Finally some more gifts

Last year my sisters sister-in-law made her a beautiful basket of homemade lotions and potions as well as some gourmet spices. I thought that making the spices would be a great gift so I decided to make some this year. I made the labels using My Digital Studio. I simply sized the circle punch to 2.5 inches, color filled with opacity set to 40% so that the color would be more muted and the image and writing would really stand out. Then I added a stamped image and text and printed them onto shipping labels. Then, using my large 2.5 inch punch, punched them out and stuck them onto the jars. I think they turned out great! I didn't make the box, because I was feeling overwhelmed with my homemade gifting, and it was 50% off....can't say no to that, but it would be super easy to make with paint and stamps, or even decor elements.

Inside the box my daughter made a nest. It was such a great activity for her, she used my paper trimmer and some old or retired paper that I had, and she set about cutting strips and squishing them up.

I got a lot of use out of my decor elements, including using the adorable cardinal on a glass jar filled with homemade granola as a hostess gift.

Here is another way to package up those spices. I found the BEST instructions on how to make any type of box on Splitcoast. For this one I took a piece of paper, 6" x 7.5", scored at 2" all the way around, folded, trimmed the long edge to where the score lines meet (yes this would best be seen in a photo, you can see a video on Splitcoast) folded and used sticky strip to adhere. Then I used the top note die and the Big Shot and trimmed about 1 inch of the middle out, stuck the outside rounded pieces on both of the long sides and covered the seam in ribbon. Voila - cute!

Finally, as I was making the scrapbooks rather than making calendars for the grandparents, my hubby mentioned how much he enjoyed his calender, so I made him one....again crazy easy using MDS. I used the calender template then saved the pages as jpeg. Then, because I wanted a simple way to print it out at home and I wanted the picture and month on the same page, I started a new project and brought the jpeg images back in as photos, lined up and resized the photo and months, printed them off and trimmed to my desired size. I cut a piece of chipboard, covered it with retired DSP, stamped and embellished, added ribbon to hang both the pages and the project.

Cards of course

Yes, a group of cards makes a great gift. I have a great auntie, as well as my husbands grandma (still kicking it up at 97) who have everything and want nothing and they are my favorite people to give a package of handmade cards to. I used the in colors to make 6 cards and I wanted to keep it simple. A touch of the in color DSP peeks out from behind the top note die. The stamp set is the Level 1 hostess set Because I Care.

You could put these cards into a nice clear bag tied with ribbon, or simply tie a ribbon around the cards, but I saw a tutorial on Splitcoast to make an A2 box and I gave it a try....I did make a little mistake along the way but managed to salvage the work I'd already put in and it still looks good. Now I hope to be able to get my project finished to post on Friday...but...it all depends on my 2 year old son's ability to go shopping with me. So if I don't get it posted Friday I will have it up on the weekend.

Month a Page Memory Book

Just a sneak peek at a perpetual memory book I am making for grandparents....I don't want to give away the whole gift now do I! In the past my sister and I had made calendars with a couple of pictures for each month for the grandparents, but this year I decided to make a month by month memory book that we can add to every year. I really think this is more of a keepsake for them and something that we can add to every year.

This was so fun and easy to make with My Digital Studio. I just gathered all my highlight photos up, and played, and played and played. I always feared making a scrapbook before because making a mistake was just too daunting, but with MDS I make tonns of mistakes and just hit delete - Love IT!

As I mentioned before, I am behind in my handmade holiday gifts, and that means I also missed the shipping deadline for guaranteed printing and delivery from Stampin' UP! (today was the deadline for printing and shipping for delivery before Dec.21), plus I need to ship one of these to Alberta.....but no problem! I'm going to print them off on my computer, stick them in a gorgeous linen album (still have to jazz that up a bit with ribbon, buttons and rhinestones) and away it goes. I'm sure this will be a much loved gift.

62 to Give

A big thank you to the ladies who joined me last night to make cards to give to the North Shore Homeless Shelter. We powered through 4 designs and ended up making 62 cards in just over 2 hours. I am so excited to be able to do this over the holidays. Last year I remember reading an article about a man who was at the shelter and all he wanted was a phone card to call his daughter on Christmas. I got thinking that there had to be other people that the shelter serves that want to be able to contact family or friends but do not have the resources to do so...and thus the idea to make and give cards was born.

