Trick or Treat...

Want a quick and easy Halloween treat. Cover a Tetley tea container with patterned paper and fill with pencils, lollypops, candy sticks etc. On this container I covered it using Night & Day Designer Series paper (super popular paper from the Holiday Mini) and basic Black cardstock. The stamp is from the Holiday Best Hostess set and I used the Wide Oval Punch to punch it out. I finished the canister off with Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon, black and pumpkin brads and a black sharpie to colour around the top. I filled it with items I found at the dollar store.

There is still time to order Halloween items to make your own personalized treats and gifts. My next order will be going in on Sunday October 11th.

5-Petal Flower Punch - $15.99 plus bonus!!!

The 5 petal flower punch is easily my most used punch at this time of the year. Not because I love flowers (although I do) but because I love poinsettia’s! Used with the Spotlight on Christmas stamp set this punch helps make some of my favourite Christmas cards ever!

Other punches on sale this week are the My Way Punch (110709) for $16.99 and the Trio Flowers Punch (110711) for $15.99.

Purchase any of these punches before Sunday October 11th and receive ten 4 ¼ by 5 ½ sheet of cardstock embossed with Stampin Up Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder (page 21 in the Holiday Mini Catalogue) See below for a quick card I made using the Spotlight on Christmas stamp set, the 5 petal Flower punch and Petals-A-Plenty embossing folder. The Brushed Gold cardstock, Gold Embossing and Gold Elastic Cord finish the card off nicely.

My next order is going in on Sunday October 11th so if you would like to take advantage of the punch special (which ends this weekend) or need anything else please send me an e-mail (s-pdavid@sympatico.ca)

Sparkly and Bright Christmas Card Class

To the left is one of the cards we will be making at my Christmas Card Class in November.

Sparkly and Bright Christmas Card Class

When: Sunday November 15th
Time: 1pm
Cost: $30
This will be a 10 card class (5 designs, 2 of each card) using a variety of stamp sets and techniques (including heat embossing, glitter etc).

Private classes are also available.

For All You Do...Melon Mambo

I thought some nice pink would be a nice break from all the black and orange I have been posting over the last couple of days. There will be more Halloween posted over the next few days and soon lots of Christmas ideas will be posted.




This card was super easy to make. I used the "For All You Do" stamp set with the bright and fun colour combination of Melon Mambo and Gable Green. The half pearls in the center of the flowers are from the Pretties Kit.

Watch tomorrow for a preview of one of the cards we will be making at my Sparkly and Bright Christmas Card Class in November.

Autumn Harvest Jack-o-lanterns

Continuing with my Halloween theme this week here is a cute card made with the Autumn Harvest stamp set. I love the cute little faces on the pumpkins. It's such a versatile set and I think its a must have for autumn (see my September 23rd post for a different card made with the same stamp set)

The image was stamped on Naturals white cardstock and the Jack-o-lanterns were coloured in using Stampin Pastels (page 154 in the Idea Book and Catalogue)

On this card, as well as my September 23rd card I used a technique called masking. It allows one image look as though it was placed in front of another image. On this card the smaller pumpkin was masked in order to make it look as though the larger pumpkin is slightly behind it.

How to Mask:

1. Stamp smaller pumpkin with black ink on naturals white cardstock. Stamp same image a second time on a post it note (over where the adhesive is)

2. Trim post it note on the lines, leaving no border. Place "mask" over small pumpkin to cover completely.

3. Ink large pumpkin with black ink and stamp onto Naturals White cardstock, slightly over the smaller pumpkin.

It's such a quick and easy technique. The key to making it work is cutting the mask on the lines of the image. Leaving a border will leave a gap between your images and cutting the mask too small will ruin your masked image.

Sweet Centers Shimmer Card....

The Sweet Centers stamp set is such a super cute idea and I am having a lot of fun making cards and treats with them. This card was super easy to make. All you need is the Sweet Centers stamp set and a 1 3/4" circle punch (a must have for the cups).

The shimmer is the fun part. I put Frost White Shimmer paint (page 27 in the Holiday Mini) into a mini spritzer (I dipped a popsicle stick into the paint and scraped what was on it into the spritzer) and filled the spritzer up with rubbing alcohol. I then spritzed all the paper seperately before putting the treat cup in and finishing the card. All the different shimmer paints give a completely different look when spritzed. All you need is a fine mist spray bottle and some rubbing alcohol.

I am putting an order this Sunday, October 4th if there is anything you need. Please be sure to e-mail me s-pdavid@sympatico.ca before then if you want to add to this order.

Peppermint Pattie Spider treats....

