No Time To Stamp?

Welcome to Day6 of Stamp Simply Celebrates! If you are new here, check out Party Central for a full rundown of our 12 day schedule. Feel free to jump in anytime at all!!!

Anyone can play ANY of the challenges by ANY of the hostesses during our 12 days of Stamp Simply Celebrates!!!You DO NOTneed to have a Blog to play uploading your project to SCS (Splitcoaststampers.com) is not only permissible, but HIGHLY ENCOURAGED. When doing so, use the KEYWORD SSC08. Thanks!

Heather Telford - bits and pieces - Heather is sharing a Featured Project with us today how to Dress up Your Table! Fun!!! And Heather is also incorporating a Challenge in with her project, making it 1-2-3 easy for us to decorate our own tables!!! Be sure to stop in at Heathers place today for many great samplings of table decor!

You can see more samples from Heather’s designers. They are Jennifer, Darlene, Joan and Jerri.

LeAnne Pugliese - Wee Inklings - Doesnt every Mother need a helper, especially during the Holidays? Well, for LeAnnes Featured Project that is just what she is giving us, a Mothers Holiday Helper! LeAnne is running a Challenge along with her project, providing us with templates and instruction so we can quickly and easily create our own helper!!! Dont miss it!!!

And you can see more samples from LeAnne’s designers as well. They are Barb, Deb, Janine, Darlene and me (just scroll down to see mine).

As usual, please bear with us all as we are busy uploading and linking through outtonight — everything should be up and in order by morning!

AJ Otto - The Willow Garden- AJ has some BLOG CANDY to share!

Sharon Johnson - No Time To Stamp? - Me again, with more BLOG CANDY! And here it is down just a bit.

To be entered for this Blog Candy drawing, all you need to do is comment below — nothing more than that today!!! Nice and simple!!! This post will be closed for Blog Candy entries at 6:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008. Shortly thereafter a random winner will be selected by random.org. The winner will be posted both on this thread and at Party Central. OK, now on to my project:

Once again, HUGE THANKS go out to the folks at JustRite!!! They know how much I love the various fonts and rectangle stampers, so they are most generous in allowing me to give some away to you!!! This time we have the Times New Roman Font (3 sizes in a box) and the Rectangle Stamper Set (2 wooden blocks in a set, one large and one small). Times New Roman is one of the fontsI used on my project for today. And before I show you my project, once we are talking JustRite, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about a sale they have going on – and the sale is especially for all of you Blog readers — they are grateful for their Blog traffic (which comes from YOU) and wanted to offer you a special. You may read about it here.

OK, now let’s move on to my project for today. I played as a sample maker for LeAnne’s Challenge, which you can read more about on LeAnne’s Blog. But basically, she provided us with templates for her Mother’s Holiday Helper which is made from a basic pocket file folder. Well, the only pocket file folders I had at home were neon colors or school colors with school logos - not QUITE what I had in mind. At Deb’s suggestion, she told me they had some plain kraft pocket folders at Office Max. Well, they sure did, plus they had some kraft folders that had designs on them, so I chose one of those. Here’s what I bought and used for this project.

The folders had designs in white, while all the complimentary pieces had black accents — now WHY didn’t they make them all the same??? I’m really into matchy/matchy — LOL!!! Anyway, I figured I could make them work. And rather than follows LeAnne’s very cool template, I decided to make a gift for a friend — sort of an organizer for craft needs — you know those lists we all keep? I just wanted to make something to contain lists and notes of our crafting needs so when we go shopping everything is contained in one place. Here’s a look at the completed inside of my folder.

Isn’t it fun? I LOVED making this!!! My brainy idea here to make this a little different than a normal folder was to create a spine. See it? It functions very well, allowing plenty of room for all my little pads and notebooks and whatever else one might throw in there. The spine is 1″ and it was created very easily with my Scor-It. Takea look.

See the center line? That is the line, the fold, that came on the folder. All I did was score 1/2″ on each side of that line, giving me a 1″ spine. Score with the right side down so that your score folds properly. This kraft folder is VERY thick. I don’t know how thick, but MUCH heavier than 110# cardstock. To score this on myScor-It was totally effortless. In places I scored over 2 thicknesses — no problem at all. I got perfect score lines and my folder now had a totally functional spine!!! Now to create a *pretty* spine, this is what I did.

