Unfrogettable Stamping!

My Fabulous Fabric project for Fabulous Friday!!!

My "Sister" and good friend Rachel Yurkanin chose fabric as the product to feature this week on the Sisters in Stamping blog.  I chose to make a little muslin sack adorned with a fabric pin - a two-fer gift because the pin can be taken off the bag and worn.  This little sack is going to hold some goodies for my Top 3 demonstrators in my downline for my Diva Day event on Sunday afternoon.  That makes it a two-fer project, too, doesn't it?!  I love it when that happens.  Now I just have to make three more - you know I have to keep one as a display sample!

Here is a close-up of the pin - these fabrics are from the Candy Cane Christmas (#121715, $9,95)  designer fabric collection.  Aren't they fun - they match the DSP from last year's Holiday Mini catalog... one of my favorites!  If you'll notice I used a few current  Holiday Mini catalog items on this pin - recognize the large button?  It is from the Spice Cake designer button collection and the gorgeous ribbon is the very vanilla velvet ribbon.  And check out the mini jingle bells hanging off the cherry cobbler/whisper white baker's twine.  Fun, right?!  I like this project so much I think I'm going to offer it as part of a gifts class next month.  Want to come?  Let me know!!

Thanks for visiting today... don't forget to head over to the Sisters in Stamping blog site after Noon EST to check out the other fabulous fabric projects!  Have a wonderful weekend!!  I have an Open House tonight to kick off the Holiday Mini catalog - I'll share the make-n-takes with you tomorrow so be sure and come back!!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!  I realize I am a few days late... sorry!  We had a big weekend celebrating both my Mom's and son Brandon's birthdays along with Japanese New Year's festivities and now my kids are finally back in school after a 2-1/2 week break, so I feel my life returning to a sense of normalcy and routine.  Can you relate?! 

So here's my card for today - it's a sneak peek of a Valentine's Day stamp set in the upcoming Occasions mini catalog called Be My Valentine.  The heart image is one of the a la carte stamps that you can buy individually and is priced at just $8.95!  I stamped it with Versamark on real red card stock and heat embosssed it with clear embossing powder for a tone-on-tone effect.  The strip of DSP is from the new Love Impressions specialty pack and I embellished the card with my pinking hearts border punch.  The ribbon is our organza ribbon that I attached with sticky strip and then made it curl with a shot of my heat gun (saw that idea on a blog recently but can't remember whose it was, sorry!).  Here are a few close-ups...

Don't forget that today is the final day to order from the Holiday Mini catalog - did you get everything from it that you wanted?  If not, be sure and place an online order with me or contact me to place the order for you.

Just so you know, there are a few products that will be carried over... they are listed below.

Item #	Description	Price
120890	Candy Wrapper Bigz L Die	$32.95
120903	Scallop Squares Duo Bigz Die	$21.95
120893	Tasteful Trim Bigz XL Die	$42.95
120901	Northern Frost Decorative Strip	$21.95
120902	Northern Flurry Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	$7.95
120889	Spider Web Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	$7.95
120982	Northern Trim Letterpress Plate	$5.95
120980	Trick or Treat Letterpress Plate	$7.95
120908	3/4" x 15/16" Oval Punch	$10.95
120984	Waffle Paper (Assortment 1)	$9.95
122124	8" x 8" Page Protectors (20)	$7.95
120981	Joyful Season Letterpress Plate	$5.95
120910	Vintage Frames Décor Stencils	$14.95
122265	Uninked Craft Stampin' Pad	$4.95

 

A few more hand-stamped Christmas cards received

I have been offline for the last few days to concentrate on enjoying the holidays with my family and in the meantime a couple more Christmas cards arrived that I wanted to share with you.  Again, I can't say enough how much I appreciate receiving these!!

This super-cute card was created by my friend and downline Sherri Gough.  She did such a cute job coloring the raccoons from the Merry Crittermas stamp set.  Thanks, Sherri!

Here's another card featuring the Candy Cane Christmas DSP that was made by my friend and downline Debbie Williams.  I believe the snowman is from Jolly Bingo Bits - am I right?!  So cute... thanks, Debbie!

Check out this beauty created by my downline Beverly Cole.  You can hop over to her blog to get all the details... I love it!  Thanks so much, Beverly!

 

This card came from my fellow "Sisters in Stamping" designer Rachel Yurkanin - it's a pocket card and inside was this great photo of her family.  Be sure to visit her blog here to find out how she did this card.  What a great idea - thanks, Rachel!

