Cutie Patootie Christmas Card....

My downline Robin made this card for a swap a few weeks ago and I just thought it was so cute. And because I have spent the last week making Christmas cards for my Christmas Card Camp, I've been too busy to post a card of my own! This card is made with the Level 2 Stampin' Up! Hostess Set "Deer Friends" and I just love the cute cut out at the top of the card. Thanks for the blog material Robin~

Scrapbooking!

Last night was my Scrapbooking class and it was great! We made 7 12x12 scrapbook pages using sketches, and the attendees got all of the elements to make an 8th page at home using a sketch (like homework, but more fun!). To give them incentive to do the homework I asked them to send me a picture of their finished pages and I will give them a 20% off coupon for any 1 item in the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini-Catalog, PLUS I am going to publish their pages on my blog! I can't wait to see how their pages look.....all of them have the same materials, so it's going to be interesting to see how different the pages look. Here are the 7 that we made in class.....All of the pages are using current Stampin' Up! supplies!!

FALL pages recipe: Stamp Set: Autumn Harvest; Ink: Sage Shadow; Cardstock: Chocolate Chip Textured, Sage Shadow, More Mustard, Really Rust; Accessories: Autumn Vine DSP, Coluzzle, Sizzix Naturally Serif, Sizzix Leaves #2, 1/4 circle punch, scallop edge punch, Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker

SNOW page: Stamp Set: Scandanavian Season; Ink: Craft White; Cardstock: Real Red Textured, Old Olive, Real Red; Accessories: Ski Slope DSP, 1/4 circle punch, Felt Snowflakes, Lots of Letters Chipboard, heat and stick powder and Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

HALLOWEEN PAGE: Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Whisper White; Ink: Black Craft, Pumpkin Pie Craft; Accessories: Ghostly Greeting DSP, Black Brad, Chipboard Frame, Heat and Stick, Dazzling Diamonds.

FAMILY PAGE: Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray, Confetti White; ink: Black Craft; Accessories: Urban Garden DSP, Loads of Letters Chipboard, Filigree Designer Brads, Tag corner punch.

WISH PAGE: Stamp Set: Wish Upon a Star; Ink: Tango Tangerine, Bashful Blue; Accessories: Large Star Punch, Star Punch, Frosty Day DSP, Scallop Edge Punch, Designer Star Brad, Loads of Letters Chipboard.

We finished the pages in just over 2 hours, which is great considering that we enjoyed great conversation while we were working.

My very favorite product that we used is Stampin' Up!'s double sided DSP. This really enabled each scrapbooker to make the page their own and it was fun to see how different people utilized this product. My second favorite is inking the chipboad letters and then covering it with Heat and Stick and Dazzling Diamonds. This really makes the page pop! The Sizzix die cuts were a hit too! The leaves were die cut in DSP, and then we also die cut chipboard with the Leaves #2 die and then glued the DSP leaf to the chipboard to add some dimension to the page. Gotta love that Big Shot and the Stampin' Up! Exclusive dies.

The hardest part for me was cutting all of the paper and keeping track of all of the little pieces that each person got. I didn't do too bad. The scrappers were only missing two pieces of paper

which I quickly cut. I love that in planning this class I also got a lot of my own scrapbooking done.

Whoo Hoo! Happy Stampin' and Scrappin'!

Judy

Merry and Bright!

I just love this cutie little stamp set! The images are so sweet and easy to use. To get the embossed snowflakes on the Chocolate Chip CS I used the Cuttlebug Snowflake folder. This is just about the easiest Christmas card that you can make, as the embossed snowflakes and the Ski Slope Designer Series paper do all of the work!

Recipe: Stamp Set: Merry and Bright; Ink: Baja Breeze, Red Riding Hood, Basic Black; CS: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Red Riding Hood, Whisper White; Accessories: 1 3/8 circle punch, 1 1/4 circle punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Real Red 5/8 Grosgrain, Cuttlebug Snowflake Embossing Folder, Ski Slope Designer Series Paper, White Gel Pen, Word Window Punch

I get to play!

My friend Joelle is coming over to scrapbook for a few hours this afternoon, and I'm very excited! It's not very often that I have a someone over in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday to play with paper, so I'm psyched! I have to say that I should be getting a few other things done (like laundry and cleaning - bleh!), but when the opportunity comes along to play with paper you have to grab it by the horns.

That being said, I have lots of stuff to get ready before she arrives, but I wanted to do a quick post. Here are a few cards that we made at my 8 cards for $10 camp. We had such a fun time! I'm so fortunate that all of the ladies I stamp with are such fabulous people. We swap stories, talk about kids, local news, and of course the men in our lives! I look forward to hanging out with these women every month.