I cut 3 strips of black cardstock, 11 x 7/8″. Leave 2 of them the full 11″ long and cut the 3rd one in half. Each half will be 5.5″ long. Now score these 2 shorter pieces right in the middle, which is 2 3/4″. Adhereone of the 11″ strips right in the center of the spine. It won’t reach all the way, so just center it. Do the same on the outside of the spine. Now here’s where the little scored piecescome in. Corner round the ends of these 2 little pieces and they’ll look more like tabs. Now,just adherethem, top and bottom. They fold around the top or bottom, covering both sides. Can you follow me? In the photo the bottom is done, but the top still needs to be covered with the tab. Easy!!! It hides that unsightly midde*original* seamline and it sturdies up the spine — PERFECT!!!

And here’s a look at the completed spine on the outside. Can you see the rounded tabs? I just added some pewter brads to make it look a bit more finished off. I LOVE this spine — it was EASY, FUN and added great FUNCTION to my folder. I chose pewter brads because the little clips that went with this set were sort of grayish/pewtery in color.

Here’s a look at the cover of my folder. The sentiment is from the JustRite Harmony Circle Stamper III Ensemble. (This is one of thesale items right now!) I omitted the outer ring and used my Labels 1 Nestabilities by Spellbinders to cut the sentiment out. As I’ve said before, you have a lot of options with your JustRiteimages/sentiments — they don’t all HAVE to be used in a round or oval format. I added some little rhinestones. The DP is by K and Co., (Margo) and it is edged with black. I used the Martha Stewart scallop punch on the right and then punched holes with my Cropadile. My favorite 1.5″ May Arts striped ribbon is adhered with 1.5″ wide double sided tape to the back and spine of the folder. It easily ties and unties for use.

Just showing a close up with some detail.

This is the inside left. I covered the inside with the K & Co. paper (Margo). I thought this rather vintage looking old paper design would go well. I then stamped the larger words in Times New Roman Font using my Rectangle Stampersand Charcoal Palette Ink. I used a Stamp-a-ma-jig to get them positioned as I wanted. My Stamp-a-ma-jig is home made. I should show it to you sometime! A friend made it from left over window trim during a house remodel. She made about 10 of them and gave them to all of us here. She purchased the sheets from SU and we are good to go. This is the SAME friend who is making a Cuttlebug out of an old wringer washer — I KID YOU NOT!!! If she ever gets that up and running I WILL show you, for sure — LOL!!!

This is the inside right. The sticky notes are adhered to the top, but I am having technical difficulties there — LOL!!! They are too heavy. I’ll end up taking about 1/2 the pad off, I’m sure! Again, I stamped on the NOTES with Times New Roman Font. I love the little clips — they are pretty and functional, if needed!!!

Here’s a look at the left pocket. The monogram was done with the Damask Monogram Set (it’s on sale — see above) and I used a J from Trompe Script Font, which is a really pretty, more fancy, font that I love. The little book just has a simple J on it, front and back.

This is the right side pocket, no different. The top border is made with the retired SU Wrought Iron punch with the corner guard removed. The bottom border is made with the Martha Stewart Scallop punch and holes added with a Cropadile. I used my new Glue Glider from Joan’s Garden for this entire project and it sticks tight! It’s super easy to use and very light weight. I am one happy camper with my new Glue Glider glue gun!!!

And that wraps it up again today!!! Hope you are all enjoying your time of Christmas preparation, however much or little that may be. And I hope you are getting some ideas you can use from all of us here working on Stamp Simply Celebrates!!! We are mid-way now, 6 days down, 6 to go!!! Hope to see you soon!!! Thanks so much for stopping in!!!

The winner selected by randon.org is #6, for Blog Candy #6, who is Nina. Here’s what Nina had to say:

nina

I just love the way youve used this font - the Times New Roman is tops on my (large) list of JustRite items to buy!

Dec 5, 11:22 PM

Congrats! Nina and THANK YOU SO MUCH to all the rest who played!!!

This is unreal!!! If you signed up for the Scor-Pal I have posted as Blog Candy — well, your chance to win just doubled!!!! Diana Crick, inventor of the Scor-Pal, has decided to throwa”Deluxe Scor-Pal Package” into the ring since interest seems to be so high. The “Deluxe Scor-Pal Package” consists of one Scor-Pal, a Scor-Tote, extra Scor-Tool and a roll of 1/4″ Scor-Tape. How cool is that!!!

