The annual Stampin’ Up! convention starts tomorrow so I’m off to

Salt Lake City in the morning with 10,000 of my closest friends!  There will be tons to see, classes to take, demonstrations to watch and lots and lots of cards to swap!  I didn’t go over-board this year and I’m taking just a few different kinds…  It’s been an assembly line around here trying to get them all ready though.  Cut pieces, punch pieces, fold pieces, stamp pieces…and then put them all together!  Voila, the finished card…

I really like these colors together – so Saffron, Marina Mist, Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Chip.  The animals are from the Animal Stories stamp set and the words are from the Three Little Words stamp set.  I cut the H and the I out with my Big Shot and the Serif Essentials alphabet.  I hope the stampers I swap with like it too!

Thanks for stopping by –

kirstin

Hi there – Isn’t this an adorable little palm tree?!  Who knew that a clear tube could take on a new identity as a deserted island tree complete with monkeys, coconuts and a bikini!  I took the tubes over to my stampin’ buddy Julie’s house and this is what we came up with…too fun!  I found these clear, plastic tubes at a local craft store.  They are about 7½” tall and maybe an inch and a half across.  In the photo you can see I have coconut Frango’s in there so they are plenty big enough to hold wrapped chocolates. The palm leaves are made out of the Flower Folds die for the Big Shot.  We punched a circle out of the middle of each flower to fit it over the tube, sponged the edges and snipped them to more resemble palm fronds.  The coconuts are the ¾” circle punch, punched 4 times from Chocolate Chip paper, folded in half and glued together with Tombow to give them a 3D look.  The monkeys are from the Fox&Friends stamp set.  The bikini and towel are just hand cut from the Island Oasis DSP.  If you lived somewhere warmer than Western Washington is right now, these would be a great kick-off to summer gift for a friend.  Up here, we just hope for sun and stamp while it rains!  Thanks for stopping by –

kirstin

Hi – Here’s a little something I made with my stampin’ buddy Julie a while back.  I found these cute little baskets at the store and we dressed them up with these big flowers.  They were cut with the Flower Folds die for the Big Shot, first from chipboard and then DSP.  The center has a treat cup in it with a few yards of So Saffron grosgrain ribbon coiled up.   Then I pushed a Pumpkin Pie corduroy button through the top.  The whole flower hangs from a book ring through a jumbo eyelet.  The crop-o-dile set the eyelet right through the basket.  Add some ribbon to the handle and it’s cute, cute!  Thanks for stopping by –

kirstin

Hi – Milk cartons were never this cute in the school lunch line!  I love this new die for the Big Shot.  The milk cartons are easy to assemble, cut in one piece with all the score lines made for you.  Here I’ve made two matching ones and put them in a little holder with a handle.  The colors are So Saffron with Basic Black and Whisper White.  The Designer paper is called Night & Day.  My stampin’ buddy and I made these earlier this week. Hop on over to Julie’s blog to see hers in Tempting Turquoise and Black!  The scallop circle stamp is a freebie set called Vintage Labels from the Sale-a-bration catalog – it can be yours free too with any $50 purchase.  In this set, the stamps all coordinate with a punch from SU!  Here I used the scallop circle punch on the holder and the front of each milk carton.  The little bird is a sizzlit die.  I cut out a ¾” circle from the front of each milk carton and covered it with acetate to give a peek of what might be inside!  White mints would be lovely in these or even chocolate covered raisins.  Hope you like them!   Holler if you have any questions and thanks for stopping by –

kirstin

Hi  – This cute little box was a cooperative effort and I love the way it turned out!  While I figured out the box dimensions and how to score and fold it, my stampin’ buddy Julie did the design for the lid….in this case, two heads were better than one!  As Julie knows all too well (because I make her crazy with a ruler :0) ), I like to use whole numbers or at least reasonable fractions.  AND – I like to maximize the paper and not waste space.  I’m a little nutty that way.  Soooo, the top and bottom pieces are the square scallop die run through the Big Shot and the box is made from an 8×8¼ sheet of cardstock.  The box itself is an 8×8 sheet and the hinge is that little piece of ¼” on one end.  The sides are 2” tall so it’s a pretty deep box – big enough to hold two of the medium sized SU! punches.  We used the new paper pack from the Occasions mini and added the felt leaves and a punched circle of the polka dot DSP on one flower.  The closure is a tab punch that hooks behind a button.  The clear button is backed in a piece of the polka dotted DSP too.

