The Fourth Week of Christmas-Noel

It's time for the fourth week of Christmas and I have a cute Home Decor project for you. Drum roll please.........


I took these pictures at night, so they're not the best, but you get the idea. I used round coasters for this project. They are covered with the Christmas Cocoa DSP from the Holiday Mini Catalogue. I chose colors right out of the DSP...Soft Suede, Real Red, Whisper White and Sahara Sand. I used the Scallop Circles #2 die and my Big Shot to cut scalloped circles for the fronts of the coasters.



The letters n, e & l are all cut from Long Board Chipboard covered with cardstock. For a little visual interest, the 'n' has some Chocolate Chip Taffeta ribbon tied around it. The 'e' has 3 Vintage Brads beside it and the 'l' is covered in Real Red Chunky Glitter so it has a little bling!



The o is stamped with the wreath stamp from the Berry Christmas set with Sahara Sand and Soft Suede ink. I stamped the image two times in each color each time off setting it a bit. Then I stamped the little berry image with Real Red ink. Just off set from the berries are Real Red buttons (Playground Buttons) tied with a little piece of Linen Thread and attached with Mini Glue Dots.

Once you're done decorating the fronts of the coasters, you need to join them together. I used the Real Red Polka Dot ribbon again (flipped over to the plain side...the polka dots made it just too busy!). At the top of the ribbon, I made a little loop for hanging it and also tied a bow with Soft Suede Polka Dot ribbon (again flipped over to the plain side). At the bottom of the ribbon it's dove tailed, for no other reason other than it's a cute way to finish off the ribbon! The backs of the coasters are finished off with 4-inch circles of Sahara Sand cardstock cut with the Circle Scissor Plus.

There you have it! A little home decor project for you. The best part is, you can do this project with any holiday word or phrase. You have it hang vertically as I have, or you can make it into a garland. The possibilities are endless.


As always, you can place an order through my website for anything I used to make this project (sorry, Canadians only!), or you can email me to place an order.


Until next time my friends...

The Third Week of Christmas: Mmmmmm!

So, you're all probably wondering if I dropped off the face of the Earth! I'm still here and lets just say I can totally understand why that guy took hostages at the WCB offices in Edmonton last week...and I'm not even the one in the family who is hurt and dealing with them!


In any case, let's get on with the Christmas projects! I have The Third Week project for you today and then will post the Fourth Week project in the next couple days to get caught up. Thanks for bearing with me!


Today, I'm going to show you how I turned this...


Into this...
Step 1 is to empty the can and have a little snack! LOL!! It's important to keep your energy up during those late night stamping sessions!!

Ok, so I got out my package of Merry Moments DSP, chose a pattern and cut it to 8 1/2 x 10. I sponged the top and bottom edges with Chocolate Chip classic ink and wrapped it around the can using Sticky Strip to secure it. Now it's time for the fun part...EMBELLISHING!!!!! I cut a strip of Chocolate Chip cardstock and wrapped it around the can, securing it with Sticky Strip. I then cut a strip of coordinating DSP and secured it around the strip of cardstock, again securing it with Sticky Strip.

The label was made with Very Vanilla cardstock. I used the Sweet Season stamp set and colored the image I wanted with Old Olive, Chocolate Chip & Real Red Stampin' Write Markers. I used a label holder from the Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware set and bent it around the can.

**TIP: Bend the label holder around the can near the bottom of the can. This is becuase the can is actually cardboard and can possible bend or break if you put too much pressure on it. It's much more stable around the bottom where the cardboard meets the metal bottom.**

After stamping, I punched it out with the Designer Label Punch and glued the cardstock into the label holder. The whole thing is attached to a piece of the yummy Real Red Polka Dot Ribbon (I flipped the ribbon over and used the no polka dots side). I *heart* that ribbon! Then I tied the ribbon around the strip of DSP. Cute, eh?

Now the lid. I took a piece of another print from the Merry Moments DSP and spritzed it with Stampin' Mist. I would have used water, but was feeling a bit lazy and just grabbed what was in front of me! After spritzing the DSP, I put it over the can and put the lid on, then gently gathered the DSP up over the lid and tied a piece of Double-Stitched Chocolate Chip Ribbon around it to keep it in place. The cool thing is that when the paper is damp you can bend and mold it the way you want it and it will dry in that position. You have to be very careful though, because when the DSP is damp it tears easily.


Now that I've shown you the project, you're probably wondering what to put in it. Well, how about these...

YUMMY!! I figured it's the season of cookie exchanges and giving and who wouldn't love to get some yummy cookies in a container like this? If you use one of those scoops from Pampered Chef (that look like ice cream scoops, but you can get them in different sizes) for your cookies they will all come out the same size. I used the middle sized one for my cookies. Anyway, you can create a stack of cookies and put them into a tall cello bag (so they don't taste like Pringles!), they will just slide right into your fancy tin.


