Christmas Ornaments

I think it is time to revisit this fun project using the Wood sheets and a whole host of supplies from the Holiday Mini. I made these for the Holiday Mini Hop in August and I think we will be making  these next month is club.

 I actually ran out to my yard on a cool windy October morning and set these ornaments in a little 3ft baby Red Pine growing in my yard. Sure was hard to catch a clear shot between the brisk gusts of wind and fast moving clouds shifting from too much light to dappled, to just right, all before the ornaments blew off the tree!! But I think these pics were so worth it :) My little 1.04 acre home is surrounded by forest and has a large variety of trees is a full range of age. Time to use my resources!

I love the sparkle of the snow on the roof of this one, so peaceful winter morning...

And the rhinestones really add a  festive punch to this great tree. I think this tree is fantastic and will use it on a TON of stuff :)

I have been very slowly starting a little new venture... my own Etsy shop, where I am starting to list some of the creations I make for the pure enjoyment and then need to find a home for! I hope that as I get used to posting stuff there, I will get faster at it :) I did just list this grouping if you are interested :)

• Stamps: Christmas Lodge, Four the Holidays, Grateful Greetings
• Paper: Naturals White (on gift box)
• Ink: Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler
• Other: Big Shot with Perfect Pennants die, Wood Sheets, Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin and Seam Binding ribbons, Early Espresso 1/8" Taffeta ribbon, Dazzling Details glitter glue, Rhinestone Basic Jewels

SA Big Shot Blog Hop: Buttons #5

Welcome! I hope you came ready to be inspired and to think outside the box with us all here on the SA Blog Hop. We have tons of great ideas for you all using the wonderful world of the Big Shot :) If you are going in order from the beginning, you just came from Twila's blog where she did some amazing stuff with the Two Tags die. I know, she always dazzles me too,lol!
Afraid you are going to miss something? Don't worry, you can find the full list with links here.

I will be featuring the Buttons #5 die. I love this little gem, you can do so many things with it! I love to use buttons, but I don't always want the bulk, or frankly, the expense on something I know will not be kept. So my solution is to make paper buttons :)

The idea for this card came to me while I was driving to work and passed a field of round bales. I thought "OMG I can make round bales with my button die!" Yes, I really did think OMG. Lame I know... welcome to my mind. It's kind of scary in here ;) The scene was really easy to color with my blender pen and I added a little Moonlight Accent Ink on the clouds. OK, so it is a little much on a masculine card, but I don't care :-p  I also used a texture plate on the second layer of River Rock and stamped the wheat in River Rock in the lower corner. I figure I can use this for any occasion for a guy.

And I had to make a button snowman! He is missing arms, but the points of the square button kind of look like elbows, so does that count? And his tiny hat is actually the 4 petal Itty Bitty Shapes punch with one petal cut off.

This month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I had to make something for the hop remembering this, so I came up with this Votive Candle Boat. This is not a new idea, but a bit of a forgotten one lately.
Don't the buttons make a cute way to secure the ends together?

For my last project, I used to buttons to add a little dimension to the wheels of the ATVs from Loads of Love and combined the Daring Adventure set. They also work surprisingly well together, don't you think? Love the new Pewter Embossing Powder too!

Well, did I achieve inspiration for you? Leave me a comment. I live for comments ;)

Now, on with the show! Go check out what Cindy does with the Stocking die- she is one "die-namic" lady, isn't she?!

October Club Projects

Our club meeting went very well this past week, I had a lot of fun with everyone! And we got to eat our cookies too :) We used the Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps and made some cute Halloween cookies first...

Then we moved on to make these quick and easy cookie sleeves with the creepy Halloween set. The sleeve is super easy :)

• Stamps: Piece of Poison
• Paper: Copy paper
• Ink: Crumb Cake, Basic Black
• Other: 2½" Circle punch, Corner Rounder punch, Stapler

1. Cut a piece of copy paper into (2) 4½"x8½" pieces. 
2. Round Corners on one end.
3. Fold over not quite in half so that the front is about ½" shorter than the back, the back is the part with the rounded corners.
4. Punch a partial 2½" circle from the top edge of the front.
5. Stamp as desired. 
6. Staple sides closed.

I found you can fit 2 of the shortbread or the sugar cookies in this sleeve.

The special this month is buy 2 Simply Sent kits and get a coordinating stamp set free,  so we made a card with the Simply Sent Great Day kit and I goofed and used the Perfectly Penned set here instead of the coordinating It's Your Day set

The 12x12 page this time was something a little woodsy. I love the Frostwood Lodge paper, LOVE IT! I paired in with the Pines & Poinsettias set from the Holiday mini and can't wait to take a new family photo to put on this page! The mat will hold a 5x7.

• Stamps: Pines & Poinsettias
• Paper: Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Frostwood Lodge Designer Series Paper
• Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake
• Other: Big Shot with Tasteful Trim and Perfect Pennants dies, 1¾" Circle punch, Bird Builder punch (leaves/branches), Cherry Cobbler Quitled Satin ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Sticky Strip, Distressing Tool from the Cutter Kit, Illuminate Top Coat Smooch Accent Ink

We used to Top Coat Accent Ink to add a little dazzle to the tiny flowers in the medallion. I had just got it and hadn't had a chance to play with it until the ladies came over and Robin was the first to try it!

