Stampin' Up is Fun!

I was cleaning my craft desk and my youngest daughter was following me around singing, "I love Mom's Stampin' Up stuff." After I finished putting everything away I asked her if she would like to stamp. "I wanna Stampin' Up," she said. She chose 2 ink pads and Greetings, Earthling stamp set.










She told me, "Stampin' Up is fun!" I agree. Stampin' Up is fun!

Things have been busy around here so I haven't been able to get a make and take posted yet. I'm hoping to get one posted this Monday. I've been working on holiday ideas and getting really excited about the holiday season.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Make & Take Monday

When I'm out and about I've always got an eye out searching for cute little gifts or fun things to alter and make crafty. I had found little flower growing kits packaged in a tiny flower pot with soil and seeds inside. Super cute. So bought a few thinking I could decorate them and give as a thank you or something. While visiting one of my favorite websites Splitcoast Stampers I came across these adorable paper watering cans. Right then I knew it would be perfect for my tiny flower pot. I was hoping the flower pot would fit down inside but the top was too large. I'm still in love with how it turned out! 



Since it is so easy and so cute I thought I'd share it for Make & Take Monday. Because there is a printable template it took little time to put it all together.

Step 1
Print the template from the link below on cardstock or patterned paper and cut out the four pieces: watering can body, spout, curved handle and back handle. Stamp any designs at this time.

Watering Can Template

Step 2
Working on the "wrong" side of the paper, score and fold the dashed red lines on the watering can body. I also inked the edges and folds to add depth.

Step 3
Apply adhesive to the folds on the "right" side of the paper and bring sides together to form the can body.

Step 4
Curve the front flaps and tuck into the sides of the watering can using a dab of adhesive to keep in place.

Step 5
Take the spout and fold with "wrong" sides turned to the inside as indicated by the red dashed lines in the template.

Step 6
Apply adhesive to the end of the spout's inner sides to hold them together.

Apply adhesive to the base of the spout and attach to the front of the watering can body.

Step 7
Attach the curved top handle ensuring that the handle curves to the back. (I didn't add this to my example because the flower pot would not fit.)

Step 8
To cover the printed words and the other side of the designer paper I cut a second strip for the handle for the back and glued the wrong sides together.
Fold the handle for the back on the dashed red lines as indicated in the template.

Step 9
Attach to the back of the can to form a ‘D’ shape.

Step 10
Now your can is ready to be decorated!





Stampin' Up Supplies:

Paper:
A Walk in the Park designer series paper (retired)
Chocolate Chip cardstock
So Saffron cardstock

Stamps:
Great Friend ( Butterfly and "for you")

Punches:
Scallop Circle
Boho Blossoms

Big Shot:
Swirls Scribbles Die


While I was working on my watering can I thought how easy it would be to use the same template to create a teapot. Of course I had to try it out right away.



I changed the spout and created a lid, tada...a teapot. I used the picture of the teapot in the background as inspiration for my little paper teapot. It is just the right size to hold a few packages of herbal tea. 

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Paper:
Whisper White cardstock
Basic Black cardstock
Melon Mambo cardstock

Stamps:
Baroque Motifs (swirls)
Cold & Cuddly (sentiment on tag)

Punches:
Boho Blossoms
Word Window
Modern Label



Two cute ideas from one template! Love it. I hope you enjoyed this Monday Make & Take. If you have any questions just ask. I'm happy to help. If you would like to purchase any Stampin' Up supplies, I'm here to help with that, too. Just email me at r.ricks@mchsi.com to place an order.
We'd all enjoy seeing what you create. Simply add a link to a photo of your creation in the comments.

Hope you have a wonderful week.

Make & Take Monday

It's already Monday again and time for Monday Make and Take! Have I got some eye candy for you...literally! LOL.
This make and take was postponed due to my little goblin and ghouls gobbling up the goodies while mummy was away.
I've been searching the world wide web for fun Halloween ideas and found these candies. Once I found these I knew I wanted to create a jar of eyeballs to go along with my spell book and other potions set out for Halloween. I found this jar at the local craft store. I collected some eyeballs, filled my jar, and created an eyeball label. My little goblin and ghouls LOVE them and they taste really good, too.


To make the eye candy you will need:
-Lindt White chocolate truffles
-Cookie icing (because it hardens)in the eye color of your choice
-Chocolate cookie icing for the pupil


Create a circle in the eye color icing then fill it with the chocolate icing. Let the icing set for 4 hours (or what is instructed on your icing package) before placing in the container.


Tip: I scrunched up the wrapper to lay the truffle in while I decorated it and let the icing set so it didn't roll every where. Eyeballs can be slippery little guys.


There you go. Super easy but so cool.


