Tea Stains and Leaves

Playing with leftover buttons, I had to make some birthday cards for this month. I have, sadly, still not sent any of them out...must do that! I also finally started to play with the Distressing Kit. Love It! Knew I would, just didn't pull them out until now :)

I think I may have overdone the distressing ink, and I used the Tea Stain and the Mahogany. Had fun with the different punches too :) How fun is it to find new ways to layer them together for a great focal point?!

This is the inside of the overly distressed one :) I believe I used Bring on the Cake and I think it fits really well.

This is the less distressed version. A little clearer and crisper. I might have to keep one of these to pet :)

Inside is a little more simple too, but I still like it. Really like it! It is not always about the layers :)

•  Stamps: Gently Falling, Bring on the Cake, Happiest Birthday Wishes
• Paper: Naturals White, Soft Suede, Pool Party, River Rock
• Ink: Soft Suede, More Mustard, Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, Tea Stain, Mahogany
• Other: Big Shot with Buttons #5 die, Designer Label punch, Doily Triple Layer punch, Distressing Essentials kit, Early Espresso Baker's Twine, Stampin' Dimnesionals

Dem Bones, Dem Bones!

Another spooky card for you, since Halloween is almost upon us! I am especially drawn to this skeleton guy, maybe it is my career as a nurse, or the macabre sense of humor I was born with that makes me fit in perfectly with my fellow ER nurses and cops, lol! Just ask us about full moons! Or not ;)

This card was the first one I made with this set. I made it blank so I can use it for whatever I want. Over the Hill birthday, Halloween, or just themed to the season Thinking of you.

I dressed it up a little with the Dazzling Details on the spider web and the Baker's Twine. I cannot believe I lived this long without Baker's Twine! It adds such a great touch without the bulk!!!

• Stamps: Piece of Poison, Wicked Cool
• Paper: Peach Parfait, Soft Suede, Whisper White
• Ink: Peach Parfait, Soft Suede, Early Espresso
• Other: Big Shot with Spiderweb embossing folder, Dazzling Details, Signo white gel pen, Early Espresso Baker's Twine, Champagne Shimmer Paint, Sponge, Stampin' Dimensionals

Spooky Surprise

OK, I am not sure how I missed posting these, but I guess this is a better time to post them than in August anyway! I participated in a swap for the Holiday Mini and I picked Pieces of Poison to do my swaps with. I really wanted to use a few new things and wanted to do something cool with the Peek A Boo die, so I came up with this.

But I realized that we demos want cards we can demonstrate using just one stamp set.. less overwhelming to our customers that way :) I mean, we demos have it all, or almost all. But our customers haven't been converted to demos yet, so they are a little more limited.  So....

This is what I actually did for the swap. Only one stamp set used for the whole thing! I have a thing for Crumb Cake if you all haven't noticed this yet. And I must say, I was mighty pleased with this card :)

The cupboard has some Stripes embossed doors on it complete with little knobs! Those mini brads are awesome! I did some stitching with my sewing machine around the edges for some more detail and texture. Really easy to do now that I moved my sewing machine up to the stamping/crafting area.

There he is, that smiling ghoul to greet you! So let me know which is your favorite!

• Stamps: Hello Doily, Hand-Penned Holidays, Piece of Poison
• Paper: Old Olive, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Naturals Ivory, Rich Razzleberry DSP (Bold Pack)
• Ink: Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
• Other: Big Shot with Peekaboo Frames die and Stripes embossing folder, Designer Label punch, 1-1/4" Square punch, Paper Piercer, Silver Mini Brads, Distressing Tool from Cutter Kit, Stampin' Dimensionals

• Stamps: Piece of Poison
• Paper: Old Olive, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Naturals Ivory, Rich Razzleberry DSP (Bold Pack)
• Ink: Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede
• Other: Big Shot with Peekaboo Frames die and Stripes embossing folder, Designer Label punch, 1-1/4" Square punch, Paper Piercer, Silver Mini Brads, Distressing Tool from Cutter Kit, Stampin' Dimensionals

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!