Happy New Year's Eve!!

Hi all
Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday.  My family and I are not into taking on the crazies on New Year's Eve, we prefer to be home and so I am here enjoying some new DVD's ..later we will jump onto the TV and catch the ball dropping at midnight. 

This picture I am sharing is actually a variation on a theme from a project from earlier in the season.  As Christmas presents for my sister and my MIL, I made shadow boxes like I had done earlier in the season with my coworkers from one of my schools.  But the boxes were slightly different from the original ones so I changed up the bottom row a bit and included a manger and an angel.  They were very nicely recieved by my family.  The manger was made from rectangles of cardstock and the head is two layered half circles.  The angel is made from a pennant punch, a circle punch and a heart punch.  cute!
Peggy

Holiday Tags and Gift Card Holders 12-11, part 8

Hi all
Where we are almost there!! Christmas Eve!
Today I want to show you one of the last (second to last?) tags from the class. We used a tag board CD folder.  This would be great to hold a gift card as well as some literature about the place where the gift card can be redeemed or a photograph.

The cover has a ribbon tied on the side to keep the folder closed.  The white medallion was made from two scalloped circles, scored, folded and joined together.   The center is a corduroy button.  Here's the inside....

Hope you have all your Christmas preparations done so you can enjoy time with your friends and family.
Warm wishes!
I'll still be posting through the holidays so pop back when you get a moment.  Also, I'll be stamping on Thursday,  I'd be happy to have you join us.
Peggy

happy hanukkah!!

Hi holiday crafters!!
In honor of the beginning of Hanukkah, I wanted to make a simple but special project that I saw on the internet at the Parents.com site.  I thought this was such a cute idea for a child so I decided to make two of them for my friend whose daughter had twins about three years ago.  Take a look....

First I painted each of the little spools (pale blue and medium blue)) and a stick (white) about a foot long.  Then I hot glued each spool to the stick. (It is easiest to get them aligned if you attach the center one first. I used glue dots to add the little snowflakes to the front of the spools.  You could also number each spool.  Now what you can't see in the picture is the colorful (and glittery) pencils (unsharpened).  You put the pencils in the spools and each day you "light" the candle by adding an arrowhead pencil eraser to the top (ie fake flames - mine were yellow and orange).  My friend's kids are in a family of multiple religious associations so it seemed like a simple way to introduce some of the Jewish traditions to the girls.  To my delight, my girlfriend really seemed happy with the gift and said she will overnight the menorrahs to her daughter - I thought she might want to wait til next year when the girls are a bit older but she seems eager to send them right away.  It is such fun to make a gift and have it well received.  I was delighted too.
Soon I will get back to the gift tags and I also have some holiday treats and a special calendar for you as well.   As I said yesterday...busy times!!!
If you are feeling a bit overwrought and tired, consider coming to my fun stampin session next Thursday.  I have scheduled both a day and an evening session so you can pick the one that fits your schedule. Be sure to make your reservation by Tuesday of next week.
Remember the big discounts are still available in the store on my Stampin Up website:   http://peggyouten.stampinup.net
Peggy

Holiday Tags and Gift Card Holders 12-11, part 7

Hi all
Sorry I'm a bit late tonight - lots to do ...cookies for swaps...treats for staff....gifts for friends!!

Here is a wonderful gift card holder - sometimes these are made from envelopes.  I didn't have any kraft envelopes so I just made if from cardstock.

This cute little guy is from the Kidoodles set - the one that benefits the Ronald McDonald house.  Won;t you consider adding it to your collection to help RMcD too?
I love that yo'al visit my blog ...if you enjoy seeing my work, how about leaving a comment?  Admittedly it is sometimes hard for me to stay motivated to post every day when I so rarely get to enjoy a comment from my visitors.  If you are coming back over and over there must be something you like!!!!
Peggy

holiday treat

Hi all
I am interrupting the presentation of my holiday tags and gift cards to show you a little project I put together for the students at one of my schools.  Last week they had a fund raiser at a local branch of a book store.   I offered to prepare a craft project and had 75 kids make the project in two hours.   Man were we busy!  It isn't a very involved project but the kids really enjoyed making it.

