Joy to the world, it's Holiday Extravaganza at SU!

It is the biggest, bestest sale Stampin' Up! has ever had - it's Holiday Extravaganza! With all kinds of product bundles available from 20% - 50% off the regular price there is something for everyone.This sale is for a limited time, (from November 26th - December 1st,) and sales are limited to product in stock so head over to stampinup.com for all the details.

Myself and the rest of the members of my upline's demonstrator group, (Team Canada,) had our Christmas party last night. We were supposed to bring a homemade Secret Santa gift to exchange, and this is the present I brought. This was a fun project. The base wooden letters are from Michaels and then I merely painted it with acrylic paint and covered the front with various designer papers from the Frosty line. I then sanded down the edges of the paper for a perfect fit and sponged on some Chocolate Chip ink for a slightly distressed look. For the finishing touches I added a Baja Blue and a Kiwi Kiss button from the Designer Button collection and an embossed flower from the Spotlight on Christmas set. TIP: All the stamps from the Spotlight on Christmas set match up with various punches offered by Stampin' Up!. The poinsetta matches up perfectly with the 5-Petal Flower punch.

Stamps: Spotlight on Christmas

Ink: Versamark, Chocolate Chip Classic ink

Paper: Frost design paper, Kiwi Kiss CS

Tools: Paintbrush, sponge, sanding block, 5 petal flower punch, pliers, heat gun

Accessories: Flower assortment designer brads, Designer buttons, Clear embossing powder

The best dressed paint can

I had purchased some empty paint cans awhile ago to alter and had forgetten about them. So as I was digging through some stuff that had been put in storage guess what I came across? I though I would alter one as an alternate form of wrapping paper.

For the can I used two 12x12 sheets of chatterbox paper from last year, (I have a ridiculously large collection of Christmas papers from all different companies.) I made a band out of certainly celery cs and used double sided tape to attach the paper. The main image is chipboard cut with the super-cute Snowflake 2 die-cut by Stampin' Up! I then added Whisper White Craft ink and while the ink was wet applied Heat & Stick Powder. I then used a heat gun to activate it and sprinkled on some Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The small snowflakes are punched from an EK Success snowflake punch that I picked up from my LSS. On all the snowflakes I added blue self-adhesive pearls by Kaiser Crafts.

For the lid I ended up using the Scalloped Circle and the Circle nesties. They didn't quite go all the way to the edge of the lid. but I didn't have anything that cut a bigger circle... I used the same dp, cs, punch and pearls.

The tag on the side is a very simple design. It is a 2"x 2" tag made with Bashful Blue cs. I then stamped the thank you image from the Cute & Curly stamp/punch combo. I popped another snowflake on there with a pearl called it a day. ;)

Stamps: Cute & Curly Combo (SU!)

Paper: Snowflakes by Chatterbox, Certainly Celery CS, Bashful Blue CS, Whisper White CS all by SU!

Ink: Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad, Bashful Blue Classic Stampin' Pad (SU!)

Tools: Snowflake 2 Die Cut (SU!), die cut machine, double sided adhesive, heat gun, scalloped circle & circle nesties, snowflake punch (EK Success)

Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds (SU!), Heat & Stick powder (SU!), blue self adhesive pearls (Kaiser Crafts)

I'm baaa-aaack!

Wow, I haven't posted in awhile. Both my computers went down at the same time. One with a virus, one with a warrenty covered problem, (thankfully.) And then, once at least one computer was working life through a whole bunch of busy-ness and stress at me. But I was still creatiing and have some new projects to post over the next few days.

This project was made as a thank you for a friend who brought in a new client wanting Stampin' Up products.

You can find the tutorial for this great little box on the Splitcoast Stampers website here.

For my box I used the Boho Blooms Punch, along with beautiful colour combo of Pacific Point, Chocolate Chip and Kiwi Kiss and the oh-so-cute Wow Flowers set.

TIP: I used the omitting colour technique with markers for the main thank you image. When you are using in colours and, of course, don't have a marker for it use the blender pen dipped in the ink and colour the same way you would with a marker.

