Christmas Cookie Bags

Here's the last project I created for this Christmas. I made these cookie treat bags for dessert following Christmas dinner. I had purchased these glassine bags when SU had them out during Valentine's Day (unfortunately they are no longer available) and have been waiting for the perfect time to use them.

I ran the glassine bags through my cuttlebug using the swiss dots embossing folder so they would have more texture. Before putting my Christmas cookies (each bag contained 4 cookies), I put them inside SU cello bags so the glassine bags wouldn't get all greasy.  

Then I just wrapped a piece of the dp around it, added the stamped circles and adhered a white felt flurry snowflake using the real red glitter brads from the Holiday Mini that coordinate with the red glitter on the dp! I made 6 treat bags and each had a different shaped felt flurry attached so everyone would know which was theirs to take home. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good picture of all of them because of the shadows they created and the light shining off all the glitter! A very quick but fun project!

Stamps: SU Holiday Collection (retired)
Ink: SU baja breeze
Paper: SU ww, real red, candy cane christmas dp (unavailable)
Brad: SU real red glitter brad
Snowflake: SU felt flurries (retired)
Misc: Swiss dots embossing folder, SU glassine (retired) and medium cello bags, glue dots, circle cutter

This could easily be a SUO project if the swiss dots embossing folder was substituted for the SU perfect polka dots embossing folder.

Merry Christmas Cards

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I know I did! I was spoiled again this year!

I just have a couple of other Christmas projects to share to round up the holiday season. These cards are a hybrid project using digital images from MDS as well as actual ribbon and embellishments.

 All of the sentiments are from My Digital Studio and printed in baja breeze ink. It`s so easy to do and you don`t necessarily have to use SUs professional printing services, I just used my printer at home for this project. I had these sentiments in a retired rubon set from SU one or two years ago but it wasn`t in the colour I wanted so MDS made it so more versatile. Plus, you can resize them so they fit better with your project (for these cards, I left the sizing as they come).

Here`s a closer look at each of the cards so you can see how well it works out!

A great tip for spacing out pearls is to use your piercing mat pack and lightly pierce equally spaced apart holes to use as guides for where to place your pearls!

Supplies

Digital Stamp: SU Wishes & Greetings

Paper: SU ww, baja breeze, candy cane christmas dp

Ribbon: SU white organdy (retired)

Pearls: SU white halfback

Misc: MDS, dimensionals

Christmas Ornaments!

Again this year, I made ornaments for Grant's students. You can find the ones I made last year here. This year, I used the Jolly Bingo Bits set - it's not quite as colourful but the images are just so cute (plus I wanted to use an actual stamp as trying to emboss transparency paper that has been through a printer makes it very difficult to get clean lines).

While I was in the process of making these, my Mom brought Grant super cute ornaments for him to give to his students. They were miniature ornament versions of the reindeer here. So, as it turns out, we'll be hanging on to the ornaments I made until next year to give those students. Then, we'll write their name and the year inside the ornament too!

Stamps: SU Jolly Bingo Bits

Ink: SU versamark

Embossing Powder: SU white, basic black

Ribbon: SU silver elastic cord, 1/8" real red tafetta
Misc: ornaments, glitter, transparency

Christmas Tags

Here are some of the Christmas tags I made this year! They are all using Stampin' Up only supplies but much of it is retired!

More Fun with MDS

Although I am not posting much these days, I have been busy stamping! Most of it is for Christmas projects for other people so I haven't been able to share much of it!

I've been taking some more time to play with My Digital Studio and made these Christmas images!

I don't really have a particular use for them at the moment - they were the result of my fiddling around to become more familiar with all of the MDS features. Maybe I'll turn them into cards!

New Blog Design

Check out my new blog look! I designed it all using Stampin' Up's My Digital Studio! When I saw it was on for half price for one week only I had to take advantage and now I can't stop playing with it!

ETA: I used Debbi's tutorial here on how to create a blogger background and her tutorial here on how to create the buttons in my sidebar. I used the same sort of method as the buttons to create my post divider and used the tutorial here to figure out how to add it into blogger. These tutorials are quite easy to follow along with - I had never made any of these things before now and I love the way my blog turned out! If you need specific help, feel free to email me!

