Just can't get enough of the bunny from Mama Elephant!  The balloon was from a Hero Arts stamp set, and the sun and cloud dies are by Lawn Fawn.  Love how these collections just work together.  The background paper is actually by Lawn Fawn too, but it's hard to see in this photo.

I have more projects to share- will post again soon!

This first tag was on my mind for quite some time.. I guess you could say it was the inspiration of the class!  Although not illustrated here, you can tie the ends of the banner to a gift bag and let it hang.  You can make it larger or smaller by adding more banners. I used an EK success triangle punch, but there are several companies that make banner punches or dies now.  The letters shown here are by PTI, but in class we used the alphabet dies by Lawn Fawn.  Background paper is by Doodlebug.


This second tag was a last minute change from what was originally submitted.  I really wanted to introduce Inka Gold to the class to see if they liked it. They had a great time trying out the new product and looking at all the color options.  All of the snowflakes were old Martha Stewart punches.  The snowflake border is a memory box die. Added some crystals for embellishments and more bling.


This next tag was the last tag I worked on.  I stayed up pretty late and made more modifications this morning until I was satisfied with it.  Decided to use the new Mama Elephant stamps.  So happy the store now carries Mama Elephant!  I've been waiting for this set for almost a year!  Used the polariod stamp from an old Lawn Fawn set as the base of the tag.  Then aligned the deer from Mama Elephant and speech bubble from Lawn Fawn and stamped it together.  Then stamped the No Peeking sentiment that is also part of the Mama Elephant set.  The Merry Christmas sentiment is by Island Scrapbooking and fits perfectly on the bottom of the polaroid.  Topped it off with a bow.


I think this is my favorite tag of the set.  This was inspired by the cupcake picks you see all over the internet.  By using a BBQ skewer, you can stick the stick into any gift bag and let it pop out!  Love it!  I cut up the flags using a 2 1/2" x 7" strip of Doodlebug paper.  Then folded it around the skewere and taped it together.  You flag will look like a rectangle, but then you cut the points to make it look like a banner.  You can adjust the size of your flag depending on what you want to put on it, but I think this size came out pretty good for a gift bag.  The Santa was actually punched from the back of the scrap paper of the flag.  I used a 1" punch to punch out Santa and then a 1 1/4" white circle behind it.  Finally mounted both on a 1 3/4" scallop circle.

To secure the ribbon/baker's twine so that it doesn't keep falling off, I punched a tiny hole next to the stick on the top of the flag.  Then threaded the ribbon/baker's twine through it before tying a bow.


One of the other tags I wanted to do included a clothes pin.  I thought it would be fun to use the clothespin as an accessory to the tag, but it can also be functional to clip the tag to your gift!

Used a Memory Box tag die as the base out of kraft cardstock.  The holly border die is also by Memory Box- can you tell it's one of my favorite die companies?

The sentiment was from a Paper Smooches set, which was embossed in white to look like icing.  The mini gingerbread man is another Island Scrapbooking laser cut. Topped it off with some red pearls to look like the holly berries.

The clothespin was made by covering each side with 1/4" strip of designer paper. Then I punched a heart using an old Martha Stewart punch and added PTI button and tiny bow.  I thought this would be cute to put on some baked goods for my neighbors or work place.


My last tag was made using the envelope punch board.  If you haven't picked this up yet, you need to.  There are so many amazing projects circulating out there and new ideas are cropping up every day!  I'm amazed how much this new tool has changed how we make paper projects!

This project was inspired by the mini treat holder that is circulating on the internet.  It's meant to hold a mini candy bar and many people are using it for Halloween projects.  Since we often give candy canes at Christmas, I thought I'd adjust it a bit to fit a candy cane or money that you can then hang from a gift bag.

The dimensions are 7 1/2" x 7 1/2" cardstock and punch/score starting at the 2 5/8" mark. Then rotate and line up with the score guide and punch/score again.  After adhering it down, you will get something that looks like this.



I used the Season's Tweeting's stamp set by Lawn Fawn, a Spellbinders heart die and the Memory Box branch die to decorate.

We had a great time in class!  Need to finish up one more class next Saturday then its craft fair prep time!

Here's the back of the box.  Used a different paper from the collection since they all work together nicely.

