Christmas Cards

I need to start working on my Christmas cards, I haven't even decided on a design yet. I've seen so many great ideas, it's hard to choose. I'm posting some pictures of the Christmas card swaps I got at the Stampin' Up! Regional meeting in Chattanooga in October. First are the ones I made. I ran out of the blue paper and switched to the black and red. I really like them both, I never could decide which was my favorite. The card uses the Delightful Decorations stamp set. I love the set because it is a beautiful set but I love it even more because there is a punch that matches it! It is so much quicker to make a card when you don't have to hand-cut the image out.

The top card here is simple but beautiful. She used the Elegant Boquet embossing folder to emboss the red cardstock, punched the Double Rectangle punch to thread the ribbon through, colored the flower centers with the Signo white gel pen and stamped the sentiment on white cardstock, then punched it out with the Modern Label punch.

The card under it is very pretty. She stamped the poinsettia from the Christ is Born set on white cardstock, then stamped the Christ is Born and scripture on vellum and embossed it. Another quick card that is very beautiful.

The next 2 cards are also beautiful but a little more involved. The top one uses the Scenic Season set for the trees and the dove from A Wish for Peace stamp set. This card has lots of sparkle and is just beautiful!

The last card features the Merry Moments Designer Series Paper for the background and A Cardinal Christmas set for the main image which has been beautifully colored and shaded. The berries were colored red and then highlighted with the Signo White gel pen.

I got my first 3 Christmas cards in the mail today (hi Lauren, loved the family picture. The couch looks strangely familiar) so I guess I need to decide on a card design and get working on them.

Shabby Chic Flower Pins

Shelli Gardner, the founder of Stampin' Up showed how to make these fabric flower pins at convention last summer. I loved them but didn't have the die needed to cut the flowers so I hadn't been able to make them. I finally got the die and figured out how to make the pins. I'm going to a craft fair tomorrow so I made a lot of them.

Now I'm debating. Should I shabby them up or leave them as they are? The pin on the left is how they look when I finish making them. The one on the right was washed and dried to fray it out some. I like them both and I guess they will all become frayed eventually so maybe I should do it now so people won't have the little threads all over their coats.

I'm not sure how many I've made the past couple of days while I've been home sick with some kind of virus. I had already made 5 or 6 and now I have about 2 dozen. I also need to figure out what a fair price is to ask for them.

If you live near Clarksville, TN, I'm going to do a class on how to make them so watch for my newsletter with the class details. I think they will make a perfect Christmas gift for so many people on your Christmas list. I meant to use the smallest flower on the die to make little clips for hairbows but didn't buy the clips yet. If I get any of them made I'll have to buy the clips on the way to the craft fair! I can stitch them on while I'm sitting there waiting for customers to stop at my booth.

I should have finished the newsletter by Dec 1 because I haven't finished the projects that I want to add to it. December always proves to be a crazy-busy month. I love Christmas and all the fun, decorations, parties and gifts but being the procrastinator that I am I never finish all the things I want to do. I'm hoping to get the newsletter out Saturday afternoon if not before.

One last thing - what do you think I'm fixing to do in this picture?

Last Day!

Save up to 50% on selected products and bundles! But hurry, the online Extravaganza ends TODAY, November 30th. Just go to my website and click on products and then the Extravaganza link at the top of the left column.

It's hard to believe that Nov is all but over and December, with all the parties, programs and fun begins tomorrow. I have a Christmas program Tuesday night a craft fair Thursday and a Christmas dinner Friday night so this will be a busy week.

So, since Christmas is 26 days away, I think it is time to start posting lots of Christmas cards, pages and projects. This card was inspired by Angie, one of my best friends and most loyal blog follower. I stamped the Medallion stamp (did I ever tell you how much I love, love, love that stamp??) on white cardstock, cut around the outside and punched out the middle with the 1 3/4' circle punch. I wrapped gold elastic cord around it, added a few brads a bow and sentiment. I thought her idea for a wreath with the Medallion stamp was brilliant!

Next, I got out my embossing templates and embossed the background for this blue card. I'm thinking I should have used the brushed gold paper for the mats instead of the yellow but I like how the card turned out. The white dots I colored in with the Signo pen aren't even close to perfect! I didn't have my glasses on at first and for some reason I thought I could see without them. I'll definitely put them on the next time I do detailed work like this!

card sketch

I've been wanting to use the My Digital Studio program to design some card and scrapbook sketches. I did a card last night and wanted to share it with you. I'd love to see your design with the sketch.

I had 2 weddings to go to today so I used the sketch as a basis for this wedding card. It made the card go together quickly which was a good thing because, as usual, I was in a big hurry. It took less than 1o minutes to make! Pretty cool. I used a retired set called To Have and To Hold; Dusty Durango and Very Vanilla cardstock and Old Olive ribbon and ink.

One of the weddings was for my niece. Actually, it was a reception because she got married in San Diego last Saturday. After the wedding they went to the beach and had the ring ceremony. There was an absolutely perfect sunset, it seemed like a gift from Heavenly Father to bless their wedding and make the wedding day even more perfect. I swipped this collage from Lauren's blog so you could see the sunset. The little boys playing in the centerpieces are my cute nephews, William and Jonathon. Pure boy!

