Candy Cane Christmas Bag

Yeahy! Another bag idea came to me and, while it's pretty out of the box for me, I really do like it. I knew I wanted a white bag base & that I wanted to use the Candy Cane Christmas designer paper. So, I started to look through the sheets & realized that they ornaments reminded me of those from "Tree Trimmings" especially with that little bow connecting them all. Then I looked through my scraps of cardstock than coordinate with Candy Cane Christmas & came up with two sizes/shapes I thought would be fun. Oh, and I still hadn't used my new Glass Glitter so I added it on with the help of Sticky Strip. Of course I couldn't leave out my Candy Cane buttons either! They are a bit big for most of my card projects but are able to add just the right touch to a gift bag. Okay, I'm off for another day in fourth grade. Think of me tomorrow morning when I'm a substitute with a Halloween party. :) Every day is an adventure!

Dasher Mini Bag

Another little bag for you all today. Can you tell how glad I am that I invested in the Fancy Favor Die? I use it so often & I've been told it makes a great gift card holder too. I'm going to have to try that one out soon.

This little bag let me play with a couple of ideas that have been bouncing around in my head. I finally have my own Crop-a-dile so I didn't have the issues punching through all the layers that we had with the Butterfly Bag. It's so easy! I especially like that I can set the depth for punching so things come out even each time. I've also been experimenting with embossing on vellum. It's such a fun & different look. It took me a little while to realize that this little guy was in need of some bling, but I'm so glad that I added on a few of our Rhinestones just to make him shine a bit. Fun, but simple---my favorite type of project!

A CASED Bag

By request, I CASED this bag from the Holiday Mini Catalog. Of course, I had to make a couple of changes. :) Folks had lots of fun making them in class though--- and most of theirs even turned out round. A trait that is simply over rated in my opinion. It's handmade, right?

I attempted to turn this bag into a card, but it's simply too big. We'd need lots of mini circle punches to pull it off as well as much smaller buttons. So, a bag it had to be. For my upcoming bag classes, I plan to switch things up even more & use the pre-glittered designer paper from this project along with the excellent buttons to make a whole new bag! Otherwise we would make two circle wreaths. No need for that!

Cindy's Cardinals

Well, as if often happens, one of my hostesses fell in love with a swap card from my board. So, I revamped it just a little to make in class last night. A huge thanks to my upline, Cindy, for creating this simple & lovely little card. Everyone especially loved the rhinestone bling! It's just great fun to add on & so easy since they are self-adhering. I had to switch out Cindy's red ribbon for black since my ribbon supply is a little low and, while I never thought I would use black ribbon on a Christmas card, it turned out pretty well. I also didn't have any shimmery white cardstock, so I had folks spray regular Whisper White with the Shimmer Mist I made for my balloon invite the other day. Perfect! The only issue to be careful about is that it can cause smearing in already stamped/colored images.

Bag Turned Card

Today's challenge was to change the Glimmer Bag from a while back into a card. Folks really seem to like the bag, so I wanted to create an opportunity for people to make a card version even if they aren't hosting or attending one of my bag classes.

I think it turned out pretty well. Each time I create a big tree from Lovely as a Tree's pine, I find it goes a little better. This time around I did a lot more "second generation" stamping. In other words, I didn't re-ink each time before stamping. Just like on the bag, I mixed re-inker with shimmer paint to stamp the ornament. This time I used the ornament from Tags Til Christmas instead of one from Delightful Decorations. Just a reminder that right now if you order both Tags Til Christmas & the Ornament Punch you will save 20% on both! If you already have the Ornament Punch you can replace it with the Decorative Label Punch for the same deal.

I'm off to get ready for another Christmas Card Class tonight at a friend's home. If you would like to get your friends together for a card or bag class this holiday season, contact me & we'll set you up with an evening or afternoon of fun. For that matter, I even do mornings. :)

Bells & Boughs Holly

I had a request for a simple card using Bells & Boughs & the Deck the Halls Designer paper. It's a great combo & right now it's on sale too! If you buy them together you save 20% on both thanks to the Handmade Holidays promotion through Stampin' Up. Oh, and I was supposed to work in the Christmas Collage stamp too, but I found that it just didn't quite fit in this design.

I do love the holly stamp and so it was fun to create a card that totally centers on it. Between the paper, the stamped background, and the embossed accent the holly definitely has strong representation. :)

Sorry for the late post today. It's hard to get one up when I need to be at work super early. Excuses, excuses, I know! Perhaps I'll do better tomorrow. For now, it's off to cut paper!

