Create with Connie and Mary--Cute Halloween

Welcome to our blog hop! This month we are going to be showcasing a variety of Halloween projects. Halloween is actually my favorite holiday, after my birthday as I consider that a holiday! hahaha!

Every year we host a kids Halloween Party and I always try and get a few great pictures of the kids in their costumes. So naturally I wanted to make a Halloween scrapbook page for our theme of ‘cute’ halloween because the subjects in my upcoming photo will no doubt be cute!

If I could ask Shelli or Sara for ONE WISH it would be to bring back 12 x 12 Basic Black card stock. It is a bizarre mystery as to why we do not sell this. I did stock pile some before it was retired but I do use it sparingly!

The base of my page is on a piece of 12x12 Basic Black with a large section of DSP from the Magic in This Night collection. I really loved this paper with the bats!

Rich Razzleberry is my purple of choice for when I create Halloween projects. It looks so good with blacks and greys and all the different orange tones that we have to choose from!

When I am creating a scrapbook page I try and create little vignettes to help draw your eye and create areas of interest. This little section anchoring my photo is so cute, I just love all the details. I decided to use gold as my accent color so I cut the word “BOO” out from using the Playful Alphabet dies and Gold Foil paper. I popped them up using the Foam Adhesive Sheets (this item has become a craft room must have)!

I started by stamping the “October 31” from the Festive Post stamp set in Pumpkin Pie and then used a sponge dauber in Cajun Craze to color the bottom half of the stamp. I stamped just “October” in Momento ink on Smoky Slate ink and hand trimmed it to add over top of the main image with a Dimensional. It is punched out with the Rectangular Postage Stamp punch from the main catalogue.

I cut a label using the Celebration Label dies from Smoky Slate to act as the base of this little vignette. The pumpkin is cut using the Autumn Essentials dies in Cajun Craze and Terracotta Tile. The little bats are stamped in Momento Ink on Smoky Slate card stock and then hand cut. You can find them in the Banner Year stamp set along with the little spider webs at the top of my page!

The gold cord I used in both vignettes is from the Wonder of the Season ribbon combo. You are going to find the “Happy Haunting” sentiment the Celebration Tidings stamp set. It is stamped in Momento Ink on Smoky Slate card stock with a splatter of ink over top. I used the Timeless Label punch to punch it out. There are two little banners tucked behind from the Magic in the Night DSP. This whole label is added onto a larger label cut from the Celebration Label dies in Terracotta Tile and then sniped in half.

I gold embossed the spider webs and added some bling with the Holiday Rhinestone Basic Jewels.

I used the ‘spiky’ border die from the Autumn Essentials dies along the side of my 5x7 photo mat

I am going to be offering this page as a class, so if you are in the YEG area and are interested let me know! I would love to stamp with you!

I hope you enjoy all of our ‘cute’ Halloween projects as you hop along with us today! You can go BACK to visit Melissa or NEXT to see what Connie has created for us. Have fun!

Stampin' For Christmas-Let's get Christmassy!

Thank you for joining us on this monthly Christmas themed blog hop featuring the many fabulous Stampin’ Up! products we all have to choose from! Sometimes it is hard to pick just one set to focus on! I did narrow it down to the Coming Home Bundle as I am having too much fun colouring all of the houses and trees. Colouring can be so relaxing and its so easy with our Stampin’ Blends! This bundle is part of a larger suite called Trimming the Town.

This stamp set does not have any sentiments to it, which is sort of unique to Stampin’ Up! It is all images. So I pulled in a nice sized ‘Merry Christmas’ from the Tag Buffet stamp set.

I used Balmy Blue as my card base and stamped the sentiment in the same color. The house is coloured in Real Red with Crumb Cake accents and Balmy Blue on the windows. The trees are classic Old Olive and Crumb Cake.

I used one of the dies from the Home Together Dies that has the trees and the snow drift shapes. It created a great background and I stamped directly to this piece. The house and trees are layered over top.

I wanted the illusion of a snow storm too so I stole a snowflake from the So Many Snowflakes dies and added those in. I then created a spray with my Wink of Stella and Balmy Blue markers to add to the snowfall feel.

I think this is a great card that you could easily mass produce and enjoy the relaxing creative benefits of colouring!

You can visit Sue Allen’s blog next to see what her crafty Christmas creation is! I hope you hop all the way through so you do not miss anyone’s creativity!

Create with Connie and Mary--Fall Essentials!

Welcome friends! It is officially FALL and the most gorgeous season of all. While I LOVE summer, the sunshine and heat, bbq’s and all the fun stuff, I do truly love the beauty of fall. The changing colors of the leaves, the crispy touch to the air, pumpkins and sweater weather! And I find fall one of the greatest themes to design and stamp with. There are so many techniques to creating leaves and so many fantastic products to create amazing projects like this fall sampler!

Our blog hop theme this week is Fall Essentials—so creating a sampler was a great way to include many of my favourite fall things on one project!

Have you ever tried to create a sampler? There are so many possibilities! However, the easiest way to begin is to just use 3x3 squares and decorate them as you desire. It is like creating mini card fronts.

I started with a 12x12 base of Early Espresso and layered a piece of Whisper White over top. I used DSP from the Poinsettia …..and In Good Taste and then squares in many of our neutrals—Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, Early Espresso and some regals—Pumpkin Pie and Cajun Craze.

