SA Scrapbook Challenge- Christmas Scoobie

 

The new year has begun and it is time to get back to our Saturday Scrapbook Challenges over at  StampinAddicts! The first weekend of the month is my turn to come up with a sketch challenge, and here it is!

Lots of fun shapes and a definite winter feel.

And here is a page I made using the sketch. My kids won this great big Scoobie Do at the County Fair a couple years ago, and gave it to their Dad. I got tired of tripping over him and sent him out to the garbage cans to be thrown away. The kids threw such a fuss, I had to tell them they could keep him if they found a use for him. Well, Dakota went and found a chair for him to sit in, and started dressing him for the weather and the season and made him a kind of mascot for the front door..... I wonder how many people have a Scoobie guarding their front door! In this picture, I was actually testing spots for our family picture, the one I posted on Christmas day.

• Supplies: MDS - Christmas Jingle DSP, half circle punch, snowflake punch,  flag punch, antique brads, Digs My Hart font
• Colors: Crumb Cake, Real Red, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Whisper White

Let's see what you all come up with! Check out the challenge here.

Lacy Treats!

A little more follow up on my blog hop projects. I actually found some pretzel rods and made them up. I was hoping they would fit in the 1"x8" cello bags SU sells, but they are a little too big. Oh well...

For the embellishment on this one, I punched out a large Soft Suede heart and stamped the strawberry image in Soft Suede. Then I outlined the heart with Signo white gel pen stitches. Crystal Effects adds a lovely raised gloss to the chocolate dipped part, and the Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details makes the top of the strawberry look so luscious!! There is also a Small Heart punch of the Red Glimmer Paper popped up on a dimensionals. I tied the top with a piece of Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine and adhered the heart with a dimnesional. This looks so yummy to me!! And the whole thing fits in a quart sized ziplock.

The Large Heart of the this one was stamped repeatedly with a stamp from PS I Love You in Cherry Cobbler and Blushing Bride, then punched out. The love you is also stamped with 2 different images from the same set in Blushing Bride and Soft Suede and die cut with the smallest of the Heart Framelits. The middle heart is punched using the Heart to Heart punch, then glittered up witht he Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details. ♥ that stuff!! This one is tied with Early Espresso Baker's Twine.

One more shot of the yummy-ness. I am having a hard time keeping the guys out of these pretzels!! I gues salty and sweet is the combo for my guys :)

Paper Doily Camouflage

I got many requests for a tutorial on how I made the camouflage with the Paper Doily Sizzlet, so here I decided to do one quick. I thought you might like a closer look at the card since we are limited to 4 pictures during the hop :)

 You can see the embossing and dimension of the card a little better here. The labels are both popped up.

 I tried to keep it pretty simple since it is a guy card. No ribbon or bows, flowers or bling :)

• Stamps: Bring on the Cake
• Paper: Chocolate Chip, River Rock
• Ink: Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke, River Rock
• Other: Big Shot with distressed texture plate and Labels Framelits and Paper Doily Sizzlet, sponges, Stampin' Dimensionals

Inside I put another little strip of camo and sponged the edges of the River Rock with Choc Chip.

OK. Now for how to make the Camo!

Start with this mess of supplies (ink pads for the pictured sponges too)

• Paper Doily die cut
• piece of River Rock cardstock
• Soft Suede ink and sponge
• Crumb Cake ink and sponge
• Always Artichoke ink and sponge
• River Rock ink and sponge
• Chocolate Chip ink and sponge

I am really just using the masking technique here. For your first sponging, use the darkest inks only and scatter them around. I am just holding the mask down with my fingers while I sponge. It does not matter if it slips while you are sponging.

This is what it looks like after you move your mask. You can clearly see the paper doily and a variety of color around it.

 Now, put the mask back on the paper, shifting it so that you will be sponging a different area. Use the lighter colors in this round of sponging also.

Here is what round 2 looks like. Still lots of unsponged stuff showing, and now we are starting to get some layering of the colors.

 Place your mask again exposing more of the unsponged areas and use more of the dark inks this round, but continue to use all of the inks.

It is really starting to look like camo now!

One more time, place the mask over your paper and sponge with all of the inks. Use your judgment for what you need more of at this point. Every time you do this technique, it is going to look different.

For the last sponging, I did not use the mask. I took the Crumb Cake and River rock inks only, and sponged all over. This was to soften all of the remaining unsponged areas. Now your piece can be used in your project!

I would love to see what everyone makes with this, so please post a link to your creation!

