Let Me Share a Secret

We all have secrets, well let me show you mine.........can you guess? Yup I cannot decorate cakes. I'm semi-ok at baking but this is just plain scary. I borrowed one of those giant cupcake pans from my boss. I know what your thinking, "this is supposed to be a cupcake"? =) It started out looking like a cupcake while it was baking. Then while putting it together it became my Christmas tree cake...maybe it's a Christmas bush? Anywho I thought I'd show you why I decorate paper not cakes!
Now here's what I'm better at....paper and stamps and ink and ribbon! I got the tutorial HERE on Becky Roberts' blog (my amazing upline).


I have also lined up my Valentine Workshop! It's scheduled for January 15th @ 2pm. Cost is $10 and must be paid by January 7th. We will be making 5 "simple yet elegant" cards....I can't wait! Hopefully this one goes better than my first Open House =(

Hope you all have a great Thursday....gotta get through this work day then 3 days off.....I love federal holidays!

C-ya!

Hi!

Wow a whole 9 days since my last post...I'm back though =) Had so much to do and so many complaints at work just didn't have time to blog. I had a birthday and Christmas within my days off and so my birthday was spent playing with my Occasions Mini preorder...8 hours and I DESTROYED my craft space...trust me I'm usually pretty organized but when creativity hits you, you gotta run with it!


These little guys are my Snowman Soup...there are no links for these you just google them and a whole schlew of them pop up. I gave these to co-workers just as a little something for the holidays.


I got the idea for my neighbor's gift HERE. I made the box out of 2 12x12 pieces of card stock. I think it turned out really cute. The ornament was one of THE most simplest things I've made. I think it will be my next year gifts to everyone =)




Alrighty I think that's all for today. Now to get some of my Valentine's projects uploaded and show you =)


C-ya!

Busy Weekend

Since Mother Nature has decided to flood Southern California with 7 inches of rain this weekend, we decided to stay inside which means hours of craftiness for me! It's a good thing because I had a ton of stuff I wanted to make for coworkers and neighbors.



This cutie holds 3 Hershey nuggets. I found this wonderful idea HERE on a forum at Splitcoast Stampers. These are for my coworkers in Consumer Affairs at USPS.



Please excuse the gigantic picture. I got frustrated trying to resize it and it wasn't working.... grrrrr! Anywho this box is another courtesy of Splitcoast HERE. These are for our neighbors. Just something small but cute =)



Last but not least these are for my former coworkers at my local Post Office. These are from Becky's tutorial for sale HERE from the 2008 edition of The 12 Days of Christmas. They are Hershey Nugget Holders.....so super cute and so super easy. {I have an awesome upline!}



Alrighty, I'm off to make some snowman soup {hot chocolate}....enjoy your week!

Are You Filled With Love?

Valentine's Day is just around the corner.....are you ready?! I know we haven't even had Christmas yet but Stampin' UP! has a great promotion right now!

The Filled With Love Promotion going on from December 17, 2010 -January 24, 2010.




December 17–January 24, get a FREE package of Bitty Buttons when you purchase a Filled
with Love Bundle, including the Filled with
Love Stamp Set and exclusive Love Patterns
Designer Series Paper Pack—only available through this special promotion!

Colors with this promotion are Real Red & Pretty in Pink.

Click HERE to purchase this great promotion!

I'm A Winner

So let me start by saying I never win anything. Literally the last thing I won was in 4th grade and it was a pencil box during Columbus Day. We had to write to Queen Isabella and tell her why she should fund our trip to the "New World".

Fast forward MANY years later and I finally win something! This time something good....a Silhouette machine! I entered a comment here on blog I follow and 4 days later I got an email saying I won.....HOT DOG!

So now I get to play with it and see what fun I can get myself into. I think I'm going to need a room just for my machines now =)

C-ya!

Love in December

So I haven't sent out my Christmas cards and here I am making Valentine cards. I have no excuse, I just haven't gotten copies of the kids Christmas pics with Santa done yet. I wish I could say it was because I didn't want to stand in line at the post office, but I work for the Postal Service....I have no excuse =)

So all this is from my Occasions mini pre-order that I finally got the chance to play with. I also learned that you have to condition stamps before you use them so that you get that crisp image that is so desirable. Here's where I learned about CONDITIONING STAMPS. My images have turned out so much better...which makes me look like I know what I'm doing =)

Alrighty I'm off to work on teacher gifts, they need to be done by Friday..YIKES!