Turkey card and Big, Big sales

I've been seeing a lot of punch art turkeys online and have been wanting to catch a chance to punch one of them. This one is based on about 3 cards I like but I added a few touches of my own. I'll be posting Christmas cards and projects soon. I've been trying to hold off until after Thanksgiving but there are so many great cards I can make with my new stamp sets it is hard not to start posting them now. I guess the only reason I haven't posted a lot of Christmas things is because I haven't had time to make them!

The turkey's body on my card is the 1 3/4" circle; his head, one of the hearts from the 3 heart punch, the beak the small heart from the same punch and the waddle is a trimmed piece from a small oval punch. The tail feathers are modern label punches in Handsome Hunter, Dusty Durango, Bravo Burgandy and More Mustard that have been inked, highlighted with the Signo white gel pen and then crimped to give lots of texture. How do you like my turkey?

Now, on to the sales. You don't have to wait till "Black Friday" or battle crowds at 5AM to get in on these sales! I don't always get excited about sales that offer a small discount but this sale is a real sale. Up to 50% off on some bundles make it like you are getting a punch free! Check my website here or under the link at the right (click on the picture that looks like the picture at the left) and look closely at all the bargains. What have you been wanting; who would one of these bundles make the perfect Christmas present for??

While you are at my website, check out the other specials because not only is Stampin' Up having a Huge Holiday Sale, they are also having a Holiday Extravaganza! It features a gift giving guide and when you order $50 from this guide you get a Decor Elements vinyl wall decoration free, with a value of up to $16.95! What a great way to get an extra free goodie for yourself or for someone on your Christmas list. And don't forget the Clearance Rack while you are shopping for additional bargains.

Also, notice the hostess special through Nov 30. There is still time to squeeze in a quick workshop if you are interested in this special. The last special is a Demonstrator Starter Kit that includes the new (and wonderful) My Digital Studio software. If you have been wanting to make a little extra $$ while having lots of fun meeting new friends and stamping, let's talk about it! wrightplace4@mindspring.com

I'm excited today because I'm going to Atlanta to get my punch rods (better known as towel rods) at Ikea! I can't wait to get them up and make more room on my desk. It will still need a lot of attention before it is considered "uncluttered" but it will help a lot to get the punches off of it. I actually took a picture of my desk a couple of weeks ago and was going to title it "Why can't I find my scissors" but haven't had the nerve. When I get it all cleaned off and organized I may post the before picture. Any coments from my daughters who have seen my mess will possibly be removed :~)

The first card is one I made after seeing a card on the website for Stampin' Up demonstrators. They used a different stamp set, it was a Christmas card but I thought this one would work for it too. I'm still feeling like it needs something but I kind of like it.

Next are 4 of the cards I got from the swap at the Chattanooga Stampin' Up regional meeting last month. The rest of the cards are Christmas cards so I'll be posting them next week. The top left card is so sweet, I just love the bear and the brown and red color combination is surprisingly pretty. It is hard to see how pretty the one below it is because the flash glared a little on the gold embossing powder but it is beautiful and I love how she colored it in.

Have a great day everyone! I don't reckon I'll be stamping today, I've got a long drive ahead of me. I hope you will find some time to stamp though.

10 minute challenge card

I just had to do a fall card with the baby wipe technique pheasant I did the other night. Somehow, the green on the card turned blue in the picture. Humm, maybe I like the blue better than the green anyway! The card was done loosely using a sketch posted on CaroleAnn and Sandi McGiver's blog for a 10 minute challenge they do every week. If you don't count the time I spent looking for the stamp set (it was in the drawer under the main drawer I store stamps in. I forgot I expanded to another drawer!) this one would have easily taken less than 10 minutes.

Swap Cards from Regional Seminar

I still haven't posted any of the cards that I got in the swap at the Regional Stampin' Up Seminar in Chattanooga last month. Here are a few of my favorites.

The first one isn't a card, it's a bookmark. I think it is very cool and will make your page easy to find. These would make a pretty nice gift when you needed just a little something for someone. Or, if you like to give books as gifts, add a nice homemade touch to it with a bookmark specially made for them in place at the beginning of the book. Of course, it would come in handy to mark the page of the catalog with the stamp set you just HAVE to have next!

These four cards all have fall colors. The top left with the punched flowers was made by Jacqueline Price from Knoxville, TN. The Embrace Life card was made by Kriste Millington, I love how she used the baby wipe technique to color the leaves, very cool. The friend to friend card was made by Lora Lee Braswell of Montgomery, AL and the pumpkin card was made by Amy Ord. All are beautiful cards.

Oh man, it may be nearly 11PM but I feel a quick tutorial coming on. The baby wipe technique is a fast and easy way to add lots of color to your stamps with very little effort. You just need a few reinkers and a baby wipe.

Drip several drops of each color onto a folded baby wipe. You might want to put the wipe on a paper plate to protect your table because the ink will soak all the way through. The drops will bleed together pretty quickly.

