More of the Christmas Cats

Hi Everyone,
I have another bag making class tomorrow over at Stamping Buddies from 1-3. Hope you can make it if you live in the Greater Cincinnati area.

A few days ago I posted the reindeer cats and I mentioned that the cats have another get up as well and I said "wait til you see the other get up I picked up for them". Well here it is,

It's Santa Coco 

Here is Santa Buddie

Yep,these are two of the Santa cats that help out each year with the gift giving here at my house.

Here is the hat and beard 

without a cat being coerced into wearing this get up. LOL

Well I just had to bring a smile to your faces today.

Have a great weekend and I will see you soon.

More from the Christmas Party

Hi Everyone,
My last post showed off the tags I received in the tag exchange. I received a different tag from each of the ladies in the club. Now I want to show you the card I made and swapped and the the card I received.

This is the card I made and swapped. Here is the card front

and here is the inside of the card.

I wished that I had used a different color of CS of the front and the back panels.It would have been easier to explain how this is made if I had done that. OK that will be in another post. This card has a funky fold and it is really cleverly made and easy to boot. LOL  I know I say that all the time, but this is easy!!

Now here is the card that I received in the card swap.

This is Trish's card and she used paper scraps for the ornaments and used a tree to make the tree branches. FABULOUS!! This card is gorgeous in person. It really looks busy in the pic but you have to see it to really appreciate the whole card. Those ornaments are embossed in an embossing folder and this photo doesn't pic that up, unfortunately.

All of the cards in the exchange were spectacular. In our monthly exchange we all make a card and then we view all of each others cards, then a different number is assigned to each card and we draw a number and we get to take that persons card. 

Well that's it for now.I have got to finish a few lingering projects. I am working on my submissions for Stampaway 2013. I need to get them done and in the mail soon, or the cut off date will have been here and gone and I will not be teaching a class there next year.

Monthly Club Meeting

Hi Everyone,
Christmas is roaring in ever so much closer and, whew, I am just not ready. I need to purchase a few more gifts and wrap.Wrapping for me is the fun part. I love making bows and I have always loved the wrap part.

Tonight was the annual Christmas party for the stamping club I belong to. We went to dinner and had our annual tag exchange and we also swapped a Christmas card. I will show the card I made and received in my next post. I want to show these cute tags I received tonite. There are 9 of us in club, so we had to make 9 tags, same tags 9 times or nine different tags, it didn't matter. We received one tag from each attending person. One lady was playing Mrs. Claus so she was unable to attend and one of the ladies made 2 sets of tags to give. So I took pic's of the tags I received and the tag I made is in this group of pic's.

This next pic is a little bag of sorts that holds one of those little Hershey bite sized candy bars that sets off my sweet tooth. It is so cute I thought I'd show this off as well.

The group I am in are all talented stampers and paper artists. It's truly amazing what we all make each month. Usually we receive something from a member at the meeting (this is called the challenge, cause sometimes it is a challenge to use it)and the next meeting we have to bring in something we've made using the item(s) we received from at the previous month's meeting. We also each take a turn doing a tutorial of a technique or how to make something, like a wonky folded card, etc. It is so much fun and we all learn something new each month.

Well stop back Thursday for the card I made and swapped and the card I received.

Thanks for stopping in today (BTW, Santa in the signature below is backtracking LOL)

Make a Bag, Lady

Hi Everyone
Boy I have been busy this whole weekend, getting cards ready for some upcoming classes. Since I was done early tonite, (anything around 11:00 p.m. or earlier is early for me), I decided to make this bag sample for my Make  A Bag, Lady classes  on Thursday and Saturday at 1:00 p.m. over at Stamping Buddies.  This bag is a quick project and the class is just  $5.00, that's a bargain!!!

I just had to make this cute bag topper to add to the bag and its easy to do with out any dies. Really adds to the bag doesn't it!!

 Front View

Side View

If you book a seat for this class just bring:
 2 pieces of matching 12" x 12" paper for each bag you want to make,

Large scoring board (Scor-Pal or Martha's)

1/8" & 1/2" - 1" double sided tape (red line tape, scor-tape or if you don't have any, Stamping Buddies carries Xpress Blend dbl sided tapes from 1/8" - 1/2". Very reasonably priced & they work great.)