Oh yah, don't forget the fringe from the Tim Holtz trims set.  I had a hard time using it on other projects but it worked nicely on this one.

And here's a shot of the box when it's open.


Here's a close up of the lens and the goodies inside.


I had so much fun making this simpler version of the box.  Less engineering involved but same great results!

Don't forget to check out the Sister Stamps blog for sneak peeks at our upcoming release!

Cut the birdy up using red cardstock and stamped his breast using another old Hero Arts heart flourish clear stamp in gold.  Inside the cage, I cut a pinecone using my Tim Holtz tattered pinecone die (finally!)  I totally missed the season last year and bought it in February.  I was happy to get it but never used it till now.  I know you can't tell from the photo but I used gold smooch on the edges and added some gold stickles.  Other goodies in the cage include a pine branch and berries.  I'm thinking of adding an ornament too.  Oh.. almost forgot!  I also put some glue on the bottom of the cage before I put the other goodies down.  Over the glue I added a layer of white flower soft to look like snow. I've ALWAYS wanted to use my white flower soft as snow and I'm finally doing it!  Added some red ribbon to the top to close up the top of the cage.  Topped it off with some double row mesh bling.  It's Christmas after all, so gotta have some bling right?


I think this class might fill up fast, so hurry and sign up if you want to save your spot.  Don't forget to check out the Sister Stamps blog for a chance to win our new images!

The large butterfly is a Penny Black stamp (can you tell its my new favorite!), and the rest of the stamps are Hero Arts.  The inks used are Momento.. never even thought of using Momento inks in this way before.  Thank you Heather for the great inspiration!  Be sure to check out her other cards here...

I'll be back soon to show you what else I'm gonna teach...  See you soon!

 For an upcoming class, I decided to feature the new Tim Holtz (sensei) Distress Markers and waterbrushes.  Love the effect of using both together!  Wanted to keep it very simple for the class since we are focusing on technique.

I just got this pretty Memory Box flower stamp and decided to use this on my project.  Sentiment is by Hero Arts.



And here's a closer look.


After coloring in the image, just used some Spun Sugar Distress Ink around the edges.  I think I need to make more of these simple cards!

I finally found a great use for my hemp string that has been taking up space in my craft room!  I found this awesome tutorial on how to make these cute daisies, only they used baker's twine.  I like the look of it using the hemp better and decided to incorporate into my next class. 


A couple days ago I also shared the Paper Crafts Library sample using Distress Stains.  I like the colors in this sample much better than the first card I shared, so I thought it would be better to use this one in the class than the blue one.  The red, orange and yellow just brighten up the card and give me warm fuzzies. I guess that's why I gravitated to that Hero Arts sentiment.. perfect right?  Had to glue down the daisies using my glue gun to be sure they would stay.  Hope they don't fall off!

While coming up with some of my class samples, I played around with using my new Distress pens.    I love the watercolor effect you can get from using them with TH's water brushes.  Yes, I'm not sure yet if this will be the actual card we make in class or if it will be a reject/sample.  I bought a new stamp by Memory Box that I'm interested in featuring, so I might use that one instead of this older Hero Arts stamps.



After coloring in the flowers, I decided to distress around the edges using more spun sugar distress ink.  Playing with my distress markers was a nice alternative to using my Copics!  Guess I should use them more often!

Back in April, the Paper Crafter's Library blog featured the new Distress Stains by Ranger.  After just coming off of my Tim Holtz Online Card Class high, I was eager for more Distress info.  One of their cards totally caught my eye... click here for the link and scroll down to the bottom of the post to see my inspiration.

How easy is it to create a nice background using Distress Stains?  I was a bit hesitant about purchasing the stains since I already had most of the ink pads, but this totally convinced me.  I used crushed olive, stormy sky and concord grape to make this card.  You can't tell since I took the photo on my craft sheet, but I mounted it on kraft cardstock.  After I used the stains for the background, I stamped the leaf and sentiment using Archival Ink. Both stamps are by Hero Arts.



I was trying to make some samples for my upcoming class with Debi, and was playing around with my stains.  Totally loving the look and ease of this technique!  If you are in the Hilo area, hope you can join us for our first joint class together!

