Party Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is our next stamp club meeting and guess what. The dog ate my homework! Well, the dog or cat ate my votive surround example! It was my pretty Christmas one in the tutorial, which took me 3 tries to get the process right! So I guess I have to go play with my stamps today. Such a hardship ;)

I got some new stuff last night, some of which we will be using tomorrow. I am adding a quick project or 2 for people to do. I just can't help myself! I have so many things I want to share with everyone and not near enough time to do it. Oh well, there is always the rest of the year.

This is a card I just had to play with and I stuck one in each person's order this time. I hope you all like it! I have been suffering from Cuttlebug withdrawal lately, and decided I needed to do some stuff that was not exclusively Stampin Up! for myself. I think I am finally getting the hang of the watercolor technique. It's actually easy once you know what you are doing. And my new toy from SU, the Stamp-a-ma-jig, is awesome! Who would have thought that a stamp positioner would be so easy to use and so useful! I used it to position the angel stamp again so I could put versamark over the close to cocoa, then emboss with Iridescent Ice. It worked so well! I hope everyone finds a good use for this card.

Can't wait to see everyone tomorow!

Winter Formal

These are my oldest 3 kids right before going to Winter Formal at the High School. Don't they look good! From left to right: David 18, Charlene 17, Dakota 15

Charlene and her date Eddy at the High School.

Dakota and and his friend Faith.
David and his friend Eva. Her boyfriend is out of town, and David's date Mandy got sick right before grand march, so Eva and David did grand march together. It was going to be David, Mandy and Eva!

I have to call this photo Winter Formal- Minnesota Style!

For the Soldiers, Next Club Meeting, and other stuff

Sorry for the long stretch between posts! I've been sick :(

I just talked to Renae and it looks like we will be having our next Stamp Club meeting on Dec 6th at Renae's house! Yippee!

Anyway! I had a fit of card making yesterday and this is what I came up with!

This one I made to send to Cards From Home, an organization that sends cards to deployed troops for them to use to send to their loved ones. This is one of the RAK's that I will be having our group make and send stuff to.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Warmest Regards(retired hostess set)

Paper: Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla

Ink: Always Artichoke

Access: Cuttlebug with Textile embossing folder and Sliders die, Certainly Celery 1/4" grosgrain ribbon

I love my Cuttlebug! I haven't gotten to use it much lately as I always seem to be working on stuff for Stampin Up! demonstration :( And I just got my sets of circle Nestabilities, yet another expensive "gotta-have-it!" toy.

But just look at the lovely scallops and circles! This is a card I am going to send to my 89 y/o grandma who just had knee replacement surgery! She lives in Brainerd and with everything I have had going on here at home, I haven't been able to go see her. I thought I would send her cards, and a little cup of cocoa! I'm sending one to my Aunt Diane because she has been with Grandma everyday since surgery, no-one else has been in to see her yet! I put a bug in my Dad's ear though, he'll make sure that Dad and Herb go.

About the card! I used one of my all time favorite sets that was only in the Winter Mini last year. I really hope they put it in this next catty, but I won't hold my breath. This card holds a packet of hot cocoa inside:)

Stamps: Like It A Latte'

Paper: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Whisper White

Ink: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Chocolate Chip

Access: Cuttlebug with Nestabilities, Chocolate Chip Satin ribbon, Crop-O-Dile, eyelets, 2-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds, stamp-a-ma-jig

And this is the inside! Again the colors are a little off, but I need to perfect my photography skills here!

This is another one I plan to send to Cards From Home. They had a message on their website saying they need "Thank You" and "Missing You" kinds of cards the most. So had to use Moose You!

Stamps: Moose You

Paper: Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

Ink: Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip

Access: paper piercer with guide, photo corners punch, cuttlebug with nestabilities, stamp-a-ma-jig

I've made a few other cards, but I used them before I took pics! Hopefully I'll be better at posting more often!

Christmas Cardinal Candles

Ok, I just finished these and I couldn't wait to share them with you all! Aren't they great?!

Thank you Leah for letting me use your stamps!!!! I'm going to have to make some for our Gramma CeCe who loves candles and cardinals.

Stamp set: Christmas Cardinals- retired SU

Ink: Black

Markers: cardinal- real red, so saffron, garden green, versamark (to apply the iridescent ice ep). Poinsettia- real red, garden green, versamark (to apply the gold ep to sayings). Christmas Rose- rose red, regal rose, garden green, old olive, close to cocoa, real red

Extras: wax paper, heat gun, tissue paper, and candles of course. I found the short one at the dollar store, the other 2 were around $1.75-2.00 each at walmart in the Christmas section.

Some pics fro the last Stamp Club meeting

I took a few pictures at our last meeting and thought I would share. Everyone seemed to be having a great time making the candles and scrapbook page! We ran out of time to do the other 2 projects, so we will do them next month.

Here is "Aunt Amy" playing with Renae's little baby girl- sorry! Don't remember baby's name! Must be the Alzheimer's!
Here are Crystal, Isabel, Elli, and Leah working on their candles very intently.

