Okay ya’ll – I absolutely need to get packing for my upcoming move.  I am not a bad girl, I just wanna play with my new SU goodies and share with everyone! What would life be like without being able to inspire, create and share?

This card highlights the “Christmas Postcard” single stamp and the Candy Cane Christmas designer paper, both which will be available on September 1 from the Holiday mini catty.

This was an easy card to put together. The only thing that took a bit of time was coloring the images with various SU markers. Yes, that was a “me” thing!

I was so bummed about Glorious Green CS being retired, but I have found that I love the Garden Green CS too!  Isn’t Stampin’ Up! fabulous? I am so glad that they keep a fresh outlook on their products and keep the new goodies coming out.

Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator
Tarboro, NC

Stamp:  Christmas Postcard

Paper:  Real Red, Garden Green, Whisper White CS, Candy Cane Christmas DSP

Ink:  Garden Green, Various SU Markers

Other:  Real Red 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Ticket Corner Punch, Snail, Snips

I have been “busy as a bee” making my holiday cards, as I need about 70 of them. I figured it would be a good idea to give you another “sneak peek” of some of the goodies coming in the holiday mini catalog, which you should have already received. Just a few more days (September 1) and you will be able to order your own new goodies to play with.

This card was made for an upcoming card swap here at CARDScraps. It highlights “A Cute Christmas” stamp set and Deck the Halls DSP.

This was a quick, easy and a FUN card to make. I even got into the gold embossing powder for a bit. I was going for an “old fashioned rustic” look and the materials that I used definitely gave me that appearance.

Stay tuned … I will have another gorgeous holiday card for you tomorrow.

Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator
Tarboro, NC

Stamps:  A Cute Christmas, Season of Joy
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla CS, Deck the Halls DSP
Inks:  Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Always Artichoke
Other:  Big Shot, Lattice Embossing Folder, Various SU Markers, Sponge, Blender Pen, Twine, Designer Buttons – Regals Collection, Gold EP, Heat Gun, Glue Dots, Snail, Snips

Sorry, that I have not posted to the blog lately, but I have been completely engrossed with the new house. If all goes as planned, my contractor says that I will have access to the studio and the rest of the second floor the 3rd week in September and the rest of the house the 3rd week in October. So needless to say, I have been super busy!

Before I pack up my stamping and crafting supplies, I wanted to make a few cards, so I started with several items from the upcoming holiday mini catalog.

This card highlights the new Bells and Boughs stamp set along with the new Deck the Halls designer paper. Both of these products will be available as of September 1.

I also used the recently released Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder. How did I ever get along without Stampin’ Up!’s embossing folders? They really add lots of texture.

The upcoming holiday mini catalog is a "must have" for your upcoming holiday cards, scrapbooking and other projects.  You will definitely go "ga-ga" over the new products being introduced.

Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator
Tarboro, NC

Stamp:  Bells and Boughs (CM)
Paper:  Naturals Ivory, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke CS and Deck the Halls DSP
Ink:  Early Espresso
Other:  Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Cherry Cobbler and Always Artichoke Stampin’ Markers, Smooch Pearlized Top Coat, Snail, Dimensionals, Blender Pen

Well, not really, but it sure looks like it could! I am not much of a cold weather person, as I tend to stay inside, as much as possible. When it snows, I go on the front or back steps and take pictures, but do not venture out in it much. I do love watching Buffy, my cocker spaniel, bouncing around in the snow, as it seems to make her frisky and she definitely loves playing in the snow. Don’t get me wrong – I love to see it snow, but I want to be inside where it is warm and cozy.

I made this card using a tutorial by Zindorf. I did not do mine exactly as her card, but for the most part, I followed the techniques. You can’t see it, but it is embossed and very shiny and snowy! It was a fun card to make because I got to use one of my favorite techniques, which is sponging. And, I just LOVE how the embossing resists the sponged ink. When you emboss first with clear embossing powder, you can add ink colors to your heart’s content and still have a sharp and clean image.

Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator
Tarboro, NC

Supply List:

Stamp: Season of Joy, Serene Snowflakes
Paper: Night of Navy, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White CS
Ink: Night of Navy, Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Versamark
Other: White Signo Gel Pen, Going Gray Marker, I. Ice EP, Sponge(s), Snail
Technique: Embossing

Technorati Tags: Brenda Cook,Stampin’ Up!,card,Season of Joy,Serene Snowflakes,embossing,Christmas,sponging

On day 7 of my vacation at Brenda’s house in Tarboro, NC, we didn’t CASE a card.  I thought we needed little notebooks to match our cute new holiday purses that we made a couple of days ago, so that became our project for the day.  I’m going to run through how we made these since they are an original design.

