A couple weeks ago, I had a 3-days-in-a-row class event where I offered up 12 different giftable projects fofr them to choose from and make. This cutie-patootie Post-It Desk Top holder was one of the projects.

Using a 6 x 4 acrylic frame from Wal Mart (only $1), I cut a sheet of Designer paper  and then stamped the swing girl from the A Kind Word stamp set on Naturals White card stock with Stazon Black ink. Using an Aqua Painter, I then watercolored her with Ballet Blue, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel, Summer Sun and Blush Blossom Watercolor Crayons, layered it on a Ballet Blue piece of card stock and then adhered it to the Designer Paper piece. I slid this piece into the frame, wrapped the Ballet Blue 5/8" grosgrain ribbon around it and tied a bow.Finally, I stuck the 3×3 Post It note to the top of the frame so it would lay flat to be able to write on it.

This was so easy and took less than a half hour and the materials to make it are so affordable. Great teacher gift, stocking stuffer or token of friendship!

This next gift was copied almost exactly from the Holiday Mini catalog. Of course, I had to use different paper (Merry Moments) but other than that–it is a direct copy. It was a very quick project using the Scallop Edge border punch, Scallop Oval punch, wide oval punch and 1/4" chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon and the Sleigh Bells cotton ribbon from the Holiday Mini. This is perfect for keeping track of your holiday cards, card addresses or for a mini photo album. The possibilities are endless!

There’s more of these projects to come so stay tuned for some more great nifty gifty ideas!

 LAST DAY FOR STAMPIN’ UP! SPECIALS!!

Click on the Specials button to the right, then click on SHOP NOW in the upper right hand corner under my name.

 When I first set eyes on the Paradise stamp set when the Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Catalog came out in July, I exclaimed with delight! Fun tropical sets for us Floridians are hard to find and this one fit the bill BIG TIME!! After I began using it in my classes and workshops, many of my customers have said that they hadn’t given the set a second thought. BLASPHEMY I SAY! But, aahhh…I have changed their minds. Lookie:

I came up with these beauties when I thought it would be cool to offer up a set of cards as an Emergency Card kit gift in these Olive Cigar Boxes I’d purchased 4 years ago and never used. Most of the customers made the kit as a gift for THEMSELVES! They are refusing to give them away, ha ha ha! Here’s what the decorated cigar box looks like (I kept it simple so it wouldn’t take forever to make all 6 cards and the box and their coordinating envelopes and tissue):

As you can see, all the cards and cigar box have a consistent design because I just stamped a piece of Vanilla Card stock randomly with all the leaves in either Old Olive, More Mustard and Elegant Eggplant. I added burnished color with the Certainly Celery ink and a stamping sponge quarter. I then cut the pieces according to a grid I created so we could have 6 pieces for the cards and a big piece for the box. ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS in person!

Here’s the box open with the stamped tissue lining which made it feel even more special:

Want to see each of the cards close up?
Sure you do! 

Used the Rock and Roll technique on one of the leaves if you’re wondering!

Nice pocket card, aye?

I sold out of all my Cigar Boxes (had 10 of them and I’m wishing I had more to make some gifts of my own. Someone special’s going to get this one.

Well, gonna go and finish reading the last book of the Twilight series. Ahhh….I’m obsessed! ) TAH!

 Light up your holidays with this simple but elegant project. And I think the dazzle of this project comes from two things:

1) The beautiful Rich Razzleberry ink and coordinating ribbon

2) The Dazzling Diamonds glitter on the dove.

If you haven’t ever stamped on candles OR just haven’t done it in a long time–you’re gonna get addicted again. Especially when you can create an elegant gift for peanuts in these tough economic times.

All I did was take a 3" pillar candle from Walmart (a little over a buck), stamp in Rich Razzleberry ink on tissue with this lovely stamp from the Gifts of Christmas stamp set. Cut out the image and lightly glue it to the candle with a glue pen. Slowly (and I mean SLOOOWWWLLLLYYY!) heat up the image on the candle with a heat gun until it starts to "sweat" or "glisten" as the wax starts to melt. The tissue will soak up the SLOW melting wax and disappear like MAGIC! Once you see all the tissue disappear–you are DONE! Wrap a coordinating ribbon (I used the reverse side of the Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot ribbon) and add some glitter and you are done in less than 15 minutes!

Hope you’re able to get to some homemade holiday gifts this year! I know I’ll be making some more of these. I think our awesome regular server at our local Friday’s Restaurant will be getting this one! )

Ahh…the Saturday house vacuuming and class set up for this afternoon is calling my name. Thanks for stopping by! Taa!

