'Tis the Season....

 For Christmas card makin'!  I made a few hand stamped cards this year, but the majority of my Christmas cards sent out were digital.

We had an awesome picture of our hands taken at our family pic photo shoot this fall just for a Christmas card!  Our fantastic photographer, Stacy at Another Shot Photography, found a pose like this online somewhere and showed it to me and the wheels started turning!  Now, I'm not going to lie...this pose was the hardest one we did that day!  It looks simple, but it was really uncomfortable as we stood in a funny way to hide everything but our hands (picture bums sticking out, arms in the air, heads down and all 5 of us squished together to get close enough)!  I'm really pleased with the outcome though and I love how it looks on my card.

I've included the supply list for this card below if you want to re-create something like it.

Background
     Card Stock\Cherry Cobbler

Embellishments
    Grosgrain Ribbon\Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon
    Grosgrain Ribbon - knot\Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon - knot

Stamps
    Vintage Overlays\Vintage Overlays - texture 2, Color = VERY VANILLA 254,249,232
    Season of Cheer\Season of Cheer - snowflake 1, Color = VERY VANILLA 254,249,232
    Jolly Bingo Bits\Jolly Bingo Bits - star, Color = MORE MUSTARD 212,161,80
    Season of Cheer\Season of Cheer - snowflake, Color = VERY VANILLA 254,249,232
    Season of Cheer\Season of Cheer - snowflake 2 , Color = VERY VANILLA 254,249,232
    Sweet Shoppe Alphabet Lower\Sweet Shoppe Alpha Lower - j, Color = VERY VANILLA 254,249,232
    Sweet Shoppe Alphabet Lower\Sweet Shoppe Alpha Lower - o, Color = VERY VANILLA 254,249,232
    Sweet Shoppe Alphabet Lower\Sweet Shoppe Alpha Lower - y, Color = VERY VANILLA 254,249,232
    Season of Cheer\Season of Cheer - snowflake 1, Color = WHISPER WHITE 255,255,255
    Season of Cheer\Season of Cheer - snowflake, Color = VERY VANILLA 254,249,232
    Wishes & Greetings\Wishes & Greetings - verse 1, Color = BASIC BLACK 19,27,29

Punches
    Basics\1.25 Square Punch, Fill Color = OLD OLIVE 138,151,71

For all my digital creators out there, did you know Stampin' Up! has a digital challenge every week?  If you enter a digital project and it's chosen as a winner, you get to choose one download for free!  This time, the challenge is to create a sample using this color combination: Old Olive, More Mustard, Cherry Cobbler, Pool Party, and Soft Suede. It can be any project type, and you need to upload it to www.mydigitalstudio.net and tag it with "Color Combo 2" before Friday, December 28, at noon (MT).

And, last but not least, here are the new digital downloads today! 

Have an inspired day!

 

 

Happy Frog

Happy Monday!  I hope you're having a GREAT day today!

One of my favorite images in the RMHC set, Moving Forward, is the little frog.  He is just so CUTE!  And, perfect for all kinds of cards, especially birthday cards.

For this card, I used the same layout as this Christmas card.  For my frog card, the main image is colored with shades of green and brown markers.  I stamped frogs all over some Certainly Celery and Wild Wasabi cardstock and then punched some squares to put along the bottom of the card.  It's finished off with some layered ribbon and a fun little frog jumping off the happy birthday!

Have an inspired day!

Embossing Crazy

I LOVE my Big Shot and Embossing Folders.  It's such an easy way to create some texture and visual interest on your projects.  When I was designingRMHC cards for our event, I was stuck on one image...the Blimp!  And, so, I decided to start with a color scheme and add some fun texture to the background.  This is what I came up with.....

I used a bright and fun color scheme and 3 of my favorite embossing folders...Fancy Fan (looks like clouds so it's perfect for a blimp card!), Stripes and my all time fav the Chevron folder!  I added some layered ribbon, which was stamped on...YES, you can stamp on ribbon...and then the main image.

I would say, the 2 1/2" Circle Punch is a MUST with this stamp set!  All three of the larger images in the set fit perfectly in a 2 1/2" Circle! 

That's all for today!  Have an inspired day!

Smile!

Today I have another RMHC card from the World Card Day event I held back in September.  I love this one...yellow and gray are so chic right now. 

This is another card that I CASE'd from a display board at a demonstrator event.  The colors just make me smile when I look at this card...so happy and cheery!

Quick and simple!  That's all for today, so have an inspired day!

Easy Peasy

I have some super easy cards to share with you today.

Have you seen the tags in the Holiday Catalog?  There's so much fun stuff in that catalog, that they're easy to miss.  But they're right there...page 12..Snow Festival Designer Printed Tags.  Seriously, these babies are going to make your life (and the Christmas season) SOOOOO easy!  You get 25 tags in the package and they're only $4.95!  That's like 20 cents per tag!!!  If you don't have a Holiday Catalog, you can see them in my online store.  Either way, you NEED to check them out.  They will change your life!

Now, you may be thinking, "Lisa, how can some silly little tags change my life?"  Well, let me enlighten you.  Imagine you rushing to get Christmas Cards done, presents wrapped with tags so you know whose is whose, and other little finishing touches ready for your holidays.  It's crazy and stressful.  And, I have the perfect product to make it less stressful.  Let's start with cards...

All you need is a package of tags, a package of Notecards with Envelopes, ink (I recommend Gumball Green or Cherry Cobbler), Stampin' Dimensionals and a stamp set (I recommend Greetings of the Season).  Put all that together and you get 20 super simple cards ready for the holidays!  And, you will still have 5 tags left over for another project...which I will show you later this week!

So, there you have it.  Easy peasy!  So, what are you waiting for, go and order what you need TODAY so you can get your cards done in time and be sure to check back later this week to see what else you can make with these fantastic tags.

Have an inspired day!

Come Sail Away with Me!

I think boats are perfect for using on boy and baby cards.  The boat in the Moving Forward set is absolutely perfect for these kinds of cards so we did 2 at our World Card Day event in September!

This is another of the display board ones that I changed a bit.  I love the curvy little banner!  In my head it makes the card feel like the boat is floating in waves!

Short and sweet today!  Have an inspired day!

Birds & Flowers

How's your Monday going so far?  I am going to show you something fun that will make you smile this Monday morning...another RMHC card!  This one is bright and cheery and has some fun bling.  Have a look.....

This is another one of the cards that I CASED from a display board.  I just changed up the colors to use Primrose Petals!  Wondering where that DSP is from?  You can find it in the Patio Party pack.  I have a hard time with that pack of DSP...something about those designs just gives me a hard time!

Have an inspired day!

Dear Friend

I am so thankful for Stampin' Up! because through SU, I have met some of my dearest friends.  I made this card based on one I saw on a display board, featuring the RMHC set Moving Forward, at a demonstrator event.  When I  was making my version of the card, I decided to go a little vintagy with my colors...Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake & Very Vanilla.  Check it out...

Of course, to add to the vintagey feel I added some pearls to the centers of my punched flowers.  I also love how the DSP fits right in with the feel of the card.  It's from the Comfort Cafe DSP, which to me doesn't say vintage, but here it works!  My favorite thing about this card is that whenever I look at it, I think of my dear friend (you know who you are!).

Have an inspired day!

Parade of Ornaments-Day 2

Well, after a few attempts of filming my video without kids screaming and fighting in the background, I gave up yesterday and decided to give it a go today.  And, you will be happy to know I was successful!

Today I'm going to show you how to make the inner decorative piece for the paperbag ornament I showed last week and also show you another way to use this technique.

Here is the ornament for this week.

You can see a brown one and a green one hanging on my little tree!  They are so super easy and in the video I tell you some different ways to use this particular ornament.  Without further adieu, here is the video!

That's it for today!  Have an inspired day!

Happy BOO to you!

Well, today I was supposed to post the second of my Parade of Ornaments along with another video, but it just seemed weird to be posting a Christmas ornament on Halloween!  So, I have decided to show you one last Halloween project (that you could have finished for tonight if you wanted!) and the ornament and video will post tomorrow.

Yesterday after school, Carter and I made 120 pretzel pumpkins.  They were super easy, loads of fun and only took us about 40 minutes start to finish!  I dipped and he did the stems...

All you need is little pretzels, orange candy melts and green M&Ms.  I melted my candy melts in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water.  Once they were all melted, I dipped the pretzels in and then put them on waxed paper lined cookie sheets and before they hardened, Carter put a green M&M on them so they would have a stem.  Once they hardened, and we tasted for quality control, I packaged a lot of them up in some of the Medium Cello bags tied with a ribbon and a cute tag.

The tags are super simple.  I used the Spooky Bingo bits and stamped a bit before punching with the Tag Punch.  The bags are tied shut (and the tags are attached) with some of the narrow Taffeta ribbon in either Pumpkin Pie or Old Olive.  Super cute and super easy...I hope the kids enjoy them!

I also did up some little treat bags for some super special little ones.  Again, a VERY easy project...I just stamped some small white paper bags.

So, if you're looking for some simple last minute Halloween projects, I hope you've been inspired.  Happy BOO to you and have an inspired day!

A Digital Celebration!

It's a week long digital celebration and I have so many things to share with you about the celebration!

First of all, for this week, you can find some FREE digital downloads and all digital kits are 50% off.  You can find the free downloads and purchase any of the digital kits in my online store.  Here's a little sample of one of the free downloads.  It's called the "A Split Second Designer Template" which means the awesome designers at Stampin' Up! have created a page template for you and all you have to do is plop your pictures on it!  Seriously, it took me about 5 minutes to finish this page!  I did make a few changes to the original design...I lessened the opacity of the chevron pattern on the first page and I moved the embellishments over on the second page so that the picture fit better. 

Make sure you go get your free downloads and order some half price kits too before the end of the week!

And, it's Tuesday which means there's new digital downloads!  You can find all the recent downloads here. 

A few last reminders about digital stuff.  The last day to order your digital products to ensure you get them before Christmas is December 3.  However, I would strongly suggest that you don't wait that long if you are having to mail your projects out to family and friends.  I would suggest that you get them in by the middle of November!

And, finally, remember that recently Stampin' Up! lowered the prices of many of our print products...some by 50%!  I have included links to the pricing and specification sheets below for you.

Print Pricing
Bulk Pricing

I think that's all for today!  Happy creating and have an inspired day!

Flying Machine

Happy Monday!  I have another RMHC card to share with you today.  This card uses the flying machine or blimp image in the Moving Forward set.  I struggled with using this image so I turned to the web for some inspiration and came across a card by Lori Mueller that I fell in love with...so I CASED it!  CASE stands for Copy And Share Everything and it's one of the best parts about being a demonstrator...when I'm stuck, I know there's loads of cards out there by other demonstrators that I can use to spark my creativity!

I pretty much copied Lori's card exactly, except for using a different embossing folder on my Riding Hood Red piece!

One of my favorite parts of this card is the clouds!  They are whisper white cardstock which was embossed with the Fancy Fan embossing folder and then punched out with the cupcake punch.  The tops of cupcakes make perfect clouds!

Have an inspired day!

It's So Sparkly, I Could Die!!!!!

In my head I'm saying my title like the little girl on Despicable Me when she gets the fluffy unicorn at the fair!!!  So, you need to read it with that voice too...it's funnier that way!!!!  And, if you have never seen Despicable Me...you need to!!

Now that we've got that out of the way lets continue with the post.  Today I'm going to start out with a story...about my childhood.  I have fond memories of decorating the Christmas tree each year when I was a kid.  It was always so fun to open the boxes and remember where we got or made each of the ornaments.  Some of the ones we made as preschool aged kids got a lot of laughs as we got older!!!!  My brother and I each had some special ornaments that only we could hang...and now I'm experiencing that with my own kids!  When I saw the long ovalish ornament in the Ornament Keepsakes set, it quickly reminded me of a particular set of ornaments we had (and my parents still have...well, most of the set!).  The ornaments are long and skinny just like the one in the stamp set and they have diagonal glitter stripes on them (my description isn't doing it justice...sorry!).  When I saw that ornament, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

After stamping the ornament I used my 2-Way Glue pen on the solid parts of the ornament and then dumped glitter on it!  Anyone who knows me well, knows I don't do glitter very often especially in this amount or at workshops.  Truth be told, glitter and it's ability to stick to EVERY surface scares me!  Inevitably when the glitter comes out I sparkle from head to toe, my office looks like Las Vegas threw up in it, and my dogs end up with glittered noses.  But I did it...I braved the glitter mess and used it on this card...at a workshop...and everyone loved it!!!!!  Hard to photograph all that sparkle and shine, but trust me, you almost need sunglasses to look at this card!!!!!

Did you notice the stamping along the side of the card?  It's also done with an image from the Ornament Keepsakes set which I just stamped (with the help of my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig) down the side of the card.  Even with clear mount stamps, the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig helps when you're stamping multiple images and want them perfectly lined up.

A little paper piercing, a ribbon knot and a sweet "merry" finish off this card nicely.   Here are a couple close-up shots for you.

It's a fairly simple card, but it packs a lot of punch with all that glitter!  And, I love the non-traditional colors of it...Island Indigo, Pool Party and Whisper White.

Have an inspired day!

Parade of Ornaments-Day 1

Hi everyone!  I've been busy creating ornaments the last little while and I'm thrilled to start sharing them with you!  I will be posting one ornament a week for the next few weeks.  And, here's the best part...each ornament will have a VIDEO with it for you!!!!  Can I hear a cheer for fun how-to videos?!?!?!?!

Ok, on to today's ornament!  I learned how to do these last June and have had it filed away in my brain since then knowing that I would share closer to Christmas!  My Stamp Clubs made these this month and lets just say they were thrilled!

Sadly this is the only picture I have of it right now!  Sherri and I do have some on our Christmas display for craft fairs, so please stop by and see us at the Diva Show this Friday (Fritz Sick Center, 5-9pm, free admission)...it looks way better on our display!  And, when I'm done the ornament series, I will take some pictures and show you where I've put all the ornaments I've made (right now it's way to early to decorate for Christmas though!).

You're probably thinking it looks complicated and time consuming, right?  Let me reassure you, it's not!  The instruction video is 5 and a half minutes long and in that time I show you how to do it start to finish...to make the basic ornament it will take you about 10-15 minutes.  It's the super fun embellishment in the middle that will take some time to assemble!  Here's a close up of the center embellishments.

I used the Ornament Framelits for this...SO FUN!!!  I will have video next week explaining how I did those...so check back next week for that.  And, now, the video!  Enjoy!

So what did you think?  You can make these, they are so easy...go forth and get some paper bags and start creating people!!!  My paper bags were purchased from Creative Packaging.  I have also seen them at my local craft store in a rainbow of colors and you could use plain old lunch bags that you can get at the grocery store.  Remember, the bigger your bag, the bigger your ornament.

Don't forget to take advantage of the fantastic bundle this month with the Ornament Keepsakes set, Framelits and Candlelight Christmas DSP.  Who wouldn't want the free paper piercing set????  More info is on the Specials Page and you can order from the online store to make it nice and easy for you!  And, I have a stamp club as well as a scrapbook club starting in November.  If you would like a fun crafting night out and make super projects like this one, please contact me for more information!

Have an inspired day!

Happy Birthday

Whose birthday you say?  I don't know!  But, if it's yours, let me be the first to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!  Today, I have another RMHC card to share with you and, it's a super simple birthday card.  Check it out!

A few strips of DSP (Summer Smooches), some punching, a sentiment, a cute little button and VOILA...a super simple birthday card.

And, just for fun, here's a version with the Candlelight Christmas DSP!

Remember, the DSP is part of the bundles on special this month and if you purchase one of the bundles you qualify to attend a special class on November 17 for only $5!  Check out all the details on the bundle on my Specials page and the class on my Events page!

Have an inspired day!

Super Simple

Happy Monday!  It's the start of a new week and I have some inspiration for you...another RMHC card and this one is super simple!

I saw a card similar to this on Pinterest and loved the simplicity of it, so I re-created it using the Twitterpated DSP and the Moving Forward set.  In fact, I love this card layout so much, that I also did a Christmas version using the Candlelight Christmas DSP and Ornament Keepsakes stamps and framelits (which are part of the bundle on special this month!). 

Check out all the details on the Bundle on the Specials Page (link at the top) and remember if you purchase one of the bundles, you qualify to come to a fun class on November 17 for only $5! You can find all the information on the class on my Events page (link at top).

Have an inspired day!

Fall Yummies

Peanut Butter and Chocolate...the perfect combination, right?  So, it's only natural that the best candy is Reece's Pieces!  And, it just so happens, that Reece's Pieces are the perfect colors for use in fall projects!

I'm not sure how half my Reece's Pieces went missing!!!!

This little gem was one of the projects my Stamp Clubs did in September.  I found the little jars at my local craft store (a loooooong time ago) in the wedding section.  They are PERFECT for all kinds of projects.  We filled our jars with Reece's Pieces and then did a little decorating...a fun tag tied on with some Early Espresso stitched ribbon.

Lots of new Big Shot stuff was used for the tag...Wood Grain Embossing Folder, Window Frame Framelits, Autumn Accents Bigz die (all from the Holiday catalog) and my old friend the Square Lattice Embossing Folder!

Now, we made ours with a to/from tag, but you could easily do this as a table marker and put names on the tags.  They would look super cute on a Thanksgiving table (for my American friends who haven't had their turkey day yet!), or any fall gathering with family and/or friends!

If you are interested in making fun projects like this and having a night out each month to craft, consider joining one of my stamp clubs!  My clubs are now flexible and you can choose to come on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday on the third week of the month.  I have both a Scrapbook and a Stamp club starting in November.  If you have any questions, please contact me and ask away!  I would love to have you and your friends join one of my clubs.

Have an inspired day!

Spider Cider!

When I first saw the Monster Munchies set in the Holiday Mini, I fell in love with it!  And, for some reason I really love the spider cider stamp in the set!  It's weird, because you all know I'm definitely  not a fan of spiders...at all!!!

I think I like that stamp so much because I love Apple Cider  The brand that I buy at Costco come in  single serving packets that you mix with boiling water and those little packets are PERFECT for crafting (and drinking!)!!!!!

So, check out the Spider Cider project my Stamp Clubs did in September.

It's like a card, but with a surprise in side...a pack of Apple Cider mix!  The outside is stamped with the the spider web image from the Mixed Medley exclusive Hostess set in the Holiday Catalog.  A belly band was made with some cardstock, Howlstooth & Scarringbone DSP and some More Mustard ribbon!  To get the dual color image, I colored my stamp with markers before stamping and to finish it all off, I added some of the super fun Googlies!

A cute and simple Halloween project that you could mass produce for Halloween treats for kids class friends or your co-workers.

Have an inspired day!

Happy Thanksgiving

ETA:  I'm not sure what happened with this post!  It was supposed to post on Monday, and for some reason it didn't...I probably didn't set the date right when I set it up!

Happy Thanksgiving!  How has your long weekend gone?  Mine has been great!  We travelled to see my family and had loads of fun!  We met our new niece (she's all squishy and smells so good!) who is 3 weeks old, made caramel apples with the boys, ate waaaay too much good food, and just had a good visit.  It was nice, but not long enough!

Since it's Monday, I have another RMHC card to share with you using the RMHC set, Moving Forward.

Fun card, eh?  It's a pretty simple card!  I just used a lot of circles and a little embossing with my trusty big shot.  And, to finish it off, I put some of the super fun Googlies on the frog!  I'm loving these Googlies...25 pairs of self-adhesive googlie eyes, what could be more fun than that?!?!?!?!

I have to admit, I wasn't too fond of the Moving Forward set when I first saw it, but after playing with it (a lot, for World Card Day!), I'm really a fan of it!  And, you can't go wrong with purchasing a set for charity!  Stampin' Up! donates $3 from the sale of each set to RMHC!  Check back next Monday for another Moving Forward card.

Have an inspired day!

MDS Time

Happy Tuesday everyone!  I've been working on a few different MDS projects, but I'm not ready to share them yet...I do have some fabulous and exciting news from Stampin' Up! to share with you today!

First of all, Stampin' Up! has lowered their print prices for digital albums, pages, cards, tags, calendars...you get the idea!  Some of the prices have been cut by 50% and they say these prices have been lowered permanently!  Isn't that exciting?

You can find the new pricing here.

If that wasn't enough, they've also finished and released 4 more of the new features of MDS2!!!!  Cropping punches, tearing paper, importing from other projects and multiple page view options...be still my heart!!!!  If you have MDS2, make sure you do an update so you can use these fun new features!  When you open your program it should prompt you about a new update, but if it doesn't, just click on Help/Check for Updates.

Of course since it's Tuesday, there's new digital downloads available.  You can find them here.

That's it for now!  Have an inspired day!

Ronald McDonald Monday!

Hi all!  This past weekend, Sherri and I hosted our annual World Card Making Day event.  We chose to move our event a week earlier than the actual World Card Making Day because of Canadian Thanksgiving this coming weekend.  We changed things up this year a lot!  First of all, we supported a different charity...Ronald McDonald House Charities rather the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.  We did this because it's Stampin' Up!'s 10th anniversary supporting RMHC and it's such a great charity!  The way our event ran also changed this year.  We started our day with a morning of Stamp Olympics which was a fun morning of stamping games and lots of prizes!  We then had a yummy lunch and spent the afternoon stamping!  All of our event participants got the Moving Forward stamp set (which is the exclusive RMHC set for this year...Stampin' Up! will donate $3 from the sale of each set to RMHC).

The ladies made 12 cards with their new stamp set and over the next 12 weeks, I will be showing you all the cards they made...on Mondays!

So, here's the one for this week!

 
I think the little bird from the Moving Forward set looks like a cute crow, so I decided to go with that for this card.  I also paired it up with our Halloween DSP, Howlstooth and Scarringbone!  I think it's cute!

We gave our participants a $5 discount on their registration if they donated 5 or more cards for RMHC.  Look how full our donation basket was.....

I've got to say, I'm thrilled with how everyone got involved in this part of our day!  I can't wait to take them to Orlando with me to Leadership conference in January to drop in the RMHC basket so Stampin' Up! can donate them to various RMHC houses across North America.  I know that the people who get them to use will love them!

We had 12 ladies participate and each of them made 12 cards with their new stamp sets.  Here's a shot of all the supplies for 144 cards, cut, sorted and ready to be made into cards.

You can see many more pictures of all the fun we had on the LA Stamper Facebook Page.  I think the pictures do a great job of showing how much fun we all had!

And, one final thing, I will be slowly posting the recipes from lunch and snacks that day on the LA Stamper Cooks blog.  So, you can go over to that blog and check out the yummies!

Check back over the next few months on Mondays to see all 12 cards made at this fun event....and plan to join us next year!

Have an inspired day!