* I love crafting with the 'young' ones - it always is a pleasure as I soak up their enthusiasm with relish!  Here is a young friend who made a tag for her special teacher!  


I find offering them choices is the best way I can share this craft with them and hopefully encourage them to consider this hobby - you never know what 'seeds' are laid through these experiences, you might be responsible for the birth of a new stamper, lol! 


So I will offer up suggestions but keeping them contained to just a few and add a very brief explanation describing the effects or the physical nature of the suggested products - this way the young person can make informed choices.  First I recommend about 3 colours and then ask which one they'd like to choose. 


Then we talk about the type of project: card, or tag {keep it simple!} and depending on the age, I will then decide how elaborate we will decorate the project. In this case, this young person has a lot of creative experience, so we are good to go! 


We embossed, we smooched, we glittered, we punched, glued, pop-dotted our way around this tag!  We even customized it by punching out the letters to spell the teacher's name - how cool is that!  It took us about an hour but I could tell she was never bored :)  In fact, I have sold her mother on one of the punches, which is arriving tomorrow and she will be on her way to making some more very cool projects - sweet! 


Here's her result - awesome Carrie! 

A big beautiful tag for teacher :)

And moving into my decorating - I went pretty simple, and just added the few decorations we have on hand, plus I added some paper pinwheels I had been making and sprinkled those in amongst the china cabinet and shelving. Sometimes we don't have to do a lot to make an impact!

What is this - a pinwheel?  

Not my best china display - too busy this month but I will have 

much more time for Christmas decorating - yah!

Some cards I did in my INKS meetings! 

I bought a cheap MUM plant, and placed it in my own basket and brought out our little hedgehog!  Plus I switched the framed pictures - away went a beach picture - and in is my ol' Pepper picture with all its embellishment! And that stand will soon hold a pie, yummmm!   [CLICK ON PICS TO SEE A BETTER VIEW!]

This is one of my absolute favourite pieces - a three tiered stand!  I can add absolutely anything - well, almost anything - to this and make a fantastic display with no effort!   And I really bought it to put my collection of wood-mount rubberstamps!  I did do it for awhile until it was clear that it was tedious scrounging around to find 'a' stamp when I needed it, lol!  But it still looked great!!!! 

I always use everyday items in my decorating, such as a picnic basket - and placing a shot of Autumn orange nearby....always works!  Besides I love basket, willow, bark - all that awesome natural material Mother Nature provides us!  

Well I must go - so much to do still!  

HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING WEEK-END EVERYONE!

GOD BLESS! 

Mmm-whah!  

OXOX

TAYLOR

Here is my finished swaps! {see earlier post}


And an extra card for a special someone who is turning 50!  She loves the sweet-vintage look, and I think my card evokes that for her if I do say so myself!  


And while I was finishing the swap tags, and this card - I was also madly preparing more projects for a display board for this Sat. - tomorrow - and - making a mad dash at decorating our home for Thanksgiving! Whew-wee!  Did I mention our kitchen sink clogged up for two days earlier this week - honestly, where do we fit everything in!?!


So I will make a quick blog post today by throwing everything in - I may have to come back and fill in the details one day or two later as I will be at a crafting event all day tomorrow, and well - you know what this weekend is like, need I say more ladies?  Let the madness begin!

My collection!  There are 10 different techniques on this project!  10! 

I don't do that everyday!!!

See how the effects of our SMOOCH Paint works when you mix it with alcohol and put it in 

a mister?  This angle is meant to show you the spritizing [left card] but when you are looking at 

it directly, its more subtle. 

My special card and my candle belly band! 

A delightful pair!

Here is the candle band from another view - I absolutely love this background

floral stamp!  And when you reduce it to showing only sections - it looks as

intriguing as it does stamped a a whole!  Note the little crimped edges!

Wall Art made with a canvas, and our OWL BUILDER PUNCH! 

I totally had fun making up all different owls - but I did stick to a simple palette 

of colours to miz and match!  Add little flowers and any little girl would love this -

maybe even big girls too!

