On this Thanksgiving Day I want to thank all the people who have touched my life in any way.  I am a mother, a wife, a grandmother, a retired RN, a past owner of a wonderful gift shop, a past CCD volunteer and now a Stampin’Up! demonstrator loving every minute of it. My life has been touched by so many in all of these experiences and for that I am most grateful.  A huge thank you to all who follow me on instagram and who visit my humble blog.  I may not be the most successful but I am grateful for the blessings God has granted me.

PAWS TO PONDER

Hugs and happy stamping,  MB

Hi Stampers,

I was a busy beaver today.  I prepped as much of Thanksgiving dinner as I could.  We have a small cottage kitchen and sometimes things can get a little hectic when our melded family comes together.  My son and his family will be coming on Sunday so they are the only ones who will be missing.  I did squeeze in a little fun time after dinner tonight so I wanted to share it with you fresh off the work table.

I used Flirty Flamingo CS as the base card.  The image from the Reason for the Season stamp set is stamped on water color paper using Blushing Bride, Flirty Flamingo and Melon Mambo inks.  The branches are Old Olive and Wild Wasabi inks.  I spritzed the images three times with water before stamping them on the paper. The background dots are from the Awesomely Artistic stamp set.  It’s an image I find myself going to a lot as a finishing touch.  The greeting is from the Reason for the Season stamp set and is stamped with Flirty Flamingo ink.  Honestly this took only 15 minutes to complete at the most but it is something I have been storing in my head for a few weeks.  In reality the Jingle Bell Poinsettia is my favorite.  That’s the one that is red with white splotches.  I’m thinking I might have to haul out the bleach and Real Red ink to see if I can recreate that.  Take a look and let me know you’re thoughts.  I am always happy to hear from anyone who takes the time to comment.

PAWS TO PONDER

Hugs and happy stamping,  MB

Hi Everyone,

Today I am sharing the paper craft project from Saturday’s stamp camp.  We always make four cards and a paper craft item.  This is the latest.  It begins with a 4x4 cardboard coaster (any heavy, thick cardboard will work). We used Designer Series Paper from the Presents and Pinecones DSP series to cover the coaster.  The back of the coaster is covered with the reverse side of the same DSP.  Between this piece and the coaster a piece of ribbon was inserted to use as a hanger.  Next we cut a 3x3 piece of cardboard (I used the backing of a DSP pack) This is covered with the reverse side of the same DSP.   The center is cut out using a die from the Layering Squares Framelits.  The picture is attached to the coaster portion. The 3x3 square is adhered with dimensionals after attaching the picture.  I did not use a picture of one of my three cats in the demo, just a sweet generic kitten.  I’m thinking a child or grandchild’s picture would be even sweeter.  I can see this being a great Secret Santa gift or stocking stuffer or just a little something to make someone’s day a little brighter.  It could be made in different sizes and it doesn’t have to just be for the holidays.  Take a look.

PAWS TO PONDER

Hugs and happy stamping,  MB

Happy Monday Stampers,

I hope everyone had a safe and peaceful week end.  In Wisconsin it was opening day for gun deer hunting on Saturday.  My oldest grandson, Mason hunted for the first time with his dad, my son.  I was a little nervous but he had taken all the right courses and his dad has been hunting for quite a while.  Still there is always that mother’s/grandmother’s fear.  I guess I was a helicopter mom when my kids were growing up.  You know the kind that hovers over them.  They had fun though in spite of me and now that they are all grown I’m hearing things I’m glad I didn’t know back then.

I had a stamp camp on Saturday with my regular group of ladies.  As usual we had a ball. This group is the best therapy ever.  Todays share is one of the cards we made on Saturday.  It starts with a vase card of Real Red CS followed by a layer of DSP from the Candy Cane Lane series.  I had pre-cut the delicate ornaments with the thinlits with the same name from Whisper White CS. They were adhered with a sponge and Multipurpose glue. A tip I learned from Connie Stewart.  A small strip of DSP from the Candy Cane Lane DSP series was added under the greeting which was stamped in Real Red ink with an image from the Thoughtful Banners stamp set.  The banner was punched using the Duet Banner punch.  It took very little time to assemble this so I’m thinking multiples would be easy for your Christmas Cards.  Check it out and thanks again for giving me a few minutes of your busy day.

PAWS TO PONDER

Hugs and happy stamping,  MB

Hey Stampers,

I promised details on this card a few days ago but once again my plans were waylaid.  So here we go.

I started with a piece of Whisper White CS covered with plain old aluminum foil.  I ran it through the Big Shot with the Holly embossing folder that I had coated with Versamark ink.  I sprinkled gold and copper embossing powder randomly over the embossed foil.  Using my heat gun I embossed the powdered areas and let the magic begin.  I wanted to keep a vintage look so I used cotton lace (retired) as one of the accents.  I cut three branches with the Pretty Pines thinlits dies with copper and gold foil paper.  I used Very Vanilla CS and a die from the same thinlits set to slip between the branches.  I had red gemstones left over from a past Paper Pumpkin to finish off the embellishing.  We made a very similar card at stamp camp today but to simplify it a bit I used the Wondrous Wreath stamp set and Wonderful Wreath framelits in place of the branches.  I used Old Olive and Wild Wasabi inks for the two step greens on the wreath image and stamped the berries with Soft Suede ink.  The only additional embellishment was a twine bow.  I stamped Merry Christmas with Soft Suede ink across the middle of the wreath image.  Here’s the original…..

PAWS TO PONDER

Hugs and happy stamping,  MB