Stamps: Wow Flowers

Paper: Pacific Point CS, Kiwi Kiss CS, Chocolate Chip CS, Whisper White CS

Ink: Chocoalte Chip Marker, Kiwi Kiss Classic Stampin' Pad

Tools: Blender Pen, Boho Blossoms Punch, scallop punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, crop-a-dile

Accessories: Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbon, pewter brads

A box-in-a-bag thank you

I had really wanted to try Diana Gibbs' Box-In-A-Bag but needed the right occasion to feel inspired to do it. I recently wanted a small thank you present and thought it would the perfect occasion to give this little project a whirl.

I wanted to use some of the new designer paper from the Holiday Mini Catalogue and thought this Riding Hood Red dp from the Ski Slope series looked pretty cheerful. I paired it with some Baja Breeze card stock and it turned out to be a nice combo.

For the main image I used my oval and scalloped oval nesties along with the Pocket Silhouettes set, (so cute!) and a little taffeta ribbon. I also used the pocket silhouettes to fancy up the border along the bottom. I used some Baja Breeze to give it that water mark look.

Fill this up with some candy or a small gift and you've got an instant present!

Hope you like! ;)

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Ink: Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red
Paper: Baja Breeze CS, Ski Slope DP
Tools: Oval & scalloped Oval Nestabilities, Die Machine, round tab punch, horizontal slot punch, sticky strip
Accessories: Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon

Stamping with my Sis

This was a quick little project my sister and I threw together

for her patients to make at the hospital she works at.

She wanted to make an easy goodie bag and had recently purchased the Hause of Haunts set with the great happy halloween sentiment. Alas, when we went to grab our card stock we were out of Basic Black and so we went for the fall/Halloween combo of Tangerine Tango. Kiwi Kiss & Chocolate Chip. Look pretty cute together!

Stamps: House of Haunts, Sanded BG

Ink: Basic Black, Whisper White Craft

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango

Tools: Key Tag punch, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop circle punch, Boo to You BC folder, die machine

Another Christmas Card

I don't know why but I have skipped past Halloween already and moved into Christmas mode. It could, perhaps, have to do with the fact that Christmas is my FAVOURITE time of the year!

For this card I wanted to use Pacific Point and Baja Breeze, but as I started pulling my supplies together I felt that Bashful Blue would pair much better with Pacific Point for a frosty, christmasy kind of feel.

For this card I punched out three circles with my 1 3/8" punch in Pacific Point cardstock. Next I laid this piece down (as a guide) on Whisper White cardstock - that is slightly bigger and has been fancied up with the scallop edge punch -and stamped three snowflakes from the Seasonal Icons set. At this point I put a clear rhinestone brad in the centre of the middle snowflake for some Christmas bling. I used dimensionals to mat the Pacific Point cardstock on the Whisper White cardstock and then I mounted this whole piece on a Bashful Blue card. The finishing touch was a sentiment from the Heard from the Heart set.

Are you feeling seasonal yet? =)

Stamps: Seasonal Icons, Heard from the Heart

Ink: Pacific Point, Bashful Blue

Paper: Pacific Point CS, Bashful Blue CS, Whisper White CS

Tools: Scallop edge punch, 1 3/8" punch

Accessories: Clear rhinestone brad (from Pretties Kit), Whisper White Taffeta ribbon

A (past) Splitcoast Stampers Challenge

I have been perusing the SCS challenges and, if only I had more time, would love to try them all out. But as life would have it I have to cherry-pick which ones I take a whirl at and I have found so far that my favourite category of challenges is the Try a New Technique one. The first challenge I decided to try was the Embossed Shimmer one as it looked pretty funky.

I had just received my most recent SU! order and had the Snowflake 1 Sizzix die to play with so I thought I would go for a Christmasy theme. For the background I went with Pacific Point and Baja Breeze re-inkers and I tried them with Pearl White acrylic paint. (Side note: While the acrylic paint did work out alright, Lumiere produces a FAR more superior finish.) I blobbed some colour onto an acrylic projector sheet (from Staples) and set it aside to dry. After it had completely dried I ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Snowflakes embossing folder.

For the snowflake I took a scrap piece of chipboard and glued some Whisper White cardstock to it before running it through with the die.