Mmmmmm! Now that I've made you drool all over your keyboard and crave cookies, I will share the recipe! It's the Original Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I use it all the time and my cookies never last longer than a couple days...I guess that means they're good!


As always, if you want to order any of the supplies I used for this project, you can on my website or you can email me your order (sorry, Canadians only). Until next time my friends...

Boo

Today I have a super cute Halloween Project for you! This project is the first of my Mantle Messages classes. I hope to do a Mantle Message class each month featuring a seasonal word or saying. Mantle Messages are a perfect addition to your home decor for any season!

This is the Halloween Mantle Message Project for the October 23 class. Isn't it stinkin' cute?

This is a closer look at the "B". Check out that yummy black chunky glitter! Love it! I also changed the ribbon a bit. I took a scrap of the Black Gingham Ribbon, colored it with my Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Write Marker and, voila, it's orange and black halloween gingham!


I did a Jack-O-Lantern for one of the o's. It's made from punches and a scrap of ribbon for the stem. So cute!

The second O is also covered with that yummy chunky glitter. A cute little addition to this O, is the little spider hanging from it. His body is popped up with a Stampin' dimensional. Now, I'm totally not a spider person (I get my 7 year-old to squish them if I find one in the house!), but I think he's pretty cute!

If you'd like to make one of these Halloween Mantle Messages for your house, let me know! I'm offering a class on Friday, October 23 at 7:30. The fee for this class is $15 and if you're a Catalogue Club member you can take this class for $12. Email me to reserve your spot.

The Second Week of Christmas

Hard to believe a week has gone by and it's time for the second week of Christmas! We've had a crazy emotional rollercoaster of a week at our house...sick kids a sick dog (along with huge vet bills) and the thrid death in my husband's family since the beginning fo September. I'm looking forward to a quiter, healthier and happier week next week!


On to the project. Today I have a card for you. It's one of the cards from my Get Ahead for the Holidays class this month. This year, I seem to be loving the brown/blue combination for my Christmas cards. Bordering Blue just goes so mnicely with Kraft and Soft Suede and is gorgeous with snowflakes. I love this card so much that I decided to share it with everyone this week.

Now, it's hard to see in the picture, but this card has some shimmer! I used the Serene Snowflakes set from the Holiday Mini Catalogue. I stamped one of the snowflakes with Bordering Blue, another with Whisper White and the little 3 snowflakes stamp with the Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint. LOVE IT!!!

Here's another view...

I punched out a snowflake from Bordering Blue cardstock and sponged it wth the Shimmer Paint. Then added a little bling to the middle by way of a Clear Rhinestone Brad and attached it to the card. Finish it off with a Merry Chrismas and you're done.

This last view shows off the shimmery snowflakes better.

If you would like to order any of the products used to make this card, head over to my demonstrator website and place your order, or you can always email me with your order!


Hope you enjoyed this project! Remember to check back next week for the Third Week of Christmas project!

Jack-O-Lantern Basket

Ack! I think my 2-year old is over having naps! This is not good...I live for nap time; I get so much Stampin' stuff done during nap time. Now, I'm going to have to adjust my time around during the day and find a different time to get some stuff done! It all points to him growing up way too fast, which kind of makes me sad! Now if only I could get him to agree with me that being totally potty trained is a great thing...

Anyway, on to the stamping projects that you're probably here to check out! I have so many things to post about...World Card Day, the Second Week of Christmas (tomorrow's post), Thanksgiving and more. Today, I've decided to share a Halloween project with you.

I don't tend to do much in the way of Halloween cards (in fact, I usually only do one per year!), but I love to make little treat holders at this time of year! This project is one of my Stamper 10 projects this month. This month all of my Stamper 10 projects will be treat holders of some sort. I can't share them all now or it will spoil the surprise for my clubs next week!

Isn't he cute? I found the instructions to make him on Splitcoaststampers a few weeks ago and fell in love! He's super simple and made from the Pillow Box Die, some cardstock, ribbon and a few punches.

Check out the ribbon handle. I just punched the side with the slot punch and then fed the ribbon through. Then I tied a piece of Linen Thread around the ribbon to hold it in place. It won't hold if there's a lot of weight in the basket, but it should do if there's a bit of candy or some other yummy treat in it!

I absolutely LOVE the striped ribbon we have this year! It's wide, but soft and easy to tie. I have ordered it in all the colors it's available in *wink* and you can be sure you will see it on more projects!

I almost forgot! What do you think of my new blog header? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. I made it with the new My Digital Studio software in the Holiday Mini Catalogue! There's so much fun stuff you can do with this software. Right now I'm working on getting certified with the software so I can teach you all about it. I can't wait. You can order it now through my website or just send me an email and I can order it for you.