Convention Samples

Hey gang!  I didn’t get any time at all this week to stamp……bummer!  I got home after 10 last night from the last night of Thursday football games……and I didn’t have it in me to get anything “spectacular” on the blog.  So, I am going to share some favorites from Convention photos.  I will try to “fill in” with photos like this when things get so busy for me personally.  These are MY inspiration, so hopefully they will be YOURS, too!

This first project was taken at the display booth set up for advertising our Spanish Stamps.  However, I loved the idea for stacking the 3 small boxes, and the great color combination.  This stamp is available in both English and Spanish as part of our hostess set “The More the Merrier”. 

I was drawn to this second card because of my love for quilting and quilted projects.  I am very unsure of the dimensions, or the name of this block, but the paper used to make this card is Sweet Always.  It is retired, but many of our designer papers would make a great replica of this card!

My final project for today is truly one of my favorites from Convention.  I am planning on making some of these for gifts.  I love the use of the stamp set for a home decor item.  What a great color combination and the flower button is the perfect accent!

I am not sure who made any of these projects, but “thank you” for giving us the inspiration to create and share with others!

I’m headed to Dallas tomorrow to see my mom before I start my new job.  Gotta squeeze in a little shopping, ya’ know?  And it will be a great little get-away before I buckle down!  Have a great weekend and enjoy time with family, friends, or whatever makes you happy!

Gift Card Set and Gift Tag

Before I show you the Stampin’ Up! project, I’d like to let you know that I am beginning another long-term Substitute Teaching job on Tuesday.  I thought I had a couple more weeks, but I found out today that I am needed a little sooner.  Funny how babies don’t have a sense of time….    So, please be patient if I have to slow things down just a little bit.  I might only post 3 times a week, as opposed to every day.  I’m going to see how it goes, and try to keep up with my projects, but we’ll just have to see…   I will be teaching 6th grade English ( a little easier on me than the British Literature from last year!) but it will still require me to be gone from home, obviously, and I will be limited on the amount of  time that I can work on my Stampin’ Up! business.    I will have to do everything in the evening or on the weekends, and sometimes that is easier said than done.  Thanks for your prayers as I begin a “new journey”….

Today’s project is a sample of some Christmas gifts I have been working on.  I am trying to make things up in advance and have them ready for teachers, special friends, babysitters, therapists, and other significant people that I really care about.  I want to give them a token of love at Christmas (and there are so many of them!!!) but unfortunately I am limited on time and resources……my list grows and grows!  So, here is a gift set of cards that I made using “Think Happy Thoughts” and the matching gift tag that I made using “The More the Merrier” Hostess set.   Here is the “secret”……..I purchased a box of 50 cards/envelopes from a local craft store for only $6.00…….they were originally $9.99 and I had a coupon.  There are 10 different sets of cards (5 for each design).  So, for $6.00 I am making 10 gifts from the heart!  I took each card design and matched up some Stampin’ Up! papers (2 colors) and used Very Vanilla for the stamped image (center circle).  There were 5 different stamp images in this stamp set………can you say PERFECT??? 

Then I designed a gift tag with similar (non-traditional) Christmas colors and I was so excited with how this all turned out.  I have also stamped about 40 more gift tags and I’m working on coloring them and having them ready for other gifts.  I hope you like this idea and might find it helpful for your growing list!

Here is a peek at one of the other card designs and how it turned out with the 5 stamped images.  I might use a gift tag colored with Old Olive and Ruby Red on this one…….just to match it all up a little better.  Hopefully you get the idea….

Think Happy Thoughts (Page 144, $16.95)

If you are interested in purchasing this stamp set, please contact me personally or visit my website for ordering 24/7. 

Delightful Decorations Card and Lots of Family Stuff…

Hello friends!  Lots of stuff going on around here………as usual!  And I want to show some photos from the weekend, but only after the Stampin’ Up! project……..

