Last minute gift ideas

One of my fellow SU stampers demonstrated how to make these boxes at a meeting recently, and I thought they were just beautiful. Given the small amount of time and supplies required and the beautiful result, I'd say they're a great value. I copied the pattern from Splitcoast Stampers here.

If you haven't used the "resources" section of Splitcoast, you're missing out on one of the greatest features. It has a TON of patterns for almost any paper item you could imagine. When you go to Splitcoast, look in the upper right corner for "Resources" and click.

So here's the box I made and the cards I made to fill it.

And here's the cards I made to go inside.

I used some pink cardstock that I've had forever, used my Big Shot and Top Note die (it finally arrived after 2 weeks of backorder!), inked the edges of the top note with Sahara Sand, stamped her name with Sahara Sand and a Michael's cheapie letter set, and used chocolate chip taffeta to make the bow.

The top of the box is stamped with a retired SU background stamp, French Flair. It was one of the very first stamps I bought and I love the elegant look it creates.

Super cute, right?

An exciting announcement!!

I'm so proud to share this announcement with you. Click HERE!

Scrapbook pages

I worked on a few scrapbook pages this weekend for my Right at Home DT application, which is due tomorrow.

This first one is my mom and her beau, Matt, at our family reunion this summer. The photos were taken by Amada Hagler of Shutterbelle Photography. I chose the word admire because it describes how I feel about my mom, and I think also how she feels about Matt. He's a neat guy and I think is a good fit with my mom (right, mom?).
The next one is a page featuring a photo I took this summer in Idaho. We were looking for wolves (and didn't find any), and stopped every few miles along this road to look for tracks and for our guide to make wolf calls (a sound I cannot replicate). I think the tracks in the road, the fence posts, and the trees in the background make for a beautiful black and white photo.


We did find wolf tracks!

Teacher Gifts

Charlotte has a bunch of teachers at her preschool, and I like to make them all something for Christmas. This year, I'm giving them altered journals.

I bought these Mary Englebreit journals for $1 at Michael's, and had originally intended to sell them at my craft fair in October. Luckily for the teachers, no one bought them, so now I have the perfect teacher gift!

The adorable cherry paper (Summer Picnic) and stamp set (Tart & Tangy) are from SU, and the letter monogram is SU's Taffy Alphabet.

I tied ribbons on the spiral binding to gussie it up a little.

Christmas gift ideas

Every year, I try to make something for family and friends that is both useful and pretty. Tile coasters are a favorite among SU demonstrators, and they always sell well at craft fairs.

There is considerable debate about the "best" methods for coloring and preserving the tiles so that they won't be ruined during real life use. There is also debate about which tiles are best. These are called Travertine, and I bought them at Lowe's.

I've used different mediums (markers, colored pencils, pastels), but this year I decided on SU markers and craft ink. The image is stamped with black StazOn, and the stamp set is a retired SU set called Snow Friends.

I sprayed a light coat of Krylon glossy clear spray, and tested to be sure the colors don't run (they didn't!). I applied self-adhesive felt circles to the four corners on the back side so that they're furniture friendly. I'll package them up in this cute box that I embellished.

Cookie swap

I'm going to a cookie swap (a favorite Christmas time activity for me) at my sister-in-law's this afternoon, and I decided to do something a little different this year. I dipped pretzel rods in white chocolate, then rolled them in crushed peppermint sticks or pistachios. YUM!

I dressed them up by packaging them in poly bags, tying with a pretty ribbon, then attaching a tag. I used scalloped square nesties to cut out the craft paper, then stamped with an SU Hostess set with riding hood red ink. I attached the tag to the bow with twine.






Charlotte wanted to help me, and was especially helpful at clean up time :)

Design Team Search at my FAVE store!

I'm so excited to announce that I've decided to apply to be on the Design Team at Right at Home Scrapbooking, right here in North Attleboro! This store has been around for a while and has really been a source of inspiration for my scrapbooking and card making over the years. I'm desperately hoping I have a chance--I know my competition will be tough!

Wish me luck!

Sympathy cards

I always have a really hard time making sympathy cards, and I really hate the kind that Hallmark makes. Maybe it's just that I'm never quite sure what to say (in a card or otherwise) on the occasion of someone's death.

Recently, the sister of a colleague died at the very young age of 57, due to cancer. I wanted to create a card that would be beautiful and not terribly sympathy-like. I started out in one direction and ended up in a completely different place, but I really like how the card looked when I was done. It could be used for any occasion, I think.

I used crystal effects to glue the butterfly's body down, allowing the wings to pop up.










The butterflies are from SU's Flight of the Butterfly set, and the sentiment is from SU's Inspired by Nature. The scallop circle was made with the Big Shot and SU's Pennant Die set. The ribbon is SU's double-sided satin.