CASING QBEE

I came across this cute card and tutorial created by Brenda Quintana and knew right then and there that I had to try it out for myself.  I must say that the process is a little time consuming but the end result is worth it.

This card has very little stamping, but is filled to the brim with punch art.  Every now and then I like to change things up and break out those punches.  Isn't it amazing the beautiful art you can produce from punches?

If you've been following my blog you know that I am trying to mail out more of my handmade cards.  This card is no exception.  I mailed it to my friend's, Kim's, mother whose lung cancer has spread to her liver.  What's worse is that Kim's mother, Roxanne, suffered a stroke on top of everything else a few weeks ago.  She is making some progress in regaining her strength.  However, her chemotherapy treatments have been put on hold for now.  I have to say after I sent Roxanne this card, I felt really good that I actually followed through with putting the card in the mail.  Imagine my suprise a few days later when I received a thank you card from Roxanne.  Her words of gratitude brought me to tears.  She said she remembered me from Kim's and my college graduation.  That was in 1992!

Sorry for the long post.  If you stayed with this post to the end you deserve a prize!  Thanks for peeking in on me today!

ETA:  I scheduled this post a little over a week ago.  I am sad to say that my dear friend's mom, Roxanne, lost her battle to cancer on Tuesday morning.  Please keep my friend, Kim, and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

EAT YOUR VEGGIES

I made these cute little Easter treats for my piano students using the Petal Cone die and my trusty Big Shot machine.  Oh, how I love that machine.

I try to make my piano students some kind of little treat during the holidays  just to let them know that I'm proud of their hard work.  I filled these carrots up with mini candy bars and fun size packets of Skittles.  These little treats came together very quickly.

Thanks for peeking in on me today!  Hope your week is going great!

HERE COMES PETER COTTONTAIL

This cute little basket is a project that was made in last month's class.  My basket was filled with little paper crinkly thingies, but I gave them to one of the gents in my class.  Yes, you read it right.  I had a young gentleman in my class last month.  He was so sweet.  I had dishes of jellybeans on my table for my guests munching enjoyment.  This young man took some of the jellybeans and put them in his basket because he wanted to give his basket to his little sister.  I gave him the filling out of my basket so his jellybeans wouldn't fall out of his basket.

I found the "easy peasy" directions for this basket on Angie Kennedy Juda's blog here and the instructions for the cute little bunny on Mary Fish's blog here.  Isn't the little bunny so adorable.

As I mentioned in Sunday's post, my computer is having problems and is on it's way to the shop.  I'm not sure how long I'll be without it so I'm scheduling my posts in advance.  I'm praying and hoping my posts publish as scheduled.  Thanks for peeking in on me today!

SPINNER TREAT CUP CARD

As promised, here is one of the cards created during my class last week.  It's a treat holder using Stampin' Up!'s Sweet Treat Cups.  I saw a video tutorial for this type of card on the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator website.  The card shown in the video was a sunflower.  I tweaked my card a bit and came up with a Valentine themed card.

The circle stamped with "love you" is a wheel with a hole punched from the side of the circle.  It allows the recipient to get the candy out without tearing into the card.  Here's how it works.  Simply turn or "spin" the dial so that the punched out circle is exposed and.................................................

There you have it!  An easy way to get to the candy without destroying all the hard work you put into creating your beautiful card!  What a clever idea!  And, if for some reason, you pour one or two or three too many pieces of candy into the treat cup, you could just eat them!  No need to put the candy back in the bag.  Plus, after cleverly designing and assembling this card, you deserve your own treat!  That's all for me today.  I hope you have enjoyed this cute little Valentine project.  Thanks for peeking in on me.  Your visits mean so much!

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THANK YOU.......THANK YOU VERY MUCH

I first came up with the title for my post  a couple of days ago.  It was meant to be kind of witty since I felt like I had "thank you" boxes coming out of my ears.  However, reflections of this Memorial Day change the tone.  So, I would like to take a moment to remember those who so bravely fought for the freedoms of our country and paid the ultimate price.  One of my childhood teacher's only son is among those that I remember today.  He was part of the Lima Company from Ohio that suffered great loss a few years ago.  Sadly, he was among the casualties.  With that said, I'd like to continue on with today's post.

I'm finally finished the 200+ wedding favors for my friend's daughter, Erin.  I just hope she likes the results.  Would you like to see what I've been working on?  This is what 200+ wedding favors look like. 

Well, actually this isn't quite all of them.  These are the ones I boxed up.

Here are a few lined up on my table.  It was very late at night so the lighting isn't the best.  (Notice my open window in the background.  Our heat pump froze up and was not working.  Ugh!)

The boxes will be filled with cellophane bags of white chocolate dipped mini pretzels covered with purple and green sprinkles. 

Here is one all by its lonesome.  Sorry you can't make out the detail.  Each box has a banner which simply says, "Thank You".  The petals have been distressed and run through a crimper.  The flowers are made out of various sized circle punches and are also distressed.  Each flower contains a button in the middle.

If you haven't guessed, Erin's wedding colors are Elegant Eggplant and Certainly Celery.  Her dress is ivory and the groom and his groomsmen will be wearing linen colored tuxedos.  Erin's chose to go with a vintage wedding theme.  It should be  gorgeous.

Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  Thanks for peeking in on me.  It's back to work for me tomorrow.  I will be attending my son's Eighth Grade Promotion ceremony on Thursday.  I can't believe he'll be in high school soon.

