Christmas 2010

The kids on Christmas night at Laurel's house.  Alex and Garret managed to avoid the camera but here's the rest of the gang. 

 Allie. What a cuties.  Being the only little girl in a house of boys is great.

 Gavin.

 Jackson and David

 Jakob.

 Lukas

 Nathan.

 River.

 Davon and Sam

 Tiger and Allie.

 Tiger and his Poppa.

Zach and Triston.

A great time was had by all.  A couple of the babies didn't feel real well with colds but they all made all evening.  Santa was real good to everyone.  We draw names, get a gift from Santa and have stockings.  I think the stockings are the thing we enjoy the most.  I got some really cool things. 

Merry Christmas

No pictures today.  Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  Hope you all have a wonderful holiday.  Mine started this morning with a champagne breakfast with Ted, Deb, Todd and Eric.  Thanks guys.  It was wonderful.  Just a quick trip to the grocery store and then church tonight before I go to my cousins to visit.  Then tomorrow church, lunch with Mom and Dad and our big family gathering tomorrow night at Laurel and Dicks house.  May all your holiday gatherings be wonderful.

Something different

My niece, Beth Anne, works at Sirens in St. Johns and they are having a big do on New Years Eve.  Since they have a limited capacity they decided that they needed to have tickets to pass out ahead of time.  No ticket, no getting in.  So she came yesterday to make tickets and this is what she came up with.  The printing was done on the computer on velum cardstock.  Then she backed it with brushed silver paper that she had stamped stars on.  She wanted some black ribbon and I scrounged and found this fuzzy black yarn and then the hot pink yarn.  They are not Stampin Up but I really like them.  There's also some silver cord in there.  She punched out black, pink and silver stars to add some pizzaz and after she tied the yarn on she put a brad on.  She used all of the Halloween glitter brads that I had and then went to rhinestone brads.  If I received a ticket like this I would keep it to go in a scrapbook.  I hope her boss likes them.  She put a lot of thought and work into them. 

Here's a couple of close ups.

What can I say.

What can I say. There's just been to much going on and I haven't had time to blog. But it doesn't look like it's going to slow down much so I'm just going to make time. I'm getting a little tired of looking at Christmas cards so lets move on to the next holiday, Valentines Day. These two cards are from our Rubber Queens shoe box swap last week. This first one is from Sandi Dailey. She used one of the new letter press plates for the background. I don't have any of these yet so I can't tell you to much about them. But isn't it a pretty card?

And I'm sorry to say that I don't know who's card this one is but I really like it.  The background is new designer series paper.  I think.  My books are out in the Paper Palace and it's just to cold to go out and look for them.

So are you liking this weather?  I like the snow but the cold weather can go back where it came from.  It seems like it takes longer to get anything done when it's so cold.  And with the snow and cold combined it's taking longer to get anywhere because the roads are so bad.  Hopefully in the next couple of days it'll warm up enough so that the salt will work and I can get the proches cleaned off.  Well, I've had a busy day and I'm tired so I'm off to bed.

Christmas gifts

It seems like forever since I've posted anything here.  I've thought about it a lot but then old age sets in and I decide to wait until tomorrow.  And you know that tomorrow never gets here. 

But I did finally get some pictures of this really cool note pad holder.  Thank you Brenda Van Wort for the idea.  You have to have a 12 x 12 sheet of card stock (I used printed card stock but you can use any card stock and then decorate it with designer series paper).  And then you trim it to 8" x 11 1/2".  Score it at 51/2",  6, and 61/2.  Open the paper and make sure that the narrower side is on the left.  This is going to be the front of the note pad.  Now fold down on the center score line and cut into the score line in two places like in the picture.  Hope you can see it okay.

 

Now open the card stock and your going to put some sticky strip on the right hand side between the score lines.  Does that make sense?  If you look at the picture you can see where the sticky strip is adhered above and below the cut that you just made.  Be sure that there's no sticky strip on the cut portion.

Now take the sticky strip backing off and stick down.  Now bend the score line closest to the stuck down strip back and then fold the remaining score line the other way.  It should look like this picture.

Now take a junior legal pad and put it inside the holder.  You can adhere it down with sticky strip but if you want to take it out again then use some Tombow glue, let it dry for 24 hours and then stick the legal pad in the holder and it's like a post it note.  You can take the pad out, it won't be permanently adhered.
You can put a strip of paper on the top of the legal pad so that the printing on there doesn't show.  I used some of the card stock that I made the pad holder out of but it doesn't show up very good.

