Last Month's Scraps and Prayers Class Christmas Project

Today's post is brought to you by some of my Scraps and Prayers group.  We made a Christmas decor project at our last class.  We had SO much fun!  I love this group.  It's open to anyone so, if you live in the area, you might want to give this one a try.  You'll leave with a smile on your face.  I promise. 

Our frame is an 8" round embroidery hoop.  The group loved this project - except for using some of my old adhesive sheets:)  Getting the backing off proved to be a bit of a challenge.  I assured them that the new sheets were much easier to use.  As I've said, I'm trying really hard to use up my 'stash' instead of hoarding it all.

We attached our DSP to a piece of cardboard backing from a DSP pack.  They're handy for so many things.  I then hot glued the DSP piece to the back of the hoop.  Speaking of hoops, there are some teeny, tiny hoops coming out in our upcoming Occasions Catalog.  They are adorable!!!  I hope to place my pre-order today and it will surely include some of these cuties.

We used up some of my old Sticky Tape by attaching it all around the outside edge of the hoop.  We peeled off the backing and attached some bright red ribbon.  Our old, retired bitty heart and star punches were very handy for this project.  I don't often part with a punch.  We used Red Glimmer paper for the hearts and Silver Foil for the stars.
NOTE:
There is a downside to hoarding retired products.  I recently made a large quantity of large gift bags for my daughter to use in her Christmas Shoppe at our church tomorrow.  I thought this would be a good time to use up the rest of my Sticky Tape.  Wrong!  I had several rolls left.  They were very old and absolutely stuck tight together.  I tried and tried and could not get them to unroll so I could use them.  I had to throw them all away.  I ended up using Fast Fuse ... and it was fast:)

I gave each person a Green Sprig to use on their project, but they didn't like how they wouldn't stay where they wanted them to be.  They'll use them for something else later.  No, the sprig below was not left like that.  I had a bit of cute/sassy actions going on that night.  My adhesive sheets brought out the best in everyone:)  Like I said, we have a lot of fun.

Below are two of their finished projects.  I love them!

Aren't these pretty?

The Latest Scoop:
I HAVE 2 REMAINING KITS FROM OUR CHRISTMAS RETREAT. / EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO MAKE 18 CARDS! / $40.00

December 11 -- Scraps and Prayers Class:
     5:30-7:30 / $15.00 / Christmas Cards and Tags
It's going to be a party atmosphere at our last class for 2017.  I've even been working on a hand made present for you!  The class is filling up fast, so be sure to reserve your spot right away!

Tentative 2018 classes and events schedule, coming soon!

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world.

- Come back often for more creative inspiration.

- Let's create something beautiful today.

A Season of Cheer Card Duo ... AND ... Some Exciting News

What's better than one fun and gorgeous Christmas card?  Why, it's TWO, of course!  I love, love, love this duo of Christmas cards.  Scroll down and enjoy all my post and I'll share all about what we'll be doing at class.  I'll also tell you which card is the one we'll be making at my Saturday Stampers Class this Saturday.

Aren't these full of Christmas cheer?

I love our new Foil Snowflakes.  The package comes with half gold and half silver.

I know I usually share just one card at a time with you, but I couldn't wait for you to see them both and see them together.  And now ... back to Saturday Stampers Class.  We'll be making the card on the right.  Everyone I asked about it, chose this one and it's my favorite, too.

On Saturday .....
- We'll be talking about card designs.
- We'll be working with heat embossing.
- We'll be enjoying some dry embossing, using our gorgeous TIEF folders.
- TIEF stands for Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.
- We'll be using a lot of wonderful framelits and thinlits, to make our cards gorgeous.
- We'll be making 2 cards for Fall ... an embossed wreath card and a sunflower card.
- We'll be making 4 cards for Christmas -----
     -- a Season of Cheer card
     -- an elegant embossed reindeer card
     -- a Christmas candles card
     -- an adorable little reindeer card ... AND ... It's a spinner card!!!

OK, I think that sums it up.  It's a class you WON'T want to miss.

