Royal Blog Tour

Hello weary traveler of the kingdom, welcome to my castle!  I hope you will enjoy your royal visit with me.  I am showcasing the Something Sweet stamp set today.  This is a fun and versatile set that can be used with the Sweet Treat cups and filled with candy or other goodies.  For my flower I filled the Sweet Treat cup with nerds.  Don't they make a great flower center?  I stamped lots of leaves in the background, see how some are darker and some are lighter?  That is called "generational" stamping.  You stamp twice with each inking so some images are darker than others.  Another technique I used on the card is using reinkers to color the pearls.  You could paint them any color you want to!  Just use a few drops of reinker and paint over the pearls with a paint brush then sprinkle on clear embossing powder while the ink is still wet.  Heat the embossing powder and let the pearls cool. 

I stamped and cut out 4 leaves and embossed them with the clear embossing powder  and used them along the stem and on the sentiment.  It took a while to cut out all the flower petals but this card can be made fairly quickly. 

The second card uses the fish image in the stamp set.  I stamped 2 little goldfish in Pumpkin Pie ink and cut them out.  I stamped a little scene using a stamp from the Just Believe stamp set and sponged on a little Bashful Blue for the water and some Crumb Cake for the gravel.  The circles I used first for the "gravel" and then decided they would make dandy bubbles are from the Circle Circus set. I added a fishbowl base with the Round Tab punch in Brushed Silver cardstock.  The sentiment is stamped in Not Quite Navy and a strip of the cute little pearls are added under it.  A few larger pearls in the upper corner and a ribbon at the bottom finish off this fun fishbowl card. 

The third card is one I made before the color renovation but I wanted to share it with you anyway so you can see another idea for this set using converstion hearts to fill the Sweet Treat Cups and stamping the background with different color hearts.  I used the cute gum machine image from the stamp set on this card. 

Blog candy time!  I'm offering this beautiful retired stamp set, Of the Earth and a 4-pack of Bordering Blue color, the inkpad, marker, small wheel cartridge and a refill to keep them all juicy and working for a long time.  Just sign up as one of my blog followers and post a comment about one (or all 3) of my projects and be sure to leave contact information so I will know how to contact you if you win.  If you don't want to leave it with your comment, you can email it to me at wrightplace4@mindspring.com so I can know how to contact you. 

2 Beautiful Christmas cards

I went to a team meeting last night that was fun as well as informative.  We had a card swap and these are 2 of the cards I got.  the wreath card says it is from Earlene but the other card doesn't say who made it and I can't remember who gave it to me.  They are both beautiful in their own way.  The one on the left uses the Delightful Decorations stamp set for the 3 ornaments and the Elegant Lines Embossing folder for the background.  I love the colors she used, they are not the traditional Christmas colors but very pretty.

Earlene's card features the new hostess set in the front of the Holiday Mini Catalog called Northern Hearts.  I love the way the red berries spark instant color to the wreaths.  She embossed the Very Vanilla background with the Petals Aplenty Embossing Folder.  It looks like it would be a quick and easy card to make but it sure looks great!

I reckon I'll see you again with my post for the Royal Blog Tour.  I have my projects made and descriptions written so I am ready for Friday to come!  I hope you will join me as well as the many other blogs on the tour.  I suggest you pace yourself through the weekend.  There are 78 blogs on the tour so divide that by 3 and visit 26 of them each day.  I'm thinking 26 is about all the wonderful ideas my head could handle in a day!  A lot of castles on the tour will be offering various blog candy so good luck in winning some blog candy on the tour too. 

It's November!

Time to put away gobblins and start creating gobblers!  I had a lot of fun creating Halloween projects but I was ready for Halloween to be over.  Somehow I never get tired of Christmas though.  I'll try to post some Fall and Thanksgiving projects over the next few weeks until Thanksgiving but there will continue to be a lot of Christmas projects too.  First though, a skinny bag turkey treat!  I CASEd this idea from Kelly Mayou but made a few slight changes.  Having grown up on a farm, I know a few things about turkeys  :~)

One spring when I was just 2 or 3 my daddy brought home a baby turkey to fatten up and have for Thanksgiving dinner that fall.  This turned out to be a very special turkey and he soon became a family pet.  Needless to say, when Thanksgiving came around, daddy went to the store and bought a frozen turkey for mom to cook!  We simply called our little turkey Tom.  He loved to show off his pretty feathers, stretching out his wings to the ground and fanning out his tail feathers whenever anyone came to visit he would strut around the yard so everyone could enjoy his beauty.  Tom turkey was always there, part of home.  One winter when I was 16 or 17 he wandered off into the woods and we never saw him again.  He was very old by then, in turkey years. 

