Button, Button

Hi, you may have been thinking that I was taking a break from stamping but I've been hard at work creating with some of the new stamp sets along with gorgeous designer paper, a new punch, embossing folder and embosslit that are going to be introduced in the Occasions Mini Catalog that starts next week.  Let me say, I'm loving it all!  I have 3 of the new stamp sets and had another on loan that I was asked to do a display with for our Stampin' Up team meeting last night.  Here is a sneak peek at what I've been working on. 



For today, I'll feature some of the new button products.  First, the Sweet Buttons Embosslit was used to embellish this little test tube holder that is holding some bath salts.  I used Pear Pizzaz cardstock as the base for this cute holder that I found on Lisa Sommerville's blog.  I used some paper from the new DSP called Springtime Vintage to decorate the front of the box.  Isn't it beautiful paper!  I've had a lot of fun creating with the paper in this pack.  The test tube holder was simple to decorate with the buttons from the embosslit, just roll through the Big Shot and they are punched and embossed!  I did sponge on a little Crumb Cake ink before adhering them to the box.  I used Stampin Dimensionals to give more dimension to the button arrangement as well as a few Rhinestone Brads to add sparkle. 

Close-up of Sweet Buttons Embosslit buttons

There is also a new stamp set in the new mini catalog called Button, Button.  It has 17 stamps, all in great button shapes.  The next 2 cards use this stamp set.  First, a simple card featuring the same sheet of Springtime Vintage DSP and 3 of the buttons from the set stamped on squares.  I added a Congratulations stamp from the Perfect Punches set and a little Baja Breeze ribbon to finish off this very fast and easy card.



Last, another Button, Button card.  I started with a Whisper White layer on a Pear Pizzaz base.  I added four 1-1/2 inch squares across the card, slightly above center.  This time I used lots of buttons from the set.  A couple of the buttons I had to hand cut but most of them were quickly punched out with Stampin' Up's circle punches.  More dimensionals were used to raise some of the buttons up and a bit of Pear Pizzaz seam binding tape makes this another quick and easy card.  The sentiment is from the Occasional Quotes set, my thoughts exactly for all of my followers and friends who have read my blog throughout 2010!  I hope you had as wonderful a year as I did and that your coming year will be a great year for you.  Happy New Year!

Button, Button set



 



Merry Christmas!

December is filled with decorating and shopping, planning and sharing, creating and stressing.  But when it comes down to it, all the frills add to the joy of the birth of Jesus Christ.  Too bad we sometimes loose sight of the reason for the season.  We get so involved with giving the perfect gift that we forget the original perfect gift. 

Here are 2 Christmas cards.  First is one I designed with My Digital Studio using the Come To Bethlehem stamp brush set.  I love the simplicity of the set, it is beautiful and conveys the message I wanted to share for my Christmas cards.

Second is a card I got last week.  Many of you know that I send boxes of cards to soldiers fighting the war in Afganistan and Iraq several times a year.  I design cards and make kits for 19 more of each design and my friends and I make them.  When we have made about 280 cards there are enough to fill a large Priority box and we find a soldier to send them to who can share them with his company or chaplain so that soldiers have cards to send home.  Before Thanksgiving I sent a box of just Christmas cards.  This is one of the cards I got back in the mail last week.  It is always good to hear back from the soldiers that they appreciated and used the cards.  There isn't that much I can do to help with the war effort but making the cards makes me feel like I'm helping at least a little.

This is a family movie night gift basket I made.  I found the cute popcorn bucket at the Dollar Tree, great price!  I just had to add the Stampin' Up touch and dress up all the candy bars as Santa.

Merry Christmas everyone!

More Skinny Bags

I love making toppers for the 1X8" skinny bags.  They are so much fun to create.  I made a few tonight, first is the owl punch with a cute Santa "shirt" stamped in Cherry Cobbler using the Tags To Christmas set, the cute Santa Tag stamp.  The first picture includes it stamped and punched with the large tag punch, then mounted on a layer of Cherry Cobbler cardstock punched with the Extra Large Tag Punch.  To make my owl a Santa owl, I punched the stamped image out with the owl punch belly part and adhered it on a Chocolate Chip owl.   I copied several of these I saw online and they also used the Santa hat that is included with the Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set.  I don't have this set but they released it as a download to the MDS program so I can buy that and be making Santa owls with hats tomorrow!  He does look adorable with a hat too.

The other skinny bag treat topper I made tonight uses the Northern Frost die strip cut in Whisper White and mounted on a Pacific Point XL Scalloped Circle punch topper.  Pacific Point sure is a good  match for those blue M&M's, isn't it?  I've discovered as I've made the skinny bags for specific holidays that they seem to have more orange and blue candies in them that any of the other colors.  Orange came in handy for Halloween and Thanksgiving bags but as I had all those blue ones left I thought snowflakes would make a great topper for all blue candy.

