Cupcake Gift Card Holder

Okay so this is too cool for words! I saw it on You Tube and instantly went "I have to make one!!" This was done as a little girls birthday gift, but would suit anyone of any age or gender - for a man I would put more white "icing" and a different top embellishment - maybe a red wooden bead with some green florists wire to make a sort of cherry on top effect??

Is that awesome or what? Almost good enough to eat isn't it! But it gets better - lft up the lolly (sweet/candy) shaped button and ta da.........

It's a gift card holder.

and finally a top view of both pieces, doesn't the rouche ribbon look effective as fake whipped cream?

Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Elegant Soiree DSP

Accessories: Blooms and Birds die, Big Shot, Itty Bitty Shapes punch, Crop-a-dile, hemp twine, Tombow glue (lots!), sticky strip, Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon, Melon Mambo polka dot ribbon (retired)

Non SU: needle & thread, pink sweet button, 10cm Styrofoam ball, small bulldog clip.

Secret Santa

Well Christmas hasn't finished yet - or at least my blog posts about it haven't! Below are the Christmas projects I made for our team's Christmas get together. We had a secret Santa swap to do of a handmade item using all Stampin' Up! products. I chose to make a milk carton holder which held four of the super cute & versatile milk cartons. 

I filled each of the milk cartons with ribbon, brads and other bits and pieces and topped each with a mini library clip - they are so cute. The outside of each carton was wrapped in DSP (retired) and embellished with either a punch art reindeer or Santa made from the owl and two-step bird punches (so versatile).

Stamps: Contempo Christmas, Delightful Decorations
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Real Red & Old Olive
Card Stock: Old Olive, Real Red, Basic Black, Cake Crumb, Whisper White, I Wish DSP (retired)
Accessories: Big Shot, Two Step Bird Punch, Ornament Punch, Owl Punch, mini library clips, SNAIL, stampin' sponges, white gel pen, paper snips. Dimensionals, Black Stampin' Write marker, Mistletoe Old Olive ribbon (retired), basic pearls, 2-way glue pen, modern label punch.

Then to finish of the gifting I made each of my team members a skinny treat bag filled with Christmas M&Ms and topped with an ornament from the Delightful Decorations stamp set. I also did similar ones to these for my son's kindergarten class, but they were filled with jelly beans - which the children really enjoyed and saved me writing out lots of Christmas cards for them each & lets face it at 4yo which would you prefer to get a card or jellybeans?

Crazy For Birthday Cupcakes!

We bucked the trend recently and did a birthday card class - it was very pink - although we did do the centre flip/swing card in bashful blue as well as pink just for something different! The DSP is retired (sorry), but I was cleaning up and found half a pack and thought that the colours matched what I was planning to do perfectly. I do love the Crazy For Cupcakes stamp set - very versatile and just plain good fun!

The flip/swing card template is one I got via Google and adapted it for our paper measurements, but basically it is 16.8cm x 14.8cm in total size. The cutting is 3.5cm in from the edges and the two centre score lines are 6.8cm from each side - if it doesn't make sense I can draw out a sketch of the template. The centre chocolate chip pieces are 9.2cm x 7.3cm in size and the whisper white pieces are 8.6cm x 6.7cm. One side looks like this, although the glitter didn't turn out very well on the photograph that is on the balloon.

This is the other side (not finished, but photographed for blog purposes as I still need to add the pink party whistle stamps to the pink surround base piece). Once you have the base sorted out it really is a quick card to make up and flipping it really is very therapeutic! 

Stamps: On Your Birthday, Crazy For Cupcakes

Ink: Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip

Card stock: Whisper White, Regal Rose & Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds glitter, 2-way glue pen, Aqua painter brush, stamping sponges, SNAIL.

Sick Owl!

Isn't it true that it never rains but it pours? (well in our case we'd love it to pour with rain actually, but you know what I meant!) I knew I would be making a get well card for a relative this month who had a knee operation, but would you know it the same week another relative had a fall and broke his ankle so I needed two get well cards. I should listen to my own advice though, as I always tell class attendees to make two cards in duplicate at a time as one A4 piece of card gives you two card bases - but who listens to their own advice??? Anyway I did a Google for ideas and there were a tonne of cute medical staff made with the two step owl punch and I had to CASE them as they were too cute! 

