Bloggers Challenge ~ Happy Halloween

How much fun did Alexis (my 3 year old) and I have making these gift card holders??!!! We had a BLAST!!! I saw the COOLEST video tutorial from Ann Clemmer on her blog. If you haven't seen it you should GO look.

I did a quick spin on her idea, and made these cute pumpkin faces. Inside, there's a certificate for a free ice cream at Wendy's. There are peanut allergies in Alexis' classroom, so I think ice cream is safe ~ parents can make the choice. If i have time i'd love to make these for trick or treaters... If you are out with your family tonight, be safe.

Also, please dont forget to check out the AWESOME bloggers challenge group and their fun creations for halloween.

Happy Halloween!

Simple & Rich Chocolate

I made this card yesterday, it's a VERY simple card, using the thumping marker technique. When I was done with the stamping, I took a waterbrush to it, to make the image blend.

I also got a chance to play with chocolate taffeta. I think this is the first time I've used it. Doesn't it make you feel like you've had a hot chocolate? I used versamark to ink up the Bella Toile background stamp and created the background with it.

The whole thing is so simple, yet so rich. I think I'm looking at my November workshop card. Are you interested in making a card like this one? Book in for your workshop today and we can make this beauty at your party!

A card for Carol H. ~ WSC 63

I got this weekend sketch challenge from Beate John's blog and wanted to give it a try.

Sunday night at the end of my monthly team meet up my fellow SU! demonstrator, and friend, got a distressing call about a family member and ran out of here very quickly. Since ~ she has not been on email and is not accepting calls on her cell phone. I'm guessing something is very wrong, and I'm concerned. Carol H., if you are reading this, know that I have heard from many of my team members wanting to know if everything is okay with you. Check in with us and pop an email to the group, okay?

Anyway, I felt compelled to stamp something, but sometimes when you need a good design, the feeling just doesn't come. In step's Beate's sketch challenge, and I thought I would try to put something together. I stamped this for carol today, and used the chit chat rub on's. I'll put it in the mail with a prayer that everything will turn out okay for her and her family.

The ribbon was WAY too bright for my taste, so I gave it a bit of color with a more mustard marker. Maybe I should have used chocolate taffeta! It's so hard to stamp for another stamper!

There's some pressure there! I don't normally stamp with retired sets very often, but this one fits my mood at the moment (and the scallop square punch) so well, I decided "what the heck" and went for it.

So, Carol, it's not just me. Of course, I'm thinking of you and here for you. But so are about 15 other people! Hugs my friend. I hope to hear from you soon.

Team Meeting Swap Card

I had my monthly team meetup last night. The theme was "birthday" or anything on special. I decided to pull my rubons out, because next month the rubon's are going on sale from the 10th to the 30th.

Anyway, these were my swap cards. All the rubon sentiments are different. I just LOVE the "chit chat" rubons. it has about 90 sentiments per sheet and you get two colors! they are just awesome and I will have an appropriate sentiment for every occasion! In this case, I could have the cards all made up, and put the sentiment on when I know the occasion! Too cool!


Happy Monday!

Dracut Scholarship Foundation Craft Fair & Sneek Peek

Sorry that I have been MIA with posting for the past few days. Yesterday I did a local craft fair and had a blast! I met a whole bunch of new people and have updated my class schedule.

The winners from my raffle were:

Linda L (who won a $25 and catalog)

& Gail P (who won the older and wiser, level 3 hostess stamp set)

Are you looking for the perfect holiday gift for that “hard-to-shop-for” person in your life? Everyone loves to give cards during the holiday season, so why not gift them with this gorgeous card portfolio with 5 coordinating cards!

Here is a sneak peek of an upcoming Snow Flurries class that I will be offering for my customers and friends for the month of November.

This class is also available as a class to go for my friends who are long distance. For those of you that would like to attend this class, it will be Friday, Nov 21st at 6:30 and is a great class for beginner stampers. For a list of all my class offerings for this month, please visit my event calendar on my website. There is really something for everyone. Please email me at e.selene@verizon.net to sign up for any class on my schedule.

If you are a demonstrator and interested in offering this class for your customers, please contact me directly for more info @ e.selene@verizon.net

Give the Gift of Stamping ~ Bloggers challenge

There is no greater gift that I personally can give someone than the gift of my love for stamping. This morning my friend Karen came over and made this AWESOME card! This is going to be her Christmas card. While we were here and she was learning the basics of cutting the paper and so on, I realized this is it.. This is WHY I do what I do.

