It ain't over yet!

I've still got some winter projects left to do - kinda missed the rest of Christmas. I was wracking my brain tonight trying to find the perfect packaging and here is what I came up with:




For the tag I used the sizzix snowflake covered with Ski Slope DSP, a large felt flurry from Stampin' Up!, a snowflake from spellbinders covered with Martha Stewart chunky glitter, a small felt flurry, and finally a button with white taffeta ribbon threaded thru it.

The 'box in a bag' (tutorial here) was made using white card stock, Snowflake Spot stamps, Baja Blue and Red Riding Hood card stock.

Happy New Year!

Day 12 and Merry Christmas!

It's only been DAYS since I was supposed to post my Day 12 and reveal my awesome Secret Elf!

Sorry. Life here at my home has been abosolutely crazy and every minute jam packed.

But it's been absolutely worth it! Christmas was wonderful. I hope it was for all of you and yours, too!

And so without further ado I bring you Day 12:


I have been SO wanting the Serif alphabet dies that go with the Big Shot, but just can't justify the cost, yet. And soooooo, Amy sent me lots of die cut alphabets! White, Red and Chocolate Chip! The perfect ending to the 12 days.

And my Secret Elf is Amy. I love this woman! We met up at Stampin' Up!'s convention last summer and have been sharing our lives on and off line ever since!

What makes this whole experience mean so much more is that Amy has had some health issues this fall and hasn't felt good most of the time. But you would never know it. She is cheerful and witty and keeps us laughing (do a search for llamas on Splitcoaststampers and you'll see what I mean). I just adore her!

Thank you, Amy, for a most awesome job as my Secret Elf!

And guess what? I was Amy's secret elf!

If you would like to see what I was busy doing for Amy, please check out her blog here.

We've had so much fun doing the secret elf that we're looking for an excuse to do something similar again. Probably around Valentine's Day. Stay tuned.......

Secret Elf Days 8, 9, 10 and 11!

I really apologize to my Secret Elf. I should have found time to post and show all these great goodies sooner. I've just been having some jam-packed days and can't seem to fit it all in. I love each and every thing that my Secret Elf has given me!

So let's start:

DAY 8
This day my Secret Elf gifted me my favorite peppermints. These are the kind that melt in your mouth! In a very cute bucket!




DAY 9
Saturday was one of the most stressful days of the season for me. How would I ever have made it thru without chocolate? And not just any chocolate - Nuggets! Just what got me thru this day. I love the tin, and especially the paper my Elf used to cover it.



DAY 10
Wow! I have never seen anything like these flowers! Huge! They are absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to have the time to put these to use.




Day 11
My gift today just put a smile on my face. It's a gray day outside, and I love the colors of this embellishment kit! Bright yellows and oranges. How does my Elf know my favorite colors?????


I am so excited to find out who my secret elf is tomorrow. I have a few ideas, but can't narrow it down, yet. BUT I am also sad that there will be no more Secret Elf after tomorrow. This has been such a fun thing to do. I think all of us mad Swappers are game for another round on another holiday. Can't wait to see what we do next!

Days 5, 6 and 7

What am I going to do after day 12 and there are no more fun things to show you?

Every day since I started opening my Secret Elf gifts, I have had a smile 'in my heart.' If I'm not always smiling on my face, there is still that happy place very close to the surface.

Day 5 my Secret Elf brought to me a great body scrub and fun washcloth to go with it. Smells like chocolate. Divine!



Day 6 my Secret Elf must have special powers, 'cause she looked deep in my heart and found one of my secret wishes. It's a small thing, but I was gifted a whole spool of double stitched Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon. This ribbon has been on my wish list for a while, but it always gets pushed off my orders, making room for other priorities. I LOVE this ribbon - Chocolate Chip is one of my favorite colors. It matches the color of my eyes!




And finally, Day 7. (BTW - a special thanks to Amy for showing me how to manipulate pictures on my blog - if only it were so easy to manipulate my kids LOL!)



When I opened my gift this morning, I almost cried. I KNOW for a fact now that my Secret Elf has been looking in my windows! Music is a major part of my life. I have been singing and playing the piano forever. This tile she made really symbolizes that.

I hope my Secret Elf understands how much I love her and love her sweet gifts of the past 7 days!

December Hostess Group

I really had a great time with my hostess group this month. We made some fun stuff! If you've never decorated a pop-top can and filled it, you're missing out! This is one of my favorite out-of-the-ordinary gifts to give. Take a safety can opener (you can find them at Wal*Mart for a few dollars. These are the can openers that take the whole lid off the can) and take off the bottom of the can. Fill with any goodies of your choice - trinkets or candies. We used Reeses p-nut butter cups. Stampin Up!'s Crystal Effects is my glue of choice to glue the lid back on the can, but you can also use E-6000 or any other strong adhesive that will hold the can together.

Then, I make the 'bottom' of the can the top of the can. Decorate - as I did here with a circle cut with a circle cutter and a snowflake. Wrap paper around the can and embellish as desired.

Here is a tutorial on the pop-top can, but again, I don't use the 'pop-top- as the top of the can, I use it as the bottom.










