 000 hits! I'm so flattered that people even bother to come and look at my blog! So to thank you for your amazing loyalty and for visiting (even if this is your first visit!), I'm offering some Halloween blog candy.

And for a chance to win this candy, since it's October, all you have to do is leave a comment here telling me what your favourite Halloween memory is.

My favourite memory is a conglomerate of years. My sister and I always had to wear snow pants under our costumes because it always snowed before Halloween, and we only had two big costumes that fit over snow pants - a cat and a clown. We always argued over who got to be the cat because neither of us wanted to be the clown! (We had different costumes that we wore to school, but for trick-or-treating we had to wear the cat and clown!)

So here's what you can win:The candy includes:
- four 6 x 6 sheets of Ghostly Greetings dsp
- one 6 x 6 sheet each of Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Basic Black cardstock
- five die-cut pumpkins in Pumpkin Pie
- stamped images from Harvest Home
- 1/4" grosgrain ribbon in Basic Black, Always Artichoke and More Mustard
- Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware pieces
- Metal Edge circle tag stickers

I'll leave this open until Monday, October 13, and then I'll use Random.org to choose a winner!

Thanks for visiting!

Blessings to you,

Happy World Card-Making Day!

Is anyone else thinking, "Where did September go"? I honestly have not had any time to stamp for the past two weeks. Fortunately, my wonderful husband gave me a day off today, so I spent it in my basement/craft room stamping away! I actually managed to get my October clubs planned (yay!), as well as get in a little bit of "just for fun" stamping.

I'm going to spread out my posts of what I made today over the next several days because I don't know when I'll get a chance to stamp again!

This is a card I made using Splitcoast's SC188 (I know that was several challenges ago, but as I've said, I'm behind!).

I used Riding Hood Red as the card base, then added some Ski Slope dsp (LOVE this) and Baja Breeze. The image is from Snow Swirled, stamped in Riding Hood Red on Whisper White. I wrapped some 5/8" striped grosgrain around it, then put a pearl bead from my Pretties kit at the top of the tree and added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the snowflakes in the tree.

Alex let me know about the Coconut Scrap Shop's Fall Frenzy, and I was really hoping to be able to participate in it, but I don't think I'll be able to. But make sure you check it out (it ends October 6)! They have lots of great challenges. Thanks for keeping me posted, Alex!

Blessings to you,

Chipboard Bookmarks

We made these adorable bookmarks at our large group (WeCanStamp) Fall Convention, and I believe they were demonstrated at Stampin' Up!'s Convention this summer, so I'm afraid I don't know who originally thought of the idea, but I think they're just adorable, so I'm CASEing away!

They are made with the scallop square chipboard piece from On Board Essentials. I think they're pretty straight-forward. We used sticky strip on the back to hold the ribbon in place, and there is a square piece of cardstock adhered over the ribbon on the back to hide it. The flower is stamped from Eastern Blooms and has a Filigree designer brad piece in the center, held on with a glue dot.

Here are the recipes:
Bookmark1:
Ink: Old Olive craft, Tangerine Tango classic
Paper: Old Olive Patterns dsp, Pacific Point cardstock
Accessories: Pacific Point striped grosgrain ribbon, Filigree designer brads

Bookmark 2:
Ink: Always Artichoke Stampin' Write marker, More Mustard classic
Paper: Always Artichoke Patterns dsp, Riding Hood Red cardstock
Accessories: Riding Hood Red striped grosgrain ribbon, Filigree designer brads