The Stamper

Big Shot & Stampin' Up! quilt square

Leadership was so much fun and one of the fun new markets we can provide products for is the quilting market.  With the Big Shot, fabric and some dies you can create beautiful quilts.  I loved the classes they taught at Leadership and the beautiful quilts they had on display.  It was amazing how creative you can be with the Big Shot and fabric.  I learned you can cut 7 layers of fabric at one time and because the Big Shot gives you a perfect cut each time your quilt patterns are more likely to stay true. 

The best part was when Stampin' Up! presented each demonstrator who attended leadership a handmade quilt block.  Shelli, the owner/founder of Stampin' Up! hand picked the fabrics and then the production people in Kanab, Utah's production facility  brought in their personal sewing machines and sewed these blocks for each of us.  What a way to make us feel special.  I loved the fabrics I got and will enjoy sharing this with each of you when we attend my classes.  If you love to quilt contact me and let me share a fun new way to create beautiful quilts using the Big Shot. 

Envelope Album with Stampin' Up! True Friend

I few weeks ago at one of my Customer events they asked me to create a mini scrapbook they could use as a gift.  I adapted a pattern one of my down-line shared with me a few months ago and created this Envelope Scrap book album using Stampin' Up! True Friend stamp set and the Night and Day Designer Series papers. I used these colors because I thought they would work for either boy, girl, adult male or female.  

This album is created from a 8 1/2 x 11" piece of black card-stock scored at 4, 4 1/4, 8 3/4 and 9 inches.  I then scalloped the edge (the end with the 2" before score line) with Stampin' Up! scallop edge punch and added a 1x 8 1/2 inch piece of red card-stock behind scallop edge and a 1 1/4x 8 1/4 " piece of black and white designer series paper. 

You created the belly band from 2 x 11 inch piece of card-stock scored, 4, 4 3/8, 9, 9 3/8 inches.  Glue around pouch over lapping ends and add accent piece and bow to belly band.  The band will be a little big because you need to allow extra space for when the album is filled with photos.

The inside of the book is created using 3 legal size envelopes you seal them and cut one at 6, 7, and 8 inches long.  I decorated the front and back of these envelopes with black and white designer papers and then punch each envelope with a half of a 1 1/4" circle punch. 

The envelopes are attached to the pouch cover with three 2 1/4" x 4 1/8 inch pieces of red card-stock folded in half.   Glue the piece of red card-stock to the left side of the center of the cover with the fold edge to the left side.  Keepthe card-stock folded and glue the longest envelope to this flap and then glue the next red piece to that envelope and repeat until all envelopes are glued inside book on top of each other.  Add an 1 1/8 piece of red card-stock to the top envelope to finish off the look. 

Each envelope has a pull out page that I decorated and added a tab so it can easily pull out.  These pages can be used as journaling of spots for more pictures. 

I added accents using Stampin' Up! True Friend stamp set and Basic Black and Real Red markers.  Some of the accents were punch using the 1 1/4" circle punch and then an accent color using the 1 3/8" circle punch and the scallop circle punch. 

Stampin Up!'s Christmas Countdown

 I purchased Stampin' Up!'s Christmas Countdown home decor item last year and never did anything with it, I had even purchased a frame that I thought would work, but I did not take the time to create a countdown with it.  This year I had a customer want to make one of these and so I agreed to create something if she purchased the supplies she would need to copy it. Sometimes I will use any excuse to motivate myself and having a customer wanting this helped me take the time to create my own Christmas Countdown.

I was so pleased at how it turned out.  I wish you could see it in person because the pictures does not do it justice.  I used a large frame and cut sheet metal to fit into the frame.  I applied the Christmas Countdown Home decor item to the center of the sheet metal and then created little presents using Designer Paper squares and applied the rub on numbers to each one.  I wanted the countdown to be a little different than just the date so I created a pocket by layering the Designer paper squares to red card-stock with sticky strip and inserted a Christmas Quote a day in the pocket.  I added a tab punch and bow to the tab punch so it is easy to pull the quote in and out and gives the designer square a present look.  I then attached a half of a magnetic business card magnet to each present so it sticks to the sheet metal board and can be easily changed.