Our next project was an acetate box. I've never made these before, but they are so simple and cute, I think there will be many more in my future. I totally CASE'd (copy and share everything!) this design from the very talented Mellisa Sauls. Her blog is one of my fave's!

The box is really easy. Cut a piece of acetate (which you can get at office supply stores - I went to the printing service desk and ask for acetate like they used for catalog covers) 8 1/4 inches by 4 1/4 inches. Score at 2, 4, 6 and 8 inches. Use your bone folder to crease along the score marks. Put sticky strip on the 1/4 inch tab that's left and stick your box together.

For the top of the box I used a piece of card stock sized at 4 1/2 inches square. Score at 1 1/4 inches all the way around. Use the scallop edge punch all the way around. Make a snip on one of the corner score lines so you can fold it into the box shape for the lid. Add DSP and tags as desired.

For the bottom of the box, use a piece of card stock sized at 4 inches square. Score at 1 inch all the way around. Snip and assemble.


I really love this next card. Easy Peasy, but oh so elegant.

I can't show you the last project we made, yet, because I sent it to someone special - I'm a secret elf for someone in my group. And if I posted the picture, she would immediately know who I am. When it's all said and done, I'll point you to a blog where you can see what I have been up to this month.

Secret Elf Days 2, 3, 4

One thing that drives me crazy on Blogger is that I can never tell what it's going to do with my pictures - or how to get them where I want them! Oh well. We'll start with Day 4 and go backwards! I was THRILLED to see these cute little tags this morning. I think I am the only one in Stampin' Up!'s demo land that doesn't have this stamp set. Nor have I had time to make any tags, etc. These will be well loved and well used this season.

I also LOVE the fabric that my secret elf used to make these gift bags. I have wheels churning with ideas to use the fabric.




Here's Day 3


I just can't tell you how exciting it is to know that there is going to be a 'little something' waiting for me every day! How could someone know just what would be so perfect???? I have wanted these designer brads - but they always gets pushed down to the bottom of my list! And to see it in real life is so much better! AND I got some of each kind! WOW!!!! Thank you, secret elf!



Day 2



I had to get up early Saturday morning and head out to a Christmas Choir practice. #1, I am NOT an early morning person. #2, I was grumpy. T-h-e-n I remembered that there was something waiting for me. And not only was there 'something', but it was CHOCOLATE! There was no better way to start this day. Yummy, yummy! One of the chocolates was called Almond and Caramel. It was one of the most decadent things I have ever tasted. Good thing there was only one LOL!

Secret Elf Day 1

My dear swap-a-holic friends and I are doing a 12 Days of Christmas. Names were drawn and we sent out packages with fun stuff for the 12 Days.

My package arrived many days ago, but I was a GOOD girl and didn't peek! I'm so glad, 'cause now the surprises are so much better!

Here's my day 1 surprise - a beautiful ornament. Music is one of my loves in life, so this ornament really is meaningful.

THANK YOU SECRET ELF!

Lookee what I made!

So, yesterday afternoon I was teaching piano lessons to my friend's children. My friend told me that she was looking for a cute idea to cover a big candy bar. She had 8 of them that she needed to cover as a thank you for some friends. I had just seen this really cute idea over on Dawn Griffith's blog. I knew my friend was stressed for time, so I took the candy bars and played around with Dawn's idea and although it is almost identical, I like the red ribbon on the bottom. Easy Peasy!

(Dawn was covering small candy bars, and I used one of the large bars - you know, the ones that cost over $1.00 usually)

I used the 1 3/4" punch for the white of the eyes (punch an extra one and cut it in half for the eyelids). Use the 1" punch for the black part. The nose is 1 1/4" punch cut in half. I used the 1/2" punch for the mouth. The hat is a piece of black card stock cut at 5" X 3 1/4". To form the top of the hat, cut away 1 3/4" X 1" on the sides of the hat. Draw white lines on the hat, middle of the flowers and on the eyes. The flowers on the hat are also a punch, punched out of Real Red card stock from Stampin' Up! The ribbon is Real Red Grosgrain.

More Simplicity

My mother doesn't like all the layers that I think are so cute on cards! But she likes me to make cards for her and I love making cards for her. Recently I put together a batch of cards to send to her. I made several of these 3 cards.

I love the new Pocket Silhouettes set and think it really worked well on these cards.

One Layer Card

Back to my swap cards: I was part of a swap at Stampin! Up's convention for one layer cards. Only one layer of cardstock and one embellishment. This is actually my favorite kind of card. I love to see what I can come up with using minimal supplies.

I stamped the flowers using craft ink on Kraft cardstock. Then I took a fine tipped black marker and dotted the centers of the flower. I thought that paper piercing would set off the gingham ribbon. And voila'! My one layer card.

Hoo-Wee!

I was nominated by three people for this award:



Rachel
Samantha
Tracy

I don't know what to say - I've only had my blog up and going a very short time. I'm just thrilled that people are reading my blog and like what they see here!

The rules that go along with this award are:
1. The winner may put the logo on their blog.
2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to their blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

I am really torn because I have so many blogs that I love and I don't want anyone to be hurt because I didn't chose their blog!

