Thank you card - Christmas

This was a card I gave out to most of my club members. It uses the embossing folder and some white craft ink. It's really pretty in person and the snowflakes really show up. This picture isn't the best though. I used the new Cherry Cobbler seam binding which works similar to regular ribbon. The saying is stamped and punched out and added on with dimensionals. I like the Baja with the Cherry cobbler. They look good together.

I really appreciate all the support my club members give. They come every month excited to create new things and it makes it fun sharing items with them. So I gave them a small little gift and one of two different cards.
The top one or this other one, which is the same snowflake embossing folder, just with a different color scheme. This one I inked it up using some bashful blue. I then punched a couple snowflakes and added on the same thanks with dimensionals. I then added a couple of jewels and some navy satin ribbon to round it all out. I liked them and I had fun making them. I hope they enjoy them too.

Christmas card - mds

This was the front of our Christmas card that we got a few samples made. I wasn't exactly sure how they would turn out, so I only got a few to begin with. They turned out really cool though. You can print on both sides, which was one thing I thought turned out really neat and we had not gotten before. It had thicker paper and the print quality was really good. We got some others made to to compare to and there was quite a bit of difference, both with the picture quality and paper thickness.
This was one of the new size cards. There are several options on the MDS program and you can chose which direction you'd like and I chose this one. Since I wasn't sure how the printing on the back would come out I had a little more blank space then I needed to have, but it's okay. I know now and hope to make some fun ones for future use.

I chose some of our more fun pictures for the back. It was so hard to get pictures of our kids this year. I think we took about 20 just to get the 3 on the front. They kept making faces or laughing or poking on each other. If you have a sibling, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
So anyways, I wanted to share my card with you guys.
I hope you have a great day and an awesome Merry Christmas.

pop up Christmas tree card

Wow, Christmas was hectic this year. Normally I'm way ahead and it isn't so crazy. Not sure why I was so far behind this year, but I was. I wonder if any of you were the same. Sorry I haven't posted much the last few days. I love making the holidays special for the family and we had 3 events in a 24 hour period to prepare for and two of them were at our house and the other I helped a lot with.
I know it's too late to make some of these projects but I wanted to show you some fun Christmas projects we have made at club and some other items I made. Maybe they can inspire you to get a jump on next year. lol. I know I need it if it's anything like this year.

This is a pop up tree card that I thought was a lot of fun. We stamped the tree parts, which were cut out with the Big Shot, with the Baroque Motifs stamp set in olive. The red skirt was also cut out with it as well. The front is embossed with olive using the snow swirled tree and Merry Christmas from Four the holiday. It's just such a wow card as everyone always ohhs when you open it up and see it pop up. It was so much fun I just had to share it.

So I hope you had a great day today and got to spend time with friends and family. I hope you got to take time and enjoy the real reason for the season too. I know I had to take time out and thank God for what all he has given me and my family. I wouldn't be where I am today without him. Merry Christmas everyone and have a great evening.

singing Rudolph

Here is another card we did at club. I cased this card from Amy Celona who cased the original reindeer idea from Jackie Topa. I thought it was so cute. I just had to copy it. It always brings a smile to my face when I see it. It was very creative and fun and it was so nice of them to share these ideas.
It's a little hard to see but the book is raised up on dimensionals, so it stands up off the page. I wrapped his little arms around so it really looks like it is being held. My last sample had the snow lower so you could see more of his body, but I gave it away, so this one has a little thicker snow. I just took a piece of white cardstock and tore downward at an angle. Then I flipped the torn piece around and added it to the back of the front piece. I then edged the tops of my papers with the two way glue pen and dipped in dazzling diamonds to make the snow sparkly. The book is the curly label punch folded in half and then trimmed into a v shape and then reopened. The rest is all punches, except for the antlers which is made with the Big Shot. The words are from Four the Holidays in the mini.
So I hope you enjoy the little singing reindeer and it brings a smile to your face too. Christmas is just around the corner and it's great to just enjoy the small things. Blessings

serene snowflakes meet soft suede

For my club members I try to teach new things or showcase a little different color pattern. Here we used soft suede, bashful blue and whisper white, and sahara sand. The bigger snowflake stamp is stamped in bashful blue, the little snowflakes are in sahara but I stamped off first once. The peace on earth is the suede. I also used the sahara sand on the bottom of the base cardstock too. Then we used the soft suede polka dot ribbon to tie a knot.