And Renae and her boys working on the scrapbook page. Earlier Renee's son was telling her that she couldn't be LaMia's friend cuz she was his friend! It was sooo cute!

And dear Debbie with her battle scars! Nice chin ! And she made a lovely candle.
And here is me in an oh so flattering side view showing Elli how to hold the wax paper on the candle to melt the image into the surface. Sorry Elli for the burnt knuckles! Renae is standing in the background, Isabel is hard at work coloring in her angel for her candle. And the only shot of Dawn I got as she studies everyone's work. And that sneaky Crystal P. took this picture after telling me not to take any of her! This is not that same Crystal as in an earlier picture so as you can see, I honored her request, hehehe!

Tutorial: Votive Luminary #2

Well people, I promised the tutorial for this Votive Surround and here it is!

Supplies needed: Stamp set of your choice, Holy Triptych and Holiday Wishes used here.
ink and markers of your choice.
2 12x12 sheets cardstock (Bravo Burgundy used here)
1 8.5x11" sheet vellum
oval cutting system
embossing powder( this is optional and I used Iridescent Ice for a little extra sparkle)
heat gun
ribbon (SU retired gold organdy used here)

elastic cord- SU gold cord form Holiday Mini used here
4 dowels cut to size or 4 chopsticks
tape runner

1. cut eight 4x5" pieces of cardstock and four 3 1/4 x4 1/4" pieces of vellum( or size to fit ovals and images to be stamped).

2. With four 4x5" sections cut a smaller oval- this will be the "right side" or outside" of the section and should be the right size for the image you have chosen.
Then with the other four 4x5" sections, cut a larger oval. These are the "wrong side" or "inside" pieces of each section. This way if your ovals are not in exactly the same spot on every section it will still match up when put together.

3. Use white gel pen to draw stitches around ovals and outer edges on the 4 small oval 4x5" sections.

4. Stamp images in the center of each vellum piece. I used images from Holy Triptych and Holiday wishes and Close to Cocoa ink. You can use Stazon if you don't want to emboss.

5. Apply Iridescent Ice embossing powder and heat with heat gun until ep melts. You can do this with classic ink on vellum because it stays wet long enough to make ep stick. Cool huh?!

6. Color images on the Back of the vellum using various markers. I used SU markers.

7. Center image inside the small oval 4x5" section and adhere to the back.

8. Repeat step 7 with all 4 sections. Use your dowels to estimate spacing. We will be using the elastic cord to hold the dowels in place so spacing does not need to be exact, but if it is too tight the finished product looks puckered.

9. Run adhesive along tops and bottoms of each panel, then take your ribbon and adhere a long strip all the way across all for panels starting halfway across the first panel and ending with enough tail to join to the halfway mark on the first panel, a little longer is better than a little shorter as you can always trim it later.

10. Now run sticky right over the ribbon, avoiding the spaces between panels.

11. Adhere a long string of elastic cord to the ribbon, the same length as the ribbon.

12.Adhere the large oval section to the back of each panel except the first panel to give the section a nice finished appearance and some added stability.


13. Now you need to adhere the tails from the 4th panel to the 1st panel.

14. And put the last large oval section on the back of the last panel. This picture shows the ribbon the way I did it the first time, which did not work! So ignore that detail on this picture.

13. Color dowels by rubbing on ink pad, this was done using Close to Cocoa. Your fingers will get inky here.

14. Slip the dowels into the corners between the ribbon and the elastic cord, and adjust to the desired height. I know, the dowels aren't colored here, I took the picture during a test fit.

And here it is all dressed up for company. I really do love this project. I better get started on the ones I'm going to give away!

Splitcoaststampers Virtual Scrap Book Night

All right ladies and gentleman, if you have not yet discovered the wonderful "splitcoast" website, I'm here to tell ya it's the best thing since sliced bread! I'm having a blast this weekend playing in the VSBN there. Lots of great challenges, ideas, and chatting. Here are couple of the things I have made for the VSBN.

I used DCWV Old World Stack dp with SU Ruby Red, Mellow Moss, and Sahara Sand. Lots of Basic Grey's Wholy Cow rub-ons, Prima flowers and SU rhinestone brads. This was a really fun page to do. I got to use my Cuttlebug alot this weekend! That's how I made the letters with the Hippie Chick alpha dies. You can read the journaling here.

I used Bashful Blue, Close to Cocoa, and Creamy Caramel paper. Ink: Versamark, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel. Iridescent Ice ep. Stamp sets: Small Sayings, Wanted, Little Pieces. Cuttlebug with Red Tag alpha dies and Star dies to cut the felt stars. You can go to my splitcoast gallery here to see the journaling.

Paper: Choc Chip and DCWV Fall StackPack dp. Ink: Pumpkin Pie and Choc Chip. I used my cuttlebug to cut out flowers and paisley die cuts, colored them with ink, the embossed with Glassy Glaze ep. Used the corner rounder to scallop the edges of the dp. See journaling here.

