"MAKE-IT-SNAPPY-MONDAY"

Today's MISM project features some really fun Stampin' Up! products that will be available in January.  That beautiful bunch of tulips wrapped in newspaper . . . don't you just love it???  That stamp, Love is Kindness, was the first item added to my pre-order, which I expedited and received early last week.  It's a total indulgence to expedite an order (perhaps a slight waste of money), but I knew that I'd be out of town during the latter part of the week and wanted to be able to have the products early enough to touch and use them.  ;-)  After tearing open the box, the first stamp set that I worked with had to be the tulips.  I colored the stamped image with Stampin' Blendabilities Markers, embossed it with a script embossing folder, lightly sponged the card stock with Soft Suede ink, applied Crystal Effects to the tulips, and then set it aside to dry.  I enjoyed working with other new products and then went out of town for the weekend--totally forgetting about my tulips--until I got home late last night and realized that I needed a MISM project.  There they were . . . laying on the shelf, waiting to be given the spotlight on a card.  On a Crumb Cake card, I adhered the brick DSP from the brand new Adventure Bound DSP Stack and, before adhering the tulip layer, I cut the left wing from an Early Espresso die-cut butterfly (isn't it gorgeous), and adhered the remaining body and wing to the stamped layer.  The sentiment, which is from another new stamp set (Moon Lake) was stamped on a scrap of card stock, rough cut with scissors, and adhered to the bottom of the card.  It's always exciting to see (and work with) brand new Stampin' Up! products, and there are so many "must haves" coming our way!  This little card is just a taste of the goodness that awaits us all on January 6th.

GOLD & SILVER NEW YEAR PARTY ENSEMBLE

You will be ready to celebrate the New Year in style with this classic Gold and Silver New Year Party Ensemble! This fun and festive set features a banner, party hat, party blowers and a card/invitation! The banner will look fabulous hanging in your home anywhere you want to add some sparkle! You can create the decorative bottom edges of the banner pieces using the Labels Collection Framelits. The party hat can either be worn or used as a focal point in a centerpiece. And don’t forget party blowers! You can make them yourself to coordinate beautifully with your party décor. They are simple to put together and make any event a celebration! For the finishing touch, the matching card is perfect for invitations for your friends and family to come and ring in the New Year!

What's not to love about the colors and sparkle of this project, which was designed by Julie?  Her tutorial, complete with full-project step-by-step photos and written instructions, is available at Craft Project Central.  Have you subscribed yet?

SNOW DAY PARTY!

Unless you live near the equator – or Florida – you’re going to have snow in the winter.  It’s inevitable, so you might as well enjoy it and have a party!  Here are some fun – and “out of the box” - ways to use the Gift Box Punch Board and All Is Calm suite from the 2014 Stampin’ Up! Holiday catalog to make party favor boxes and a basket of snow party refreshments.  Add a fun invitation and a sparkly snow banner using the Build a Banner Simply Created Kit, and you’ll have the best party ever.  If you live in an area that doesn’t get much snow, or your party is in the spring or summer, it’s easy to switch it to a “no snow” or beach party just by changing the designer series paper and colors. 

Doesn't this look like a lovely and fun project?  Anything with Glimmer Paper catches my eye these days!  The full-project photo and tutorial for this project, designed by Buffy Cooper, is available at Craft Project Central.  Have you subscribed yet?

"MAKE-IT-SNAPPY-MONDAY" . . . AND THE WINNER OF A FREE ONE-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION TO CRAFT PROJECT CENTRAL

This week's MISM project features a patriotic background technique that I have shared before (HERE).  I needed a masculine birthday card and was all too happy to do a "take two" from a few  years ago, but I wanted to make this one with as little bulk as possible.  On Naturals Ivory card stock, I placed a few swipes of ink using a Cherry Cobbler ink pad, being mindful to leave a blank space where I could sponge Night of Navy ink in the top left corner.  A torn piece of paper was placed over the top half of the card stock, and then I used a sponge to color the lower half with Soft Suede ink, letting the torn edge from the paper create a mountain in the distance.  The stamped images are from Remembering Your Birthday and Countryside stamp sets, and the stars were cut from Naturals Ivory card stock using the star punch from Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack.  The other card stock colors are Night of Navy and Cherry Cobbler.

WINNER!  WINNER!  WINNER!

With my December 1st blog post (HERE), I mentioned that I had a one-month FREE subscription to Craft Project Central to give to one lucky person. The one and only easy requirement to get your name in the drawing was to leave a comment HERE, and I promised to announce the winner today.  I appreciate each of the kind comments and the time taken to get entered in the drawing.  The winner is #15:

Sue Root

who wrote, "Great project, Regina! Useful and pretty!"

  Sue, if you'll email me at randari at hotmail dot com, 

we'll get your subscription started.

UNDER THE TREE WINDOW TREAT BOX & MONEY HOLDER

Fill this festive Window Treat Box with your favorite goodies for the perfect gift!  These boxes are easy to make, but sure to impress – and the window in the front adds just the right touch!  The coordinating money holder makes this ensemble the perfect gift for anyone on your list!

This handy project was designed by Laurie, and her tutorial (complete with written instructions and step-by-step photos) is available when you subscribe to this month's line-up of awesome tutorials at Craft Project Central.

 

CREATING PRETTY CARDS - CARD CHALLENGE #42

Each month, Craft Project Central has a Creating Pretty Cards - Card Challenge, and it's a tag this time!  How perfect since we're going to be needing a lot of tags for those Christmas gifts.  

