Simple Card Sunday...On a Monday!

As promised, here's the simple card for Simple Card Sunday this week! First, take a look at this...

Yep, those are Canada Geese. Literally hundreds of them that have taken up residence in the pond across the street from my house.

Honk, honk, honk...all day long that's what I hear. I love it! And, the kids think it's great too. My little Sawyer always puts his little hand by his ear and says "I hear dat. I hear geese.", so cute! We often go for walks by the pond to see the geese. We walk, Sawyer honks at them, we walk some more, and he's always sad when we have to say bye to the geese and go inside!

Hello geese, how are you today? Don't fly away yet geese!

Ok, so you're probably thinking why is she showing us geese pictures when we're here to see a simple card...right? Well, I get inspiration for cards from many places and this week it came from the color of the geese.

This picture inspired me...

And, this is my card.

The base is a half sheet of Naturals White cardstock. The main focal point of the card is three squares stamped with Sahara Sand and Basic Black ink and the Manhattan Flower stamp set. I just stamped the flowers on a scrap of cardstock and then punched them with the 1 1/4" square punch, then punched out some 1 3/8" Basic Black squares to mount them on. They are layered on a piece of Sahara Sand DSP (from the hostess pack), which was torn and then mounted on a strip of Basic Black cardstock. The finishing touch is the birthday greeting stamped in the lower right-hand corner with Basic Black Classic Ink. I used the Sincere Salutations set for the greeting.

The great and easily reproducible part of this card is the stamped squares. You could stamp a whole sheet of cardstock and then punch away to make as many cards as you need.

As always, all the supplies I used for this card are in bold and any of them can be ordered through my website or by emailing me (Canadians only).

Until next time my friends!

Unitl next time my friends!

Where in the World was Lisa?

Hello everyone! You're probably wondering why there hasn't been a post for a while! Let me explain. A while back we noticed that some of our tiles were cracking, some were loose and quite a bit of the grout was cracking, which was strange since we've only been in the house since April. So, when we had the 6 month walk through with our builder, we brought it to their attention. They brought in the flooring guys and they pulled up a few tiles to see what was going on. They determined that there was a problem with the sub floor and ALL the tile would have to come out for it to be fixed. What?!? That's right, ALL the tile. We have a LOT of tile...like almost the whole main floor is tile. So we got to go on a little mini vacation courtesy of our builder, while they tore a significant portion of our house apart and put it back together again!

Off we went to the Whitefish/Kalispell area. I can now say I've experienced my first Black Friday! Now, I'm not a huge shopper and didn't get up way early (I'm not a morning person either!) to fight the crowds, but I think we did pretty well, found some great deals and got almost all our Christmas shopping done...and we didn't have to pay too much at Customs when we crossed back into Canada!

The kids had a blast swimming at the hotel and we visited with our friends at their vacation home in Whitefish. All in all, it was a good weekend and it was nice to get away for a bit!

Because we didn't have a good wireless signal in the hotel, I wasn't able to post. So, there won't be a Scrapbook Saturday until the end of the week (on it's regularly scheduled day) and I will be back a little later with my Simple Card Sunday. I have a great card to show you...it even got a "wow" from my husband when I showed it to him!

I'll leave you with a couple pictures from driving home yesterday. I only wish I could have recorded the sounds when I hopped out of the van to take these pictures! It was so peaceful and the sound of the water in the river was so relaxing. It was gorgeous!

Until next time my friends!

The Eighth Week of Christmas-Ornaments!

For the Eighth Week of Christmas, I have ornaments for you! Both of the ornaments I made for you today use parts of the Pretties Kit. Take a look at the first one.

Isn't it pretty? I took a clear glass ball ornament and filled it with all the beads and pearls from my Pretties Kit. Now, I realize this wouldn't be feasible if you were making a lot of these ornaments, but how cool would it be to have your late grandmother's pearls inside an ornament that you could enjoy year after year. There's lots of other stuff you could put inside of these ornaments...how about dried rose petals (from the first flowers your boyfriend gave you, or from the day your fiancee proposed, or from your wedding bouquet, or from any other special occasion!)?

After filling the ornament with beads, I applied some of the Whisper White Icicle Rub Ons in the Holiday Mini Catalogue. There's a bit of a learning curve when applying rub ons to a round surface, but it wasn't too difficult.

The finishing touch was to tie a piece of Whisper White & Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon and also a piece of Gold Elastic Cord to the top of the ornament. I think it finished it off nicely!