The ladies were also very generous in bringing donations of personal care items and warm clothing as well as stamps for each card. Thanks again ladies, I am sure our donations and cards will go a long way to bring some Christmas cheer to some people experiencing tough times.

Below are samples of the cards we made.

A Week of Giving

I haven't posted in a bit because I've been busy, OK, frantically, trying to get my handmade Christmas gifts started....yes I'm way behind, but this is my week to catch up and I'm going to share some project with you.

I needed a little inspiration for this first example so I turned to Stampin' Royality this week hoping for a sketch or color challenge and I was rewarded with a great sketch.

I just love these 5x5 notebooks as gifts. You can give them to anyone and they are my go to gift for the person who stops by with something for you and you have nothing for them. I keep a couple of them wrapped with some chocolate at the ready.

I used some retired DSP ( I'm surprised I had some of this left since I adore the preppy look of it), with my fave Pacific Point card stock, and very vanilla. I added some Poppy Parade ink and card stock for a pop. I used the scallop border, scallop circle, and two step owl punches. The stamped owls are from Aviary stamp set.

Tonight I am having a great giving class that I will post tomorrow....I'm very excited about it!

Christmas Countdown

Last year I made a Christmas Countdown Frame for my sister and her family. I LOVED it and decided that this year I had to make one for my family. I'm also going to use it to play with the Paper Players and their "Anything Goes" theme this week. I used the small Christmas Countdown Decor Elements and put the oval portion onto the glass part of a 11x14 inch frame (putting it onto the glass will allow me to change the background if I ever want to in the future). For the numbers, I made a tags out of the piece of cardboard that comes in the DSP packages, cut into squares, then using certainly celery, real red and chocolate chip I covered those squares, then cut a smaller square in whisper white for the centre. Then put the numbers onto it. I used the smallest Command hook that I could find to stick to the glass to hold the hanging number tag.

Using the stamp-a-ma-jig, I used the snowmen from Holiday Lineup, lined them up all together and colored in with stampin' write markers. Finally, I used sticky strip to wiggle on a strip of real red dotted ribbon (retired) to add a bit of additional Christmas color.

I hope it inspires you to create some great holiday decor for your home too!

So Easy Christmas Decor

I think this has to be one of the easiest and cutest little decor projects. I simply put Real Red ink into chipboard letters to spell NOEL then tied them to glass votives with silver string (I sure wish Stampin'UP! would bring this string back, I use it all the time!). I put votive candles inside but I also think it would look great with a sprig of greens tied with string or ribbon, or fill the glass holders with candy, or with little silver bells, or....well use your imagination, the possibilities for this simple little project are endless!

Gift Card Envelope Box

Finally for my brother-in-law, I wanted to come up with something to hold gift cards and a chocolate bar (I can never just give a gift card, I always like to include a little treat with them). I decided to try to make a boxolope. That is the name I've given this envelope box.

I stuck with the Parisian Breeze paper that I had used for the birthday cards and used not quite navy for the boxolope. My little owl buddy was from the 2 step owl punch and I used the teeny tiny wishes set for the "happy birthday". I punched it with the 1 1/4 circle, rubbed some chocolate chip on the edge and put in onto a 1 3/8 baja breeze circle. Finally, the clip to hold the flap down is from Hodgepodge Hardware.

So Nice I Made it Thrice

So in addition to my birthday and my son's birthday, my mom and two of my aunties also have birthdays in October. I first saw the idea for this card in the current Idea Book then saw the talented Marlene Peters take it up a notch with a card she shared at our group meeting. I thought it would be a great layout for the 3 ladies celebrating birthdays. I used the retired Parisian Breeze DSP with Baja Breeze card stock, chocolate chip ribbon and ink, and the Wonderful Favorites stamp set. The Wonderful mother card also has hodgepodge hardware and the bird is from the Aviary stamp set

The added flowers on this card are done using the Boho Blossoms punch and the circles from the Owl Punch.

This one just added a button from button latte.

Still one more birthday to come....my brother-in-law.

Birthday Place mats

October is full of birthdays in my family...starting with my own, closely followed by my son - who turned 2 this week. The theme for his party was trains. As a party favor I made these place mats using My Digital Studio then had them laminated at my local office supply store. They boys border and colors are from the Happy Birthday designer kit and the girls from Sunny Day designer kit. I created the trains using a variety of punches: square punch was stretched into rectangular shapes (yes you can stretch punches in MDS), oval punch was stretched and changed sizes to create the front part as well as the rounded top of the front tower, OK, I am very quickly realizing that I know nothing about the parts of trains, so here are the other punches I used, circle punch, modern label, photo corners, rounded square, butterfly and star, you can figure out where they are and if you know the train part associated with it let me know.