Besides this different color scheme the other thing we did to this card that the picture doesn't do justice too is that we sprayed the white with a shimmer spray. We mixed some frost white paint with a little alcohol and mixed together in a cheap spray bottle (or an old stampin mist bottle). It gave it a really shiny look. It almost reminds me of the shimmer paper we sell as it's that shiny. This bottom picture shows a little glimpse of the shiny effect. The members thought it cool to see another trick for an accessory. You can do this with the others too, but the silver was a little dark for this card. I haven't tried the gold colored one yet (champagne).
So I hope you have a peaceful day today and take some time to try something new too. It's fun to do that when you get a chance.

Christmas cardinal

I don't believe I've shown this card yet. This is the same set I used for my father's birthday card, but I made this one into a Christmas card. This is a set on the dormant list and is still available for purchase. I just really like this set as it reminds me of trees I used to see in the park growing up. Every winter we would have cardinal birds sitting on them in between getting food. It was always so peaceful to watch them. So I thought of this when I made this card. So I hope you have a peaceful day today and get a little chance just to enjoy today. I know many are starting to think about Christmas and the holidays, but take a moment and see and enjoy God's beauty. Look in the eyes of someone you love or care for and let them know you love them today. Enjoy the moment, enjoy the present, as tomorrow will come soon enough. Have a great day.

Here is what I used for this card.
stamps: branch out, teeny tiny wishes
ink: chocolate chip, bordering blue, real red
paper: real red, chocolate chip, whisper white
accessories: sponge, Chocolate chip grosgrain, Modern label and word window punches, dimensionals

Regional card - Berry Christmas

I didn't see where I shared this card with you guys. This is another card we made at regionals. Isn't it fun? It took the little flower/wreathe from the set and it was repeated to form a tree shape. I thought it was a cute use of the stamp. The colors that were used were celery, chocolate chip, bashful blue and real red. The red strip is actually the red polka dotted ribbon turned backwards. The button has twine through it and tied and the little flower has a brad and is popped up. The make merry is cut out and mounted on top.

I've seen some different looks this Christmas and I'm loving the variety.

I apologize for not posting as often lately. I haven't gotten a lot of time to create lately outside of what I have had to do. I'll have some club projects tomorrow, but I like them to see them first. I do have a couple of other projects as well, but I need better lighting to take some pictures. I do hope though that you all are getting time to create. I've heard some are working on gifts and Christmas projects. Now is definitely time to do that before the big Christmas push and everything gets crazy. If you get a chance to share some of your creations I'd love to see some. Send me an email or bring them over when you get a chance.
So I hope you are having an awesome day today.

regional card

Here is another card we made at Convention. It's fairly simple. The hardest parts were cutting out the ornaments. The saying is stamped in Chocolate chip on kraft paper. This card is folded at the top so it's a 4 1/4 x 11 card folded in half. the strings are also in Chocolate chip. I just noticed I'm taking a picture looking up at the card, so you can see the edge of the string. If you were looking down on the card you wouldn't see the edge. I just love the polka dotted ribbon. It adds such a fun festive flair don't you think? There is also a little rhinestone brad added to the garden green ornament. Also, both ornaments are raised up with dimensionals. All in all it was a fairly simple card. If you didn't want to cut that much you could also use the Ornament punch and coordinating stamp set too. There are options. I love it when things have options. I just wish I had time to create everything I want to create.
So I hope you enjoy another Christmas card idea. Have a great day today.

