And the broom you rode in on...

I'm sure this is the image my son has of me today after a "discussion" about appropriate school clothes this morning-LOL! Mommy did not agree with the favorite, worn out shorts and T-shirt he had dressed himself in and he was a complete grump when I made him change. He even tried the tactic of trying to recruit daddy to his side, which I promptly cut off- he hasn't figured out that I'm wise to his tricks! After that little tussle, a witchy card seemed in order!

I've had this Halloween set from MFT since last year and haven't had a chance to ink it up yet, so today seemed like a good day to get the witch in me going (since I was already on a roll!). I stamped the witch image twice- once on Whisper White card stock and once on a bright green patterned paper from Halloween paper stack by K&Co. I cut out the witch's dress from the green image and pasted it over the white image- this technique is called paper piecing and is a great way to add color and texture to an image. It's a bit like applique but with paper instead- a really fun technique when you start using it!

The rest of the image was colored with alcohol markers and glitter markers on the sun and her boots. I used 3 shades of violet, blending the streaks of color together, to make a spooky sky- it looks a bit like she's flying through some fog!

I stamped some bats in Taken With Teal on the card background and layered some funky striped DP on the bottom. I have been dying to use my new velvet ric rac and this seemed like the perfect card for it- I definitely have a thing for ric rac! The image and it's contrasting layers were cut out using a set of nested dies on my Sizzix machine, as was the greeting. I am in love with the new fancy labels dies- they add a bit more than a standard die or punch with their detailed edges! A few rhinestones around the edges and she's off!

Hope you're having a good day wherever you park your broom!








Supplies:
Paper: Taken with Teal, Basic Black, Whisper White, K&CO Halloween pack
Ink: Pigment black ink
Accessories: Velvet ric rac, Sizzix machine, nested dies, Modern Label punch, glitter and alcohol markers, dimensionals

Black and white and red all over...

I wanted to make a special a card for my brother and SIL's 13th anniversary next week (Happy Anniversary to you...) and I decided to use one of the Flourishes stamp sets that I bought oh, so long ago and have not yet used (so many stamps, so little time!).

I do have to admit that I have a bit more trouble using clear stamps (as opposed to good old red rubber) but am making a concerted effort to appreciate them. One of the common complaints is that they do not ink or stamp a very good image reliably. One of the ways to rectify this is to rub your new clear stamps with a white eraser (or any eraser really) to remove the residue left from the manufacturing process, then clean them with stamp cleaner. Another helpful hint is to use hybrid or chalk inks as the clear stamps pick up that ink better.

For this card, I used a Whisper White card base and adhered a piece of paper from the Night & Day set from Stampin' Up- it's a wonderful collection of all black and white patterns- so versatile! I layered a strip of Real Red underneath that patterned piece and scored lines a few inches up to set it off a bit.

The heart in this set is very swirly and pretty and is perfect for Valentine's, but can also be used for weddings and anniversaries. I stamped the heart in Memento Tuxedo Black and cut it out using my nested heart dies on my Sizzix machine. I stamped the image again in Real Red, cut out the inner heart and pieced it over the black image to make it stand out. I added a few rhinestones for bling and layered it onto another set of nested label shapes cut out of Basic Black and a different pattern from the Night & Day collection.

To assemble it, I ran a piece of red silk ribbon around the card and glued it down where it would be hidden by the image. I then tied a big fancy bow at the top where it would drape over and frame the image- love this ribbon! The main image was layered onto the card with dimensional dots to give it some depth and the greeting was added to the bottom to finish it off. Since this was a formal card, I pulled out my fancy tag dies for the fisrt time- definitely going to be using those a lot more!


Now that it's done, it does look a bit more appropriate for Valentine's Day, but I am sure they will appreciate the effort. Thanks for stopping by and hope your day is less soggy than ours here in Houston!

 

Supplies:

Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black, Night & Day Designer Series paper

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red

Accessories: Sizzix machine, nested label dies, heart die, fancy tag die, dimensionals, rhinestones, Score-Pal

Holiday photo cards...