C-ya!



Ingredients:
Stamps: {SU! Filled with Love}
Paper: {SU! Love Impressions DSP, Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black}
Ink: {SU! Real Red}
Misc: {SU! Dimensionals, 1 3/4" Scallop punch, 1 1/2" circle punch, 1" punch, Whisper white ribbon}

1st Open House=0 Visitors

So today was the day of my first Open House! I didn't get any visitors but my house is really clean and I have some yummy goodies to take to work tomorrow =) Gotta stay positive right? I'm hoping to do a ton more advertising and have at least 1 visitor next month for my Occasions Mini Open House & Valentine Workshop. I did take some pics of my set up....

This was my main table, just showcasing different cards, ideas, items from my Starter Kit and DSP. I also had on hand "the other brand" cardstock so visitors could see for themselves just how much better SU! cardstock and products are.


This was my catalog table, the 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalog, Decor Elements catalog, Holiday Mini and a sneak peek at the Occasions Mini & Sale-A-Bration.


This was the make and take station. I had pre-cut kits to make THIS Santa.

Here are my 3 projects that I was going to do for next week's Workshop, since I didn't have any RSVP's I think I'll nix it and get stuff ready for Valentine's Day.


If anyone has any ideas or suggestions I am all ears. I haven't given up yet so hopefully next time I'll get some guests.

Snowman Dreams and Candy Wishes

Weird title I know but eh it works =) Ok here's my super cute find that I transformed into my own "thang". The jars are plastic and they originally had Sixlets candy in them. Got 'em for 90% off after Halloween....SCORE! So, the kids gladly ate the candy so I could "fix" the jars. Easy peasy, just cut a scallop circle from my Spellbinders scallop die. Cut some circles with my circle cutter and glued 'em all down with glue dots.....told ya, easy peasy. I added glitter for the bling effect and WALA (or however you spell it) you have 3 cute easy jars to fill with candy. I took mine to work and have now shared with the Marketing staff at the district office.

C-ya!









Ingredients:
Cardstock: SU! Whisper White, Pacific Point
Stamps: SU! Mr. Twigster
Ink: SU! Basic Black
Glitter: Martha Stewart
Cuttlebug, Spellbinders Scallop circles

Snowman Love

How can you resist a snowman? I love me some snowmen, partly because I know I'll never have to deal with snow in Southern California =) I can love it from a distance!






Ingredients:
Stamps: SU! Wishing You Cheer
Ink: SU! Basic Black
Paper: Scraps from an old paper pack

Open House

Sunday the 12th is my first Stampin' UP! Open House....come join me from 2-4pm and take a look at SU! cards and project ideas. There will be a Santa make-and-take tag too! If your in the Southern California area stop in and say hi! Just email me for directions =)

Also December the 19th is my Holiday Workshop. Cost is $15 for 2 cards and 1 gift card holder. Please RSVP by Friday the 17th so I can have everything ready.

Retro Cake

It's Monday again. I really don't know how Monday's come so quickly but Fridays take forever to get to.

I have MIA the last few days because I've been planning my SU! Open House and Workshop and playing with my starter kit. Let me tell you, Stampin' UP! products rock!!!! I'm not just saying that because I'm a demo now either. I used to buy the SU! stamps but not the paper or inks, I was so wrong in not doing so. Trust me you don't realize what you've been missing until you try this. All I can say is ROCKIN'! I have some posts through out the week of my new goodies I've made!

Usually December is a very busy birthday month but since I didn't send any out for 7 months I decided I won't this month either, you know, treat everyone equal so someone in December doesn't say "haha I got a card and you didn't" to someone in May. Yes, it would happen and I would be stuck making belated birthday cards....yuck. Anywho, I so love these colors, they are so happy and bright. After the storm we had last night this is a bright and cheery way to start the week.

C-ya

Ingredients:
Stamps: SU! Eat Cake
Paper: DCWV
Ink: SU!

