Christmas Scrap Book Pages

I love how these pages came out using Stampin' Up!'s "I Wish" Simply Scrappin' Kit. The great thing about these kits is you can make so many pages from one kit and all the colors are coordinated. Also, the stickers come with it for making fast and easy scrapbook pages.

I am officially done Christmas shopping. I finished the last of my Christmas cards and plan to mail them out today. Now to work on the scrapbook pages for the gifts I plan to give to my parents, in-laws and neice...

Evan's Birthday Present

We were invited to my neighbor's son's birthday party and I wanted to make something special to give him. So I made him a scrap book using SU!'s On Board 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" Album. I started it for him too with three different pages for capturing those memories of his upcoming occasions (his birthday and Christmas.)

I plan to start a scrapbook class with my Mom & Me group in January so I can start one for each of my boys.

Frosty the Snowman Card

Here's the card we'll be making tomorrow morning at the Mom and Me Class. I used the 1 1/4" punch for the eyes, the 1" punch for the nose and the 1/2" inch punch for the mouth. The white card stock is 3 7/8 X 3 1/4". The rim is 4 1/4" by 1" and the top of the hat measures 2 1/2" X 3 1/4". For the stitching I used a white gel pen. The flowers are SU's felt ones. I used pixie pink on the cheeks with a sponge. And I used dazzlinig diamonds on the eyelids. The idea came from Dawn Griffith's blog who got it from someone else. But I loved it and creativity is all about imitation. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Gingerbread House

We made our gingerbread house last night using the Wilton's Gingerbread House Making Kit. My boys really love doing this and the best part is you get to eat the frosting and all the candies that fall off. Yum!

Preparing for Mom & Me Class

These are the ornaments we'll be making this Saturday at my Mom & Me Class! The ornaments I got at my local AC Moore and I used the Christmas Rub Ons and Old Olive and Robinhood Red cardstock cut in 1/8" or so strips and crimped them. then I used SU!'s coordinating ribbon to finish them off.

Making More Christmas Presents

My husband took our three boys swimming at our local YMCA and I finished my parents, in-laws and my neices Christmas presents! I still need to create the scrapbook pages. These are Stampin' Up's new 8 1/2" by 8 1/2" on board scrapbooks and they are the perfect size for getting started scrapbooking; not too overwhelming like the 12" X 12" pages and not so small that you can only fit one picture like the 6" X 6" brag books. I've already ordered all the pictures I plan to scrap, now just to budget some more time to complete the pages.

Dazzling Diamond Snowflake Card

I designed this card using the trendy colors that are out this season, chocolate chip and baja breeze. I added really rust for interest. I used my Big Shot Die Cutting Machine with the Sizzix snowflake dies and covered them with dazzling diamonds on baja breeze card stock using a versamark pad, heat and stick powder and a heating element. The circles were made with 1 1/4", 1" and 3/4 " circle punches all from Stampin' Up!

Starting My Christmas Cards

The Holiday Season is upon us and little by little I'm making my Christmas cards! This is just one of the designs I'll be sending this year. For this card, I used Stampin' Up!'s Window Dressing Stamp and Best Yet Stamp Sets, Kraft, Real Red and Whisper White cardstock, Scallop and 1 1/4" circle punch, Stazon black ink, Real Red Stampin' Write, Baja Breeze classic pad, Blender Pens, and Real Red 1/2" striped grosgrain ribbon. Come back to see more designs later in the month...

"So Thankful For You" Mom & Me Class

My kids and I made adorable Thanksgiving place settings at my Mom & Me Class this Saturday for everyone who will be coming to Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Some of our family cannot make it to our house this year and so we spent this time also writing notes that we will miss them and wishing they could join us. I hope they will all be encouraged. Can't wait for our Christmas Mom & Me. One of the projects we will be making are homemade ornaments for our tree!

Working on my Christmas Gifts...

My neices are getting digital cameras this year for Christmas and so when I asked my sister in law what I could get them this year, she said "photo albums!" I love how these came out. I used the Naturally Serif Alphabet Die in my Big Shot Machine to cut out the letters. Good thing my neices don't know about my blog...

Our wood stove is in!

It took awhile but our long awaited wood stove was installed just in time for Halloween. I made my homemade chicken soup and we had some friends come over to enjoy it with us. Looking forward to the cold weather and the Holidays!

A NASCAR Halloween

We decided to dress up as NASCAR people this year. Zack and Harry like Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, and so they wanted to be them for Halloween. So we decided to be the "officials for NASCAR and you can't see it but Hunter has a t-shirt with a tire mark on it. We had fun!

My Birthday Present!

As you all know, Stampin' Up! came out with the Big Shot Die Cutting Machine this fall and it's been so popular that it's been on back order. Well, mine finally shipped and I should be receiving it October 29th just two days after my birthday. I was hoping to get it on my birthday but I'll take what I can get. Anyway, that means I will be using it in my classes, which means you will be using it in my classes if you decide to sign up for them. See my class schedule below for upcoming classes or send me an e-mail to sign up for my free newsletter. Hope to see you soon!

Preparing for Our Pumpkin Painting Party...