Until next time, Happy Stampin!

September Club Projects

I know, I know... it's October now! I've been a little busy. Life threw my family a curve ball the last month with my mom and her husband and that has taken all of my non-work time... I am hoping things will settle down a bit and I can get back to my crafting :)
So on with the show!

First off, the new Spice Cake Suite is just gorgeous and I had to feature it in the projects for September, just so I could play with it :) You may recognize it from my Sketch Challenge for September at Stampin Addicts, but I finally got my photos on it.

• Paper: More Mustard, Pool Party, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Spice Cake DSP
• Ink: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake
• Other: Big Shot with Simple Letters and Simple Numbers dies, Sweet Buttons embosslit, ribbon, sewing machine, Distressing tool on Cutter kit

And I found this awesome idea from Chic'n Scratch. I just had to share it with you :) The Halloween DSP is retired, but there is new stuff in the catalog, and the nuggets are decorated with the new It's A Wrap Holiday set in the Holiday Mini. THe greeting is is Teeny Tiny Wishes. If you don't have this yet, you really should! It has 24 greetings covering just about any occasion, and this set never leaves my crafting desk!

• Stamps: It's A Wrap Holidays, Teeny Tiny Wishes
• Paper: retired Halloween DSP, Basic Black
• Ink: Lucky Limeade, Basic Black
• Other: Scallop Circle punch, Word Window punch

More Halloween treats! I love the new 1"x8" cellophane bags, they are so fun to fill with treats :) And I got to play with the new adorable Out On A Limb set! I used the Scallop Circle and 1¾" Circle punches for the toppers. I have discovered that Tootsie Rolls fit is these bags too :)

• Stamps: Out On A Limb
• Paper: Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard, Whisper White
• Ink: Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard, Old Olive
• Other: Scallop Circle and 1¾" Circle punches, 1"x8" cellophane bags, stapler

And last but not least, this is the card for September. Again a reuse of a project as I used this for the Operation Write Home virtual card making birthday party where I hosted a color challenge.
One quick trick that I learned at convention... take your clear Bitty Button and slide it over your sanding block to give it more definition and a frosted look. So slick!

• Stamps: Gently Falling, Perfectly Penned
• Paper: Pool Party, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla
• Ink: Pool Party, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede
• Other: Early Espresso Baker's Twine, Bitty Button, Sanding Block, Distressing Tool on Cutter Kit, Stampin' Dimensionals

And we have our October Club Meeting tonight! We will be using the newly available Sweet Pressed Cookie Stamps, yummy!

Tea & Crumpets and a Sketch Challenge

It is the first Saturday of the month again and time for me to give you all another scrapbooking sketch to play with!

And here is my example. I was recently in Seattle and had some new pictures to scrap, and the newest ones are sometimes the most fun to play with :) And the leave it to the ultimate tea addict that I am to find tea in the coffee capitol, lol! That crumpet was just delicious too!

• MDS: Crumb Cake,Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso, Cheerful Treat DSP, Tasteful Trim die and Curly Label punch

Have fun using this sketch and be sure to post yours with a  SASCRAP58 label!

USWDAF Paper Parade event- Northern Lodge Logbook

I did a little designer for Dawn and UstampwithDawnanFriends.com and my project is up today! I love the new Frostwood Lodge DSP, it is just perfect for my woodsy side :) I designed some projects that are just great for a cabin retreat!

I also used the Christmas Lodge stamp set, which is good for much more than Christmas! There are cork coasters, napkin rings, and a playing card box from our fabulous Wood Sheets too! The card can be used for anything... I purposely left off a sentiment so I could use it for whatever I end up needing it for!
The full details and tutorials are available at www.Ustampwithdawnandfriends.com on the Paper Parade event!

Seattle!!

So today is my first full day in Seattle and I have already had a lot of fun, and a few run-ins with strawberries... on the plane ride here, they had strawberries in the little snacks you could buy and the lady next to me got one. I had to ask her to move and eat it fast! I don't know how many strawberries were out in the 737 we were flying in, but my lips started to swell and I had to pop some benadryl and hope I didn't need to resort to my epipen! Then at breakfast, there were strawberries on the fruit platter and I only walked into the room and then back out right away. Too late again! Oh, strawberries... why have you betrayed me so! I hope to not need to take benadryl again for the rest of the trip!

I took the Monorail from the Space Needle to Westlake Center, then walked to Pike Place Market, which was marvelous!

I sopped and had a crumpet with ricotta, almond butter, and bitter orange marmalade at the Tea & Crumpet shop.

And later I had an artist make a portrait of my hubby and I. Jamie wasn't there so he did Jamie's off of a photo. It would be closer to what Jamie looks like if he had been there, but he still did an amazing job! He sure made me look good :) The artist was a very nice gentleman originally from Georgia, Russia named Nick Elazar. Very charming old world style about him, sure made me smile! Of course, we both were talking about the love of our lives, our spouses. It always warms my heart to meet someone else who is still hopelessly in love with their spouse :)

 I also brought some stamping supplies and I hope to make some goodies to show you soon! Right now I need to get ready to go out to dinner at Ivar's Salmon House. Should be tasty!