Valentine, You Color My World!

I made these fun Valentine's for each of my almost 50 kinders.  After melting crayons (more info at the end of this post), I packaged each in a 3"x4" bag from G.T. Bag Company, and created toppers for each.  For the toppers, I used pink cardstock, and stamped "Valentine" from a ProvoCraft dial-a-word stamp (since I couldn't find just the word WITHOUT an "s" at the end!), in Early Espresso. 
I used the SU Definitely Decorative set "Crayon Kids" to stamp the crayons, using Tempting Turquoise and Melon Mambo ink.  In SU Early Espresso, I stamped the phrase "You color my world", from Pink by Design's "Simply Everything" set. 
I love how each of these turned out, and they were a huge hit with my kinders!
How did I make the crayons, you may ask?  I found some silicone heart baking pans, and, after peeling millions of crayons (maybe not MILLIONS, but MANY---and THANK YOU to Terri and her family for also peeling a TON!!!), I set my oven to 250 degrees and broke up crayons to fill each mold.  Just for safety sake (didn't want to ruin my oven with melted crayons), I lined a cookie sheet with foil and baked the molds on it for approximately 15 minutes.  You have to check the crayons to make sure they are fully melted.  Depending on the oven and the brand of crayon, they may take longer to melt. 
After baking, I sped up the cooling process by placing the molds in the fridge.  When set, I popped the crayons out and began a new batch.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Valentine Treat Sticks

Happy Valentine's Day!  I made these cute 1"x8" bags of Valentine-colored candy corn for my co-workers, using the P.S. I Love You stamp set in the new Stampin' Up Mini Catalog.  They were super easy (after stuffing all the bags, of course!). 
I got the 1"x8" bags from either Stampin' Up or the G.T. Bag Company (www.gtbag.com).  I have been loving the bags I ordered from G.T., and will definitely order from them again! 
I used SU Melon Mambo ink on two tones of pink cardstock, then punched with the 1 3/4" scallop circle, and 1" and 1 1/2"  circles.
One scallop circle was placed behind the bag, and one placed on the front with the dark pink circle centered.  I backwards stapled through all the layers, then added a dimensional and the smallest circle with "Hand crafted with love for you". 

~Hoppy Crafting!

Creative Hiatus

Apparently I've been taking a hiatus from posting.  I can't believe we're a month and a half into the new year, and I haven't posted!  January flew by!  I had the best of intentions, but feel like I hit one of those crafting blocks (like writer's block). 
Also, we had a snow storm, followed by a freezing rain storm, which led to trees breaking everywhere and our power being out for a few days.  We even had a week "off" of work with the crazy weather! 
This weekend I had a guest over for about five hours, and we had a fantastic card-making frenzy!  In addition to that, I have also finished 50 Valentine's for my kinder kiddos, and another 60+ other special treats in bags with toppers!  I will have to download the pics and share everything!  I'm hoping that I'm back in the craftin' groove (even though my work remains crazy-busy!!!)! 
~Hoppy Crafting!

Resolutions

NYE 2010 @ Friend's house

So, I'm not one to make a lot of resolutions.  I set goals throughout the year, and once something is accomplished, I make another.  I don't think it's practical to make resolutions for the next 12 months of your life to share with the world on one crazy (often alcohol-induced) night.  BUT, I found these 10 resolutions posted on the Scrapbook Expo's Facebook page, and had to share!  These resolutions totally feed into everyone's scrapbook addition.  Enjoy! 

Scrapbook Expo

Top 10 New Year's Resolutions

1. Spend more time with the family  and friends- more pictures to scrapbook!
2. Get more exercise - Deep knee bends while picking up dropped brads and buttons from the scrap room floor!
3. Give up drinking, at least for the first week of January - Spills and scrapbooks don’t mix!
... 4. Get out of debt- so you can buy more scrapbook supplies!
5. Learn a new skill or take up a new hobby - scrapbooking DUH!
6. Put something back into the community - help others learn to scrapbook!
7. Get organized - clean scrapbook room you’ll find a lot of hidden treasures there!
8. Become more security conscious - lock those permanent ink pads in a special place. Permanent ink and kids uh-oh!
9. Start  (or religiously maintain) a journal or blog - Best place to showcase your beautiful work!
10. Give up a bad habit - replace with scrapbooking!

