FIRST 6x6 RECIPE CARD

Hey there stamper friends! Hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas.....I'm always a bit sorry that it's over so quickly.

For awhile now I have been wanting to make some 6x6 recipe cards.......I've seen lots of them on Lisa Freeman's blog. Anyways, during this Christmas break, I decided that it would be a good time to do some playing......so I took one of my favorite recipes that I make each Christmas to give as gifts and made the following card......

I think it turned out pretty cute.....there isn't much stamping.....mostly punches. I did ink up the cherries from the Tart and Tangy stamp set and then cut them out. It has been so fun!

If you are looking for a fabulous recipe to make as a gift....this is it!!! It is EASY, looks beautiful and tastes even better!!! So, here it is......give it a try.....I guarantee if you love chocolate and ice cream.....this is the ticket!

Well.....that's it for me today.

Until next time, find some time for stamping!

Blessings.......Cindy

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I hope that you all have a

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Blessings to you........Cindy

ACCORDION PEACE

One more week till CHRISTMAS!!! WooWhooo!!! Excitement is beginning to mount in our house.....the big count down begins! We have a joke around here about Christmas Eve......like today is Christmas Eve's Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve. It's ridiculous but we have fun with it!

Along with all our fun.....we also remember the true meaning of Christmas.....which is the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, fun and food, we have to work at keeping Christ, and the perfect gift that HE is, as our focus. Not always easy, but totally worth the effort!!!

Well, last night I finished my PEACE accordion "decoration". I made it very CAS (Clean And Simple) and am pleased with how it turned out. I tried to jazz it up more, but never liked what I came up with. Anyway.....I used last year's In Color Kiwi Kiss cardstock (yes, I'm STILL mourning the loss of that one!) and some non SU vanilla cardstock, along with some retired scraps of DSP for the strips and the 1/2" circles inside the snowflakes.

The snowflakes were punched using the current jumbo snowflake punch which I layered on top of the now retired smaller snowflake punch. I topped both with a 1/2" circle. The letters were die cut using the Big Shot and the Serif Essentials Alphabet dies.....which I borrowed from my sweet friend Karen.....THANKS Karen!!! If you're interested in how I made this...just contact me.

Gotta go....until next time, find some time for some stamping FUN!!!

Christmas Blessings to You.......Cindy

SAME GIFT CARD HOLDER....NEW LOOK

Greetings! Thanks for taking the time to pop in!!

Today I spent a good part of the day wrapping gifts and getting teacher gifts ready. I don't have a picture of the teacher gifts.....they are VERY SIMPLE and they just didn't seem like anything worth photographing let alone writing about. I just got done with them, so maybe I'll take a look at them tomorrow and change my mind. Sometimes when I get done with something I'm more pleased with it the next day. Kind of like lasagna....it seems to taste better the following day :-)

Anyway....Monday was our last stamp class until we begin again on Jan. 11th. For class we made the same gift card holder that I did at my club.....except with different papers, etc. I like this one because it has a more masculine feel to it....I don't know about you, but I have a really tough time making cards, gift card holders, and about anything else for men. So, I was very pleased with how this one turned out.....here it is.....

Just for fun, I'm working on an accordion decoration (not sure what to call it) that will spell out PEACE. I also want to do one for JOY......I'll take pictures when I'm done....IF they turn out good.

Well, that's it for me today......until next time.....

Blessings.......Cindy

GIFT CARD HOLDER

Hey there stampers!!! I hope you are having a good week. This week is going by quick! This is also the last week of school for the kids until January 11th!!!

Christmas is only 10 days away!!! So with that in mind, if you are looking for a quick, easy, and CUTE gift card holder to make.....this is the one!!! The original idea came from Patty Bennett's blog (click here to see her original post). This is one of the easiest gift card holders that I have ever made.

This first picture shows the one that we did at stamp club on Dec. 7th.....I used some of last year's InColor cardstock....Riding Hood Red and Baja Breeze..... along with some non SU patterned paper that matched perfectly. The ornament punch on the belly band is in the Holiday Mini....which I might add is only good until January 4th!!! The stamped image in the middle is from the Enjoy Every Moment stamp set.....I thought it looked like something that would be on an ornament :-)

This next card is almost exactly like the club one......except my friend, Karen, was having a retired stamp set sale and I just couldn't pass up the Deer Friends set....so I used one of the images in that set.

Here is what the inside looks like....

Sorry that the pic came out fuzzy....but I think you get the idea. The slot for the card is made with the word window punch.

Well.....that is about it for today!

Until next time, find some time for stamping!!!