FLOWER FOLD BROOCH

My goodness, I haven't posted in forever and a day.  I tend to get the New Year blahs each year and to be really honest I just get in a weird funk.  This year was no different.  However, over the Christmas holiday, I did create these Flower Fold brooches.  Stampin' Up!'s very own Shelli Gardner had a beautiful flower brooch on her sweater at the Cincinnati Stampin' Up! Regional and it was all the rage.  Of course, I had to see what the fuss was about.  Well...........I started making these little gems and now I'm addicted!  I've made close to a dozen brooches in about two weeks.  They are so super easy.  Just run material through the Big Shot using the Flower Fold die and plug in the handy dandy glue gun to assemble.

I just got my new goodies from the Occassions Mini and the Sale-A-Bration brochure yesterday.  I'll be breaking them in this weekend and hope to be posting my creations very soon.

Thanks for peeking in on me today.

FROSTY THE SNOWMAN

Isn't this snowman just the cutest thing?  I've seen the idea for this gift box using the Big Shot Top Note die on several blogs I visit.  So, I'm not exactly sure who to give the original credit.  I used Angie Juda Kennedy's tutorial for the box.  You can check it out here.   

I needed some bags to put Christmas goodies in for my piano students. They have all been working hard on their Christmas songs this season. I just wanted to show my appreciation to each of them. I purchased some treat size bags of mini M&M's, small boxes of Nerds and different flavors of lip balm to put inside their goodie bags. I hope they like them! I guess I'll find out tomorrow night.

I ran Basic Black and Whisper White card stock through the Big Shot to form the snowman's face and hat.  The brim of the hat was rounded with a SU! corner rounder punch.  Next, I punched out the 5-Petal Flower punch twice on Real Red card stock and once on Garden Green card stock with Summer Sun card stock 1/4" circle punch (retired) circles to make the middle of the poinsettia.  I freehanded the nose and the "coal" pieces for the mouth.  The eyes were made using SU!'s large and small oval punches.  I used a sponge dauber with Pretty in Pink classic ink to create his rosy cheeks.  I also sponged Whisper White craft ink on his hat and nose to give him a more "frosty" look.   I think the rest is fairly self-explanatory.  If you have any questions, just give me a shout.

Well, that's all for me tonight.  My son wants to start a puzzle before he heads off to bed.  Thanks for peeking in on me today!

A Little Something For You

Warning: Long post. Be sure to scroll down to see the inside of this card.

Isn't this the coolest thing ever? Bet you didn't guess that it's not only a card but a gift card holder. Now before I go into all the details I have to give credit where credit is due. This gift card holder was created by my so brilliantly clever Stampin' Up! upline, Chrystal Amato. The only thing I did was change the striped paper slightly and the ribbon from Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon to Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon. This gift card holder is also a "CASE" (copy and share everything) of a "CASE". Chrystal's inspiration came from this gift card holder created by Gretchen Barron. Check Gretchen out on her blog. She's also very, incredibly talented.

All I did was cut a 12" x 12" piece of cardstock into and folded it in half. Next, using your Big Shot machine, line the score line of your card almost all the way to the top of the Scallop Square die design but not quite. If you line up the score line of your card past the top of the Scallop Square die you'll end up with two beautiful scallop squares. Not the look you're going for, trust me : ) Once you've got the edge where you want it just run the die through the Big Shot machine and voila'. You get this beautiful scalloped card. To get the oval cutout in the middle of the card you'll need to use the scallop oval punch. Just line up the punch with the middle of the card and slide it up as far as it will go from the bottom of the card and punch out the oval. You'll then adhere your second piece of cardstock right over the front. Yes, you'll cover up your pretty scallop oval, but don't worry. Flip the card over so you can see where you've punched out the first oval and line the punch up and punch again. You never want to try to punch through two pieces of heavy cardstock at the same time. This may break your punch.

So, do you want to see inside? Do you?? Do you?? Okay, here it is ........................... Super cool, huh? To make the pocket for the gift card you'll just run the patterned paper through the Big Shot using the Scallop Square die again and just adhere it to the sides and bottom of your card base. DO NOT place adhesive to the middle or to the top of your patterned paper. You won't have a gift card holder then : )

This was another card my guests made at the 10 for $10 Christmas card class I had at my house last week. This card was a big hit.

If you live in or near the Waverly area and would like to attend one of my classes, please email me at l_burkitt@yahoo.com. I'll be glad to send you information about my upcoming classes and would be thrilled to have you there.

Thanks for peeking in on me today! Have a great evening!

Supplies: All Stampin' Up! unless noted; Stamps - Christmas Punches; Paper - Old Olive, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Old Olive DSP; SU! Markers- Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Old Olive; Accessories - Big Shot Machine, Scallop Square Die, Scallop Oval Punch, Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon, Petal-A-Plenty Embossing Folder, Dimensionals

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GIVE ME SOMETHING GOOD TO EAT

While blog surfing, I came across this cute treat bag created by Jan Tink at Stamp, Paper, Scissors. Well, I sat down and tinkered with the measurements and this is my creation. I used the Sweet Centers stamp set from the new Stampin' Up! Mini catalog for this project. I also tried to replicate the look of the moon on my "Eek you're sweet" tag. (Although, my husband said, "Ohhhh, yeaaaaah, I think I see it." So, I guess it wasn't that obvious. Oh well! I stamped my main image in Whisper White craft ink and then heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I used my 1 5/8" circle punch to punch out the center to let the candy show through. I also pulled out my sponges and sponged the edges of the pouch for good measure!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Labor Day! Thanks for visiting me today.


Supplies: Stamps - SU's Sweet Centers; Paper - Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Summer Sun; Ink - Whisper White Craft Ink, Pumpkin Pie, Creamy Caramel; Accessories - Basic Black Grosgrain Ribbon, Linen Thread, Paper Piercer, White Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, 1 3/4" Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Scallop Edge Punch (All supplies are Stampin' UP! unless noted.)


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