Wow, look what I found today when I cleaned my office!  I’ve had this kit for almost 2 months I think and forgot all about it!  This would make a great gift for someone, a nice homemade touch over the hang on the wall calendar from Barnes & Noble.  

This Create a Calendar Kit found in our Winter mini-catalog comes with the calendar pages for the year 2009, some stickers and tabs for the cards and month, the outer pocket and sticker borders, and a large piece of chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon.  It requires that you purchase the triple clipboard separately, and the paper you’d like to cover the clipboard with. 

I covered left and right sides using the Old Olive dsp grid paper using a template that I made originally with our single clipboards awhile back.  I traced the template onto a new piece of sturdy confetti cream and shortened the length to 7.5" and trimmed a sliver 1/16 off each side.  With this new template created for the triple clipboard, I needed 3 sections, and traced it onto the backside of the dsp I chose.  The middle section is a piece of striped Hawaii Papaya dsp.  I added two pieces of Pumpkin Pie grosgrain over the seams and tied at the top of clipboard.  I used Chocolate Chip stitched ribbon, Riding Hood Red striped ribbon, and Old Olive 5/8” grosgrain ribbon for the tops.  I used Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie felt flowers from accents kit, with an aged build a brad in the center.  I punched the red flower with our 5 point flower punch, and placed a smaller pumpkin pie flower from the collection of die cut blooms.

On the packing, they used two sets of number stickers:  one on the clipboard, which you don’t see adhered yet, and the other on the outer calendar pouch.  Since there was only ONE set of “2009” stickers inside the kit,  I took a “2” and “9” from on board chipboard letters, and two solid circles from our other chipboard collection, on board essentials.  On the two solid circles, which were the same size as the numbers, I used the crop-a-dile to cut away at the center a little at a time. 

I used a chipboard label, also from the on board essentials, covered with Old Olive cs on the outside packing and attached the “calendar” sticker.  I covered square chipboard with dsp, attached Riding Hood Red mat, then Whisper White mat, and then “2 0 0 9” numbers sponged in Pumpkin Pie.

For my display, I included a small bag stamped with punches of flowers, and lots of arrows in coordinating colors, punched with My Way arrow punch.  I also included lots of stamped images from Calendar Cues and Fundamental Phrases (nice and small).  Calendar cues and Cute Cues would work especially nice in this project (I think). 

This may or may not be an upcoming “gift” class, because I have TOO DARN ideas already for others that I want to do!

I hope you think of the teachers and the HS and college students on your list, or make it for yourself to coordinate with your office or craft room!  Of course, everyone needs a new calendar at the beginning of the year, and this is just a really unique and special one.

See you soon!  Thanks for looking!

Technorati Tags: 3D items, 3D Projects, Calendar Cues stamp set, Calendar projects, crop-a-dile, Cute Cues stamp set, desk accessories, Hawaii Papaya dsp, My Way Arrow Punch, Old Olive designer series paper, On Board Essentials, On Board Letters, Triple Clipboard

Ok, so things didn’t work out exactly the way I had planned, with regard to all the projects I had thought I would have finished this weekend.  My little book took quite a lot longer than I anticipated, which has a lot to do with creating a book from scratch with the binding on the spine.  A slightly modified version of this book will be a class in November.  It will have the same contents inside and use the same designer series papers from the "I Wish" Simply Scrappin’ Kit.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to like brown in my Christmas papers, but I absolutely love the color combinations together.  They are very rich.  Ok, now for the magic!  Let’s peak inside, shall we?  These are the first two pages; page 2 has a large round photo frame.  Gosh I love that tree from Snow Swirled!

The next two pages become interactive.  At first glance you see the obvious two pages, but  each side are both pockets.  The left side has a pull out (see the red ribbon) and the right side has another mini-book with it’s pull tab, that flips open for more pictures and journaling inside.  It tucks neatly into the diagonal pocket.

This is what is inside of those pockets:

Don’t forget to check off the "naughty" or "nice" on the wish list!  I think I’m getting coal this year!  Apparently, the consensus is that I’m a MMIA (a mom missing in action).  The woman who used to run this tight ship vanishes every day to her scrapping room and doesn’t come out sometimes til dawn!   lol

Ok, two more interactive pages again. 

Oooh!  This one has a pull-out on one side for a photo and a beautiful ornament for the tree on the other! 

Lots of ornaments decorate these two pages  Another page to pull out with the tab on the left, and three tags express my wish for my holiday:

I just can’t wait to watch "It’s a Wonderful Life" for the gazillionth time!  It just never gets old for me, especially when he is falling apart and desperately tries to fix ZuZu’s petals.  But I digress….. 

Ok, the last two pages include another large frame, in the shape of a wreath.  Both of these pages have a lot of sparkle, but unfortunately, it’s not reflected in the pictures.  The wreath have both glitter and groups of our larger beads while the poinsettias have glitter on the leaves and the centers.

And finally the back; nothing too exciting here.  I didn’t photograph the spine, so you can’t see how I made the book itself.  I guess you’ll just have to come to the class if you want to learn how. 

This little book is packed with product!  Besides the SS kit, I used two patterns from the Holiday Treasures designer series to cover the book.  Again, the same color combinations, just different patterns, so they coordinate beautifully.  I used plenty of punches, ribbons, chipboard, beads, die cuts with the Big Shot, glitter, wheels, and at least 5 Christmas stamp sets, including my newest favorite, Snow Swirled.

It’s the cutest little book, just waiting for your holiday photos!  Or you could bless some loving relative or friend with this book as a gift!  With the next two months of holidays, I’ll be changing my class schedule around quite a bit to avoid conflicts with the holidays.  The class will take place on Saturday, November 22 (instead of Sizzix Saturday), and again on Tuesday, November 25.