SCORE! with USWDAF- TEa for Two~Party in a Box

At last! The event we have been waiting for since August when the Simply Scored arrived! If you want DOZENS of ideas for projects using the Simply Scored, then this event is just perfect for you. And since the new Occasions Mini and Sale-A-Bration are just around the corner, you will find lots of ideas using the new stuff too.
I got quite a surprise when I logged in to the first day of the event and saw that my project was the second one posted! Woo-hoo!!

This fun box will hold a couple of tea cups with tea bags, or a cup with a  small can of loose leaf tea and an infuser, or a couple of disposable hot cups and some tea bags, or...a lot of different things!! There are a couple of great tricks to try with our new Framelits dies in the tutorial too!


Come check us out, you won't regret it!
 

With Sympathy Card with Sneak Peeks!

There is new stuff coming!! The Occasions Mini starts on January 4th, and boy, are there some great things in store for all of us!
I got my box of pre-order  goodies the first week of December and have been dabbling with the new stuff ever since. I am in LOVE with the Labels Framelits dies.

This is the first project I made with my new goodies. Someone had just ordered a sympathy card, and this was just perfect. The sentiment is from a retired hostess set from a few years ago, but the rest is NEW! I was able to cut the card base with the new dies to create a fun shaped card. SO much potential with these lovelies :)
I stamped the main image in Early Espresso on a scrap of Daffodil and then trimmed out the banner, then stamped the sentiment on it. It is popped up on dimensionals also. Lots of layers on this card. I ♥ layers.

• Stamps: Apothecary Art, Warmest Regards (retired), Woodgrain BG
• Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Naturals White, Daffodil Delight
• Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight
• Other: Gold Lame' Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink, Big Shot with Labels Framelits, Stampin' Dimensionals, Sponge, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint

It does fit nicely in an envelope also.
I believe this ended up going to the widow of one of the police officers that worked in the ER I work in. He had retired last year and had advanced Parkinsons disease. His widow is one of our receptionists and it has been a really tough year for her.

Ok, now on to some fun news!! The Stampin' Addicts Occasions Mini Blog Hop starts on Friday! Be sure to come back for all of the amazing projects with all sneak peeks of the goodness to come!!

  http://www.stampinaddicts.com/forums/general-stampin-talk/8666-join-us-2011-occasions-mini-blog-hop.html

Merry Christmas Every One!

Well, I hope it has been a very Merry Christmas for everyone! I know it has been for us. We spent Christmas Eve at the Neyssen's (Jamie's mom & stepdad) and nearly everyone was there. Amazing! It was so fun watching the little kids open their presents, and holding the new baby, Madison. She is 1 month old, and so sweet! And I have been trying to get a good family photo for our Christmas card this year, and I finally got one! This evening jsut as the sun was going down, lol!

Here we all are. We are all smiling and not wearing our coats at 31° F. Yup, we are Minnesotans :)

And who can resist this face! Shelby got blocked in between the piano and the tree as we were passing out the presents. What a sad little puppy dog face!

And what is a post without a little project. I made this little purse last month with some of the scrumptious Spice Cake fabric and lined it with muslin. my Amazon Fire fits in it quite well :)

Inside there are a couple of nifty pockets. I was able to use just one fat quarter of this print to make the bag. So cool :) I found the pattern on Etsy.com

Ok, time for this girl to go to bed... I must work in the morning and 5:30 comes mighty early :)

Frosty Gift Card Holder

Well, I just finished one of the many Christmas celebrations for this season! This one was with my Mom's side of the family. It was my turn to host this year and my house got a cleaning it had been sorely needing for a long time now. You know, stamping usually takes priority over scrubbing walls and cupboards ;)

And now it is time to get back to stamping! I got a great big box full of pre-order goodness earlier this week and have not had a chance to do more than assemble the stamp sets (all 15 of them), put everything away, and make a sympathy card for a co-worker (she needed to give someone else the card).

I did want to show you more of what we did at club this month also. This is a gift card holder I came up with.

I used the prongs of a mini brad for the closure, which works really well! The embossing was so yummy on the card we made, I just had to keep using it :) There is White and Pewter on this card.

• Stamps: Snow Swirled
• Paper: Bashful Blue, Whisper White
• Ink: Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Versamark
• Other: Simply Scored, Decorative Label punch, Corner Rounder punch, Paper Piercer and Mat Pack, Silver Mini Brad, Embossing Buddy, White Detail embossing powder, Pewter embossing powder, Heat Gun, Stampin' Dimensionals, Big Shot with Snow Burst embossing folder

Here is the inside of the gift card holder. It is very easy to make, so you could make as many as you need for the season very quickly!

For the gift card, you will score across the bottom 1" from the edge, then at 1" and 4¾" the other direction. 

You can get 3 gift cards from one 8½x11 sheet of paper with this template. I hope you all have fun making these!