Dec 28, 2009 | Big Shot, Chipboard, Create with Connie & Julie, Designer Series Paper |
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I know I did. We had a fairly quiet Christmas eve. Greg’s mom joined us at our house for dinner and opening of presents. Santa came over night and filled stockings and left some presents for the boys. Greg’s mom came back (she lives near by) Christmas morning and ate breakfast with us. In the afternoon we packed up all of us and the dogs and headed to my parents house. A much more chaotic evening as my brother and his family and his wife’s family all came to my parents house. There were 15 of us for dinner and more exchanging of gifts. Noah, my 4 year old nephew was unwrapping gifts as fast as he could only to discover that we got him (and my parents too) the same lego set that Santa brought. What a sad little face when he realized both lego sets were duplicates and he had nothing new to play with. Ally, my 3 year old niece was a little bit slower with opening her gifts and happy with her doll, books, and the little bag I made her.
The non-toy gift that I got them were these Alphabet Letter frames – well they aren’t really frames but I added pictures to them. This was a project that my friend Wendy designed for her gift making class. I decorated an ‘A’ for Ally and an ‘N’ for Noah.
For Noah’s letter I used the Pawstively Prints Designer Series paper to cover chipboard stars. I sanded the edges and sponged the stars. The stars were cut using the Big Shot and the Stars #2 die using the Long Board chipboard pieces that you can order from the Stampin’ Up! catalog.
I stamped sailboats – colored with Stampin’ Write Markers on Whisper White card stock and cut those out. The ‘N’ was stamped with Black StazOn ink using several stamp sets – Extreme Elements, Priceless, Lovely Letters Alphabet, and Just Perfect Alphabet.
The photos are matted with Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, and Ballet Blue card stock. I printed the photos using a collage format so it printed a variety of small sizes that worked great for this project.
For Ally’s letter I used the Tea Party Designer Series Paper to cover chipboard flowers. The flowers were cut using the Big Shot and the Stampin’ Up! Blossom Party die from pieces of the Long Board Chipboard. The flowers were sanded and sponged.
The ‘A’ is stamped with Black StazOn ink using the Priceless stamp set. The name is stamped using the Lovely Letters Alphabet and the Just Right Alphabet. A Rhinestone brad accents the center of the large flower.
The pictures are matted in So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery and Almost Amethyst.
The letters set inside the stand so you can put them on a shelf or dresser in each of their bedrooms. They turned out very nice and I hope that they will like looking at them. I tried to choose photos that I had taken so that they were photos that their mom and dad hadn’t seen before.
I gave several hand-made gifts this year. This was one of them.
I need to clean my craft room – I have lots to do in here – working on projects for the Create with Connie & Julie class. Don’t forget to sign up for early bird pricing!
Dec 24, 2009 | Big Shot, Christmas, Designer Series Paper, In Colors |
It is here. It is Christmas Eve! And I still have so much I want to do but I wanted to take a quick break to share this project I just finished.
I found carved wood icicle name ornaments when I went to the craft fair in Virginia – yes that was October so I had what at least 2 months to make these little boxes – but I waited until the last day…
In this photo you can see Noah’s ornament – I took it out of the box so you could see one. I added the Riding Hood Red ribbon to the tops so that they would have a hanger. The boy ornaments I tied in a knot and the girl ornament I tied in a bow.
The ornaments are long and skinny and I decided to make a little box to put them in. Most of what I used is retired from last year. Riding Hood Red card stock, Ski Slope and Holiday Treasures Designer Series Paper, Little Felt Flurries, and the 1-1/4″ Riding Hood Red Grosgrain Ribbon.
Since they were so skinny rather than make tags I decided to use the felt flurries with their initial as the tag. I used the Big Shot and the Stampin’ Up! Billboard Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die to cut the letters. 
To determine the size of the boxes I used my grid paper. I laid the ornament on the grid paper and drew around it – then added sides for the box that were deep enough to hold the ornament, and a lid and a flap. I extended each end the same amount as the sides. Cut and score, snip the flaps, glued it together with Tombow adhesive.
Yesterday I did baking and wrapping. Made a trip to the Honey Baked Ham store (it was packed full of people), the bank (that was empty), one more trip to the grocery store (also crowded) and I’m sending Kyle back today because I realized I’m still missing one thing. I made more M&M treats because I gave all the ones I made away to the teachers last week and the kids still wanted some. I think I have made probably 800 of those things this year. Each tray holds at least 100 because I put as many pretzels as I can on the tray. I made a Rum cake yesterday – I had to go to the store to buy the rum – they were also pretty busy. I also made Cinnamon Sledges – an old recipe that I got from one of my mom’s friends when I was probably in college.
