Kindergarten Christmas Treats

I made 26 of these little treat bags for everyone in Ethan's Kindergarten Class. I have to give a shout out to my husband for helping package all of these the night before the Christmas party.

QuicKutz Quick Stik

A must have tool for punch art! I love the QuicKutz Quick Stik it makes grabbing and attaching tiny pieces a cinch! This came in very handy when attaching all the tiny pieces on the 12 Tags of Christmas.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 12

I created a sponged pond by masking and inking in a circle at the bottom of the tag. I then used shades of blue to create a an outdoor scene, stamped in my skaters and glittered the snow all around them. I really like the new basic pearls and rhinestones SU put out in this catalog. They come in a variety of sizes, perfect for any project. I think they added an elegant touch to this monochromatic tag.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 11

This cute little penguin was made out of the large oval punch. I added some pumpkin pie with the modern label punch (for the feet) and Two-step Bird punch for the beak. A small black brad made a perfect eye for a finishing touch.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 10

I stamped the same leaf from the French Foliage set over and over again in gold ink (for both the petals and leaves of the flower) and cut them out. I then wrapped them around my paper piercer to give them a curl. I then attached them in the shape of a flower to a punched circle and used stampin' dimensionals here and there to give them some lift. I added a pearl brad to the center and a poinsettia was born.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 9

I cut out this gingerbread image on my Quickutz Silhouette. I sponged crumb cake ink on crumb cake paper to give the appearance he had been baked. I then put on some dimensional paint for the icing and a couple of tiny buttons, brads for the eyes, drew in a mouth and chalked in some cheeks. A couple of dots on the cheeks with my uni-ball Signo white gel pen (a must have for any crafter) and my gingerbread man is complete.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 8

I used an SU marker to color in just the snowflake from the Season of Joy stamp set. Otherwise, it is all punch art. I sponged the bear with a little sahara sand for dimension and I sponged bashful blue on the peaks of the snow and added some dazzling diamonds for sparkle. I used the Decorative Label Punch from the holiday mini on this one. I think it is quickly becoming one of my favorite punches.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 7

This was an origami Christmas tree I found on line, paired with SU's Designer Christmas paper I think it turned out adorable.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 6

I love this new (this year) stamp set "Welcome Christmas." The minute I saw it my mind came up with dozens of possibilities. I laid down an uneven strip of paper to mask off the snow, then sponged the sky in pink pirouette, then went back and sponged the edges in pretty in pink to give it more depth. I also added a little sparkle to the snow.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 5

I embossed Dasher on gold against designer Christmas paper, I then went around the edge of the tag with a gold sharpie and added a strip of gold waffle paper at the bottom for some texture. This was my attempt to make a more masculine tag.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 4

This was a very simple, but elegant tag. I just cut four rectangles to resemble door panels, sponged them with Sahara sand to give them some dimension and voila - a door. I then punched out a circle with a small circle punched from that (much like the foam wreaths florists work with) to give me a frame to start attaching the leaves (from the Two-Step Bird punch) to. I punched the berries from my crop-a-dile and then glittered them up a little for some pop.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 3

For this tag I cut out the word Joy on my Quickutz Silhouette then cut a circle scaled to the size of my word and made it into a snowman head. The eyes were punched out with the crop-a-dile, the carrot nose was free-hand. I love this year's Designer Christmas Paper SU put out!

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 2

The key to making this bird pop is to ink up the body and wings with black ink.

12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 1

Inspired by Tim Holtz, I decided to create my own "12 Tags of Christmas." For this one I wanted to use non-traditional Christmas colors.

2010 Christmas Photo

Every year I get Ethan's photo done with Santa and send out picture cards as our Christmas cards (I don't think I'll ever be able to bring myself to making 100+ cards). Here is this year's photo. Our mall has the most amazing Santa, and he's been there every year since Ethan was born.

Storm Trooper - Thank You Cards

These are the thank-you cards I created for Ethan to send for his birthday presents. This was the first year he was able to write them himself. Everyone thought his kindergarten handwriting was adorable. Especially his mother.

Happy 6th Birthday Ethan!

Today is my son's 6th birthday. My baby is growing up too fast! He is currently obsessed with Star Wars, specifically Darth Vader so I created this to match the sprinkles on his birthday cake.

Deer Friends

Here are two versions (I ran out of patterned paper) of the 12x12 layout I did for November's stamp club. Since some of the girls don't celebrate Christmas, I tried to stick to a generic winter theme. The only real technique on this layout was the use of a "mirror image stamp" to get both deer to face into the title. Mirror Image stamps aren't easy to find (I had to buy mine on the internet) but I do think it is something every stamper should have in their arsenal of supplies.

Happy Birthday Alonzo

I created this card for my nephew who is as wild and colorful a character as this card. I wouldn't trade him for the world!

Falling 4U

This was Stamp Club's October Scrapbook page. I don't know if you can tell from the picture but, the crumb cake card stock was stamped with whisper white ink for a subtle effect. The title was done on my QuicKutz Silhouette.

Thanksgiving Pheasant

I'm not really one to send out Thanksgiving cards nor do I care that much for birds, but I do love the "Autumn Days" stamp set (even the pheasant). The foliage in this set is so versatile for a variety of different projects.

Happy Harvest M&M Mix

This was the 3-D project we did for stamp club this month. I used the outer circle of snowflake in the "Season of Joy" stamp set and just the tiny pumpkin from the "Holiday Best" set to do the lid. I don't know if you can see it in the picture but, adding a rhinestone here and there gave it just the right amount of bling.

Happy Fall Ya'll

I created this card (instead of No Skullduggery) for one our stamp club girls who does not celebrate Halloween. It's more of a generic fall card made from a retired SU stamp set.

