A Delightful Q&E Holiday Card and Pictures From This Weekend

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Hey y'all! Well we survived another Monday and  Tuesday is starting unseasonably warm here in the DMV ahead of a cold front and the threat of the white stuff tomorrow night. :-( I am not happy about that at all! You know what I am happy about? Today's card, and pictures!

We had so much fun on Saturday! Can I just tell you what a joy it was to see those ladies so excited about stamping and creating! WOW!!!!! They were AMAZING! Here's D with her cards at the end of the afternoon.

Didn't she do a Great job?!?

Here's J's  cards. (She didn't have her "face on" so she wouldn't get in the pic.)

She did a Great job too!

They both picked it right up and were so creative, adding their own touches to their cards, not at all Scaredy Cats, like yours truly. I was soooo proud! They were sooo cute! My friend and team-member April was over helping me out Saturday and we had mentioned CASE'ing and at one point one of the ladies saw something someone else did that they liked and they said "I'm gonna CASE that" We were like proud little momma hens!

Today's card is another one we did on Saturday. It's a CASE from my team member Stephanie Finch from last year. It's a super quick & easy card and it was the first one we did this weekend and the girls knew they were going to be able to handle everything after this.

I love the non-traditional colors, and paper. I started with a base of Poppy Parade. I L-O-V-E this color! So sad it's only around for another 6 months. I hope it will make it into the regular color rotation, it's so beautiful! I used the striped layer from Just Add Cake because it reminded me of the DSP from Candy Cane Christmas last year, which I absolutely loved!

Since you shouldn't punch through two layers of cardstock with our punches this is where my OCD comes in handy. You knew there had to be a use to it besides a reason to laugh at me right? Well here it is. (At least one reason, anyway) I used my Ornament punch to punch out a piece from the DSP, and then laid my DSP down on my base piece and using a pencil lightly traced the outline of the cutout. Now I knew exactly where to place my punch to cut out my base piece. OOOOHHHHH..... AAAAHHHHHHH. Worth the price of admission right there, huh?

Next, take one of the small background stamps from Delightful Decorations and randomly stamp (I know, I said random) with Poppy Parade. I used the snow flake pattern. Then adhere your DSP to your card base, I used Tombow for mine, they will line up just right for you, so nice. Now, once again lightly trace inside the punched out area, you'll need this later.

Next, I chose a stamp from the Delightful Decorations set and inked it up in Poppy Parade and stamped it on Whisper White cardstock and then punched it out using my Ornament Punch. I decorated it with my Two-Way Glue Pen and Dazzling Diamonds and adhered it to my outlined area on the inside of my card with Tombow.

A simple sentiment from Four for the Holidays in Basic Black and this card was done. My ladies this weekend did their sentiments on a Whisper White cardstock as a banner and it looked great like that too. Like I said, Quick and Easy aided by my OCD, who woulda thunk it?

Here's a few more pics of my studio assistants helping out this weekend. Yesterday I showed you Bitty trying to help out. Here's some pics of Deucey. Sunday night I was trying to take pictures of all the cards so I could upload them and I put my "Light Box" down on the table, the key work there being "box". Well, Bitty is not the only one that likes a box. The problem is Deucey forgets he is a 16+ lb Maine Coon who is over 3 ft tall....

I'll just curl up here in the box

Somehow he just doesn't quite fit! He just doesn't get it though. My poor sweet boy....

Hey Ma'am, I'm in the box. See me.... :)

He's my sweet Guard Kitty. He thinks he's a Dog! I kid you not! And, he can open all the doors in the house. My sweet boy!

Well, that's all I have for you today. Come back tomorrow, I'll have more to show you.
Today's Supplies-
Cardstock- Poppy Parade, Whisper White Just Add Cake DSP
Ink- Basic Black Classic Ink, Poppy Parade
Stamps- Delightful Decorations, Four For The Holidays
Ornament Punch
Accesories- Two-Way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds,

If you need supplies to make todays card or cards like it you can shop in my ONLINE STORE 24/7.

