CUPID LOVE

Good morning! It has been a busy week here at the Hobson home - what with soccer games, golf tournaments, my husband's new job, and my schedule, it is a wonder we ever see each other, lol! It thought we were busy when we had little ones, but teens are a different story altogether, lol! I love every minute of it though - it is amazing to watch them develop and grow into their own person! Time sure does fly by though, it seems like yesterday I was finger painting with them, and now I have one driving!  I sure do love them though, with all my heart! They are one of the reasons why Valentines Day is such a big holiday for me - I just love it! I love to spoil them with treats and handmade little gifties....and I think they look forward to it too! And, of course I get to show the love of my life how much I love him as well by spoiling him with little surprises and cards all month long! So, I have stamping up all kinds of heartfelt cards with all the new and fabulous things in the Occasions Mini catalog!

I made this card using the new set called PS I love you - I just love this set, it has TONS of stamped images and sentiments (15 in all) and the clear set is $27.95 for all of them - AMAZING, right??
I just love all these images and the sentiments are awesome, I have already used them on a variety of different cards! And, many of these images can be punched out with the coordinating punch, making them even more fun to use. You can see that I punched out the heart image with the heart punch on this card - it makes it so easy to design a cute card! I also used some of the new Attic Boutique designer series paper, it is sooooo pretty! The colors are some of my favorites and not your traditional Valentines colors, which I am excited about because I don't like to use a lot of pink anyway for the cards I give to my love *wink* I played with some of the new ribbon as well - this Blushing Bride pleated ribbon really adds a BANG to your project, and I love that all the work has been done for me, makes me have more time to stamp, lol! It is hard to see in the picture, but I did actually stamp the background of the base card with the Parlor Prints background stamp. It just gives the card some added texture, and besides, I don't like naked cards, lol!  Also, check out the little pops of the new Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details: it really adds pop, doesn't it??  If you like these products, they can be purchased through my online store or you can email me and I will be happy to place your order for you! I am off to spend some more time stamping today - love my job! Have a wonderful day, and I will be back to share some more fun projects tomorrow!
Card Recipe:
Paper - Poppy Parade, Soft Suede, Whisper White, Pool Party card stock, Attic Boutique Designer Series Paper
Inks - Soft Suede, Poppy Parade classic inks
Stamps - PS I love You, Parlor Prints
Tools- Heart Punch, 1 3/8 and 1 1/4 inch Circle Punches, Small Oval punch, Dimensionals
Accessories - Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Basic Pearls, Blushing Bride pleated ribbon

YES, I POSTED - DON'T FAINT :-)

Happy New Year everyone!!! I know it's been awhile....I purposely took some time off because I was working so many hours I was getting burnt out and needed to step away for awhile and spend some time with family doing other things. It was a wonderful holiday - my son and his fiance came to spend the holidays with us, and they also went to Tahoe with us so it was a wonderful couple of weeks! Needless to say, life is slow in returning to normal but this week has been my transition back to the "real" world, lol! I am stamping again after taking a hiatus, and, although I don't feel that my mojo is completely back, I did manage to stamp a card yesterday using the fun new stuff from the Occasions Mini! I am hoping that as I stamp more today, the magic will come back and I will be in my element again, lol! In the meantime, I will share this card that I am okay with showing in public (I have many discarded attempts in the trash can, lol!) The Occasions Mini catalog went live on the 3rd of January, and there are soooo many beautiful things in this catalog that I don't know what to share first. so, I decided that I would play with the Take it To Heart Stamp Set so that I could show you how fabulous the new Hearts Framelits are with the images - there are several different heart shapes that cut the images out or you can just cut out hearts! It works on the Big Shot and they are so much fun to play with! That is how I cut out the image on this card - too fun!

