COME TO BETHLEHEM

Have you started your Christmas cards yet?  If you have not, this is a great time to start getting ideas and collecting the supplies you will need.  There are so many great ideas from SU!  This is a wonderful new stamp set in the main Idea Book called Come to Bethlehem.  I will probably use this set for my cards this year.  I love the three kings and the little town of Bethlehem.  I decided to red, white, blue and gold for the color scheme here.  I really like this stamp and I know it will make many great Christmas cards.  Do you see the background Not Quite Navy card stock is embossed with the poinsettia embossing folder for the Big Shot?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERESA

I want to wish my sister Teresa a Very Happy Birthday Today!
Here's a cute Halloween Card for you!

I used the brand new SU! Spider Web embossing Folder on this card and the Greeting Card Kids stamp set.  I first painted the embossing folder with black craft ink and then ran a pumpkin pie card stock piece through it for embossing.  This is the result I got.  I then added thick embossing powder and heated the card.  It looks so spooky!

HALLOWEEN TREATS

I had some fun making these great treats for Halloween.  I used our new Bigz L Die for the Big Shot - Candy Wrapper(120890 $32.95).  This is just so adorable and look how many different kinds of treats I made.  I used regular card stock and also some dsp.  I tied the wrappers with our new taffeta ribbon and decorated them with different stamps.  You probably recognize some of them.  Also...there are 2 different ways to secure the ends.  One looks more fancy (photo 3) than the others, but all are pretty cool.  Put little candies in each of these or little presents and they will be sure to delight!

RemARKable Holiday Madness Blog Tour - Post 7

Today is our Final Day of the RemARKable Holiday Tour.   Wow!  A week of ideas!  I hope you have enjoyed the tour and all of our cards and projects.  There are so many fabulous things you can create.  Time to start working on all of your holiday crafting projects.  Be sure to return here often for more great holiday ideas.  I have so much more to share with you and I love reading your comments and your emails to me.  So be sure to let me know if you have enjoyed what I have been bringing you.  And...Happy Upcoming Holidays!

Today I have some Baltimore Regionals Swap Cards to share.  The first is made by my downline Linda Kincaid.  Linda is super talented and I'm so happy to have her a part of my team.  Linda used the new holiday builder wheels and the word play stamp set to make this card.  I love her use of textured card stock and the punched circles and crystal effects.  Linda's card was in the running for one of the best cards at Regionals.

Next, I have a card by one of my great friends in Remarkables, the talented Kathy Winland.  I love her card candy.  Kathy used the Tags til Christmas in a very clever fashion. These tags can now be adhered to packages, gifts, cards, crafts, etc.

Here is one of my swap cards.  I actually had 3 different ones. This one was my favorite Christmas one and uses the Greeting Card Kids and the Northern Flurry Embossing Folder. I also used Vanilla Smooch spray and I love the shimmery effect.  Just Beautiful!

Stay tuned for even more great swap cards from Regionals that I hope to post this week.  We had a great time at the Baltimore Convention Center and lots of great ideas!

RemARKable Holiday Madness Blog Tour - Post 6

Today is Day 6 of the tour!  I'm going to steer off of the Christmas holidays for today and show you parts of my house display for the most recent RemARKables meeting.  I was in charge of making the Halloween House.  I used the new mini house kit and I sprayed the house with glossy black spray paint.  I used charcoal stone spray paint (yes, there is such a thing) for the roof.  Then I used brand new Nite Owl holiday paper from the new mini and stamps from dark and dreary (candelabra stamped with black staz on ink on vellum windows) to decorate the house.  The ghost is the owl punch upside down and modified a bit. He sure does look like a spook, doesn't he?  The words from the poem by Edgar Allen Poe - The Raven - are perfect additions to my house.  They look like "do not cross tape."  Do you like my witch coming out of the chimney and my bats in air? They are attached to strips of window sheeting and look free flying (Linda Kincaid gave me the idea to attach the bats that way!  so very wicked!).  I've also used some of the new Halloween rubons called spooky night.

