New Year's

SBS24 challenge this week was New Year's theme. I had ideas of stars, black, silver white color scheme.... but nothing was working for me. While checking out blogs I saw Laura's card- boom I knew what I was going to do. So, based on her inspiration card- (I was also inspired by Chrissy, who also does challenges based on what you have lying around your craft area).

So, this is retired paper from SU, le Jardin I think from winter mini few years back, a vellum tag, silver cord, and some making memories star eyelets. I embossed the champagne flutes from "cheers to you" in silver, colored the back with barely banana marker and added a touch of dazzling diamonds. The base is pale plum from SU.

finishing the rest of year

Okay, here's the last of the calendar posting. A little post-holiday craze trying to clean up, removal of our dead dried out Christmas tree & cleaned my craft room too! I also needed to prep for a punch art class I did today for kids. I will post those cards tomorrow.

Notice, December was a simply scrappin kit from 2-3 years back when they were still $12.95. you get so much from these kits, I still have tons left over.

November, I recycled a wine bottle topper reject and just stuck it on as my embellishment.

I hope you are all recovering from the holidays!

calendars

I hope everyone had a joyous holiday. It was lovely day, my boys got lots of legos and video games! I quickly had time to scan the calendar I made for my in-laws for Christmas between cleaning the house and getting ready for Church services.

I based most of the pages off the 6 x 6 swap I was in, but this calendar is 8. 5 x 11. As I was rushed for time, I kept the pages fairly simple. The pictures are what is most important.

January- retired SU paper and big shot punch with snowflake. non-su ribbon had lying around.

February- showing new "love you much set"

March- uses "pinch me wheel" and incentive stamp (really crooked scan)

April- a good egg set, and my son's first communion photo- it was sunny so he borrowed my sunglasses, reminds me of James Bond 007.

May- I changed this to more baseball themed vs. mother's day. Just randomly stamped "sporting" all over background

July- I do not have spritzer tool yet, so I just used "itty bitty" backgrounds and some words from "everyday flexible phrases" I probably should have used some photo corners here, but....

If you notice June is not in order. I embossed in gold on black background to showcase my son's black belt test and the scanner did 4 different photos. I took a photo with my camera and need to download that with all the Christmas photos.

it's a bundle!

Starting today, Stampin Up is running Love you much promotion. They but designer paper, 3 heart punch and stamp set together and offer it at 20 % off. This promo will run until Jan 31st.

Just in case you can't wait for new cattie to come out! It is always like Christmas for me, the anticipation and excitement. Anyways, I did make 2 quick cards using the "love you much" stamp set. SU just recently relaxed their rules on posting samples earlier then promo starts. It was tough sitting on new stamps and not using them!!!

This one I used the coordinating punches!

This one I just did a cheater bow and then I used one of my left over small heart punches to accent the sentiment.

I got some other new stamps, but need to wait until after the holidays to play. Maybe the hubby will get me a cleaning lady for Christmas, ahhhh a girl can dream can't she....

stationary gift Jackie Topa style

Here is one of the gifts I made using the Jackie Topa's stationary box.

This uses "eastern blooms stamp set" from Stampin Up and Washington Apple Designer paper.

We got a big snow storm yesterday, about 12 inches of snow. The boys did not have school, so I used the whole day to finish my calendars for my husband and in-laws. So, hopefully I can get some photos before Christmas to share with you. Whoo-hoo finished 5 days early. Every year I tell myself I should work on it over the summer or early fall but always end up doing the 2 weeks before Christmas.

If you have older kids like mine (9 and 11) have them check out santa sez site-lol, be careful what you ask him to do! http://www.simonsezsanta.com/index.php

(fart, break dance, pick nose, boys humor you know....)

also, my blog roll sister Chrissy has some great blog candy to give away for 60,000 hits!

challenge combo

I needed to make some gift card holders and as crazy as it is for me this week- I decided to do a few challenges to keep my mind and mojo flowing.

Kwerner's color inspiration (see inset right) was choc chip, close to cocoa, baja blue, so saffron and very vanilla. Pretty color combo, but let me tell you so saffron is tough to try to use in a Christmas design. The sketch is the sketch challenge today on SCS.

Patty Bennett had directions on her blog to make gift card holders. They are very simple, so I made a few more but not using so saffron. The base is made from 3 -1/2 x 11. So, finished size is 4-1/2 x 3-1/2.

I apologize for crooked scan of Mr. Twigster.

handmade gifts

Here are my creations from this past weekend. Most I have showed you before-

1) DVD tins with jr legal pad inside

2) stationary gifts (no need to recreate the wheel)

3) and new one- if you can spot it, is the Jackie Topa stationary set

I have to work this morning, so I will post tomorrow some of the projects up close and details how to make them!