It is a rare occasion for me to spend much time making tags.  I always need them for wrapped (or bagged) gifts, and it's embarrassing to admit that I normally find myself needing one immediately and end up grabbing a piece of card stock to write on.  Sometimes I don't even do that.  And so it's kind of a big deal that I made a tag tonight for Card Challenge #42.

Don't you love Stampin' Up!'s Glimmer paper?  If it's not already my favorite product, it must be somewhere near the top of the list.  The fun thing about my tag is that I used scraps to create the whole thing . . . scraps of Glimmer paper for the "tree" and punched star, scrap of Old Olive card stock for the sentiment, a portion of a doily, and I used leftover Santa & Co. DSP and Basic Black card stock (from a project that I was working on earlier in the day) for the actual tag.

Have you created a card for this month's Creating Pretty Cards - Card Challenge #42?  There's a FREE tutorial for the sketch in case you need it!  If you create a card and upload it to the web site, your name will be entered into a drawing for a FREE one-month subscription to Craft Project Central!  For every 10 cards uploaded to the web site, a winner will be selected!  

"ALL IS CALM" DESK ACCESSORIES GIFT SET

Get ready for the New Year by organizing your desk in fashion!! This compact and practical Calendar Easel sits atop a secret pull out drawer to store your note cards. Plus it folds flat if you needed to stow it away. The coordinating Pen Cup is an easy up-cycling project that is super fun to make! And when you buy the tutorial, you’ll see the super sweet and simple card that will make this the perfect gift set to give!

Of course, the photo above is a sneak peek of the project designed by Julie Beltramo.  When you subscribe to Craft Project Central's December edition of awesome tutorials, you'll have access to step-by-step instructions and photos for this beautiful gift set.

THINKING OF MAMAW ON HER 95th BIRTHDAY

95 years.  Say it slowly . . . ninety . . . five . . . years on this earth.  Can you imagine all of the things--the changes--mamaw has seen?  I won't give away my own age, but it is a blessing to have had my grandmother in my life this long.  Most people who are my age haven't had a grandparent for years--some don't even remember their grandparents.  To clarify, some people were young when their grandparents passed away and weren't given the chance to really know them.  Of course, there are people whose most extravagant waste of opportunity is the time they could be spending with a family treasure . . . a grandparent.  Until a year or so ago, mamaw's health was remarkably . . . amazingly . . . well, but things have been changing.  It's never easy to come up with a perfect card for a perfect little mamaw (and she would love whatever I send), but I chose this peony quilt block image (from silhouetteonlinestore.com), reduced the size of it, and made it the focal point for my card.  The sentiment that I chose is one that I felt really defines her since she has made so many quilts through the years.  Happy Birthday, dear mamaw!

"MAKE-IT-SNAPPY-MONDAY" . . . A DAY LATE

So MISM is a day late this week, but only because I was excited to share the project yesterday that I designed for the December edition of Craft Project Central.  If you like what you saw, go ahead and start your subscription and gain access to all of the awesome projects this month!

I had a hard time deciding what to share for this week's MISM project.  Even though the card might not necessarily be a snappy one to make, it's definitely not difficult.  A lot of the time that goes into making a pop-up box card is directly proportionate to the decorative accents that go on the card; therefore, you (I) control how detailed and time-intensive a card like this will be.

This card features Stampin' Up!'s Tap Tap Tap stamp set.  I haven't used this set as much as I thought I would, but that could be because prepping for holiday projects comes right behind the release of Stampin' Up!'s annual catalogs.  The colors used for this card are Crumb Cake, Hello Honey, and Mossy Meadow.  Thanks for visiting today, and don't forget to leave a comment HERE to be entered in the drawing for a FREE one-month subscription to the awesome tutorials at Craft Project Central!

MONTHLY MEMORIES ALBUM FOR CRAFT PROJECT CENTRAL & A FREE ONE-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION! GET ENTERED TO WIN!

The "Make-It-Snappy-Monday" project will be delayed this week since the project that I designed for Craft Project Central is featured today.  I hope you'll come back tomorrow to see the MISM project!  

It's a brand new month at Craft Project Central--a month filled with inspiring, creative, and fun tutorials, and this is an ideal time to get your subscription started.  There's even time to add a subscription to your Christmas Wish List.  As I mentioned, the tutorial that I designed is up first and following is the introduction that I wrote for it:

Let’s face it . . . not every stamper is a scrapbooker, but we all have dates, events, activities, milestones, etc. that we’d like to record and remember.  This Monthly Memories Album, which can stand on its own, is comprised of pockets—one for each month—with at least one card in each pocket to record (with journaling and/or photos) special events.  Of course, photos and mementos can be included or attached to the front (and/or back) of each pocket.  The whole family can be involved in recording a memory about something special for each month!  The handy gift bag features a really neat way to make sure the card doesn’t get lost or separated from the gift and, of course, there’s a gift box for the album!  This is an especially perfect gift for a New Year’s party hostess, or host your own party and give this ensemble to each of your guests!

On Monday, December 8th, I will give to a lucky winner a FREE one-month subscription to Craft Project Central.  To be entered into the drawing for the subscription, all you need to do is go HERE and leave a comment on the post where my project is featured.  Be sure to visit my blog on the 8th to see if yours was the winning name.  It's that simple!