Stamps: Word Play & Dotted Lines jumbo roller wheel

Ink: Real Red & Basic Black

Card stock: Real Red, Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Whisper White & Baja Breeze

Accessories: Scallop Trim border punch, two step owl punch, Tombow glue, mini library clip, Dimensionals.

Stamps: Word Play & Dotted Lines jumbo roller wheel

Ink: Real Red & Basic Black

Card stock: Real Red, Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Whisper White & Baja Breeze

Accessories: Scallop Trim border punch, two step owl punch, Tombow glue, Spiral border punch

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hi Everyone - here's a quick post to wish everyone a very safe & happy Christmas. I hope that everyone gets to spend some time with loved ones, enjoy the festive season and of course get some creative ideas for stamping in the next few weeks! I'd like to sincerely thank all of my friends, customers and family for their tolerance, support and constructive feedback over the last year - it's all appreciated! Here's something very cute I saw in cyber land that I thought I'd share with you - Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread Milk Carton

Greetings readers, whilst blog surfing I came across a couple of clever girls who had made up the milk carton die into a cute little gingerbread house (thanks for the inspiration Jackie T. & Kay S.) so I had a play with the new trim border punch and made this cute little ornament up to hang on the tree! The milk carton die makes it really quick and simple to make these up and as I am a hoarder and keep the left over stamped shapes I have done from previous projects it went together really quickly. I was also very pleased that the new circle punch in the Itty Bitty Shapes trio perfectly cuts out the circle lolly (sweet/candy) from the Something Sweet stamp set - so it made cutting those really quick!

Stamps: Something Sweet, Cottage Wall, Crazy for Cupcakes
Ink: Real Red, Pretty in Pink, Concord Crush, Daffodil Yellow, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip
Card Stock: More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Real Red
Accessories: 1/8" white taffeta ribbon, Crop-o-dile, Scallop border punch, Scallop Trim punch, Tombow Glue, Itty Bitty trip circle punch, paper snips, sticky strip.

Chicken Eggs

We recently went away for a week for some much needed R&R and had the dilemma of getting our beloved little chooks babysat whilst we were away. Fortunately one of the lovely families from our sons school volunteered and I'm not sure who had more fun, the chooks being somewhere new or the boys at the novelty of little docile chooks who lay miniature eggs! As a little token thank you for the boys I made up these little thank you's - each contains 3 chocolate Kinder eggs..........what do you think?

I over wrapped the chocolate box with card stock stamped with the Woodgrain stamp to make it more nest box like. Then I made the chickens (inspired and modified from some punch art by Bonnie) and signs using punches and drew in features with the white gel pen. The wings, head and top of the sign were popped up on Dimensionals. The new a la carte stamp, So Many Thanks, was perfect for the sign, I am loving those a la carte stamps so affordable & versatile. Here's a slightly out of focus close up.

Stamps: Woodgrain & So Many Thanks

Card Stock" More Mustard, Basic Black, Real Red, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake & Daffodil Yellow

Ink: More Mustard & Soft Suede

Accessories: Paper snips, Tombow glue, Modern label punch, ornament punch (body), 1" circle punch, small oval punch, Heart to Heart punch (comb & wattle), Word Window Punch, Stampin' Sponges, owl punch (eyes)

Gift Vouchers

Any one who crafts loves receiving handmade cards and also handmade gifts! But sometimes non crafters have no idea what to buy a crafter - the solution is so simple = a gift voucher!!!! Throughout the year I am always happy to make up gift vouchers for any amount that can be redeemed for Stampin' Up! merchandise, the main conditions are:

1. it is only redeemable via myself, as we are all independent demonstrators!

2. it is valid for 12 months

3. you still have to pay shipping fees on the merchandise, but you can use the voucher towards the shipping 

I did one recently for a birthday and here's what it looks like on the outside (with matching envelope of course!) 

The voucher card can be made up to any theme/colours/occassion and for this one I purposely used the two-step bird punch and level 1 hostess set Punch Potpourri as I knew the recipient was getting both of those as part of her other presents!

