Stair Step Fold Challenge

And so it begins.....

The holidays are upon us! Can you believe it? Where did the year go? I could have sworn I was just putting last year's christmas decorations away around the house. Okay, maybe thats just me slacking on cleaning but it sure did fly by fast! Fall is here, the California winter chill is blowing and the clock is ticking nagging me to finish up my christmas cards so I can actually send them out this year.

This is one of the first holiday cards I made this year. Splitcoast had a challenge a few weeks ago for stair step fold cards. (For those that visit, it was challenge TLC190) I thought it was such a cute idea especially with all the 3D cards popping up commercially. Of course, as a cardmaker myself, I naturally thought I can do better than that! I can make my own 3D cards that pop, swing, sparkle, shake and whatnot. The challenge was perfect. In my excitement, I forgot to check on what dimensions the challenge instructed for the stair folds. So I pretty much just took a scrap piece of paper and started folding. To make the long story short, my card doesn't stand up properly and there is no "stairstep effect". Haha. The picture is a little deceiving BUT it worked for my forest of trees! I love making "mistakes" just to find out that it works just as well as if you did it the "right way". :)

Stamps: Christmas Classics, Short and Sweet, Many Merry Messages
Inks: Handsome Hunter, Whisper White, Versamark
Paper: Riding Hood Red cardstock, Whisper White cardstock
Accessories: Filigree Designer Brads, Iridescent Ice Stampin' Emboss Powder, Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Snail Adhesive, Tombow Adhesive, Heat Tool

Diaper Cakes

As I promised previously, I'm posting pictures of the diaper cakes I made. Yes there are SIX separate diaper cakes there. Thats ALOT! It was an incredible feat to complete this one. These two-tiered diaper cakes were meant to be used during a baby shower and these were going to be the centerpieces at each table. The host of the party told us that the mom-to-be absolutely LOVED the cakes and she will be using the paper animals for her scrapbooks. She is expecting twin boys!! It was such an amazing feeling getting such rave reviews for the diaper cakes. The images were made using Cricut. These are non-Stampin' Up! images.

Halloween Goody Bags

This year for Halloween I decided to make some goody bags for the kids that trick or treat at work. A little bit of background for the trick or treat at work: Halloween is a very big deal at my work place. They have the office all decked out for the occasion and there's always special events going on not to mention the big food spread they have available for all of the employees. Anyway, the company is very family oriented. So they have what they call a Teenie-Weenie Halloweenie parade wherein you could bring your kids to trick or treat around the office. They "hop" from desk to desk trick-or-treat-ing. Its always very cute and its so much fun to see all the kids. The last couple years I've worked there I didn't really prepare anything special for the occasion. But this year, since I'm a new Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I thought it would be a great opportunity to market my business in a somewhat subtle way. :) I actually included a postcard type card with the goody bags. If you look closely at the picture, you might see an orange sheet of paper with stars on it. I just stamped a Happy Halloween sentiment on the card and attached my contact information on the back (hehe). The bags were a big hit to say the least. Everyone thought it was very cute. We shall see if it brings in business. :P

I've been seeing these spiders on a lot of blogs and definitely around Splitcoast galleries. They're SO adorable! Unfortunately, I don't remember who created this ADORABLE critter so I can't properly give you credit (so sorry :( ).

The spider is made using only punches: scallop circle punch for the main body, 3/4 circle and 1/4 circle punch and uni-ball Signo Gel Pen (white) for the eyes, 1/4 circle punch for the nose and Photo corners punch for the legs. The photo corner punch produces a large corner and a small corner. I just put these on top of each other using different colors of course. Also, before I made all my punches, I ran the paper through the crimper to create some texture on the spider.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Halloween. It fell on a Friday this year so I'm sure there are A LOT of grand celebrations going on tonight. Its a card crafting night for me tonight as I have to catch a plane early tomorrow morning.

