Goodbye to a grand old year!

2013 had its ups and downs.  But what year doesn't?  The ups are always so much better when you have a few downs to compare them to, aren't they?  I know they are for me.

2013 certainly left its mark on some of my friends.  Flood damages!  Major flood damages!  A lot of people are still hurting from the extremes of weather the year offered.  If it wasn't flooding, it was hail.  If it wasn't hail, it is the endless snow!  How can so much snow exist, for Heaven't sakes?  Everyone's big question these days is "where are we going to put even more snow?"

And through it all I've been playing with paper.  Even today, when I was (apparently) clearing up my crafting space, I became sidetracked and had to make a card.

The brand new Spring Occasions catalogue is just about here.  On January 3rd the public will be able to order the products in it.  I had the privilege of ordering a month early so that I could make up samples to show off.  The problem with the timing is that Christmas got in the way.  Yes, I have used one of the brand new stamp sets.  I used it in making one of those little Christmas frames that I became rather obsessed with creating.  Today while I was clearing (and cleaning) my room, I reached for the same stamp set: Life in the Forest.  Ironic that this is the stamp set I bought on a last moment's whim!

I bought seven stamp sets from the new catalogue.  One of my New Year's resolutions is to use all seven before I begin to play with any of my other products.  And no---I can't use Life in the Forest again until I've used the other six.  After all, I used it twice.

May your New Year's Eve be safe and happy.  May you be as creative as you have always hoped during the coming year.  May you never want for friends and may you stay healthy.

God bless us----every one!

Using Window Sheets

At some point during the past few weeks I came across a poinsettia that someone had made using a Window Sheet.  It was, if I remember correctly, in golds and reds primarily but I'm sure that a layer of the poinsettia was made from the Window Sheet material---unless it was vellum.

Anyway, the look of the flower obviously made an impression and my mind began "percolating" and designing in the background while I went through my normal life.  And then it was finished and demanded that I create an icy poinsettia: all layered with silvers, blues, and the requisite Window Sheets.  As I thought my way through the flower, I could tell it would be very wintery.

My first layer for the poinsettia was on Silver Glimmer paper.  I had to stamp the image of the poinsettia from the Joyful Christmas stamp set on the reverse side of the Glimmer Paper and then cut it out along the stamped lines.  To me the shape and texture looked very much like the hoarfrost that one sees covering the world on some winter days.  I decided to stamp the same image on a Window Sheet with Versamark and then heat embossed it with my Silver embossing powder.  Of course that flower also had to be cut out.  Those first two layers were of the full-sized poinsettia.

My next two layers were going to be just the centre of the poinsettia.  The first one I heat embossed in Pool Party on a sheet of Silver Foil paper and then the second one I heat embossed in Silver embossing powder on another Window Sheet.  I cut both of those smaller flowers out as well.  Yes, there was a lot of hand-cutting with this particular design.

I decided to use Pool Party cardstock for the base of my card and then cut a layer of Island Indigo cardstock.  For my next layer I chose Whisper White cardstock but for that one I used my Pretty Print textured embossing folder.  To assemble the flower I used dimensionals between each layer after first rolling the petals between my thumb and Bone Folder to add some curves and depth.  Finally, in the centre of the top flower layer, I adhered one of those gorgeous Frosted Finishes embellishments (if you love those as much as I do, don't forget to buy some before they disappear forever on January 3rd).

Finally I heat embossed Noel from the Greetings of the Season stamp set using Pool Party embossing powder on a piece of Window Sheet.  Add some Pool Party Seam Binding ribbon, and the card needed nothing more.

What do you think?

A Hexagonal Greeting!

There is a new die being introduced in the Spring Occasions catalogue.  The die is a large thinlit, not quite the size of the "flip-flop" thinlits, but close.  Its name?  The Hexagonal Hive thinlit die.  I'm thinking that we're going to be seeing a lot of bee-hive style cards after Christmas.

The die makes an amazing Christmas card, too.  I was, of course, playing around with it and suddenly realized that the hexagonal shapes in the die were the perfect size to spotlight the little Holiday Mini punches. So I had to see what might happen if I mixed in the little mini Christmas tree punch and the little mini Star punch.

