January Scrapbook Showcase

With the new year, I'm going to do a new feature on my blog for the month of January......a daily Scrapbook Showcase. This is in addition to some miscellaneous posts of other projects and topics. Be sure to check back each day to see the featured scrapbook page (or 2-page layout). You can always subscribe to my blog too so you don't miss a day. Keep in mind that 31 days of consecutive posting is no easy task (especially when I work full-time, chase 2 crazy kids at night, and I'm still trying to train my husband) ;-)

If I happen to miss a day or two, please go easy on me as sometimes "life happens". If I do miss, I promise to post 2 pages (or layouts) the following day.

To whet your appetite (pardon the pun considering the theme of the page!) for the showcase, I'm posting this page today. This was my son stuffing his face when he was 10 months old. If you're like me, you probably put on a few pounds these last few weeks while eating all that yummy holiday food, so I thought this page was an appropriate one to start with.

Stamp sets: fun with shapes (retired), too terrific tags (retired)

Inks: night of navy, versamark, pastels

Cardstock: real red, night of navy, pumpkin pie, whisper white

Non-Stampin' Up! Embellishments: rub-ons, cardstock stickers, fiber

Looks Like Spring Notecards

I created this set of notecards awhile back using the retiring Looks Like Spring stamp set. It's hard to believe this stamp set (and matching punch) is leaving. It's such a great set and I still use it quite a bit.

I gave these cards as gifts to two of my friends who sell Mary Kay and Tastefully Simple, figuring they can give them to their customers. All cards were created using Stampin' Up! whisper white notecards and a variety of retired designer paper. Greetings came from both retired and current stamp sets. All stamp images Stampin' Up! 1990-2007.

Little Box of 3x3 Cards

This is a project I made quite a few months back but have been wanting to share. It's a little box that holds three 3x3 cards & their envelopes. This was a CASE from SplitCoast. Unfortunately I was unable to find the original source despite some digging. I'll try to post some measurements for the box tomorrow as I'm heading to bed now.

Stamp set: polka dots & paisley
Inks: elegant eggplant, almost amethyst, old olive
Cardstock: elegant eggplant, almost amethyst, whisper white, almost amethyst designer series paper
Embellishments: whisper white & elegant eggplant grosgrain ribbon

Stamper's Showcase #7948

Nearly every day, I log into Stampin' Up!'s demonstrator website to see what's new and read any announcements. I also check out their daily Stamper's Showcase, where the company typically showcases a few select cards & other hand-stamped items that have been submitted by demonstrators. Imagine my surprise last Thursday when I saw one of my cards featured. They selected a purely pomegranate version of the card I posted on my blog back in September........see that post for the stamping recipe.......
(http://firefliesandflutterbyes.blogspot.com/2007/09/september-stamp-club-projects.html)


Though this is the 3rd time one of my cards has been featured on the Showcase (which is crazy because I think I've only submitted a handful of cards thanks to my upline Julie!), it's still so exciting. Who doesn't like 15 minutes of fame?!!!

One More "Friend"ly Christmas Card

I received one more hand-stamped Christmas card in the mail today so I wanted to share it as well, especially since this was made by my 3rd upline, Kim. Kim is super-talented and is such a great upline (along with my 2nd & 1st upline demonstrators, Julie & Ann!). As one of the top demonstrators for Stampin' Up!, it's no surprise that Kim has a HUGE downline group composed of several tiers. If she sent all of her downline a Christmas card, she was one busy lady this year! I love that Kim used pink instead of red on this Christmas card and she added that little bit of bling (rhinestone brad) in the center of the ornament. All stamp images are Stampin' Up!

Wall Art

Over the past year, I've done several wall art projects. Thought I'd share them with you. If you haven't done any of these, give them a try because they're alot of fun to put together. They also make great gifts for newlyweds and babies. I think I picked up all the frames at Wal Mart. I really love the floating glass ones - they looks so nice on a wall.

Stamp sets: peacefl wishes, letterpress alphabet
Inks: cranberry crisp (retired), old olive, versamark
Cardstock: cranberry crisp (retired), old olive, basic black, whisper white
Embellishments: black brads, old olive buttons, cranberry crisp stiched ribbon (retired)



Stamp sets: doodle this, circle stamp (unknown brand)
Inks: whisper white, basic black
Cardstock: whisper white, real red, basic black
Embellishments: white brads (non-Stampin' Up!), white gel pen
Tools: round tab punch


Stamp Sets: warm words (stamped in white on letters so it's hard to see)
Inks: whisper white
Markers: basic black
Cardstock: brocade blue, certainly celery, basic black, sarah designer series paper (retired)
Embellishments: old olive brads, certainly celery grosgrain ribbon


Sorry for the glare in this picture. I made this one for my newly remodeled bathroom.


