Thank You note time!

With Christmas over and the new year almost here, it's time to get out some cute thank you cards to let people know how much I appreciated their gifts & thoughtfulness.

I wanted these to be simple & easy, yet still pretty (who doesn't want cards like that?!?) ... I also wanted them to have a winter color scheme, without being too "Christmasy" ... so here's one to help get your creative ideas flowing.

You can make it, too!
- Real Red base layered with Bashful Blue & Whisper White
- Pocket Silhouettes stamp (bet you never thought of this set as a winter/Christmas one before!) stamped with the coordinating Bashful Blue inkpad
- Real Red ribbon & Dazzling Diamonds glitter for a bit of a snowy feel.

I love love how using a few different pieces in coordinated colors makes a pretty card come together so effortlessly!

Have fun & Happy New Year!

<3, Kristi

Bye, bye Branch Out

One of my favorite sets, Branch Out, is retiring on January 4th, so I wanted to make sure my Stamp Club ladies got to use it one more time. This "Dazzling Branch Out" card reminds me of a winter wonderland with the Dazzling Diamonds fine glitter.

Some things we learned & practiced with this card...
- How to use the sponge balls with SU! stamp pads to create fluffy snow
- How to apply Dazzling Diamonds to create sparkly snowflakes
- How to thread a button with a thin scrap of paper & attach it to a card using glue dots.

Merry Christmas!

I hope all of my loyal Stamp Club ladies are loving their new goodies and having time to play with them during the often crazy holiday season!

We are at my parent's house for the weekend to celebrate Christmas and tonight I gave my mom the monogrammed cards I showed in an earlier post plus a few others I made for her. She loved them! She is so excited to have nice cards to send out to her friends & family.

It's a bit more challenging to take pictures here & post from their computer, so more pictures to come once I'm back home.

Happy Holidays!!

Order in!!

WOW! I cannot believe how quickly this month's order arrived. Expect your December Stamp Club order to be delivered to you today with exciting new mini catalogs in each of your bags! You're each receiving a copy of the new Occasions Mini Catalog and the Sale-a-bration catalog.

I was able to pre-order a few things from the Occasions Mini Catalog, so you can look forward to some fun new projects in January using some of these new choices!!

Check out the picture above to see some of the fun new items available in the Occasions Mini!

12 Days of Christmas

A cool special focused on Decor Elements vinyl sheets & Big Shot accessories.

I think the chalkboard vinyl sheets are one of the coolest things on sale. These can be applied to just about any surface to create a chalkboard surface. No messy painting and no drilling holes in the wall to try to hang something heavy.



Chalkboard Décor Elements Vinyl Sheets 118815
Catalog Price: $14.95
Regular Price: $12.46
Preferred Price: $11.21 <--- what you get through me!

Make Décor Elements your own by creating your own vinyl images using the Décor Elements sheets and your Big Shot.

■ Each package comes with two 15" x 24" sheets of vinyl in Chalkboard, along with two 15" x 24" sheets of transfer tape
■ Instructions for use are included in the package

Let me know if you'd like to add this... or any of the other sale items... to your order!

Birthday Love

I love my husband!! Look at this cute little card he made me for my birthday. He asked for a little help, but came up with the idea by himself and just needed to be given a couple of quick quick tutorials to design this card for me.

What a sweetie :)


You can make it, too!
- Not Quite Navy card base with Old Olive and Very Vanilla layers (pgs 156-157)
- "Love You Much" stamp from pg 44 (item #113756)
- Very Vanilla Jumbo brads from pg 179 (item #112534)

More Monogrammed Fun!

I'm on a monogramming role I think... I recently got a couple of the alphabet sets from SU! and am super excited about it. I think a nice set of monogrammed cards will make lovely birthday presents for a variety of special people in my life and will also be perfect wedding presents for newly married couple friends with a new shared last name initial.

This card is one I just made for my momma. It's her birthday on January 9th, so my goal is to have a nice set of various homemade monogrammed cards to give her at Christmas since we won't be getting back over there for her birthday.

Monogrammed Journal

Check out this neat gift idea I saw on Real Simple's website this morning!

What a cute, inexpensive & thoughtful gift to give someone for the holidays...

More details here .

Warm Winter WISHes

This fun little holiday card make look red, but it's actually quite "green"... I recycled a Starbucks coffee sleeve for the sentiment and then used the Delightful Decorations ornament stamp set in the background. I got the basic idea for this card from another SU! demonstrator, Carrie, but changed it around a bit to make it my own.