The other night we had dinner at my mother-in-laws house. It was wonderful. My parents came to join us and Tyler’s girlfriend came over too. Now she has met all of Tyler’s grandparents. Here is a picture of me with my boys and Tyler’s girlfriend, Haley.
Merry Christmas Everyone! If I have time today I’ll set up a couple of posts to go up this weekend. Otherwise it will be Monday before I post again. Have a wonderful Holiday with your family, travel safely and enjoy.
Dec 20, 2009 | Big Shot, Christmas, class, Holiday Mini Catalog 2009 |
This cute little ornament was designed by my upline Wendy Randall. I just loved it when I made it at her house and used it for my class on Friday as well. It is an ornament but could also be used as a gift tag. I am also making a snowman version – I don’t have a picture of that one yet so I’ll have to show it tomorrow.
This uses the Stampin’ Up! Dasher stamp – what a great deal and very popular too!
And the treat cups that are in the Stampin’ Up! holiday mini catalog and these will also be in the new Occasions Mini Catalog that will begin on Jau. 5th along with a new stamp set to use it with.
The Big Shot was used to cut two Scallop circles from the Scallop Circle #2 die – it is the large circle of the two on the die. Then use the Big Shot again Stampin’ Up! Perfect Details Texturz Plate to add the swirly texture on each piece.
Sponge with Chocolate Chip ink to bring out the texture and we also sponged the scallops around the circle. Then add the white dots with the gel pen. Use the 1-3/4″ Circle punch to punch a hole in one of the circles – the hole is not in the center – so the bottom is bigger than the top edge – we pushed the punch in as far as it would reach and lined it up from side to side in the center.
Stamp Dasher in Chocolate Chip ink on Whisper White card stock. Add Dazzling Diamonds glitter to his antlers with a 2-way glue pen if you like. The “snow” in the cup is Tapioca – so put a little in the sweet treat cup – remove the adhesive from the cup and attach the cup over the stamped dasher. To do this I held the cup and the card stock above me so I could see where I was putting it – you may also be able to set the cup on the table and “see through” the white card stock to position it.
Then put the scallop circle with the hole over the sweet treat cup and trim off any white card stock that shows. Use a little bit of adhesive to hold the scallop to the sweet treat cup. On the second scallop circle I used the Tombow mutli-purpose adhesive and then glued that to the back matching it to the one in the front.
To finish add a piece of the red polka dot ribbon and silver cord for a hanger.
It is really cute! Thanks Wendy for sharing it with me.
Have a wonderful day!
Dec 19, 2009 | Big Shot, Christmas, class, Holiday Mini Catalog 2009 |
This is a super quick project if you are in need of a little box for a last minute gift. The Big Shot machine and our Stampin’ Up! punches make this so easy.
Use a 6″ x 12″ piece of Real Red card stock and run it through the Big Shot with the Stampin’ Up! Fancy Favor Bigz XL die. It cuts the box and makes all the score lines for you and the top edge has a fancy edge so it really dresses up this simple box.
Then I used the Jumbo Snowflake punch to punch a snowflake out of the front panel of the box – I pushed the punch in as far as it would go. Carefully remove the punch so you don’t pull off any of the small delicate pieces of the snowflake. Here is where I came up with what I thought was a neat idea – I thought the box was too plain with just the snowflake punched out so as I sat there I took the punched out piece and put it back (thinking I would do a different idea) but when I did that the edges of the snowflake popped up some while the center remained flush with the box. Hmmm…. now that looked much better to me but I needed something to hold the center of the snowflake in place. Back to my punch collection – I pulled out the 3/4″ Circle punch and punched a Real Red circle. Using a bit of Tombow Multipurpose adhesive (my new favorite thing to use can you tell) I glued the circle to the inside of the box in the very center of the snowflake and then put the punched out snowflake back in and glue it only in the center. Hold it there for just a few seconds. Then I put a square piece of Whisper White card stock on the inside of the box behind the snowflake and ta-da – a pretty snowflake box!
To finish the box I added the Mistletoe Ribbon Originals – the Whisper White ribbon stitched with the Real Red – I added a handle – used the crop-a-dile to punch the holes in each side. I did not fold in on the side gussets I left those alone so I could have a straight box. I also added the ribbon around the bottom of the box.
And some of the girls sprayed their box with the Shimmer Paint spray (rubbing alcohol mixed with the shimmer paint). The Shimmer Paint by the way will still be available after the Holiday Mini catalog ends – it will be a write-in-item for the regular catalog – yeah!