I received this beauty from my stamping friend Karen.  I think she did a fantastic job with this stamp set (that I may end up having to buy since I've seen so many gorgeous cards this year that were made with it)!  Thanks, Karen!

And the final card is this one sent to me by my French friend Nathalie - she made it at our Mega stamp-a-stack last month.  Thanks, Nathalie!!

Here's one final photo for you... I was walking by my bedroom window and happened to look out to see this family of six deer in the woods behind my house.  I love the deer and hope they are staying warm and able to find food during this cold spell we're having.  And yes, that is snow you see on the ground... this has been the first white Christmas I can remember having in Lynchburg in decades!  What a special treat for everyone.. I hope your Christmas was one to remember and that you find joy and happiness in your memories that you're creating with your family this week!  I know I am treasuring the time with mine!!

Different use for the new Petal Cone bigz L die

As a Stampin' Up! demonstrator we have the awesome benefit of being able to preorder brand new products that are debuting in upcoming mini catalogs.  I had ordered the new Petal Cone bigz L die for the Big Shot (available for purchase in the Occasions Mini catalog beginning on January 4th) and while playing around with it I realized that when turned upside down it resembled a Christmas tree.  For part of the secret pal gift exchange at my downline Christmas party this month I put one together and filled it with chocolate.  Michelle Arthur was the one who chose my package - you can see a picture of it all wrapped up on her blog here.

Here is what I did to create it... starting with wild wasabi card stock I cut out my two cone halves and then ran them back through the Big Shot using the Petals-a-Plenty impressions folder and then put it together using sticky strip.  I added accents with my Uniball Signo white gel pen and dazzling diamonds glitter.  The embellished tag was created using the Tags Til Christmas stamp set and the XL decorative label punch.  Last, I added some rhinestone jewels and a fork bow made with real red satin ribbon and it really looked Christmas-y.

I love it when I can use a Big Shot die for various purposes... I look forward to seeing the many fun uses people come up with using this great die!  Look for it coming soon!!

I'm off to do some last-minute shopping - wish me luck!  I hope it's not too crazy out there.

More Hand-Stamped Christmas cards received

I wanted to share with you some more of the beautiful hand-stamped cards I've received over the last couple of days... I am filled with joy when I open these so thank you to everyone who took the time to make them and send them to me!!!

This first one came from my downline Michelle Arthur - be sure and check out her blog for lots of great project ideas!  I love the vintage color combination of this card and the Merry Crittermas stamp set from the Holiday Mini is so stinkin' cute!  Thanks, Michelle!

Next up is this beauty from my downline Sarah Eller.  Dasher has got to be one of my favorite solid Christmas images!!  Check out all the different textures on this card, too - from the square lattice on the card base to the smooth satin ribbon and all the bling from the rhinestones.  I love it!  Thanks, Sarah!!

This gorgeous embossed card is from my downline Delores Wilson.  She used gold powder to emboss the Gifts of Christmas images on this whisper white card - how elegant!  This is a stamp set that I have not purchased yet, but every time I receive a card with images from it I regret that I don't own it!  Thanks, Delores!

This card is from my downline Ann Hoffmann and features a retired 2-step stamp set that I do own but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it... the garland/stars image is embossed with gold - how pretty!  Thanks, Ann!!

Here is a card I received from my downline Heather Palm (oh, I just realized that I have to change her watermark to reflect her married name).  Sorry, Heather!  Anyway, I love that she CASE'd Jen Phillips' card from our downline swap a few months ago featuring the Palm Tree image from Plant Hope.  See, it is great to get inspired from your fellow stampers!  Thanks, Heather!!

Look at all the coloring and dazzling diamonds that my stamping friend Carolyn put on her card!  It must have taken her ages to complete this card and knowing Carolyn she didn't just make a few!  I love the scalloped circle windows on the front looking into the stamped image on the inside of the card.  Thanks, Carolyn!!

And one last card for today - this one came from my stamping friend Debbie (I know so many Debbies that stamp... I wonder why?!).  I love the texture and the gorgeous DSP that she used with the ornament punch.  Thanks, Debbie!!

As you can see, I have received quite a wide variety of cards this year - I feel so blessed!  Thank you to all my friends and downline who have sent me cards this year!!!  Have a wonderful day!

Fabulous Holiday Thank You Cards

 

Welcome back to another Fabulous Friday!  This week on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are focusing on quick and easy thank you cards that you can send for all the fabulous gifts you received over the holidays. I started my card with our notecard sets - they're sized just right (3-1/2" x 5") and even come with envelopes. 

