Snow Festival Advent Calendar

My friend, Mandy, asked me to come up with a pocket advent calendar similar to one she found on Pinterest.  The idea is to put family activities in the pockets instead of treats. The one she found had 12 x 12 cardboard pieces with pockets attached.  I thought it would be easier to use a canvas as it's a bit sturdier.  I also wanted to use Stampin' Up!'s products, of course, so here's what I came up with:

I noticed that the Snow Festival designer series paper has a sheet with 3 x 3" squares on it, which would fit perfectly onto the canvas in four rows of six!  You get 16 squares from a sheet, so I just added four more squares of two different pieces of paper from the package to get 24 squares altogether. I used 3 x 3" envelopes to create the pockets for the advent cards.

Here's what you need:

• 16 x 20" canvas
• 24 small envelopes (Stampin' Up!'s 3-1/8" x 3-1/8" square envelopes)
• 24 squares of designer series paper (Snow Festival)
• Big Shot with Bigz Typeset Alphabet (or other 1 to 1 1/2" number die set)
• assorted ribbons & embellishments - I used the Ornament, Small Scallop and Large Scallop punches, rhinestone jewels, Gumball Green stitched satin ribbon, Cherry Cobbler baker's twine, felt ornament.
• Sticky Strip
• Whisper White cardstock (24 rectangles that are 3 x 3-1/2").
• Cherry Cobbler & Gumball Green cardstock.

Here are the directions:

1. Cut the flaps off of the envelopes. 
2. Adhere the designer paper squares to the back of the envelopes (not the side you would address) to cover the folds.  This now becomes the front of your pocket.
3. Glue the numbers and embellishments to the designer paper on the envelope pockets as shown in the photo (or however you'd like!).
4. Slide the Whisper White cards into the envelopes.  These cards are for you to write advent family activities or clues to where treats are hidden.
5. Once the envelope pockets are finished, arrange them on the canvas, making sure they are evenly spaced.  Attach the envelopes to the canvas using sticky strip.  It's easiest to start with the bottom row.
6. After the envelopes are all glued down, take out your Whisper White cards and write your activities or clues on them (you could also do that before you start).  There are some great ideas for family activities on the link here to Kimberly Peterson's advent calendar (the one Mandy found on Pinterest).  

Hope you enjoy this! 

Blessings to you,

Mini Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

I mentioned yesterday that one of my stamp clubs was making some Christmas cards.  Well, my other stamp club decided that instead of having a hostess for November and placing orders, they wanted to make this adorable Mini Muffin Tin Advent Calendar that I learned from Christy Harsch. 

When I showed them the tin a few months ago, they were very excited to make it, so this is what we did last Thursday. 

It uses tons of punches and die cuts, and it features the very cute 25 & Counting stamp set with the Frostwood Lodge suite. 

January Stamp Club Projects

Happy New Year Everyone!

It has been a long time since I've had a chance to do some stamping or posting.  It's been a crazy few months.  We put our house up for sale last June and have been busy cleaning and hoping for it to sell.  It hasn't sold, but we've decided to start building our new house anyway, so now it's been a whirlwind of deciding what flooring, lighting, paint, cabinetry, etc. we want in the new house, along with school, workshops, stamp clubs, church, Awana, Bible study, and all those other activities, I've barely had time to think, let alone stamp!  Maybe if I didn't spend so much time on Facebook...

So over the Christmas holiday, I at least had one afternoon of stamping.  I've planned my January club projects (ahead of time too!).  They all feature products from the new Occasions Mini Catalogue.  Here's what we're making:

I completely CASEd this card by Michelle Zindorf.  When I saw it on Splitcoast, I knew I had to make it!  What a unique technique.  I've never seen this before, and I know my Stamp Club ladies will love it!  I used Apricot Appeal, More Mustard, Dusty Durango and Real Red Ink, along with the new Vintage Vogue stamp set in Basic Black ink. Michelle gives a wonderful tutorial on this technique, so check out her blog if you want to see how. 