So on Monday night, March 17, at midnight Eastern time,I will be having the random number generator select 2 numbers. The first number to pop up will receive the Scor-Pal Ioriginally listed(the original Blog Candy), and the second number selected will receive the “Deluxe Scor-Pal Package” that Diana has just donated. So, in this case, the 2nd prize is actually the larger prize — but that’s OK — it’s still a win/win situation for 2 people!!!

VERY IMPORTANT: All sign ups for both Blog Candies are still at my original post HERE. Only 1 entry per person. If you signed up before, you now have a chance to win either prize — do not sign up again. One entry per person. If you have not signed up and you’d like to, click HEREand sign up at the original post.

COMMENTS ON THIS POST ARE NOT IN THE BLOG CANDY DRAWING!!!

OK, now that the excitement is over, I’d like to share a fun little project with you I did this evening, using the Scor-Pal. This is a little gift — it’s a recipe box with 12 index cards inside on which recipes can be written, using the new SU set called Tart and Tangy and their new Summer Picnic Designer Paper. Fun!!! Here it is:

Isn’t it cute — love this paper! This is a simple box base, no top. It is made to easily house standard 4 x 6 recipe cards. The Real Red box is covered with the Summer Picnic DP and decorated with a ribbon and tag made from Tart and Tangy. The *Recipes* label was computer generated. The recipe cards are fun and so quick! I corner rounded the tops on a standard 4 x 6 index card. I then cut strips of coordinating DP 1 1/4″ x 6″ each, corner rounded the top two corners on each and adhered them to the index card. I then added a Round Tab punched tab on top and I was done. Oh, those tabs were stapled on — quick and easy!!!

• Cut your cardstock 10 1/4 x 7 1/2 inches.
• With the short side up against the ruler edge on top, move the left edge of the paper out to the 1/4″ mark on the ruler, then score at 3 and 5.
• Turn your paper so the long end is up against the ruler edge on top, and score at 2.
• Slide the paper to the right so the right edge is up against the rail at 12, and score at 10.
• Cut on the score lines as shown in the photo, trimming a bit away on the center tab to allow the box to fold easily.

Such a quick project!!! I’m sure you’d have fun with it!! Here is the supply list:

• Stamps: Tart and Tangy
• Paper: Real Red, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Summer Picnic Designer Paper
• Ink: None, but markers in Real Red and Old Olive.
• Accessories: Ribbon, Corner Rounder, Round Tab Punch, 1 1/4″ and 1 3/8″ Round Punches, Cropadile, Eyelet, Crafter’s Tool Kit, Staples, Computer Generated Sentiment

Remember, a comment here DOES NOT sign you up for blog candy, you must go to the orignal post HERE

Thanks so much for stopping in!!! Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

Well, I didn’t get to any projects during the evening, so I’ll take this opportunity to post an Oldie, but first I’d like to provide a couple links, just in case you’ve missed these:

• My friend, Susan Roberts (rainy at SCS), recently started blogging! What a treat for all of us — I have always loved her work — and she is offering some Blog Candy — so pop on over to Rainy DayCreations to sign up!
• More Blog Candy is being offered by Leslie Miller (leslierich at SCS)at Running with Scissors. Gosh, I can’t believe what she is giving away — so if you haven’t signed up yet, you still have time!!!

Hope you win something!!!

OK, now on to my Oldie. This is a very large piece of chipboard that I made into a nostalgic/vintage/Victorian type wall hanging, along with a card and envelope to coordinate. Here it is:

I love doing this type of thing!!!! I did this last April and this was actually donated to some SCS function somewhere, so someone won it as a door prize or in a drawing. I do want to point out that what appear to be vintage photos are actually rubber stamped images — don’t they look realistic? All details and thelist of supplies can be seen on my SCS upload.

Well, I’m off and running — I have a daytime and an evening class today — we’re doing the seashell Cuttlebug set I posted a few days back. And I’ll try to squeeze a little project in between classes!!! Thanks so much for stopping in!!! Have a great day!!!

I did this project for Jami’s monthly challenge to all Dirty Girls, present and alumni. This month’s challenge is called *Girls Just Wanna Have Fun*! We were to use a girl in our project, and something *sweet*, and it could NOT be a standard A-2 sized card. Well, I don’t have many girl stamps, so I used my Elzybell from our original challenge 2 months ago. And as far as *sweet*, well, let’s just say that Elzy herself is *sweet*!!! And this is not a standard sized card, it is a 5 x 5 pocket book that I made from scratch, and in the pockets are several dozen stamped images of Elzy and some sentiments to go with. I only have 3 Elzy stamps, and they are all related to the winter theme, thus the *Winter* on my book cover. This is a little gift for a friend who loves all the Elzy’s but doesn’t have any stamps of her own. Thought she might have fun with some images!!!

