New Products

As promised here's a few cards made with new product out of the new Occasions and Sale-A-Bration minis. This first one was made by Christy Frick. The stamp set is "Abundant Hope" out of the Occasions mini and the corner scallop punch is called "Scallop Trim Corner". I love this card. I will definately be doing something like this for Easter.
And guess what? Now we can run the scallop punch around the corner and we have a straight line punch so we could punch all the way around a piece of card stock. That's not what I did here but this scallop punch matches the corner punch above. And there's another set of punches that go around the corner. And on this card I used a stamp set called "Whimsical Words" out of the Sale-A-Bration mini.

Here's the last card for today. This card was made by Laurie Gibson and she used the new "Very Vintage" wheel out of the Occasions mini. And of course that's the new scallop edge punch. I love this wheel. I think it has great possibilites for use in a Heritage scrapbook. And of course it makes beautiful cards. And Laurie used a technique called "spotlighting". That's where you use a neutral color and then on another piece of card stock you stamp (in this case, roll) the same image and then color it. Then she backed it with a black scallop and used dimensionals to adhere it right over the place where it matches the background. Does that even begin to make sense? We'll do it sometime at card class so that you can see what I mean.

There are so many new products in the new mini's that I can't even begin to list them all. New punches, new paper, new stamps, embosslits, clear mount stamps, brads, buttons, satin ribbon, shaped on board books and decor elements. You'll be surprized how much new stuff there is.

I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve, however you decide to celebrate.

This is a picture that I took this morning. The snow was really pretty. To bad that we didn't have a white Christmas but I'm just thankful that we didn't have storms and ice. I went out and swept the porch and the steps and then I decided that since I didn't get my mail yesterday I would go and get it this morning. Mind, I just had on p.j.'s and a coat. Well, about half way down the drive way my feet started to slip and after a few exotice dance steps I fell on my hip. Just hope it's not to sore tomorrow.
Actually I'm testing out a new card reader that I got just so that I can update my blog with pictures when I'm traveling. It seems pretty simple so I'll see what happens. I'm taking the camera, the card reader and my net book with me next week when I go to Leadership. So just watch this blog for pictures and news about Leadership and what's going on in Phoenix.

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Christmas memories book

I made a little correction to the instructions for the pocket page in the memories book. When you make the pocket your using a total of three pages to get one page with two pockets. It wasn't real clear before. Sorry about that.

Christmas memories book

My sister and I are going to a Christmas party tonight and I thought that this memories book would make a great hostess gift. The only problem is that I had never posted it here. I made this book at Ronda's scrapbook weekend back in Nov. I fully intended to post it but I get distracted so easily. Anyway, here it is now. This is one of Stampin Up!'s on board books. We used the Christmas simply scrapping kit to decorate it. On the inside of the book we made pocket pages by tearing a page halfway down, folding the top down to the bottom and adhering the bottoms together. Then turn the page and do it again so that there's a pocket on the next page. Adher the bottoms and then put a brad along the side, at the top of the folded down part. As clear as mud, right. This page has two pockets, one on each side. So you actually used three pages total to make this one.

Here's the back side of the page above.

Then divide the book and put in a few more pocket pages. On the tabs you could put the year and have a section for each year. Now you can keep track of all kinds of things, or you could have people write their thoughs and wishes for the new year in it. It make's a great gift for people who really are into decorating for Christmas because they can put pictures and write down how they decorated and if there's anything they want to change for next year.

Well, Laurel just called and said that she's ready to go so I'd better get my coat and get going. Hope your all enjoying getting ready for Christmas.

Faux tearing

This technique is called faux tearing. It's meant to look like you tore some card stock and layered it. But what you actually do is tear some scrap paper, lay it down on your good card stock and then stamp. When you lift the scrap paper it looks like you tore the card stock. It helps if you make sure that some of the image is on the scrap paper. This saves you some card stock because your only using one sheet instead of two. Cassie Thelan demonstrated this technique and made this card.

More techniques

Kathy Latz showed us Wax Paper Resist. This is one of her samples. Isn't it beautiful. I can see this background being used for an Easter card. Wax paper resist is not really hard to do. You just need a piece of wax paper a little bigger than your card stock. You need two pieces of card stock. You can fold the wax paper or wad it up and then you place it between two sheets of card stock and iron it with a hot iron. Then you brayer or sponge the color onto the card stock and where there's wax the color won't sink in. Just be creative with how you fold or wad the wax paper and you'll get different results.

