Stitched Triangle Santa - Stampin' Up! Stitched Triangle Dies

  Sometimes inspiration hits and you just have to roll with it even if it's time to clean up the stamp room and start making dinner.  I was stamping yesterday and it was slow going for the first project then things started to pick up for the second project.  Then I scrolled through my list of challenges to see what grabbed my attention for a third project and I came to the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and their Santa themed challenge.  The only problem was that I have not a single Santa stamp or even any Santa DSP.  Nada. Zip.  Zilch. Well it's not called a challenge for nothing!

  When you need a certain image and you don't have a stamp that matches, punch art/die art is always a great way to create what you need.  I briefly thought about a punch art Santa but then I had the big idea to use my new triangle dies to do a die art Santa instead.  It came out pretty cute if I do say so myself!  I scrolled through Pinterest for a few ideas then got to work.

  Besides the circles for the eyes and nose and the hand cut tree trunks everything is a triangle die from the new Stitched Triangle die set.  It's hard to see but the background is embossed with the retired Winter Knit embossing folder (but it looks like it's currently on the Clearance Rack if you missed out on it the first time around).  And the triangles for the beard/mustache are embossed with the Subtle embossing folder for some extra texture which is hard to see in the photo.

  Make your own triangle Santa using these dies.  Here's how I put each part together.  For size reference triangle #1 is slightly less than 2 inches wide.

• Trees = triangles #4, #5 & #6
• Hat Pompom = #3***
• Hat = #4 with the tip folder over
• Hat Cuff = #1 trimmed
• Face = #1
• Mustache = #2 x 2 (embossed)
  
• Beard = #1 (embossed)
• Shirt = #1 x 2
• Eyes & Nose = small circle punches
  

*** For the hat pompom I punched a small circle and covered it with glue and just stuck the little tiny triangles all over it until it was covered.

  All the pieces are popped up on the background with dimensionals except for the small, wide tree in the background.

  This was really a fun card to put together and a fun challenge to solve.  Sometimes it pays to not have every image in stamp form!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: None

Ink: None

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, Soft Suede, Perfectly Plaid DSP (retired), Real Red, Petal Pink, Basic Black

Accessories: Stitched Triangle dies, Subtle embossing folder, Winter Knit embossing folder (retired), dimensionals, circle punches, Stitched Rectangle dies

Burlap & Blooms Wreath Kit

  Now that the spring weather has finally arrived it's time to put up some fresh new spring decorations to celebrate!

  I bought the Burlap & Blooms wreath kit way back in December when demonstrators got to preorder from the Occasions Spring catalog...super nice perk right?  Anyway since it was cold and Christmas time I didn't even look at it until about February.  And then it was really just to open to the package and see what all was in it.  We were still in the midst of crazy snow days and single digit temps so I put everything from the kit back in the package and there it sat until about 2 weeks ago.  I wanted to have the wreath complete so I could show it at stamp club to see if anyone would be interested in it for a class.

  It was so easy to put together and all together probably didn't take more than and hour or 2 once I got rolling and just started putting it together instead of just looking at it!

  It looks wonderful hanging in my front hall and adds such a nice pop of spring colors!

  Here are a few close ups...

 

 For my local ladies I've gotten my act together for April and have scheduled a few classes!  Check your email (or spam folder!) for details!  One of the classes is to make the Burlap & Blooms wreath!  

  If you are local to Glen Allen, VA and would like to join in the fun please send me an email at mandysurovy (at) yahoo (dot) com for all the details.  

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp (or create!) today?

Supplies: Burlap & Blooms wreath kit, glue gun, paper piercer

Week of Goodbyes

  Last week was a whirlwind of the final days of preschool for Alex and all the activities that go along with it, some illness, last stamp club of the 2012/2013 catalog and all the other every day stuff.  So blogging definitely fell by the wayside while I was holding everything else together!

  Not only did Alex finish preschool but we also had to say good bye to a very dear teacher of his that is moving away over the summer.  She was Ryan's very first preschool teacher and both boys benefitted from her kindness and enthusiasm when she became the full time music teacher.  We will certainly miss  her and all that she brought to the preschool.

  Of course I had to make her a little goodbye and good luck gift to let her know how much we will miss her.   There are several large patches of clover on the grounds of the church and school and over the years we've found several four leaf clovers.  Alex and I were lucky enough to find a few good ones that we dried and pressed.

  I used some retired textured cardstock and mounted the best looking of the four leaf clovers in a shadow box frame.  I used just a really light coating of spray adhesive on the back of the clover and just pressed it to the cardstock.

  Not the best photos but I forgot to take any until right when I had to get it in the gift bag and head to school!