My stockings!!!!!   Our HOLIDAY STOCKING L DIE for the Big Shot is

sooooo wonderful to play with!!!!   The possibilities are endless!  

I added the 'blades' myself - they are not part of the die parts as you

can see in the picture below.  I also added the lacy doily - I was after a

Vintage Skate look - and the doily was a piece left over from 

last Valentines - way to re-purpose!!! 

.....the wonderful die!

I simply love Halloween.  Mostly because I have always loved scary movies and that led to one love affair after another with the different Hollywood iconic symbols of the time....first scary movie I remember seeing was after a sort of funny situattion - I asked if I could stay up to watch "Thriller Diller".  I was 6 yrs old and staying with a couple who were good family friends. I told them it was a Phyllis Diller movie.  They agreed.

 But it turned out to be a sort of 'swamp thing' style movie and scared the heck out of me but I couldn't take my eyes off the tv. Well, a lot of movies later and I still enjoy them....I'm just a little more sophisticated about them now. I've expanded to international films...last year, we watched a South Korean movie by director Bong Joon-ho,  'The Host' which was an excellent toss-up between funny and scary even with the terrible english translating service.  I'm sure an Americanized version will be along soon.

 Sometimes I just love 'haunting' style movies - like 'The Gift' - which is what I watched this year. I watched it twice. I just love the ending - won't say in case someone reading this has yet to see it.  And I had a little dose more of those ol' Southern style movies with their creepy elements of the deep south and effectively eerie fiddler music, such as 'The Skeleton Key'.

We also went on our traditional walk around the neighbourhood last night. Chilly outside but we dressed up our dog's an orange coat with a pumpkin face and put his little red blinking light on and off we went. It was fun running into groups of halloween'd children walking together - you could see the excitement written all over them - some things never change!  We found excellent dressed up properties as well. One in particular was great! It actually was scaring the dickens out of people.

Other than that, I was a little too busy to do my own things like decorations. Sad but true. I received 2 cards however - that was fun! One is from a friend in the US and I am sooo sorry I didn't get one off to you! I'll make it up next year! If you look at Tammy's card, you can see she did all that scroll work by hand! Nice Tammy!  Love the lil witch boots, lol!

The other card I received is from another SU Demonstrator - and I am showing it to you as it arrived - in our clear envelopes, which, yes, you can mail in!  Just add a postage stamp and the Post Office will deliver, and its kinda different right?

Oh by the way, Happy Anniversary Caroline!

As you may have seen below, I posted my class list for September and mentioned that Christmas classes would be held each month up to and including December.

 I also mentioned I would put a Special Holiday Class Offer together and well, here it is!


BEVERLY'S CHRISTMAS STAMP & CLASS BUNDLE - $200

For $200 you invest during September 15- October 4, you will receive:
      1 Christmas Stamp Set (of your choice + up to a  maximum value of $35)
      $60 Spending Dollars of  Stampin' Up! Catalogue Product
      3 Classes ( Oct, Nov + Dec.) - where I will  work with you individually to use your stamp set in a
         variety of techniques so you will have an assortment of card choices for the holidays plus you will have
         access to stamp sets regularly featured in each of the month's class and 1 Mystery Project.
Please Note the Following:
       * Includes the price of shipping and taxes.
       ** Order of stamp set/products placed 14 days before class allow for delivery.
       *Orders placed before Oct. 3 - class offered after Oct 15/ Orders placed before Oct
         10 - class offered on or after Oct 24th)

So sign up today - this special time of the year only comes around for a short time  - lets have fun together and chalk up some good memories!

(sorry for any of the jagged sentences - my blogging is not co-operating, sigh)

Another card to sink your teeth into!  (so I didn't stop! LOL can you blame me!).....this has been a favourite stamp set for some time!  It comes with eight - 8! - great and cutesy-pie images for your fun!  Circular phrases frame each image so you can utilize your circle punches by including the words or leaving them out with a smaller circle punch as shown here by Michelle W. who made this card for our Stampin' Up! Showcase.  More designer paper is shown torn along the left side, subtle, but effective beside the greeting and the main focus - our boy the Count!

Stampin' Up! Feature Stamp Set:  BATTY FOR YOU!  