More Winter Wow

Here's a really cute advent calendar made by Kathy Latz. She used a painters canvas and covered it with designer paper. The writing at the top she did on the computer. The little jars are favor tins from Wilton. Lots of times you can find these at dollar stores. She just used velcro on the bottom of the tin and on the calendar. She filled the tins with pieces of candy. But if you watched all year you could find a big variety of little toys or other items to put in the tins. I might have to think about scheduling an Advent Calendar class next October or November. What do you think? I always used to get advent calendars for my nieces and nephew but they've gotten so expensive that I've quit doing it. This would be perfect because they could save it from year to year. You could always put it on a sheet of metal and use magnets to hold the tins on. Some people just have such wonderful ideas and I'm so glad that they share them.

Yesterday was our Winter Wow technique day for the Rubber Queens. After I got home Tiger came to spend the night and this is what he thought was Wow. He didn't touch any of the figures except the animals. After he went home today I had to remove some safari animals from the nativity and a dino from Santa's sleigh.

My technique to demonstrate yesterday was shaving cream. If you haven't done it it's lots of fun and lots of mess and you never know what you'll end up with. The shaving cream technique is really easy. Just put some shaving cream in a shallow container and add a few drops of reinker. Then use a craft stick ( I used my bone folder ) and spread the color around until you like what you see. Then lay the card stock on the shaving cream and made sure that all of the card stock is covered. Then lay it on scrap paper and use a squeegie (I just used a peice of cardboard) and scrape the shaving cream off. The excess shaving cream can just be put back in the container. The card stock is now ready to use. It will be a little damp so you might want to wait until it's dry.

This card isn't real clear but I used Rich Razzleberry and Bermuda Bay reinkers in the shaving cream and it's on Pretty in Pink paper.

This is the Under the Stars stamp set and I never thought about it before but it doesn't have a campfire in the set. So I used some of the paper that I had played with and cut out the fire. That's Real Red on white but for some reason it looks orange. I don't know why unless it's because the Real Red reinker is really old. The bear is Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip on Creamy Caramel paper. The racoon is black reinker on white but it doesn't show up much.

This one is one that I really like the color combination. It's Bermuda Bay and Orchid Opulence on white. I think that there's a little Bashful Blue in there too.

It's a beautiful day in the neighbor hood. The snow is beautiful and it looks like there's already about 4". I just hope it quits soon so I can go shopping. I need to get some groceries in. Tiger is coming to spend the night tomorrow so I need some snacks and things that he likes.

Here's a couple more stocking stuffers. This one is really cute for little kids. It's just a cello bag of chocolate jimmies with the poem attached.

Here's another one with candy. This one is suitable for anyone who likes the sour cherry balls. I found the best place to buy these is at Gander Mountain. Check out the candy sometime when your there. They have lots of old fashioned candy and it's usually in big bags. Anyway, here it is. A cello bag with a Top Note topper and the poem. The ribbon is out of the Holiday Mini and the little trees are from a sizzlit in the mini. Sorry I can tell you the exact name of things but my catalog is out in the Paper Palace and I'm in the house and to lazy to walk that far. (about 12 feet)

Hope your Christmas crafting is going well and if you need any help just give me a call.

Here's what you missed if you didn't come to the Stocking Stuffer class on Monday. This is a gum holder. It's made on the same principal as the popcorn holders. You adhere the card stock to the cardboard sleeve around the gum and then when you pull the ribbon the foil packet of gum will pop up. Sorry the picture isn't clearer.



This is just a little notebook that was covered and decorated. If you watch at dollar stores you can get these really reasonable. The buttons were cut on the Sizzix.

This is a little lip balm holder. This is the outside.

This is what the inside looks like. I don't know where I first saw this so I can't give credit but I do know that I didn't think it up by myself.

I'll post a couple more tomorrow. We did 10 items.

Here's a Christmas wall hanging that I made with help from my Big Shot. I'm going to make some more for Christmas gifts. If I get time. I always have good intentions but not always the time. Tonight was my stocking stuffer class and a couple of people cancelled so tomorrow I'll finish them up for my own use. And If I'm real ambitious I'll post a couple of pictures.