I like the idea of a photo card at the holidays, but they leave me with the "mass produced" feeling that I just can't get past.To compensate for this, I usually make a hybrid project for my Christmas card so that I can incorporate a family photo and some pretty graphics and embellishments, but then mount the digitally "remastered" photo onto a real card so it has some substance and room for a message inside.

Stampin' Up has finally come into the digital age and released their version of software called "My Digital Studio".  Last evening I loaded the software on my computer and have taken a few moments to play with a few of the features and wanted to share my first card I made using this software. I have used Photoshop for quite some time, both for work and for my some digital scrapbook pages, and have become pretty adept at making things look reasonable, although there is always room for improvement-LOL! This program has some features akin to Photoshop, but with an interface that beginning users will likely find less intimidating.

For my card, I chose a pre-fab template from the menu then began making some minor tweaks to make it look a bit better. First I filled the white background with a Designer Paper from the drop down menu- I chose Chocolate Chip Textile. The I made the bottom Olive card stock band a bit thicker and changed the ribbon from a knot to a bow and moved them up as well. Lastly, I added some drop shadows to make the reindeer piece appear to have some depth, as if it were real card stock layers. (The black layer here is just for some contrast against the white screen and is not part of the card).

A quick, easy holiday thank you card that can be printed onto plain Whisper White card stock, folded into a card and it's done! I will definitely be playing with this program some more as I begin to make my holiday photo cards. The best part is that it contains the design software, all the Stampin' Up colors, Designer Series papers, ribbons, etc, so making a hybrid piece will be a snap- all the colors will match for sure!

Thanks fror stopping by and take a look at the Stampin' Up website for more info and ideas using this digital software- it's way cool!

Simple, elegant wedding...

Happy Friday everyone!! I don't know about anyone else, but I am so happy to see the weekend- it's been a long week! I'm also super excited about the weather cooling down- it will be our first real cool front of the "fall"- a term I need to use loosely here in Houston!

After a long spell of sympathy cards, I can finally move onto happier topics since we have 2 weddings coming up in the next month. I'm not one for the cutesy wedding card and wanted something simple and classic and decided to go with a relatively monochromatic color scheme.

The base of the card was made from a crisp white, with an accent of patterned paper on the inside edge to finish it off. I ran the next white layer through  my Sizzix machine with a steel embossing plate to give it some texture- dry embossing paper is a fast and easy way to dress up a card. It's hard to get a great photo of this, but the design is very pretty IRL. This embossed piece was layered onto Basic Black then tied with a beautiful blue silk ribbon and bow- it's so soft and ties beautifully!

I stamped the greeting in black pigment ink, then stamped over it with a floral image in Baja Blue. To make the flowers look soft and light, I stamped off onto a scrap before stamping onto the greeting- this  brings the intensity down a notch or two. The greeting was cut out using nested label dies and mounted on the card with dimensionals.

Simple, pretty and elegant- perfect for any wedding or anniversary! Thanks for stopping by and hope your weekend is great!

 






Supplies:
Stamps: All Year Cheer III, Charming
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Baja Breeze
Paper: Whisper white, Basic Black
Accessories: Blue silk ribbon, Sizzix machine, steel embossing plate, nested label die 

Funky Pheasant...

Just a quick post today of a project I finished for the Mojo Monday challenge (yes, it's Thursday, but at least I finished it- even in the same week!). This week was a very versatile sketch and I can see it being very good for Christmas cards- exchange the star for a snowflake...you get the idea.

Since I had dug through the paper stash to find the Basic Grey "Mellow" paper for the last card, I sifted through that set again and found a really pretty piece that I hadn't noticed before. Just proves that going through the stash now and again is a good way to start a card or scrapbook page when you're stumped for ideas! I also really like the idea of sketches, for both cards and scrapbook pages, because it gives you a starting point and from there you just fill in your image and papers. There are some other great sketch sites that I'll share another day.

