Sylvia's Stamping Corner

SNOWFLAKES, GIFT BAGS, GIFT TAGS AND CANDY BAR HOLDER

It was an absolutely beautiful day, today. We had a great party. It is amazing how fast one can make great gifts. I am posting the projects we did today. The first project, a candy bar holder, I saw on a video  by Dawn.  The front I designed, but the idea was Dawn's. We really enjoyed doing this project. It is so easy and clever.

The second and third projects were gift tags. One, I posted last night in a sneak peek and the second one is shown here. Again, this is quick and easy.

The fourth project was a little more involved, a snowflake ornament. I cut out three snowflakes, using the snowflake die. One out of card stock, one out of designer paper, and a third out of thin chipboard. All three were glued together to form one sturdy snowflake. It was then embellished with glitter.  It would also make a great gift tag.

Our last project was a snowflake gift bag. This time instead of   glitter, I used the iridescent ice embossing powder.  I first used the chipboard piece left after I cut the die snowflake out. I used a finger dauber to dab on the Baja Breeze Blue ink. After doing all the snowflakes in blue, I then redid the snowflakes , using same technique, but used versa-mark and embossed them. I added some stamped snowflakes, some silver stars and used a cutout snowflake with silver cord for an embellishment. I then tied it on with Baja Breeze ribbon. It makes a nice gift bag and is not too difficult to do. Stamps copyright StampinUp. Designs copyright Sylvia Nelson 2008.

GEARING UP FOR CHRISTMAS - SNEAK PREVIEW

The sunflower is for me. I need some sunshine in my life so I am posting the photo for me.  It is November, I have a week left to finish up a lot of things including the house for the holiday. I know, Thanksgiving comes first. I am after all, cleaning house for Thanksgiving, but at the same time I am getting stamping done for Christmas. Crafter's are always a season ahead or they are behind wherever they sell.

Tomorrow I have a stamp party, so I have been working on some surprises. I can not post them until tomorrow night, but at the end of the post I will have one photo, sneak peak. It is the easiest of all the projects I have planned for tomorrow. I love doing tags for packages or just for whatever. The tag posted uses the Big Shot Top Note Die. I used the Christmas cord. It was quick and simple. I will use it on a Christmas package! Stamps copyright StampinUp. Design copyright Sylvia Nelson 2008.

CLEANING, SORTING, REARRANGING MY CRAFT SPACE

I won't show a picture of my space. It is quite large, but I still am constantly having to clean it up and go through all the messes I make of my drawers. My grandson will be here in two weeks so it all has to be done. I can not have things laying around, which drives me crazy anyway. So I have been cleaning up again today. I will post a sunflower, my favorite flower to send out to everyone who posted on my blog color Inspiration #30. You all made me feel soo....good. Love these challenges and there were so many good cards. I have only gotten through about one third of them.

  For those of you who saw my tree, I am doing a second one so I can put them on my sideboard for Christmas. I can take the star out and put butterflies on the trees and use them for Easter! My next tree project is one using the Big Shot. Maybe tomorrow? I guess Iam wishing it were spring because I am posting this card, another flower tree, but one I made on a card. I used the same flower punch, but the beads are the micro beads. They were a little more tedious to work with. The butterflies are cut out and are only attached to the card at the body. Tedious, but there were not so many. Stamps copyright StampinUp. Design copyright Sylvia Nelson 2008.

KWERNER COLOR INSPIRATION #30

The colors for this weeks challenge were old olive, certainly celery, Sahara sand, and whisper white. I had two projects come to mind and am posting both. One is a card and the other a tree.     

 Supplies for the card are: Stamps: Christmas Classics and Snow Swirled  Stampin'Up! Card Stock: Old Olive, Certainly Celery, and Sahara Sand. Inks: Basic Black, Old Olive, and Whisper White. Stampin'Up! Accessories: 5/8" Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, 1/4"Whisper White grosgrain ribbon, Designer Paper Haiku (SU),Ticket corner punch, white gel unibal pen, Tombow Adhesive, Snail Adhesive, and Stampin' dimensionals.

Supplies for the tree are: 1 six" Styrofoam cone, straight pins, round plastic SU embellishment container for base  Card stock: Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Sahara Sand, Stampin'Up! Accessories: Old Olive 5/8"grosgrain ribbon, Whisper White 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Silver bead duo, Large Star punch, Trio Flower punch, Versamark, Iridescent Embossing Powder, and white gel unibal pen.