My New Craft Room

Let me start with: I have the best husband! When we were building our house he didn't mind if I took over the entire extra bedroom as a stamping space! He only requested one of the little nightstands and a space for his printer for school use and he put the rest of his school supplies in the basement! I know lots of stampers are teachers and if you are, you understand how much of a sacrifice that is for him! So I thought I would share pictures of my space!

This is my favourite wall in the room! It shows of all the colours of my papers and my decor elements frames that I love!

Here's a better look at my paper storage system. I have labelled all of the shelves with the paper it holds so I can easily find what I am looking for. The drawers on the left are filled with embellishments and alterables! I love this storage system although it was a costly investment (I did wait a long time for a good sale to come along too)! All of my ribbon sits on top of this system in the SU holders.

My desk sits just underneath the window, which I love because it's great to look out while crafting and I can get a good sense of how well the colours really work together! In the drawers I keep my punches and adhesives. The bottom drawer of my dresser is a file drawer in which I file all my scraps of cardstock so I can keep them separate from full size pieces. Also, in the file cabinet to the right of my desk I keep retired colours of cardstock.

Finally, here is how I organize my stamps (not the best photo). They get lined up alphabetically in my Ikea shelving system. To the right you can see our printer sitting on one of the nightstands where I keep extra supplies and my circle cutting system.

I do also have some built in storage in another area of the room, but I haven't quite figured out how to organize it yet! It just contains storage systems for all of my already made cards and cricut items!

  

Hope you've got some ideas for organizing your space! Overall, I have to say my label maker was my best friend when organizing this space!

ETA: I purchased my paper storage system through http://www.treasuredmemoriescanada.com/ when they were on sale. However, they can also be purchased through the maker of them http://www.bestscrapbookshelf.com/. I know I got them on sale but just looking at the prices now, they seem much more expensive then when I got mine about a year or so ago. The specific ones I ordered are 3 of OC Kit D1 and one of OC Kit D3.

Thank You Cards

Grant and I wanted to give small thank you cards to the two salespeople that we worked with throughout the home building process. I knew I wanted to use the fabulous "Good Neighbors" stamp set that is now retired from the Sale-A-Bration promotion earlier this year and then I saw the front card here and decided to make my own version of it using some of my favourite retired items from Stampin' Up!

This first card is for our direct sales person. We dealt with her on at least a weekly basis from March until getting possession at the end of October. She helped us to pick out what things we wanted to build our dream home.

This second card is for another sales person that we dealt with quite often when we came to check up on the progress of our house and she was just as willing to help us out with any questions or concerns we had. On both cards the houses and roofs are raised up on dimensionals.

We're still getting settled in the house, unpacking has been on hold because we both have bad colds right now so our heads just aren't up for it! It doesn't help that they are digging the lots up on either side of our house to finally put up houses! We were hoping it would have been at least started by them time we moved in but no such luck; at least they are doing both lots at the same time so the noise is all at once! 

Here's a peek at our house for those who are interested!

Supplies:

Heartfelt Gratitude Card

Stamps: SU good neighbors (retired), fabulous phrases

Ink: SU not quite navy, old olive, bashful blue, chocolate chip

Paper: SU not quite navy, ww, maine blueberry dp (retired)

Button: SU old olive corduroy button (retired)

Punches: SU 1 1/4" square

Misc: SU dimensionals, embroidery thread

Kind Thanks Card

Stamps: SU good neighbors (retired), fabulous phrases

Ink: SU regal rose, pretty in pink, so saffron, chocolate chip

Paper: SU regal rose, ww, georgia peach dp (retired)

Button: SU old olive from playground designer buttons (retired)

Punches: SU 1 1/4" square

Misc: SU dimensionals, embroidery thread

Getting Settled and 30th Anniversary

We're getting all settled in to the new house with not a lot left to unpack. It still doesn't feel like it's ours since we've never owned a house before but I'm sure that will come when we start getting the bills for it! Anyways, the point of this post is to share the card I made for my parents 30th wedding anniversary (which was on Monday)! Congratulations to them!

This card was inspired by this beautiful card by Lynn. I had to make it work with different stamps since I don't own that one. For the flowers I used  the set Cottage Garden, cut them out and raised them on dimensionals. For the stems I used the set For All You Do and used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line them up the way I wanted.