For the sentiment I used the Christmas stamp from the Cute & Curly set, inked it in Pacific Point, wiped the ink off of the sentiment and then used a blender pen dipped in some Baja Breeze ink to colour in the words. Punch it out with the matching Curly Label punch and you have a quick and cute label.

When looking back on this card what I think I should have added was a little Heat & Stick powder to the snowflake and some Dazzling Diamonds for a little extra shimmer.

In the second view you can see the texture a little better. You can also see the ink on my hands still!

Enjoy and have a great day!

Stamps: Cute & Curly

Ink: Baja Breeze Classic Pad and Re-inker, Pacific Point Classic Pad and Re-inker

Paper: Baja Breeze CS, Whisper White CS

Tools: Snowflake 1 sizzix, curly label punch, stipple brush, Snow Flakes cuttlebug folder, Big Shot or cuttlebug

Accessories: chipboard, acetate, blender pen, pearl white acrylic paint

A treat box thank you

I recently wanted to make a special little thank you and wasn't sure what to do. Then I happened across a cute little box by Jody Morrow (aka texasjodylynn) and I knew it would be perfect!

I used the oh-so-yummy colour combo of Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point & Chocolate Chip... I remember a time when I was not too pleased with the new in-colours and now I am hooked!

I used this basic template to cut out the box and then stamped it with Wow Flowers and Versamark ink before assembling the box. TIP: Use the word window punch to make a snappy little handle.

Next I made my embellishment by layering a pacific point scalloped circle with a Kiwi Kiss 1 3/8" circle and a 1 1/4" circle of whisper white. To create the two coloured sentiment I used a Chocolate Chip marker and a Kiwi Kiss Classic Stampin' Pad with a blender pen. (Easier than it sounds!)

The side view picture is VERY blurry, but I went with the pic anyway because I was very frustrated with my camera at that point, (and I'm sure my camera was frustrated with me!)

Hope you enjoy!

Stamps: Wow Flowers Ink: Versamark, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Whisper White Tools: Scallop punch, 1 1/4" punch, 1 3/8" punch, word window punch, blender pen

Halloween Diaper Fold Pouch

This was my first attempt at the Diaper Fold Pouch which can be found on SCS here. I was having some fun with these too cool items from Imaginisce's Hallowhimsy line. LOVE IT!

I started with the Hallowhimsy paper and followed the tutorial for a Diaper Fold Pouch. I then punched out some dripping goo from Old Olive cardstock using the Martha Stewart Goo punch and attatched it as a border. I then attatched a brad, (again from the Hallowhimsy collection,) to a 1 1/4" Basic Black and mounted it on a old olive circle followed by a basic black scallop circle. I wanted some black jumbo eyelets but only had pewter... TIP: I achieved the black eyelet look by sponging on some Jet Black StazOn and letting it dry for a minute. I then looped some 1/4" grosgrain ribbon through. For the matching tag I reverse masked the black line with a sponge dabber and then stamped some Skulls on with Versamark for a background. I stamped the skull again in Basic Black and attached another eyelet and ribbon. TIP: For super easy and quiet setting of brads use the Crop-A-Dile, a must have for anyone who uses eyelets. It changed my scrapping life. =)

Stamps: Imaginisce Snag'ems Skull

Ink: Basic Black, Versamark, Jet Black StazOn

Paper: Basic Black, Old Olive, Imaginisce Hallowhimsy Paper

Tools: Crop-A-Dile, Scallop Punch, 1 3/8" punch, 1 1/4" punch, Martha Stewart Goo punch

Accessories: Jumbo Eyelets, Basic Black 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Imaginisce Hallowhimsy Epoxy brads

We have a winner!

Woohoo! By random drawing our winner is comment 2 made by Roberta! Please send me an e-mail with your address at aldervalleygiftco@msn.com and I will get your goodies out. Thank you to everyone who particiapted and thank you for checking out my random ramblings! ;)

My First Attempt at Watercolouring with Markers

I have to tell you, one of my FAVOURITE products from Stampin' Up! is the Stampin' Write marker. There is just so much you can do with it! So when I saw watercolouring with markers and an aqua painter I was very tempted, however I was a little afraid. I'm no painter by any means. But eventually (last weekend) I decided to suck it up and give it a go and here's what I came up with.