We're almost done.  Now you need a pen to use with your note pad.  If you buy Pentel brand, RSVP style pens they come apart.  Just unscrew the end.

Then take a strip of card stock or DSP and cut it 1" X 3 3/8".  If your using card stock this is a little tricky but you want to roll it into a tube and insert it into the barrel of the pen.  If you use your bone folder to break down the fibers then it'll work a little better.

Here it is finished with the pen in place.  It's kind of plain so you can decorate it however you want.  Here's some that I made last week with a little more decor.

And once I figured out what I was doing I made some smaller ones for stocking stuffers.  The little pens were in the stocking stuffer bins at Wal Mart. 

Online Spectacular

WOW!! Check out the spectacular sale that is going on right now at Stampin Up!  This special runs until Nov. 30th so check it out soon.  There's sales of 50% off, 40% off, 30% off and 20 % off. 
And I think the best bargain is My Digital Studio.  It's on sale for only $39.98.  What a deal.  If you think that you don't have time to scrapbook maybe this is for you.  It's all digital and the great thing about it is that there are lots of templates where you just have to insert the pictures. 
Just go to my Stampin Up! web page to shop now.  There's pictures of everything that's on sale.  Here's the address:  http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/lynnschulz/
Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help you.

Dasher

I didn't post for almost a week and now I'm posting two days in a row.  Oh wait, it's after midnight so it's not two in a row but two days close together.  I took Garret to see Harry Potter this afternoon.  He didn't have school so we went to the 3:30 show.  The girl selling tickets assured me that it would be sold out but the theater was less than half full.  But it's a good show.  Very close to the book.  Now I just need to see when the next part is coming out.  It's hard to believe that we're almost to the end of Harry Potter.  It seems like he's been around forever.

Anyway here's a christmas card that I copied from Cindy Cicalo.  It's simple but elegant.  I've always loved Dasher. 

Tag class

Tonight was my Christmas tag class.  This stamp set is called "Tags Till Christmas" out of the Holiday mini.  And Stampin Up! made this class so affordable with the Holiday Bundle special.  It's still not to late if you want this stamp set with either the ornament punch or the extra large decorative label punch.  Just check out the Holiday Bundles special in the right hand column.



Have I got a deal for you. At the beginning of the year Shelli Gardner, the CEO of Stampin Up!, announced a recruiting goal for 2010. She wanted 10,000 new recruits by the end of the year. Well, the end of the year is almost here and we're still a few short of the goal. So Stampin Up! is offering a wonderful deal for new recruits. The starter kits, both regular and digital, will be on sale for only $87.50 from Nov 15th until Nov 30. That's 50% off the regular price for over $310.00 worth of product. If you've ever thought about becoming a demonstrator or if you just want the kit because it's a great deal then this promotion is for you. If you would like the kit but wondering about spending the money think about what a great Christmas present it would make.
If your interested please let me know or just go to my Stampin Up! web site to sign up. My recruiter password is lukash.

Make and Takes

Here are the make and takes that we did last Tues at our demo meeting.  A couple of Christmas cards and a sneak peek at something out of the Occasions Mini that will be coming out in January. 

 Two simple but elegant Christmas cards.

And here's the sneak peek.  In the Occasions Mini you'll see this stampset and the new cupcake punch.

 I've seen the mini and it's like the Holiday mini in the fact that there's so much in there that I just love. Some new fabric, beautiful designer paper, a couple new punches, some new builder wheels, new charms for the Simply Adorned jewelry, some funky new brads, new folders and embosslets for the Big Shot and, of course, some great new stamp sets. And I've seen the new Sale-A-Bration mini and it's exciting too. You should be receiving these sometime about the middle of Dec. If you don't get one please let me know.

I only have one more class scheduled this year and that's the tag class. You can read about it in the right column. Just let me know if you want to come. If you want the stamp set and/or the punch then you need to let me know by Nov. 10 (that's the day after tomorrow, where does the time go?) so that I can order the items. I won't be doing any classes in Dec. (I don't think) but if there's anything at all that you need help with please let me know. If there's any of my punches or Big Shot that you want to use just give me a call. I hope that your all real busy making Christmas cards, tags and gifts. I'll post a couple more gift ideas before Christmas and I'll probably show you a few stocking stuffer ideas. I just don't have enough new ideas to do a whole class.



