Gifts Galore

I shared yesterday what my gift for our Christmas party was.  Today I'm sharing the rest of the gifts!!  They were all amazing!!  I will never get over how creative these women are!!  I'm so fortunate to be in such great company.  We had a really small party, only 5 of us could attend.  So our gift pile is a little smaller than usual.  But onto the gifts!

 

 Michelle made this wonderful Lap Desk.  The tag reads "Where ever you go enjoy this Lap Desk. It provides you a sturdy surface that works great as you sit on the couch, or floor, or even your bed while watching your favorite show.  Take it with you in the car for long rides or even to create while you are waiting.  Happy Holidays.  Enjoy!"  I love this, Michelle said she would offer a class, I'll be there!

 Next is Karen, I originally opened this gift, but it was stolen from me by Amber.  They're candles (battery operated, vanilla scented) decorated with glitter, shimmery snowflakes.  They sit on a lovely tray, also decorated with glitter and glitz!  It's so beautiful in person, I know why Amber wanted it! 

Amber's gift is next.  I love this project.  There's some fun sneak peeks into the Occasions catalog on this project!  She said she had this frame, with the hooks in them and she embellished it.  She used the burlap ribbon and flowers from a new kit in the Occasions Catalog (January).  It's so pretty and so functional, you could hang keys, jewelry, scissors, really anything from those hooks! 

 

Finally we get to the gift I got to bring home.  I LOVE IT!!  Isn't this Winter Wreath Beautiful!!!??!  Carmelita made this.  There's so much tulle and sparkle on this wreath, it's perfect!!!!  I did hang it on my door-where else would I put it!!??  There was talk at the party that maybe it should be an indoor wreath so it doesn't get dirty, but our front door is pretty sheltered and we have a glass screen door that is in front of the wreath so I think it will be ok. 

Here's a closer look at it.  It has silver glitter paper, rhinestones and everything else I love!!  What's not to love!!!  So there's a look at our gifts this year!  I love them all!  Can't wait until next year!!!!

 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

The Making Of The Penguins

I promised on Friday I'd share what was in the box, first though go grab some coffee this is a long (but worth it) post.  Go ahead I'll wait..........oh good you're back!  We've been doing our Christmas party for years, I don't even know how many!  Every year I'm excited about my gift and in the past I've learned to make an extra for me to keep, then it's not so hard parting with the one I made.  We'll this year my grand idea didn't work out as planned so I needed a plan B...then it hit me....my vision....I think there was an actual light bulb above my head!  I was going to use the clay to make ornaments!!!!  WHAT ornaments though?????  Penguins of course!!!  Making penguins is one of my favorite punch art, so why not make it out of clay!!!  I'm so extra excited about my gift this year!!!  Almost giddy!!!

 

So here's what was in the box....two, might I say ADORABLE penguin ornaments!!!  The penguins are made 99% with SU products, the only thing not SU is the little eye hook (or whatever that thing is called) that the twine is hanging from.  So let's go over these sweet little guys in detail....I warned you this would be a loooonnnnng post! 

Here's the third one, I told you I made a spare for me to keep!  I wanted to keep the pink one, but I was out voted by the rest of my family!  They all wanted the blue one :)  They're all stinkin' cute though!!!!!  The penguins are made completely of the Simply Pressed Clay.  The parts that aren't white I dyed with our reinkers, I used Melon Mambo for the pink one, Bermuda Bay for the blue one and Summer Starfruit for the yellow one.  For their beaks and feet I use Pumpkin Pie reinker.  For the penguins bodies I used staz on-I'm about to admit something here...I don't own a black SU ink pad.....I use Staz On for all my black stamping.  So I only had staz on reinker.  Now when you're dying clay.....and using staz on reinker......WEAR GLOVES!  I can't stress that enough.  My fingers were black for days!!!!!

They're so cute when they hang!!!!  For their eyes I color rhinestones with a black permanent marker.  I used the large rhinestones for the top of their hat and the Silver Glass Glitter for the brim on the hat.  These penguins just keep getting cuter!!!!!     