I finally found a little window of time to stamp with my new set “Delightful Decorations” and use some new DSP “Merry Moments”.  Oh, and the new Ornament  punch, too, from the Mini Catalog (page 25).  You know that I love a quick, easy card, so this fits into that category…….and I made this in about 5 minutes (maybe even less!).

I used Very Vanilla for the base of the card and added Chocolate Chip and Red Red accents.  I chose those colors based on the DSP.  I stamped one ornament with Read Red and the other one with Old Olive, adding a Rinestone brad to the center of the olive one.  The silver cording that I used is NOT the new cording, but it is some retired cording that we used to sell.  However, we do sell Gold and Silver Elastic Cording in the Mini Catalog on page 27 that would work exactly like the cording in this photo — I just haven’t order any of it yet……oops!  And you thought I owned EVERYTHING, right?

Here’s a little side view, closer up, and showing that I also used Dimensionals to pop up the ornaments ever-so-slightly.

And now to the FUN STUFF…..

Thursday evening blew in a really major COLD FRONT right in time for the football game.  Lindsey cheered in the blistering wind for about 5 1/2 hours.  She didn’t even have a voice (from a week-long cold she’d had) and it was quite comical seeing her cheer and “mouth” all the words……..but here is the CUTEST thing ever……Charles brought the baby up to the game for a few minutes and we had to bundle her up in her new winter coat, hat, and gloves.  She didn’t quite know what to think.  She ended up coming in the Concession Stand with me for awhile — it was just way too cold for her.  Then daddy took her home to her warm, snuggly bed!

Friday night’s Football game was so exciting…….we played our biggest rival, and we WON!!!  It was such an awesome way to start a fun weekend.  Here are the pictures Sarah took on her camera.

Mommy and Sarah

Sarah and her friend Braylie…….can’t believe we won!!!!

Sarah and her Sunday School Teacher, Joy.  Joy also works with the youth group and leads a Bible Study for the older girls.

And here is the scoreboard when it was all said and done………end of the story!!!

Halloween

Lindsey was at a party with friend, so she’s not in any of the photos

Allyson and Zack came to Grammy’s house with us for dinner and then went to the Harvest Hoedown at church.  They won me a cake on their very first try!  Love it!

Charles and I took Sarah and the baby “trick or treating” in Grammy and PawPaw’s neighborhood after dinner.  Lots of fun!  Here’s a peek…..

One more thing………..Charles has been making great progress on our new fireplace!!!  Hopeful it will be done in time for the holidays…….I will be  ready to get rid of the dust and put up my holiday things!

Baby Girl Quilt

Just a quick post today……lots on my agenda again today, and a football game against our BIGGEST RIVAL tonight!  We did get to play last night, and it was a very cold and windy night!  Once the cold front blew in………the temperatures went way down!  There was no rain or lightning, though, so the games went off without a hitch!  Lindsey did a fantastic job of cheering at “home”,  and Sarah’s teams were “away” this week.   I’m looking forward to seeing how we do tonight!

Here is the Baby Girl Quilt that I made last week.  I think I mentioned that Allyson’s English teacher is having a baby girl in November.  She also taught next door to me last year when I did the long-term sub job.  She was so extremely helpful to me and I am so happy for her upcoming arrival.   I wanted to send her a little something special, so here is the quilt that I made for her.  Allyson picked out the kit (from JoAnn’s) and I sewed it together.  Hope she likes it!   I also sent one of these in a “jungle theme” to a friend who moved to Florida.  She said it is the perfect weight for the warmer temperatures in Florida.  The quilts I have been making do not have any type of batting in them, so they are lightweight and easy to pack up to take with you.

Have a great weekend……..I will try to post some photos from the football games and Halloween sometime this weekend………enjoy your weekend, whatever you do!