I think my family will enjoy reading the quotes hidden in each pocket as they change the countdown numbers each day. 

Remember to mark your calendars for next Friday, December 11 and join me for my Customer Appreciation Event.  This is a free Hands on Class I do to say thank-you to my customers each year. 

Big Shot Scallop Square die box

What a fun weekend I had, I received a box in the mail from my up-line Sandy and she had sent me some fun stamping projects.  It was perfect timing because it came right before my Starz meeting and I was able to share all these fun ideas with my group.  She sent me this die cut box that was created using the Big Shot Scallop die and the snowflakes die layered onto a square box and she added a handle.   

She also had included in the box these little gift tags that would be a great on any package.  She punched this out of whisper white card-stock on a fold so the ornamentis a mini card so you can write on the inside.  This ornament punch and Stampin' Up! Delightful Decoration stamp set are some of my favorite things from the Holiday mini catalog.  The items in this catalog are available until January 4th and after that it is anyone guess if they will be included in the next Stampin' Up! catalog that comes out in July.  If you love this item as much as I do make sure you order it before it goes away.   You can order on line at my Stampin' web site or email or call me to order.

Stampin' Up! Snow Buddies and Sweet Treat cups

I have the most talented women in my Starz group and we always have such a fun time sharing ideas with each other.  At our meeting a couple of months ago Monika shared with us how to create a sweet treat card that you can open to fill.  We all loved it and yet found that it only worked if the design was close to the edge of your card.  Michelle took the idea home and worked at it until she figured out a way to create a card so the sweet treat cup could be in the middle of the card and yet still fillable from the inside of the card, and she brought the idea back to our meeting the share with all of us. 

The trick is to not use the adhesive on the back of the sweet treat cup.  She cut a couple inches of the card front and cut another piece of card-stock the same size as the front of the card.  She punched a 1 3/4" circle punch hole in the same place on both pieces.  Decorate the extra piece as the front of the card.   She then glued the cup to the back opening of the extra piece and layered this onto the front of the card creating a pocket.  Now slip in the pull out card with the accent image on it and you have a sweet treat card with the opening in the center of your card.   

Ornaments in Gift Box

 At my STARZ meeting this past weekend, LaRee brought me this wonderful ornament in a gift box.  Each year for Christmas LaRee has made me a Stampin' Up! ornament for my tree and I love them each year. 

This year she made me three and packaged them in this die cut box.  She used Stampin' Up! Christmas Cocoa Specialty Designer Series Paper to create these ornaments. 

The first one is created by punching out several ornament punches from the flocked papers and gluing them together to create a 3-d form.  She added a bow accent. 

The second one is created like the pumpkins we did several years ago.  You feed strips of paper onto one of the hat pins from the Pretties Kit forming a ball shape and then add smaller strips for the 2nd ball shape.  She finished the ornament off with pearls and beads from the pretties kit. 

The third ornament is created with the scallop die and then create a medallion using a couple scallop circles and attaching that to the die cut outs. 

I love this little gift.  My Christmas tree is filled with handmade ornaments.  When Ted and I first got married we did not have extra money for tree ornaments.  I spent many hours stitching ornaments and Ted and I created all handmade ornaments from scraps of fabric that first Christmas and a tradition was born.  We have added at least one handmade ornament design to our tree each year.

Stampin' Up! Flower Fancy card box

This past weekend I had a Heritage Album class during the day and then cleaned up and set up for my STARZ down line meeting.  I was pretty tired but getting together with my girls always lifts my spirits.  We shared some great ideas, talked about business tips and made some fun projects.  This card box holder was one of the projects.  I was taught how to make this at Sandy's California meeting when I was out there and had to come home and create my version with the Bermuda Bay and Soft Suede color combination.  I really like these colors together and Stampin' Up!'s  designer series paper Throughly Modern has the perfect paper to accent these color with. 