Some of the kids assumed the tag said "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" but in fact it said, "Rudolph,the Red-Nosed Reader"...gotta encourage the kids to read, read, read!!!
Fun, huh?
Peggy

Holiday Tags and Gift Card Holders 12-11, part 7

Hi all
I am nuts about my Sizzix/Stampin' Up! dies and Big Shot.....so I used them again!!
This stocking is a tag and gift card holder in one.  Lots of times we give a simple little gift and attach a related gift card.....maybe give a friend an oven mitt  and then attach a gift card for a kitchen store.  This stocking would be perfect for that.

On the back is a scallop envelope which would hold the gift card.  I sure have gotten a lot of use of my stocking die.
Peggy

Holiday Tags and Gift Card Holders 12-11, part 6

Hi stmpers
Another tag from my last class.....This one was made using a Sizzix ornament die and the Stampin' Up! rounded tab punch.  Simple but cute!

Happy Holidays!
Peggy

Holiday Tags and Gift Card Holders 12-11, part 5

Hi all
Today I have a cute tag for you that is simply cheerful!!

The base of the tag is from the two tags die.  The head is a circle punch and the hat is the rounded tab punch.  The scarf is a piece of Stampin' Up!s Candy Cane fabric with a holiday button on top.  The greeting is from the Delightful Dozen set.  This is a fun little tag that could be used all through the winter months.
Peggy

Holiday Tags and Gift Card Holders 12-11, part 4

Hi all
Here is a neat little tag!!

We used almost artichoke c/s as the base with a layer of DSP from the Frostwood Lodge collection.  The tree is a die cut from the stocking accents die.   I love the rounded edges of this die instead of the sharp points often seen.  I found that we needed to put very small notches on the sides to keep the gold cording from sliding out of position.  Aren't the pearls a nice touch?  Popping the tree up on dimensionals gave it a nice shadow too.  The cherry cobbler ribbon is very special.
Peggy

Holiday Tags and Gift Card Holders 12-11, part 3

Hi all
Here's another little tag from the peekaboo die....  This one is special because it uses a bottle cap, with some crystal effects and beads inside, as an accent on the front.

The green die cut inside the tag window is from the Holiday Windows Movers and Shapers for the Big Shot.  Remember, little pieces of designer paper can really add a nice element  to your projects.
Peggy

Holiday Tags and Gift Card Holders 12-11, part 2

Hi all
Yesterday I showed you two very simple tags...those tags could be quickly made when you run short at the last minute and need a few more tags.  They are also a great way to make use of smaller left-over pieces of cardstock.
Today I want to show you one more of the tags from the Peekaboo Die.

This tag uses the cute penguin from the punch pals set.  Sometimes it is tricky to get small pieces of cardstock to line up - there may be little or no area on which to put the adhesive, so what we did was attach the white cardstock in the center of the green cardstock.  Then the red scalloped peek a boo window was glued overtop the white cardstock.  Then the image was stamped through the window. Of course, the penguin was stamped separately and punched out.
Inside is the greeting for the "to and from".

 Hope you like it!
 Peggy

Holiday Tags and Gift Card Holders 12-11

Hi all
Good class today....busy ladies!!
I prepard a collection of tags and gift card holders for the ladies today...some simple, some more involved.  Let's start simple.....

These tags use the peek a boo die for the Big Shot machine.  The cool thing is you can cut five different tags with one pass through the machine.  We used four of the different tags.  These are the simplest tags.  When you open the door there is a "to...from.." stamped inside.  More projects to see all week.
Make my day...leave a comment!!!
Peggy

Holiday treats!