Keeping the colours to a simple White, Red and Green, I began moving the mini pieces here and there, found a pattern that appealed to me, and added the little "Very Merry" from the Very Merry Tags stamp set. The finished card is just simply fun.

In real life those stars just shine---they're punched from the Silver Foil paper.

Counting down...

We're past the middle of the month, now.  It's just a bit over a week before the big day.  Are you ready?  I sure hope you are because I'm simply not.

I haven't quite finished accumulating all the gifts I had in mind.  For a couple of people that means I'd better get motivated or they're facing an empty spot under the tree.  That wouldn't do at all.  And there are those "little things" I'm still considering getting to bulk out one or two stockings.  And the time is ticking!  I can actually hear it in the background.

I've put together a few decorated boxes.  Some you've seen as I've made them for blog hops or posts.  One that I finished last week makes me really happy.  I had bought a couple of boxes from the local Dollar Store (yes, the one with those awesome little frames I've fixated on for a while) and had some thought of decorating them.  Finally, last week I tackled one of them and I'm so happy with the results.  It's a good-sized box, too, which means it can hold something special.  It's a 5" x 5" square and is 2 1/2" high.  Like I said, a good size.  A pretty scarf can easily fit inside or a goodly stash of candies (or tea).

I have been using the Joyful Christmas poinsettia quite a bit this year.  It's so incredibly beautiful and lends itself to so many cards and projects.  You won't be surprised to hear that I used it again for this project.  This time, however, I only used it to heat-emboss the poinsettia in gold in the centre of the lid.  After that I dug out my Watercolor Winter stamp set from last year and went wild.  That stamp set is a perfect compliment to this year's Joyful Christmas stamp set, don't you think?

I love it when I can use stamp sets in conjunction with each other.  It's quite an investment to have a stamp set that serves only one purpose.  When it can be used with another set or to compliment current sets, it's definitely a bonus.  I guess what I'm saying is "buy what you really love".  Most of the time you will re-use it.

So, around the gold heat-embossed poinsettia on the lid of the box, I stamped some of the pine twig and the pine cones in Always Artichoke and Early Espresso respectively.  I added a bit of Gumball Green with my markers to give the pine needles more presence and coloured in the pine cone using my Baked Brown Sugar marker.  Then I used my Strawberry Parfait marker to colour and shade in the heat-embossed poinsettia.  A bit of sponging around the edge of the lid using my Gold Encore stamp pad and the lid was looking really nice.  All it needed was one of those exquisite Frosted Finishes Embellishments in the centre to be perfect.

The rest of the box had to be worthy of this lid.  I knew immediately that I wouldn't use the Joyful Christmas stamp set any longer.  The sides of the box were too shallow at 2 1/2" to fit that beautiful, large poinsettia.  The small poinsettia from last year's Watercolour Winter, was exactly the right size.  And so, for the sides, I used the poinsettia and the pine twig from that set.  Instead of colouring each poinsettia the same colour as the one on the lid, I chose to match the lid on two sides and to colour the poinsettias on the other two sides with my White Stampin' Chalk Marker.  I love the way the chalk marker lets you layer the colour just like the markers do.  Of course I also sponged some Gold Encore ink on the edges of each side of the box.

Doesn't it look pretty all stamped and coloured up like this?  The whole box is so stunning that I'm almost reluctant to give it up.  I just hope the recipient loves it as much as I do.

After all, this is a box that could become someone's special memory-holder.  Wouldn't that be great?

What colour is Christmas?

Too often I hear people criticize a card or decoration as not being "the colour of Christmas".  What is the colour of Christmas?  For some people it is and always will be red, green and white.  But why?  Why can't Christmas be blue and white or white and silver or yellow and green or just about any colour in the rainbow? Is the holiday diminished by the colours we choose?

My own answer is a resounding "NO!"  Christmas is whatever colour makes you happy.  Christmas can be any colour or colours that make you feel like loving everyone and giving and celebrating.  Christmas can be a rainbow.

