It's all about the CANDY!!

It's true, right? Halloween is TOTALLY all about the candy!! The kids get excited and I hope that someone gave them Tootsie Rolls because that's the "mom tax" for taking them out. They're lucky with me...my hubby charges them Coffee Crisp bars - LOL!

Today's card is one I designed back in August, both for today's Paper Crafts Crew sketch and for the True North Swappers. I love swapping with these girls! We do a monthly theme and the card fronts I get back are ALWAYS top notch!

I started off with a base of Summer Starfruit Cardstock and then added a layer of Very Vanilla. My original design had a full piece of the Witches Brew Designer Series Paper, but I changed my mind and I'm glad I did!

I used my slaves children to cut out the squares using the Square Framelit Dies and the Big Shot. I actually stamped AFTER they were cut out...I was thinking of the children really...it would have taken them FOREVER to line up the images.

The last image on the right (wrapped candy), was fussy cut and put up on Stampin' Dimensionals.

I stamped my Happy Halloween sentiment using the direct to rubber technique (markers on the rubber instead of colouring the image after it's stamped - which would be impossible with this one since it's a solid image) with my Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive markers.

The finishing touch? A Summer Starfruit Ribbon of course! It's STILL not a colour I love, but I do like the way this card turned out.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Halloween Hello, Seasonal Sayings
INK: Old Olive, Basic Grey, Pumpkin Pie
PAPERS: Very Vanilla and Summer Starfruit Cardstock; Witches Brew DSP
ACCESSORIES: Ribbon, Dies, Big Shot, Markers, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy Stampin'!

For the Office

Every year (at least as far back as I can remember - when you make cards, it's all a blur!) I make the cards for hubby to give to his co-workers at Christmas. There is only ONE stipulation - they can't say Merry Christmas. One of his co-workers celebrated Hanukah and not Christmas. I am happy to accommodate...especially with all the AMAZING stamps Stampin' UP! sells.

Here is this year's offering:

It's not a lot of cards (just 12), so I am happy to let hubby place his "custom" order - LOL! Of course, his "custom" order is "whatever you think is best babe".

This year, I decided to go with blue and silver instead of the traditional red and green and I just LOVE the way they turned out!!

I used the Designer Series Paper from the Festival of Prints packs in Island Indigo and the Silver Glimmer Paper. The DSP was run through the Big Shot (which, by the way, is on sale TODAY ONLY if you're reading this on Monday, November 19th!) It SAYS $122.95, but when you key it in or add it to your cart, you'll see it's just $98.36!

The sentiment was stamped in Island Indigo and I added the piece of glimmer paper underneath it.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Greetings of the Season
INK: Island Indigo
PAPERS: Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake Cardstock; Festival of Prints of DSP; Silver Glimmer Paper
ACCESSORIES: Big Shot, Tasteful Trim Die, Glue Dots

Happy Stampin'!

Merry Christmas for the Divas!

It's another DIVAS Sketch Day today and I think you'll love the sketch!! It's versatile and has lots of cute flags on it.

Here's my card:

I had the Festival of Prints papers out to work on my Creative Crew assignment for November (was that a hint?) so I decided to use them for the Divas Sketch Card.

I started off stamping the tree/branch using my markers directly on the rubber in Early Espresso and Lucky Limeade. Next came the bird in Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso and Pumpkin Pie.

To stamp the sentiment, I used Island Indigo on one word, stamped it, cleaned the stamp then coloured and stamped the second word in order to have them stacked. I *could* have cut the stamp apart, but I'm not a big fan of doing that.

Last, but not least, I added the flags at the bottom and adhered everything to the card front.

Here's the sketch:

You can check out the rest of the Divas on the Divas Blog.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Best of Everything, Greetings of the Season (ONLY in the Holiday Catalogue)
INK: None...I used markers!
PAPERS: Very Vanilla and Cherry Cobbler Cardstock; Festival of Prints DSP
ACCESSORIES: Markers

Happy Stampin'!

Frosty Friends for the Divas!