Stamp sets: doodle this, polka dots & paisley
Inks: chocolate chip, whisper white, versamark
Cardstock: chocolate chip, bashful blue, whisper white
Embellishments: on board simon lower chipboard (for tracing only), bashful blue brads, white gel pen
Tools: round tab punch

This was a wedding gift to my cousin. The last name of the new couple is "Otto", thus the "O".

Stamp sets: doodle that, polka dots & paisley

Inks: whisper white, basic black

Cardstock: whisper white, basic black, brushed silver

Embellishments: on board simon lower chipboard (for tracing only), white gel pen

Tools: round tab punch

13 Days & Counting!

13 days and counting 'til the new Stampin' Up! catalog goes current. I received my copy a couple of days ago (one of the perks of being a demonstrator!) and I've been through it several times already. Each time I discover something new in the samples that I didn't notice before. All I can say about the 2008 Spring-Summer Collection is "WOW"!!! Love the new stamp sets, papers, and embellishments! Plus, we have so many new products that just scream "Scrapbook Me"! My wish list is pretty darn long. Luckily I'm a demonstrator so I'll earn everything for free!

If your wish list is mile-long too, consider signing up as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. There are tons of perks including discounts, commissions, free stamp sets, sneak peeks, an awesome demonstrator website, monthly magazines, conventions, etc. See me for details!

Christmas Card Stamp-a-Stack 2007

The following are cards that we did at this year's Christmas Card Stamp-a-Stack. We stamped 4 each of these 5 designs. If you happen to get one of these cards in the mail from me, act surprised!

This one was designed by my upline, Ann. She and I shared the designing and cutting work for our separate classes.

Stamp set: the snowflake spot

Inks: bayou blue, soft sky

Cardstock: bayou blue, soft sky, whisper white

Embellishments: bayou blue double stitched grosgrain ribbon, silver brad

Tools: ticker corner punch

Stamp sets: in the spotlight, hugs & wishes, priceless
Inks: bravo burgandy, versamark
Cardstock: bravo burgandy, very vanilla, vellum cardstock
Embellishments: bravo burgandy wide grosgrain ribbon, irridescent ice embossing powder, gold brad
Tools: five petal flower punch

This card, which was designed by my upline Ann, has very vanilla card base mounted on a single 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" burgandy base.

Whimsical Tip #1: For this card, Ann wanted a burgandy ink under the irridescent ice embossing powder, but she doesn't have burgandy craft ink. So, she improvised and found a way to use her classic ink pad as a craft ink pad. Ink your stamp with VersaMark ink and then ink your stamp with your classic ink pad. Now stamp. The result is a "wetter" classic ink to which embossing powder will stick.

Stamp set: peaceful wishes

Inks: garden green, purely pomegranate

Cardstock: garden green, purely pomegranate, whisper white

Embellishment: purely pomegranate double stitched grosgrain ribbon

Whimsical Tip #2: The "berries" on this card are stamped using the eraser end of a pencil. Simply dab the eraser on the ink pad and stamp as normal. Perfect little circles!

Stamp Sets: short & sweet, polka dot, pick a petal

Inks: close to cocoa, real red

Cardstock: close to cocoa, chocolate chip, real red, whisper white

Embellishments: real red grosgrain ribbon, white gel pen

Tools: word window punch

Stamp sets: season of joy, short & sweet

Inks: certainly celery, versamark

Cardstock: pretty in pink, certainly celery, wild wasabi, whisper white

Embellishments: pretty in pink brads

Tools: slit punch

Little Bag O' Tags & Card Candy

Each year at Christmas, I hand-stamp an item for my stamp club members in lieu of giving them cards. I figure they'd rather have something they can use. This year I stamped a set of gift tags from the Tags For All stamp set and enclosed them in a little cello bag with a topper. Because I had to stamp so many tags, I kept them all simple with a single color per tag. Some of the tags are adorned with ribbon.

Stamp sets: tags for all, baroque motifs

Inks: real red, wild wasabi, bashful blue

Cardstock: real red, wild wasabi, bashful blue, whisper white

Embellishments: real red grosgrain, red gingham, wild wasabi double stitched grosgrain, french blue grosgrain (retired)

Last year, my club members each got a package of card candy made from our small & large tag punches and several of our now retired tag stamp sets in bold bright colors. The tags can be used to embellish a card or scrapbook page. Here's a photo of the finished product.

Blog Candy!!!!

Any minute now, my blog will log 2,000 hits. What a milestone! I also noticed that I've logged more than 50 posts since I started this blog in August. Who would have thought it? When I first began my foray into the blogging world, I had no idea if I could even get one person interested. Now I have a small, but loyal following and to show my gratitude, I'm offering some blog candy. All you have to do is add a comment to this post by 9:00pm (central time) this Tuesday, December 11th. U.S. residents only please! Only one entry per person. Please include the following in your comment:

1) Your name & email address (required as I'll contact the winner via email)

2) Your blog address (if you have one)

3) Your favorite Stampin' Up! stamp set

Now for a look at the goods....

