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Here's what customers will make at my upcoming Christmas "WOW" class. (Note: I totally cased the clipboard idea from Stampinchick's blog. She's fabulous!) Want to learn how to make these? Join me for this fun class! I'm offering it on two different days to accommodate as many peoples' schedules as possible! Click on my calendar for more details.
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Cick HERE or on the calendar in the left-hand column to see if there's a class that interests you! I"ve got some cool Christmas classes coming up!
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LIfe is busy, what can I say? I thought I should put something new up here, and I haven't had a lot of time to create lately, so take a look at my three convention swaps. Yes, I know convention was three months ago (lol) but hey, you haven't seen these yet so they're new to you! Enjoy!
The first one is made with the Pick A Petal set. See the dry embossing up in the corner? I stamped the smallest flower from the set on cardstock and then cut it out and used it as a dry embossing template (thankfully I now have the Pick A Petal Brass Template, so I won't have to do that again!)
The next two are both made with Baroque Motifs. I just love that stamp set! The Wild Wasabi/Eggplant one was a real pain to cut exactly right. My DH (who is an engineer) gave me one of his drafting tools so that I could get a perfect 45 degree angle. It is the very FIRST time in my four years of being a demo that he as ever helped me with anything stamping related (but I can't really say I've ever asked him before, either...) I appreciated his help so much that I told him "I take back everything I"ve ever said about living with an engineer!"
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If you're in the southeast Michigan area on Thursday, October 25, visit the St. Joseph Christian Mothers Vendor's Show at St. Joseph's church on Van Aiken Street in Ida. I'll be one of 17 vendors exhibiting at this event, which runs from 6:00 - 9:00 PM. All the proceeds will stay in Monroe County and will go toward cancer research. I'm donating two items - a simply scrappin' kit and a stamp set. One will be raffled off by itself, and the other one will be added to a HUGE basket containing something from every vendor. Man, that's going to be one BIG basket for some lucky winner! You can get a lot of your Christmas shopping done at this event. With all those vendors, there'll be something for everyone on your list! Stop by my booth and mention you saw this on my blog to receive a free gift.
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So, I have all the wonderful SU! markers, but since I bought them one set at a time, I don't have a case for them. I've seen where you can buy the plastic case, but as I recall it was more than I wanted to pay. However, the markers were taking up too much room in my tool basket, so I needed to get them out of there. Here's what I came up with. Whatcha think? 
I started with two pieces of heavy (non-corrugated) cardboard - a little thinner than our chipboard pieces, but not bendable.
Since the measurement all the way around all the marker cases was about 16 1/2 inches, I had to use two pieces - one for the top and one for the bottom. The bottom piece is 12 x 7" and the top is 6 1/4 x 7".
I found the center line of each piece and scored 1 1/8" out from the left and 1 1/8" out from the right of that center spot (because the marker cases measure 2 1/4" across). This gave me my corners. I then placed the markers inside to make sure they would fit. 
Whew! They did.
I then put sticky strip all over the cardboard and adhered the patterned paper, keeping the corners bent while wrapping. 
After the pieces were covered in paper, I put sticky strip on the inside bottom edges of the top piece. I then placed the markers inside the bottom piece, and put a rubber band around it (front to back) to hold the whole thing together while I adhered the top piece to the bottom piece (sorry, no picture of that step). 
After that, I added the brads and ribbon for the handle at the top.
I also decided I needed to have something across the back to keep the markers from sliding out, so I used more jumbo brads and a strip of naturals white cardstock. These markers don't get moved around very much, and they fit in this case very snugly, so I'm confident that'll work fine.
So there you go! If you have the markers but not the big case, make one yourself! It's prettier anyway!
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I saw a tutorial for making this tree yesterday while blog surfing, and just had to try it myself. Of course, now I can't find the tutorial and give credit to the correct person. My apologies. If it's yours, or if you know whose it is, please e-mail me so I can give credit and put up a link to the tutorial. Thanks!
This was really fun to make! I used the Prints Designer Series Paper in Certainly Celery to make the tree. Cardstock colors are Certainly Celery and Rose Red. (For some reason, I could not get true color when taking the picture, and the Celery looks more like Mellow Moss). The background is the Linen stamp, and the rhinestone brad at the top of the tree is from the SU! Pretties Kit. Enjoy!