My exciting news:
Get a friend to sign up with you and you'll each get a surprise gift when you get here.

Remaining classes / events for 2017:
October Classes:
October 21 -- Saturday Stampers
     1:00-4:00 / $20.00 / 2 Fall AND 4 Christmas

November Classes / Events:
November 5 -- Open House Christmas Party / 2:00-5:00
November 13 -- Scraps and Prayers
     5:30-7:30 / $15.00 / Home Decor Project for Christmas
November 18 -- Christmas Retreat
     10:00-3:00 / $45.00 / 18 Cards: 6 Designs - 3 Cards Each
     Fee includes materials, light lunch, and a ton of fun. 

December 11 Scraps and Prayers Class:
     5:30-7:30 / $15.00 / Christmas Cards and Tags

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world.

- Come back often for more creative inspiration.

- Let's create something beautiful today.

My Last Winter Card for This Season

I really mean it.  This is my last card for Winter.  We've been having some unusually warm weather lately, here in Central Illinois.  It's 61 here right now:)  This makes me want all the more to get into Spring.  Well... I can dream:)

This is a subtle tribute to Valentine's Day in that I used it for February birthdays.  Therefore, I added a tiny heart from glimmer paper.  Cute! 

I wanted the trees to have a nice texture, so I cut them from watercolor paper.

I promise you, I am finished with anything Winter ... cards, projects, decor ... anything.  I do like my card ... a lot ... it's just that I'm over Winter.

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top to see my class schedules. 

- Look on the left for sneak peeks and registration policies. 

- Please sign up to follow my blog and/or leave a comment. 

- Come  back often for more creative inspiration. 

November Christmas Retreat, Cards 4 AND 5

I'm going to make this a Wow Wednesday kind of day and share TWO of the cards we'll be making at my November Christmas Retreat.  They both have lots and lots of sparkle.  

This first card has 3 sources of sparkle:  embossed silver images, silver foil, and white glimmer paper.  Wow!  That's a lot of beautiful sparkle.

I had a big surprise the first time I used the framelit in the above photo.  It cuts an image that I thought looked great on the inside of the card.  Isn't this beautiful?

The next card has glimmer and shimmer, as well.

I didn't realize until after I'd designed this card, that we no longer carry the red foil sheets.  I had just enough left in my 'stash' to use for this class.  It's a real wow to see the gleam of the red foil and the glimmer behind it of the red glimmer paper.  Gorgeous!

I hope I've inspired you to start thinking about making Christmas cards ... maybe creating cards with us at my Christmas Retreat or on your own.  Either way, I've shared some good ideas to get you going, so get out your 'stash' and get started!

In my next post, I'll share our sixth card we'll be making.  Come back and see what I have to share with you. 

I still have a few openings left for the November Christmas Retreat.  The deadline to sign up is the end of the day tomorrow (Thursday).  It's going to be a lot of fun and you'll go home with 18 cards --- 3 of each design.  
If you are unable to attend, kits are available for $30.

Special Reminders:

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top to see my class schedules. 

- Look on the left for sneak peeks and registration policies. 

- Please sign up to follow my blog and/or leave a comment. 

- Come  back often for more creative inspiration. 

A Christmas Mini Album

I finished the Christmas mini album that we'll be making at our next Scraps and Prayers and can't wait to share it with you today.  It's design is a bit versatile and could be changed in several ways.

I designed a belly band to go around mine and couldn't seem to get the right fit to keep it around the album but still be able to slip it on and off easily.  So... I came up with using a magnetic closure.  I cut a magnet to size and used it to secure the belly band.

When you open the album, it has 3 sections and you can decorate it to your heart's desire.  I used a different paper for the flaps and then used scallop circles to hold the flaps shut.

I adhered each side of the lower flaps to form pockets.  You could leave them loose and add more photos on the lower flaps.  With the 3 pockets, I thought you could use them to hold 2 or 3 photos each.

Below... all the flaps are open.

Here's a closeup of the decorations I used to embellish the front of the album.  They are all attached to the belly band.