Merry Christmas Baby

Merry Christmas....well not yet but it came early for me. As we know Black Friday is a day you can get some amazing deals. This year my Hunny got me the Cricut Expression from Walmart. It was actually cheaper last year but I had just gotten the Personal Cricut and didn't think I NEEDED the Expression...I was wrong, I was very wrong and for an entire year did not realize it. Being able to create things in 1/4" increments is absolutely amazing! Oh the excitement of creating Marvin the Elf....words cannot describe it, I think angels were in my head singing "Halleluja" though =) I got the purple one and she is so purdy sitting just waiting for me to use her (yes it's a her, just don't have a name for "her" yet).





I also got out my Christmas decorations this long weekend and was a little OCD. I brought in 4 boxes and sorted them by Christmas theme. (Yes, themes again) I have my Gingerbread/Peppermint theme, Snowman theme, Nutcracker-this years theme and a miscellaneous box of odds and ends of tinsel and stockings. Since the Nutcracker is the theme this year I needed ornaments. I picked these guys up at Michaels in the $1 bin up front and hot glued the strings to their hats. These were much easier than my original plan. In the wood department they had blank nutcrackers ready to be painted, I had those in my hand when I saw these ones. I'm all about time so forget paining myself, I'll buy the ready-made ones. Now to get the tree up and find the rest of my nutcracker decorations.

C-ya!

Let's Make It Official.....

.....I am now an official Stampin' Up! demonstrator! Yay! I made the decision based on the super duper cheap discount on Starter Kits right now, $87.50 going on right now....how could I resist? I joined Becky Roberts downline group at Inking Idaho. I've followed her blog for a few years now and have ordered from her. She has such amazing ideas I knew I had to join her downline group.

One Time Only

I don't think I'm alone in saying/thinking this that although my DH ooh's and aah's over my cards, he could care less about them. Basically it's like when he shows me Hot Wheels, yeah there are some cool ones but really they aren't my thing. Cards are like that with him but this one was different. I showed him my finished project and he said "wow I really like that one"! Not the normal "oooh cool" it was a genuine "I like it"! I should have stopped there because then I asked why do you like it, is it the color combo, etc....he said I don't know, I just like it.....eh works for me =)



I added some clear glitter glue to the wings so they had a little sparkle and also added some white matte glitter to the salt shaker for an extra umph. The watermelon seeds on the left are cut from my Cricut, pretty cute huh?!

Ingredients:
Paper: DCWV
Ink: SU!
Stamp: Stampendous
Markers: Martha Stewart

A Mountain of Toys

Here's another one of those sets that I swore I was going to use for so many things and have yet to do so. I didn't want to just use "traditional" colors for this card. This sleigh was screaming for bright but fun so pink and teal it was! I think the colors turned out pretty sweet. I am getting better at my coloring I think, at least it doesn't look like my DD colored it =)

C-ya!





Ingredients:
Paper: DCWV
Stamp: SU! Sleigh Full of Toys
Ink: SU!
Cricut

Pink Dahlia

So is everyone exhausted after Black Friday?! I love it! All the excitement, heart pounding deals and lack of sleep.....how can you resist a pair of kids jammies for $4?! Let alone Cricut cartridges on sale too!

Sooooooo my Thanksgiving cards had the Dahlia fold feathers and I thought I'd share a card I did a few years ago. I had seen a card while blog hopping and loved it. The blog said she'd found it on Splitcoast so I went there and got the tutorial on it. I did this card maybe 3 years ago or so, I remember it was before we moved down to SoCal and that's been over 2 years now. Anywho this was and has been my favorite card just because it looks so intricate but is so super easy.....here ya go =)

Oh oh oh and I figured out how to add a watermark over my pictures.....I was doing a happy dance while my DH just looked at me and smiled, it's the little things that make me happy!

C-ya!

Scallop Love

I found this awesome tutorial HERE I wish I would have had this a couple years ago for my "Santa" theme. (Yes I do themes for Christmas. It's a sick habit I know) I added glitter to Santa's hat and topper. You can't really tell. He came out cute for a first try, I may try to jazz him up a little before I actually make these for friends =)




Ingredients:
Scallop die: Spellbinders
Circle punches: 1/4" {eyes, mouth}, 1/2" {nose} 3/4" {moustache & hat topper}
Flower punch bought at Target a few years ago
Glitter: Martha Stewart

Happy T-Day!

