Late Christmas Posting and Valentine's Day

Well, since I never got my last Christmas tags posted, here they are - a bit late, but still cute. The reindeer was made all with punches and the swirly die from the Big Shot machine. He was a nice addition to my girls' packages.

Now on to Valentine's Day! This is a super-cute candy bag made using the Happy Heart set. Great for kids' classmates or day care friends. Please note the heart-shaped brad is not a Stampin' Up item, but was still a cute addition. Gotta love this set and also the new Love You Much set that is currently offered in a special bundle with paper and a punch!

Days 10 and 11 of the 12 Days of Christmas

Well, I missed my posting last night. That's what I get for trying to welcome my in-laws, wrap gifts, and have friends over for wings all in about a 4 hour span. Not to mention running to Walgreens with my husband to buy more gift tags and tape at 11pm. So, here's my make-up posting and my one for today. I'll throw some cute reindeer tags on for tomorrow to round out the days. But for these, I have a tin I decorated for my sister with a set of monogram cards inside (see Angie Juda's link here for the cards: http://chicnscratch.typepad.com/chic_n_scratch/2008/11/monogram-cards.html

The others are picture ornaments I made for my family using the Country Living set (still available until 31 December!). I think they turned out lovely! Merry Christmas Eve!

Looking Ahead to Valentine's Day

Starting tomorrow (Dec. 23rd), you can order a NEW Valentine’s Bundle kit! It contains an adorable stamp set, a brand new heart punch and a pack of new Designer Series background paper. When you purchase the bundle, you save 20% off the indivual item price. Plus, the Free shipping special is still good through tomorrow so you would save an extra 10%!
Here are the details:
Love You Much stamp set
$25.95
Candy Lane Designer Series paper (Close to Cocoa, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla)
$9.95
Heart To Heart punch
$15.95

Bundle Retail Value
$51.85

Love You Much Bundle (20% off; item 115405)
$41.48

Only a Few Days to Go...

Well, we're winding down the final days until Christmas, and the stores are crazy again. I haven't even started wrapping the kids' gifts yet, but here are the ones I did for my sis-in-law, Jamie. (Jamie, if you are reading this, stop since you probably didn't open these yet.) My husband drew her for the gift exchange in the family, and we got her a gift card (see the holders below and you'll know how that was decorated), and a teapot and some loose tea, which you can see in this picture. I used the felt alpine ribbon from the holiday mini and rope twine as well as some rub-ons, ski slope designer paper, and a cute reindeer tag. Wrapping is half the fun at our house, since I love to make everything look pretty!

Still More 12 Days of Christmas...

Ok, I got a day behind on my posts while I tried to finish Christmas shopping yesterday, so here are two Christmas cards for tonight. I made 3 different kinds this year since I don't usually have the materials to do all of one, and I get kind of bored making that many of just one card. It's more fun to try out other designs. Some were the reindeer cards in an earlier post. The others were these two. The snowmen ones use a special technique involving wax paper to create the "reflection," and the Joy card is a modification of one from another stamper. Enjoy!

Christmas, Christmas Time Again...

More Christmas ideas again tonight for you. This time we have an ornament (or gift tag for a package) made from the Country Living kit. This kit was well worth the money, since I've gotten frame ornaments, some cards, and other gifts out of it and still have tons of things left like extra adhesive, ribbon, and brads, which I can use on other projects. Anyway, for this one, I glued the designer paper (already die cut) to the chipboard (also already die cut) and then put a filigree designer brad in the center. Quite nice, if I do say so myself!

Day 4 (and 5) of the 12 Days of Christmas

Hello again! Tonight's post has two projects, so I'll count that as 2 days. (Can you see how I'm going to get all 12 done?) (-= I got a gift card holder similar to this one at the regional seminar as a swap. I modified it a bit and made a second one based off of a candy holder from Kimberly Van Diepen. They turned out great! Since our family is so spread out, we send lots of gift cards every year. This is a great way to dress them up and make them seem a little more personal.

More 12 Days of Christmas...

Good evening again! Today's post involves the little gift bags I made for my girls' daycare ladies. I used the top note die with the wonderful Big Shot machine to make the bags and then the Deer Friends hostess set for the tags. Yes, some of the paper is last year's in colors, but I was trying to use it and find good color combos with the pomegranate satin ribbon I also had. I put some candy and a gift card in each one!

2nd of My 12 Days of Christmas

Good evening! Today's post is a great card I did for my club meeting this past Saturday. It uses a plaid created with the brayer, which was a technique taught at this year's regional seminar here in Virginia Beach. I love the homespun look the card has. The remaining images are all from the Season of Joy set.

Twelve Days of Christmas (squeezed into 10)!

