New Year's Gifts

Okay I think I am still safe calling these New Year gifts since it is still January, right? I made these tissue holders for my Upline and Downline for a little something to keep in their bag/purse or to have on their desk to make them smile! I used the Sweet Stitches fabric. Did you know that we currently offer 9 different fabrics in our catalogs? From now until March 31st you can even get our Flirtatious Fabric for FREE with a $50 order.

I shared one of these back in December and got hooked on making them for stocking stuffers. I also got a lot better making them after doing a few so I was very happy with myself. As I mentioned back then I am a big beginner in the sewing department.

For my downline I also added another little something when I gave her little gift last week. Here is that little something as well:

I added a skinny 1" x 8" cellophane bag with some Brights buttons for her since the tissue holder has buttons I thought it was a cute addition. The buttons are from the Brights collection so they don't match the fabric exactly, but I figured she could use the buttons on another project. The Brights buttons are also an item you can earn for FREE during Sale-a-bration between now and March 31st with a $50 order.

Visit my Online Store to check out our fabric or buttons or both and place an order.

Happy Stampin',

Christine

Supplies:

Stamps: Elements of Style

Ink: Tempting Turquoise

Paper: Whisper White & Tempting Turquoise cardstock

Other: Sweet Stitches fabric, 1" x 8" cellophane bag, Brights buttons, White baker's twine, Large tag punch, Extra large tag punch, Sewing machine, thread, Iron

Itty Bitty Valentines

I shared a project earlier this week using the Scallop Envelope die and here is another project using the same die, but these cards are smaller they measure 2" x 3". I was inspired by something very similar I saw on Stampin' Connection which is a forum for Stampin' Up! demonstrators. I think would be so so cute for classroom valentines. I actually used more non-traditional valentine colors here. I did a lot with pink & red a few weeks ago!

Sorry not the best picture here but the colors are Perfect Plum, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery and Rose Red. They are all in our Subtles color family. I did use my markers to color in the small hearts in Real Red and then just colored the Love with the coordinating marker. The possibilities are endless for coloring here with this stamp set - watercolor pencils, water color crayons, marker & aquapainter, etc. Oh by the way you can earn this stamp Outlined Occasions for FREE from now until March 31st with a $50 order. It is one of the Sale-a-bration rewards. Here is the stamp:

I did use a tiny heart from the Owl punch in red glimmer paper to cover up the largest heart in the stamp.

Everything I used to make this project can be purchased in my Online Store. What are you waiting for? Visit my store today every $50 order qualifies for a FREE Sale-A-Bration reward now through March 31st. I love freebies don't you? If you want to place a larger order or have a workshop please contact me.

Happy Stampin',

Christine

Supplies:
Stamps: Outlined Occasions (Sale-a-bration)
Ink: Perfect Plum, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Rose Red & Real Red markers
Paper: Designer Series Paper Subtles Collection, Perfect Plum, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Rose Red cardstock, Red glimmer paper
Other: Big Shot, Scallop Envelope Bigz die, Decorative Label punch, Glue dots

Sale-A-Brate with Stampin' Up!

Doesn't everyone love a sale? Well it is here ... Sale-A-Bration 2012 started today January 24th and runs through March 31st. You don't want to miss out on the following:

Choose a FREE Sale-A-Bration product for every $50 you spend. Offerings include exclusive stamp sets and accessories, as well as a selection of catalog stamp sets, digital content CDs, Designer Fabric, buttons & even embossing folders!

Get a FREE shopping tote when you host a $150 Workshop! Get a FREE hostess bundle when you host a $400 workshop! Bundle includes Fresh Vintage stamp set, Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Paper & Everyday Enchantment Ribbon/Brad Pack. You must contact me to place the order to get these freebies.

Join the Stampin' Up! family for $125 and you receive a FREE pack of Designer Series Paper or digital download every month for the rest of 2012!

View the Sale-A-Bration brochure here.

One of the Sale-a-bration items you can get for free is Triple Treat Flower which is pictured in this 3" x 3" mini card I put together. This little stamp coordinates with 3 of our punches, but for this project I just used one punch and inked up the stamp with three markers. I actually got the color combination from the Stampin' Up! color coach - nice and summery colors - good project to make during a cold, snowy day which was Saturday.  :-)

You can find out all the details on Sale-a-bration here.

