Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' Kit

I'm not too much of a scrapbooker, as evidenced by my poor effort on my second son's baby book but Stampin' Up! really takes the headache out of designing beautiful, cohesive scrapbooks with their Simply Scrappin' Kits. Here is the kit when you receive it...doesn't look like too much yet, huh?


But look at the wonders inside!!! 2 sheets each of 12 by 12" Textured cardstock in Very Vanilla, Real Red, Old Olive, and Chocolate Chip; 3 sheets each of double sided 12 by 12" Designer Paper, and 6 sheets of self-adhesive Die Cuts!


Even being a bit scrapbook challenged, I put together this scrapbook page quickly and easily! (I blurred my children's faces.)



I also used the kit to whip up these 4 cards in less than 15 minutes! How's that for fast and easy for your Christmas Cards this year?

Don't forget these Simply Scrappin' Kits are for more than just Christmas, you can see all of our kits on pages 164-167 of the Idea Book and Catalog or by clicking here and clicking the Shop Now Button in the upper right corner. You'll find the Simply Scrappin' Kits listed under the "Paper" header.

Mojo Sketch Challenge

I made this card using this week's Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge.


I was a little nervous with my colors at first because I've been in straight Christmas mode for so long now that it was hard to break out of the red/green thing, I did purple and green instead!



In the end I love the way it turned out, perfect for one of the five gazillion birthdays I have coming up in the next month!

To make this card I used a standard 4.25 by 5.5 Whisper White card base. On this I layers a 4 by 5.25" Rich Razzleberry layer, a 3.75 by 5" layer of Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper, then one rectangle of Whisper White matted on Rich Razzleberry and one of Old Olive Textured Cardstock on Rich Razzleberry. My 1 3/8"Circle PUnch clipped my Old Olive Cardstock to make room for my silver Mini Library Clip and also punched out the cute cake image from the Voila Stamp Set (watercolored with my Blender Pen and Orchid Opulence Classic Stampin' Pad) The cake was matted on a Scallop Circle punched from Orchid Opulence. The card was finished off with a sentiment from Happy Everything stamped in Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive.

I hope you like today's card! I'll be working on a Free Tutorial for yesterday's Top Note Box so check back soon!

Late Night Stamper's Challenge 45: Holiday Gifts!

This week's Late Night Stamper's Challenge is to make holiday gift projects, yesterday's Bella Toile Candle and matching gift box fit the bill for the challenge, and again today I'd like to share another stamped candle and gift box set. (I can't get enough of stamping candles lately!!)


I made this Top Note gift box with my Big Shot, Stampin' Up! Top Note Die, Kraft cardstock, and some scraps of paper I had laying around.


The Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon (currently my favorite!) really adds a pop to the box, along with the Merry Moments Designer Series Paper. My sentiment is from the Berry Christmas set in the Holiday Mini Catalog, punched out with the Word Window Punch and matted on a Real Red Modern Label Punch.


This box was very easy to make and you can easily change the dimensions to make it taller or shorter to fit a variety of small gifts. I made some small stamped votives for my gift box.


These votives were stamped with the smallest snowflake from Snow Swirled and the Noel Sentiment from Many Merry Messages in Real Red Ink.


I hope you like this project, don't forget to scroll down to see yesterday's candle project as well. And on my right sidebar you'll see my Berry Christmas Gift Set Tutorial, which would also make a great gift this holiday season!

A Beautiful Gift Idea

Here is a great gift idea for you for this Holiday Season (or really year round!) Stamp a candle with your favorite Stampin' Up! stamp and make a matching box-its a fabulous and inexpensive personal gift!

Here are some close ups of the candle and box:

To purchase a 10 page PDF Tutorial with Step-by-step instructions and 19 photographs for this project for only $5.00, just click the Buy it Now button below. Please allow up to 24 hours to receive your tutorial via email.

Voila!

How about this little guy from the Stamp Set Voila? I love how he looks all paper pieced together. To achieve this look, I stamped my Chef on both Kraft and Whisper White card stock. I then cut out the chef's hat and jacket using my paper snips (they make detailed cutting so easy!) I glued the white pieces over my Kraft image. I stamped my wine/cheese/grapes on the Kraft piece, using my Stamp-a-ma-jig for perfect placement and also stamped it on a scrap of More Mustard and snipped out the cheese. I glued the cheese in place and matted the image on Night of Navy Card stock and a Whisper White card base scored at the top. My Stamp-a-ma-jig once again came to the rescue to help me perfectly place my Bon Appetit! sentiment to finish it off!This card will be in the mail to a particular Epicurean I know first thing on Monday!

LOVE My Digital Studio!!!!

