Easter Egg Basket

I found the template on the SU demo website for this great little basket. It's perfect for Easter. I used the Itty Bitty Backgrounds set and random stamped with Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery and Barely Banana to create the "speckled egg" look. This would be fun to do with the new Color Spritzer tool, but I don't have one of those (yet! LOL). I colored the egg juggling bunny from Tags So Much with blender pens and the Stampin' Pastels for a soft look. The sentiment is from the Loads of Love Accessories set. I layered the tags and popped them up with Dimensionals. I love my tag punch and was thrilled when they came out with the small one to match. Let's hope it sticks around. I'm really excited to try my new spiral punch. It will be here on Monday (gotta love the UPS tracking site). I did demo this basket as a make n' take at my workshop this past Sunday, and it was a hit with the participants, but it was pretty time consuming with all the cutting involved. If you're pressed for time...I'd pre-cut the template.

Mmmm, Chocolate!

I love this new Au Chocolate paper in the Spring Mini from SU! It's so rich and creamy, just like the real thing. I am a paper hoarder and it was really hard to cut into that first piece, but once I did I was off and running. {I've still only used the one piece, and have 11 more left... ;) }The card I designed for my workshop this past Sunday was a hit and the paper got a few aahhs. I was never a big fan of the Cameo Coral, but it works nicely with the Chocolate Chip cardstock and the Au Chocolate paper. Add a little Very Vanilla and you've got a project almost good enough to eat! I had to try the tri-fold tutorial from Splitcoast last week and waited until this paper order came in to do it. On the first one I used darker colors, Regal Rose and Tempting Turquoise. I like it better than the lighter one, but I decided to do the Certainly Celery and the Pretty in Pink one too. If I demo this project, I'll have all that I need to do the second one. I used my last scraps of Regal Rose on the first one :( I do like the stamped image better on the light one with the way that the flowers are positioned and the background from this set stamped in Pretty in Pink. It adds a little more interest. I'm still having an issue tieing bows, but I will not give up! I will learn one of these days. I usually stick to knots on projects, but you need to be able to open this one up. On the inside, I've just layered the same colors from the the outside and stamped a single flower on the right hand side. Thanks for looking!

Nana's Brag Box

This is the mini album that I made for my Mom for her birthday. It contains pictures of my new nephew (her first grandbaby), my sister and her fiance, Mr. Man and I, our house and our cat...with a notation at the end that reads "space saved for future pics...no, I'm not pregnant! It pulls out of the box farther, but I couldn't get it all in one shot. We had a pharmaceutical rep come in the office one day and the eye medication that she left samples of came in this great little box. I called dibs on it as soon as I saw it for this very project (instant brain-wave as soon as I saw it!). The last page is glued in with sticky strip, so it's not going anywhere. No room for error getting that thing in, that stuff is crazy sticky! I used the Petal Patch designer series papers from one of last years mini's...man I hope it comes out in the new Catty for Spring/Summer 2007...and the co-ordinating Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue solid cardstock. I didn't do much stamping on this project, there wasn't much room for embellishments. The "It's a Boy!" stamp came in a set of clear stamps that I got at the dollar store. Not very high quality, but I always say you get what you pay for, and it did the trick. On the front cover page I used the Alphadots alphabet, punched with the 1/2" circle punch, and popped up with dimensionals. I love to use this alphabet this way. I hope my mom loves it. She'll be able to carry her "Brag Box" around in her purse and not worry about the photos getting scrunched! I have another one of these tins that I want to do the same thing with...just not sure what I want to put inside. I think I might actually keep it for myself though!

Scrapbook Pages

Well since this is the Stamp and "Scrap" Shack blog...I thought it was about time I loaded some scrapbook pages. These are two layouts that I demo'd at my last two events. The "Welcome Baby" layout was done for my Open House. I used Baby Firsts (I love that set!), Around & About, and the Alphadots set. The title letters were punched with the 1/2" circle and then popped up with dimensionals. The paper is all from the Soft Subtles family, perfect for baby layouts. And of course what baby project would be complete without a little pink and blue gingham ribbon? Blender pens and Stampin' Pastels are a great way to color an image and get the soft look you want on a page like this.

I started the "Celebrate Love" page with a 6 x 6 layout and then created the 12 x 12 layout around it to show how easy it is to step it up to the size you like to scrap. The papers and inks are from the Soft Subtles family as well for this layout. Just a bit on the darker side. Since the large canvas background stamp wasn't quite large enough to cover the whole 6 x 6 page I used a little organdy ribbon and the direct to paper technique to hide the imperfections. I love the Poppin' Pastels technique with the Heartfelt Thanks flowers. I love Versamark! I was using it the other night on swaps for Vancouver Regionals (can't wait for that!), and Mr. Man commented "What are you stamping?" It's funny because he's color blind and could not see the watermark images that were coming up. Poor guy, thought I was loosing it!

