Post Valentine Kisses

What a weekend! I know down in the States my American friends just celebrated their Presidents day and up here in the frozen north of Alberta (though it's been strangely mild this February. I don't trust it) we celebrated Family Day. The idea is to go no-tech and enjoy each other's company, and while I DO love my hubs and kids, we're not very out doorsy/large groups of people-people. So we stayed tucked in and had pizza and a movie night. Then being as the kids had Friday off for in service day those lucky ducks had an extended weekend and momma hadn't had time to blog Valentine's treats til now.

Have I mentioned that I love pinterest? I was going to go all rustic and start making my own crackers (epic fail) paints (so epic fail) and body cleansers/detoxes (still on the fence). After many fails there I gave up on trying to make my own lotions and face scrub. SCREW IT! says I. I'll just keep the local grocery store in service that way. But that aside, pintrest has some amazing ideas for home renos, refurbishing old items around the house AND baking/crafting :D (my two most favouritest of things! lol) So I got this nifty idea off of there to buy some strawberry wafer cookies (on sale- thank you Save On foods!) and dip them half way into chocolate. So I bought white chocolate melts (can't stand the stuff- good thing too or I would have eaten all the kids treats) and some Valentine's sprinkles. I wanted to do Inking Idaho's purse tutorial but it was too small for what I had in mind so mine just became a bag topper. I got to use my new Sale A Bration goodies (just over a month left!!!!!!! make sure you get your parties in folks!) and my Hearts a Flutter bundle stamps and dies.

 So I used my Top Note die and turned and scored it length ways instead of width ways, used 4x6 cellophane baggies which fit 3 dipped bars nicely. I used the small heart found in the Create A Cupcake stamp set. I also got to use my brand new That's the Ticket Stamp set and duo ticket punch :) A cute versatile little set. You can also get the Take A Ticket Stampin' Around wheel for the punch. The tickets on it ARE a bit smaller than the punch, but you can still punch the center out and have a cute little ticket :)

Now, for the past few years I have also made a
Valentine's treat for my kiddos. You will notice that there are only 3- that's because Mat is 3 and wouldn't care (don't worry! He DID get candy too! lol). I used 4 of Stampin' Up!'s 1x8 cellophane bags and put M&M's in them. 2 bags of candy filled 4 cellophane bags. Being as they are 8 inches I then trimmed 1/2-1/4 inch off the side of a standard sheet of cardstock. So the cardstock is trimmed to 8x10 inches. I scored each side length wise at 3 and 3.5 inches so I have a half inch rise on both sides. The flaps on both sides don't meet in the middle perfectly, there is a bit of an overlap, and I used this to my advantage. Now I wanted to use my Hearts a Flutter die to cut those window hearts out, but my paper was too big to feed through my Big Shot so I cheated and used another punch. If you can figure out how to feed a larger piece of paper through the Big Shot without scrunching the paper up, I'm all ears ;) . So I created a back ground with a retired So Swirly Jumbo Wheel and then various hearts from my stamp sets. I layered some coordinating cardstock and DSP and then made some belly bands. I grabbed some ribbon I had laying around and made the strands super long so I could use some cut-out hearts and layer them with dimensionals and added a wooden button in the center of them. I used my Fabulous Phrases stamp set, along with that same little heart, and my 1 inch circle punch and the coordinating 1 1/4 scalloped circle punch found in the Spring Catalogue.
The kids loved them and I had a blast making them over coffee with a friend.

Well that's it for me for today. Thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~

Sweet Grandma Valentine's

Okay- I guess I don't celebrate Valentine's with my grandmother ;) but with the new installment of lace and doilies and silver trinkets for embellishments in the new Spring Catalogue, it seems that they were inspired by my Grandmother's own old china cabinet.