petals a plenty

One thing I missed at first in the new mini catalog was this embossing folder. I looked over it several times. There is just so many great items in our mini. It's hard to get or see everything in it. It is so pretty. I like it plain on cards, but I also learned this trick from demonstrator Patty Bennett. If you take a wood mat or thin frame of some sort you can create an oval (non embossed area) on your card front like the area in the middle of the card where the reindeer is placed. The mat you have decides your shape. You could probably find some circle ones and square ones too. This embossing folder actually covers the full sheet of paper when used by itself. If you place the mat in there, it creates this effect. I then stamped my Dasher stamp in Silver and embossed in silver. I then took a sponge dauber and used our new shimmer paint (also in mini) to highlight the petals on the flowers. I then matted that onto Basic gray paper and then onto real red. I also embellished the card with the new red polka dotted ribbon. Isn't it so much fun? I like our new polka dotted ribbons. Not to mention the folder and the new shimmer paint. So much fun. I love trying new things. Out of the two shimmer paints I've tried, the platinum is thicker and bolder. The white is more opaque and gives a hint of sparkle. It's subtle but very pretty.
So I hope you enjoy seeing the idea today. Now I'm off to play with my new digital software. This comes on sale October 1st. If anyone is interested let me know and I can share what I know about it so far. There is also a hostess special for October. Host a party in October and if it reaches $400 in sales you can earn it at half off as well as get a $10 item out of the mini as part of your hostess benefits. If you have any questions, just ask. Have a great day.

regional swap - ornament card

Last weekend I got the pleasure of going to one of SU's regional meetings. It was very informative and they showed us lots of fun ideas. I'll have to upload some pictures to show you some of the stuff they showed us. One of the fun things about an SU event is that you get to have swap time (where you excange one of your cards for someone else's card). You get some fun ideas that way. So I thought I would show you my swap card that I took to regionals. I thought this was a different but cool color scheme. It uses glorious green, rich razzleberry and Brilliant Blue. Each of the ornaments are stamped on white and then punched out with the coordinating ornament punch. The white paper is matted with rich razzleberry. I used the new fun razzleberry polka dotted ribbon. The saying is from Teeny Tiny wishes and is stamped in Razzleberry and punched out with the word window punch. It is then mounted on a Brilliant blue piece punced with the modern label punch.
Can you tell I've been working on Christmas? I love Christmas stuff. I can't wait to do some more. Hope you all are having a great day.

Christmas convention swap

I got to sit by a very nice lady on the plane ride back home. Okay, my dd was in the middle and next to her, but she was extremely nice and put up with both of us talkers on the way home. It was nice to talk to her and cool that she was a demonstrator. It wasn't until later that I realized her bag was a Founder's circle bag that she had with her which means that she is doing really well with SU. It was a new bag and I don't know anyone that has reached that so I didn't realize it. So little did I know or I would have congratulated her. Anyways, we started talking about convention and thoughts about it and the new stuff. We talked about swaps briefly and she was nice enough to give me one of her swaps even though I was out of mine. I thought that a really nice thing to do. So this is the card she swapped me. It's a Christmas card and I'm so starting to get into the Christmas mood already. I think it's helping that it's been unusually cool here, but I am starting to get psyched about it already and it's only September 1st. I've been working on several projects and can't wait to finish them.
So I hope you enjoy my share today. This card was made by Laura Barto and the following is what she used to make this card.

stamp set: teeny tiny wishes
ink: basic brown, whisper white craft ink
paper: real red, old olive, chocolate chip, very vanilla
Accessories: modern label, word window, scallop edge, jumbo snowflake punches; SU Background #1 textured plate, brayer, gold brads, pennant die, dimensionals

Christmas medallion card

Here is another card using the Medallion stamp. I made this into a Christmas card. This one is embossed on the olive paper with clear embossing powder and the versa mark. The center of the Medallion is filled with a crystal brad. The saying is stamped with the new Teeny Tiny Wishes set. I like this set because most of it fits so nicely in both of these punches. It also has a multitude of sayings - pretty much most main holidays here in the US as well as other sayings. The words are embossed too using red craft ink and clear embossing powder. It's punched with the word window and backed with the modern label punch. It's popped up on dimensionals. I know it's a little early for Christmas, but I couldn't help myself. :)

Also on another note: Bermuda Bay ink is suppose to be available to order starting today. If anything changes I'll let you know.

