Trick or Treat....

Princess gets a look at the KITTY JACK-O-LANTERN Alan carved for her.  She did a double take!  HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone! 

 

Cyndi's Halloween Cards

Cyndi Fisher has been stamping a year now ~ I met her at the UNIQUE BOUTIQUE in October, 2009.  She is a STAMP CLUB MEMBER and loves to stamp.  At our meeting last week, Cyndi brought cards that she had made so I thought I would show them to you. The first card uses Stampin' Up!'s Designer Series Paper, WICKED FUN (#117400).  The bats are flocked!  The second card uses an embossing folder, Spider Web (#120889), to create the spooky web.  Thanks for your cards, Cyndi!

Halloween Owl

Yesterday I asked if there were any HALLOWEEN OWLS out there and I found one in the CAT/ART STUDIO tonight and I wanted to share it with you.  This is a swap card from Founder's Circle using Stampin' Up!'s Two-Step Owl Punch (#118074) on page 200 in the Idea Book & Catalog.  Any more Halloween owls out there?  Send me a picture of YOUR OWL and I will put it on my blog.  Can you say blog candy?  Hugs, Susan Elise

Guest Artist ~ Dawn Duval

Dawn came to Stamp Club this week and had a picture on her phone of a card she made.  I asked her to send it to me and she sent it today!  Now, itsn't it darling????  She was making several GET WELL CARDS and found a similar card on line that she made her own.  Too cute.

Dawn used Stampin' Up!'s Two-Step Owl Punch (#118074) on page 200 in the Idea Book & Catalog.  She said that she punched two of the 'owl vests' and trimmed one and flipped it upside down for the nurses' hat. 

Send me your own owls dressed with your imagination ~ any HALLOWEEN OWLS out there?????  Hugs, se

Holiday Recipe Swap Albums

Last Sunday afternoon was the first of two sessions for those participating in the HOLIDAY RECIPE SWAP.  On Sunday everyone created the cover to their album so I thought you might like to see what they created.  This year the albums will look like this ~

Everyone has two weeks to complete their 20 recipe pages.  On Sunday afternoon, November 7, at 3 PM we will get together again ~ to exchange recipes and taste the delicious food that the recipes make!  YUMMMM1  Think about joining the next swap for yourself or to make a great gift for a good friend!

French Foliage

French Foliage on page 14 in the Holiday Mini Catalog is one of my (current) favorite stamp sets!!!  The images are lovely.  You can see them stamped on the tissue paper on the left.

We have been using this stamp set all month in our Stamp Clubs so I thought I would try it on a candle and I think it turned out very pretty.  Here are some tips for 'candle stamping'.

1.  Stamp your image onto tissue paper using classic ink.

2.  Tear the ednes of the tissue paper to avoid a straight edge.

3.  Using the 2-way glue pen, dot the tissue lightly to hold the tissue on the candle.  Wrap the candle in the tissue, smooth into place.

4.  Use your Heat Gun to 'melt' the tissue into the candle, it will appear shiny.  Continue to move the heat gun around so the entire piece of tissue is melted into the candle.  I keep a piece of wax paper under the candle and roll the candle to be sure all of the tissue stays in place.  Decorate.

This would make a nice gift for a friend or look great on your Thanksgiving table.  My THANKSGIVING STAMP CLASS is scheduled for Saturday morning, November 6, beginning at 10:00 AM.  The class is $20 and there will be 4 projects, one of them will be a candle!  Join me, I'd love to have you!

Let it snow...

The stamp set we used to make this card is Paisley Prints and it is such a nice set because there is a leaf and pumpkin for Fall, a tree for the Winter holidays, and two hearts for February.  The larger of the two hearts fits the Full Heart Punch on page 203 in the Idea Book & Catalog.

 

Stamp sets:  Paisley Prints, page 11, Holiday Mini Catalog; Christmas Greetings, page 44, Stampin' Up!'s Idea Book and Catalog

Card Stock:  Whisper White, #100730; Concord Crush, #119792; Baja Breeze, #111352 and Vellum Card Stock, #101856 on page 170, IBC

Ink:  Baja Breeze classic stamp pad, #111833; Concord Crush, #119785

Accessories:  Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz, #118782; Basic Rhinestones, #119246; Big Shot & the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, #117335; Dimensionals, #104294; Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, #102023; 2-Way Glue Pen, #100425

Directions:

1.  Cut Whisper White card stock 4 1/4" X 11", score and fold at 5 1/2".  Cut Corcord Crush card stock at 4" x 5 1/4".  Cut Vellum at 3 3/4" X 5" and run through the Big Shot inside the emobssing folder to create the snowflakes.