I leaned into two of my favourite fall stamp sets Love of Leaves and Gather Together. I stole the world ‘Autumn’ from the Autumn Greetings stamp set along with the cute little leaf clusters under the word FALL.

Here is a fun tip to try with the leaf dies from the Gathered Leaves dies. This dies cut and emboss at the same time so if you take the die and press it into your ink pad before placing it on your paper and running it through the Stamp Cut and Emboss Machine it will also transfer the ink onto the paper giving you leaf a really cool two tone effect!

I love how Stampin’ Up! has so many embellishments to choose from to help bring our projects to life. The Gold Hoops Embellishments are perfect to add a little flair. I loved adding a little gold bow onto the leaf above using the thread from the Forever Greenery Trim Combo Pack.

The Elegant Faceted Gems are the perfect touch to the square below with the pumpkins.

I really encourage you to give creating a Sampler a try. Its a wonderful way to showcase a lot of products and I love having one for every season to display in my craft room. They also make amazing gifts for those who love a handmade project.

I know the other girls have some amazing things to share with you! I can’t wait to see what their ‘autumn essentials’ are! You can visit Mellisa by going BACK and check out Connie by going NEXT.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Christmas Coffee Explosion Box

This project is definitely in my top ten favourite things I have EVER made! I just couldn’t love it any more and definitely know its the gift I am making for my kids teachers this Christmas!

If you haven’t tried making an explosion box, don’t be intimated, its actually quite simple. You can look at each panel as a mini card and let your design inspiration go from there! This overhead shot shows you what it looks like once you take off the top and the sides ‘explode’ down.

There are tons of tutorials out there and almost all of them start with a 12x12 piece of card stock which is what I used here. I scored it at 4 inches on all sides and then cut some of the panels at a diagonal to create the two ‘pocket’s. I wanted a couple spots to add in some gift cards (one for coffee, one for booze!).

I used the two stamp sets Warm Hugs and Wrapped in Christmas from the Heartwarming Hugs Suite to decorate and embellish this project. These two sets work so well together!

This is the top of the box. I just love this mini coffee cup that fits inside the For You… it gives a little hint of what might be inside.

You can also use the Glitter Star Ornaments as a stationary embellishment by cutting the string and tucking the hook behind something.

I used the Heartwarming Hugs DSP and used the same pattern on the lid and on the inside panels and decorated the box with colors that coordinate with the DSP. I love the options of using Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, and Soft Suede. I used white embossing powder on many of the sentiments to help them ‘pop’.

The pull out pockets also have some stamping and you easily have enough to add a gift card.

I sacrificed one of the cups by carefully taking it apart to trace it onto the DSP so that the shape would be perfect to wrap around the cup. I used Tombow adhesive so it would stay adhered until the end of time! I decided to hot glue the cup to the base of the box. This way you can add some little treats inside the cup too and won’t move around in the explosion box.

I love how the Warm Wraps dies have such great layering options. The top of the coffee cup illustrates this perfectly and I used this layering option on all of the panels.

I would love to share this project with you! I will be offering it as a class on October 21st at 12:30 and October 23rd at 7pm. If you are in the Edmonton area please feel free to reach out if you would like to come stamp with me, or order any of the supplies by following the link to my store. Click on the button below to contact me to sign up for this class!

Bountiful Blessings--Create with Connie and Mary!

Welcome to another Saturday edition of Create with Connie and Mary! This week our theme is Bountiful Blessings so I reached for a ‘tried and true’ stamp set from my collection, Country Home. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the ‘new’ stamp sets we have because they are fresh and feel exciting, but we still have fabulous returning favorites in our annual catalogue!

You can make these sets feel ‘fresh and new’ by pairing them up with new colors, embellishments and designer series papers like I have done here.

And sharing items from both of our catalogue publications is key to making sure people know about all of the fabulous products we offer!

I love to color and this set totally fills that need! I used a color palette of Cinnamon Cider, Mint Macaron, Pumpkin Pie, Mango Melody and Old Olive to color and develop this card.

The Mint Macaron layer has the tile image from the stamp set stamped in the coordinating ink color so you just get a glimpse. The main layer of the card is from the In Good Taste DSP collection. LOVE IT!

I wanted to fill out the milk jug a bit with extra foliage so I reached for the Forever Flourishing Dies (pg 110) to add in the little sprigs, they are the perfect itty bitty size to keep in scale with the stamped image!

I wanted to add some gold accents to this card, as gold feels like a fall color to me. I used the Gilded Gems and some Gold Foil paper that I cut with a border die from the Autumn Essentials Die set. I really love die sets that have border options as I find I use them a lot to help highlight a sentiment or photo. And borders with a unique shape can be a great way to add in a subtle pop of color too!

A little Linen Thread bow finishes off the milk jug perfectly!

I really love the color palette of this card so you might see it in an upcoming scrapbook page too!

I hope everyone is soaking up the last few days of September! It went by so fast and now we are into a new month with my favorite holiday! Unless my own birthday can count as a holiday! hahaha!

Make sure you either hop forward to Connie’s blog (NEXT) or backwards to Melissa’s blog (BACK) to see what amazing creations they are sharing with us this week! And if this is your first time joining us, feel free to go back through my blog and see what we have been creating!