  Designs Sylvia Nelson 2008                         

THANKSGIVING CARD WITH PHOTO CD HOLDER

The day started out with my husband getting up at 4 am, going to work on his day off. The weather was back in the 60's, sunny, and for the most part a beautiful day. That is one of the nicest things about where I live. We get very few gray days.

I worked on a lot of projects today. I finished my Thanksgiving card- Photo CD holder. I show the front with the ribbon tied, and the inside, on the left is a place to put your favorite photo and on the right is a place to tuck a cd of all your Thanksgiving photo's. As we are having a big Thanksgiving, I am planning on using mine. I will post mine after Thanksgiving with my favorite photo. The hardest thing about this project was the actual covering of the CD holder. I really did not decorate it with embellishments. I still might depending on the time that I have. I did not get to take a picture of the total banner. My husband is home tomorrow. It takes two people to move and hang it. Stamps used copyright StampinUp. Design copyright Sylvia Nelson 2008.

ANOTHER SNOWY DAY IN COLORADO

I know, this sounds like a broken record. It is winter here, snowing at the moment. It could be fall and 70 next week. I never know one day to the next. It was cold and wet when I got up this morning. I spent quite a bit of time on the computer before going upstairs to start a fire. It was colder upstairs than down, which is a switch. I spent most of the day feeding the fire and crocheting while sitting under some blankets to stay warm. Yes, I could turn up the heater, but since propane is so high and an electric motor runs the heater, I'll feed the fire and stay under the blankets.

I visited a blog two weeks ago for Color Inspiration #28. I came across a post where a woman was talking about her son coming home from Tech. I took a chance and e-mailed her and sure enough, her son goes to my school, Texas Tech. I have visited by e-mail with her and am inviting you to go to her blog-on line store. She is just getting started so keep checking back to see what new she has for sale. It is hard when you are selling on line to get people to your store. Sherry's link is in Sylvia's Favorites, in the left column, under Scrapbook Hannah, or visit:  http://scrapbookhannah.com/home . She likes to do mini albums for baby showers, kids birthdays, and graduations. She also has some of her sisters crochet items. Good Luck Sherry. Go Red Raiders!!!!!

 I worked on a new project this evening. I did not finish, so I am not posting a picture of it. It is a Thanksgiving Keepsake card-CD holder. With pictures that I post tomorrow night, you will understand. Sorry that it isn't finished. I just could not stay up any longer. I could not take full pictures of the banner today, not enough light, so I will post another picture of one of the pennants.  All stamps copyright StampinUp. Designs and photos Sylvia Nelson 2008.

BIG SHOT THANKSGIVING BANNER

My Thanksgiving banner is finished. As usual, I could spend another couple of   weeks working on it. But, because I need to start on Christmas, and I need to get the house finished for company, I am finished. I took some pictures and will post a few. Tomorrow night I will post a full picture of the whole banner. We need to find another wall to hang on where the pictures will look OK.

 I promised a surprise. The surprise is.....copper. I used the Big Shot leaves die and cut out copper leaves. It was so easy girls, soo... easy.Then using the copper wire from the stampin wire kit we used to sell I strung 5 leaves as shown from the bottom of the pennant. Anytime you hang from the pennant, it is better to put an eyelet. I did this, but even so I tore one of the pennants so I had to mend it and put another eyelet in. Some of the designer paper is thinner, depending on the colors used. Some dyes are thicker, so the paper is just a little heavier. So be careful, if you try this.

I stamp the pumpkins and the corn, and water colored them with ink. I then cut them out and used crystal effects to add a sparkle like dew. In the pumpkin photo, the white spots that show up are actually the light on the crystal effects, not mistakes!!! I would have liked to have taken the time to emboss each leaf. Can you guess how many hours it took to string the leaves on wire? Maybe my next metal project I will heat emboss. I do think over time the affects of air and climate will help improve the look of the leaves, but in person, the leaves are really stunning.

The really cool thing about doing these banners is that when the holiday is over and you want to take them down, storing is easy. You just untie the ribbons and store them in a flat cellophane bag. I used 10 pieces of designer paper and 5 pieces of card stock, and some ribbon. It was not an expensive project. I do not remember how much the copper was, but it came from Hobby Lobby and I used a 40% off coupon. Stamps copyright StampinUp. BigShot by Sizzix was used to cut the pieces, and the design copyrights belong to Sylvia Nelson 2008.