Every now and then I like to treat my students to a bonus project. Its fun to give them something extra when they least expect it. I had bought this new Hero Arts cling set by Basic Gray after the class announcement was made, but I really wanted to use it in a layering card, so I thought it would be nice to feature it in the class. I procrastinated and procrastinated, and finally came up with the design the morning of the class! Yikes- talk about cutting it close! So- here's the card... And here's the close up of the berries I stamped in versamark and added some gold mica powder. Mica powder doesn't seem to photograph well, but I think you can see enough of it here. Supplies:

• All stamps- Hero Arts
• Cardstock-Bazzil
• Mica powder
• Distress inks
• Brilliance inks

As you can see I've been a busy busy girl! Here's one of the classes in my crazy schedule coming up in November. I already shared the snowman with you, but here's the rest. Needed to keep them rather simple since we'll be making a bunch. Also got a fun bonus project planned that I'll share with you after the class so that its a surprise for the students. This tag is very simple- its from the new clear tags set by Hero Arts. After several versions, finally decided on simple embossing in gold. Here's another simple tag... embossed it again in white on kraft and added the punched pointsetta accent. Oh- here's one of my faves... Santa peeking over the tag. Tag is just a spellbinder die folded in half. Santa is made with punches and mittens are from the Spellbinder mitten set. And finally, found my old gingerbread punch and stuck him in this stocking. Gave him a face using my white enamel (used black on Santa's eyes). Oh yes, added pine branches (MS punch) and dew drops for berries. Hope you can join us for this fun class! If now, hopefully this will inspire you to start on your holiday tags.

While perusing through the Splitcoast Stampers gallery, I stumbled upon some fun telescoping cards! I knew I had use this technique in one of my upcoming classes, so I searched for good ideas and decided on the telescoping snowman! Awhile back I had bought this snowman face stamp by Dandelion Designs thinking I would need it one day. It came in very handy and was the perfect size for my project! Here he is all bundled up. I like to think of it as looking down at him... And here's what he looks like when he's open! I know I gotta change those brads to white, but I couldn't wait to show him to you, so I just left it gold. This is such a quick and simple card to make and the perfect size for a Christmas tag! I'll be back soon to share the rest of my tag projects for this class. Oh, and did you remember to check out the Sister Stamps blog for all of our blog candy and Debi's blog for more candy? If you haven't already done so, start here... and post on all introductory posts... then check out Debi's blog for Release #3 posts for more chances to win. Oh yes, and don't forget to like Sister Stamps on facebook- you just might be surprised with more candy!

Gee, its been awhile since i last made a non-Sister Stamps card! Planning my next Christmas Card class and wanted to incorporate the stamp layering technique- its like taking 2 classes in one. I had a few people ask me to offer the stamp layering class again, so I thought why not combine the two? Here's one of three cards we will make in the class. I decided to try layering on DP instead of just my usual white cardstock. I like to show versatility whenever I teach a technique to show students how to apply what they've learned to make different types of cards. Since the cardstock was already colored, I didn't have to worry about adding in distress ink to the background. Instead I decided to use my favorite music notes background stamp (Hero Arts cling) with versamark and then add my other favorite- gold mica powder to it. Sorry- camera still not working great, but I think this photo kinda captured the gold so you can see how it looks in the light. I know you can't tell, but it also says Merry Christmas above the reindeer's head. If you want a better look, you'll have to stop by Island Scrapbooking. Hopefully I can pick up a new camera soon. I'll post the other two cards I came up with soon. Thanks for stopping by! Oh yah- for those of you who inquired about where we went to eat dim sum... I wonder if I should tell you? Then it might get too crowded for us to enjoy when we go visit!! Nah- only kidding. We ate at Royal Garden at the Ala Moana Hotel. Super yummy! Where is your favorite dim sum place to eat? Supplies:

• All stamps- Hero Arts
• Corner punch- Martha Stewart Crafts
• crystals- Kaisercraft
• Mica powder
• versamark

