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Bella Rose Stationery Set

So here's yesterday's post - I just now got my pictures taken! Hmm... that means I still have nothing to post for Wednesday. Oh well! Many of you will recognize this set as a class project made by the very talented Andrea Walford. Andrea originally made this with last year's Afternoon Tea DSP, which I made and posted earlier. Today's is made with some beautiful Bella Rose paper for a friend to give to her Mom for Christmas. Here are a few pictures:

I just love this stationery holder. It's a really great gift to give, and can't wait to get it in the mail to my friend! I cannot share the dimensions or instructions, as it is a purchased kit. But I hope you enjoy the photos and that you get plenty of your own ideas. And I certainly hope you are making at least some of your gifts this year!

Take care!

Frosty Day DSP & Hedgies!

Oh, how I wish they had never retired the Hedgehogs!! I saw these in my Christmas collection and just had to get them out and dust them off. And just to pair the old with the new, I used Frosty Day DSP. Here's the result:

 

I started out to make a card for this week's SCS layout of the week, but decided I didn't like the other vertical stripe that was supposed to be added, so it's no longer this week's layout. I'm still feeling a bit, well, let's say just not-so-good, so I'm just gonna leave you with this, and its recipe.

Recipe -

Stamp sets: Holiday Hedgehogs *retired*

Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Frosty Day DSP

Inks: Basic Brown

Accessories: 1-1/4" & 1-3/8" punches, Blender Pen, striped grosgrain ribbon - Bashful Blue

I hope you're inspired!

A Kiwi Cardinal Christmas

Hello everyone! I think I'm back from the dead finally! I just had a bad cold, but it was a miserable one! I stamped yesterday's card and today's, and it's the first stamping I've done in a very long time! At least it seems like a very long time to me - I'm used to stamping every day!

So here's my card for you, using a set I haven't used much yet, and have not used this particular stamp at all yet:

 

The branch on my card is mistletoe, so the berries should really be whitish, but in the interest of time, I just made them green. :-) I wanted to make a Kiwi Kiss-colored card for Christmas, and this one ended up being monochromatic. All it is, is a base of Kiwi Kiss, with a Whisper White layer on top of that, and some Bella Rose DSP on top of that! The mistletoe and the sentiment are from the Cardinal Christmas stamp set, both stamped onto Whisper White. (The sentiment is stamped with Basic Grey) All I did after that was to add the button and ribbon, and it was done!

That's the best I can do for you today, until I'm a little more recovered than I am. At least I can keep my hands out of the tissue box for more than two minutes now! Take care and see you tomorrow!

My Holiday Collection Penguin!

I will add more to this post later... it was all I could do just to get the card made! I am feeling better, though - finally!

 

More soon!

Peaceful Wishes Again This Year

Here is a sweet card I CASEd for my "Quick Cards" Class this month. I found it here, and just love its simplicity, colors, and the splashy red bow.

 

Don't ya just love it?! I used Always Artichoke for the base cardstock, with Confetti Cream as the card front. All I did was to stamp the pine needles multiple times on the side of the card front, making sure one of them stuck out far enough to "hang" the pinecone on. Then I stamped the pinecone in Chocolate Chip, and the sentiment in Real Red. Next, tie a bow in Red Gingham ribbon, and attach it to the top of the pinecone with a mini glue dot. That's it! A very simple and very quick card that can easily be mass-produced!

Hope you enjoy and that it solves your "how do I make a bunch of Christmas cards that actually look good" dilemma!

Beautiful Fall Season of Friendship Card

I have a beautiful card to share with you today from my friend Tracy in Montana. I love having stamping friends - they know how much fun it is to get handmade cards in the mail! I made some Fall and Thanksgiving cards too... too bad I never thought to send them out!!! I guess I'm already focused on Christmas cards once summer's over!

 

I love the colors, don't you? I didn't get any of the Autumn Vine DSP, so this is especially pretty to me.

She put so much detail into this card. Every set of leaves is cut out and popped up on the tree - that takes patience! Also check out the way the ribbon is threaded through the top layer. Very neat.

I also love the tiny little scallops around the squares of DSP. Cute, cute, cute. I'm going to have to make more cards with this color scheme: Baja Breeze, More Mustard, and Really Rust. Or am I wrong, and it's not Baja Breeze ink - it's Sage Shadow as on the DSP? The ink looks very much like Baja Breeze!

At any rate, it's a gorgeous card, and I was so happy when I found it hiding among the bills in my mailbox one day just before Thanksgiving! Thank you, Tracy! Keep 'em coming!!