Congrats, Janet!

Well, it's official! My friend, Janet, has joined the Stampin' Up family. :) I just wanted to send her a note of congrats for taking this step. (Of course, I'll send it in real life too!) It's so exciting to share the fun of being a demonstrator with some one else. Now, Janet can enjoy 20% off all her Stampin' Up supplies as well as all the resources available through the company. Our website, social networking site, monthly magazine, and much much more. And, she gets to look forward to playing with all the new toys from her customized Starter Kit. Lots of fun, all at once!

If you too would like to join in the fun contact me today. It's a super easy process & I'll be here to support you every step of the way.

As for today's card: I'm getting to play with all sorts of toys. The builder wheels & Itty Bitty Bits are still pretty new to me & I'm enjoying them immensely! I wanted something on here that was fully about joining Stampin' Up & found a heart I had punched from the backs of Stampin' Dimensionals while cleaning off my desk (a scary process, I assure you). Not sure why I did it in the first place, but it works well here! Since the heart features Tempting Turquoise, I knew that would be part of my color selection but I really wanted something bright & happy. So Saffron and Tangerine Tango were just the cheer I was looking for--- happy & sort of fall.

Invite Attempt #1

I'm am so excited! A friend of mine has asked me to design invites for her daughter's engagement party and wedding. We all got together on Friday to discuss ideas & now it's my job to come up with a few prototypes. Here's the first one. Of course, I knew it would be hard to photograph. All of the melon mambo is misted with shimmer mist (part rubbing alcohol & part shimmer paint) and boy does it sparkle! You can see it a bit on the Bermuda Bay on the bottom. These are the bride's wedding colors (guess I better get over to the Clearance Rack to stock up on more Bermuda Bay cardstock!) and the proposal was in a hot air balloon. Lovely, huh? I had no idea I'd be using my little ornament punch balloon ever again. Now that idea will come in super handy. My first attempt at a commissioned piece was lots of fun. I'll keep you posted about the next round!

Silhouette Bird Favor

Ok, so I might be slightly addicted to the Fancy Favors die for the Big Shot. I really do love it. Any time I need just a little something to give away I find myself creating a new one. This little bag went to my excellent hostess yesterday--- filled with chocolates of course! I used the Perfect Details Texturz Plate inked in Wild Wasabi to create the back ground & the little oval punch from the Holiday Mini to create the handles. It's such a simple way to create a fun little gift & they can be passed on as well. No need for any thing to get used just once! That's the great thing about gift bags without personalized tags.

Holly Circles

Here's another card made from the bits and pieces created during my experiments the other night. The whole process helped me to come up with the idea of having a "Featured Product" for each month. Have you ever gotten a stamp set because you made one card with it and then couldn't come up with other fun things to do with it? Or, do you have sets at home that have never been mounted? The Featured Product idea tries to deal with both issues. Each month I'll pick a different stamp set/punch/tool to feature. There will be a class that folks can host which will include the price of the product in the class fee, so everyone uses their new toys right away to make three projects. This class may replace my "theme classes" in Longmont. Also, if you can't attend one of the classes, you will still get the kits if you order the monthly Featured Project. It will be a fun way for me to highlight some of my favorites that I think are overlooked. If our founder, Shelli, can mark out here favorites--- so can I!

Textured Pear Christmas

When I first saw Pear Pizazz as a new In Color, I must admit that I didn't think "Christmas". However, paired up with Riding Hood Red it really is quite festive. I tinkered around with Bells & Boughs a ton last night as a sort of exercise in therapeutic stamping. It was a day of bad news & tragic stories so I definitely needed a little time to tinker.

This card started out as a way to use the Bells from Bells and Boughs because they fit so nicely in the Ornament Punch. But, as you can see, that image didn't even make the final cut. I've already put together one card from the experimental leftovers & I'll save that ornament with embossed bells for yet another. I can never tell where I'll end up when I start to play like that. I'm just loving inking up the Texturz Plates for a new look. It's simple, but has such an impact! Hope you like it too!

Cheers to You Invite

I wish I knew a better way to photograph sparkles because this card is full of them! It's the first time I've ever really worked with vellum and I wanted to see what would happen with a clear yet glittery emboss. Overall it worked well, I just had to be really careful not to burn the vellum.

A friend of mine's daughter just got engaged and they would like for me to design engagement party invites. That's a new one for me, so I'm just starting to play around a bit to give them a few ideas. This one is fun because the glasses just peak out from the inside of the card & they too have shimmery embossing. Then, there is still lots of room for the essential info on the inside. I also took the circles from the vellum and gray that I punched for the window & added them to the inside of the card. It gives things just a little extra dimension in there.

