Stamping with Karen

Trick-or-Treat! Happy Halloween!! Last Minute Halloween Cards!

Wow!  This morning a black cat ran right across the street in front of my car as I was driving back into my neighborhood!  Is that real Halloween or what?!  I know it is bad luck to have a black cat cross your path, so that freaked me out a little bit!  Hopefully today will be nothing but good luck because I love Halloween (it would help if we had some fall leaves here in Houston!) and I get to see my boys.  One was nearly born a Halloween goblin because he arrived just 45 minutes before Halloween!  But that was twenty years ago!  More about his birthday card later.

I usually have a lot of trick-or-treaters at my house, but it is often about 80 degrees, at least when the kids start out after dinner, sweating in their costumes.  When I was growing up in St. Louis it was often a problem on Halloween with the weather being very cold, and we had to wear a winter coat.....either over our costume, which meant no one could see the costume, or under the costume, which of course looked ridiculous!  "Back in the olden days" we always had to have a joke ready to tell people before they would give us candy.  I don't think they do that anymore.

Here are some Halloween cards I've made (okay, mostly copied from somebody else!) to help celebrate the day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

San Antonio Regional Swaps!

Here are the swaps I received just spread out on my kitchen table to give you a quick look!  I'll try to feature my favorite ones later on.  You can click on the photo for a closer look.

 

Shelli Makes Holiday Table Settings

Look what I just found!!  I was reading Shelli's blog (founder and CEO of Stampin' Up! of course) and saw that she had an appearance on an NBC station in Utah.  She shows how to make easy holiday place settings using the Curly Label Punch Bundle (item #112966, page 189...only $33.95 for the punch itself and four stamps!).  Such simple and fun ways to make your holiday table so pretty for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's!  She also has a VERY cute pillow box favor made with the Big Shot!  You won't want to miss this!

And here is a link to the Utah TV station where you will find a list of supplies and directions on how to make the projects shown:

http://studio5.ksl.com/?nid=61&sid=4573672

Enjoy!!

My San Antonio Regional Swap Cards

Here are my swaps I took to the Stampin' Up! San Antonio Regional held yesterday and today.

 

This one I stamped with a set in the Holiday Mini called "A Happy Heart".  I also used the Spiral Punch on the side of the tic-tac-toe.  The little heart in the middle square is popped up with a dimensional and so is the big heart.  The designer paper is the fabulous Bella Rose.

 

And this one is the famous "Mr. Twigster" in the Holiday Mini.  I guess you either love him or hate him since lots of people say snowmen don't have legs.  But he was quite popular as a swap yesterday and I enjoyed making the card!  I used the snowflakes from "Merry and Bright" and stamped with white Craft ink.  The greeting comes from "Season of Joy".  I added a little Dazzling Diamonds Glitter for the snow at the feet of Mr. Twigster after coloring just a little bit of blue ink with my Aqua Painter.

You can click on the photos to make them larger.

Halloween Witch Hat Card

Here is a picture of the card I made for our demo group swap.  I saw it in a magazine and changed it a little bit.  It didn't give directions, but I just cut two triangles and then the band on the bottom has a fold which holds the triangles together.  The stars are punched, of course, and the big one is sprinkled with our chunky glitter, adhered with some Tombow Multi glue.  Fun card to make!

 

 

 

Fall and Halloween Swaps

Our "demo group" meets once a month and we always enjoy making some project, swapping, and having lunch.  We still refer to it as our demo group, even though not everyone is a Stampin' Up! demo, but it is still fun.  That's why not everything you see here is Stampin' Up! but it displays a lot of talent regardless.  So here is a photo of all the swaps I received last week!

Stampin' Up! Heat Tool to the Rescue--Again!

I know I have posted about this before (this post)....but I'm going to tell you again!  Stampin' Up! has a fantastic heat tool (on page 190 of the catalog) which we all know is sold for embossing, using Heat & Stick Powder, and also for heat-setting pigment ink.  But I think they should list one more use....unsticking Sticky Strip!  This week I have used the heat tool for lots of embossing, but last night I was working on a project, an album, where each page was attached using Sticky Strip.  Sure enough, when I got to the end, I realized I should have had one more placement of Sticky Strip and had to move all the pages since they were different sizes in this particular project.  I could have started all over (or left out one page), but I decided to try and see if I could redo it.  I just aimed that Heat Tool at the area adhered with the Sticky Strip and yes, I was able to peel back the cardstock without ruining it and got everything in the right place with new Sticky Strip.  I might have been able to restick it with the same tape but didn't want to take that chance since this is an album.  Sticky Strip is a great adhesive but when you do mess something up it is difficult to just unstick it......unless you use your Stampin' Up! Heat Tool!  Try it!