We did a couple of different techniques to these cuties – using fabric for starters.  We did some machine sewing to attach our fabric to the front and we did some hand sewing to attach our buttons.

We had our local print shop cut our Jr. Legal Pads from Staples in half vertically.  I believe Staples will do this for you as well for a small fee.  The tip is to have them do several at one time because they charge you per cut and it’s the same price to get one cut as it is to get 4 or 5 cut.

Here’s how we did it:

1.  Cut a piece of Real Red card stock to 8-1/4″ x 5-3/4″.  Score the card stock at 2-3/4″ from both 8-1/4″ sides (if using a Scor-Pal, the 5/3/4″ side will be at the top).

2.  Cut a piece of Glorious Green card stock to 8″ x 2-1/2″.  This is the notebook front main matte.

3.  Fold a piece of fabric in quarters and place the folded edges on the interior of the Scallop Square Die as shown – approximately 1-3/16″ from the top edge and all but the last scallop on the side as shown.

4.  Run the fabric through the Big Shot.  It’s ok if it’s not perfect as you’ll be fraying up the edges anyway.

5.  Glue the center of the fabric to the Glorious Green card stock matte.  Sew around the fabric approximately 1/4″ in on all 4 sides.

6.  Snip each of the scallops in half and ruffle them with your fingers to start them fraying.

7.  Using markers, color the tree from Season of Joy stamp set (#110384) Glorious Green, Chocolate Chip and More Mustard directly on the stamp. Huff on the stamp to remoisten the ink and stamp onto a piece of Whisper White cut to 3″ x 1-3/4″.

8.  Mount the stamped image to a piece of Glorious Green card stock cut to 3-1/8″ x 1-7/8″.  Using Sticky Tape, attach this to the top half of the fabric.

9.  With Sticky Tape, attach a strip of 1-1/4″ x 2-1/2″ Glorious Green just below the stamped tree image.  Glue a piece of 1″ Double Stitched Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon to this and wrap the ends around to the back.

10.  Stitch 3 buttons across the ribbon using thread or DMC floss (cross stitch floss).

11.  With Sticky Tape, attach the decorated panel the the notebook front.

12.  Cut a piece of fabric to fit the top of the Jr. Legal Pad.  Ours was cut to 2-1/2″ wide x 2″ tall which we wrapped around the back to secure. 

13.  Use Sticky Tape to attach the back of the notepad to the inside of the notebook.

Below you’ll see a shot of our notebooks sitting side by side.  Mine (left) is much more ruffled than Brenda’s is right now.  But over time, here’s will get more ruffled too being in her purse.  These are perfect for all of those Christmas lists that you’re going to need to keep up with.

Also, for those of you wondering, we returned to the salon today and they “fixed” my hair.  I got a full refund and they did fix it.  Even though it’s a lot shorter than I wanted, at least it looks ok now.

Anyway, these little notebooks are the perfect little gift for those teachers, friends and anyone who just happens to drop by during the holiday season.  So quick and easy to make as well as inexpensive which is always helpful – especially in this economy. 

Hope you enjoyed the little tutorial today.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask!  Happy stamping!

Lianne Carper
CS partner and DTM for Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator

Supplies:  (all Stampin’ Up! unless otherwise noted)

Stamps:  Season of Joy (#110384 – shown right)
Paper:  Real Red, Glorious Green and Whisper White card stock
Accessories:  1″ Double Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Sticky Tape, Glue Stick, Stampin’ Write Markers, Big Shot, Scallop Square Clear Die,  Buttons (from stash), Holiday Fabric (from stash), Jr. Legal Pad (Staples), thread & DMC floss (from stash) 

Time flies when you are having FUN. I cannot believe we are on Day 6 already!

Today, we bring you a CASEd card by jaydeestamping using the Dasher single stamp. He is adorable just being stamped, but when you add Versamark and gold embossing powder, he becomes an elegant reindeer worthy of any card or other papercrafting project.

We actually made two each of this card and it took approximately 2 hours to complete the cards, which I believe was pretty quick. So count on it taking about one-half hour to make one card.

Do you see the stitching on the two front panels – well, Lianne decided it was time for me to learn how to use my sewing machine. LOL

I did tell her that she needed to make sure that the bobbin was full so that it would last until she returned for her next visit. Sure hope I do not need to change ribbon colors! Oh my, what will I do if I need to change thread colors?