~Hoppy Crafting!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas one and all!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas together.   Here are some cards that I made using Stampin' Up "Many Merry Messages" and "Dasher" stamp sets, as well as "Petals-A-Plenty" embossing folder from SU (and Snowflakes from Cutttlebug), and some Lifestyle Crafts "Nesting Scallops" dies.  ~Hoppy Crafting!

Christmas Treat Bags

The other day I ended up making around 70 of these fun little treat bags.  In a prior post, I had started this project, by stamping the "VERY MERRY Christmas" from the Stampin' Up set "It's a Wrap Holidays".  I only got about 60 candies stamped and wrapped before running out of candy.  The project was put on hold for over a week, until I could make a Costco run and get the huge bag of Hershey's Nuggets. 
Once I had more "nuggets", I began stamping and wrapped a ton more!  To make the use of "It's a Wrap Holidays" easier, I stamped onto address labels and then peeled to stick to each candy.  After finishing the candies, I worked at getting four into each of the small Stampin' Up treat bags, and then worked on stamping "Joy at Christmas" from the SU set "Perfect Punches".  I also punched a background for each stamped image.  I used  the 1 3/4" and 2" scallop circle punches. 
For the wrap across the tops, I cut a 3" by 6" strip of cardstock, punched the bottom of each with Martha Stewart's snowflake border punch, then folded in half and stapled once in the center.  I made sure to staple backwards so that I could "hide" the staple edges with the scallop medallions I had made.  I love how these turned out!  For colors, I used several greens and reds (both SU and other brands).  ~Hoppy crafting!!!

Very Merry Chocolate!

I've been crazy-busy (with nearly 50 kinders!), and have been working a TON!  It has been report card season, and I've been burning the midnight oil at school (Not joking! Some nights I've been there til 8pm!), while doing some crazy projects for my kinders.  I've had limited scrap time, but have been making a few projects, just haven't had time to post.  I don't know about you all, but (just between us, wink, wink), I still have NOT finished my Christmas cards!!! (GASP!)  I have a weekend coming, and I must become a Christmas card mass-production specialist!!! 
Anyways, on to my newest glimmer of craftiness!  I bought a cute set of stamps from Stampin' Up, called "It's a Wrap Holidays".  Wellllll.......long story short, a light bulb clicked on (Okay, it was more like fireworks going off in my head...in a "hey, Genius, why haven't you realized this?" sort of way, but  I digress...).  I looked at my stamp set, and realized that it should fit on address labels!!! YESSSSSS!!! No cutting!  No gluing!  No swearing!  So, I got out my Avery Address labels (30 on a page.  # 48260 for all you tech-savvy crafting gurus), and started stamping away with the stamp that says "VERY MERRY Christmas". 
I stamped labels in Cranberry Crisp, Real Red, Cherry Cobbler, Glorious Green, Wild Wasabi, and Garden Green, then I found what was left of the bag of Hershey's Nuggets and wrapped 60 of these darlings!  I originally bought a bag of Hershey's Miniatures, which subsequently got eaten by a madman and two weenie-wolves, but they are just a little bit the wrong size (too long).   I need to get back to stamping and back to the store!  I intend on distributing the contraband sharing the chocolate goodies as a holiday treat with my co-workers next week!  Nothing says Christmas, like chocolate!  ~Hoppy Crafting!!!

Happy Birthday, Brenda!!!

