Sweetly Scary

I have a confession to make: I'm not a big fan of Halloween. Yeah, I like handing out candy to the neighborhood kids when they come by in their scary-cute costumes. But as for making cards celebrating the holiday? Nope, just don't see the reason. But since I do like to hand out candy, it stands to reason that I like to come up with interesting ways in which to wrap that candy!

This is the last of the three projects made by my Stamp Club last week. It's a simple Halloween treat box filled with Hershey Nuggets. Of course I didn't have any Halloween Designer Series paper, but the Well Worn packet had the perfect substitute.

Recipe

Stamps: Grateful Greetings, It's A Wrap Holidays (mini catalog)

Paper: Basic Gray, Cajun Craze, Well Worn Designer Series paper, mailing labels

Ink: Basic Gray, Cajun Craze

Accessories: Big Shot & Bitty Box die, 8-blossom punch from Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack

"There's Always Something...

for which to be thankful." I love that quote by Charles Dickens, and it's the main reason (well, okay, I loved the images too!) that I ordered the Always Thankful set in the Holiday Mini Catalog. Being the parent of a special needs child means that your whole concept of a normal life changes. You learn that even though there may be things your child is unable to do, there are so many others that he excels at. You learn that you don't need all those things you once thought you needed in order to be happy. You celebrate the small victories, and you realize that each new day brings another opportunity for growth. Yes, Jayson has Asperger's, but he doesn't have brain damage. We are all healthy. I have three different jobs, and I love them all. I have family and friends that I know I can count on to be there when needed. There is ALWAYS something for which to be thankful!!

This is the other card that my Stamp Club made last week. In keeping with the theme that "It's All About the Paper!" we used two more of the patterns from the gorgeous Spice Cake patterned paper. We also incorporated the matching Spice Cake fabric into the card - love that stuff! It's so easy to work with, and you get quite a bit of material in 3 different patterns/colors - those fat quarters are pretty fat!

Recipe
Stamps: Always Thankful
Paper: Spice Cake Designer Series paper; Soft Suede, Pool Party & Vanilla CS
Ink: Basic Black, More Mustard & Pool Party stamp pads; River Rock & More Mustard markers
Accessories: Spice Cake Designer Fabric; Scallop Oval, Modern Label & 1-3/8" Circle punches; Mini Library Clips; Blender Pens; Stampin' Dimensionals

The wheat image was stamped with Basic Black. I then made a "pool" of color on the inside top of my stamp pad case by repeatedly pressing the top down into the pad and then opening the case. I used a blender pen to pick up ink from that pool to color the image, which enables you to shade the image as you desire. I used the MM marker add some deeper shading to the wheat, and colored the grass with River Rock. The quote was stamped on vanilla CS, then punched out with the oval punch. I punched a circle out of Soft Suede and adhered that to the back of the oval. I punched another piece of Soft Suede with the Modern Label punch and then cut that piece in half, and adhered one half to each side of my quote behind the circle. I finished it off by clipping a short piece of fabric in the Library Clip and clipping it to the quote, then added Dimensionals to the back and adhered it over the fabric strip running along the right third of the card. To adhere the fabric strip, I simply ran adhesive from top to bottom along the right edge of the brown patterned paper, then simply stuck the fabric to the adhesive. Easy peasy!

Well, I'm thankful that I finished this post and can now go to bed. What are you thankful for? Remember, there's always something!!

BTGO!

I bet you're scratching your head, wondering what in the world that means! That's what I did the first time I saw BOGO on a sales flyer. It took me a while (don't forget I'm a 50+ blonde Norwegian) to figure out it meant Buy One, Get One! Well, Stampin' Up! has a great deal this month on the Simply Sent Kits: Buy Two, Get One coordinating stamp set free!!

The kits are found on pages 192-193 in the big catalog, and the coordinating sets are right next to them. You can order two of one kit plus the coordinating stamp set, or mix and match different kits and one stamp set. The Simply Sent Kits offer a variety of basic themes, so it's easy to create cards for any occasion. This is the perfect option for beginning crafters, as well as those of you who think you have no time to make your own cards. You can grab any Simply Sent kit, some adhesive and your scissors, and have eight cute cards in a short amount of time. Imagine getting a bunch of cards done while you're waiting at the doctor's office! Scout troops and other organizations would also benefit from a quick and easy craft project. These kits also make fabulous stocking stuffers (hint, hint)!

