Merry Christmas!!! A small gift and a card.

 Here's a pen and keychain I made for a fellow SU demo, Lisa, whom I have been swapping buddies with for a few months. We've had SO much fun together. This is simply and RSVP pen filled with retired DSP. The keychain/purse clip is made on a bookring for easy on/off. It's made from Styled Silver HodgePodge Hardware, Filigree Brads, Rhinestone Brad, and Certainly Celery Grosgrain Ribbon! Crystal Effects holds everything together. The 'L' from Lovely Letters is stamped on acetate in JetBlack StazOn. So easy, just requires overnight drying while held in place with binder clips. The 'tassle' at the bottom is simply frayed ribbon;)

Here's the Christmas card I sent to her as well! It's a quick and easy one. The scallop rectangle uses the Scallop Trim Corner and Border punch, and while this takes some time to master, it's nice to be able to make these square or rectangle in any size you want. The lace trim is sewn on. The brad is non-SU, I found it in my stash, and it worked nicely:) I won't do the supply list below as usual, I am short on time, but this stamp set is Welcome Christmas, and I LOVE it! Also, the base is Crumb Cake and sprayed with the Color Spritzer with Choc Chip marker.

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas! I received from my hubby a Nikon DSLR D3000 camera with lens, super nice bag and all accessories. A Nook (I LOVE to read), and an Epson Stylus Photo 1400 Printer which prints up to 13x19 prints, PERFECT for 12x12 scrapbook pages! Perfect to use with MDS! My girls gave me a diamond/sapphire ring that is gorgeous, I love it so much! (We spoiled them as well!) I also got some Miche bags/sleeves from hubby (forgot that, and it's one of my fave gifts). My Mom and sis were extremely good to me as well! Pics should start getting more interesting on my blog now that I have an incredible camera to play with! There's a huge learning curve going from a PointnShoot to a DSLR, but I am picking it up nicely. And I have a friend who is a pro photographer who I am sure will help me, too! Merry Christmas and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you!

A quick and simple Christmas gift...

 My hostess club met today and this is the project I designed for them this month. We made three cards, all the same, we just varied the colors within the Regal Collection. I LOVE that the SU collections work so well together, you don't have to stress about color combos! Here we used Elegant Eggplant, Cherry Cobbler, and Night of Navy. The base of the cards and the stamped block in the center is Sahara Sand, my new favorite neutral (well tied with Crumb Cake;). It's light and lends itself well to the Regal Collections deep, earthy, rich tones.

 And here is a close up of just the red card. For SU enthusiast (the best kind to be;), we used clear block 'D' inked with Sahara Sand to form the box in the center of the card. This technique adds great depth and interest, and is SO easy to do. Gone are the days of masking off these areas! Clear blocks are so versatile, I definitely use them for more than just clear stamps. We kept these cards very clean and open. I really like the feeling of simplicity and they match more personalities when giving as a gift.

And here is how we packaged them up. This is the Large Cello bag (SU, naturally) filled with 3 cards, and 3 envelopes, then excess folded back and ribbon and tag finish it off. I definitely think a set like this is going to be my teacher gifts this Christmas. Hope you all like it! We had fun making them, and I definitely think it's a nice gift for a party hostess, or someone that you like to give a gift to without really spending much! Supplies below. Thanks so much for stopping by! Remember to take a break this busy time of year, ink a stamp, and enjoy it all!

Happy Stampin',
Naomi

Sets: Welcome Christmas (on the tag...the family), Teeny Tiny Wishes, Holiday Wishes (retired), and Just Believe (flower)

Inks/Paper: Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Elegant Eggplant, Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy

Accessories/Tools: Decorative Label Punch, Modern Label and Word Window punches, Sleigh Bells ribbon (retired), sponges, Dimensionals.

Christmas Reflection...

Greetings, friends!!! It's been a while since my last post. Life has certainly sped up around here lately. The new puppy, Allie (the last post is about her), is doing great. She's a wonderful puppy, time consuming, but we wouldn't know what to do without her! I actually have a few things to post. But, my stamp club meets tomorrow, and one of the gift sets I just completed is our project, so I cannot post it until after that. So, come back!

This card is 5x5" and uses one of my favorite simple techniques, called the Reflection technique. Basically, you stamp the image on the cardstock. I then stamp it again on the StampAMaJig sheet, invert it over the original image, and press the inked side down so I get an exact reflection of the stamp. It's so easy and I LOVE using it with water. These trees sit on a shoreline that is laced with freshly fallen snow! I need to go back and snow the treetops too, Oops! The sky and water are brayered, and I simply drew in water ripples with the White Signo Gel Pen. 2 way glue and Dazzling Diamonds were used for the snow. I used a Basic Rhinestone over the sentiment, and some Early Expresso Grosgrain finishes two of the edges.

Merry Christmas!
Naomi

---Early Expresso, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Not Quite Navy (edge sponging)

Blogosphere: Meet Allie...

