Stampin’ Up! has several new kits available to you to make papercrafting easy! For a small gift package, perhaps for a gift card, consider the A Little Sumthin’ Sumthin’ Gift Box Kit that comes with cute pillow boxes, good for men, women or children and all the supplies to jazz it up a bit!  Watch Sara Douglass in the video below explain the contents of the kit and how to assemble it! Good thing to do on a hot summer day!

And if you are into the chalkboard style of decorating you’ll be interested in the new Chalkboard Banner Simply Created Kit.

To purchase any of the Stampin’ Up Simply Created Kits, just go to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store!

I actually got my flip album decorated yesterday that I first told you about in THIS POST and mailed off for a gift. You can see the way it folds from the photos on that blog post better there than here. I have to say I had so much fun decorating this flip album and coming up with ideas, but finally ran out of time and wanted to get it in the mail. I usually start out kind of slow, not many ideas of what to do, and then maybe I’ll look through all my stamp sets to see what words or images might be appropriate. I almost always look online for ideas, maybe by the stamp set name, paper name, or accessory name, or something like “paper flowers”. Out of all that, my brain will usually start coming up with its own ideas or I can just copy. The more you stamp and design, even in one day, the better you will get at it! In a little while, I had so many ideas and was having so much fun, I didn’t want to stop. I hope the recipient will like it, From the first time I saw one of these flip albums (that’s what I call it anyway) I thought it was one of the neatest things I’d ever seen!

The designer paper I used is Sweet Sorbet from Sale-A-Bration that isn’t available any more, but maybe you have some, or you can substitute something else.  Mainly I chose the colors that went with the designer paper (you can see the list on the back of every designer paper package now). That makes it easy to coordinate everything without thinking! The “Oh Happy Day” is from Starburst Sayings. The Gold Foil is cut out with the Starburst Framelits Dies. Now the “Oh Happy Day actually stamps as a starburst but you can very carefully punch it out in a circle with the 2 1/2″ Circle Punch.

These pages are just inside the front cover. I used the On Film Framelits. The little camera is stamped with the Peachy Keen Stamp Set. The filmstrips are stamped with the single stamp, Filmstrip, which retired and I think is no longer available.

I stamped the smaller image in So Very Grateful with ink the same color as the cardstock Crisp Canteloupe. 

Just use whatever strikes your fancy! You can leave some pages plain so there will be room for photos and memorabilia. Also, be careful when adhering elements. Maybe just adhere the corners where no photo is going to go and then leave the other corner free so a photo can be slid underneath.

I hope you will try a flip album!  It really is fun and easy to do after you do the first one!

For any stamping supplies and accessories, just visit my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

This flip album is something I haven’t made in several years, but I’ve always thought it was one of the neatest ideas ever! This one is going to be a gift, hopefully. It’s not even that hard to make, although it appears to be very complicated.  I think these albums are so much fun! I’m not sure what the official name of it is, but I think I’ve always known it as a Flip Album and there are other variations.

This flip album isn’t finished yet, but it is the basic layout. Now I need to go through and add some embellishments of some kind. But since the pages are relatively small, I don’t want to add too much and not leave room for photos.  I will post pictures when I finish it up. The paper I used is the beautiful paper from Sale-A-Bration 2014 called Sweet Sorbet. I chose that based on my paper supplies and what I thought the person would like who I plan to give this album to. You do need some 12×12 paper in order to make this.

So now I need to go finish up my little flip album and hopefully get it in the mail today!

Why don’t you take an old idea and make something new with it today?!

For any stamping supplies, retiring products, Weekly Deals, the new Endless Birthday Wishes Photopolymer Stamp Set, please visit my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

Today is National Chocolate Chip Day!  Could there be a better holiday?!  Have you ever just dug into a bag of chocolate chip morsels to get your chocolate fix? Think of all the chocolate chip cookies that have been baked and all the variations that exist!

And who would celebrate this day more than anyone but Cookie Monster!  If you have baked some chocolate chip cookies as a gift for someone, you could put a few in this Stampin’ Up! Decorative WIndow Gift Box and decorate the box with a cute punch art Cookie Monster! He’s so fun and easy to make and you can vary the size or even make him into a card.  For this box, I punched his face with the 2 3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch. His mouth is die-cut with a 2″ Circle Framelit and then part cut off to look like a mouth. His eyes are punched with the 1/2″ Circle Punch and the circle in the Itty BItty Punch Pack. The all important cookie is punched with the 1″ Circle Punch and the eaten part punched out with the 7/8″ Scallop Punch.  I just colored in the chocolate chips with the Early Espresso Stampin’ Write Marker rather than deal with glueing tiny dots! You can use Stampin’ Dimensionals to pop up certain parts or the whole Cookie Monster face.

And now I think I will go bake some chocolate chip cookies to put inside that box!

Need some punches for your collection?  Just shop at my Online Store!

For some St. Patrick’s Day fun, make a cute leprechaun hat. This is an easy craft that would be fun to do with your child perhaps. Start with a toilet paper roll or part of a paper towel roll. Make yours as tall or short as you like. Cut a piece of green card stock that will fit around your roll. Mine was a toilet paper roll and I cut a piece of Garden Green card stock 4″ x 6″ to fit around it. That gave a slight overlap in the back. For the top of the hat, I punched a circle with the 1 3/4″ Circle Punch. Just add  a little bead of glue around the top rim of the roll to adhere the top of the hat. For the bottom, the hat brim, just punch a circle with the 2 1/2″ Circle Punch. You could even fill the hat with some candy or other treat before adhering to the bottom circle. For the hat band, I cut a 1/2″ strip of Basic Black card stock and wrapped around the hat. For the buckle, I punched a square with the 1″ Square Punch in Daffodil Delight card stock. The easiest way to make it look like a buckle is just to adhere a small piece of Basic Black card stock the same width as the black band in the center of the yellow square. Now it looks like a buckle without having to cut the slits. You could stamp a little something on all the paper before putting the hat together but I just punched some stars from the Champagne Glimmer Paper or you could use the Gold Foil Sheets.

St. Patrick’s Day is March 17 so it’s time to be making some fun little party favors or decorations!

Don’t forget about the Weekly Deals at Stampin’ Up! that will end for this week on Monday, March 17th. Easy to remember –  the same as St. Patrick’s Day!