I was having a lot of computer issues shortly after receiving my Stampin' Up! My Digital Studio Software a while back and just recently got a new computer and have been able to really sit down and explore it. I loved making the scrapbook pages but when I made a card with it, I really missed the "weight" of the card, and texture. (I'm a layering kind of girl, the more layers, the heavier the card, the better!)

Sooooooo....I started looking through all the stamp sets in the program (there are 61 stamp sets that come with it!!) and making a blank project with a bunch of images I didn't own. (Yes, there are stamps I don't own!) There are even exclusive sets. I then printed the image sheets off onto Whisper White and Very Vanilla Cardstock.

I then used these images to make a ton of cards and projects in no time flat! And not a stamp in sight!!

I made an image using the digital All in the Family and Nursery Neccessities sets and made this simple little card to give to a friend when her baby boy twins are due later this year. I colored the babies with my Stampin' Pastels and a Blender Pen.


This card was made with the digital Sweet Season Set and Merry Moments Designer Series Paper.

This is an adorable digital set called Cute Cat only on My Digital Studio, I made this for my Mother who loves Cats and loves purple! I embossed the background with my Big Shot and Small Dot Texturz Backgrounds 1 plate.


I made these gift tags with A Holly, Jolly Christmas set. I shrunk the star, Santa, and Stocking images to fit next to the To/From part and used the gridlines on the My Digital Studio desktop to make sure I left room for each tag to be punched out with my 1 3/8" Circle Punch. I then matted each on a coordinating Scallop Circle I punched from scraps.


Lastly, i made this little gift box from Kraft cardstock, a scrap of Merry Moments Designer Series Paper, some Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon, and Chocolate Chip cardstock punched with my Scallop Punch. I attached one of the gift tags to it using my hemp twine. I think it came out pretty cute!



How cool are these projects? It was super fast and easy to make all of these projects and I was so excited when I realized I could play with the program like that, it was like getting a giant box of stamps in the mail!! With My Digital Studio you can change the color of the stamps, the size, flip them, rotate them, even change the opacity. The possibilities are endless!! To order your copy today visit my online store and click "Shop Now!" PLUS with our current Holiday Extravaganza Promotion, for every $50 you spend from the Holiday Gift Giving Guide, you can receive a FREE Decor Element up to $16.95 value, so your purchase of My Digital Studio qualifies you!! Click here to see out awesome Decor Elements!

Express Yourself (with Herb Expressions!!)

Herb Expressions is one of my favorite stamp sets, the lovely little line drawings are clean and crisp, and the sentiments are lovely as well. I wanted to make this card for one of my children's care-givers and thought Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, and Dusty Durango would make a wonderful autumn look.


I stamped both my image and sentiment in Stazon on Very Vanilla cardstock and matted them onto Soft Suede. My card base is also Very Vanilla, followed by a layer of Soft Suede and textured Crushed Curry. A Dusty Durango Ribbon adds a little pop of color. My sentiment hovers over the Thyme Image using Stampin' Dimensionals.


This was a simple card to make but I'm so pleased with the way it came out! I'd love your feedback as well!

Don't forget to check out my Gift Card Set Tutorial, its the perfect gift for friends and neighbors this season!

Another Pink Card and Making it Masculine...

I wanted to make another Pink card for Breast Cancer Awareness and loved this color combination or Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo, and Perfect Plum-oh-so-girlie, right?!


After making it however, I wondered how to go about taking this card, making a few changes, and creating a more masculine (or gender neutral) card. I kept the layout and the same stamp set but changed the color scheme and omitted the scallop border to create this card:


I think it was pretty cool how those minor changes created such a difference!


What do you think? What elements are masculine/feminine in cards to you?

Is it time to decorate the tree?

I usually don't decorate the tree until after Thanksgiving but I had numerous requests after my YouTube tutorial on assembling the Pop Up Christmas Tree Die to show the tree decorated. Here is the cared I made, it measures 5" square.

The card is a 10" by 5" piece of Night of Navy scored in the middle to create the card base. Over this is layered Whisper White, Bashful Blue, and then more Night of Navy. I stamped my tree and greeting from Snow Swirled in Versamark and embossed with White Stampin' Emboss powder. A Whisper White Satin Ribbon topped with Silver Elastic cord finishes it off up front! (The idea for the Elastic cord garland came from Jennifer Jones, thanks Jennifer!!)



Inside you find my delightful Bashful Blue Tree complete with Silver Elastic Cord garland and Filigree Brad "star!" My sentiment is from Many Merry Messages...I chose this one because it specifically mentions a tree.


Here is a close up image of my decorated tree, I love the way it turned out! If you missed my YouTube tutorial the first time, click here to see it. It really is easy to assemble once you get the hang of it, it took me way longer to punch the little holes to thread the garland through!!

