Stampin' Up Promotions Coming to an End

The end of October has arrived and along with the excitement and preparations for Halloween tomorrow, there are some really good promotions that come to an end.  I wouldn't want you to miss out on any of these fantastic offers, so just click on the links below to see the details. 

• Free Big Shot When You Join as a Stampin' Up Demonstrator

• Buy Two Simply Sent Card Kits and get a coordinated stamp set for free.

SPOOKTACULAR DEALS !!!!

Update on Stamping Queen Sketch Challenge #9

Last Sunday I posted my sketch for the Stampin Queen Sketch Challenge #9 and it was spotlighted on Monday.

What an awesome feeling that was.  Here's another peak at Jerry's card and the envelope that I made for it.

And as promised, here is Carol's card, that I couldn't post because her birthday wasn't until October 26th.  

Carol's card was made in Pirouette Pink and the card base front was embossed with the new Houndstooth Embossing Folder.  Got to love that one!  A piece of  Early Espresso Dotted Scalloped Ribbon dresses it up a bit.  I tied that cute little bow using the "Fork" tying method.  Works like a charm. 

The inside of the card features a pocket similar to the one in Jerry's card to hold a gift card or lottery tickets.   Carol didn't win anything but Jerry's tickets turned over a $2.00 winner.  Not much of a win but it made for a fun time scratching all those tickets.

Okay that's it for today's post.  Just thought I'd share my news and the additional card I made.  Hope you enjoyed it and come back again soon.

A La Card Monkey - Any Occasion and Sketch: Monkey Sketch 80

Hi everyone.  Last week I had the thrill of finding out that my Spooky Cute entry into the  A La Card Monkey Sketch 78 challenge, had won me the honour of being a Monkey Princess and a Guest Designer spot in an upcoming challenge.  That had me swinging through the vines for sure!  Here's my badge of honour.

I was so excited to be chosen as a Guest Designer because the A La Card Monkey Design Team does such an awesome job of presenting amazing sketch challenges that are always fun and easy to do.  Plus these gals are just so darned nice and helpful I feel like they're all friends.  Anyway it was just a great thrill for me and I wanted to share my excitement and good news with you.

Monkey Sketch 80 - Any Occasion + Sketch:
Here's this week's sketch and I'm sure you're going to enjoy it.  In fact, I invite you to play along too.  I know some of you hold back on doing the challenges because you don't have a blog, well don't let that stop you.  For this challenge if you're one of my customer's or demos who doesn't have a blog but would like to join in the fun, simply forward your card to me electronically and I'll post it to my blogsite for everyone to see and comment on.  That will be fun for all of us!!!!

Although the sketch was for "Any Occasion", I chose to do a Christmas card.  I wanted my card to have the feel of an old ski lodge and someone standing looking out at the view, so I chose a stamp set that I could build a scene with.  Because the white cardstock I was stampin on was only 3 x 3 this limited my choice of stamps, but I finally narrowed down my choice to Christmas Lodge or Snow Much Fun, and you guessed it, Snow Much Fun won out.  Let's see if I accomplished this sketch:
:

Isn't this fat little snowman simply irresistible? He's from the Snow Much Fun stamp set and I just couldn't resist having him peaking through the window into the Lodge.  The card base is Cherry Cobbler with a layer of Always Artichoke. I was looking for a wall panel effect with the artichoke layer and I think I achieved that by embossing it with the new Stripes Embossing Folder (123128 pg 218 IB&C) and distressing around the edges with Always Artichoke ink.  I also added a layer of Early Espresso for the window panes and embossed this piece with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder (119976 pg 218 IB&C).   
 

The snowman image was stamped on a 3 x 3 piece of Shimmery White cardstock with Early Espresso and Versa Mark inks and then heat embossed with Clear Embossing Powder. To build the scene I stamped a mask for the snowman on a piece of sticky note paper and then stamped the tree and the snowball overtop of the original snowman.  It worked!   The sketch was coloured with Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke, Pear Pizzazz, Cherry Cobbler, Pacific Point, and Crumb Cake makers.   The snow flakes are from the Serene Snowflakes set (115438 pg. 36 IB&C) and were stamped in Baja Breeze.   To give a little sparkle to the snow scene I used the new Dazzling Details irridescent glitter glue (124117 pg. 41 Holiday Mini) on the snowflakes, snowball and snowman.

Here's a closer look at my Snowman.  Once you've stamped your scene on the 3 x 3 inch piece of cardstock just cut it into 1" strips and then cut those strips into 1" x 1" blocks.  For the window pane effect start by lining up top row making sure each square is lined up and there's equal distance between the blocks.  I glued my blocks down with  Tombow glue to ensure they stayed put.  Once you've got the first row done it's just a case of doing each additional row and using the upper one as a spacing guide. 