 I used just a small layer of Gumball Green cardstock in the matting and then a small Gumball Green ribbon knot to highlight the four leaf clover.  It was the perfect color to go with the clover.

  So we said good by to a favorite teacher and to preschool…..what do you think, is this kid ready for kindergarten in the fall??

First Day of School - September 2012

Last Day of School - May 2013

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

The "5" Car Sponsored by Stampin' Up!

  Oh my!  The Halloween nonsense is over for another year!  We had a great time last night.  We had a bunch of the neighbors over for pizza and then headed out to trick-or-treat.  Well Matt took the boys around the neighborhood and I sat on my porch with a glass of wine and handed out candy with some of the other moms.

  And now I have to share the boys in their costumes.  My fantastic DH made the car costume for Ryan out of cardboard boxes, spray paint we had on hand and duct tape.  Ryan decided a number of weeks ago that he wanted to be a race car.  He couldn't be swayed!  He was so proud of his costume!  He picked out the number and decided that his car's sponsor should be Stampin' Up!  Isn't that funny?  I tried to tell him that we could probably find a more "race car" themed sponsor but he thought Stampin' Up! was perfect.  How's that for brainwashing huh?  =)

Super Fast 5 Car!

Maybe I'll get more customers?!?

  Alex was a karate guy.  HI-YA! HI-YA!  My mother-in-law had sent down an old karate outfit from when DH & his brother did karate way back in the day.  The pants were way too large for Alex but the shirt was like a dress anyway so it didn't matter about the pants.  Check out that karate chop he's doing!

Do they look crazed for candy or what?

  I'll be back later tonight or tomorrow with a card!  Thanks for letting me share my family!

  Did you stamp today?

M-I-C-K-E-Y .....

 M-O-U-S-E....

  Sorry I've been absent so long!  We surprised the boys with a trip to Disney World the day after Mother's Day and were in Florida for almost a week.  I've been playing catch up (you know how that is after a vacation) so far this week and haven't had a chance to even get into my stamp room no less actually stamp something.  But that is on my list this morning after I drop the little guy off at preschool.

  Instead of stamping I'll show you the cute (if I do say so myself) gift bags I made for the boys to tell them about our trip.  I had cute Mickey Mouse t-shirts made up for them to wear the day of the trip and put them in Mickey Mouse gift bags.  I read them a poem I found online and then had them open the bags to find the shirts.  Matt videotaped it all and he said that Alex seemed to get the surprise faster than Ryan.  I'll have to watch the tape and see for myself.  I think Matt & I might have been more excited than the boys initially!

About 3 minutes after we told them we were going to meet Mickey Mouse in Florida

  Of course the Mickey Mouse bags were made with Stampin' Up supplies!  I used Real Red and Basic Black cardstock and just cut it to size to fit on the front of a small plain kraft gift bag.  I used the Circle Scissors Plus to cut 8 circles out of Basic Black.  I sandwiched 2 circles around the handle and adhered them together with Sticky Strip.  Then repeated the process for the other ears.  Finally I added 2 white buttons to Mickey's pants.

  I had some bright yellow (like Mickey's shoes) tissue paper stuffed in the bags as well but didn't get a photo of that before the boys took their shirts out.

  It was a fun, quick project and I want to try to do some more themed bags for birthday parties and such.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: none

Ink: none

Paper: Real Red, Basic Black


Accessories: Circle Scissors Plus, white buttons, sticky strip

Citrus Birdfeeders

  So if a lot of you are out checking blogs you're probably on Pinterest too (or know what it is).  For those of you who don't know what Pinterest is it's a really fun, crazy, sometimes overwhelming online corkboard.  You sign up, create your "boards" then start pinning away either from blogs, other online sites or from Pinterest itself.  It's an awesome site to organize and store all the ideas you see online.  I have boards for food, for the home, stamping ideas, things to do with the kids etc.  One of the things about Pinterest is there is so much to look at (you can see what everyone else pins, thus getting even more ideas!) that sometimes all you do is pin instead of make.  I've been trying to make an effort to make the recipes I pin, use some of the stamping ideas on my own cards and actually do some of the projects with my boys.

  This week Ryan, Alex and I made these Citrus Birdfeeders.  The boys like having grapefruit in the morning with breakfast and when I saw this "how to" on Pinterest I immediately pinned it so we could make them for our birds.  Here are our results!  The boys had a lot of fun pouring in the ingredients and mixing it up.

Hanging up on the shepherd's hook in the backyard

   I didn't really measure the ingredients but just eyeballed it based on the recipe in the above link.  We added some chopped raisins and craisins to our mixture. 

Our Ingredients

   I even used some stamping supplies!  I used Stampin' Up! hemp twine to make the hangers.  Just used a wooden skewer to poke the holes and then tied the twine through.

