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!!

A Black and White Christmas

I love the simple combination of black and white...a few easy elements can create a very dramatic card, as in this Christmas card I'd like to share today:

This is actually a fairly simple card but I think the results are wonderful!

I started with a Basic Black card base cut a 2 3/4" by 5 1/4" rectangle of Whisper White. Using my Piercing Tool and Mat Pack, I added a pierced border along the edges. Two 1 1/4" by 1 3/4" and one 3/4" by 1 3/4" pieces of Whisper White were stamped with the tree from Snow Swirled in Basic Black to give my panels their design. They were then mounted on Basic Black mats and adhered to the pierced Whisper White. My sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes, and fits perfectly in my Word Window Punch, then matted on a Basic Black Modern Label punch. Matting these again on Whisper White and Basic Black adds drama and Stampin' Dimensionals add depth.

I finished it all off with Whisper White Satin Ribbon and Silver Elastic Cord. (Hint: When I went to add my Satin Ribbon, due to the translucency it seemed rather grey over the Basic Black. To solve this I cut a 1/2" by 5 1/2" piece of Whisper White and adhered my ribbon and elastic cord to that, then added the piece to the card. This also prevented my ribbon from being on the inside of the card and made for a cleaner finished project!)

I hope you like today's card! I'd love to hear your comments. If you ordered one of my October Card Kits of the Month, they will ship Monday. Also, please check back later this week for Blog Candy to celebrate my passing 10,000 hits!

Upsy Daisy Color Challenge

In yet one more card for this weeks' Late Night Stamper Color Challenge to use Old Olive, Really Rust, and Ruby Red, I used my new Upsy Daisy stamp set I recently received. I had wanted this bad boy for a while, I have seen such beautiful creations with it.

I really love the way these colors look with the black added in, it gives a totally different look than the earlier cards I made with these colors. My card base is Whisper White, with a layer of Basic Black, then textured Really Rust, finally topped my a strip of Old Olive. I stamped my sentiment in Basic Black ink on my Old Olive cardstock. My Daisy image was stamped in Ruby Red on Whisper White and matted on Basic Black. It was added to my card with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I'd like to take a moment to mention a project I am working on. I am a Board Member of the Charity Still Someone which sends lap blankets and handmade cards to senior citizens in long-term care facilities. Yesterday afternoon I delivered 30 homemade cards to the Eisenhower VA Center Nursing home. I promised them I'd be back in December with enough holiday cards for every patient in the VA Center....all 230 of them! I could use the help of every crafter and stamper out there to collect as many cards and handmade lap blankets for these brave men and women who have served our country. Please see www.stillsomeone.org for more details on donation. If you send donations for this specific project please address your package Attn: VA Holiday Project!

Pretty Purple Birthday!

One of my best friends has a birthday coming up and I sat down to make her the perfect feminine birthday card. I wanted something with the clean and simple look but with a little "bling" too! Here's what I came up with:

I truly love the look of this card. I love purple anyways, but the combination of Perfect Plum, Lavender Lace, and the Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper is just perfect!

Here's what I used:

Stamps
Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink
Rich Razzleberry

Paper
Perfect Plum
Lavendar Lace
Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper
Whisper White

Etc
Stampin' Up! Top Note Die
Clear Rhinstone Brads
Elegant Eggplant Ribbon

Don't forget to check out this week's Deals of the Week, they are great ones!

Pop Up Flower Pot!!

So the other day I was forwarded an email from Karen Burniston, the Queen of the Sizzix Pop Up Dies, and it showed a Pop Up Flower Pot she made with the Pop Up Cake Die. I couldn't wait to try it out! Sooooooo, as soon as I tucked my two little men in bed Monday Night and made sure hubby was suitable occupied with football, I raced to the craft room and there I stayed for far longer than I expected actually...this was no easy card to create. But I LOVE how it came out!! I also tried to incorporate this week's Late Night Stamper's Color Challenge of Old Olive, Really Rust, and Ruby Red!

