December Blog Hop

Happy Holidays! I can't believe that it's already December. The 70 degree weather here in the Land of Oz has made it even harder to believe, but I'm not complaining. I still haven't found my gloves, so the cold can stay away just a little bit longer!

I love making holiday projects. My card is one I designed for our club meeting last month. I had told them we would do either a card or a gift card holder; at the last minute I decided to make it both! I love the versatility of the Festival of Prints Designer Series Paper stack. (Preview: there's a new stack coming out in the Spring Catalog!)
My initial card was the middle left. During the club demonstration, I made the on the middle right. The others were made by some of my club members.

Supplies used:
Card Stock: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Island Indigo, Crumb Cake
DSP: Festival of Prints
Stamp sets: Scentsational Season, Curly Cute
Ink: Early Espresso, VersaMark, Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade
Tools: Big Shot, Holiday Collection Framelits, 2 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, Stampin' Trimmer, Simply Scored, Bone Folder, Heat Tool
Adhesive: SNAIL, Tombow
Other: Cherry Cobbler and Sparkling Silver Dazzling Details, various embossing powders

Inside view

My 3-D project is actually one that I made to sell. Some local crafters and I got together and opened our own Little Shop of Treasures holiday shop 2 years ago. We had a lot of fun doing this. I had found this idea from another demonstrator on our exclusive demonstrator website.
This is definitely a great way to dress up candy cane treats for the holidays.

Supplies used:
Punches: Curly Label, Word Window, Boho Blossom
Markers: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie
Adhesive: Glue Stick
Embellishments: Metallic Brads

I hope you enjoyed my projects. It means a lot that you took the time to stop by and check them out! Click that Next button below to head on over to Kim's always-fabulous blog! Make sure to keep hopping around; you'll see some new faces this month. Our blog has always had tremendous talent, and we've added much more this month. You don't want to miss Justin's blog. He posts a new card every morning for us demonstrators to see and every single card is drool worthy!


Blog Hop Participants:

1. Shellie G. of Creative Electica
2. Annie L. of Love Me Cards
3. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun!
4. Nancy B. of Lady Stamps-A-Lot
5. Rose C. of Stamp with Rose
6. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
7. Dawn S. of Dawn's Creative Chalet
8. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
9. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
10. Terry B of Goin' Over the Edge
11. Justin K of JK Cards
12. Heidi B of Stuck on Stampin'
13. Jennifer B of NW Stamper

Thankful to Hop

Greetings to all! You may have noticed that we are hopping on the second Thursday this month. Most of our hoppers have little ones or work with little ones and having the first Thursday fall on the day after Halloween wasn't too convenient. Geez calendar!

I've been doing a Day of Thanks post on my FB page. I must say that I'm incredibly thankful to be part of such a great group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators. These ladies that I hop with are all so talented and I owe them a lot because some months the only stamping I get done is for our blog hop. I'm also thankful for all of my followers and visitors. Thank YOU for letting me share a little bit of my stress relief with you!

My card this month is a thank you card. I had already made my 3-D item and wanted to coordinate the card with it. I really miss the Copper embossing powder we used to carry. It would have POPPED on this card!

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Island Indigo, More Mustard
DSP: Orchard Harvest
Ink: Island Indigo, Versamark
Stamps: Curly Cute, Gently Falling
Embellishments: 3/16" Metallic brads, Gold embossing powder, Pewter embossing powder
Adhesive: Glue stick
Tools: Heat tool, paper piercer, paper piercing mat

I decided to try my hand at the ornament on the cover of the Holiday catalog. I taught myself how to do this, and then taught it to some of my stamp club members (I owe those ladies lots of thanks for lots of different reasons) that evening at our club meeting. We did fall versions with the Orchard Harvest DSP (use what you have, right?). I wish that I had gotten pictures of each person's ornament. They all looked so different even with coming from the same pack of paper!
In addition to ornaments, these would make great gift tags, place settings, candle wraps, etc! The possibilities really are endless!

Supplies used:
DSP: Orchard Harvest
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip
Punches: 3/8' Circle, 2 3/8"Scallop Circle
Framelits: Holiday Ornaments
Dies: Rosette XL
Ribbon: Chocolate Chip Dotted Scallop, Very Vanilla Seam Binding, Linen Thread
Embellishment: Brushed Bronze Designer Buttons
Tools: Big Shot, Silicone Mat
Adhesive: Tombow
Non-SU: glue gun, crap-ton of hot glue (yes a technical term)

I hope you have enjoyed my projects. Thank you for stopping by, now I hope you enjoy Kim's creations!