Alright, here's the second ornament. This one uses the hat pins from the Pretties Kit. I don't know about you, but I always have the hat pins left in my Pretties Kit and am stumped with what to do with them. Well, here's an idea for you. It reminds me of those ribbon candies you get around Christmas time. I'm not a huge fan of those candies to eat, but I love the way they look.

I took about 24 inches of ribbon (I used the yummy Sleigh Bells ribbon from the Holiday Mini Catalogue...I will seriously mourn this ribbon being retired when the mini done in January!!!) and accordion folded it onto the hat pin. Then I put the little end thing back onto the sharp end of the hat pin. Safety first!

To finish it off, I tied a piece of the Old Olive ribbon from the Mistletoe Ribbon Originals in the holiday Mini (again...I will mourn when this ribbon retires!) just under the loop at the top of the hat pin.

I tied a piece of Silver Elastic Cord around the loop so it would hang on my little tree. If you use those little hook things to hang your ornaments on your tree, you could easily attach it to the loop and hang your ornament that way.

There you have it! Some cute ornament ideas for you to make for your own tree this year. As always, if you want to order any of the products I used to make these projects, please log onto my website and click on shop now to place your order. If you're not keen on online ordering you can always contact me and I can place that order for you.

Until next time my friends.

Yowza!

WOW! The Holiday Extravaganza is back and I'm thrilled with the kits and bundles that are on sale. Click HERE to see everything that's on sale. Remember, this sale only runs until November 30. The best part is you can order online in your PJs and have it shipped directly to you...just remember to select me as your demonstrator in the online store so you can receive preferred pricing! If you would rather call or email me to place your order you can do that to (even in your PJs if you want!).

And, while you're at it, why not check out the Gift Giving Guide. Get a gift for someone and you'll receive some FREE Decor Elements. Click HERE to learn more!

Until next time my friends!

Lisa

Mantle Message-Happy Holidays

Here's the next installment of the Mantle Messages class. I'm offering this class on November 30 for anyone interested. Please click the "Upcoming Classes & Events" button in the left column and you will see more information for this class on my calendar.

On to the project...

You'll see that I did this one differently from the BOO one before! This one looks like a bunch of tags joined together. I kept it simple so that the emphasis would be on the 3D ornaments and the shimmer all over the background. Here's some more pictures.

If you are interested in taking this class, please contact me to reserve your spot. Hope to see you on the 30th!

Until next time my friends.

Simple Card Sunday-Elegant Snowflakes

Hello! It's hard to believe that a week has gone by and it's time for Simple Card Sunday again. I have a great card for you today.

I love using purple and silver for snowflakes! The base of this card is Elegant Eggplant, stamped with snowflakes from the Serene Snowflakes set with Elegant Eggplant ink. I didn't stamp the whole card, but decided to leave about an inch and a half along that bottom unstamped. I took a scrap of Elegant Eggplant cardstock and applied one of the snowflake strip rub ons from the set in the mini. I used the silver ones. That strip is mounted on a piece of Almost Amethyst and a piece of Silver Elastic Cord is tied around it. Along the bottom of the strip I put three silver brads. And, along the top of the strip I stamped "Merry Christmas" from the Christmas Greeting set. I've gotta say, I'm in love...with Shimmer Paint! I used the Platinum Shimmer Paint to stamp the Merry Christmas. I simply sponged some of the Shimmer Paint onto the stamp with a sponge dauber and stamped it. Some benefits of the Shimmer Paint are that it dries quickly and doesn't smudge like the Encore ink does. And, while you don't get a raised image like you would if you embossed, you don't need to pull out as many tools and stuff to use Shimmer Paint than you would if you embossed...which means less clean up! Who doesn't love less clean up when you're finished a project?

There you have it! Another simple and easy to re-create! As always, if you would like to order any of the supplies I used to create this project, you can log onto my website or email me (sorry, Canadians only!).

Until next time my friends!

Stampin' Kids

This afternoon I had my November Stampin' Kids class. I *love* doing Stampin' Kids classes. The kids are sooo much fun to work with and it's so different than doing adult classes. I had 6 kids and their parents, or another important adult with them, today. Here's a peek at them working so hard on their cards...


Cute, eh? They showed me their big muscles when they punched things, they got inky fingers, carefully poked holes to attach brads, sponged, tore paper, experienced rub-ons and had a great time! I even have a "Official Stamp Cleaner"! You can see her behind my watermark in the above picture. She's a super fast stamper so it was awesome that she helped me out when she was done her cards...thanks Kara! Each of them made 3 Christmas cards this afternoon. Here are the cards they made.