Hi Stampers.
Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler temperatures and that you are feeling the preChristmas excitement building.  Tongiht I want to show you some little treats I have been working on.  The staff at one of my schools is providing dinner at the local Ronald McDonald House tomorrow night.  I cannot go with them but I did offer to make some treats for the residents. 

I started out making the white treats which were made from three ornament die cuts.  They weren't exactly cooperating so I decided to use a one inch box die cut  instead.

Inside the box is a dum dum like lollipop.  The stick of course is holding the greeting.

This is a close up of the ornament die cut.  It too has a dum dum inside.  I had hoped to use tootsie pops but they were way too large to fit. 
I will take these 50 treats and another set of treats tomorrow so the gang can take them with them to the Ronald Mc Donald house.  Hope the kids enjoy them.

Peggy

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi all
I hope that everyone is enjoying a pleasant and peaceful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  Although my own family is rather small, we always enjoy getting together on special occasions for a meal.  My sister graciously allows me to take over holiday occasions so that we can bring my family (my sister) together with Dave's parents and his uncle.  Sometimes on Thanksgiving, we also celebrate my son's birthday, which always falls near or on Thanksgiving. We have big plans for his birthday this year...I'll tell you about that after the big event.
I have a cute Thanksgiving project to share with you but I haven't snapped photos of it yet so hopefully I can show that to you later this weekend.  In the meantime, here is the alternate Thanksgiving treat I made for my co-workers when I ran out of the candies I had used in the baggies I showed you yesterday.

These treats are made using the "It's a Wrap Holidays" set.  The stamped image is meant to wrap Hershey Nuggets but I wasn't able to get those, so I used the Hershey Miniature bars instead.  Did you know that Hershey does not allow you to use adhesives that might alter the flavor of their chocolate?  And that you are not allowed to attach the stamped wrapper to the wrapper of the candy?  You have to attach the stamped wrapper to itself so you can slide the stamped wrapper off the candy like a sleeve.  Seems a bit retentive to me but that is their copyright rule.  Luckily their chocolate is delish!  These treats are smaller than the skinny bags I showed you yesterday, but heck! .. they have chocolate inside so I know no one was disappointed. 
As I was leaving work today, one of the new teachers at my school came up to me with a piece of notebook paper in her hand, which she gave to me.  Imagine my surprise when I opened it up to find a note from her daughter, thanking me for the skinny bag candy.   Apparently Christina gave the candy to her daughter. (good mom!)  I love that the good vibe went from me to Christina and from Christina to her daughter!  How sweet of her daughter to send me a thank you note!!!!  Funny thing is, I recently "entertained" a young adult all day because she is considering going into occupational therapy.  She did not come to volunteer, but simply to watch.  I tried to explain the various aspects of OT to her and answered her questions.  I did not get all of my usual work tasks done (such as writing detailed progress notes) because I didn't want to bore her.  This girl did not send me so much as an email to say thanks but this little kid wrote a "bread and butter" note to me for a little treat!   I applaud Christina, who obviously is raising her daughter to have lovely manners. 
I am thankful for all my stampin friends, for having a good job in rough economic times, for being able to reach out to all of you, but  especially for my husband and sons.  They are truely my joy.
Happy Thanksgiving
Peggy

Lil' thanksgiving treat!!

Hi all
Today I want to share some pics of the little treats I made for my co-workers for Thanksgiving.

Here is a closer look.......

I simply stamped the turkey from the Gift Givers (123774 clear) stamp set on a piece of cardstock and punched it out using the curly label punch  (119851).  Of course the handy little cello bags are from the current mini catalog  (124134).
Tomorrow I'll show you the other treats I made when I ran out of these candies.
Peggy

Christmas stamp a stack, part 3, Project 5

Hi Stampers
Today I am sharing the last card from my last class.  Several of my stampers chose this as their favorite card of the class, even though it was a bit more involved than most of the other cards.

