Graduation Money Holders

It is that time of year again! We make the rounds to graduation parties each weekend. I made up several of these money holders that I saw on Amy Celona's Blog! Thanks, Amy! Quick and easy to do...I made them according to the school colors (wow...some school colors are unusual!) I've already distributed a few and some are duplicate colors, but I managed to take a photo of the ones I had left. I love the new Great Grads set that Amy used, but I didn't get around to purchasing it. So...I used what I already had on hand.

The background is wheeled with the Jumbo Classic Stars wheel in Night of Navy or Black. I used the Text and Texture background stamp on the "notepaper". Go Confidently is in the stamp set Live Your Dream. I thought it was a perfect greeting for a graduation card. I used the large and small star punches and the Spiral punch to make the notepaper. They are long cards...3 x 6 so that money fits in the perfectly. The slit punch at the bottom holds them closed.

Inside I used the greeting and diploma from the retired set Tassle Time. Glad I kept that one!

Have a great weekend!

By Ones and by Twos

I hope you all had a very Happy Mother's Day. I, unfortunately, didn't get to see either of my boys...one lives out of state and the other was working. But, they sent me a beautiful bouquet of Tulips in a rainbow of colors! Gorgeous! We were able to visit with my parents and my husband's parents.

This project was one that my Stamp Club did last month. Inside holds one of those plastic gift cards. My group did the "boy" one in Blue Bayou, but I made up the "girl twins" one in Rose Red so they could see the same thing done up. These are so quick and easy to make up and they make the presentation of a simple gift card a WOW! The Belly band holds the card closed.





On the boy inside, I had them stamp the onesie in black ink, then I had them stamp the onesie on designer paper...cut it out and apply over the onesie on the inside...I think this gives the image an applique look. The outside the stars are just layered onto the Scallop Circle and secured with a mini brad.

On the girl inside, I used two different designer papers and the outside is the 5 petal flower punch and the Boho Blossom punch held with a mini brad.

Sorry for the blurry pictures...the dimension must have been throwing off my focus on the camera.

Lovely Letters

As soon as I saw this alphabet, Lovely Letters, in the new catalog, I knew it would be in my collection. So, even though I got it soon after Convention, this was the first time I've used it! I had something like this in mind when I got it, but just hadn't had time to do anything.

So...I get a phone call this morning from my DH (I'll let you choose the adjective!).

Him: "Hi honey, sweetie pie...what cha doing?"
Me: What do you need?
Him: Well, yesterday was Administrative Assistant Day and I didn't know so I didn't get anything for my Executive Assistant. Could you whip something up real quick for her? I need to take it into work with me tomorrow.
Me: You owe me BIG time

lol! Now...Stephanie is a sweetheart and she is SO good to my DH, so even though I have a TON of assignments needing done and I had a class tonight, I managed to put together this package of note cards for her.

Many thanks to Michelle Wooderson for the idea of the note cards. I love how they turned out AND they were so quick to put together. The words were printed off on my computer. I also lined the inside of the envelopes with the DSP. I made some envelope seals with her monogram and a little envelope from the DSP to hold the seals. A ribbon holds the mini envelope closed. The paper is Stampin' Up!'s Fall Flowers and I particularly LOVE this flower pattern in that package. It took a little less than 2 full 12x12 sheets to do it all. I tucked the 8 cards, envelopes and seals into the card box. I think she'll be pleased with her gift! Now I'm thinking I'll make these for Mother's Day and tuck a gift card inside, too!

Enjoy!

Blogger's Challenge - Triangle box

This week's challenge was to create a triangle box. There are several different variations we saw when we started looking for patterns. Mine is a simple 4 x 8 square, scored in half and scored from the center of each short side to the side of the center crease...making a diamond. When you fold up the scores, the flaps are tucked over each other. I punched two holes in the top flaps and the ribbon keeps it closed.

I chose the Embrace Life stamp set and Ginger Blossoms DSP and Groovy Guava...I hadn't used either of them in a while. I stamped the long stem image randomly on my box with Groovy Guava. Then I adhere the triangle piece of DSP to the front. Stamped the large flower in black and used my sponge dauber to ink the center. I added a coordinating stripe of reverse red stripe DSP by the flower and a Rhinestone brad.