They're not huge by any means.  They're perfect ornament size and they're so light!!!!  Our clay is fantastic---I was a fan before but now I'm in love with the clay!!!!  The penguins measure about 2x3 and about 1 inch deep (if you count the beak).  The little hooks are just screwed into the hats, after they dried. 

I took pictures while making them, it took about 2 days total. They took a little longer than I thought to dry.  Here's part of the process.  I worked quickly with the bodies and scarves and stuck them together before the clay was dry so that the clay would 'mold' together and hold them together.  No glue involved in these steps.  I did get the beak and the feet onto the blue penguin, but later decided I would glue them on.  The feet I made using the smallest of the heart framelits.  I rolled out the orange clay like cookie dough and used the framelit like a cookie cutter to cut the hearts out.  I laid it all on wax paper to dry and left it for the night. 

The next morning I picked them up, they're backs weren't completely dry so I flipped them over and let them finish drying.  :)  Molding them I didn't find too hard.  The bodies are just circle, I rolled the clay into a ball and gently pressed it into flat circles.  The hats I did in a similar way, I made an oval though, pressed it out and then shaped it into a hat, just take your time.  The scarves I rolled out a 'snake' then pressed it flat.  They're simple shapes, just take your time :) 

Once they were dry, I used my tombow glue to glue on the feet, beaks, eyes and the ball on the top of the hat.  Let it dry....lots of drying time.  Once that was dry I used Crystal Effects to add the glitter to the brim of the hats.  They can't lay flat anymore, at least not until the crystal effects dried, so I pulled out rolls of washi tape for them to rest on. 

Finally the last step was adding the hook and twine.  It worked perfectly and I couldn't be more pleased with the final result!!!!  There's a good chance you'll see lots more clay creations from me soon!!!!  This was sooooo much fun and I still have a ton of clay left.  A little goes a very long way.  The clay is only $6.95 it's a fantastic investment!!!!!  Local stampers if you're interested in a class on using the clay, email me or leave a comment.  If there's interest I'll do a class.  It was sooooo much fun!!!!!     

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

What's In The Box???

Tonight is our annual Christmas Party with our group of demos here, our Ladybug Party!  Every year we make 1 gift, bring it wrapped to the party and then exchange gift, white elephant style.  In past years there's been lots of stealing gifts.  It's always so much fun!  We begin with a potluck dinner.  The company is always great the presents are fantastic---these ladies are amazingly creative.  This year I'm sure it will be no different.  Here's my gift....what's in the box????  Well you'll have to come back on Monday to see what's in it---believe me it's worth the stop!!!!  I normally don't create my gift wrapping, some years my gifts have been too big for it.  But this year, I have a small gift, the box was so easy to make!!!

I hear all the time "How do you make boxes?" "I could never do that!" Boxes are super simple and anyone can do it!  When I make my boxes I figure out how big it needs to be first.  Not how high, just length and width.  For this box I needed a 5 x 3 1/2 inch box. I knew I wanted it to be 1 1/2 inches tall, so I added 3 to each side, my cardstock needs to be 8 x 6 1/2, score at 1 1/2 on all sides.  That's it!  Cut tabs and assemble your box!  Really THAT'S IT!  For my lid, I only wanted 1 inch on each side, I wanted a little of the Bermuda Bay box to show underneath.  So my measurements were 7 x 5 1/2 score at 1 inch on all sides.  Assemble the lid the same way.  (TIP: With the glimmer paper I had to use a glue gun to hold the sides together, if you've ever used it you'll know the it's challenging to get that glimmer paper to stick!).  For the bow I used the bow die-there's a million uses for that die!!!  Remember to stop by on Monday to see 'what's in the box?'.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Found This!

