Thankfulness

The women's group at church was having a party, and the theme was "Thankfulness".  I was asked to make little booklets that were going to include the guest's favorite scripture, thoughts, poems or stories on Thankfulness.  These little books are great for Baby Showers, Weddings, and much more. See here a similar one I made for a Baby Shower. 
This book was super easy to put together.  I cut paper in Concord Crush with my big shot scallop square die.  This die is great because you can cut multiple papers at one time, great when you have to make 30 like I did :)  The inner pages are just white squares printed off with the guests Thankfulness ideas. 

The book is put together with a simple Binder Ring from an office supply store.  I added some matching ribbon to add some soft detail. 

The cover punch image was made with My Digital Studio!  I didn't have a "Thankfulness" stamp, but with My Digital Studio I was able to make my own :)   I then punched them out and added them to my books.  Thanks for stopping by!

Maggie

A fun technique I learned today at My Digital Studio Made Simple 2  We use the color spectrum to create a fun background for the photo, I guess its actually an overlay, since it goes over the picture.  A unique technique, so I used a picture of a unique person, my niece Maggie. 

 I thought I would let you know what I did with the flower I showed you the other day.  I made it into a hair clip for my daughter.  I was going to use it on a scrapbook page I'm working on, but Jillian kept taking it, so I gave in and gave it to her.  She kept putting it on her head, so when I was out at Hobby Lobby the other day, I looked for some sort of hair clip or headband to put it on.  I found a pack of 24 hair clips on sale for $1.99.  I think I will make her a few more of these.   She really likes it and it was SO EASY and So INEXPENSIVE.   See this post for flower details.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jillian's "Favorite Flower"

Out family went for a hike and Jillian spent the whole time blowing on dandelions.  So cute, but I'm glad she was doing it at the park and not in our yard :)

Jake

This is my nephew Jake.  He is the drummer for a band called Finding Valor.  I am surely biased, but I think his band is great.  My son and his friends listen to the band on our computer.  We had some early recordings from some events that the band performed at.  Now, they have announced some new free downloads of professional recordings, so I added that to my nano.  Its even more fun to listen to music when you personally know the band.  Once, my nephew was over helping to move a dyer, and he had a few buddies with him.  It was so cute to see my son David.  He said "Mom, that's the lead singer of Finding Valor".  He was pretty excited Andy was in our house.     Here is a link to the downloads, check them out! Finding Valor

Here is the band after performing at the Taste of Lombard last July 4th.  They were asked to perform at the event after wining the Battle of the Bands.

Mom and Dad

Another digital scrapbook page.  I am still loving using the My Digital Studio program and signed up for another month of class with Heather Summers.  Today she showed up how to adjust a text box to go around the embellishments on your page, like how my journaling goes around the photo and the paper strips.   This page uses the Tickets and Tags digital kit.  I love the papers and the embellishments with this kit.   You can check out Heather Summers class here.  
Thanks for stopping by!!

Flower Punch

One of the many perks of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is a magazine they call "Stampin' Success".   I really enjoy this monthly magazine and have kept them since joining Stampinn' Up! back in 2005.  There are always really cute projects from cards to scrapbook pages and 3D items.  One of the things that caught my eye this month were these beautiful flowers.  They were made with our Blossom Petals Builder Punch item #121808 for $16.95.   I have had this punch since it came out and really like it, but I usually use it with the matching stamp set and large petals, or for other things, like bunny ears .   I saw these flowers and decided to give them a try.  Im not sure where I will end up usinng them, but I do love them!

The first step is to punch out your petals.  I cut my card stock into two strips about and inch and a half wide.  I punch them out by holding my punch upside down to get the exact petal I want.  When punching out the smaller petal, you end up getting some of the medium petal, so Im sure you'll see a project with those soon :)   I then rolled the flowers by wrapping them around a pencil.  I made 12 of

both sizes.  I then cut out a square of sticky sheets and started sticking my petals down.  I stuck them down by first putting down four, one in each corner, then added two more inbetween each of the first four, this way the petals fit evenly around the flower.   

Once I had the main flower done, I used an old tool, the anywhere hole punch.  I havent used this tool in a long time! I decided to use this tool because my hole punch wouldnt go through two layers of sticky paper, and I wanted my flower center to go through the flower.  You can use many things for the center, buttons, ribbons, whatever.  I wanted some paper fringy centers, so I cut a small strip of paper and cut fringes into one side.  I then rolled that up and put it inside the punched hole.  I then folded the end over to stick onto the underside of the flower, where I have the sticky paper. 