A quick & easy card, perfect for coffee loving friends :)

You can make it, too!
- Take a standard Kraft base & layer it with Real Red paper
- Stamp Delightful Decorations ornament with Real Red & draw the string with a Real Red marker
- Cut a Starbucks sleeve into a rectangle and add Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the word WISH
- Lace a Kraft corduroy button with a thin piece of Real Red paper and attach it with a glue dot

My Wish List!!

Don't forget to tell your mom, dad, husband/boyfriend, sister... everyone! what stamps & supplies you're dreaming of this year for Christmas. Have them send their order over to me by next week on Tues, Dec. 8th to make sure it arrives by Christmas. Husbands and boyfriends especially are sure to love the free gift wrapping & gift tag I'm offering, plus I'll include a free stocking stuffer bonus item on any order over $50! What an easy way for them to get you what you want this Christmas!!

My personal wish list includes:
- Bold Brights full Stampin' Write marker set & cardstock pack- bright happy colors that all match & coordinate (pg. 156)
- The "Full Heart" punch- great for Valentine's Day! (pg. 186)
- "Everything Nice" stamp set- perfect for so many occasions (pg. 145)

What's on your Wish List this year??

Loads of Holiday Cheer!

My computer had some funky stuff going on lately so I had to go without *gasp* for a few days, but I am now back online... woohoo!

Here is one of the holiday cards I made recently. As I think most of you know, the people driving the truck here sort of look like Aaron and me so I am planning on sending this to his parents for Christmas. I think they will get a kick out of it and really enjoy it being so personalized just for them. :)

More holiday cards to come... I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner!!

Chocolate Chip Christmas

I can't get enough of the Delightful Decorations stamp set & punch! I was playing around over the weekend with new color schemes and came up with this holiday card featuring Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip and a little Whisper White.

It always amazes me how a few little changes in color & design can make a totally different card. I've been experimenting with non-holiday ways to use this set more, too. More pictures of those designs to come in the following weeks :)

HOLIDAY EXTRAVANZA SALE!

WOW! So many great deals during this special Stampin' Up! sale. There are too many amazing items to list here, but check out the homepage of www.stampinup.com to see everything that's on sale & the amazing 30-50% discounts, then call or email me if you'd like to place an order!

A Little Country Store

We finally found some canisters we like for the kitchen to hold flour, sugar, etc. but as much as I like them, I couldn't just let them stay plain glass... they needed a Stampin' Up! touch!!

I used the Pocket Silhouettes stamp set, the small tag punch, the Not Quite Navy Stampin' Write marker, and some little pieces of the twine to make these labels for our canisters. They make me feel like we have a little country store right in our very own kitchen.

I am so excited to have these nice & organized and ready for holiday baking & guests!

Delightful Candle Set

Did you know you can use your stamps to make beautiful home decor items, like candles?

Following up on my recent post about the bird candle I made using the Always set, here is a whole set of candles I made using my favorite holiday set- Delightful Decorations from this year's Holiday Mini. The Delightful Decorations stamps plus a Real Red stamp pad made these three basic white candles perfect to use during the rapidly approaching holiday season.

So fun, quick & easy to make, and a very reasonably-priced gift idea! Perfect for friends, neighbors, co-workers and family. Let me know if you have any questions on how you can make these, too! I am thinking they will be perfect for birthday presents and centerpieces for different holidays throughout the year.

Branch Art Addition!

The branch art on our mantel needed a little friend to be complete, so check this out!

This is using the bird stamp from the "Always" set stamped with Chocolate Chip ink on a pretty smelling & looking vanilla candle.

I just love this easy technique of stamping to make a normal candle into a beautiful handmade piece of home decor.

Now I need to go to the store and buy more candles so I can make more coordinating candles for around the living room!

Sneak Peak! Elegant Joy

This is one of the cards for this week's Stamp Club. It uses the Delightful Decorations stamp set and punch on pg. 24-25 of the holiday mini catalog. It's a bit hard to tell in the photo, but the *joy* really shimmers with a subtle touch of Dazzling Diamonds glitter.


Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Delightful Decorations Trio

I've been playing with the Delightful Decorations stamp set & punch and have these three mini card ideas to share with you that I made last night.

As you can see, holiday cards don't have to be just red, green & white! These are about half the size of traditional cards, but could still be put in a normal envelope for easy mailing or on top of a package for a thoughtful (and pretty!) homemade touch to any gift.

Click on the photo for a zoomed in view. The card with the red & green color scheme features an ornament that could actually easily be taken off and hung up on a tree or in another special spot.

Looking forward to making cards with everyone next week at Stamp Club!

Kristi

Decor Elements

Want to try a Decor Element for free??

Here's a link to the guide...


http://www.stampinup.com/us/enu/16192.asp

Below is the info on how you can receive your free decor element... Could be a neat way to spruce up an area of your house/apartment or something cool to give as a gift for the holidays.