Pretty cool hey! Wouldn't you just love getting one of these for birthday, Christmas or just because! Feel free to get your loved ones to email or phone me to organise what you really want for the festive season!

Medallion Photo Card

I saw this on Jackie T's blog last month and just had to make it as I think it's fabulous for sending to relatives at Christmas as they can keep the photograph well after the festive season has ended and the cards have been taken down. It uses the new 2 3/8" scallop circle punch from the new mini catalogue - I am loving the larger size!

Well I couldn't find a suitable Christmas photo to go with the card, so I used an old school one! The photographs don't show up the glitter very well that I added to the wreath. Again I used that lovely Mistletoe ribbon that was in last months special - sorry normal taffeta would look lovely too! The photograph slides in and out so empty the card looks like this...........

Stamps: Medallion & Contempo Christmas

Ink: Old Olive & Basic black

Card Stock: Old Olive, Real Red & Whisper White

Accessories, 2 way glue pen, Mistletoe ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, SNAIL, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, single hole punch.

Window Sheet Treat Box

How about this for a nice way to gift wrap something?? I love these acetate boxes, but haven't made one in over a year, not sure why as they are terrific for packaging lollies (sweets/candies to our Northern Hemisphere readers), soaps or bath bombs, biscuits or a myriad of other items. I think I love this Jolly Holiday designer series paper more every time I use it if that's possible, it's definitely a firm favourite of mine from the catalogue! My hint of the day would be use sticky strip on the window sheet as then the join won't show very much as the sticky strip is more transparent than SNAIL (in my opinion of course!). This box was made using a 3" square base of Old Olive, scored at 1/2" all the way around to form the top and bottom boxes that are 2" square. The window sheet was cut to approximately 6" high and each score was 1 15/16" apart to make it just that fraction smaller than the ends to fit nicely.

Stamps: Delightful Decorations, To & From Tag

Card stock: Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Window Sheet (medium) & Jolly Holiday DSP

Ink: Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Scallop Trim border, SNAIL, sticky strip, 3/4" circle punch, tag punch, large tag punch, Mistletoe ribbon (retired from this promotion), crop-a-dile, hemp twine

Flip Top Box

As it's getting closer to Christmas I thought I would stay with the festive theme, but show you some little boxes I've been making rather than just cards (not that there is anything wrong with cards of course!) This was a little box that is made using a 25cm x 15cm piece of card stock and is extremely sturdy and so easy to make - I can see myself making a little pyramid of these gems. What do you think - pretty nice aren't they?

Stamps: Punch Pals

Card Stock: Old Olive, Real Red & Whisper White.

Ink: Real Red, Basic black, Peach Parfait & Old Olive

Accessories: 3/4" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, scallop circle punch, scallop square punch, SNAIL, Dimensionals, Stamping Sponge, corner rounder punch.

No Stamped Star Ornament

I have a quick no stamping project to show you - perfect for this time of the year as it's a star ornament. They are so cool and can be made in any size - a sort of origami project, but one that looks stunning with the designer series papers (DSP)! I used up some retired DSP from my stash for this one, but I know it would look equally as stunning in any of the current DSP. Closed it looks very boring (I think I need to stamp and embellish the covers a bit!)

and then open it looks like this................perfect for hanging off the tree!

Card Stock: Real Red & I Wish DSP (retired)

Accessories: SNAIL, crop-a-dile & thin gold cord (non SU)

The New Summer Mini Catalogue is Here!!!!

 Yay, the new Summer Mini Catalogue is here! If you haven't already contacted me to get a hard copy of this, please do so that I can pop one in the mail to you, or alternatively you can view it online here and you can download the PDF of it.

There are two terrific new hostess sets, gorgeous new specialty paper  Presto Patterns Specialty and the new Smooch Spritz that gives a terrific finish to projects as is the new lace. The new Bitty Buttons and matching buttons and punches are awesome, as is the Square Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  There is a terrific new larger size scallop circle punch 2 3/8" in size and some of the new a la carte stamps are so cute! Too much to rave on about - you'll have to go and look for yourself and see if you can find just one favourite!