Another idea:
Leave the lower flaps open, attach a photo to the center flap and stamp/write messages and add stamped images on the outer 2 flaps.  This would make a wonderful Christmas card for special friends and family.

Before you go...

I thought you might like to learn more about our Scraps and Prayers group.  

How do we begin:

We have the best time ever!  We start with a brief chit chat time and then have a brief devotional time.  We then move on to share joys and concerns, and close with a prayer lifting up our loved ones and thanking God for our blessings.

What do we make:  

We make whatever I feel like throwing at the group.  We seem to enjoy every project I plan for our group.  We've made scrapbook layouts, decor projects, projects to make little gifts, ornaments, mini albums, and lots more.

Contact me if you have questions or would like to join our group.  Everyone is welcome! 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration. 

Double Ornament Card

Wow!  What a busy weekend.  It was the baby's first time to church (and he was perfect... actually stayed awake the entire time) and I had my Christmas Open House Party Sunday afternoon.  It went so well and we all had a great time.  Stamping friends are the best!  Today, I have another Christmas card for you... a double ornament card. 

The ornament on the left uses Red Foil Sheets over CS and the ornament on the right uses CS (shimmer spritzed) over Red Glimmer Paper.

This card uses a nice mix of new products and it's pretty fancy.  Mossy Meadow has become my 'go to' color of CS for my Christmas this year whenever I want a pretty green.  It looks great with both Real Red and Cherry Cobbler.

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

A Tale of Two Trees

Today's post is a tale... a tale of 2 trees --- little punched trees, that is.  I love these little note cards.   

I started out with the card on the left and then bumped it up to the card on the right.  If you'd like to make one, we'll be making this one as one of our projects at my upcoming Christmas Open House Party on November 1, from 2:00-5:00.  RSVP on or before Friday, October 30 and you'll have a free gift waiting for you!

The little sprigs of ribbon make a nice embellishment.  The red from the ribbon and the little punched heart add just the right amount of a needed pop of color.

The Home for Christmas DSP is a great look behind the punched tree. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or look on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Our Club Banner Project

Here is the banner we made at our Hostess Scrapbook Club this last week.  It was fun.  I made a second one to put in my Prairie Treasures Booth.  My other banners there have sold already, so I thought I'd see how they like this one:)

If you're at all interested in a fun social time, adding to your 'stash' while staying on a budget, getting lots of scrapbooking done, learning how to make other fun stamping/scrapping projects, seeing all the latest products and techniques... join our next round of Hostess Scrapbook Club.  We will begin our new round on the first Monday of March.  I'll have a gift for those who sign up and a surprise project to do with it.  We'll also start out this next round with a beautiful Spring layout, using our new Secret Garden stamp set and coordinating framelits, along with a few Pop-Up Posies.

So here's the banner.  (Come back soon to see the mini album we also made at our last crop.)

Here's how I did it:

• I cut my squares at 4 1/4" to allow for plenty of wiggle room to apply each one onto the coaster.  
• I covered one side of each square with Liquid Tombow Adhesive, carefully lining it up straight with one side of the coaster.
• I gently smoothed it flat, making sure there were no bubbles or air pockets.  (Being sure to not use too much adhesive helps to get the papers on smoothly.)
• When each square was completely dry, I trimmed around the edges and gently sanded them smooth.
• Repeat process now with the back of each coaster, using CS or more DSP squares. 
• I used a Crop-A-Dile to punch the holes and then tied them together with our pretty dotted ribbon. 
• I punched scalloped circles from red glimmer paper and attached them to the coasters, slipping a half doily under each one.
• I cut the letters with the Big Shot and applied them to the red glimmer paper scalloped circles, using Liquid Tombow Adhesive.

You can add plenty of additional embellishments, as you wish.  I decided to keep this one kind of simple and let the letters and the sparkle of the red glimmer be the stars of the show.  My colors are shades of pinks and reds.  You could experiment with other color stories, as well.

As I said, come back soon and see the mini album that we made at the same crop.  I think you'll like it!

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.