Sketch Challenge LCR120701

Ok, now I'm not normally a sketch person. I don't do sketch challenges and I've never created a sketch until now. I am not one of those famous bloggers you visit daily to see what they made or to get that daily tip. I'm just a plain 'ol stamper trying to have fun with my cyber friends. I just thought it would be fun to try a sketch of my own. I created the card in the previous post and thought it would make a good (easy) sketch for you all to try. So, let's see your work!! If you decide to make a card using this sketch just email me a picture and I'll add it to my blog OR put the link to your card in the comment section of this post. I will give you full credit of course. I'm just curious how many of you do sketch challenges and if it's a thing we should do once a month around here. Let me know what you think. Have a super stampin' day! Lorraine

Time well spent...

Hi all my friends! I made a card to share with you today that is not holiday related. I was really getting tired of the holiday card hustle and was so ready to try a spring card.

I used my new set Time Well Spent from Stampin' Up! This is the set SU! sent ALL of us demonstrators for FREE. It is a Level 3 Hostess set that will be available in the new Spring Summer catalog. You can earn this set when you host a workshop with sales totalling $500 or more. With that you would also get to choose $60 worth of FREE merchandise from the same catalog or any mini catalogs that are current when you place your order. All other supplies are also Stampin' Up! The cardstock is Cameo Coral, Apricot Appeal and Whisper White. I also used the Certainly Celery Prints Designer Series Paper. The ribbon is also Certainly Celery. I used Cameo Coral to color in the flowers on the "Friends" layer and stamp the small flowers on the background. I used Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery and Apricot Appeal Classic Stampin' Pads with the Aqua Painter to watercolor the large flower. The center flower is white and it's from the Pretties Kit. I used our Two Way Glue Pen to add glue to the petals then dipped them in the long retired Wet Lime Stampin' Glitter and added an Ice Circle Rhinestone Brad. I added glitter to the word Friends with the same glue and then added another retired glitter to that which was Vivid Pink. I stamped the flower and words with Staz On Jet Black ink and popped up the Friends saying with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I hope that you are ready for a little spring color as I am and I hope this card adds a little bit of brightness to your winter day! Now, don't get me wrong, I am still very much in the holiday mood just not for stamping. I absolutely LOVE Christmas and all it stands for. I am holding on to the wonderful sights and sounds, happy people and cherished family moments with both hands and my heart. I hope you can hold on to all of these things through the rest of the year as I will do my best to keep them with me also. Happiness and huge hugs to you all. Thank you so very much for continuing to come back to see me and if there's anything you ever need, please don't hesitate to ask! Lorraine

Preschool Teacher Cards

Here are the cards I made for my Son's preschool teachers. The snowflake is from Wal Mart. The paper is SU!'s Designer Series Prints and Whisper White. The flowers are from Prima and the Rhinestone is SU! The sentiment is from the Season of Joy set. The ribbon is SU!'s White Satin. The Oval punch is the large one from SU! and the ink is also SU!'s Lovely Lilac, Certainly Celery and Purely Pomegranate. Huge Holiday Hugs to you all!

Merry & Bright

This is a TOTAL CASE from Kristina Werner. It's not as perfect as Kristina's but I think it turned out ok. I used all Stampin' Up! products except the color on the flower and the thumbtack in the middle of the flower. I colored the flower with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Candy Apple Red. It has a gold shimmer to it. Very pretty in real life. The white center is just a thumbtack that I punched through the chipboard flower and bent the tack over and attached to the card with a glue dot. The paper is Designer Prints Certainly Celery and the cardstock is SU!'s Creamy Caramel and Wild Wasabi. The alphabet stamps are Big Timber Dots from Technique Tuesday. These are the first acrylic stamps I've ever bought and I really like them!! I used the white gel pen from SU! for the "bright". If you'd like to see Kristina's original card AND full video tutorial click here: Kristina Werner Now don't compare my work to Kristina's, please. Her work is absolutely OUTSTANDING!! If I had enough time I'd be casing Kristina's work all day!! :0) She's my total Stampin' Heroin! You'll see when you check out her blog!

Any way, I hope you like my version and I hope you all have a super fun day! Lorraine

RAK from Cristina Wright

What a wonderful day for mail!!! WOO HOO!! I got a RAK from Cristina Wright! What a talented lady Cristina is. This card is absolutely PERFECT! Not one smudge or mistake anywhere!!! Most of my cards have smudges (hidden of course) or the image isn't stamped just right but not this card. It's a beauty! I don't know how you knew Groovy Guava was my favorite color Cristina but THANK YOU so very much!! This card just made my day. Notice the little "bling" on the flowers too. It makes me so happy when I see glitter. How can you be sad when you see something so pretty and sparkly too!! If you want to see more of Cristina's beautiful creations check out her blog: Cristina Wright Oh, and don't forget to read all about her darling family too! I really enjoyed reading all about Cristina's life. Thanks for sharing with us Cristina and MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL! Lorraine

