October 15, 2010

PUT YOUR PINK ON!

Happy Friday all! I don't know about you but I am sure glad this week is OVER!! I am ready to start fresh on Monday, LOL! Meanwhile, this weekend I will be working both days at Hodges Nursery at the First Annual Fall Festival in support of Breast Cancer!  I am a member of the Durham Blossoms Relay for Life team and they will also have a booth where they are cooking up food to raise money in the fight against this awful disease! I am doing my part as well:  I have made several pink items that will be sold and all monies made given to the Blossoms as part of the fundraising effort this weekend! If you are local, you REALLY need to come on out - there will be TONS of vendors there as well as fun demonstrations and lots to see and buy :-)  This cute little luminaria is just one of the items I will have for sale at my booth! Each one has a battery operated tealight in it and they look soooo purdy all lit up!  I have made several of these in all different shades of pink.  Luminarias are a wonderful way to remember those that are going through treatments or have lost their battle to this awful disease.  I am hoping that these will help those in remembering their loved ones. 
Here is a side view so you can get a better idea of how they look.  They really are easy to make - there are samples all over the web so I just took a look at some of those and then  made this one my own by tweaking some measurements to fit what I was trying to do!  I am not going to leave a recipe for these but if you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have! Have a wonderful weekend and I sure hope to see lots of you out at Hodges Nursery this weekend!

October 13, 2010

A LITTLE BIT OF CHRISTMAS

Happy Wednesday all!!! I got to play my first game of Bunco last night - what a fun night out that was!!! And, I got to meet lots of new people, and they were all really nice and fun to be around! I did not get home until after 2am - too much talking, lol!!!  But, worth it, I really enjoyed myself!!!  And, as you can see by the picture, I actually got to wear the crown because I got BUNCO, lol!!!! 
Really fun!!! Today I want to share a card with you that I made for my downline meeting shoebox swap - love doing these, I have a very talented group of ladies in my downline so there are always some beautiful cards I get to make! I chose a Christmas card since our theme was holidays.  I used one of my all-time favorite stamp sets called Welcome Christmas because it reminds me of all the things I love during the holidays - family time, decorating the tree, hanging the stocking, and playing in the snow!  And, the sentiment is just beautiful! I stamped it on Very Vanilla card stock, trimmed around it, and popped it up on dimensionals - one of my customers asked me during a workshop (I took it as a sample) if we had the punch, lol!! It WOULD make a great punch, wouldn't it??!  I paired the set with the Jolly Holiday designer series paper - sooooo pretty!!! The bottom of the DSP is punched with the Scalloped Edge Border Punch.....looooove it!   And, if you look really close, you can see that the tree shimmers - that is because I added some Iridescent Ice to give it some sheen and it looks great IRL! Very simple card, but I think it turned out pretty and my gals really liked it.  This is definitely a card that could be mass produced for everyone on your Christmas card list because it is simple enough to to do a lot of them and pretty enough to bring a smile to their face!! I will leave you with the recipe and if you would like any of  the products used on this card, you can go to my online store right now and order them
:-)  And, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me, I am always willing to answer any questions you may have!  Now, I am off to work on projects for the weekend Harvest Festival at Hodges Nursery - we are holding this wonderful event to raise money for the Durham Blossoms Relay for Life Team of which I am honored to be a part.  Come on out and support us in stamping out cancer! There will be lots of vendors, prizes, make 'n takes, demonstrations, and the Blossoms are going to have a booth serving fabulous Tritip sandwiches of which all proceeds go to the Team.  I hope to see you all there!!!
Card Recipe:
Paper - Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla card stock, Jolly Holiday designer series paper
Inks - Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler classic inks
Stamps - Welcome Christmas
Tools - Scalloped Edge Border Punch
Accessories - Whisper White narrow grosgrain ribbon, stampin' dimensionals

October 11, 2010

WENT CLUBBLIN' THIS WEEKEND!