Welcome to the 12 days of Christmas (squeezed into 10)! Tonight's post deals with Christmas Cash! This seems to be a favorite present in my family. If you can't think of a gift for someone, they get cash or a check. Well, at least this way you can package it prettily. This money holder is made with the Spotlight on Christmas stamp set, the Best Yet hostess set, and some alpine ribbon from the holiday mini catalog. Enjoy!

Long Time, No Post

Yes, it's been a while since my pre-Thanksgiving post, but that doesn't mean I haven't made anything. Tonight's edition is the b-day card I made for my dad (still getting that in the mail, dad, even though your big day was last week). It uses the Big Bold Birthday set, which is one of my favorites. Tomorrow I will start to post my twelve days of Christmas (guess I'll have to do two a couple of days since Christmas is already less than twelve days away). Even if you are like me and still doing wrapping, tags, and cards, these are all easy and quick ideas that can be finished in that last hectic week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, since we will be departing tomorrow for our Thanksgiving vacation, I figured I'd drop in some cute table favors and cards I made for Thursday. Also, if you're interested, Stampin' Up will be having a holiday extravaganza sale starting Wednesday (ending the 1st), which will include bundles of items for 20-50% off. You can order through my web page to the right. Hope everyone's turkey day is great!

Turkey Day Surprises

Today's post involves an idea from Shelli Gardner, the CEO of Stampin' Up. She made some great Halloween bookmarks for her grandchildren that were highlighted on her blog, so I thought what about Thanksgiving bookmarks? I have a couple of cute Thanksgiving books to give to my girls, so I made them these cute turkey bookmarks to go with them. They are a little difficult to see because of the laminating, but when your kids are 2 and 4, anything paper needs to be laminated in order to have a chance for survival. I backed Mr. Turkey (made out of different shapes and sizes of punches) on fall designer paper and then added a pumpkin and greeting.

Another Christmas Card...

'Tis the season, so here's another cute Christmas idea. I took a top note cardinal design that someone gave me as a swap at Regionals earlier this month, and I embellished it with some glitter glue and then layered it on kraft cardstock to make a card. Not bad!

Country Living Promotion

Stampin' Up has partnered with Country Living magazine to offer a fantastic holiday deal. You can order their holiday set, that comes with everything listed below, from my demonstrator web site. It's really a great deal and comes with several holiday projects - not to mention all the ones you can create on your own with all that stuff! I plan on making some ornaments with pictures of my girls like the photo garland you see in the image to give to my family. The cost is $49.95, but when you figure out the prices of all that is included, you are actually getting quite a bit of it free!

Here's what's included:

The Holiday Collection Stampin' Kit includes the following products:
Holiday Collection stamp set (six stamps)
Four 12" x 12" sheets of die-cut chipboard
Eight 12" x 12" sheets of die-cut Designer Series paper (2 ea. of 4 double-sided designs)
Four 12" x 12" sheets of Designer Series paper (2 ea. of 2 double-sided designs)
Two 12" x 12" sheets of Whisper White card stock
25 yds. Silver Metallic cord
10 yds. 3/8" Whisper White taffeta ribbon
Pretties Kit brads (20)
Stampin' Dimensionals
Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter (1/2 oz.)
Tombow Multi Purpose Adhesive
Riding Hood Red Classic Stampin' Spot
Old Olive Craft Stampin' Spot
Uninked Stampin' Spot
Whisper White Craft Ink refill

Yeah, Big Shot!

I can thank Angie Kennedy Juda (blog listed to the right) for this quick and simple design. This would have to be one of the easiest Christmas cards ever to mass produce for your mailing list - I churned out 5 of these babies in about 20 minutes. I had tons of extra top note shapes in the kraft paper from my Snow cards below, so I used them for a few different color combinations of this design that go beautifully with the colors in the Alpine ribbon from the holiday mini catalog. Which do you like better - the olive layer of the all brown layers?

Regionals Swaps

Well, I'm still recovering from the all-day regional seminar on Saturday, but I thought I'd share two of the swaps I did and one I received that I really liked. The SNOW card was mine - I made 36 of these using a shadow technique with a wheel stamp, and I also accented them with the felt flurried from the holiday mini catalog. The second picture is my assembly line of my 20 candy corn cards I made (you can see a close up of those in one of the earlier October posts). Lastly, the ornament, which was made using one of the Big Shot dies was given to me by Denise Long, another demonstrator. Hope you enjoy!

VA Beach Regionals

Well, I went to the VA Beach Stampin' Up Regional Seminar this weekend since it happened to be practically in my back yard, and wow, was it fun! First of all, I won a stamp set on the first door prize drawing, so that set the day up well. I also met the CEO, Shelli Gardner, and got tons of cute swaps. See some pics above of me getting my prize, meeting Shelli, some projects I saw, and more... There were probably about 300 women there - a lot like the national Girl Scout convention I once went too. We got lots of cute ideas and some make-and-take projects, which will probably debut here soon.

