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.