The sentiment on my card is from the "Christmas Lodge" stamp set.  I stamped it in Cherry Cobler on a 3/4" by 3" strip of cardstock.  I used the Modern Label punch on each end to add some interest.  The sentiment is layered over top of a strip of the new Cherry Cobbler 3/8 Quilted Satin Ribbon (124105 pg 30 Holiday Mini) and a label punched out in cherry cobbler with the Decorative Label Punch.  The edges were distressed with Cherry Cobbler ink. 


Hope you enjoyed this post. 

Who Let the Dog's Out and A La Card Monkey Holiday Sketch #79 - What a Combo!

It's a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky.  I'm going to take full advantage of this break in our normally rainy weather by doing a short post and then taking the dogs for a walk around the lake. They'll be so excited to run through the leaves and chase the ducks!  "Who Let the Dogs Out!" 

We've been babysitting Murph's little sister for the past six weeks and she's been a real joy to have around.  She loves Murph's company, gets the cat all excited (she hates dogs!) Here's some pictures of the them looking all innocent..............anything but!!!  

Here's Murph, the love of our lives.  You can tell by the look in his eyes that he runs our lives. 

And this is his sister Meeka.  She's a much smaller dog.  Who couldn't love that face.........snaggle tooth and all!

 

My post today is based on this week's sketch from A La Card Monkey # 79 called Holiday Cheer.  Isn't this an awesome sketch?  I love groupings on a card and enjoy finding a singleton stamp that works by repetition.  When I started planning my card I knew I wanted to use the Frostwood Lodge Designer Paper (124002 pg. 28 Holiday Mini).  It's so woodsy looking and reminds me of men in plaid shirts.  I love the masculine colours that go with this Designer Paper - Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Marina Mist and Whisper White.  Any combination of those colours would work well.  So with no further ado here is my version of this wonderful sketch.  Let me know if you like it.

The card base is Whisper White Card Stock with a 5 1/4 x 4" layer of Garden Green that's been embossed with the Snow Burst Embossing Folder (#124096 pg. 33 Holiday Mini).  A strip of matching plaid designer paper from the Frost Wood Lodge DSP (Holiday Mini) was used for the half layer  along the top.  The small reindeer image from the Winter Post (#117780 pg. 31 Idea Book and Catalogue [IB&C] set was stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink on Whisper White cardstock.  I punched out the squares with the 1/14' and 1 3/8" square  punches. These three images were mounted with  dimensionals to give some definition to the card.

The Whisper White scalloped piece was made with the Lace Ribbon Border punch #122362 pg. 211 IB&C) and is topped with a piece of 3/8" Quilted Satin Ribbon in Cherry Cobbler (#124105 pg. 30 Holiday Mini).  The Mix and Mingle tag is from a retired stamp set called Perfect Presentation.  Isn't it cute!  I stamped it in Cherry Cobbler on Whisper White and punched it out with the Large Tag #119876 punch.  The Garden Green layer was punched out with the Extra Large Tag punch #119866 (pg. 209 IB&C).

Here's a view of the inside of the card.  I used a piece of the plaid designer series paper from Frost Wood Lodge (#124002 pg 28) along the bottom of the card and topped it with a small strip of Cherry Cobbler that was punched out with the Scalloped Edge Border Punch (#119882 pg 211 IB&C). I didn't want to use a large border so the cardstock strip I used in the punch was only 1/2" wide to begin with.  This leaves you with a much smaller scallop.  The sentiment is from a retired stamp set called Christmas Punch.

Here's a close up of the cute little tag.  I've mounted it on dimensionals and  tied a bow with Cherry Cobbler/White Baker's Twine (#123125 pg. 194 IB&C).  These cute litte Mini Jingle Bells (pg. 30 #124116) are from the Holiday Mini and I secured them with crystal effects to ensure they wouldn't fall off the card. The Mini Jingle Bells come 48 to a package and for $3.95 they're a really good buy.   Prior to the Holiday Mini coming out and since then, I've been looking for small silver bells in our local big box craft store and dollar stores and can't find any in the 6mm diameter, so  I plan on stocking up on them before the Holiday Mini buying period ends on January 4th, 2012.

Okay so that's it for today.  Hope you enjoy these! 

Penny

Monday Monster Mash Halloween Count Down Blog Hop - Week Eleven

                                      Only two more posts to go until the big day!  Wow I've actually made it through this far in Shirley Pumpkin's awesome Monday Monster Mash Halloween Count Down Blog Hop. 

