Wow it's been a long time since I've posted anything!  Life has been busy!!

So, here are some Christmas cards my Christmas Card Club members made this month…

So most of these cards were inspired by or CASEs of cards I found on our Stampin' Up! demonstrator web site. 

Some of my favorite items used on these cards are:

Real Red and Silver Glimmer Paper both as gifts and the single star.

The Triple Treat Flower punch was used to make the bows on the gifts. 

Good old Lovely as a Tree stamp set was used to make the Christmas Tree branches. 

The Big Shot was used three times to create three different embossed backgrounds – the Stripes on the "star" card, the poinsettias, and the background behind the single tree.

The Cherry Cobbler baker's twine.

The Merry and Bright stamp from my new favorite Christmas set "Merry & Type".

The list goes on and on… hopefully you see some of your favorite items on these cards and find some inspiration as well!

Here's some more stamping I did in December!  (See, I was just too busy to post!  Sorry! But aren't you glad to see them now?  Maybe? hehe)

Anyway, you may have seen that I stamp with 16 girls ages 5-8 years old each month.  They create a 2 page layout each month and when we are finished they will have a 20 page scrapbook!  Well for December we focused on winter (we had already done Christmas in November!).  The layout was inspired by a project I saw in our monthly Stampin' Up! demonstrator magazine.   (I know I've mentioned these publications before – I really do love them!  They provide oodles and oodles of inspiration!  So, first, here's the project that inspired me.  (Created by Carol Gensweider of Pflugerville, Texas)

Isn't that pretty?  I thought so!  But clearly it's not a scrapbook page… Here's what I came up with for the girls (ages 5-8).

So, as you might be able to tell, I copied the stamping of the trees with Night of Navy ink and Whisper White craft ink from Carol's card.  The girls then stamped snowflakes on the Baja Breeze card stock edges.

They then stamped various titles like "Skiing Fun" and "Skating Fun" to make the page their own in Night of Navy ink.

Other supplies used:

Card Stock: Night of Navy, Crumb Cake
Accessories: Night of Navy 1 1/4" striped grosgrain ribbon, felt snowflakes (retired), and basic jewel rhinestones (in the center of the snowflakes).

Hope you like them!  The girls and their moms did which always makes me smile BIG!

So… my friend Mary showed me some great Thanksgiving Day easel cards she was making not too long ago.  If you know Mary you know she likes the more involved, intricate type projects (remember this?) so I thought to myself, ‘must not attempt easel card.’  LOL

Well, in the last couple weeks these easel cards have started popping up everywhere in the online stamping world.  So I thought maybe I should reconsider my original thoughts on these and try something new!  And then it turned out that splitcoaststampers posted a tutorial on them and then I discovered the Crazy 4 Challenges blog posted an easel card for a challenge last week.  Of course I didn’t get my card done in time for the challenge deadline, but that’s okay.  I actually combined it with this week’s C4C Challenge of using acetate as well! 

So have you counted three reasons thus far as to why I created this card?  1) to attempt something new 2) to participate in the easel card challenge 3) to participate in the acetate challenge.  What’s number 4 you ask?  To create a project to be made at this week’s Stamp Club meeting!!  Hope my clubbers like it!!

If anyone from SU! is reading this, please don’t ever retire the ‘Lovely as a Tree’ stamp set!  It’s such a wonderfully fabulous versatile stamp set!  I white embossed the trees onto Night of Navy cardstock.  See the snowflake acetate covering the trees?  I used Frost White Shimmer Paint for the snowflakes using the new ‘Serene Snowflakes’ stamp set.  The sentiment ‘warm winter wishes’ comes from the hostess stamp set ‘The More the Merrier’ and I used the shimmer paint for that as well.  And just to add more sparkle (and a prop for the easel) I put a strip of sticky strip across the base and covered it with the Silver Glass mix beads.  That’s another product I don’t use enough!  Love how it sparkles (of course it looks better IRL, but use your imagination!) 

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about product used on this card.  Take care!

(Originally posted on December 5, 2008)

Okay, so I never did get a card made for PCP Challenge 3.  But oh well! I’m moving on…  LOL

Here is #4!  I love these colors together!  And I really need to learn how to photograph my creations.  This picture just does NOT do the card (and the glitter!) justice.  But if you’re in my card clubs then you’ll get to see this one up close and personal and make it at your next meeting! 

So anyway, here’s the inspiration piece I gave to all those at PCP in the Color Challenge group.

And here’s my creation:

See what I mean about the picture quality? Well okay, this is a scan but I tried taking a picture inside and outside and I just couldn’t get anything better!  Pathetic, huh?!  LOL  I think I should search the web for picture taking techniques!

(Originally posted November 5, 2008)

Well, two video tutorials in one week?  Aren’t you lucky?!?!  LOL  Don’t get used to it but I had a little time yesterday (thanks to my mother’s helper) and I thought I’d show you a great technique that I don’t do nearly enough.  Unfortunately, due to a little glitch you’ll have to watch two videos to see the entire card get put together.  But I hope you’ll think it’s worth it!  Enjoy!

Here’s the card you’ll see made in the videos:

 PART ONE

To see Part One in high quality, click here then click ‘watch in high quality’ on the bottom right of the video. 

PART TWO

To see Part Two in high quality, click here then click ‘watch in high quality’ on the bottom right of the video.

 Supply List

Inks:
CRAFT: Always Artichoke, Brocade Blue, Whisper White
CLASSIC: Brocade Blue, Baja Breeze, Pacific Point, Basic Gray
Card Stock: 
Pacific Point (8.5" x 11")
Very Vanilla (4" x 5.25" AND 4-5/8" x 2-7/8" AND 4.5" x 2.75")
Always Artichoke (4-7/8" x 3-1/8")
Strip of Scrap CS (at least 5" long)
Embellishments:
Always Artichoke Brads
Punches:
Large and Small Ovals, corner rounder
Accessories: 
clear embossing powder, embossing buddy, heat gun, rubber brayer, stampin’ sponge,
dimensionals, paper piercer, paper piercing template, foam mat