Tough week for blogging--seems we have had two virus around here--one made me sick and one made my computer sick!  Both are feeling much better today.

This week on Latenightstampers we are focusing on projects inspired by Pinterest.  If you are not a member and need to be sent an invite leave me a comment with your e-mail and I will send you one.

Both of the cute little nugget candy holders were posted on there--I did some small changes to both but the basic idea is posted by many in many different places.  I believe the little jar may of originated at
Dawn Olchefske's 's blog but not sure.  Anyway, I plan to make one of these for all the bowlers on my bowling league.

This week on the Latenightstamper's group our challenge is to go GREEN use something that would be trash on your project.  This is one of those challenges that generally make me cringe and wait to the last minute to do.  Not because it is hard but mostly because I am lazy, lol.  I like the fast gratification of making cards--not too much thinking just kind of do.  But you need to do a little thinking to turn a piece of garbage into something you can use again.  But I think I made it work--although I did wait till the last minute as always.  I have a few of these containers sitting around because I was wondering if cards would fit in them but I was too lazy to check when I thought about it and too forgetful to remember to bring in down to my craft room on the other times. So I figured today is the day--I grabbed the empty Cascade packet container (love these) and crossed my fingers that cards were gonna fit--and I am happy to say that YES!!! they do.  I actually got 25 cards into this with five separators.  Would make a great gift don't you think?!

I didn't like the way the top was so crooked so I just took it off and decorated the rim and then made the tabs stick out a bit above the top.  I separated the cards into five categories of Birthday cards--Feminine, Masculine, Teens, Children and General and added five of each card with envelops.  The wording was done on the MDS.   Hope you enjoy, off to see the fireworks now!

Happy today!
Mary Jo

I love to take time to sit back and think of all the things I am thankful for, it really make you remember just how blessed we are.  This week Lisa gave us a thanksgiving theme to work with.  This first card may look like a birthday card but it has the Bright Blessing at the bottom and it is actually a thanks for being you card for a male on his birthday.  What better time to let someone know how thankful you are for them. 

This next card is just a fun fall thank you.  I love these colors.  The stamp set is retired but we have a new one out that is very similar.  I really wanted the new one but could not justify since I have this one and a few others just like it, lol!  So I just pulled this one out again and pretended it was new!



And finally another one of those treat boxes (see the Christmas one made into a place setting HERE). These are so cute and easy too.  I will be posting a tutorial by tomorrow night.


Don't forget you can see all the projects the other players made by clicking HERE.  There is a ton of talent in this group so it will be well worth your time.

Have a fabulous weekend!
Mary Jo

The challenge this week on the Latenightstampers group is to create something with the Big Shot--anything works, cards, 3-d, embossed items, you name it as long as it uses the big shot.  My first two samples were for the sketch challenge this week.  I used the embossing folders and the top note die.  If you missed that you can find them here.  I thought I would make a cute little candy treat holder for Halloween.  I do not do much for Halloween, but I do generally send something stamped for my son's class.  I also need items for classes and clubs.  I thought this turned out pretty cute, tried to keep it kind of simple as they would be made in multiples. 

I used the baskets and blooms die for the basket --with a little altering.  The bat is made with the owl punch.  Hubby says his eyes are too big but I thought he was cute.  What do you think???

Stamps: All Holidays, Autumn Harvest
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, In Color DP pack
Ink: Basic Black
Other: markers, watercolor pencils, gel pen, word window punch, owl punch circle punches.

Hope you are having a great week!  Thanks for all the well wishes for my hubby.  Seems he has shingles.  Quite painful I am told.  Hopefully he will be feeling better soon!

Thanks for stopping by,
Mary Jo

Lisa is always so good at being right on with the themes for our Blogger's Challenges.  This week we are doing Red White and Blue.  I had lots of fun making this fun flower pot with candles.  And the card is just using up more of those pre-cut scraps I have laying around.

I am so thankful for good teachers.  I get nervous when I start to think about all the budget cuts coming and what we may loose.  My son is special ed and may loose aids and other stuff with all the cuts--especially if people vote down the new budget.  So will all that I thought I would make a gift for my son's teachers.  I have to make a few more but I think they turned out adorable.  We did these in club this month.  It uses the new First Day stamp set from the new Summer Mini.