Sweet, simple and I think the kids really enjoyed themselves! In fact, I think a few of them will have a hard time giving their cards away. Hmmm, I have some adult customers with the same problem!!!

I do a Stampin' Kids class every month on a Saturday afternoon. December is traditionally a busy month, so I don't have one scheduled for December, but I do have one scheduled for January 23. In January I will be making Valentine's with the kids! Fun! If you would like more information on my Stampin' Kids class, please follow the "Upcoming Classes & Events" link in the column to the left...it will take you to my calendar of events on my website. If you would like to sign your kid(s) up for a Stampin' Kids class, please contact me!


Until next time my friends.

Scrapbook Saturday

It's Saturday, which means I'm going to share some scrapbooking with you! I hope to share a scrapbook project of some sort every Saturday with you. Actually, I have an alterior motive with starting Scrapbook Saturday...I need to get more scrapbooking done, and if I have a scheduled time to share some scrapbooking it will force me to get at least one spread done each week!


So, without further adieu, here's the first Scrapbook Saturday layout!






































I love this layout for so many reasons! The colors, Old Olive, Night of Navy and Creamy Caramel are a great combination. Now, I've mentioned before that I hate spiders...well, I'm not really a fan of caterpillars either! Especially the ones my son was playing with in these pictures...you know, the ones that drop from trees. Ewwww! It gives me the shivers just thinking about it! I've always said that I was given three boys for a reason...maybe that reason was so that I would learn to tolerate bugs! Ok, lets ge back to the scrapbook page! I'm not a fan of caterpillars, but I love the cute little ones on this page from the Bugs & Kisses set.


I used the caterpillars from the Bugs & Kisses set is a few different ways on this layout. First, I stamped them with Creamy Caramel Craft ink on the Night of Navy cardstock around one of the pictures. I used the Craft ink so that the lighter Creamy Caramel ink would show up on the darker Night of Navy cardstock.


I also used the caterpillars as tag shaped accents. To do this, I stamped them in the three colors of the layout (Old Olive, Night of Navy and Creamy Caramel) on Naturals White cardstock, then I punched them with the Small Tag Punch, turning the punch so that it would look like they were crawling around. I matted the punched caterpillars with tags punched with the Tag Punch (also in the three colors of the layout). I put these tag accents in three places on the layout.


Finally, I *heart* the title..."Curious About Caterpillars" and the way I did the letters. They are cut from Creamy Caramel cardstock with the Big Shot and two different alphabet dies (SU Billboard Alphabet and SU Timeless Type Alphabet). To add a little dimension to the letters, I cut them out and randomly pounced a sponge, inked with Close to Cocoa, all over them. It makes them look a little dirty and boyish. Ca-ute!


There you have it! My first Scrapbook Saturday layout. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Are you excited to see more scrapbook layouts over the weeks to come? As always, if you would like to order any of the products used in this layout please lot onto my website and click shop now to place your order (sorry, Canadians only!).


Until next time my friends!

The Seventh Week of Christmas-Dasher is Dancing

It's time for the Seventh Week of Christmas project! I *love* this card! I'm calling it "Dasher is Dancing". Have a look and then I'll explain some of the things I did to create this card.

The Sleigh Bells Ribbon in the Holiday Mini Catalogue makes me feel all warm inside! I love the colors, the texture and the way it looks on a project! I chose the colors from the ribbon and used Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Real Red & Old Olive. These colors together speak to me for some reason!

I added some fun details to this card. First, I took a strip of Kraft and ran it through the Big Shot with the Finial Press Embossing Folder. Then, to hilight the texture a little more, I rubbed some Chocolate Chip ink over it with a Stampin' Sponge. WOW! I love that I can get such great texture so easily with the Big Shot!

A little piece of the Sleigh Bells Ribbon is a great way to pull all the colors of the card together. I took a scrap of it from my ribbon scrap jar and folded it in half. It's attached to the Dasher piece with SNAIL and then the Dasher piece is attached to the front of the card with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Let's have a closer look at Dasher now. I stamped him with Chocolate Chip Craft ink and then embossed him with Clear Embossing Powder. Ooooh eeee, he shines in real life!

Now I have a little tip for you! You may have noticed that I put three brads in the bottom right hand corner of the card. I used my Mat Pack and Paper Pirecer template to make the holes for the brads. The brads themselves are from the Vintage Brads pack. The brads only go through the Chocolate Chip layer so they don't show on the inside of the card. I also hammered the brads! Yes, that's right I hammered them! I did this so that they would be a bit flatter and it also made the Chcocolate Chip layer easier to stick down to the card.