The first card is made with the Fresh cuts stamp set and Haiku DSP. The card base is So Saffron, and the ink Basic Brown. We colored the 'spotlight' in with Tangerine Tango and Garden Green, and used the circle punches to punch it out. Very Vanilla wide grosgrain finished it off.

The second card was made with the Party Hearty set, and I used the Birthday embossing folder with my Big Shot to emboss the Brocade Blue Paper. The ovals were cut out using the Coluzzle, and the Frosty Day DSP is from the NEW Holiday Mini-Catalog (Available on Oct. 1st!!!). The candles on the bottom were stamped in Versamark on the Kraft Cardstock. Finished off with Brocade Blue wide grosgrain and some Natural Hemp. I always struggle to make cards that will work for a male or female birthday, and I think that this one is pretty generic and can go either way.

Hope you're all having a FABULOUS FALL and enjoying the beautiful weather (at least here in the Chicago suburbs it's beautiful!).

Check out my website for more project ideas and as always.....Happy Stampin'!

A Cardinal Christmas

I've spent 5 hours today stamping cards to get ready for my 8 Cards for $10 stamp camp tomorrow night.......I'm amazed how the time flies when I'm working (smile) and how long I can stamp without EVER getting tired of it. This is the first time since my kids started school this fall that I actually spent the whole day in my craft room, and I hope that there are many more! After doing many multi-occassion cards for my Camp I thought that I would pull out one of the stamp sets that I pre-ordered (one of the many perks of being a Stampin' Up! Demo!) and get busy. "A Cardinal Christmas" is another set that fufills my current need to watercolor. I can't believe how beautiful it is and how easily card ideas just started to pop into my head. I'm normally a person who works from a sketch, but this layout was inspired by the stamp set. The colors were pulled from the new "Ski Slope" DSP (another mini-catalog pre-order....don't worry, you'll all be able to order from the mini catty too starting on Oct. 1st!), and they remind me of the 1950's. Love them!

Recipe: Stamp Set: A Cardinal Christmas; Ink: Black Craft, Riding Hood Red - Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Blue, Summer Sun Re-Inkers; Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Baja Blue, Whisper White; Accessories: Black Embossing Powder, Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Blender Pen

Boo!

I never used to make Halloween cards....not until I saw how much my kids enjoyed getting them from other people! I know it's only September, but I just got this Autumn Harvest Stamp Set and I had to give it a try. I have been on a real watercoloring kick and it seems like every stamp set that I get now-a-days is one that is dying to be watercolored. It's the very first thing I learned to do as a SU! customer, and now it's one of my favorite things to show my customers. I'm not the greatest watercolor artist, but really, who can mess up watercolors? It's so relaxing and it makes me feel like a kid, just playing with paints and a paintbrush.....gotta love that, right? The little pumpkin on the right is cut out and popped up, and so is the oval greeting. Easy Peasy!

Recipe: Stamp sets: Autumn Harvest, Everyday Flexible Phrases; Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel, Bashful Blue; Cardstock: Confetti White, Basic Gray; Accessories: Oval Punches - Large and Small, Aquapainter, Ghostly Greetings DSP, Black Brads, dimensionals, scallop punch - edge.

Finally.....time to stamp!

I have barely had time to think lately, much less stamp! My family (all 19 of them) left yesterday after a 4 day family reunion at my house. We had two occassions to celebrate, my brother's return from Germany (where he was stationed in the Army), and my 40th birthday! It was a rockin' good time, but I'm exhausted! After a solid week of cleaning, list making, grocery shopping, and house child proofing (my brother with 3 year old triplets and an 18 month old stayed with us), I am ready to drop. It couldn't have gone better, other than a small trip to the emergency room for my 3 year old nephew Mason to get stitches! We had a family kick ball game, where we had a few pulled muscles and a little cheating went on, but it was all good. Since all of my immediate family (I have 4 brothers and 1 sister and then my parents, nieces and nephews) all live out of state, I don't get to see them as often as I would like. I will miss them all!

I did spend 2 hours in my stamp room today and made 8 cards! They are for an upcoming class, so I'll share them after my class gets to make theirs. I do have a really fun mini-scrapbook that my stamp club made last week. It's made with 2 cardboard coasters held together with Natural Hemp. The paper was Bella Rose DSP, Kiwi Kiss, Red Riding Hood, and Whisper White, Stamp Set - Dream Du Jour, and Kiwi Kiss Ink. The holes were punched with the Crop-a-dile, and then I used the 1 1/4, 1 3/8 circle punches, and the scallop circle. It was such a quick and fun project and the ladies loved them!