Winter Post Top Notes Gift Tags

Happy Monday and welcome to December! I hope your holiday weekend was a good one, and that you're ready for the rush of the Crhistmas season! If you're a lot farther ahead of me, you might be ready for making a quick batch of gift tags. See, I'm not even ready to SHOP for gifts, let alone wrap and add tags to them!

Anyway, in case you are, here's a batch of tags I made for a class that's straight from the Holiday mini catalog!

 

These were so simple! I started with Sahara Sand cardstock (only because I was all out of Kraft!), and die cut 6 Top Notes. Next, I used Chocolate Chip to stamp the reindeer, Post Card stamp, and the 'To/From'. I took Versamark ink and stamped the Winter Post snowflake around the edges, then used either Handsome Hunter or Riding Hood Red to add the Santa Post or the 'Do Not Open' stamps. After that, I punched a hole in the corner, then tied on some of the SU! red twine, and added a punched branch (using a Martha Stewart punch... shhhhh!)

The ones in the mini cat used a jumbo eyelet for the cord in the upper corner, but I wasn't sure I'd have enough eyelets for all my projects!

These are a nice size for tags, so if you need 'em, you can crank them out very quickly! Just remember, it's always a good idea to CASE something out of the catalogs!! Hope you're inspired!

Four Projects Using Frosty Day DSP: Days 3 & 4 Together!!

Well, with turkey day getting in the middle of my week of projects, I'll just give you both days 3 & 4 today! But first let me say that I hope you had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving, and that today you're not as stuffed as you felt yesterday! My sister and her family brought the most delicious cakes and pies from a local restaurant in High Point NC that were to die for!!

OK - on to my last 2 projects:

 

Don't they look great all grouped together?! I think they're just adorable! (Am I allowed to say that about my own creations? I hope so, because I just did!)

I took the leftover scraps of DSP and used them on the last 2 items: a cello bag and topper, and a gift card holder. They were both so simple to make, and yet still look great. I think the biggest piece of DSP used on these is 4-1/4 x 1", which is the strip across the outside of the gift card holder.

   

As you can see, the gift card holder is as simple as a piece of cardstock with 2 folds! Mine is a 4-1/4 x 6" piece of Close To Cocoa scored at 2-1/2" and again at 5". Fold the little 1" strip up and adhere it with 2 brads. This will hold your gift card in place. I then adhered the larger strip of DSP to the outside, and another 1" x 4-1/4" piece to the inside flap (BEFORE inserting the brads, by the way!) Next, I just stamped the 'Enjoy' stamp from the Country Living Holiday Collection stamp set in Kiwi Kiss, tied the holder closed with Kiwi Kiss ribbon, and stuck the tag on with a dimensional. Couldn't be any simpler than that!

As for the cello bag, I simply took a 4x6" cellophane bag and cut a piece of 4x3" Tangerine Tango cardstock for the topper. Score it in half lengthwise and adhere a 3-1/2" x 1" strip of remaining DSP to the front. On top of that I layered another 'Enjoy' label stamped in Tangerine Tango and punched out with the 1-3/4" round punch. I adhered it with a dimensional so that I could loop the tag string around it easily. The tag uses one of the last bits of DSP: two 1/4" x 2" wide strips. The tag itself is cut from Bashful Blue, and measures 2-1/4 x 3-1/2", then is punched with the ticket punch on the top 2 corners. The stamp I used is from last year's 'Tags For All', which I just love, and can't believe it was retired! I stamped it in Bashful Blue, then cut it out and stuck it on the tag. After adding the DSP strips, I punched a 1/16" circle, then punched a 1/2" circle around that for the Tangerine Tango circle at the top where the metallic thread is threaded through.

 

As you can see, I STILL had some DSP remaining. I used one piece to wrap around a few sticks of chocolate stirring sticks (and stuck a few more candies in there just for the picture!), then cut the rest into tiny strips. I then ran the strips through my crimper, and voila! You've got instant "stuffing"!

Well, that's it - a whole set of matching gift holders! Hope this inspires you for the big Christmas wrapping and packaging season!

There's a Stampin' Up! SALE that just started, which I'll post tomorrow - see you then!

Four Projects Using One Sheet of Frosty Day DSP: Day 2!

Alright - it's day 2, and I've got a cute gift box and bow to match the cute snowman bag from yesterday. Let's just dive right in!