The box holds a stack of cards and envelopes even though we only made one of each as a sample. To color the Flower Fancy image I stamped the outline in Soft Suede and then used the marker technique to color the 2nd step or bold image.  I used Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, and Garden Green.  Remember to huff on the stamp right before you stamp so you get a clean image.  I added a dotted ribbon bow with a glue dot. 

I created a card for my gift class using the same corner technique.  I rounded 3 of the 4 corners of the background piece. leaving one corner square.  On the stamped image piece I rounded 3 corners and then used the ticket punch for the 4th.  This just add a little detail to the card. 

Stampin' Up! Dasher stamp set

This weekend at my Gift Making Extravaganza weekend Monika shared with me this great gift idea.  She made a set of Christmas coasters using Stampin' Up! Dasher stamp set.   These are stamped with Craft inks and then sprinkled with clear embossing powder and either baked in the oven or heated with a heat tool.  She boxed them in a handmade box with the large 1 1/4" Striped Grosgrain ribbon (I love how soft this ribbon is) and added a Big Shot tag that was stamped the same as the coaster set. Add a few felt feet to the back on the tile and you have a coaster that is perfect for holding drinks during this holiday season. 

Christmas Jingle Tag Book

The theme of the workshop I did this week was gifts that are simple to make and low cost.  This is another one of the projects I made for that workshop.  It is a tag book, this one has three pages that you decorate front and back but you can make it as many pages as you want by just gluing tag books together.    I used Stampin' Up! Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' kit to create this adorable little book.  Drop a few pictures of someone you love and you have a great gift idea. 

The Simply Scrappin kits come with six 6x12 sheets of die cut card-stock images, 3 sheets two designs of decorative, double sided card-stock sheets as well as solid texture cardstock sheets.  I cut one of the textured card-stock sheet in half to make a 6x12 piece, scored it at 4" and 8".  And then I cut one of the corners off and used it as a pattern for the other corner.  I cut the die cut border strips into 4" pieces and then used those and the decorative card-stock pieces for decorations.  I cut the decorative sheet into 3 3/4' x 5 3/4" pieces and used the corner piece as a pattern to clip the corners to make the perfect border look.   If you would like to have your own workshop we can custom a class to meet your and your friends needs, just give me a call and we can schedule a date.  I know the Holidays are a busy time but they are also a time where people like to get together so call me soon.

Stampin' Up! Great Friend CD frame

  This morning I had a workshop for Rory and she asked me to show some simple, inexpensive gift ideas.  I loved this CD frame idea when I saw it several years ago and I think it is a fun gift idea that is easy to make and looks so cute on a desk so I designed one using Stampin' Up!'s Great Friend stamp set and the Thoroughly Modern Designer Series paper pack.  The matching Designer papers make a great background and then I used the scraps for the accents strips.  The frame is stamped in Soft Suede Classic ink and the butterfly is Bermuda Bay Classic ink.  I used the oval frame from our Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware kit for the accent on the front of the tin. 

I had to add these adorable pictures of my nephews.  I was laughing at myself the other day when I told my husband that I needed new kids, mine have grown too old to take adorable pictures of them.  He said, I am not getting new kids until I get grandkids so I will just have to borrow other people kids until them.  There is no hope for Grandkids in my near future so I am stuck with borrowing. 

Stampin' Up! Berry Christmas Trio

What fun I had to day making up these gift ideas.  I was inspired by the card I made a few weeks ago using Soft Suede card-stock, Christmas Cocoa Specialty Designer Series Paper and the Stampin' Up! stamp set Berry Christmas found on page 20 of the Holiday Mini catalog. 

The pencil box was created with a 11x 2 1/2" piece of card-stock.  You score the long sides at 1/2" and the short side at 1/2", 1", 8 1/2", 9".  Cut away the 1/2" square on the corners on the bottom of the holder and fold into a box. 

The Post-it note  holder is the same concept but different folds and dimensions.  I will try and make up a pattern and put it in a blog. 

I can't believe Christmas is only a few weeks away.  My girls keep reminding me.