On to today's card- my funky pheasant. I can't say that I've ever seen a pheasant close up in the wild (they're pretty shy and scurry around in the brush), so mine has some poetic license in the color department. He's a combo of pheasant and mallard duck, made to match my patterned paper.

I started with a Chocolate Chip background for the card and added a layer of Very Vanilla and Baja Breeze. The Baja card stock was run through the Sizzix machine first with a metal embossing plate to give it that swirly texture, then sponged with Baja ink to make the embossed areas stand out. It looked so nice it was actually a shame to cover it up with the next layers!

I then layered the patterned paper on Vanilla and Chocolate, then adhered it to the card front before running the ribbon around the entire background piece. Isn't that ribbon gorgeous?! I also found that in the stash- I have to figure out where it came form so I can get some more!

So Mr. Pheasant... I stamped quite a few birds before I got him just the way I wanted, sort of brown and sort of rust. The main image was colored with Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango, and Baja Breeze markers, then stamped on Vanilla. I colored and stamped another one with just Chocolate and Baja so I could cut out the pieces to layer on top. The image was cut out using nesting dies and sponged with Brushed Corduroy Distress ink with the die in place to give it a white edge. I like the dimension the pheasant gets with the extra layer, although it was a pain to cut out those skinny feathers!

He was layered onto a Pumpkin Pie piece which was sponged with Close to Cocoa (really a great brown for sponging) and mounted on the card with dimensionals. The greeting and a corduroy button were added to complete the sketch and he's done! My mom will probably be the proud owner of him for TG- she'll appreciate his funky look!

Thanks for stopping by- hope it's less humid and disgusting where you are!

 






Supplies:
Stamps: Autumn Days, All Year Cheer III (retired)
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, Basic Grey "Mellow"
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango, Pumpkin Pie, Baja Breeze, Brushed Corduroy
Accessories: Sizzix machine, steel embossing plate, nested label dies, tag die, Baja corduroy button, hemp twine, ribbon, sponge, dimensionals

Mo and Jo missing...

If anyone has seen Mo and Jo (otherwise known as my Mojo) please send them back to me! This card should not have taken me nearly as long as it did last night to complete! I went through so many iterations of layout, colors, patterned papers- it was mind numbing. I was nearly at the point of ripping it up a few times, but I had spent so much time coloring the image that it was spared!

This is the final version, but there is a good chance I will go back and make another when I get some more inspiration!

I started by stamping the pumpkin image in Memento Rich Cocoa on Very Vanilla cardstock and on printer paper. I cut out the printer paper version and used it as a mask when I stamped the second image so the pumpkins would look like they had some depth. I then colored the images with my Copic markers using colors I hoped I would like when I eventually made the card. This is the problem with coloring images all at once-it's a leap of faith that later on you will find the right paper to go with the colors you chose!

I cut out the image with my new Labels 5 dies (happy birthday to me...) and sponged ink around the image while the die was still in place- this leaves the edge white for contrast. I mounted it on a Close to Cocoa piece cut out with the next size die and sponged the edges of that with Close to Cocoa as well.

I ran the Pumpkin Pie background paper through my Sizzix machine using my Stampin' Up Backgrounds 1 Texturz plate then sponged ink over the embossed areas to make them stand out. I haven't used these plates before but I really do like them because they are bigger than the Cuttlebug folders and can fit 6"x7" cardstock on them. That's great for me because I make a lot of larger square cards!

Before assembling, I sponged the edges of all the pieces with Close to Cocoa to give it a fall feel. I tied some brown gingham ribbon around the embossed piece and mounted it to the card using dimensional dots. I placed aged copper brads on the patterned paper piece for a bit of embellishment and mounted the image with dimensionals. The greeting was hard to fit given all that was going on, so I simply punched it out with an oval punch and free hand cut a larger oval to nest it on. I must have stamped and tried 7 different punches, shapes etc before I finally gave up and went with the oval!

That's my minor inspiration for the day- hope Mo and Jo find their way back to me soon!