Any of your favorite punches that will make fancy edges on your paper.

A pair of scissors.

Any embellishments you might want to decorate your bag with!

Please RSVP at 513-891-CRFT or send an email to: stampingbuddies@fuse.net

I will have extra score boards if you don't have one. Pam has some very pretty ribbon available to purchase for your handles if you need ribbon. Don't have the paper you want to use for your bag, don't despair, Pam has that as well, gorgeous papers.

I would love to see you in this quick and easy class.You will find you will use this easy technique whenever you need a bag quick and maybe you want it to match it to that card you've made or whatever. 

Hope to see you Thursday or Saturday.And have a great week!!

Reindeer Cats

Hi Everyone,
I have got to share this with you all. As most of you know I am a huge cat lover!!! I have 4 cats right now, and I am not getting any more. Of course that is what I said after #3 came to stay. LOL  I digress...

Anyhow. One day I am at Target and am on my way to the check out lane and I pass by the pet area and this thing catches my eye and I stop. What is it??? Well its antlers for your cat. And if you are a cat owner you know they hate hats and anything to do with items being put on their head, .............usually.

So I make a comment to a lady in the pet aisle that this will probably be a waste of my $5.00, we both laugh, I grab one and add it to my purchases and check out and go home.

OK I get home and first cat I try this on is Buddie, the newest addition to the house at the time this pic was taken. Believe it or not, he wasn't too bad with it, so I hurried up and shot this photo.LOL

He does look a little perturbed, and every time I look at these they still crack me up. OK, Buddie was tolerant so next I try these antlers on Coco, she is usually pretty reasonable. 

I bet she is thinking, what does she think she's doing.

OK so here is the last photo, it's Coco next to Lucy (Lucy is actually an offspring of Coco). I've had these 2 for 11 years now.

I am sure Coco is thinking, Why do I get stuck wearing this getup!!??!!

And knowing Lucy, she probably thinks, better you than me. 

Well now you've met 3 of the 4 crazy cats in my house. The 4th and newest addition I have, I've  named Max and she is crippled. She has had a cold for a while and I finally had to take her to the vet, she was so stuffed up she could barely breath, just like us when we get a really bad cold. She is on the mend now, but she has a hard time getting around and she is a young cat. Not sure if she was born this way or if she was mistreated, but she is part of the brood now. Now if Coco and Lucy would just quit hissing and get over the newbies, it would be a great world. LOL

Wait til you see the other get up I picked up for them.If you think this is funny you will really laugh on the next get up. I will try to get those pics taken over the weekend and posted, you will die laughing.

OK Now its time for me to get back to my cards,

See you soon.

Craft-Dee BowZ

Hi Everyone,
I have some great news to share with all of  you!!! I just learned I have made the Design Team for Craft-Dee BowZ. They have an awesome tool that gives all us bow making challenged people, the capability of making beautiful bows.

Most of the bows you have seen on my cards here on my blog, have been made with this awesome tool. It's so easy to use and that's what I like so much, it's easy to use and with a great end result, the bow.

Today I sat down with Pam at Stamping Buddies and worked on a few classes that I will be offering in 2013. One class will be a monthly class that focuses on dies. Oh that is going to be fun. I will still will be doing the monthly $1.00 M and T at the store.This M and T generally falls on the last Saturday of the month, except for this month, no M&T for Dec. The next M and T will be Sat. Jan. 26 and we will be making Valentine cards.There are a few exceptions to the date so check the class schedule listed here on my site.

Tonite, I made a homemade loaf of potato bread, turned out perfect!. Yummy!! The one I made this morning, was not so good. But the birds will be happy! LOL

Well, I will be back soon, I have a few projects that need to be finished. Have a great week.

Merry and Bright

Hi Everyone
Since it is the beginning of the month, it's time for the December Challenge over at Sparkle N Sprinkle. What a great way to win a stamp set of your choice. This month's challenge is based on a sketch and here is the design. Get your card ready and upload it over at the Sparkle N Sprinkle Challenge Blog using the linky button. You just might be the next winner.