Crazy for Cupcakes!

Here's a cute birthday card I did for my sis-in-law, Jamie. Love the Crazy for Cupcakes set and the Sweet Always paper. Who'd have though orange and pink go so well together?!? Everywhere I look, cupcakes seem to be an "in" thing right now. Stampin' Up is no exception since they have several birthday sets with really cute cupcake stamps. Anyway, back to making my swaps for VA Beach Regional that is this weekend... more on that tomorrow...

Halloween!!!

Yep, here's the cute little favors I gave to Audrey's class. Why so simple you ask? Well, because #1) there were 25 kids, #2) mommy has lots to do, and #3) I'm sure they got plenty of candy anyway, so just one lollipop seemed like a good idea. Anyway, I had fun making them, and the lollipop substituting for a witch's broom seemed like a cute idea! Comments?

More Birthday...

Another quick post for today - a card I did (based on a design by Kimberly Van Diepen, who's blog is to the right) for my upline Jessica Vanda. Her birthday happens to be the same day as my daughter's. I will admit my sponging technique needs some work, but I still think the card turned out very pretty. I love the irridescent ice embossing powder now - another item to add to my wish list!

I'm Back - with Birthday Greetings!

Sorry for so long away, but my parents were in town for my daughter's 2nd birthday, so I had plenty to do. In this posting you will see the Elmo cake I made here along with her Sesame Street card, inspired by some birthday decor done by Ruth Norton (her blog is listed to the right). My circle punches were a little smaller than hers, but Katie still recognized the characters, so I'll call it successful!

Cute Baby Card

Today's post is a card I made for a colleague who's wifw just had their baby girl. Of course, the boat theme is courtesy of his U.S. Navy employment. The stamps are from the Nursery Necessities set, which now also has matching decor elements that you can use on the walls in your home - there are lots of great new ones for holiday decorations, kids' rooms, etc. The silver brad, which didn't come out well in the photo, is a star.

A Ton of Pun Fun!

Today's cards are courtesy of the Pun Fun set that I love. The hippo was a birthday card for a friend's daughter, and the sentiment that actually goes with it is "Hip-hippo-ray!" The Get Whale Soon card is for a friend who's under the weather. I'm still working on my water coloring technique, as you can probably see from the whale, but I still like how they turned out!

Star Bright Ornaments - Great Kid's Project!

Well, it took me a while to get to my "box of fun," but I finally pulled out my Star Bright ornament kit that is in the Holiday Mini Catalog. It is really cute! I made all the ornaments you see here with that - it contains die cut stars, paper strip globes, and the pieces to make several different sizes of the star circle ornaments in a variety of pretty double-sided designer paper, along with the silver cord to hang them. The ribbon and other embelishments you see are separate items I used to dress them up. Very cute, though! They remind me a lot of the ornaments I used to bring home from grade school art projects - easy enough for kids to help with too. Audrey helped me put these together. Also good for anyone who doesn't have a lot of stamp items yet, but likes quick homemade holiday projects. Enjoy!

Oldies But Goodies

Sorry I was away so long. I went to visit my husband's parents with my girls for the weekend, which means I was too busy to post or to make anything new. However, my big "box of fun" came courtesy of UPS today, so maybe I'll have a fun new project tomorrow! For tonight... an oldie but goodie... Stampin' Up retires many sets per year, although that doesn't mean that they aren't still fun to use. Check out the Thank You cards I made for a charity golf tournament we put on at work. I did 80 of them for the sponsors. This uses two retired sets (the golfing set and the thank you set) and a retired plaid background set. I was pleased with the result - especially when I thought of using the "thank you" as a bag tag!

Kit-Kats Anyone?

Ok, ok, one more Halloween project. Here are the photos of the Kit-Kat bars I decorated with the Ghostly Greetings designer series paper and some other ribbon, paper, stamps, and tags. These are for my mom-in-law to give to the ladies in her office. Super cute!

Web Wishes

Another Halloween card to get you festive for October... this one uses a few of the lesser known but great Stampin' Up products: the Tearing Edge and the Signo Gel Pen. I drew the web with the gel pen, and the spider is from the Eat, Drink, and Be Scary stamp set in the Holiday Mini catalog.

Halloween Happenings

Fall is my favorite season! I love pumpkins, candy corns, and Halloween. Here's my latest fun creation inspired by all of those... it uses the Chills and Thrills Rub-Ons, the Eat, Drink, and Be Scary stamp set, and several accessories (the jar is courtesy of Target). Hope you enjoy it!