TGIF! Wow- can you believe it? I actually posted 2 days in a row! Things have gotten pretty hectic with the 2nd release of Sister Stamps approaching soon. I didn't realize my Christmas Card class was this Saturday! I made this sample about a week ago, but forgot to post it. This will be one of the cards we will be making along with the wreath card and the Kiyomi-tree card. I guess besides wreaths, I also love Christmas trees! Found a tutorial on you tube on how to make these easy peasy origami trees that I thought the student would like. Since there's a lot of folding, I recommend using origami or thin paper- not cardstock. Just another good reason to bust out my washi paper! It looked kinda plain, so I punched a hole and added some ribbon in the corner. Now you can also use it as a tag too! Been working on all my Sister Stamps samples for the retailers. Hope they like what I came up with! I'll be posting more on the Sister Stamps blog in the next few weeks. Check out the post here for a chance to win some of our new release stamps!

Hope you are having a nice weekend so far. Celebrated my last furlough Friday (for now anyway) by teaching a class on stamp layering. I got inspired by the Hero Arts blog a few months back and have since bought a lot of stamps that are ideal for layering. I also got me some shadow inks to work with my distress inks, along with some mica powder. We had a lot of fun in class yesterday and were able to finish all three cards pretty quickly. If there were more supplies, I think the class would have been done in about an hour. Used the gold mica powder on this one. I think you can kinda see it on the top left corner of the card since the light got to it in the photo. Used this one as a sample- we didn't make it in class, but I always like to show them different ways of applying the same technique. All stamps are by Hero Arts.

Amidst all the craziness of my upcoming craft fair, I managed to squeeze in the Last Christmas Card Club class of the year. I was inspired by the Chirstmas Stampin All Year Round concept and came up with the idea for a series of Christmas Card Classes that started in the summer. The focus was on simple Christmas cards and projects and we'd make between 3-5 projects per class. Keeping the class projects simple was great for beginners and it also brought a lot of us back to basics in card making. In the first class, I polled the students to find out what kind of projects they wanted to do and feedback was they didn't want to stick to just cards. So one class focused on tags, one on gift card holders and the rest were cards. For our last class, I was inspired by all the cute Hero Arts stamps in the store. Earlier I shared with you a gold version of this embossed wreath stamp, but I couldn't do gold this time, so I went with silver and it came out just as nice. This next card is actually not the finished sample we made. I forgot to take the picture of the revision I did- just added the sentiment to the bottom of the card. Oh well, you'll have to use your imagination. Found these tiny jingle bells and thought it would be a cute accent. I also found this cute paper by Jillybean in the store that reminded me of Christmas candy and thought it would be perfect for this card. This Christmas tree punch art card was inspired by all you bloggers out there. I've seen several versions of this card before so I CASE'd them for the class. We built the tree using 6 heart punches. The white was used to simulate snow to coordinate with the white polka dots on the Doodlebug paper. Since we were using hearts for the tree, I thought it would be cute to use hearts for the ornaments too. This last card is my favorite of the bunch. It took the most time to complete because we had to emboss 3 of each tree for a total of 9 trees. The time saving part was that we embossed it on green cardstock, so no coloring was needed. My students always request no coloring, so I have to find ways to reduce the amount of coloring in the class. I also stamped the background using the musical note background cling stamp by Hero Arts. I was so happy Hero Arts came out with a cling of this as I was trying to find a large musical note background stamp. Yay! Stamped it using my Antique Linen Distress Ink- love how it came out- very subtle but enough to make it interesting. Plus one of the trees has musical notes on it, so I thought it coordinated well. Finally, I decided to thank the students by doing a bonus project. They were all so nice to sign up for my class with no class sample to look at beforehand, so I thought I'd reward them by showing them how to make this simple A2 box. Found the instructions on Splitcoast Stampers here.. We added a bellyband using the MS Snowflake punch since it coordinated well with the snowflake paper. This class was so much fun to host each month! I'm thinking of doing this class series again next year starting in the summer.

A couple of weeks ago, I taught a wall calendar class at Island Scrapbooking. This is the calendars we made in the class. I wasn't sure how long it would actually take to make these, so I budgeted about 3 hours, but since I had pre-cut and punched a lot of the stuff for them, we only took 2 hours to finish everything. Decided to go with my favorite Doodlebug papers since they all coordinate well together. All of the months were from Island Scrapbooking- thank goodness because I think I would have went crazy if I had to cut them all myself! Thanks Michele!