It's not my favourite card I've made, but I must say it turned out better than the disaster I had envision priot to starting! So, for anyone not sure how to watercolour with markers here you go...

Start with an open image and stamp it on Watercolour paper with Basic Black Classic Ink Pad, (this black is waterproof - very important!) Next, colour around the edges of the image that would naturally have a shadow - or, as I did, guess! After you have coloured your edges with your marker, take an Aqua Painter filled with water and start to pull the colour from the edges to colour in the rest of the image. Voila! Art! If you make an oops you can take your aqua painter, (make sure there is no colour left on it by running it over some paper towel,) and brush at it gently to remove the colour.

For the rest of my card I went a little crazy with the layering as you can see. A little busy for my liking but I'll live! Also, you will see another great thing about Stampin' Write markers - the ability to colour in your stamps so you have multiple colours on them. Simply colour with your markers directly onto your stamps, huff on it (ie. breath heavily on it to re-moisten the ink) and stamp. Hope you enjoyed!

Stamps: Embrace Life, All Hollidays Paper: Old Olive CS, Ruby Red CS, Bali Breeze DP (discontinued), watercolour paper Ink: Basic Black Classic Stampin Pad, Old Olive & Ruby Red Stampin' Write Markers Tools: Scalloped Edge punch, Craft & Rubber Scissors (only THE BEST scissors I have ever used), dimensionals Accessories: Double sided ribbon from the disc. Theatre Ribbon pack (similar to the new Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Double sided satin ribbon), Yellow Dew Drops (non SU!)

Blog Candy is Here!

It's blog candy time! I have a few different things for this giveaway... There are two Heidi Swapp masks, (for anyone not familiar with this you place it on your card, box, notebook - anything you would like to decorate - and paint/ink etc. over it stencil style. Very cool.) We have a few CTMH chipboard sliders, a CTMH stamp set, (called Dainty,) and - from my FAVOURITE company - a Stampin' Up! Stampin' Write marker in Old Olive.

So the important question - how do you win? Leave me a comment and a link to your blog/website and go out and spread the word. Leave a post on your own blog telling people to head over here and enter. Don't have a blog? Then tell your friends! Make sure to leave your name and web address (if applicable) in your comment and check back Monday morning for the winner. (If you are one of those people - like me - who forgets to check back to see if you've won then you can sign up for my blog e-mailer and you will get an e-mail with the post naming the winner. You'll find the e-mail sign up on the top left corner of my blog under the blog archive.)

I will be drawing by random number. Good luck!

It seems so small in comparison...

I love blog surfin' and am seeing some fabulous blogs hitting the 100,000 hit mark. It pales in comparison but I have passed the 100 mark and I am so happy! (Considering I didn't know if anyone would even visit my blog I am flying high to hit this number!) So, I have to do what any good blogger would - give away Blog Candy!!!!! I have to pull some together so watch in the next day or two for a post with a chance to win....

Hallowwen on the mind (Part 2)

As promised, here's the follow up to my last post. This project was for an ABAC (anything but a card,) so I decided to try out a KitKat wrapper. I think the hardest part of making these cute little guys was not eating the KitKat! ;) Seriously though, what an easy way to make a treat super special!

For this you need a 6x6 piece of design paper, (if you start with a 12x12 you can make 4 wrapped chocolate bars.) Place your paper face down, (so you are not looking at the design you want for your outside,) and put double sided tape around all four edges. Place your KitKat in the middle and begin as though you are wrapping a present. Stick down the backside and then seal the edges. Crimp your edges with a paper crimper, (this makes it look neat but it also ensures a good seal,) and then decorate the outside as desired. For my bars I wrapped a 2" band of Basic Black cardstock around the bar and then scalloped both sides of a Tangerine Tango band of cardstock and added this on. TIP: When using the Scalloped Edge punch make sure you have enough paper before you scallop it. For a 1 3/4" band I started with 2 1/4" paper. The scallop punch takes off more paper than you might expect...

Next I used some of the left over Halloween circles from my last project, (using the Boo to You Cuttlebug folder and white craft ink,) which were already mounted on a tangerine tango circle and a basic black scalloped circle, added some dimensionals to the back and viola! A quick and easy project!