Here is what I used for this card:
paper: chocolate chip, real red, old olive, whisper white
ink: versa mark, real red craft
stamps: Medallion, teeny tiny wishes
accessories: clear embossing powder, heat gun, clear rhinestone brads, piercing tool and mat,
chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon, word window and modern label punches, dimensionals

silver medallion card

Okay, you will probably see several medallion cards. I'm trying different effects with it. Unfortunately my daughter decided to become a camera buff today and used up all the battery on the camera. I was able to get this one picture before it died. It isn't as clear as I like but you get the gest of it anyways.

The Medallion part is stamped in Versa Mark on Basic gray paper, although it would probably look really pretty on silver paper too. It is embossed with silver. I then cut out around the outer edge and added a basic small grommet to the center over a punched piece of basic black paper. I then added it to some Olive paper, matted on real red on top of black paper. I then stamped the Merry Christmas in olive craft ink and heat embossed that with clear embossing powder. Punched it out using the Word window punch and mounted it with the Modern label punch in real red. I then added two silver brads to coordinate with the silver embossing and popped it up on dimensionals. I guess I'm starting to get in the Christmas mood as three of the cards I made tonight were about Christmas. I have more items or pictures to show you but I must first charge my battery. So I hoped you enjoyed my early Christmas card. Maybe it gives you some ideas of things you'd like to start working on soon. Because Christmas is only just over 5 months away. Not long if you like to craft items and have a lot going on.

Here is what I used for this card.
Paper: basic black, real red, old olive, basic gray, whisper white
ink: versa mark, old olive craft ink
stamps: medallion background, teeny tiny wishes
accessories: small grommets, 1/2" circle punch, bone folder, snips, silver & clear embossing powder, heat gun, word window and modern label punch, silver brads, dimensional

Christmas card with branch out

I was also playing with my Branch out stamp set, which is still available just on the dormat list. Here is another Christmas card idea. I swirled the leaves around to try and make a wreath. I then added some stamped circles for berries. I used the new modern label punch to mat my saying on. It was fun to make, but I feel like it needs a little something more. What do you think? It's kind of fun getting myself in an early Christmas mood. It won't be too long now to start thinking of Christmas card ideas too. The saying is popped up with dimensionals and is from the new set called Teeny Tiny wishes - a large group of sayings that most if not all fit inside the modern label punch.

So this is another play card. I hope you enjoy it and have a great day today.
Here is what I used to make this card.
Paper: mellow moss, real red, whisper white
ink: mellow moss, real red
accessories: mellow moss grosgrain, modern label & word window punches, dimensionals
stamps: branch out, flower fancy, teeny tiny wishes.

Christmas in July with the Big Shot

I couldn't resist playing with some of my new stuff tonight. I also thought it would be fun to make a Christmas in July card. So here is one of my results. I got the medallion background stamp and the mover's and shakers die for the Big Shot. You will get to see a couple of cards made with this new medallion set. I think it makes some beautiful cards.

As you can tell by the second picture the Movers and Shakers die for the Big Shot cuts out a hole in the front of you card which coordinates with our punches. The image on the inside is stamped and punched out with the curly label punch and fits right inside the hole. The hole can be moved anywhere on the card. I just chose to put it in the bottom right corner.

It's a very simple but fun card I think and a lot of fun. So I hope you enjoy my little card today. Sorry I haven't posted much lately. I've made a few samples so I have more to show you over the next few days now. :)

PS. the ribbon isn't crooked. The card is slanted in the picture and it cuts off the left bottom part of the card.

