BIRTHDAYS - GIFTS - HOW CAN WE PERSONALIZE GIFT WRAPPING?  Consider using supplies from our personal craft collections or altering commercial gift wrap products - and it's not too hard if you look at it from a new perspective. What do you possess on hand that could help make your gift tag more 'custom' or add more pizzaz to your gift wrap?  Myself - I'll experiment with just about everything.

TRY THESE QUICK IDEAS:
          1)  a PAPER FLOWER made from your scallop or circle punch.  Other punches are out there that can do this as well, just look here at my ORNAMENT PUNCH tutorials or posts to see more options.  I also made a lazy paper flower by twisting a strip of gift wrap loosely and gluing to a paper circle.  I cut out leaves from scraps - she loved it!


          2)  Wire up a MONOGRAM INITIAL using thin wire and some jewellery supply beads or bugles! After adding beads, flip the wire into a small loop to close the ends.
This is spectacular in my opinion and it doesn't take long!  Go for a nice 'scroll' look for high impact!


           3)  Instead of ribbon, "Punch" out shapes and just pepper the gift wrap with the die-cuts.  Or align them in rows  or make your own design up - have fun and see what happens.  My example is I chose to do a simple row of scallop circles because my gift wrap has polka-dots.


          4)   Download a nice picture from the Internet and print onto good cardstock.  Then using a Versamark Pad - apply a coat of glue to the entire picture - and then sprinkle Dazzling Diamond Glitter all over the picture and brush off the excess.  Your picture is still visible because the glitter is clear but sparkly which gives the picture a lovely, lovely effect!   [see my picture of Cleopatra].


          5)  Wrap your tag with extra goodies - ribbon or specialty crochet floss or twine is great too.
        
          6)  Have fun with glitter!   Use several colours of glitter on one image or word!!!  This looks neat!
See my "THANKS"  tag -  its for a friend in the US, so why not show off their patriotic colours to a cool effect?   I stamped the tag with HEAT and EMBOSS POWDER, and then blocked off 2/3 of the tag with a straight edge and applied the first colour of glitter.  Once that set, I moved down to the next section and blocked off the remaining 1/3 section and applied the 2nd glitter, and finally coated the remaining section with the 3rd glitter colour.   On the opposite side, I chose our STARS JUMBO WHEEL - and inked the tag, and embellished with markers, and glitter using our 2-WAY GLUE STICK for the small sections!

Download a picture from internet, and glitter it's surface with

 clear or iridescent glitter and Versamark glue pad.

Create a MONOGRAM INITIAL using jewellery wire and bugle beads! 

decorate your tag with ribbon and floss!

Close-up of Paper "scallop circle punch" Flower.

Paper Flowers - Twist'n'Stick, or Punch styles of flowers!     

Scallop Circle Die-cuts to create a decorative row!

Jazz up a word with rows of different colours of glitter!

Use patriotic colours - here its the Red, White and Blue of the USA!

             Hope this helps you to get started with jazzing up 
                                  your gift wrapping!  
                                           Cheers, Beverly xx

"Look who's ... 9"  doesn't only have to be for 9-yr old birthdays - 

- how about someone's 9th year on the job?

And look at our cutie-pie owl  - its so much fun designing "outfits" using our 2 Step Punch.

2-Step Punches refer to the fact that the punch creates several 'parts' in one click of the punch.  So this means you can choose the paper for each of those parts - so this adorable owl comes with 'her' pink dress and pink accents, or it could of been blue clothing  if I chose to - or how about even a 'red' owl itself?   

For this celebration card, I paired my owl with several stamp set components - the balloons are from "Blowing Kisses" - a very sweet stamp set.  And 'On a Pedestal' provided, well, the pedestal, lol!   Finally, I turned to another stamp set for birthdays - this time, its "Look Who's Turning.." and highlighted the no. 9 which is significant for this recipient. 

Have some fun yourself - if you'd like to try a 2-Step Punch - let me help you!  

Thank you for taking time to visit my blog!  

xx Beverly

Wow - the new SUMMER MINI CATALOQUE  out for release MAY 1rst!!

I had to make my decision on what to pre-order, and it was tough but I went for.....drum roll, please! .......

BEYOND THE GARDEN

Suite!

Fresh - Bold - Candy Colours.....that is what I felt seeing  this collection - it's summery alright! 

also - the most fun thing of all - gorgeous embossing colours!!!  Wheee!  

My " child-self " grabbed for the candy-like pink embossing powder in MELON MAMBO right away - as moi is totally a  pink person, but as I was saying the "Beyond The Garden Suite" collection is a beautiful way to start your spring and summer projects. 

Here is a sample of a project I have done using the Designer Series Paper which features: Wild Wasabi, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point and Tangerine Tango colours. 

I will come back and explain some of the details I chose to do for this, but here you can see for yourself how lovely these papers are for a SCRAPBOOK PROJECT!  

I have made a large octagon 'window' by hand, and created interest with several details.....

...

....such as flowers made from several of our punches.