So here is the front:



I thought the sentiment from Bella's Bloom was more than appropriate for what you are greeted with upon opening the card!

Hello Flower Pot!!

Isn't she gorgeous? (is it so wrong to pat one's self on the back every now and then??) I love the quilled flower, I was afraid it wouldn't fit inside the card at first but it worked wonderfully!

Like I said, I will make no qualms about the time effort this card took, especially because my cards are usually quite Clean and Simple and don't take a huge time period to assemble. But it was well worth the time invested because I was so proud of the outcome. If you'd like to download the tutorial provided by Karen on making a flower pot with your pop up cake die, click here.

So, any suggestions for who deserves to get this beauty in the mail????

Mojo Bugs

This week's Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge was perfect for me to make a cute Birthday Card for one of my children's friends for a birthday party this weekend. I knew I wanted to incorporate some of Stampin' Up's awesome Designer Series Paper so I began my creating process by pulling out a bunch of paper with the colors I wanted to use, namely yellows and greens. I ended up with a combination of papers from Tall Tales and Merry Moments Papers, who would have thought?!

 

I started with a Whisper White cardbase, followed by an Old Olive mat. This was followed by my Designer Papers and some Old Olive ribbon from the Mistletoe Ribbon Originals in the Holiday Mini Catalog. My sentiment is from Bugs and Wishes, stamped on Whisper White in Old Olive and matted on Crushed Curry and Textured Old Olive. I then stamped my little caterpillar from the same set in Crushed Curry and punched him out with my 1 3/8" Circle punch and matted him on a Crushed Curry Scallop Circle Punch. My 1/16" circle punch was perfect to allow me to thread my hemp twine through my caterpillar and finish off my card!

I hope you enjoyed my card today! Perfect for a little boy!

New Deals of the Week!!

This week's Deals of the Week are AWESOME! I have to get all these, good thing I held my order I was getting ready last night! Here they are:

Week 3 Deals of the Week


114348 Basic Jumbo grommets $4.49

109857 Mini Library clips $8.99

112571 Circle Designer brads $3.99

112581 1/2" Library clips $3.99

Don't miss out on these awesome deals, Shop Now!

LNS Color Challenge!

This week's Late Night Stamper's Challenge is a Color Challenge, my favorite kind! The colors for the week are Old Olive, Really Rust, and Ruby Red. As I was looking at these colors I couldn't help but be reminded of all the gorgeous colors of the trees in the past few weeks. Having just moved from Florida to Kansas we are enjoying a "real" Autumn this year for the first time in many years. I decided to use the color challenge for a nice Fall card:

 

I used Really Rust and Ruby Red Textured Cardstock and my Little Leaves Sizzlet to make my leaves, which were then mounted over Very Vanilla Cardstock. My background is Old Olive textured cardstock (I think the abundance of texture helps this Clean and Simple Card look a little more "done." A grosgrain ribbon topped with a Fall sentiment from the All Holidays Hostess Level 1 Set (colored with markers, then stamped) finishes it off!

Are you a member of Late Night Stampers? Its wasy to join and then you can play our Challenges, not to mention be a part of a great group of stampers

Serene Thank You

As I mentioned before, when I was at the Stampin' Up! Regionals in Wichita recently, we were given a great lecture on Color Theory. I've been trying to put the things I learned into practice so this card uses an analogous color scheme. This is using shade very close together on the color wheel for a natural, calm look. I thought these three blues were very "beachy" looking so I added my new Hemp Twine to complete the look, I think its a very organic looking card and the recipient (from my native Virginia Beach) is going to love it (at least I hope so!)



The stamp set is Herb Expressions, I used the Rosemary stamp but used a marker to ink the stamp in Not Quite Navy and omitted the wording under the image. I then inked only the "Thanks" portion of one of the sentiments from the set and used that to add my sentiment under the Rosemary plant.

So what do you think of these colors? I'd love your feedback!

Sketch Challenge!