I began thinking about colour and Christmas when I noticed that I hadn't used one inch of my Sweater Weather Designer Paper.  Believe me, here in Alberta it is definitely sweater weather at the moment.  Actually it feels more like several layers of sweaters-type-of-weather.  As I leafed through the Designer Paper, thinking that since I hadn't used it for Thanksgiving or, actually, anything, perhaps it would make a good Christmas card.  Well, those of you who own the Designer Paper know that it doesn't have what some would call conventional Christmas colours.

And I thought, what colour is Christmas---and all the stuff you've already read.

So I took a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of the Sweater Weather Designer Paper and proceeded to make a Christmas card.  The primary colours in the piece I cut were Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, Sahara Sand and Crushed Curry.  After pulling a piece of each cardstock out of my files, I finally decided that the base cardstock would be Crushed Curry.  My next layer became Chocolate Chip and then we had the Designer Paper next.  The combination looked great---really, really great, actually.  Did it make me think of Christmas?  Not a bit!

So I began looking through my stamp sets and rejected them one by one until I came to the hostess set, Warmth & Wonder.  The deer was perfect!  I had a beginning!   So I cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock with my second-to-smallest Oval Framelit and cut a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock with my third-to-smallest Oval Framelit for the backing.  First I stamped the tree from that set using Sahara Sand ink, then I stamped the ornaments in the set over the tree using Soft Sky ink, and finally I stamped the little deer using Chocolate Chip ink.  Since I wanted the deer to appear to be walking in snow, I cut another section of oval in Whisper White and tore a small piece from an end jaggedly.  I glued that over the bottom section of the Whisper White oval, covering the bottoms of the deer's feet, and managed the illusion of snow.

I adhered the stamped Whisper White oval to the Chocolate Chip oval and then, after first adhering a section of the Burlap Ribbon to the card layers, adhered the oval over that using dimensionals.  For my greeting I used a combination of the "celebrate" from my Fabulous Phrases stamp set and "Christmas" from the sold-out Endless Greetings stamp set.  I cut that using the Scallop Oval Punch and also cut a backing of Chocolate Chip using my Large Oval Punch.  That was also mounted on dimensionals.

Don't the Chocolate Chip and Crushed Curry Candy Dots look perfect as an accent?  

So, what is the colour of Christmas?  Whatever colour makes you happy inside. 

A New Frame---A Look at the New Catalogue

I decided to make another one of those addictive frames.  I'm finding that as soon as I've made one, I see my stamps sets and get all sorts of new ideas for another frame.  Of course that urge was helped along by the delivery of my new products from the Spring Occasions Catalogue.  I get to play with all those new products and make up samples to entice everyone when the catalogue becomes "live" on January 3rd, 2014.  When you think about it, that's really not very far away, is it?

So, among the products in my package was a stamp set that I wasn't all that sure I wanted.  Actually it made my order at the last minute---talk about waffling about something!  Now that I have the set, however, I am really quite pleased.  What's the name of the set?  It's the brand new Life in the Forest stamp set which has 7 stamps.  I'm not allowed to show you the set but I am allowed to make something up using it.  Strange, huh?

My first thought was to use a black frame and during the entire set-up and creating my little squares, I was aiming towards that black frame.  In the end, however, I layed the squares out on the black one and then on my last white frame and knew immediately that it had to be the white frame after all.

The images in the stamp set are all little forest creatures as well as a set of trees and a mushroom.  They're all very simply drawn, which is likely the reason that I waffled about buying the set to begin with.  But all the images colour up beautifully.  I decided to use my Aqua Painter and ink from my stamp pads.  The effect was wonderful and made me love the little creatures.

You can see that I also used an image from the For the Birds stamp set as well as the presents from the Wishing You stamp set.  My colours are a combination of very subtle and nice and bright.  I knew that I wanted to use the Soft Sky and to balance that, I made two squares using the Pistachio Pudding.  I wanted each one to be on a base colour and was surprised at how much I liked the Pacific Point with the Soft Sky.  The Pistachio Pudding also looks really good on the Gumball Green.

Don't you just love these adorable little creatures?  Just think---on January 3rd they will be available and so will everything else in the new catalogue.

Framed yet again!

I can't get enough of those frames!  I managed to buy a stash from my local Dollar Store and can't stop coming up with new ideas for them.  Will the madness ever end?