Hello all! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  Mine was super busy as I had three events this weekend, but it was fun - filled with stamping :-)  It was Club day on Sunday so all my Scrap Club gals were at the house - they decided when Club first started that they wanted to Potluck every month so there is always a TON of food when they come! It's a great group, I just love them to pieces - they make me laugh so hard, half the time I forget what I am talking about, LOL! 
Here are some pics of them from yesterday. We did two two-page layouts so it was a very busy afternoon but I think they really liked the layouts.  I try to keep them general enough where several different occasions would work for any one layouts since they don't add pics until later! I was excited that one of the gals actually brought hers back from last month and they had pics on them - and I am kicking myself that I did not take pictures because they were stinkin; CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!  Here they all are raising their glasses in a toast to our group - we DO have some fun together!! 

One of our group was celebrating a birthday so I made a cake to celebrate - what's a birthday without cake??!! She is such a beautiful person inside and out - I feel very blessed that she is part of my life! And yes, there are only four candles on the cake - once you reach a certain age that's all you need since they represent youth, beauty, friendship, and love!  At least in my world they do *wink*  And, I certainly hope that whatever she wished for comes true because she deserves it!!  It was a fun way to spend Sunday - lots of laughing, great food, fun projects to complete, and most of all, GREAT company!!!  So, after all that, would you like to see one of the layouts they completed during Club yesterday?? They actually DO get to create amongst everything else, LOL! 
Here is one of the double layouts they completed yesterday.  I always add pictures to them because they told me they like to see how it looks once it is completed.  And, it helps me get some of my own scrapbooking done, which is great because I am really far behind, LOL!  The title of this one is Best Friendsstamped with the Broadsheet Alphabet set, and as you can see, that will fit just about anything someone wants to use these pages for.  I chose my husband because he IS my best friend and these pictures make me smile :-)  There are lots of products on these pages, so I will highlight the main ones so that you get the idea of what was used.  The designer series paper is Blueberry Crisp, probably one of my absolute favorites out of the catalog.  Fun patterns, and really rich colors that are very versatile! There were a couple of stamp sets used on this layout - Friends 24-7 and For All You Do, both of which are wonderful sets with lots of possibilities.  The sentiment on the journaling pocket as well as all the bordering stamps are from these two sets.  The buttons are from the Deck the Halls buttons in the Holiday mini - just goes to show that you can use them for lots of different occasions, not just Christmas. 
 I wanted to share a couple of closeups on this layout.  This first one is the journaling pocket.  We made this using one of the mini lunch sacks in the holiday mini - isn't it cute??!! We actually cut it down shorter and then rescalloped the top of the bag.  Inside is a piece of DSP from the Newsprint collection - there is actually a whole sheet in there of lined paper that is perfect for journaling! We just punched along the edge with the Spiral Border punch to make it look like notebook paper, added a tab punched with the Extra-large round tab punch, and then decorated the front of it with some Marina Mist and Pacific Point card stock that has been punched with the Scallop Edge border punch, then run through the Big Shot with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  The sentiment on the bag is from the For All You Do stamp set stamped on Very Vanilla, punched out with the 2 1/2 Circle punch and then mounted on a piece of Real Red card stock that has been punched with the 2 3/8 inch Scallop Circle punch.  It fits my journaling perfectly! (and no, I am not sharing - it's private *wink*)  I love how this turned out - what a great way to use those little bags and just sooo perfect for this layout!
This next close up is the stamped image of the bird from the Friends 24-7 stamp set.  We stamped it in Early Espresso classic ink on Very Vanilla card stock, then trimmed around the whole image.  Then, using the 2-way glue pen, we added some Champagne glass glitter to give the bird some beautiful gold feathers. Then, we attached him to the page  using dimensionals on a length of Very Vanilla satin ribbon. The glitter is from the holiday mini and is really fun to play with! And, for some added fun, we used some of the filigree brads - aren't they purdy??!!!  There are lots of punches, embossing, and such on this layout so if there are any particular questions you have regarding this layout, please email me as I am happy to answer any questions! And, if you see something you have to have right now, head on over to my online store where you can order it right now :-)  Thanks so much for stopping by, and if you are still reading this, you get extra kudos for sticking with me through this long post, LOL! I will be back tomorrow with some cards from my weekend workshop - until then, Happy Stamping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!