Ink up your stamp on the baby wipe just like you would on a stamp pad. The technique looks really nice on the script stamp from the Charmingly Yours set but look how great it looks on Circle Circus. I think my favorite that I stamped tonight is the pheasant from the Autumn Days stamp. I love that you can get all that color from dripping a few drops of reinker instead of opening 4 different ink pads and sponging the color onto the stamp over and over.

You can get over 50 inkings from your baby wipe ink pad. Of course, the last ones will be a more muted color but this "ink pad" will stamp a lot! What a great tip if you are doing a swap or working on lots of Christmas cards. I used Pumpkin Pie, Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green and Brilliant Blue. Try a different combination and see what it looks like.

I used fall colors but wouldn't Christmas colors look great and then think of the soft colors for the spring projects that I'm sure are just around the corner. Can you tell I'm ready for winter to be over and it isn't even here yet!

Today is National Digital Scrapbooking Day

It seems there is a national day for everything, doesn't it? I just found out at 9:30 tonight that today is National Digital Scrapbooking Day. Too late to celebrate? Not with MDS as Stampin' Up demonstrators like to call our new digital program. The home office tells us that it isn't a digital scrapbooking program, it's a digital paper-crafting solution. It kind of makes you grin but it is actually true. I've done scrapbook pages, even whole albums with MDS (My Digital Studio) as well as cards, flyers, newsletters and I'm working on a video scrapbook now. I even was able to figure out how to make a pattern that could be printed out and cut and folded to make a box. I'm imagining making curved lines too, no telling what other kinds of patterns I'll come up with. It would also be great for doing sketches for both scrapbook pages and cards.

So, in honor of this special day I took the tests and did the project that is required to be certified in MDS. Some may even say I'm certifiable! Stampin' Up has a certification program for demonstrators to show that they are qualified to teach, sell and provide support for the My Digital Studio program. I missed a couple of questions here and there but even that helped me learn some things I had missed in the video webinars I watched before taking the tests. There were 4 tests in all and then we had to submit a card to be printed.

Here is the card I submitted. What do you think? I decided to do a birth announcement for my grandson who is just over a month old. I'm having fun helping to spoil him. I was going to put a piece of white grossgrain ribbon across the card too but it seemed like it had plenty going on so I skipped that. It will be fun to see the card in real life when it comes. I haven't done much as far as cards are concerned in MDS. I've been doing a lot of scrapbook pages, probably close to 100 by now. I plan to use the program a lot to design cards and pages and then make the actual project from "real" stuff. I like cutting and creating too much to go totally digital!

So, National Digital Scrapbooking Day will surely be over by the time you check my blog again but go ahead and do something digital anyway. I guess I should write it on my calendar so I won't forget about it next year. Hey, I created a calendar for one of my certification classes, I can add it to that! That is one of the great things about creating a calendar in a digital program - you can add your personal things like family birthdays, family reunions and the really important days like Digital Scrapbooking Day. I'm thinking about adding a note about 5 days before every birthday to remind me to mail a card. It would be nice to be able to remember it myself but that just doesn't seem to happen anymore. . .

Fall Cards

There is a set on page 92 of the Stampin' Up catalog called Autumn Days. I kept looking at and thinking about how versatile it would be but for some reason I never bought it. I really liked it but it didn't make it to the top of my ordering list. When I went to the Fall Retreat last month I won it! I was so glad because I wanted to see what I could do with all those great pieces. Here are three cards I have made with it so far. I haven't been able to stamp a lot lately or I'm sure I would have made lots more cards with it by now. These are all pretty close CASEs but it is fun to put your own twist to someone else's card.

Clean and simple is the best way to describe this first card. Just Very Vanilla cardstock, Old Olive ribbon and the pinecone stamp from the Autumn Days set and the Merry Christmas stamp from the Teeny Tiny Verses set. It kind of looks embossed but it is just layering of the cardstock.

I created a background paper on the Creamy Caramel cardstock with 2 of the stamps using Chocolate Chip and Whisper White ink. It didn't take as long to cut out the pheasant as I thought it would. I bought the Stampin' Up paper snips a while ago but I keep picking up my old scissors when I need to cut something. I think I have a mental block about the snips being so sharp. I decided to break them in cutting this and they really cut nicely. I think they were worth every cent!

The last card was very easy. I punched out a circle and adhered it to the center of my card. Then I stamped wheat in yellow, the branch in Old Olive and the berry branch in Real Rust ink around it, placing the end on the circle and stamping them in wreath form. I peeled off the circle, added a Pumpkin Pie bow and a sentiment and all there was left to do was mount it on a cardstock mat and the card base. This was such a quick card!

I love fall. I think there are only 2 reasons that I don't like it more than spring. First, spring colors last for a couple of months, from the first time I see the crocus peeking out until the buttercups and iris fade. Fall just lasts a week or two and then the glorious colors of the leaves turn brown and it seems everything is brown and dull for months on end. But the biggest reason is because after spring comes summer with all the fun activities and vacations and the rewarding work in the garden. Winter drags on with cold weather and days and days shivering and cold. I don't like to be cold! My hot flashes come way to far between during the winter!

But then. . . when I'm sitting by the fire all winter I can use the excuse that it is too cold to be outside as a reason to stamp!