Thanksgiving never comes without me reflecting on Tom turkey.  He was quite a character.  I think my skinny bag turkey is a character too.  He was fun to create.  I must have enjoyed it because I'm in the middle of making 40 of them! 

November club layout

This is the layout we are doing for the November scrapbook club meeting.  We did have a couple of ladies who had to drop out so if you are interested, there is room for you!  I do a 12 X 12 layout every month and you come make the layout and place a $25 order.  Each month we rotate who is the hostess so you get a hostess set and at least $15 in free product each time you are hostess.  Email me if you would like to join before our November meeting so you can join us to make this layout!

We used the beautiful Deck the Halls paper from the Holiday Mini Catalog.  There are some great papers in this pack, 4 of which are full page prints.  I used 2 of these in these layouts, see how each one is unique even though the design is the same for both layouts?  This is such beautiful paper, I have another great project I'm working on for another class in Nov so be sure to keep checking back.

2 quick details of this layout, I used the fun, wonderful Waffle Paper.  It is a little thicker than tissue paper and has a great textured feel that is perfect for gathering.  I used silver on the first layout and used it at the bottom of the 5X7 mat and around the stamped Dec 25 image from the Tags Till Christmas stamp set.  This stamp matches the XL Decorative Label punch.  Doesn't it look great with the silver ruffle around it?  The ornament stamp I used for the background is another image in the Tags Till Christmas set.  I stamped in Cherry Cobbler on the first layout and in Crumb Cake.

The other embellishment is a pleated flower made with the XL Scalloped Circle punch and finished off with the beautiful Antique Brads that are featured in the big Idea Book and Catalog.  This flower is a little tricky but quick and easy and makes a great finishing touch.  Come learn how to make them in this class!

I might have to take some different pictures of these layouts.  I took them outside but the sun was starting to set so it is kind of shadowy.

This little bag uses the Fancy Favors die as the base and the Large Circle Punch.  After cutting the bag with the die I punched the circle in the front.  I also added the Sweet Treats Cup filled with glow in the dark spiders and put a square of Window Sheet on the back to hold the spiders in.  I placed this in the punched hole and adhered to the bag.  After doing that I was ready to assemble the bag.  The black lace from the Holiday Mini catalog was the perfect finishing touch.  I love how fine and beautiful this lace is.

You could fill the Sweet Treats Cup with anything small enough.  I like being able to see into the bag through the holes so you can tell what goodies await.  Tomorrow is the last day before Halloween and then we get into the Thanksgiving/Christmas season before we can barely blink our eyes!  I love these last 3 months of the year and all the fun crafting possibilities.  I can't wait to create some of the ideas I have been wanting to share. 

Spooooooky Luminaries

I have had fun using vellum in the Spider Web Embossing folder.  It is perfect for making luminaries.  I used the Fancy Favors box and Basic Black Cardstock to make both of these luminaries but I cut the box in half and inserted a 4" strip of vellum that I had embossed.  2 strips of Pumpkin Pie cardstock punched with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch are used to cover up the seam.  I could have added other embellishments but I really like it the way it is.  Of course, since the luminaries are made of paper I used the little battery operated candles.  I found 2-packs at the Dollar Tree so they aren't expensive at all.

The second Luminary is made with the 2 1/2 inch circle punched in the front and a square of vellum that was embossed with the Spider Web Embossing Folder placed behind the circle.  I used some of the gorgeous Chunky Glitter around the hole and added a Glimmer Brad to hold the ends of the pleated Pear Pizzaz 1/2" Stitched Poly Ribbon.  I gathered a piece of the fun new Waffle Paper to put around the top of the box.  I really love working with the Waffle Paper, it pleats and gathers so nicely and gives your projects the bling we love this time of year.  I know you will be seeing lots of it in the next couple of months!

The spider is from a package of glow in the dark plastic spiders I bought at the $$ store too.  Well, only a few days till Halloween and they will be a busy few days.  I may not get many more Halloween projects posted this year.  I enjoy the fun decorations and costumes but I think I'm ready to move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Stamped Metal Embellishment

This is a card we made in my club several years ago.  I guess all the stamps I used are retired except for the Much Appreciated sentiment but I wanted to share it because I am getting several colors of metal sheets and they are going to be a lot of fun to create with.  On this card we stamped the pumpkin on the metal and then used an embossing stylus to raise the lines.  It is a fun technique that I will be doing in a class next month, along with several other metal ideas.  When I designed this card we didn't have the Big Shot machine or any embossing folders.  Even with those fun additions I still like the technique of stamping the metal and adding the texture with a stylus.  I'm also looking forward to running the metal through the Big Shot too!  It is going to be georgous! 

