Hey-Ho-Ho....
Often wonder what to give as a small token of your appreciation ....and at this busy time of the holidays?

Look no further than the ever-useful GIFT TAGS!

They may be the 'small touches in life' but as hand-made gifts - they are perfect for saving your friend time and money!

Recently I had such an opportunity to give a lovely person a wee gift - a Mom - who gave a group of young teens a very nice afternoon of crafting and lunch.  To offer up a note of appreciation I used the following:

1. Stampin' Up! Tag and Curly Label Punches 
2. Stampin' Up! small size stamps - from A Cute Christmas {retired}
3. Stampin' Up! Real Red / Whisper White / Marina Mist Cardstock
4. Stampin' Up! Markers {various}
5. Stampin' Up! Espresso Bakers Twine
6. Stampin' Up! Dazzling Details 
7. and the ever useful sparkly shreds!  whoooo! 

  I thought a group of 6 tags was a nice set - but you stamp and colour away onto white cardstock  as many heart-warming scenes as your heart desires!  I love snowmen and the stack of gifts were real fun to colour - then its a glob of Dazzling Details on each - let dry then its time to package them together! 

Here they are getting their colours on!  

String em up together!

Let's bag them with good ol' sparkly shreds and a plain bag... 

and finally pop them in, staple a folded 'topper' on and voila...!

HOSTESS GIFT TAGS

 * So hope you have a special Hostess in mind! *

*...its my AUNT's CARD and she turned 98 on NEW YEARS! 

Yeah Aunty! 

I have to remember that she's a New Year's baby - I wonder if  they made 

a fuss about that those days, it was 1914 and in a very small settlement - so it could of

went either way: no, too practical to be celebrating a New Year baby or yes, they 

would of celebrated the fact a baby came along on a specially-marked occasion! 

But no matter, she was a new baby and that was special for sure!!! 

She is also the last of her generation in the family. Another significant fact. And there is not

much accounting for genes apparently, as her siblings lived to all different ages from mid-60's right 

on up!  Although if you consider lifestyle, that again is confusing as one of the strictest of a cautionary life

amongst them passed on to heaven first. There is hope for me after all, lol! 

A Personal Consideration - Cards for the Very Elderly

This raises a serious question for me now. How best to communicate with a long-distant and 

very elderly relative whose been placed in a nursing home???

  Its one of those 'ahh' moments that requires some reflection.

 I want my Aunt to keep receiving our well-intended expressions of  affection

 so she has a reminder that we love her. But what if she no longer recognizes the reason behind the cards? 

Or will the cards continue to remind her of who we are?  

 I know she knows who I am when we chat, but of course she has those temporary moments when her thought process goes through a loop. In fact, I can tell when its time to stop talking when she starts to repeat the conversation. 

It almost makes me cry, I think at those times how sweet she is. 

But its hard to swallow because its proof you can't deny that your loved one is experiencing a serious loss. Not a devastating one, but its serious none the less. 

As she is now in a nursing home, yes, I do know one thing, she had to go at the age of 97, if you can believe it - she lasted on her own so long, I am so proud of her!  I know I worried about her though, and relatives near to her recognized the time came and we can only hope she is comfortable. She lives in another province - too far away from us, so I can only gauge her feelings on the matter from our telephone conversations. But she seems really fine, talks well and except for the mild memory loss, she appears to be one heck of a strong Prairie Lady!!!! 

SO  concerning the point I am making - do I continue to send her cards?  I've decided to send her card 'care of '  the Administrator and asking that someone present and read it to her and from there I will find out if she is cognizant for understanding the card and then I can determine how to keep on sending her cards - or not!  It may be best to adjust to ' only telephone calls '. 

Also, I know as busy as staff are and personal space is always limited from what my last Aunt told me , so I don't want them to worry about cluttering up her room....but I do so hope she can enjoy a few cards yet!  Fingers crossed! 

The Card Featured Here uses Supplies from Stampin' Up!:

DS Paper, "Everyday Enchantment " {green scalloped border} - NEW {Sale-a-bration}

Scalloped Edge created with EDGELIT DIES - " Adoring Accents " - NEW {Occasions Mini}

Stamps - florals created with stamps from sets ' Fabulous Florets and Fifth Ave ' and leaf / heart from ' Best Friends Forever '  {main catalogue}

chalks, pearls, cardstock ={Peach Parfait/Whisper White}, paper piercer. *

Need a gift?  Quickly?  A Make and Tuck!

My pun on the Make and Take phrase, but a collection of these tucked in a basket and you will always be prepared to "give a little" when you need to.  Or make a collection for a friend, fund-raising and so on.

Our treat- box is made with our PILLOW BOX DIE for the  Big Shot and using CLEAR WINDOW SHEETS.  

 Fill with candy of choice.   

 

Featuring….the   OVAL ALL Stamp Set painted with our  ink pads and the AQUA PAINTER brush and then punched out with the matching LARGE OVAL and SCALLOPED OVAL Punches. 

Stampin` Dimensionals will easily attach the greeting set to the plastic pillow box. Add ribbon shown here in OLD OLIVE GROSGRAIN.