Coordinating gift wrapping

This is a present for my youngest son's friend who turned 11 this weekend. I thought this would be cool since it is Opening weekend for rifle hunting here! I whipped this together quick before the Splitcoaststampers.com Virtual Scrapbooking Night challenges started on Saturday morning. I used the tutorial from that websites resource page to make the bows. Very COOL!
This is the card up close. Used Noble Deer, Hugs and Wishes, Wanted, and Flannel BG stamp sets. Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, and Sahara Sand paper. Versamark, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, and Really rust ink. Distressed edges and used the Stamp Off technique for the stars on card base.
For the stripes on this wrapping paper (which is recycled packing from Stampin Up! orders) I dragged ink pads, large Choc Chip, and ink spot Really rust, across paper. Stamped deer in Choc Chip, lightly rubbed Really rust on the rest of the paper. Was actually pretty fast. And I didn't decorate it until I had wrapped the package.

Birthdays and Pumpkins

Today my #2 child turned 17. Wow. I feel a little old! David turned 18 last month, Charlene 17 this month, next month Dakota will be taking driver's ed! EEEK! Scary huh?! I worked nights all weekend, so no fun with the new toys that came in on Friday. I hope to play some tomorrow.

Dakota and Geoffrey carved their pumpkins tonight while we waited for Charlene to get home from work. I got some good pictures for scrapbooking and the boys did a great job on their pumpkins. I love this picture of these boys of mine!

Scallop Punch Pumpkin Tutorial

This is an an adorable little pumpkin we made at the October Stamp club meeting. You could use this concept to make ornaments for any holiday of occasion. They even work realy well as cat toys :) My youngest cat keeps stealing them off the table as I'm working and batting them around on the floor!

My 11 year old son helped with this bunch and he wanted this bright Only Orange. I personally prefer Pumpkin Pie or More Mustard for pumpkins. But hey, Geoffrey was happy!



Supplies needed: two 2x6" strips of paper

Scallop punch

green ribbon

lighter or lit candle

tape runner

optional: Jumbo Wheel like So Swirly or Cutlebug and embossing folder, then rub raised image with ink pad

1. Punch out 6 scallops. You can get 3 scallops out of a 2x6" strip of paper.

2. Fold each scallop in half with design to the inside. MAKE SURE FOLD IS BETWEEN SCALLOPS so all are the same. Open all scallops back up.

3. Put a strip of sticky on each half of three of the scallops.

4. Take 1 stickied and 1 not stickied scallop and adhere 1/2 of each together, matching up the scallop edges.

5. Continue adhering scallops alternating sticky with not sticky until all6 scallops are used and all halves are adhered to another half.

6. Take a 2" piece of ribbon, fold it in half. Then singe the ends slightly with a flame (candle or lighter) to prevent fraying while applying sticky.

7. Apply sticky to both sides of not folded edge.

8. Stick ribbon into top of pumpkin and squeeze to adhere.

All Done! It is now ready to be made into a name card for the table, a scatter for around a candle, or strung up on Su gold cord with a bunch more as a cute Autumn garland!

Tutorial below

I had promised to start posting tutorials for the projects we do at Stamp Club meetings for those who can't make it. So here is the first tutorial I put together. Hopefully they don't all take this long to put together!

Turorial: Peaceful Wishes Card

Supplies needed

Stamps: Peaceful Wishes, Linen BG Paper: Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla Ink: Mellow Moss, Always, Artichoke, Ruby Red, Versamark, Chocolate Chip Extras: Cutter kit distressing tool, paper piercing tool with mat and piercing guide, 2 way glue pen, Romantic red glitter, powder pal, tape runner.
Step 1: Stamp pine branch with Mellow Moss on Mellow Moss card base.

Step 2: Ink up the Linen background stamp with Versamark.

Step 3: Place card base on background stamp and rub over whole area carefully.

Step 4: Repeat with Ruby Red strip.

Step 5: Stamp berry branch on ruby red strip in a random pattern- be sure to let some of the images go past the edge, this gives a better random pattern.

Step6: Use paper piercer, mat, and guide to "stitching" holes along each long edge.

Step 7: Use red marker to make stitching lines along each edge being sure to let the marker stop in each hole.

Step 8: Distress long edges with Cutter kit distressing tool, then ink edges with Ruby Red ink.

Step 9: Stamp mistletoe branch in Always Artichoke on the Very Vanilla piece.

Step 10: Use 2 way glue pen to put dots of glue on all the berries.

Step 11: Apply Romantic Red glitter to the glue dots.

Step 12: Distress all edges of Very Vanilla and Always Artichoke pieces.

Step 13: Ink edges of Always Artichoke piece with Always Artichoke ink.

Step 14: Adhere Very Vanilla and Always Artichoke pieces together.

Step 15: Adhere Ruby Red strip approximately 1/2" from left hand edge of card base.

Step 16: Adhere mistletoe element to card leaving space for the sentiment on bottom of card.

Step 17: Stamp "Peaceful Wishes" along bottom of card with Chocolate Chip ink.

All Done!