There you go! I hope you enjoyed my project for the Seventh Week of Christmas. As always, if you want to order any of the products I used to make this project, you can log onto my website and click "shop now" (sorry, Canadians only!).

Until next time my friends.

A New Look

Good morning! Late last night, after my Stamper 10 group left, I needed to unwind a bit before bed so I decided to monkey around with my blog! I found, what I think is, a great background and then had to make a new header and signature thingy to match in My Digital Studio!


Side note...Stampin' Up! released some new My Digital Studio Digital Downloads this morning. They're awesome...go to my website and click on shop now to check them out in the online store! If you have another Digital Papercrafting program already, the Stampin' Up! digital downloads will work with your program and if you don't have any Digital Papercrafting program yet, you need My Digital Studio!!! If you want more information on My Digital Studio, you'll definitely want to register for my My Digital Studio Informaiton class. It's free and is scheduled for December 7 (more info on my webiste under Events!). You may also notice that I have a new little picture on the side column of the blog! That's right, I'm certified...My Digital Studio Certified, that is! That means that I have completed some special My Digital Studio training and I'm ready to teach you all about it and help you figure out how to use the product! Yahoo!


Sorry, I kind of got a little side tracked there! Back to what I was originally going to say...There's actually a bit of a funny story behind my new blog look. I'm totally a "no Christmas decorating until December 1st" kind of girl! But, I think me being at craft sales and talking Christmas to people and hearing Christmas music the past week has put me in a bit of the Christmas spirit. Now, don't get me wrong...we won't be setting up our tree quite yet (in fact, I still have my BOO and Jack-O-Lantern faces up!), but I thought I might as well give my blog a Christmasy make over. I found a couple Christmasy backgrounds that I liked and asked my husband for his opinion. I think he about fell out off the sofa! Not becuase I asked for his opinion, but becuase I was putting Christmas stuff on the blog! Ha, ha, ha...and he thinks he knows me soooo well after all these years!!!


Anyway, what do you think of the new look? Leave me a comment and let me know. And while you're here, check out the new poll on the left column.


I'll be back a little later today with the next installment of the Weeks of Christmas projects and I also have the latest Mantle Messages project to show you. Talk to you soon!

The Tooth Fairy

This story is just too cute not to share. My 7-year old has lot quite a few teeth in the last few months. Sometimes the tooth fairy is really busy and doesn't come the night he leaves his tooth under his pillow, but he's very understanding about her being really busy collecting all those teeth!

Anyway, I guess the tooth fairy is a hot topic in his class because when he lost his last tooth a couple weeks ago, he announced that he was going to try and see if the tooth fairy actually comes. A small amount of panic set in as he was telling me this. So, he goes on to say that one of his friends left his tooth in a glass of water in the hopes that the tooth fairy would leave behind fairy dust, which would be proof that there actually is a tooth fairy. Guess what...she left green fairy dust! Then he says that a girl in his class did the same thing and there was pink fairy dust and another kid got gold fairy dust. His plan was to leave his tooth in a glass of water and see what color fairy dust she left at our house.

So, I asked if he was scared that the Tooth Fairy would drown while trying to get his tooth out and he said no, he wouldn't only leave a little water, and he was quite sure she could swim! Then I asked if the fairy dust was glittery and he said yes. So, knowing that the Tooth Fairy has access to every color of glitter in the Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalogue (*wink*), I asked what color he hoped she would leave and he said blue. Well, I thought the Tooth Fairy could totally leave behind some blue fairy dust!

That night the tooth fairy came and guess what...she left blue fairy dust! The next morning he was soooooo excited. It was hilarious! He came thundering up the stairs in the morning with the cup (he only spilled "a little water on the way up the stairs") and his money! When I came down for breakfast, he was sitting at the table with the hugest grin on his face, pleased as punch that he had fairy dust. It all came crashing down when I told him that he could not take the cup of water with fairy dust to school. His friends would just have to believe his story when he told it.

I wonder if the teachers talk about this sort of stuff in the staff room and get a huge chuckle out of hearing the interesting things the "tooth fairy" is doing!

Until next time my friends.

The Sixth Week of Christmas

Hello friends! I have a VERY simple and quick idea for you for the sixth week of Christmas.