This is a fun little treat box! I'm glad we had this challenge so I pulled out my notes on how to make them!

Enjoy your Friday! Weekend here we come!

Tart & Tangy favors

Oh my! Spring has made it to Central Ohio! The trees have started budding, the daffodils at the front of our subdivision are getting ready to BUST out and bloom! I'll have to make sure to take pictures this year...there are so many and they are gorgeous! Temps today were in the low 70s and tomorrow is supposed to be nice, too. Then we are in for some rain and cooler temps again thru the weekend. At least we've had a hint!

I made these favors for my Tart & Tangy Stamp Camp participants last weekend . They were a HIT! They are fairly small, I started with a 6x6 size sheet of Summer Picnic Designer Paper and then folded them into the pocket shape. I filled the small cello pages with Starburst fruit chews, tied them with our wonderful Striped Ribbon and they pretty much followed the same fruit flavors as the stamp set (cherry, orange, lemon)! Fun! My group had a fun time doing our projects, too. Don't want to show them yet...I still have another Camp scheduled at the end of this month doing the same projects! I love this paper and the bright colors you use with the Tart & Tangy stamp set. It really lifts my spirits. The circle punches and Scallop punch are just a PERFECT fit, too. (Stampin' Up! is finally getting caught up with the backorders on these...the last of mine just went out today!)

Come back tomorrow! I finally took some pictures of my Stamp Studio and the new shelving my hubby made me for Christmas! Hopefully they will give you some ideas for organizing your space.

Classic Backgrounds Money Holder

Oh no! More snow here! We had thawed out and it was supposed to rain for a couple days...bringing out flood warnings in the area. Then...this afternoon it started to sleet and now SNOW! Oh well...by this time in March, you KNOW that it has to be one of the last snows of the season.

This was one of the 3D items I did for Leadership Display Maker using Classic Backgrounds. It is a tri-fold money holder with a belly band that slides off. Sorry...for some reason I didn't take a picture of it open! Although hard to see the center is actually a green Rhinestone brad. I used the stamp a ma jig to get the background pattern to line up correctly. The white scallop circle I backed with a Taken with Teal scallop circle to give it a little color. I used a black marker to just highlight the words "Wonderful Friend" and then used the Word Window punch. I used Certainly Celery and Taken with Teal...I like that color combo a LOT!

It's Wednesday and about time to watch American Idol...wonder who gets voted off tonight!

Stitched Exotics

I'm playing catch up from being gone for several days...both on sleep and on my assignments. I have three classes this week...I've already designed the projects, just need to do the cutting and prepping and organizing the supplies. They are all out of town which makes it a little more challenging to get ready!

So, once again I have a sample of the Displays I made for Leadership using Stitched Exotics. This is a post-it-note box. I have another one like it sitting on my desk and love how it keeps them in one place. It is deep enough to hold both the 3x3 size and the smaller size on top. I used Heat & Stick Powder to glitter the flower and punched the leaves with the 5 petal punch from Faux Diamond Dust (Technique Junkies newsletter) cardstock. The Stripe DSP is from the retired Darling Doodles paper pack...I loved that paper and the colors! The center is a Build-a-Brad...those are so much fun to use!

Enjoy! We are digging out from our Blizzard and the snow is melting fast! Yeah!
Connie

I'm back! And Boho Backgrounds...

Whew! I made it back from the stamping/scrapbooking retreat late yesterday and am very tired. We had a BLIZZARD in Ohio! 20 inches of snow and Level 3 snow emergencies in the county where my retreat was held (no one allowed on the roads or you will be ticketed) and snow drifts up to the roof of the building. But it was so absolutely beautiful to see the snow falling, the snow on the trees and the unspoiled landscape all around.

The retreat workers were SO great...they were stranded, too! They brought food to us so we didn't have to walk over to the cafeteria...cleared off our buried cars...moved the cars so they could plow off the parking lot...then cleared the sidewalks down to cement so we could wheel all our stuff back out to load the cars. Meanwhile, we stayed nice and snug in the lodge with the fireplace going all weekend...it was awesome! I was able to get lots of things done and you'll be seeing them over the next few days! Need to get them photographed. The best part is meeting up with friends again that I only see two times a year at these retreats. Of course, I always take too much stuff with me and only get 1/2 of what I take done...even with all that time!

