Dec 29, 2010 | Big Shot, Scrapbook Pages, Simply Adorned Jewelry, Valentine's Day |
For the last few days of the year I’m going to share my favorite projects from this year. One from each month of this past year. I just can’t believe another year has passed. I have loved sharing my projects with you on my blog and love to read the comments and hear that you like what I share. I hope 2011 is as fun and exciting as 2010!
Below are my picks for Jan, Feb and Mar 2010 – I added the links below each one that will take you to my blog post with more details about the project. Enjoy!
January 2010 – Hugs & Kisses Holder
http://monikastamp.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/more-on-the-hugs-kisses-holder/ – includes instructions on how to make it.
February 2010 – Vintage Scrapbook Page
http://monikastamp.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/vintage-scrapbook-page/
March 2010 – Monogram Simply Adorned Charm
http://monikastamp.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/simply-adorned-monogram/
Dec 23, 2010 | Big Shot, Christmas, Fabric, Holiday Mini Catalog 2010, Recipe, SU Buttons, Tags |
I have been making this recipe for many years – it is always a big hit. I recently made it at my Holiday Gift Making weekend that I had back in November and several people wanted the recipe. I am making some more for Christmas – to have out our family events throughout the holidays and thought I would share it with you. In the past I have given it as gifts to teachers and neighbors. It was such a great teacher gift – a ready made appetizer for a teacher to take home for the holidays. I made them when Kyle was in Kindergarten (he is now a freshman in college) and wrapped them up in a dish with crackers and a spreader to give to his teacher. Several years later when ever we would see this teacher (she no longer worked at the school) she always commented on how she remembered that gift and how good it was.
Today I decided to wrap up a few for gifts – I actually divided one larger cheese ball into two smaller ones to wrap them.
I used several items from the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini catalog. First the Deck The Halls fabric – I cut a large square and then folded it into quarters and used the Big Shot and the Scallop Square die to cut the fabric. I lined the fabric up on the die so that the cut edges after I folded it up where getting cut and the folded sides were inside the die so they didn’t get cut. This gave me a large scallop square of fabric – basically the size of 4 of them together – but one large piece of fabric. I hope that made sense.
My cheese balls were rolled in almonds
and then I wrapped them first with wax paper and then with plastic wrap. Then I put it in the center of my scalloped fabric square. I took two opposite points and folded them across the cheese ball then took the other two points and brought them together at the top. I used a large needle, some Linen Thread, and a Big Designer Button from the Deck the Halls pack – I used the smallest Always Artichoke button for these. I used the needle to pull the Linen thread through the front of the button, through both layers of fabric to the back, through both layers of fabric again through to the front and through the button. Tied that in a knot and then added a tag from the Tags til Christmas stamp set. Tied it in a bow and trim the ends. It dressed them up nicely!
Here is the recipe:
Almond Chicken Cheese Ball
1- 1/2 cups cooked chicken
1 Tbsp A-1 steak sauce
2 – 8 oz. packages cream cheese, softened
Combine above in a bowl. Mix well.
1/4 cup minced green onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped almonds
Mix green onion, 2 Tbs parsley and celery with the cream cheese mixture. Mix well, form 2 balls – refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Roll in “leftover” parsley and almonds. Serve with crackers.
Here are some of my notes:
-I have been using canned chicken – just drain it well.
– I usually leave out the celery – my family doesn’t care for it.
– This time I left out the parsley because I didn’t have any – it’s mostly for looks.
– Forming the balls is messy on your hands. I get out waxed paper and put a ball in the middle of each piece. Then roll that up and cover it with plastic wrap to put in the fridge.
– I was able to freeze one – but don’t add the outside parsley and almonds before freezing and do wrap in wax paper first – because when it defrosts it gets “wet” and the wax paper seems to absorb some of that. Let it defrost in the fridge and then roll in the parsley and almonds before serving it.
Happy Holidays!!
Dec 16, 2010 | Big Shot, Christmas, Punch Art |
Have you made your list? Have you checked it twice?
