Always Inkin'

Let your kids say thanks! - at tomorrow's Mistletoe Mart in Carmel, IN

I love these handstamped snowman thank you's.  What a cute way to conveniently get all those thank-you's in the mail this holiday season.  It's also a great way to teach little one's the importance of saying thank you.

(I had to take the pic with my cell phone, so the real thing is EVEN cuter than the picture!)

I'll be offering these at the Mistletoe Mart at Manor Care, tomorrow from 10-3.  More info about Mistletoe Mart here.

If you need to get your hands on these cuties and can't make it to the Bazaar, please shop with me on Etsy, by clicking here. 

Second Annual Mistletoe Mart in Carmel, Indiana

Join me THIS SATURDAY from 10am to 3pm at Mistletoe Mart! 

ManorCare at Summer Trace will host its Second annual fundraiser Mistletoe Mart Silent Auction and Bazaar to benefit the Children’s Bureau, Inc on Saturday, December 5, 2009. Manor Care is behind the Carmel Meijer.

There will be complimentary pictures with Santa, holiday treats and live holiday tunes! This event is free of charge and open to the public.

This snowman card is an example of just one of the items I will be offering.  It has a little gift giving surprise inside:

A gift card holder!  How cute is that?!  I'll be featuring exclusive, Holiday Mart items every day this week, so check back often and come visit me this Saturday!

Two cards walked into a bar...

Well, hello there! I've been on a bit of a stamping sabbatical this year.  I've always said stamping is my therapy and that's easy to say when things are rolling along smoothly and 2009 has been anything but.  I'm itching to get back into my office and test the limits of my stamping-as-therapy theory.

I started by looking for inspiration from two of my favorite cards and wondered if I could marry the two, so to speak.  Here are the bride and groom:

 

 

I really like the resulting combination - it makes me feel relaxed.  So, the next time you need inspiration, look at the things you really enjoy and see where it takes you.  What do you think?

Happy, fluffy, little clouds!

We've been in our home for a little over two years now, but we still hadn't done anything to really decorate the girls' rooms.  I stopped procrastinating once Stampin' Up came out with the princess decor elements this January. 

Of course, I chose the first really nice day of weather to be indoors rubbing this stuff all over my walls - but it was SO MUCH FUN!  Since I was putting up Decor Elements in two rooms, I thought it would take all day but it took a total of about three hours to do both rooms.  The hardest part was placement, but once everything was taped up on the walls, it went quickly.

So, I have to share the pictures:

 

This is above Lillie's bed.  I added the initial "L" to the castle.  There's a saffron horse drawn carriage that came with the princess and the frog and LOTS of stars and clouds left over.  I think I'm going to incorporate some of them into a scrapbook page for her.  We'll see what happens to the rest of it!

For Ella's room, the "Flower Garden" set coordinated with her bedding perfectly.  I purchased two sets and had one set growing out of her bed, and another just above the base board.   

 

You know, when Stampin' Up! first introduced the Decor Elements, I told myself I was not going to have my walls covered in every room.  But now, I can totally see how it happens!  I had so much fun putting these up and I couldn't be happier with how they look.  I'll even admit, that I may be slightly more enthusiastic about these rooms than my own children! 

Flower Garden (Medium) $16.95

Princess, Carriage & Frog (Saffron) $9.95

Clouds (Saffron & White) $7.95 each

Friends 24-7

Good morning!  I spent some time sequestered in my office recently, while my husband had a guys-only get together.  I didn't mind - it gave me some guilt free time to stamp without having any particular goal in mind.  I knew I wanted to play with my new "Friends 24-7" set.  I love that our stamp sets have backgrounds, images and phrases that all coordinate - it makes it easy for me to be creative.  I also used  something else new:  textured designer series paper!  Here's what I came up with:

 

There are a couple things I learned when using this new paper, and I wanted to share them with you. 

• The paper is a cover-weight card stock and has a nice texture to it.  Because it's sturdier, I was able to reposition my bird image, (adhered with dimensionals) without any tearing.
• The stamped phrase did not show up well, when I originally used Chocolate Chip ink.  I instead used brown Stayz On ink, and that did the trick.  (Luckily I experimented with this before stamping on the finished product.

That's all for now, Ihave a creative day!

Products Used:

Parisian Breeze Specialty Designer Series Paper, 113993, $11.95

Friends 24-7 Stamp Set, 113218, $25.95

Let it snow...

Last week, when Westfield, Indiana received 12.5" of snow I stayed inside and stamped with my sister.  (After bundling up the kids, playing outside, sledding, unbundling, wiping up mounds of melted snow off the floors and making hot cocoa of course!)

My sister was in love with these cute fish made from punches that she saw in the February issue of the Stampin' Success magazine.  Katie Resop submitted these punch fish for the December Art Contest - and was one of the winners!  I'll get some pictures of her cute fish, so that I can share them with you.

I on the other hand was anxious to try out a card sample from our new 2009 Idea Book & Catalog.  I got the Stampin' Up Big Shot for Christmas (a die cutting machine - it rocks!) and was anxious to incorporate the die cuts into a card.   

The large flower and the leaf along with the smaller flowers are from "Stampin' Up! Birds and Blooms" sizzlet (small die).   The paper on the left looks blueish, but it's actually our kraft paper, which look great with the saffron and olive paper.  Thanks for looking - stay warm!

