Calm Christmas

Every year a Dr.'s office in town asks me to make their "bonus check" Christmas cards and every year I say yes, but always wait until right when they need them to get busy with the cards.  So this year I had a SU Party at my house and then had 10 cards to make….and was up until 2:30 a.m. finishing them.
Here's what I came up with:

I will say that they did look better in real life--not sure the colors are true in the photo.  Here's the inside of the card…

I sprayed a bit of sparkly over the front of them and they really were quite striking.  

Joyful Christmas Stamp Set of the Month

Hey all!  Sorry it's been so long since I've posted…it's just a busy time and with Thanksgiving and Christmas so close together it seems even more busy!  Here are the cards we made for the Joyful Christmas set.

This uses gold embossing powder on vellum and then the backside of the vellum is either sponged or colored.  I had a horrible time getting my vellum to dry so it was difficult getting it adhered to the card…anyone else have this trouble when using the stained glass technique?  I cased this card from Natasha at inkingoutofthebox.com

This one is so striking, but very easy.  Silver embossing powder on vellum, rhinestones and the beautiful Frosted Finishes embellishments.  I cased this, but it didn't have a watermark so I don't know who did it--but it's awesome!!

This is simple, but understated….I changed the ribbon and designer paper in my final--thought this one was just too….blah.  This was cased from Natasha at the same link as the first card.  

This is probably more my style than any of the others--love the real red agains the crumb cake.  I cased this from Sabine who is a demo in Germany.  Here's a link to her site.

I'll be back tomorrow to share the cards I did for bonus checks at a Dr.'s office using Calm Christmas.

SU Weekly Deals for Nov. 12 - 18

Hey my stampin' friends!  I'm going to be sending an order in tomorrow that includes some of these items so if you'd like to tag along with me to save on shipping let me know asap!  I've been waffling on the bow die for awhile, but just in the past week I found 3 different ideas that used it in alternative ways .....and now it's on SALE!

I sure hope I haven't waited too long....and it's sold out!

Halloween Treats

I have a first grade class of 25 students this year...they are a great group of kids and I'm enjoying our time together!  Every year (since I live in the country) I sit out in front of our school and let the kids come trick or treat me there.  I've done it for so many years that I often have past students come and visit me too!  Here are the treats that I made for my kiddos!  The bat idea I got from Julie Davison and I found the sucker idea on pinterest--Sara Stamper is the blog I found the directions on.  They were in cm  so I had to translate to inches....but they came together very easily.

I also give them a book along with the treats! 

A side note--towards the end of my time sitting in front of my school 4 middle school aged boys were coming down the street and as they huddled together about a block away I thought "oh great--what are they planning?"  and to be honest, I was a little nervous.  I was sitting in my lawn chair huddled in blankets since it was a bit cold and here they came.  I chatted with them and gave them some candy and as they walked away two of them held up some money and said, "We saw you from across the park and thought you were homeless....we were coming to give you some money."  Aww....made my night and really touched my heart.

2nd Stamp Set of the Month....Best of Autumn

I'm posting pictures of the cards we'll be making with this stamp set.....I'll be tweaking them a bit since these are my first tries with each.

I'm changing the stripe on the left side of the flap that slides up.

This is a repeat of a card I did last year---love the fall colors in this!

I love how this turned out...the only thing I'm changing with this is to add texture to the olive background.

This is on watercolor paper and uses blender pen and ink pad ink.

The cost for this is $20 which includes all the card supplies, directions and you get your own stamp set. We can get together to work on Sunday, Nov. 10 and/or Monday Nov. 11.  If you are interested, but those times don't work we can work something out!  Also--if you'd like to change the sentiments to make them birthday, anniversary etc...cards.  I need to know by Sat. November 2 to get the stamp set ordered for you!  Thanks!  

                

Ah....Fall!

I think fall is my favorite season.  I love the colors of the leaves as they change, the weather and the holidays that happen during fall.  We had our monthly stamping party last week and I'm a bit late in posting the cards that were made that night so here goes.....

The first card that I demonstrated used the stamp sets Wonder Fall, Gorgeous Grunge and Petite Pairs.  Of course I cased it from someone, but unfortunately I can't read her watermark--her name starts with a D.  I first made the card using cajun craze, but my stamp pad was a bit dry and I didn't have a reinker so I decided to try it with the in color raspberry ripple and I really like it as a fall color.  It pops a bit more than the cajun card.

The second card I demonstrated used the stamp sets Oh Hello and Pennant Parade.  I like that it isn't toogirly and could be used for a male's birthday.  This is cased also--from Jenny Peterson.  Love how she used the cute clips to frame the greeting.  The Oh Hello chevron stamp was used with the decorative label punch.  

The third card used the Sweater Weather dsp and the Truly Grateful stamp set from the Holiday catalog.  It featured the sun or starburst technique.  This was the first time that I tried the candy dots and I really liked them.    I stamped the wheat shock in crushed curry and then thumped it with a pumpkin pie marker along the edges.

Here's the link to the tutorial where I got my measurements and directions.

We then did 2 make and takes--one using the stamp set Tags 4 You and the matching bracket punch that featured how to make a file folder card using the envelope punch board.  Directions here.

Here's how I decorated the inside of the file folder. 

I also had the supplies so they could make a Thanksgiving one instead of Halloween.

The other make and take used the stamp set Spread the Joy created by a SU employee in a contest.  I love the big oval stamp in this set.  This used sahara sand (because I have a lot of that paper and never seem to use it) card stock.  The filagree from the stamp set Creative Elements was stamped in soft suede.

I stamped this in stazon black so I could use my pool party ink and my blender pen to color over the words.  I used my melon mambo marker to color in the hearts and added the melon mambo bow.

I'm headed to my stamp room to put stuff away and get busy on my next Stamp Set of the Month installment which will take place on Sunday, Nov. 3 or Monday, Nov. 4.  Watch for more details tomorrow!

First Stamp Set of the Month -- September!

Hi All!
Today I met with the 2 brave souls who were willing to come and give my Stamp Set of the Month project a go!  Sasha and Lena are such fun and I had a great time--hope they did too!

Our set this month was "Perfect Blend" which I think is so cute!  Here's what they did during their 3 hour "therapy" time!  =-)

This one uses Etcetera designer series paper, Gorgeous Grunge, and the Chalk Talk framelits and a coffee cup (for the ring) in addition to Perfect Blend.

This uses the cute muslin bags available in the holiday catalog, Gorgeous Grunge and were filled with chocolate covered espresso beans.

This is a gift card holder...

It uses the Window Frames framelits,  the polka dot embossing folder, a retired embossing folder (I don't own Beautifully Baroque yet) and the stamp set Lovely Little Labels. Thanks to my sister-in-law who just sent me a Starbucks card this week in the mail!

This card uses retired ribbon from a mini catalog a few years ago and the chevron embossing folder along with Perfect Blend.

 Our bonus project was this little mini coffee cup to go....they got to choose the paper they wanted and how they wanted to decorate their cups.  Here's the link to where I found the pattern, video that showed me how and the link to the company where you can buy the cups from.

Here's how Sasha and Lena's cups turned out---take notice of Sasha's beautiful nails!  Her sister did them for her and they are lovely...but they made the crafting tough!  Thanks again ladies for joining me for my premier of this club!

  

Keep an eye out for October's upcoming events----Stamp Set of the Month and Home Decor!