This second card is a matchbook post-its holder based on this tutorial on Splitcoast.  I wanted to make it more Valentine-y so I used the Love Bandit stamp set.  The image is stamped in Basic Black with Melon Mambo sponged around the edges.  I coloured this little guy in with my In Color Stampin' Write markers.

I have not used Melon Mambo very often, so I thought it was time to christen that ink pad and paper package!  I paired it with some Razzleberry Lemonade designer series paper, Basic Black and Black gingham ribbon.  The eyelet border punch makes a great edge at the bottom of the matchbook, and I punched a little slot with the Horizontal Slot punch to tuck in one of the eyelet border pieces so the book stays closed.

This third card is yet another CASE, of this card by Debbie Naylor.  I thought it was just stunning when I saw it on Splitcoast.  I used Pretty in Pink with Rich Razzleberry, along with Rich Razzleberry polka dot ribbon.

I used the Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions folder with my Big Shot for the top layer, adding some purple Fine Cosmo glitter in the center of the flowers.

The heart stamp is from the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set, punched with the Full Heart punch.  There is a paper clip behind the heart, attached with a dimensional, that I tied the ribbon around.  The sentiment is from Well Scripted, stamped in Razzleberry.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I have more cards made that I'll schedule to post through January so that it looks like I'm blogging more!  Hopefully I'll be able to blog more regularly in the New Year!  One of my resolutions is to spend less time on Facebook and more time on more important things (like blogging!).

Blessings to you,

Shannon

Christmas Recipe Tin Kit

Need a great gift idea or a place to store your holiday recipes? How about a Christmas Recipe tin! This tin is made using the Merry Moments designer series paper and the Snow Swirled and From the Kitchen of stamp sets.

I am offering a kit with everything you need to make this tin, which includes the following:

• Lunch Tin
• Precut Merry Moments or Holiday Lounge designer series paper (your choice)
• Precut cardstock for stamped image
• Six divider cards in coordinating cardstock (to match designer series paper)
• Six 1 1/4" circles for divider labels
• Six 1 3/8" circles for matting labels
• 12 recipe cards
• 3 feet of coordinating ribbon
• Template for tin notch
• Instructions for Recipe Tin
  

The kit costs $22.50 (CAD) plus shipping (if applicable), and includes a free class on Saturday, September 26 (for those of you in my area) where you can use my stamps, ink and adhesive to assemble your recipe tin! Plus, if you register for the class, you can purchase the From the Kitchen of stamp set for 20% off.

Contact me to order your kit and/or register for the class. Or you can make your own! The tutorial is found here on Splitcoast Stampers.

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,

Stampin' Up! Jewelry (it's true!)

At our last big downline meeting, one of the demonstrators (I'm afraid I can't remember her name, but she's awesome!) showed us how to use Stampin' Up! products to make jewelry. I was astonished when she showed us how to use brads to make bracelets, necklaces and earrings!

So of course, I had to try it! I went to Michael's and bought the jump rings and clasps (you get hundreds of them for cheap!), and I set to work. Here is a bracelet I made using the square Ice Rhinestone brads.
ETA: To make this bracelet, I just slid a jump ring onto one of the tines of a brad, then bent it up and around (I used the pliers in my crafter's tool kit for this). Then I slid a ring onto the other tine of the brad and bent it around so the ring would not slide off. Then I alternated rings and brads until it was long enough to make a bracelet. To finish it off, I added a clasp (I bought these at Michael's too) so that the bracelet would close. I hope this makes sense! I'll show some close-up photos on my next post!
She also showed us how to use rub-ons to decorate pre-made jewelry. I found this necklace and earring set at the dollar store, and I added some Chateau Bella rub-ons to them both. I then traced the paper that the jewelry came on onto some Chocolate Chip cardstock and cut it out. I punched holes in it for the earrings, and then I added some rub-ons to it. And voila! Thanks for reading. I've been super-busy this month (seems to be my life story now!), but I do plan to post more often now that all the Fall activities have begun!