Blessings..........Cindy

CLASS CARD ~ CHRISTMAS

Hi!! Yes, I'm still around....you can't get rid of me that easily :-) I just haven't found time for blogging this week. Seems that in the hustle and bustle of Christmas....and life.....posting on my blog just gets pushed to the back burner. But I've still been stamping......this evening I am showing you a card that we made a few Mondays ago in class. It's a simple, yet elegant, Christmas card. It's made using only Night of Navy and Whisper White.....along with some silver embossing powder and dazzling diamonds.

Tomorrow I have my last class for the year......we will be starting up again in January. This week I will try and post the last of my class projects and also the gift card holder that we did last Monday at my stamp club.

Until next time, find some time for stamping!!

Blessings........Cindy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON!!!!

Today is Madison's 12th Birthday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I can hardly believe it!!! Where has the time gone??!!

I feel SO BLESSED to be her mother!!!

Today she is getting her ears pierced and she and her BFF (Best Friend Forever) are going to have manicures. Then this evening she and about 7 other girlfriends are coming over for pizza and do to a fun stamping project.

Better get going......I've got a bunch of stuff to do before this evening!!!

Until next time,

Blessings.........Cindy

CHRISTMAS CARD

Hi! Hope your week is going well!!!

Here is the other card that we made in stamp class on Monday.....

The card was so easy to make and yet it turned out soooo good!!!! Just goes to prove (again) that stamping and making a dynamite card doesn't have to take hours or be complicated!!!

We started with a half sheet of Night of Navy cardstock.....which we stamped with Night of Navy classic ink using the snowflakes from the Snow Swirled stamp set. Then we used a scrap piece of paper punched with the 1-1/4" circle punch adhered to our piece of whisper white cardstock.....which we die cut with the Top Note die using the Big Shot. Once our "moon" was in place we sponged Night of Navy ink across the top. Then we sponged Rose Red (actually, I can't remember exactly) in the middle and finished up by lightly sponging Night of Navy on the bottom. We removed our mask and than stamped Santa from the Wandering Words stamp set that is in the Occasions Mini. We also stamped the group of trees from the Lovely as a Tree stamp set....both of which were stamped using Soft Suede. I sponged a bit of Soft Suede on the bottom around the trees.....just so it would look more like the ground. We finished the card off by tying a piece of white organza ribbon around it and adhering it to the card base with dimensionals. Love it!!!

Thanks for taking the time to pop in......until next time....

Blessings..........Cindy

A FRIEND'S CARD & A USEFUL TIP

Hey There!!

Today, I wanted to show you a card made by my friend, Karen Albin....she is a fellow SU demonstrator and also in stamp class with me on Monday. The photo didn't turn out that great, but in person this card is STUNNING!!!

Karen shared a GREAT tip with me.....one which maybe you already know, but I didn't!!!

Anyway, I asked her how she was able to emboss with Iridescent Ice using a Classic ink pad. Well, here's how....... she first inked the stamp with VersaMark and then immediately inked it up using a Classic ink pad. Voila!! Instant Craft-like ink!!! By using a VersaMark pad first you can then change any classic ink pad you have into a color that you can emboss with. JUST BE SURE TO CLEAN YOUR STAMP OFF BEFORE YOU RE-INK IT WITH YOUR VERSAMARK.......I'm sure you wouldn't want Rich Razzleberry or any other color on your VersaMark. :-) I thought this was pretty cool!!! I'm going to give this a try!

Well, that's it for me today. The rest of this week is going to be fairly hectic. My daughter is turning 12 on Saturday and we are having a birthday party for her. I think there will be about 10 screeching, giggling, and kooky girls here on Saturday evening. All of her friends, believe it or not, LOVE to stamp and they usually wind up making something when they are here.....so we have a FUN project planned for them. I'll be sure to take pictures of them and their creations.

Until next time....find some time for stamping!!!

Blessings...........Cindy

NEW CLASS CARD ~ POST THANKSGIVING

Hello Friends!!! I pray that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.....I know we did. We all ate way too much, but it was GREAT to be together with family!!! Here is a picture of me with my mom and sisters.....for some weird reason while taking photos we forgot to get an entire family picture which we try to do each year since Thanksgiving is the one time during the year that we are all together.

We usually do a "nice" picture....and then we have to do one like this......

There's nothin' like family!

OK......Yesterday was my stamping class......it was so fun to be with the other ladies in the class! I thoroughly enjoy my time of stamping and visiting! It's worth the class just so I can see these ladies each week!

During class we made two very cute Christmas cards. The one that I will show you today was made using the Build A Bear dies which we mounted to a side step card. There were LOTS of little pieces to this.....but it turned out very cute!

Not very much stamping on this card......we did use the Punch Pals stamp set for the wreath, tree, and the greeting....pretty much everything else was die cut.

Well, that's it for today. Tomorrow I will post the other card from class. Have a GREAT day and until next time.....

Blessings......Cindy