Last was to add a white half pearl from the Pretties Kit to the very center of the snowflake. Everyone said this was the fastest project that they had made. This was part of my Holiday Tags & More class that I had yesterday. We had fun and ate chocolates that Sue shared – yes, Sue, we ate a lot more last night! Everyone says thanks for the chocolates!
I still have lots of Christmas stuff to do – cards to mail, presents to wrap, a few more gifts to finish making and maybe one more to buy. I need to make a cake and plan Christmas breakfast so I still have another trip to the grocery store this week.
I think this is my project #9 for the Late Night Stampers 12 days of Christmas challenge. Just a few more to share…..
Bye for now!
Dec 14, 2009 | Big Shot, In Colors, Occasion Mini 2010 |
I finally played with my new Stampin’ Up! stuff yesterday! And here is the first card that I made and my first time ever to use a clear-mounted stamp. I have only used would mounted so far – but the feel of the clear block is so nice – the grooves on the sides – on all four sides – instead of just two like the would blocks. I think I’m going to like them.
I love how this turned out! I used the sketch from the Stamping 411 blog for this week. 
The sketch card is tall and mine is turned to be a wide card but the basic layout remains the same.
I choose the colors Soft Suede and Crushed Curry – why – basically because I had a scrap of Crushed Curry lying on my craft table when I wanted to try out my new Stampin’ Up! Beautiful Wings Embosslits Die. This new Die will be available in the Occasions Mini Catalog which starts on January 5th. After I cut the butterflies I remembered that the Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series Paper has a pretty piece in it that was mostly Crushed Curry – so I pulled that out. One of my favorite cards that I made this year was a convention project that we made at our STARZ group meeting and it used that same Designer Series paper and the Soft Suede – so I decided to stick to that color scheme for this card.
I sponged all the little butterflies with Crushed Curry ink to give them dimension. And added a piece of cross-stitch thread around the body of the large butterfly – although looking at it in this picture Linen Thread would have given the same look and a very similar color. So pretend it’s linen thread….
I pulled out my new clear mount stamp set called Well Scripted – this will also be available on January 5th in the new Occasions Mini Catalog. It is one of my favorite sets from the mini – beautiful script for all the basic occasions. I mounted it on a clear block, inked it with Crushed Curry ink and stamped it on Whisper White card stock. I punched it out with the Wide Oval Punch and sponged the edges with Crushed Curry ink.
I also punched out a 1-3/4″ Circle out of Crushed Curry card stock to put behind the greeting. It was sponged with Crushed Curry ink also.
To assemble the card – fold the Soft Sued in half to form the card base. Add the Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series paper strip at the bottom. I added a piece of Crushed Curry Polka Dot ribbon – tied in a knot. The greeting was put over the ribbon with Stampin’ Dimensionals. Then I added the butterflies – the largest one with a Stampin’ Dimensional, the smaller ones with some Tombo Multipurpose Adhesive.
Finally I decided to get out my Spritzer tool and my In-Color Markers – I spritzed with the Soft Suede on the upper portion of the card and with the Crushed Curry on the lower portion, the greeting and the large butterfly.
I hope you like my card – I have lots more fun stuff to play with so check back again. Have a wonderful Stampin’ Up! Day!
Dec 14, 2009 | Big Shot, Christmas, class, Holiday Mini Catalog 2009 |
Holiday Tags & More Class
When: Friday, December 18th
Time: 10:00 am and 7:00 pm
Join me for my monthly Hands-on Stamping Class.
This month we are making two sets of Holiday gift tags, a fancy favor box and a cute ornament using the sweet treat cups.
These are fun projects that I know you will love!
Please bring adhesive (like snail) and some scissors.
The class fee is $15. If you place an order of $50 or more you will get $10 off the class fee.
Please RSVP by 12/16.
I hope you can join me for this fun class! You’ll be ready to finish up your holiday wrapping!
Email me at [email protected] if you would like to attend.
For Noah’s letter I used the Pawstively Prints Designer Series paper to cover chipboard stars. I sanded the edges and sponged the stars. The stars were cut using the Big Shot and the Stars #2 die using the Long Board chipboard pieces that you can order from the Stampin’ Up! catalog.
For Ally’s letter I used the Tea Party Designer Series Paper to cover chipboard flowers. The flowers were cut using the Big Shot and the Stampin’ Up! Blossom Party die from pieces of the Long Board Chipboard. The flowers were sanded and sponged.