Here is what I used to make this card.
paper: old olive and whisper white
ink: old olive; markers - old olive and real red
stamps: medallion background, Christmas punch - level 2
accessories: movers and shakers die, Big Shot, real red grosgrain, curly label punch

Merry Christmas from our house to yours

I want to spend some time with my family the next couple of days and I wanted to show this card before I did. I thought it was appropriate. It uses the To You and Yours stamp set, so I thought it was appropriate to wish you all Merry Christmas from our house to yours.

It shows a faux metal technique I I learned from the SU training team (One of the perks of being a demo by the way). There are two ways to do Faux Metal and this is just one of them. How do you do this you ask? First I took the stamp I wanted to use and inked it with Versa mark and left it to work on the next part (don't stamp anything - you need it wet with Versa). I then took a piece of silver paper (cut to a little bigger then the size so you can hold it) and inked it with Versa mark all over (use the pad). Then poured silver embossing powder on it and embossed the whole piece. I then did that same thing two more times on the same piece, so it's basically been embossed 3 times all over. I hold the heat gun on the piece a little longer and then I grab my stamp and I lift my heat gun up and then stamp into the warmed embossed piece of paper. When I lift my stamp off it looks like the stamp image has been etched into the embossed layers. The Versa mark keeps the silver from sticking to the stamp, so it's a pretty quick and easy way to add accents to your cards or scrap pages. A fun way to save a little on decorations and probably a little more archival then pure metal pieces. Anyways, I thought it a fun technique to show you and also to help wish you a very Merry Christmas!

We hope you take time and actually enjoy the holidays. Sometimes we spend so much time preparing we forget to enjoy the gifts we do have (like Martha did). So take some time and enjoy your family, your friends, your life and most of all God, who gaves us everything. God bless and Merry Christmas.

Here is what I used to make this card.
Paper: night of navy, bashful blue and whisper white, Brushed silver
ink: versa Mark, night of navy
stamps: To you and yours
accessories: silver cording, heat gun, silver embossing powder, white grosgrain ribbon, ticket corner punch, wide oval punch, dimensionals,

handmade holiday kit with snowflakes

These are more minor changes to the handmade holiday card kits. The red and green use the heat and stick powder and dazzling diamond glitter. It's hard to tell here, but they really sparkle in real life. The kraft one just uses white craft ink and is of course more muted. All I added to the kraft one was the snowflakes (from Snow Swirled) and the whisper white ribbon. Season Greetings is stamped using the To you and yours stamp set, which coordinates with the kit, in mellow moss ink.

This red one has white ink with heat and stick powder and dazzling diamonds and topped off with silver cording. The sentiment (Merry & Bright) is from the To you and yours set and is stamped with mellow moss under the house ( a little hard to see in the pic).





The mellow moss one is like the red one, except I added the mellow moss grosgrain ribbon. I also stamped the sentiment using To you and yours stamp set with chocolate chip and ruby red markers. In case you didn't know Ruby Red is really close to Riding hood red. For small areas it's hard to tell the difference, so that's an option if you like the markers.


So these are easy examples, so get playing with some of your sets. Take a break from all the stress of the holidays and enjoy a small break and have some fun. It is really fun playing from time to time. You ought to try it. :)

Handmade holiday kit

I had gotten the Handmade holiday kit and did enjoy the simplistic look of them put I wanted to see if I could make some minor changes and make them even better, so here are a few of my examples. I have a few more, but these are the first ones. It's interesting seeing what a couple minor changes bring.
This first one all I did was stamp Lovely as a Tree on the craft with Mellow moss ink.


This second one all I did was add some mellow moss ribbon and turn the angle around to an upright card.