Finally!

I have been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator since June of 2006, I finally had my first workshop on Sunday. It was small and intimate with only 5 guests including the hostess, but a success nontheless. I had a great time, and the guests seemed to as well. I of course have some tweaking to do...but there is a learning curve to these things, and I'm sure with practice I'll feel more confident. My hostess was great and in the end was comfortable enough with me to give me pointers for my next event. Of the four invited guests, two wanted to book workshops. I have one booked for the 25th of this month and I'm meeting for coffee with the other woman tomorrow, to talk stampin'. I'm excited for my business...I was nearing the end of my rope, and didn't think I would get anywhere...I think I might finally be on my way. :) This card is the one that I demo'd this weekend. I would like to thank everyone in my life who has supported me and my hopes of becoming a successful demonstrator. Rubber hugs, and glitter kisses.

Oooh Acetate!

Well, it's official...I'm in love. With this new technique! I've seen examples of these cards on Splitcoast and just had to try it myself. I of course bought a giant box of transperancy sheets for the Shaker cards that I did this past Christmas, and used only 3 or 4 of them. They are a little more flimsy than the "Window Sheets" that you can get from SU, but they are way more cost effective. To create the window in the centre of the background stamp I simply stuck on a sticky note...no messing with "temporary" glue. StazOn is a must for this project, and it comes off your stamps very easily with the StazOn cleaner. I did run it under water after I cleaned it, as I do with all of my background stamps, just to get the ink and leftover cleaner out of all the nooks and cranny's. It's so hard to clean them properly on the Stampin' Scrub, there's just not enough room to rub it. KWIM? I'm not sure how I feel about using markers vs. the blender pens and pastels technique that I've used in the past with the Blooming with Happiness stamps. The blender pens and chalk gave it a softer edge and the markers kind of make it look like the flowers are floating in a Jell-O mold. There is glitter in the centers of each of the flowers, but it didn't show up in the photo at all. I hope my Mom likes it...I'm sending it to her for her Birthday. :)

Domino Magnets

My first attempt at making domino magnets. I think they turned out pretty good. This project came out of necessity. I opened my big mouth...and offered to do a demo of these things at an upcoming demo meeting that my up line holds on a bi-monthly basis. They are a fun idea, but the original image (Pile of hearts), doesn't use a lot of SU products. Only Staz-On, and Sharpies. So I was a little stumped. I only have one re-inker and that limited my options as it is Garden Green, and I don't have a lot of stamps that I figure will work with this color. So after a little play time in the "Shack," I came up with the "JOY" domino. After sanding the shine off the domino, I used a direct to domino technique, the background is Jet Black Staz-On...I tried tapping, and sliding the domino across the pad, but I found that it worked best when I lightly dragged the pad across the domino. It gave it the most even look. At this point you need to heat set the Staz-On, or the embossing powder will stick all over! :( Trust me! So the next step was stamping my images on with Versamark, and embossing them with Winter White embossing powder. To finish it off I used Sticky Strip all the way around the edge of the domino before I added the ribbon. I thought it would be an easy way to hold it in place while I tied a bow at the top. It worked, but I just can't tie bows. So, instead I used a few Glue Dots and tacked the ribbon in place to create a "faux-bow." I colored that back of the domino, and the "holes" with a sharpie. I was going to cover it with paper, but my corner rounder is not quite the right shape, and the paper looked a little dull against the gloss of the Staz-On. (Yes, I know it's the back and you can't see it!) The last step is of course the magnet on the back. Voila! I know the images are a little out of season...but all the crafty people out there will be able to adapt the images to suit their needs. I should add that to use a few more SU products for the other sample, it is covered with Crystal Effects and Glitter. Now, I must be off to work...got some bills to pay and more crafting "mad money" to earn!

Snow!?!

Well, March 1st and we woke up to nearly a foot of snow! What is up with that? It is a beautiful sunny day with the fresh snowfall but, I thought the groundhog DIDN'T see his shadow and we were supposed to have an EARLY spring. These little boxes are my new favorite project. They are so easy to make. You can find the video tutorial on the Creating Keepsakes website at: http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/videos/index.ihtml?idx=82. I have demo'd these at a demonstrator meeting and got a lot of ooh's and aah's, I'm hoping that when I demo this project at my upcoming workshop, they will be a workshop WOW and the ladies will love them.