I'm very proud to say that I am now part of the Late Night Stampers Design Team! I'm so honored to be part of this awesome group of stampers! If you aren't yet a member of the Late Night Stampers, hop on over and join-its for anyone who LOVES Stampin' Up!

My first official design team challenge was this week's sketch challenge and here is one of the cards I made for it, I think its a super cute kid card-I have little bosy so I love the bug theme and primary colors!



This card uses the Bugs and Kisses set, and instead of coloring in the body of my dragonfly I stamped it on Yoyo Yellow and then snipped it out with my paper snips to "paper piece" it together (popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals of course!) FYI: the background behind my dragonfly is just Whisper White Cardstock, I added the dots with my Real Red Stampin' Write Marker to make my own Pattern!

I love the final look and I hope you do too!

Another Quilled Gift

I promise, I promise to be back to stamping tomorrow but I really wanted to share this gift I made for my Grandmother.



I'm having computer issues so I have to make this post brief but here is a YouTube Tutorial showing how I made the flowers and leaves:

A Quick Quilled Card!

As many of you may know I am an active Board Member for the charity Still Someone, Inc. Many months ago I received a box of donations from an anonymous donor and they featured quilling designs. I was absolutely entranced with how pretty the quilling was and stored it in my mind as a "thing to learn." Fast forward 6 months and I obviously never got around to that until I took my son to the library earlier this week and while perusing the craft books came upon a Beginner Quilling book. I checked it out and used the instructions to make this super cute flower card...(in my mind its a Zinnia!)

 

 

 

I have a tutorial on how to make this flower coming up but I am having massive computer issues (on my hubby's computer right now!) so please bear with me...and check out my You Tube channel for a tutorial on quilling roses and leaves for another project I'll be sharing soon!

What I Used

Stamps
Peace Within

Paper
Crushed Curry Textured Cardstock
Old Olive
Melon Mambo
Pumpkin Pie
Crushed Curry

Ink
Old Olive

Etc
Mistletoe Originals Ribbon
Stampin' Dimensionals

Cocoa anyone?

I love this new Christmas Cocoa Specialty Designer Series Paper! I ordered it first because I really wanted the flocked red and white paper but honestly its this Soft Suede Shimmery snowflake and geometric paper I keep turning to again and again! For a Mod look, I decided to combine it today with Bermuda Bay!

 

How cute is this little duo? A Criss Cross Card is the perfect special touch when you want a unique greeting. (FYI: They aren't too hard either! Stay tuned for a tutorial!)

 

As an added treat I cut out a quick little Pillow Box using my Big Shot and Bigz Pillow Box Die and added some Bermuda Bay Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon...its the perfect thing to throw a few chocolates, or even a small gift like a necklace (perhaps I'm projecting my own Christmas wishes on that one!)

 

So what do you think of my Mod Christmas Duo? Are you a traditional red/green kindof girl or are you like me and like to mix it up now and then with off-beat colors? I'd love to hear your thoughts! And stay tuned tomorrow when I show you something totally different, along with a tutorial!

New Big Shot Specials of the Week!

Its that time again-time for a new Stampin' Up! Deal of the Week! This week's deals have a Big Shot theme, with awesome savings on the Perfect Settings Bigz XL die for $25.99 (normally $42.95); the Pop Up Three Tier Cake for $25.49 (normally $39.95); and the Flower Burst Embosslit for $5.99 (normally $11.95!)

To celebrate these awesome deals I broke out my Pop Up cake die last night and made a special someone a birthday card.

 

When I chose my colors for this card I was thinking back to Saturday at the Wichita Regional Conference and our session on Color Theory. I remember taking notes about how a monochromatic theme lends a classy, elegant look and I really think that I achieved that with the combination of Rich Razzleberry, Perfect Plum, and Orchid Opulence. I love the textured cardstock on the card front, its perfect to add interest without making the card "busy."