Supplies:
Paper: Basic Black Cardstock, Tangerine Tango cardstock, mystery Boo designer paper
ink: Whisper White Craft Ink
Tools: Scalloped edge punch, scalloped circle punch, 1 3/8" ciecle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, paper crimper, Boo to You Cuttlebug embossing folder, Cuttlebug or Big Shot

Halloween on the mind...

Well, the halloween candy is on the shelves at the grocery store and Michaels has there Lemax Halloween village up so I guess I should start on my Halloween projects.

I am in a swap on SCS where the theme is Halloween. I bought a cute new Inkadinkadoo stamp just for this swap and then I lost my mind and forgot to use it! I ended up using my oh-so-cute new cuttlebug folder called Boo-to-You.

The first of my two projects to share is a treat topper for a candy bag. I went down to my LSS and found the halloween paper to be VERY limited. (There is a great scrap store about an hour from me that has awesome halloween paper but that's for another project!) I found some paper that was black & white and simply said BOO all over it. My plan for these two swap items were to use the DP as a background and so this worked out all right. (Can you tell I'm trying to justify this lame-o DP?) =) Anyways, I printed off the work BOO on my computer using a font from scrapnfonts.com and punched them out with my 1/2" circle punch. I then mounted them on a 3/4" circle of Tangerine Tango CS. It's hard to see but I gave these letters a little extra pop with some Crystal Effects.

Also hard to see is the paper behind the candies, but this black CS has been run through my cuttlebug with the Boo to You embossing folder. A little easier to see is the individually punched out circles from the same embossing folder on the front. These were run through on Basic Black CS and then I gently brushed my Whisper White craft ink pad over the raised areas. They were then punched out with a 1 1/4" circle and mounted on a 1 3/8" tangerine tango circle, which was mounted on a black CS scalloped circle.

Hope you enjoyed this goulish treat and check back for part 2 soon.

Stamps: Holy crow none! Ink: Whisper White Craft Ink Paper: Basic Black CS, Tangerine Tango CS, Boo DP Tools: Cuttlebug, Boo to You embossing folder, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop punch, stapler, crystal effects

Take Three

I am finally posting my card I swapped for convention... I am a little behind. =)

This card is based on Mary's card from her Stampin' Pretty blog. (She is soooo talented!)

I used one of my favourite colour combos - Real Red, Taken with Teal & Chocolate Chip (with a little Whisper White). For the friendship square I used the Take Three set to form a square. TIP: A stamp-a-ma-jig is ESSENTIAL for this to make sure you get an even square. I used my Stampin' Write markers to individually colour the flowers and the words separate colours. The middle of the square is filled with a 1 3/8" square of chocolate chip cardstock made with my handy Stampin' Up punch and the flower is punched from Taken With Teal cardstock using the 5 petal flower punch. (I only recently got this punch and now I don't know how I ever got along without it!)

The background is stamped using the Pretty Petals background stamp, (found on the Dormant List during this catalogue,) and a Versamark ink pad. The piece de la resistance is some Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon. Hope you like!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Take Three, Pretty Petals background stamp

Ink: Chocolate Chip and Real Red Stampin' Write Markers, Versamark

Paper: Chocolate Chip Cardstock, Taken with Teal cardstock, Whisper White cardstock

Tools: 1 3/8" square punch, 5 Petal Flower punch, 1/16" hand held punch

Accesories: Pewter brad, Whisper White taffeta ribbon, dimensionals

Some Card Candy

Okay I'm back (I think.... As long as the kids can leave each other alone for 5 minutes.) My post today is show casing some recent card candy. I hosted a card candy swap over SCS this past month and had some fantastic card candy sent in. In fact it was very hard to pick the two winners from all the wonderful entrants! (Check out my album to see the great talent.)

This was my contribution - as you can tell I was feeling a little summery!

Stamps: Tart & Tangy
Ink: (All Stampin' Write markers) Old Olive, Chocolate Chip and Real Red
Paper: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Whisper White
Tools: 1 1/8" & 1 3/8" Circle punches, Scallop punch, Paper piercer and mat pack
Accessories: Real Red Gingham ribbon, Metal rimmed tags, crystal effects (hard to see on this picture but they are giving the strawberries a clear gloss)



This was my little thank you for all the participants, (and my last chance to use the oh-so-lovely Blue Bayou and Soft Sky before they went bye bye.) TIP: The thank you was done by omitting ink and using a stamp-a-ma-jig.