Blessings to you,

Like Fine Wine... (for my Father-in-Law)

This is a clear envelope brag book that I made for my FIL for his birthday. When we were on holidays in B.C., we toured some wineries, and Quails' Gate was one of them. We bought my FIL a bottle of wine and some wine glasses as a birthday gift, so I thought I'd make a little album for him as a memento of the winery. We took photos of the vineyard and the winery and my husband by the grapes, and I included those in the book.
Here's the recipe:
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Bordering Blue, Close to Cocoa Prints designer series paper
Ink: Close to Cocoa & Bordering Blue classic ink, Close to Cocoa Stampin' Write marker
Stamps: Lovely Letters, Infinite Goodness
Accessories: hemp twine, jumbo eyelets, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punches, clear envelopes, Coluzzle, scallop edge punch, sticky strip

Thanks for reading today!

Blessings to you,

A Couple of Journals

Whew! I'm finally resting a bit from my New Catalogue Open House last week. What a fun time! Thank you to everyone who came. I really appreciate your support. A big congratulations to Susan K. who won my grand door prize draw! Susan won the Level 3 Holiday Happenings Bundle, along with some Chocolate Chip and Kiwi Kiss cardstock and ink pads and a one-inch circle punch. And congratulations to Jackie T., who won the Questionnaire prize draw of an embellishment kit and to Kirsten S., who won the Catalogue Scavenger Hunt prize draw of a Scallop Notes Stationery Pack!

I've been madly planning some fall classes, and I decided to do things a bit differently this year. My brilliant SIL, Wendy, came up with the idea of doing a class where you can make some little Christmas gifts for people, so I've come up with a create-your-own class where people can choose four of nine different projects, invite some friends over and everyone will get to make the four items.

The journal and pen set is a classic that I've been making since I started with Stampin' Up!, and I've tried to improve it over time. This is one of the projects you can choose from for the class.

I found a tutorial (I'm afraid I forget where - it was months ago) about how to remove the coils so you can adhere the paper at the edge of the notebook, which looks a lot neater than lining it up by the coils! This is a notebook that I CASEd from sluman on Splitcoast Stampers. I think it was made at Convention. It uses the new Bella Rose designer paper (LOVE IT!) with some Pink Pirouette cardstock, Pretty in Pink grosgrain and a flower from the Pretties kit. I used the new scallop edge punch on the centre strip and poked holes in the scallops with my paper piercer.

For the second notebook, I went with Summer Picnic dsp and added some Bashful Blue grosgrain, a strip of Real Red cardstock and an Old Olive scallop circle punch.

Memory Match Game in a Tin

Here's another little craft I made for my fall classes. It's a children's Memory Match card game in a tin. I did not come up with this idea - it was shared at our large downline meeting by Winona Semler (an amazing stamper!).

There are six pairs of cards that I stamped with the animals from Pun Fun and coloured using my Stampin' Write markers. I decorated the tin with Summer Picnic designer series paper. The band that goes around the tin is also decorated with Summer Picnic and coordinating cardstock, and stamped with Schoolbook Serif Alphabet and Define Your Life. I thought it would make a cute stocking stuffer or travel game. You could also make magnet games like Tic Tac Toe since they would stick to the tin!

Well, my New Catalogue Open House is tomorrow and I still have tons to do to get ready for it! I'm very excited - I hope people show up for it! Wish me luck!

Blessings to you,

Baby Mini Photo Book

Another quick post today! DH was away for the weekend on a manly canoe trip, so I've been busy again with kids and my mom visiting and family birthday parties and church! I love it all, but there just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. I'm so in awe of you ladies who stamp and post and visit all your blog friends every day! How do you do it? Where do you find the time!? (Seriously, I need to know! LOL!)