Hope to see you then!

Technorati Tags: Holiday Treasures dsp, I Wish Simply Scrappin' Kit, mini-album, Punches, Snow Swirled stamp set

I’m working on a couple of samples for Christmas Cards to send as samples to an engineering firm that wants 100-125 Christmas cards!  yowser!  I have to start now if I’m going to finish, especially if there’s all this embossing.  Anyway, I really got the inspiration for this card from Amanda Coughlin, a fellow Stampin’ Up! team member friend from Oldsmar.  You can see her more sophisticated and GORGEOUS card here.  I really loved the non-traditional colors she used with this set.

I love embossing cards, especially during the holidays.  It always gives that extra special wow factor.  I know it’s sometimes time consuming, but once I have all the stuff out, at that point, I may as well do a hundred!   The stamp set I used for this card is called Snow Swirled.  The main image of this card is stamped in Baja Breeze on whisper white cardstock and the smaller snowflake images are stamped in Pacific Point.  The small snowflake on the top of the tree and the larger snowflake is stamped with Encore Silver, and then embossed with Silver embossing powder.  I used our snow blossom punch which coordinates with this stamp and popped it up with dimensionals.  Besides the tree, my favorite image in this set is the largest snowflake, which I didn’t use here because it’s too big, but it’s design is simply gorgeous!  Check it out online!

The main image is distressed on the edges with Pacific Point, matted in brushed silver cardstock, and then matted again on Pacific Point.  The sentiment outside and inside is stamped with Pacific Point and matted on Pacific Point cardstock.   I used our silver cording, which I’m so pleased to have back.  I use rolls of this at christmas time for ornaments and tags, and wrapping gifts, but it really works with this card too adding just another touch of silver!

This is what the inside looks like:

I hope you take a closer look at this set using the links above. It’s so pretty! 

Lots of posts coming this weekend, so stop by frequently.  Thank you for visiting.

Technorati Tags: Baja Breeze cardstock, Encore ink, heat embossing, Pacific Point cardstock, silver embossing powder, Snow Swirled stamp set

 Well, after making this card, I realized it’s a good thing I have only one best friend!    I wouldn’t spend this time for just anybody, but then again, as one of my stamps reads, "this ain’t no stinkin’ off the rack kind of card either." 

Some people may not feel that brown belongs in any collection of Christmas colors.  Recall last year, that our Christmas wrapping paper combined iced blue with chocolate chip, which is a great color pair!  My favorite color combination pairs my favorite color, which is green, with brown,  so when you add my second favorite color, red, to the mix, it’s certainly a hit with me! The designer series collection I used to make this card is called Holiday Treasures.  Since it uses the same combinations of colors,  I realized why I have been so drawn to the Bella Rose collection of papers since their release!  Believe it or not, the entire card was built around using the very vanilla frame and brads from the Hodgepodge Hardware collection.  That was the first component, and the rest just fell into place. 

This card base starts with a 10" x 5" piece of very vanilla card stock, folded in half the long way, and scored.  I used a 2.5" x 5" piece of the striped paper adhered to the bottom of the card base, and a 2.5" x 5" piece of Riding Hood Red adhered to the top of the card base.  I used a 1.5" x 5" piece of olive green cardstock adhered over the seam between the two.  Then I even added one more pattern to the mix from the Bella Rose collection.  I adhered the .75" x 5" piece of  polka dotted piece of chocolate chip over the olive green.  I stitched the entire square perimeter of the card, as well as across the card at both margins of the olive green. 

Then I started building the layers for the for what started as my focal point, the very vanilla frame.  I made the first layer from Riding Hood Red cardstock, punched with the label punch.  I punched a circle from old olive cardstock for the second layer, which was popped up with dimensionals.    The next layer was the Merry Christmas stamp from the Curly Label Punch Bundle stamp set.  I stamped it first in chocolate chip and again in old olive.  I cut the middle part, "Christmas" from the green image, and adhered it on top of the chocolate chip image.  I cut out the oval, and adhered it with stampin’ dimensionals on top of the old olive circe.  I cut two small pieces of our beautiful new Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon.  I cut the two ends inwards, like a banner.  I inserted the very vanilla brads through the card top.

I cut out flowers and leaves from the poinsettia paper, and layered them on top of each other with stampin’ dimensionals.  I used the versamark marker’s brush end to "paint" the middle section of all of the poinsettia flowers, and embossed with irridescent ice embossing powder.

To finish the card’s interior, I placed another piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock, cut 4 7/8 x 4 7/8 and adhered it over the inside of the card’s top, covering the threads and the brads.  I dislike having any messy ends or hardware showing on the inside of my cards, so it’s just a last finishing touch.

Even though I have only one best friend, I consider myself really lucky because we met in the 7th grade, spent every day together for years, got married the same year, and were pregnant at the same time.  When I moved to FL in 1996, I only saw my best friend at Christmas, when my family would make the long trip up north and visit with everyone.  Four years ago, my best friend and her husband moved to Lake St. Charles in Riverview, FL.  Wow, what a surprise!  Now, we don’t need to wait until Christmas to see each other, and it’s as though we never were apart.  I’ve known Laurie for 35 years, and the best part is that she still likes me!  lol

You can see what I made for Laurie’s new home office last year for her Christmas present at my Stampin’ Up! gallery. It took two pictures to get the entire collection of desk accessories I made her.

I hope she likes her card.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Bella Rose dsp, circle punch, Curly Label Punch Bundle, Holiday Treasures dsp, label punch, Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, sewing on cards, Very Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware