Stamp By the Light of the Moon

Christmas Present: This year's Christmas card unveiled

Today my Christmas cards went in the mail! It's right on schedule for me, I'm always a day or two before Christmas Eve, sending mine out.  Every year I think I'm going to get them out earlier, but every year it's almost the exact same day.

Each year I start thinking about my Christmas card in the summer. Not because I'm a long range planner, but because the new catalog comes out in the summer and I start checking out all of the new holiday stamp sets and accessories and trying to think of the card that will top last year's. Once the Holiday Mini comes out, I usually have a pretty solid idea of what I'm going to do. This year, as soon as I saw the ornament punch, I knew I'd use it on my cards. My original idea to do three ornaments, one for each child, changed quickly when I thought of punching out 375 photos for 125 cards! 

Without further ado, here's some photos of our card making nights from last week:

When we first started, I hadn't even finished cutting all my designer series papers yet, so I gave each daughter a job to do while I kept cutting.  Caroline's job was to cut the foam tape and hand it to Elizabeth. Elizabeth's job was to put it on the back of the ornaments I'd punched out, which were all face down on the table. Alexandra's job was to turn them face up when they were done and ready to go onto cards.

 Once we had everything cut and ready to go, we started to assemble. I taped the designer papers to the card stock and they peeled off the little pieces of backing from the foam tape and taped the ornaments to the front of the card. I realized a little bit into it, that I didn't tell them to put the ornaments on straight. I had to do some fixing later on.

 

The night we did the stamping was a little bit tense. It took us a few minutes to get the right kid using the easiest stamp for them. Ultimately Caroline stamped the inside, Alexandra stamped the back with Created By, and Elizabeth stamped the Very Merry on the front. We used various shades of greens for the stamping. At one point we realized Alexandra was stamping Created By upside down. When I said something, she said, "Hey, I can't read, it all looks right to me!"  I had to laugh. It was quite an accomplishment when we finished, and the girls were so proud of all our hard work.

 I had each daughter grab one card to hold up, to show that they were all slightly different. I used a combination of Old Olive designer papers and some leftover Merry Moments designer papers (seen here) from a class I'd taught. I loved the Merry Moments cards the best, but I knew that I wouldn't have enough in a pack to do all I needed to do because I didn't want to use the brown patterns on my cards, just reds, greens and ivory or white.  

Of course, when I signed the cards on the inside, I was sure to put the all important message on the back as well. I couldn't let their hard work go unnoticed!

A couple of little secrets to working quickly and efficiently:

1) I had a local office supply store cut my 3 packs of Real Red card stock in half for me, it's only $2.00 per cut and they cut it all at once for a grand total of $2.00. Then I only had to score.

2) I cut the designer papers and then just folded a portion of it back. Because our designer series papers are printed with an alternate design on the flip side, I only needed one piece but was able to showcase two patterns. So although it looks like two cuts of paper, one strip and one larger, it's just one and a fold, which I scored for neater folding.

I think those are the only little secrets I have this year. The rest is pretty straightforward. If you are someone I normally exchange cards with each year, I hope you enjoy yours. If you are not, I hope you've enjoyed seeing them here, and knowing what went into them!

To me, making the card is fun, but taking the time to make it with the girls, no matter how hard that is, is what makes it special. I know that I'm instilling a love for cardmaking and putting their heart and soul into each card, in each of them and I know we're making more than just cards, we're making memories too. That's what it's really all about. When we see our family and friends this holiday and they tell the girls how wonderful the cards are, that will make their day and I will know that it's all been worth it.
 

Cards of Christmas Past: Waterfall Card

The girls and I have been working diligently on our Christmas cards for this year, and they're going in tomorrow's mail.  I will share those photos in the next day or two, as I do our final holiday preparations here at home.  In the meantime, I thought I'd share one of my all-time favorite past Christmas cards from 2005, when my youngest was a baby.  It was a Waterfall card, where one photo falls behind the other.  Here are step by step photos of the card, starting with the front of the card:

I made 100 of these cards that year, and it remains one of my favorite Christmas cards ever.  Everyone loved it.  I used the two square punches for the photos and their red mats, and I used the gorgeous brushed gold metallic card stock for the base of the photos. I even used half a circle punch for the pull tab at the bottom.  This was a fun card to make! 