I don’t know about you but I am a list person. I like to make lists – grocery lists, things to do lists, and right now I have Christmas lists, and lists for what to get from the new mini catalog and for Sale-a-bration. Lists need to be kept in a notebook and not just any notebook but a really cute one. And there is no better way to make a cute notebook then to decorate it with your Stampin’ Up! Supplies. I saw this cute idea on one of my yahoo groups – it was shared by Cindee Wilkinson – and she said she got the idea from Kelly Mayou. So thank you ladies for a cute little project and place to keep my holiday lists!
It is a Santa Notebook. I just bought some notebooks from the local store. I used Stampin’ Up! card stock, punches and my Big Shot to dress it up using the ideas that Cindee and Kelly had shared.
Starting with his beard – it is Whisper White card stock that I ran through the Big Shot with the Swirly Texturz Plate. I sponged the edges of all the white pieces with Bashful Blue ink.
His face is Blushing Bride card stock. That was sponged with Blushing Bride ink – and I rubbed real hard where I wanted the cheeks to be. For the rest of his face I used punches. Eyes – Whisper White, Marina Mist, Basic Black and a white gel pen highlight. Mustache is Whisper White – the 1-3/4″ circle cut in half – I probably should have textured that piece too but I didn’t. The nose is Blushing Bride and the tongue is Real Red.
The Hat is Real Red – the triangle piece was run through the Big Shot with the Northern Flurry Textured Impressions folder. The edges are sponged with Early Espresso. I also added some Whisper White punched with the Scallop Trim Border punch and tucked it under the face. The Pompom is Whisper White piece that I put in the Northern Flurry Textured Impressions folder and then punched out.
It’s a pretty quick and easy project and the perfect home for all of your Holiday Lists.
Happy Holidays!
Dec 15, 2010 | Big Shot, Christmas, Scrapbook Pages |
I have another fun Christmas Scrapbook Layout to show you today. This was the second layout for my scrapbook class earlier this month.
This is my Gingerbread House layout. You could use other titles on this – Gingerbread Boy, Gingerbread Cookies, Holiday Sweets, Cookie Exchange, etc. My other thought was to take the white gel pen and right above where it says “Gingerbread” and write “The story of the…..”
I haven’t decided for sure which pictures I’m putting on this page – either pictures from one Christmas of one Gingerbread house or pictures of our Gingerbread houses from several years. If I do that I’ll add another ‘s” to the end of house. I remember growing up and every December we had Gingerbread houses all over our house – why you might ask? My dad is a baker (retired now) and had a German bakery near our house. In December he made and sold lots of Gingerbread houses – my mom decorated them at our house and then they took them back to the bakery for everyone that placed orders. I’ll have to ask him how many houses he used to make each year. I wonder if we have pictures from back then of the Gingerbread houses all over our house.
This layout also came from a sketch that I saw in a scrapbook magazine. The base is Chocolate Chip. I started by adding the Real Red piece which has the white gel pen stitching on one side. Next to it I added a piece of Wild Wasabi that was wheeled with the Retro Remix Stampin’ Around Wheel and Wild Wasabi ink.
I cut two Top Notes using the Big Shot and Crumb Cake card stock – each one was cut in half. The edges were sponged with Chocolate Chip ink and then I added some doodling with the white gel pen. Three of these were tucked just under the edge of the Real Red card stock. On the center one is the saying from the Sweet Season stamp set – colored with Stampin’ Write markers on Whisper White card stock and punched out with the Decorative Label punch.
The title is Crumb Cake card stock cut with the GoGo Boots Alphabet Sizzlits die set and the Big Shot. These are also lightly sponged with Chocolate Chip ink (you have to be gentle so you don’t tear them) and the I added some highlights with the white gel pen.
The Chocolate Chip strip has the Gingerbread Man accent – he is from the Got Treats? stamp set. The punches are 2-1/2″ Circle in Wild Wasabi, 2-3/8″ Scallop Circle in Chocolate Chip, 1-3/4″ Circle in Real Red, and 1-3/8″ Circle punch in Whisper White. The Gingerbread Man is stamped with Chocolate Chip ink and then I punched tiny buttons using the Crop-a-Dile – one in each color and glued them on. There is stitching and doodling with the white gel pen. And Got Merry? punched with the Word Window punch.