I also knew I wanted to watercolor as I find that to be very relaxing so I picked an image I thought would work well with that technique....and, I was right! I love how this turned out, sooo pretty, right?? I used several different colors here and used my blender pens to apply the shades and coloring. I had such fun with this. I embossed the Pool Party card stock in the background with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder - doesn't it look nice with the image? The patterned paper you see in the back of the image is from the new designer series paper pack called Attic Boutique! I am loving all the pretty, vintage paper that SU! put in this new mini, they are right up my alley :-)

The sentiment piece is also from the Take it to Heart set although the sentiment itself is from the With All My Heart set. I just stamped it, cut it out, and popped it up on dimensionals. The ribbon is Poppy Parade twill and looks gorgeous up against that image. The other ribbon is the Soft Suede Taffeta, which is soft, gorgeous, and perfect for this card! I added a few pearls and then used a little bit of Dazzling Details to the heart in the sentiment itself - I am so glad that item is still available!  It is a carryover from the Holiday Mini!  There were several items that were carried over from that catalog so if you would like to see what they are, click here and it will take you right to them!  It felt good to stamp again; this card made me smile when it was all finished! I plan on playing with lots more of my new goodies today so stay tuned for lots more coming your way! If you like any of the products here (of course you do, lol) you can order them from my online store OR you can email me and I will be happy to place your order for you! Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope you all have time to do something creative!
Card Recipe:
Paper - Soft Suede, Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Very Vanilla card stock, Attic Boutique Designer Series Paper
Inks - Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight classic inks
Stamps - Take it To Heart, With All my Heart(sentiment only)
Tools - Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Big Shot, Hearts Framelits, Dimensionals
Accessories - Poppy Parade Twill ribbon, Soft Suede taffeta ribbon, Basic Pearls, Dazzling Details

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Good morning stampers!! I have to say, this is my favorite time of year - I just adore Christmas! All the fun decorations, the baking, the presents, the music, the family and friends, I love it ALL!! I especially love to create fun gifts and cards for all the special people in my life! I tend to make sooo much more than I ever could use, but boy, is it FUN!  And, we have such fabulous holiday items in our Holiday mini this year that well, I went a little crazy with it and had to have it all, lol!!! So, I thought I would share a fun little craft that we made during my Santa's workshop classes - it is a box filled with fun Christmas tags to use on all your special gifts! I actually saw this idea somewhere and tweaked it somewhat to make it my own and I love how it turned out!!! The box itself is made of chipboard and then covered in Cherry Cobbler card stock - we also did that with the drawers to this cutie will last for lots of seasons in the future! The top and bottom of the box are 6x6 in size, and then the drawers were cut using the Matchbox die for the Big Shot, lined up with the edges of the box, and sticky taped down. The top of the box has two more layers, one of Old Olive card stock and then another using the Letters to Santa Designer Series paper - looooove it!!! The image is also layered - the base layer is Early Espresso card stock and then the image is stamped on Naturals White card stock. This pretty tree comes from the Christmas Lodge stamp set, available in the Holiday Mini (but only until the 3rd of January so you better get is soon!). I love this tree because it is a nice, big image which makes a great focal point! We used the Old Olive, Early Espresso, and Cherry Cobbler stampin' write markers to color in the tree and then stamped it, making a beautiful watercolor effect that gives this box a wonderful vintage look!

Then, we added some Dazzling Details to make the tree look like it had hundreds of pretty lights on it - check out the close-up here! Doesn't it look fabulous, all sparkly and twinkly??!! I swear, this made the whole box for my stampin' ladies -they just loved it!! We added a pretty Cherry Cobbler button from the Regals designer buttons group, which we threaded with Cherry Cobbler twine. We tied a knot and then distressed the ends to add to that vintage look. The sentiment is also from the Christmas Lodge stamp set, and it is stamped in Early Espresso on some Old Olive card stock, then adhered to the box. And, of course we needed to have a little more bling so we added a rhinestone to the top of the tree and to the sentiment to give it that extra WOW! factor. Now, for the drawers! There are four drawers on this box, one on each side. As you can see from the picture, they can slide in and out, and they are easy to open since each one has a large brad that acts as the drawer pull. Each drawer can hold up to 20 tags and pieces of twine, but we did eight for each drawer, all in different shapes, colors, and styles so there is something for every present that gets wrapped and put under the tree! I am not going to name each and every stamp set we used to make the tags, but if you have a question about any of them, feel free to email me and I am happy to answer you! We had a blast making this Christmas box, and I am sure it will be put to good use over the next few weeks *wink* I know I have used all the tags and made some more :-) If you like any of these products and want some for your very own, you can order them in my online store or contact me and I will be happy to help you place your order! Now, I am off to bake a birthday cake for my sweetheart who turns 44 today - yep, he has finally caught up with me, lol!!! For ten months I am older than him, a fact he never lets me live down :-) I hope you all have a fabulous day and take some time out to be creative!!!
Box Recipe:
Paper - Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Early Espresso, Naturals White card stock, Letters to Santa Designer Series Paper
Inks - Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Marina Mist stampin' write markers and classic stampin' pads
Stamps - (image and sentiment) Christmas Lodge
Tools - Matchbox die, Big Shot, Ornament Punch, Designer Label Punch
Accessories - Regals Buttons, Dazzling Details, Cherry Cobbler twine, Basic Rhinestones
 