Be sure to check back this week to see the unveiling of this year's Christmas Cards!

Stampin' Up! Regionals: a recap

I had a very exciting weekend! The Stampin' Up! Maine Regionals were on Saturday. Two weeks' prior, I got a call from the SU home offices in Utah, asking if I'd consider being a presenter at the Regionals. I said that I absolutely would love to do it. The person on the phone, Donna (she's pictured on pages 8 and 10 of the catalog) said I'd be presenting a "Wow" technique or project. I had to keep my presentation to just five minutes. I also needed to prepare 2-3 other samples using the same technique, to show during my presentation and for SU's display boards.

And so, the pressure was on: think of something I've seen or shown that gets a "wow" from the audience, and that hasn't been done over and over before.  I wanted my presentation to be something new to the audience. I had a stampers' club meeting the next day, and I wanted to also be able to do the same project for them so that I could do all my prepping and packing at the same time, working smarter, not harder.

I went through all my past posts. I looked through all my samples in my office. I finally came across a shadowbox type of card with an accordian fold, that I'd learned from a customer in a past stampers' club, several years ago. I'd always loved that project. It was not a full card, but more of a box that could sit on display. I decided that I could create a similar project using the basics she'd taught us, but making it a full card instead. With the holidays coming up, I decided to do a Christmas card. Here it is:

I used Snow Swirled for my stamp set, one of my favorite snowflake sets. As I've said in the past, I love sets that include background stamps (the snowflakes,) a main image (the tree,) and greetings (there's this outside greeting that is visible on the front of this card and an inside phrase that I used inside.)

Now, I had to step it up and come up with some other samples. I worked backwards, starting with Halloween:

This card was simple. It used The More the Merrier for my stamp set, the jackolantern faces are from Holiday Blitz (I love that set!) and the greeting is from Holiday Best. Note that both The More the Merrier and Holiday Best are hostess sets and I earned them for free with past orders! I added some detail with my Stampin' Write Markers and some black gingham ribbon for effect and viola! Done.

The next holiday up was Thanksgiving. This would be my Stampers' Club card for the day following Regionals. Since it's October, the focus for my project is November's holiday. Next month they'll do a Christmas project. Here's what I came up with for them:

This card used Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red and Very Vanilla paper, Very Vanilla Craft Ink, and one of my all-time favorite sets: Lovely as a Tree. The Give Thanks stamp is also from Holiday Best. This card used the Watercolor Wonder Crayons, which one of the club members had asked for last month. I wanted to be sure to incorporate them into the project so she'd get to see how they are used. We painted them with the Aquapainter brushes and made a beautiful New England foliage scene, perfect for what we're seeing around here these days.

And finally, I made a stepped-up version of a Christmas Card that takes longer than the five minutes my presentation card takes.

 This card incorporates several stamp sets and the Big Shot for my snowflake. I used Holiday Blitz, Snow Swirled, and The More the Merrier, White Craft ink and Not Quite Navy Classic ink and paper. You may be able to see the Dazzling Diamonds Glitter on there too. I used the Stampin' Write Markers as well, for my coloring. Here's a look at the inside, from the top down:

Tomorrow I'll post my card swap for the event, as well as some photos of me doing my presentation. 

If anyone is in need of the directions for how to make this card, email me at jencowart@yahoo.com and I'll send them to you. I have them in a word document, ready to go. 
 

Stampin' Up! Card Keeper makes a perfect gift!

I thought I'd take a break from showing Christmas Card Class samples and show you a gift that I made for my mother's birthday which was on 9-9-09.  I was very pleased with how it came out and my mom really loved it.