I spent some time this week cleaning off my stamping desk.  I know that I 'claim' to do that often but it really gets messy and things get lost and I have nothing to do with it ;) There's always scraps of paper, pens, random stamps that need to find their home and so many more things.  Well this card was found in that organized chaos.  This was going to be one of the cards we did at my gift card holder class last month, but I decided to do a different card.  It's a really fun card though, and I love the 'merry' in the silver!

When you open the card, there's a spot for the gift card.  It fits perfectly!  I used some circle punches folded in half to use as the 'holder' of this card.  If you were going to mail this or hand it out, I would make sure to use a glue dot on each circle to anchor that gift card down. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

This Is It!

Of course this is not the end of all MDS projects, but it's the end of my favorite Disney pages.  I didn't quite know how I was going to scrapbook the Electrical Parade pictures.  They're bright and unique.  I color matched everything on this page.  All the blocks are color matched to the lights in the parade.  I wanted to page to be as bright as the parade was! 

Fireworks at Disney World are always amazing.  The castle lit up at night is another wonderful sight to see!  Fortunately the two nights that we saw the Magic Kingdom Fireworks it didn't rain :) This page is super simple.  But it doesn't need to be fancy or elaborate to be special!  Remember when you're MDSing every page is unique and special, it doesn't matter how many embellishments you have on there, it's your page, made with love!!!

Finally our travel shots, there was lots of waiting at the airport.  They were ready to go!!!  They were great travelers though!!!  They loved having their own suitcases (filled with toys and books).  We were all exhausted on the plane ride home :) 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Two Double Pages

I don't normally work in double page layouts.  I would really rather do one page at a time :)  However.....sometimes you have to do a double page layout.  Our princess pictures really needed one.  I wanted the pictures to be a good size and fitting them all on one page made them too small.  This double page layout is so pretty, elegant and fun!!! 

The princesses were all so nice, I don't know which was Logan's favorite.  He did get really shy as soon as we got up to each one.  He had so many questions for all of them, but was a little star struck when it was his turn :)

The second double page layout I did in this book is one from the Logan and Megan's camera.  There were so many pictures to choose from.  Logan and Megan loved being able to take their own pictures.  It was so much fun to look through them too.  Megan took a lot of pictures at the stores at Downtown Disney while sitting in her stroller so there's lots of shots of the toys and other lower displays. 

There's lots of close up face shots :)  I think they enjoyed being goofy with each other.  In the end we do love these pictures and it was so fun to see how Logan and Megan experienced Disney World.   I have one more post with the last of the pages tomorrow then we'll move on to lots of stamped projects! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Let's Finish Up Disney

I hope you're not sick of all my Disney World pages yet.  Good news though, including this post, there's two more posts of our Disney trip to share!  I already have the printed album in hand and it's lovely!  I'm so pleased with it!!!  I hope you've enjoyed all the pages too.  My Digital Studio is really an amazing program.  I never ever ever considered myself a scrapbooker but with MDS I am!!!  That's pretty exciting!!  Back to the pages.  Fantasmic at the Studios is one of our favorite shows.  It's an incredible show, if you're planning a trip to WDW, make sure you add this on your must do list.  Dan and I must have seen it dozens of times when we worked there, Dan probably more, he used to work it!  Even after seeing it all, being able to recite it and know what's going to happen it's still exciting!    I can't remember if I've shared this one or not, if so sorry, if not here it is! 

 

Back to Magic Kingdom now, the rest of the pages will be from this park.  We literally walked into Magic Kingdom right when the parade was starting and were able to get seats right on the street!  How exciting for the kids!!! 

Dumbo was one of Megan's favorite rides.  I think we rode Dumbo about 3 or 4 times!  There was never a line, we were able to walk right on!  I do love this page, I think this was CASED from Pintrest.  I love the colors and all the banners and flags, so cute!!! 

The last page, for today anyway, is the Carousel.  Another ride we did more than once.  On one of our rides we rode with one of Cinderella's step sisters!!!  How fun!!!  There's an error on this page, I'm not going to point it out.  I didn't realize until printing, but fortunately for me it was cut off on the page.  ALWAYS check your bleed areas and make sure nothing important will get cut off.  Luckily it was just my mistake that got cut off :) 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!!!

