April 6x6 Bragbook Pages

It was nice to be able to think of spring a little bit this fall; I enjoyed using pink papers and making the tree with spring "blossoms". I'm not much of a scrapbooker, but managed to come up with this all by myself! Sometimes even I am struck by inspiration! ;)

This layout is for a 6x6 bragbook class I am offering in the new year. I was in a swap with 3 of my upline, and each of us had to come up with 2-page layouts for 3 months. I had April, May and June. For this one, I knew I wanted to use some fresh spring-like colors, and the striped paper from the Petals and Paisley DSP pack was just what I was looking for. I don't own any current Easter sets (yet! Stay tuned for the new 2008 Spring/Summer Catalog!), so I couldn't do an Easter themed layout. Instead I stuck to "Spring" as my theme, and that tree from "Lovely As A Tree" was perfect for this project. To make that tree multi-colored, I first colored it with my Marvelous Markers in Mellow Moss for the leaves and Chocolate Chip for the trunk. Then I used Pretty in Pink and Cameo Coral, and "bounced" them (one at a time) on the stamp. You need to use the paintbrush side of the marker to do this technique. Then I huffed and stamped! I didn't even mind doing this technique 4 times; it takes a little bit of time, but was not at all hard to do.

With spring on my mind, I have begun to look at my 2008 classes and clubs schedule. I'm starting 2 stamp clubs in January - one that will be held on a Friday of each month, and the other that will be either a Monday, Wednesday or Thursday of each month.
I also have a marker club starting, where there are 4 members and each month you receive a color family of markers, and one member will receive the box to store them in. Also each month I will teach this club 2 techniques using their markers.
February 1st I am holding a Valentine's card class. Please see my website for more information about this class.

Well, I'm off to get back in the Christmas frame of mind! Time to finish off my Christmas cards (before it's too late!) :)

A Penguin to Cow Twist!

I had my last Christmas Bundle class last week, where we made shaker cards. One of the ladies who came to the class is in love with cows. I don't mean she likes cows, I mean she's bonkers over anything cow! SO, she asked if she could bring her cow stamp to make special cow Christmas cards! It fit nicely where the penguin was supposed to go (see the original card here); I thought it was a nice way to personalize the card! We even sponged Green Galore around the cow, to give it a little extra something. I really like how it turned out, don't you? :)

Fun Fast Stampin'!

I held a class last week where we made some small Christmas gifts. Some were more intricate than others; some took a lot of preparation time, others took almost none - like these Christmas Gift Card holders! These were SO easy to make, and I think even with just a little effort they look beautiful! I used 2 stamps from the Punch Pals set, put the little snowflake in the middle on dimensionals, and tied Stampin' Up's beautiful ribbon in an easy knot - simple as that! What a nice way to give a gift card to someone special.

Here is a picture of all of the projects we made at that gifts class:

I gave them some chocolate treats to put inside the penguin pouch, and delicious hot chocolate to put inside the snowman slider. These are all great gifts to give anyone on your list: as a stocking stuffer, for a hostess gift, a teacher gift, etc. Anyone would love to receive a hand made gift like these, and none of them took longer than 45 minutes to make!

Have some fun this season making homemade gifts; whether it's a card, a book or home decor, they are all too much fun to make! :)

Simple Sparkly Christmas

I'm still searching for just the right Christmas card to send out to all my family and friends. I've seen tonnes of beautiful cards, but I haven't seen "the one" yet. In the meantime, I'm working on other Christmas projects. I made this card for a friend's workshop. I wanted a simple project that still had that "Wow!" factor, and I think this one did the trick! I embossed each snowflake with white embossing powder, then added Dazzling Diamonds to the ends of each one. Simple as that, but I love how the white pops on the red!

I Love This Scallop Punch!

About a month ago, one of the ladies in my stamp club asked if I would like to do a class for her church's Super Saturday, a day when a bunch of different craft classes are offered to the congregation and anyone else who wants to attend. Of course I said "Yes!", and went searching for some great ideas. I decided to teach them how to make 10 Christmas gift tags, a tag holder and 2 cards. On one card we will do some embossing, and the other will have Dazzling Diamonds. This is the card with the diamonds! I just got the scallop punch and decided I HAD to use it! I also haven't pulled out my Holiday Tag Team stamp set much this season since I've been so in love with all of our new Christmas stamp sets, and I love that little snowman! I thought he'd be perfect for this card. Blue Bayou and Soft Sky cardstock, Soft Sky ribbon, and Dazzling Diamonds around the edge of the scallop circle, and - voila! - a cute Christmas card! Since Blue Bayou doesn't come in a marker (and neither do any of the "In Colors" by the way), I pressed the top of my ink pad case into the ink pad itself, getting some ink on it, then used my blender pen to pick up the ink, turning it into a temporary marker! I like when ALL the colors on the card can match, and was glad to know I could do that so I didn't have to pick another color of blue for that little snowman's accessories! :)

I'll post the pictures for the other Super Saturday projects another time. Hope you enjoyed this one! :)

And The Winner Is...

...Gina Wrona! Using the Random Number Generator to pick the winner, number 19 was Gina! :) I have contacted Gina, and will get that candy out to her as soon as I hear from her.

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments! One poster commented that sometimes people who visit blogs just like to "lurk", and I know that must be true as I'm one of those lurkers! That being the case, it was very nice to hear from all of those who regularly visit, and also from some new readers - welcome! :) Thanks for visiting, and I look forward to posting many more projects for all of you! :)

Trick or Treat!

At Scrapfest this year, my upline Bonnie brought a really cute altered bucket for display. It was decorated in a Halloween theme, with designer papers, Booglie Eyes stamp set and lots of ribbon on the handle. It was SO cute, I just HAD to make one too! So here's mine:

I think the "Creepy Crawly" designer paper is amazing: I love the colors! I have mixed feelings about the way my bucket turned out; I love it because it's done, and has been on my mind to do for a long time. I'm not so thrilled with the dazzling diamonds on the spider webs (I only did that on the one side), and I know I need more ribbon on the handle. But overall I'm happy with it, and think it will be a nice addition at the front door, filled with candy for the kiddies! :)