Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Splendid September News and Sweet Sundae Treats

Good morning stampers. As I sit here and try to blog amid 3 (soon to be 4) two year olds playing around me, I feel a bit like Dorothy in munchkinland. Which is saying a lot, considering I am quite short myself ;) lol. It's crisp outside, it's festive (albeit messy and OH that grabbing of toys *sigh*) alrighty then - short and sweet it shall be :)

Stampin' Up has graciously extended it's New Demonstrator Spooktacular Kit promo from now until the 16th of September, so if your holidays have kept you busy and you had wanted to sign up and get that AMAZING kit (valued at $70 worth of goodies) you still have a chance!


Another fun promo for September is Back To Spool. Spend a minimum $50 on Stampin' Up! products and receive a FREE spool of ribbon- 3/8 inch Stitched Ribbon in any of our 2012-2014 In Colours. Spend $200 and receive all FIVE In Colour ribbons FREE!


So that's what's new in the Stampin' Up! offices ;) On to my office :D
My cousin is throwing her daughter a 2nd birthday party in a couple of weeks and has commissioned me to do the party up- Sundae style. She was in love with the combo Melon Mambo and Chocolate Chip, but weren't sure if they'd go together (please- they are GORGEOUS together!) Those paired with Very Vanilla and trying my hand at the Flower Pot Card tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers, I created these cute "Ice Cream Bowl" invites! (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/flowerpotpocket/ <
 I cut the Very Vanilla card base a bit narrower than the tutorial showed and left a smaller rim to give it the impression of a bowl or cup of ice cream. I used the Cupcake Builder Punch and Pennant Builder Punch to create a cute ice cream cone tag by doubling it up and using dimenssionals to adhere it to the ribbon. I embossed the base in my Perfect Polka Dot folder (the Fancy Fan folder would have been more cone-like- but alas, I do not have that one!) A few large Scallops make 'scoops' of ice cream in place of flowers and all the party info is tucked inside!
 Now, I wanted some glassine type envelopes to make it look like food packaging in place of a traditional envelope. SU! doesn't sell packs of them and I couldn't find any in my local craft stores- so I decided to purchase a pack of White Vellum Paper (101856) and cut it at 8.5x7.5, scored lengthways at 2 and 6 inches, scored height wise at 1.5 and 7 inches. Folded the 2 long flaps over and glued down, glued down the .5 inch flap and then used my corner rounder to create a closure flap on the top. To seal them, I made another cone as well as a label from my Label Dies Collection. You can embellish the envelope however you want, I used strips of paper and my Scalloped Border punch and added another Label to add names to the recipients.
 
Here is the final product all closed up, with Dazzling Details highlighting the Ice Cream Scoops and some 1/4 inch Grossgrain to finish it off!

That's it for me- now on to more munchkins and apparantly book-a-polooza :/

~Brandie~

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

BOO!

Ahhh, do you hear that? The sweet sweet silence of 3 outta four kids gone off to their first day of school? Well- it WOULD be quieter- but alas, I run a day home and have 2 two year olds hanging out and watching Disney. So yea, not THAT quiet!

Along with the first day of school is cooler nights, crisper days, fallen leaves and HALLOWEEN right around the corner! It is one of my favourite holidays :) I love the crafts and the candy making (trying my hand at caramel apples for the first time this year. Pretty excited! Stay tuned to find out how they went!) I have never decorated my home for any holiday save Christmas. So I figured as a Stampin' Up! demo what a great time to start :) I had some mini plants that the kids had brought home the past two springs in a row. They were placed in small terra cotta planters that I found at a department store and set lovingly on my kitchen window sill. Then, when I remembered to water them and prune them, they'd grow beautifully, climbing up the window in soft blooms. Then me, being me, forgot to water them. A lot. So yea, needless to say, I had a bunch of smaller pots and nothing to do with them.

Until now! I have been enjoying making pot crafts with flower pot favours, but I didn't want to put candies in these as they had soil in them at one point. I found a really cute decor idea on line so I whipped up these babies!
I painted 2 of the pots black and the middle one orange, then I used 3 of my Kraft Gift Boxes (124106), building them and using sticky strip to adhere them closed. Then I covered them in DSP from the Neutral and Brights DSP Patterns stacks- Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie. I used the Labels Die Cuts to cut out the Very Vanilla labels and added some die cut letters to spell "boo". I then used some Black Tulle and orange ribbon to finish them off.
After painting the flower pots, I added the ribbon around the top of them, and made some rosettes in the Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie DSP, Basic Black Scalloped Circles and then stamped the swirly circle image from the Sweets for the Sweet clear mount set (122512) in Basic Black (it reminded me of "A Nightmare Before Christmas" -very Halloweeny- lol) and then topped it off with a Pumpkin Pie button from my Designer Series Buttons in Brights ((119747). They took me a day to whip together (yanno, along with all the daily distractions) and I loved how they came together. I just set the boxes inside the pots and you could use the pots as centrepieces filled with candy (if you didn't fill it with soil at one point- lol) or use another colour scheme and possibly more pots/boxes to create other words or phrases. Those cute little boxes can be used for so much more on top of Sweetly Packaged treats!



















Some close up images of each pot. I hope you enjoyed!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~