All of the uploads to this challenge will start coming in on Sunday morning, 1/20, and they will be coming in all day, so check back frequently for some fun cards. The keyword for this challenge is DCG108 (DirtyChallenge GirlsJanuary 08), and if you click hereyou’ll be able to see all the uploads.

I received a gift in the mail the other day and wanted to try it out, so this is my first project using the Scor-It. Yes, it is a scoring tool, similar to, but still quite different from the Scor-Pal which I have been using for the past couple of months. As soon as I received my Scor-It, I went to their site to check out the projects they showed. Wow, they had alot of projects and a book made in a similar fashion to this caught my eye. Well, wouldn’t you know it, but today when I went back there to read the instructions, I couldn’t find it anywhere, so I just winged it — LOL!!! — and it came out great. It works well, functions properly and I will definitely be doing a book like this again.

I do not have a tutorial here for youbut I am sure I can findone for this type of book somewhere that I can come back later and link for you — but just basically the spine of this book is scored in 1″ increments and accordion folded. It is attached to the book front and back, and the way it is taped together it forms a really nice spine giving you nice tabs inside the book to which you adhere your pages. My pages are merely pieces of 2-sided DP, scored 2″ from the bottom, and then this 2″ flap is folded up to form the pocket. The covers of the book are 5 x 5″ pieces I cut from the backing cardboard that comes in the SU DP packages. They are a great weight for this type of project. They were then covered, inside and out, with the DP I used, Twirl Collection by Crate. I adhered the DP with Mod Podge.

And as far as my new Scor-It, well, it worked wonderfully for this project. It was used to score the spine of the book and the 2″ flaps to form the pockets of the pages. It is a 12 x 12 bed that is lined with a black rubbery pad that holds your paper very tightly. There is ABSOLUTELY no slippage at all!!! To make the score marks, there is one runner in the center of the board that you run the tool over to score. With this board you must move your paper for every score, but I found it to be quite easy to do. The ruler markings at the top of the board are very clear, giving you every marking, just like on a ruler, so there is no guessing at to whether or not you are on the right spot. And with the rubbery mat, there is never a problem with the paper moving or slipping. I will say, on my first pass over my test paper with the scoring tool, I cut my paper right in half — LOL!!! Good thing it was a test piece!!! It requires a much lighter hand than I had expected it would. In 2 or 3 passes I had the *feel* down pat. I really enjoyed the Scor-It, found it to make nice sharp score lines and feel it’s strong points (for me anyway) are the well marked ruler at the top and the non-slip surface. So, that was my first experience withmy latest new toy!!!

OK, now back to how I decorated my book cover — well, I will be the first to admit that I am not at all pleased with what I did here — it is definitely a case of not knowing when to quit!!! I really debated not uploading this as I am so displeased with it’s outward appearance, but I buried my pride and decided to upload it anyway as I really do like the pocket book idea and how the book itself came out! It’s so fun to have all those little pockets to fill up with whatever!!! I will make another one of these as soon as I’m able and do a better job on the cover — and provide links and/or some mini tutorial photos to follow. And this was not a super time consuming project — it really does go together rather quickly!!!

• Stamps: SU Season by Season. Elzybells by AMuse.
• Paper: Papertrey White, SU Black, Twirl Collection by Crate Paper.
• Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black. SU Pretty in Pink and Blush Blossom. Spica Clear Glitter Pen.
• Accessories: Crate Paper punchout strips, Nestabilites Rectangle and Rectangle Scallop Dies by Spellbinders, SU Ticket Corner Punch, unknown Star Punch, Black Organdy, Red Sticky Strip, Mod Podge, Mounting Tape.

Thanks much for looking! Please click here to check out the other uploads!!!

Now this was just a fun, fun project — purely playing around as I have absolutely no use for this card, but it sure was fun to make!!! LOVE doing this type of thing!!! The inspiration piece for yesterday’s Inspiration Challenge at SCS was a cocktail dress, which you can see here. So this is my entry for that challenge, a day late, but that’s OK!!!