The right page mimics the left side except over here I have a smaller strip of the Wild Wasabi and one giant Top Note.
Create a template by taking a Top Note and enlarging it on a copy machine to fit on an 8-1/2 x 11 piece of paper. Cut that out and transfer the design to a piece of card board – I use the pieces that come in my Designer Series Paper packs. Cut that out and then you have it for tracing on your card stock and it last for you to use over and over again. I traced it on a piece of Crumb Cake card stock and cut it out, sponged the edges and added the white gel pen stitching.
Then to finish it I punched two holes with the crop-a-dile and pulled through a piece of the wide striped Real Red ribbon. If you start by pulling both ends through from the front to the back – then cross them and pull each end back from the back to the front. Adjust it and trim the ends and it looks like a piece of wrapped peppermint candy.
I hope you like it. I thought it was a fun layout for the holidays!
So I have a few quick family updates on the boys in case you are interested….from youngest to oldest…
Ryan – he found out this week that his braces are ready to come off – he only got them on in January this year – unfortunately he has finals this week and we could not work out his schedule with their schedule so he will get them off as soon as they get back to work in January.
Tyler – he found out that he was accepted at Kennesaw State University – I may have already told you that it was a couple of weeks ago. So number two will be in college this fall.
Kyle – he found out that he got a job as a teaching assistant for one of the computer science classes at Ga Tech for next semester. Very exciting since he is my quiet child and he just told us that he applied for the job when I took him back to school after Thanksgiving. There were 51 applicants for 7 slots. He’ll be home from college this Friday.
We have ice here tonight (Wednesday night) – the boys are waiting to hear if school is canceled for tomorrow – not sure what they will do about finals – I guess have all of them on Friday which is the last day of this semester and the last day before break. I’m off to wrap some more presents.
Dec 14, 2010 | Big Shot, Cards, Sale-A-Bration 2011, UDI Color Challenge |
Today is another Utah Diva’s Color Challenge – We are on week #14 click on this link to go to the Utah Diva’s Color Challenge. Here is our inspiration for this week:
I just received a new issue of Paper Crafts magazine. And one of the articles in there was that “gray” was the new black. They used gray, white and yellow for several examples in the article. So I decided to use one of those ideas for this color challenge. Another thing that I just got was my pre-order items for the upcoming Sale-A-Bration promotion (starting late January) and the upcoming Occasions Mini catalog (starting January 4th). It’s like an early Christmas present getting to open that box and see all the new products that are inside. It was hard to decide what to get and what to wait on. I tried hard to be good. I’ll probably go back and get some more though – just too much fun stuff to choose from it’s hard to stop!
Are you ready to see my creation using the colors for today’s color challenge – Old Olive, Basic Black, So Saffron and Very Vanilla – AND a sneak peek for a new Sale-A-Bration stamp set?
The stamp set that I used on this card will be in the Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration promotion – it is called Punch Bunch and you’ll be able to earn it FREE beginning on January 25, 2011. My picture doesn’t quite show the So Saffron card base very well. It was snowing this weekend when I took this picture so the light was reflecting funny. This card made me think of spring – I’m already looking forward to spring and it isn’t even officially winter yet!
This card is a finished 4-1/4″ x 4-1/4″ square card – the base is So Saffron, then a layer of Very Vanilla and then a layer of Basic Black that was embossed with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder and the Big Shot.
The stamped image was stamped twice – once in Old Olive and punched out with the Scallop Circle punch and then once in So Saffron – this one I cut out the flowers to add on top of the first one. A little brad is in the center of the flower. I just love our stamp sets that coordinate with our punches – I seem to gravitate to those first when I see them in our catalogs.
I hope you like this little sneak peek. Now it is your turn to play with these colors – then go to the UDI blog and add your creation to the linky section.
Stampin’ Up! Supplies:
- Card stock: So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Basic Black
- Ink: Old Olive, So Saffron
- Stamp sets: Punch Bunch (SAB 2011)
- Accessories: Old Olive Satin ribbon, Subtles Brads, Big Shot Die-Cut Machine, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, 1-3/4″ Scallop Circle Exra-Large Punch, 1/16″ handheld punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals
To order Stampin’ Up! Supplies to make this project click here.