To the right, you will see a closeup of the reindeer emblem, which we used the Signo Gel Pen to make the little dots on each scallop. Yep, that part was easy! Before you ask.YES, Lianne had to make my bow for me, as you know that I am “bow making challenged.” I wish that the gold embossing showed up great in the photo, so you could see the classy effect.

By the way, Lianne and I went to the hair salon today and both of us got hair cuts. I am still in shock, but Lianne says she loves my “new do.” Lianne’s hair got butchered in several places, so we will be returning to the salon in the morning for a FIX! Since when did 1 to 2 inches mean 4 inches?

Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator
Tarboro, NC

All supplies are by Stampin’ Up! unless noted.

Stamp: Dasher (116816)
Paper: Soft Suede CS, Christmas Cocoa DSP
Ink: Versamark
Other: Gold EP, Soft Suede Ribbon, Snail, Dimensionals, Thread, Half Pearls-Kaisercraft
Technique: Embossing

Check out these little cuties!  Here’s the awesomely adorable cards we made today.  We CASEd this one from Richelle Hopkinson.  On this one, we only changed up a couple of minor things.  For starters, rather than using Baja Breeze ink and designer paper, we opted to make our own designer paper by stamping Serene Snowflakes (#115438) in Whisper White Craft Ink on Brocade Blue card stock.  Have you noticed that we really like that stamp set?  It has the most beautiful snowflakes.  I’m going to be really sorry to see it go at the end of December when the Holiday Mini Catalog expires.  We also changed up the greeting used. We chose one from Sincere Salutations (#115068) as it’s still current in the US catalog.

Can you see the pretty sparkles on the hearts on his cheeks?  I’m going to give you a little tip on how we did that.  Rather than punch out the hearts and then try to emboss those little tiny hearts and burn your fingers all up or mess up your embossing powder with tweezers, you should emboss your entire scrap of card stock first and then punch out the hearts.  We applied the VersaMark pad directly to the paper, poured on some Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, heated it up and then used the Heart to Heart punch to punch out the little hearts.

Brenda says that we have to name our snowmen too.or rather snow people.  Hers (on the left) is named Sue and mine (on the right) is named Joy.  I guess we can’t call them snowmen when they have girly names.they’d never live it down on the playground!

Tip:  You can click on the image and view one a little bigger.

We created the card base by folding the Night of Navy card stock and running it through the Big Shot with the Scallop Circle Die.  You simply move the fold of your card base in so that about 5 of the scallops are showing above it. 

If you have any questions, please let us know.  I hope you enjoy these cute little gals and will try one of your very own. 

Happy Stamping!

Lianne Carper
CS partner and DTM for Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator

Supplies:  (all Stampin’ Up!)

Stamps:  Serene Snowflakes (#115438 – shown right), Sincere Salutations (#115068)
Paper:  Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Real Red, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White card stock
Ink:  Bashful Blue, Real Red, VersaMark
Punches:  1-1/4″ Square, Word Window, Heart to Heart, Corner Rounder, Scallop Edge, 3/4″ Circle, Ornament, Wide Oval, 1/8″ Handheld Circle
Accessories:  Scallop Circle Die, Clear Circle Die, Black Journal Pen, Signo Gel Pen, Sponges, 2-Way Glue Pen, Glue Stick

Lianne and were playing around this afternoon and decided to get a card ready for a blog post for YOU!

We both used the same supplies, and cased the same card, but they look different! Mine is the girl and she is laughing her butt off and Lianne’s is the guy, who is smiling like he has a secret!

So when the guys got home from hunting today, we were able to say that we bagged our antlers today. Of course, they were jealous.

All supplies are by Stampin’ Up!

Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Whisper White, Basic Black CS, Merry Moments DSP

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel

Punches: Wide Oval, Round Tab, Word Window, 5 Petal Flower, 1/4″ Circle. 3-Heart, Snowflake (old)

Other: 1/4″ Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon, Signo Pen, Black Journaling Pen, Sponge

CASE: Lynn Pratt

Brenda Cook
Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator
Tarboro, NC

As I’d hoped for yesterday, I’m sharing the second card that we’ll be making at the Albemarle Nursing Home in Tarboro, NC on Nov. 30th.  I actually CASED this card from CherylQuilts although I didn’t use the same papers. Because this is another simple card, I’ll give you the details including the measurements today.

A quick note.  On Thanksgiving Day, my husband and I will be heading off to Brenda’s for our vacation.  We’ll be returning home on Dec. 6th – 10 whole days of playing with Brenda!  I’m sure we’ll be making lots of things while I’m there and I promise that we will take a break here and there to share some of our creations with you on the blog.