These are the cutest little spiders, and I HATE spiders so the fact that they don't creep me out says a lot. They were super easy to make. All you need is some Basic Black and Old Olive or Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie cardstock, a Scallop Circle punch and a Photo Corners Punch. They were super easy to put together with some Tombow glue and of course the peppermint patties.

Deal of the Week
Each week for the month of October there will be a new deal of the week. Week One’s deal was announced a few days early so it is good until October 11th. You can see all these punches on page 186 and 187 of your catalogue.

Week 1 Deals of the Week
109183 - Trio Flower punch - $15.99
109041 - 5-Petal Flower punch - $15.99
110709 - My Way punch - $16.99

The next deal of the week will be posted on my blog on Monday October 12th, Monday October 19th and Monday October 26th. I will be posting these deals on my blog on those dates.

Autumn Upsy Daisy

Upsy Daisy is a pretty popular stamp set, probably because it looks great no matter what you do with it. This card took me less than 5 minutes to make. I made this card with autumn colours, More Mustard and Really Rust. The only embellishment I used on the card were 4 gold brads.

Stampin Up Clearance Rack!!!
If you haven’t been to my Stampin Up website in a while click here and then click on the “Shop Now” link. There is a new category called the clearance rack and it’s full of fabulous deals on retired product. These items are only available through my online shopping cart and the quantities are limited.

Some of the great deals include:

Autumn Vine Designer Paper - Now $5.49

Word Flurries Rub ons - Now $5.99

Little Felt Flurries - Now $8.99

Cranberry Crist 1/4 stitched ribbon - Now $4.99

For All You

For All You Do is my newest stamp set so I will have a few samples from it to show you over the next few weeks but what I really love about this card is the colour combination of Bermuda Bay and Soft Suede. I did a card a few weeks ago with Bermuda Bay and Chocolate Chip but I like this even better. The designer paper is Thoroughly Modern, a paper I didn't really think much of until I took the time to look at each piece of paper individually and realized it wasn't as "loud" as I thought it was.

This is a card I am going to make and package a bunch together to give out as Christmas gifts to teachers as a Thank You. It was quick and easy to make and I think this card can be used for all occasions!

Simple Friendship Butterflies

I am a big fan of pink and brown together so I love the combination of Soft Suede with Pretty in Pink. The stamp set I used for this card was Simple Friendship (although the background on the Soft Suede card was stamped with the French Filigree background stamp. The designer paper I used on the card is Bella Bleu.


I know most of you aren't crazy about cutting but the butterflies look fabulous this way. If you have the right scissors (Paper Snips) and you practice, practice, practice you will get better at it. I think it adds a lot to your work to perfect this skill.

Autumn Harvest....

I love pumpkins at this time of year. We usually grow them but this year all we got were a lot of flowers. I'm sure the lack of sun earlier in the summer had a lot to with this.

The stamp set I used was Autumn Harvest, which I just love because it also comes with the Jack-o-lantern face to stamp on the pumpkins. I coloured the pumpkins, squash and leaf using SU watercolour pencil crayons and the aquapainter (the image was stamped on watercolour paper) I also used Teeny Tine Wishes for the sentiment and the Sanded background stamp on the card.

Sweet Centers....

I fell in love with the Sweet Centers stamp set as soon as I saw it in the Holiday Mini. I knew it would be great for little treats but it's also an awesome idea for non-treats.

On this card I filled the Sweet Treats cup with clear beads from the Pretties kit as well as the Silver Bead duo found on page 180 in the catalogue. I'm looking forward to filling my flower cards with seeds in the spring that people can plant in their gardens and watch grow. Over the next few months I will post more cards and hopefully give you a lot more idea's for filling the treat cups.

Supplies on this Card:

• Sweet Centers stamp set
• On Your Birthday stamp set
• Sweet Treat cup
• Real Red Classic Ink
• Old Olive Classic Ink
• Black Staz On ink
• Real Red cardstock
• Old Olive cardstock
• Whisper White cardstock
• Old Olive Grosgrain
• Silver brad

Dreams du Jour

I just fell in love with the little butterflies in this stamp set after one of my friends bought it (you are all the worst enablers...I can't beleive how much stuff I have bought because you all have ordered something)

On this card I used Not Quite Navy and Soft Suede together along with Bella Bleu designer paper. The butterflies were stamped with Not Quite Navy Classic ink and coloured with a blender pen (which picks up ink from the image) to create a softer shade of Not Quite Navy. The Happy Birthday stamp is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set and punched out with the Modern Label punch.

Beary Best Friends...