 

On the inside up pops my cake in Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper! In case you were wondering exactly how it folds I took a picture of it partially open as well:

 

Don't miss out on the awesome Deals of the Week-they are only good through October 19th at 9:50 am (MT)!

Berry Christmas and adding "Umph" to your Texturz

At the Stampin' Up! Wichita Regionals Saturday I received the Berry Christmas set from the Holiday Mini Catalog FREE! We made three projects with it there and I wanted to break it out right away when I got home! I came up with this fast and easy card:

 

I love the mod,dotty look of my wreath and berries and wanted to mirror that in my background texture so I chose to use the Texturz Backgrounds 1 Large Dot plate to add the fun dots to my Real Red cardstock. I recently learned via Kimberly Van Diepen how to make the texturz plates really pop by changing your sandwich in the Big Shot, so I made a quick YouTube video to illustrate how to do it.



For those that can't watch the video, use this sandwich in your Big Shot (bottom to top): Multipurpose Platform (Tab 2, all the way closed), Texturz Plate, paper, silicone rubber, cutting plate. You need some elbow grease to pump it through but its worth it!! It was hard to get the difference in the texture to photograph, but I tried below:

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

What I used:

Stamps
Berry Christmas 116509

Ink
Real Red 103133
Old Olive 102277

Paper
Whisper White 100730
Real Red 102482
Old Olive 100702

Etc
Big Shot 113439
Texturz Backgrounds 1 114512
Silicone Rubber 114615
Mistletoe Ribbon Originals 116792
Silver Elastic Cord 109866
Stamp-a-ma-jig 101049

Stampin' Up! Wichita Regionals

I had a great time at yesterday's Regional in Wichita! It was my first Stampin' Up! event and I walked in not knowing a soul and left feeling like I had new friends, learned tons of new techniques, and inspired to share all sorts of new creative ideas with you!

Here are some of the great swaps I received:

 

I don't know who every card I received was made by, but the Lots of Bots card was made by Tina Aspegren, the New Years card was made by Stephanie and Paul Newton, the Delightful Decorations card was made by Adrian Mondy, and the Falling Leaves card was made by Michele Penn. (This is no name on that Father's Day card but isn't it the cutest??!)

 

The Holly Jolly card was made by Kelley Johnson, the adorable Build-a-roo card is from Mandy Dohe, a cute Delightful Decorations card made by Cinda Atwater, another Delightful Decorations card with a gorgeous embossed background and featuring our Gold Elastic Cord by Lynne O'Donnell, and a beautiful Friends card by Janna Hall.

If you know who made any of the cards I didn't identify the artist for please email me and let me know so I can give them credit for their awesome work!

Here is a picture of all the demonstrators and their guests looking at the display boards and all the awesome ideas Stampin' Up! had to share with us.

 

Isn't this an adorable project made with the wood blocks from the Holiday Mini??

 

And here I am with Pam (left) and Adrien (middle), two awesome fellow demonstrators who are friends with my upline Lisa and were so kind as to take me under their wings today and made be feel so welcome and part of the group...thanks ladies!!

 

If you'd like to learn more about becoming a Demonstrator please visit my Stampin' Up! website, now is a great time to join with the new Digital Starter Kit, and you could start right away earning extra money just in time for the holidays! To sign up, just hit "Join Now" on my site, my password is saucystamper.

A-swappin' I will go!

Well I finished my swaps for the Stampin' Up Regional late last night!

 

Here is one of the designs I came up with:

 

For this one I used the Herb Expressions stamp set and Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper. I watercolored my Rosemary with my Old Olive ink pad and Blender Pen.

Here was my first Dasher swap I shared with you the other day:

 

Unfortunately I ran out of Soft Suede Ribbon and thanks to the suggestion of my sideline Sandy, I added in some Rich Razzleberry to the design! (Mr. Brown brought my new ribbon late yesterday afternoon so I was able to make some more of my original design last night!)

 

I have my camera all charged up and will take lots of pictures today and be back tomorrow to share it all with you!