Upline Swap

Tonight I went to a demonstrator meeting with my upline Kari and participated in a swap....my first time doing a swap! Here is the card I created for the theme "Winter". I used whisper white, bashful blue and shimmery white paper, bashful blue ink, dazzling diamonds glitter on a strip of sticky strip, a rhinestone, whisper white satin ribbon and the Northern Hearts stamp set (hostess level 1 in the current holiday mini). The hole is punched with the 1 3/8 punch and the insert in punched with the 1 1/4, a piece of dental floss allows the inner circle to spin (and provides a minty aroma - hee hee) and two rows of paper piercing finish it off. I enjoyed challenging myself to swap with some very talented ladies!

Christmas Decor

Ever since I saw the picture of the ribbon wreath in the 2010/2011 IB&C (p. 190), I knew I wanted to make one for Christmas. My daughter and I started making this yesterday and with this week Stampin' Royalty Challenge being Anything But a Card, we were inspired to finish it today. At 3 1/2 Jessica couldn't quite tie the knots but she did enjoy selecting what pattern the ribbons were going to go in (it created a nice random pattern doing it this way, rather than my somewhat more regimented approach). We used white satin, old olive striped grosgrain, real red polka dot grosgrain (now retired), 1/4"chocolate chip grosgrain (also retired) and 1/4" real red grosgrain. I also used an 8" wreath form that we got at the craft store. Now we just have to pick the perfect spot to hang it at Christmas time!

Gift Certificate

My friend is just a few months away from achieving a lifelong goal of hers. She is going to Cambodia to build houses with the Tabitha Foundation. Yes, amazing! She needs to raise a bunch of money to go, and her team's major fundraising effort is going to be a silent auction so I just had to support her by donating a gift certificate for Stampin'UP! This cute card is a hybrid MDS creation and the coordinating gift certificate is held inside. The idea and instructions for the pinwheel came from Patty Bennett.

Best of Luck Estelle in your fundraising efforts!

Clean and Simple

I love to check out blog challenges to get ideas and inspiration for my paper crafts. When I saw The Paper Players had a theme of clean and simple I decided to play....I love clean and simple!

Here is Dasher embossed in sliver with some added rhinestones. For paper I used Whisper White, Real Red and Bashful Blue (one of my favorite color combos) and stamped the sentiment in Real Red. I also used the modern label punch, whisper white satin ribbon and a silver eyelet.

Blog Header

I love the new blog header I created with My Digital Studio. The hands are those of my family and if you look closely, my daughter, whose hand is on top, has a stamp on it. All the credit goes to my talented sister who took the picture.

Whoops to Wow

My husband and I have had a "mail drop zone" box for a little while, and in the previous house it was kept behind a door in the kitchen cupboards. At the new house, it sits on our desk in the kitchen nook....so it needed some dressing up. Previously it was solid wood and I thought that adhering some nice DSP would look awesome, I cut it out and Whoops!!! I didn't measure first! It was too short. So I thought, hmmmm could I stamp directly onto the wood? Yes I could. Further to that, I could also use my blender pen to fill in the stamp images. I used the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set with chocolate chip, certainly celery and river rock ink. Then so we would know what was in our little cubbies, I added the Oval Chalkboard Decor Elements. I would have liked the two larger drawers to have the chalkboard oval in the middle, but the image was just a bit too big to go under the cutout and I was too cheap to buy two more sets.

Here is a closer look at how well the blender pen worked on the wood. Love it!

Pierced votives

I love how these super easy votive covers turned out. I'd like to say that I made them for a romantic evening with my hubby, but alas, that is not the case. I just had an idea that I wanted to try. Using my paper piercer and mat pack, I alternated rows and holes on the template to make an alternating almost lacy look. I also used the scallop edge punch, now that I think of it, it would look cool to put a piercing in each of the scallops.

And this caused my hand to cramp, but it was worth it. I stamped the rose from Fifth Avenue Floral onto a piece of printer paper and then laid that onto my card stock. I pierced through both pieces of paper going over the entire outline of the stamped image. I think it looks great and I can't wait to try these for Halloween and Christmas.