Karen has next to no stamping supplies and she's very new at this. She has considered the demonstrator starter kit and I think she should go for it! This morning she stamped this card, figured out how to cut her paper and she's on her way! When she was done, she gave me this sample! Waaa HOO! Do you think she should go for it??

Speaking of gift giving, you should most certainly go check out the AWESOME gifts of the bloggers challenge group. They are extremely talented ladies and you should just go see the awesome projects!

Cutting 101

I'm sorry it's been a few days since I've posted. I've been working on a document to share with my customers. How to cut your cardstock 101. In a workshop setting it's so easy to catch the stamping bug, because everything is pre-cut and scored for you. I'm going to develop the document and then do a class around it, that will require my friends to cut their own! Gasp!

I had a lot of fun with this simple card. I used the stampamajig to get the tugboat lined up. The back of the card has proof of that... But, that's a discussion for another day! Thanks for visiting!

Bloggers Challenge Take Two!

This time I got the color combo right! I took this photo without a flash. I have such a hard time taking pictures of cards with glitter on them.

I went back to an sketch that I came up with. After class tonight, I just didn't want to go to bed, so I thought i would play with the REAL colors of this week's challenge. Really RUST... REALLY LOL, Old olive and Riding Hood red, with a touch of a neutral if we needed it. No cheating here!

Thanks for visiting. Your comments make me smile!

Bloggers Challenge ~ Color Challenge + A Craft Pad Tip!

I'm really starting to LOVE Friday mornings. I drop Alexis at school and head home to complete my bloggers challenge. I really look forward to getting that creative direction. It pushes me in a direction I may not have thought of on my own.


I'm a procrastinator for sure!


I just typed a whole long story about how I arrived at this, with the color combination I was *supposed* to use, and realize I grabbed the wrong color!! OH BOY>>> Well I don't have enough time to do it over, so here goes. I like the way this came out. I pulled out the 3 colors that I *imagined, i guess* the color challenge was. Old olive, red riding hood red, and Ruby red... Don't know how I went there, it was supposed to be really rust. Now, I knew I was sort of bending the rules a bit, because we were allowed to add a neutral as an accent and it became my base layer.. I don't know how that happened, I guess it started falling together. Plus, I had a piece already cut to the right size and I like to use all the pieces I have on the table.


Moving right along. I started looking around at my DSP to see what I had for Riding hood red, and I found This print from Bella Rose, that has Ruby red in it too.. It's the lighter color in the print.


Next, I pulled out my craft vanilla pad, and it wasn't working too well for me. I had a problem with this last week. I called Stampin' Up! to see if they had any idea on what I can do, and they suggested "priming" my craft pad. Apparently over time, the craft pad settles and separates if you don't use it all the time.

You can "prime" your pad, by taking a blunt object, I used the back of a tombo adhesive pen.

Just apply firm pressure and swirl your pad around to get the elements in the pad to mix again. My pad worked great after that for my background, which I used Clear embossing powder on for a more subdued look.

For the embossed butterflies on DSP, I used vanilla embossing powder so they would really pop. In fact, I embossed those twice. Once flat on the paper. Then again on another piece. I love doing this with butterflies. I cut the image out, and adhere it with a glue dot so the butterfly looks like it's flying off the card. (little things make me happy).

For the main element of the card, I stamped the "dreams" image in ruby red and cut it out on the "inside circle" then punched a very vanilla circle behind it to add some dimension. I tied the element on with some leftover old olive twill ribbon, and ran old olive 5/8" grosgrain the lenght of the card.

Great challenge. Maybe later I'll have time to play with the colors I was supposed to.. Duh for me! Good morning Blondie! :)

A visit to the Ronald McDonald House Boston/Brookline

My daughter and I took a ride to the Ronald McDonald house yesterday to deliver all the goodies that have been collected over the past month. Boxes upon BOXES of toothpaste, toothbrushes, canned goods, games for kids, brand new puzzles, really too many items to list... AND


OVER 250 HANDMADE CARDS WITH ENVELOPES!!

The cards were all my leftovers, that customers, friends and demonstrators from my area got together to make. A LOT of love went into the baskets of cards.

I did have a bit of help also from a demonstrator from South Carolina who sent me a bunch of her leftover swaps, which were made into cards by one of the girls on my AWESOME team, Elise.

I JUST HAD to take a photo of the front sign. The house in Brookline is a GIANT Victorian old house. They just don't make houses like this anymore. It has a very grand feeling about the place with lots of hand crafted wood trim, it really feels warm and inviting.

The front porch has seating for about 10-15 people and I can just imagine that when the house is full, there is quite a warmth and buzz about the house.