Hi everyone! I am a little behind updating my blog. Oh, I have new projects to blog, just no time. I will get it caught up this week! Last Friday, we adopted a beautiful puppy named Allie. She is about 16 weeks old, weighing about 18 pounds, she's probably going to be a big dog! She's a lab/boxer mix, and as loving, adorable, and goofy as they come! The kids LOVE her and Allie is doing great with them. Other than trying to chew their toys every chance she gets, she's doing so well inside! This picture isn't the greatest, she's a live wire, and it's hard to get her to sit down. We'll be taking her and the kids outside to the giant leaf pile my husband raked yesterday, hopefully I can get a great pic then! Allie LOVES it outside, so my online time is about gone with all of her walks. But, when it's really cold out, she walks out, does her biz, and runs back in. So, with winter on our feet, maybe I will get some time back. Thanks for stopping by! Projects and more Allie to come!

Super cute baby card:)

My husbands nephew (I guess mine too, though he's only a couple years younger than me) and his wife are having their baby shower today in celebration of the upcoming arrival of their first child, a girl they will name Brooklyn. It's a Halloween baby shower, which is a little different, but I decided to make my card pure baby, minus any Halloween. I hope they like it. I saw a sample of a card on a demo forum by Stephanie Sullivan, and she got the baby punch idea from Ellen Kemper. So, there's plenty of credit to go around for the idea for this precious baby! I chose a color palette of Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, and Pink Pirouette. It's soft, yet modern and feminine and works well for this card, I hope;) I ran some Pink cardstock through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder to get some texture, then punched 3/4" circles from that and adhered to the base. I will list all supplies below, as well as a separate supply list for just creating the baby. One you have the pieces, it's obvious how to put it together. It's not often I get to make baby cards, so I had a lot of fun with this one!

Supplies:
Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes (inked with marker, each word one at a time stacked)
Ink: Blush Blossom, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Blush Blossom, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White cardstock and Bella Rose DSP (retired)
Tools: Big Shot, Square Lattice embossing folder, Crop O Dile, 1/4", 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1 1/4" Circle punches, Designer Label punch, Word Window and Heart to Heart punch.
Accessories: Sheer Pink ribbon, So Saffron Grosgrain, Styled Silver HPH, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots, SNAIL, Tombow Multi Adhesive, Signo Gel Pen

Baby Punches:
Body = 1 1/4" Circle
Diaper = 1 1/4" Circle (put back in punch and a partial circle taken out of one side
Leg = Heart to Heart punch
Arm = Word Window Punch (put back in half length and repunched, OR cut in half, hiding cut)
Hair = 1/2" Circle punch, with 1/4" punched on one side
Eyes = 1/4" Circle x 2...colored on bottom half with Chocolate Chip marker
Cheeks = Rounded pencil eraser dipped in ink pad
Pacifier = Crop O Dile hole on CS, overpunched with 1/4" circle for paci handle, punched piece from Crop O Dile punch is paci.

* Sponging lightly around each body piece before adhering adds depth to the finished baby.

Happy Stampin' and Happy Halloween everyone!

Santa's Sleigh...

 As unbelievable as it is, Christmas is really sneaking up on us this year! Stores are already shelving Christmas goodies, and I have yet to begin my 'mass produced' family card that will go to our family list. I know, I better get on it! I did get in the spirit a little bit for one of the projects that my Hostess Club made this month! I created (saw a basic sample online) this sleigh from the Top Note Die from SU'! I just cut, freehand, the swoop, and it made a perfect sleigh! The runner and legs are Brushed Silver CS, and the legs are cut with the Scribbles & Swirls Sizzlet, with the Big Shot for SU!. We used some scrap DSP, Ski Slope and cut different size packages to fill the sleigh with. This is a wonderful card for using up those scraps!!! The bows are made with the Beary Girl Essentials Sizzlet. Just goes to show, the Build A Bear line can be used for many things! I created a tiny wreath to decorate the sleigh with the tiny scallop from Itty Bitty Punch pack and the 1/4" Circle punch. Made tiny berries with the pen tip of my Real Red marker. The white background is spritzed with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch and shows up VERY well when the light hits it, the pic below shows some of that. Hope you like it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Old Olive, Baja Breeze, Real Red, Whisper White CS - Ski Slope DSP
Ink: Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad and Stampin' Write Marker
Tools: Big Shot, Top Note Die, Beary Girls Sizzlet, Scribbles/Swirls Sizzlet; Work Window, Modern Label, 1/4" Circle, Itty Bitty Punch Pack
Accessories: Dimensionals, SNAIL, Mini Glue Dots, Tombow Multi, Silver Cording, Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz

Eek You're Sweet!!!

Who doesn't love Halloween goodies? This is one of the three projects I designed for my Hostess Club this month. I LOVE using the Sweet Treat cups, and for just $2.95/dozen, they are very affordable to use on your projects! We created a little 'door' behind the candy and the EEK tag pulls up to open the candy area. We had a lot of fun making these and this is what I am giving to my girls before we head out to Trick or Treat. I won't make them smell my feet, but I will give them something good to eat :) Below is a picture of the candy area empty with the tag up so you can see how the door works.

Supplies:

Stamps: Sweet Centers

Paper: Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White Cardstock

Tools: 1 3/8" Circle, 1 3/4" Circle Punches

Accessories: Sticky Strip, Sweet Treat Cups