Every year our family holds a pumpkin painting party to get together with the neighborhood families and their children. These are some of the things I made for the party using Stampin' Up! products. The popcorn balls were a deal from Walmart at $3.94 for 18. I unwrapped them and rewrapped them in SU's medium clear cellophane bags (4"X6" flat) at $4.50 for 50 of them. Then I tied them with white twistie ties and tied them again with SU's Pumpkin Pie 1/4 " Grosgrain Ribbon. The chocolates are Hershey's Nuggets wrapped in SU's Ghostly Greetings Designer Series Paper cut into 3" X 1" strips monoadhered around the wrapper. Enjoy!

Color Inspiration #1

Okay, so I saw these colors on the cover of the September Issue of Better Home and Gardens and I knew I had to design a card using them. They remind me of all the beautiful colors on the leaves at this time of the year. If anyone would like to participate, feel free and I will post your cards here. The colors I used were Stampin' Up's Only Orange, Orchid Opulence and Rose Red. I used the Ghostly Greetings Designer Series Papers in Pumpkin Orange and Only Orange, Orchid Opulence, Whisper White Cardstock and 1" Rose Red Double Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon. And of course I used the Pocket Sillouettes Stamp Set.

Phyllis' Stamping Night Out

My friend, Phyllis, loves to stamp and to get her fix she books a special class with me regularly just for her and her daughter and her daughters' friends. They are freshmen in high school and they all really enjoy stamping. Here's what Phyllis chose to make at the class. What a great way to spend mother-daughter time and have a fun night out, too.

Lydia's Welcome Home Cake

As you know, our friends Marc and Margaret adopted a little girl from China. We are having a shower for her this weekend and I was asked to make the cake! So here is what I came up with. I got the idea from the e-vite invitation picture that was sent for the party. Her theme is a song bird.

Pumpkin Painting Party Invitations!

My husband and I love Halloween and every year we hold our annual neighborhood pumpkin painting party. I'm so excited! I always look forward to making special invitations and the best part is that I typed the details on a sticky note piece of paper so our friends can actually use the card after they get the necessary information! Happy October!

Halloween Mom & Me Class

We always have so much fun at my Mom & Me classes and this one was no exception! We had a full house and we all took home these goodies...

What I love about these classes is that the mom's seem to have as much fun as the kids if not more.

MaryJo's Birthday Present

I made this picture for my sister in law, MaryJo, for her birthday. It reminds me of her because she has passion in her life. In fact, all of my husband's sisters have passion in their lives. It reminds me that everything we do big or small matters.

Back to School Scrap

This is one of the pages from my Back to School Scrap class we had last night. We used Stampin' Up's "U R Sweet" Simply Scrappin' Kit and the spiral punch. I love it! We had a lot of fun.

Cape May Get Away

We went to Cape May over Labor Day Weekend. This was our last hoorah before school started. This is a picture of the Cape May Lighthouse (below). We usually go up it every time we get out here but didn't go this time. Instead we went to Sunset Beach and watched the amazing sunset there. (Above)

While out here I wanted to find some colors to get inspired with and came up with a bunch! I will be posting them later on and will be sharing them with you.

A gift for Carolyn

Can you tell I just love these sunflowers? My sister-in-laws birthday is coming up Sept 1st and I just know she is going to love this little note card box. She is going through a difficult time right now in her life and I wanted to encourage her with something very special. I included in her card the following scripture: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight." Prov. 3:5-6. I love this scripture although sometimes it's very hard to apply to life.

New Catalog Mystery Hostess Party

We had fun at my New Catalog Mystery Hostess Party. To the left are the two projects we made and my two friends who came walked away with prizes! The other orders came from my friends who couldn't be there but placed orders over $35.00 qualifying them for the mystery hostess drawing. The total for the workshop was $300.oo and three happy women got to split up the hostess benefits! Claudia got the level 1 or 2 stamp set, Madelyn got $20.00 worth of free merdandise from the catalog, and Michelle got $15.00 worth of free merchandise from the catalog. Congratulations to you all!

Faux Metal Technique Tuesday

There are two different techniques involved here: one is basic embossing (So Kind card) and the other is impression embossing (Friend card). We had so much fun making these cards! Impression embossing involves covering your whole surface area with embossing powder 3 times and on the third time you need to quickly stamp the image you'd like impressed on the faux metal. Enjoy!

Faux Metal Technique Tuesday

Aren't these metal tags the coolest? We made these and more at my Faux metal Technique Tuesday class this week. It is such an economical way to get the look of those pricey metal tags at a fraction of the cost.

Welcome Lydia!

I made this brag book for my friends, Marc and Margaret, who just adopted a little girl from China! Her name is Lydia. We're having a shower for them later this month or next and I plan to give this to them then. This was made with Stampin' Ups! new stamp set called "sock monkey." I love it!

Scratch and Sniff Technique Tuesday

We had a blast at this class last night! Nine of us stamped, laughed and explored our creativity while making three great scratch and sniff cards (see above). Just a reminder, to make the powder use 1 part sugar free cherry Kool-Aid, cinnamon or finely ground coffee to 1 1/2 parts clear embossing powder or heat and stick powder.

Personalized Stationery Kits for Sale!!!

Check out my new personalized stationery kits for sale at stamping maryann's shop. I made these for my 4 nieces in their favorite colors for their upcoming birthdays and also for my sister, Kathi, who is turning 50. I know she will love one of these, too. If you would like to order one in a different color then the ones shown, just let me know!

Technique Tuesday Faux Class

We had a great time at my faux class last night. We did faux leather, faux postage and faux linen techniques. Here is a picture of the cards that we made...Happy Stamping!