Sunday Delights

Don't you love those moments when the little one is taking a nap and you're sitting quietly in your craft room (or where ever your peaceful spot is...in the summer it would be under the tree in the backyard), just taking a moment? I swear, somedays I live for those moments.

*I know it's not Sunday anymore but I'm posting this anyway, dang it! :-)

Hmmmm....

I'm sitting here trying to figure out what to order because my Stampin' Up supplies are dwindling with all the clubs and stamp a stacks and other super fun things that have been going on. I made my list and was super pumped and now I'm stuck. Why, you ask. Well, I'm not even half way through ordering every thing I need to head into the next several months of fun times and I've already pretty much doubled the amount I had budgeted. Dang it all! Now I'm going to have to rework everything. Don't you all wish that you were just super rich and could buy everything you wanted when you wanted it? I know I do! :-)

In the meantime I'm also starting to plan/order for my next Stamp a Stack! I'd say this one was hugely, chaotically successful! Here are the different projects that we made at our stamp a stack. Most of which are lovingly cased from other super talented ladies.

This side-step card was cased from one of the ladies on my Stampin' Up demonstrator team, The Prairie Dolls, Christa. She did hers with the Create a Cupcake set; all of the ladies at the Stamp a Stack loved the look of this card.

This super fun Owl card was cased from DarleneDesign.com and again we had so much fun. This one is definitely my favourite!

This next card was inspired by something I saw on The Stampin' Connection. I gave it some twists to make it my own and I went with a Wedding theme because my friend/sister-in-law Marleen is going to a very fancy wedding soon and I thought she might like to have a card for it.

This bookmark uses the Circle Circus stamp set, a set I love but just don't think to pull out very often! It was our brain break for when we all needed to stop thinking and just play! (And it's a good thing it was there because I was a little over excited in planning my projects and I think my ladies were a little overwhelmed at times - I've promised to do better next time!).

This last card was again cased from DarleneDesign.com. That is one talented lady! I really loved how this card turned out, it was so simple and yet it's so pretty! We just glued strips of paper onto a piece of cardstock, ran it through the Big Shot using the Top Note die cut and then did a little doodle work around it and voila! The heart embellishments were actually made by punching each heart out 5-7 times in the same paper, gluing each layer together and then covering the whole thing with a fairly thick layer of Crystal Effects. All done just in time for Valentine's Day!

All in all it was a fun first Stamp a Stack and I fully intend to do it again and again!

Happy Valentines Day!!

I'm in the midst of report cards and so really don't have time to say much, but I do want to say Happy Valentines Day everyone!!

Wow...it's been a while!

Well, life has been super busy. Since September 1st we've: sold our home; celebrated Addie's second birthday (yes those are tractors on her cake - what can I say, she's the perfect mix of tom boy and girlie-girl); moved to the cottage (cheers to the 4 hour drive every day - not) - and Addie made the move into a big-girl bed with next to no fuss!;
moved from the cottage into our beautiful new home (10 days before Christmas - and on my birthday) - it didn't look like this when we moved in, thank god!

But the garage actually did look like this on moving day!! It was insane!

We celebrated Christmas and New Years;

hung a microwave, at least 19 curtains/blinds around the house, multiple pictures; built a table and four chairs, one shelf, and four stools.

All the while I've taught about 60 junior high kids science and english, taught one two year old, well, everything; welcomed three card clubs into my new home; started planning my first Stamp a Stack; am mentoring a colleague on Assessment and Reporting; been asked to pilot a new Manitoba Education Science and Literacy program; booked a training session for our new Art Curriculum; started looking into my Masters degree; and been working on about 140 seperate report card comments and percentage marks. Oh, and I'm trying to stay on top of Project 365, One little Word and Yesterday/Today. Holy crow, it's been busy! I'm exhausted! :-)

But, it's also been really fun and exciting. I love our new home, come on over and check it out...we'll put on a pot of yummy hazelnut coffee and copasquat (sit and visit)! I feel like I'm getting good at my card clubs and planning projects and the school year is going fabulously. So, all in all, life is great! I want to start blogging more regularly (I actually think it might be a great way to help me stay on top of my journaling for P365) and I've promised my card club ladies that I would start posting my project instructions here. So, here's a look at what we've been doing since December...