Can you tell that it is a shaker card?  The shaker "stuff" inside the ornament is little cupcake decorations - red and green Christmas trees.  Punches are featured in this card - the white trim border and the ornament were punched.  Here's a secret about the opening in the ornament.  I made a template from blue quilting template plastic.  The gals traced the opening onto the backs of the ornaments and then....get ready for it...we used the jewelry tag punch to make the hole.  The punch was positioned with the round part in the center of the window and the squared off end was placed at the end of the tracing.  Funny thing is, I always try to avoid having the ladies use craft knives to cut out small parts because I don't want anyone to get hurt but one of the ladies had a tussle with her scissors and ended up cutting herself anyway!!  It is hard to craft with a wrapped up finger but she is such a trooper that she hung in there til all her cards were complete.  Way to hang in there, Donna!
The bow above the ornament is simply a ribbon folded into thirds with a large office  brad bridged over the center, then poked through the red card stock behind.  We added a rhinestone to give it a little bling.  Are you wondering about the edge of the word piece?  We used a curly label punch but only punched the ends of the white card stock because the overall size of the piece is too big to punch or die cut.
Stampin' Up is offering an extra $35 in free product  if you hostess a $350 party from now until  Dec 15th.  Wouldn't you enjoy getting your friends together at your home or mine to do some Christmas shopping?  You could earn an extra $35 in product to celebrate your holiday!!
Peggy

Christmas stamp a stack, part 3, Project 4

Hi Stampers
At this time of year, don't you just love having so many holidays to stamp for?  Fall is such a great time for stampin!!  Today I am showing you a popular card from my last class.

What I really enjoyed about this project is that it started out going in a totally different direction but once I got moving, I had to go with where it was headed!!  The base of this card is 1/4 of a sheet of card stock which means more cards from a single sheet of cardstock.  It only uses a small piece of DSP so again you can get several pieces from a single sheet of DSP - you could even use scraps left over from previous projects as MANY different patterns would work well.
I used the triple layer doily punch to make the bling! from shimmer paper, and there are rhinestones on Dasher to add a bit o bling as well.
It is not too late to make your holiday cards!!!
I would just like to take a moment to wish my husband happy anniversary .......28 years!!!  Were my parents still alive they too would be celebrating their anniversary.  All of my love........ 
Peggy

Christmas stamp a stack, part 3, Project 3

Hi all
This card looks simple but some of the ladies found it a real challenge. 

I had pre-scored the Designer Series paper every 1/4" using my Simply Scored tool - wow is that a wonderful tool!  Then I cut perpendicular to the scored lines every 1" - that gave me 12 - 1" wide pieces of scored DSP - If you make the mistake of cutting the strips first, you will have to do all that scoring on each individual sheet - yawn!!  Anyway, then fold accordian style on each scored mark. You glue one end of the strip to the other to form a continuous loop.  Next, you flatten it out to form the medallion.  If you lay the circle down with the side you want to show face down, you can attach a circle to the back to hold the design in place.  Then we layered the medallion onto another scalloped circle.  The button has baker's twine through the holes and then the button was stuck to the medallion using glue dots.  Again, this is the kind of card you can work on in various stages and settings, getting ready for the final assembly. 
I think it has a fun and fresh look - and just think of how great it would be to use up you leftover strips of DSP in such a fun way!!
Peggy

Christmas stamp a stack, part 3, Project 2

Hi all
My next project really evolved nicely.  Lots of texture - the ribbon, the trim border, the bumps on the oval frame and the texture of the leaves. 

My big shot really got a work out for this class.....the petals a plenty textured impression background, the die cut holly and berries, the beaded oval frame.  I also used the trim border punch and a non-SU scalloped oval punch.  So wonder my hands have been numb!! That's what happens when you prepare materials for 32 cards!!
Peggy

Christmas stamp a stack, part 3, Project 1

Hi all
Uh Oh!   My blog is acting a bit peculiar tonight...hope my posts show up for you!
My first stamp a stack, part three card has classic features....the background DSP of seasonal word, the metal bells with the holly and bow, and a greeting with an old fashioned feel.