Too bad I couldn’t record my "Looking Good" appreciation whistle. You know — the one construction workers do when a pretty girl walks by! Because that’s just what this lil’ card tote deserves!  Or… the famous movie music…(Ferris Buehller’s Day Off)

Ohhhh Yeeeaaahhhh…bump bump…!!.

Beeeautifulll … bump bump..!!

What? Didn’t anyone ever warn you about what a whackadoodle I am?

So sorry!

This tote was part of my Card Attack Pack class where we did two card totes–this one with four cards and a second one I copied directly from my friend Amy Celona-except I changed the stamp set. Otherwise, direct copy! Perhaps she’ll share it soon. If not, I promise to post that one, too.

Anyway, this tote used only one sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 card stock scored long ways (hot dog style) at 1 1/4 each side and short ways (hamburger style)  4 1/2" from each side. On these lines, you cut to the 1 1/4" lines and fold up to get your tote! SO SIMPLE!! So Beautiful!

Ohhhh Yeeaaaahhh!! 

Here’s the cards that went inside:

Pretty darn cute, huh?

Ohhhh yeeeaaaahhh!!

Okay, enough with the darn music in my  head!

The color scheme used Old Olive, Pale Plum and Rich Razzleberry card stock and inks.

Stamp Sets: For All You Do and Sincere Salutations

Designer Paper: Cottage Wall

Accessories: 1 3/8 & 1 1/4 Square punches, 1 3/8 circle punch and Rich Razzleberry ribbon

On the tote I used the Elegant Eggplant ric-rac ribbon from the Orchard Ribbon Originals and the Filigree Brads and Rhinestone square brads.

Loved this class so much, I offered the totes up again at my Nifty Gifty Holiday Extravaganza last weekend and more people made them! Very popular!

Too bad you couldn’t have been there!

Maybe next time!

Well..gotta fly…another class to go to!

Ta!

Did you hear a bunch of really loud squeals of delight last Tuesday?

I thought so.

It was my crazy stampers getting a big kick out of this card.

I know…I know…STINKIN’ CUTE!! Wish I could take the credit. :O)

Well, I’ll take credit for the card design. But the actual punched pilgrim (Yes, I did say PUNCHED pilgrim—he is made out of all SU! punches!) himself was designed by Ellen Kemper on her Blinkin’ Thinkin’ Inkin’ blog. What a hoot!

Wanna know how it’s done?

Hey, whoa–take ‘er easy, pilgrim, you can make one, too! Here ya go:

Pilgrim parts:

Feet: Butterfly punch cut in half

Buckles for hat and shoes: Slit punch first, then Word Window cut in half and edges rounded

Ankle/Calves: Word Window

Legs: Small Oval

Belly: 1 3/4 Circle punch

Collar:  Half a tag punch with cut triangle slit

Arms: Small oval first with Wide Oval punched over to make oval donut )

Head: Ornament punch

Ears and Nose: 1/2" Circle punch

Eyes: 1/4" Circle punch

Hat: Tag punch trimmed

Hat brim: Word Window punch extended in length (if you want) by feeding cardstock threw the back opening of punch

Hair: Just the Ornament punch again — cut on the edge and slit up randomly to make the hair strands.

Cuffs were just freehand cut squares.

Other materials for card :

More Mustard, Basic Black, Blush Blossom, Whisper White Card Stock and Night and Day Specialty paper from the Holiday Mini Catalog. White gel pen for the white accents in eyes and buttons. Black marker for the smirk. ) Blush Blossom marker for ear accents and tiny freckles (can’t see it in the picture).

Greeting was from Grateful Greetings set in the Holiday Mini catalog stamped in Basic Black punched out from the large oval punch. Accent ribbon across the middle of the card was 5/8" Black Grosgrain. The whole front panel was glued to a Whisper White card.

Side Note: Be careful about how much you spread apart the Word Window and Small Oval punches for his legs and ankles. Some of my punchers left a little too much space and their pilgrim was a little too tall for the card. So go easy, pilgrim!

Great idea to even use this lil’ guy for fun Thanksgiving decor like place settings, menu or scrapbook pages after!

I know!! I know! Just flippin’ adorable! I can hear you squealing from here. Geesh! Go make your own and have fun!

Ta for now!

Wanna see something cool?

Fancy Folds was the theme last week during 3 classes I taught using the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin’ Kit!

Stair Step Card

 Spring Card

Stand Alone Pop Up card

Tent Topper Card

Tri-Shutter Card

And the Grand Finale:

The coolest of them all….The Circle Flip Book!

Each class participant received a half of the Simply Scrappin’ Kit took make these six cards. We used the Big Shot a couple times, but other than that, it was all using the kit! They were THRILLED to say the least! So much so, that I think I’ll make the Flippin’ Fabulous Fancy Folds class a regular quarterly class feature!