Deal of the week Pirate and Princess kits

This weeks deal of the week features the Pirate and Princess birthday kits that are found in the main catalog. When I saw these kits for the first time I wished I had little kids again because they are perfect for a quick and easy birthday party with a lot of pizazz to them.  I love the eye patches in the pirate kit and I even used these pieces to create a fun scrapbook page after the event.  It comes with all the ribbon and elastic for the patches and banner and the invites just need to be filled in and sent in the envelope provided. 

The princess kit has a banner and crowns instead of eye patches which I think would be a fun craft to do, let each child make her own crown to wear.  The cost of these kits are regularly $15.95 but this week only they are $9.95 each. 

These kits are paper packets for 8 kids and they also have a stamp set that is designed to match the set.  You can order these deals of the week on like at my web site www.wendythestamper.stampinup.net or at any workshop or event this week. 

Stampin' Up! Impressions Folder

The more I work with Stampin' Up!'s imressions folder and the Big Shot the more impressed I become. This past week I had a workshop for my KSU group and they asked for an ornament and I decided to make one a part of the card.  I used the new impressions folder Petals-A-Plenty found on page 21 of the Holiday mini catalog.  This folder can be made to look like Holiday flowers or Daisies depending on the cardstock color you use. 

The Ornament is chipboard cut with the Scallop circle die.  I used a marker to color the edges and then add 2 Scallop circle dies that were impressed with the folder.  It is best to color the edges before attaching the cardstock so if you slip you don't draw a marker line down the front of the ornament. 

The pocket is created by folding a corner of DSP paper down and adding Tombow white glue to the 3 edges and with the ornament in place hold the edges until the glue sticks, remove ornament and let the paper set good.    I added a knot and silver cording to finish the ornament.  Enjoy

Holiday Bread Bag

  We have just less than a month before my Gift Making Extravaganza event and this Holiday Bread Bag is the most popular project for my weekend class. 

This bag idea was shared with my STARZ group by Julia Grenier at our convention meeting and I adapted it for the Holidays.  I thought it would be the perfect size for a loaf of holiday bread to take to your neighbors or office friends.  It is easy to make and they will all look different depending of the designer paper you use. 

My class will be held Friday, November 6, and Saturday November 7, from 10 am to 10 pm each day.  The class fee is $15.00 plus supply fees depending on the projects you choose to make.  The Holiday Bread Bag is $3.00 each and should not take more than 10 minutes to make. 

Email me at wendy@thestamper.comto receive my newsletter and all the paypal links for this weekend of fun.

Stampin' Up! Sweet Treat cups

At the meeting I attended in California one of the ladies made these great flowers using the Sweet Treat cups and Stampin' Up!'s sweet centers stamp set.  I have enjoyed playing with this stamp set but because it is fall I have not created any samples with the flower petal or leaves that come with this set.  I really liked how they look and attaching them to a sucker stick really add another touch. 

The large black and white flower was created using the most popular Stampin' Up! stamp from the new catalog Medallion.  She trimmed around the edges and added a colorful center using the sweet treat cups and some colored candies.  That is a large flower but really cute, I can see them stuck in a hand stamped flower pot as a center piece for a party. 

The Sweet Center stamp set is somewhat deceptive.  When you look at the set you see the heart and the Halloween eek stamp but a lot of people miss the other pieces because they don't stand out as much.  The set includes a petal piece that was used in these samples. The purple flower had 7 petals that were stamp around the center.  The set includes a leaf stamp which stamps both the large leaf and small leaf at the same time.  It also has a ornament top piece so you can create Christmas ornaments with this set and the base of a Hot Air balloon.  This makes this set very versatile and one you can use all year long. 

If you want to choose this stamp set for only $10.00 have a workshop/class/party that totals $250.00 by the end of November and you can choose this set as your hostess special bonus.  Call me today 678-494-4599.

Udderly Awesome Meeting

 

On Saturday I taught my How to Take Better Photos class at one of my up lines' Udderly Awesome Meeting.  She meets at the Spaghetti Factory in the LA area which was not ideal for a power point presentation but it went over really well.  It was fun, because Ted traveled with me so he got to see me present, that never happens because he is usually home with the kids.  There are a few advantages to having older children who can watch the younger one especially when they are not that young anymore. 