All mixed up!

  Our batch made more than enough for 2 halves of a grapefruit with a bit leftover for a refill for one.

Goobers!  And no I don't dress them alike on purpose!

  These things were pretty heavy so make sure you pick a sturdy branch or hook to hang them on.

Impossible to get a good photo in this house!

The finished product!

   After a few days when we still hadn't seen any birds eating from the Citrus birdfeeders I thought that maybe our little tiny birds were intimidated by the size of these things or they didn't like them on the hooks.  I took them down and wedged them into the crooks of 2 trees.  Like an hour later the birds were all over these so I guess it tasted good and they were just not digging where they were originally hung.

  Super easy fun project to do with the kids.  We will certainly be making these as often as we have grapefruit I'm sure.

  If you're interested in making some of the projects you've pinned and sharing with the world, my stamping friend Brandi hosts a monthly Pinterest challenge.  Get off the computer, make one of your pins, and share it at Brandi's site.  It's no use pinning ideas if you never make them!

  And in case you're wondering I have been stamping getting ready for my stamp club at the end of the month and for my February Creative Crew projects.  I promise I'll post a stamping project tomorrow!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Not Stamping but still Crafty- What to do with all those seashells you collect at the beach!

  This isn't stamping related but I figured you would all humor me with showing this project today.  I don't know if I'm the only one that does this or not but maybe I can help some other shell collector out there.  When we go to the beach every year for vacation I always pick up a lot of shells.  Well a lot is probably an understatement; the first time we went I came home with a giant ziploc bag filled with all different colors of shells, some just pieces, some whole, no rhyme or reason to the collection at all.  What the heck to do with them once I was home??  The next year I had a plan.  I was going to collect enough of one type of shell to make a picture frame when I got home.  I ended up collecting enough purple shells to make a frame for me as well as our friends who went with us.

  Now it has become a tradition every year to collect one type of shell (or this year rocks!) and make a frame to put our annual beach family photo in.  The current year's photo is displayed downstairs in my TV room and the previous years get moved upstairs.  They are all hung in a group in the hallway.  It's fun to look at the different shells as well as the photos which shows our family grow from just the 2 of us, to having Ryan and then Alex.   We aren't much for going to those portrait studios every year for pictures so this more casual style works perfectly for us and I get to make great use of my shells and it gives me a bit more focus while I'm at the beach so I don't end up with a 5 gallon pail full of randomness. 

The Hallway

  This year I wanted to find enough little smooth black rocks to go all the way around the frame. I was glad I picked the easy-to-find rocks since our vacation got cut a few days short due to being evacuated for hurricane Irene.  I had plenty of rocks collected by the time we left partway through the week.  Here is the finished product...sorry about the horrible photo, I need to learn how to photograph glass apparently!

The Family- Aug. 2011

  To get started is really easy....collect what kind of shell you want to use.  The number you need will vary depending on how large the shells are so I always collect more than I think I will need just so I'm not caught short once I'm home.  I get a basic black 8x10 frame at Target.  You want to make sure the frame you choose has a flat front...once that has too much detail or ridges will make it hard for you to glue down the shells.  That and you'll be covering up any details anyway so you might as well not pay for it in the first place.  And lastly you'll need some craft glue that dries clear....I use Ailene's Tacky Glue but any brand will probably work.

See in the upper lefthand corner...that's my coveted sea glass from this last beach trip.  We have an unofficial contest to see who can find the first piece of sea glass, the biggest piece etc.  My mother in law won the biggest this year with 2 very large pieces from the bottom of a wine bottle I think.  Anyway, maybe some day I'll have enough sea glass to do a frame.

 
  I always do a dry run of my layout of shells/rocks before starting to glue.  Sometimes one shell will not look right next to another one...don't ask me why I guess it's just artistic license or something!  Anyway, laying them out first allows you to rearrange and adjust as needed. 

 Next start gluing.  This actually goes pretty fast...pick up shell/rock put glue on shell/rock put back into place on the frame....now repeat until they are glued down.  I don't suggest moving the frame for an hour or so to let the glue set up so your shells won't shift around.  And I always wait a day or so before adding the photo...better safe than sorry.  Just one tip for this part...don't let your shells hang too far off of the bottom edge of the frame.  If any shells stick over too far they will prevent the frame from standing up correctly.  This isn't a concern if you're going to hang it but if you're leaving it on a table top then you don't want it to come crashing down.

  And again with the finished frame.  I just get a 5x7 photo matte (or is it mat??) at a local craft store and hand write the beach we stayed at and the date.  I'd love to hear about or see other ideas of what you do with your shells to capture the memories of your vacations.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you go shelling today?