While the kits make 8 cards each, you'll have the stamps and leftover embellishments (Stampin' Up! is very generous with the supplies in these kits) to use on other projects. AND you can purchase "refill" kits any time throughout the catalog year. It's all about convenience!  To order, just click on the link on the right side of the page to go to my shopping website. While you're there, check out the holiday items on the UPDATED Clearance Rack - there's some great bargains to be had! But hurry, things are selling out fast!

Spice Takes the Cake!

Have I mentioned yet how much I LOVE the Holiday Mini Catalog? There are so many neat products in there that I had an awfully hard time trying to be frugal and practical when placing my first order! The first thing that went on my order was the gorgeous Spice Cake Designer Series Paper. I just love the color combinations in the paper (Soft Suede, More Mustard, Pool Party, Pear Pizazz, River Rock, Very Vanilla), and the patterns are generic enough that the paper can be used all through the year.

For that reason, the theme of this week's Stamp Club was "It's All About the Paper!" We did three projects with a fall theme that used Designer Series Paper as the main focus: two cards and a Halloween treat box. The card I'm posting tonight uses four different patterns of paper and showcases how you can use patterned paper in ingenious ways! It's also a great layout for using the new Peekaboo Frames die, also in the mini catalog.

Recipe

Stamps: Day of Gratitude

Paper: Spice Cake Designer Series paper; Very Vanilla, Pool Party & Soft Suede CS

Ink: Soft Suede, More Mustard & Pear Pizzazz

Accessories: Peekaboo Frames Bigz L Die & Big Shot, Modern Label punch, Basic Pearls, Stampin' Dimensionals, 2-Way Glue Pen

Hey, you don't need ribbon when you've got this fabulous patterned paper! I just cut a strip to use as a ribbon-like accent across the middle of my card. To decorate the Peekaboo Frame, I simply cut along the dotted lines of the pattern in another of the papers and adhered to the front. I added the tiny pearls as some bling - they were the perfect size to fit in the flowers. I then cut a rectangle of vanilla CS and stamped a Thanksgiving greeting, and glued it to the back of the Peekaboo Frame before adhering it to my card front with Dimensionals. This would also make a nice birthday card, and I'm going to be using this layout for some Christmas cards as well!

The Peekaboo Frames die is designed to coordinate with the 25 & Counting stamp set to create a personalized Advent calendar, but it works so well on this type of card, too! It has five different size/style frames on one die, and would be a great addition to your crafting supplies! To see what other fabulous products are in the Holiday Mini Catalog, just click on the link on the right side of this page.

Have a sweet time stamping!

Happy Fall!

The first day of fall...hard to believe that summer has come and gone already; although here in Minnesota it seems we had about six months of spring and only a few weeks of summer! We are supposed to get some Indian Summer next week, and I hope the forecasters are right, as I'd really like a few more warm days before we have to start getting ready for what is projected to be a cold and snowy winter. Again.

So I mentioned that I've not been feeling the greatest for the past week or so. I don't know about you, but when I'm feeling under the weather, my brain just doesn't work the same. I've had no mojo, and any creativity floating around upstairs got lost in the flood of sinus congestion and eventually ended up in my Kleenex, I swear. But, since I have a hard time just laying around, I did spend a lot of time in my craft room trying to keep myself occupied. I spent some time playing around with one of the sets in the Holiday Mini Catalog, Always Thankful, and here is one of the cards I came up with. I just LOVE the color combinations in the Spice Cake Designer Series paper; you can expect to see more projects using that gorgeous paper soon!

