Holiday Bazaar Gift Items

A few years ago I started participating in Holiday Bazaars again.  I normally wait until a couple of months before the bazaars start to begin thinking about what items I need to make to sell.  Each year I tell myself that I need to start at the beginning of the year and make some items each month so by the time the bazaars get here I'll already have a supply of items to sell.  The way that I decided to do that this year is to evaluate the cards that we make in our monthly stamp club to see which ones would be good as a gift set.  Here are photos of the first set of the year to make the cut for the bazaars.

These cards are from our January Stamp Club and use the Lotus Blossom stamp set.  They were a lot of fun to make.

Stamping Retreat

I went to a stamping retreat at the Grunewald Guild retreat center in Leavenworth WA last month.  It was a wonderful weekend of stamping and the weather was beautiful. This is a photo of the lodge we used for our stamping time.  It has windows on 3 sides and was an awesome space to stamp in. The only drawback to this place was the drive.  It's 6 hours from Salem.  That's a long time in a car!

This photo is the cabin that I stayed in.

February Stamp Club

Here are the cards we made this month:

This card was made using the Butterfly Basics bundle from the Spring Catalog.  The card itself was cased from brandyscards.com.  She always has beautiful cards.  The supplies used were Whisper White & Pacific Point CS; So Saffron, Old Olive, Pacific Point & Early Espresso Inks; and a rhinestone for the butterfly.

This card was cased from Karen Titus and you may see hers here (you will need to scroll down a bit): click here

The supplies used were Whisper White & Real Red CS; Real Red Ink; Stacked with love DSP; You Plus Me Stamp Set; Sweetheart Punch; and rhinestones. This card was quick and easy and a lot of fun to make.  You could make this card as a thank you or thinking of you card also.

This card was made using the Irresistibly Yours DSP in the Sale-a-bration catalog. This paper is very elegant and you can get it for free until March 31, 2015 with a $50 purchase from Stampin Up!.

The supplies used were Whisper White & Calypso Coral CS; Crazy About You stamp set; Hello You thinlits dies; Stazon black & Daffodil Delight inks; Daffodil Delight & Calypso Coral reinkers; Spritzer Bottles, and rhinestones.

This last card design came from one of the Class in a Flash tutorials.  It was lots of fun to make also.  The supplies used were Whisper White & Basic Black CS; Hello You thinlits dies; Crazy About You stamp set; Bermuda Bay Ink; Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim; Large Polka Dot Embossing Folder; Birthday Bash Designer Washi Sheets; & Bermuda Bay 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon.

As always, you may purchase any of these supplies from my website here

Thanks for looking and happy stamping!

January Stamp Club Cards

Don't you just love this guy? He actually reminds me of my friend Bethany's husband, Peter.  Same beard and I can see him wearing the hat.  I found this card on Pinterest click here . It was made by another Stampin Up! demonstrator.  I only changed a couple of things from the original.  I like both of them and it was fairly easy to make. For most people the hardest part would have been cutting out the woodsman, but I stamped 20 of them on white cardstock and then cut them all out at once with the machine my awesome husband gave me for Christmas. It's the Brother Scan N Cut, and does really cool things.  Doing just this one thing alone was enough for me.  I love the way stamped images look when they're cut out and popped up, but I really don't like cutting things out.  This solved that problem for me.

This was my 2nd favorite card.  It's very simple, but I love all of the elements.  We had fun making them, but there was a lot of frustration also with getting the word out of the die.  About a week later I found a really cool video tutorial that showed a simple way to take care of it. Run the die through your Big Shot machine with your cardstock, then run it through again, this time on top of a fabric softener sheet that has been folded in half. It was amazing!  The fabric softener sheet grabs the cardstock right out of the die.   The only stamping on this card is the butterflies in the background. They are a stamp from the Perpetual Birthday stamp set. I can't remember right now where I found the original, so I apologize to you, but I'm sure I found it on Pinterest also.

This card is made with patterned paper from the same pack that I used for my shadow box in my original post, and a stamp set from the Sale-a-bration catalog.  From now through March 31, 2015, you can get this set (or one of many others) for free with a $50 Stampin Up order.  Check it out on my website here: click here .  This is a 3-step stamp set and makes beautiful flowers.  The name of the set is Lotus Blossom and I found it on Pinterest here.

This was our 4th card for the night.  Again, same paper pack as the other card and the shadow box.  The butterfly is made with the new Butterflies thinlits dies from the spring catalog. There are 3 sizes of butterflies to chose from and they are all beautiful. I found this one on Pinterest also, here.

So, do you see a theme here?  I don't have very much time for stamping, and creating my own cards usually takes much more time than I have.  I love Pinterest and am very grateful for all of the people who post their wonderful ideas there.

Happy stamping!

Birthday Gift for a Friend

I needed a birthday gift for a friend at work and saw this framed art.  I apologize to the person who originally made it as I can't remember where I found the idea.  This is a 5x7" shadow box frame from Michaels. The inside is Stampin Up!'s Painted Blooms designer paper.  I absolutely love this new paper!  It has 12 sheets: 2 each of 6 double sided designs.  Every one of them is beautiful.  This frame used only a small piece of one of the designs in the package.  I embellished it with some SU ribbon, a metal butterfly, and a very nice stamped saying by Eleanor Roosevelt.  This would make a beautiful gift for anyone and was very quick and easy to make.  Let me know if you would be interested in a class to make this gift.

Don't you just love this saying?

Another Sunday Afternoon Card

This is the other card I made on Sunday afternoon.  I made 6 of each card.  I think I found this one on Splitcoaststampers, but I'm not positive, so I apologize to whoever made the original.  I only changed the colors of cardstock, but otherwise it's the same card.  I've recently started stamping matching envelopes and can't believe that I didn't do it years ago.  I used to scoff at people who did because I know that they get torn open and thrown away, but I think they make the cards look more classy (or something like that).

Pink Pirouette, Rose Red & Whisper White cardstock, Gingham Garden (retired) DSP, Summer Silhouettes stamp set, Blushing Bride, Rose Red & Old Olive ink, Regals Candy Dots, white gel pen, Word Window Punch, Ovals Framelits, sponges.

Sunday afternoon card

This is one of the cards I made on Sunday afternoon.  It's totally cased from brandyscards.com.  You can see the original here .  The only thing I changed was the sentiment.  I wish that SU had more large sentiments that I like.  They only have a few, and I don't care for any of them.  This sentiment stamp was a learning experience for me.  It's a clear acrylic stamp (I don't remember who makes it) and when I attempted to stamp it on my desk, I couldn't get a clear image. I've had this problem with the clear stamps before and usually give up and get rid of them.  This time I remembered a tip I was given some time in the past.  I used my Stampin Pierce Mat from SU as a pad and it worked great.  Now I wish I hadn't given up on the other stamps that I re-homed.  I love this card, even though I wouldn't normally care for the colors.

Whisper White & Wild Wasabi cardstock, Tangelo Twist, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi & Stazon Black ink, Beautiful Bunch & Stippled Blossoms stamp sets, Fun Flower & 7/8" Scallop punches, rhinestones.