My Saucy Stampers club (I don't think they know this is their name but it makes me happy to call them that, they were my first club) came back from a two month hiatus (we skipped October and November because of my move) and we jumped right back into things and created a super fun flip book and a Valentine's card. Here are some pictures and how to's:

Flip Album (cased from Paula Goff on Scor-Pal).

To create this you need to start with one 6"x12" piece of cardstock (we used a variety of colours from the regals family). Score it at 2 3/4", 3", 9", 9 1/4". This is going to form the back cover and bindings for your book.

Cut your paper (we used the Speciality Designer Series Paper - First Edition from the new Occasions mini), into four 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" squares. These will become your front covers. Crease your score lines on your cardstock and glue/tape the 5 1/2" squares onto the front panels of your cardstock. *Make sure to center them and do NOT cover your score lines.

For the meat and potatoes of your book you're going to cut your designer paper (we used the regals patterns designer series paper stack - I do realize that my sample is not using a colour from the regals family but I used up all of my paper with my ladies) into three 5 3/4" by 12" strips. Lay them out in a row on your desk and glue them so that the ends are together (basically you are gluing the 3" flaps to each other). Fold all of the pieces of paper into the middle section. Flip this over and glue the back of the middle section into the middle of your cardstock. Your book is now done and ready for photos, journaling and embellishments

Not only did we make this fabulous flip album (which in my brain would be really cool as a resolution album or a look back at 2010 type thing), we also created this really pretty Valentine's card.

We used the Lots of Love letterpress plate to create the front of the card. I loved using this tool, I think it's because it made me think of working at a newspaper in like the 1920's and how neat that would have been. Word to the wise, once you've ran your paper through the big shot set it aside for a few moments. We used craft ink to get a richer colour but it took a little longer to dry. We then just basically layered our whisper white onto a piece of regal rose, we tied our ribbon around that layer (this ribbon is actually no longer available but I had a lot of it so I decided to be a rebel and use it anyway - shhhh, don't tell!), and then layered it all onto a piece of real red cardstock (the ribbon and ink was also real red). Oh, and for a little extra somethin', somethin', we punched some hearts out of different coloured/patterned papers and used dimensionals to pop them off the front of our card.

So, that was our December 28th club (my Saucy Stampers). For my other club (for whom I haven't come up with a name yet) we did two little love/Valentine type projects at our club at the beginning of February.

Yet again, I pulled out the scor-pal (it's funny, I've owned the thing for like a year and a half and never opened it and now I'm using it like crazy!). Using the same Designer Series paper as we did with the flip book, First Edition, we created this little milk carton container.

This one was also cased from scor-pal (Jen Young) and is called the 2-4-6-8 Favour Box.

To create this one you start with an 8.5"x11" piece of paper (I tried cardstock but it didn't fold well so I think you need to use designer series type paper - something more lightweight). Cut the paper in half at the 5.5" mark (now you should have two pieces of paper, both measuring 8.5"x5.5". Lay your paper out the long way and score it at the 2, 4, 6, and 8 inch mark. Turn the paper 90 degrees and score it across the bottom at the 2" mark (I think I found it a little helpful to score it at a little less than 2" from the bottom). Cut the 2, 4, 6, 8 inch lines from the bottom of the page up to the 2" score that runs across the page (basically you're going to have 4 little 2" flaps at the bottom of your page when you're done). Decorate and stamp your paper however you want at this point and then apply tape runner to the small .5" flap at the end of your page and 3 of the 2" squares - you're putting your tape ON the decorated side of your page. Now flip your paper to the non-decorated side and put tape on all four edges of your last 2" square. Starting with the .5" strip, stick all your edges together, creating a square tube. Fold all the 2" squares together, the last one will be the square with tape runner on all 4 sides. Pinch the top together, so it looks like a closed milk carton, fill your container with candy, brads, ribbon, whatever and seal the top with whatever you like. We used the extra large, round tab punch.

This is the other project we made at the club but I'll explain how we did it later (see note below).

Okay, I feel like this is getting boring so I'll give more instructions in my next post. Good to see you all again! Here are some pics of the projects I'll explain next time...