I just love this dress!!! So fun!!! It fits a standard business sized envelope. I first made a template by cutting a piece ofscratchcardstock8 wide x 9 1/4 high, scoring in half on the Scor-Pal so the folded card is 4 x 9 1/4 (left side fold). Now, with a pencil I just drew in her curves on the left, folded side of the card only, remembering that the card needs to stay together, so it is still attached at the bustline and from the hipline on down. Then I cut along my pencil lines. Now, to get the other side perfectly the same, I went to the Scor-Pal and scored on 2″, which is the center of my 4″ card. I folded it in 1/2 on the score line, and that gave me a line to follow to cut the right side of the card so that it will be exactly the same as the left side. Using the Large Tag Punch from SU, punch out her neckline at center, top. Remember, this is just my template, so it doesn’t matter that it is scored down the middle. OK, now we begin the real card:

• Cut Very Vanilla 8 x 9 1/4 and score in half for a 4 x 9 1/4 card with a left side fold.
• Lay template on top of card and trace shape. Cut card to reflect shape of template.
• Punch neckline the same as on template.
• Apply adhesive to card front. Attach dress top paper to top, and dress bottom paper to bottom. Refer to photo below– I am attaching rectangular sheets of paper, they are not yet cut to shape.

On the left you see my template. On the right you are seeing the back of the card with the decorative papers adhered to the front of the card, not yet cut to shape, just adhered.

OK, now take your scissors and cut the DP (which is adhered to the card) to fit the card, which is now very easy as it is attached and you just follow the card lines. Works best with sharp, long bladed scissors, cutting in smooth, long strokes.

The DP used for the dress bottom was the Chocolate Small Leaf by Sandylion and I made the top paper. It is Brushed Gold Metallic which is embossed with a Crackle Texture stamp with Gold Embossing Powder. LOVE that effect — very rich looking.

Then I tied the ribbon just under the bustline which was easy because it can wrap right around to the inside of the card, and I made her purse using the punchout from the neckline. I used a little scrap to make the purse flap. The entire card is DTP’d on the edges with Encore Gold and it shows up and looks really nice IRL, but it barely shows in the photo.

• Stamps: Crackle Texture by Paper Inspirations
• Paper: SU Very Vanilla, Brushed Gold Metallic. Chocolate Small Leaf DP by Sandylion.
• Ink: Versa Mark. Gold Encore.
• Accessories: Gold Detail Embossing Powder, Oatmeal Ribbon by Offray, Gold Elastic Cord, Gold Brads, Large Tag Punch, Red Sticky Tape (under ribbon), Crafter’s Tool Kit.

That’s it — fun, fun card!!! Try one!!! If you do, post a linkhere so I can see — I LOVE this type of project!!! If anyone’s in the mood for a challenge, please consider this an unofficial challenge to make a shaped dress — could even be a baby or child’s dress — fun stuff!!!

I have another idea for another cocktail dress that I’ll try to do tomorrow, if time permits — so many toys, so little time!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE!!!

Well, after seeing all of the adorable Elzybell cards yesterday, I just had to make at least one thing out of each Elzy I had, so here it is — a card with a coordinating bookmark in a sleeve — I only have 3 Elzy images and one sentiment — so now they’ve all been inked!!

The card uses DP on the lower portion and white on top. There is black velvet ribbon on the seam joining the two, but you can barely see it, as it is pretty well covered up with my taffeta bows — oh well, I know it’s there! The image was stamped, colored and then circle punched out. This image is rectangular in shape, and the little black snowflakes were also left in a rectangular pattern, which just didn’t look right on the round punchout, so I just drew in more little black snowflakes to match with the fine tip of my marker — you can’t even tell!!! I then sponged the edges, mounted on a scallop, added the white gel pen dots and mounted it onto the card. Added a ticket corner punched sentiment on the bottom, with brads, and done!!! I love the little pink bows on the side on this — they just look so cute and girlie!!!

Here’s the bookmark out of the sleeve - cute, huh? I just can’t stop making these silly little bookmarks and sleeves — they are so quick and fun to do!!! And it’s just nice to have a little something extra to give along with the card. Click here to see the instructions on how to make the sleeves. This one is wider than the one in the tutorial — you just have to adjust the measurements depending on how wide/long you make your bookmark. And the bookmark is rather self-explanatory, I think. The oval top is adhered to the bookmark with double sided tape, ribbon run through the top — the ribbon reminds me of Elzy’s hair!!!