Recipe
Stamps: Always Thankful
Paper: Spice Cake Designer Series paper; More Mustard, Soft Suede & Vanilla CS
Ink: Soft Suede, Pear Pizzazz & More Mustard markers, Pear Pizzazz & Pool Party pads
Accessories: Top Note die & Big Shot, Large Oval punch, Pool Party ruffled ribbon, Ice Circle rhinestone brads, sponge wedge, Stampin' Dimensionals

Simply Worn Out...

is a description that fits me perfectly right now! For the last couple weeks I've been coming home from my day job, changing clothes and going outside to work on finishing my big landscaping project. By last Wednesday I only had a few blocks left to stack...a great feeling! Since we hadn't gotten a vacation in this summer, I had taken Friday and Monday off work, planning on getting a last camping mini-vacation in over the weekend. Then on Thursday morning I woke up with a very sore throat. By Friday I was coughing, and by Saturday I was running a temp and seriously worried about coughing one of my lungs out. Needless to say, the camping weekend got scrapped. Yesterday, when I was finally able to get in to see a doctor, she took one look at my throat and put me on antibiotics. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in almost a week, and I'm just plain worn out.

So, I'm posting two simple cards using the fabulous Well Worn Designer Series paper paired with the Designer Frames embossing folders. These will work great for "manly" birthday cards, which I always have the hardest time designing.

Recipe

Stamps: Occasions Alphabet, Simple Salutations

Paper: Crumb Cake CS, Early Espresso textured CS, Well Worn DS paper

Ink: Early Espresso

Accessories: Regals brads (the Not Quite Navy ones are from my stash of retired brads)

The first card uses my new favorite "go-to" layout for a quick card, which uses the oh-so-versatile Occasions Alphabet. By changing up the patterned paper and color schemes, you can create a large variety of cards for different occasions in a very short period of time. Remember my newlywed card? Same layout!

For the second card, I just turned the layout around a bit to fit a vertical orientation.

The Well Worn patterned papers feature Not Quite Navy, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, River Rock, Soft Suede & So Saffron...great colors for your upcoming fall card making!

I HAVE been able to play with some of my new stuff from the Holiday Mini, and hope to be able to share some of that later this week. For now, I'm off to bed, and sincerely hoping for some sweet dreams tonight!

Playing Catch Up!

I've been awfully busy the last few weeks, as is very evident by my lack of posts lately. So tonight I'm playing catch-up! I'm lucky in that I have a TV in my craft room, not far from my laptop, so I'm multi-tasking tonight by doing my blogging while I watch the Minnesota Vikings in their last preseason game. I am a huge Vikings fan, so I'll apologize in advance to those of you who don't care for football, as I will probably be expressing my love of them many times during the upcoming football season!


Tonight I'm sharing the other two cards that our stamp club made last month. It's a great coincidence that the first card is purple, my favorite color during football season! ; ) It's the lovely Field Flowers stamp set paired with Wisteria Wonder. The second card is a fun summertime sampling of creative ways to use your punches (CASE'd from a card by Lisa Young). Enjoy!

Recipe #1

Stamps: Field Flowers, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant & Whisper White CS, 2011-2013 Patterns Designer Series Paper Pack

Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Lucky Limeade

Accessories: Oval Scallop Frame die, Stripes embossing folder & Big Shot; Lace Ribbon Border, Modern Label & Word Window punches, Rhinestone Brad, Basic Pearls, White Taffeta ribbon, paper piercing tool, Stampin' Dimensionals

Recipe #2

Stamps: On Your Birthday, Woodgrain

Paper: Crumb Cake, Wild Wasabi, Peach Parfait, Blushing Bride, Early Espresso & Whisper White CS, Just Add Cake Designer Series paper

Ink: Crumb Cake

Accessories: Cupcake Builder, Petite Pennants Builder, Large Oval, XL Oval, 1/2" Circle & 3/16" Corner punches; Square Lattice embossing folder & Big Shot; Basic Rhinestones; Stampin' Dimensionals

Well, that was good timing: the game is over, the Vikings won 28-0, and I got my posting done. Oooops! I almost forgot to mention that the Holiday Mini Catalog went live today! I'm so excited, as this is the first mini catalog in many years where I've wanted to order just about everything inside! You can view it by clicking on the link on the right side of this page. If you would like to schedule a workshop and earn some of the mini catalog items for FREE, just send me an email at sweetp563@hotmail.com. Sweet dreams!