 

Stampin' Up! sells these very simple-looking shoebox type of box called a Card Keeper.  It's made of clear plastic, comes collapsed and you put it together when you receive it by snapping the sides to the front.  It's very simple and perfect as is. In fact, I have two of them myself.  They come with tabbed dividers and sticker labels for the dividers so that you can sort your cards into categories.  I sort one box by occasion (get well, congratulations, thank you, birthday, baby and any occasion) and one box sorted by month (all my Valentines cards are in February, St. Patricks in March, Easter in April, Mothers Day in May, Fathers Day and Graduation in June, etc etc.) 

As simple as the boxes are when left alone, I'd seen many a sample that were decorated with our Designer Series Papers and I always loved how pretty they look.  I decided that for my mom's, I'd decorate it using the Tea Party papers.  I chose some I thought she'd like and got started.  It didn't take long at all and before I knew it, I was done.  It was very easy to measure out the sides and top, and I used SNAIL adhesive to adhere the paper to the plastic.  The best part is that our papers are double sided so the effect is just as pretty on the inside as out:

 

Once I had finished the box, I thought to myself that I really couldn't give her an empty card keeper, without any cards in it, could I?  So off I went to design some coordinating and at the same time, very simple all occasion cards so that she could start to fill up her tabbed dividers. 

 

My mom gets a lot of use out of all occasion card sets that I give her, so she really liked receiving this gift.  The Tea Party papers are so pretty and so versatile, everyone loves them! 

This gift is very affordable:  $11.95 for the card keeper itself.  If you don't have paper on hand, the packs of Designer Series Papers are only $9.95 each.  My pack had been used several times already for other projects and classes and yet there was still plenty left to make the box and the cards. 

You can order your card keeper online 24 hrs a day through my business website.

My next post will continue to show off the beautiful Christmas Cards that we made in the August 30 class.  Remember that there are still a couple of spots left in the November 15 Christmas Card Class as well.  It's $50 for 30 hand stamped Christmas Cards and it's a lot of fun!  Your cards will be done well before the holiday rush begins!

Kids' Stamp Camp Project Specifics

As promised, here is some specific information about each project we created at the kids' stamp camp last week. I'll start with the project that was everyone's favorite, the notebook project.

 

This was the sample that I showed the girls.  I made sure to tell them though, that mine was only a very simple sample and that they could add color to theirs and add other stamps from the Sock Monkey stamp set to make it their own design. This project had an outside and an inside.  Here's the inside:

 

I gave each child a pencil and a notepad for the inside of their folders.  I told them that besides keeping them for themselves, these would also make nice gifts for the first day of school for their teachers.  My girls decided to do both.  They're keeping the ones from stamp camp and they each made an additional one for their teachers.

 

This is Caroline's finished project. This shows how the image looks when it's colored.  The kids used basic colored pencils to color their images in.  The morning group of older girls did some sponging around the edges.  Alexandra, my four year old, over-sponged hers a little, but she loves it and that's what matters.
 

Our next project, my personal favorite, was the paper bag scrapbook.  I used all retired ribbons for this project as well as the above notebook project.  This is the sample I showed the kids. I also used retired Designer Series Paper for my sample so that I could save the Build-A-Bear Designer Series Paper for the kids' projects.

All of the Build-A-Bear products go on sale September 1, which is Tuesday!  If you are interested in purchasing them, please let me know!  You can order through me on my Demonstrator Business Website 24 hours a day!  Just click on the Order Now button at the top of my blog!

 

 

This is what the inside of the book looked like. It has two big pages for pictures and two tabbed, hidden, smaller pages for either additional photos or journaling.  The girls liked the idea that the pages were hidden.

Here's Elizabeth's scrapbook:

 

She ended up using retired paper for hers also.  She didn't want to use the colors we had.  Her book also ended up backwards, but when you're seven, those things don't matter much!

 

This is Caroline's scrapbook and she used all the Build-A-Bear Designer Series Papers for her clothing and accessories.  It was funny how specific a lot of the girls were with their clothes matching their pocketbooks and other accessories.  The bears came out so cute!