It is a dry erase easel with matching pen and a tin with candy and the ornament punch rose.  This was so fast and easy to make.  The erase board is actually one of those plastic picture frames turned on it side.  The top part is inserted inside the frame and then I added sticky dry erase sheets to the front.  I used some retired paper to make the pen match.  Fun and easy project.  I got the directions for the rose  HERE .

Stamps: First Day
Paper: Real Red, Whisper White, retired apple paper
Ink: Basic Black
Other: ribbon, dry erase sheets, plastic frame, markers, ornament punch, tin, candy nugguts

See ya bright and early in the morning.
Mary Jo

Hmmm, I kept forgetting to post on here, how funny is that. Something I do nearly every day and I just keep forgetting this week. Nothing like being CRAZY busy. Anyway, I hope you had a super terrific Christmas! Mine has been great. We still have some family to celebrate with tomorrow so we are not done yet.

So I thought I would share the gifts my son and I made for his class. They were so fast and easy to do.


Now that Christmas is over I am ready to move on the Valentines and regular all occasions cards. I have not been in my studio since Wed. morning. YIKES, no wonder I don't feel "right"!

See ya tomorrow--I promise, lol!

Still working on my samples for this week's Latenightstamper's challenge to create a project using the colors that you find in a candy bar. I love the colors on this Heath bar and I love the taste of them even more! I needed to make something for the kids in my son's class for Halloween and didn't want to give too much candy so I made these pencil boxes and put in four pixie stick, a Halloween pencil and a Halloween stencil.


The pencil boxes are so easy to make. You start with a 3 and 1/2 inch by 12 piece of card stock. With the 12 inch side on top you will sore at 1/2- 8 and 8 and 1/2. Then turn the card stock so the 3 and 1/2 inch side is on top and score at 1/2 from both sides. I will make a tutorial if there is interest.

Stamps: none--I used the MDS
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White and Chocolate Chip
Ink: none
Other: computer, MDS ribbon, scoring blade, Halloween pencils, pixie sticks, Halloween stencils.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you are having a fabulously blessed day!
Mary Jo

Good evening and welcome to the first Latenight Stampers DT challenge for our new DT! Come on and play along! We are starting off nice and easy so EVERYONE can play along! This challenge was brought to you (us) by Tammy Fife and Stephanie Zeto. it is a beautiful color challenge and it is taken from this picture..
The colors we are to use are Baja Breeze, Saraha Sand, Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip. These are absolutely beautiful together!

Here are my samples. First is a gift frame made from a mini 5 x 5 frame.




Supplies:
Stamps: Rustic Rooster
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla and To the Nines Specialty DP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze
Other: Sponge, Baja Wide Ribbon, 5 x 5 wooden frame




And of course as Stampin Up! demos we can never just give a gift without a matching card so here is the matching card.

Stamps: Rustic Rooster, Upsy Daisy
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla and To the Nines Specialty DP, Bella Rose DP, Baja Breeze DP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze
Other: Sponge, Wide Baja Breeze Ribbon, Chocolate Chip ribbon


And since today is also day one of my Monday Lunchtime Sketch Challenge #64 I decided to combine another card using my sketch with these colors. (you can see it at the link above)


So I sure hope this has inspired you to play along-we can not wait to see what you come up with and seeing this is our first challenge as your new DT we really want to ROCK this place with lots and lots of samples so after you make a sample please post it in this folder

Challenge 14--Members

If you are not a member what are you waiting for??

And while you are there check out the DT samples in this folder

Challenge 14-DT samples

Come on and play along! This is open to all of our members. And if others want to play along tell them to join the group and all the fun!

What a fun challenge for this week. I could not make a choice so I made one basket with a template and one little box with a diecut! We will start with my crisscross basket. This basket is full of fun coffee stuff. I found a bunch of coffee themed stuff at JoAnn's the other day and couldn't wait to put a basket together for a coffee lover. Hmmm, I might just have to keep it for myself since I don't know who else loves coffee quite as much as I do, lol. Anyway the basket has a matching coffee cup, spoon holder, magnetic note pad with pen and a couple of pairs of coffee themed socks rolled up to look like a latte with a straw. Isn't it cute! I found the template for the basket on Nancy's Blog Paper Smiles. I enlarged mine and used a sheet of 12 x 12 card stock. Here is a shot of the front....

And now the sides....


and of course the back too!