I used the scallop trim border punch to embellish the front and added a 3/4" x 5" strip from the Candy Cane DSP that I had left over to add some color.  Since the DSP has snowflakes on it, I used my snowflake punch to embellish the front.  Easy-peasy!  I added a piece of 4-3/4" x 3" blushing bride card stock for a little added color and then stamped the sentiment from Elegant Thank You in baja breeze.  The finishing touch was adding a rhinestone to the center of the snowflake and voila... done!

I bundled these in a group of 10 wrapped up with a ribbon to give to my son's teacher - I know they can always use thank you cards!  At this point my kids will not be going back to school until January - we received a snowfall here yesterday and the kids didn't go to school yesterday or today... hopefully the teachers will be happy to receive their Christmas gifts a little late!

Thanks for visiting me today - please be sure and head over to the Sisters in Stamping blog after Noon EST today to check out the other Holiday thank you card ideas.  Have a wonderful weekend!!

Products used with today's project include:

- Notecard sets, #107311 $5.95

- Blushing Bride card stock, #119796 $6.95

- Scallop Trim Border punch, #118402 $16.95

- Snowflake punch, #119852 $16.95

- Elegant Thank You stamp set, #114484 $6.95

- Baja Breeze classic ink pad, #111833 $5.95

- Basic Rhinestones jewel accents, #119246 $4.95

- Candy Cane specialty DSP (sorry, this paper is no longer available but you can certainly substitute it with any of our gorgeous DSP packs)

Christmas card #2 for 2010

I have a long list of Christmas cards that I need to send to family, friends, team members and my stampers - I absolutely cannot make 150-200 of the same card!  I shared with you one of my cards already - it is one that I created last week for Fabulous Friday.  That batch went postal earlier this week.  Here is card number two for this year... I love the simple elegance of it!  I totally CASE'd Allison Ohran's card after I saw it on her blog... beautiful!  All I did was change the ribbon to the striped marina mist grosgrain because I sadly could not locate my satin ribbon. 

I really love how easy it is to add the textured snowflake to the whisper white card stock by running it through my Big Shot with the Northern Flurry textured impressions folder, found in the Holiday Mini.  You can really see it well in this photo - and check out how that little rhinestone just shines in the middle of the largest snowflake!

The sentiment is from the All Holidays stamp set and was stamped using Marina Mist ink to match the card stock and ribbon.  I punched it out using the Decorative Label punch found in the Holiday Mini catalog.  I'm so glad that this punch is here to stay along with the Northern Flurry texture folder!  Yipppeee!  The "mat" was created by punching the center out of the Marina Mist middle layer of card stock using the same punch and then cutting it in half length-wise.  I just added it to the back to make it stand out a little more... I really love this card and hope the recipients of it do, too. 

Thanks for stopping by today - enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Fast and Fabulous Gifts with the Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die

This week on the Sisters in Stamping blog we are focusing on last-minute gift ideas and featuring the Tasteful Trim Big Shot die found in the Holiday Mini catalog.

So what do you get when you mix the following products from the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini catalog:  Deck the Halls fabric, the Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die, Big Shot Fabric Adhesive, Always Artichoke seam binding ribbon, Decorative Label punch and the Tags Til Christmas stamp set?  A fast and fabulous wine bottle gift bag with tag - perfect as ahostess gift for that fabulous Holiday party you've been invited to!

This project came together so quickly - I pulled out my sewing machine and ironing board and finished it in about 30 minutes!  If I were smart I would have gone ahead and made several of these at the same time...  I started with a 12" x 8" piece of the Deck the Halls fabric and ironed a like sized piece of the fabric adhesive to it.  I then cut that into five strips that I ran through the Big Shot with the Tasteful Trim die to get my scalloped pieces.  I ironed those onto a scrap piece of muslin that I had and then sewed that into a bag.  So easy!

To finish off the bag, I slipped in a bottle of red wine (the foil matched the cherry cobbler so well) and tied it off at the neck with a long piece of always artichoke seam binding ribbon.  I stamped the tag from the Tags Til Christmas stamp set onto naturals ivory card stock after coloring it with early espresso, always artichoke and cherry cobbler stampin' write markers and then punched it out with the matching Decorative Label punch (get the stamp set and punch in the Tags Til Christmas Bundle as part of the Handmade Holidays promotion now through Dec. 16th for 20% off!!).  After that I punched a small hole in the corner with my crop-a-dile and added a piece of ivory crochet yarn and tied it around the ribbon.  Done!  It took me almost as long to set up for the photograph as it did to put this project together.  I love that!