Apron

My friend Tracy asked me to help her out while making this apron for a Secret Santa Christmas gift. Isn't it the cutest apron ever!! I think it turned out perfect! Tracy picked the colors she wanted to use and because she didn't know if it was going to a man or a woman we kept it gender neutral. Tracy also picked out the stamps she wanted to use. I think she did a fantastic job! Tracy isn't a big stamper (I'm working on that) but I think she's a natural! Didn't she do a great job on this! She wanted to kep it simple and I totally agree. Any more and it would have been too much! Now, I did take some cute pictures of Tracy but for some reason my Photoshop couldn't read any of the files except this one. If I can get Tracy to pose for me again I'll try to get one of her beautiful face. She really is cute! What a great idea for a teacher, a chef, a Dad that bbq's, a neighbor, anyone really! Have a great day and thanks for stopping by to see me. Lorraine

Lydia's T-Shirt Birthday Party

I was asked by a friend to help out with making some stamped t-shirts for her daughter's 9 year birthday party. Of course I said yes!!! What fun, working with a bunch of 9 year old girls for the day! Ok, if you don't understand why, it's because I'm with boys all day, every day. My wonderful hubby and my most amazing little boy. I absolutely love being with them but it's so nice to hang out with girls sometimes. I had the most fun with these girls. They were all very talented (as you can see below) and so well behaved! All I did was bring some stamps and watch as the girls created their masterpeices! I was there to help clean the stamps and brushes as they worked so intently. Just look at the wonderful job each girl did!! Thank you so much Tara and Lydia for inviting me out for a fun "GIRL" day! Love ya, Lorraine

Tin Ornaments Preschool

These are the ornaments we made in my son's preschool class. YES, these were all made by 4 year olds!! (We even had a 2 year old make one!!)I can't believe how talented and creative these kids are. If you look closely you'll see they aren't all Christmas images. There are hearts, flowers, a birthday cake, and even a hedgehog!! I took about 12 stamp sets to class, some with Christmas images, some without, and let them choose their image. They stamped the image and the color of their choice. Colored it in if needed, added glue and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Then glued the image inside of the tin, and then added the snowflake glitter. I had another Mom (Hi Tracy, thanks for being there for me!!) helping out with the ribbon on the outside but that's about it. The kids really did most of the work. It was so much fun. I absolutely love working in my son's class. I think I could be there every day but I need to let go and let my son have some time away from Mommie sometimes. :0) I have one more note here...If you are afraid of letting some 4 year olds use your stamps and pads please think again. These kids are the cleanest and neatest group of stampers I have ever had in my 11+ years as a demonstrator!! I'd let them use my stamps and pads again and again!! Happy Holidays to you all! Lorraine

Christmas Album

Here's a Christmas book I made at a class at Scrapbook U my favorite scrapbook store here in Fremont. The teacher's at Scrapbook U are some of the best teachers I have found. Each one is the most talented and have the most original ideas I have ever seen. If you ever get the chance to take a class at Scrapbook U, I would highly recommend it. This Christmas book was designed by Amber. Isn't she so talented??!!?? I just love this book and I will definitely be adding pictures. I don't usually add pictures to any of the books I make but I've decided I really need to so that my family will have these to cherish some day. I hope you enjoy looking at this book as much as I enjoyed making it. Happy Christmas to you all!! Lorraine

Quilts, Purses & Fabric Cards

A special friend of mine is going to be selling her handmade quilts, purses & fabric cards at a craft show this Saturday, December 8th in Walnut Creek, CA. Kim Butterworth Designs is the name of her company and let me tell you...if you ever wanted a beautiful, very original quilt, you need to go see her this weekend. If you can't make it you can go to her website here...Kim Butterworth...and see all of the gorgeous designs she has for sale. These are the most spectacular quilts, purses and fabric cards I have ever seen. If you love quilts you won't want to miss this sale. Here are the details:

Kim Butterworth Designs

7th Annual Las Lomas Holiday Gift Gala

Showing at:

Las Lamas High School

1460 South Main Street

Walnut Creek, CA 94596

Saturday, December 8th

10:00 am - 4:00 pm

FREE ADMISSION

Ornament Tin

I've had these tins laying around for about a month now so I thought I'd better do something with them. Here's what I created. It's an ornament for our tree. I used the Season of Joy set and stamped the tree in Glorious Green then embossed the whole thing in Irredescent Ice, cut it out and attached it to the red background paper with dimensionals. The red paper is from an old Simply Scrappin' kit that has long since been retired. I added a clear Rhinestone to the top of the tree. The white dots are glue I used to add Diamond Dust. I think they'll dry clear but if they don't the white looks ok too. I added Diamond Dust for the "snow" affect then sealed the tin with Tacky Tape and glued a ribbon around the whole perimeter of the tin for hanging. I will be making something similar for my son's preschool class this Friday. I'll post that when I figure out what we'll be doing. We definitely won't be using Diamond Dust. Instead I'll get some sparkly fake snow somewhere. Hope you are enjoying your Holiday Season and if you don't celebrate the holidays I hope you are enjoying the Winter Season!