Hope you like the flower and will give it a try too!  I can see it as a great addition to a photograph, a name frame, or a wreath.  So  many places that could use a pretty flower!

Thanks for stopping by!

beth

Stampin' Up! retirement list is out!

Stampin' Up! has published the list of stamp sets that will be retiring with the current catalog.  These sets will be available until May 31st.  If any of the sets were on your wish list, now is the time to get them.  To view the list, click on the online store, then click on retiring products.  Any questions?  contact me!

Super Cute Petite Purses!

I just love the new Die from Stampin' Up! called Petite Purse.  I was asked to make some party favors and had just bought this new die, so I thought I might as well use it.  Then I asked how many favors I needed to make and was told 30.  Did I really want to make 30 of these guys?  I decided to try one and see  how it went.  It was SO EASY!  I was able to put together all 30 in just two nights during the evening news.  And they are so cute. 
The die includes the handle, and you just need a bit of sticky strip to attach the sides of the purse together.  You can use a glue dot or a brad to attach the handle.  One of the great things about this little purse is the tab to hold the flap closed.  In the past when I've made little boxes and things, I've had to buy small magnets or Velcro dots to close the flap. This die has a built in tab and slot and it stays closed very nicely, yet is easy to open and close.  I filled the little purses with some Hershey Kisses, each purse fit about 9 Kisses.  You can make these as fancy or plain as you like.  I saw some very frilly purses made for a bridal shower.  I also saw one that was made to look like a fishing basket with some fish hanging out of it for Father's Day.  I needed to make 30 so I kept it pretty simple, but I see a lot of these in my future :)  I think I will make one for my niece's birthday.  It would be a cute way to give her some cash.

This purse is part of the Summer Smooches Collection. 

Click on my online store, or contact me for details. 

Thanks for stopping by

Tie Dye Flowers

This card uses a technique I haven't used in a long time.  It's called the baby wipe technique.   I recently saw a cute card here on fellow stamper Monica Gale's blog, that I wanted to try.  It was a fun card to make, so I had to make a few versions.  The baby wipe technique uses, you guessed it, a baby wipe, with some ink drops on it.   For this card I used Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz, and Peach Parfait.  The baby wipe becomes your ink pad.  Normally I would say to "tap tap tap" your stamp onto your ink pad to really ink it up, but in this case, you can only press down once or your colors will get all mixed up if you hit the ink in a different spot. 

I think three colors is a good amount, you don't want to use too many.  On a side note, a good way to pick color combinations is to look at what colors are in some of your favorite Designer Series Paper.  For this card, I knew I wanted to use some of the retiring "In Color" colors, so I looked at the catalog at the papers and found one that used both Poppy Parade and Peach Parfait, the colors I wanted to use.  I saw that the papers also used Pear Pizzazz, so I decided to use that as my third color.

The card Template is from a Challenge over at www.Splitcoaststampers.com.  This is one of my favorite paper craft websites.  They have a whole bunch of challenges every day, each with different themes.  The challenges I tend to do the most are the Stampin' Up! creative crew challenges and the color combination challenges.  You can find the challenges on the home page about 2/3 of the way down on the right side margin. 

Here is the card I made based on Monica's card.  I stamped the image, then ran the paper through the Big Shot with the Frames Embossing Folder.  I added the tag by Punching a hole through the tag, and pulling both ends of the ribbon through the hole, then tieing a knot.  The colors in this tie dye are also taken straight from the patterned paper, Pear Pizzazz, Melon Mambo, and Concord Crush. I made a matching envelope for this card too!    

To make the matching envelope, just add glue to the outside of the flap, making sure to get all the way to the edges.  Place it on the patterned paper, then cut around the flap.    Below is the card with matching envelope.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

love you always

The Stampin' Up! My Digital Studio downloads often comes with some page templates or card templates.  I haven't used the premade pages before, always starting from scratch to make my own.  One reason for this is because I have been using a 12 x 12 page size, and the templates are often in other sizes.  But, I have learned to resize them! YEA!  SO, these next two pages are made from the Templates that were included with some downloads I bought! 

This top page is 100% a pre-made template.  I'm editing to add that I recieved an email from a blog reader letting me know that I wrote "you mean the work to me" instead of  "you mean the world to me" Freudian slip maybe? Thankfully, I hadn't sent this page to be printed yet :) and, since it's digital, I can fix it in a snap.

These snow pages are almost exactly like the templates.  I added a photo box and some more snowflakes, but that's it.   

I don't know why I resisted using the premade templates for so long! they are cute and best of all, already done!  If you would like to learn about Stampin' Up's digital scrapbooking program (its great for so much more too!)  please feel free to contact me!