 






Supplies:
Stamps: Unity Sept KOM, All Year Cheer III
Paper:  Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, Basic Grey Mellow
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Copic markers, copper brads, brown gingham ribbon, Sizzx Big Shot, Stampin' Up Backgrounds 1 Texturz plates, Labels 5 die, sponge, large oval punch, dimensionals

Vintage weekend...

Goodness this past weekend went fast- I feel like I've just turned around and it's Monday again! I worked a good chunk of the weekend, so that soaked up a lot of it, but I also had some time for two really fun things.

The first was the Quilt Trade Show, which was in Houston this past weekend. My friend, Kim, was gracious enough to share an exhibitor's pass that she got from a friend who owns a shop in Idaho Falls to attend the event which is closed to the public. OMG, I can't tell you how much sensory overload it was! There were so many designers, fabric manufacturers, ribbon, patterns and of course tons of beautiful quilts on display! I am not a quilter (yet-LOL!) but it was SO much fun to meet these people who came from all over the country to share their incredible talents and goods. Check out Amy's website, Kati Cupcake- she has great designs for quilts and kids' clothes, as well as a new fabric line.

Kim and I scored a bunch of great patterns, some for quilts and some for clothing- skirts, tops and the cutest quilted beanbag chair you have ever seen! I will definitely have to share pictures of that if I ever get it made... We also had a blast going through some vintage button/ribbon collections. For those of you who know me, I have a ribbon fetish, followed only by a vintage button fetish and this place was totally dangerous!

Aren't those ribbons fabulous?! We found some really cool buckles to go with them- I can see the brown/blue one with some jeans and a brown shirt I have now! When I saw the mother-of-pearl button, I knew I needed one (and at the price of $12 a button, one was all I was getting!). I am going to use the pastel ones to make fancy pony tail holders for Emily and the others for some special projects, so more to come!

So now onto my project for the weekend. I scored a real vintage find last week... test tubes! A colleague was cleaning out an old lab and was going to throw these beauties away (what a cretin- he clearly doesn't know a great vintage find when he sees one!) They are so awesome- vintage glass test tubes with beautiful, imprinted metal caps- these babies are 50 years old at least.

The minute I saw them, I had spooky Halloween treats swirling in my head! OK, before you get totally grossed out, I cleaned them and sanitized them to the point where nothing that was ever in them is even remotely lingering. So, if you are lucky enough to receive one, a) they are safe to eat the treats from and b) I want it back! Just kidding...

I had some Vintage Cuts and stickers from Crafty Secrets hanging about and I knew they would be perfect for the vintage feel I was going for. I cut out the cat image with my oval die on my Sizzix machine and layered it onto a Pumpkin Pie nested oval and Black scalloped oval.

Before assembling, I inked the edges of all the pieces with black ink, punched a hole in the top of the tag and tied the ribbon through. I used my heat tool to melt the sheer ribbon a bit and make it wavy- a cool look for Halloween projects and really easy to do!

For the second tube, I cut a scrap of Very Vanilla paper with my new "Labels 9" die on my Sizzix machine and sponged it with Close to Cocoa ink to make it look aged before I adhered the stickers (I love these vintage images!). I took some copper crafting wire and wound it around my piercing tool to make a little spring and attached it to the back of the tag with a strong dimensional glue dot. I nested the tag with another cut from Basic Black and adhered them together with dimensional dots to give it some texture. I used the same ribbon technique on this one with some sheer black dotted ribbon.

I filled them with some vintage licorice candies I found at Central Market (the best reason to live in Houston!) and voila'- cool Halloween treats!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my little corner- hope your Monday is painless!

Frazzled!

This stamp came in my September Unity Kit of the Month (KOM) packet (OK, so I have an insane number of stamps already and how can I possibly subscribe to a kit of the month you may ask??! That's a completely separate issue!) Anyhow, I was immediately drawn to her curly, disheveled locks; her glazed look- OMG- that's me!