In the scene below you can actually see in the upper right hand corner that there are some glow lights on in the house.  I also used the milk carton die for the Big Shot and the new spiderweb embossing folder to make a favor and I also used the embossing folder on the card below.  The card with the spooky tree and the Yorick skull for the tall candle was made with the Nite Owl dsp.  oh, that adorable pumpkin at the door below the spook is from the stamp set Fangtastic.

Do you see the tombstones in the photo?  The stamped ones are from graveyard gala.  I stamped the stone and then wheeled the Haunting wheel with trick or treaters over it.  These would really be cool on your Halloween table or invitations or scrapbook pages.  The little halloween witch girl is from Greeting Card Kids.  I think that stamp set is so stinkin cute!

Above you can see my spider spinning her web on my milk carton treat and the treat on the right was made by Linda Kincaid.  It uses the 2 tagz die for the Big Shot, the flocked Halloween paper called Wicked Fun, black striped grosgrain cut in half and the stamp set Wicked Cool which I bought specifically because of the witches feet.  Linda CASED this treat holder (see the hershey bars coming out of the side? Immm!) from Kimberly Van Diepen. I love the wispy pieces of ribbon coming off of the treat package.

Here are some more cards, sliding box treat holder (see this post), and a candy jar that I adhered a Holiday Decor Element to.  The Decor Element is Spooky Bats.  I also used it on my candle. 

This is the jar.  Now there is a lot of candy corn in there.  Should I ask someone to guess how many pieces I put in there?  I probably will need to do that locally so I can give the jar away.  I love this decor element.  Really cool looking for the holidays!

Here is the candle on the Yorick candle pedestal.  It was really easy to apply the decor elements to a candle, just in case you are wondering.

This is the Halloween Frame that Linda, Hsiao-hui and I cased from the new Holiday Mini catalog.  We modified ours with a few extra touches.  The frame was from the local craft store regularly $20 but I got it on sale for only $11.  It is really a well made shadow box that allows for some 3 dimension and I love how the decor elements leave a shadow on the Nite Owl dsp.  The tree is that same spooky tree that I used in the card above.  The swirls are from the stamp set Baroque Motifs.  The spiders, the raven, and the owl are from Dark and Dreary stamp set and the trick or treating spooks are from a stamp wheel called Haunting.

The front of the frame has the spider and the Happy Halloween 31 from brand new Decor Elements called Spooky Things.  This is a great set.  It has bats and spiders and trick or treat and a large raven (oooh, Baltimore Ravens Football fans - you need this decor element for your Football decor or for your car!) and comes in black or dark gray.  My decor elements are dark gray but you can barely tell that they differ from black.  They are just different enough to give my frame some contrast.  I also added some  Black Flourish designer jewels (also in the mini catalog).  That was Linda Kincaid's idea.  We loved the way this frame turned out and it will become a cherished holiday piece to hang up for years to come.  I can't wait to make a Christmas or Thanksgiving Holiday one.  That will be next on my agenda for crafting!

RemARKable Holiday Madness Blog Tour - Post 5

Today is Day 5 of the Tour!  Today I have a fun card for you!  I really loved doing this card.  I basically took the leftover kits from my Christmas card class and just changed it up a bit.  I like being able to do this because it gives more options.  If you see my previous post with similar design, you'll see how I changed this one. The stamp set I used is so adorable. It is called Holiday Hoopla.  The Santa is just adorable.  I also used the dsp in the main idea book called Jolly Holiday.  The sentiment Merry Christmas comes from the set Come to Bethlehem.  What do you think?

The card stock colors for this card are old olive, whisper white and my new fave card stock color Cherry Cobbler. It is just such a rich color. The old olive card stock was embossed with the texturz plate.

Here is the Jolly Holiday dsp sampler and below that is the stamp set Holiday Hoopla. 

RemARKable Holiday Madness Blog Tour - Post 4

We are only 1/2 way through the tour!  Have you been enjoying the wonderful Holiday Samples?  I think my teammates on the RemARKable stampers have done an outstanding job.  I love going through the tour myself to see what they have created.