This is one of the 3D items I made for the Leadership Displays. I used the Boho Backgrounds stamp set. I wanted the medallion to look and feel like leather, so I used Really Rust, Creamy Caramel inks direct to paper, then stamped the medallion in Basic Brown over top. I then covered it with Versamark and clear embossing powder. Turned out pretty neat and looks a lot like leather! It is hard to tell, but I used two acrylic frames and tied them together using ribbon. I punched the holes on the frames with the Crop-A-Dile tool. The paper is cut from the retired Outlaw paper, but you could easily substitute the new Western Sky paper for the same look. The medallion is actually adhered with dimensionals to the outside of the frame, while the paper and cardstock is slipped inside the frame where the photo would normally be held. After I sent this in, I thought I should have used mini brads instead of staples on the calendar...oh well!

I've not heard from our Blog Candy winner, Catherine, yet! So if I don't hear from her by tomorrow afternoon, I'll be pulling a new number for someone to win that Blog Candy! Check back!

Embrace Life calendar

Ugh...we are getting more SNOW! I'm so tired of winter. I guess my spring colored cards didn't help move it out any faster.

But! I finally had time to cover my desk calendar yesterday. I always get compliments on them...and they are easy to make. One of my friends got me started by giving me one in a gift exchange over 5 years ago.

This year I used the popular Ginger Blossoms designer paper...LOVE it! I've already used up one pack and ordered a second pack. The large flowers are perfect for the size of this calendar...I covered the bottom front and entire back with that pattern. Then...the dotted paper...ranks right up there in my favorites with the stripes!

I stamped the large flower from Embrace Life three times with Basic Brown ink on Whisper White cardstock. Then I used my sponge dauber and Ruby Red and Groovy Guava to ink up the centers and color in the petals...and used the Tombow Multi-purpose glue to add glitter along the stamens. I then placed the red Fire Circle brads in the centers. I layered them on a River Rock piece inked with the Sanded Background stamp. I added a touch of Garden Green ink to the punched 5-petal flower leaves. The Round Tab Punch has the word Life stamped on it from the Enjoy Every Moment stamp set. I used Jumbo Eyelets and the narrow Twill along the side, stamping first with the leaf stamp from Embrace Life in River Rock. I'm happy with the way it turned out!

Sets: Embrace Life, Enjoy Every Moment, Sanded background

C/S: River Rock, Whisper White, Groovy Guava, Ginger Blossom DSP

Inks: Basic Brown, Garden Green, River Rock, Ruby Red, Groovy Guava

Other: Jumbo eyelets, narrow twill, Fire brads, 5 petal punch, Round Tab punch, sponge daubers, Tombow multi-purpose glue, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Sticky Strip

Friends & Flowers Scrappin Kit

My son's girlfriend, Allie, had a birthday last week. Since we were in Las Vegas, I didn't get a chance to give her a present. She will be home from college this weekend, so I finished up the covered lunch box tin, RSVP pen and envelopes (I had the cards done last week). She mentioned the last time she was here that she always uses a bunch of thank you notes (she is studying to be a teacher). I thought a tin full of thank yous would be a nice gift for her.

I made 25 cards from 1/2 Friends & Flowers Scrappin Kit (retired) that I had left over and then covered the lunch box tin with the matching printed paper. I figure, it will be easy to refill her tin when she needs more. I left all the insides blank for her to write personal messages. I did use my George Cricut cartridge to cut out the letters for CARDS on top of the tin from Chocolate Chip cardstock. I also used an assortment of ribbon to decorate the handles of the lunch box tin. Around the middle, the wide satin chocolate ribbon that was on sale in December is SO nice! I secured it with Sticky Strip, but it ties beautifully...love it!

In addition to the Lunch box tin of cards, I also bought her a hot pink scarf to match the Vera Bradley purse we got her for Christmas. You know...those scarves that are so popular right now. I'm sure she will like it, too!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Connie

East Coast Prep Compacts

When I was at Leadership, I purchased the mirror compacts as gifts for my downline and upline. I just sent them off in the mail this week, so hopefully everyone has received them by now and I won't ruin the surprise by posting the pictures here.

