Good Neighbors Goodness

I am absolutely loving the new Good Neighbors set. With so many cute house & tree combinations, the possibilities for this set are endless!

Here's my latest creation. I'll be posting a few "congrats on your new house" type of cards over the next few days because I'm working on making a set to give as a gift to a friend who is a real estate agent so he can use them for his clients.

Giving people sets of homemade cards they can use is so appreciated and I think much more special than a gift from a superstore. Know someone who has a birthday coming up or who deserves a special thank you? Perhaps you have a tight time schedule and should start thinking about Mother's Day now? A set of cards might be just the answer.

Happy weekend!
Kristi

You can make it, too! You'll need...
- The Good Neighbors stamp set
- Earth Elements cardstock in Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy and Old Olive, plus Very Vanilla
- Earth Elements markers to color your houses & roofs
- Dimensionals to add some depth to the roofs & adhesive of course to stick your layers together
- A brad on the left to add a little more depth & interest. I used the gold from the Vintage Brads set.
- And of course... a Very Vanilla envelope stamped to match!!

Candle "How To" Tutorial

Just how am I making these candles I've been posting, you ask?
Here's a photo tutorial for those of you who are more visual learners.

It's so very easy & they turn out so cute!

Step 1- Gather your supplies: parchment paper, candle, stamp set, ink pad, and white tissue paper.
Step 2- Stamp your image on the tissue paper. It will go through the layers so make sure you have a scratch paper or more tissue layers underneath it to protect your table!
Step 3- Trim the image close to the edges & place it on the candle
Step 4- Wrap parchment paper around the candle and hold it together in the back
Step 5- Use a heat gun (aka embossing tool aka heat tool) to heat your image. It should slightly change colors as the tissue melts into the candle
Step 6- Let it cool for just a minute or so & you're finished! You have beautiful & thoughtful homemade gift that is sure to bring a smile to the lucky recipient's face!

Good luck & let me know if you have any questions!
Kristi

ps just click the photo to enlarge the image & get a closer up view of the easy steps!

Trendy & Easy ( ! ) Bird Candle

One of the things I love about stamping is it's not just for making cards. Stamping easily flows over into the 'home decor' and 'gifts' part of my life, too.

We needed a small gift for someone, so I made this cute little gift using a basic vanilla candle and the adorable little trendy bird stamp from Stampin' Up!'s "Of the Earth" hostess set.

A few easy steps of stamping in Chocolate Chip onto white tissue paper, carefully trimming and then melting onto the candle using a heat embossing tool, made something very plain into something quite beautiful, I think.

...Let me know what you think or if you have any questions on how to do this yourself!

Kristi

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 .