Tales of Hope Gala

A local pet rescue organization held a fundraising dinner recently, and I donated a set of 8 cat and a set of 8 dog cards along with a free stamp class for the recipient(s).  I'm pleased to announce that they were bid on, but the winner(s) have yet to contact me about a class.  I hope that they will.

June Card Class #4: Relax & Enjoy Gift Card Holder

Our final card of our monthly class is always the most advanced, and this one might deceive you at first with its simplicity!

In addition to the Notes & Totes bundle, we added the 3D Waves embossing folder and a tearing technique.

The inside is the wow factor!

The tote could hold a gift card or cash!

If you'd like to recreate this yourself, please consider shopping with me HERE if you don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  Thank you!  Also, my July card and scrapbooking class will be 7/27 at 3 PM in my home.  Let me know if you'd like to attend!  Or if you'd rather I custom design a class for you and a few friends, let me know!

Mother’s Day Paper Bouquet

This Paper Bouquet kit was so much fun to put together!  All of the pieces are precut; you just need to assemble.

Be prepared to have a pair of pliers and a hot glue gun in addition to the kit contents to assemble.  I liked using my bone folder to curl the petals, but some of my friends preferred their fingers to shape the petals.  It wasn't hard but did take a bit of time.  (Labor of love, anyone?)

The flowers feature the new In Colors Strawberry Slush, Timid Tiger, Darling Duckling, Cloud Cover, and Secret Sea.  I think my mom likes her "everblooms!"

You can find the Paper Bouquet kit HERE if you'd like to make one for yourself or a loved one.

October Paper Pumpkin Alternative: Christmas Ornament

After making the 10 pretty Christmas bird cards from the October paper, pumpkin kit, I knew I wanted to create some kind of snow globe scene with the leftover arches. Here’s what I finally came up with:

I used the stamp set from the Paper Pumpkin kit for the sentiments, branches, and cardinal.  I cut the snow globe pieces with the Snowy Wonder dies.

To give the snow globe more dimension, I added Wink of Stella on the background  and then added Pool Party and Mossy Meadow ink to the edges with a blending brush.  I used pieces of acetate for the window and lots of 3D foam tape for the shaker part.  I added mini snowflakes and some retired clear CTMH gems to the shaker portion.

Four special, dear friends will hopefully be surprised when these arrive in their mail soon.

Sliding Gift Card Holder #2

This card was actually my prototype for my November card class, using the Reindeer Fun DSP and the Snowy Wonder stamp set.  It was made the same way as this card.

 

Snowy Wonder Treat Box

Here is the final project of my November card class, a treat box.  If only you could see this cute little treat box in person!  It is like a little book that has a box inside instead of pages!  (Does anyone else remember the Lifesavers candy gift "books" of rolls of Lifesavers?)  It reminds me of that but measures approximately 3"x4".  I used the Snowy Wonder DSP and fussy cut the little snow globe for the front.  The tag is from the current Paper Pumpkin dies add-on, and the Pool Party panel was cut the with Nested Dies set (a MUST HAVE in my opinion). 

A mini album would be an amazing gift to put inside this box!

Sliding Gift Card Holder

For my November card class, our fancy fold card was this sliding gift card holder made with the Snowy Wonder bundle and Snow Scenes DSP.

The card opens from the top, and then the gift card pocket slides out of the bottom pocket of the card.  (It makes more sense in person, believe me!)

This card is a fun way to give a gift card for the holidays or any time!  Class participants received digital  instructions to make it easier to recreate.  

Flower Shoppe Wedding Mini Album

Our daughter’s best friend got married earlier this year, so I made both her and my dear friend her mother almost identical 6x8 wedding scrapbooks.  I used the Flower Shoppe collection.  It was so fun to play with the paper and stickers!

The opening page uses stickers, a piece of retired Ballerina paper from the Hillside Cottage collection, and several embellishments from my stash.

There's no journaling because I want them to be able to write their story.

Didn't the papers work well for their photos?

Here are my girls, the only other guests at the wedding.

Again, the journaling spots were left blank on purpose.

The left page will look better when they add more information.

They had lots of fun getting photos together around campus.

It's a UGA tradition to ring the chapel bell when you are celebrating something special, and I'd say getting married on the front steps of the chapel is definitely special!

This beautiful floral collection is still available through the end of August, while supplies last.  Thanks for letting me share the pages of this sweet 6x8 album with you!

Two More Graduation Cards

In addition to our daughter's graduation, our niece and our "daughter #3" (AKA DD's BFF) also graduated!  Here are the cards I made using the same format as the one for our daughter.

Of course I tried to personalize the cards with school colors, so I used Sapphire and Honey Butter with gold accents on the left card and Pewter and Black with silver accents on the right card.  (If you'd like more details about how I made these cards, refer back to this post.)

Graduation Card & Gift

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day!  Our youngest graduated with honors from the University of Georgia!  Of course I had to make a card for her and found a great idea for a gift box.

I used one of my retired graduation stamp sets and paired it with the Star Shaker Window Thin Cuts and foam/acetate.  (I wish I had created a light gray background inside my star, but I didn't realize that would have probably looked better until I had finished the card.

The inside of the shaker is filled with stars cut from red glitter paper (which matches the star frame) and tiny silver star sequins.  I added little drops of silver stickles to further embellish the card.

Next I created the mortarboard box (including the tassel) from a post I found on Splitcoast Stampers.  I think it turned out pretty well!

Finally, if you've made it this far, here's one of my favorite pictures from her graduation photo shoot!

 Thanks for letting me share!  

Teach Love Inspire Gift

As an educator, the August stamp of the month, Teach Love Inspire, really speaks to my heart!  I made a little teacher gift for our daughter who begins teaching two segments of Public Speaking at the collegiate level as a TA in her Masters program at UGA.  (Please give her a little virtual, heavenly whisper of encouragement!  She starts teaching today!)