Holiday Treats & Tags Class – Dec. 17th – RSVP by Dec. 15th. – CLICK HERE.
Dec 13, 2010 | Big Shot, Christmas, class, Designer Series Paper, Scrapbook Pages |
Earlier this month I had a scrapbook class. Normally my class is at the end of the month but with Thanksgiving and Christmas falling at the end of these two months it makes getting the scrapbook class into my schedule a bit difficult. So instead I have one class at the beginning of December for both months. My regular schedule will start again in January. Anyway, this time I decided to go ahead and do Christmas pages so that everyone would have them ready for this years pictures (or could scrap older pictures if they needed to). For mine this layout will probably be for this years pictures and my second layout is going to be for some older pictures.
This idea started with a sketch in a scrapbook magazine and then combined a few ideas from different versions of that sketch. I love how this turned out and can’t wait to get some pictures on it. But it is pretty even without any pictures on it.
The colors are Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla. The Designer Paper is the Holly Jolly paper in the Stampin’ Up! Idea Book & Catalog. The designs on this paper are just stripes and dots so it is easy to use for anything. The alphabet that I used for the title and the “ho ho ho” is the Jumble Alphabet. This set is just like it says a jumble of alphabet letters in various fonts so you could easily pair it up with any other alphabet that you might have to get the right combination of letter sizes. This set has a variety of big and small and upper and lowercase letters. It also means you don’t have to worry too much about things being straight. I did use my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up my letters but free hand does a good job too.
The main sections of the layout are Old Olive textured card stock that is 12″ x 6″ in size and I used a ruler and Stampin’ Write Marker to draw lines every 3 inches to create the squares. Then I used my Paper Piercer and Mat Pack to pierce along the lines so that it would look like faux stitching.
I cut pieces of the Holly Jolly Designer Series paper, Very Vanilla card stock, and Crumb Cake card stock into squares to layer on the Old Olive Squares. The Cherry Cobbler accents are cut with the Big Shot Die-Cut Machine and the Two Tags Die and the Hearts 7 Brackets Die.
The main stamp set that I used is the Winter Post stamp set – it is one of my favorite ones. I even created a faux postage stamp for one of the squares.
To do this I stamped the reindeer in Early Espresso ink on Very Vanilla card stock and punched it out with the Scallop Square punch. Next I used the Early Espresso Stampin’ Write Marker and a ruler to draw the lines around the edges of the scallop square. I sponged the edges of the square and wrote 44 cents in the corner (since the postage will change in January again – this will be a reminder of what it cost to send cards this year). I attached the faux stamp to my square of Crumb Cake and the stamped over it with the Cherry Cobbler ink and the Santa Post cancel stamp.
The right page of the layout has many of the same elements. The square with the snowflakes as the little pearls in the center. The “ho ho ho” has little stamp from Punch Pals scattered in between to add some more color.
The “2010” at the top is the Calendar Alphabet and Numbers stamp set. The zero is actually the letter ‘O’ from the set since it doesn’t have a zero by itself. These were punched out with the Jewelry Tag punch and then tucked under the top of the page.
I also used the new Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch to make the Early Espresso ribbon strips. I started with about a 1″ strip of card stock and punched all the way across to get the ribbon strip and then the left over straight strip is what I used to create the edge at the top of the panels.
At the bottom of the right page is the Heard from the Heart stamp set with an extra little heart punched using the small heart punch.
Satin Ribbon and Linen Thread finish off each of the tag accents. And a Bitty Button tied with Linen Thread was added to the large heart on the left page. Add your pictures and journaling in any of the empty squares. You could either leave the designer paper squares as they are or put pictures on those too. I’ll wait and see how many pictures I have that I want to add to the layout.
Like the page says “Welcome Christmas into your Heart”.
I hope this inspired you to create a Christmas layout – I’ll have another one coming so check back with me this week.
Holiday Treats & Tags Class – Dec. 17th – RSVP by Dec. 15th. – CLICK HERE.
January 2010 – Hugs & Kisses Holder
February 2010 – Vintage Scrapbook Page
March 2010 – Monogram Simply Adorned Charm