Stamps: Fresh Cuts
Ink: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky
Cardstock: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Certainly Celery
Tools: Boho Blossoms Punch, 1 1/8" & 1 3/8" Circle Punch, 1/16" Punch
Accessories: Silver eyelet, silver brad, green rhinestone (Kaiser crafts), Metal Rimmed tag







And finally, I joined a Glitter Card Candy Swap hosted by one of the people who participated in my swap. I like glitter but am not a glitter queen so my card candies havesmall parts highlighted with glitter.

Stamps: Deer Friends
Ink: Pacific Pont & Baja Breeze Classic Stampin' Pads. Basic Black, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip & Real Red Stampin' Write Markers.
Cardstock: Ruby Red, Brushed Gold, Baja Breeze Pacific Point, Chocolate Chip, Real Red & Old Olive
Tools: 1 1/8" Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Scallop punch
Accessories: Gold, Irridescent & Red Glitter

Yowzers, it's been a while!

Well, it does appear that it has been sometime since I last posted. I have had a lot going on in my personal life - I have been to a wedding, had a friend pass away and what feels like everything in between. So imagine my surprise when I decided to finally log on and post something and I find that I have been given the Brillante Weblog award from the fabulous Bootybella! (By the way, check out her awesome custom vinyl wall clings...) So here goes my duty as a recipient....

Here are the rules:

1. Post the logo on your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3. Nominate 7 other worthy bloggers.

4. Add links to their blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message for your nominees on their logs.

Awesome bloggers:

1. Stamin' With Di

2. Jennifer's Sweet Designs

3. Mel Stampz

4. The Creative Closet

5. There She Goes (She is starting her own stamp company - pretty cool!)

6. Scrapnextras

7. Bootybella (I don't know if I am allowed to retun it, but she has a special blog because she has her cool vinyls so I think she deserves another one.)

*Also check out Bootybella's blog for an awesome chance to win one of her too cool vinyal wall clings!

So those are my choices. Now that I was so distracted by all this my kids WILL NOT let me type any longer, so I'll have to post my entry later... =)

Fresh Cuts Buckle Card

Another recent swap card, this Big Buckle Card was made with the new and super-cool Stampin' Up! Fresh Cuts set. For an easy to follow tutorial on how to do a big buckle card follow this link to splitcoast stampers.

This card uses one of the Color Combo Challenges from SCS (and now a personal favourite of mine,) Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla. The flower embellie was made with a metal rimmed tag and a 1 1/4" circle punch. Also, along the scalloped edge I have created a "lace eddect" with the 1/16" punch. In retrospect I could have used the 1/8" punch but that is for another time and another card. TIP: For the scalloped edge of the card I used to Stampin' Up! Corner Rounder Punch. By simply, (and gently,) taking the guide off you can make scalloped edges easily. BUT EVEN EASIER is the new scalloped edge punch that Stampin' Up! is coming out with in the new Fall/Winter catty. Look for that to make life faster when it comes to the scalloped edge. ;)

Supplies

Stamps: Fresh Cuts

Cardstock: Chocoalte Chip, Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla

Ink: Sage Shadow

Tools: Corner Rounder, Word Window Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch

Finishing touches: Metal Rimmed Tag

Hmmm, perhaps I need some photography lessons...

Definitely not the best picture I've ever taken.... I find it much easier to take pictures of family then of cards. These 2-5-7-10 boxes were made for an upcoming seasonal swap I'm in. All I could think as I was making these was Christmas in July. But as a hardcore Christmas fan I don't mind, it takes my mind of the heat. =)

You can find the tutorial for these cute little favour boxes over in the SCS Tutorials. I made mine with some leftover Christmas paper from Basic Grey, the discontinued but oh-so-cute SU! Hung Up on the Holidays set, and a fun and easy to make poinsettia. TIP: This fun little poinsettia is made by punching out two of SU!'s 5 petal flowers & 1 boho blossom and attaching them with a rhinestone brad from the Pretties kit. I added a little dimension by running the burgundy flowers through the cuttlebug.

Hope you like it!