When Mary saw this Build a Bear stamp set in the mini catalogue a month ago she went crazy for it so I had to buy it of course. I think the Beary Best Wishes and the Beary Nice wishes stamp sets will be a lot of fun for her, so far I have been the only to make anything with it.


Sometimes I like to make quick little cards to put in her lunch kit so she gets them at school, this is one of them. I just coloured the bear with markers and a blender pen and the patterened paper is from the Pawsitively Prints out of the Holiday mini. Even if you don't love the bear the paper is great for cards of all occasions!

Thoughts and Prayers Autumn Tree....

I just love the tree from the Thoughts and Prayers stamp set and thought it would look awesome with some fall colours. This tree took a few extra minutes to colour but it is so worth it (looks even better in person!)

First I inked the whole Tree with Creamy Caramel Ink. I then took a damp q-tip and removed the colour from all the leaves. Then I coloured all the leaves with a Summer Sun Marker. Finally I dotted (tapped) the leaves with a Real Red marker. I huffed on the stamp and stamped it onto Very Vanilla cardstock. While you could colour the stamp completely with markers I found it a lot easier to do it this way because it's almost impossible to colour all those thin branches of the tree with the Caramel marker without "contaminating" the leaves with that colour.

Inspired by Nature...

I do love this beautiful flower. It looks hard to ink but actually I found a super easy way to ink it with all the different colours.

First I got a sponge dauber (page 192 in the catalogue) put it on my finger and dipped it into a Summer Sun Classic ink pad and daubed it onto the petals.

I then took a different dauber (you can just rince the original dauber and pat dry if you want to re-use it), dipped it into a Ruby Red classic ink pad and daubed overtop the Summer Sun.

I took a third dauber, inked it with Old Olive and daubed the stem

Finally I daubed the center of the coneflower with Close to Cocoa ink.

It was super easy and all the ink went where it was suppose to go. You could use markers too but this gives a softer more blended look. I finished this card off with lots of paper piercing (done using the Mat Pack on page 191 in the catalogue)

Sizzix Card.....

Ok, this card is pretty much an exact copy of the card in the catalogue on page 197 but I loved it so much when I saw it I ordered the Sizzlits dies "Many Thanks" and "Little Leaves" as well as the Certainly Celery Patterns Designer Paper right away. The only stamping on the card was on the leaves. I used the Sanded Background with Certainly Celery ink to create the pattern (just like in the catalogue!) I don't like to copy a card directly but that card was too fabulous not to show you (in case you missed it in the catalogue!)

My Delightful Decorations class (details below in my August 27th post) is more than half full so sign up soon if you were hoping to be a part of it.

Best Wishes and More....

Happy back to school day! It's so quiet in the house but I am not complaining! I really should clean but I think I will stamp instead!

I thought I would take a little detour from tradional autumn colours and throw some Rich Razzleberry into this autumn card I made with the Best Wishes and More stamp set. I just love this little leaf!

Products Used on this card:

• Best Wishes and More stamp set
• Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set
• Rich Razzleberry Textured cardstock
• Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Very Vanilla cardstock
• Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango Classic Ink
• Black Staz On
• Oval Punches
• Gold eyelets
• Curshed Curry Polka Dot ribbon
• Linen Thread

Congratulations to Christine C and Patti B for winning my blog comment contest! You each win a $25 gift certificate. I hope you will all continue to post comments because sometimes my ego needs a little boost!

Falling Leaves....

I love this set! It caught my eye right away when the new catalogue came out! This card was made with Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa and Very Vanilla cardstock/Classic Inks. I used the Bright Blessing Jumbo Wheel along the bottom of the card that co-ordinates perfectly with the Falling Leaves stamp set. For embellishments I used Chocolate Chip grosgrain, Linen Thread, Antique Brass eyelets and the Photo Corner Punch.

On another note can you believe how cold it is today! I guess we should be glad it's sunny so it might warm up a bit. There was ice on my windshield....in August. Crazy stuff!

Well since I am finally home I have had the chance to play with some of my new goodies from the Holiday Mini (we demo's get the opportunity to order things out of it a month early.) There are some fabulous stamp sets and accessories in there and I will be posting a lot more samples as soon as I have more time.

This is one of the cards we will be making at my Delightful Decorations Class in October, details below:

When: Sunday Oct 25, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

This will be a 5 card. 3 gift tag class that includes the new stamp set Delightful Decorations ($28.95) in the Holiday Mini starting on September 1st.

Cost is $45 for the class and stamp set Delightful Decorations.

Want the matching punch too? Get the stamp set ($28.95), the matching Ornament punch ($22.95) and the class for $65. Sign up deadline is Sunday October 4th.