Welcome To Thanksgiving

Turkey Day has arrived!!  There are yummy smells coming from kitchens all over the country today!  Today I'm sharing what my table setting will look like.  We'll have a total of 10 people here at our home for Thanksgiving, so I enlisted Logan and Megan's help with the decorations.  It's a pretty laid back setting, we're not doing super fancy this year.  There is only one fork, one spoon and one knife.  There are paper napkins-Thanksgiving themed at least.  But our table settings are very simple, it's easier on the kids and me that way.  Maybe as the kids get older and the manners mature a bit we'll be able to get fancier as the years go on, but now we're perfectly happy going simple!  But hey, I pulled out my good china and silver-that's something :)

For the name cards, Logan and I made turkey legs.  These were super duper easy!!!  We covered a popsicle stick on one side with white cardstock, then punched a little heart to use as the edge of the bone.  Then we crumpled up a piece of newspaper and I ripped apart a brown paper lunch sack and that makes the 'meat' on the bone.  We used a rubber band to hold it all in place and wrapped ribbon around the rubber band and tied a tag onto the ribbon.  They're really cute!!! 

Finally for the silverware.  I used the envelope punch board and made envelopes with the Sweater Weather DSP from the Holiday Catalog.  I used a 6x6 piece of DSP then use the measurements for the 3x4 envelope (I think).  Then we attached turkeys the kids made to the front of the envelope.  The turkey's are not Stampin' Up!  They're just a foam kit that was easy for the kids-especially Megan, we got at a hobby store.  The utensils fit perfectly in it, the napkin gets tucked in there too.  Thanks for stopping by today, I'm so thankful today and everyday that I get to do what I love, Stampin' Up! has been a huge gift in my life, it's my creative retreat, it's brought so many great people into my life-friends I would have never met otherwise!  I'm thankful I get to share my creations here with you no matter how small, elaborate or detailed they are.  Finally I'm thankful for you, for stopping by today and everyday!  I hope that through the year I provide at least a little inspiration for you!  Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!! 

Back To Disney

I did promise it wouldn't all be cardstock this week :)  Anyone else out there in the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving??  Yesterday I made 8, yes 8 pie crusts and two pies.  I'll finish the pie baking today and finally get to all that cleaning I keep talking about.  Really it's not much, just a quick vacuum and dusting.  Here's two pages that didn't get posted somehow in the Epcot and Studios pages.  The first is about the monorails.  Dan loves the monorails, he's kind of a train fanatic.  This page is simple but has lots of meaning, each color of the banners represent one of the monorails, they're named by their color----did you know that???  Did you also know there are 11 monorails all running??  This is the trivia I live with :)

Next is the Beauty and the Beast page.  This page, though it looks simple took me for-ever!  I couldn't get colors right, DSP right and nothing seemed to work.  It was a looooong work in progress.  But I think it ended up being one of my favorite pages.  If it weren't for that picture of the kids (and Dan) with their eyes glued to the stage I might not have done it at all.  But that picture is to precious and it had to go in.  They were just entranced by the whole show!  Tomorrow I do have a fun Thanksgiving post.  I'm giving you a sneak peek to my Thanksgiving table!  Logan helped alot with the decorations so I'm excited to share it!!! 

 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Thanksgiving Pumpkins

Thanksgiving is just hours away.  Hard to believe right?!  Logan is home from school this week, which I thought would mean zero crafty time for me, however he's been a nice distraction to Megan and they've been playing games together---that 'Mommy's not allowed to play' as I've been told.  They've even had some 'slumber parties' in each others rooms.  Which Megan just LOVES!  Megan adores Logan and he loves to be the center of attention.  Knock on wood, they're getting along great, so far......hopefully I didn't just curse the good behavior :/  Anyway, their 'private' games left me some time to stamp.  Now realistically I should be cleaning, cooking, and really preparing for Thanksgiving which is here.  But I have time for quick card :)

