Counting My Blessings

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have so much to be grateful for this year. I made this adorable mint tin so I can record those blessings. I will be taking pictures of some of them to include in the tin -- my kids, my husband, my warm even if it is messy house, and of course the wonderful spread of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie! The others -- like the far flung friends or the wonderful ladies that I've met this year through stamping -- I will just have to write about. But I will have lots of room on the 12 page accordian fold out in the tin. The best part of this tin is that it is small enough for me to carry in my purse so on those days that I'm not feeling particularly thankful for anything, I can pull it out and be reminded of all that is good!

If you would like to make a tin just like this, I'm offering a kit with all of the elements that you need to make one for free when you place an order of $50 or more between now and November 30. You will also receive the double gift with purchase stamps and if your order reaches $100, the double hostess benefits.

Christmas Cards

This is one of my favorite cards from this weekend's Christmas card Stamp-A-Stack. The picture isn't that great, but the card is beautiful and a very different, but hip, combination for Christmas. It is pink, black, and silver. I've seen both pink and black artificial Christmas trees in the stores so I think that this card is perfect for this year!

Where Did October Go?

Wow! I can't believe that October flew on by and now it's nearly the middle of November. I've been so busy with FUNShops, classes, and craft shows that I feel like I missed the whole month. It's already time to start on Christmas! But first I want to share a Halloween project that I helped a friend with at my last Girls Night Out. She knew exactly what she wanted to make but just needed some help to refine her idea and I was happy to offer my "creative consulting". Here's a picture of the card that she came up with.

And when you open it, here's what you see!

World Card Making Day

Yesterday was World Card Making Day. How did you celebrate?

I had a party with some of my friends!! My friend, Angela, and I threw a party for our customers and we had loads of fun seeing everyone! We had four make and takes, a card contest, and lots of fun things for people to play with.

Here are two of the gals working on their card contest cards. We gave each person a white card front. They had pieces of Lap of Luxury paper (on sale right now for only $3.50 for 36 8x8 sheets!), the Gerbera Daisy stamp, a black ink pad, some black and white ribbon, brads, buttons, and coloring tools available to create their own card design. The cards that they made were all unique and amazing! So good that we ended up awarding THREE prizes! A crowd favorite and two of our favorites.

Here is one of the make and takes. This card was inspired by one that my friend Trudy had made for a Christmas card challenge. I love the simplicity of it! And it uses up the scraps of one of my favorite papers -- Merry Wishes. This card is so easy that I may do it for one of my Christmas card designs -- last year I made 150 cards for Christmas and my list has grown this year. So it has to be simple!! And I'd better start now!

Besides the Merry Wishes paper, this card used our fun May Your Merry stamp set.

Here is another make and take. This fall card is also super simple! We used the pumpkin from Autumn Smiles. It was stamped with Versamark and then colored over with chalk. The green paper was put through a crimper and then a brown ribbon was tied around it. The Happy Harvest saying is from one of my favorite saying sets -- Trendy Greetings. Here are some of the ladies working on their harvest card!

After the ladies finished up their stamping, some of them took advantage of our Hostess Split promotion! I wish that I had taken a picture of this sign when it was hanging up so you could see it better. Angela did an awesome job making it! She even added wire as the stem on the cherry! If you haven't heard about the Hostess Split, you can get yours only during October. Grab a friend and when you each order $50, you get to enjoy all of our yummy hostess rewards.

Celebrate October!

Wow! The Angel Company is offering so many promotions in October! The biggest and best one is Celebration -- DOUBLE hostess rewards and double gift with purchase stamps. I still have a few dates left on my calendar. Contact me today to pick yours. If you can't host a FUNShop in October, try one of my hostess splits. You and a friend both order $50 and you each get 3 Gift With Purchase stamps, a Level A hostess set, and a 1/2 price item. Interested in getting your wings? Start flying in October and you will receive an additional $65 of free stamps with your starter kit. Click on the link to my stamping website for more details.