One of the new frames in my stash is black and immediately I thought about using some retro images.  I haven't been with Stampin' Up! for that many years, but have some great images to fill the squares for that type of look.  One stamp set from last year, Winter Memories, provided two of my images:  the kids making snow people and the old-fashioned skates.  The other scenic image came from the older but still well-loved Winter Post stamp set.  For the sentiment I used one from this year's very versatile Christmas Messages stamp set.

I wanted the finished product to hark back to yesteryear and decided to use the least amount of colour.  I think I managed to give it that old-fashioned look by sticking to a touch of grey, red, green and blue, don't you?

The next frame I chose to do was white again.  I knew I wanted to use the Owl Builder Punch for the images in each window but had to decide just what the little owl would become for each.  So many choices!  That punch is so versatile!  If you don't already have it, I strongly suggest that you can't go wrong getting one.

My final choices for my owl images were:  a little penguin (of course), Mr. & Mrs. Santa, and a little snow (man) owl.  I decided on primarily white or green backgrounds.  For the sentiment, I turned to the retired No Peeking stamp set.  Yes, that's some retired Designer Paper behind my sassy little snow (man) owl, but it seemed absolutely right for this project.

Who wouldn't love to receive this set of adorable owl-based characters?  Don't you need an owl in your life?

Clearance Blitz! Here today...gone tomorrow!

Once again Stampin' Up! is clearing off its shelves, getting ready for the end of the Holiday Catalogue and the beginning of the Spring Occasions Catalogue.  You already know what that means...a fantastic Clearance Rack Blitz.  Some of our old favourites (and not-so-old favourites) are being offered at a discount of up to 80%.  At this time of the year who doesn't want to save some money?  If you have a friend or relative who likes crafting almost as much as you do, this is the time to get them great quality gifts without breaking the bank.

This link will take you directly to my store and the Clearance Rack Blitz.  If you don't want to view the items page by page, just change it to "view all" and that problem is solved.

Some of the terrific items on sale will be familiar to you since I've enjoyed using them and showing off my projects.  That wonderful Spider Web Embossing Folder, for example, is there and at a great discount.  Remember when I used it on this card?

Another product in the Clearance Blitz is the Scalloped Square Punch which I featured in this card.

The Silver Flourishes which are featured in this card are also being cleared out.  They look so elegant on cards, don't they?

There are also stamp sets,  buttons, brads, some of that wonderful white-core Core'dinations paper, beautiful Designer Papers, fabrics, more punches and dies.  And the savings are terrific.

Remember, these products are on sale only until they run out.  There will be no second chances or backorder lists.  When they're gone...well, they're gone.

Framed!

Last month I participated in a charity Scrapbooking Crop.  I always provide at least one prize to be included in a draw and thought it would be fun to have something purely Christmas.  A few days after making that decision, I came across some cute little frames in a store and my idea took flight.

The frame was simple.  All white, it was divided into four little frames within an outer frame.  The perfect background for some fun Christmas images, I decided.  After playing around with some images and trying to decide what four might work best together, I finally wound up with this.

I love the beautiful blues, silver and white in the Winter Frost Specialty Designer Paper and, last week, decided that I would have to make up another little frame.  This time I decided to spotlight the gorgeous Festive Flurry stamps and framelits and snow.  It seemed especially appropriate since we've had an incredible amount of snow so far.  Yes, I know it's not officially Winter yet.  That makes me rather nervous.

The frame is the same but what a difference using these cooler colours makes, don't you agree?

I'm not sure which one I like best.  Let me know what your pick would be.

ADDED DECEMBER 8th

I finished another frame and wanted to share it as well.  Now I'm hoping that I can find more of these frames because I have some more ideas and no more frames to hold them.

These frames have been a fun project and would make a great class---or a great stocking stuffer for someone special.

Once the Ornament is gone...

That Festive Flurry Pop 'n Cut WOW card looks gorgeous with the removable ornament on the front, doesn't it?  You're probably wondering why a person would put so much work into the 3-D inside only to have an empty card front once the ornament is removed.  Well, it's not as if I'm going to leave my card like that.  Surely you didn't expect me to, did you?

