Halloween Fun!

For some reason blogger wouldn't let me save and publish yesterday, so here we go today.
Yesterday was so much fun! I tried my hand at making costumes for the kids for the first time ever. It was more expensive for Lexie's, but there was a lot of detail in her Mad Hatter inspired costume:

I had made the Gaga inspired hat a few years ago. Those were our colour choices for this ensemble. What started out as a white oxford shirt got dyed Pretty Ink Pink with Stampin' Up! reinker (WHO'D A THUNK IT! lol!) I poured a half a bottle in a bowl full of cold water and soaked the shirt in it. I added some Calypso Coral to make it a deeper colours as I had no Melon Mambo (which would have been PERFECT!) but it was more light pink and we made it work ;) I do NOT sew, but I stitched a few darts in the back to make this small ladies top fit my junior youth more snuggly. I then found some fabric flowers and glued them along the button holes and cut 1/3 of the sleeves off, stitched them up and added some black lace. Then we added some ghastly make up and some trinkets we found with the gloves and leggings at Claires in the mall :) If you look closely, that's even Silver Dazzling Details swirled on the corner of her eyes ;) lol



Bella was easier. A kitty. She just wanted to be a kitty. But not ANY kitty- no, kitty soft paws. But not the Killy Softpaws from the Dreamworks franchise, the kitty softpaws who belongs to our neighbours and her best friend-lol. Do you know how hard it is to find a cat costume for someone who isn't a toddler? Hard- that's how hard! lol. So we bought a black shirt, white mittens, cat makeup and ears/tail combo. She's  a pretty kitty if I do say so myself!

Then there was my little mister! He wanted to be Lloyd Garmadon, the green ninja off of Ninjago (such a cute series! I don't think I'll ever out grow cartoons- lol!) And I didn't know where to buy one- so before I went costume shopping, a friend had posted costumes she made for her boys. They wanted to be lego characters and she used a cardboard box and created the look. Now, hers were AWESOME and she even used old helmets and duct tape and created lego heads, which I wasn't able to do :(, but I found the tutorial on line and bought a big box from Home Depot and cut out the pieces. Used duct tape to tape them together and spray painted them green.I used a black sharpie and white paint to detail it- and then some Basic Grey cut into a long hexagon for his belt.

My Thomas the Train obsessed toddler had his brother's old Thomas costume from when Gabe was obsessed with Thomas! I did get Mat a James costume as that's HIS favourite- but he went as Thomas last night. It was so cold and snowy up here in Northern Alberta that all these costumes were stuffed over winter jackets, toques and mitts- and this little guy only went down the street to grandmas. This photo wasn't even Halloween- lol. I only put his costume on over his suit :P But at least I got a good one of him in his costume for pictures :)









NOW putting my crafty skills to work for paper crafting Halloween fun- I used Stampin' Up!'s Stocking Bigz die to create witches boots. I wanted this die since last year, but didn't get it til now. I made a beautiful Christmas stocking (will show later! lol) and then I wondered what to do with it for Halloween- how to make it witchy.... WELL someone else on the SU! team had the same idea and created a wonderful tutorial that I picked up and tried out. I made 2 on each side and put a 2.5.2.5x4 inch box between them to make a cutsie container:

I used a variety of products that I had laying around in my sewing notions draw from old rick rack and lace to ribbon sliders- but most everything else is Stampin' Up! I had the Confetti stamp set that I stamped randomly on the bottom of the one boot in Versamark and embossed silver. Before that I used my Stampin' Around wheel to stamp black swirls on the Basic Grey boot and high lighted it with Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry strips of inked cardstock and DSP. I LOVED the Pumpkin Pie and Basic Black boot! I used the 1/2 Basic Grey stripped satin ribbon and a ribbon slider to create an old school buckle, my Spiderweb embossing folder and Basic Rhinestones for a bit of bling :) I created tags using the retired batty for you and filled the boots with cake pops that didn't quite make it to the kids' Halloween school parties :( (I have GOT to start giving myself more time!)

Another witches boot! Didn't turn out quite like I hoped- it was Basic Black- but when I embossed it with the Stripped embossing folder and dabbed shimmer paint on it, it turned a silvery grey. Ah well :) It was well received!

 A few more pics of the boots by themselves :) A good thing I didn't send the cake pops though! I found out one little guy has a nut allergy in my son's class- and the pumpkin pops used nutmeg- which I heard isn't good for someone with a nut allergy. Better safe than sorry! Gunna try the pops again for Christmas ;) This time Chocolate and Peppermint :) Stay tuned for Christmas goodies during the coming weeks!

Thanks for stopping by!
~Brandie~

Christmas in October

Good afternoon Stampers and happy fall! Outside it's overcast and dreary, but really appropriate for getting into a spooky Halloween mood- but more on that later ;)
We all know in any retail industry, whether clothing or stamping, we're always a few months ahead to say the least. Back to School hadn't even happened yet before the stores were bombarded with Halloween decor and items. So it makes sense with a mere 12? 13? weeks until Christmas that Stampin' Up! would want to give their customers their gifts a wee bit early.