Are you sitting down? You might want to, because if you don't, you might just fall over from the cuteness!

This week, our colour challenge was to use the following colours:

• Pool Party
• Island Indigo
• Summer Starfruit
• Primrose Petals
• Always Artichoke

I'm telling you, that MDS2 colour picker is just a bit weird sometimes! But! I found the perfect stamp to make it all work TOGETHER:

Is this not the cutest thing EVER?

I started by stamping the Frosty Friends image onto Whisper White cardstock, using Staz-ON ink. Then I took out my ink pads, smooshed them and used the ink in the lids with my blender pen to colour in my image. I thought I was going to have to cheat and use Pumpkin Pie for the snowman noses, but it seems if you colour in Summer Starfruit first and then add a layer of Primrose Petals on top, you get orange! :)  Yes. I DO remember basic colour theory from grade school, but in the real world it doesn't always work out the way you think it should. I'm glad it did!

I added the sentiment from Greetings of the Season and Dazzling Details to the snowballs for the finishing touches.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Frosty Friends, Greetings of the Season

INK: Staz-ON, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Summer Starfruit, Primrose Petals and Always Artichoke

PAPERS: Whisper White and Pool Party Cardstock

ACCESSORIES: Blender pen, Dazzling Details

Happy Stampin'!

What can you do with a Simply Scrappin' Kit?

Are you comfy? Got your coffee? This is going to be a L-O-N-G post, so I just wanted you to be prepared! I know it's Monday, but hang in there! There's lots to look at, but it's worth the read. There might a pop quiz! :)

So, while I was at Regionals in Hamilton, Stampin' UP! did an all attendee give away (those are the best because EVERYONE gets a goodie!) and we got the Merry Moments Simply Scrappin' Kit which is available in the Holiday Catalogue. It's only $26.95 CAD and even if you're NOT a scrapbooker, it's TOTALLY worth it.

I started off with half the kit (actually, it's a little less than half because there are THREE of each of the Designer Series Papers and I only cut into TWO). This is what half a kit looks like:

A full kit consists of EIGHT sheets of Cardstock (in this case Basic Grey, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and Very Vanilla) SIX sheets of double sided Designer Series Paper and THREE 12 x 12 sheets of cardstock stickers.

So, with my 1/2 pack, I followed a tutorial and made this:

That's three 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" cards, one 6 x 6" scrapbook page and EIGHT 3 x 3 notecards.

I used stamps from the Greetings of the Season Set which is perfect for this kit! There are four sentiments in the set and if you order it in clear-mount, it's only $14.95.

After I followed the tutorial, I had this leftover:

Still quite a bit! And remember...this is still from JUST 1/2 pack!

Since there were leftovers, I made this:

One more 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card, one more 3 x 3 notecard and another 6 x 6 scrapbook page (to face the other one). And I STILL had leftover pieces, but not enough cardstock to make more cards. You could OF COURSE use some of your basic cardstock and then use up all the bits to make MORE cards.

Since THAT was so much fun, I decided to use the OTHER half of the Simply Scrappin' Kit and I made this:

That's EIGHT 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" cards and EIGHT 3 x 3 notecards. Now, I did cheat a little bit and used a 1/2 sheet of 8 1/2 X 11 Very Vanilla Cardstock.

While I was merrily creating away, I got an email that said that my dear friend Ann had posted a card and I stopped EVERYTHING to CASE her CASE of a Stampin' Success card (that's our exclusive Demonstrator Magazine).

Here's THAT card:

Did you see the pearl? That's typical Ann! She adds a pearl to pretty much EVERYTHING. I guess you could call it her signature. :)

Now, if you've stuck with me this far...there's NO pop-quiz. However, if you purchase the Simply Scrappin Kit from me, I'll GIVE you the tutorial to make all these projects.

What do you think?

STAMPS: Greetings of the Season
INK: Basic Grey, Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade
PAPERS: Simply Scrappin' Kit
ACCESSORIES: Pearls

Happy Stampin'!