TIPS – a) wind ribbon around the short end of the Pillow Box, to save money….b) block out the ``fabulous friend`` on the stamp, and write in a person`s name.
EXTRA USES – the Pillow Box Die can make a number of different projects such as upright, square boxes using four half pieces – or add a handle and make it look like a purse!

Have Fun – and be grateful for all the people who make our lives happier and easier!  :)

Ok - here I am! Another day - another post!

I was up late (as usual) in my craft studio and watching Youtube while I put together some new arrivals when I found a whole slew of colouring techniques regarding SU markers.

Things to know:

Like a good marker, it has deep colour which you can apply directly to paper for colouring stamped images -the effect is altered somewhat by your choice of paper.

Use STAZON INK to stamp your image if you need to insure no bleeding of the stamped image if it gets wet from the moisture of the markers.

You can achieve many different techniques using our markers - and here I will show you one. AND I will compare this technique to direct-to-paper marker colouring.

What I am using:

AQUA PAINTER BRUSH

4 Stampin' Write Markers - Regal Rose/Certainly Celery/Green Galore/So Saffron

STAZON BLACK INK

Whisper White and no-name non-glossy white paper

1.Direct-to-Paper Colouring (Fairy on the right)

On the glossy Whisper White paper - I stamped my first image and coloured it directly - marker to paper to get the full effect of the colours. I used yellow first, painted the edges of her wings with one green, and blended over top with the brighter second green (green galore) - and finally painted her skin with the pink, Regal Rose.

You can see she is very colourful - which is perfectly fine - it all depends on your final decisions for your project.

2. Using the Aqua Painter Brush (Fairy on the left with the dots above her wings)

a) prepare the tip of the wet aqua brush by sqeezing some water from its handle into the brush and just skim the brush onto your paper or cloth just so its wet (not dripping wet please!)

b) then touching the aqua brush to the tip of the marker brush, I applied the colour to her skin first - which came on very pale. I repeated this until I had the shading of her skin the way I wanted AND I repeated it over the circular areas to give her blushing cheeks.

c) next, I applied the yellow to the wings area, her dress, shoes and leaf headdress. Where I wanted it deeper in colour, I would just apply more.

d) I immediately applied the darker shade of green - Certainly Celery to the outside of the wings AND followed by the second green, Green Galore to blend the two.

So you can see yourself - the difference. I did the second fairy, with the aqua painter on the non-glossy paper but you can still tell that she is more subtly coloured with better blending than the more deeper shades of the direct-to-paper fairy.

Note - in real life, they appear brighter - sorry but my camera and reducing the size of the pics always grays them out somewhat.

I posted a pic showing the aqua-painted fairy on her own.

I also show how the marker works in pink - on the far right, is the marker itself - coloured over & over itself. Then over to the left is the marker with the aqua painter again - going from lighter to darker (by applying colour over itself) to get a range of shades.

Well - hope that helps you with your colouring projects!

If you want to learn more about this and other techniques - check out my Stampin' Up! website or the blog here or contact me for classes.

Catch the flavour of summer with this card to send to a friend!

Roller wheels were used in two ways here – to add a flowery border on the card and envelope – and then again, to roll out star shapes which were trimmed and become the focal point.

Choose your greeting, add more colour with markers – another quick and simple card!

Corazon Aquino (Jan 25,1933 - Aug 1, 2009)

I always feel particularly touched when a greatly known and courageous woman passes on, and its no different now.

Sadly, the world is grieving with the Phillipines as they have lost a wonderful woman - their former and 11th President and Asia's first woman president. I made a card in her honour and reading how yellow was her favourite colour and that the streets rained yellow confetti as her countrymen paid tribute to her, I therefore chose yellow as my starting point - discreetly - along with flowers.

I opened up one of my latest accessories, Stampin' Up!'s Textured Impressions embossing folder called Elegant Bouquet (see above photo). It works so easily - just like pressing butter! I used artist brushes and pastel chalks to colour the raised design on vanilla cardstock.

The ribbon slider I stamped the crown on to was a hand-made number I created using corner scissors. Tip: pencil guide lines on the back to help you line up the scissors for cutting.

I was lucky to find a green strip of ribbon given to me - with a flower on it resembling the flowers in the embossing. Its lovely also because it glitters - and I love glitter.

I think it would have pleased former President Aquino that I chose to be different by juxtaposing layers on different levels from one another. Its quirky but considering how her path was anything but straight in life, I feel its a reflection of that.

Restoring democracy to a unstable country; a "Woman of the Year' recipient (1986) ; and a member of the Council of Women World Leaders among other things must have been exciting beyond words but she also loved to paint ! And gave them as gifts to friends! A kindred spirit of the creative realm!!! And as the sentiment says: "Queen of hearts".....

Rest in Peace.

Stampin' Up! Supplies: Textured Impressions Elegant Bouquet folder; Crushed Curry & So Saffron cardstock, Razzle Dazzle Designer Series 12 in.paper; Stampin' Pastels (chalks) and Crushed Curry ink stamp pad and marker.

Other Supplies: crown/sentiment stamp, green ribbon, gold glitter glue.