Since I didn't want to just give them the cello bag with the compact, I also altered Nicole Heady's criss-cross box to make it small enough so that the compacts fit in it nicely...I even included a matching 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 card! I think they turned out SO cute! I used the new East Coast Prep paper (so bright and cheery!) and the Think Happy Thoughts stamp set. (I resisted that stamp set so long....but it really is NICE for making quick little cards and has a good selection of words!)

Making these little 3D items is one of the major reasons I got hooked on stamping and paper crafting. I love cards, but making little presents like this is so much fun..... Hmmm, I have one more left...who should I give it to? Maybe the NEXT recruit who signs up with me? lol!

I've been spending the weekend getting my paperwork inputted into a spreadsheet for taxes. Almost done. Tonight we are off to a Superbowl party at friends...we've been going to their house for the game at least 10 years. Our boys grew up together!

Stay warm,
Connie

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wow...2008 is here. Where did 2007 go? Really...it flew by for us. We spent New Year's Eve very quietly. Went to dinner with good friends, but were home by 10:30 PM and watched Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve and the crystal ball drop. I don't like being out on the roads on NYE. Today will be relaxing, watching the Rose Bowl parade and then lots of football teams. I'll get some stamping done while that is going on. I have to finish preparing for a couple classes this week and work on my Leadership swaps for next week!

Here is the last name frame...very similar to Liam's. I used Toy Box Scrappin' kit again for Makallen's. When my niece opened Makallen's gift (he is only 5 months old), she reminded me that I hadn't made a name frame for her daughter, Ryleigh. I had made one for her oldest child, Layton. I remembered then that I didn't make Ryleigh's since they had made plans to move...but now I guess that is on my list to get done for her! lol! Her birthday is in July, so I have some time!

I've made some personal goals for myself this year. I won't call them resolutions...they are more of a commitment than that. Since I'm writing them down, I'll be able to look at them and strive to complete them throughout the year.

Hope YOU have a wonderful New Year!

Another Name Frame

This is a second Name Frame Christmas present I made for the new grandson of our best friends. Liam's room is decorated in sports and dark blues. The name of his bedding is All Star! I pulled out an old retired Stampin' Up! Scrappin' Kit Toy Box to decorate his name. I thought the plaid decorative paper in this kit worked well with his room, too! The All Star tag is "hanging" off the bat with natural hemp. I stamped the large letters with Headline Alphabet (retiring tomorrow!) I'm going to miss that alphabet! The small All Star letters were stamped with Short Order alphabet. The only ball that is stamped is the football (for some reason one wasn't in the kit!) from the retired Touchdown stamp set. I stamped the football in Really Rust on Creamy Caramel cardstock and then colored the stitches and stripes with my White gel pen.

I spent yesterday helping my hubby build wood shelves for my studio. Before I had some ugly metal ones that I will re purpose into the storage area behind my studio to hold all those items that need to be "altered" yet...like tin mailboxes, altoids-type tins, candles, etc. They will work great and be out of site. The new shelves will hold my retired collection of stamp sets and miscellaneous tools like the Cuttlebug and Bind-it-All machines. I can't wait until it is finished. It was a major pain to take everything off the shelves I had...now my stuff is just sitting around in boxes. He is painting the shelves today, so hopefully I can get my stuff back to normal tomorrow. Although I'd love to do some organizing and cataloging before I put them back, I don't think it will get done until I'm back from Leadership. And I have too many projects due before I leave to think about it now. I have a class coming in on Thursday, so it has to be cleaned up! lol!

Blogger's Challenge #27

This week's challenge was again to show something that you were inspired by and recreate it. I am chosing to use the punch animals that Meredith Burnsed posted on SCS to create a home decor item.

One of the things I made for Christmas for the new grand-nieces and nephews, were their Name Frames. This one is for Cadence. Her room is done in Red with Black Frames and a farm animal theme. Looking thru my huge stash of stamps, I found that I didn't have many farm animals...the ones I did were smaller in size than I wanted to use.