Note: I sized the paper to go over a glass votive holder so that I didn't have to worry about anything catching fire.

Open House Samples

We had a lot of fun last night at the open house. As usual the room was filled with tonnes of laughter and the girls all had some hilarious stories to share! My goal of the open house was to play. So I gave the girls the level 3 hostess set Playful Pieces and a bunch of stamp pads, some card stock to make 3x3 gift cards and let them go crazy.Here are 3 of the samples I made to start the creative juices flowing.

I am so totally in love with the 2 step Owl punch and as soon as my daughter and I started to play with it I knew I wanted to turn these little guys into cupcake toppers. I also set out the punch and some scraps for the girls to play with to create their own little hootie cuties.

The door prize is hidden in here. I used a lot of the Greenhouse Gala papers and coordinating colors for the samples I created. I am now in love with Daffodil Delight and Pear Pizazz (maybe even overtaking Certainly Celery as my favorite green).

I recycled some old glass bottles into vases and dressed them up with some beautiful paper, ribbon and tags. We still have no artwork up on our walls so adding some great color and pattern to our mantle dressed up the room for us.

More pictures to come!

Christmas comes early

On Friday night I went to my upline Kari's for dinner with some other girls. We were talking about making Christmas cards and I thought "Whoa, we are in the middle of a heat wave and it's Aug." Well, all that talk had me inspired and I made this card. I tried the spritzer and maybe it was the end of the bottle, I'm not sure but I found it a little clumpy. That was OK for this card since I think it turned out looking like little snowflakes on the sentiment.

I used Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and Very Vanilla paper, Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive ink. The stamp set is Holiday Happiness. I also used rhinestone jewels, very vanilla ribbon and the Big Shot with Top Note.

The rest of the projects I've made lately will be shown at the open house, I have to admit that there is more decor than cards.....must be the influence of the new house!

Open House

Well we are in the new house and it is awesome! I was excited to unpack my stamping supplies last night and I hope that today I can get back making some projects. I have some great ideas using some of the new stuff in the 2010/2011 catalogue and I'm going to show them off at my open house.

August 22, 2010
7-9 pm
Free and Fun
I will have snacks and beverages, make and takes and DOOR PRIZES!

RSVP at debdunham@ymail.com for address and directions

Packed UP!

I will be taking a crafting break for a few weeks as my family and I pack up and get ready to move into our new house. I hope to be settled and unpack my supplies in a few weeks - maybe some cards and crafts inspired by our new house and some decor elements to show you.

We're back

We had such a great trip to visit my family back in Alberta. Before we left I wanted to make a little something for our sweet dog sitter Claire who would be staying at our house and looking after our 9 year old dog. Claire is constantly taking notes about dogs she looks after and I thought I cute notebook would make a nice gift. She likes an Asian influence so I thought the Sweet Pea DSP in Taken with Teal would be nice for her. Since I snapped this photo in the middle of packing, I did't show that I also covered the inside covers with the same paper as the bands on the front. At the last minute I also decided to add a knot of So Saffron ribbon on the top ring, also didn't make it into the photo (I had to prioritize the packing of all our stuff into one suitcase over pictures for the blog - yes that's right, 10 days worth of stuff for a 3 year old, a 1.5 year old and myself into one suitecase - luckily my son would happily wear the same dirty clothes, or nothing but a diaper for 10 days, my daughter on the otherhand, wanted to pack every princess dress she owns).

Easy Gift

Next week I am headed to visit my sister for 10 days - Yippeeeee! Since I will be invading her home with 2 little ones (or 2 little hurricanes) I thought I'd whip up these cute little note cards for her. They seriously took only 15 minutes to make 8 of them. If my sister is checking this out, it's the thought not the time right!? Again I am using some old retired DSP in addition to Tempting Turquoise and Pixie Pink card stock and since I don't have a set of alphabet stamps, I printed the "a" onto card stock from My Digital Studio using the school house stamp set.
Back in a couple of weeks!

Teen Boy Birthday - Yikes!

So if making a masculine card is tough, how about a card for a teen boy? That is what I was faced with knowing that my nephew has a birthday coming up. Thankfully, my nephew has always expressed an appreciation of my handmade cards. He is now taller than me, speaks in a deeper voice, has girls calling (oh my) and the puppy dog cards I sent in years past no longer seemed appropriate. Extreme snowboarding was just calling and I thought that the old (retired so long ago that I can even remember the name of it) DSP looked like a snowboarding jacket and allowed the stamp to be the highlight of the card.

Tinker Bell

Before going to bed on Tuesday night I decided that I was going to play along with the Stampin' Royality Blog Challenge - my first time ever doing a challenge like this. So I woke up Wednesday morning, opened up the blog....and it was a color challenge.....and I only had one of the colors in my stash of stampin' stuff. What to do? Hmmmm My Digital Studio has all the colors, has a great selection of papers, I'll make a card using that.....hey why not make it even more of a challenge and make a scrapbook page (I'm really not known to scrapbook, ever). I have to say I was quite happy with the result. My little "Tinker Bell" was watching over my shoulder as I created the page. She of course had some comments and ideas of her own (I want some red flowers Mommy, with stems), but they didn't fit into the SR challenge so sorry my little helper, I had to delete them after you went to bed.

Stamp a Stack Birthday

I just held my first Card Class last night - a Birthday Blowout Stamp a Stack. We made 4 cards and the girls took home a kit to make an additional card, yep 5 cards. The girls are all quite new to stamping and Stampin' UP! so I'm trying to introduce them to a new technique each class I hold. This class, we focused on using the Stampin' Write Markers.
Here is a peek and the super cute cards we made. A single layer birthday card for a kid. I have to admit that it was hard to come up with something that wasn't specifically for a little boy or a little girl. I think this Owl Card hit the mark, and being a single layer card, didn't require a whole lot time to create. Tools: Owl Together Now stamp set, chocolate chip classic stamp pad, naturals white card stock, gable green, chocolate chip, real red and apricot appeal stampin' write markers, 3/4" polka-dot grosgrain ribbon, blending chalk.

Next up a gender neutral card with some stamps from the Summer Mini Catalogue. I soooo love this itty bitty bits stamp set and the hundreds of ways to use them! Tools: Chocolate Chip classic stamp pad, very vanilla card stock, itty bitty bits and teeny tiny wishes stamp sets, ruby red, taken with teal and apricot appeal stampin' write markers, mat pack and paper piercer, tempting turquoise ribbon, itty bitty bits punch set.

I love this girlie girl birthday card, all the things I love...hmmm, I might just keep this one for myself! Tools: very vanilla card stock, rose red textured card stock, sweet pea DSP, chocolate chip, ruby red and pink pirouette ink.

The super simple take home kit, and super bad photo - I hate that the crystal effects on the button looks like a big booger! Trust me, in person it looks awesome! Tools: party hearty stamp set, little pieces (retired) stamp set, old olive, bashful blue and apricot appeal card stock, old olive, apricot appeal stampin' write markers, versamark, scallop circle punch, crystal effects.

And, last but not least, a card for a man. I can find making a masculine card difficult (could be my love of all things pink and girlie) but it's also all too easy to over embellish a card, and I think that when it comes to a man's card especially, less is more, and throwing in some elements that looks like men's suiting (the DSP), and roughing it up a bit with some tearing doesn't hurt either. Tools: party hearty stamp set, soft suede DSP, kraft and naturals white card stock, chocolate chip, real red, taken with teal stampin'write markers, silver brads

Good Bye

Of of the girls from my book club is moving to Ontario to be closer to her husbands family....boo for us in book club - she is a great girl, added a lot to our discussions, and I always loved her choices. So I made her this quick "Moving" card to send her off. I got the idea of layering the same color of cardstock from Angie at Chick n' scratch. I think it's such a simple way to add some detail and elegance to a card.

And I really have to find a better light for taking pictures!

Tools:

Paper: Very Vanilla

Stamp: Loads of Love and Loads of Love Accessories

Ink: Basic Black, Appricot Appeal, chocolate chip, old olive, real red

Ribbon: I can't remember for sure but I think it's Reindeer Red - it's retired

Card Kits

I bought this kit to make a quick set of coordinated cards to give as a gift to my mom - who couldn't use a set of cute cards as a gift eh? I love how quickly a card can come together with a kit, and it's a great place for a newbie to start their papercrafting passion.

I've also started embellishing the inside of a card, especially when it has a darker color background, it adds more of a personalized factor as well as providing a color to write your message on so the recipient doesn't have to squint to read it (or rather, I don't have to search endlessly for my white gel pen to write onto dark paper).

Tools:

Stamp; teeny tiny wishes,

Flower Power Simply Sent kit;

Ink, old olive