No Skullduggery

From the Crypt has to be THE BEST Halloween stamp set I have ever come across. I can tell I'll be using this one for years to come. The skulls were stamped with versamark and heat embossed with black embossing powder, I then sponged same color ink on card stock to give it a little shadow/texture, the inside of the skulls were then painted in with Frost White Shimmer Paint.

Halloween 2010

My new stamp club requested that I create a 12x12 layout for each club meeting. This is a bit of a challenge for me because I usually do 2 page layouts and I usually design them around the pictures I am working with. So here is my first one. I'm really proud of the way the background paper came out. At first the girls thought this was a piece of patterned paper and when I showed them that I had stamped all of the images myself they were shocked. I have to say I'm not the best at lining the images up, but once I put the photo mats and title on no one noticed. I know it's not Stampin' Up but it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to do a scrapbook page with using my QuicKutz Silhouette (digital craft cutter - used to cut title). It is my favorite scrap booking tool of ALL TIME.

New Color Swatches

I love Stampin' Up's new (more modern) color palette! I made these swatch rings for all of my club members. I like to take mine to Hobby Lobby, Joann's, etc. when I am shopping for patterned paper or patterned ribbon so I can purchase matching selections. I really love the quality, selection, thickness and texture of Stampin' Up's card stock. I've gotten to the point now where I rarely purchase anything else.

Sentimental Journey

I really like this stamp set, it's great for vacation scrapbook pages and I especially love the color combination SU used for the matching Designer paper which I scraplifted for this card. The only trick to this card is that I used crumb cake ink on crumb cake paper to stamp journey diagonally across the upper left hand corner, I then went back in with blue and stamped over one of the original images to make it pop. I sprayed the whole card with smooch spritz before I added the pumpkin pie boat tag to the lower right hand corner.

Artistic Etchings - Cherry Cobbler

Here is another card we did at stamp club this month using the Artistic Etchings set. I love this new color Cherry Cobbler it is such a rich red. We tore out a page from an antique book I picked up at a yard sale and crumpled it up, we then ran a gold stamp pad lightly across the raised ridges, stamped randomly around the page, added a basic rhinestone to the crown for a little bling and a ribbon to finish it off. I think every girl in stamp club ended up getting this set.

Artistic Daffodil

I combined all of my favorite things for this card. First of all the color combination I love yellow (this is the new "daffodil") and black. I also used two of my favorites from the new catalog, the Newsprint Designer Series Paper and the Artistic Etchings stamp set. Both of which are so versatile. I made this card for my Mother-in-Law and had to break out the sentiment from a retired set (Best Blossoms) because it expresses exactly how I feel about her.

With Sympathy - Male

This is the male version of the "With Sympathy" card. I sent this to a friend of mine who lost his Father.

With Sympathy - Female

This was a sympathy card created for a client to send to someone that had lost her sister. The sentiment on this card is computer generated. I lost my Dad recently and the quote really spoke to me.

Motorcycle Madness

Here are the birthday cards I created for my brother-in-law and my boss, both of whom are Harley Davidson enthusiasts. First I created the white piece I was going to stamp on and ran it through my printer to create the sentiment, then stamped and built the layers of the card from there.

Tall Glass of Lemonade

This is another I can't take credit for. The glass is made out of vellum that was sponged with yellow on the inside. I gave this to my sister after I spent the week at her house lounging by the pool.

Thank-You

I am loving embossing folders and Stampin' Up's Striped Grosgrain Ribbon.

Noah's Ark

I can't take credit for this one. It was scraplifted from splitcoast.

Enjoy the Journey

Here is the last card we did at club this month. First sponged in our blue background and hilly grass. Next we stamped the bike from Sentimental Journey in Basic Gray. We then scribbled in some color to the bike and tires with SU's watercolor pencils. We went back in and blended all the scribbles with a blender pen. We colored in the metal parts of the bike with a silver uni-ball pen. We then added in some shrubbery and flowers with the Pocket Silhouettes set. Last we stamped our sentiment in black. Once our entire "scene" was created we spritzed the entire card with a mister that had a mixture of 1/4 frost white shimmer paint to 3/4 water. The effect after dry time was gorgeous. It's really had to tell from the photo but this photo really has a beautiful shimmer to it.

Silver Tree Congratulations

At this month's stamp club I tried to show case some of the different things you can do with Stampin' Up's shimmer paint. On this card we first sponged an oval background in almost amethyst, then painted platinum shimmer paint directly onto the tree stamp (from Forest Friends) and stamped. We also used the platinum shimmer paint to paint the heart we punched from the Heart to Heart punch. Two very different looks from the same paint. This picture really doesn't do the shimmer in this paint justice. It's very vibrant in person and makes for inexpensive bling on a card.

Paradise Thanks

Another thank you card we did at stamp club this month. I love all the tropical leaves in the Paradise set.

Mr. & Mrs.

A wedding card we did at stamp club this month.

Birthday Cupcake

This is a spring fold card we did at last month's stamp club. I really like the way the folded layers of ribbon looked like real icing and the shiny sliver paper cut with the word window punch made for the perfect baking cups.

Happy Birthday Merik & Miles

Above is the tag I created for the birthday gift Ethan is taking to a party this morning. The recipient's Dad is a train engineer.

Morter Board

I really like the way the tassel turned out on this card. I was winging it! The pocket on the inside is great for money or a gift card.

Congratualtions Austin!

I created this graduation card for a great guy Austin, using part of his graduation invitation as the centerpiece. I really like the way it turned out. Congratulations Austin! Good Luck at KU!

Together Forever

Just another anniversary card I created for a client.