Rain Puddles Design

Christmas is over and my week just swept on by as I enjoyed being with my family. I was also on a mission to clear out some dust in my craft studio. I've been finding quite a few lost projects and one of them you'll see on my card today for the Stampendous Color Challenge. There is one more week to play along in this challenge. If you have an itch to create something in these colors, CREAM, PINK, GOLD, and BROWN, then add it to our challenge gallery. It's that easy, really. Now the rest of the details for the challenge are to have them in by January 5th, 11:59pm ET. If you have Stampendous... show it off on your creation, but don't let it stop you from joining the fun. There will be a prize winner randomly picked from the gallery (US winners only) to receive this lovely set  Amore Frame . Now here's my card inspired by the challenge. Those flowers were already punched out from text print paper. You can use the Dream Text cling stamp if you happen t...

It's a special Saturday! Our family is happily making cinnamon rolls for our gifts to neighbors, there's nothing like fresh pastries baking in your home in the morning and we want to share that wonderful moment with some super delicious cinnamon rolls. We make up each batch in our bread machine and roll up and place them in a gift pan with a packet of frosting, then wrap them up with instruction to bake in there own oven. It's not a secret recipe... here it is from All Recipes website. Clone of a Cinnabon While we have flour up to our elbows and cinnamon sugar on the floor, take up a cup of coffee and enjoy some of my recent Stampendous projects. Why Stampendous? Because after the wrapping paper has been torn off of every crafty gift, you may want use the monthly challenge that is going on. It's the perfect color challenge to help you get started on those Valentine's. Oh yes, I said Valentines, but that's a couple months and a day away. You only have a ...

I have a slim-down version of my Date Night Kit creation. I only did the CD sleeve for a great gift option. Just slip a video CD or Audio CD in it, then write a greeting on the inside. Voila, you've got a great wrapper with a personal touch in and out side. I used the Perfectly Clear Vintage Piano stamp set on the cover. This worked out perfectly for a music CD gift that is planned to slide into the sleeve. Love it when a project comes together seamlessly. Since this didn't include a slot for gift card or tickets (the full Date Night Kit version), I only used the first three steps of the tutorial found at this post . Details: Stamps:  Stampendous Vintage Piano Paper: Bohemia Pattern Papers, Wausau Dark Brown Ink:  Versamark, Aged Photo Ink Pad,  Accessories: Stampendous Penny Copper , Deep Impressions Clear and Lettuce Embossing Powder, Crop-a-dile punch, circle punch, HL ribbon, Stampin' Up Copper cord, beads and Beacon's 3-in-1 glue.

Saturday is here! I'm on the home stretch to staycation. I don't know about you all but I'm getting ready for some presents under the tree. At the Stollfus house, no present is present until Christmas Eve. I think it's because my hubby doesn't trust I won't peak! Not really, I'll tell you the real reason when it gets closer to present time. So while we are waiting, like we all don't have a million things left on our to-do list, let's have some fun on a little blog hop for this month's Stampendous blog color challenge. Use any of these colors on a project, CREAM, PINK, BROWN, and/or GOLD, and submit it on the linky below before January 5th, midnight ET. Remember there's a romantic prize that will be randomly drawn? It's not a cruise for two, sorry, but take a look at this post for the stamp set that could be yours. All you need to do is link up any new project(s) at the end of any design teams post that has one (I do)! My card ...

It's been a busy week here at the homestead. There have been lots of practices, parties and to-do lists. One of them was to bake 18 cookies for my son's classroom party. Just a simple 18 non-decorated sugar cookies. I made the dough and went on a hunt for my large star cookie cutter. I wasn't finding it anywhere. Then I realized I left it in a zipper bag with his classroom to use for their play-dough time today. Umph... what to do. I had smaller stars, so I just decided I'd make up a few more than 18. But the creative juices were flowing and I decided a Christmas tree made from stacked cookies would be THE best way to celebrate! I'm thinking along the lines of motor skill development, you know, similar to playing with lincoln logs or legos. But with cookies and frosting!!!! Score! So that the volunteers in the room will understand what to do with the cookie kits I put together, I created (or wasted some of my sleep time) this "diagram". It's totall...