Anyway, this is one of the projects I'm planning for my fall classes. It's a mini photo book (I posted a tutorial previously here). For this one, I used Bashful Blue, Almost Amethyst and Barely Banana cardstock with some Bashful Blue Prints paper (I know it's retired, but I figure it's close enough to the new Patterns paper). The stamp sets are Nursery Necessities and Taffy Alphabet.
Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings to you,

Sour Cream Containers and some Rambling!

I was thinking this week that being a stay-at-home mom would be so much easier if the kids weren't here! Imagine all the work and stamping I could get done if I didn't have to take care of children! LOL!

So this week, I have been madly preparing for my New Catalogue Open House (this Thursday, August 21 if you're in my area!), my downline meeting (last night), my Scrapbooking Club (on Monday), my fall classes, etc. in between family excursions and playing outside in the gorgeous hot weather we're enjoying here (you have to take it while it lasts here in Alberta!)

I haven't been at my computer much with all this going on, so I just thought I'd do a quick post to show a fabulous, quick and easy (what else!?) project I've made to use up my scrap designer series paper that has retired. Sour cream containers!!
If you haven't tried these yet, they are so fabulous. Beate gives a great tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers. I made these for my Mystery Hostess Gifts. There is a slip of paper inside each one that has a different Stampin' Up! catalogue item in it, ranging from a Stampin' Write marker to a Pretties Kit. When a hostess books a workshop, she can choose one of these containers, and at her workshop, we will add it to her order as her free booking gift (that way her workshop sales are that much higher).

I made them really simple because I was making so many of them. To decorate them, I either added a scallop circle and 1 3/8" circle of designer paper or two 5-Petal pieces of designer paper held together with a brad. These were attached with dimensionals. Here are a few of them:Thanks for reading! I'm such a bad blogger... I haven't been visiting my friends very much this summer. After my open house, I'll have some time to get back. Please be patient with me!

Blessings to you,

Thank You Boxes

Thank you all for your kind comments about my cat. I'm glad I'm not alone in this. We really miss her, but it's much more sanitary around here now!

On a happier note, I was able to make some gifts this week for the ladies in one of my Stamp Clubs, as it was our last meeting of the year on Tuesday. I decided to make these 2-5-7-10 boxes for them and fill them with treats.

I used Brushed Gold cardstock for the boxes, and I embossed the flourish from Priceless all over the cardstock with gold ep before folding them up. This took a lot longer than I thought it would! But I'm pretty happy with the results. I tied the box with Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon.

For an embellishment, I embossed the flower from Priceless onto some more gold paper and punched it out with my 1 3/8" circle punch. I layered this onto Very Vanilla and punched it out with my Scallop Circle punch. Then I put the whole thing on with a dimensional. The tag is the thank you stamp from the For a Friend hostess set, embossed in gold and punched out with the Key Tag punch. I tied these to the ribbon with some gold elastic cord (I know it's retired, but it matches the boxes!). I put some candies, a tealight and an incentive stamp in each box as a thank you.

A huge thank you to all those ladies who participated in my Tuesday night Stamp Club. It's been such a fun year!

Super-Easy Brag Books!

When I saw the tutorial for these Clear Envelope Brag Books on Splitcoast Stampers a few weeks ago, I knew I had to make some! They are so much fun to make and so easy! I'm going to use them as hostess gifts for my upcoming workshops.