TEXAS TECH WINS AGAIN 10-0...... GIVE THANKS BIG SHOT BANNER

Now that Tech is on a roll, I just have to shout congratulations to the team, my team. Yes, I still believe. I spent over an hour, early this morning, sitting at my sewing machine. I tore fabric yesterday for 8 new Thanksgiving napkins. I was determined to get them done and did. I did a wash and cleaned the bathroom floor before taking my shower and going upstairs. I only have two weeks left to get the house ready for company. So every day before I can stamp, I have to get something else checked off my to do list. Bummer, huh? I also still have crafts to do and to get my craft room cleaned up. That is not even my stamping area!!!! This is the last of my roses, taken weeks ago. I just wanted to share. Also everyone needs to go to my daughter, Amy's blog and see her latest projects. They are absolutely gorgeous projects!!!! Her link is on the left with my favorites, http://www.anlinadesigns.com/blog .

  In spite of my wanting to sit and watch football. I worked all afternoon on my Thanksgiving garland. I am not finished, however. But, I will post a picture I took of it in the beginning stages. I am in the middle of another stage, so I can not move it to take pictures. I will say, this one is one banner shorter. It is also not quite as complicated and it will be finished tomorrow. It is going to be such a surprise. I know this looks almost the same as the Halloween banner, but it is not!! Wait and see!!! I have tried a new material in my Big Shot. I love it, love it. There is no stamping tonight, the Big Shot Die Machine and my designs 2008.

IT FEELS LIKE WINTER, IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE FALL!!

The wind chill is 12 degrees, as I sit typing out this blog. I was not ready for this tonight. I worked all day on various projects, which included cleaning, getting ready for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is 3 weeks from today. So much to do and so little time.

I worked on my garland. It is going to be so nice. I have used my Big Shot to cut out almost all of it. I will put it together in the morning and hopefully have it finished by tomorrow night in time to take pictures to post. Because it is not ready, I did a Christmas card. It is rather different, but I like it. I am ready to start on Christmas cards, but I have to get Thanksgiving finished first and the stamps put away and the garland hung. Stamps copyright StampinUp. Design copyright Sylvia Nelson 2008.

KWERNER COLOR INSPIRATION #29

Kristina Werner's color Inspiration for this week put together an unusual group of colors. For me, it was a challenge to pick a stamp set which I thought would work with the colors . Colorswere Pacific Point, Taken with Teal, Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie, and Whisper white.

I used the following with this card:  Happiness Is A Journey, StampinUp stamp. Card stock:  Pacific Point, Taken With Teal, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White  Ink:   Pacific Point, Taken With Teal, Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie,  Black Ribbon: Pumpkin Pie 1/4" grosgrain, Pumpkin Pie Striped grosgrain            Ticket corner punch, Tombow Adhesive, snail adhesive, dimensional, finger dauber, glossy card stock

Here is my card I hope you like the way the inks were used and how they blended together to transition the colors from one to the other.  I tried stamping on water color card stock. Then I tried plain card stock. When I put this particular stamp on glossy card stock, the train seemed to stand out. I did not notice any different color blending changes with the glossy and the non glossy card stock. This stamp did not do well on the water color. This was an interpretation of how the train was stamped in our StampinUp catalog. Design of the card was my own.

THANKFUL THOUGHTS, TRYING TO STAY POSITIVE

In the days just before Thanksgiving, it is really important to me to stay positive. I had a lark of a day. My husband is off on Tuesday and he loves to go somewhere. I spent all morning on the computer and thought he would enjoy going to a nearby town for lunch, as one of our monthly Colorado magazines had advertised a new restaurant. So we drove 45 minutes, got there only to find out they were doing road construction on main street so the restaurant was closed. We drove back home and decided to eat at the house as it was 1:30. We would get pizza out later. I got home, we ate lunch, then I checked my computer for messages and had several including a sale of two of my newly posted cards on Etsy. I was really excited as sales are starting to pick up on that site. I got three things mailed that I needed to mail and came back home to get some work done. Late in the afternoon, I called to order pizza and found them closed on Tuesday. We had a sandwich and soup for supper.

I got two cards done tonight. One card is another tree card, like the one I sold today. The other is a new Thanksgiving card called Thankful thoughts. This was one of my favorite stamps to use last year. Indeed we all have things to be thankful for. I enjoyed doing both cards tonight. It took my mind off all the things I would rather not think about. My mind will turn tomorrow on Saturdays football game. I must get more done than I did last Saturday night!!!Stamps copyright StampinUp. Designs copyright Sylvia Nelson 2008. Did you check out the blog roll? I have just put a few of my favorites, but there will be more.