Okay, I am finally ready to show you the project I demonstrated at this weekends Stampinpalooza.

I am a huge sucker for Christmas, and Halloween, heck, all holidays for that matter. And I love all the cheesy traditions that come along with them. One of them being Christmas Crackers.

Years ago my sister used to make crackers and sell them, and they were so much nicer than the ones you could buy. Not to mention that the ones you buy are so much more expensive!

As soon as I saw the Waffle paper in the Holiday Mini I knew how I would use it. And I honestly can’t say that there is a better paper for making crackers! Of course I made a Christmas one, then I had to try a Halloween one (how fun would those be to give out on Halloween night) and then I decided to make a Thanksgiving one too! I LOVE THEM!

Here are some close ups.
Fall using the brown waffle paper, Deck the Halls DSP for the wrapper, the leaf die for the big shot and Autumn Splendor stamp set for the main leaf. I tied this one using the linen thread!

The Halloween one uses black waffle paper, Halloween DSP, Silver Tinsel trim, the new XL Decorative Label punch, the Wicked Cool stamp set, oval punch and the new awesome bat punch. And if you think the bat is sparkly you are right, he is sprayed with Silver foil smootch spritz.

Finally I have the Christmas one. For that I used the Gold Waffle paper, Deck the Halls DSP, Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon and the Bells and Boughs set with a bit of Dazzling Diamonds Glitter!
Wouldn’t these look beautiful on your table? And the best part is that they can be customized for your family. You don’t have to put dollar store junk in them (all though the dollar store does have lots of great stuff). Why not earings for the women, cuff links for the men? Cars for little boys, hair clips for little girls. Or how about a Simply Adorned charm?? The possibilities are endless!! Just make sure you put tags on them so you know who gets each cracker! Plus you could then use them as your name tag! Talk about double duty!

I would love to see what you guys do with this. So I am going to issue a challenge. I would like for you to make your own crackers, for any holiday. I will work on posting a link widgit (update- posted now- see below) so that you can link to your creation here. I will leave the challenge open for a few weeks. I really want to see what each of you makes. I can’t wait to see how you take this concept and make it your own.

Oh, and right now I don’t actually have the cracker part (you know the part that you pull that makes the bang!) but I am told that the craft stores do carry them, just not yet. I am also sourcing out an online retailer. If you know some where you can get them, please post a comment.

You have until Oct. 27th to post your creation!! I can’t wait to see them!!!!!

Happy crackering!!!

Cheers,

I had mentioned that I did a friends wedding decor at the beginning of July. Well, I got some of the pictures from her yesterday and thought I would share them with you. Sometimes it really amazes me what you can do with a little paper.This first picture is of the whole room, if you look closely you will see butterflies on the glasses, signs on the tables and napkin rings. Lets look at those details……..
Here are the butterflies on the glasses. Her colours were orange & Brown so I used a mix of Only Orange, Pumpkin Pie, Dusty Durango and Cameo Coral. The butterflies were cut out with my Beautiful Butterflies die and my Big Shot. I then cut notches in them to fit onto the glasses. The Bride and her bridesmaids wrote everyone’s name on the butterfly for the place cards.The napkin rings were made with the same combination of card stock out of 2 scallop circles. You snip down the scallops on the top one, add a circle to the middle in So Saffron and cover it with Dazzling Diamonds! Voila! The base of the ring is a piece of Chocolate Chip card stock wrapped in White Satin ribbon.
The bride didn’t want her tables numbered so they picked a bunch of Love Songs and gave each table a number. I created the sign in MDS printed it out on Whisper White card stock and mounted it on some Pumpkin Pie. I affixed a butterfly in the top corner from the same card stock colours as the place cards.
The Bride wanted a Sweets buffet for her guests to enjoy. So I was asked to make a sign for that table too, again using MDS and printed on Whisper White card stock.
She also wanted a Branch to decorate her guest book/cake table. I got the branch from my backyard, spray painted it gold. I took a clay pot, painted it orange and filled it with the paper that comes with our Stampin’ Up! shipments. This was perfect for holding the branch once I made a whole in the centre of it with some scissors. I wrapped some White satin ribbon around the top and affixed one of the flowers from the napkin rings. On the branch I added paper roses and more butterflies.
And last but not least was the Seating Chart. I really enjoyed making this! I created it using a combination of MDS, MS Publisher and Photoshop Elements. I then formated it for a 24 x 36 poster size and had my friendly neighbourhood printing shop print and foam core mount it. This was not a cheep option, but well worth it for the final look.

All of these elements were easy to make. It just takes a little time and some creativity. I really enjoyed doing it, and would love to do more in the future.

Cheers,

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are enjoying looking through the new catty! I know I can’t keep my hands off of it. What a great opportunity to book a Private Class with me so that you can earn a bunch of your wish list for FREE. Here is a little guidance for you:

If you want a bunch of stuff…… host a class
If you want a lot of stuff………… join a club
If you want all the stuff…………. be a demo!