Mini Photo Book Tutorial

I absolutely loved the mini photo book that Teri sent me (you can check it out here). She said it was actually from a kit she purchased and put together (I'm afraid I don't know the name of the company who made the book, but I will admit to totally CASEing the cover idea and the inside decorating from Teri!). So I decided to figure out how to make it from "scratch". Here are the steps (I put the colours I used in parentheses beside the dimensions for easy reference):

Supplies:

• cardstock cover - 10-1/4" x 5" (Certainly Celery)
• paper for inside frame - 5" x 5" (Blue Bayou Prints)
• cardstock for inside cover pocket - 9-3/4" x 5" (Purely Pomegranate)
• cardstock for inserts - 4-1/2" x 4-1/4" (Certainly Celery)
• Round Tab punch
• stamps
• ink
• sticky strip or other double-sided tape
• corner rounder punch (optional)

Steps:

1. Score the cover piece at 5-1/8".

2. Make the frame by cutting a 2-1/2" square from the center of the paper (line up the paper at 1-1/4" and cut from 1-1/4 - 3-3/4" all the way around).

3. Put sticky strip around three sides of the frame, leaving about a half-inch from the edge (so that a photo will slide in without ripping the paper).




4. Score the inside cover piece at 5". Cut a triangle on the diagonal of the shorter side (4-3/4" of this piece).

5. (Optional) Use the corner rounder punch with the guard removed (or scalloped scissors) to create a scalloped edge along the diagonal.






6. Decorate the inside of the insert as desired (Blue Bayou Prints here) and put a piece of sticky strip along the bottom of the diagonal piece. Fold this over and adhere it to the square part of the insert to make a pocket.







7. Adhere this inside piece to the left inside of the cover. Adhere the frame to the right inside of the cover with the open end (non-sticky strip edge) at the scored line in the center of the cover.








8. To make the photo inserts, round the top corners of the pieces (the longer (4-1/2") sides are the top and bottom). Use the round tab punch to create tabs for the tops of the inserts. Decorate them as desired (for these photo mats, I used 3-1/2" x 3-3/4" Pomegranate and Blue Bayou pieces of cardstock and 3-1/4" x 3-1/2" pieces of Kraft cardstock). Insert these into the pocket.





9. Decorate the inside of the book and the cover as desired (see photos at the top of the post).

If you would like a printable version of this tutorial, please email me and I'll send it to you in Word.

A Healthy 2008

Sorry I haven't had a chance to post lately. I've been so busy! This afternoon I was working on my Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Business Website, which goes live tomorrow! I'm so excited about it! It looks so much nicer than the old site, and there is so much more you can do with it. I've been playing all afternoon! Please check it out tomorrow and let me know what you think (I welcome constructive suggestions for improvement!).

Then this weekend, I was working on a 3 x 3 valentines swap that Candace is hosting. This is my first swap, so I'm very nervous. Of course, I decided to do some dry embossing on the card, which is taking a LOOONG time on 11 cards! Next time I'll have to think things through! I'll post the cards when I'm finished them all so you can take a look.

I was also spending a lot of time this weekend praying and thinking about what I would like to change this year (I'd call them New Year's Resolutions, but then they'd be doomed to fail! LOL!). I really need to get healthy this year, so I made this Health Journal to help me stay motivated and focused (I know, any excuse to play with my stamps)! I read in Good Housekeeping that the biggest determinant of people losing weight is whether or not they journal what they eat. So, I thought I'd give it a try. For this journal, I thought I'd keep it simple since I'll be using it all year (at least that's the plan!). I covered it with Ginger Blossoms paper, then stamped the title with the Best Friends Alphabet in Ruby Red on Very Vanilla. I matted this on some Ruby Red cardstock. The flower is stamped from Embrace Life in Ruby Red on Groovy Guava, then cut out and adhered with a dimensional. For the center of the flower, I cut out a flower from the Ginger Blossoms paper and stuck it in the middle. I finished it off with a strip of Bravo Burgundy wide grosgrain ribbon.

At first, I was going to focus just on losing weight, but then I thought that I should really look at my over-all health. So with a lot of prayer, I've come up with some goals. I need to eat healthier and exercise at least three times a week (I want to lose 30 lbs and get back to my pre-pregnancy weight!).