{swing card, altered brag book, paper-filled ornament, scalloped ornament, length of wide ribbon from seaside ribbon originals (retired), jumbo paper clip bookmark, sanding block}

Feel free to add a post to your blog advertising my blog candy.

Thanks for reading! Tara

Build-a-Flower

Because I didn't have alot of time today (stamping while my toddler was napping), I broke out my build-a-flower accents and elements kit. I did manage to meet my goal for today: a 2-page spread and a card. They aren't my most creative, but they're cute anyway.

Stamp set: short & sweet

Inks: elegant eggplant

Cardstock: whisper white

Other: build-a-flower accents & elements, wild wasabi double stitched ribbon

Stamp set: doodle alphabet (retired), doodle numbers (retired)

Inks: rose red, tempting turquoise

Cardstock: rose red, old olive, tempting turquoise, petals & paisleys designer series paper (retiring January 2008)

Embellishments: old olive brads, build-a-flower accents & elements

Tools: 1" circle punch

Other: flower rub-ons (Marcella K)

November Club Projects

November's trio of club projects....cards suitable for winter birthdays, but not Christmas-themed. I must admit that I had a little bit of a hard time with this request. I just don't have that many sets that are 'winter-ish'. In fact, I had to borrow the lovely as a tree set for the first card. I actually changed the 2nd card (reindeer) for the club but failed to keep a sample of it for myself so I'm posting a slightly modified version.

Peaceful Wishes: We used the crayon resist technique on this card to creat the snowy ground.

Stamp sets: lovely as a tree, peaceful wishes

Inks: basic black, whisper white, soft sky

Cardstock: not quite navy, whisper white

Embellishments: black brads

Tools: ticket corner punch, brayer, white crayon

Merry Christmas Deer:

Stamp sets: merry & bright, season of joy

Inks: basic black, wild wasabi

Markers: read red, creamy caramel

Cardstock: wild wasabi, real red, whisper white

Embellishments: real red grosgrain ribbon

Snow: This card features a small suspension window. The reverse side of the snowflake says "Happy Birthday".

Stamp sets: snow wheel, all through the year, think happy thoughts

Inks: silver encore, bordering blue, night of navy

Cardstock: night of navy, whisper white, brushed silver

Embellishments: white grosgrain ribbon, silver cord

Christmas Cards - Blast From the Past

I decided to bring out photos of my Christmas cards from my first 2 years as a stamper and demonstrator. Enjoy this blast from the past!



Stamp sets: snowman fun wheel, frosty
Inks: basic black, versamark
Markers: real red
Cardstock: real red, whisper white
Embellishments: dazzling diamonds glitter, white embossing powder, silver organdy ribbon (non-Stampin' Up!)
Tools: square punch

Stamp sets: peaceful wishes, all-year cheer I

Inks: basic black, whisper white

Cardstock:tempting turquoise, basic black, whisper white

Tools: 1/8" circle punch

Saturday, Part 2 - Garden Silhouettes

Just got the Garden Silhouettes hostess set, though it's due to retire in less than a month. Wish I hadn't waited so long to get it, but it's one I'll use even after it's retirement. It's also another first for me....first time for me to use the new basic gray cardstock and ink. I'm not normally a gray person, but I've seen this color combo (basic gray, purely pomegranate, soft sky) before and it really caught my eye. This card measures 5 x 5-1/2". I used the corner rounder to make the soft scalloped edge and I detail cut the pomegranate flowers to lie on top (tedious, but oh so worth it!). Interestingly enough, I used no ribbon, brads, or other embellishments and I'm not feeling the urge that it's missing something. That's pretty rare for me.

Stamp sets: garden silhouettes, leaf prints wheel, it's your birthday

Ink: basic gray, purely pomegranate

Cardstock: basic gray, purely pomegranate, soft sky, whisper white

Tools: corner rounder, paper snips

This 2nd card is a swing (flip flop) card (directions on SplitCoastStampers - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/swingcard.php). I haven't made a swing card in a long, long time. In fact, I came across some extra swing card bases from a workshop I did about 2 years ago and I was inspired to use it. Here's the result. The base is stamped with the leaf stamp from best blossoms (retired sell-a-bration) in both rose red ink and versamark. Once again, the embellishments are kept to a minimum (one brad) .

Front (closed):

Inside (open):

Stamp sets: best blossoms (retired), garden silhouettes, hugs & wishes
Inks: rose red, so saffron, old olive
Cardstock: rose red, so saffron, old olive, whisper white
Embellishments: yellow rhinestone circle brad

Saturday, Part 1

I altered the front (shown) and back covers of a brag book. These make cute, quick, and inexpensive gifts. Change the colors of the flowers to pink or blue and these could pass as baby brag books.