Here is my design 

What I have used:

Red Microfine Glitter - Sparkle N Sprimkle Gypsy Red Velvet Glitter

Stamped ornament and verse - Sparkle N Sprinkle set 418 Nesties Ornament

2 styles of ribbon

Charming Circle -Die by A Jillian Vance Design (made by Spellbinders)

Spellbinders Oval - S4-110

Pine Sprigs - Die by Dee's Distinctively

Embossing Folder - Swirls 

Designer Paper 

Red CS

Well as of today there are 22 shopping days til Christmas, but who's counting. Are you ready??? There is still time to get your cards done and out the door.

I guess I better get my gifts wrapped and tagged.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend

Santa's Stocking

Hi Everyone
Pam, who owns Stamping Buddies, gave me an acrylic Christmas Stocking and asked me to decorate it and bring it back in time for the Christmas open house that will take place this Friday evening 6p.m.-9p.m. She is going to display the stockings from the different instructors who teach at her store.

Now, I've had this stocking for a while and it just wasn't speaking to me. Well, I was over at SB over the weekend and Pam asked me again about the stocking... was it done. No!! Not yet. So I come home and it finally came to me. Alcohol ink it!!

I used alcohol ink - cranberry and gold. I then decided to apply the Cloud Nine Velvet Glitter  from Sparkle N Sprinkle to the top of the stocking. Then I needed to add my name so I used the letters from the Sizzix alphabet that I have in my stash.

I added ribbons and well, here is the end result:

Well I am pleased with the finished project. This stocking is one page of a 5 page acrylic album called Christmas Stocking, by Clear Scraps (scroll down about half way to view this album). Ca-ute!!!

Are you busy decorating and shopping, are you taking pictures of all these events. This would make a cute album showcasing the Christmas season, this year.

Well that's it for now. Thanks for stopping in.

It's New

Hi Everyone,
Grab a coffee or tea or a drink of your choice, this is going to be a long post.Hopefully you will think it's worth it. LOL

Remember that new product I mentioned on the last two posts??!!? Well here is the card from the last post.

What did you guess it was?? A die, a punch?? Well if you guessed a punch you are right. The cool thing about this punch is that it punches in a circle. I know, my card has no circle on it. Well I'll get to that a little later in this post.This new tool comes with a chargeable punch(cartridge) and what I call a base and a platform. The platform is what the punch actually sits on. Now as I looked at the design (diamond lace), it dawned on me, triangles, trees, Christmas trees, and wella.... the card above came to be. But let me show you more.

First here is the punch. You see there is a base sitting on a platform (and it slides up and down based on the size circle you want to make), a trun handle on the left side in this photo and a punch design (cartridge)

Here is a closer view of the punch design (cartridge) that I will be working with in this post.

The punch (cartridge) comes with a cover on the bottom and a plate that matches the design on the punch

The plate fits into what I call the base and it's the movable part on the platform. It will come completely off of the platform as well.

 Here is a view of the punch ready to be used

 Notice the numbers on the side of the platform, they correspond to the size of the doily you are making, between 6-12"

 There is another gauge you need to set at the front of the platform. This is used to actually turn the paper when making the doily.The paper turner knows how much space to turn based on the number you dial in, here. So its important to dial in the correct number.

See those 4 round button looking things, they are really strong magnets and hold the punch and the paper to the punch base.These remind me of the magnets on the punch around the page punches.

Well I have the tool set to make a 6" doily. I cut my CS into a 6.6" square. Next, I have to find the center of the paper I am using so I mark the center of the paper with a light mark. I use a pencil and I made it darker here so you could see the mark. Usually my mark us very light. 

 Hope you can see the mark I made

 This is the turning handle. It too comes off the platform and the handle itself is held in place by two strong little button like magnets. The paper/CS is positioned under it and you use this to turn the paper. It is calibrated to coincide with the size of the circle you chose on the front of the base.

 You can see the cross hairs inside the turn handle. You position the cross hairs right over the center mark you've made on your paper/CS.