Stamps: SU Cottage Garden, For All You Do, Everything Nice

Ink: SU basic black, regal rose, pretty in pink

Paper: SU basic black, ww, regal rose, pretty in pink, pink pirhouette

Brads: SU pretty in pink

Ribbon: SU 1/4" black grosgrain

Misc: SU dimensionals

New House Congrats

Well it isn't too much longer until the house we're building is ready! We actually get possession at the end of the month. This card is for one of Grant's coworkers who is actually building a house on the same street as us and gets possession of her place just a couple weeks into November. I figured I better make it now because I'm not sure how quickly I'll get to unpacking all of my craft supplies!

I've been lacking any creativity at making cards so I CASEd this card and just changed the colours and design slightly to suit my style a little more! The houses do not look as crooked in real life as they do in the photo! As with most of my cards, the main image panel is raised on dimensionals!

Stamps: SU Good Neighbours (retired), Occasional Quotes (hostess)
Ink: SU marina mist, pear pizazz, perfect plum, versamark
Paper: SU ww, marina mist, pear pizazz, perfect plum, pear pizazz dp (hostess pack)
Ribbon: SU whisper white 1/4" grosgrain
Embossing Folder: SU Square Lattice
Embossing Powder: SU whisper white
Misc: SU dimensionals

ABC Holiday Promotion

Stampin' Up! is having an ABC (Amazing cards, Beautiful packaging and Cherished gifts) Holiday Promotion in which you can purchase special holiday bundles at 20% off. There are 6 fabulous holiday offers that you can check out here in the flyer! This promo runs October 19 to December 16.

Mojo159 Dasher Christmas

Here's a quick simple card for Mojo159.

This card features the fabulous Candy Cane Christmas specialty paper and glitter brads from the Holiday Mini Catalogue. The red glitter brad brings out the glittered red stripes on the paper!

Stamps: SU Dasher, Best Yet (retired)
Ink: SU real red
Paper: SU real red, ww, baja breeze, candy cane christmas dp
Ribbon: SU 1/8" real red taffeta
Brad: SU real red glitter brad
Misc: SU baja breeze felt flurries (retired but available while supplies last in clearance)

Dad's 50th Birthday

Yesterday was my Dad's 50th birthday! Unfortunately, I couldn't be there to share the day with him but I hope he had a wonderful day. Here's the card I made to go along with the gift we got for him.

It's a pretty simple card but I find that is the only way I can make masculine looking cards! Although, I can't take credit for the inspiration for this card - it's a CASE of the card here. For the center of the build-a-brad I printed out the "50" from the printer and made it chocolate chip colour to match using Marni's RGB values. For the leaf, I used the rock and roll technique to get the different colour along the edges.

Stamps: SU Paradise, Occasional Quotes (hostess)

Ink: SU garden green, wild wasabi, chocolate chip

Paper: SU crumb cake, chocolate chip, very vanilla, whisper white, woodland walk dp

Brad: SU pewter build-a-brad

Punch: SU 1/2" circle punch

Eastern Blooms Card Set

Some of you may recognize this from Andrea Walford's Eastern Blooms class planner. I made some modifications to it to make it more of my style such as eliminating the distressing and sponging of the edges. I also modified it to make it a "thank you" note set only. Click on the image to enlarge it for a better view.
Please do not CASE these cards and if you are interested in purchasing the complete planner, visit Andrea's page here. Let me just warn you, this project does take some time wtih the cutting out of all of the flowers, but it is so easy to put together!

Growing Green Birthday

The new "growing green" stamp sets is one of my new favourite. The rose image is perfect for watercolouring. For this card, I stamped the rose image in StazOn ink on watercolour paper and used my aquapainter to colourit with crumb cake ink. Check out the ribbon detail in the photo - I wanted to have the rose look like it was centered in a bow.

ETA: I totally forgot to mention that I had CASEd this card by Andrea Walford for this design! So sorry!