Happy Tuesday!

Gift Tag Pop Up Origami Box!

How cute is this project, a Pop Up Origami Box (built courtesy of my Packaging Extravaganza class with Erika Martin!)



This box was made with textured Chocolate Chip cardstock, Old Olive and Very Vanilla cardstock, and the Merry Moments Designer Series Paper.


Alone, the box is gorgeous, but wait until you untie that pretty Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon!


The box pops open and you find four cute gift tags made with the Delightful Decorations stamp set!


What an adorable gift for friends and neighbors (and great way to show off those papercrafting skills with a WOW! project!


So you gotta tell me, what do you think of this little project? Leave some comments people!!!

Gift Set Tutorial!

New this month I am now offering Tutorials for sale! My first tutorial is for this cute four card gift set, complete with matching notecard box! It features the Berry Christmas set.


When you purchase this Tutorial you will receive a completely illustrated 19 page PDF file with Supply List, Measurements, and Step-by-Step instructions (complete with 39 photos) for all four cards and Notecard Box. All of this is only $7.50! SALE!!!! NOW ONLY $5.00!!!!!




To purchase this set, just hit the "Buy it Now" button below. Bonus! Receive this tutorial FREE with any purchase of $40 or more in my Online Store!

Blog Candy Winner!!!!

And the winner is.....................................

The Hartley's said...
I love your blog...checking out your new creations is part of my daily routine :)


Please contact me with your info and I'll get your fab new goodies to you ASAP! Stay tuned tomorrow for some exciting new projects! Hubby and I broke down and got a new computer because our old one (and by old I mean THREE MONTHS old!) couldn't be fixed, so I've had lots of catching up to do-I'll have new My Digital Studio projects to share and even a tutorial or two!

PPA14-Think Pink!

This week's Pals Paper Arts Challenge was anything pink, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness. I'm a "pink" kind of girl so I came up with this simple, but very cute card:

This card was way easy to make, you could easily make sets of these as gifts this holiay season! I simply stamped my image from Upsy Daisy on Whisper White cardstock, matted it on Basic Black and adhered it to a Positively Pink Card Base. A Basic Black 5/8" grosgrain Ribbon finishes it off! (Hint: when using a colored card base, cut a 4 by 5.25" piece of Whisper White for the inside...bonus points if you use your Corner Rounder Punch or Ticket Punch on the corners!)

Dont' forget to scroll down for Blog Candy, your time is almost up!

Have a great Halloween!

A Masculine Birthday

For many paperfcrafters and cardmakers our creativity hits a brick wall when faced with the task of making something masculine. Whether it be Father's Day or any birthday, it can be intimidating to try to create a card for a man. Here is a simple, yet masculine, birthday card I recently made:

I think the key for a masculine card is color and knowing where to "draw the line" on embellishments. Many (like myself) find it so very difficult to make cards without ribbon, buttons, and other embellishments but I think simplicity is key with men (not just with cards, lol!)

I've created a YouTube tutorial for making this cards below. It took under 10 minutes once my paper was all cut and I had collected my supplies. Plus, don't forget how easy it would be to change a few colors, and the Birthday portion of the sentiment and you can make an easy card for any occasion!

Don't forget to enter to win my Blog Candy.

Holiday Gift Box

A special thanks to Erika Martin for her Packaging Extravaganza Class I'm currently taking which inspired this gift box! I'm so thankful to be part of this class and I'm learning so much I will be sharing with you in the coming days!



This adorable little box could hold candies, a small gift, or in this case some of Stampin' Up's Mistletoe Original Ribbon (who doesn't want a gift of ribbon?!)

My box is made from Real Red cardstock, window sheets, and Merry Moments Designer Series Paper. Chocolate Chip and Old Olive Ribbon along with Hemp Twine top it off. My tag is of course from the Delightful Decorations set, stamped in Chocolate Chip and punched out with the Ornament Punch (which is no longer backordered, yippee!)

The entire box was simple and fast to make and will be the perfect touch under my Christmas Tree this year! What do you think??

I'd like to extend a special thanks to my MOMs club friends who joined me at a local nursing home yesterday to show off our little one's Halloween costumes and hand out handmade cards to the residents donated via Still Someone. Please feel free to contact me via the button on the left side of this page if you would like to get involved in this wonderful organization...to see the happiness on the faces of those seniors when they received their cards was truly uplifting!

Oh, and don't forget to scroll down and enter to win my Blog Candy!

My Deer Favorite!

I don't know how someone can NOT have this stamp, Dasher is gorgeous and no matter what you do with him, he makes a fabulous Holiday Card! Plus, for only $8.95 you just can't go wrong!!