Blog Hop Participants:

1. Shellie G. of Creative Electica
2. Annie L. of Love Me Cards
3. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun!
4. Nancy B. of Lady Stamps-A-Lot
5. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
6. Dawn S. of Dawn's Creative Chalet
7. Patricia T. of Sunnyone Stampin'
8. Pamela W. of Stinky Tofu
9. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
10. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
11. Nancy B of Momma B Stampin'
12. Terry B of Goin' Over the Edge

World Card Making Day!

World Card Making Day is the first Saturday of every October. That's today! I hope that you joined in on World Card Making Day with me and many others!

Here is one of the cards I created today. (I can't share my Christmas cards just yet)
I'd love to see what you made today. You can post them over on my Facebook page if you would like to share.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Old Olive, More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy, Naturals White
Ink: Bravo Burgundy, Old Olive, More Mustard, Basic Black
Ribbon: 1/8" Old Olive Taffeta Ribbon, 1/2" Basic Black Dotted Scallop Ribbon
Stamp set: Carry On (Hostess)
Adhesive: Snail, Tombow Multipurpose, Glue Dots, Stampin' Dimensionals
Big Shot
Fancy Fan Embossing Folder
Tabletop Paper Cutter
Simply Scored

Spoooooky! It's Blog Hop time!

It's the first Thursday of the month; what does that mean? We're hopping!

October is probably my favorite month of the year. I love Halloween and all things PUMPKIN; which both happen in this orange month. You can check out my favorite pumpkin card that I've made in THIS post from last August.

On to this year's spooky projects:

I had a lot of fun with my card. It features a new bundle from the Holiday catalog.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Basic Grey, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla
Ink: Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry
Stampin' Write Marker: Basic Black
Stamps: Googly Ghouls
Embellishments: Googlies, Designer Ribbon Slides, 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon-Basic Black
Punches: Decorative Label, Modern Label
Adhesives: Snail, Stampin' Dimensionals, Glue Dots
Other: Simply Scored, Tabletop Paper Cutter, Paper Snips

Every 4 or 5 years I decide to "go back to the beginning" and pull out one of the original projects that I showed my customers when I first started demo-ing. Here's my creepy bagalope. My favorite part of teaching the bagalope project is the look on everyones' faces when I tell them to seal up their envelope without putting anything in it. :)

Supplies used:
Stamp: Googly Ghouls
Stampin' Write Markers: Basic Black, Soft Suede
Embellishement: Pumpkin Pie baker's twine (only available in Ghoulish Googlies Designer Kit)
Other: Simply Scored, Tabletop Paper Cutter, Medium Whisper White Envelope

Thanks for stopping by! I would love to hear what you thought of my projects today!

Head on over to Kim's blog and see what our "mommy who stamps late at night" has shared with us!


Blog Hop Participants:

1. Shellie G. of Creative Electica
2. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun!
3. Nancy B. of Lady Stamps-A-Lot
4. Rose C. of Stamp with Rose
5. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
6. Dawn S. of Dawn's Creative Chalet
7. Patricia T. of Sunnyone Stampin'
8. Pamela W. of Stinky Tofu
9. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
10. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
11. Nancy B of Momma B Stampin'
12. Terry B of Goin' Over the Edge

September blog hop

Hi! Thanks for joining the Stylin' Stampin' Squad September blog hop! I'm so excited to show my latest creations to you!

What did you think of Heather's projects? She always has such cute projects!

This is the gift set I created for this month.

My intention this month was to CASE (copy and share everything) a really cute CAS (clean & simple) card that I saw earlier this week. What started out in my mind as a back to school "apple for the teacher" card ended up a fall "thank you" card.

The idea for the milk carton I did CASE from another demo. What a genius idea to use the framelits to make a window before you assemble the carton! One side has an apple cut out, the other side a pear cut out. I filled the carton with two Apple Pear'adise tea lights that I had gotten from Gold Canyon. The "windows" provide a perfect vent to allow the scent to come out. These would be great for a teacher's desk where she needed a little smell good scent, but couldn't burn an actual candle!