Sweet Centers for Halloween

Sorry that I didn’t get this posted yesterday………meant to get it posted since Monday, actually!  I started these on Monday, made my sample, and then things got crazy.   Nothing more going on than the usual “busy stuff” and I am going to confess that all of these are not even assembled just yet!  But I do have all the stamping, punching, and cutting done.  I will assemble this afternoon in between making  Halloween treats for the teachers and baking and the cake for the Harvest Hoedown.  And the jury is still out on whether we will get to play football tonight.  It is storming and raining, and not sure that is going to end in time for some football.  They were cancelled last Thursday, though, so the kids are very anxious to play (and cheer!).   

So, here’s the supply list and if you like the little “sliding door” to get to the treats………then go to THIS POST from a fellow Stampin’ Up! blogger.

You will notice that my card is VERY similar to hers.  I didn’t try to “reinvent the wheel”, but I did make my Green Galore base card just a little bit bigger.  It measures 3 1/1″ x 7″.  I liked having a little bit more of a border and the pull tab doesn’t extend quite as far off the edge of the card.  I added a photo of what I did to the inside of mine, too.  It is stamped with Black StazOn Ink.

Supplies:

Stamp Sets:  Sweet Centers, Teeny Tiny Wishes 

Punches:  1 3/4″ Circle, 1 3/8″ Circle, Scalloped Circle, Rounded Tab Punch

Cardstock:  Pumpkin Pie, Green Galore, Perfect Plum, Whisper White, Basic Black

Stampin’ Write Marker:  Pumpkin Pie

Ribbon:  Pumpkin Pie Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon

Adhesive:  Glue Dots and SNAIL

Misc:  Sweet Treat Cups

Notepad Folio and Composition Book Cover

I have been anxious to show you this adorable gift set that I made for one of Sarah’s best friends.  Her birthday was Saturday, and I wanted to “craft” something that a 12 year old would really like……and that wouldn’t require a ton of money, either.  Sarah had fallen in love with this Notepad pattern when we visited the Plano Quilt Show back in August.  I finally got hers made a couple of weeks ago, and it was so quick and easy that I have already made 5 more of them!  I am stashing them away for Christmas presents.  The Composition Book Cover was in a quilting magazine that I purchased in the last year  or so.  The details for how to find the patterns is at the END of this post.  If you need help, just ask.  I am really enjoying both of these patterns and they take a very small amount of fabric.  Chances are you could use some scraps left over from a previous project! 

So here is how I packaged it all up……Sarah decorated the sack, and we opted for a simple little punched tag instead of a fancy card.  After all the sewing, I was not feeling like I needed to make a matching card……although that would have been perfect!  But we don’t live in a perfect world

Pattern for Notepad can be found at THIS LINK.

Journal Cover Pattern can be downloaded at www.allpeoplequilt.com.  In the search box you can type “get organized journal cover” and find the link.  I have also saved it to my computer, so if you need help, just e-mail me and I will send the pattern to you as an attachment.

Simple Expressions

Hello Monday!  Hello Friends!  I hope you had a fun weekend!  We had an exciting night on Friday as we defeated Mexia in Varsity Volleyball and Football!  We were definitely the “underdogs” in football, so it was a very big win!  We are now tied for first in both sports!   There is a 3 way tie for first in football, so our next two games will determine playoff spots.  We shall see…..

I didn’t do much stamping this weekend, but I needed some cards to send to some friends.  I have a Ladies’ Ensemble group that I sing in at church — and these ladies are amazing!  They are such wonderful encouragers and prayer warriors for me!  We have a variety of ages in this group, but several of them are older than me.  They have raised their children and have SURVIVED the teenage years.  I am thankful for their listening ears and their faith that I can survive, too!  I whipped up a few cards that were partially finished in my office and here is what I came up with.  Nothing terribly impressive or challenging, but not EVERY card can be a masterpiece, right???

Elegant Bouquet Embossing Folder used on these first two samples.  On the second one, I lightly sponged the embossed area with Close to Cocoa Ink to “define” the images.  All cards use words from Herb Expressions. 

This card features “Kaliedoscope” DSP paired with Blush Blossom and Rose Red.

These last 2 cards were sitting in one of my drawers and only needed a verse added to them.  This is retired paper from one of our previous Simply Scrappin’ Kits. 