The final project was the easiest project but was time consuming enough that it allowed me to pull each child aside to run their card stock for the bears through the Big Shot, and do the accessories too.

We made a set of four note cards using the new Build-A-Bear stamp sets, retired ribbons and colored pencils.  I let the kids do any greetings they wanted for their four cards.  Here are my two simple samples:

That's the outside, here's the inside:

and the back side: 

 

Here are the kids' samples:

 

These were Caroline's cards.  You can see how the girls really took the projects and ran with them.  Each girl worked very hard to make their cards unique and pretty.  They put a lot of effort into their cards.

Alexandra took a very unique approach, making all of her images into one single card:

 

Every project was loved by all of the kids, but their favorite was the note pad, hands down. 

I have the measurements and dimensions for all of the projects.  If anyone is interested in receiving them, just send me an email to jen@stampbythelightofthemoon.com and I will send them to you in my reply. 

My next six posts will be Christmas Card Class posts!  The class was today and it was fabulous! All of the participants already have 30 hand made Christmas cards done and ready to go and it's not even fall yet!!  What a way to get a jump on the holiday season!

I already have five people signed up for an additional session of the class in November.  If you're interested in the class, here are the details:

Sunday, November 15, 2009
1-5 pm
30 cards
$50

There are just a few spots left.  If I have enough interest, I'll start a third session on another Sunday in November.  Please let me know right away if you'd like to sign up.

Be on the lookout for the card samples from today's class to be posted in the next couple of weeks!

Embrace Life Mini Pizza Box Stampers' Club Project

Well, I officially finished the entire two week session of Girl Scout camp with my girls yesterday.  The weather wasn't fantastic, but it ended with two full days of great weather, so that was a great send off for us.  My girls were disappointed that it rained so much, but they got to do all the neat things you do at an outdoor camp like archery, boating and campfire cooking, so they didn't feel like they missed out on very much.  They already can't wait to go back again next year.  So for now, until then, I'm back down to just two jobs again.  Whew...

In the meantime, I have not been able to post any projects to this blog, just the necessities because I've been away so much during the the two weeks.  I've been dying to post the project I did for my Greenville Stamper's Club's last meeting of the season.  I found the project in my Inbox, courtesy of Splitcoast Stampers Weekly Inkling a few weeks back.  It's called a mini pizza box and it's so cute I knew I had to try it.  It's very easy.  At the meeting in May, one of the members of the club had commented on the Embrace Life stamp set, so I incorporated it into the project.  Here are some photos.

  

This is the top of the box.  I used one of my favorite Soft Subtles color combinations:  Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Mellow Moss, along with my standard Whisper White.  I accented with the 1/4" Whisper White grosgrain ribbon.  After I finished my project, I thought that it needed another accent, so when I did the project with the club, I offered them the option of putting a brad through the ribbon at the top of the box.  They could either use the green rhinestone brads, the amethyst rhinestone brads or an artichoke mini brad.  A couple of people opted to keep theirs plain like mine, and a few others opted to use one of the brads.  I liked the amethyst rhinestone brad in it the best, but any would do. 

You can also see that I used the Scallop Edge Punch around the Mellow Moss card stock as an additional accent.  I often prefer straight, square, clean lines, but in this instance I thought the curves would go well with the flower stamp that I used to create the background of the Pale Plum card stock.  Here are some additional photos.

 

Here is the box partially open.  This photo gives you an idea of just how big the box is.  It's the perfect size for gift giving purposes.  Jewelry, gift cards, gift tags, 3x3 note cards, candy and more would all fit into this box, and it would make a perfect favor box for a shower or party.  The grosgrain ribbon is on the front, adhered with a mini glue dot.

 

Here is what it looks like all the way opened.  You could stamp the inside and outside, both sides of the card stock, but I opted not to do that.  I wanted some contrast between the inside and outside.

 

And here it is, all closed and ready to go.  Such a pretty gift even just as it is!  Here are the dimensions, so that you can make this cute mini pizza box yourself! 