Today I'm posting a few things since I thought I better step up the process a bit here and make up for the two weeks I wasn't able to post.

To begin with I'm sharing a card I actually made for Mojo Monday 211, however when making it I had this blog hop in mind.  You can see my previous post for all the details and more pictures.  For now though here are a few views of my card.

I just love these ghoulish sneaks as they make their way through the graveyard on the way to collect their Halloween Treats!  This image is from the Haunting Wheel that is for sale on Stampin' Up's Clearance Rack.  What a bargain and what a hoot for Halloween!

Here's my full card using the sketch challenge from Mojo 211.  I really like the bow and the layers on this card.

I couldn't resist showing this spooky scene one more time.  I've used one of the gorgeous papers from the Pick Your Poison Designer Papers series for the background.  It's a perfect scrapbook page for those scary shots and also for highlighting this spooky card! 

I've been busy making treats for company and friends for the upcoming festivities.  Can you guess what this is? 

Right now I'm in love with making these Lollies and have been putting them on everything, including my treats! 

These two beautiful little gifts are quite simply dressed up Cadbury Chocolate bars.  No kidding! They're fun to make and certainly don't look like plain old chocolate bars when they're dressed up in this finery.  For something that takes very little time and supplies treats like these make a big impact.

I thought I'd show you just how simple they are to make.  To begin with just remove the outside wrapper from your chocolate bar and measure it to get the width of paper you will need.  Once you've got your measurement just cut out pieces of DSP to use for the wrappers.

 Before wrapping the bars, score lines to make it easier to wrap the designer paper around the bar and then secure by overlapping ends with sticky strip.

 Here's what they should look like before you add your embellisments. They look really pretty just as they are!

And voila the finished product on display.  I love the way these turned out and my plan is to make a  whole bunch of them for the grownups............... providing my husband and I don't eat the chocolate bars first! 

So that's it for this week of Monday Monster Mash Halloween Count Down.  Have you decided to play along yet?  There's still time to get your name in Shirley's draw for $25.00 in free product from the Holiday Mini catalogue.  Here's some rules for you to make your playing along easier........... hope to see you in this week's postings.

Here are the rules:
1. Whatever your entry is it has to be Halloween - either a card or 3D item.
2. It does not have to be 100% SU 80% is ok.
3. Yes using Retired is OK...
4. Use Shirley’s Monster Mash Badge/Graphic in your post and a link back to her blog.
5. Add your card to the blog hop then put the code on your post.
6. You can enter as many times as you like, it just has to be a new card and post.

The Blog Hop started a few months ago and is now in week eleven.  Shirley picks a favourite every week during the 12 weeks and then out of the 12 weekly winners will pick a Grand Prize winner. The Prize is $25.00 in new cool stuff from the new Holiday Mini, and the lucky winner will be announced on Halloween.  How cool is that!

When you post Shirley’s badge please add a few words about the blog hop on your blog. Shirley had to delete a few entries a while back because they didn’t follow any of rules.  Might be wise to mention there are rules or copy them to your post like I did.  Okay so now I’m excited to see your entry.

Stampin Queen's Sketch Challenge #9

Wow, Sunday again.  This week has gone by in a flash.  There's so much happening in the next few hours that I decided I better get this card posted before I ran out of time............ what's new.  Today's Sketch Challenge was created by guest designer Pam Staples, and consists of lots of layers and embellishments.  Here's her sketch:

Since we're celebrating birthdays today I thought I would use this sketch for  my friends Jerry and Carol's birthday cards.  Jerry's birthday was actually yesterday and Carol's is on the 26th. 

We always buy scratch and win tickets for our friend's birthday cards, so I've incorporated a little holder for these tickets on the inside of the card.  Okay here is Jerry's card and I'll post Carol's later in the week after her big day!  Shhhhhhhhhh she turns 65.

Mojo Monday 211

I really liked the sketch put out on October 17th  by the Design Team for Mojo Monday  this week and I decided to play along.  This would be a great sketch for just about any occasion including  birthday, wedding or sympathy. 

There wasn't a  theme for this sketch designed by Julee Tilman so you could pretty much do anything you wanted.   I decided to continue with my Halloween cards so I would have one ready for Shirley Sumption's Monday Monster Mash Haloween Count Down blog hop on Monday. 

Here's the card I made.  Once again I was able to use the Haunting Jumbo Wheel which I pick up for a super price on the Stampin' Up! Clearance Rack .  Let me know if you like it.