USWDAF Take-Out Boxes

I don't know about anybody else, but when my family gets together for a big holiday dinner, there is always a pile of leftovers to divvy up and send home with everybody. And wouldn't it be great to have a cute little box to send the food home in! No losing all of your good plastic containers :) Or maybe you are going to participate in a cookie exchange this year and don't want to resort to the plastic wrapped paper plate again this year. As you can see, this box holds plenty of cookies. It would work well for teacher/coach/bus driver/neighbor gifts too. I even included my famous soft and yummy Gingersnaps recipe for you to try, but you could easily make recipes cards with your own recipe to share with the recipient, just tuck it under the bow on your box!

 I made 2 versions of this project. This is the poinsettia version. If you go get a membership to the Wrapping Up the Holidays Event, you will get the tutorial with both versions, and the yummy Ginger Snaps recipe :)

This is the North Woods version, right up my alley! Both are made using the Watercolor Winter set.

Colors are: Sahara Sand, Riding Hood Red, Always Artichoke, Early Espresso, and Naturals White. 

There are tons of gorgeous projects in this event, so come check it out!

Merry Snowflakes!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend! I know I did :) I worked a pretty uneventful overnight shift in the ER on Thanksgiving night, and had a bunch of family over on Saturday for dinner. Side effect of family over for dinner- my house got sparkly clean, lol! I should have people over more often....

This morning I decided I needed to do a little stamping since I haven't done any in over a week. I know, can you believe it! So I found a fun challenge over at OWH, to use turquoise and silver. Well, Pool Party is a pale turquoise, right?

This is the idea that popped into my head. Lots of shimmer and shine on this card, and not something I could send to OWH, but it's still pretty :)
The Illuminate ink adds such a festive touch to holiday cards, I can't seem to stop using it. I think all but 2 of the Christmas cards I have made lately have had the Illuminate ink on them. It also works great to show you where you stamped for embossing. Can you see the snowflakes behind Merry?

Maybe this view is a little better. My Silver Glimmer paper got some use for the first time also. I have got to stop hoarding stuff! These are only ¼" strips of it anyway, such a tiny bit that it is sure to last through many projects.

• Stamps: Snowflake Soiree
• Ink: Illuminate
• Paper: Pool Party, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer paper
• Other: Big Shot with Large Scallop edgelit, embossing buddy, Pewter embossing powder, Heat Gun, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer, Piercing Mat, Signo white gel pen, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, Stampin' Dimensionals

Don't forget that the Online Extravaganza is still going strong and that there will be another one-day-only deal on Wednesday! Go check it out!

Crazy for Owls

I really did go a little crazy with the owls for this post. I have several cards here that I made for the Operation Write Home box that  I have now filled! I just need to take it to the post office now. That appears to be a bit of a problem for me now since I am working nights. I am sleeping when the post office is open! It appears I need to make some more adjustments to my sleeping schedule so I can do the business hours stuff.... 

And as long as I am making scads of cards, why not do some more stash busting?! I used all kinds of retired stuff on these, but I don't think they feel "retired" lol!

There are several retired SU stamp sets that I will not be parting with any time soon, and I used 2 of them for this card. 

• Stamps: Love Bandit, Well Scripted
• Paper: Naturals White, Whisper White, Regal Rose, Early Espresso, Old Olive
• Ink: Regal Rose, Early Espresso, Old Olive
• Other: Big Shot with circle dies, Heart to Heart punch, non-SU heart brads, Signo white gel pen, dimensionals, Flower Fusion felt flowers

And another version with Old Olive matting the circle instead of Early Espresso. I still have gobs of the Flower Fusion felt flowers to use up, so I was going to town with them on these sets of cards. I think I made 4-8 of each design.

Can't resist Crumb Cake! I added a little heart from Filled With Love,  another retired set. And rhinestones in the center of the felt flowers.

Thank You cards are always handy. More owls!! I told you, I went a little crazy with the owls, lol!

• Stamps: Love Bandit, Thank You Kindly
• Paper: Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Pumpkin Pie
• Ink: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents framelit, Wide Oval and Bird Builder punch, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer, Piercing Mat, Flower Fusion felt flowers, Rhinestones Basic Jewels, dimensionals, Signo white gel pen

And an Old Olive version. I sure hope other people like these little owls as much as I do!

More to Love

 Getting closer to a full box of cards to send to Operation Write Home. Next time I need to pick a smaller box because about the time I would have it full, I would have to pull some out because the deadline for that holiday had passed! Either that or I need to stamp faster, LOL!