2.  Stamp tree 3 times with the Baja Breeze stamp pad, cut out.  Tear a piece of 3" x 4" Whisper White to create the snow, spray with Smooch Spritz and sponge edge with Baja Breeze.  Add glitter to the edge of the snow using the 2-Way Glue Pen.  Assemble card, pop up two of the trees with Dimensionals.  Add rhinestones to the top of the trees.

3.  Stamp Merry Christmas using Concord Crush on to Whisper White card stock cut at 3/4" x 3".  Layer on Baja Breeze card stock cut at 1" X 3 1/8".  Add rhinestone above the 'i'.  Pop up with Dimensionals.

Let it snow!  Susan Elise

Who's sitting on my chair???

And, I think I almost sat on him!  On Friday, I took some time off to stamp with friends ~ what a treat!  I stamped with my friend, Phyllis, and her sister, Robin.  Robin is from New York state and is here for the weekend.  It is always nice to see her and she took Phyllis and me to lunch ~ thank you Robin!!!

This is Phyllis' Stamp Room and we had a very busy time as you can tell!  I took two projects for us to do and Phyllis coordinated out third project, below.  Isn't it gorgeous?????  I love it ~ and it is an easy to medium card ~ YOU can do it!

Friday was so relaxing and such fun ~ I hope you have time to stamp with friends soon!  What a treat!  Oh, would you like directions for this great card????  How about tomorrow?  I have to get ready for the first meeting for the HOLIDAY RECIPE SWAP this afternoon!  Hugs, Susan Elise

Quilting in the Cat/Art Studio

The first step was to measure and cut our fabric ~ in this picture Martha is helping Adrienne measure accurately before cutting.  The picture on the right is Abby and she is cutting her fabric using STAMPIN' UP!'S BIG SHOT.  We cut out our circles using the Scallop Circle Die (#113468) and the Scallop Circle #2 Die (113469) on page 207 in the Idea Book and Catalog.  We needed 63 of each size of the scalloped cirecle so you can see why the Big Shot was such a big help.  In fact, we would never have gotten our quilt done in a day without it!

Next we had to sew our borders on to the center piece of our quilt.  Once that was finished we measured and marked where each of our circles would be put on the center background. 

The last step is to layer all of the circles on to the quilt top like Abby is doing in this picture.  Mine was the easiest to do as I had only three fabric designs to work with.  My quilt is made with Stampin' Up!'s Candy Cane Christmas fabric (#121715) on page 16 in the Holiday Mini Catalog.

When we were satisfied with the placement, and the color arrangement, we glued the circles together and to the center fabric using Stampin' Up!'s Anywhere Glue Stick (#104045) ~ it takes an entire glue stick to attach all of the circles! 

The last step is to find a backing fabric and to have the fabric quilted.  We will leave that up to someone else ~ someone with a 'long arm machine'.  When mine is quilted I will take a picture so you can see my final (beautiful) quilt!!!!  I am so proud of myself!!!!  Thanks, Martha! 

Let me know if you are interested in quilting with the Big Shot or if you need any of the Stampin' Up! products that we used.  I may get really brave and offer a class!  Susan Elise

Martha and her quilts...

This is Martha Armstrong, Stampin' Up! Demonstrator from North Carolina, who came by on Monday morning to teach Adrienne, Abby and I to make a quilt in a day!  Martha is my upline, she has been quilting for a long time and does a beautiful job.  She made the two quilts behind her using Stampin' Up!'s BIG SHOT!  (The Big Shot is the secret weapon ~ the reason that we COULD make a quilt in a day ~ amazing!!!)  Aren't they gorgeous???  The pictures below are hers also ~

This is her Mary Englebriet Quilt.  I think she used the Clear Circle Die (#114533) on this one.

And the one on the right is made with the 5-Point 3D Star Die (#113473) on page 206 in Stampin' Up!'s Idea Book and Catalog.

More tomorrow about our QUILT DAY in the CAT/ART STUDIO!  Susan Elise