I could find nothing Meredith made for the cow, so I made him up. Since this picture was taken, I did add a tail. The body is a rectangle and I rounded the corners. The head is a small white oval and then a trimmed pink oval for the nose. Ears and horns are the slot punch. I colored the spots with a black marker. At the bottom of his legs, I colored the feet black, too, but you don't see them in this view.

I used Well-Worn Alphabet for the letters. The grass is Wild Wasabi textured paper, cut with my scissors to resemble blades of grass.

The sheep used the Circle Scallop punch and half an oval for the face and slices cut from the other half of the oval for the ears. The chick is a 1" circle and a 1/2" circle, then a 1/2" circle cut in half for the wing. The pig is a 1-3/8" circle for the body, 1" circle for the head and 1/2" circle for the nose...each layer is popped up. The fence was the Word Window punch, stamped with Weathered for a wood grain look.

It was SO much fun to make. Although Cadence is only one, I don't know how much she appreciates it right now, but her dad and grandma loved it!

2-5-7-10 Gift Boxes

I hope everyone had a very, merry Christmas! Ours went by TOO fast, of course. We try to fit SO much into those two days, but we do get to see a lot of people we only see a couple times a year. That makes it fun. My poor husband hasn't felt too well. We don't know if he ate something, or just is suffering from a bug. Today he is on the couch...hopefully he will feel better soon. The house is a wreck anyway...I can work around him and get things cleaned up.

I wanted to show you the boxes I made. These are the gift boxes that I made to hold gift cards and small objects we gave out at Christmas. It is a regular 2-5-7-10 box that I added the white scallop edge and placed a Scallop Circle on the front for the To/From tag. I cut pieces of the wrapping paper I used this year and glued to the flap of the box. I punched the holes at the top for the ribbon with my Crop-A-Dile...that makes it SO easy to go through several layers of paper. Inside was a gift card and some peppermint patties.

What craft items did you receive this year? I received Cut N Up cartridge for my Cricut machine, the Ribbon iron, a Michael's gift card, and a brand new flat plasma TV for my studio! It is already installed and I love it, because it gives SO much more space on my counter than that old TV took up!

Luckily, we don't have too many exchanges to do this year. I only had one duplicate gift and one item my son received is too small. I already purchased my wrapping paper for next year, so there is really no reason to go out today at all. Yeah! Hopefully you don't have to do too much today, either, and you can catch your breath after all the rush!

Snowman tags

Every year I make my tags for the packages under the tree. All my packages are wrapped in the same paper, and I make the tags to match. Usually I change the color of the bows so we know which gift goes to which family and to make it easy to sort them when we are ready to go. This year I made the tags different colors instead so the separate families are easy to identify.

The base snowman is actually the snow globe from Doodlecharms cut on my Cricut and set at 2". The hat is the 1-1/4 square punch, the brim is the word window punch. The snowflake punch is retired. I stamped the faces with Cold Play (retiring this month...I'm sad!) To/From is from Holiday Tag Time set. I had the narrow ribbon in my stash. I think they make my packages FUN!

Hope you are enjoying the last few days before Christmas. I need to finish one more gift and do some baking on Christmas Eve. Feeling in pretty good shape. If I have time, I'd like to make up some coaster calendars for everyone. We'll see!

Baroque Motifs coasters

You may remember that I told you I made a set of four coasters for each of my husband's employees. We gave these to them at our Holiday party last Friday. Here are pictures of the finished coasters. I think they turned out nice! I used the set Baroque Motifs and Stazon retired colors of Blazing Red and Olive. I placed them in the oven for 20 minutes on 250 and then used a light spray of Krylon Workable Fixative to seal them. I placed four felt "feet" on the bottom of each to help protect their tables. I wrapped them in Stampin' Up!'s awesome Pomegranate satin ribbon...that stuff is NICE. Everyone was pleased!

Still playing catch-up on all my Christmas projects. I have one more gift card to buy and then I'm DONE shopping and it is a Walmart. I plan to get up early and beat the traffic there tomorrow morning. Almost everything is wrapped, tags are all done. I have a few more Christmas cards to make and a couple name frames for the great niece and great nephew. All those I hope to whip out tomorrow. Yeah! I must work well under pressure...cause I've just been cranking everything out! lol!