Contact me to any of the above things, I know my only choice was to become a demo because I needed to support my “habit”. And oh what a wonderful one it is!

Okay, on to the pictures from Supper Club. The first picture is of the menu I created. I used the “Compliments to the Chef” stamp set after printing out the menu on Whisper White paper. My colour combination for the decor was Lovely Lilac, Tempting Turquoise, Pretty in Pink and Gable Green. I honestly have to say that I am only sad to see a few of the old colours retire and Lovely Lilac & Gable Green are two of them.

This next picture is of the napkin ring. I made a band out of Gable Green and wrapped it in White Satin ribbon (but you can’t see it in this picture-maybe I will post another one tomorrow). I then punched out 2 Scallop circles and cut one on each of the scallops. I then overlapped that on the full scallop. For the centre I punched out a small circle and then glittered it with a 2-way glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds. This was then mounted on the band using a mini glue dot.

The name cards were cut using the Butterflies Die for the Big Shot. I then cut a slit in them so that they could rest on the side of the wine glasses. The names were written on with a Silver Gel Pen. These were sooooo quick and easy.

And here is a picture of my flower arrangements. These were super cheap and easy! The bowls were $2 each at Walmart and the flowers were from my garden. I opted for a low flower arrangement so that people could actually see around them. I love the look of a big vase of flowers in the centre of the table but you always have to move it for dinner.

And finally the whole table set out waiting for the guest to arrive! I can’t wait to do another Supper Club. I wonder how I am going to decorate the table this time. I am dying to do a Halloween dinner!!! I have lots of gruesome ideas for that!!

Cheers,

Well, I guess I lied a bit…. I learned to sew back in Junior High in Home Economics class. We made a pair of sweat pants (I know it was the 80′s). Anyhow, I guess some of my abilities stayed with me, because since I have been making the rag quilt purses, I find I just can’t stop!!!! It’s crazy addictive. Well, I figured if I could make a rag quilt purse, I surely can make a rag quilt. So I popped on over to my FAVORITE quilting store (Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph) and picked up some flannel for my quilt. I cut lots and lots of squares (80 to be exact) with the back side of the quilt all being one pattern and began quilting away! For the inside because I was using flannel I just used another layer of flannel in a plain off white, no quilt batting in this one. And voila! A finished quilt! My first ever!!!!
When it was finished I was just sooooo surprised. I couldn’t believe that I made a quilt, and now I want to set my sights even higher and make a full sized quilt! Yikes! It won’t be right away though, as I have decided to sew all the drapes for my house. Which is a rather momentous task. We have something like 33 openings in our house! Not all of them thankfully require drapery. This second shot of the quilt shows how the back is all one fabric pattern but still made with squares. If you have ever considered making a quilt before I absolutely recommend you that this is the first quilt that you make. You will be so surprised how fast and easy it really is. The Big Shot makes very quick work of fabric. It’s really amazing!

I have been sewing something else as well, not Big Shot related, but I am pretty proud of my work. Stay tuned at a later date for that!

Sewing aside, there are only 2 more days left of the Last Chance List! After July 1st they are gone for good!! Contact me today to order your Last Chance items!

Cheers,

I am not a sewer. I hate sewing. I only sew to make my kids halloween costumes, and even with that I avoid having ever to use a sewing machine. But lately, something has erupted in the Stampin’ Up! universe (yes, we really have our own little universe….). Quilting has become all the rage! And of course I was not very impressed. I was not going to succumb to pressure that other fabulously talented demos were putting me under……. no way…. not me…….. I thumb my nose at stitching on cards and scrapbook pages, I take my clothing to seamstresses for repairs and alterations…… I am was not going to become a quilter.

And then….. something happened. I started watching the blogs of these uber talented Demo’s like Angie Kennedy Juda who shares a step by step video tutorial on making these super cute rag quilt purses. And the coolest part is, that you use my FAVORITE tool the Big Shot to cut out the squares! And did you know that you can cut though 8 layers of fabric at once with the Big Shot?????? You need 19 complete squares to make a purse and I kid you not it didn’t take me more than 30 minutes to cut all the fabric I needed to make 2 purses!! And I am a total newbie, with out all the super cool tools Angie shows!! I had to use Scissors to cut out my fabric before putting it in the Big Shot, scissors, can you believe that!!?!

So with out further ado, my very first, hand-quilted Big Shot rag quilt purse!!

How super cute is that???? Honestly, I have never ever ever quilted before. It was easily one of the easiest crafts I have ever done. And I actually enjoyed myself!! Crazy eh??? Oh and notice that button?? That’s a Baja Breeze corduroy button!! Did you know that Baja Breeze is coming back??? Look for it again in the upcoming 2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalogue! I really did have fun making my purse. And now that I know how extra versatile my Big Shot is, look for more fabric projects in the future. My mind is racing with all the possibilities.

I will have my purse on display at my Open House on May 30th. I might even have a demo going on showing how they are made. If you are free on Sunday, May 30th and want to come and see my new place RSVP as space is limited!

Cheers,