Scary, but true, these days I resemble a lobotomized rag doll! I am screaming down the last 3 weeks to a major deadline (I have to present a talk on my research at a large medical meeting in front of several hundred people on Nov 1st- no biggie, right? Aaaaack!). I'm feeling a bit pressed for time and the DD tween with the homework issues is not making more room in the schedule (she also thought that this looked vaguely like me!).

I dug through the major stash of paper to find some chaotic looking paper and came up with some from my Basic Grey "Cupcake" 6x6 pack. I die cut the red background for my image from the center of the red background piece, since the hole would be hidden by the blue layer (a secret way to save precious paper!). I zigzag stitched the blue and red layers together and adhered them to the Kraft card base.

I then stitched the striped patterned paper to some Old Olive cardstock and tied a bow with some green sheer dotted ribbon around this piece. I then used my heat tool to shrivel the ribbon and make it look a bit frazzled as well! I stamped the lobotomized girl in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics- she was cut out using a deckle edge die to give her the perfect frizzly look.

I love the greeting that went along with this- what a perfect font to go with Frazzled-girl (that's Ms. Frazzled to you!). It was also colored with the same markers and die cut with a smaller version of the deckled edged die. A few blue rhinestones (even a brainless girl deserves bling!) and she's ready.

I love her so much I doubt I can give her away, although I have several friends who qualify to receive her right now!

Happy hump day- I'm off to my lab!

Supplies:
Stamps: Unity Sept KOM
Paper: Kraft, Whisper White (Stampin' Up), Basic Grey Cupcake
Ink: Memento Basic Black, Copics
Accessories: Green sheer dotted ribbon, blue rhinestones, sewing machine 

Sunny beach days...

Through a somewhat random email today, I got back in touch with several high school friends, some of whom I have not spoken to in several years. What I think is somewhat unique about my group of friends is that, although time goes by (years even) we pick our conversations up where we left off as if there has been no time or distance between us. My husband remarked tonight that he has never seen anything quite like this and that our group is truly special and blessed!

I got to thinking about the many wonderful times we had at the beach where my friend Tricia and my family both had summer homes. There is something so amazing about sand, surf and summer days that cannot be recreated anywhere else! I was thinking of those summer lazy times when I created this card- the images in this set were perfect for creating a beach scene.

The sky was created by sponging Baja Blue ink lightly on Whisper White cardstock. I then used a straight piece of computer paper to mask off the sky and sponged more darkly underneath that line to create a horizon and the sea using the same color ink.  I ripped a piece of Kraft cardstock to create a sand dune, stamped with Itty Bitty Backgrounds, then sponged along the edges and over the whole piece to make it look a bit like sand. This was layered on top of the sea to give it some depth.

The "sun" was stamped appropriately enough in Summer Sun craft ink and embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder and colored with a yellow Spica glitter pen to give it a bit of sparkle and shine! After it was cut out, I popped it up on dimensional dots to make it stand out. The woody van was stamped in Close to Cocoa craft ink, heat embossed and colored with reinkers and an aquapainter to make it look weathered. A little brown gingham ribbon, the sunny greeting and it's a nice reminder of a sunny beach day on LBI (that's Long Beach Island for the Bennies!).


Thanks for stopping by and hope this inspired a sunny day memory for you!


Supplies:
Paper: Kraft, Whisper White, Baja Blue
Ink: Baja Blue, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip Craft, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Summer Sun
Accessories: Curly Label punch, brown gingham ribbon, clear embossing powder, heat tool

An apple a day...

Happy Monday everyone! It doesn't actually feel all that cheery here in Houston today- it's a gray, dark, rainy kind of day which makes it even more painful to get up and going to work. There's just not enough coffee to make this better today-ugh!

Since I had a rainy day like this for my birthday yesterday, a friend suggested I celebrate all week- that way I'm fairly likely to get at least one sunny day out of the bunch! Speaking of sunnier days... I saw this stamp in amongst my Unity Kit of the Month that I treat myself to (like I "need" anymore stamps-LOL!) and I had a general idea of what the card would look like.

