Dec 12, 2012 | Christmas, Cookie Stamps |
It’s 12-12-12 – so doesn’t that make it a dozen day? Did you make a dozen of anything or buy a dozen of anything? That’s what I keep thinking about. So I’m going to package up a dozen cookies to take to my friends house tonight. And what better way to do that than to use some cute Stampin’ Up! products –

Plus I used the Stampin’ Up! Sweet Pressed cookie stamps too. In the past I have been using the Sugared Shortbread cookie recipe that comes with the cookie stamps but this time I wanted to try something different. I went to the grocery store and wanted to try some of the store made dough – it comes in a roll – and I found Gingerbread dough and Peanut Butter to try. Both of these work! But some tips – the dough does need to be chilled – if it is too warm/soft it just gets sticky and sticks in the stamp. And this tip seems to be the key – dip the cookie stamp in SUGAR every time. I rolled the dough into a ball, put it on the baking tray (covered with parchment paper), dip the stamp in sugar and then press it into the ball of dough. I wasn’t sure how well the cookies would turn out – I thought the dough might rise and make the design disappear but it didn’t they all turned out!
We used the Gingerbread dough for my Stamp Club Friday night and I made up some more with the Peanut Butter dough on Sunday. Now I’m going to package them up in these sweet little cookie pouches for tonight.
Have a great dozen-dozen-dozen day!

Dec 11, 2012 | Cards, Christmas, Designer Series Paper, Holiday catalog 2012 |
This is a quick and easy Christmas card – or really a card for any occasion. You need some Designer Paper, a coordinating ribbon, matching card stock and ink, a stamp set with the appropriate greeting and then a set that has something like a swirl or spray of foliage. Here is what I am talking about –

For this card I used the Snow Festival Designer Series Paper – the colors in it are Soft Suede (my card base), Cherry Cobbler (mat layer), Gumball Green (ribbon and ink), Whisper White (stamped layer), plus Primrose Petals and Baja Breeze. Cut a piece of designer paper for the bottom, stamp a greeting and the little spray of leaves on the top, tie the ribbon around. Add the layer to the front of the card base and ta-da a quick card.
Don’t need a Christmas card – then change the designer paper and the greeting – I made this same card layout with several other papers and color combinations and used it as a birthday and a thank you. The Just Believe stamp set isn’t Christmas but it worked on this card – but you could look through your stash and see what else you had to add some color right there. Or if you have a larger/longer greeting you wouldn’t even need anything else stamped on there. Another thought is to use a punch – a flower or something else that coordinates with the feel of your card.
I originally received a card with this layout as a swap and thought it was so simple and versatile that I have used it several times throughout the last 6 months. So get busy making some quick last minute Christmas cards.
I ordered cards that I created in My Digital Studio – that will go to our family mostly – it has updates on what the boys have done this year along with photos. It looks like those will be here at the end of this week so I’ll be getting those in the mail on Saturday (that’s the plan). I better go buy some more stamps so I can send out hand stamped cards too.
Have a great day!

Dec 7, 2012 | family, Holiday Gift Making, My Digital Studio |
My Digital Studio Family Wall Art project

We had a lot of fun at our last My Digital Studio Class creating this Hybrid Wall Art Project. Cindy and I worked on this project together and we were both so pleased with how it turned out. Cindy is our local My Digital Studio “Queen” – go visit her blog for lots of MDS ideas – Nutmeg Creations – she will have a post about this project today too.
Have a great day!

Dec 6, 2012 | Big Shot, Christmas, Create with Connie & Mary, Holiday catalog 2012 |
Good Morning! Today we have a new challenge at Create with Connie & Mary. This week we have a sketch challenge for you –

I decided to create a card based on a holiday scrapbook layout that I made for my last scrapbook class. In order to do that I turned the sketch on it’s side. I don’t know about you but I really love using the little Festival of Prints paper stack in the Holiday catalog. I have been using them for scrapbooking and for cards – cutting them quickly in half or into strips.
I’ll post the scrapbook layout another day. I actually started creating a My Digital Studio card based on this too – but ended up changing my mind on our family Christmas Card. I am using My Digital Studio for that – I ordered 55 cards – I hope that is enough. And I included photos but it took me a longer time to figure out what I wanted to do. Finally finished earlier this week. Anyway back to this card.
The base is Crumb Cake (yes one of my favorites of the neutrals). Then a layer of Early Espresso – it was run through with the Chevron Embossing Folder – I did using my Boutique embosser machine but the Big Shot works too. The little flags are strips from the Festival of Prints paper pack. Then I stamped the image from the Merry & Bright stamp set – and yes it fits so nicely in the Apothecary Framelit. The edges are sponged in Crumb Cake. My scrapbook page had little collections of the embosslit buttons and it used Jolly Bingo bits which I decided was too big for this card. So I pulled out the Merry Mini’s set and added a tiny little ornament for this card. I really love all these colors together.
What can you create with this sketch? Can you turn it or flip and make something for the holidays? Have fun playing along.
Stampin’ Up! Supplies:- Stamps: Merry & Bright, Merry Minis
- Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade
- Card Stock: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Lucky Limeade, Cherry Cobbler
- Accessories: Big Shot die-cut machine, Chevron Embossing Folder, Button Embossing Folder, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Festival of Prints Designer paper pack, Linen Thread, Merry Minis Punch Pack, Stampin’ Sponge, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Texture Boutique
Visit the Create with Connie & Mary site to see the creations from the rest of the design team and to submit your own creation for this new challenge. Have a great week!

Dec 5, 2012 | Big Shot, Christmas, Holiday catalog 2012 |

Remember the other day when I posted about the ornament that I made for my gift making class – well this is the second one from the set. It is Crumb Cake – with Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake snowflake die-cuts in the center and a Vintage Faceted Button tied with Linen Thread in the center. I know you can’t see it in this picture but there is shimmer on the whole ornament – I mixed the Champagne Shimmer paint with rubbing alcohol and put it in a spritzer bottle.
If you like this style of ornament guess what – Stampin’ Up! just released an ornament kit that you can order to make the ornament like the one on the front of the Holiday Catalog –

You can visit my website – www.monika.stampinup.net – go to the online store by clicking SHOP NOW – and order there – or contact me directly and I can place the order for you.