It was fun to visit with old friends and make new ones and seeing great ideas and projects is a plus too.  Here are a few of my favorite ideas I saw.

The crow card is made by punching out different punched images and clipping and gluing them together.  He is just so cute I want to create a bunch of them for my entry way for fall.

Sweet treat cups are a big deal and several ladies had great projects made with them.  I thought this stop light box was a unique way to use them and made a fun gift box that anyone would enjoy getting. 

I also loved these great pencil holder boxes and can't wait to figure them out so I can use them in a hands on class in the future.  They are a great idea that can be adapted for any holiday or occasion and I know how much I like decorative pencils so I know my girls friends will love getting a gift like this. 

Medallion Coaster set

This is another project we will be making at the Gift Making Weekend November 6th and 7th.  This coaster set is created using chipboard and the circle die.  The Medallion stamp is embossed on colored circles with white embossing ink and powder. 

I think this is a great project and one that both Shelli and another demo showed at convention.  I wanted it to be a little bit more of a gift so I created a box from coasters to hold these on your table when they are not in use. 

Each set includes 6 coasters and you get to choose the color you want your box and coasters to be at the class, color choices are: Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Ruby Red, Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant.

October's Hands On Class

I have been working a lot of November's class but we don't want to forget October. 

For my Hands On Class in October we will be making these great projects.  The pink box is a cupcake holder, I received this as a gift for my birthday from Monika and loved it and can't wait for you to make one as well.  It makes a fun gift to be able to give a friend a single cupcake in a box for any occasion.   The next project is the Mozi box that Shelli showed us at convention with some adjustments to make it easier to make.  The box have some unique folds and it holds 3x3 cards and envelopes.  We will also be making this great holiday card that I have shown you already in this blog. 

Plan to join me Friday, October 9th at 10 AM or 7:30 PM.  The cost is $15.00 for all projects.  

Bear Magnetic Paper Doll Tin

This was my final project for my gift making extravaganza class.  I wanted to use these cute Build a Bear stamps and die cuts and this little tin was a very cute way to use them.  Having had all girls paper dolls and bears were both very popular at our home but my daughter that loved them the most is my oldest Shanae. 

Shanae is serving a church mission but I know she will love this little tin and I plan to send her one for Christmas. 

I love how the clothes are magnetic and stick to the tin as well as to the bear.  My bear can be either a girl or boy and you will be able to make it either way the day of the class.  It does not have to be a girl gift, I know little boys will enjoy it as well. Who would not love to play in the car with this little tin.

Gift Making Extravaganza Event

Wow, it has been a lot of work but I finally have my projects finalized and the newsletter with all the information is sent.  I started it this morning and here it is late at night and I have finally finish. 

It would have gone much quicker if I could have written it without all the distractions.  You know how it is, the phone rings and it is your parents so you talk a while, then a lunch break, then you find out you don't have enough pictures so you hope the sun will come out but after checking the weather report you know that is not going to happen at all this week so you take dark photos and hope for the best, back to the computer and more distractions, your daughter's doing her homework and thinks you can help her write a paper while you are writing an newsletter, another daughter does not want to do her practicing so she comes down to visit with you instead, another daughter keeps checking her email to see if she made the youth orchestra she tried out for on Sunday, then dinner and off to bed so you think you will have a few minutes to finish the newsletter because your husband is at a meeting and the girls are in bed or gone to meetings but alas more distractions, your husband is driving and has nothing to do but call you and talk and ask how your newsletter is coming which you inform him it would be coming along better if you were not trying to write it and talk on the phone at the same time.  And that is how the first item on my to do list did not get done until 10:PM.  I am guessing all of you have had days like this. 

Join me for this class Friday, November 6th, and Saturday November 7th from AM to PM.  The class fee is $15.00 plus project supply fees. 
Send me an email at wendy@thestamper.comto receive a newsletter with all the paypal links if you have not received it already.