The main image uses a technique called "masking" to layer images in front/behind one another. In this card, I stamped the apple on the right, then stamped another one on thin scrap paper (like computer paper or Post-It note paper) and cut it out. I covered the apple on the right with the scrap apple, then stamped the apple on the left. The portion that was stamped on the scrap doesn't appear and it makes your second image look layered behind the first one. This is a great technique for scenes- you can layer trees, flowers, etc behind a focal image and give the scene some real depth.

After I stamped both images, I spent some time playing with my alcohol markers- with no art training, learning to shade and shadow has been a trial for me! The image was cut out with a label die on my Sizzix machine with a black layer for contrast. I roughed up the edges of the patterned paper with a cutter tool (which works so much better than the edge of a scissor!) and stitched it to the background paper on my sewing machine. I find that real sewing is much faster than all the faux stitching techniques and worth a small amount of space in my craft room to keep the machine out.

The greeting was stamped and colored with the same markers, then punched out with a scallop punch. A few buttons and a multi-layer bow, and it's done! My kids are dying to borrow this stamp to make teacher cards and I am sure it will get lots of use for end of school gifts, etc.

Hope your Monday is sunny- thanks for stopping by!

Heidi

Supplies:
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, The Write Stuff and Christmas Cocoa DP
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Sizzix machine, alcohol markers, scallop circle punch, large circle punch, nested label dies, buttons, black gingham ribbon, sewing machine

Happy Birthday to me...

It's a rainy, cruddy day here in Houston and definitely NOT the day I ordered for my birthday! Yes, it's actually the 15th anniversary of my 29th birthday today (see how fast you can do that math!) and instead of relaxing and being queen for a day, it has been filled with church, Sunday school and now Girl Scouts. I think I am going to have to take a rain check on this one, no pun intended!

Today I have a birthday card I made awhile back to share. It uses a set called "Branching Out" from Taylored Expressions that is super cute! My kids love knock, knock jokes so I made this one for Emily's birthday.


I stamped the inside tree in Old Olive Craft, embossed with clear EP, then watercolored it with the Old Olive reinker and an aqupainter. I then stamped the tree trunk over the top of it with Chocolate Chip craft ink, heat embossed with clear EP, then cut out the whole tree. I stamp the greeting and the owl, gave him some color and glues them to the inside.



I stamped the swirled tree image on green patterned paper, heat embossed and attached over the inner tree with a brad so the tree could open up. "Knock, knock" was stamped in Chocolate chip, cut out with a label die on my Sizzix machine and tied in place with some brown stitched ribbon. Emily loved showing this card so much that I'm amazed she hasn't worn the brad right through!

Thanks for stopping by and hope your day is less dreary than mine!

Heidi
Supplies:
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, Dusty Durango,
Ink: Old Olive craft, Old Olive reinker, Chocolate Chip craft
Accessories: Olive brad, clear embossing powder, heat tool, aquapainter, brown stitched ribbon, label die, dimensionals

Happy Friday and a treat!

Happy Friday everyone!

It certainly has felt like along week, work, homework, middle school tours (aack!) and tween attacks- I am definitely ready to be done! I also deserve a treat after this week and the Halloween candy is a little too accessible in this house!

Speaking of Halloween treats, I have been designing a few different treat containers for my kids' classes for Halloween and they have to be especially good this year because it is probably the last year my 10 year old DD will want to bring in treats and because both my husband and I will be away over the Halloween weekend for a work trip (this gets us serious negative parenting points from our kids since Halloween in on a Saturday this year!)


I have two treat containers to share with you today, both easy and quick. The first is a adorbale little treat box made with the Stampin' Up Fancy Favor die made for the Sizzix machine. I can't tell you how much easier making these boxes is when you don't have to cut, clip and crease each one! The die cuts out the boxes with crease line and flaps all ready to glue. The die is just a bit smaller than 6x12, so a half sheet of 12x12 cardstock fits perfectly- it's a great way to use up leftover pieces of patterned paper!