OK now I have the platform set at 6" circle, the front of the platform is also set at 6" and I have positioned the turn handle over the pencil mark and I have placed the punch on the base. Phew, I'm ready. LOL

 Here is my 1st punch.

 Next I turn the handle one turn.

 After the turn is made you can see that a little bit of the corner of the open part of the punch plate is showing.

 You now put the punch back over the plate and punch again.

 OK, two punched areas are done.

 You continue to punch, remove the punch, turn the paper and place the punch back in place.

 Here is the doily with one punch left to make. See the little bit of the open part of the plate peeking out of each corner. 

 Here is the doily after the last punch is made.A perfect match up!!!

 Here it is after the surrounding CS is removed.

Here is a close up of the finished doily.

Well I know you are probably wondering what else you can do with this new tool. If you are a card maker like me, you are probably thinking these doilies/circles are going to be too big for a card. Well you might be right about that. However I have been trying a few things and here is what I have found that can be done.Also in doing this I came up with that tree design I made on the card at the beginning of the post, today.

OK lets take the punch base off the platform.(it comes off easily and goes back on really easy as well)

 Don't forget those magnets are there and will hold the punch to the base and will hold the paper between the two.

 When I make a border I like to use a reference to make sure my paper is straight, etc.

I line up my CS with the top of the punch base.

 Since this tool was not designed to make a border and move the paper like it does when making the doilies, you will need to slide the CS over, manually. In this example I wanted the bottom of my punched image to be overlapping a smidgen, so you can see that I lined up the edge so you can just see that open part of the punch plate in the corner of the triangle.

Here is the border I made after punching the Diamond Lace 4 times. 

Here is another way using the Diamond Lace punch(cartridge). I make my first punch, next, instead of just sliding the CS over, I flip the CS and line up the punched image with the top of the base. I leave a little space between the punch design on the base and the punched out portion of the CS. I continue to punch and flip, til I run out of room.

Here is this finished design.

OK One more thought I came up with, remember the punch base comes off the platform completely, so what do you get if you put it on backwards?? Well you no longer have the ability to choose the size of the circle using that gauge on the side of the platform. And, I just left the gauge in the front of the platform at 6" so it will  turn the CS in the increments that will work with this size paper I am using. I marked the center of the CS and I am using an 8.5" X 11" sheet of CS. I lined the handle up with my center mark and made my first punch. I continued punching around the whole page as I did before and when I got done, here is what the center looked like. Hmm....

But here is the area surrounding that center cut out. Now this is pretty cool looking. Great if you are doing a scrapbook page and want the center only cut out.

 (Sorry this pic is blurry)

I have a few other things(tricks) up my sleeve using this cool new tool but they will be coming up in future posts, so stay tuned for those. 

And if you didn't know by now, this is a new tool coming out after the 1st of the year, It's the Martha Stewart Circle Edge Starter kit.and its by EK Success. They really make great punches, in my estimation.

Additional cartridges(punches) will be coming out as well. Today I just showed you the Diamond Lace cartridge. I have two more cartridges, so I will be using those when I show what else I've come up with.

Here is a little info about this kit I have.

Martha Stewart Crafts Circle Edge Punch and Cartridges Kit . Quickly and easily punch perfect circles with decorative edges for round placemats, delicate doilies and curved coasters. Add ribbons, stamps or glitter for a truly tubular treat. 

What You Get (I got this in my kit)

Circle Edge Punch Starter Set    - Circle edge punch base    - Rotating knob    - Eyelet doily punch cartridge    - Punch cartridge sleeve    - Instruction insert Circle Edge Punch Cartridge - Flower Arches Circle Edge Punch Cartridge - Diamond Lace

Martha Stewart Crafts Circle Edge Punch and Cartridges Kit Features 

Punch continuous die-cut circle borders in 7 sizes out of paper up to 12" square Creates 5-1/2" to 11-1/2" circles Trims paper while punching so there's no need to cut the paper first Other design cartridges sold separately Punch base measures approx 11-1/2"L x 4"W x 2"H Cartridges measures approx 3-1/2"L x 3"W x 2-1/2"H I know I mentioned this was a long post. I do hope you found this fascinating and worth your time.  See you soon,