Tin full of Chocolate Nuggets

Last week was the third class for the Big Shot dies. We made projects using the Birds & Blooms Sizzlets. I love those little dies, but they aren't exactly my idea of perfect Thanksgiving and Christmas type pieces! They seemed to work out though! The bird made a nice Christmas "dove," and using coordinating the Autumn Vine designer series papers with the "blooms" dies, they seemed to come together for a nice fall project! Kinda cool how you can make anything work just by using the right colors and accessories - call it Art!! Anyway, I had gotten these tins from an online store, and the little candies are Hershey's nuggets. Then I wrapped a 1" x 3" piece of designer series paper around each nugget to coordinate it with the rest of the tin decor! The stamped saying is from Best Yet, a Level 1 Hostess set.

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

Julie

Winter Post Reindeer!

I'm back! I couldn't believe that it was Monday since the last posting!! I knew I skipped a day, but I don't know where those other 48 hours went to??! So... I saw this super easy-looking card with the Reindeer from the stamp set, Winter Post (super-nice, classic set from the Holiday Mini Catalog). I could SOO make that card in a jiff, right? Well, after trying all my circle punches, and a half an hour later, I figured out how to layer the reindeer. The reindeer is punched from the 1 3/4" circle. Then I used the Coluzzle for the Riding Hood Red layer. Then I used the Scallop Circle from the Pennant Die from the Big Shot. Probably, a little spendy for the just-starting-out-stamper to recreate this card!! But, gotta LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this striped grosgrain ribbon (also from the Holiday Mini Catalog). It's a great, bold look!

I hope you have a great weekend, and get some time to stamp some fun stuff. Thanks for stopping by,

Julie

Scandinavian Mittens!

My swapping friend Elisa made this AWESOME card! I always look forward to receiving her cards when we do a swap! I know a lot of people from the classes that I've recently had have really admired this card! She added a lot of great touches to make it special! She embossed in white for the mittens and the snowflakes on the background - really made those stand out, especially when you see the card in person! I think the mittens, being cut out and hanging from the silver cord really gave the card another little extra fun factor!

I think the topper of all cool on this card was the glittered icicles over the Let it Snow saying. The icicle is made by putting Crytal Effects on waxed paper, in icicle-looking form, and sprinkling glitter on it. Then let it dry, peel off the waxed paper, and stick it on your project! - Super Cool!!

The set is Scandinavian Season from the Holiday Mini Catalog, and the colors are Bashful Blue and Riding Hood Red - All Stampin' Up! supplies as usual!!

Thanks for checking in!

Julie

Sneak Peek of Final Big Shot Class

I found a card, almost exact to this, exploring some of my favorite Blogs last week, and was WOWed when I saw this!! What a clean-line, pretty card!! So, it will be one of the projects for this Thursday night's Third, and final, Big Shot series class! Not that we won't ever use the Big Shot, or it's dies again - FAR FROM!! - You'll be seeing LOTS more from the Big Shot! But, this will be the official last class for those that purchased the Big Shot Special kit. We will have two other projects - maybe another sneak peek will show up later this week - and the class is FREE for those who bought the kit, or you may purchase the Birds and Blooms Sizzlits dies with the class for $30, or attend the class for a straight fee of $10. Email me for more details!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week~

Julie

Deck The Halls!

Sorry the photo came out a little dark here. These are couple of Super-great cards made from my demonstrator friend Liz. This was not her first choice of stamp sets when we chose who got what, but she sure did an awesome job for stamping with her "not-first choice!" She used the Ski Slope Designer Series Papers and coordinated everything from there. The card on the left is a panel background, just creating strips of Designer Series Papers. And, you can't see it very well, but she added glitter and a rhinestone brad to the gift stamp for a little bling! The card on the right has a similar idea as the pumpkin placecard from yesterday's post. She stamped the ornament three times and punched it out with a circle punch; then she folded them in half and stuck them all together to create an ornament with dimension. Of course, she added some bling with the red hemp twine and the bling from the pretties kit.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Julie

Thanksgiving's Coming!

