Welcome to the Stampin' Addicts' Occasions Mini Blog Hop - Stop #9

Thank you for stopping by today for the Stampin' Addicts' Occasions Mini Blog Hop!  The Occasions Mini Catalog is the newest catalog from Stampin' Up!  Our blog hop is designed to show you many of the new products from this mini catalog, soon to be available (January 5, in fact).

You may have arrived here via Kim's site, Stitchin n Stampin' On Paper.  Weren't her projects using the Folk Flower Stencil great?  If you are just joining the hop starting with my blog, you can continue from here to visit all 23 of the blogs on this blog hop.  The hop continues through January 3, so be sure to make some time to sit back and enjoy all of the projects we're going to share with you!

My stop on the blog hop features the Well Scripted stamp set.  It is available as the traditional wood-mount stamps (117072) as well as clear-mount stamps (118601) - something new from SU!  I chose the clear-mount stamps for my projects, and I have to say, I really like them!

My first project is a scrapbook page.  It started out as a 12x12 page which not only uses the Well Scripted stamp set, but some new paper and embellishments from the new Occasions mini, as well as new punches (the Scallop Trim corner punch comes from the Occasions mini catalog and the coordinating Scallop Trim border punch comes from the upcoming Sale-A-Bration catalog).  I ended up participating in a scrapbooking swap over at Stampin' Addicts, so I scaled down the 12x12 to a 6x6 for the swap.  I love the combination of colors in this project - Chocolate Chip, Taken with Teal, Rose Red, Old Olive, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink and Sahara Sand.

 

With Mother's Day coming up before you know it, I thought I'd create a card for my mom.  This project features the beautiful Cottage Wall designer series paper (DSP) from the 2009-2010 Idea Book and Catalog and a Mojo Monday sketch gave me the inspiration I needed to make it.  The DSP features Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive and Orchid Opulence.  Once again I used the Scallop Trim corner and border punches.  Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon with Rich Razzleberry polka-dot grosgrain ribbon on top adds some texture.  The butterfly comes from one of my favorite sets, Great Friend.  I used Ice Circle Brads to glitz up the butterflies.

I decided to pull out one of my favorite cards from earlier this year and rework it a little to use for my final project.  Masculine cards are always a challenge for me.  I didn't realize it until I was assembling the card that I had a deer on my 'Dear Father' card!  The new sentiment completes the card much better than the original, in my opinion.  This card uses the Nature Silhouettes stamp set and Sanded background stamp in addition to Well Scripted.  I used a brayer to create the gradient background in the central image.

Thanks for visiting my stop on our blog hop!  Next up is Heidi's site, RunningwScissorsStamper where she'll show you some cute projects featuring Something Sweet.  Don't forget, you can come back and visit anytime!

New Blog Background

I've wanted to make a background for my blog using My Digital Studio, and my new cyber stampin' friend, Melissa, helped me get it to work.  Patty Bennett was the first that I saw to give info on how to create a blog header using MDS, but it was Melissa who was instrumental in helping me to get my background from MDS to Blogger.  It's a bit of a tougher process than the header, but I got it to work, and I'm really pleased with it.  I wanted something with a black tie type of look and feel for New Year's, so I used the Night & Day specialty paper download, some ribbon and brads to create my background. 

A big thanks to Melissa for taking the time to type out some instructions for me over at Stampin' Addicts!  Melissa is also one of 23 SA stampers to feature projects using products from the upcoming Occasions Mini catalog from Stampin' Up!, so be sure to stop by over the New Years' weekend to see all of the great ideas for using the new goodies SU! has in the new mini catalog!  It all starts on Friday, January 1!  Geez, it's January again, already?!

Art Journals

I had planned to make these for my girls for Christmas, but it didn't happen until afterwards.  After showing them their albums, I asked if they wanted me to put their names on them.  To my surprise, they wanted their gaming character names - so glad I asked first!  Last night I added the personalization to them and gave the albums to the girls.  They really liked them.

My DD's Painting

My oldest (13) received quite a few art items for Christmas.  One item was a set of canvases.  Last night she painted this beautiful scenic.  She's never had any real formal training but loves to draw.  It was great to see her use a different medium, and I really like how it came out!  Just had to share.  I didn't get my camera exactly flat to the canvas, but it's still pretty!

Happy Holidays to All!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Ornaments!

I have a bunch of ornaments to share with you today! First up is the ornament I gave to my friend, coworker and SU! sideline, Darla. She loves purple and liked her ornament as well as the box I made for it. I got the tutorial for the box from Monica Weaver's Add a Little Dazzle blog (the link to the PDF is next to the image of the ornament, in red that says 'Click Here').

Tonight I FINALLY got our tree up.  Yes, December 22, and I'm just now getting the tree up.  I opted for the 4.5 foot one I bought last year instead of pulling out the full-sized one.  The full-sized one is beautiful, but it's a very full tree and I just didn't have the energy to set it up.  The short one is up on an end table and looks pretty with the new blue and white LCD snowflake lights I found for half price at CVS today.  I'd purchased some light blue ribbon with snowflakes on it last time I was at Michaels, and it looks good with the new lights.  The blue ornaments I bought last year finish the look nicely.  I used the silver garland that I'd put on the tree last year on the bannisters of our staircase with a few of the small ornaments hanging from it.  That'll have to do for our Christmas decorating, as I just don't feel like hauling down all of the boxes from the overhead in our garage to do any more.  I think this is the latest I've ever gotten the tree up - I need to get it up earlier next year!

After decorating, my youngest asked if she could make one of the glitter ornaments.  I grabbed some reinkers and glitter to get her started.  I had nine small glass ornaments left (three of which might be nearly as old as she is - 11!).  She did five, I did the remaining four.  It was some nice mother-daughter time.  My oldest wasn't interested, so her little sister made her one - a green one, big sis's favorite color.  They all came out beautifully, don't you think?

 

I used SU! reinkers (Tempting Turquoise, Lovely Lilac, Glorious Green and So Saffron), but not SU! glitter.  I have soooo much glitter that I've purchased during several years' visits to our local rubber stamping show, held at the end of January each year, that I'm trying to finally use it.  Most of the glitter we used was Susie Sparkle Hologram Glitter.  I have about 10 different colors of it, and this project was perfect for it.  I love that gold one - a glitter called Solara.

Well, enough of a break - I need to finish wrapping gifts tonight and get the dining room table cleaned off so that tomorrow all I need to do in the living/dining room is vacuum and dust.  Then it's off to tackle the kitchen/family room tomorrow, and bathrooms and bedrooms on Thursday.  The clock's ticking until family joins us for dinner on Christmas day, and I'm behind schedule (but then again, when am I not running behind?).  Merry Christmas, everyone, if I don't post again before then.

Glitter Ornament

I've seen these beautiful glitter ornaments around on several stamping blogs lately and this week found a video tutorial by Tami.  I love the cute box she made for the ornaments, too.  I have the envelope die on order and it'll hopefully arrive in time for me to use it for my stamp camp on Friday.  Either way, we're going to make these cute ornaments as one of our projects.  I tried one using clear glitter, but I wasn't too happy with the results.

For this one, I used turquoise Stampin' Up! Fine Cosmo glitter with a Tempting Turquoise reinker.  I LOVE how it shimmers!  I used a white Icicle rub-on to decorate it, and turquoise grosgrain ribbon and silver elastic cord tops it off.  It looks darker than it really is - when will I learn to photograph my projects during the day?!  Anyway, I hope you like it!