Thankful for Goodies!

My friend Donna gave me this cute RAK! I really love the DP by Bo Bunny! Inside was Reese's PB Cup. I need to hide this from my husband. Thank you Donna!

Island Scrapbooking Card Drawing

Island Scrapbooking hosted a Card Drawing, where customers could submit a card (sorta like a one card swap) that we numbered and then drew numbers to see what card we would get. It was fun to see all the different cards everyone came up with. Here's the card I entered into the drawing... I used Swept Away Fhiona by Your Next Stamp.

I really wanted to do an acetate card but wasn't sure how to approach it. Finally, I just went for it and this is what I came up with... I only put the leaves on the acetate which gave it some dimension. The inside of the card held the background paper and image. I mounted Fhiona on a 3x3 card that you could open. Here's what it looked like when you opened it...

I just love this DP and really wanted to use it. This stamp set just worked perfectly with it!

Supplies:

Fhiona stamp- Your Next Stamp

DP- Bo Bunny

Cardstock- Bazzil

Acetate

Ribbon

Here's the card I received in the swap... Its by Sharon- love the frog and flies!!! Thanks Sharon!

Happy Belated Birthday Aidan!

My friend Debi's son, Aidan celebrated his 1st birthday this past Tuesday. Debi decided to make Elephant shaped invitations for his party in Honolulu. Since she had an elephant theme going, I decided to match the theme for his card. I dug up my old Sizzix elephant die and made a gatefold card using a Spellbinders scallop circle die.

Here's the inside of the card...

Supplies:

Elephant Die- Sizzix

Scallop circle and circle dies- Spellbinders

DP- Doodlebug

Cardstock- Bazzil

Birthday Boy and Party On sentiments- Hero Arts

Ribbon

Hope you had a Happy Birthday Aidan! You are growing up so fast!

On another note, just wanted to thank all the Congrats from everyone for my making the TSR Design Team! You guys are so sweet!

Woo Hoo!

Just wanted to share some special news with everyone! I recently found out that I was selected to be on the Two Scoops Rice Design Team from now through spring! Thank you Renae! I just love these cute stamps- they are totally my style... And I'm soooo happy that Enjoli of Stampin Under the Sun blog is on the DT with me! Congrats Enjoli! I'm a big fan of her creations and consider it an honor to be in the same DT as her. I'm so excited to start creating and can't wait to find out more!

Embossing Folder Tutorial

Hi Kris and Tammy! This one is for you! I guess we were the last 3 who didn't know how to do this! So, I finally figured out how to expand the use of my embossing folders! Granted, this will only work on certain folders, so keep this in mind before trying it out. I recommend folders that have a pattern to them. This is important since you will need to follow the indentation after you first run it through your machine. For this tutorial, I used a 5x5 sheet of cardstock. The average size of an embossing folder is A2 size. I don't think it would work if your paper was oversized both length and width. If you figure out how to do it, let me know. 1. Place paper flush against one edge- I made mine flush left. This will get your embossing all the way to the edge of the paper.

2. Run it through your Sizzix Big Shot machine as you normally would. I use the multi-purpose platform on tab 1 in between my 2 cutting plates. Your paper will now look like this.. See how the right hand side of the paper is not embossed?

3. Move the paper so that the right edge will now be in the folder. Using the grooves (in this case dots) as your guide, stick the paper into another set of holes. All the dots on your paper should line up perfectly for this folder... again not sure how it will work in folders with different patterns.

4. Run it sideways through your big shot (yes, I have an old version of the big shot!). The side that was not embossed yet should be the side that goes into the machine first. In my case, the right side of the folder.

5. Sorry, couldn't really "show" you here, but hopefully I can explain so that you can understand... run through the machine enough so that it will emboss the area that was not initially embossed, then run the machine back the way it came from (i.e. turn the handle the other way). If you ran it all the way through, it will likely flatten the dots sticking out of the folder and you will be like me and get very frustrated!.. so remember, only go about 1/2 way and then back. (Don't look at my very used cutting plates! Note to self... need to buy new ones!)