They are classic and elegant and, a lot of fun! I would highly recommend getting the Artisan Embellishment Kit (129328) ...or two- for scrapbooks, cards or any project you may have your eye on. It coordinates wonderfully with the More Amore DSP (129309). I have now also decided that I LOVE the idea of using sales tickets type embellishments after using the cute LOVE ones in the Artisan kit. So needless to say, my Stampers 10 order for this month will include the Ticket Punch duo as well as the really versatile "That's the Ticket" stamp set (128075 c 128072 w). I am eager to play with it!

Along with the Artisan kit and Amore DSP- I grabbed the super cute Ciao Bella stamp set in clear. It's amazingly cute and coordinates with the 7/8 Scalloped Circle punch (THIS IS NEW! Lol- this is NOT the 1 1/2 inch scalloped circle punch that I mistakenly got. Ah well- it'll have it's use!) and the NEW Petite Curly Label punch from our Sale A Bration Flyer. Trust me- you have to have it ;)

Another thing with the Artisan Kit- the ribbons and lace come wrapped on these cute little heart cardstock pieces. Why not hold onto them and utilize them in your projects? I cut phrase off of one of the pieces of DSP and used it as my sentiment, and trimmed the stems off my paper roses. They needed a few glue dots- but they went nicely onto this easel card. With the colours and lace it really reminded me of elegant older ladies. I added the doily that came with the kit (get extras to make more cards or other fun projects from the new Spring Catalogue- Paper Doilies 129399)

There is so much good stuff in this season's mini that I can't wait to get more presents in and show you even more. Have a few friends over and host a party and get some of the amazing products from the Sale-a-Bration flyer- there is so much there that it'll be hard to chose just one!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~

New Spring Catalogue Is HERE!

And how excited am I?
Oh- I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Holiday- sorry, I was really busy with my other little business- making cards and gifts that I unfortunately didn't have time to blog (new years resolution perhaps? We'll see- it's been my resolution for the past few years now).

So new Spring Catalogue- just the word spring is making me yearn for longer days and sunshine. Up here in Northern Alberta we've had the snow come with vengence and stick around til- well- now. It's not that great around Hallowe'en (we usually get a bit of snow- but not this much), but we get enough for a beautiful white Christmas, then come January winter comes full force and leaves completely in about May sometime. I hope being as we had winter early we get spring early. 
Spring.... ahhh, :) Well until the grass starts peeking up, we can play with spring themes and colours in the 2013 Spring Catalogue- make sure to check out the link on the right! SO many neat ideas. Those crafter folks up at SU! headquarters brought back product bundling to save you money (to buy more products :D ), as well as brought in neat Embellishment packs and new innovative products. The one I want to get my grubby paws on is the cross stitch card kit. How fun would that be? I hope it's a hit as I think it's really a cool concept.

Now, would it even BE a Stampin' Up! Catalogue release without some sort of deal? I think not :D

Dates: January 3-21, 2013 Details: During the My Little Valentine promotion, your customers will get the Sealed with Love Simply Sent Kit FREE-a $9.95 value-when they purchase the brand-new My Little Valentine Set. This four-piece set was created exclusively for this promotion and will not be available again after January 21!

The My Little Valentine Stamp Set is only available in clear-mount.

Buy one of the following:

Item	Description	Price
132242	My Little Valentine (English; clear-mount)	$11.95
132245	Enamorados (Spanish; clear-mount)	$11.95
132248	Mon petit amour (French; clear-mount)	$11.95

Get this FREE:

Page	Publication	Item	Description	Retail Value
35	holiday catalogue	126923	Sealed with Love Simply Sent	$9.95

So here's Stampin' Up!'s deal for the new Catalogue- how neat is that? Bundle it up with the Hearts a Flutter Bundle on page 11 and you, my friend, are SET for Valentine goodies for your friends and family alike (or the famous class treats for the kiddos!) Plus, reading the print this promotion is only good until the 21st. After that it's gone for good- for such a great deal PLUS a free goodie- it's worth it ;)


Well, that is it for me. I'm back into the grind after a hectic holiday (in a good way) and the house all cleaned and back to pre-Christmas order, I can huddle in my corner of paradise and put these sweet new products into use!

Thanks for stopping by,
~Brandie~