So the promotion for October is their Christmas Gift to you! I am sure you've seen the beautifully paper crafted ornaments on line and especially on the cover of Stampin' Up!'s 2012 Holiday Catalogue. They are beautiful and ornate and LOOK harder than they are I am sure- especially when using the featured SU! products- the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set and Holiday Ornaments Framelits dies. Not only can you buy them bundled together and save 15% off the retail price, but for the month of October, SU! has bundled the beautiful Candlelight Christmas DSP in as well for you. And if you buy this bundle (either with or without the dies- but seriously- the dies are a MUST in creating some of the beautiful designs available to you!) Stampin' Up! wants to give you the Festive Paper Piercing Pack FREE for buying the bundle! And as warm and comforting as Christmas itself this set can be, all of SU!'s products are so versatile- so this beauty can be worked and reworked to create ornaments for ANY time of the year. It's quite a gift and available for this month only!

Now, being as we have spoke Christmas- lets not forget that in 30 short days, little ghouls and ghosts and goblins will be flocking the streets and halls of schools and malls. Keep the festivities alive by trying out the Ghoulish Googlies Bundle?  The Stamp Set is super sweet and makes the monsters not-so-scary cute- along with the Googly eyes that I can't take my eyes off of! Bundle it with the Ghoulish Googlies Designer Printed Kit and you have customized creations for the creatures in class, the neighbourhood or at the party.
What I did my MY little ghouls is a first for me. I stepped out of the girly garden of flowers and butterflies and pink (yanno, my comfort zone) and tried my hand at ghastly vintage:

These were so much fun to make and really easy to put together once I thought out of the box for myself and just started creating. I loved the Linen Thread and how rustic it looks. I also took my scissors and shredded the edges of the tags, then took a sanding block to them for a roughed look. Embossing folders, ribbon and wooden buttons finished off various tags and would be perfect adorning the closure of candy apples or pumpkin cake pops or even just treat bags.

Well, that's it for me for now- thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~

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~

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~

Creating Paper Flowers

I've seen some video tutorials of how to make these absolutely adorable paper flowers that can be used for anything from home decor to cards to pages and jewellery, so I thought I'd give it a go myself!

Now- mine is a 2 part tutorial. In order to make the flowers, you can use water OR Smooch Spritz. Smooch spritz is amazing and can be used in so many ways, but the colour is limited. Stampin' Up sells everything you need to create your own coloured smooch spritzes. You'll need:

*New! Stampin' Spritzer- 126185
Shimmer Paint (I used Frost White) 116854
Stampin' Re-inkers (Rich Razzleberry shown) 115664
Water (free! lol)

These spritzers are amazing! You can forgo the shimmer paint and just make a coloured spritzer. I added way too much shimmer paint in mine ;) You can add less- just a few drops of re-inker and shimmer paint, (depending on the intensity you want- start small), add water and shake it up! Make sure you leave room at the top to add more if you want, and to close your spritzer. You'll have to shake between uses as well. Being as I added too much shimmer, I was able to add more water after I used some already and make it go longer. Another cool thing about the spritzers, is that you get TWO in a package! You can use it to splatter die whisper white ribbon, mask images and create a background. So I made myself some personalized smooch spritz and used it to create my own flowers.

 Okay- first you're going to need to cut out some flower shapes. You can use your dies with the Big Shot, or some punches. You can use the same flower over and over, or you can use different shapes and types of flowers for a different dynamic.

 I cut 6 flowers out of Whisper White cardstock, and then I inked the edges (this is important if you're using plain water and want some colour on your flowers- I didn't really need to do this step as I used my Rich Razzleberry smooch spritzer I made earlier).

 Next, add liquid. You can do this by spraying your flowers with the Smooch Spritz, personalized spritzer or plain water (as you can see- mine turned out really silvery- too much Glimmer Mist in my mix!)

 After the flowers are wet enough (not TOO wet though! be careful!) pinch/crumple them up. I start at the outter centre and crumpled them inwards.

 Uncrumple them. Make sure you have a protective mat and paper piercer. I used the Paper-Piercing Tool (126189) and the Stampin' Pierce Mat (126199) (note- these are handy to have beyond using them for this project. Check out the Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack in the Annual catalogue- great way to accentuate various SU! punches and dies!)

 Layer your crumpled flowers on top of each other. You can have them perfectly layered, or of set them.

 Using your tool, pierce through all the flowers at once.

 Be careful!

 Once you've pierced them, add a brad (I used a Glimmer brad in the 2012 In Colours). I also used some Vanilla Smooch Sprtiz to re-wet my flower so I could squish the flowers inward.

 Squishing the petals inwards create a different shape. Play with it til you get the desired effect. You could make it more 3D, and once the flower dries- it'll be sturdy for whatever project you'd like. You could also sponge some ink on it here if you'd like.