Holiday Extravaganza

From now until Nov. 30th Stampin Up! is having one whale of a sale. Click on the sale button to the right to check out all of the wonderfull sale items.
Here's just a sample of what's on sale.

The Framed with Love stamp set and Full Heart punch. Reg price $43.90 on sale for $21.95.
Thank You Kindly stamp set and Scallop Edge punch. Reg price $29.90 on sale for $14.95.
Animal Crackers stamp set and Star Designer brads. Reg price $25.90 on sale for $12.95.
5 packages of corduroy buttons in assorted colors. Reg price $49.5 on sale for $24.88.

There's at least 50 items listed on sale. Check it out.

Today Sandy Haynes and I went to the brayer class taught by Michelle Zindorf. It's really easy when you know how. And I'm not going to tell you how because I'm going to offer a class sometime. You'll all be surprised at how creative you'll be. My cards aren't the best but at least now I know what to do. So I'll be doing lots of practicing and someday I'll show you something spectacular.

Here's some of the tags that we did in tag class last night. And a couple that we didn't do but were just there for show and tell. Here's a close up of the snowman. I think he's adorable. He's made with the curly label punch and a word window punch. I punched it out in black and then in white and I cut the white into two pieces and adhered one piece to the black. Then added the word window punch for his hat brim. The eyes are from a craft store and his mouth and nose are just drawn on. If you're really good with little pieces of paper you could cut his nose out of Only Orange card stock. But my finger didn't really like that tiny little piece of paper. The flower on his hat is the Trio Flower punch. Deb thought that the flower made it a girl snowman but I don't have a holly punch and it's to small to cut so flowers it is. My sister kept telling me that he was cross eyed but he looks pretty good here.

Well, I've gotta get going. Sandy Haynes and I are going to Portland today to take a brayer class from Michelle Zindorf. She's a fantastic artist. If you haven't seen her work check out her blog. http://www.zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststamper.com/

Tricia came today and used a leaf blower to get rid of all the leaves in the front yard. I hate to rake but I love the trees and the fall color so I'm very thankful for Tricia. She'll probably be sorry tomorrow when she's stiff and sore.
Here's another page from the Scrapbook In A Day albumn.
Now I need to get busy with my second hated chore and that's dishes. I could leave them until morning but it seems like when I do that someone always comes early for class and it takes me all day to do dishes. I suspose I could buy a dishwasher. Then I could really dirty a lot of dishes when I cook and not have to worry about how long it's going to take me to do them.

Here's a page from the Scrapbook In A Day. It's using the Simply Scrapping Kit called Jingle All the Way. It will be a 20 page albumn and it's $25.00. If you want page protectors then it will be $30.00. It will take an hour or more to put together and you can come anytime during the day. Just think. You'll have your albumn all done before the holidays and as you take pictures you can add them to your albumn. If you want to take this class you must let me know and pay by Nov. 23 so that I can get the supplies ordered.

I am so excited. Today I saw the Occasions Mini catalog and the Sale-A-Bration catalog. Both of these will be available to order from in January. The mini is over 40 pages long and has so many new items in it that you won't believe it. There's some new style stamps and punches. There's some new decor stencils, some new Big Shot bigz dies and sizzlits, some absolutely beautiful designer series paper, new satin ribbon and would you belive it, a pack of designer paper with 48 sheets of paper. There's so much in there it'll take me forever to decide what I want. What am I saying? I want it all. There lots more stuff than I've mentioned here.

And then I saw the Sale-A-Bration catalog. There's 5 new stamp sets, a punch and a 72 piece paper pack. All of these can be earned free with a $50.00 order. And to top it all off there are 77 stamp sets in the big catalog that you can earn free during Sale-A-Bration. Keep in mind that some of these are Spanish and some are French. What a great Sale-A-Bration it's going to be.

And here's a card from last weekends scrapbooking weekend. What a great time we had and we were treated royally. There was a candy buffett and a chocolate fountain. There were make n takes, classes and lots of door prizes and a wonderful goodie bag. The next scrapbook weekend is March 14, 15 and 16. I think those are the right dates. If you enjoy scrapping and stamping with a lot of other talented people then plan on attending. Isn't this card beautiful? I love the Dasher stamp. Another thing that they did at the scrapbooking event was a silent auction. The Dasher decor element was one of the item on the auction and I was so hoping that I would get it but when the price got above $40.00 I decided to quit.