Fresh Cuts

Here's a very simple card using Fresh-Cuts Notes.  Its a card for all occasions.  Do you get those times when you just need a simple card?  Even though I make so many cards, I still find myself  searching for a simple card that can be for any occasion or just to send a simple hello card.  Thats how this card came about.  Simple, elegant, no frills and its quick and easy to make. I fall in love with the simplicity of this card everytime I look at it.  

Enjoy! :) 

Stamps: Fresh Cuts
Ink: Versamark, Old Olive
Paper: Old Olive Cardstock, Kraft Cardstock
Accessories: Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Fresh-Cut Notes, White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Stampin Dimensionals

Thank You Pocket

Okay so I really need to remedy my picture situation. My pictures come out with glare from my desk light. I'm going to have to remedy that and fast! Its really sad.

So, on to more important things. This card was actually an attempt to CASE the pretty pink one that is on the Stampin' Up! catalog. I just took off the extra bells and whistles on their embellished pocket and this is what came of my attempt. I still think its pretty. All the colors blended well with the designer series paper.

Stamps: Elegant Notes, Frames with a Flourish
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Kiwi Kiss
Paper: Urban Garden DSP, Basic Gray cardstock, Very Vanilla cardstock
Accessories: Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon, Bashful Blue Double Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Bone Folder

Cupcake Crazy

So I haven't posted in about 2 weeks, but I promise I've been busy. Busy crafting, busy stamping, busy creating. I was actually working on some diaper cakes for which I'll post about separately (once I get pictures uploaded). Anyway, I got a few cards to post about YIPEE!!!

First up... a birthday card. I really wanted to do a mosaic base background card but couldn't resist using the cupcake image I was playing around with. The colors came out so cute that I just had to use it. I wanted the image to stand out somehow so thats where the scrap DSP came in. I inked the edges of all of the So Saffron sheets with So Saffron ink. The balloons are also from the Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set but I cut off the strings and used linen thread instead.

Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes
Inks: So Saffron, Real Red, Basic Gray, Mellow Moss
Paper: Certainly Celery Cardstock, So Saffron Cardstock, Real Red Cardstock, Urban Garden DSP
Accessories: SU Linen Thread, Word Window punch, 1 1/4 Square punch, Paper Snips

Season of Joy Holiday Card Pack

For our World Card Making day event, these are the cards I created as a project for our guests. I tried to make the card designs appeal to beginner to intermediate crafters. I got ideas from past cards that I learned from the classes I've been to and from browsing through the wonderful creations from Splitcoast. I got some good feedback from our customers who made the project today.

I made some extra card packs. This includes all the precut paper to assemble your cards, embellishments and detailed instructions. If anyone is interested in purchasing a card pack, I'm selling them for $10 each. However, you will need to have the Season of Joy stamp set to complete the project. Please contact me if you'd like to purchase one.

Stamps: Season of Joy
Ink: Handsome Hunter, Real Red, Riding Hood Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Old Olive Cardstock, Chocolate Chip cardstock, Riding Hood Red cardstock, Kraft cardstock, Whisper White cardstock, Very Vanilla cardstock, Handsome Hunter cardstock, Holiday Treasures DSP
Accessories: Pretties Kit, Fire Rhinestone Brads, Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds, Scallop Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

OPEN HOUSE SATURDAY

My mom and I held our first Stampin' Up! open house this saturday. It was actually a mixed event since we combined it with World Card Making day. We had make and takes and door prizes galore! It was so much fun. I was looking forward to the event all week with all the preparations we had to do. I made these super cute and super easy door prizes using the Big Shot basket. We placed a couple incentive stamps in the baskets as the prize. I attached a blank 3 x 3 notecard to the front that has a "thank you" sentiment to complete the whole package. The cards have a 3 piece mosaic type design. I didn't want to throw away the extra scraps from the Big Shot basket so I used them to make these cards. Finally, I tied some grosgrain ribbon to tie the basket together.

Stamps: Short & Sweet
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Night of Navy
Paper: Hawaii Papaya DSP, Banbury DSP, Maine Blueberry DSP, Manchester DSP
Accessories: 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Big Shot Machine, Baskets & Blooms Bigz XL Die