I will edit this post later in the day (if I can find the time!) to include the new Deals of the Week…….we don’t know what they are in advance!  So…….wonder what it will be this week?  You can always go to our website to see the deals starting at noon.

Baby Boy Quilt

Here’s one of my recent sewing projects.  I know this has NOTHING to do with Stampin’ Up!, but I hope that you enjoy seeing some other things from time to time.  You never know what inspiration others might get from seeing different projects, and I enjoy letting you know that I don’t sit around and stamp all the time!  HA!  This is for the teacher that I am going to substitute for starting sometime in November.  We have been friends with them for several years.  Her husband has been a teacher for all of our girls, too, and Allyson’s soccer coach as well.  We are very excited for them and I am looking forward to an experience at the Middle School this year.  It should be quite a change from the Seniors I had last year!  I am teaching English again, but I “demoted” to 6th grade this year! 

The quilt has a “puppy dog” theme and I found all of these materials at JoAnn’s.  The original pattern/dimensions came from a Quilt Kit that they sell pre-packaged at JoAnn’s.  I have made several of these throughout the last few years.  I keep several of these kits on hand so I can sew them up for baby gifts, but sometimes our VERY small JoAnn’s does not have many kits, or any fabrics that I am really fond of.  So, I have recently discovered that I enjoy picking out my own fabrics, but following the pattern from the original kit.  I guess this is kinda like copying a card or a scrapbook page, but using different papers and stamps!

One thing that I really like about the quilt kits is that they use a variety of “textures” or fabric types on these quilts.  So, I make sure I use a variety of fabrics such as silky fabric, flannel, cotton, and the “fuzzy” material with the baby bumps — whatever that sweet stuff is called!  It is my favorite…….I might just have to make a blanket for me out of that stuff! 

Hope you enjoy seeing something different every once and awhile.  I have several sewing projects that I will mix in here and there………thanks for looking and hope to see you all back tomorrow!

Wishin’ for snow…

Seriously, I would love to see some snow!  It won’t happen, but I can always do some wishin’…..I hear that it is falling up north, but all we seem to get here is RAIN, RAIN, and more RAIN!  It rained all day yesterday and supposed to rain all day today…….but it might clear up for the weekend!  YEAH! 

I haven’t stamped anything new this week, but I have been doing some sewing projects.  I am finishing up my second baby quilt this week (pictures coming tomorrow) and I’m working on a project for one of Sarah’s best friends who is having her birthday party on Saturday.  I will post all of those goodies in the next couple of days.  I’m really enjoying some “quilting” projects — smaller projects, not full-blown quilts.  I am already setting a New Year’s Resolution, though, that 2010 will be the year for my first REAL quilt! 

So, I wanted to show you some snowflake cards from Convention this summer……..but I do not know who made these cards — sorry! The first card was on one of the display boards at convention.  It uses the “Season of Frien

Photo Wallet

Here is the front of the “Photo Wallet” that I introduced yesterday.  This was one of the projects for my October Club Classes.   I originally got this idea from Janet Wakeland’s Blog.  I was thrilled with the idea of using another one of our Big Shot Dies in a fresh, creative way!  This project is made using the straight piece of the Bag with Scallops.  

Here is the back side and a little bit of a view of the inside, too.

Page one…

Page 2…

Page 3…

Here’s the piece you will use and the places you will score…..but the next photo shows a closer view.

We did this project for club tonight.  It uses 1/16″ marks (VERY TINY) and most paper cutters are not marked this small.  However, I found that the Stampin’ Up! Grid Paper has 16th of an inch marks at the bottom left corner.  I had my ladies use pencils to mark these places that they needed to score according to this photo (and my verbal instructions).  Then I had them score on the pencil marks.  This seemed to be the easiest method……..and we all wore our glasses for this project!!!  Although this part was tedious, the rest of the project was quick and easy!  Feel free to e-mail me if you need any further instruction.