• Stamps: Elzybells, distributed by A Muse: Ice Skater, Winter Girl, Sentiment. Snowflake is from Perfect Presentation by SU.
• Paper: Pretty in Pink, Basic Black, Whisper White, DP is from an old Spring Stack DCWV.
• Ink: Black Stazon. Reinkers in Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom. Marker in Going Gray, Basic Black. Signo White Gel Pen. Sakura Stardust Silver Gelly Roll Pen.
• Accessories: Marvy Oval, Round and Scallop Punches, 1/4″ punch, Ticket Corner Punch, Corner Rounder, Ribbons, Brads, Sponge, Mounting Tape, Pop Dots, Mini Glue Dots, Red Sticky Tape.

That’s it for today, and that’s it for my Elzy’s for a bit — on to something else tomorrow!!! Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! Thanks much for looking!!!

This is an Accordion Tag Holder that my ladies will be doing at Hostess Club later this month. The holder measures 14.75″ x 4.25″.

Start with a piece 4.25 x 11 (1/2 sheet) and score into thirds — I used the Scor-Pal which has the 1/3 sheet markings — no thinking at all! Take another piece 4.25 x 4.25 and score on the 1st 1/3 sheet marking, and doing this will leave you a little tab where you can attach this 4th panel to the 1st three panels. Now, here’s the fun part. I actually used the Scor-Pal to create my angled shape on top — I’ll have a pic of that at the bottom of the post.

These are the left 2 panels. I created pockets by cutting a sheet of DP 3 x 3.5 (width), and merely folding down (great use of 2 sided paper) 1″ on top. I then decorated each pocket as desired.

Here’s the righttwo panels. I made the double scallop using my corner rounder with the guard removed. The little word window tab was put there to cover up an ink smudge, but it works for me!!! Those things happen (all the time - LOL!!) I typically would decorate the tops of the panels, but I chose not to in this instance as they don’t show at all due to the size/amount of tags I am inserting.

These are all the tags inside. Each pocket has 3 tags,1 of each size. I used a ton of punches on these, which sure makes things go quick and easy! The tallest tagscould actually be used (given) as bookmarks if so desired.

Now here’s the fun part that I got my kicks out of. I am rather fussy about getting things *right*. When I cut angles on the top of the tag book, Iusually go through all sorts of contortions at my cutter to get each one cut exactly like the next. Well, no more contortions — thiswas sosuper quick it made me laugh, honestly. I folded my tag book closed, put opposing corners on the 3″ line,making sure it was perfectly straight, and scored on the 5″ line. Turned it and did it again for the other corner. Now, go to the paper cutter and you have a perfectly straight line on which to cut your corners off to form theangles on the top of the tag book. Literally only took seconds to get them all done and perfectly the same!!! That made mevery happy!!! Thank you Scor-Pal!!! You could do the same thing on any grid surface, only making a pencil mark — it’s just so much easier with the Scor-Pal. Here’s the picture:

See how easy that was! OK, here’s the list of supplies used:

• Stamps: Perfect Presentation, Many Merry Messages, Star Studded Season, Warm Words, Sidekick Sayings, Merry and Bright, Festive Favorites
• Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Real Red, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Sage Shadow, Wintergreen DP, Soft Sky Prints DP
• Ink: Black Stazon and all the above colors plus assorted SU markers to color
• Accessories: Ribbons, Brads, Jingle Bells (from Wal-Mart), Red Sticky Tape
• Punches: 1/2″, 3/4″, 1″, 1 1/4″, 1 3/8″ Round, Round Tab, Horiztontal Slot, Word Window, Corner Rounder, Tag Corner, Large and Small Tag, Star.

That’s it for this one — I LOVE doing this type of project with many pieces. I feel SO GOOD each time one is completed!!! Thanks much for looking!!!

This is a grouping of7 items all made with Dashing DP and the adorable little snowman from Merry and Bright. Actually, this grouping was prettymuch an after-thought. Last week I had a workshop and we made the card (which you can hardly see) in the back, far left. I had some left over pieces of DP cut to size for that card. I had a quiet Friday evening here and decided I would challenge myself to use up each cut piece of that DP, and get myself a few Christmas cards done as a result. So that’s what happened. Then when I had used up all the cut pieces, I wanted to do a couple more items! Here’s what I ended up with:

• 5 standard cards
• 1 tent topper gift holder
• 1 bookmark with sleeve (and jingle bells!)