Spook House

I have a friend who was born in October and she loves all the decorations and goodies for Halloween more than anyone I know.  When I saw this haunted house on this blog I knew it would be perfect for her.  I did a few things differently but it is a nearly exact scraplift.  She has some more recent posts where she uses the same design for the house and used the Spider Web Embossing Folder for the roof and fun punch art critters on the front of the house. 

Now that I think about it, I should have used the candelabra from the Wicked Fun stamp set in the windows!  I put a bag of candy corn in the house when I gave it to my friend, that is the ultimate Halloween candy, right?  The spider is a plastic glow-in-the dark spider I bought a package of at a dollar store and adhered with a glue dot.The pumpkins are circle punches, from the largest circle on the owl punch and the stems are little snips of Stampin' Up's Hemp Twine.

BTW, I love the new 1/4" ribbon!

 I have some kits from the Tricks and Treats class left over.  Anybody interested?  I'll offer a 10 bag kit of the skinny bags, 2 each of 5 designs for $5.  All pieces are punched and a tutorial will be emailed to you.  Exact postage will be added to the price of the kits if they need to be mailed to you.  Skinny bags are included in the kits but candy and pencils aren't.

The hand sanitizer boxes would be $4 each, including the soap.  Again, all pieces are cut and scored, punched and ready to assemble and the tutorial will be emailed to you.  Only exact postage will be added if the kit needs to be mailed.

If you order a hand sanitizer box, specify which scent you want, they are (from left to right), Zombie Squad - Marshmallow; Candy Corn - Caramel; Bat Bite - Apple and  Vampire Blood - Plum. 

The last view shows 2 of the boxes open so you can see the inside.  The ribbon, lace or hemp twine are included with your kit.

Email your order to me and we can make arrangements to meet or I can send a paypal invoice after finding out what the postage will be.  wrightplace4@mindspring.com 

Halloween CASE's

Last week I had a day that I could spend a lot of time creating.  It was such a rare and fun day!  I had saved some pictures of cards I liked as I was looking online for Halloween card ideas so using those pictures I was able to quickly create 5 cards for my Halloween card class. 

I had also gotten the new Bitty Bat Punch so he was anxious to get used and added to the cards.  I used him a lot that day!  Isn't he great?  I also had the Wicked Cool stamp set that I won at Convention so I was glad to get more ink on that set.  I love all the looks you can get from that one set!

First, strips of Pumpkin Pie and Tangerine Tango cardstock make a bright background for 3 of the Bitty Bats.  Spider webs are accented with dots from the White Signo pen as well as eyes for the bats.  This card was originally designed by Dawn Griffith, I love the touches of the white pen that seem to add so much to the card.  The main difference between her card and mine is that she used Concord Grape Cardstock instead of Rich Razzleberry for the background of her card.

While I had my Bitty Bat Punch out, I added a few to this card using DSP from the Wicked Fun paper pack for the background.  This card was CASEd

from Connie Babbert, another talented designer and Stampin' Up demonstrator. 

My 3rd card was also inspired by Connie Babbert and uses the Wicked Fun paper again.  I love the fun design with the small scraps of patterned paper and the Witch's boots, another stamp in the Wicked Cool stamp set as are the bats and  "Spooky" stamp.

Have you ever seen the work of Michelle Zindorf?  She does amazing things with the brayer and sponges.  Well, don't expect this to look like one of hers but I was hoping.  Any time I try to use the brayer and sponges to get a background scenery it never turns out the way I wanted it to.  I was trying to find the card I CASEd this from but I actually designed it myself.  I'm not totally happy with it but it isn't the worst card I ever made either!

Last is a CASE of a tag that I made into a card instead.  Marie Shaughnessy made the tag and shared it on her blog.  The spider is like the ones from my Tricks and Treats class but the candy is M&Ms in a treat cup instead of the spider covering the mint patty.  I wonder who was the first person to imagine the photo corner punches as spider legs. 

I got some of my Halloween decorations out of the attic.  I wonder how long it will take me to get them put up!  Some days I stay so busy I hardly have time to think.  I don't think it will be today though.  I got up at 4:30AM and there is a nap in my immediate future! 

 

Tricks and Treats Class

 

My second Tricks and Treats class is Tuesday night at 7:00.  This is a great class where you will make fun treats and tricky little projects for anyone you need to give Halloween treats to.  As you can see from the picture, you will come away with many great ideas to give to teachers, fellow employees and family members.  We will make 2 of the skinny bags, your choice and 1 of the soap holders and 1 Fancy Favors bag as well as a spider mint treat, matchbook lifesaver treat and scalloped top spider web bag.  The cost is only $15 for all that fun!  I hope you will come join me on Tuesday night.  Email me right away to register.  wrightplace4@mindspring.com