Stocking Stuffer Idea and more MDS Recipes

The skinny bags are a perfect size for filling stockings but this is a quick and easy candy bar cover that will also be great in stockings.  He has a Cherry Cobbler base with a Whisper White Scalloped circle die for his beard and hat band.  Circle punches and a mustache of the 5-petal flower punch round out his face.  I saw this somewhere but didnt' save the link so I don't know who I got the idea from.  I wasn't sure the placement of the face but am satisfied with the way he turned out.  I might have to add a pompom at the top for his hat.

I didn't know that 2 of the people I created recipes for were a  mother and daughter who are both Stampin' Up demonstrators.  Since I posted 2 of the mom's recipes I need to post the daughter's recipe too (to save a family feud!)  I used the Baja Breeze polka-dot DSP for the background.  Secret - I started off with yellow paper since it is for a Banana recipe.  After adding the Torn Edges border across the top, a ribbon and bow and the cute little snowman stamp from A Cute Christmas set I emailed it to Jennifer for her approval.  She noticed something I hadn't thought of when I made the page.  A snowman on a yellow background brings to mind yellow snow.  Not a good mental image!  One of the great things about the MDS program is that it is so easy to change things.  A few clicks and that yellow background was blue!  I love it!

I made this Raisin Filled Cookie page for Tina Crawford.  It sounds like a good recipe but I haven't had time to test it out yet.  I used a Soft Suede grid pattern for the background and a border from Christmas Jingle, isn't it beautiful!  I love that red border.  I decided to spend the extra time to add all the white berries to the mistletoe sprig.  It just had to be done, besides, I wanted to play with my new download of pearls and rhinestones!  I also added some of the filigree flowers and put the title on the Fancy Label punch.

The last page I'm showing today is for a yummy oatmeal cake, another recipe from Joanella Townsend.  I'm positive it isn't anywhere on my diet though.  I went with lots of stripes on this recipe, starting with the striped background paper and adding the Alpine Ribbon.  I love that striped ribbon and bow!   I filled the top right corner with the ribbon and tilted it so it looked like it is wrapped around the page there.  Another strip of it on the left and a couple of borders from the Christmas Cocoa download finished off the page. 

I reckon that's all for now.  My grandchildren are here and we are fixing to go out for supper.  I still have several other recipes I made so I may post the rest soon.  They are all great for your Christmas baking!

Recipe Pages

I've been very busy the last few days.  Not only have I had the usual Christmas preparations, I joined a recipe swap with a twist.  It is an MDS digital recipe swap!  The book is going to be so pretty when it is finished.  It started out as a Christmas cookie swap but there is a variety of recipes that aren't all Christmas cookies.  I also volunteered to help some people who don't have the MDS program make their recipes.  I'll share a few of these pages with you today. 

First, the Chocolate Surprise cookies are one of my kid's favorite cookies I used to make at Christmas time.  The last time I made them I had trouble finding the Chocolate stars at the store.  I don't know if they still make them anymore but kisses would work too.  I used the Real Red polka dot DSP for the background and then did a layer of Whisper White but changed the opacity so it looks like vellum.  I did that partly because I like the look but also because it was hard to read the print on the red background.  I used the beautiful bird from A Cardinal Christmas stamp brush set.  I love that bird!  I also used a zig-zag stitch brush set at the top and bottom of the layout.  I added a black brad for his eye and a group of ribbon-tied buttons at the lower corner to finish it off. It might have taken me 20 minutes to finish the page.  I like quick and easy!

One of the pages I did for a demonstrator named Joanella Townsend was for Million Dollar Pie.  It sounds good, I'm afraid to try it because I'll eat so much of it!  I used the script background DSP and a frame from the Frames With a Flourish brush set around the whole recipe.  The bird is from the Friends 24-7 brush set.  I finished it off with a few brads. 

Julie's recipe for Gooey Butter Cookies sounds like another recipe that would be a favorite.  I used a floral background paper in Crushed Curry and added a layer of cardstock, then a scallop punch on each edge to make it look like the scallop square die.  I used the swirl stamp from the Baroque Motifs brush set, changed it to Crushed Curry and added a deep shadow, my favorite MDS technique right now.  A little ribbon across the top and some brads in Dusty Durango and done! 

Another recipe I did for Joanella was for Blueberry Crisp.  It sounds like a yummy recipe!  I used the polka dot DSP again, this time in Night of Navy.  Seemed blueberryish.  I also did the faux vellum layer to make the recipe easier to read.  I also "vellumized" the dotted scalloped borders around the outside and put a rhinestone brad at each corner to cover up where the 2 layers overlapped as well as on either side of the title.  I used the brush set from Friends 24-7 again for the berryish branch at the bottom and the pretty flower branch from the Thoughts and Prayers set.  My spell check goes nuts when I invent words!