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Here's a clipboard I made recently. Very easy to make. I stamped the flowers from the Office Accoutrement stamp set using craft inks: Tempting Turquoise, Orchid Opulence and Green Galore. I used the Basic Black inkpad for the words. I am not a patient person, so I used my heat gun to dry the craft inks. The flowers and leaves on the metal clip at the top were made using the Five Petal Flower Punch, the 1/2 inch circle punch and brads.
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My club members made this card on Wednesday. 
The technique is called Joseph's coat. Here's a tutorial (my first tutorial, so be patient, lol).
Here are the supplies you'll need:
Stamp set of your choice (I used Autumn Fest)
Cardstock: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White
Inkpads: Pumpkin Pie Spectrum Pad, Basic Black and Versamark
Brayer with (preferably) 2 rollers
Powder Pal Tray
Embossing Powders: Crystal Clear and Iridescent Ice
Heat Gun
Ribbon (not pictured)
Adhesive (obviously)
Step 1: 
Ink your brayer on the Pumpkin Patch spectrum pad and roll it back and forth across the white cardstock. Keep inking and brayering until it's as dark as you like. TIP: When using your brayer with a spectrum pad, brayer it first on a small piece of cardstock and then tape that piece to your brayer, so you know which way it should be placed on the spectrum pad (so the colors don't get mixed up). When finished with your project, tape the paper to the spectrum pad for use next time.
Step 2: 
Ink your stamps on the Versamark Pad and stamp them on the cardstock. Be sure to press firmly so that all the versamark gets transferred or you'll get a partial image.
Step 3: 
Make a mixture of 1/2 Clear Embossing Powder and 1/2 Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder and sprinkle it on the card, making sure to completely cover the versamark images. Shake off excess.
Step 4: 
Heat the images using your heat gun, until they turn shiny. NOTE: Do not overheat. Iridescent ice "burns" easily and will turn dull if overheated.
Step 5: 
Using a different brayer (or having washed the spectrum ink off of the one you used before), ink the brayer in the black inkpad and brayer over the cardstock again. Be sure you get full coverage.
Step 6: 
Wipe excess ink off of embossed images using a tissue or other soft cloth.
Step 7:
Finish your card. I used Artichoke and Pumpkin ribbons as embellishments.
A couple of notes: You should use your embossing buddy on your white cardstock before stamping with the versamark. This will keep the embossing powder from sticking to the cardstock in places where there is no versamark. This is especially true when using glossy cardstock. I normally use glossy cardstock for this technique, but I really wanted the leaves to "pop", so I chose Whisper White instead.
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Woo hoo! We had a blast on Saturday night at my Pajama Stamp-A-Rama. Over 100 cards were made, including many for our troops and for the Ronald McDonald House. Thanks for those contributions, ladies!
Here are the cards and genie bag everyone made. 
The Penguin card and the bag are "Donna originals", and the other three cards were all cased from Splitcoaststamers.com. Thank heaven for the ladies on that site who share their talents!
My fabulous customer, Kay S.,
was the winner of the "Best PJ's" contest. Isn't she adorable?!
Here's the whole gang, minus one who came a little later.
We had a movie going, and after that we listened to Oldies music. Of course, there was lots of junk food (and a little bit of healthy food to reduce the guilt factor).
Here's what the ladies came up with for the Limited Supply Challenge. They were given 1/2 sheet each of Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Summer Sun and Really Rust cardstock, along with the same colors of inkpads. They also had some twill tape, eggplant ribbon, a brad and a couple of pieces from the Hodgepodge Hardware kit. I have some talented customers, don't I? Great work, ladies! 
Congrats to Lee C. who won this contest. Hers is the second from the left, bottom row. Lee also won the catalog scavenger hunt. Boy, she knows that catalog really well! Time to become a demonstrator, Lee!
A brand new customer, Jane, was the Grand Prize winner. She won a Bitty Book and a package of the Holiday Harmony Designer Series Paper. She was thrilled!
I had so much fun with this party. I hope to make it a regular event. Anybody interested?
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