The box here was cut form Basic Black and glued together with Sticky Strip tape- it needs to be a strong adhesive to keep the box from coming apart when you pinch the box and tie the top edges together. I layered some of the Cast-a-Spell paper onto a Pumpkin Pie rectangle and adhered to the box front.


The skeleton from the Twick or Tweet set (in the new Holiday Mini) was stamped in Basic Black on Whisper White cardstock, then cut out using the Label One die and the Sizzix Machine. This stamp cracks my kids up every time they see it, so I figured it was perfect for their boxes. Slots were punched in the top of the box for the wide, orange striped grosgrain ribbon (love this!) and tied loosely shut with hemp twine and a button.

As an aside, I get lots of questions about which die cut machine(s) I have and why I chose them. My favorite cutter of all has to be my Sizzix machine because it can be used with any die from any company, from the wafer thin Nestabilities to the thick, extra-long Sizzix dies. Mine sees a lot of mileage in my craft room because it's so easy to use, ergonomically good for me and cuts great!


The other treat container is super quick and ends almost as a little card to exchange with friends. I stamped the Halloween image from the "Sweet Centers" stamp set, also from the Holiday Mini. These stamps are perfectly sized to punch out the centers and insert a treat cup in the hole- whoever thought of this little gem was so clever!

After the center was punched out, I inserted a treat cup, filled it with candy corn (my favorite Halloween treat!) and sealed it in by glueing a black rectangle over the back. I adhered it to a slightly larger Razzleberry piece to give it a bit more contrast. On the back, I used the center I had punched out, layered it onto a slightly larger black circle and added a bit of gingham ribbon to finish it off. There's plenty of room for my kids to sign their names and they're easy to pass out in class.

Hope you're having a great Friday and a wonderful weekend! It's my birthday Sunday (the 15th anniversary of my 29th birthday) so I am taking the birthday girl privilege and hope to get some good stamping in!

Heidi

Supplies:
Paper: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Cast-a-Spell DP
Ink: Basic Black, Old Olive
Accessories: Black gingham ribbon, Wide Orange striped grosgrain ribbon, slot punch, Sizzix machine, Fancy Treat box die, 1 3/8" and 1 3/4" circle punches, sticky strip tape, treat cups, dimensionals

Some Love to Keep Me Warm...

Happy Thursday! I am finally off of my rotation in the NICU taking care of patients and back to my job of research, mommy and regular life. Who knew that 2 weeks could feel so long?! I am just beginning to dig into the pile of email, obligations and snail mail that I have put off, but wanted to share a card I made earlier this week for an upcoming class tomorrow night.

When I first saw the group of In Colors from Stampin' Up this year, I was having trouble envisioning my Christmas cards using any of these colors. Enter this cute stamp set called "Cold & Cuddly" from the Holiday Mini catalog and viola' my inspiration for these alternate colors for Christmas returns!


This set has lots of little elements and three cute little patterned critters, which are great for less formal cards, tags and gift/treat bags. I started with my favorite square layout, a few Snow Flurries in the background and some of the Holiday Lounge Designer Series paper- it's very retro and funky! I stamped the iceberg in Soft Suede ink, then stamped the polar bear in Bermuda Bay on a separate piece of cardstock, cut him out and layered him on top of the iceberg. I used my Sizzix machine and some nesting dies to set the scene.


I gave him a fishing pole and a hat, clipping around his ear to make his hat sit on his head better (guys with ears that stick out have trouble with hats- it's an issue around this house!). A little of the new Bermuda Bay dotted ribbon, a simple greeting and it's done! Cute, fast and a great alternate to red and green.

Thanks for stopping by- don't forget to subscribe your email address if you wish to get regular updates!

Have a great day~

Heidi

Supplies:
Paper: Sahara Sand, Bermuda Bay, Rose Red, Whisper White, Holiday Lounge
Ink:Sahara Sand, Bermuda Bay, Soft Suede
Accessories: Bermuda Bay dotted grosgrain ribbon, Sizzix machine, nesting dies, dimensionals