For box:

 

1 pc Pale Plum  8 ½ x 11” cut to 6 x 11

 

Score at 1” and 5” (short side at the top)

Turn and score at 10”, 6”,  5”  and 1” (with the tall side at the top)

 

Using the score lines, cut 4 cuts on each long side, making flaps.  Do not cut the perpendicular score lines.

 

Place sticky strip tape on all the flaps.

Stamp your design all over the scored paper before adhering flaps together.

 

Adhere flaps.

 

For top of box:

4” x 4” Mellow Moss (or less if you are not planning to use the Scallop Edge Punch.)

2” x 3” Pale Plum

1 ¾” x 2 ¾” Whisper White

 

2 sm. pcs. white gingham ribbon approx. 2” each

Mini Glue Dots

 

Embrace Life Stamp Set

Mellow Moss, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum Classic Ink pads

I hope that you've enjoyed seeing this project as much as I enjoyed making it!  Let me know what you think of it! 

On Monday I'll post SU's next great deal of the week, and in the meantime I'm starting preparations for my New Catalog Open House, so I'll have those photos to post for you after it takes place. 

Tiles, kids, tiles, kids and more tiles!!

So I took my own advice, and decided to make tile trivets for end of the year gifts for all of our teachers, aides, bus drivers, Don's secretaries, and anyone else we usually give an end of the year gift to.  I bought four boxes of tiles on Wednesday because I actually had the whole day free until 4pm.  I needed three of the tiles by 4pm though, and four for the next day, so I had to buy them and get started right away. 

I was originally going to make all 16 tiles exactly the same and use the Inspired By Nature stamp set as I had at my last club:  Really Rust flowers, Always Artichoke for the grass and the words.  My two younger girls were home from school and when I first started, they were playing nicely and I got eight stamped pretty quickly and started baking them.

Once they saw that I was stamping something though, playtime was over and they wanted to make them too.  It takes everything I have to give up control of these types of thing, and truly it IS easier and faster if I do it myself. 

 

But really, who can resist these faces??  They were just watching and watching, sitting up on the counter, and holding on for dear life so they wouldn't fall off.   I couldn't do it.  I had to let them help and I had to let them choose their own colors too.  I told them they could each make one, the one for their very own teacher and then I'd continue on making the rest. 

Of course, I had my camera right there, and we took turns capturing the gift making turned stamping tiles class event. 

 

Alexandra went first.  She chose Pumpkin Pie for her flowers and kept the Always Artichoke for her grass and words. 

  

I had to "help," though.  I couldn't let any smudging happen or we'd waste a tile and I didn't want to risk that.  I tried to keep my helping to a minimum though. 

 

Here's her almost finished product.  

  

Elizabeth went next and she totally shook up my color scheme, choosing Cameo Coral for the flowers, Old Olive for the Grass and Taken with Teal for the words.  Crazy!!  Of course, she has an eye for color because they came out beautifully, and were my favorites of all the ones we did.  I ended up making five more.

 

I didn't get to do quite as much "helping" here because now I was needed to hold Alexandra up on my knee so she could take the picture.  (Are you picturing what an undertaking this project was?)

 

Here's the first "batch" of tiles.  Alexandra's is at the top on the left and Elizabeth's is next to it.  I think she did more than one, maybe two of them.  But as I said, I loved the color scheme and made a few myself.  I had them use a Sharpie to sign the back and I dated them as well.

The next batch that I did used Ruby Red for the flowers and Handsome Hunter for the grass and the words.  I have four of those on this tray and then my original color scheme of Rust and Artichoke is at the bottom.

 

I love how they all came out.  I was glad in the end that I let the kids take part in it.  It taught them something new, let them spend some fun time stamping with me, and let them be a part of their teachers' end of the year gifts.  But wow.  Here's what the top of my stove looked like at one point:

 

And, to top it off, I still need four more tiles, AND Caroline now wants to make her own for her teacher as well, since she's in school all day and missed our tile trivet kids' class.  So that'll be one of the four that I pick up this weekend.  All in all though, for 20 gifts, I will have spent about $40 total including the tiles and the felt feet for the bottoms of them.   So it's cost efficient and personal and a useful gift to top it off.  I'd say that's all you can ask for! 