What I am going to do, tho, is to direct your attention to blogs and artwork of some very special ladies. I got to know them before Stampin' Up!'s convention this year. We started chatting with each other on Splitcoast Stampers. We are all professed Swap-a-holics! We are still chatting on a daily basis, and these are some of my new BFF's!

Please take a look. I know you will love their work as much as I do!
Amy - A New Song
Amy - Not Just Another Stampin' Blog
Crissy - Scrapbooking Fool
Ellie - Create Release Smile
Lisa - Lisa's Corner
Lisa - Caffeine Induced Musings...
Paula - Scrapshappen Gallery
Sharon - Roaming Stamper
Rhonda - The Stampin' Bunny

Birthday Card

Wednesday was my upline, Pam Bert's, birthday. I didn't have time to stamp a card for her, but pulled one out of my stash. This is a card that I made for a 'Wow card' swap at convention. It looks like there are tiny blue dots - but those are dots of glitter. Very sparkly in real life.

This is a tri-fold card. Untie the ribbon and the top and bottom 'unfold.'

Easy Christmas Cards

My hostess club this month requested 'Easy' Christmas cards. The layout for this card above was cased from the awesome Lauren Meader. I thought the Winter Post set and a quick rub-on from Season of Cheer were a perfect match.




This card (again, above. I can't figure out how to get typing ABOVE the cards, today!) was the easiest one, but it is so elegant. I paired 2 of the papers from Ski Slope, layered the felt flurries snowflakes and added a silver brad. Then I added another rub-on saying from Seasons of Cheer. Can't get any easier than that!



I CASE'd this card - and I can't for the life of me find out who I CASE'd it from! I'm usually really good about saving the info from cards that I see and like. I love the little 'presents' on the top of the card. If the owner of this original sees this card, would you please let me know so I can give you credit. Paper comes from the Holiday Treasures designer series paper. Saying is a stamp from Home for Christmas.



Again, another CASE. This one comes from Melissa's blog. Scroll down to the end of this post to see her Jingle All The Way card. I just used rub-ons from Season of Cheer again and paper from Ski Slope. Topped it off with Real Red grosgrain ribbon.




It was so hard to get a decent picture of this project! We used cardstock vellum and stamped the snowflake from Winter Post using Silver Encore. Then we sprinkled Irridescent Ice embossing powder over that and heated. In real life it's just gorgeous! These little sour cream containers are so easy to make. Click on the link to find Beate's great tutorial.

Have y'all noticed a new look to my blog? I have to give a great shout-out to Debbi (aka motherof6 on SCS). I posted on a thread there, looking for help with my blog. She responded within hours, and within a few more hours, Voila! New blog look and all the widgets in place. Thanks, Debbi!

She also has a great blog! Check her out!

October Hostess Club

We made this project last month for my hostess club. I LOVE these stationary boxes!

Jackie Topa's instructions are here.

And here is a great video with hands' on instructions.

And when I saw Allison's box, I knew that I wanted to use the Hawaii Papaya paper. Perfect for fall!

Here's the 'aerial' view:


Here are close ups of the cards:

3x3 Cards

Tags

Holiday Mini Swap

Can you see a theme for my posts? They have all been for swaps. Hence the reason I am part of a group on SCS called Swappers Anonymous. We are all Swap-a-holics! I've slowed down on the swaps for the past while, but did want to post the cards that I have made.

I think this card looks so much better in real life. I didn't use a flash, but it still washed out the warmth of the watercoloring. I needed a ribbon to match, but didn't have any chocolate chip taffeta, which was my first choice, so I colored the white taffeta ribbon with my creamy caramel marker. There is also paper piercing around the watercolor paper, which adds some nice depth to the card, but it didn't show up very well in the picture.

Big Shot Swap Card

I want to explain this card before you look closely at it. I made it for a Big Shot swap. The reason the pink flower looks off-center is because I took a picture of the card sitting open, hoping you could tell that there was a hole punched in the polk-a-dotted layer that goes clear thru the front of the card, and the pink flower is adhered to the back of the card. But you can't tell - the flower just looks skee-wampus!

Mini Album Swap

This is a mini album using the Bella Rose Designer Paper, Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip paper. I made it for a Mini Album Swap when I attended Stampin' Up!'s convention last July. It was A LOT of work. Each of the pages is made from an envelope, and the tabs on top of the page are actually attached to a piece of cardstock that fits down into the open envelope.

The best thing about making these albums was that I really got a feel for using my Bind-It-All. This is a wonderful little machine that puts the bindings on.

New Catalog Swap

This is another card done with the set, A Flower For All Seasons. I sent this card in to a swap using new sets from the Fall/Winter catalog. These little images are so fast to watercolor - which is my favorite technique to use when making cards.

I used Pink Pirouette , Chocolate Chip and Whisper White papers. Also, the brown spotted paper is from the Always DSP from SU.

Cute Pocket Card

This is one of my favorite new sets in the Stampin' Up! Fall Winter '08 catalog, A Flower For All Seasons. I used Kiwi Kiss paper and Whisper White paper. I think this is one of my favorite cards ever.