To create the label you will need:
1 1/4" circle punch
1" circle punch
1/2" circle punch
Basic Black and Whisper White cardstock
Cardstock in the eye color of your choice
Black ink and sponge
White Uni-ball Signo Gel Pen
Adhesive

Step one:
Punch a 1 1/4" circle in Whisper White cardstock.
Punch a 1" circle in the eye color cardstock.
Punch a 1/2" circle in Basic Black cardstock.

Step two:
Ink the edges of the eye color circle with black ink and sponge.

Step three:
Adhere the eye color circle on top of the white circle.
Adhere the black circle into the center of the eye color circle.

Step four:
Add a catch light to the black circle with the white gel pen.

Step five:
Attach your eyeball to your project.



I centered one eyeball onto the stamped image from the stamp set Gallery. The eyeball was just the right size to for the center! I also attached one to the the top of the jar because it was a perfect fit.

I hope you enjoyed the make and take. I plan to have more Halloween goodies and packaging ideas soon. If I can keep little goblin and ghoul fingers out of the goodies, that is.

Have a lovely Monday.

Just A Few Reasons...

why I SO want the Pop-up Three Tier Cake Die (used with the Big Shot die cutting machine) from Stampin' Up!

These examples by Mary Jo Albright




This example from Michelle Tech


These two examples from Heather Summers
(She used it upside down as a flower pot. How clever!)




When I first saw this die I couldn't see past the "cake" to all of these wonderful ideas! Thanks to all of these super creative ladies, now I HAVE to have it!

The good news...
It's on sale this week only for $25.49 instead of $39.95! I'm totally snatching it up at that price. The sale ends this weekend so email me at r.ricks@mchsi.com before Saturday evening (October 17th) and place your order to take advantage of this awesome deal!

On another note...since Monday is just around the corner, (I can not believe tomorrow is Friday. Where did the week go?) I think I'll just wait until Monday to post my Make & Take. Sorry I'm a slacker this week!

Have wonderful evening.

Looking Sweet

Sorry, it looks like Monday Make & Take is going to be late again! I had a sick little one all weekend and today I'm getting things ready for our Stamp Club Meeting this evening. I am working on something cool to share for the make and take though so check back later this week!

You may have noticed I changed some things on the blog other than just the new look. You can click on the buttons below the header to take you different places on the blog. You can now search the blog in the search box on the left. You can search for certain Stampin' Up products to see how I've used them or you can search project types, like basket, and you'll see all the posts that included basket in the text. Pretty cool! I've also updated my blog button. It's a little further down on the left if you'd like to grab it and share it on your blog.

Since I'm not ready to share the make and take I thought I would at least share something for you to look at while you wait.

This is one of my all time favorite photos of my youngest. I may be biased, but she sure looks sweet in pig tails.

The paper with the cupcakes I made myself! The first time I've ever used paper I stamped myself, so I'm pretty excited. I stamped the cupcake from the hostess stamp set in the last catalog called It's a Loop Thing in a triangle pattern turning the stamp each time. Then I colored them in with Stampin' Write markers and Blender pens.


I created a custom brad using the Build-a-Brads and the cupcake from the Short & Sweet stamp set.


For the title I used pink foam letters and Stampin' Up's chipboard letters from On Board Loads of Letters.


Stampin' Up items used to create this layout :

Paper
Regal Rose stripe - Rock-a-Bye Girl Scrappin' kit (retired)
Chocolate Chip polka dot - Bella Rose (retired)
Pink Pirouette (retired)
Kraft
Whisper White

Chipboard
Loads of Letters #112084

Stamps
Short & Sweet #115060
Frames with a Flourish (retired but you can now purchase the digital stamp to print and use)

Die Cuts
Top Note #113463

Punches
Slit punch #104388
1/2 Circle punch (center of Build-a Brad) #104390
Scallop Edge punch #112091

Embellishments
Build-a-Brad Pewter #109128

Remember you can email me to order these items or if you have a question about any Stampin' Up products. I'm here to help.

Non Stampin' Up Items
pink foam letters
brown polka dot ribbon

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful week!

Make & Take Monday...a little late

Sorry so late. With our children out of school this week for fall break it has been a little crazier than normal.

I wanted to make a little thank you for a friend. She has been teaching girls ages 8 - 12 at our church how to sew. I knew I wanted it to have a sewing theme. I saw a sewing kit while out shopping and thought the tiny spools of thread and scissors were super cute. I grabbed it thinking I could use it somehow. I thought a sewing basket would be cute. I googled sewing baskets and a pretty nantucket basket came up in the search. So I took the basket I made last month with my stamp club and tweeked it a little bit more using the nantucket handles as inspiration. I really like how it turned out and thought you may enjoy learning how to make one as well.

I created the basket idea using a basket called 2, 4, 6...I think. Then just built the design from that.