The second biggest promotion is Crazy for Color. I love the Kaleidascope papers and if you like bright fun colors you will too! This is your chance to get all three of the Kaleidascope collections along with an awesome scrapper's saying set for only $34.95. The paper alone is $33.85 so you are getting this $10.95 stamp set for only $1.10!! If you can't see the stamp set below, please click here to see it.

Card Box

Wow, I've missed a whole week of blogging! That short week last week really threw me. Today I am posting the directions for a project that we made at my Christmas in July class. The sample is pretty basic because this project was one of 14 that we completed in the 3 hour class! But you could dress this box up alot and in fact, as soon as I dig out my stamp room, I have plans to make a dressier one as a gift for a friend and I will share that with you.

Here's the basic box:

Start with a piece of 11 1/2 x 12 cardstock (bottom) and a piece that is 7 x 5 (lid). Here I used green for the bottom and Merry Wishes for the lid.

Score the 11 1/2 x 12 piece at 2 1/2" from each edge on the 12" side and 4 1/2" from the edges on the 11 1/2" side.

With the 7x5 piece portrait style, score the paper at 1" from one edge and 1 1/2" from the other side.

Looking at your box bottom, you will see two small squares formed by the score lines. Cut on the score lines that form the sides of the squares to make tabs.

Fold the box bottom on all score lines and adhere the side flaps together with strong adhesive.

Fold the box lid on the two score lines. Place wonder tape on the 1" flap and press that onto the back of the box. Use a corner rounder on the corners of the lid. Set an eyelet in the center of the lid's front flap. Run two pieces of ribbon through the eyelet and tie in a knot behind the eyelet to secure. Wrap the ribbon around the box and tie in a bow to secure.

This box will hold at least 12 A2 sized cards and envelopes.

Ten Things I Love About You Mini Album

This adorable mini album is made using one of our Candy Tins. The tin comes blank with a blank white accordian fold out. The accordian fold out is just the right number pages to do a Ten Things I Love About You album.

Here's how to make this album:

1. Start with one of our candy tins. Use 3/8" wonder tape to wrap a 3/8"x 12" strip of patterned paper around the bottom of the tin.

2. Use Yes Glue or another strong adhesive to adhere a 2 3/8" x 3 3/4" piece of patterned paper to the outside of the lid. Let dry and use a sanding block or emery board to sand off the corners and edges of the paper flush with the edges of the tin's lid.

3. Use a corner rounder to round the corners of a piece of 2 1/4" x 3 1/2" patterned paper and glue to the inside of the lid.

4. Use 1/4" wonder tape to adhere ribbon around the edge of the tin's lid.

5. Embellish the accordian fold out and the lid of the tin. For my sample, I first sponged Chartreuse and Toile Pink palette inks on alternating pages of the fold out. Then I used alot of the tabs and tags from the Mimi collection along with Mimi ribbon and hardware to embellish the pages. The pictures are cropped to 1 7/8" x 2". I used the stamp set, About A Girl, with Burnt Umber Ink to stamp my sayings. The flower on the first page is a Bitty Blossom with a snap from the Mimi collection set in the center.

6. When you are done embellishing the pages of the album, use more wonder tape to adhere the last page to the bottom of the tin so that it will be easy to fold the album in and out of the tin.

As a part of our Remember September promotion you can get the Mimi collection, including the hardware, ribbons, and coordinating cardstock and a special limited edition stamp set for only $24.95. If you email me with your order, you can also get any saying or alphabet sets, including the About A Girl stamp set, for 10% off.

What if you have a boy instead of a girl? We also have a stamp set called About A Boy and you could use our other paper collection, Lilly Anna, that is a part of the Remember September promotion! With the name Lilly Anna, you may not think to use this paper for a boy, but the bright blue and chartreuse green in the collection work wonderfully for boy themed pages.