Stamps: SU Growing Green, Fabulous Phrases
Ink: StazOn jet black, SU early espresso, crumb cake
Paper: SU very vanilla, watercolour, early espresso, woodland walk dp
Ribbon: SU 5/8" satin early espresso
Misc: SU dimensionals, aquapainter

Favourite New Christmas Set

The Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set in the new Holiday Mini catalogue is too cute and has so many fun images. I saw this card on Stampin' Connection and had to create a little set inspired by it using more of the images from this set. This set was fairly easy to make - the most time consuming thing was trying to line up and space the images as perfectly as possible. I accomplished this by straightening the white cardstock they are stamped on along grid paper then figuring out the center line and working out from there for horizontal spacing. Then, I just eyeballed vertical spacing and the angle I wanted the image at. It's not perfect - but I still like it.

Here you can get a better look at the cards:
It's kind of funny how even with such similar cards I still have a favourite!

The stripes were created just using my real red stampin' marker and a ruler! I have to say too, that I love this 1/8" taffeta ribbon! I originally thought it would be too skinny to be useful but it turns out quite nicely.

Stamps: SU Jolly Bingo Bits, Four the Holidays
Ink: Real Red
Paper: SU ww, real red
Ribbon: SU 1/8" real red taffeta

Simple Thank You Notes

I had started these cards forever ago and only recently actually finished them. Like most crafters, I mostly need thank you cards so I decided to make some quick (well would have been if I didn't forget about them) and simple cards.Here's a better look at each of the cards:
Not too much to say about these ones! The supplies for these are in sharp contrast to my card I posted last because unfortunately a lot of these supplies are now retired!

Stamps: SU Thank You Kindly
Ink: SU kiwi kiss (retired), tangerine tango (retired), old olive, so saffron, regal rose
Paper: SU ww, kiwi kiss (retired), tangerine tango, old olive, so saffron, regal rose, georgia peach dp (retired), hawaii papaya dp (retired)
Ribbon: SU kiwi kiss striped (retired), tangerine tango striped(retired), 5/8" grosgrain old olive, so saffron (retired), regal rose (retired)
Punch: SU scallop edge

New Supplies!

As soon as I saw the new SU set "Friends Never Fade" I knew I had to have it. The coordinating dp, greenhouse gala, on the other hand, I did not want - until I saw people using it and then I had to get my hands on it. The main image panel is popped up on dimensionals (like it is for most of the cards I make). This card shows off some of the many new items in this years 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalogue: a new stamp set, a new hostess stamp set, new dp, new ribbon and the new colour daffodil delight.

Stamps: SU Friends Never Fade, Occasional Quotes (hostess)
Ink: SU old olive, daffodil delight
Paper: SU ww, old olive, daffodil delight, greenhouse gala dp
Ribbon: SU 1/8" daffodil delight tafetta
Punch: SU corner rounder punch
Misc: SU dimensionals

Christmas Jingle SS Cards

I know it's early but I couldn't resist making some Christmas cards when so many other crafters are already! I love making Christmas cards and I don't even send any out - I usually just sell them or give them as gifts for other people to use. This is a set of 5 that I made using last catalogue's Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' Kit. These are great for making cards out of because there are so many supplies contained in them. I made these 5 (albeit I did use a couple other supplies as well) and used maybe 1/8 of the kit, if that! Here's some better pics of each of the cards: The sentiment on this card is from the retired rubons "season of cheer." Some of you may recognize this sketch from last weeks Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge 155! The little tag punched with the jewelry tag punch and stamped with the coordinating "tiny tags" stamp set.Such a fun set to make! And I have so much more kit left to use!

Scrappin Kit: SU Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin Kit (retired)

Supplies not in the kit:

Stamps: SU tiny tags
Ink: SU real red
Rubons: SU season of cheer (retired)
Ribbon: SU 1/8" real red taffeta, 1/4" real red grosgrain, 5/8" chocolate chip grosgrain (retired)
Punch: SU jewelry tag punch
Brads: SU 5/16" very vanilla jumbo brads

Last Few Pages of Album

Here are a couple more layouts from the bridal shower album I've been sharing over the last few posts. (I didn't have the written page yet at the time I took this photo.)
I haven't shared all the photos, just some of my favourites, hope you've enjoyed it!

Paper: SU ww, basic black, pumpkin pie, island oasis dp
Ribbon: SU pumpkin pie grosgrain, black grosgrain, white organdy (retired)
Punches: SU 1/2" circle punch
Misc: SU pearls