I hope you liked today's card. If you liked it, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :) Thanks for stopping by today and I hope to see you again soon!

Till then,

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

My New Ornament Punch or How "What a Bargain!" turned into a "Bargain with Myself"

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I hope everyone had a great weekend and survived Irene's wrath. We didn't even a have a power surge. We were very blessed.

So yesterday afternoon I was good and instead of playing in the studio (aka my kitchen/dining room/basement/ wherever I happen to be creating at the moment) I studied. (Boo Hiss!) Anyways... that means that by the time I got off work today I was sooooo ready to come home and PLAY! I know you know exactly what I mean. I knew the card I wanted to make and it came together pretty quick and then I was able to finish the elements for tonight's blog and then I looked at the clock and HOLY COW!!!!! 2 1/2 hours had passed. No dinner, No check-in on the school work and definitely No exercise and it was already 8! AWWWWWWW!!!!!!!! So I fed the studio assistants, took a quick shower, grabbed dinner and here I am sitting down to chat with you all. <3

OK- I don't know about you, but I LOVE me a bargain! Note the capital L-O-V-E. Now if you didn't know, Stampin' Up is a really good product at a good price. That's a bargain right? Well me, I really like to feel like I'm getting my money's worth. So last year about this time I discovered their Ornament punch. (I don't know if it was new or not because horror of horrors, I hadn't been stamping for a while. I know - It's very sad, but thankfully that time in my life is over now.) It even had a coordinating stamp set. Now, I liked the stamp set and I liked the punch, but I couldn't see buying a punch I'd only be able to use once a year. I mean come on! What kind of bargain is that. Not a good use of my money I thought. So, I waited, and then I began to see other uses for the punch and then I even thought of some myself. I know I even surprised myself with that! So guess what I did? That's right- I bought that stamp set. Oh yeah, I bought the punch too.





I'm not going to show finished products here because I only get to post a couple times a week. Instead I'm going to give you sneak-peeks of upcoming posts and show you just the portion that was made with the Ornament Punch.

Of course you can do "Ornaments". Here's one made with Designer Series Paper from the Holly Berry Series from the new Holiday Mini. It's an extra little sneak-peek for you. It will be available on September 1st. It's so pretty. It's glittery and the best part is the glitter doesn't come off! How Fabulous is that?!?



What about turning that ornament into a vase? I used some DSP in fall colors and made a vase for autumn flowers, but you can use it for any season. You can also change the height, you know what I say, it's up to you.



Now, I was sitting at home looking at a punched out ornament and it reminded me of a balloon. So I made a few trims with my paper-snips and I had Balloons. Woo-Hoo! Add some twine and it's up, up and away. For the different shapes I just turned the ornament and traced around it.



And then because I was already thinking balloons it wasn't a big leap to go from balloons to a hot air balloon. For the balloon I simply cut off the "top" portion and for the basket I used the Cupcake stamp and punch set. That's another Bargain Blog I'm sure.



So, that's all for now. There are more. There are flowers and cute little fish, but I don't have the supplies for those yet. Besides if I show you everything now, there won't be a reason for you to come back later. :)

What do you think? Is the Scaredy Cat in you ready to try one of these? I hope so! I also hope you'll let me know if you do. If you liked it, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

OOOOPS! Silly Me! Are you wondering what happened with the Blog title? So.... I was sooo busy with the Bargain that was my Ornament punch (and have been with my stamping in general lately) that I failed once again to work out. :( I have therefore had to make the bargain with myself to workout before sitting down to play creatively. This is especially necessary as school is back in session and I am moving to a new work site where I will be getting home later, so it will be even more important to work out early. See the Bargain turned into a Bargain. Ahhh the things we do, to do the things we love.

I hope you have a great week! Enjoy and have fun.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It