Keep it in mind for any upcoming gifts, shower favors, and more!

The cutest project using Tea Party Designer Series paper!

Today was the final meeting of one of my stampers' clubs until September.  Each year for the past two, they've begun meeting in September, take off the month of December, and end for the year in April or May.  Then, after a summer hiatus, they start up again in September.  We meet once per month, and I always bring them a project that I think they'll love, that also focuses on any of the SU special promtions going on at the time. 

Since today was the last one for this year, I wanted to make it really good.  I felt kind of like I was on American Idol.  For those of you who are fans, there's always a point in the show where the judges will say, "At this point in the competition, you need to really wow us." 

I wanted to really wow this group, send them off with a great feeling about the great project we did.  I also know that they like 3D projects as much as I do.  So I began my search.  I got a new Stampin' Success Magazine in the mail this week, so I looked in there.  Then, I got a weekly email from Splitcoast Stampers with a project in it.  I looked at that.  But still, I felt like I hadn't found it yet. 

I decided to look on my friend and upline, Cindy Lawrence's blog, www.onehappystamper.typepad.com.  I always find the prettiest projects on there, and sure enough, I found what I thought was the perfect project for my club.  It was the cutest little magazine holder, made out of card stock.  You would use it to hold 3x3 cards and envelopes.  You can see Cindy's project here:

  

I knew that I wanted to do this project, but I thought that doing the box and four cards would be too much for the time frame we had today.  So I tried to think of what other uses I could come up with for the box.  I realized that 4x4 post it note pads fit inside perfectly!  I'd definitely found my project.

Next, I needed to choose my Designer Series Paper.  I wanted to highlight DSP because of the Buy 3 Get one Free special going on this month.  I wanted my club members to know that if they bought three packs of DSP or 12x12 textured card stock, they'd get a free one.  Using the DSP on the project was a good way to remind them of the special.  I'd used Tea Party DSP a couple of months ago, and they'd really liked it, so I decided to use it again, but a different pattern from the pack.  We'd also used another variety of DSP last month for our card project. 

So all of that being said, here's how our project came out:

I even put little post it note pads in it, for demonstration purposes.  You can see that I used Almost Amethyst card stock and whisper white grosrain ribbon.  I also put a small Filigree flower and brad on the front for decoration.  I punched a hole through the paper, DSP and card stock using the hand held 1/16 punch.  I also thought the sides were plain so I stamped the flower on them from Baroque Motifs using the versamark ink pad.  You can also use Almost Amethyst ink but a member of the group had asked last month about how to use the versa pad, and what effect it would give, so I decided to work a quick demo into this project for her.

 Here's a closeup of the back of the magazine holder.  I see now, that my ribbon started to come off in my travels!  However, what I really wanted you to see is the Baroque Motifs flower at the top of the spine.  It's stamped in Certainly Celery ink and cut out using the SU Paper Snips.

 

Here's how it looks with some sample post it pads in it.  Again, it seems to have gotten a little smooshed at the bottom, while on the ride home!  I did not notice this when I took the photos!!  This project is a perfect gift for yourself or for someone else!  When I showed it to my husband, an elementary school principal, he said to me, "Could you make me a masculine one?  I have those post it pads all over my desk."  So that'll have to be on my list of things to do in the upcoming weeks!  Teacher Appreciation Week just passed, but this would've made a great gift for one of the week-long gift giving days that we had. 

Don't forget about the Designer Series Paper special that's going on this month! 

By the way, Cindy found the adorable magazine holder on this blog if you would like to get the directions for it yourself:  http://inkingidaho.blogspot.com/2008/08/mini-magazine-tote-tutorial.html There's even a step by step guide included there, for cutting and scoring your card stock.