I saw this cute idea, and adapted it a little to make it my own. I thought it will be cute to set out these little place cards for the Thanksgiving table. I used the Wide Oval Punch four times, folded them in half and Sticky-Stripped them together; underneath the pumpkin are swirls from the Scribbles and Swirls Big Shot Sizzlit. I put a smidge of Close to Cocoa for the stem and mini-glue-dotted a piece of olive grosgrain to accent the stem. And the little strip of Designer Series Paper came from the Frosty Day papers. It was just the right color to accent the other browns I used. Anyway, I like the dimension of the pumpkin popping off the placecard! It's pretty quick idea to reproduce a few, so maybe there will actually be more than one on my table when Thanksgiving arrives!!

Oh, and, of course, for the stamping - the Happy Thanksgiving saying is from the set "Holidays & Wishes." It's a great set that takes you from Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year's to Valentine's Day, and has "sweet little one" and "from the heart." An awesome set that will get you all the way through the Spring!!

Thanks for stopping by~

Julie

More Christmas Cards!

Here are some great cards I received in a swap from my upline, Tami. I wasn't sure that I liked this set when I first saw it in the Holiday Mini Catalog. But I really like the samples I've seen more and more! Funny how sometimes a set will "grow" on you the more you see it used! I especially like how these two cards have NO coloring in - making them a good choice to reproduce for Christmas cards - and love the little bit of extra bling with Felt Flurries and Chunky Glitter!! Love the bold look of the Riding Hood Red Striped Ribbon too!

Hope you're having some fun making, or maybe still planning, your Christmas cards!

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie

Another Snowman!!

I know I've skipped over lots of Fall and Thanksgiving ideas (and I'll be back to those!), but here's another Snowman!! I kinda liked this flap card idea - you still can get two from one 8 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock. It's a great little card for either a quick note, or for a gift card holder and a quick note. Gotta love "quick" notes!! The dotted bashful blue designer series papers(DSP) is actually from the Summer Picnic DSP! Gotta check out both sides of those papers - and think outside the box! And the snowflake is a chipboard piece that's covered in white craft ink and glitter! Love the glitter!! The set is a Level 2 hostess set - Deer Friends. At Friday's class we made a card with the gingerbread man from this same set. I really like how the circle punches make these little stamps so fun and easy to use.

Hope you have a great weekend - I know I'm looking forward to Monday AND Tuesday off for Veteran's Day - Stamping Time!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Julie

Sneak Peek for Friday's Technique Class

So, of course, I changed around the original flap card I made a couple weekends ago for the Technique Class. It has the same basic parts, but it's now a Snowman Flap Card. This is the one we'll make on Friday night (if you're coming, and have RSVP'd for The Technique Class)! Inside it has a gift card, but it can be just a regular card too! It uses the Frosty Day Designer Series Papers. - Gotta love those designer series papers to help you with the color combinations! And, I'm finding that besides Designer Series Papers, I can't live without at least one punch. This one uses LOTS!!

I hope to see you at the Friday class, and thanks for stopping by!

Julie

More Christmas Cards!

These are the other two cards we made at the Christmas card class on Sunday. - A little bit country and a little bit cutsey! A few more layers than the other two we made, but still pretty quick and easy cards. We used punches on both, and the large snowflake on the background of the snowman card was punched from the Big Shot.

It's not too late to plan a Christmas card class for you and your friends to get together! Call or email me, and we can plan what you'd like to do. You choose what you'd like to do, and I'll prepare all the supplies and materials. For the 20 cards we made (5 each of the 4 designs), most people finished between 2 and 3 hours! It was a nice and relaxing get together, and now each of them have 20 Chrsitmas cards ready to send!

Thanks for stopping by!

Julie

Christmas Cards!

Today my stampin' friend Cheryl hosted an awesome group of stampers at her house making Christmas Cards. Everyone made five each of four different card designs. These are two of the four designs they made. These two were simple designs, but with an elegant touch. Don't know if the picture shows it very well, but the Snowflake card has a touch of glitter on the center snowflake, and the hunter card is gold embossed. Sometimes just those little added touches make a simple card look finished!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Julie

Top Note Die Ornament

This is one of the other projects we made at the Big Shot class last Thursday. It was a CASE from my awesome stampin' friend Elizabeth, who always thinks up cool projects!!

We used the divider sheets that are sold with the magazine file boxes to make the "ornament/tag." Then we also used a chipboard star with oval punched pieces and a Felt Flurries Snowflake. The "peace" comes from a Big Shot die called "Join in the Cheer." It comes with the four words peace, joy, love and cheer. It comes as part of the kit offer.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend, and don't forget to turn your clocks back for your extra hour!!

Julie