Silhouette Sentiments Fall Bird

The Mojo Monday sketch for today really worked to get my fall card juices flowing. I've been laughing about my orientation for the Silhouette Sentiments bird on the "Silhouette Sentiments Square" card since class on Saturday. One of you was kind enough to point out that my bird was fighting gravity in a big way. He seems much more at peace when the branch lays flat, huh? :)
I've been itching to put the Itty Bitty Bits combination of stamps, punches, and buttons to good use & this seemed a great opportunity. Tiny, but super fun, don't you think?
The ribbon from the sketch didn't quite fit when I was finished designing the card front, so I decided to forgo it this time around. Otherwise I stayed pretty faithful to the design.

Wreath Bag

I sort of took my blog "weekend" in the midst of the week this time around. Work had me up and out super early the last couple of days. Never fear though, I have lots of fun stuff to share. :) One of these days I'll get organized enough to have everything pre-ready to post before the week even starts!

I made this little wreath bag while playing around during card class on Thursday night. The double stitched ribbon is actually retired now (sigh), but I think that our wide striped ribbon will work well too. I just have a load of Real Red double stitched to use this holiday season. My Northern Hearts hostess set just came in & so I naturally had to include a stamped wreath to go with the punched one. At first, I didn't include the Real Red & Whisper White at the bottom of the bag & it just looked way too empty. It's always nice to find that "something" that is missing for a project. Then it doesn't bother you in your sleep!

Glimmer Bag

It's time for me to start putting together projects for my upcoming Christmas bag classes. I have a few scheduled for November and plenty of room for more. If you find you're inspired by these projects than it's easy to sign up to host a class of your own!

I found these great little gold bags while shopping around for inspiration. There a little taller than the bags I usually use for classes, but I really like them. They have a smooth & glossy feel to them that just makes things pop!

Almost everything on this bag has an element of glimmer to it. The top & bottom ornaments are stamped using a mixture of ink & Shimmer Paint while the center one is made out of our great gold cardstock. Then, of course, I had to add in one of our Glimmer Brads to complete the sentiment. The bag is so large I'm afraid it didn't photograph as well as I would have liked. You'll just have to check it out at a class soon! :)

Rejoycing in Christmas

I have several Christmas events coming up and I want to make sure that I have enough variety in projects so that folks can attend multiple events without repeats of ideas. That's one of the reasons I'm on such a Christmas kick as of late. I'm also just plain excited about all my new Christmas toys! For this one, I wanted to add a little shine without taking away from the image of the Holy Family. So, I added a touch of gold embossing to their halos and just a bit of our gold cardstock to back the sentiment. I also didn't color in the image fully in order to keep that simplicity. The image speaks for itself & I wanted to let it do just that. I was also on the lookout for cards that have a very complete feel to them, but that a new stamper could complete with little trouble. Sometimes it's hard for me to follow the simple rule of Keep It Simple Stamper!

Cardinal Christmas Mojo

Such Christmas fun this morning! I've been wanting to use the Little Cardinals builder wheel with the cardinal stamp from A Flower for All Seasons since I saw the wheel in the Holiday Mini Catalog. I have just been waiting for the right opportunity. Today's Mojo Monday sketch seemed to be the right time. Now that I live in Colorado I miss seeing cardinals, especially in the snow. These little guys are too cute. I added just a little bit of bling with a couple of small rhinestones mixed in with the wheel's snow. They are just the right size to blend in while still give the card just a little extra.

We've been working on remodeling most of our downstairs, so I had the chance to really work with some of our Decor Elements yesterday. Look for a post about it soon!

Priceless Thanksgiving

Wow, when I first purchased the Priceless set I had no idea it would become my "go to" holiday stamp set. So far I've used it for Christmas & Valentines and now it was a natural choice for a Thanksgiving card too. Its versatility is excellent! Who knows where it will appear next. :)

It's been quite a while since I participated in the PPC Color Challenge of the week & I was excited to see them have fall colors this time. Cajun Craze, More Mustard, and Pear Pizazz fit the bill nicely for a Thanksgiving color palate. I started off thinking about using this sentiment with leaves, but really wanted something different. That's when I laid eyes on Priceless and remembered the very punchable flower circle. I think it has great fall possibilities. Of course, I had to tinker with the layout a few times to find all the needed little touches, but all turned out well in the end. It's always a fun card when at the end you've inked up nearly all the stamps in the set!