It's A Loop Thing: a great gift-giving idea for all occasions

My last post was on Saturday mid-afternoon, and by Saturday night *the* stomach bug had descended upon our house.  I was the first casualty, followed by Caroline and then Don.  Miraculously, the other two members of our family have not gotten it--yet.  Today is the first day I've felt really well, and I am waaayyy behind in everything, but even so, I thought I'd catch up here first, and do a quick blog post.

I've been wanting to post my project that I did with my stampers' clubs in February because it was so cute and so easy.  Most importantly with today's economic struggles, very inexpensive.

Is this not adorable?  Walmart (and I believe Stop and Shop) sell these little candles for$1 each.  At Walmart they even come with peel off labels so you can remove the label on the glass before covering the jar. 

For this project, still trying to use items from my Level 3 Hostess Set, Hand Drawn, I used a strip of the DSP that came in the bundle, which in this photo is hard to see, as well as a strip of Whisper White.  I simply used the It's a Loop Thing stamp set that comes in the bundle to stamp flowers all across the strip of paper.  Then, taking the Ruby Red Classic Ink and a Stampin' Sponge, I lightly sponged some ink over the flowers to add a little dimension.  I used Sticky Strip to adhere the paper all around the glass. 

Next, I took the Large and Small Tag Punches and two stamps from other sets: the flower from Eastern Blooms and the For You from One of A Kind (minus the little flower on the end of it) stamped them first and then punched out the small tag.  I punched the large tag out ofRiding Hood Red card stock.  Again, I added some sponging to the tag to add some color.

Next, I took my 1 3/8" Circle Punch and my 1 1/4" Circle Punch and I punched out a little covering for the top of the glass on the cover of the candle.  I used the same flower from It's A Loop Thing and the same ink and sponge to add color.  I again used the Sticky Strip Adhesive to adhere the card stock to the glass.

When I was done, I cut a length of Whisper White Grosgrain Ribbon and tied the tag around the top of the candle, and PRESTO!  A perfect gift.  Makes a great hostess gift, teacher appreciation gift, co-worker gift, token gift for anyone, really.  It literally takes only about 15 minutes to create one and only a little over a dollar to finance such a gift.

These would make adorable shower favors also!  Everyone loves candles even if they don't light them, they make cute accents to any decor. 

I'm pretty much done showcasing my Hand Drawn Bundle and It's A Loop Thing stamp set.  I'm moving on to bigger and better:  SALE-A-BRATION!  We're in the thick of it now, and it's just so exciting!  Free products for everyone!!  I've already earned the ribbon bundle and the Designer Papers, as well as the Congrats stamp set.  I'll be incorporating them all into my All Occasion Card Class designs.  That class takes place THIS Friday night, so you'll start to see me posting the designs after the class is over. 

I also have an In Home Workshop on Sunday, with all new stampers, and will be showcasing SALE-A-BRATION projects for that as well.  So the next time I post, which will probably be early next week, there will be some great new projects featured.  I can't wait!

For now, it's off to prep the class projects!

Remember, only TWO spots left in the marker club, spots are filling up fast!!!  And, only one more month of Sale-A-Bration!  Spend $50 get a free SAB product from the catalog!!  View the catalog in the righthand sidebar on my blog!!

Project for Open House Revealed!

Who knew that the day that I planned my New Catalog Open House would coincide with the day that we got about 6" of snow by 11:00 am?  11:00 am being the start of my first time slot, that is!  I will say, I don't really get to watch very much TV, rarely any at all now that I have my second job.  So although I knew it was going to snow, at least I think I knew, I had no idea that when I woke up this morning there would be so *much* snow.  I was a little panicked to say the least.  My first phone call asking if I was going to cancel came at about 9:20 am, just after I said to Don, "I am surprised no one has called me yet." 

Despite the weather and the parking bans on our streets, I opted not to cancel.  I was hoping, praying, that the snow would stop relatively soon, and I knew that my next free weekend wasn't until April.  It was today or never.  Everything was cooked, cut, and set up, my dear husband was out there shoveling and snowblowing.  I went with it. 