My show and tell

At our demo meetings we always have a show and tell table where we can show what we've been working on. This is what I took Tues night. It's an advent calendar made out of a mini muffin tin.  I made the circles out of card stock and put pieces of magnet around the edge of the back side of the circles.  This way the magnets hold the circles to the tin and after Christmas you've got magnets that you can use on the refrigerator.  On this one I used the numbers so that the little boy who gets this can use the magnets to help him learn his numbers.  But you could decorate it any way you want.  It needs a hole drilled through the top of the tin so that it can be hung up.  And maybe a bow or something on the bottom for decoration. Just fill up the cups with treats and your good to go.

Here's a close up of one of the magnets.  I thought that I could adhere the card stock to a sheet of magnet and then run it through the Big Shot to cut out the scallops but I don't have a Big Shot die the right size for the mini muffin tin. 

Demo Meeting

Last night was our regular demonstrator meeting and here's a few of the cards that were on the show and tell table.  I don't know who made these but they're all wonderful.

Don't you love them all?  Do you recognize the flames in the fireplace?  It's the bird punch.  How about that.  I never think of these things but I'm glad that someone does.

Card Class

Here's a card from card class.  The stamp is the background stamp called Christmas Collage.  It's a background stamp that is bigger than a quarter sheet of card stock so when you use it you have to be sure that you get the image that you want.  I love this stamp but after I got it I just looked at it for a month or so trying to decide what to do with it.  I finally just embossed it in black and used markers to color in only the holly and poinsettia's.  I stamped the Merry Christmas from Teeny Tiny Wishes in the open space on the upper right and added a button with tinsel.  Then the whole thing is mounted on Cherry Cobbler.  I've seen a lot of beautiful cards made with this stamp.

Halloween

I haven't had any trick or treaters in quite a few years but Beth Anne called and said to come to her house about four and see the kids dressed up before they went trick or treating.

 Tiger, above and Jackson, below, were green dragons.  I didn't get a picture of Jackson standing up so you'll have to use your imagination.  And I've never seen a dino with red boots but Tiger loves them and wouldn't take them off.

 Bryce was a puppy dog.  He's so cute.

 Sophia was Little Bo Peep and Isabelle was her little lamb.  Belle didn't have her outfit on yet when I took this picture but she was an adorable little lamb.

Hope you had lots of cute kids come to your house and that no one played any tricks on you.

October card class

Last night was my regular card class and here's the first card that I want to show you.  It's a little different size but it will fit in a business size envelope.  The base is 7 1/2" X 8 1/2".  Then it's folded in half with the 8 1/2" sides together.  The blue card stock pieces are 3 1/2" squares.  The white pieces are 3 1/4" squares.  Then the white pieces were run through embossing folders.  I used the Northern Flurry and the Petals-a-Plenty folders.  I stamped snowflakes on the base card and added the Merry Christmas from the Christmas Greetings stamp set.  And that's all there is to it.  It's pretty easy but so pretty to look at. 
More cards tomorrow.

Christmas Stamp A Stack

My Christmas Stamp A Stack was last Thursday and I finallly decided to post the pictures. 

 This next card is a copy of one that Arlena Craven made.  I tweeked it a little bit by adding the scalloped piece and the poinsettia at the top of the card.

I am so tired that I can't even think so this is it and I'm going to bed.

More Christmas planners

Okay, I know I said that I would show you a Christmas planner that only has three pockets but I tried and tried and I didn't like how it turned out.  So instead here's a couple more that have four pockets.  These are so much fun and don't have to be for Christmas.  You could make one for any occasion that you are planning. 
Here's the first one.  I wanted to do one in black and white to see how elegant it would look.  Not sure this qualifies as elegant but I like it.  You might not be able to see but on the bottom panel I stamped Baroque Motifs in versamark and embossed with black powder.



Here's in inside.  I didn't do it up nearly as fancy as the first one but you could always add more to it.  On the second panel from the left I used heat and stick and chunky black glitter but it doesn't show up very good in the picture.

 And this is the blue one that you saw in my other post.  I finally finished it with just snowflakes.  It was real fast and easy but I really like it.  The folder matched our Tempting Turquoise pretty good so I just used Temping Turquoise and Not Quite Navy for the snowflakes. 

And here's the inside, again, quick and easy.  I'll be watching for folders next August so that I can  have a Christmas Planner class next year.  Until then you're on your own.  If you make one send me a picture.  I want to see what you come up with.