Some of my ladies groan when they see the gold pen I  used to make the label and the bells pop off the page a bit but I really like the effect.
Peggy

A little treat

Hi all
I was looking at the pictures from Sunday's stampin session and there was a picture on the camera of the last quickie little treat that  I took to my book club meeting.  This was a nice treat be cause it held reception sticks - a more grown up candy treat than the usual Halloween fare.  I used the new petite pocket die cut - but left off the flap.

Tomorrow I will begin to share the cards from the "Stamp a stack part 3".  Pop back to see what we made!
Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 6, part 9

Hi Stampers!!
Well, you have stayed with me through each of the windows of my shadow box and here we are at the last window. 

This punch is such a great one...I hope to show you another cool project with this punch in the next week or so.  In the meantime, I hope you have enjoyed this shadow box project.
Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 6, part 8

Hi Stampers



Check out my stampin up website (peggyouten.stampinup.net) for info on how to get FREE digital downloads - they work with My Digital Studio and other programs as well!  If you choose to purchase My Digital Studio, you can also get that through my website!

This window is such fun!!!

The head is from the pennant punch and the antlers are 1/3 of the snowflake punch. Some googly eyes and a red pom and viola!   ....adorable!
Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 6, part 7

Hi all
This window is such a nice - and easy - scene.

This a simply from a SU punch.  We added a small black bead for the eye - it is attached with crystal effects.

Have you been enjoying seeing this project day after day ...and wished you could have made one yourself?   Well you are in luck!!  Yesterday I did this project with the staff at one of my schools.  21 people signed up but as sometimes happens, five people were too stressed about progress report writing to attend.  I am selling those "ready to go" kits for $12 plus postage and handling.   I do accept paypal.  Contact me at david.outen@verizon.net or at 410-256-6772 to get your Shadow Box kit. note:there are some slight variations of patterns/papers due to a supply issue.   The kits include glue and dimensionals.
Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 6, part 6

Hi all
The sixth window in my shadow box project is a three dimensional tree.  Cute!

I punched three pennants from DSP, scored down the center and then attached one side of one pennant to the side of another, forming a chain of three.  The glimmer paper was perfect for the star on top.
Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 6, part 5

Hi all
Today I am showing you the center window of my shadow box.  This window could easily have had another holiday image but I wanted to put a greeting on the box - the center seemed the logical place.

Obviously this tag could easily have said "from the Jones's" or another appropriate greeting. Someone pointed out to me that some folks might not like it to say "Christmas" if they are not religious but it seems to me that there are plenty of folks celebrating Christmas who don't see it as a religious holiday.
Come back tomorrow for another window.
Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 6, part 4

Hi all
Well, I couldn't stand the embarrasment of my  horrible photography (even though I am a known novice at photography!) so I went back and retook my already-posted photos of the shadow box project.  If you have been checking in to see each component, be sure to go back and see the nicer photos of the first three windows.
window 4....

This window is one I am particularly proud of because it took some figurin' to make this house. I folded the designer series paper in a particular way (about 1/2" in on each side of a center portion just slightly narrower than the tag punch) and punched two for each house.  I scored a small piece of DSP several times then it was folded to form the chimney.  The door is a jewel and the wreath over the door is a flower punch with a hole in the center.
Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 6, part 3

Hi Stampers
Today I am showing the third window in row one of my shadow box.

I hope you can see that the brad (an office size brad) in the center was covered with white embossing powder and then dipped in dazzling diamonds glitter.  The red part is punched from the five petal flower punch and the yellow part is punched with the Boho blossoms punch.  The flower is put into the window using dimensionals.
Happy halloween!!
Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 6, part 2

Hi stampers,
Today you get to see the next window in the shadow box project.  This window is in the middle of the top row.