Yes indeed - from the vaults of Stampin' Up! - or should I say crypts?....comes this beaut of a card, eerily enticing shall we say?    The halloween season is not too far away and if you have parties coming your way, this would make a nice invitation or a thank you card for the hostess  - well, you can "rattle" up some ideas I am sure!
(ok, I am done! ha ha  - can't help it,just came from the newest Harry Potter movie :) )

* Feature Card by Betty Gillespie
Stampin' Up Supplies include: Top Note Bigz Die, From the Crypt Stamp set, 1-1/4"  Striped Grosgrain Ribbon in Black, Cast-A-Spell Designer Series Paper.

Hello!

I started to fool around with my new JUMBLE ALPHABET - and also wanted to do a Father's Day Card. This card literally "fell together" because I just experimented as I went along.

I know that paper quilting is a favourite trick for card-making so I thought I'd give it a go using up scraps of Delicate Dots paper from who else, but Stampin' Up!, lol! AND....I used an extra TOP NOTE die-cut I had lying about and snipping away I soon had it covered with the scrap papers. I layered it on to another paper, Kiwi Kiss (soon to retire) - and - then just cropped around the die-cut shape to get the extra border. I didn't even glue just used a brad.

I cut out my alphabet letters using my Circle Scissors Plus - which worked beautifully - (just remember to secure the paper down with some Dotto Dots so it won't slip on you :)). Made some larger circles in Sahara Sand which I covered in ink using a cloth. Then created that important word...DAD! Just to make sure he knows he is extra special, I turned a coffee mug with a heart stamp into a beer stein (draw & cut out the beer foam) and penned #1 on the heart. Cute! On to the next step!

Here's where I must admit I went out of my norm! I thought it would be boring to just slap it on the front of a card since I do that so often....no, I wanted to try to come up with something different. Picking up a couple of strips of Bashful Blue paper, I was holding them with both hands and they sort of created a V shape - and then I thought of a ladder! Thinking that was 'fatherly-like' - cuz, we don't want all frills, right! But then - whoop - a giant "A" - you know, Dad is an 'ace' or gets a "A" for being the 'best dad'! So I happily went in that direction!

The Top Note shape has a point and would be troublesome to stand on its own, and soon I realized I would make the 'A' into an 'easel' - it could be both. Plus it could stand on its own like a card. So I created a shelf on the A, and a supporting leg behind it. {I made everything double-thickness plus glued a thin wood stir stick for added support} You could add a string running between the front to the back leg for limit its ability to 'open' if you run into problems.

Anyways - I put my DAD assemblage on the 'A-turned-Easel ' and used a clip to secure it in place AND FINALLY I got to use my tin star! I have had this baby for a couple of years and didn't know when I'd use it.

Hope you like it! B :)

Awwww...what can you not say about cute ol' Sock Monkey that hasn't been said already - he's just plain adorable. I think I will love to turn to this sweet stamp set for years to come!

I have the Stampin' Up! Sock Monkey and Sock Monkey Accessories stamp sets which allowed today's class to create a couple of cards and one of those featured Sock Monkey dressed in his "bunny ears" and ready to share his basket of eggs!

Also I'd like to say "hi" to my 3 new acquaintances that were part of the class - so hello out to Leanne, Pam and Elaine! With slightly varying degrees of experience, everyone did real well with their Sock Monkey makes! I always love seeing a "bunch" of cards or projects from a class all together - always looks so cool I think - but now I realize that I forgot to take a picture as a group - awwww geez!

****************************************************************************

Here is the first one showing the Peek-a-boo Bunny Ears Card - who could it be? :) ...

TUTORIAL

Here's how we made this card:

- whisper white cardstock, 8 x 5 1/2 inches, score and fold in half lengthwise. Open up card, and on the front...

- ... stamp the square frame from the Frames with a Flourish stamp set in 'pumpkin pie' ink, and then shade the inside border with orange and yellow markers,

- keeping the card "open" and the front of the card over a cutting mat, cut out the interior of the stamped frame - (careful not to smear ink using a cutting quide such as a ruler) with a craft knife,

- fold card back, and mark the newly created 'opening' to the inside of the card by some pencil marks to help quide you on the next step....