I hope you are all surviving the stress and last minute push until the man in the little red suit comes. Thank you to Marilyn who reminded me not to forget this is about the Birth of Jesus and God showing us love by sharing his only son with us.

Christmas cards o'coming

So sorry I have not posted or got a chance to browse and comment on everyone's blog. I am coming up for air! I spent 2 days crafting for gifts- I made 8 stationary sets (including one using Jackie Topa's idea), 7 altered dvd tins with jr. legal pads. I will post those for you this week. I am also still working on getting an on-line course down for CEU's I need by end of year.

Anyways, SBS 24 challenge this week was Christmas cards. This is our families' card for this year. I finally got most of them assembled to mail out. I still have about 10 more to get out.

I had a brain storm to just do a card front, like we do for swaps and save on card stock. (note to self- try to come up with design that you don't have color and cut out 75).

Anyways, I used the SU stamp set "shellbrate", love the image of surfing snowman I thought it went great with image of us at on beach at end of summer party. I was able to run 5 at a time, through my big shot using top note die. (big time saver) The other elements are jumbo "so swirly" wheel in bashful and a personalized stamp.

So from the "White house" the happiest of Holidays!

more calendar swaps

I never finished showing my 6 x 6 calendar swaps- my husband cleared out desktop and I forgot I did not post the rest.


July- Jeanne Wynner








August- Renee Santoro (my personal favorite)
Great details with pearls and embossing.

















And October- Diane Dearth






Of course, all this work is done for me... Do you think I have even started my 6 x 6 calendars for my husband? I have to 8 1/2 x 11 for the in-laws too! Better get cracking- next week's project.

Hump day mojo

Lacking a little mojo today, so I played along with sketch challenge and color combination on SCS this week.

As busy as my days have been, I wanted to take 20-30 minutes just for me to create. Because, let's face...Stamping is so much fun.

I don't think I was feeling it on this card, but it does look better in real life. I heat embossed irridecscent ice on top so snow flakes sparkle a touch. I also was dying to break out my cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder, I ran it thru my big shot.

card recipe:

stamp set: snow swirled, snowflake wheel (retired)

ink: baja classic, taken with teal craft, real red craft

paper: whisper white, taken with teal, ski slope dsp

access: silver elastic cord, cuttlebug embossing folder, 1-1/4 and 1-3/8 circle punches, irridescent ice embossing powder.

Retired List is Here!

Stampin Up announced it's retiring stamp sets today. You can view alphabetical list here. I am mostly bummed about the background stamps- love those! I hope that means we will be getting lots of new ones :}

In addition, they are offering 10 % off any of the retire sets now through December 23rd. Also, if you spend $70 you get FREE SHIPPING TOO! OMG- love this company. I think I might be disappointed after 2008 ends them celebrating 20 years. We have been having one good special after another. It's a good thing I am my own best customer.

It's been another crazy day, nothing creative to post today. Hopefully will have some things tomorrow.

It's another maniac Monday!

Congrats to Marilyn (post #1) who won my blog candy. Just PM with your home address to sacwhite@comcast.net and I will send it out to you.

As the title suggest it is a Maniac Monday. I have 2 classes today for holiday gifts, I said I would cover teaching a swim class, I need to go grocery shopping. Also, I am a certified Athletic trainer and I need to complete my cont. ed units by the end of this year, so of course I waited this month to try to get 20 hours in by doing 2 on-line courses. Oh yeah, and Christmas is like 2 weeks away. Crazy woman!!!

So, I wanted to show you the create a calendar I made (item #113052) only $7.95 in mini catalog. (Such a bargin!) I copied someone on SCS who covered the place where you can write with photos. I decided I need a bind it all, got to put that on my Christmas list. If anyone has some input on where to buy and what I need please let me know.

Here are some examples of inside!

Happy 1 year blog-oversary to me

Don't forget still time to get BLOG CANDY, leave your post here.

I have a couple more projects I did for school craft fair. We did pretty well this year and raised about $1500 for school.

This is the card tin I decorated and filled with some all-occasion cards for raffle. It is retired paper from last catalog and the name escapes me!

This is one of the toothfairy tins I made covering some altoid tins. I did not have a fairy, so made do with unfrogettable frog with crown and punched out star to make a wand.

I found poem on scs to fit inside with some batting.

time to challenge

I can't believe how busy I have been lately, I have not done a challenge in over a month! I really did not have a lot of time, but one of the reasons I started blogging is to get myself to stamp for fun, for me and to do challenges. So, I squeezed some stamp time in to just play. (my house is still a mess, but my craft room is clean now)

So, I used scs sketch challenge this week. The color challenge on SCS did not wow me, so I participated for the first time in the kwerner color inpiration- chocolate chip, pumpkin pie, taken with teal, certainly celery and whisper white. Really fun colors, but I struggled with what stamp set to use, I decided to use watercoloring to try to tie them all in together. This uses "shellbrate" stamp set and I added some dazzling diamonds. I used Chocolate chip prints designer paper too, first time out of the package!