Ta Daaaaaa! Now your cardstock is embossed all the way! Woo hoo!

Hopefully this will be informational to more of you out there!

I Feel So Loved!!

Two Friday's ago was Boss' day... normally I don't receive anything, nor do I expect anything. I have two employees that report to me, but I consider us all to be a team and I just kinda coordinate our work. Anyway, they knew I had to take off that day for my daughter's waiver day (crazy they still have waiver days with all the furlough days yah?), so they gave me a nice card and GC and told me Happy Boss' day. I was very touched and speechless. That totally made my week.

As a thank you, I made these cards for them. I learned how to make these cute popsicle cards from Debi at her make 'n take at Island Scrapbooking. Inside, I included a gc to Jamba Juice. Hope they know I appreciate them as well!

Supplies:

Craft Sticks

Scallop circle punch and circle punch- Marvy

Circle sentiments- TGF

Corner rounder punch

DP- Lasting Impressions

Ribbon

Happy Belated Halloween!

I know, late again... just wanted to share these Halloween photos with you. Our office had two themes going. One Division had The Wizard of Oz, and the rest of us did monsters... Can you find me?

OK- here's a better clue... I'm the one in the middle... Do you know what I am? A lot of people didn't- how disappointing to think that so many of you out there never watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown! Now do you know who I am??? Here's another hint... I had trouble with scissors! OK- if you can't guess by now, I'm the Charlie Brown ghost!

Here's Akemi in her cat costume. She had to go as a character from a book for her school's literacy parade.

Here's the Manapua Superman! You can't tell from this photo but he's also wearing a cape. He really did not want to wear that hat!

Here's a RAK I received from Debi... Isn't it cute? She knows I like Pink Cat Studio. I think she also used one of the templates from Papertrey Ink.

Here's a close of the shoe... One of the customers from Island Scrapbooking (Hi Ev!) gave one to all the girls. I've never seen one this small before! So cute!!

Here's the goodies I made for the girls at IS. Debi likes CC's so I used the new digis. I totally CASE'd this box from Jean of Dandelion Designs. When I saw her sample, I just had to copy it... Thanks Jean! You have such great ideas!

Here's the princess Anya dressed as a witch (again).

Here's a close up of the pumpkins. I copied Jean's idea of wrapping the Ferro Rocher (spelling?) candies in orange tissue and then used my flourish punches to make vines.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween! I was so pooped that I took a 5 hour nap yesterday! I guess sleep is not overrated!

Sleep Is Overrated

I know, I'm totally crazy when it comes to crafting. I get obsessive about finding supplies, instructions, and don't relax until I get it. Well, this happened again the other weekend. I was pretty exhausted from my scrapbook class, but when I got home, I found my gift card class kit had arrived from Teri! Woo Hoo! All of a sudden, I wasn't tired anymore and had a sudden burst of energy! I don't think I stopped until all the gift cards were made! I ended up staying up really late but it was SOOOOOO worth it! Lookie at all the beautiful cards! Teri is so nice to cut, stamp and provide all the supplies for the class kits. Thank you Teri- I love it! I have a feeling this is going to be a gift card kinda year.

Here's what it looks like when you pull out the card. Love this one! Its like an envelope/card all in one! Here's what it looks like inside: Love this color combo! Its a Hawaiian Snowman! Save your sealed envelopes! You can use them to make this one! Perfect for Hilo weather!

Thanks Teri, I love all the holders! Can't wait to start making more!!

Dandelion Designs Calendar

Received a RAK from Liann at Cute Stuff along with my receipt. She was so nice to mail me a stamp set and send me this cute calendar! Thank you Liann!

This cute monkey image is by Dandelion Designs. Jean creates the cutest animals and makes coordinating sentiments. She makes things so much easier for us, yah?