Birds & Blooms Sizzlet:  113485, $21.95

It's good to be back!

Happy New Year everyone!  After the traveling, baking, being horribly ill and then baking some more (yummy, huh?) it's time to start stamping again!

The new catalog is here and it doesn't disappoint.  I've had to hold myself back because I only have my shipments of "customer catalogs" and my own personal copy hasn't arrived yet.  So until it arrives I'll have to hold back my desire to squiggle, underline, highlight and drool!

So let's get to some stamping:

One of my resolutions is to have a ready supply of cards this year.  Even though Stampin' Up is business and pleasure for me, it seemd like I was always making a card last minute. I started re-stocking my card supply with this adorable, color-in birthday card.  The design is from a swap I received at convention from Gloria Lynn Hall.  She doesn't have a blog that I can point you to, but she's a fellow demonstrator - THANKS GLORIA! 

Any large, line-art stamp set would work for this style of card.  Some suggestions are:  Zoofari, Loads of Love & Boatload of Love, Simple Birthday Thanks and Under the Stars.

Supplies: 111550, Sock Monkey, $26.95

A little somethin' before I start cookin'

Are you already in the kitchen cooking or are you checking out my blog to avoid cooking?  I decided yesterday would be a good day to experiment with a new Indian dish and was standing in my kitchen all afternoon when I realized it probably would have been smarter to order pizza since I'll be cooling all day today, too.

So, I completely ran out of of adhesive yesterday - all seven dispensers are empty.  I have a lot of almost finished projects on my desk that I can't quite show you yet.  But then one of my favorite stamp sets, All in the Family, is featured in the huge Holiday Extravaganza sale starting today, so I'm sharing some of my projects featuring this set:

     

    

Do you see the clothes the kids are wearing?  I stamped the All in the Family body images on Designer Series Patterned Paper, to get the clothing designs.  I just can't get enough of this cute family - I'm glad it's featured in the Holiday Extravaganza sale.  Check it out and let me know what you're cooking today!

116217 - All in the Family Bundle:  All in the Family Stamp Set, Family Accessories, Neighborhood Stampin Around Jumbo Wheel - $31.70!!  (That's 50% off the original price!)

Confessions of a hoarder

I'll admit it - I have a problem with throwing something away if I think it might have a little life left in it.  And surprise - I feel like I can use EVERYTHING!  I hold on to bags, empty boxes, fabric, wire - I can't part with any of it.  When it comes to papercrafts, I'm physically unable to get rid of scraps.  I know, I know...it's a real problem. It seems like the smaller the scrap, the more affectionate I feel towards it...

So, ever since I've started using our new scallop edge punch, I've been thinking about how to use the tiny strip of scrap paper your left with after punching the scallop:

     

So when I saw a project by the ridiculously talented Sharon Johnson, I knew I'd found my inspiration.  She describes how she often uses a very small strip of cardstock to seperate two pieces of decorative paper.  Thanksgiving is sandwiched between my parents anniversary and my mom's birthday! So I decided to use them (their cards, anyway) as guinea pigs. Here are my projects:

 

 I used the scallop strip for the anniversary card, I made a birthday card using the "scrap".  Can you see it?  Ithink it's a little addition that makes a big impact.  I've posted the entire project in my gallery, as well as some close ups of the rhinestone brads. 

Thanks for looking, I hope I've inspired you to take a second look at your scraps.  So fess up - what can't YOU get rid of?

Crop A Dile

Is anyone out there as happy as I am that it's Friday?  It's been a long week, right?  I know I said I was going to try to stay "in the moment" and not try to rush the holidays, but I'm having too much fun with all my Christmas stuff!  I made a banner which I think will look nice on a mirror - so it shows the coordinating paper on the back side.  It currently resides on our family room wall, which I did just to take the photo.  My husband saw it and doesn't want it to come down - but I think it's pushing it to have a Christmas themed banner in one room and a Thanksgiving banner in another!  (The Thanksgiving banner is featured in my "Anything But a Card" gallery )

 

I hope you can see the snowflakes - they're from the Holiday Collection Kit (yes, AGAIN!)  I used white craft ink to color the chipboard "J" and I used Blue Bayou and Riding Hood Red to color the other letters.  They're reflective because I used clear embossing powder on both letters.  And do you know what punched holes in those thick pieces of chipboard?  My crop-a-dile!  It's a real "arr, arr, arr" tool - it punches through leather, tin and a variety of other materials.  Ever wonder how to use one?  They're an awesome You Tube video by Madscrappergirl that I like to show people...you can check it out here.

108362 - Crop A Dile - $29.95

102023 - Dazzling Diamonds - $4.50

$200 Card Stock

So, remember those printer problems I mentioned yesterday?  We ended up buying a new printer, but my husband couldn't help taking apart the old one to figure out what the problem was. Do you know what he found?  A 3"x2" piece of sage shadow cardstock that one of my girls had VERY successfully shoved into the printer.  Considering it was a three year old, free printer - it had a good run. 

I'm posting more photos of projects made with the Country Living Holiday Collection Kit.  I dressed up some very simple cards with the chipboard pieces.  I also used our Chit Chat rub-ons.  All of our rub-ons are 20% off for the rest of the month, with a $20 purchase.

 

 

111804 - Chit Chat Rub Ons - $10.95

109065 - Chocolate Chip Tafetta Ribbon - $6.95