The wreath was made from the doily triple layer punch with a hole punched in the center using the itty bitty punch pack flower.  We made a non-tied bow which is held together with the legs of a brad.  Then  the legs of the brad go through one of the little holes in the wreath while the other leg goes through the center hole.  The legs are folded in the back to secure the bow.  The wreath is mounted in the window using dimensionals.
Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 6

Hi stampers!!
I am excited to begin to show you this next project....it has many parts and they will be posted over the next week. The final project of the class was a shadow box.  I pre-painted all the boxes before the ladies came so I could be sure not to waste time during class on such a  time consuming task.

As you might imagine, SU punches figure prominently in this whole project.  Each of the windows has a piece of DSP in the background - I used two different patterns - one pattern is in the four corners and the center window of the nine for a total of 5 pieces; the other four pieces are at the N S E W  positions.Here is the first window of the project.....

Row one, window one:  This picture shows an ornament punch of DSP which has been outlined with a gold paint pen.  It is put in the window on dimensionals and a piece of red glass is attached in the center.  I am one of those people who never throws away anything that can be reused (can you spell tree hugger recycler?)  This glass was part of a gaudy holiday decoration from way back.  So glad I finally found a good use for it!!
Come back tomorrow for a look at the next window.
Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 5

Hi all
Today I have a fun little holiday decoration for you.  This project uses two petal cone die cuts and a modified top note die. 

Each face of the petal cone is stamped with the  tree from the Christmas Lodge stamp set (always artichoke ink on river rock c/s).  Then we used a flower hand-held punch to make random holes in the sides.   Actually, we folded the petal cone on the crease and punched through both layers at the same time and did the same thing to the other cone.  The trick here is to make sure that the tab from one cone doesn't block the punched holes on the other cone, so check it before you adhere the tab to the cone.  When I cut the petal cones, I left about 3/4" of the scallop flap on the bottom and cut it straight, parallel to the fold.   That tab is left so that you can attach the tree to the base.  Before you do that, you first have to punch a hole in the top note  base so that the switch for the fake candle light is accessible.  The top note square was made by folding a piece of 4 x 4 c/s in half and then covering only the last two inches of the die.  Punch four stars and score each one down the center and fold.  Attach half of one star to the next one until you have a 3 dimensional star.  We separated the tops of the two cones and put a dab of crystal effects to hold the star.
Sorry I am not able to show you the tree lit up...I gave my gals the good lights and mine is burning out.  Besides, my photography skills aren't that great!  Trust me, it looks great!!

Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 4

Hi all
Note: my Oct25th post had a glitch which omitted one of the pictures.  I have fixed the post if you want to check out the back of the Joy ornament, it is now shown on the Oct 25th post.
Today's project is another ornament - the last one from this class, as the other projects from the class are decor items.

This project is a bit of an optical illusion which is created by using a sheet of acetate.  We used ultramarine stazon ink to stamp the Come to Bethlehem image on an acetate circle.  Let me mention here that it is very important that you leave a stem on the acetate circle so that when you insert it into the ornament, the circle stays in place.   If you use a circle without the stem, you run the risk that the circle will "walk" out of alignment (and maybe end up upside down!!).  Of course, you have to make sure the stazon ink is absolutely dry before you roll the acetate and insert it into the glass ornament.

Then, you have to make a cone from a piece of scrap paper and insert it into the opening of the ornament, making sure it goes between the acetate and the glass.   Then, put in about a teaspoon of mica chips and about a half teaspoon of chunky glitter.  Next, move the cone to the other side of the acetate and insert the teaspoon of mica chips and a half  teaspoon of chunky glitter there too.  Put the cap back on the ornament and remember  - don't lay the ornament down, as the glitter and mica will fall out of the top!!!

Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project 3

Hi all
Today I am going to share with you another stamped porcelain ornament.  For this project we used an old bold stamp set called "Holiday Collection" - I have three of these sets available for sale for only $5each.  There are six images in this set.  Let me know if you are interested in purchasing one or more of them.

We used another retired color of Stazon ink for this project, Royal Purple. Again, we stamped one side,

left it to dry while we did the gold edging, and then stamped the back.