- turn to the inside, and using the pencil marks - stamp the bunny ears {accessory set} in colour of your choice, we used 'chocolate chip' ink and erase your pencil guide marks; AND once done, use the "sock monkey" stamp and carefully stamp him below his ears so he and the ears become 'one'....we practiced this step on scrap paper till we felt comfortable before stamping the card itself...,

- next, colour him - we used chalks beginning with the lightest colours and blending in the darker shades....a few details were added such as his tongue, the stitch marks, etc. ,

- of course - the easter basket - this stamp was coloured using markers and colouring in the parts of the basket accordingly, and then stamped on a scrap piece of paper, cut out and pasted onto the card in which ever spot you like....

- using a green marker or blender pen/stamp pad...create a few grass strokes and then use another colour marker, hand write in the " HOPPY EASTER " greeting. Don't forget to sign your card!

To keep the card simple [like Kate originally did made sense], but I wanted to brighten the card up with some ribbon I just bought at a rummage sale, a bright orange polka dot. I added a strip of paper which is wrapped around the card - tight so it stays in place, but still has the ability to "slide" off the card, glue together. The ribbon was tied around on top - that's all! Voila!

**Card Design courtesly CASED from Katemade Designs**

All supplies from Stampin' Up!

Time's over for March Stamp Club and this month we had the "girlz" doing their thing - having fun ! We were busy getting ready for Easter by making some very pretty Easter boxes!

During class, the girls were introduced to the Crop-A-Dile ....and judging from the photo, it was only a matter of lining up the oversized eyelet and presto, they all did a fabulous job of it! In fact, they did better than I did - watching younger people do something in half the time is a real reminder that thankfully I have "experience" on my side, lol!

They also 'delved' right into the candy-bags they made with the YUMMY stamp set and Top Note Die {Sizzix Big Shot} -- as we always do a 3rd 'mystery project' - usually something short and "sweet" , ha ha....so true in this case! I wonder if those even made it home!

You can see at the end of the class, everyone loads up with their little prizes, and the beautiful boxes they made. No one had any experience at these boxes before the class and it was nice to see how easy it really is to make such lovely projects - any one can do this!

These easy-to-do boxes are great - they looked soooo good together [see top photo] - so I'd advise that if you plan on making one - make more! I could totally see these decorating a whole table - different colours, different accents - but all unified by their shape.

#1 Mini-Scallop Envelope Box

This box is made by adhereing 4 Scallop Envelope dies {using our Big Shot } together. See my Tutorials if you want to learn how. You can embellish it best with a strip of pattern paper and ribbon and then top it off with a front "medallion" composed of matting several circles and a brad together. And as I am fond of saying, Voila!

#2 E-Z Basket with Handle

This box couldn't be any simplier! Its a basic 6 inch square, scored and a few snips and a dab of glue here and there - and that's just about it! There will be a tutorial for this as well. {keep checking as I sometimes take a break} oxox

Now - just to have some ol'fashioned fun - for the few prizes I'd made up - I had the girls compete for them by 'thumb wrestling' - yes, you read right, ha ha! It was a lot of fun to watch - my luck had me watching from the sidelines as there was just enough people to make it fair and crazy....which was lucky because my thumb has no strength or I doubt the flexibility, lol! Anyways two pairs each tied off and then the winners from those pairs faced each other down - lots of shouting and maybe a weeee bit of cheatin' attempts {gasp}....a winner emerged for First Place! But it was just as good being in 2nd, 3rd and 4th place because true to their sweet natures, they were all the best!

Last year I forgot I had this easter cookie cutter set because it was tucked away - aha!...but this year, I am digging out the easter decorations already to be 'prepared' ! No missing out on lovely decorated cookies and since these are new ones for us, it will be interesting to see how they turn out!

If anyone has nice easter cookies or decorations to share - please do!

Anyways - Stampin' Up! has already some of the cutest easter projects ready and waiting for us to take under our wings and before we know it - we can have easter all lovingly decked out!