While I was there, GUESS who I met?? A 73 year old, Stampin' Up! demonstrator!! She said that she and some of her family lived at the house in Brookline for over a year while "the gift of her life and family" received necessary medical treatments in Boston. She has been a demonstrator for over 10 years, and it warmed my heart to see her and her family excitedly looking through the big basket of cards. I have a LOT more photos of the donations if you are interested, send me an email. Here are some of my favorites.

You know what? It could be any one of us who need the services of a place like this. I met another gentleman who was staying there. His son was in the hospital and said if it wasn't for the house, he would have no college fund with all the medical treatments. He was looking to get his truck driver license and be ready for when his son comes home.

One of the sweet volunteers watched my daughter while I helped bring all the goodies in the house. She asked my daughter to "fix up" this doll house that she said was messy.. Alexis took that challenge and did a wonderful job. I all but had to pull her out of there, coaxing her "out to lunch at friendly's" finally worked.

The photo shows the cute doll house, but this is the main gathering area. There is a group of demonstrators that will go in and do a dinner once in a while for the residents, and Andy, the house lead said that SU! demonstrators have the most energy he has ever seen. (Maybe that's because some of us don't actually sleep all that much).

This is a photo of Andy and I in the kitchen at the house. He and one of the volunteers were sorting the goodies and putting it away on the shelf.

They were overwhelmed with the generosity of my wonderful customers and friends.

I also gave Andy a check for $50. I hope that when I do this next year, I'll have more to give them. I sold 3 bundles, and one of the girls on my team Alicia sold two. I put a bit extra in to round the dollar value up. Like I said, I hope to raise a bit more for the house next year money wise. However, the donations of things that they need was just wonderful and overwhelming.

The final picture is the warm living room, where I'm sure people unwind and put their feet up after a long day of visiting family at the hospital OR have a little family time. From what I understand, it's not just families who have Children in the hospital. Some of the children stay there too while they undergo all kinds of treatments, like radiation. Also, this house services people from all over the country who seek out the Boston hospitals. They really do amazing work and I was so happy to be able to help them out at all.

Funky Double Slider ~ Brian's Birthday Card

Isn't this little bear the cutest?? We took my DH camping for his birthday this weekend and thought that his card should show the leaf peeping feel for the weekend. The colors in the white mountains were nothing short of breathtaking this weekend!

Anyway. This is something new I've been playing with thanks to my friend Alicia. This is a funky double slider. There is a ribbon on the inside that makes up a track, when you pull one side (the side with the ribbon) the other side slides out at the same time!

I used a piece of glossy card stock to make a "track" for the ribbon to sit on and used glossy so that it would slide easily. Thanks for looking and I hope you have a great day!

Time to Play! WSC61

So happy that I had time to play tonight, and that Beate Johns is keeping the fun open until Wednesday morning with her sketch challenge. I also wanted to do something for the challenge on soshelly.com to create something for Halloween. Brian and I took miss Alexis camping this weekend. Being the last weekend out, I didn't bring any stamping goodies (which is highly irregular).

It's also good to take a break once in a while. I really dislike my coluzzle... I'm coluzzle challenged ~~ That being said, I found some scalloped circles for my sizzix machine and decided to use those to to make my circles for this sketch challenge. I only purchased 1 package of the Halloween DSP this season, so I'm trying to figure out what to do with my technique junkies for this month that will let me use the DSP, but not going over what I have in stock! I may just use it all for myself now, since I'm really having fun with the Halloween theme. I don't usually do Halloween cards, I typically skip right over to Christmas. Boy, I feel like I've been missing out! This was so fun!

I embossed my skull and crossbones and used crystal effects to put glitter on the heart shaped eyes. I used the same glitter with heat and stick powder for the "you rock" sentiment. I originally did it on the grey DSP and it didn't show up.. So, when in doubt add a layer of card stock and keep going. I think it looks much better on the whisper white. I sponged a little black around the purple layer, and added some pumpkin pie color around the focal image with a marker to make him pop a bit. Great weekend sketch. I'm happy that after a 3 day weekend away, I could still play! Thanks for another great sketch.

Funky Slider

I had a wonderful weekend away camping and my Internet connection was lacking, so I'm posting what I had planned to post Saturday today.

I'm sure there's a name for this technique, but I don't know what it is. I did not find directions anywhere, but I had one of those ah ha moments and got a picture in my head.

My friend Alicia was here Friday morning borrowing my big shot to cut out the cute Sizzix envelopes and she mentioned getting an order from a friend that included a double slider card. I asked her what that is.. I'd never heard of it. She told me that it's a card that when you pull on one side, another piece moves with it in the same direction. Being the dorky crafter that I am, I said "Well, that seems kind of silly, wouldn't you want something to pop out the other side?

