Freewheeling Friday 12-19-08

I was going through some of my Holiday Decorations and discovered these two great frames I made last year.   I thought I would share them with you today since the background was so simple to make.  I just used the Versa Mark with our Bold Snowflakes Jumbo Wheel.  f-noel-frame

I know it’s really hard to see but it looks great in person.  I’ve added a close up shot so hopfully you will be able to see the effect.  The are really fun to put out for the holidays.  f-holiday-frame-close

I really like the big one because I can change out the picture when I want to.f-holiday-frame

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Thrifty Thursday 12-18-08

Here is a fun idea to put your Big Shot to good use.  I love to let the kids make little gifts for their friends at Christmas time.  This year I was so excited because I knew the Big Shot would make it so easy and very cost effective.  t-zack-big-shott-mikey-topperst-toppers

My boys had fun creating these cute Christmas gifts for their friends.  Here are a few pictures. 

t-reindeer-topperThe basic idea is really easy all you need is 1/4 sheet of paper plus some scraps for the punches.  Then you need the little bags and some ribbon. 

t-tree-topperWe used the Stampin’ Up! Exclusive Top Note Die to cut out the toppers then scored them the short way and folded them in 1/2. 

t-snowman-topperWe filled the little bags with treats and stapled them to the back of the topper.  Then I tied the ribbon around it.  We used the scallop punch, the 1 3/8 Circle Punch and the 1 1/4 Circle Punch to create our little tags. t-dj-toppers

 The boys each choose 2 favorites from the Hostess set “Deer Friends” and colored the stamps to get the great colors.  We used just one Stampin’ Dimensional on the bottoms so that you could slip the ribbon off the top and get to the treats.  t-zack-toppers

The boys had a lot of fun making them and especially loved using the big shot.  It was a fun evening.  Sorry it was so late getting this post up but we had to finish all of our projects. 

t-mikeyI think we made about 50 in about 2 hours.  Hope you enjoyed this and have fun making your own treat bags.

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Technique Tuesday 12-16-08

Rolling with the Punches

This is the technique my club member learned last week.  You will be able to see more samples in the club page.  I got this technique from Laura Fredrickson you can see her complete tutorial by clicking here.  I had a lot of fun with and thought it was a great technique.  I actually found it months ago and have been waiting for Christmas to show it.  The basic technique is to use your punches to make a template then roll your wheel over the template so you only get part of your images.    Then you can trace around them or use sponge daubers to fill them in.  If you want to see the step by step instructions you can check out Laura’s site.  Here is just one of the fun cards we made.  Be sure to check out the other card and Scrapbook pages under clubs.dec-card-1-moose

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Stampin’ Sunday 12-14-08

I really wanted to try using one of the great snowflakes from the mini catalog on a project.  I thought it would be fun to put it on a pictures frame.  I really loved how this turned out.  I have to admit the picture really helps too.  This is my little Xander last year.  We called him Xander Claus.xander-snowflake-frame  The picture was taken by JC Penny Photography.

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Thrifty Thursday 12-11-08

Thrifty Thursday- Holiday Lineup Cards

Today I have decided to show you three different cards made with the same stamp set and using the same basic layout.  I love this set because all of the images are the same size so it makes it really easy to use the same layout and just change the colors. 

t-elves-cardThe basic card is really simple and cost less than a dollar for the paper, ribbon and glue.  I also love the 3×6 cards because they actually cost less to make than a standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card.  This stamp set works really well with the 3×6 design.  Someone told be that this stamp set has to grown on you, but I loved if from the first minute I saw it.  It’s the Holiday Lineup #111648 for $21.95. 

t-snowman-cardI’ve used Chocolate Chip, Old Olive and Not Quite Navy for my base colors, which is also economical because they are all earth elements so you can by the 12×12 individually or by the family pack.  Then I’ve added the fun in-colors to two of them with ribbon and background paper.  The other I used the fun ribbon from the mini catalog.  I’ve used StazOn Jet Black ink to stamp the image.  Then I used a blender pen and the ink pads to color the images.  I really like how they turned out. 

t-reindeer-cardMy down-line actually got to make the reindeer card at our Christmas Party.  I hope you liked this and be watching next week for another cost saving project.

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Wacky Wednesday 12-10-08

big-shot-snowflakeWacky Wednesday- Big Shot Snowflake

Today was crazy because it was club and of course things did not go according to plan, but here is my Wacky Wednesday Project.  It’s actually really simple.  I came up with it from the circles that are folded in half when you cut out your pendent dies.  You would add them to your banners when you make them.  So I decided to try it with the snowflake die. 

  1. First you need to cut out 3 of the snowflakes with your Big Shot. 
  2. Then you have to fold them in half.  This is actually the tricky part.  I start by folding both the edges in half then I fold the centers over to meet each other and press in the center.  This leaves just a little part on each side to finish folding. 
  3. Once all off your pieces are folded you need to unfold one of them and apply glue.  I use the two way glue pen. 
  4. Next I apply half off one of the snowflakes to each side.  Then apply glue to one side of the two remaining pieces and put them together. 
  5. When you are done you should have a 3 dimensional snowflake.  You can hang a piece of silver or gold cord from them to let them hang.  I put them in my Christmas Tree and they look great.  Hope you have fun with this one.  My kids love it.

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If you really want a Big Shot you can check out my
Big Shot Lay-A-Way plan.