Quick Stop

Sorry folks- no new projects yet- working my behind off for quite a few gifts: babies and birthdays and grads OH MY! LOL- I have some b-day cards, invites and favours to work on for my daughter, a customer and my darling neice who is ONE today :) I can't wait to show you new cake topper ideas that can co-ordinate with your favours and invites and are SUPER quick to put together :) So simple- I am so excited! And? They last so much longer than candy 'happy birthday' peices or icing decorations. Then I have some wedding and grad cards for a friend, grad for one of my Sunday School students who is graduating from high school this year and a precious little baby needing thank you cards. I've been so busy with personal projects for other people and some customers that I have yet to make any more samples for my webstore.
BUT!
I am so stoked :) I had my Stampin' Up party last night and in two weeks (OR LESS :D) I'll be playin' with some new toys! I also am ordering a stampin' up personal stamp so I can sell my stuff and still adhere to their angel policy- SO IMPORTANT! I never thought of stuff like that until I was checking out some company sites- glad I found that out BEFORE selling :) I am also stoked cuz I am not ready to become a demonstrator yet- I want to save up for the kit and learn how to drive first (nope- still don't have my learners even- planning on remedying that this summer!) so I have my own demonstrator and I have worked it out so I can set some cash aside each project and paycheque to get some goodies each time a new catalogue comes out. I admit it- I am NOW offically addicted to stampin' up! AND I HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN MY ORDER YET! lol- so that's it for now- better get back to work so I can get my projects done for everyone and have something other than 'news' to blog- laters!
~Brandie~

Easter Baskets

Okay- I'll get to the post in a minute- I just want to share something exciting with all of you...... hehehehehehehehehe I am going to have Stampin' Up! Stuff!!!! Yea- I know!!!!! and No- I don't own any SU! stuff yet. I have been wanting, for the past year, to throw a party and place my very very first order. See- when I started papercrafting- it was as a scrapbooker (and oh- was I SO not good at that!) and I didn't think throwing catalogue parties were anything to write home about. I didn't stamp on anything- so why bother buying stamps and ink and buying packs of paper when I can go and buy paper at my local SBS? Then a couple of years ago I started getting into card making (also- very very bad start- I like to think I'm improving tho!) and that expanded to papercrafting/gift making as I wanted to make my own boxes. I stumbled upon candy making during this time because I wanted the whole gift to be personalized and I started buying Papercrafts Magazines to find templates for different box patterns. THEN while doing a internet search for various templates- I wonderfully and magically came upon Splitcoast Stampers and have been inspired, amazed and in love ever since. That was about a year ago- and I found blogs and wonderful inspiration from fellow paper crafters. And most of them had this in common: products from Stampin' Up.

Now- I'm an all or nuthin' kind of girl- so I wanted to wait til I could place a HUGE order (meaning have the money to afford a huge order) and that has brought me to here. A year later- my FIRST party is in two weeks and my wish list is GINORMOUS with inks, stampin' around wheels, paper, cardstock, stamp sets and punches. *sigh*. I'm so happy- AND eager to play with my new 'toys'! hehehehehehe

OKAY now that THAT'S said and done- on to today's post :) Easter is just around the corner and today, for many, is the last day before the holidays for the kiddos. So I never whipped up any Easter gifts for teachers before- it's always been cupcakes for the class. I think class gifts are cute and all- but really- kids at that age are just going to tear them apart and eat the goodies inside. Sure it was fun to make all that- but all the time and money FLOOSH down the drain. I never thought of making something just for the teachers before- and when I did- it was always too late (again- it typical Brandie fashion) SO this year I actually did it and here's what I came up with:

So I sort of got part of this idea from clearlyistamp- (I don't know the blog address- but they have some amazing ideas on there!) but I did mine a bit differently. Where their's was a basket- mine is more of a box. Not what I had sketched- but hey, it turned out okay :) So taking a 4x4 inch peice of cardstock patterned paper (you want the strength) score at .5 inch all the way around and just cut and paste a basic box bottom. Using acetate- 2.5x11- score at 2.5,5,7.5,10 and glue in the tab. (make sure you have about 1/16th of an inch on each side to shimmy in the box bottom). Put sticky strip along the bottom of the acetate and squeeze it together as you slide it into the box bottom. Press to adhere. I made the lid the same way- but I didn't glue it on. I made the picket fence REALLY easy and DID lift that from clearlyistamp. I cut some white CS into 1.5x0.5 strips and pointed the edge. Pretty simple :) For the flowers and butterflies I used my Marvy and Fiskar punches. The paper was fun: take some white vellum, and ink a slab of it (maybe 3x3 in square?) and while the ink is still wet- pour a mix of 1/2 fine glitter, 1/2 fine embossing powder (have it pre-mixed). Shake off the excess and then use your heat emboss tool to emboss it. Go over it slowly- as I have blistered MANY a vellum :) Careful when you punch it tho- sometimes the ink will lift off. Then I just added stickles, a tag and some sheer ribbon and done! I even covered the mini chocolate bars!

I am happy with it :) I just hope the teachers like them- they seemed to. I added some Easter grass to give the chocolate some 'lift'. Ohhh- I'd LOVE to find a chocolate bar cavity like these little nuggets so I can make my own. I would also love it if Wilton had different colours of foil. Maybe they do and my local Michaels is just too red neck to carry it lol.

SO! There I am :)

I am thinking of making a few more for my neices and nephews as a quick easter gift. They are older so they'd appreciate it better than younger kids would.

Now if I don't blog before then- I wish you all the best this Easter season- may the peace and joy of our Lord Jesus be with all of you as we remember His death and celebrate his ressurection- peace!

~Brandie~

Nightmare Before Christmas

So completly by surprise and not expecting it at all, I opened my facebook page to find aNOTHER message from a complete stranger wanting me to make her favour boxes for her child's thrid birthday. Well, I can't tell you all how exciting that is for me. I had planned on doing business for myself- but I sure wasn't expecting to be approached out of the blue like that! So- this woman's FAVOURITE movie happens to be A Nightmare Before Christmas- it is a great movie :) I watched WAY back when it first came out and would love to watch it with my kiddos. She already had invites and other things ordered from elsewhere- which was a bit of a bummer cuz I could have done those too- BUT work with what you have, be thankful for what you get and realize that when something DOESN'T happen.... it's probably for the best. I could tell that if I took on too big of a task I'd be over extending myself.

So here is what I came up with:

She wanted black and dark purple, so I came up with this. It's a simple 2-5-7-10 box that I cut the center out with my Fiskars circle cutter using the oval template. I put acetate behind it and smudged with white ink to make it smokey. Then I added purple pannels that I stamped and inked. I bought some new stamps from Inkadinkado found at Michaels. They have some amazing clear stamp sets now- and I bought the Hallowe'en one and used the super cute spider one that came with it. Inking in white- then embossing with my mix of glitter/embossing powder gave the webs a bit of shimmer. Then I just added stickles in Starry Night. It was really simple. I just finished with some sheer purple ribbon and inked the edges with silver ink by colorbox. The center was really simple too, I just found a photo from the movie online, copied and pasted to Microsoft word and manipulated the shape to an oval, used dimmensionals to adhere it to a scallop oval and put that over the 'window'. I thought they were simple, yet cute. I got alot of positive feed back from friends and the customer herself loved them- so that's all that really matters :)

So I am happy that people are coming to me- tho I am still eager to start up a Facebook group of my own that I can advertise and sell stuff on. I do like the idea of doing it locally, plus I don't HAVE to make a lot of stuff like I would for a farmer's market. I can just take local orders, fill them and VOILA satisfied (hopefully) customers! Facebook- it's the new ebay lol. Well- not really- but for me. I wouldn't do ebay because shipping can be QUITE costly. BUT the kids are fighting and I can't concentrate. NOT a good time to blog- but a great time for some air. We still have snow- but it's slooooooowly melting. Here's hopein' for spring!

~Brandie~