This card was inspired by one of the super awesome projects I learned in the Holiday Packaging Class I'm taking by Erika Martin (Stampin' Mama). I love how simple this card is, but so striking!

I started with a Very Vanilla Card base scored on top and layered Chocolate Chip and some Merry Moments Designer Series Paper overtop. A Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon is tied in a perfect bow to add Pizazz! My Dasher is stamped in Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla cardstock. I scraped the edges of the Very Vanilla Cardstock across the top of my inkpad for a distressed look (another awesome thing learned from Erika!) Then my little deer was matted on Real Red, Garden Green, and Chocolate Chip to finish him off!

What do you think?

Don't forget to scroll down to yesterday's post and leave a comment to be entered to win my blog candy! you have until Sunday to enter!

How about a little Blog Candy??

Well, my handsome husband and I were supposed to be rocking it out last night to Bruce Springsteen but they cancelled the show an hour before due to a death in the singer's immediate family, we don't know who but I'm praying it wasn't one of his children.

We spent the evening watching a movie instead, my husband was pretty upset, he had been looking forward to this for months, Bruce is his all time favorite. Soooo....I have no card for you today...instead I'm offering up this sweet little bundle of blog candy to celebrate having passed 10,000 visitors last week!!



Up for grabs we have the Congrats stamp set, Valet Ribbon Originals featuring Baja Breeze Satin ribbon, Chocolate Chip Polka Dotted Satin Ribbon, and Black Velvet ribbon, and an assortment of retired designer hardware!

All you have to do to be entered to win this fantastic little prize is leave me a comment on this post. A winner will be chosen using Random.org this Sunday November 1st!

How "Sweet" is this challenge?!

This week's Late Night Stamper's Challenge is a pretty "sweet" one! Using the colors of your favorite candy, make a card! How cool is that? Well, I have a lot of favorite candies but the only one I'm indulging in recently (on a little diet right now) are Hershey's Dark Chocolate Kisses. They are perfect little rich chocolates and go great with a glass of red wine! Here is my card for this week's challenge!


I started my card with a Whisper White Card base, followed with Rich Razzleberry and another layer of Whisper White. Over this I layered some Chocolate Chip (you knew that color would be in there!) that I ran through my Big Shot to give texture. (See my tutorial on how to get extra "umph" from your Texturz plates!) I tied a Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon over my Chocolate Chip paper using the Stay Put Bow technique.

My two images are both from the Razzle Dazzle set, the flower is stamped in Chocolate Chip and my pattern is stamped in both Chocolate Chip and Rich Razzleberry...to acheive this I simply used scotch tape to mask the stamp and my stamp-a-ma-jig for placement. They are both matted on Chocolate Chip and Whisper White paper and the flower images is given a little "pop" from my Stampin' Dimensionals.

This is a super fun challenge and I can't wait to see what all my fellow Late Night Stampers come up with, if you aren't a member hop on over and join-I promise we're super fun!

My hubby and I will be rockin' out with Bruce Springsteen tonight so tomorrow won't have a card, but I will have some Blog Candy so come back to check it out!

A Merry Little Christmas to you....

I'm ready to fast forward through Halloween and get straight through to Thanksgiving so I can put up my Christmas tree and start feeling festive! I just can't get enough of making Christmas cards this year (which is great due to my promising 230 cards to my local VA center, see this post to help!) So here is nice traditional card I made this weekend:



I really love the way this card turned out...I started with a Very Vanilla Card base, followed by a layer of Chocolate Chip. I followed this with some Stampin' Up! Merry Moments Designer Series Paper-love these Christmas colors with the brown! My Old Olive cardstock layer is matted on Chocolate Chip and tie with a pretty Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon-my favorite for tying! It always looks so pretty (see my tutorial for the Stay Put Bow here.)

My image is from the Holiday Best Hostess Level 1 set. Using my Stamp-a-ma-jig and scotch tape to mask my stamp I first stamped my bird in Real Red. I then stamped the rest of the image in Old Olive, masking the bird this time. (The Stamp-a-ma-jig offers perfect placement, see my tutorial here) I then stamped my image yet a third time on another piece of Very Vanilla in Chocolate Chip and used my Paper Snips to perfectly snip out the Meryy Christmas sentiment. I mounted this over my Olive and Red image with Stampin' Dimensionals (I save the empty sheet of Dimensionals and use the leftover edge pieces for tiny things such as this, you could also snip a Dimensional in half)

I hope you like this nice traditional card, tomorrow I'll be posting my card for the new Late Night Stamper's Challenge, and its a good one so check back! Also-blog candy coming this week to celebrate my passing 10,000 hits last week!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!!