I hope you like it!  Holler if you have any questions –

kirstin

Hi – I’ve been wanting to try this treat ever since I found these cool long cello bags and wondered what I could put in them.  Pretzel rods seemed to be a perfect fit but too plain – so why not dip them in candy coating and cover them with sprinkles?!!  Surely that would be more exciting! :0)  Then the challenge became to make the topper for each bag different.  I think the pumpkin one is my favorite!  Or maybe the mummy…  Each one is made on a Top Note folded in half over the top of the   cello bag.  The Top Note is cut from a Big Shot die, a must have toy!  It makes projects like this so easy when you can cut out all 5 Top Notes at once.  Hope you like them!  Holler if you want any more specific details.  Thanks for stopping by –

kirstin

Hi – This bat is truly a little goofy looking – BUT, he’s a practical use of scraps! I made him to use at a girls stamp camp I had last Friday.  All the girls were between 7-14 years old and we had a great time making Halloween goodies.  This bat was my favorite!  His body is made from the scallop circle die for the Big Shot.  His wings are made from the piece that’s left over after the scallop circle is cut!  Pretty clever, eh?!  His head is the 1¾” circle punch, eyes are wiggle eyes, mouth and fangs are white gel pen and his ears are the 5 petal flower punch.  His legs and feet are the word window punch and a flower punch.  About 5-6 candy corn will fit in the cup that sticks onto his belly.  Since most of the pieces are just punches, he’s pretty easy for the kids to put together.  Some of them skipped the legs and put the feet right up on the body which looks cute too.  Hope he makes you laugh!  Thanks for stopping by –

kirstin

Hi – Haven’t had much time to stamp lately but I did manage to sneak down last night and make this Halloween card.  It’s a 4”x4” size which is perfect to tuck in with some chocolate treats to a friend!  The skeleton is stamped in Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder and cut out.  He comes from the Scary Skeleton stamp set.  The DSP is Cast-a-Spell and cut out on the Big Shot with the Top Note die – it’s backed in black cardstock.  The Top Note die has a skinny perforated edge and I just snipped that off of the DSP piece so the black would create a border.  The circle is from the Batty for You stamp set.  I just punched out the skeleton head part of the stamped image with a ¾” circle punch and looped it over the knots in the ribbons – kind of looks like a big rivet or grommet!  The 3 buttons in the corner are just from my jar of buttons and seemed to add the little bit of balance I was looking for.  Hope you like it!  Thanks for stopping by –

kirstin

Hi – This little black cat didn’t turn out to be very fierce looking for Halloween, did he?!

He’s kinda cute though… He is made from the scallop circles #2 die.  I die cut the larger scallop circle and then turned it just a bit and ran it through again to get the pointier look to the scallops.  The ears are the 5 point star die, also cut in Basic Black cardstock.  If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the ears are folded in to give them a little dimension.  His face is all punches – ¾” circle and ½” circle for the eyes, small oval punch for the nose and inside of the ears and his mouth is also the small scallop oval using the negative piece after the oval is cut (leave a comment if that doesn’t make sense and you want a better explanation!).  I used Going Gray and Basic Gray for those parts.  The favor box die is cut from the Cast-a-Spell DSP and the tag is from the Batty for You stamp set. Peeking out from the box is a cello bag of candy corn tied up with black gingham ribbon and Pumpkin Pie striped grosgrain ribbon.  The tag is hanging from the box handle with twine.

Hope you like it – Thanks for stopping by –

kirstin

Hi – Tomorrow is the first day of fall and since it is supposed to be in the 80’s, I thought flowers seemed to fit the occasion better than fall leaves would!  I guess these look a bit like sunflowers or maybe big marigolds.  They are made with the scallop circle punch.  I just snipped between each scallop and curved it a bit with a bone folder.  The edges are sponged with Chocolate Chip ink, as is the DSP layer.  I added a little So Saffron scalloped edge on top of the Chocolate Chip layer – which is actually a leftover piece of the Top Note die scrap.  Did that make sense?!  It’s a side from the frame that is leftover when you die cut a Top Note. The ribbon is in the way a bit –sorry ‘bout that!  The DSP is from the Tall Tales pack and the stamp is from the Thank You Kindly stamp set.  There’s a bit of hemp twine tied in the center of the buttons too. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.  I hope you like it!  Thanks for stopping by –

kirstin