May Make & Take Projects

This past Saturday marked the one year anniversary of our Monthly Make & Take class.  Happy Stampiversary to us!  These are the projects we made.  We found most of our designs from Pinterest, Stampin' Up, and classes we've attended.

Strawberry is made out of the pear from Apple of My Eye set.

What I Love and Hello stamp sets from SAB 2016

All about Everything stamp set from April 2016 Paper Pumpkin kit

This is a gift card holder.  It's hard to tell in the photo,
but there is a pocket in front of the back pocket to put a giftcard in.

Zoo Babies stamp set

This is the same design as the card right above it.
Attendees could choose to do a baby card,
or use the Balloon Celebration stamp set for this card.

A little about us:

Lorinda and I rejoined the Stampin' Up family in March 2015.  We met through Stampin' Up over 10 years ago and were demonstrators together back then.  It was the beginning of a life-long friendship.  She moved away and we both took a break from Stampin' Up for awhile (although we still used the stuff we had collected).  We rejoined last March to take advantage of the great offers for new recruits during Sale-a-bration.  I wasn't planning to do classes or become completely stamping obsessed again...but it happened...and I'm so glad! :)  It was Lorinda's idea to do these classes every month and I am really happy she thought of it.  Although I have always been a social person, I sort of neglected that side of me for awhile in the busyness of raising a family.  I didn't realize how much I was missing it until I started re-connecting with old friends and making new friends through these stamping gatherings.  I have so thoroughly enjoyed connecting with friends and exercising my creativity over the past fourteen months and that is why I call stamping the best "happiness therapy."  I love stamping and I'm so thankful for all the friends who stamp with me.

Marsha & Lorinda at On Stage Local.

Stamping Friends Regional Gathering

Lorinda, Cindy, Marsha, Erin, and Holly

I had a really fun outing with friends yesterday at Rose Ellen's Stamping Friends Regional Gathering.  We watched some informative and inspiring presentations, swapped cards (well, only Cindy made card swaps so the rest of us just enjoyed looking at hers), ate lunch, did make & takes, and overall had an enjoyable time getting ideas and stamping together.

My team leader, Michelle Suit, gave a presentation on Project Life and I felt inspired to give it a try, even though I gave up on scrapbooking years ago. This seems really doable and something I can just do here and there without feeling the pressure to scrapbook my whole life.  I try to keep a record of our family on my family blog that I print out, so I'm just planning to do some "highlight" project life books here and there.

Michelle Suit--awesome team leader!

One of the presenters, Cathy Williams, showed us how we can make our cards unique with fancy folds.  The card shown below was one of my favorites.  When you first open the card, you see the curtains covering the bear, as you pull it open, the curtains slide to the side and you see the bear peeking through.  So cute!

These are some of the make & takes we did.  I didn't end up finishing all of them:

This next project was one of my favorites, maybe because it was so simple and something I could easily reproduce and mass produce for a variety of occasions.  It uses a craft bag, folded to make a pocket for a gift card.  You slip a small card in the opening of the bag, and the gift card in the pouch in front.  Simple and cute!

Here's a few more pictures from the event.  Looking forward to the next stamping day!

Christmas Tag Gift Set

I had a great time with friends last Saturday making the tags from the "Oh What Fun" tag kit found in the Holiday Catalog.  This kit comes with supplies to make 30 tags.  These tags are so adorable!

I decided to divide up the tags and give a gift of 10 tags to each of my son's preschool teachers.  I knew I needed a cute package to put them in, so I revised an old box pattern I had to come up with this.

The best thing about this box is that it is super easy!  This is how you make it:

1. Start out with a half sheet of cardstock (I used Real Red), 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"
2. With the cardstock turned the 8 1/2" wide direction, score at 3 3/4" and 4 3/4"
3. Turn the cardstock the 5 1/2" wide direction and score at 1" and 4 1/2"
4. Fold your score lines and cut in the middle flaps.
5. Add designer paper (2 1/4" x 3 3/4") to each side of the box (I used some retired paper).
6. Add ribbon by putting a strip of srong adhesive (like tear tape) down each side of your designer paper.  Attach the ribbon to the adhesive.
7. Decorate with a cute tag.  I used the Very Merry Everything Bundle to stamp and punch out my tags.  The thick red baker's twine came in the tag kit.  I added the tags to the box with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I think my son's teachers will love their gifts!

Hope you can join us for the next class!  Check out my calendar to find out what is next.