Happy Halloween!

I had so much fun making this little house... did you see it in the mini? It's just $5.95 and is plain white heavy card stock so you can decorate it however you like, it's a bit like a gingerbread house (but you can't eat it!) I copied a design Brent showed at convention and sprayed mine black, stamped cobwebs onto vellum for behind the windows, punched out some bats to fly around the chimney and stamped a sign for over the door. Finally I spritzed the whole thing with some Smooch Spritz. Easy peasy! I put a battery operated tea-light inside and I was done. Callum wants to do a Christmas one now and I thought that would be fun to do together, and a good excuse to break out the glitter and fake snow, gotta love that!
Happy Halloween!
Brenda

Handmade Holidays Promotion

Check out these fun bundles that are on special! The Vintage Christmas Bundle is only $19.92 for the Clear Mount Stamps Set and the Fabulous Designer Paper that goes so well with it. Make sure to check it out below.
If you decided to purchase you can either email me at BrendaStamps@Q.com or place an order online at my Stampin' Up! Store....click on Products and then Shop Now.
THE BUNDLE SALE

Vintage Christmas Bundle #124067 wood $23.92
Vintage Christmas Bundle #124068 clear $19.92

Contempo Christmas Card Bundle #124071 wood $20.72
Contempo Christmas Card Bundle #124072 clear $17.52

Tags Til Christmas Bundle #124077 wood $38.32
Tags Til Christmas Bundle #124078 clear $31.92

Gift Packaging Bundle #124083 wood $26.32
Gift Packaging Bundle #124084 clear $19.92

Simply Adorned Gift Bundle #124076 $39.88

Frame Gift Bundle #124075 $19.92

ALL bundles represent a 20% savings from catalog pricing.

Have a great week and please let me know if you have any questions

Brenda

Eek - You're Sweet!

It's October and the weather has been just gorgeous around here... I love this time of year in Colorado - bright blue skies and amazing leaves. I'm loving it! And now I'm looking forward to Halloween! This week I held a class to make Halloween treats, I had so much fun prepping for this, we didn't celebrate Halloween growing up so I love to see all the kids dressing up and, of course, I love having an excuse to eat all that sweet stuff!

This week I had prepped everything for my Halloween class on Tuesday but I had an extended Christmas card making open house on Monday so I put the Halloween boxes in my office. However, when I went to bed I went into the office where the boys had been watching TV and found that they'd been snacking on the candy corn all night and there wasn't enough for my class! Ack! I had to run all over Bayfield looking for more and eventually I found some at the gas station - needless to say I bought it using THEIR pocket money ;-)

I had a couple of people who couldn't make the class on Tuesday so I'm holding it again this Monday, the 4th, at 7 p.m. Please let me know if you'd like to come along! More info. here

Have a great week, Brenda

Express Card Class

I have been super busy this past couple of weeks so I wanted to share some of the fun projects with you... here are a couple of our cards from the Express Card Class last week. I love this one: we stamped the leaves from the French Foliage stamp set onto Naturals Ivory card stock and then ran that piece through the Big Shot in the Square Lattice embossing folder.


I haven't used my old favorite, The Sock Monkey, for ages but I saw an adorable card on Mary Fish's blog and had to copy it. It involves lots of cutting out to paper piece the monkey together but I love how he turned out. I made some into birthday cards like this and some I made into new baby cards for all the baby boys that are being born on my street! We have three in three months, pretty good going huh?

Have a great week, Brenda

More stamp club

Here's another card we made at stamp club this month. We stamped the leaves onto the wood sheets - the wood is thin so it's easy to cut around the shapes using craft scissors. I LOVE this French Foliage stamp set. The finishing touch was spritzing the complete card with the gold lame Smooch Spray, fun. I really like this time of year, especially in Colorado when we have bright blue days, pumpkins and the sun shining through luminescent leaves. But I kind of miss Autumn in England where it's damp and you can traipse through wet leaves-it's so pretty and soggy. This stamp set includes an abstract kind of splattery raindrops stamp and it really reminds me of England. Walking though the leaves here is usually dry and crunchy - that's not the way it was for me growing up! The only thing I don't like about Fall is that it precedes WINTER... groan. I'm trying to appreciate every sunny autumnal day while it lasts!

Have a great week! Brenda

I LOVE Stamp Club!

I love my stamp clubs... we just have the BEST time! These are groups of ladies who commit to stamping with me once a month for six months. Each month we learn about a technique or a product - I come up with some fun ideas and prepare projects for us all to make... The ladies take turns being "hostess" (which means bringing the snack!) and on their month they get the hostess benefits, yippee!

What I love about stamp club is the opportunity to move away from basic techniques and into exploring new ways to use old things, or playing with new techniques and toys. I always think I'm going to run out of ideas but there is such a WEALTH of creativity out there I never have a problem finding amazing ideas and things to share!

Sometimes I'm prompted by club members to do something specific. This was one of those months-Terri told me she loves Vintage look projects - I am way out of my comfort zone here but I ended up LOVING the projects I discovered researching this... Here is one of the cards we made and I'll be sharing more with you later this week:
I have two stamp clubs in the process of forming right now and we are looking for just a couple more people, interested? Please let me know and I'll be happy to give you the scoop!

Have a great week, Brenda

Personalized JEWELRY!

You know I bought this locket style Simply Adorned Charm a year ago and for some reason I haven't done anything with it... well, this week, when I was supposed to be working on my schedule and was procrastinating by PLAYING in my craft room! I was goofing around and made a little charm insert based on one I saw in our Stampin' Success magazine, it took me all of five minutes and then I was OFF! I made a second, and then I thought it would be fun to do some Halloween ones, and then some Christmassy ones, it was SO FUN!!! So I apologize that I still don't have my calendar updated but don't you just love these little necklaces? The front is beveled and the back is plain glass so you can decorate both sides. It is thick enough to use some teeny embellishments like the small or medium pearls or rhinestones (not the large) ribbon or fabric. LOVE IT!
So this gave me a wonderful idea for another class, order any Simply Adorned jewelry piece and you can come and make 3 inserts per piece for free! Trust me, then you'll be hooked and be rushing home to make lots more! Wouldn't this be a lovely gift, an ornament or charm that the recipient can mix and match according to their mood or outfit? AND (this is a great idea I think) howabout giving your kids a teeny insert to decorate "their" way and then attach it a picture of them on the back? What Mum or Grandma wouldn't LOVE that?
Here is the info:

Charms:
116799 1 1/2" x 2" $21.95 (this could be an ornament or large pendant)
116798 1 1/4" x 1" $18.95 (this is the size I used)
116797 1" square $17.95
118476 5/8" square $8.95 (these work nicely on the bracelet)
117349 5/8" circle $8.95

Chains:
117342 bracelet 8" $7.95
116800 chain 24" $10.95
116853 chain 30" 12.95
Or you can clip the pendants to any necklace or ribbon. I used a necklace I already own.

The Holiday Mini includes some baubles you can clip to your chains too:
121011 Black crystal 5/8" $3.95
121012 Clear crystal 5/8" $3.95
121013 Pink crystal 5/8" $3.95
121014 Vanilla Pearl 1/2" $3.95

The charms are tempered, beveled glass and nickel plated with a lobster clasp and the chains are stainless steel with a toggle clasp.

Order your Charms either on my website or via me before the end of September and I will hold the free insert class on Wednesday October the 6th at 1 p.m. or 7 p.m. How fun!