This card was inspired by the pumpkins and leaves on this card.  I love them!  I used Sahara Sand instead of Vanilla for my pumpkins though.  The pumpkins are made from oval punches.  That's it you just layer the ovals to make the pumpkins.  So easy!!!  Make sure you sponge your ovals before layering them, in punch art like this it's the extra texture and detail from the sponging that makes the pumpkins really stand out.  The leaves are made from a circle punch.  Punch a circle, then feed the punched circle back into the punch and just cut a sliver off, you're left with the lovely perfect leaf!  Thanksgiving prep here I come!!!

 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Attractions

Guess what time it is?  It's MDS time!!  You guessed it!!!  I decided that with the attraction pages there was no reason to go into elaborate journaling.  The pictures really speak for themselves.  Magic Kingdom is really the only place that I got pictures of us on the rides.  I think I do have some from the Studios, I'll have to back and check before printing.  The pages are all simple, the pictures speak for themselves, there just isn't a lot to say. 

One of my plans for the album is to do a favorites list in the back from each person.  That way when we look back, we'll all see what we loved the most.  Test Track might be one of Logan's he was old enough to drive.  Somehow I got in the car with him!  YIKES that was a scary ride!!  Especially when he let go of the wheel and just started laughing!

This was a fun ride in a clam shell!  Who would have ever thought I'd say that!  Just a quick note.  I know in a lot of the pictures it doesn't look like Dan's having a good time, he's just a horrible picture taker :)  This ride was a new one for Dan and I, it wasn't built when we were there.  One of my favorite parts of this page is how I color matched the stamped fish with the dancing fish in the picture.  I love that MDS gives you that option!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!!

Beautiful Butterfly Bag

I wanted to venture back to my scrapbook weekend for a minute.  There were tons of make and takes.  This one was my favorite and I thought it was so beautiful it deserved it's own post.  The original idea came from this post when Kim guest blogged.  I was convinced that those bags were beautiful, but I'd never find the time to do them.  I was WRONG!  These bags are soooo sooo quick to put together!!!  There is some drying time, but really I was shocked!!!

I'm not sure if this is the exact way Kim did her bags, this is how Michelle guided us through these bags, so this is the way I know.  I'll give you a quick run down on what we did.  First we stamped, in staz on, our image on white tissue paper.  Cut it out.  Now with tissue paper this is easier said than done, not impossible or hard, you just have to be a little more patient because the tissue paper can tear so easily.  Once your image is cut out grab a paint brush and modge podge.  We laid it face down and painted a THIN layer of modge podge then lay your bag over it, gently press, the image will stick to your bag.  Trim the edges, if they hang over and then paint another thin layer of modge podge over the image now on your bag.  Let it dry.

Once it's dry just pull out your makers, of course we used SU markers and color it.  The color is so bright and vibrant.  When your coloring, it's going to look like the ink isn't drying, it's gonna be wet, but I promise it will dry.  I don't know how it works, I don't know if the marker soaks into it somehow, or just dries but it does and it works!  The colors I used on this bag were Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Melon Mambo and Tempting Turquoise.  I love how bright they are on the bag!!  I have more MDS pages to share next week.  I'm hoping to squeeze in some projects but Thanksgiving's at my house, the kids will be home all week, so I'm not making promises :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Up Late....

Which is why the picture isn't as good as it should be.  Up late crafting away!  Last night I under estimated-----A LOT how long it was going to take to up load all my MDS projects to be printed.  The album alone took an hour!  But all the little details, layers and embellishments will all be worth it when it's printed and in my hands :)  Can't wait!!!!  So while I was waiting I got a few cards done, some that needed to be made and mailed.  This was one.  Super duper simple, but also super duper cute.  I used the Season of Style DSP proving that it's not just for Christmas.  You could easily do a birthday greeting on this card too!  We'll it's late (for me).  My order is in and I'm calling it a night! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!