The card on the left is the one we did at the workshop, and that card uses all SU supplies. For the other cards I gave myself the liberty of using a variety of my Marvy Punches and the tent topper uses a rectangle and rectangle scallop Nestability Die by Spellbinders.

It isn’t visible from the front view, but the tent topper is actually a gift card holder. I cut my paper 4 1/4 x 10 1/4, and scored it (on the Scor-Pal) at 4 1/4 and 8 1/2. That will then fold into the 4 1/4″ square necessary for the tent topper and it leaves a 1 3/4″ flap to turn up for the gift card holder. Here’s a picture of the inside:

Here’s the last 2 cards:

And here’s a bookmark I made with a sleeve for gift giving — and I added jingle bells to this bookmark — I’ll probably give it to one of our God-children along with the gift card holder above! My Stamp Simply Challenge on Friday was to do one of these bookmarks with a sleeve. You can click here to find the tutorial.

• Stamps: Merry and Bright, Many Merry Messages, Star Studded Season
• Paper: Real Red, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Dashing Designer Paper
• Ink: Black Stazon. Markers in Real Red, Certainly Celery, Only Orange, Sahara Sand.
• Accessories: Ribbon, Dimensionals, Crafter’s Tool Kit. Variety of punches and dies. Jingle Bells from Christmas craft section of Wal-Mart.

Again, thanks much for looking and for all your comments!!! I truly appreciate it!!! If all goes as planned, my next upload will be a very pretty gift set — crossing my fingers that all goes well — LOL!!!

What’s for Dinner? I found a recipe the other day for a crock pot chicken dish to be served over noodles on Nancy Riley’s Blog. I tried it and it was delicious!!! Even all my guys, who are meat and potato lovers, loved it!!! Check it out!!!

Challenge #8 - Keyword SSnotime08-There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload yourproject at Splitcoastand/or your Blog, anytime at all! You can play as many times as you like!!! The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun!!! Please link back here.

Todays Challenge is fun, useful, quick and easy and it can serve as a little gift!!! It is to make a bookmark and a cover/sleeve to present it in/store it in — great little gifts for teachers, co-workers, friends — whoever!!!!

I onlygot onesample made, and it is on the fancy side — I hadhoped to do anotherin a more fun loving style, but just couldn’t get it done — sorry. My last 2 posts also contain bookmarks, so you can scroll down to see those if you haven’t seen them yet. Yourbookmarks do NOT have to be fancy — they can be any style at all, any dimensions at all, heavily stamped, no stamping, whatever– but if you choose to use the dimensions I used for the bookmark and cover, here they are:

Bookmark - the top/main layer is 2 x 6. The bottom layer/matting is 2 1/4 x 6 1/4.

Cover/Sleeve: (I used a Scor-Pal — it works great!!!) Scroll down for template/tutorial.

Remember when you upload to use the keyword above, followed by a comma.Please come back here to post (as a comment) that youve played, and provide a linkso I can check out your card right away. You can find all cards uploaded for this challenge by clicking Gallery Submissions Here.

Some wanting to play said they have never uploaded before. If thats you and you need help uploading, just go to my Challenge No. 1 and instructions are there.

ETA/PLEASE READ: My 1st comment was that this is not simple — WRONG!!!! It IS simple, so, so simple — I hardly stamped!!!! And here’s the secret — you don’t have to DO much, if you USE pretty things — I used the gorgeous Periphery for my DP (the bird) — so what more did it need — not much — I framed his head and a little stamping on the bottom — sponged the edges — that’s IT!!! Tied on some ribbons — that’s IT!!! NOT HARD, but rather SUPER SIMPLE!!! Then the cover/sleeve — 1 stamped image — that’s it! Made a little tag with punches, no stamping there either!!! Stuck on with dimensionals and tied on another ribbon — done!!!! PLEASE don’t think this type of *LOOK* is hard to achieve — it isn’t!!! Just remember, you don’t have to DO much, if you USE pretty things - it’s so true!!!

This bookmark serves triple duty for me, and that always makes me happy!

1. It’s my sample for today’s bookmark challenge;
2. It’s my challenge upload for Thursday’s WT139 at SCS, which was to use velvet — love velvet, I have it in the ribbon;
3. It is the first item I’ve made using the newest stamp set from Flourishes, called Flourished Elements - it is so full of pretty swirlies and curlies –I just love it!!! And I just HAD to use it tonight — so that’s why I ended up with a fancier type of bookmark!!!

