Candy Cane Christmas

One of my favorite things about teaching classes is just how much I learn! We were in a bit of an experimental mood at class on Thursday & tried out some things that worked great & others that we won't need to try again. :) These little peppermints are one of the keepers! Laura found that punching the little star/snowflake from Delightful Decorations using the 1/2" Circle Punch creates the most adorable little mints! Once she showed one to me, I knew they needed to be paired up with some of the designer paper from Candy Cane Christmas. Such a match!

I also wanted a sentiment that was food related, so I took out my Tags Til Christmas set & went to work. I don't actually have the Scallop Square punch (GASP! I know...) but the image fits great inside the 1 3/8" Square so all was not lost. :)

The fun with this card makes me want to decorate one of the little houses from the Holiday Mini gingerbread style. Perhaps that's a class in the making for stampers young & a bit less young alike!

Scallop Circle Wreath

This one was so much fun to make! Ever since I saw the idea of making a wreath out of our Scallop Circle Punches I couldn't wait to try it out. My dear upline, Cindy, made a super cute card with the little wreath for her last Stamp-a-Stack class & I really wanted to try my hand at it too. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do though. Then, I took a gander at the Mojo Monday sketch for this week & knew I had my solution. The Christmas Collage background stamp works great. It is like having instant holiday designer paper whenever I need it! Perhaps I could have used a darker ribbon for my wrap around, but supplies are kind of limited in my ribbon drawer at the moment. Of course, I want to use this one in classes this week & next so I didn't want to risk running out of ribbon!

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. :)

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! :)

Perfect Details Xmas

I warned you that you would see the technique using Texturz plates & ink again, but I bet you didn't expect it this soon! I just couldn't resist when I saw the Mojo Monday sketch for today. The Perfect Details Texturz plate just fit so nicely with the ornament I wanted to use from Delightful Decorations. Recently I saw a card that used the pine tree from Lovely as a Tree to create a bunch of boughs. As much as I LOVE that set, I was so excited to see something brand new to do with it. Again, I thought this sketch was a great opportunity to put that idea to use. The little swirled accents are bits punched from the smaller swirl in the Priceless set. It all just seemed to work together far too well to leave any one piece out for today. Now, if I could just focus and finish my projects for our Halloween class this weekend!

Birthday Bliss Bag

The bag theme continues with this week's PPC Color Challenge. The color choices for this week are: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Mellon Mambo, and Pacific Point. I decided to combine them all together to make this little gift bag. Of course, I find these larger projects a little harder to photograph, but well worth my while.

My multi layered flower comes thanks to the Daisies Big Shot Die and the little accents on the right hand strip are actually from Delightful Decorations. It's always fun to use a stamp set that feels like it should be reserved strictly for the holidays year round. Why Not? I hope you're having as much fun with my experiments in bags as I am!