Happy Stampin',

Christine

Supplies:

Stamps: Triple Treat Flower & Tiny Tags

Ink: Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight & Baja Breeze markers

Paper: Baja Breeze & Whisper White cardstock, Designer Series Paper Subtles Collection

Other: Fancy Flower punch, Jewelry tag punch, In color brad, Stampin' dimensionals

Mini Thank You Card

Here is a mini thank you card I put together over this past weekend. The card is the perfect size to hold two business cards and fits in the small envelope to hand out as little thank you's.

The idea for this project came from Patty Bennett when she found a way to use the Scallop Envelope Die and make it larger so it fits a gift card for holiday gift giving. I think she shared this idea on her blog many, many years ago. You take a piece of Designer Series Paper cut it at 6" x 6" then fold in half with the fold on the bottom of the third scallop you run through your Big Shot and you have an extended Scallop Envelope. You can burnish some of the extra middle folds with your bone folder. Here is the Scallop Envelope die:

The Designer Series Paper in this project is Beau Chateau and is so pretty. It is in the current Idea Book Catalog and will retire on May 31st - one month early. Stampin' Up! announced some changes in our catalogs last week at Leadership. I am really excited for the changes. We will have a new 'big' book on June 1st and now only two Mini catalogs throughout the year one Holiday and one Spring - both good for 6 months.

I will be making some more of these to carry around with me and pass out during Sale-a-bration which starts tomorrow January 24th. Check back tomorrow for all the details. I'll be showing another project using the Scallop Envelope die later this week.

Happy Stampin',

Christine

Supplies:
Stamps: Thank You Kindly
Ink: Soft Suede marker
Paper: Beau Chateau Designer Series Paper & Pink Pirouette cardstock
Other: Big Shot, Scallop Envelope Bigz die, Extra large oval punch

Got Valentine Treats?

I need to give a shout out to everyone that came out on Friday night & Saturday to the Benefit Mall for Tom Gallagher in Chelmsford. Thanks for your support and it was great to meet you. Kathy F. won my door prize congrats Kathy! I got to meet Tom on Friday night and he looked great and it is very good spirits.

Here is the third project that coordinates with two projects I posted earlier this week. I used the same postage stamp valentine on all three projects. These are super easy little treats that can be made for the kid's classes or to give to adults of all ages. Who doesn't love smarties?

This is another watching TV project that you can quickly assemble while those annoying commercials come on. I mentioned this the other day that I punched all my hearts first and made all my postage stamps. Then I took my "skinny" cello bags these are the 1" x 8" that debuted in our Holiday Mini catalog and added two smarties candies. I stapled one blank square to the top of my bag so the sharp staple edge would be in the front and then added the decorated square so it would cover the sharp edge. So what shows on the back is just the flat part of the staple. These could not be easier to make.

You can find all the supplies except for the smarties & stapler in my Online Store.

Supplies:
Stamps: None
Ink: None
Paper: Whisper White & Pink Pirouette cardstock, Red Glimmer Paper
Other: 1 3/4" square punch, Postage stamp punch, Heart to Heart punch, 1 x 8 cello bags, Sticky strip

Valentine Two Tags Box

Here is a simple little treat holder box I whipped up for some Valentine treats. The original concept for the Two Tags box came from Stampin' Up! demonstrator Lisa Curcio and another demonstrator Julie Davison wrote a wonderful tutorial to make the box.

I have to admit that the Two Tags die is one I reach for often as there are so many possibilities with this particular die. It features two tags hence its name. Here is a picture of the die:

I made this project to coordinate with a card I made the other day for the Stamping411 sketch. You can see that card here. I have another project I'll share on Saturday that also coordinates with them. I have been having so much fun making postage stamp valentines this week.

I need to work on getting a good picture of the red sparkly glimmer hearts!

All supplies used in this project can be purchased in my Online Store.

Happy Stampin',

Christine

Supplies:

Stamps: None

Ink: None

Paper: Pink Pirouette & Whisper White cardstock, Red Glimmer Paper

Other: Big Shot, Two Tags Die, Simply Scored scoring tool, 1 3/4" square punch, Postage stamp punch, 5/8" Real Red satin ribbon, Heart to Heart punch, Rhinestone brads, Sticky strip, Glue dots

My Digital Studio Today's Downloads

Did you know that every Tuesday Stampin' Up! reveals new downloads for Digital Designing? You can check these out at my Online Store every week. You can click on Digital Designing when you get to my store then Newest Downloads then the date.

January 10, 2012 downloads include downloads for Valentines, Tea lovers & more.  