Supplies:
Stamps: Express Yourself (retired) front sentiment is Inkadinkado.
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Close to Cocoa, and Whisper White, scrap red dp
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Real Red
Other: Real Red ribbon, nestabilities, sizzix coffee dies

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Now for the diecut. I used the Sizzix box diecut from Stampin Up. I don't actually own this --YET-- but received one in a swap so thought I would use it for this challenge. I cut a window in the front and added some acetate. I also added a little shelf type holder inside to hold the Reese Eggs -- yummy!-- . I decided to use the You're Some Bunny Special Stamp Set from Storage Units Ink and More. I guess I will have to get this die, it was fun to play with.

Here is the front...


And the back....

so fun and easy. I think this took a whole 25 minutes start to finish! Not too fancy but cute.

Supplies:
Stamps: You're Some Bunny Special
Ink: Old Olive, Basic Black
Paper: Bordering Blue, Whisper White, So Saffron, misc scraps of dp and chocolate chip for insert.
Other: word window punch, 3/4 inch circle punch, acetate,

Hope you enjoyed both of these fun projects. Don't forget to check out the other players by clicking on the link in my sidebar!

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!
Mary Jo

I am so happy that today is the first day of spring! The sun is shinning and I am full of spring fever--forget the fact that it is only 27 degrees out there. I even took my picture of my spring bouquet outside in the sun.

TGIF--that means it is Blogger's Challenge day too! Today's challenge was--you guessed--SPRING. When I got up this morning I saw this fabulous post on Latenightstampers about these really cool ribbon flowers, they were posted by Cathy Bell. I knew these could be made with paper so I thought I would give it a try. Mind you I did not spend too much time on these, but still think they came out cute. I could have made them quite a bit better with more effort but for a first try and a quick one at that I am happy with this. The flower vase is made out of a Crystal Light container. I put holes across the top with my Cropodile and strung ribbon through the holes, then finished off the top with a few more ribbon strips. These were fun, I am sure I will do them again!



By the way, did you join the Latenightstampers group yet! There is a posting challenge going on right now that has a prize of $50 worth of Stampin Up! stuff. Ya gotta be in it to win it! Hurry up and sign up today! Tell Sherrill I sent you.

All Supplies are Current Stampin Up! products

Stamps: God's Blessings
Paper: Bella Rose and Rasberry Tart
Ink: Rose Red
Other: ribbons, labels die, crop-o-dile, paper cutter

Thanks for stopping by today and thanks for the seet comments they make my day!
Mary Jo

Welcome to Friday! TGIF!! I am excited to be able to bring you a sneak peek of one of the new sets that will be available on March 1st at Storage Units Ink and More. This set is full of adorable little images for Easter. The set is called Some Bunny Loves You.

I decided it would be fun to combine this with this week's Blogger's Challenge too which was to Alter something. I have so many things around in my studio to alter it was hard to pick what to do but I finally grabbed a plan oval wooden plaque and a old beat up magnet and got to work altering. Here is the results. First the wooden plaque.....


Here is the before picture...

Next came this adorable little magnet. At least it is adorable now. I think it is so cute.


As you can see it wasn't too cute before but it was only 25 cents so of course I bought a whole bunch of them and stored them away for that someday project.


This was such a fun challenge. Nice to use up a few things that have been in my studio for FOREVER! Be sure to check out the other Sneak Peeks for the day

Alex www.fairyblossoms.typepad.com
Chat http://www.memystampsandi.blogspot.com/

and the other Blogger's challenge players too.

The details for plaque:
Stamps: Some Bunny Loves You (SUINK)
Ink: Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Basic Black
Paper: Rainbow Sherbet dp, Whisper White
Other: Scallop circle punch, sponges, Copics, ribbon, oval wooden plaque, Scotch quick dry glue

Details for the magnet:
Stamps: Some bunny Loves You (SUINK)
Paper: SAB dp, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black
Other: Copics, brads, beat up magnet, Scotch quick dry glue


Thanks for stopping by see ya soon!
Mary Jo

Check out this great Valentine idea that I seen over on Lori's Stamping Spot! We were challenged by Sherrill on the Latenight Stampers group to make a video and this is the one she made--and I was so happy about it, cuz these are what I made for my son for his class. Thanks Lori. Go on over and check out her tutorial so you can make them yourself.

This is a group shot of the inside, girls and boys versions.


This on is the boys version..


And here is the girls version..this was the perfect sentiment for an 8 year old boy to put on girl ones!


and of course the inside.



Love these.