MAD BUSY BUT STILL CREATING :-)

Good morning stampers! I have been a bad blogger lately, but I cannot seem to find enough hours in the day to get everything done that I need to do!! I have been teaching a lot of holiday classes lately as well as finishing up some of my own Christmas projects so there is a lot of creating going on! I thought I would share another fun project with you today that we made in my Santa's workshop a couple of weeks back.  This is a jar that is filled with all the ingredients you need to make a wonderful mint hot chocolate, something we have each and every year, and that we all look forward to as the weather gets colder! We used some of the holiday fabric called Candy Cane Christmas - the patterns are so fun and festive, they make me smile! We cut a piece out using the Scallop Circle Bigz Die on the Big Shot - it fits perfectly for these little pint jars! We placed it over the inside ring of the lid, pulled it tight, and then screwed the lid back on - super cute, right??!! We then added a punched flower created from the Scallop Circle punch and the 1 3/8 inch Circle punch with a Holly Berry Bouquet Real Red button. To Top it off, we threaded some Whisper White twine through the button and tied a cute little bow - simple but oh so cute!! We then wrapped the lid with some of Baha Breeze Seam Binding ribbon that is attached using Red Sticky Tape - have I told you how much I love this stuff??!! My customers and friends tease me about my obsession with this tape but it is a wonderful adhesive and I keep myself well stocked with it, lol!! The tag is made using the Two Tags die on the Big Shot and Real Red card stock. The sentiment is layered with Baha Breeze card stock punched out with the Designer Label punch and then the sentiment itself is from the Sweet Season stamp set, which has some super cute stamps that are perfect for gift giving. We stamped it in Real Red classic ink on Naturals White card stock, then punched it out with the Wide Oval punch. It is attached to the jar with some twine that is threaded through the ribbon and then tied in a knot, then trimmed close to the knot so it does not show too much. The inside of the tag has the typed out recipe and directions on how to make this yummy chocolatey treat! This little gift item was a huge hit at the workshop - but nobody wants to give them away, lol! They ARE darling, and look great on the kitchen counter :-)  I hope you like this little treat, and find some time to make some of your own handmade gifts this year - they are always the most well received! Who wouldn't want to receive something as totally cuts as this?? *wink* I will be making several more handmade gifts this week as I get things ready for my husband's staff and our friends. If you like the items that were used on this project, you can purchase them in my online store or contact me and I will be happy to take your order! Now, I am off to get my many errands done so I can come home and play in my stamp room - yippee!!! Have a wonderful day and check back tomorrow for another gift idea that you are going to love!!
Jar Recipe:
Paper - Real Red, Baha Breeze, Naturals White card stock
Inks - Real Red classic ink
Stamps - Sweet Season
Tools - Big Shot, Scallop Circle Bigz Die, Two Tags Die, Wide Oval punch, Designer Label punch, Red Sticky Tape, Scallop Circle punch, 1 3/8 inch Circle punch
Accessories - Holly Berry Bouquet buttons, Baha Breeze seam binding ribbon, Whisper White twine, Candy Cane Christmas fabric