I have two of these little trees and I try to decorate them differently every year. This year I made Real Red, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip tags to decorate one of them. I used the Merry
& Bright Rub-Ons, Ornament Punch, Gold & Silver Elastic COrd (which all can be found in the Holiday Mini Catalogue) as well as the Tag Corner Punch, 1 3/4 Circle Punch and the 1/16 handheld punch. To add a little something to the top of the tree, I tied a piece of Real Red Polka Dot ribbon in a bow...you all know how much I'm loving that ribbon right now! Here's a closer view...

I used both the white and silver rub ons from the package. I love how quick this project went together and I love that I can easily use the tags on gifts and cards and even on a scrapbook page!


If you want a closer look at this or any of the "Weeks of Christmas" projects so far, come visit me at the Showcase of Women in Business on Tuesday evening from 5-9. I have all the projects and more as part of my display!


As always, if you want to order any of the products I've used to make my project, follow the link on the left column to my Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Website (sorry, Canadians only!).


Until next time!

Simple Card Sunday

Hard to believe it's been a week since my last post, and what a busy week it's been! Today's simple card was one of my Stamp-A-Stack cards from the beginning of the month. I think it's gorgeous with the flocked paper from Stampin' Up!, but I'm a bit biased! :)

This is a 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" card. The base is Real Red and there's a 4x4 layer of Whisper White on it. The fancy paper is from the Christmas Cocoa DSP in the Holiday Mini Catalogue and it's one of the flocked designs (you honestly can't help but touch it!). The DSP was punched with the Eyelet Border Punch and then a piece of the Mistletoe Ribbon Originals was tied around it. To finish it off I stamped Merry Christmas from the Christmas Greeting set (I *heart* that set!) with Real Red classic ink. And, there you have it! A simple but gorgeous card that can easily be reproduced in large numbers.

If you're interested in ordering any of the products I used to create this card, please follow the link on the left column to get to my Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Website (sorry Canadians only!).

Until next time my friends!

Simple Card Sunday

Hello! Today is my very first Simple Card Sunday! I plan to share a simple and easy to recreate card every Sunday with you. Today I have a beautiful Christmas card for you.

The base of my card is one of the Note Cards with Envelopes that you can find in the Idea Book & Catalogue. These are great becuase they come precut and prescored in a pack of 20 and include envelopes. I use these little Note Cards often for quick and easy cards.

To start, I stamped Dasher with VersaMark ink on a piece of Whisper White cardstock and embossed him with Gold Glory Stampin' Emboss powder. I then mounted it on a piece of Brushed Gold cardstock. To finish Dasher off, I tied some Gold Cord around it and stuck it on the front of the card with Stampin' Dimensionals. The greeting is from the cute little Christmas Greeting set. It is also stamped with VersaMark ink and embossed with Gold Glory Stampin' Emboss Powder.

If you're short on time and want to send out some handmade cards this Christmas, this may be the card for you! It's quick, easy and pretty!

Until next time my friends!

The Fifth Week of Christmas-Ginger Kids!

Hello! For the Fifth Week of Christmas, I have a Gingerkids Kit project to share with you!

I used the Box #2 die and some Thick Window Sheets to creat the box for this project. Then I wrapped a strip of Merry Moments DSP around the body of the box. It doesn't quite reach around the box, which is why the little saying is where it is! But, before I put the saying on, I tied a piece of the Old Olive ribbon from the Mistletoe Ribbon Originals set (Holiday Mini) around the box. The greeting is from the Sweet Season set and I colored it with Old Olive and Soft Suede Stampin' Write Markers. It was stamped on Whisper White cardstock and mounted on Real Red cardstock.

I cut the two little flaps off the top of the box and didn't fold down the top so the box had a bit of a taller back. To line the back of the box, I cut a piece of a coordinating pattern from Merry Moments to fit the back of the box. It's attached with a piece of Sticky Strip which is hidden by the strip going around the box so you don't see any adhesive!

Inside the box, I put a Small Cello Bag with 5 Ginger Kids and tied it with a piece of the Whisper White with Real Red stitching from the Mistletoe Ribbon Originals. I also put a tube of Icing (I totally meant to get white, but I guess I picked up red...oops!) and a tube of silver cake decorating balls. You could add any type of fun Christmas cake & cookie decorations that you can find in the stores right now. To finish it off, I cut small strips of Whisper White cardstock and ran them through my Crimper to make my own paper shreds.

Pretty cute if I do say so myself and I can totally think of more than a few kids who would love to get a little kit like this to decorate their own Ginger Kids!

Until next time my friends!