 

Here they are together - don't they look cute! The box is an origami box, about 4-1/2" square, and about 2" high. Plenty big enough to hold all kinds of things on MY wish list! :-) It's a good thing I found a tutorial to help you make one of these, because a friend in Houston showed me how to make them, and I'd never be able to tell you without showing you. The tutorial is a bit different from the way I make mine, but very close. I will try to tell you how I change up their instructions, but click here to get to the tutorial. Now, once you're there, follow along for my few differences: First, I use 2 sheets of 12 x 12" cardstock - I do not cut either the top or the bottom smaller, I simply fold one smaller to fit into the other. So, the next difference is under Step 1: I do NOT make the initial folds - they serve no purpose in the end, but are merely place markers. So, instead, I take a ruler and mark a small cross in pencil in the very center of the 12 x 12 piece of cardstock. Now follow the rest of the steps exactly as they are for ONE piece of the cardstock. This will be the smaller piece, or the bottom.

To make the box top, make the same changes as above: start with a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock, and mark the centerin pencil instead of making the folds in Step 1. Now, complete Steps 1-3. In Step 4, however, you will make a smaller fold. To do this, you will not bring your fold to the center in Step 4. Where it says, "Fold the top of the square to middle of box, and the bottom of the square to the middle of the box", you will instead fold to within 1/4" of the middle with both the top and the bottom folds. Notice the photo in Step 5: you see a gap, but if you pressed the paper down in the photo, the gap would disappear, right? Well, when you fold it MY way, the gap will not disappear - it is supposed to remain because the top and bottom can't reach. Now complete the rest of the steps as written. I hope that makes sense! If not, just use their directions, and your box will simply be a bit smaller.

If you're keeping track of the sheet of DSP, then this is the project to start with, because the bow consumes most of the paper. So, if you decide to make all the projects from one 12x12" sheet of DSP, start with today's box, bow, and gift tag. The bow uses one half of the sheet of DSP. I'll tell you how to cut the cardstock as we go, but the main thing to keep in mind is to follow the directions to a "T" when cutting your paper for the bow. Those directions can be found here.  

The bow's simple to make - you just cut the half sheet into strips of a certain size, loop one end of each strip over the other, adhere the ends together, then assemble. Seriously, if you follow the directions in the link above, it really is easy - you'll be making all your own bows from now on!

 

After making the bow, I cut an 8-1/2 x 2-1/2" piece of the remaining half-sheet of DSP. I used it as you would ribbon, and wrapped it around the top and two sides of the box. I also adhered 1-3/4 x 4" "panels" of DSP to the other two sides just to brighten it up a bit.

  

The last thing I added was a cute little gift tag, made from a base of Close To Cocoa to match the box. After punching the top corners with the ticket punch, I adhered a 2-1/2 x 2-1/2" piece of DSP, folded in half. On the inside, I put a stamped tag with matching Tangerine Tango ink. Next, I punched the top with the slot punch, and threaded some Tangerine Tango striped ribbon through, fastening it with a brad.

Altogether, I think it's an adorable little gift box and I'd love to receive it as much as I'm going to love giving it!

Meet me back here tomorrow for the goodie bag!! See you then!

A Whole Week's Worth of Projects Using Frosty Day DSP: Day 1!

Yep - that's what I'm going to give you this week: one project each day from my upcoming "Bags, Tags, and Bows" gift packaging class. The whole class is based on the use of one full sheet of Frosty Day Designer Series Paper, and each is a gift package, not a gift in itself. There are 4 projects in all, including a gift box with matching tag and handmade bow, a cello bag with topper and tag for holding edible goodies, a simple-to-make gift card holder, and today's project, a gift bag with matching stamped tissue paper insert.

   

This cute bag is a CASE of an idea my upline made last Christmas with the great Christmas DSP, although the name escapes me at the moment!

 Isn't the snowman just adorable?!! He is a CASE from Charlene Monroe's website here. Charlene's snowman holds a peppermint pattie, which makes hers better! Not to mention the fact that she's far more clever than I because the snowman is her idea! Thanks, Charlene! I especially like the way she used the White Signo Pen to make the dots look like buttons on his... what would that be... his belly?!

I guessed at the punch sizes used, so if you want to know the sizes I used for my snowman, please email me. I mounted him on a tag and added a smal piece of Bashful Blue doulbe-striped grosgrain ribbon.

For this project, the only part of the sheet of DSP I used is the 1x8" strip across the center, behind the snowman. Remember, all of this week's projects are made from one 12x12" piece of Frosty Day DSP. I used Bashful Blue and Kiwi Kiss cardstock to match the DSP, and I think the colors are great for snow and snowmen!

To make this bag, the first thing I did was wheel across the bottom section of the bag. While I had the wheels out, I also wheeled the tissue paper. Next, I cut a couple pieces of cardstock the width of the gift bag, and layered them with the strip of DSP.

The bottom of the plain white gift bag is wheeted with 2 different (retired) wheels, in Bashful Blue and Kiwi Kiss. To match, I wheeled some white tissue paper the same.   

Hope you like it! I'll be back tomorrow with another of the pieces listed above, so stay tuned! See you then!

Snowflake Holiday Centerpiece Using the Holiday Collection Stamp Set

Happy Monday to everyone! I spent most of my weekend stamping furiously, trying to complete all my holiday class projects so that I can photograph them and get them going. (Better late than never, right?!)

Here's one I make for each holiday and seaon. It's a mini garden flag that I change out by cutting some cardboard to size, then embellishing it for the season or holiday. If you've followed my posts, I just did a Thanksgiving flag this past week, and one for Halloween in October. Instead of making a Christmas flag this time, I went with snowflakes because I'd gotten some white buckets with snowflakes on them at the Target Dollar Spot.

 

I just love the Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder, so I decided to use it on my flag. Behind it is Baja Breeze cardstock adhered to a piece of 3x5-1/2" cardboard. I used the corner rounder on the bottom corners, and used jumbo eyelets on top to use to hang it. The greeting is from the Country Living Holiday Kit, as are the large and small blue snowflakes. The white snowflake with the blue background is from the retired set 'Perfect Presentation'. After that's all put together with SNAIL and Dimensionals, it was hung on the flag post with the striped Baja Breeze grosgrain ribbon, and a piece of the 1" double-stitched ribbon was tied to the corner as decoration.

"Yeah, that's great Melinda, but where do I get a mini garden flag to start with?!" Well, I can't help you there. I got mine at the end of the summer at Dollar General, when they were on sale for fifty cents! You might try asking if they have any left in the back, or maybe just check around on the shelves!

Hope you're inspired - meet you back here tomorrow!

Look what one of you sweet viewers in blogland sent me!!

Isn't this the most beautiful notecard you've ever seen? I posted an antique-style skater card with the Winter Post set, and Gabriela in Virginia fell in love with it. After sending it to her, I received this beautiful thank-you in the mail this week:

 

 

 

I don't know if you can see the shimmery cardstock under the "Bonjour". There's so much detail, and it's so dainty; I just love it! Thank you so much, Gabriela!

Please visit Gabriela's blog (here) to check out her gorgeous photography of her life in Virginia, a little bit of stamping, and a little bit of the most delicious looking food! I swear, you can almost smell it and I drool everytime I look at it! But don't get any ideas: I've already invited myself to dinner, so you'll just have to wait your turn! :-)

I'm finalizing some classes this weekend, so I'll be stamping... how about you?

Crazy For Cupcakes - yum yum!

I'm posting an unfinished card for you tonight, so you can tell me how to embellish it! Well, truth be told, I'm hungry and tired, and I'm going to bed before I venture into the kitchen and eat too much!

My BIG SISTER'S birthday is coming up in early December, so I took a stab at a birthday card for her. Of course I had to use the cupcakes!! And of course again, I had to use my new Nestabilities. This time, I decided to make the cupcakes chocolate, because my family is an m&m's family. See, my Dad worked for m&m's most of my growing up years, and all 6 of us kids have first names that start with 'm'. So this one's for Maureen!

 

I'm thinking of using the Level I hostess set 'Occasions Collection' for the embellishment. I'm thinking about using the 'Happy Birthday' sentiment, then punching it with the word window punch - if it fits - and hanging it from the central medallion like a tag. Not sure, though. I thought a pink bow would look cute, but couldn't make it work quite right. Maybe I'm just too tired.

Let me know your thoughts! Back tomorrow... I'll post the finished card whenever it's finished! It'll definitely be by early December so I can get it in the mail on time!

A Winter Post Holiday Collection Card!

I just finished up a Christmas card with -- to quote a song -- "two of my fav-o-rite things": the Winter Post stamp set and Ski Slope Designer Series Paper. Aaaaaaah. I just love them. I also really like the Holiday Collection stamp set, don't get me wrong, but I'm not in love with it. I admit to my affair with Winter Post and Ski Slope. I thought I'd never get over my breakup with Soft Sky last August, but these two definitely have me saying, "Soft Sky WHO??". And I've got the ultimate revenge: I'm TWO-TIMING Soft Sky! Sweet.

 

Well, this may be plain to you, but I just don't like distracting from my Ski Slope DSP! OK, really it's just that it's after midnight, and I'm trying to hurry and get to bed! So, having said that, I'll give you the recipe and head off to la-la land! Nitey night!

Recipe -

Stamp Sets: Holiday Collection, Winter Post

Cardstock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Ski Slope DSP

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red

Accessories: 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, Nestabilites oval die (shhhhhh - don't tell on me!! I'm a loyal Stampin' Up! Demonstrator!)