The Stamp 4 Life Award goes to....

my friend & fellow stampin' groupie--Danielle!!! I just have to recognize her amazing dedication to the craft :-) She just gave birth to a beautiful baby boy one month early on Friday afternoon & she spent Friday morning making cards WHILE IN LABOR. Of course, this was her fourth child & she's never actually gone into labor before so she didn't really recognize it--"Oh, that's what that discomfort was!" Even on her ambulance ride to the hospital, she worried about leaving all those cards undone, which she was making for her mom for Christmas (in 3 months!) & so, for stamping beyond the call of duty, Danielle wins the Stamp 4 Life Award!

The Stamp 4 Life Award goes to....

Good Works

I haven't posted a card in a while, have I? Well, I've got quite a few projects I'm trying to catch up on as I'm still getting ready for craft fair season so I haven't been making many cards. Still, here's one I made as a swap for a local Stampin' Up! demos meeting.

It uses the Pocket Silhouettes set in Kiwi Kiss, Tango Tangerine & Riding Hood Red & punched out using the Key Tag Punch. I used the "Good Works" sentiment from the Inspired by Nature set. I didn't know if the connected images would reflect a chain (what I was going for), so I opted to be rather obvious about it. The "chain links" were made by first punching a 3/4" hole in More Mustard cardstock & then using the 1" circle to punch around it so you're left with just the sliver circle. People didn't mistake it for Chanel so mission accomplished. I used Dotto to adhere them. Lemme tell you, it took quite awhile for 30 cards!

Let me reflect for a moment on this stamping phenomenon called "swapping" for the unitiated. The purpose is to get tons of variety for inspiration or in my case, my display board. You make a bunch of the same card (just the front of it) & label the back with your name & usually the "ingredients" of the card. At these demo meetings I've gone to, people swap immediately. It's really funny to walk in & have a mob of ladies swoop in on you as the newcomer with fresh swaps! It's a good mixer too because you're ooh-ing & ahh-ing over each other's work & gives you an excuse to walk up to anyone carrying a baggie or box of cards. That's when you usually think "I've got to make a nicer card next time!" I haven't met any swap "snobs" but I've heard about them--they're people who ignore you because they don't like your swap. If you want to do this with your friends (uh, swapping, not being a snob), you can also try a "shoebox swap" where you get together & actually make each other's card designs (you bring all the "ingredients" with you in the shoebox). It's good fun--if you make full cards, you can be rolling in unique Birthday greetings for a couple of months :-)

Good Works

Name Frame Class: You can too!

These name frames are from a class I gave a couple of weekends ago to show that you can do it too! Usually I take color & theme suggestions & will make a customized frame to order. For the class, we did it all together with the ladies actually making the frames & I acted as a consultant.

This first one is different from the others I've made because she wanted a frog theme & the only frog stamp I had was a foam one (I was just about to get rid of it too--glad I didn't!) I was nervous the foam stamp wouldn't work well with a dye-based ink, but it was fine (usually foam stamps are used with paints). This was Maggie's first time stamping and I think she did a great job! Her grandson will love this :) Her colors were inspired by a frog print she'd bought for her grandson's room.

My friend Danielle, a veteran stamper, made this frame to match her daughter's room. I LOVE the colors she chose. Doesn't the Kiwi Kiss look great with Perfect Plum?

Name Frame Class: You can too!

Another Use for Simply Scrappin' Kit

The head of my previous parish's mom's group asked me to decorate a bulletin board that will hang in the church's "cry room"--because if you're ever going to find a mom who needs friends, it's going to be in a cry room!

I decided to just use SU!'s new Simply Scrappin' Kit "Summer Home" because it's so much easier to have the professionals coordinate everything & let me get on with it. I used our retired "Letterpress" alpha set for the main title & clear embossed it. If you're wondering how I got them lined up so nicely--the magical Stamp-a-ma-jig--I only discovered this tool this year & now I LOVE it! If I had the time, I'd do a video tutorial, but I don't--so, I recommend checking out fellow Splitcoaststamper starofmay's on YouTube. I use vellum cardstock for my stamped images & just store them with my stamps so I only have to do the placement stamp once.

The Baja Blue letters & flowers are die cuts from the new Naturally Serif Sizzlits strip & Birds & Blooms respectively. I'd also like to point out the vellum "pocket" at the bottom. She wanted something see-through so that people could see the group's business cards so I came up with a template (cut the width you want, then for the length, I cut 4.5" scoring a 1/4" alley right in the middle so that it would have a 1/4" depth to hold a few cards. I reinforced the edges with 3 pieces of paper 1" wide & scored 1/4" in the middle to fold around the open sides & bottom). Oh--& check out the cute buttons in Kiwi Kiss from the new Button Bouquet collection. It was tough giving those babies up but it's for a good cause & I need to fight my hoarding tendencies. Still gonna miss them.

Another Use for Simply Scrappin' Kit

More Craft Fair Goodies

It's official--I'll have a booth at St. Timothy's School's Craft Fair in Chantilly, VA on Nov. 22. Come visit! (I'll give you a lollipop! ;-) ) So, I've been busy making lots o' things to sell. Here are a few I've completed this week:

This is an altered binder clip that had some kind of medical co. advertising on the white part. These are so cute to use as photo holders. I used rub-ons on the purple binder part. Then, I stamped on black cardstock in white craft ink & used Heat & Stick Powder to adhere blue glitter to the flowers (the flash muted the glitter). Then I spread Crystal Effects over the whole surface to give it a cohesive tile look. I did the same on the other side so if you wanted to use it as a paper clip, you'd have the decoration facing you too. Finally, I added just a dab of blue Stickles to the middle of the rub-on & added ribbon.
These are plastic jars from Oriental Trading. I used more rub-ons on these. The felt flowers on the lids are either from SU!'s "Flower Fusion" (the olive green) or I cut them using SU!'s Basket & Blooms Sizzix die (white & black) & secured with a brad. Inside are Hershey's chocolate nuggets wrapped in stamped address labels. While these weren't hard to make, the rub-ons actually took a bit of time because you have to cut out the images & create your design, often with more than one color. I made 16 of them & each one is unique.

I was really happy with how these little plastic purses turned out! I found the blank purse favors on clearance & got them without knowing what I'd do with them. I decided to make all ten the same with a straight Christmas theme (using up all my Silver Hodgepodge Designer Label holders in the process). I also used our new Holiday Treasures DSP & Baja Breeze 1" Grosgrain ribbon. I stamped the nuggest labels with the new "Snow-Swirled" stamp set.

One tip--to make the holes for the brads, I found it easier to secure the ribbon onto the paper first, place the whole thing onto the cushion in our Mat Pack & poke a hole with the paper piercer through both (instead of using the 1/16th" hole punch). You can then poke the brad through while it's still on the cushion & flip the whole thing over--the brads will stay put & then you can spread the prongs. This way, you don't bend the paper while trying to punch the brads through.

Whew. All I can say is, I've probably spent as much energy keeping these things out of my kids' hands as I have making them! My oldest (6 yrs.) is so cute--he keeps asking how much they are because he wants to save his money to buy them.

More Craft Fair Goodies