Happy Turkey Day everyone! I am determined to thoroughly cook my turkey this year, something I have been unable to accomplish the last 7 tries. At least this guy has been saved.

Here's where I got my idea. I love Tara's blog and have been following for a couple years now. Some very cute ideas over there. I have used this type of fold before, it's called a Dahlia fold and I discovered it on Splitcoaststampers. No matter where I've seen it used it always looks so elegant....even as feathers!



Ingredients:
Paper: DCWV, SU! Bravo Burgundy
Punches: SU! 1 3/4" scallop punch; flower punch from Target; Circles: 1/8" {eyes} 1/4"{buttons}, 1"{head}, 1 5/8"{body}; 3/4" square; 1 1/4x1/4" rectangle

The Never-Ending (and addicting) Card

On my own I would have never found this. I'm not much into You Tube stuff but one of my coworkers is. She tells me about all these cute things to look up and just as she says, "It's so cute!" This is one of the things she told me to look up. It's the never ending card and I found a super easy tutorial HERE . Ignore the paper clips in the photos, I just couldn't get the edges to lay down in the photo. I did a Christmas theme on it but I think this would be so cute for Valentine's Day or even a birthday.It was kind of frustrating at first trying to figure out how to fold and fold and fold but in the end you get a very easy card for a great TA-DA!....Thanks Barbara!

Mr. Twigster Goes Pink

It's the end of the weekend. Not my favorite day.

I have no idea when I bought this stamp set but I had high hopes to make Christmas cards out of it. Two years later I still haven't done it. Then I found THIS and I was in heaven! It Today Mr. Twigster needed some pink. (I'm in a pink kinda mood)

Ingredients:
Paper: DCWV, The Paper Company
Stamps: SU! Mr. Twigster
Glitter: Martha Stewart
Scallop die: Spellbinders

Ode to the Postal Service

As a postal worker I am partial to anything postal or stampish, so when my Cuttlebug came with stamp dies I was in seventh heaven! Of course I haven't used them a whole lot but I saw this idea (I forget where probably Splitcoast) and I CASE'd it. Super easy and super fast. Just a super easy fun way to say hello!
Ingredients:
Paper: DCWV Animal Crackers
Stamp: SU! Sweet Shapes

Wrinkles

Thank goodness Monday is over! Today was one of those days at work I just wanted to crawl in a hole because I was tired of being yelled at. This card is one of my favorites. I absolutely love the colors on here. I also love the stamp....I totally agree with her! After today I think I gained an extra 3 wrinkles from customers.



Ingredients:
Paper: DCWV Flower Shower stack
Stamp: SU! Wisecracks
Decorative scissors

My Poor Neglected Blog

Awww I miss my blog. I think of it often. Usually once I finish a project and think "I should really post this". That usually doesn't happen because, well I'm usually interrupted by a fight breaking out amongst my Thing 1 and Thing 2.

I however have been a busy bee crafting. In fact just this weekend I made teacher Thanksgiving gifts, made a card for a challenge and made a "Fall" banner for the mantle =) See, I craft, I just don't post it. But I'm going to attempt to be better. I really need to learn how to schedule posts.....

Anywho....here is my Thanksgiving teacher gift for the kids' teachers. I used the instructions off of Splitcoaststampers for the Milk Carton Box. Now for the carrier that's a different story. I've seen all over blogland different tutorials for the carrier. There is one on Inking Idaho for sale but it holds 4 containers and I'm on a short time table and don't want to make 8 milk cartons. I found another one with step by step instructions for free! Minor detail I didn't realize....after making it I realized it was for a "Mini Milk Carton Container". Um, yeah, that didn't work. So when all else fails I figure it out and after trial and error I came up with this. It may not be perfect but the cartons stay in there and don't fall out! Pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.

I just stamped a leaf from SU! Simple Seasons with VersaMark all over the carton and holder. (VersaMark is THE most amazing ink pad ever!) The top and bottom borders is from Fiskars that my DH bought a few years ago for me. It's actually pretty cute, this was the first time I used it. I think this whole project came out pretty cute. Now to fill it with candy and hopefully the teachers like it as much as I do!