The Stampendous Design Teams are hollering out a grand Happy Birthday to Laura Mann Weed today! She's the teams navigator and director, among other official hats at Stampendous! Here's a warm and bright card (since it's so cold in Idaho right now) for Laura's birthday. I hope you have a terrific day! My tree is colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with OMS (odorless mineral spirits). I was in a panic yesterday because I had already started coloring on it when I realized I misplaced my tortillons (paper stumps) to blend with OMS. I found one hidden in the bottom of a draw, thank goodness! I added some highlights with Copic's Opaque White acrylic and a wooden skewer. Most of the time I don't know which kind of card to send, so here's another one just in case! These candles are aflame with Silver Halo Glitter-covered acetate. I punched out a 5-petal flower and embossed with clear powder to get the glitter to stay put and then cut into t...

It's really Saturday again? I'm running out of time before I need to send out Christmas cards. If all goes well, I'll have some cards that will hold my kids school photos to send out to family completed and few more cards and/or gift card holders for my Helping Hands fundraiser (Tuesday is my last chance to help out!), but most of all to be able to relax with my family. The Stampendous Impressions Design Team is putting on another Saturday hop of inspiration for the December monthly challenge. This month's challenge is to choose any three colors, in any shade you choose. CREAM, PINK, GOLD and/or BROWN. It's as simple as that! It starts the first Saturday of the month and this color challenge ends on Thursday, January 5, 2012 11:59pm EST There will be one lucky winner randomly chosen who will receive the new Amore Frame Perfectly Clear set . Yep, add your creation(s) on the inLinkz gadget at the bottom of this post! So my inspiration for the challenge this we...

You know one phrase I've heard over and over again is "Make sets of cards", "Do you have sets of cards?". My response is the same, "Not at this time." I don't have anything against card sets. I actually like the idea... a lot! My mother-in-law can create sets of sets in no time at all and if she can do it I can do it too, right? I tried. I really did try to make a few sets of cards for my booth on Saturday. It was just hilarious how hard it was for me to start. See this card I posted last week (to the right)?  I created enough parts of this card for a total of 6 cards. The only part that I was left to do was the ribbon ensemble and color the poinsettia. I was on my way to making a set of cards!!!! Who-hoo! Sadly, I wasn't looking forward to the long process of laying the ribbon out on a sticky note to hold their position and dry - stitching, stitching without thread, through the note... hand stitching and gathering and gluing the bead t...

Good morning! It's the Monday after my first booth at the Christmas Extravaganza and do you know how it went? Did I sell a lot of my work? Ask me a different question and you'll get a more positive answer! {blushing} Well then, what did you learn out of your first experience selling at a booth? A million wonderful things! Well, it probably isn't ONE million, but so many wonderful learning points. And I'm happy to share a few of them with you. So here's me at my booth! Wait! Can I put a disclaimer on what you are about to see?  I stayed up until 3 am getting all my price tags, table tents, cards bagged and emergency supplies (tape runner, scissors, etc.) put together and set up on a table in my dining room. I slept for 4 hours and then spent 15-20 minutes getting ready in the morning before I ran out the door. Sooooo, I'm not looking a bit exhausted and less than enthusiastic, I think. LOL  Since I had all my items placed on my dining table it was easy...

The Stampendous Design Team is so sweet to let the BlogStars play along in the monthly challenge that I could not wait to jump in and play. You won't want to wait either, because it's easy peasy and love the challenge too! Are you ready to get your challenge gears rolling? Here are the details! The Challenge is to make a card or project with pink ,   cream , gold , and/or brown . You don't have to use Stampendous images and/or products on your designs...but we sure love it when you do! It starts TODAY!, December 3rd and runs through to January 5th at 11:59 PM EST . All you need to do is link up your creation(s) to the InLinkz at either the Stampendous Impressions blog or any of the team members blog post. One lucky random winner  (US winners only)  will win this fabulous Stampendous prize as well, whoot- whoot... go check it out here.... Amore Frame Perfectly Clear set Now here's my take on the challenge: This sweet Eskimo is from the Snowy Short ...

Updated Monday 12/5/2011: I forgot to mention that I'm playing along in the December   Verve   Diva Dare:   A Handmade   Christmas !  You can play along, too! Go to  Day 1  on the Verve Stamps Blog and link up your handmade holiday goodness! I'm only two days away from my booth day! I've had my nose stuck to, adhered on, and impressed by almost everything in my craft room this week. It has been the most fun week in that way. Other more realistic ways are that I'm not getting as many sweet family moments in than I might have normally. I have had some though. The day after Thanksgiving we pulled out the artificial trees and decorated them, put up the stockings and opened up the pine smell candle. Of course, I still want it to smell like a real pine tree in our family room! Hee-hee. I'm living in a dream world friends. So getting back to this week. I spent one-on-one time with each of my children to create an ornament with them. It was full of tacky...