Thus, an idea was born... In the 45 minutes we had left, we made a card that when you pull one side (the side with the grey ribbon) that something pops out the other side. This was the first one I've tried, so I didn't have anything on the card for a decoration.

thank you Sizzix, i added a snowflake and it looks like that's what was meant to be! Totally fun, totally random.. I've also been thinking that many people like to include photos as part of their Christmas card, so I snuck a photo in of my daughter on the other side.


I will SO be playing with these some more, and if you REALLY like the concept, we will be doing two of these babies at my Christmas card wow class on the 30th of October.

Bloggers Challenge ~ Inspiration ~ Put your sunglasses on!

Well, this is MOST CERTAINLY outside my box! When I saw this week's bloggers challenge, I felt very challenged. :) So, I put it off until this morning. I saw the sqauares on the bed spread and thought it was time to mount my calendar background.

I had been playing with the new tree set from the mini. I have to be honest, when i got it, I didn't like it. I thought the tree looked like a big toothpick! :) However, once I saw all the possiblities, and saw it with the two step leaves and snowflakes, I changed my mind. After all, that's a woman's perogative right?

I should have probably used a stampamajig to get the images perfectly centered, but I only had a half hour to work with. I had to go get my daughter at preschool. All of the images were white embossed on colored cardstock. I made the border between the red base and the white second layer 1/16th of an inch to replicate the white pillows on the bed.

This is a little bit bright for my style, but it's awesome for me to think outside my box, or in this case, inside the little boxes.

Your Generosity Warms My Heart

This weekend's world card making day was a huge success and I feel so blessed to be associated with so many wonderful people. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.

I'm getting ready to make the trip down to the Ronald McDonald house in Brookline with the donations tomorrow, depending if I can meet up with the program lead. I had to get everything together so I could photograph it...

Here is the card section of the donation. Over 250 cards are going to the RMH in Brookline. These were all leftover packets and remade swaps that are going to a great cause. I'll be posting more later. I have SO much to donate in my living room with regards to house needs. I'm very excited to be making the trip down there. It really makes my heart happy to know so many generous people. I feel blessed. Thank you to all who contributed in one way or another to this awesome charity.

Been A Busy Little Bee

I will post more info on the Ronald McDonald House event, but all the donations have not been received yet. In the mean time, i was thinking I'd show you a class that's coming! At this class, you would make a 5 1/4" brag book, an accordion style book, and a squash book with a Christmas theme.

All 3 books use different holiday paper, and have different styles, so that they could easily be given to people who know one another. Last year I made a bunch of these books with photos of my daughter to give to grandparents, godparents, aunts and uncles.

They were the hit of the holiday gifts last year. People have enough "stuff" this is an inexpensive, personal gift that really lets people know you are thinking of them and helps keep people up to date with recent events. My brother in law actually said that it will go with the Christmas decorations and he wants another this year, so he'll get to see her grow and be able to look back every year. Isn't that cool? Last year, I showed our holiday... going to pick out the tree and so on.

This year, I will probably do it as more of a life update. It seems I never get to sit down with family just to catch up. Life is so busy! So I'll probably show a photo from swimming lessons, preschool and so on.

This second picture is the inside of the squash style book. These are so much fun to make and very impressive to receive!

RMH Event Raffle winners

I just have to say that I am AMAZED at all the donations from our group of stampers for the FIRST ANNUAL World Card Making Day, to support the Ronald McDonald house charities.

I will post photos of the event and more details soon, but I will say that we have over 200 handmade cards to donate to the house!

I have quite the collection of donations for the house and I'll be making the trip to Brookline this week. I'm just waiting on a few more people that are stopping by with goodies for the house.

NOW~~~ Let's not forget the GINORMOUS box of goodies that SU! sent to help with the event. Here are the raffle winners.


Elise ~ Long notes note cards, tis the season classy brass.
Elaine C ~ Liquid glue, green galore & creamy caramel markers, magic mesh
Christine M ~ Playhouse designer series paper ~ markers Almost amethyst, more mustard and cameo coral.
Karen B. ~ Fall Whimsy ~ days to remember calendar simple sketches, 3 markers, Holiday Woodcuts.
Michelle J. ~ Olive you stamp set, cotton candy spectrum pad
Wendy ~ markers ~ old olive, summer sun, Ruby red
Gina ~ vintage violet ink pad, Collage numbers stamp set
Leigh Ann ~ Long notes cards, 200 eyelets.
Amy A ~ Self adhesive scrapbooking borders (quick strips 2)
Kelly Ann ~ 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, pure and simple accents stamp set, in the wild stamp set
Becky ~ Real red paper, magic mesh, decorative scissors, tis the season classy brass.
Diane ~ White organdy ribbon Fontastic Stamp set, Notched corner punch
Caroline ~ Stampin Kid Markers

Everyone who came to make cards received a paper pack from me. Everyone ALSO received a 4 pack of mini cards that were handmade by me and Alicia, one of the ladies on my team ~ thank you Alicia!