I made this one with the same layout as the one from yesterday, but changed up the colors and stuff. Still loving the Illuminate ink! These hearts turned out so shimmery :)

• Stamps: You Are Loved
• Ink: Early Espresso, Illuminate
• Paper: Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Very Vanilla, Everyday Enchantment DSP
• Other: Big Shot with Hearts framelits, Large Scallop edgelit, Delicate Designs embossing folder, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Piercing Mat, sponge, dimensionals, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, 1" Square punch

 This is the last of the Everyday Enchantment designs for now. I added some retired ribbon to the supplies on this one. The 3/8" Very Vanilla Designer Velvet ribbon (#125637) is available on the Clearance rack right now for $3.19! It looks amazing on Christmas projects too.
 The butterfly body is descending dots of Smooch Accent ink.

• Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, P.S. I Love You
• Ink: Illuminate, Soft Suede, Poppy Parade
• Paper: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Everyday Enchantment DSP
• Other: Big Shot with Delicate Doilies sizzlet and Designer Frames embossing folder, Signo white gel pen, Moonlight Smooch Accent Ink, Small Heart punch, Elegant Butterfly punch, Rhinestone and Pearl Basic Jewels, dimensionals, 1/8" Calypso Coral organza ribbon, 3/8: Very Vanilla Designer Velvet ribbon, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack with Paper Piercer and Piercing Mat

 I even decorated the inside with the little dots of Accent ink!

Until next time, Happy Stampin!

Love in November

I know most of us are thinking about Thanksgiving, and maybe about Christmas right now, but I have been doing some stuff for my Operation Write Home box. Christmas and THanksgiving are over for the deadlines for OWH, and it is time to think about Valentine's Day. General "love" are more versatile though so they encourage us to make more of them than the Happy Valentine's Day sentiment.

This is just one of several designs I made for the box and I am trying to combine some stash-busting with this project :) The DSP is from the Everyday Enchantment packs that were part of this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion. I have a bunch of it and it is so pretty! I think I can stop petting it now and use it up :) I also pulled out some retired cardstock and a retired stamp set, but I did use the new Illuminate ink! Love that stuff! It is like Frost White Shimmer Paint in an inkpad!!

• Stamps: You Are Loved, P.S. I Love You (retired)
• Ink: Poppy Parade (retired), Pool Party, Illuminate, Early Espresso marker
• Paper: Poppy Parade (retired), Pool Party, Everyday Enchantment DSP (2012 SAB), Very Vanilla
• Other: Big Shot with Delicate Doilied sizzlet, 1¼" Circle punch, dimensionals, Pearls Basic Jewels

Come back tomorrow to see what else I love!

Stampin' Addicts MDS2 Blog Hop

To celebrate the release of the updated version of My Digital Studio, we decided to do a hop showcasing some of the new features on My Digital Studio 2! There are so many new features we couldn't possibly show you all of them :)

If you started at the beginning, then you just came from Heidi's blog where she sowed you some beautiful stuff featuring converting your project size. Pretty nifty huh?!

Well, I am showcasing the Calendar Effects feature. Basically, this feature lets you create a calendar that automatically fills in the right dates for the month and year that you choose, and you can make it any size!

I have been working on making my own calendar to fit in the new Desktop Display Calendar Case (#127033 $1.95) sold on page 22 of the Holiday Mini. These are 2 of the pages I have made so far and they fit on 1 sheet of 8.5"x11" paper.  I just keep the same page and change out the background papers and edit the months and embellishments, then export to jpeg and print on Whisper White on my home printer.

And here is is printed, cut out, and inside the case. I love the versatility of this feature!

How about a quick calendar to keep track of all of your crafting deadlines or the days you work, or your kids activities? I whipped this up in about 5 minutes.

1. I opened a landscape 8.5"x11" blank project 
2. Chose a background paper 
3. Added a piece of Very Vanilla 9.5"x7" with a drop shadow
4. Added the Calendar with lines for November 2012
5. Edited the Calendar fonts and colors
6. Exported as a jpeg
7. Printed the page on my home printer on plain paper. 

Now I have my work schedule in an easy to read format that the whole family can see :)

How about adding a calendar to a scrapbook page to show a special date or for a monthly page? You can change the font to any font you have on your computer and you can change the colors and sizes of the letters and number, do lines or no lines. Very customizable!
This page shows my oldest son with his girlfriend. She is such a sweetie! Of course, so is he :)

 Now, on with the show! Here is the list of participating blogs. Don't forget to leave some love at each stop.
1) Yapha Mason -- Design in Spreads
2) Paula Wright  -- Custom Sizes
3) Heidi Baks -- Project Size Conversion with Importing Templates of Other Sizes
4) Tanya Boser -- Calendar Effect
5) Adriana Benitez-- Mirror Text