Don’t you wish you could have been here?

I know you do!

Well don’t miss it next time, how about that?

A new one is just around the corner…Stay tuned!

 Sound kinky?

Well get your mind out of the gutter for goodness sakes!

Make Merry is the greeting….shaving cream is the technique! Geesh!

Pretty cool looking, isn’t it?

Well, it’s so darn easy!  Here’s all you gotta do:

1) Spray some shaving cream onto a pie plate and spread out evenly with spatula/scraper thingie bob!

* Warning–Do not sit out on counter when you’ve used Lemon Pledge and your husband’s favorite pie is Lemon Meringue! (Well, I’m just saying…it could happen!)

2) Take a 2-3 reinkers (here I used Real Red and Glorious Green) and drop a few drops of each (3-4) randomly on top of the shaving cream.

3) With a skewer/stick/long paper clip/toothpick slowly drag through the ink drop areas swirling the ink drop patterns around. Don’t do too much or it will start turning brown!

4) Place your white or vanilla card stock on top of the shaving cream/inky area and press down lightly. Lift up and scrape off excess shaving cream with spatula/scraper thingie bob.

Doesn’t this background look like that cool red, green and white swirled hard candy!? (Forget the name!?)

The rest of the card is simple. The planter is the ornament punch cut off at the bottom to make it flat and then a small sliver across the top. The stamp set is Berry Merry! LOVE THIS SET! (In the Holiday Mini catalog) Colors I used were Real Red, Glorious Green, Whisper White and Summer Sun!

5) Wipe the remaining excess off with paper towel and wa la…cool shaving cream background. And don’t forget the large oval and scallop oval for the greeting.

Hope you enjoyed that! I did!  Thanks for making merry with me! TA!

 The Gifts of the Earth stamp set in the Holiday Mini catalog is such a pretty stamp set. I hesitated to buy it at first as I thought it would be too much work to color it. Man, am I glad I changed my mind! This is a beautiful page we did at my Scrapbook strips class in Oct. and am offering as a Make & Take this month at my workshops. It really does color up quickly, especially when I use the Aquapainter and the Earth Elements Watercolor Crayons (my fav!)

The color combination of More Mustard, Soft Suede and Sahara Sand doesn’t sound like it would be a very glamorous color combo, but it is very warm! After watercoloring the stamped image, layered the image over a couple pieces of Autumn Traditions designer paper that was color blocked on the Soft Suede card stock. Stunning! To accent, I used a knotted piece of the reverse side of the Soft Suede Polka Dot ribbon, It’s such a nice touch to add a little dimension to the card.

I’ve been doing a lot more scrapbook pages lately than I have in the past and have really been enjoying it. Now if I can only get my photos off this computer and on to the pages, I’ll be in business!

Hope you get to scrapbook soon, too! Ta!

I know, I know…this is the 2nd post in a row with leaves.

But you gotta understand–this is the only way I’ll ever see Fall! When you’ve grown up your entire life in the beautiful Sunshine State of Florida, the changing of the leaves is a novelty…something you see in postcards or when you go on a Fall vacation.

So indulge me!

This card features another technique from my Oct. Technique Freaks class called Water Color Resist. Don’t you just love how these colors go together. It’s because these colors are in that beautiful Autumn Meadows Designer Series paper. Stunning…I tell you! I would have never put Taken with Teal in a Fall color combo but it sure makes you go WOW!, doesn’t it? Stampin’ Up! just makes creating beautiful things so EASY! 

Of course, they are no dummy–they also developed the gorgeous Autumn Splendor stamp set to go with the paper. Or was it the paper to go with the stamp set? Ahh…who cares? It’s just plain yummy!

Okay, okay–I’ll get to the technique–geesh! You don’t have to nag.

Here, I just stamped and embossed the leaves with black pigment ink and black embossing powder on watercolor paper. Then, I just picked up drops of Taken with Teal, Dusty Durango, More Mustard and Ruby Red re-inkers with my Aquapainter and randomly distributed the colors on the water color paper to create this montage. In some areas I used more water than others–almost creating a wash.

I personally think that this stamp set is one of the best SU! has produced in the 10 1/2  years I’ve been a demonstrator. And believe me, I’ve owned every one! ) (The novelty of Fall–remember?) Check it out:

116503 Autumn Splendor $20.95

116769 Autumn Meadows Designer paper $9.95 – 12 sheets: 2 ea. of 6 double-sided designs 12×12

Well, gotta run. Gonna go have some fun at a morning workshop and need to load up the goods! Don’t you wish you could come with me? I know you do!  Guess I gotta go have some f un without you! TA!