Please be sure and hop on over to the Sisters in Stamping blog after Noon EST today to check out the other fast and fabulous gift ideas featuring the Tasteful Trim big shot die!!

Products used with today's project include:

    Deck the Halls fabric, item #121716 $9.95

    Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die, item #120893 $42.95

    Big Shot Fabric Adhesive, item # 122194 $14.95

    Always Artichoke seam binding ribbon, item #121000 $6.95

    Tags Til Christmas stamp set (clear mount), item #121169 $22.95

    Decorative Label punch, item #120907 $16.95

    * Now through Dec. 16th purchase the stamp set and punch together and save 20%:

        Tags Til Christmas clear mount bundle, item #124078 $31.92

        Tags Til Christmas wood mount bundle, item #124077 $38.32

Fabulous quick and easy Christmas card

Rachel decided that she wanted to focus on quick and easy Christmas cards for our Fabulous Friday theme this week over on the Sisters in Stamping blog.  I decided that I really love the Northern Hearts hostess level 1 stamp set in the Holiday Mini catalog so wanted to create a Christmas card that I could easily mass-produce to send out to my friends, family and stampers this year.  What do you think of this one?  I love the way it turned out - a very clean and simple card! 

The wreath image is from the hostess set - I inked it first with an always artichoke ink pad and then went over the flower images with a cherry cobbler stampin' write marker before stamping it on the naturals white card stock panel (I'm really loving the naturals white card stock this Christmas, can you tell?!).  That piece is attached to an always artichoke card stock mat which is popped off the front of the card with stampin' dimensionals.  The knot of ribbon is the gorgeous cherry cobbler seam binding ribbon from the Holiday Mini, attached with a mini glue dot, and the sentiment is from Seasonal Sentiments - a set also found in the Holiday Mini - which is stamped using cherry cobbler ink.

If you're ever at the Jamerson YMCA in the afternoons, you may see me stamping a bazillion of these babies over the next week getting them ready to go in the mail soon!  Stop by and say "Hi!" - I'll be there waiting for my kids to get out of swim practice... I might as well be productive while I wait, right?!

Thanks for stopping by - please be sure and visit the Sisters in Stamping blog after Noon EST today to see some other great ideas for quick and easy Christmas cards... it's not too late to send out hand-stamped cards this year!!

November stamp-a-stack class cards

Happy December!!!   I held my last stamp-a-stack class of the year last night and all four cards were Christmas cards since Christmas is right around the corner!  I wanted to share them with you because you might find some inspiration from them for your own cards...

Here is the first card - it is a CASE of one I saw on Kari Metzger's blog and thought was stunning. How gorgeous is this Medallion stamp?!  I love it... I am not sure which colors Kari used, but I went with naturals white, not quite navy and crumb cake for my color scheme.  She used the Christmas Collage stamp for her background but I opted to use my favorite - En Francais.  Check out how well the snowflake from the Northern Frost decorative sizzlit strip works in the center of the Medallion, especially when embellished with a clear rhinestone brad.  I sponged the edges of the snowflake with crumb cake ink and a stampin' sponge to make it stand out a little more.

This is card #2 - it is a CASE of a card I received at the Baltimore Regional... sadly, no name is on the back of it so I don't know who created it.  Isn't it fun?!  It uses so many different products found in the Holiday Mini catalog, too.  The Candy Cane Christmas specialty DSP scallop square was created using the Scallop Square Duo bigz die and the snowman image is from A Cute Christmas.  The snowflake texture was added using the Northern Flurry impressions folder. ETA:  Nikki Rueth of Wisconsin created this card and I received it in a Holiday Mini swap from her back in September.  I posted it originally here.  Thanks for the heads up, Nikki!!

For the third card I pulled out an old favorite - A Wish for Peace.  The colors used are soft suede, river rock and very vanilla and there is just a touch of so saffron peeking out from the windows of the church.  The words were stamped with cherry cobbler and the corners of the stamped panel and mat were embellished with the ticket corner punch.  This is a very clean and simple card - my favorite kind!

The last card of the night was this fun little Santa card featuring the Jolliest Time of the Year stamp set.  The color scheme is naturals white, basic black and riding hood red.  There is polka dot texture added to the riding hood red card stock with the Big Shot polka dot impressions folder.  I don't know if you can see it, but there is dazzling diamonds all over Santa!  I really love the basic black striped grosgrain ribbon - did you pick some up during the online spectacular last week?  I tied it off with some twine to give it a little more personality.. I like the way it turned out!  How about you?

I had fun creating these cards and may be duplicating a few to send out to family and friends.  Thanks for stopping by!