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

Some great demonstrator friends and I got together today to share some ideas and projects.   The first project, was my contribution which was a special delivery, loaded pizza pie!  The mini pizza box tutorial, by Jen Muro, can be found here on Scor-Pal’s website. 

This is my adaptation, using theVoila Stamp Set.  I stamped the main image in stazon ink, and highlighted with going gray ink and a blender pen, and real red marker for the scarf.  I created the box with Kraft cardstock, because it was the most like a pizza box.

I used our two original oval punches, but trimmed the larger one down to make the crust more anatomically correct.  lol.  I used a sponge dauber in creamy caramel on both edges of both ovals, which were punched in more mustard cs.  I used our 1/4" circle punch for the pepperonis and slivers of the GLORIOUS GREEN cardstock, from the Brights collection!  WOW! I can’t believe I used the Brights!  I used the same colors real red in 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" and green in 3.5 x 3.5 for mats.  Since these are the colors found in the Italian flag, I figured I would pay tribute.   I used 4" wide strips of both green and red, but used the scalloped edge punch on the red.  Ok, so here’s how the box looks from the side:

And the BEST part is what is inside the box:

It’s a 5-slice piece of fruit gummi pizza, and it got two thumbs up from my 11 year old son! 

Ok, so now the 2nd project, presented by my friend Susan, was this cute little box made with Stampin’ Up!’s exclusive die cut,  the scalloped edge envelope.   You cut four dies at a time in the new in-color, kiwi kiss, cardstock.  You use red sticky tape to tape all of the side flaps to the next envelope’s side flap, all the way around.  The bottom is already scored by the die, and folds in on all four envelopes, which you can adhere two opposite sides and then two more opposite or you can fold one on top of the next, until you tuck the last corner in (like all boxes with a temporary close).  Anyway, then you can decorate the side with a piece of red, pink and white Bella Rose designer series paper.  We stamped the larger image from the Dreams du Jour  stamp set in chocolate chip and used blender pens in kiwi kiss, riding hood red, and pink piroutte to color it in.  We popped up this image with stampin dimensionals onto a die cut flower cut from the brown pattern of Bella Rose,made from the Pennants exclusive die.

Ok, last but not least, we have the cutest little snowman card, made another friend and team member, Robin Satterwhite.  We used the Window Dressing, Level 3 FREE Hostess set with qualifying party.

We started with a piece of Baja Breeze for the card base.  We used Kiwi Kiss for the larger mat, Pacific Point for the 2nd mat, and then we stamped the snowman image and sentiment on Whisper White.  Before we stamped the image and sentiment, we actually sponged Pacific Point ink all over the mat, using a 2" circle punch as a mask.  Once the background was sponged, we removed the mask, and stamped the snowman and sentiment. As you can see from my example, this is a good set to use your Stamp-a-ma-jig tool.  I thought the circle was from "Seeing Spots" but it’s not, and I know I don’t have this set, so I would have substituted the circle with the one in Priceless.  We used the 1/4" circle punch at the edge (centered) of each left and right sides of the whisper white cardstock mat that we sponged, and  inserted a brad into the Pacific Point cardstock in that space.  We used the 1/16" punch for that. 

WHEW!  I haven’t posted for a week I think, because I’ve been working on creating classes for the next couple of months, as well as combining all my contacts’ lists into one major list with I-Contact which is Constant Contact’s competitor.  It’s a marketing/communication/newsletter tool, so you can be expecting better quality newsletters, and more customizable by me, so I can actually provide a lot more information and pictures that you’ll like to see of projects, classes, and things you can make, on a monthly or semi-monthly basis.  Stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hoped you liked the projects we made as much as we liked making them.

Technorati Tags: Bella Rose Designer Series Paper, Big Shot, Dreams du Jour stamp set, exclusive Stamin' Up! dies, mini pizza box, Pennants Exclusive die, Punches, scalloped edge punch, Scalloped Envelope Exclusive die, scor-pal, Voila stamp set, Window Dressing

It’s not my original design, but it’s definitely the most beautiful card I think I’ve ever made!  It appears on the cover of our catalog, and I LOVE this card and had everything I needed to make it, accept I don’t own the All Scallops stamp set.  Well, I thought of a way to case the card and reproduce the scalloped edge with a chocolate chip marker and a hole punch. 

I have really found my preference for watercoloring.  I have used crayons, pencils with waterbrush, markers, and misting my stamped image with water, but I really like painting with our water brush and using my ink pads.  The brush pack comes in two sizes also, for smaller and larger line artwork.  I just find this technique quick, easy and no mess!  I also advise you to use our watercolor paper, which I used here and for the snowman in the last post.  However, you can also use our confetti white/cream papers too, because you need a thicker, fibrous and pourous paper that can accept the water without pilling  up.  Stamp your image in black or brown stazon, or craft ink and let it dry before you watercolor.  You can even  emboss the image with clear powder after you’ve stamped the image with colored craft ink and then watercolor it.

The base of the card is kraft card stock.  The two flower images and the birds come from a gorgeous stamp set, Eastern Influences, part of our style watch, stamped on watercolor paper.  The sentiment is from One of a Kind which is framed by Frames with a Flourish, stamped on confetti white card stock.  I REALLY love that stamp set, and its size of frames accommodate almost all sizes of sentiments.  It also has neat flourishes that you can use on top or bottom or both of any photo, frame, picture mat, or sentiment.  You’ll see an example of the flourish in my next post.

The color inks are the base colors of the Bella Rose Designer Series papers, which I used a small strip of the red damask under the kiwi kiss striped ribbon and a small square of the CC polka dot under the framed sentiment.  The inks are chocolate chip, riding hood red, and kiwi kiss.  I used a little bit of sahara sand and going gray on the birds.  I used our new scalloped edge punch for the bottom border of the card, and then used the chocolate chip marker to "dot" the scalloped edges; the large end for the large dots and small end for the smaller dots.  I punched 1/16" holes in the center of each larger brown dot at the "top" of each scallop.

All stamped images were cut out (tediously) and raised with dimensionals.  The end result is definitely worth the time! Even if you don’t find cutting stamped images out as relaxing as I do, you could stamp all of these images on a piece of watercolor paper, masking the largest flower before you stamp the frame, so it appears under the rose.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Bella Rose Designer Series Paper, Eastern Influences stamp set, Frames with a Flourish stamp set, One of a Kind stamp set, Punches, scalloped edge punch, waterbrush, watercoloring

Today’s card was made with one of the stamp sets from the "Never Before Seen" promotion, #11672, Pocket Silhouettes. seen on page 98 of the new catalog.  This six piece stamp set is priced at $16.11 which includes the 15% discount, until September 30th.  The small sentiment "for you" was stamped with All Holidays stamp set. 

I used Stampin’ Up!’s super cool new curly label punch to cut out the stamped image, and popped it up off the ribbon with dimensionals.  I used Regal Rose cardstock for the base, a 5.25 x 4" mat of whisper white cardstock which was embossed on the Big Shot with an embossing folder, and a 2" strip of designer series paper.  I adhered the 5/8" regal rose ribbon on top of the dsp and adhered behind the card.  I tied another small piece around the first piece of ribbon to make a faux bow.  I used a glue stick and dazzling diamonds on top of each flower, and stamped the same image onto the envelope’s lower left hand corner.

Enjoy the day, and live it with passion!

Technorati Tags: All Holidays, Big Shot, Curley Label Punch, embossing mat, Pocket Silhouettes, Punches