Holiday Extravaganza!

Great news about a new special deal!

You can receive a FREE Decor Element (up to $16.95 value) with any order of $50+ of stamps & supplies in this special Holiday Extravaganza Guide.

Take a look and start thinking about what you might want to order at next week's Stamp Club....

To receive your free decor element, orders must be placed at either our November or December club meeting.

Kristi

Hooray for Moving Day!

Our friend Emily recently bought her own house, so what better way to congratulate her than with a homemade card using the Loads of Love stamp set!

Those of you who attended our stamp party a couple of weeks ago will recognize some of the paper colors and the idea of using brads as the hubcaps. It's amazing how just a little tweaking makes it perfect for a completely different occasion!

Supplies I used:

• Loads of Love & Loads of Love Accessories stamp set (pg. 50 item# 115002 & #115024)
• Branch Out stamp set for the butterflies (Branch Out is on the SU!'s "Dormant List" but can still be ordered! (item #113200)
• Cardstock in Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Not Quite Navy & Whisper White (Earth Elements assorted pack, pg. 156, item #105566. Whisper White pg. 155, item#100730)
• Vintage brads (pg. 179, item# 10909)
• Stampin' Write Markers in a wide variety of Earth Elements (pg. 156, item# 105539) & Soft Subtles colors (pg. 156, item# 105538)

Yay!!

I was so excited to watch the tracking info and see how quickly our first order arrived! I couldn't believe it when UPS showed up in front of my house less than a week after submitting our order.

People who placed an order this first time around got their goodies delivered to them in these kraft bags I created. I used basic medium-sized lunch bags, but made them look special by tying some pretty ribbon and a little thank you tag to each one. Keep this in mind for cute & easy gift wrapping for the holidays! Let me know if you'd like me to teach you how to make this kind of bow.

The bag I show in the picture I made using:

• 3/8" Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon (pg. 183, #109052)
• "Small Tag" punch (pg. 186, #108264)
• Cardstock in Real Red (pg. 156, #102482) & Whisper White (pg. 159, #100730)
• Thank you stamp from "Thank You Kindly" (pg. 145, #111700)
• Real Red Stampin' Write marker (pg. 156, #100052) - tip: use a marker and color straight on a stamp if you don't have that color in the stamp pads or if you only want part of the image to show.

Order placed!

I am so excited to get the special new items I just ordered from this year's Holiday Mini Catalog! I have been dreaming about card ideas & gift tag ideas and am looking forward to making some beautiful (and very useful!) holiday items at our next Stamp Club meeting.

Thanks to everyone who placed an order after our stamp party- our stamps & supplies should be here next week. As soon as the much-anticipated box arrives, I will deliver your order asap!

I hope you're all having fun looking through the catalog. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Kristi

What a fun night!! During our first Stamp Club, everyone got to meet some new people and we all agreed to officially start Stamp Club with the rotating hostess benefits in

November.

We also made three cards with coordinating envelopes.

The first was using the Branch Out stamp set (currently on the dormant list, but still available to order). This was a good first-timers card to get people warmed up and comfortable with stamping. We learned about basic stamping techniques and how nicely the colors within each color family coordinate with each other.

The second card used Loads of Love & Loads of Love Accessories. This one was a little more complicated as there was quite a bit of coloring & free-hand drawing involved. We also tried tying twine and learned how to use brads (the perfect hubcap!). We learned to use the brads on a top layer of paper so the backsides don't show on the inside of the cards. Using little accessories like brads & twine really help make cards more interesting and neat looking.

Our third card was a hit! This design and these colors are good all year round. We learned how to use ribbon and fold it under a top layer so the ends of the ribbon don't show. We also learned about having images go off the edges of cards, how to use "dimensionals" and how fun, easy & pretty the rhinestone brads can be... they really helped make these cards sparkle!

I hope you all had a good time & I'm looking forward to our next Stamp Club on November 13th!

First Stamp Club!

I'm so excited! Tomorrow is our first Stamp Club party. As you can see, I have been busy busy getting all of the supplies ready. I have three designs of cards & coordinating envelopes we will make, plus some other surprise goodies in the basket that I think everyone will love to take home!

I'm going to work on preparing some delicious treats and healthy snacks for us, too, so we will have the energy to create these great cards. Two of the designs are fall-inspired and one is appropriate for any time of the year.

The fun all starts tomorrow at 7pm... see you then!

Here we go!

Thanks for visiting my new website!

This site is dedicated to sharing ideas for homemade crafts & creations that bring smiles to people's faces. I'm going to get it started with a focus on making greeting cards using wonderful Stampin' Up products, but will also include some other fun ideas as time goes on... stay tuned and check back often for updates!

Kristi