So this is the card that some lucky person receives.

It looks great with that big ornament, right?  You can see from the portions of the card that are showing that the front has some Festive Flurry Specialty Designer paper on one side while the other side is simply the Soft Sky.  Just seeing the "Peace on Earth" heat embossed in silver on the fancy Island Indigo label at the bottom isn't going to make anyone look at that card twice once the ornament is on the tree.  Right?  Wrong!  I thought ahead and had a plan.

That cute little penguin has a fuzzy snowball in its flipper, ready to throw at some unsuspecting passer-by.   The fuzzy portion of the velcro sticker is a perfect snowball.  This is so much more cute in person!  The ornament also looks gorgeous on its own, doesn't it?  So instead of having a "ruined" card front once the ornament is removed, you have an adorable little penguin.  How sweet is that?

'Tis the Season for WOW cards!

Another season of WOW cards and I have so many from which people can choose.  The most popular by far to date has been the Festive Flurry Pop 'n Cut card and I don't expect that to change anytime soon.  What could be more fun to give than a card that invites an involuntary "wow!" from the recipient as well as gives the recipient a brand new ornament for the tree?  This card has it all!

Yes, the gorgeous snowflake ornament that crowns the front of the card is hanging on by means of a stick-on velcro fastener.   The 4-layer snowflake comes from the Festive Flurry Ornament Kit.  There is sufficient product to assemble 10 of these wonderful ornaments (all you need is a glue-gun) at the low cost of only $17.95.  These are available only while the supplies last.

Don't you just love the front of the card?  The inside doesn't disappoint.  The Pop 'n Cut dies make 3-D cards a cinch.  For this one I had a flurry of snowflakes coming out of the centre of the card.  With the help of a strip of the Window Sheets, two of the snowflakes are suspended in the air.  The glare of the light makes them visible in this photo, but in real life, they are invisible and the illusion of suspension is very real.

So you've fallen in love with this card but don't want to buy all the products necessary to make it.  Fair enough.  Going into paper crafting is like a lot of hobbies---there seems to be an endless list of products you need.  That's where I come in.  If you live in the area, you get to use my products and tools.  

There are another eight cards to choose from for my WOW class.  If you're in the area and are interested in taking a class, check out the details at the top of this page.

Change of Name? Savings just the same!

Everyone always looks forward to Stampin' Up!'s huge Extravaganza Sale this time of the year.  The savings are always phenomenal.  Well, this year that Extravaganza has been changed into a Holiday Sale.  You know what they say about a rose by any other name, right?  In this case, no matter what the name, the fantastic savings are just the same.

Today is opening day and, of course, there is the usual DOORBUSTER.  For today only, three of our most popular items are being heavily discounted.

After midnight tonight, the doorbuster turns into a pumpkin.  Whoa!  No, I mean it ceases to be effective.  Time to do some fast thinking, right?

The rest of the Holiday Sale continues right through to (and including) December 2nd.  Of course if an item sells out, procrastinators will be unhappy.  But that's what happens when you go downtown, too, right?  You snooze, you lose.

There is a list of all the sale items for you to click right here that you can either download or read online.  The page numbers in the catalogues are in the far left column for your convenience so that you can easily see the product in full colour right there in front of you.  Sweet!

You have a choice in making your order, too.  Either you can use my online store (just check it out in the right column of this blog) or you can contact me and I'll add your products to my current orders.  

With the huge amounts of snow we've had around here, this is an awesome way to do some shopping without leaving the warmth of your home.  

A Real Time Saver---and so handy!

This time of the year time seems to shrink, doesn't it?  I look at all the things I want to do and the time in which I want to get them all done and I feel as if I should clone myself.  That way I might have a chance.

Sometimes it's the little things that can mean a lot.  I plan to make quite a number of cards in the next few weeks (big surprise?) and since some of those cards will be the ones I send out to "my people", I'm glad that Stampin' Up! is actually trying to help me out.  How?  This year they're offering some Cut & Ready Card Bases.  You get 20 already cut and scored pieces of cardstock in the perfect size to make 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" cards.  Sweet!  That's 20 sheets I don't have to cut or score.  That's 20 card bases that I know won't be slightly off because I accidentally moved my cardstock.  If you make your own Christmas cards you know how huge a deal this is.