I like the way the pages turned out.  I made 12 pages in all, whew!  Even though I used the same techniques on some of the pages they all turned out differently.  I can't wait to see what everyone else's pages look like.  I may share more in a few days.  I got my camera back tonight so I can take pictures of some projects to share again.  I sure missed my camera!

Gift Tags

It is a cold morning with snow promised for the afternoon.  Here in TN it is unusual for us to have teen and single digit temperatures or snow in Dec.  That weather usually waits until mid Jan-Feb.  That's why I'm taking a cruise then.  I'm wishing I had planned the cruise for this week!

Anyway, as I'm snuggled up in my warm cozy house I played with the MDS program this morning and designed some tags to print out for Christmas presents.  They were quick and easy.  The most time consuming thing was getting the white circle punches the right size to fit in the brads to look like a hole!  I used the tag punch and filled it with patterned paper, most of it I made more opaque so the stamp would show up better.  For these I had to add a white tag behind it to keep the red or green from showing through, although some of them looked pretty good with it showing through before I changed them.

So, what do you think?  I made them bigger than the tag punch so I will have to cut them out but I used the grid tool to line them up on the page so I can cut them out with the trimmer.  Yeah, I like to make it easier whenever I can!

I have made some "paper" tags but I left my camera at a friend's house so until I get it back these will have to do.  My husband and I also decorated the Christmas tree last night.  It is always fun to look at the ornaments and remember all the years we have celebrated Christmas.  I was pointing out to him some of the ornaments I made the first year we were married.  We were both in college and didn't have a dime to spare so I made the ornaments for our tree which we got from beside a dumpster when the students in the single student dorms went home.  Now that is seriously poor!  The little felt and pompom ornaments are kind of mishapen now but I love them.

Another Nativity page

It has been bitterly cold here today.  There isn't a colder December 13 every recorded here!  I'm surprised that any of the snow we got yesterday melted today it was so cold.  Right now it is 9 degrees but with the wind chill it is -2, burrrr!  I'm especially thankful for a warm house and plenty of blankets tonight.

Here is another page with some of the nativity sets from last weekend.  I used the embossed digital technique again.  I love how it looks with the Come to Bethlehem stamp set.  I got the digital brush of it to use with the MDS program.  I love when great is easy!

Dec Classes

Monogram Cards make a great present for nearly anyone.  In my Great Gifts class we will make a set of 8 monogramed cards with envelopes and package them in this great clear box that we will emboss to make it an even greater gift!  We will also be stamping on a candle for a second great gift to give.  The class will be next Wednesday, Dec 22 at 2PM.  Email me if you want to come, it is only $8 for this class and you will come away with 2 very quick and easy gifts!  wrightplace4@mindspring.com

I have room in my Cleanin' Up for Christmas class on Dec 21 also.  You will make 3 soap related gift projects shown above.  I love the test tube bath salts holder and the mini hand sanitizer boxes but the flower soaps are my favorite!  This class is $20 and will be at 10AM or 7PM.  I hope you can make it to one of these classes!

I am also having a Christmas treats class where we will be making 2 skinny bag treats, a candy-filled test tube Santa card and a triangle box Santa to fill with goodies.  These will all make great stocking stuffers or gifts for co-workers or service people.  Cost will only be $10 for all 3 projects.

After Christmas I will be doing a Year In Review mini album class so check back for details on this.  It will be on Dec 28 at 10 AM. 

Email me to sign up for any of these classes!  wrightplace4@mindspring.com

MDS Festival of the Nativity pages

I took nearly 200 pictures of the Festival of the Nativity that we had at church last weekend.  There were so many beautiful nativity sets and the gym was decorated beautifully.  I love Christmas and everything about it (except for shopping in the crowded stores) but it was great to be able to go and wander among 193 nativity sets and reflect on the "reason for the season".  With all the beautiful sets, I didn't need many embellishments on these pages.  With Stampin' Up's MDS (My Digital Studio) program the layouts have been quick and easy.  I used the Bashful Blue script background so as not to compete with the pictures too much.  I hope you enjoy just a few pictures of this wonderful event.

Workshop Cards

These are the cards I did in workshops last week.  The first card was for a class of more experienced stampers so it is a little more involved.  The second card was a class where there were first time stampers so I scaled it down a little, although the sentiment, Peace on Earth was embossed in gold embossing powder.  I'm not sure which card I like the best.

We are having a Festival of the Nativity at my church this weekend.  We have about 200 nativity sets arranged in the gym and it is so wonderfully decorated that it doesn't even look like a gym anymore!  I plan to take a lot of pictures of my favorite nativities and make a mini album.  I think it will be very inspiring to look through and remember the many beautiful depictions of the Savior's birth.  Each artist did a beautiful job with their selected medium to create their nativities.  I hope I can get the book made soon, I'll share it with you when I do!