Pal Paper Arts Color Challenge

Do you play at PPA? This week's Pals Paper Arts Challenge was a Color Challenge featuring Old Olive, Perfect Plum, and Pumpkin Pie. I managed to take a break from creating my Swaps for Regionals Saturday and made this card:



My card base is Whisper White scored on the top. This was followed by a layer of Perfect Plum and then Old Olive that I first ran through my Big Shot with the Texturz Backgrounds 1 Large Dot Plate. A pretty little Perfect Plum 1/4" grosgrain ribbon accents the left side of my card and balances out my three cute-as-can-be trees from Trendy Trees, stamped in Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, and Perfect Plum on Soft Suede tree trunks.

So what do you think? Tomorrow I'll be in Wichita, but I'll be posting more swaps I've made. I can't wait to get back and post all my pictures and tell you all about it!

Wichita Regionals this weekend!

One of the many benefits of being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is the opportunity to attend one of their many events throughout the year. There are cruises you can earn, the yearly Convention, and many Regionals throughout the country. I'm super excited because this Saturday I'll be attending my first Stampin' Up! event-the Wichita Regional!

We'll be receiving a FREE stamp set, learning new techinques, doing make-and-takes, and of course there will be lots of swaps! Here are some cards I've been working on for my swaps:

 

This card features the gorgeous Christmas Cocoa Designer Series Paper with Soft Suede Ribbon, and my "deer" friend Dasher. (I couldn't pass that one up....it was just too funny!)

What do you think? I hope everyone at Regionals likes my swaps! If you'll be there and would like to meet, just let me know!

Christmas Cocoa Flocked Paper

Have you seen the gorgeous Christmas Cocoa flocked Designer Series Paper? It is gor-geous!!! You seriously can't go wrong with this paper, it instantly gives a formal, festive look to any card. I made this card based off this week's Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge:

 

 

If you have a workshop booked with me this month, you'll get to see how gorgeous it is in person when we make this card.

 

Email me to book your workshop and not only can we make this simple and cute card, but you can take advantage of the awesome hostess specials we have available this month, get the all-new My Digital Studio™ software for 50% off when you host a $400 workshop! Plus, get any one item from the Holiday 2009 Mini Catalog for just $10 when you host a $250 workshop!

Easy Embossed Notecards

I don't believe I've ever told anyone how I began stamping...it was actually last November and I used to occassionally watch The Martha Stewart Show during my children's naps. She did an entire series called "Homemade Holidays" and I happened to see one episode where she showed how to make embossed Christmas Cards. I thought it was mesmirizing when they showed the embossing powder melt into this beautiful foil-like image. I had always seen the stamp aisle in the craft stores but had no idea you could actually make things like that yourself.

Fast forward a few months and I was a woman obsessed! I signed up as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator a few months later, mostly to get the great discount on all the goodies I wanted and later realized that I could make extra income for my family while sharing what I have so much fun doing.

Anyways, back to my point, I still can't get enough of embossing. Today while my boys were napping I started my Christmas gifts-sets of embossed notecards.

 

I started by making two sets of monogram notecards for some family members. I used my Versamark pad and Gold Stampn' Emboss Powder to create the monogram. I then used a scrap of paper to make the band around the card set. I stamped it with the bottom of the tree from Snow Swirled in Soft Suede to create the pattern.

 

I then made these little 3 by 3" notecards for another family member (being intentionally vagtue in case they read this!) using Rich Razzleberry cardstock and the Herb Expressions stamp set. This time I embossed with White Stampin' Emboss powder. My band around the notecards was another scrap stamped with the main flower stamp from Bella's Bloom in Rich Razzleberry.

 

I was very pleased with the way these notecards turned out and it took me only about 35 minutes to make all three sets. You can bet I'll be making lots more before December! Such an easy but cute and personal gift!

The holidays are a great time to explore your creative side, there are so many cards, bags, and small gifts you can make with Stampin' Up! products. What are your favorite homemade gifts for the holidays?