Below you can see the colours and prices for these card bases.

Description	Item Number	Price
Whisper White Cut & Ready Card Bases	135804	$5.95
Very Vanilla Cut & Ready Card Bases	135805	$5.95
Crumb Cake Cut & Ready Card Bases	135806	$5.95
Smoky Slate Cut & Ready Card Bases	135807	$5.95
Cherry Cobbler Cut & Ready Card Bases	135808	$5.95
Old Olive Cut & Ready Card Bases	135809	$5.95
Pool Party Cut & Ready Card Bases	135810	$5.95

These are actually the colours that I would be using.  Cherry Cobbler is one of my go-to colours for Christmas Cards. 

 I'm using a lot of Crumb Cake and Whisper White this year, too. 

For me, it's a time-saver and this time of the year I need to save as much time as I can.  For everyone else, however, it's a money-saver.  A lot of you don't need a whole package of, say Cherry Cobbler or Crumb Cake.  That's what these pre-cut and pre-scored card bases are for: people who want those colours for their bases but in moderation, so that they don't wind up with a lot of one colour of cardstock that will take them a long time to use up.

Let me know if you're interested in adding some of these Cut & Ready Card Bases to my next order.

The Wacky Watercooler 2013 Year End Blog Hop

Welcome to the Hop from Blackfalds, Alberta, Canada.  That's quite a leap if you just left the talented Jeanne Kupsch who is stationed over in Germany right now.  Wasn't her post wonderful?

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For my first project, I'm featuring Christmas and that wonderful Pop 'n Cuts Card Base die and matching Dress Form die designed by Karen Burniston exclusively for Stampin' Up!  The dress-form has undergone a bit of a transformation in my card, but the bones are there and they provided a wonderful base for my design.

I chose to use Basic Black as my base cardstock because I had plans to decorate the card using my favourite Designer Paper from the Annual Catalog(ue), Modern Medley.  I love the designs in that pack!  Because I had plans to make the inside of the card look like a living room, I used two of the designs: one for the "wallpaper" and one for the "floor".  The dress form quickly disappeared and became a fireplace with the top portion of the cut-out covered by a feature picture stamped with the Wetlands stamp set.  The logs and fire were made using my Word Window punch and the wing from the Bird Builder punch.  Love what a little embossing or sponging will do, don't you?  I free-handed the little stockings from some Modern Medley paper and coloured in the heels, toes and tops and then sponged the rest with Cherry Cobbler ink.

The final touch to the inside was to stamp the sentiment from the Joyful Christmas stamp set onto a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and then cut it out using my Apothecary Accents framelits.  With a bit of Basic Black sponging, it looks just like an area rug, doesn't it?

Since my base was Basic Black, I decided to layer the front of the card with some Cherry Cobbler and a piece of the Modern Medley, this time the music notes.  I used another of the Apothecary Accents framelits to cut out the Greeting which I had heat embossed in silver.  Then I tied a pretty bow using the Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding ribbon.  But the card still needed a focal point.

For the focal point on the front of the card, I decided to use the Joyful Christmas stamp set.  I simply can't get enough of that wonderful Poinsettia!  This time, however, I only used the centre portion of the flower because otherwise it would have taken over the entire front of the card and I had other plans.

I heat embossed the flower using Silver embossing powder and cut out the centre, smaller flower.  Then I heat embossed two leaves using the Wild Wasabi embossing powder on the new Silver Foil sheets.  I love how that turned out!  

This is definitely a card that is fun both inside and out!

* * * * * * * * * *

Since Stampin' Up! carried over that beautiful Jewish Celebrations stamp set from last year, I decided I would try my hand at a Hanukkah card using the new Thinlits Circle flip flop card die.  For my base, I used Pacific Point cardstock, which is one of my favourite deep blues.  Even though it's not one of the colours in the Winter Frost Specialty Designer Paper, the colours compliment each other beautifully.  The card has the extra fold that I explained back in this post.