Thank you for joining me today. I look forward to hearing what you thought of my projects.
Hop on over to the very talented Kim's blog and be sure to leave her some love too!

Blog Hop Participants:

1. Shellie G. of Creative Electica
2. Annie L. of Love Me Cards
3. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun!
4. Nancy B. of Lady Stamps-A-Lot
5. Rose C. of Stamp with Rose
6. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
7. Dawn S. of Dawn's Creative Chalet
8. Patricia T. of Sunnyone Stampin'
9. Heather W. of Stamping with Heather
10. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
11. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
12. Nancy B of Momma B Stampin'

MDS 2

Happy Labor Day! Finally a day off that I can devote to everything that hasn't gotten done in the past month. I had wanted to get my Wichita Zoo album finished during August to take advantage of the 31% off special on all print products. Luckily for me (and you) Stampin' Up! extended the promotion until September 14th!

I upgraded my version of My Digital Studio to the new My Digital Studio 2. Stampin' Up! has done it again. They took an already wonderful product and made it fabulous!

This is what I love about MDS2:

-More page layout templates
-You can round the corner of your pictures
-Stamp images can be colored with different colors instead of the whole image having to be the same color
-You can now work on your album in a double-page layout spread

Screen shot MDS2 software in use

This is perhaps my favorite new feature! It is so much easier than having to view the output to make sure everything is lined up on your spread, go back and fix it, and then view the output again.

This is just an overview of the new improvements that SU! has made on the software. They are still working on some updates that will come out with update releases.

Remember, if you haven't tried out My Digital Studio yet, you can get a 30-day free trial on my website! http://stampindj.stampinup.net  Click on the "Shop Now" button to find the Free Trial button.

Stylin' Stampin' August Edition

Welcome to the August edition of the Stylin' Stampin' blog hop! This month we are featuring our favorite products from the Holiday Catalog, which you can order from NOW! In addition to the amazing talent you've been visiting the past six months; we've added some new talent so make sure you hop to everyone's blog.

My card was CASE'd from page 28 of the Holiday Catalog. That's what happens when your husband tells you the night before that you need to make a card for his retiring co-worker who's last day happens to be the following day! My first FAVORITE thing is that there are so many stamp set and framelit bundles in the new catalog! SO much easier than cutting with scissors.

Supplies used:
Stamps: Perfectly Preserved; Itty Bitty Banners
Cardstock: Sahara Sand
DSP: International Bazaar
Ink: Lucky Limeade; Rich Razzleberry
Ribbon: Chocolate Chip scallop dots; Daffodil Delight Taffeta; Midnight Muse stitched satin
Punch: 3/16" Corner
Big Shot
Bitty Banners Framelits
Snail adhesive; Glue Dots; Dimensionals

My 3-D project was so fun to make! Do you see the jar on the jar? My second FAVORITE holiday item is our new core'dinations cardstock. It works so well with the Woodgrain embossing folder!

Supplies used:
Stamps: Itty Bitty Banners
Paper: Early Espresso Core'dinations; Very Vanilla; Cajun Craze; More Mustard; Gumball Green
DSP: Orchard Harvest
Ink: Early Espresso; Gumball Green
Big Shot
Woodgrain embossing folder
Framelits: Cannery; Bitty Banners
Paper Snips
Stampin' Sanding System
Sticky Strip; Glue Dots

I hope you enjoyed my projects today. I would love to hear what your FAVORITE project or part of a project was!
Answer to last month's challenge question: I used the star from Jolly Bingo Bits to stamp on the back of the red glimmer paper; then used my paper snips to cut them out.

This nifty button will take you right over to fellow night owl stamper, Kim. Happy hopping! 


Blog Hop Participants:

1. Shellie G. of Creative Electica
2. Annie L. of Love Me Cards
3. Pam S. of Stampin' in the Sun!
4. Nancy B. of Lady Stamps a Lot
5. Rose C. of Stamp with Rose
6. Tonya B. of Stampin' with Tonya
7. Dawn S. of Dawn's Creative Chalet
8. Patricia T. of Sunnyone Stampin'
9. Heather W. of Heather's Stampin' Blog
10. Pamela W. of Stinky Tofu
11. Darcy J. of DJ's Stampin' Place
12. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
13. Debra of Mommy Scraps