HO HO HO WALL DECOR

Good morning Stampers!!! WOW!! Another VERY busy week and weekend as I had five events that I had to prep and teach! It was a whole lot of fun though!!! One of my really big events for the holiday season was this past Saturday when I held my annual Santa's Workshop where we did four great holiday gifts!! We had a BLAST!!! The ladies loved the projects, which of course made ME happy, and I was thrilled to see them enjoying the day! Lots of laughing, holiday snacks, and delicious hot cider! I have the BEST friends - thanks to my good friend Shelly who owns a local nursery in the area, we had a wonderful space to hold our class - it was soooo much fun!!! I want to share the projects with you this week starting with the HO HO HO wall hanging we made! This is sooo super cute and I have mine already hung up with the rest of my Christmas decorations, lol! It was hard to get a good picture of the whole thing so I did the best I could - I will share with you each square separately so you can see how we put this together! We used lots of fun and festive holiday products so everyone got to play and explore fun options! The three squares are made of chipboard and then covered with Letters to Santa Designer series paper, both of which were cut on the Big Shot using the Scallop Square die. We attached all three squares to some Cherry Cobbler wide grosgrain ribbon, making a looped handle at the top, which is secured with an antique brad with a pretty snowflake on top. The snowflake was made using our fabulous silver glitter paper and the Snowflake punch (I will say that punching out the silver glimmer paper with a punch was a challenge - you need to do it slowly and definitely one at a time, but totally worth it as you can see!)

Here is the first square! Sorry for the pic being a bit blurry - I don't know what is wrong with my picture taking abilities lately :-(  Each one of the squares has a solid Old Olive square that is cut out using the Square Die for the Big Shot, rounding the corners with the Corner Rounder punch. We then stamped on this square in Cherry Cobbler ink with the fun stamp set called Merry and Type. Such a cute stamp set, love it! The letters were cut out using the Serif Essentials large letter dies for the Big Shot, using both Chipboard and the Silver Glitter paper. It gives the whole hanging a wonderful dimensional look without adding a ton of bulk to it. I did not want it to be too heavy as it does need to hang up and then fold away nicely to be used again and again! That pretty felt wreath is from our Felt Flurries pack that can be found in the Holiday mini - you get a lot of bang for your buck with this package since you get sooo many of each fun little holiday embellishment!

This is the second square on the hanging, which as the same solid square as the first one, along with the same letters for the sentiment! The stamp set that we used on this one is called Snow Much Fun and I have to say I thoroughly enjoy stamping with this fun set - the two snowman images totally make me smile! There is a short, fat snowman in this set as well, and the sentiments are just as cute as can be! For this square, we used the tall snowman and his birdie friends as well as the little snowball with the birdie on it - aren't they adorable?? They are both stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink as well. The holly leaves and the sweet little mittens are more of the cute felt flurries embellishments from the package - those mittens are just sooooo stinkin' cute! They actually come attached with a piece of string between them, just like we all had when we were little, lol! We just cut them off for this project, but they look just as cute strung together!

This is the third and final square on the hanging, again with the same solid square and the pretty lettering. The stamp is from the Merry and Type stamp set and is actually a pretty large stamp - we could not even get the whole stamp on here, cutting off some of the strings hanging down with the ornaments! I love this stamp, I think it is bold and really catches the eye! It is also stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink. We used even more of the felt flurries embellishments, adding in the really fun snowflake this time - I just love these!!! This was such a fun project to put together, and many of the ladies who attended told me this was their favorite of the four that we did! I have to say, I had a ton of fun designing this one too :-) If you would like to order any of the products you see here, you can order them in my online store or you can contact me directly, and I would be happy to place your order for you! Or, if you would like to book a workshop and make your very own fun projects with your friends, contact me and let's get you all set up! Now I am off to finish prepping for my fun workshop later on this afternoon - I hope all of you can find time to stamp in this busy time of year, I believe it is so good for the soul, and much cheaper than paying for therapy, lol!! Have a wonderful day, and I will be back tomorrow to share some super cute tree ornament gift card holders!

Wall Hanging Recipe:

Paper - Old Olive card stock, Letters to Santa Designer Series paper, Silver Glitter paper

Inks - Cherry Cobbler classic ink

Stamps - Merry and Type, Snow Much Fun

Tools - Big Shot, Serif Essentials Large Letter Dies, Scallop Square Die, Square Die, Sticky Tape

Accessories - Cherry Cobbler wide grosgrain ribbon, Felt Flurries embellishments

TIME FOR THE CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN!