Happy World Card Making Day!!!

Today is the day... I'll be having friends, family and new aquaintences over to make a boat load of cards for the Ronald McDonald House (RMH) in Brookline MA!


I'm very excited! I needed to make some thank you's in addition to the little card packs I have been giving to anyone who purchased the stamp set and punch bundle. So ~ Beate's weekend sketch challenge has the cutest, most simple sketch that I couldnt wait to try, and it worked perfectly with the RMH set!



I hope you find a wonderful way to celebrate world card making day, and if you have nothing to do today, pop in anytime between 11AM and 5PM. We'll be cardmaking machines!!!

Bloggers Challenge ~ Falling For You!

I went a little outside the box with this week's bloggers challenge. Alexis LOVES her teacher Miss Sue. This week Alexis took a fall at school, (get it ~ falling for you) Miss Sue went and got her an ice pack and made her feel better.

Yesterday Miss Sue called to check in to see how Alexis was doing. So, I was thinking that I should make her a card, but I just got my new sizzix banner die, so this one is for Miss Sue. She'll be getting it later today, I hope she really feels the love! Miss Sue, we're falling for you. tee hee hee.

Speaking of Feeling the Love!! Check out what my friends from the bloggers challenge group are up to and see what things they came up with for LOVE...

Tips when removing/changing your decor elements

I got my new spooky spider Decor Element, and I wanted to add it to my truck window. I thought about putting it right beside this flourish, but I thought it would be too busy.

I learned that when removing decor elements, it's good to use the tool to start the removal, but once you get it going, you should use your fingers to pick the element up and pull it off your wall or window. In the places where I used the tool to remove the DE, there is some residue left on the window. The residue cleaned up with a little elbow grease and a clorox wipe, but I thought it was very interesting that when I pulled them off with my fingers there was NO residue left behind from the adhesive.

This decor element has been on my truck for many months. It has been through countless car washes, and did not move. Here's what i did last night at my friend Deb's first workshop as a demonstrator. I had my friend Leigh-Ann take the photos for me. Thanks Leigh-Ann!

First, I started removing the element with the tool. Once it's started, pick up those little pieces and pull them off with your fingers.

Next I was ready to clean my window. I just used a clorox wipe and then a paper towel to make sure it was good and dry.

With a clean window I decided to add my spooky spider to the window. I'm not sure if you can see it very well in the photo, but before I stuck the element to the truck for "keeps" i attached the extra, sticky paper to the window so i could back up and make sure it was lined up properly. I did this when I was putting the "create" one on the wall in my stamp studio too.

For this one I actually cheated a little. there are lines going across the window for the defrost, so I used those to make sure my little guy was straight. :)

Once the element was in the place I wanted, I used the applicator tool to smooth out any bubbles and apply the spider to the window. Once it was smoothed on, i peeled back one corner of the sticky transfer paper, and tight to the window, peeled it back.

I continued this same process to line up the spider's "string" until the string ended at the top of the window. Everyone was so excited standing there, they wanted me to go onto the paint. I'm not sure I'm ready for that. I really like being able to put them on the windows, and I think, for me, they should just be on the windows. These can be addictive like after you've had your first tattoo, you want another, and I dont want a tricked out truck covered in DE. I like just a little.

Like makeup, sometimes less is more. :) Have a terrific Thursday!

For Deb's workshop

My poor daughter took a fall today, right in front of me, at her school. She basically did a face plant and has bruses on her little nose and forehead. I was supposed to be prepping for my newest recruit's first workshop today (her party is tonight) and had to design a card in about 10 minutes.

Deb I hope you like the simplicity of this card... Doesn't get much easier, but I think it's pretty with all that dazzling diamonds.

Thank GOD Stampin' Up! has DSP to make life easier when designing a card. Miss Alexis is sleeping now after the whole ordeal, and I'm supposed to keep waking her up they told me... If she's anything like me, I'm sure she'll grow up a little clutzy and these things are to be expected. Here's my superfast card...

oh BTW, this is the new felt ribbon... What can i say?? LOVE IT!!!

t's