This is the front of the card with a strip of the foil pattern from the Designer Paper.  The other foil pattern is on the inside flap that you can see.  I stamped the design using Pacific Point ink on Shimmery White cardstock and then heat embossed the Star of David on a Silver Foil sheet using Pool Party embossing powder and punched it out using my 1" circle punch.

For the inside I cut a strip of the Designer Paper and adhered it to a piece of Whisper White.  On the reverse of the circle flip-flop, I stamped the Menorah using the new Metallic Silver Encore ink and then heat embossed the sentiment on the Pacific Point using silver embossing powder.  The folded star below the sentiment can hold money or a chocolate coin.

And that's my interpretation of a Hanukkah card.  

* * * * * * * * * *

My final project is geared for the man in my life.  My husband loves fishing and so I decided to use one of the wonderful new Wood-Mount Cases that Stampin' Up! introduced in the Annual Catalogue.  Those cases are so nice and strong and will hold all sorts of goodies.  I plan to fill this one up with some little things that he's been muttering about needing.  The way I see it, a fly-fisherman who ties his own flies "needs" about as much as a paper crafter.

We used to see a lot of wildlife when we lived in British Columbia so I decided to use the Walk in the Wild stamp set and the Lovely as a Tree stamp set for this project.  I masked off the grass on the ground so that I could give the illusion of a snowy landscape.  Then I used my Aqua Painter and watercoloured the scene, adding some Dazzling Details on the tree and on the ground.

Then I made a starburst using embossed pieces of Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso Core'dinations, and Marina Mist, mounting it on a piece of the Marina Mist Polka Dot Parade Designer paper.  The finished piece slipped under the plastic window of the Wood-Mount Case perfectly.

This is the way my husband will probably use the case, but to dress it up for Christmas I had to add a little bit of extra.  For that I created a "girdle" using the 1 1/4" Burlap Ribbon.  I attached one of the brown buttons from the Designer Naturals with a brad and safety pin from the Vintage Trinkets.  That provided me with the perfect way to attach my snowflake (from the Festive Flurries bundle) and tag (from the Very Merry Tags).

I know he's going to love this.  Wouldn't the man in your life be happy to receive something like this, too?  It's easy to make and so handy.

* * * * * * * * * *

Well that's it for my blog hop post.  I hope you've enjoyed my projects.  I'd love to hear what you thought about them if you have a moment.  Your next stop will be Terri Antoniw's inspiring blog.  I'm sure she'll have some amazing projects to share with you.   Thanks so much.

Making Cardinals AWO5

I've been preparing for a WOW class and one of the cards I had in mind used the Backyard Basics framelits to cut bird shapes along one side of the musical note patterned DSP from the Modern Medley's pack.  Underneath I planned to have Cherry Cobbler cardstock which would show the cut-outs as red birds.  A little cut with my craft knife and voila, a row of cardinals.  I just had to colour their faces with my black marker and add a tiny pearl and they were almost perfect.

I hate the word almost.  It means you got close but didn't quite make it.  My little row of cardinals just wasn't quite there and I wasn't sure what to do about it.  And then inspiration hit.  I love it when that happens, don't you?  I got my Bird Builder punch out of my drawer, barely breathing because I was sure it was going to be the wrong size.  But it wasn't!  The size was absolutely perfect and so I punched three little wings out of Cherry Cobbler, sponged them with a bit of Basic Black, and added them with Dimensionals.

I love how they turned out and how the card looks.  Inside and out, it's a WOW card.

Check my times in the heading of my blog to see if you can attend a class that I've scheduled.

Snowflakes for Christmas!

This year's wonderful new snowflake stamps and matching framelits bundle is hard to pass up.  The Festive Flurry stamp set seems to be cropping up in a lot of the Christmas cards.  There have been some terrific ornaments posted on Pinterest as well, using the set.  Too much work?  If you're strapped for time but want that home-made glamour, Stampin' Up! has created the perfect kit for you.

Beginning today and only while their limited quantities last, Stampin' Up! is offering a kit that provides more than enough product to make ten wonderful ornaments.  Yes, the pieces are pre-stamped and die-cut for your convenience.  Yes, all the ribbon and glitz is already included.  And the price is an affordable $17.95.