Don't forget to leave a comment on this post, to win some blog candy!!!

It's winter-go Glitter!

Don't forget about my blog candy, you have until 12/7 to post on my 12/1 posting to win!

Okay, here is a shot of my glitter ornaments. They are fun but so messy to make (right up my alley). You can view tutorial if you want to try out your own.

I was low on dazzling diamonds, so I used my fine cosmo glitter(item #108796 for $13.95) and that's how I chose my reinkers to use. It comes in rose pink, orchard, light blue, celery and turquoise. I did throw some pirouette pink in there, but the lighter colors did not work as well for me.

Here is my favorite one, I used purely pomegrante (retired) with rose pink glitter and used some satin ribbon to match!

These are being donated to school craft fair today, I hope to try a batch for myself and add some rub-ons!

Candy alert and more wine!

Are you sick of my wine toppers yet? This is a version with wine charms, I just used my slot punch to have space to attach charms. My first attempt into the jewerly venue- I will stick with paper crafting. But the charms are easy, just goggle it and you can find directions. This is yet another school craft fair item, which we have tomorrow. I have some more goodies to show you as soon as I download some more photos. (sneak alert- thanks to Emily and Robin I finally dove into some re-inker ornamnents)

Blog candy reminder-

see yesterdays post and leave a comment- I will be giving away blog candy on 12/7. I am celebrating my blog-oversary this Friday.

Blog candy alert and award!

I got an award from Jen. (Thank you!) She has been doing some video tutorials if you want to check out her blog. I am suppose to nominate 5 others.

So:

1) Jana, who is always so great about leaving comments and doing challenges!

2) MacKenzie, who just blows me away with her stuff every week.

3) Laura, love her stuff too, so many good ideas!

4) Marge, one of my first blogging buddies, love her!-

5)Emily, very fun stuff and I wish I could do origami like her!

Also, I have my one year blog-oversary coming up this Friday. I can't believe it's been a year already. My almost daily addiction of visiting my blog roll, I am inspired and thankfull for all of you to keep me creating! I love all my cyber friends I have made :}

Blog Candy alert:

I will be giving away some of my projects I have done at my recent classes- 1) gift cards, my first post last year but updated from this year's class and (2) gift bag out of designer paper. So,how do win? Leave a post here and tell when and you first started blogging and what number you are! The winner will be picked randomly on Sunday 12/7.

caution mess ahead

I can't believe I am showing this to you all. But as my blog title suggest, my craft room is usually cluttered. But this is the worst ever! With 3 events in past two weeks, Thanksgiving holiday, and crafting for schools holiday shop, I can not even see my floor. There should be yellow caution tape across the door!

So, this is my job after the boys sports activities and getting our Christmas tree this morning- to clean my craft room. It really is a small bedroom. I have dreams with our addition planned for this spring of converting the other side of our basement and living large at Ikea.

Anyways, I do have a couple of posts to show you for school craft fair:

what I did with scallop faces, mini candy bar wrappers

and reindeer droppings poem

matchbook golf tee holders

I hope to catch up on all your postings during football games tomorrow or while I decorating the tree!

holiday gifts

This is one of the things my customers made at the gift card class I did last week. It is a great way to present a bottle of wine when you arrive at a holiday party!

Remember the Thanksgiving one I did here

Also, Stampin Up posted their bundle list today for their Extravaganza sale that goes through December 1st while supplies last.

Just go to my demo on-line store here

To see bundles I posted the flyer below:

krafty kids

I made these with my son yesterday, actually he made them I just showed him how to fold the scallop punches. My only other job was to put glue down for googlie eyes and the wobbler.

He is giving them to his teacher's today at school. Heather Summers (shout out to UStampers!) has a video tutorial. I was inspired that she and her daughter made them together, fun activity to do with your kids. It might be a stretch, but I am using it for my SBS24- farm themed challenge too!

Along the same lines, of Krafty kids....

Theses are the cards that the brownie troop made for a unit in Iraq last week. They were so much fun, using tatoo kit and loved cleaning my stamps up after- might have to hire some of them. Not bad for second graders!

Holiday Extravaganza sale start 11/26! You need to check out my demonstrator business website- tomorrow to find out all the details (they haven't even told us !)- you can just order through my on-line store!

http://kraftinwithkathy.stampinup.net/

But they are bundling up SU products for up to 50 % off retail price, but quantities will be limited! Promotion ends on December 1st.