Easy Gift Wrap

Like a lot of people recently, I have been excited about making Halloween cards and papercrafts, and that is how I first saw this idea....as a candy wrapper.  The first one I made, after seeing a lot of them on the internet (where I spend way too much time, but I love all the ideas!) is for Halloween.  I think the idea and directions I first saw came from another demo, Diana Gibbs.  Here is my Halloween one:

 

This is a 6x6 piece of the Halloween Designer Paper (page 170) in the Idea Book & Catalogcalled "Ghostly Greetings".  You'll need a piece of Sticky Strip tape along one side at the edge, and I just used some SNAIL on the two sides.  I placed a small bag of candy in the center and folded the side with no Sticky Strip down over it, like when wrapping a package, and folded the side with the Sticky Strip up to adhere.  The two ends are then crimped which helps hold them shut while also adding interest to the package.  I added just a simple "belly band" with black and Pumpkin Pie cardstock and stamped with that old favorite, "Itty Bitty Backgrounds"!  The tag is stamped with the new set in the Holiday Mini on page 5 called "Eat, Drink & Be Scary" and has a little bow made with the  SU black hemp twine.  So easy and too cute!

A couple days later I needed a quick package for my niece, Carrie, and wanted just a flat little package that wouldn't take much effort in mailing!  I happened to think of this same idea for gift wrapping and then I could just slip it into a mailing envelope and get it sent out quickly in the mailbox.  I had a little necklace for her so I chose some retired designer paper and made the same type of package.

 

To decorate the package, I stamped her initial with the wonderful stamp set, "Lovely Letters" and used the circle punches and the Scallop Circle Punch.  The belly band is just a piece of the coordinating designer paper.  Both ends are crimped with the "crimper" on page 192 although it doesn't show up very well in this photo.  The Crimper has been around as long as I can remember but it sure has its uses!

If you need any of these supplies to simplify your gift wrapping, check out my 24/7 online ordering at www.karenfontinelle.stampinup.net.

Need a Birthday Card Idea?

 

We all need a good stock of birthday cards on hand, so while Stampin' Up! is offering a 20th Birthday Party Special, this is a good time to stock up on great birthday stamp sets!  This is a card I made today for World Card Making Day.  I used the set "Party Hearty" on page 63 of the Idea Book & Catalogwhich is on sale now for $21.56 after a $20 purchase of regular catalog merchandise.

For the card base I used Pink Pirouette card stock, with a layer of Bella Rose Designer Paper.  The narrow strip of pink across the card is also a piece of Bella Rose DSP.  What a fabulous package of paper!  So many beautiful choices!  The main image I inked up with Pink Pirouette and then used a Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker to go over the words, since it was a darker color than the pink.  After stamping that piece, I scribbled some Pink Pirouette with a blender pen on a scrap piece of Whisper White and then stamped the little package stamp with Chocolate Chip over it.  That allowed the package to be colored in pink.  I punched that out with my 1/2' Circle Punch and put it on a Build A Brad.  These are cute little accents that I haven't often used.  Before inserting that in the center of the "b", I used my 2-Way Glue Pen and some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter to glitter up the letter.  Just for an added look, I clipped the corners of the layers with the Ticket Corner Punch on page 188.  The little flowers along the strip of pink are punched with the Trio Flower Punch (the one that came in the Punch Kit last year).  I punched both white and pink flowers and then layered them and used a gold brad in the center.  It seemed to be just the right touch to finish off this card.

When you are ready to order your stamp sets and supplies, just contact me or use the new Online Ordering by going to my website:  www.karenfontinelle.stampinup.net and clicking on the "Shop Now" button in the upper right corner!

Simply Sent Flower Power--Simple to Make!

Stampin' Up! is outdoing themselves this month with special offers.  Besides the Birthday Party promotion on stamp sets I wrote about in this post, Stampin' Up! is offering a special discount on our Simply Sent Kits on pages 176-177 of the Fall-Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalog.  During the week of October 4-11, in honor of World Card Making Day on October 4, you will be able to purchase any of these Card Elements or Card Kits for 20% off!  These kits are just great for beginning stampers who might not have a lot of supplies yet or even for experienced stampers as well who like the idea of everything right there in a kit.  I have given a couple of these as gifts and the recipients seemed to enjoy them even with no stamping experience. 

Here are some cards I made with the Flower Power Card Elements kit.  I also shared a portion of the kit with my stamp camp attendees last weekend so they could make an easy card for World Card Making Day.  You can see that with the ideas Stampin' Up! gives you in the kit you can jump off from there and start making your own designs.

 

If you are interested in any of these Simply Sent Kits, don't miss the window of opportunity the week of October 4-11 to purchase these at 20% off.  Contact me or try the new online ordering from my website at www.KarenFontinelle.stampinup.net.  Just click on the Shop Now button in the upper right corner.