This little sticky note holder is made with a 4x6 acrylic frame.  Rather than standing up tall to hold a photo, it lies at a small angel.  I used the Smarty Pants collection (retiring at the end of the month) with the stamp of the month.  I fussy cut and colored the images with some of my Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend markers.  I stamped her name on the note on the corkboard with the Prairie Alphabet.  I also randomly stamped images from the set on the actual sticky notes themselves.  (I'm not sure when she'll notice the sticky note of encouragement I added to the back/underneath side of her note pad holder.)

I'm looking forward to creating a lot more with this stamp set!  Remember, the August stamp of the month is only available through the end of the month!

Heart2Heart Challenges: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry!

This final November Heart2Heart Challenge, Eat, Drink, and Be Merry, can be interpreted in so many different ways!  I decided to showcase a few little treat holders for some fun little gift-giving inspiration.

My first project was totally CASEd from my talented DT member Katy Taylor's hot chocolate card/treat holder.  I used the Serenity paper pack with the November stamp of the month, You Warm My Heart, plus a little Cricut Blue Belle glitter snowflake.

I stamped the cup in Sapphire and the "hot cocoa" in Espresso.  I added a little gold shimmer trim (cut in half to make it skinny) and a gold glitter gem in the center of the snowflake to match the Serenity paper.

My second treat holder starts with a  6"x6" square that is folded into this fun little "cup."  (You can find more details/instructions HERE.)  I used the retired (but available while supplies last on my website) Comfort & Joy paper for the cups plus the candy cane stamp from the November stamp of the month.

Please check out all of the DT inspiration and consider joining us for any of our November challenges before the month ends at H2H Challenges!

November Stamp of the Month Blog Hop: You Warm My Heart

Welcome to the November stamp of the month blog hop, featuring the cozy You Warm My Heart stamp set!  (If you're already hopping, then you've probably arrived from Pam's blog.  From here, you'll visit Michelle's blog next.)  I decided to create a little holiday gift card that I could tuck a tea bag into because I love a good cup of tea.

My card is a 3.5" square of Espresso cardstock (with dimensions and cutting guide to follow).  I used the Woodgrain paper collection from the core Idea Book along with Scarlet glitter paper and Lagoon cardstock/ink.  Don't you love the Turquoise gloss spray on the background?!?  After stamping the cup in Scarlet and the "tea" in Espresso and fussy-cutting, I cut a small tea bag paper on which I stamped the little dots in Lagoon.  I fussy cut the corresponding floral image after stamping in Scarlet.  I colored the sparkle with my Blue Turquoise Blend Spectrum Noir Triblend Marker.

I used my heart Thin Cuts to cut the heart and then stamped with Scarlet and sprayed with Turquoise gloss spray on the edges.  I fussy cut both the candy cane and the floral stamp.  (Next time I will add a strip of the woodgrain also to better balance the left and right sides of my card.)

Here's the center of my card with the tea bag tucked into the pocket.

Because I wanted a 3.5" square base, I multiplied by 3 to get the width of my card base (10.5").  I scored at 3.5" from both short ends, folded, and then cut the far left panel (on the inside; on the far right here) on the diagonal to create the pocket for my card.

Here's what I used (minus the Lagoon cardstock and ink and Blue Turquoise marker).

From top to bottom: two woodgrain 3"x3" squares; one die cut heart; three 3.25" squares of Scarlet glitter paper; and one 3.5"x10.5" piece of Espresso cardstock (plus extra White Daisy cardstock and Lagoon strips).

Won't you have fun playing with this festive stamp set?  VIPs can earn it for FREE, and regular customers can earn it for $5 (either with a $50 minimum purchase).

Thanks for letting me share my little gift card with you!  You could easily adjust the card base measurements to incorporate an actual gift card instead.  Please leave a comment before clicking on her name to continue on to Michelle's blog for more great ideas with the November stamp of the month, You Warm My Heart!

{Click HERE for all the hop participants and their blogs.}

Best Friends Furever Cut Above Kit/Christmas Gift Recap

Close To My Heart has an adorable Cut Above kit called Best Friends Furever (that fits our 6"x8" Everyday Albums).  You can use the dog side or the cat side of each element of the collection- or like me use both!  I decided to make three identical ones of our pets for my husband and me plus both of our daughters.  They were supposed to be a Christmas present, but because I got sick, they were more like New Year's/Epiphany gifts.  (I did get them finished before the girls went back to college.)

The title page features two of our three current furbabies, Bella and Jellybean.

After I made this layout of Kodiak (yes, that is our now 21-year-old laying with him), I realized that I needed to include a lot of journaling, so I just made a cardstock strip that I added in.

Our next pet was Franklin.  I hid my journaling under his photo so that I could make everything fit.  (Flip flaps don't come with the kit, but I absolutely love to keep them on hand because I never know when I'm going to have more photos than layout design space.)

We mourned Kodiak for quite a while before buying Shadow.

We got Remy in 2010 and still have him today.

The right page uses two sets of flipflaps to include all that I needed to say.

Bella is our current dog, and at first we thought she was our missing Shadow.  She has grown on us, even if she is the most unappreciative rescue I think I've ever seen.

My husband found this adorable, near-dead kitten in early June last year.  I did not want another dependent, but now I can't image our lives without this little Jellybean!

Here are our three current furbabies.  I am hoping to get a picture of the three of them together at some point, but that may be an impossible task.

If you'd like to learn more about the Best Friends Furever Cut Above Kit (or to order your own), click HERE.  It goes together really easily following the provided instructions, and of course you can customize it to your heart's content!