Hope you are enjoying the holiday season! Less than a week away, now...

Baroque Motif frame

Well, I SURVIVED! Oh my gosh...last night's holiday party dinner nearly put me over the edge. (Next year I'm having it catered!) I spent most of today recovering (after delivering some orders in a horrible snowstorm that hit this morning!) Hopefully tomorrow I will feel like I'm back in the Christmas spirit and get some things done (like writing my Christmas letter, mailing cards, making my tags, wrapping gifts.) I plan to finish my shopping on Monday...yeah! Just a few things left to get and then some gift certificates.

Here is another one of the projects that my Last Minute Gifts class made. The shadow box frames I purchased at the Target $ spot last year. I bought a WHOLE bunch, so still have quite a few left for gifts! I love how these turned out...easy to change the colors to fit the recipient's taste.

For the center, I stamped the medallion from Baroque Motifs twice with Versamark and then Groovy Guava ink on River Rock cardstock, applied Iridescent Ice EP and heat set....very sparkly. Then I trimmed both the medallions to get just the floral part. I mounted the two together and layered on the Scallop Circle punch, then used my Round Tab punch to form a Very Vanilla circle behind the Scallop. The Jumbo eyelet went thru all layers with my Crop A Dile (just like butter!), then I added the Rhinestone in the center of the Jumbo eyelet. The swirl in the set was stamped with Wild Wasabi on the Wild Wasabi background and the mat. I stamped Cherish in Wild Wasabi and punched with the large oval punch. All together a very nice gift, I think. Wouldn't you like to receive it?

Lip Balm Directions

Lots of requests for a tutorial...but truly, I don't have the time before Christmas to do it...sorry! I'm getting ready for my husband's holiday party this weekend, then need to finish shopping, wrapping, making gifts. I know a bunch of you are in the same situation, right? Anyway...here are some directions that I used to make the lip balm holder. They really are simple to do.

Lip Balm Holder

Outside Piece 5 3/4" x 3 1/2" Score at 2 1/2" & 3 1/4"
Inside Piece 5 1/2" x 3 1/4" Score at 2 3/8" & 31/8"

Decorate the front as desired. Place 15" of ribbon between top decoration and the front of top piece to hold in place.

Temporarily place the lip balm on the inside piece (between the two score lines) and mark with a pencil the top and bottom. Then use the slit punch, making sure the straight line base is at the pencil marks. (I actually marked my slit punch on the metal so they could tell how far to go in with the punch.) Wrap a piece of decorative paper around lip balm. I put a small piece of double stick tape down the center to help secure the lip balm between the two slits.

Adhere both outside and inside pieces together. Tie to close!

Wishing You Cheer

I'm so glad I bought this set when it was on sale last month. It is a fun little set...not too small and not too big...just right! This lip balm holder was another one of the Last Minute Gifts that my class did last week. The Snowman was stamped in Basic Black and colored with markers. I added a little sparkle on the snowflakes and ground with Stickles Crystal Glitter Glue. Inside, the slit punch holds the lip balm in place. I added a little double-sided tape for extra hold. I wrapped the lip balm with Dashing Double-sided paper to obscure the writing on it. The Wishing You Cheer verse is stamped on the left and room to write a personal note on the right. Stampin' Up!'s red gingham ribbon (great for the holidays!) holds it closed. Wouldn't these be fun gifts for some special gals in your life?

Hope you are enjoying getting ready for the holidays. I'm feeling a little more in control today! Did some shopping yesterday...mainly gift certificates left to get. I have my menu set for the holiday party on Friday night. Just need to write down the ingredients I need at the store, then go out tomorrow and buy them. I finished their gifts (rats...I forgot to take a picture of them all lined up!) I made sets of 4 tile coasters using Baroque Motifs in Wild Wasabi and Purely Pomegranate...they turned out nice! I wrapped them with the Purely Pomegranate ribbon that is on SALE right now! Working with that ribbon is awesome...so easy to tie pretty bows!

Don't forget the retired accessories list is out! Get your retiring stamps and accessories now...