I also now have a new smashing TEXTURE EMBOSSING PLATE - to go along with the floral motif present in the papers, and of course, the STAMP SET for this collection is FABULOUS FLORETS which had to be mine as well.  If only because it features large, bold, yet ' airy ' flowers such as the type you see on upscale fabric!   Anyways - you'll love it, I promise!  

CONTACT ME FOR YOUR SUMMER MINI CATALOGUE

 - although I am limited by policy to Canadian Addresses , 

Thank you for stopping by :)

I think I am in love with the 2-Step Punches the most!   Soon I will be showing you something I've done with the 2-Step Owl Punch which I finally acquired - but my 2-Step Bird Punch is so lovely, that I turn to it again and again when I need to create something special!

Here I needed to demonstrate one of our rubber stamp alphabets, "JUMBLE ALPHABET".   I thought the word 'FRIEND' would be an excellent place to start! So I stamped out each letter, one by one, onto some WHISPER WHITE cardstock - a  Stampin' Up! signature product!  

I also used the increasingly popular TULIP BORDER EMBOSSING FOLDER - and I matched the cardstock and ink - can you guess which colour it is?  { here it is spelled backwards, lol =   edeus tfos} 


Using some scraps of the really popular SPRINGTIME VINTAGE Designer Series Paper, I punched out the bird with the 2-STEP BIRD PUNCH and did so in one of my fav ways, by mish-mashing the paper and the parts of the bird!   So the body is one pattern and the wing is in another pattern.....but I continued by adding PHOTO CORNERS with yet 2 more patters from the vintage collection!!  

Be a bit 'freestyle' and have creative fun - it doesn't have to matchy-match - it just has to be pleasing to your eye!  If you think it should have even more pattern - go for it.

That is the great thing about our DESIGNER SERIES PATTERN CARDSTOCK - ITS MADE TO CO-ORDINATE FOR YOU - NO GUESS WORK!

To really go one step further though, I must admit, I thought about it and came up with my NEST!  Its just scraps I cut with our PAPER SNIPS scissors and glued them down in what I thought looked 'nesty' - can I say that, nesty?  Of course - and maybe I should say "dazzlin' nesty" because I ooomphed it up with some glitter, our trusty DAZZLING DIAMONDS GLITTER!  

Well - I like it!   Looks vintage but not old - young vintage!!!  LOL!

If you'd like to make this card - contact me and we can have YOU CREATING A PRETTY CARD FOR SOMEONE SPECIAL in no time!

Thanks!

   Hello again!   Here is another of my favourite projects!  

 It's a mini-note card set whereby you create 3 inch square notecards using 3x6 inch cardstock strips.

This is a great way to maximize a 12x12 sheet of cardstock!

Cute Pocket Notecard Set

Hold a Workshop and this project is one we can do.

Everyone can use this - its a very popular project!

Thank You Notecards

Contact Me to book a Workshop 
Earn FREE Products from our Catalogue, a Hostess Stamp Set
 and a
Free Thank You Gift from me!


Plus its awesome fun!

Today's hot word is HOMEMADE ....

CAN YOU TELL WHICH IS THE REAL PIZZA?

LOL!

I personally think this is picture shows works of art - truly Renaissance worthy!

But that is because - moi - made these, lol!  And I am not being too humble, am I?

But, honestly, my "real" homemade pizza was the best - I love making homemade pizzas because I love, love the thick, puffy crust!  Plus - I can make it tailor-made to our preferableness (yes, that IS a word!)....and fresh ingrediants, mmm-hmmm!

The usual around here is FRIDAY NIGHT PIZZA - and a Movie!  And I just overheard an adorable, little guy asking his Mom in the grocery store whether they could make Fridays, movie night!  So I helped him out, and said "Pardon me, but we have Friday night movies too! With pizza! It's really fun!"   So hopefully, the little guy gets his way...but I am thinking, its probably Friday Night Pizza in lots of households - practically a North American tradition .

Anyways - the funny thing was, that here it was last Thursday, the 7th; and my daughter came to me and asked if I'd help her with a little something for a class presentation project due Friday.  She is in university, but I was intrigued when she said they needed to have:
 a PIZZA PUZZLE and a WINE & CHEESE MATCH-UP CARDS. 

BUT - the really funny thing was -
 I had just learned HOW TO MAKE "MUSHROOM" PUNCH ART the day before!!!
 I was astonished how the Universe was all coming together!!!

And since, I love a challenge - it was ON!

PIZZA PUZZLE

puzzle pieces attached with velcro tape

First I made the pizza base - I didn't waste good stuff, so I cut a large 7 in circle from a cereal box and covered it with a beige-yellow no-name cardstock.  Then I re-created another 7 in. circle in SO SAFFRON cardstock by STAMPIN' UP! naturally.  Which I distressed with our DISTRESS WHEEL and a little SOFT SUEDE ink.  That was the plain part, up next was the fun stuff - making the little mushrooms!

MUSHROOM PUNCH ART 

Need: Oval Punch (small or medium but large will do if necessary)

Circle Punch - 3/4 inch or 1 inch  ( use larger if creating big mushrooms)

The CIRCLE and the OVAL PUNCHES are relative to each other according to the size of MUSHROOM you desire. But a little adjusting can work wonders.

1. Punch out a Circle in a light beige cardstock

2. Using your Oval punch - nip a small chunk out of the circle, using the "end" of the Oval punch.

3. Punch out an Oval in light beige cardstock. 

4. "Fish" the Oval shape - glue a small strip of paper to one end of the Oval shape, and insert the Oval shape ' BACK INTO THE OVAL PUNCH' exposing one "side" of the Oval, and 'PUNCH' a big bite out of the Oval - you basically create a long 'C' shape of the side of the Oval.  REPEAT to other side of the Oval shape - you will have a shape that is narrow in the center and wider at both ends. 

5. Assemble ' mushroom ' from the two parts you have created.

ILLUSTRATION depicting Mushroom Punch Art Steps

TO VIEW LARGER IMAGE:

CLICK ON THE ABOVE PICTURE
(or set your computer's zoom - see 'wrench icon' top right of your bookmark bar)

The rest of the pizza I just made up as I went along ......that is GREEN PEPPERS made with the OVAL PUNCH once more - punch a green strip of cardstock, just along the side of the Oval Punch, slide it just a wee bit above and punch 'again' and you will have a elongated 'C' shape - sliced pepper!

And of course, that is just a wonky circle which was trimmed from a large CIRCLE PUNCH shape of retired DUSTY DURANGO cardstock.  Then, I went crazy with a POLKA DOT STAMP and lots of ink colours ranging from white to dark reds, and browns.  

I gave everything a swipe of brown ink around edges - even highlighted a few parts with a light brown marker.  And since we need TOMATO SAUCE - a un-even edged circle of REAL RED cardstock did the trick!

We "layered" our pizza - and since it is a PUZZLE - we did not clutter the surface, but left it so we could CUT the PIZZA BASE and the PIZZA TOPPINGS/SAUCE into 6 SLICES - which worked out to be a little under 3 inches around the circumference. 

Attach VELCRO TAPE (Adhesive-backed) to pizza base, leaving the two parts of the tape together - ALIGN the pizza top slices - then curl off the adhesive backing, and slap the pizza slice into place and press hard to create good adhesion. VOILA - a PIZZA PUZZLE! 

MATCH-UP CHEESE AND WINE CARDS

Next we needed to make a game for MATCHING CARDS of varieties of brands of CHEESE and WINE. \

The TOP NOTE DIE and my BIG SHOT 

were just what I needed!

[ The objective:  each Top Note is cut in half, labelled and spread on the table. Choosing a Cheese (brown cards) search and pair with a compatible Wine (red cards).]

1. Punch out TOP NOTE Shapes - as many as reguired to match-up! In our case, we need 28 so I punched out 14 Top Note shapes in a variety of colours.  My daughter meanwhile, made labels. 

2. Cut Top Note shapes in half length-wise.  Now you have 'pairs' !!!

3. Create a POCKET.  Follow any template you wish for a box - I basically measured and cut a rectangle slightly shorter than the top note half-shapes, and then scored along both sides twice 1/4 apart, and the same again on one shorter side.  Clipped the parts where the edges met when I folded it together and glued together.  I did not create a 'back' as we were gluing the boxes to a paper insert for the project's presentation binder. 

Hope this helps give you ideas on how to use our crafting tools to help with presentation work! 

Beverly

1. Cut a strip of paper - make it twice as long as the desired length.

2. Score lines through the length of the paper strip at even intervals.

3. Following scored lines, accordian-fold the strip - fold in a 'z' fashion, bringing one fold forward 

and pressing it down  and repeating until the length is used up. 

Now you can add this paper 'ribbon' to your projects!  

GRAB BAGS!  

A first for me as Demo for Stampin  Up!  Here is the news I found today:

Beginning today, April 1, and continuing while supplies last, you will be able to purchase special "grab bags" through me or the Online Store. 

These grab bags will come in three sizes: the $6, the $12, and the $18 grab bag. 

Each bag will contain a variety of discontinued products that could include a combination of any of the following: ribbons, Accents & Elements, chipboard, Designer Series Papers, and Simply Sent kit components. Grab bags will not contain stamp sets or tools.

Please keep the following in mind:

• Grab bag orders can only be placed on demonstrator orders or in the Online Store.
• There is no minimum purchase required to participate in the grab bag special offer.
• There is no limit to the number of grab bags a customer may purchase; however, grab bag items are only available while supplies last. 
• All grab bag sales are final. There are no refunds or exchanges.
• Not all grab bags will be unique.
• You should use the following item numbers when ordering grab bags:

Item	Description
125873	$6 Grab Bag (containing at least $24 worth of products!)
125874	$12 Grab Bag (containing at least $48 worth of products!)
125875	$18 Grab Bag (containing at least $72 worth of products!)

So I am going to check this out - remember, till supplies run out!




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