Today I tried a new technique I'm calling Winter Mist!  First take not quite navy card stock and emboss it with the new Northern Flurry embossing Folder for the Big Shot.  Next rub versamark on the snow flurries and the edge of the card stock and emboss with iridescent ice embossing powder.  If you don't have the embossing powder take our two way glue pen and highlight the same areas and add dazzling diamonds. If you are using the embossing powder, heat it.  Next for more snowy mist effect, swipe the embossed areas with your whisper white craft pad and add thick clear embossing powder and then heat.  Wow!  I love this!  Really looks wintry!

The sentiment is from Merry and Bright and I added our new clear rhinestones! They are really neat!

RemARKable Holiday Madness Blog Tour - Post 3

We are at day 3 of the Remarkable Holiday Blog Tour and I have a great post for you today!  Did you know that My Digital Studio is in the SU! Holiday Mini Catalog?  There is a great Christmas card of Shelli Gardner's Family in there and it inspired me to do a MDS Holiday Greeting featuring my home just after the Blizzard this year.  This program is so easy to use it is unbelievable.  I made this page in less than 10 minutes. It probably took me longer to choose the photo I wanted to use.  I purposely picked one after the blizzard was over.  We easily got about 4 to 6 feet of snow in one week, maybe more.  If you are interested in learning more about My Digital Studio feel free to ask!

 

One of the things I really like about this program is the ability to put watermarks on your pages.  Do you see the snowflake in the top right hand corner?  I love it!  This could easily be the front of my Christmas card this year! 

Here are some MDS Christmas cards that are really easy to make. And you know what?  if you like the 3D look - print them out and then add real 3D embellishments such as ribbon, buttons or brads.

Doesn't the chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon in the card above look real?

Or make your own MDS embellishments to print and cut out!  These look real when you print them out!  Since most match our SU! punches, use the punches to cut them out and add to your projects and cards!

The blue buttons above look so real even when they are printed out using my regular printer.

Cut these embellishments out and either add to your pages or craft projects or put on envelopes.

RemARKable Holiday Madness Blog Tour - Post 2

Do you like Angels?  I think they really are a great symbol of goodness. Recently, I had the opportunity to create with the NEW HOLIDAY MINI set Angelic Joy.  The first two cards are made by me.  The third is made by my really good friend Kathy Winland and it is absolutely beautiful.  I asked her if I could post this card and she said yes.  I was thrilled to add it to the Remarkable Holiday Blog Tour.  Kathy is also a Remarkable Stamper!

Notice our use of textured card stock.   We both used the Big Shot embossing folders by SU! to enhance the background card stock for these cards.  Also...the Peace on Earth is a new stamp set in the holiday mini that is a level 2 hostess set you can get for FREE with qualifying workshop.  It's a really great set to have.

RemARKable Holiday Madness Blog Tour - Post 1

I'm so excited about the NEW SU! HOLIDAY MINI CATALOG!  There are so many great products from which to choose.  I think I have checked off almost everything in the catalog and everything is perfect for the upcoming holidays.  On this REMARKABLE Blog Tour, you are going to see a lot of really cool ideas.  Bookmark this site so you can return each day and see what we post.

Today I wanted to start out with the NEW LETTERPRESS PLATES.  This is an AWESOME NEW product that SU! is premiering in this catalog to be used with your SU! BIG SHOT.

These are actually quite easy to use.  Instructions are included.  First, take your letterpress plate and ink it up with craft ink.  SU! craft ink spots really work great.  In this sample I'm using the new Holiday Letterpress Plate called Joyful Season.  It coordinates with the Candy Cane Christmas Suite papers.

The directions are in the packaging of each letterpress plate and very easy to follow.  After inking the plate, place the plate onto the Big Shot multipurpose platform and then place card stock on top of the inked plate.  Watercolor paper is actually recommended because it is thick and will deboss easily.  You are not only going to be adding ink, you are adding the outline impression as well.  Believe me...it is really cool!

 

Put one of the lucite plates on top of the water color paper.  Use one that doesn't have too many scratches on it.

Next, run it through your Big Shot and then...voila!  You have a gorgeous debossed and inked image!

 Color it in if you would like and make it into a nice card with our new designer papers and card stock.

 

Note my use of the rick rack garden green card stock.  We also have a Brand New Die that die cuts trim.  Way cool!  Watch for me to start using that new die on a regular basis.

Ok, hope on over to the next blog and see much much more!