Heard enough?  I wouldn't wait to order these from my online store (or contact me to include a few kits in my order).

Always remember!

We can...

because they di(e)d.

Guess what! There's another blog hop next week!

Exciting news!  There's another blog hop coming up next Thursday, November 14th.  Isn't that exciting?  There are going to be some new blogs to visit and some awesome projects to ooh and ahh over.  Tell a friend!  There will be some wonderful ideas to share.

Remembrance Day is coming up---an owl remembers.

I borrowed an image from the internet and combined it with a little soldier owl, made using my wonderful owl builder punch.  I've used Always Artichoke, Soft Suede, Crushed Curry and Crumb Cake for the base and the layers.  I love the way the colours all work together so very well with the borrowed image.

The poppy is from the Simply Sketched stamp set.  I've stamped it on watercolour paper and used my aqua pen to colour it in with shades of Real Red.

Let's all remember---and be thankful for those who gave everything for us.

Ready for more transformed owls?

I love using the new Circle Cards Thinlits Die.  Using it the way it's designed is great, but usually I slip the end over the cutting edge and get an extended card.  I've explained the process in another post.  I think it adds more interest to the card since you wind up with an additional fold.

I decided to make another Hallowe'en card, complete with altered owls, using the extended Circle Flip Flop card.  Basic Grey seemed like the perfect colour as my base cardstock.  Using the right colours, in this case Summer Starfruit, Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie, the Basic Grey is a perfect backdrop and also adds a hint of the spooky feeling of Hallowe'en.

From the front, the card appears to be primarily Basic Grey and Summer Starfruit because I used that colour of Designer Paper as my second layer on the front fold as well as the back of the extension.  This is how it looks all folded up (before I dressed it up, of course).

As my second layer on the inside, I used Pumpkin Pie Designer Paper.  Just a note here:  the designer papers are all the retired style, although the colours are current, and the stamp set for the bare tree that I heat embossed in Basic Black in the centre is the retired Season of Friendship set.   Just as a matter of interest, I added one additional limb to the top left branch.  I needed it for the owl.  Call it artistic license.

One of the things I love about the extended Flip Flop card is that there are so many areas to decorate.   There is the front, the extended inside and the fold-over back.  But the real "star" of the show is the circle which "flip-flops" as you open the card.  For the front, I decided to use a circle punched from Summer Starfruit cardstock, which I stamped in Basic Black ink using the black cat from the new Bite Me photopolymer stamp set.  First, however, I stamped a portion of the huge spider web from that stamp set across my circle using Smoky Slate ink.  After stamping the cat, I stamped the BOO! from the stamp set under it, giving the illusion that the cat was resting on top of it.   I used a sponge to shade the edges of the circle with some Basic Grey ink.

It looked a bit bare with just the one owl and the tree so I had to add another owl.  With the black cat on the front of the card, a witch seemed like the right choice.

The Flip Flop circle on the inside of the card looked pretty bare by this time so I punched a 2 1/2" circle from the Pumpkin Pie Designer Paper and covered it with a spider's web and a spider.  The Trick or Treat sentiment was perfect in Basic Black.

To add a bit more interest to the inside of the card, I punched out some ovals from the Pumpkin Pie Designer Paper as well as a few tiny punched flowers which I cut in half.  A bit of adhesive and some squiggles with my Always Artichoke marker and a pumpkin was born.

Finishing up, I just loved the way the black cat takes over the front of the card and didn't want to distract any attention away from it, so I just added a bit of Basic Grey shading around the DSP and a couple of spiders, also from the Bite Me stamp set.  The back fold-over was perfect with the addition of the spider web from the same stamp set...and, of course, another spider or two.  And that finished the front which you can see all folded up here.

Even with the vampire owl, the witch and the pumpkin, the inside of the card was missing something so I stamped some more spiders' webs, some spatters, some spiders and loved the effect.  Time to stop.  So this is what I wound up with for the inside.

Does the witch look a bit down in the dumps?  Wouldn't you if you couldn't remember where you left your broomstick?

Hope you like the card.  It was such fun playing around with the owl builder punch.