The main image panel of my bookmark is a piece of designer paper from the Periphery 6x 6 pad by Basic Grey. And, as luck would have it, this bird image was right on the end of the paper, so I just cut off 2″, I got my main image and I was good to go!!!! How lucky was that!!! The frame around the bird is not a part of the DP, it is stamped using the new Flourished Elements set. I also stamped the little flourishy border along the bottom and the *With Love*. They are all black embossed and the edges of the DP are lightly sponged. The top of the bookmark is punched with the Deco Corner Punch — I’ve always loved that one for bookmarks!!! Then the layers were all adhered together. You can’t see, but I punched a 1″ black circle, scored that in 1/2, and that is on top, with a Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware hanger attached with a brad, and the ribbon run through that hanger. I used the wide Blue Satin, Black Organdy and Black Velvet.

As for the cover/sleeve, I used SU Le Jardin DP. I thought it went well with the Periphery piece I used on the bookmark. I stamped that large flourish on it (from Flourished Elements), punched my tags and the fleur de lis, attached them to each other with a brad and put a little left over snippet of the Black Scalloped Satin behind it in a loop, attaching the completed tag to the card with Dimensionals. Then I tied on my very last piece of Blue Satin to dress up the bottom. Oh, the cover/sleeve top is punched with a 1 1/4″ circle punch and the edges are lightly sponged in black.

Here’s a picture of the cover.

• Cut paper 5 1/2 x 6 3/4.
• Score at 2 1/2 and 5, which leaves a 1/2″ flap.
• Turn the paper in your Scor-Pal and score at 1/2″ from the bottom.
• Cut out the two end pieces as shown, then gently angle the edges of the piece left.
• Using red sticky tape, first adhere the large flap to form the cover, then turn up the bottom flap and adhere — it will be on the outside of the cover. With the ends of that little flap angled a bit, it looks very nice — like a little envelope!!!

Now just put your bookmark into thesleeve and see how wonderful it all looks!!!

I’d like to point out that the stamp sets, the Periphery pad by Basic Grey, the Blue Satin Ribbon, the Black Velvet Ribbon and the Black Scalloped Satin ribbon are all available at Flourishes.

• Stamps: Flourished Elements and Flourished Words by Flourishes
• Paper: Su: Basic Black, Old Olive, Le Jardin DP. Periphery by Basic Grey.
• Ink: Versa Fine Onyx Black, Versa Mark, Bashful Blue.
• Accessories: Detail Black EP, Ribbons, Brad, Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware, Punches: Deco Corner, 1″ Circle, 1 1/4″ Circle, Tag, Fleur de Lis, Sponges, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots.

Hope you can all play — have a great weekend!!! Thanks much for looking!!!

I have nothing new to show you today, but I found this photo in my computer so I thought I’d share it. It’s of a project I did last Christmas as a gift for nieces and nephews. But I must say before I even start, that I can not take credit for this fun idea — it came from my good friend Deb, DeborahLynneS at SCS. She actually put together a similar gift idea, but I never got to see hers. Anyway, after hearing about her great idea, I jumped on it and did the same thing — here’s the story:

Last year, 2006, the US Postal Service had winter stamps with snowflakes on them — anyone remember? Well, one of those snowflakes was one of OUR very own snowflakes from right here, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. There was also this cute little snowflake book out in the bookstores — and Deb had this wonderful idea to make a bookmark, incorporating one the the real postage stamps into the bookmark design, and presenting it as a gift with the Snowflakes book — now what a fun idea is that!!!! Thank you, Deb!!!

Anyway, this is a photo ofthe bookmarks I madeand the books. Can you see the real 39 cent postage stamp right in the middle of the bookmark? That stamp is OUR snowflake — LOL!!! The text under the stamp was computer generated, and I can’t really remember what I said, but something about the snowflake being OURS!!! This was such a fun project!!! I just love doing this type of thing!!!

As for supplies, looks like most of what I used is now retired SU — Riveting, Snowflakes, some ribbons and fibers, Deco corner punch for the top of the bookmark.

Hope you don’t mind looking at a year old project — thought it might give someone an idea to do something similar this year — without the postage stamp, of course — LOL!!!

Thanks much for looking — I should have a real post tomorrow — a little more SU and then on to some Flourishes projects with NEW Flourishes stamps — can’t wait!!!