Got Merry?

Isn't this just the cutest little thing? I love this stamp set. It's got lots of little sayings that you can use all through the year. This is another sneak peek at one of the 3-D items for my Holiday Stamp Camp. The box is actually a 2, 4, 6, 8 box with a small scored top to resemble a milk carton. Super easy. Great for teacher or co-worker gifts! My girlfriend says it needs malted milk balls inside, LOL!!!

Don't forget -- the deadline for attending my Holiday Stamp Camp is tomorrow, October 19th. If you live in the St. Louis/Alton, IL area, just email me. I've got a few spots left.

Thanks for stopping in. Have a fantastic Monday!!

Linda

Happy Valentine's Day

I know, it's the day after Valentine's Day. I'm a little late sharing my Valentine creations. I made all these cute little Valentine's for my 8 grandchildren who live near me. (My other 4 live in Wisconsin.) Actually there are only 7 treats because Mylah is only 6 months old and doesn't need candy!

My inspiration came from Diana's blog. I used the Sweetheart stamp set (clear-mount) and the cute heart-shaped treat cups offered as a special promotion for Valentine's Day. The other punches I used was the small heart punch from the Occasions Mini and the round tab punch and corner punch from the IB&C. The treats are a 3x3 note card with a 2 x 2 5/8 inch piece of cardstock that slides between the front of the card and the 2 7/8 inch cardstock that holds treat cup. This way it hold the candy in yet the kids can still get it out.

After making these on Sunday afternoon, I decided to deliver them to my grandchildren. To our surprise the weather changed quickly and we found ourselves in the middle of a winter storm. It was lots of fun and the kids were so happy to see Grammy and Grampy show up all snowy with candy!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day with your loved ones.

Linda

Cookie Exchange

I tried something different this month. Instead of holding my two evening stamp-a-stack classes, I combined the two into a fun evening and held a cookie exchange. The ladies came with a dozen cookies for each person and an extra dozen for snacking. You can't have a party without food!! As an appreciation gift for them, I CASEd this cute gift item -- snowman soup. I found it here and it was just too stinking cute to change!! Unfortunately, I didn't have the Holiday Lineup stamp set so I used the retired set Flaky Friends. Everyone loved them.

Here we are making our project. Instead of going down in my basement we stayed in the dining room to enjoy the Christmas tree.





Check out the cookies. They were all delicious and we shared our recipes. It was a fun evening with good friends and good food.



Thanks for stopping by.

Linda

It's Been a Long, Long Time ...

since I shared any photos of what I've been working on. One of my fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrators asked when I was going to post some of the things I'd been working on. So first, I want to share with you a gift item I made for our Gateway 'n Glitter Group's Christmas party. I made this Coaster Caddy which I found on one of my favorite blogs -- S.T.A.R.S.--Sharing The Art of Rubber Stamping. I used one of my favorite DSP's Sweet Always and printed a small 2009 calendar and put pink post-it notes. It was a big hit at our gift exchange.



Another cute gift item that I used for one of my monthly Stamp-a-Stack classes is a set of cards using the Season of Friendship set placed in a magazine holder. The cards turned out great because I went with a four season theme so the finished holder contained 2 cards of each of the four seasons (with envelopes). I found a great tutorial for this here. How do you think it turned out?




Thanks for checking in with me and I'd love to hear your comments.

2009 Create-a-Calendar Class

I have been trying to figure out what to do with Stampin' Up!'s Create-a-Calendar kit since I first saw it in the Holiday Mini Catalog. I'm a sucker for calendars. I usually try to create one each year. One year I made the SU 12x12 scrapbook calendar. It turned out cute but it was so labor-intensive! Another year I made a cute desk calendar using plastic CD cases -- much easier than the scrapbook calendar. It's just hard to come up with something different each year. So I was very excited when I saw that SU had made it easy for me by designing a kit. Unfortunately, I wasn't too excited about the way they were using it. I started searching the blogs that I follow (which is where I get a lot of my inspiration - thanks, ladies!) and found exactly what I wanted. Here is what I found on Jan Tink's blog. If you haven't heard of Jan Tink, you've got to check out her blog. She is my idol!

I changed the front a little to represent the four seasons and I stamped each month with seasonal images. What do you think?


I'll be holding a class for this 2009 Calendar at my house on December 13, 2008 from 9:30-11:00. The cost is $15 which includes the Create-a-Calendar kit. If you are interested, please contact me through my email.

Enjoy the day!!

Holiday Stamp Camp - November 8th

I can't believe it's time for my Annual Holiday Stamp Camp. My fellow demonstrator, Sue, and I have been putting together this stamp camp for about 4 years. It's always well attended -- well, Sue has more customers come than I do but it's always a fun time for both of us. The event is being held at my church. If you are interested in attending, please send me an email.

I wanted to give everyone a "sneak peek" at what Sue and I have designed (cased) for the event. There are 8 projects. Here are the 4 cards everyone will make.

Participants will also make 4 gift items. Here are peeks at 2 of the giftables. The little snowman is a neat gift card holder and the Merry Christmas bag is a "genie" bag.

As an added bonus, everyone will make a mini Name Badge Holder "brag book." I don't have a picture of the brag book. I'll post it this weekend. I made it using the Frosty Days Designer Series Paper. It's adorable if I say so myself.

I'm off to cut paper for our event!

Weekend Fun

I had a free weekend to play with my stamps, paper and inks. I still had to get caught up on my laundry but I definitely had a lot of time to play.

Saturday I started with my new pillow box die. I don't have the Big Shot that Stampin' Up offers. I'm not sure I'm going to invest in it because I have a Cuttlebug. I figured the dies would also work in my Cuttlebug. Well, that was not exactly accurate. The pillow box has creases in it where you need to fold. Unfortunately, the die needs a Sizzix crease pad for it to crease properly and the pad doesn't fit in my Cuttlebug. It still worked using the two cutting pads but some of the creases were cut instead of creased so I had to tape the inside of the box. I guess I may have to rethink investing in the Big Shot.

These pillow boxes are made using the Haiku Designer Series Paper with old olive and pumpkin pie ribbon. Each pillow is filled with chocolate. I made these for my Tuesday night Stamp-a-Stack class. I hope they like them -- who wouldn't like a "pillow" filled with chocolate!