Lay the petals flatter if you're putting your creation on a card or scrapbook page.

use your flower to accent your creations. I made a simple card so the flower could be the focal point. I've made a few other flowers and these are so much fun and so elegant. They look like the expensive pre-made ones, but are quick, easy and can be customized for whatever project you're doing! Try them, they're addictive!


Thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~

Pretty Pennants

Hi!
After making so many rosette banners, I got an order for something using "upside down triangles" (non craft speak for pennants). I wasn't too sure how to make a banner out of them, for my beautiful photographer friend who needed them for her studio, and I don't have the die. She also wanted them BIG, so unfortunately the Stampin' Up die wouldn't work. It's gorgeous, I wants it! but it's not as big as she was looking for. I also didn't have much inspiration as I had never made them before (save the mini ones using the Pennant Parade stamp set and XL punch). I really didn't know where to start. As I searched Pinterest and Splitcoaststampers, I found some nice ones- but they weren't what I was looking for. So after a while of thinking, parusing the internet and prayer for inspiration I finally whipped up these:

 

She wanted an "It's a Boy" and "It's a Girl" banner for her studio for the new baby pics :) I really did enjoy making these after I was inspired. I cut basic triangles instead of specific pennant ones, and the using my Scalloped Border punch, created a bunch of scalloped strips and stratigicly placed them behind the triangles. Then I was stuck again :/ I didn't know how to punch up a pennant! After playing around with ink colours and stamps, I used a couple of retired SU! jumbo wheels and created a smaller Whisper White triangle and rolled the stamped image over them. Then I cut large scalloped circles and alternated the colours with the triangles. For the boys banner I used Pool Party, Lucky Limeade and Basic Grey. I love that combo (you know, you know) but the font I printed out really made it stand out that much more and works so well. I am in love with the boy's one! Then I got to make some more rosettes (YAY!) and layered them with scallops and a couple of Certainly Celery and Old Olive buttons from my collection. I strung some sheer thick ribbon through the back to connect each triangle and then added some strips of retired Whisper White grossgrain ribbon for a bit of flair. Here's a close- up of the boy's one: 

 The girl's banner I used Perfect Plum, Pretty in Pink and Basic Black. The colours went really well together, but the extra patterned paper I had laying around for the rosettes didn't really do it justice. I wasn't as happy with it. But it still had the same idea as the boys, and a more flirty font.

These were actually so much fun to make once I got the inspiration down pat. I definately can't wait to get a hold of the new products from the Stampin' Up! Occasions catalogue to create more of these for the upcoming holidays! So stay tuned and see what else we can do with these fabulous pennants!






~Brandie~

Occasion Mini and Demonstrator News

Summer is flying by and with it each day is quickly behind me. Not that I mind being busy, but the days are so filled with children and kid-related stuff that crafting and blogging can be non-exsistent at times. Which is sad as I have tons of projects and quite miss blogging. But, for me and my kids anyways, there are 4 and a half short weeks before school starts up again. And with that comes family birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am so glad that Stampin' Up! has started putting their Occasions Catalogue out a full month early. What a great way to pass those rainy summer days by getting a head start on holiday crafting!
To get a peek at the new catalogue, click the link on the side bar. I can't wait to get my grubby mitts on some of the new products and begin showing the amazing things you can create too!

The next bit of August news if for all people signing up to become Demonstrators during this month. It's a great time to sign up anytime, but right before the holidays is perfect as you have a chance to get these amazing products at a discount and can show your friends, co-works, neighbours, kids friend's parents and more different holiday themed projects to get them excited and introduce them to the wonders of Stampin' Up! By signing up in August, you get this FREE Spooktacular Kit. It is super cute and full of possibilities!

As I had mentioned when the Annual Catalogue came out in June, it's was $215 (cnd) to sign up and now it's only $125- for up to $155 worth of products- your choice- plus $70 worth of business materials to get your business started. There is so much much much more to be excited about, about being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator- so why not leave a message and I can let you know in person the wonderful opportunity you get just by joining my team.

Now- it's been a while- so I will keep with my Stampin' Up! theme by posting this SU! only project:

I had a lot of fun creating this card. I created my own background by sponging colours on top of each other on bare Whisper White Cardstock. I didn't want to take away from the focal point of the card. So by sponging Calypso Coral and Pretty in Pink with the Stampin' Sponges, I made a marbley type bacground, and just added a strip of Pretty In Pink stamped randomly with the Bordering on Romance Stamp Set. Then I created a layered mat for my stamped image and stamped the main flower from the stamp set 3 times. I coloured each image, and then cut out different pieces. Then using my Stampin' Dimensionals, I created a 3D effect by layering each smaller piece on the previous piece. After I stamped my sentiment with Curly Cute and matted it, I just adhered them opposite each other on this gatefold card and voila! Simple yet effective!

I hope you take the time to look at the new products, and stay tuned as my brain is BRIMMING with possibilities! The holidays are truly my favourite time and I will be a crafting mad-woman. Hopefully the houseful of kiddos can make blogging more of a reality too ;) Take care!

~Brandie~