Stamps: Just Jawing, scarry skulls wheel, Darling Dots, Holidays and Wishes, Cheep Talk
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red
Other: Top note die, ribbon, 1/4 inceh circle punch, 1 1/2 inch circle punch, scallop circle punch. hand held small punch

Thanks for stopping by today. See ya soon.

Every now and then some wonderfully creative individual posts a project that is just so awesome that you have to CASE it. Well, usually we CASE and change a few things to make them our own, but not this time! Cami's project was just brilliant and absolutely perfect--I loved everything about it. I told her I loved her a few times on the day she posted it, lo. I used this project in two of my clubs, made up all of these for my son's class and it is now my Blogger's Challenge. Cami, you ROCK baby! I did leave off a few details from hers to make them just a tad easier, after all these are for 7 and8 year olds who will eat the candy and toss them, lol. I try not to think of that when I am making them! So go a head and head over to Cami's wonderful blog HERE I am sure you will find something you want to CASE too, I love her style.

Here are the projects, we filled them with gummy body parts! GROSS!



Here is a picture of the invasion.....



Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween, be safe-- and don't eat any wraped chocolate coins the were recalled (in case you did not know)!

Stamps: None
Paper: Pink Pasion, Green Galore, Elegant Eggplant and Whisper White
Ink: None
Other: Chalk, circle punch, tab punch, sicissors, black gel pen, white gel pen, ribbon, scor pal and TONS AND TONS of adhesive along with LOTS of GROSS body parts!

Ever have one of those days? I was on the phone with Denise from Storage Units Ink and More having a smooth fairly easy morning and then WHAMO! First I got a call from a friend her daughter was sick and school and she asked if I could go pick her up. No problem, I can finish my challenge later -- after all a sick kid is more important. Then in my rush out the door I set my camera someplace so that the cat, dogs, hubby and son wouldn't knock it over. And you guessed it, it took me all afternoon to remember where the heck that safe place was, lol! And then Blogger is giving me a hard time. I have been trying to post for over 1 hr now, it keeps telling me it don't like my Html codes???? Whatever! YIKES, so I am a bit late with this. I hope you will help me make up for it by participating in the challenge this week. (shameless I know, lol)

SUINKWWC11 -- Treats for our Sweets!

Do you still need a last minute treat holder for Halloween? Already done with that, how about a special treat for a loved one. Could be cookies, candy, cupcake any type of sweet treat and a creative way to present it.

So here is my sweet treat. Some fresh made Pumpkin bread for a friend. I made the little box from Core'dinations card stock. It was oh so easy. The rest is pretty self explanatory. If you want to know how to make the box let me know. If enough people want to know I will do a tutorial but it really is just a basic box.

Stamps: Giving Thanks

Paper: Core'dinations and Haiku dp from Stampin Up

Ink: Basic Black

Other: ribbon, circle punches and scallop circle punch, faux black brads, markers, scallop border punch and small hand held circle punch, twine.

There have been so many samples and tutorials for this I do not even know who to link you to. If you have questions about how to make it let me know and I will help you out with more information! Got to get my butt moving only two more days till CROP walk and I have LOTS to do still! Imagine that.

Stamps: Pick a Petal and Think Happy Thoughts
Paper: Bella Rose DP and Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip card stock
Ink: Riding Hood Red
Other: Tab punch, circle punches, scallop border punch, chocolate chip brad, jumbo eyelets and ribbon

This was a super fast, but kinda cute gift. I used the Bundle of Joy set and the Spring Picnic papers. I love the colors and wanted the middle of the frame to really stand out. This $20 frame was on clearance for $2 so not only is is a fast gift but cheap too!

More more more........



Aren't these just the cutest! This is more of the candy treats for my son's teachers. Those little boxes held two layers of nuggets! And the other boxes are those peek a boo boxes with kisses. Too cute. My studio is still overflowing with candy from all of these and that is not a good thing. My teeth may fall out very soon, lol!

We make these adorable bird valentines every year for my son's class. They are such a big hit that the kids ask for them weeks before Valentines! Simple but oh so cute. Here is a close up of the poem in case you want to make them.

These were the little treat baskets I gave to all of the Administrative Staff at my son's school. The little baskets were made from a pattern on Cambria's blog. They are actually peppermint patties disguised like little snowflake sandwiches. I made strips for the top of them that said You Are Worth a "MINT". I am sad that my son will be switching schools next year due to a re-districting everyone in this school has been so nice and so helpful.