You will need:
6x6 square carstock or designer paper
2 one half x 6 inch strips of cardstock or designer paper
scoring tool
scissors
1" circle punch
corner rounder
4 brads
adhesive

Step one
Score your 6x6 inch square at 2 inches and 4 inches
Turn and score again at 2 inches and 4 inches
The scored lines will create something that looks like a tic-tac-toe board

Step Two
Following the score lines cut 2 inches deep at the 2 inch line and 4 inch line
Do the same on the opposite side
It will look like this:


Step Three
Cut the center flap into a triangle and both side flaps into thirds.
Like this:


Step Four
Trim 1/4 " off of the 2nd and 3rd strips (counting from the outside edge)


Step Five
Starting with the first and longest strip bring the two side together and attach.
Then layer the next two and then the last two.


Then attach the triangle flap on top of the flaps.
(I inked the edges of everything first to give it more depth)


Step Six
Punch two 1" circles. Attach them over the points of the triangle. (I trimmed the point off before attaching the circle)


Step Seven
Cut two 1/2" x 6" strips. Use a corner rounder on the ends.


Attach about 3/4 inches from the end of the basket with brads.


Step Eight
Decorate!

You can add layers of paper onto the bakset, line the inside, create an edge, stitch on the basket, so much potiential.

I kept this one simple.


I wanted to cover up the brad backs so I added a strip of scallop edge paper on the inside.


Then I punched a tag using the Curly Label punch. I stamped "thank you" and then stitched the word "sew" below. Since I don't have a small stamp that says much I just hand wrote it under "sew." I added a button and used embroidery floss to tie the tag to the basket.



Inside I have 4 tiny spools of thread wrapped in a strip of Window Sheet paper to keep them in place, tiny scissors, and a tiny wrist pin coushin I made.


I used this tutorial (click here)to make the pin coushin. The only thing I changed was, I added the elastic by punching holes on opposite sides using the cropodile, threaded the elastic through and tied it in knots at the ends.

The COOLEST thing about this basket design is you can make the same basket in 3 different sizes!! You can use a 6x6 inch square, a 9x9 inch square, or a 12x12 inch square. Just score your square into thirds and go from there. So I HAD to try out the largest. All put together it measures 4 inches deep and just under 7 inches across!



Again I kept the decorating simple this time.


I filled this one with a bag of tortillia chips, a packet of seasonings to use to make the best chili ever, and the recipe.

I wasn't really planning on making this basket so I didn't have all the things I'd like to add on hand. I think a nice pot holder and laddle would be nice added to this gift basket. Instead of chips a cornbread kit and a small decorative muffin tin may fit. Tons of ideas! You can decorate this with so many themes and fill it with so many goodies.



Hope you think it was worth the wait, since I was late.

I'd love to see any of your decorated baskets and ideas. Just leave a link to a photo of your creations in the comments so we can all be inspired.

Have fun creating!

Winner and a Haunted Milk Carton

Thanks so much for your nice comments on my Cute Cards and Cute Case, Too. Comments really make my day!



I went over to random.com and generated a random number for the winner. I'm not sure how to copy the web page and add it here but the number that was generated was 3 - Keeley.
Keeley Kirwan said...
"Those turned out super cute. Love the card box!!"
Congrats, Keeley! I'll get it all sent out to you ASAP.

I plan on setting everything up and offering the case template for you to purchase soon, so keep an eye out for that!

Now onto the haunted milk carton...



We have been enjoying cooler weather and the beginnings of the fall season so I've been in the mood to create something Halloween-y. I came across a milk carton template and thought it had perfect potential as a halloween treat holder. As I played around with the template it started looking like a house to me so I took that idea and ran with it. I pulled out every Halloween themed stamp set and played for hours. My kids, and even my husband, think it is so cool with all the details. I really enjoyed creating it and thinking of all the little things I added here and there. I love how the images curve around the corners creating the scene.



The windows have Window Sheets placed behind them. I sanded them a little with sand paper to rough it up to look like old beat up windows.









I used a gel pen to draw the spider and his web in the corner of the window.



To finish it off I tied black gingham ribbon around the top and added a tag and button.



To find a milk carton template just google milk carton template and lots will pop up. I changed the template I found to be taller. I also added a flap across the top so that you can simply lift the flap to open the box. The flaps are held closed by two super thin magnets that I cut from magnet sheets.



Stampin' Up supplies used:

Paper and Cardstock
Textured Basic Black
Perfect Plum
Pumpkin Pie
Whisper White
Kiwi Kiss

Window Sheet Medium

Punches
Scallop Edge Punch
Word Window
Corner Rounder

Stamp Sets
Batty for You
Holiday Best (Hostess Set)
Scary Skeleton

Retired Stamp Sets
A Howling Good Time
Spooktacular Greetings

Ribbon
Black Gingham

Other supplies:
orange button
black brad

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my little haunted house.