My dear friend, Brenda, just had her birthday, and this is the card that I made her!  I used a dark brown card base and liked the inside with white cardstock.  I punched the edge and then inked it using SU Early Espresso.  Next, I cut a green mat and wrapped some gorgeous "pink sorbet" bakers twine from The Twinery around the card five times (taping in the back).
I cut a "pocket" from pink cardstock and stamped a filigre pattern on it with SU Pixie Pink, then glued down.  I then added bling to strategic points across the pocket. and cut a piece of white cardstock to fit inside the pocket.  I rounded the corners of the white paper, inked the edges, and stamped a lighter pink background, using the same filigre pattern.  I stamped and punched a tab, using the SU tab punch and pink zebra paper, then adhered it to the top of the white paper.  I added "happy birthday" in SU Early Espresso, along with several phrases that my friend uses often, from some Pink By Design stamps, in the SU Pixie Pink. 
Finally, I made a cute paper flower using a brad and three patterned papers, which were squares (3x3, 2x2, and 1x1).  I used the torn paper technique and tore each square towards me in a circle.  I then crunched each layer, one-by-one, in my hand until I was satisfied with the dimension of each.  Then I used my paper piercer and mat to punch a hole through the middle and add the brown spiral brad.  I adhered the dimensional flower using glue dots, across the twine.  ~Hoppy Crafting!!!

Pink By Design stamps!

CKC 2011

Scrapbook Survivors around 5pm! (Cindy, Lynda, Terri, Kelly).

Woo whooo!!!  It's finally CKC time!!!  Several friends and I attended the Creating Keepsakes Convention near Seattle yesterday, and had a total blast!  Some of us took classes, while others shopped the vendor faire.  Kelly and I carpooled and spent the ENTIRE DAY at the convention.  We met up with Kate and her sister-in-law.  I also saw friends and fellow crafters Terri and Lynda.  I know our stampin' friend Deb was there, but we were so busy shopping and taking classes, that we never saw her! 

Kate and I took "The latest and greatest with Basic Grey, Simple Stories, and Crate Paper", and enjoyed a FAST-PACED class.  We nearly completed 4 pages, and have extra supplies to finish more.  The rest of the day we shopped, grabbed a little lunch, shopped, shopped, and shopped some more! 

I found some neat stamps at Technique Tuesday and The Stamps of Life.  I enjoyed some make and takes, and shopping at Embellish It and Queen & Co.  I even found some major deals at Scrapbuck and Scrap Mart.  Can you imagine 2 packages of cookie-cutter dies by Quic-Kutz for only $10, total (I saw each clearanced out online for $11 apiece)?   Or, getting 100 yards of grosgrain or sheer ribbon for only $2-$4???  I also got a grab-bag of bling for $2.99, which should last me for quite some time!

If you ever have the chance to go to a scrapbook expo, I definitely would recommend it!  It's a fun day for all, and you may just find a few things that you may not normally find in your LSS (local scrapbook stores).  ~Hoppy Crafting!!!

Gobble, Gobble!

It's turkey time already (well, almost)!  I finally had some open time to really work on a project, and ended up making 20 of these adorable Thanksgiving cards!  I saw a similar turkey a couple of weeks ago at my Stampin' friend, Deb's party, and really wanted to scrap-lift it!  I used quite an array of punches during this project, as well as Twinery twine, my Cricut, Stampin' Up ink, and foam adhesive.  I think it would be easier to put into a list everything I used, so here it goes!  :o)

*Stampin' Up Owl punch (eyes, body)
*Stampin' Up Butterfly punch (feathers & wings-cut in half and apart)
*Stampin' Up 1" Square punch (behind turkeys for support)
*Stampin' Up XL Oval-2" x 1 3/8" punch (behind sentiment)
*Stampin' Up Scallop Oval  punch(for sentiment)
*EK Success Arch Scallop (border)

*EK Success Card Suits (waddle)
*Stampin' Up "Holiday Best" stamp set (sentiment)
*Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie ink
*Stampin' Up Early Espresso ink
*The Twinery "Lemondrop" twine
*Cricut Savory Cartridge (plates)
*"Party-Celebrate" paper from Fancy Pants Designs (background behind turkeys)
*DCWV textured cardstock (card bases)
*Buttons
*Foam adhesive (pop up sentiment and turkeys)

I punched everything, then assembled each part mass-production style (all hats, all eyes, all turkeys, etc), until every last part was finished and I ended up with 20 pieces of art!  I had to add some humor and put each turkey on a dinner plate, haha!  The only thing I did differently, was how I added the twine.  On some cards, the twine is wrapped several times from left to right.  On others, it is looped behind the top left corners, then threaded through buttons and finished in a bow.  Hope you like these as much as I do!  ~Hoppy Crafting!!!

Turkey Army!!!