We ended up having a great, great day.  My first session, by far the snowiest, had two missing people weather related, but also had an additional guest, so that was great, and she seemed to have a really good time.  I was glad she came.  My second session was full and my third session had two missing people, one weather related and one due to emergency surgery on Thursday.  She'd waited til today though, just in case her appendectomy healed quickly and she could make it.  That's the sign of a true crafter!!

Stampers are strong and brave, that's for sure!  I was so thankful that as many people were able to make it as did, and that it all worked out. 

I know you all have been waiting patiently to see the photos of the project!  I'll show a few and tell you a bit about it.

Here's the photo that best shows the whole project.  My husband had come home from school one day with a big box full of these little silver tins.  A parent from his school had closed a dental supply company and had tons and tons of these little tins that she used to use.  She'd asked him if the school could use them and he said that although he didn't think the school could really use them, he was pretty sure I could do something with them.  So I decided to use them for my make & take for the Open House.  I had already ordered the Level 3 Hand Drawn Hostess Bundle to use for whatever project I came up with, so I knew I had new Designer Series Paper from that bundle to work with and I knew I had SU 1/4" grosgrain ribbon in white an vanilla, so I was confident I could come up with a project using what I had. 

We now have a Circle Cutter!  I didn't have it for this project though, since it's not available to order until tomorrow.  So I used another container that was similar in size to my tins, to trace out all of the circles for the tops of the tins.  I also traced a smaller circle of card stock or DSP that could be used for the inside of the tins. 

My favorite part though is the Scallop Circle Punch flower that I put on the top of the tins.  I adapted a design I saw on this blog but added in the pearl on top from the Pretties Kit.  I had just enough of them for everyone to have one.  I'd already added the mini pearl to the front as well, so everything was falling into place perfectly.  To make the flower, you use your paper snips to cut the petals and our SU Stampin' Sponges to sponge some Old Olive around the edges.  A 3/4" circle punch makes the center of the flower under the pearl. 

Here is what my tin looks like on the inside, using an extra piece of DSP that I had when the event was over.

  If I had not had enough large half pearls in the Pretties Kit onhand for everyone's project, I could've also used the Rhinestone Brads, the square "Ice" variety.  They have a perfect shade of olive that would've matched and since they are also silver based, it would've looked so pretty with this project.  I also have the Filigree Flower Brads that would've looked nice but the set comes with two different sizes in it, so I didn't have enough for everyone to have the same one. 

One of my guests used the flip side of the DSP, which is white with olive flowers for her tin.  It looked so pretty!  She also used olive card stock for her Scallop Circle Flower with a vanilla 3/4" circle punch.  Her project was beautiful and I wish now that I'd taken a picture of it!

Of course, after my three sessions ended, I had my three daughters come up for their private session.  I let them pick their own DSP from my envelope of retired papers.  Here's how their tins came out:

   

I did not let them use the Pretties pearls since I did not have enough for all three of them.  They did, however, use the clear rhinestone brads that came in the Pretties Kit also.  They looked so pretty with the silver of the tins.  They were all proud of their projects and I was proud to be able to work with them on their tins after everyone left.  I like to be able to teach them and to let them take part in the projects whenever I can.

My original intent when my husband first brought the tins home was to make them Valentine's Candy tins.  I could tell from the catalog that the DSP came in Rose Red, so I went out and bought two bags of the Conversation Hearts.  What I failed to notice though, until the order came, is that the Rose Red DSP says "Happy Birthday" on it!  Caroline opted to use her tin for the Conversation Hearts anyway.

All in all, this was a wonderful day, despite our snowy start.  As I write this it's snowing yet again!  I think we're expecting another 2-4 inches between now and morning.  We'll have to see what happens this time!

Ordering from the new catalog begins at noon, MT tomorrow.  You'll be able to access it from my Demonstrator Business Website at that time.  It will take me a day or so to change over all of the documents in my sidebars of my blog, so please be patient.  Know though, that at all times you can access the products on the Demo. Bus. Website. 

Enjoy all of the wonderful new products!!