Stamp set: baroque motifs
Ink: mellow moss, purely pomegranate
Cardstock: mellow moss, whisper white


Of course I had to try making one of these adorable paper bows. It was actually easier than I thought. Directions on SplitCoastStampers:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/paperbow.php

Cardstock: dashing designer series paper
Other: brads, pop-up glue dots

Glass and Scalloped Ornaments

This year I made several styles of ornaments to sell and give as gifts. Both ideas came from SplitCoastStampers.

Glass Ornaments - For both versions, I cut strips of cardstock (both stamped and plain) and ran them through a crimper, then hand rolled the paper pieces around a pencil before stuffing them into the top opening of a "create-your-own-ornament" (Michaels). Tags were made using the Merry & Bright stamp set, markers, and scallop punch and were tied on with silver cord. Fake snow was added on the tags as a decorative touch. Ornaments are displayed on circles of cardstock.

*Snowman (blue) version - I used the snowflake stamp from All through the year and stamped it on white cardstock with night of navy, brocade blue, and silver ink before cutting and crimping. I also cut & crimped night of navy, brocade blue, and silver cardstock. Ornament hangs on tree with the white organdy ribbon (retired).

*Reindeer (red) version: I used several images from Season of Joy and stamped them on white cardstock with read red, bashful blue, and wild wasabi ink before cutting and crimping. I also cut & crimped real read, bashful blue, and wild wasabi cardstock. Ornament hangs on tree with wild wasabi double stitched ribbon.


Scalloped Ornaments:

Ornaments were made from 8 scallops punched from Dashing, real red, and old olive cardstock. Ornament hangs from tree with linen thread.

Advent Calendar Box

Check out this adorable advent calendar box I put together. The best part is that the entire thing comes into a kit by Making Memories ($14.95 at Target). I thought about altering it in my own style, but they have such great pieces in the kit, that only did a slight variation on their sample. The kit comes with a chipboard box with drawers, patterned paper squares, poinsetta flowers, leaves, holly berry leaves and brads, chipboard buttons, rub-ons, and ribbon. I put the entire thing together in under an hour. Now I just need to fill mine up and my kids will be able to enjoy it everyday until Christmas.

New Rubbah!

There's nothing better than new stamps, except FREE stamps! As a thank you from Stampin' Up! all demonstrators recently received the Time Well Spent stamp set. This stamp set is a Level 3 hostess set in the new catalog coming out in January. The line art images will be great for coloring, whether it's with markers, watercolor crayons, etc. I finally got a chance to play with the set today and put together these 2 cards. Time spent stamping is definitely "time well spent"!

Stamp sets: time well spent, polka dot

Inks & markers: rose red, regal rose, gable green, summer sun

Cardstock: whisper white, rose red, regal rose

Gingerbread People

Today was the 2nd annual Kieninger Family gingerbread cookie baking day. They ought to make this an official holiday! Due to a hard-to-read recipe from last year, I did a little internet surfing to find a new one. I ended up printing one of the first recipes that popped up. This one was from Joyofbaking.com. Got pretty lucky as these cookies were nothing but oh-so-yummy, melt-in-your-mouth bliss! I think we'll stick with this recipe from now on as they were the perfect texture and had the perfect amount of spice. They even have a recipe for the icing. And now for a link to the recipe:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/GingerbreadMen.html

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas around here. Seth loves wearing a Santa hat and walks around the house saying "Ho, Ho, Ho". We put the Christmas decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving. The kids enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree. This year, we opted for a fake tree. For years I resisted. Nothing beats the look and smell of a fresh conifer. However, remembering to water it and dealing with the endless litter of dropped needles on the floor was trying, not to mention having to fork out cash for one and having to string and trouble-shoot lights on the darned thing every year. That's probably not a problem for most people, but when you are a perfectionist like me, it's a long process. I have to make sure there are lights evenly distributed, even inside near the trunk.

Now with the fake tree, the light job is done for me. And I must say that our fake tree looks pretty awesome. The fake "needles" even scratched me when I was putting on the ornaments, just like a real one. However I'm still not sure I saved alot of time this year. It took me hours (no kidding) to bend each little branch and branchlet into the perfect position. Brian tried to help, but I just had to redo his sections again! That's my anal-retentive side shining through! I'm seriously thinking that after Christmas we should just carry the tree downstairs whole and throw a sheet over it until next year, thus avoiding the need to do a ton of reshaping next year. Unfortunately I don't think it will fit through the door at the bottom of the stairs. Darn the luck! Oh and it figures, our fake tree has the last laugh. After getting it set up, I still had to do some vacuuming to pick up the fake needles that dropped as I was shaping it. And the sad thing is that those needles don't have that awesome pine smell! It's a good thing we got it on clearance last year as it's here to stay.