Happy Stampin',
Christine

Postage Stamp Valentine

I was inspired recently by a card I saw on Stampin' Connection which is a forum for Stampin' Up! demonstrators which had scallop square punches with hearts from the Heart to Heart punch. I decided to update the look a bit and use my Postage Stamp punch and pair with a square punch and once I started playing it fit well with this week's Stamping411 sketch # 237. Here is the sketch:

I need to work on taking better photos of my projects in the new year since this card is a lot prettier in person with the Red Glimmer hearts. I believe it was a little dark the other day when I shot my pictures. Here is my card:

I also finally decided to make myself a new watermark for my projects - so proud of myself! LOL.

Anyway there are a lot of punches on this card and if you were going to mass produce you can do this while watching TV. I know I hate all those annoying commercials so I will be punching out lots of hearts this week for some upcoming projects. I also saw an awesome idea from another demo where she organized all her little punched pieces in a mini muffin tin. So clever!

Each little square is separate and I just glued them down right next to each other to make an illusion of a much larger square. I cut the banner edge with my 1 3/4" square punch by just putting the Designer Series Paper into the punch forming a triangle and punching. It is hard to see, but the faux brads on my sentiment are red glimmer circles punched out from the smallest circle in the Owl punch. You could also use our Rhinestones and color them with a red sharpie for a similar look. 

Come back and visit me later this week as I will be showing a few more related Valentine projects!

Happy Stampin',

Christine

Supplies:

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Real Red

Paper: Whisper White & Pretty in Pink cardstock, Red Glimmer Paper, Designer Series Paper Patterns Stack in Subtles

Other: Postage Stamp punch, 1 3/4" Square punch, Heart to Heart punch, Word window punch, Modern label punch, Owl punch, Glue dots

Occasions Mini Catalog is here!

Occasions Mini catalog runs January 4th - April 30th

Lovely products for Valentine's Day, Easter, Birthdays & more!

You can check out the catalog here

You can view the Stampin' Supplies here (ingredients for projects)

You can also view the individual products in my Online Store by clicking on Occasions Mini

If you want a hard copy of the catalog let me know.

Happy Stampin',

Christine

Monkey Valentine Card

Here is my first valentine card of the new year. I used this card as my swap at my upline's team meeting last night. The theme of the swap is upcoming holidays and with Valentine's Day around the corner I thought this was perfect. One thing about this card is the sentiment doesn't say valentine so you could also use this for an anniversary or just to say I love you card.

I saw a monkey punch art the other day on a blog and I got monkey's on the brain. I decided not to go with the punch art, but break out my Fox & Friends stamp set. This is such a cute set if you have kids in your life - there is a monkey, fox, turtle, whale, giraffe, owl and lion.

So the monkey valentine will most likely be mailed to my adorable little nephew. He turns three on Valentine's Day and he sure is a little monkey these days getting into everything now.

The inspiration for the card comes from this week's Stamping411 sketch # 235 it was so clean and simple which I love. I also think it is a very versatile sketch.

So happy that the glimmer paper's are being carried over so I had to add some bling with the red glimmer paper on this card. I find that glue dots are the best adhesive when using the glimmer paper. The chocolate circle comes from the Circles # 2 die which is the closest we have to a 2" punch. The small heart comes from the Owl punch. Sorry the pic is a little dark!

Happy Stampin',

Christine

Supplies:

Stamps: Fox & Friends, Short & Sweet

Ink: Real Red & Chocolate Chip

Paper: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Red Glimmer Paper

Other: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Circles # 2 die, 2 3/8 scallop punch, 1 3/4 circle punch, Real Red 5/8" satin ribbon, Owl punch, glue dots

Happy New Year & some reminders!

First off Happy New Year to you and your family. December was a struggle for me to get on my blog and get projects posted to share so I will definitely be improving on that in the new year. I hope your holidays were wonderful and wish you a healthy and prosperous 2012.

A few reminders for today then I'll be back to share my first Valentine of the year later this week.

The Clearance Rack Blitz is ending on Thursday 1/5 you can check out all the items by visiting my Online Store then clicking on Clearance Rack on the left. Punches, ribbons, buttons, Designer Series Papers and more! This sale has something for any paper crafter. Go check it out!

The Carryover List from the Holiday Mini has been released. You can view it here. So happy to see the Red & Silver glimmer paper on there. There has been a lot of talk this week that the Stocking punch is not on there so now is your chance to get the Stocking punch before it retires on Tuesday.

The Occasions Mini starts on Wednesday and my website will be updated and I will post links here on my blog. 

Hope you can find some stamping time during this long holiday weekend I know I will be busy.

Happy Stampin,

Christine