RAK from Kathie McGuire

Here's a beautiful card I received from Kathie McGuire today!! This picture just doesn't do this card justice. It's so very pretty in real life! The white branches are embossed, each place the triangles meet on the background piece is paper pierced and it looks like diamonds shining through. The corner punches are just so pretty with all the detail and the green oval piece is stamped with the canvas background. The whole center picture is raised on dimensionals too! Oh, and it's a FULL size card!! That's 8 1/2 X 5 1/2!! Isn't it just beautiful???!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH KATHIE! You just made my day!! You can see more of Kathie's awesome projects on her website: Kathie McGuire

Tumbled Tile Coasters

I found these tiles at Home Depot for $5.50 for 9 of them. I cleaned them with baby wipes (that's what I had on my desk at the time and I hate anything that takes too much time to clean), stamped them with Staz-On pads, added felt dots on the bottoms and voila!! You have coasters!! I think they turned out pretty nice! What do you think?? What other sets do you think would look nice on coasters??

All supplies are Stampin' Up! except the ink and tiles.
The sets I used were Baroque Motifs and Season of Joy. The ribbon is Chocolate Chip Satin and Pomegranate Satin. (both ribbons are still available to purchase through December 15th only!)

Scallop Ornament

Here's a scallop ornament I made really quickly. I just wanted to see this in real life. All you need to do is punch 8 scallops out of your favorite Designer Series Paper (DSP). Stack up all the scallops together and fold to get all the folds the same way. Then just fold each one on that crease you just made and glue them together. Before you glue your last one together, add some wire, ribbon, or cord (doubled) in there then glue it together. Very easy! I added a little glass bead to the bottom of mine just to see how it looked. It's ok. Hope you make hundreds of these for your Christmas tree!! :0)

5 Gifts Under $25

Here are some gifts Santa would love to deliver to you or a friend this Christmas!
Five Fantastic Gifts Under $25
Just in time for holiday gift giving, we're featuring five of our favorite crafting essentials. These items make ideal gifts, and best of all, they're perfectly priced for this season of giving!

Paper Cutter, $24.95
Whether you have a passion for scrapbooking, card making, or paper crafts in general, this portable and lightweight cutter is a must. It cuts paper up to 12" wide and has easy-to-read grid lines. Order this using item number 104152. Stampin' Up!® - Online Catalog - paper cutter

Big Flowers, $22.95
With eight fun images, this stamp set is great for year-round card making and scrapbooking. It also coordinates perfectly with our Circle punches and Little Flowers stamp set. Use this is item number 109405 when ordering. Stampin' Up!® - Online Catalog - Big Flowers

Home Again Simply Scrappin', $19.95
Simply Scrappin' kits make scrapbooking and card making easy and fast. Kits include Designer Series paper, coordinating card stock and self-adhesive die cuts, ensuring your project will coordinate perfectly while saving you time. Order this using item number 109597.

Simple Serif Mini Alphabet & Numbers, $20.95
Alphabet sets are a core product when scrapbooking and card making. This set includes both alphabets and numbers! Order this using item number 109429. Stampin' Up!® - Online Catalog - Home Again Simply Scrappin'

Earth Elements Classic Stampin' Spots, $22.50
These 1" square ink pads are an affordable way to sample all the colors in a color family! Use item number 105551 to order these ink pads. Stampin' Up!® - Online Catalog - shopmain

Be sure to visit our online catalog to see more great gifts!

Stampin' Up! Fall Winter Catalog RETIRED LIST!

Dear Santa, I've been really good this year!
Whether you've been naughty or nice Santa can deliver these stamps before Christmas. You can ask Santa for them yourself or let a loved one know what you would like, have them call or email me and I'll take care of it from there!! I've got a great relationship with Santa and I'm sure he would love to help me make your Christmas special!
You can see the complete list by clicking this link: http://www.stampinup.com/us/documents/US_Retired_List_ALPHA_1207.pdf
Call or email me to order your stamp sets before they're gone!!
510/440-9053
Ltrain26@aol.com

Thanks Mommie!

Here's a card I made for my Mom. She always cooks us (13 of us) Thanksgiving dinner and never complains so I wanted to thank her taking care of us. Thank you my Mommie! I love you! The letters in THANKS are glittered using Heat & Stick and a craft pad and Hot Pink glitter. The flower is also glittered the same way. Thanks for checking in and I hope you all have a wonderful week!