Here's the card that won the card contest at our Rubber Queens meeting last Weds. Sandi Dailey made this and she must be crazy. Look at how many punches she used. The base for the elf is the Build A Bear and then she just kept changing and adding until she came up with this wonderful card. She had to make 16 of these for the card swap. Ronda and Melissa had their scrapbooking weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I only went on Sat. but I had a blast. I didn't really want to go because I don't like hauling all my stuff around but Sandi assured me that if I took a couple of classes I wouldn't have time to do a lot of scrapbooking anyway. She was right. I took my England book to work on but I only got about three pages done in between make and takes and classes. Tomorrow I'll post a couple of the projects that we did. Here's some pictures of the room where we worked. Ronda already has her next scrapbook weekend planned. It's March 12, 13 and 14 so mark your calendars now for a fun weekend.

Here's the last four cards from my Stamp A Stack. This first one is on Shimmer White paper and I wanted some Shimmer White envelopes to go with it. But, Stampin Up! doesn't sell Shimmer White envelopes any more. No problem. Just mixed some of the white shimmer paint with a little alcohol and spritzed the envelopes and they look just like the paper. The other color on here is brushed gold card stock and the images are embossed in gold.
This card is a copy of one of Sandy Haynes' cards. I really love the Dasher image and it is so economical to buy. It's only $8.95. Don't you think that you need one?


This one is a really simple one but could be jazzed up just by adding a little color to the ribbon on the wreath.

And I love this Rudolph card from Elanor. I saw one yesterday that had a mouse on it and it was really cute too.

That's it for Stamp a Stack. Last night was our regular Rubber Queen meeting and it was great, as always. I'll post a couple of picture tonight or maybe tomorrow. Or whenever I get the time. I won a stamp set called Bearing Gifts and it makes a really cute tag so now I need to add it to my tag class. Tag class is on Nov. 19 and we'll be making 25 tags and so far I've got about 10 different tags picked out so there'll be quite a variety. I just can't make up my mind. Let me know if you want to come.

Here's a card from my Stamp A Stack on Tues. This is a copy of one that we did at our last Rubber Queen's meeting except the background. At the meeting we used some Designer Series Paper but I didn't have enough so I changed it to a stamped background. And we used some of the Shimmer paint mixed with rubbing alcohol and sprayed the card. You can see it really good in this picture. I used the Champagne Mist paint. I tried the white paint but it didn't show up as well. This method really dresses up a card.
Today I went to my first Christmas craft show. It doesn't seem possible that Christmas is less than two months away. And in the afternoon I went to Tiger's Halloween party and then he came home with me to spend the night so that his Mom could go to an adult party. We're both really tired but with the time change I don't want to put him to bed to early but I may have to because I don't know how long I can last.

Here's the last card from last week's card class. It's called a tri-fold card and it's a lot easier than it looks. Thanks to Kathy Latz for demonstrating it at a meeting. This shows it standing up.
And here it is laying flat. It's really simple. Just start with a piece of card stock that is 12 x 5 1/2". Score it at 2, 4, 8 and 10 on the short side. Then turn it the long way and cut at 1 1/2 and 4 from the 2" score line to the 10" score line. Then fold. However you fold your top and bottom parts fold the middle the opposite way. Ex. here the top and bottom fold back and the middle folds forward. Then keep folding so that the middle is opposite the top and bottom. And then decorate. Here I used the Merry Moments DSP and a couple of snowflakes cut on the Sizzix. And the little trees, birds and snowflakes are the Stampin Up Merry Details sizzlit from the Holiday mini catalog.


And here's a cute treat box. This box is great for any Holiday or occasion depending on how you decorate it. The first time I saw one of these it was a Halloween box. The belt buckle is a pop top from a can of soda.

Here's a few of the cards that we did last Thurs. night in card class. This one is a copy of one by Tami Ackerson. Thanks Tami.
This one is a copy of one by Kris Kolly. I like this one because it show another way to use the decorative ornament punch.

And this one is a copy of the winner at our last Rubber Queen meeting but I don't remember who it was.

As you can see from these cards I kind of went a little punch happy. I'll post the last three cards tomorrow. I'm ready for bed tonight. The Paper Palace looked like a bomb had detonated after card class. I wish I had taked a picture before I started cleaning on Sat. Fri I was to busy with other things to start cleaning. Today I started cutting paper for my Christmas Stamp A Stack on Tues.