It's December! Advent Calendar is Ready!

Here goes! I'm kicking off a series of posts leading up to Christmas - hopefully to help you with your Christmas crafting, and to inspire you to create something for this season of giving! I'm starting again like I did last year with my advent calendar. It was quite labour intensive, so I hope you don't mind that I'm using the same project I did last year ;)

My boys were happily surprised to see the familiar fixture greeting them this morning with treats in box 1. I don't always put treats or candies in the boxes - I've often put activities, or discussion items in the boxes (such as, think about your favourite Christmas memory today, and share it with us at dinner tonight).

I made the numbers using the calendar stamp from the retired Project Life Day to Day set and inked every third number (to give enough room between each one for punching). Then I used the 1/2" circle punch to cut them out. 

Retired products used:
Letter to Santa DSP, Riding Hood Red Marker, Day to Day stamp set, Priority Mail stamp set, A Cute Christmas stamp set, Pines & Poinsettias stamp set, Ornamental Pine stamp set, Mosaic Madness stamp set, Bright & Beautiful stamp set, Endless Wishes stamp set, Scentsational Season stamp set, Tiny Tags stamp set, Scallop Square punch, Postage Stamp punch, Jewelry Tag punch, Ornament Keepsakes framelits, Holiday Collection framelits, Snowflake Card Thinlits, Frosted Sequins, All Is Calm Snowflake embellishments

Supplies used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Advent Calendar

I can't believe it's December already! I finally finished my advent calendar, just in the nick of time too! My boys are very excited to find treats and Christmas activities in the boxes. This was a great way to use a wide variety of my collection - and while the better part of these are current products, I did use some retired product too.

To make the numbers, I uses the calendar stamp from the Project Life Day to Day set and inked every third number (to give enough room between each one for punching). Then I used the 1/2" circle punch to cut them out. 

Retired products used:
Letter to Santa DSP, Riding Hood Red Marker, Priority Mail stamp set, A Cute Christmas stamp set, Pines & Poinsettias stamp set, Scentsational Season stamp set, Tiny Tags stamp set, Scallop Square punch, Jewelry Tag punch, Ornament Keepsakes framelits, Holiday Collection framelits

Supplies used: 

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Minions ... mutated!

What happens when you mix cute minions with a mutated purple frizz?

Besides the fact that your fingers get all inky?

We went to see Despicable Me 2 this past week, so that, plus a desperate need to get all messy and creative to step away from the 150+ swap cards I'm working on getting ready for Convention next week (!!) ... and I ended up with something that makes me giggle every time I look at it! (That and purple ink all over everything!)

To make the mutated minion's crazy hair, I squirted reinker all over some retired Tinsel Trim ribbon ... even though I used a plastic bag to try to contain the ink, I found that it didn't dry quite as fast as I wanted it to, so it ended up all over my fingers!  

I used the Owl Builder punch as the base (and for their hands/feet). The teeth/smile is the largest flower in the Boho Blossoms punch. I even sanded the paper to make it look furry!

The final result? It makes me giggle 'cause I love it so much! 

Supplies used:
Stamps: Paper Pumpkin stamps
Paper: Whisper White, Perfect Plum, Crushed Curry, Basic Black, Not Quite Navy, Silver Brushed cardstock
Ink: Perfect Plum
Tools: Owl Builder punch, Jewelry Tag punch, 1/2" Circle punch, Boho Blossoms punch
Accessories: Tinsel Trim ribbon
Other: Googly eyes

Hershey's Christmas Trees

I saw this really cool design to make Christmas Trees filled with Hershey's kisses recently (on Qbees Quest blog) and just had to make them for the wrap-up night for the 2012 Christmas Card club.  

I opted not to make the trunk like Brenda had made, as I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find the chocolates to fit.  The other modification I had made was using the Jewelry Tag punch to make the tag on the top of the trees.  If you stick one end of your paper into the top of the punch, you can extend it so that the length is long enough to match your greeting!

They were quite easy to make and really impressive - I loved how the kisses just fit in each spot; it made them really easy to transport!  I think I'll make some more!

Supplies:

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Garden Green

Paper: Garden Green and Very Vanilla Cardstock

Embellishments: Lucky Limeade ribbon, 2012 SAB

Other: Jewelry Tag punch, Simply Scored

Easter flowers

Happy Easter!  Hope you're celebrating with a nice turkey dinner with family or with some good chocolate (or both!). This card is done with 2-step stamping - the offset flowers are intentional :)

Supplies used:
Stamps: Raining with Flowers
Ink: Soft Suede, Wisteria Wonder, So Saffron, Certainly Celery
Paper: Wisteria Wonder, So Saffron, Whisper White
Tools: Elegant Bouquet embossing folder, Jewelry punch
Other: So Saffron grosgrain ribbon

Celebrate Minions!

Today was my youngest son's birthday - I made him the following card with a couple Minions from Despicable Me.  He loved them!!  They were quite fiddly to make, but I think they were worth it!

They were made with the Owl Builder punch as their base - I also used the Jewelry Tag punch cut in half for their arms and goggles.  


Supplies used:
Stamps: Outlined Occasions (SAB)
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Whisper White, Not Quite Navy cardstock
Ink: Basic Black, Whisper White
Markers: Daffodil Delight, Not Quite Navy
Tools: Owl Builder punch, Jewelry Tag punch, 1/2" Circle punch
Accessories: Daffodil Delight pom pom ribbon, 
Other: Googly eyes