Happy Hump Day stampers!!! Yes, I know it has been awhile, but I had some personal family health issues to focus on as my family is always my priority! Although we still are dealing with what lies ahead, and know it is going to be a VERY long and bumpy road, we are going to walk it together!!! So, I though it was time to get back into some semblance of a normal routine (do we EVER have that??) and share something crafty!! I want to share with you the Christmas Advent Wreath I made and then turned into a class - I did three sessions and each session was really fun!! And, we all left with a great decoration too!  I did all the cutting and the sticky tape ahead of time so they could put it together and decorate it - the fun parts, lol! We started out with a flat wooden circle that I ordered from an online supply store as I wanted the wreath to have a really sturdy base. We wrapped that in Cherry Cobbler wide striped ribbon, leaving enough to make the hanger you see in the picture. So, from the back side, you don't see ugly wood, you see pretty ribbon :-) We then cut out a circle that fit the back side of wreath - we used the cardboard from the paper packs since you can't see it. Then, we covered that with the Cherry Cobbler card stock circle you see in the center - both are attached using hot glue since we never want it to come off, lol!!  The 24 boxes you see are made with the matchbox die for the Big Shot and the base is made of Cherry Cobbler card stock to ensure they are nice and sturdy for many years to come! The lids are made of patterned paper from the Letters to Santa Designer Series paper pack - such beautiful paper!! The bottom twelve boxes are sticky taped to the circle first, creating the base for the top ones. They are placed out diagonally around the circle in order to keep the circle shape since as you go around the circle, the angles change quite a bit - this was tricky, but everyone got it :-) The top boxes then were staggered in between every two of the top boxes, creating that awesome wreath look! Each of the top boxes have an Old Olive Ornament that was punched out with the Ornament punch and adhered to the box. The numbers on the box were cut out using the Medium Sizzlets alphabet for the Big Shot, and were cut using the Silver Glimmer Paper - looks amazing, all sparkly!!! Then, the ornaments were each adorned with tiny bows using some of the yummy Cherry Cobbler Quilted ribbon.  The numbers for the bottom boxes are on the inside of the wreath and correspond with each box, making sure 13 started to the right of box 12, keeping the sequence going. In the very center of the wreath, there is a Scalloped Circle of the Letters to Santa DSP that was cut on the Big Shot. A Whisper White circle was also die cut and nested in the center after it was stamped using the Christmas Postcard A la Carte stamp. It was stamped in Stazon, then colored in with Stampin' Write markers. For some fun accents, we added a snowflake and some of the holly leaves out of the super cute Stitched Felt package you can find in the Holiday Mini, along with the Holly Berry Bunch button we used in the center of the snowflake! To finish it off, we put Rhinestones on every other scallop, and added some Dazzling Details to the stamped image, making the whole project sparkle!! Everyone loved how it turned out - including me!! I am thrilled with this wreath and can't wait to start using it tomorrow :-)

Here are some closer shots of the wreath as well as showing how the drawers open to put the treat inside!  I hope you enjoyed seeing this as much as I enjoyed designing it! I think made from the heart decor is the best kind, don't you?? I have made several home decor items this year that I will share with you over the next few weeks as we count down the days until Santa comes!! Christmas is my very favorite time of year, and I am so very excited as my oldest son will be coming home for the holidays as he transfers to Southern California for his first Marine Corps duty station. Yes, my baby is all grown up!! I still can't wait to hug his neck though, lol!!! I will be back tomorrow with some other super fun and cute projects to share, but until then, take some time to be creative, it makes for a better day!!  Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Wreath Recipe:
Paper -  Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Whisper White cardstock, Letters to Santa Designer Series paper, Silver Glimmer Paper
Inks - Black Stazon, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Marina Mist, River Rock Stampin' Write markers
Stamps - Christmas Postcard
Tools - Medium Sizzlets Alphabet, Scalloped Circle die, Clear Circle die, Matchbox die, Big Shot,  Ornament Punch, Sticky Tape, hot glue gun
Accessories - Basic Rhinestones, Cherry Cobbler Wide Striped Ribbon and Quilted Ribbon, Stitched Felt, Hollyberry buttons, Dazzling Details

FAMILY EMERGENCIES MAKE FOR NO BLOG TIME

Hello my stamping friends!! I realize it has been three long weeks since I have blogged, but our family has been double and triple whammied with some serious medical and personal tragedies that have had all my focus and energies. It is always hard to know that someone is hurting, but when they are your family, it makes it even harder. I hope that all of you will keep us in your prayers and thoughts because we will need them!!! We have quite the road ahead of us. Out of respect for my family members, I don't want to go into too much detail, just know we are working through all of this at a very difficult time. Thanks for sticking by me - I hope to share something fun tomorrow as I have several things I have not had time to share with you that I would like to over the next few days!