For my spiritual goals, I also need to spend time in prayer and in the Bible ("...man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." - Deuteronomy 8:3b). I plan to study a book of the Bible each month, starting with Daniel, and spend time in prayer each morning before the kids get up.

I also have some social goals. I've become a bit of a hermit since I had kids! I've decided to phone at least one friend a week just to chat and invite someone over for dinner at least once a month.

Then I thought I should have some marital goals to keep my marriage strong. I know a few people who recently decided to separate or divorce after many years of what seemed to be happy marriages. It's probably best to keep things strong and communicate! So we're going to start having a regular date night, "couch time" every day when he gets home from work (this is where we sit down on the couch and talk about the day for a few minutes) and do a weekly couple's devotional to keep us connected with God as a couple.

Well, that's a lot of things to work on this year! It's only the first day, so hopefully I can stay focused! I typically do well for a few weeks, then fizzle out, so I'm really hoping that doesn't happen again!

So has anyone else made any goals/resolutions? I'd love to hear them! Please leave a comment and let me know what you're planning for this year.

Wow, this is a long post! Thanks for "listening" to my rambling. I wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2008!

Pencil Holder Tutorial

I found this cute little pencil holder in the September 2007 issue of Stampin' Success magazine (SU!'s downline magazine), and I thought it would be a great project to include in my newsletter. Here's a quick tutorial on how to make it.
1. Start with a 5 x 7" piece of cardstock (I used textured River Rock). Score it horizontally at 1 7/8" and 4", then score it vertically at 7/8". Cut out the top corner pieces as shown, then round the tab corners with a corner rounder punch.





2. As an embellishment, I added a 2 1/8 x 1 1/2" piece of designer paper, punched with the spiral punch. I used the new Ginger Blossom designer series paper for this piece.






3. Stamp the outside as desired. I used the new Embrace Life set with River Rock and Bravo Burgundy ink.







4. Adhere it shut with a strong adhesive - I used sticky strip because I wanted to make sure that it would stay closed with the pencils in it. Then all you need to do is finish the embellishments (I used Bravo Burgundy 5/8" grosgrain ribbon above) and slide some pencils in it!

Scrapbooking Club Journal

I was so excited to have a chance to play with some of my new stuff this weekend! I'm starting a Scrapbooking Club in January, and this is what we'll be making at the first meeting. I will give the credit to Roxane, from whom I totally CASEd this idea!

It's the SU! On Board Art Journal, which the ladies will get to decorate as they'd like, and will keep their class notes in it. It incorporates a lot of scrapbooking techniques in it, including titles, designer paper, colours, embellishments (chipboard, ribbon, tags, etc.). I used the new Ginger Blossom designer paper for the cover and the spiral punch to fit it into the rings. Then I stamped the letters from the Big Deal Alphabet in Ruby Red, Cameo Coral, River Rock and Groovy Guava on Very Vanilla and made tags out of the same colours of cardstock. The word "Scrapbooker's" is stamped in Ruby Red on River Rock cardstock with the Rough Edges Alphabet. I used Mellow Moss grosgrain and Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon on the tags. For the chipboard, I used the On Board Blossoms, coloured it with a Cameo Coral Stampin' Write marker, then smooshed it into VersaMark and embossed it with Iridescent Ice embossing powder.

Inside the book, there are tabs (using the Round Tab punch) for journaling different techniques, so the ladies can add class notes as they like, as well as their own notes and ideas as they come across them. For example, there is a section for quotes, so if they find a quote they like in a magazine or online, they can jot it into the journal. The sections are Archival Approach, Colour, Cropping, Design, Journaling, Quotes, Styles, Titles, Miscellaneous (again, thanks Roxane for this!). This way, you don't need to have a ton of scrapbooking magazines when you go to a crop night - all your ideas are in this one little book! As we meet monthly, the ladies will add to their journals and complete 12 x 12 layouts at the club.

I'm really excited to be starting this club this month! If you're in the area and interested in joining, please contact me.