Here’s how I did it:

1. Stamp the cardinal image from the A Flower for All Seasons stamp set (#111592) using Black Stazon on a 1-3/4″ square piece of Very Vanilla card stock.  Color using the Stampin’ Write Markers.  I used Real Red, Old Olive, and Close to Cocoa.  Afterwards, I used the Blender Pen to “lift” some of the color from different areas for highlights.
2. Mount the stamped image to a 1-7/8″ square of Old Olive.
3. I used the Cricut to cut out a scalloped edge square from Real Red card stock, but you can use any die or cut a square and use the Scalloped Edge Punch on it if you’d like.
4. Attach a 3-7/8″ x 3-1/4″ piece of the striped Merry Moments designer series paper to the bottom of a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Old Olive card stock.  Cut a piece of the Chocolate Chip snowflake paper to 3-7/8″ x 1-7/8″ to the top as shown.
5. Attach a 4″ x 3/4″ strip of Real Red card stock across the seam of the two designer papers.
6. Tie a piece of Chocolate Chip 1/4″ Grosgrain Ribbon around the bottom of the striped designer paper with the knot closer to the right hand side.
7. With Real Red ink, stamp Merry Christmas from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set (#115370) onto a scrap of Very Vanilla card stock.  Using the Large Oval punch, punch out the sentiment.
8. Glue the punched sentiment to a scrap of Real Red card stock.  Use the Scallop Oval punch to punch it out.
9. Using Stampin’ Dimensionals, attach the sentiment over the ribbon on the left side.  Use a couple more Dimensionals to attach the flower image to over the Real Red card stock strip.
10. Attach the whole thing to a standard 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ card base.

I hope you enjoyed the little tutorial!  Happy Stamping!

Supplies (all Stampin’ Up! unless otherwise noted)

Stamps:  A Flower for All Seasons (shown right), Teeny Tiny Wishes 
Paper:  Real Red, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla card stock, Merry Moments designer series paper 
Ink:  Black Stazon, Real Red 
Other:  Blender Pens, Stampin’ Write Markers, Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Glue Stick, Punches, Cricut

I know you’ve all been wondering what I’ve been up to.  Well, it seems I needed to take a little break after cramming for the craft fair.  I’m not back in full swing just yet, but I have made a few cards that I wanted to show you.  We’ll see one today and then I’ll try to post again tomorrow with the other one.  These were designed for the free class that Brenda does at the Albemarle Nursing Home in Tarboro, NC for the residents.

This is a very simple card, but very cute.  Because it doesn’t have a lot of dimension, it can easily be sent through the mail.  And if you’re worried about the ribbon, it can be left off too if you’d like.  For the most part, the card is self-explanatory, but I will run through it so that anyone new to paper crafting can make one if they’d like.   To make it a little more interesting, I’m going to include the dimensions as well.

Although my card looks kinda square in the picture, it’s just the angle that it was taken.  It’s a standard 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ card base.

Here’s how I did it:

1. Stamp the snowman image from The More the Merrier stamp set (#115322) onto a 3″ x 2″ piece of Very Vanilla card stock.  Use the Real Red, Old Olive and Close to Cocoa Stampin’ Write Markers to color in the snowmen’s accessories.  Use a Blender Pen to pick up some Baja Breeze Ink (retired) and trace around the lines of the different snowmen.  This gives them a little more color and dimension.
2. Mount the stamped image onto a 3-1/4″ x 2-1/4″ piece of Real Red card stock and set aside for now.
3. Cut a 2″ x 4-3/4″ piece of the snowflake paper from the Merry Moments designer series paper pack.  From the Old Olive striped paper, cut a piece that is 1-3/8″ x 4-3/4″.  Glue these to a 3-3/4″ x 5″ piece of Real Red card stock leaving a 1/8″ border all the way around and in between as shown.
4. Glue this to a 5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″ card base.
5. Using Stampin’ Dimensionals, attach the stamped image to the card base.
6. Tie a piece of Real Red Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon into a knot and cut the ends at an angle to keep them from fraying.  Attach it to the stamped image in the top left corner using Mini Glue Dots.  I used one for the center and one on each end just to help make sure it would stay in place.

I hope you enjoyed this simple card tutorial.  Hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow to show you the other card I made.

Happy Stamping!

Supplies:  (All Stampin’ Up!)

Stamps:  The More the Merrier (shown right)
Paper: Old Olive, Real Red and Very Vanilla CS, Merry Moments DSP
Ink: Black Stazon, Baja Breeze (retired)
Other:  Stampin’ Write Markers, Dimensionals, Glue Stick, Grosgrain Ribbon, Blender Pens