I don't know where they got this paper from but I love it! It works perfectly with the image and sentiment! That is so awesome. He's going right on my desk at work.

Here's a closer look... now I want some watermelon!

Christmas Gatefold Scrapbook

OK- I went a little overboard on this one... I admit I got carried away and created a lot more work for myself than I needed to, but I think it was worth it and I think the students in my class liked the end result. The only junk thing is we ran out of time! I guess I need to budget more time next time (if there is a next time that is). I learned how to make this cool scrapbook from Brian at Photocraft, who learned it from a customer in that visited them from Oregon. Sorry, I really don't know who that person is, but she deserves full credit for this technique.

Since the last scrapbook class I taught I received feedback that the students wanted to have the papers selected for them, I decided to make kits (last time everyone cut their own). Since I needed to find non-gender specific theme, I thought Christmas would be a good theme since most people observe Christmas in one way or another.

So after you open up the ribbon and front cover, this is the first "page". The Christmas tree is covering the gatefold.

When you open it up... Ta Daaaaa! I love the pop up effect I was able to get from these Christmas Tree Spellbinders. I told my students that they could also use this technique for cards as well. I decorated the tree using the red Smooch. This metallic paint is great if you can't wait for it to dry. Normally I would have used stickles, but we just didn't have enough time.

This next page is actually behind the Christmas Tree page. I love the background DP used on this page. Too bad you can't see the detail on it. It actually has glittered flourishes all over the page. I used my new Spellbinders Pointsetta die and layered the pieces, then used gold smooch to make the middle of the flower.

Here's another favorite of mine. I used the Fleur de lis pendant by Spellbinders, cut two and made a snowflake using white glitter paper. Then I cut two hearts from my spellbinders and made an ornament. I thought the students could write on the hearts to document the date, place, etc (something small that would fit on the hearts).

The next gatefold I covered using a large Sizzix snowflake die cut from white glitter cardstock.

When you open it up, it looks like this... At first I just cut the snowflakes (sizzix), but decided at the last minute to add in the three snowmen (The Greeting Farm). I think they added something to the page.

This is the middle section of the scrapbook after you open it up on both sides. I kept it simple since there's a lot going on in this section. I didn't want it too distracting since it was like 3 pages in one.

This first page is very simple. Just a large circle and scallop circle cut from spellbinders over two strips of candy cane striped paper.

Everyone got a kick out of this page. I found some cool paper at Island Scrapbooking that had a whole page full of these swirl peppermint candies, so I punched them out and wrapped them in cellophane. This reminds me of the Night Before Christmas story where "visions of sugarplums danced in their heads..."

Here's the last gatefold. I decided to go with a simple star. Reminds me of Macy's.

The inside was decorated with more stars.

Finally, this is the last two pages behind the snoflake gatefold. The letters on this next page were custom alphabets by Island Scrapbooking. Thank you Michele!

I told the students that if they didn't want such a cutsie looking scrapbook to scrap the gingerbread men. I added them in in case they wanted to do a holiday goodies page. In their kits, I decided to stamp the gingerbread men on brown paper instead since I had trouble with the coloring. These cute stamps are by Two Scoops Rice.

I love how this scrapbook turned out. Maybe I'll use this idea to make Christmas gifts this year!

Supplies:

DP: Doodlebug, Reminisce, Best Creation, Imaginisce, DCWV

Cardstock- Bazzil

Gingerbread men- Two Scoops Rice

Snowmen- The Greeting Farm

Snowflake dies, flourish die- Sizzix

Circles, scallop circles, labels #9, pointsetta, xmas tree, Labels #1, stars, scallop square, hearts and Fleur de lis dies- Spellbinders

Ribbon

Stickles

Dew Drops

Smooch

J,O,Y- Island Scrapbooking Laser Cuts

Cellophane

Lace border punch- Martha Stewart