Supplies

Paper: Basic Grey, SU! Always Artichoke CS, Bravo Burgundy CS

Ink: Bravo Burgundy, Encire Silver

Tools: 5 petal flower punch, Boho Blossoms punch, 1/16" punch, cuttlebug, cuttlebug swirls folder

Finishing touches: Rhinestone brad from SU! Pretties Kit, Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon

A Cupcake of a Card

I recently signed up for a card swap on Splitcoast Stampers that requires you to use a cupcake image. Now, I really don't have any cupcake images and I had no ideas for a card layout so I should've just wacked away, but nope I signed up anyway. Soon after I had a purchase that qualified for a level one Stampin' Up hostess set so I ordered the Cause for Celebration set which included a cupcake image. So off to the SCS gallery I went looking for inspiration, and I found it in the form of this card by scrapnextras.

The details: I used the Cause for celebration and the Bursting with Joy sets TIP: Using a paper crimper with some Chocolate Chip cardstock created a cupcake liner effect. The flame is coloured using a blender pen with a Yoyo yellow ink pad, (a great way to colour when you don't have the shade of marker you need on hand,) a little shimmer for the icing was created by irridescent Stickles and the piece de la resistance is a small oval frame from the pewter HodgePodge Hardware. (Note: The Hodgepodge Hardware will be discountinued as of August 10th. Make sure to take advantage of the 25% discount on it before then.) TIP: The small oval punch fits perfectly in the opening of the frame which makes it quick and easy to use. The cardstock used is Chocolate chip, Pretty in Pink, Tempting Turquoise and Old Olive. The design paper used is Tempting Turquoise prints, Old Olive prints and the beautiful (but discontinued) Loves Me dp. The funky cool stretch ribbon is from the Theatre Pack of Stampin' Up ribbon. Hope you enjoy! =)

(By the way, I would have liked to have used my digital camera for the picture instead of the scanner but my "special" camera battery died and now I have to figure out where to get a new one. Grrrr technology!)

Thank You Card Class

Well, I am a day late but Happy Canada Day! I have an upcoming class available, date TBA. It is a Thank You Card Tote and set of 4 cards. In this class you will make this sweet little tote along with four matching cards. (These also make great hostess gifts for all those summer BBQs....)

I will also have a clss in the mail available. If you have any questions or are interested in more info send me an e-mail at aldervalleygiftco@msn.com.

Class price: $20 or a minimum $35 Stampin' Up purchase (before taxes and shipping.)

Class in the mail price: $27.50

Some Past Cards

Well to get this baby started I thought I would post some of my past cards that I have made over the past few months.

The first card is one made with one of my FAORITE stamps sets, Stampin' Up!'s Garden Whimsy. This uses the emboss resist technique as well as a homemade tag. Tip: Staples sells these metal rimmed tags for $8.99/50. (These don't come with adhesive on the back, but a Stampin' Dimensional fixes that problem.) Use your 1 1/8" punch and voila! You have a beautiful tag. I have used Crystal Effects to give this tag a little extra pop to it.

This next card uses the Embrace Life set (also from Stampin' Up!) It is hard to see with my less-than-professional downloading skills, but the background behind the main image is using the Faux Silk techniqe. Tip: A blender pen and your Classic ink pad gives you a quick and cheap method to color in the flowers. (Because lets face it, we may want to own every color of marker but for most it just isn't going to happen.) =)

Butterfly Card

Stamps: Garden Whimsy

Ink: Blue Bayou, Versamark

Cardstock: Blue Bayou, River Rock, Soft Sky, Glossy White

Accessories: Sponge Dabber, Blue Bayou Double Stitched Ribbon, Clear EP

Cherish Card

Stamps: Embrave Life, Warm Wishes

Ink: Basic Black, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise

Paper: Old Olive Textured CS, Tempting Turquoise CS, Bali Breeze DP, Whisper White CS

Accesoriesd: Blender pen, HPHW pewter brads, small and large ovals

I've made the leap!

Well I've done it. I have made the leap into the blogging world. Perhaps I should have planned a better introductory post but all I have is this.... Hmmm, I definitely should have planned something! =) Now I just need to figure out how to add pictures to this bad boy and I'll be flying!