This last one I changed out the paper for the striped ribbon and added a 1 3/4" riding hood red circle and some dimensionals. Pretty quick and easy, which I'm all for this time of year. Now to decide who gets them. lol. I think the hardest part of making crafts sometimes is parting with your stuff. hmm... Do you have that problem too? Anyways, I hope this helps you see how just some minor adjustments can make a difference.
Hope you have an awesome day.

club card and tags

I was hoping to show you some of the ornaments my sister and I made during our Thanksgiving time together, but I can't find my adapter for my camera. We cleaned up to have Thanksgiving dinner here at our house for my husband's family, so I have to find where my husband put it. As soon as I find it I'll post some. There were some really cool ones made and I can't wait to share, especially the punch ones and the sparkly ones, so check back soon. In the meantime, these are the last couple of objects we did at club. I thought you might want to see them if you weren't involved or remember an idea if you were, especially since this is the time of the year we all get ready for Christmas. So did anyone go shopping this weekend? I did some today too. Don't forget the extravaganza sale if you are interested. Some items are supposedly already sold out. It's good only through Dec. 1st while supplies last. See my post from a couple of days ago if you need updated on what it is. Also the rub-on sale ends Nov. 30th too. When you spend $20 you get 20% off rub-ons. My SU website is open if you need to make an order, just click here.

This first card was fairly simple to make. The saying and ornaments are stamped using the silver encore ink. It takes longer to dry (like pigment), so we heat gunned it to make sure it was dry. Then the ornament tops were punched out of the silver paper which gave it a glimmery look which you can't really see here.
So here is what I used for this card.
paper: old olive, real red, silver, ww
ink: silver encore
stamps: snow swirled and Best Yet (hostess level 1)
accessories: silver cording, 1 3/4" circle punch, designer label punch, cropodile, dimensionals, heat gun.

Since we made the book and the card there was a little bit of a gap time finishing the little book, so while people waited we made these little tags. They were super easy. Just stamped the images, punched the corners and holes and thread the ribbon through.
For these I used the following:
inks: Old olive, bashful blue and night of navy
paper: old olive, night of navy and ww
stamps: To you and yours
accessories: tag corner punch, cropodile, olive and bashful grosgrain ribbon.
Well I hope you have another great day. I have to go get some stuff ready for tomorrow. Some friends are coming for a BYOS get together, which is a "Bring your own stuff" time. Where everyone brings there projects and takes time to work on them together. We enjoy getting together with friends, so it should be fun.

Season to Share part 3

Okay, I hope you all aren't getting sick of the season to share. I just had fun playing with this. I also have scrapbook pages, but I'll share those tomorrow. Then I'll share what I did at club and a box I'd like to show you how to do, but I have to get more pictures taken first. I'm sorry I haven't posted much. It's not even the holidays and I've gotten so busy. My son just turned 5 and he's had like 4 different celebrations already and one more to go (kid party, school, my family, my husband's family, etc). He's one excited, sugared up kid. Not to mention keeping up with all the kids activities, homework and I got to enjoy club this week with some great ladies. I also have a bags, tags and gift card class I'm getting ready for on Saturday so it's been a busy week. Of course many of you deal with the same thing, so you know what I mean. So here are some more fun projects for you to peruse. I hope you enjoy them.
This first card was easy. I wanted it to look like a package, but was also trying to make it flat in case I wanted to mail it, so I just cut strips of paper and used the mono adhesive to glue them together and topped it off with a punched circle and added a tag sticker from the Season to share elements. Really quick and easy. I used Riding hood red and kiwi kiss paper.

I was playing around with package looking cards and this one uses the old olive wide grosgrain ribbon. I just looped a bow in the center and held it together with a small piece of ribbon and glue dots. I then added the two small tags and got a cute present card. Again I used the Riding hood red paper.




This last item is 2 separate tags. I just placed them on red paper so they would show up on my white table. All I did with these is placed the sticker on paper, matted them and then used my ticket corner punch and my tag punch and trimmed the corners. Then used my cropodile and hole punched it and added ribbon. It was done in nothing flat. You ought to try some. They are found in the accessories section of the catalog - called Season to Share. For these tags I used the following: Riding hood red, kiwi kiss, & whisper white paper; the tag and ticket corner punches, cropodile, whisper white ribbon and old olive ribbon. Thanks for looking and have an awesome day