If you use the paint pen, you could easily sign and date the back of each ornament to make a special Christmas (such as, baby's first Christmas or your first Christmas together) gift.
Contact me today if you would like to purchase this great stamp set!...only $5

Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project two

Hi all,
Today's project is a simple porcelain ornament.  When you are working on this surface you must use stazon ink.  Dye based ink will never stick/dry and I have not tried embossing on them so I cannot advise you to try craft ink (wonder if the heat would harm the surface?   Might have to give that a test try.)
We used the stamp set "The Sounding Joy" in Azure Stazon ink.  SU doesn't carry this color any longer but of course I still have lots of retired items and the various stazon ink pads are among them.  Here is the front:

and here is the back.

The edges of the ornament are done in silver paint pen.  The paint pen is also not a SU product but it really sets off this project to a "T".  Love it!!  Of course, when you stamp with stazon, you have to wait for one side to dry thoroughly before you turn it over to do the other side, but if you need many gifts - for a group of friends, coworkers, choir members, club members, this is a great gift.  Just stamp all of the stars on one side and leave them to dry.  Come back the next night and stamp all of them on the other side.  Ta da!  Here's a helpful hint - if you make a mess of the stamping, just take a paper towel with stazon cleaner on it and wipe off the ink.  You can spot clean by putting a little cleaner on a q-tip and remove the little spot.  Just make sure all of the cleaner is removed before you try to stamp again.
I have another one for you to see tomorrow!!
Let me remind you that you need to contact me PDQ if you are planning on coming to the stampin session on Sunday, October 30...we'll be doing thanksgiving projects.
Peggy

Christmas ornaments and decorations, project one

Hi all
We had a fun class this week making several different projects for Christmas.  Today I am going to show you the cutest little, simple project, but through the week I will show you some other different, more involved ideas.
Here's the simple one......

Can you tell that this was made from several punches and Big Shot dies?  The body is from the squares duo die, the wings are from the butterfly die, the head is a circle punch, the halo was made from two circle punches.  We used gold card stock for the wings and the halo.

This could easily be an ornament on a tree but also it could be a lovely adornment on a package.
Imagine how many of these you could whip up in an evening!   I am sitting here typing while watching the NJ Medium on TV ...angels are appropriate, huh?

Peggy

stamping in the funniest places!

Hi all
I wanted to  show you a little project I made recently for a friend.  She has the wonderful distinction of having authored a chapter in a book.  She asked me to help her find a way to insert her business card into the book where her chapter begins.

Once the top note die was folded, I added slits for the card to be inserted into.

 She placed the top note die over the page and her name sticks up from the top of the book.

Here is how it looks closed.

Christmas stamp a stack, part 2, Project 5

Hi all
Today I am posting the last card from the second series of  Christmas cards.

This card seems so traditional to me that I really find it appealing.  The rhinestones give it the bling that makes it fresh.  This card is actually a quick assembly.
I will be doing one more group of five new cards in November on Sunday, the 13th...contact me now as the class is already half full.
 Peggy

Christmas stamp a stack, part 2, Project 4

Hi all
Today I have another great holiday card to share.  Easel cards are all the rage right now and this one is so simple.  I have really developed a fondness for the crumb cake cardstock. 

Again I got to use my big shot to cut the top note dies - or portions of the top note dies - the tasteful trim on the inside of the card, and the red top note die cuts were run through the Big Shot a second time using the Northern Flurry textured impressions embossing folder.  If you don't have the Big Shot die cutting machine, you should consider signing on to Stampin' Up! with me now.  If you sign on during the month of October with the $175 starter kit, you will also get the Big Shot or $100 worth of stamps for free!!!   And you do not have to reach the minimum quarterly sales until the end of March, 2012.  That's a long time!!  What if you still can't make the $300 minimum?  No problem, you just drop out and keep all your goodies!
The snow around the lodge in this card was highlighted using the Dazzling Details.  A decorative label punch with a faux layer underneath and all is good.
Peggy