Monday, November 30, 2009

Playing with the Big Shot and PPA18 (Kiss Creations)

I was feeling a little crafty yesterday and my Big Shot arrived, so I decided to scrapbook. I wanted to do something clean and simple for the PPA18 KISS Challenge, here is what I came up with!! I used the Snowflakes #2 dies and the large Snowflake die. I also used the Go-Go Boots Alphabet, such cute little letters perfect for an 81/2"x11" scrapbook. I tore some Whipser White paper to make the snow at the bottom of the Navy Paper and added glitter to it. Then I arranged the letters to make the scrapbook title and snowflakes all around. I love how I can cut out 4 snowflakes at one time with my Big Shot.Then I designed this card for my Christmas Card Class on Friday!!! Also using the PPA KISS idea, I wanted to try a different fold to see if it would work. Love how it showcases the Old Olive Ribbon. I used the Patterned Pines and the All Holidays Set for this card.

Off to bed...must go to work in the morning.
Happy Stamping!
Lesley :)

Monday, November 23, 2009

Stampin' Up Holiday Extravaganza

Stampin' Up! is offering an online extravaganza sale, where you can get items up to 50% off. There is an Ultimate Stampers Starter Kit that gives you 3 stamp sets, brads, card stock, ribbon and inks valued at $170.95 for only $102.57 on preferred pricing. Here's a picture of all the great things you get: This next bundle is called "Thank You Kindly" Bundle. It would be regularly priced for $41.90 and is being offered for $20.95.This next bundle is called "Heart to Heart" Bundle. Regular price is $69.85 on sale for $34.93.This is called "The Four Square" Bundle regularly priced as $42.90 on sale for $21.45.Please check HERE for other great bundle deals. I will be placing orders on Wednesday afternoon, please email me at leo1975@shaw.ca to place an order or visit my online store at http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/lesleycroghan/ and click "Shop Now".

Smiles,
Lesley :)

Huge Sale at Stampin' Up!

There are some amazing deals this week at Stampin' up that will end on November 30th. Please visit my Stampin' Up Website HERE to see the deals and email me at leo1975@shaw.ca to place an order.
Happy Stamping!
Lesley :)

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Pals Paper Sketch Challenge...again...

This card was made for the Pals Paper Sketch Challenge. I already made a card for this challenge found here, but I was so inspired by this sketch, I had to make one more card! I wanted the next one to be more elegant! The brads I used are gold but they don't show up in the picture. love this little Snowflake stamp from the Patterned Pines Set. I also inked up Peace Love Joy from the All Holidays Set. I LOVE this set and do not understand why I hadn't purchased it earlier! Oh well...better late than never!!!To continue the theme of Snowflakes and to share, I inked up my new Serene Snowflakes Set and did so on non-traditional paper colours. I chose Sage Shadow, Basic Grey and White. The corners of the front panel are punched with my SU! Ticket Punch. I need to use this punch more, I forgot how much I love it! I embossed the sentiment from All Holidays again and embossed one snowflake from the set. The other snowflakes are stamped in Going Grey and Always Artichoke ink. I love how Artichoke and Sage go together!! I am off to write report cards. I have half of mine finished and hope to get a big chunk of them done today.

Happy Stamping!
Lesley :)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Just Us Girls Colour Challenge and Pals Paper Arts Sketch Challenge

This card was made for the Pals Paper Arts Sketch Challenge #17. As soon as I saw this sketch, I thought of these little Snowmen from the Snow Buddies hostess set. This is also for the Just Us Girls #8 Colour Challenge which was to use Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust and Bashful Blue.I made this card with the other hostess set from the Holiday Mini Catalogue. I used Rich Razzleberry, Mellow Moss and Very Vanilla. Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Stamping,
Lesley :)

Colour Throwdown #69 and Christmas Wishes Card Class

These are the cards I designed for my Christmas Wishes Card Class #1. There will be another Christmas Card class on Friday, December 4th from 6-9pm. All information about this class is on my Stampin' Up Wesbite found here.This first card I designed for the Colour Throwdown #69 which was to use Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Vanilla and Old Olive which are all Stampin' Up colours. I embossed the Peace, Love, Joy sentiment from All Holidays with versamark, white embossing powder and my heat gun, all from SU! The main image is from the stamp set called Music Expressions and it is coloured with inks and a blender pen. This next card is made from 2 retired Stampin' Up sets that I love! Holiday Woodcuts and Peaceful Wishes. I used the Scallop Border Punch to highlight the poinsettias.This card was made with the Retired Peaceful Wishes set and the hostess set called Best Yet. The paper is Mellow Moss and Rich Razzleberry. I inked the stamp with my SU! markers and huffed it. Then I stamped off the image to give it a vintage feel. The green background is the Petals A Plenty embossing folder from SU! I used with the Big Shot. I tried a new technique which was Faux Stitching using the Mat Pack and the paper piercer. I love how this card turned out.This 4x4 square card uses the Penguin from the retired set Wild About You. The colours are Sahara Sand, Black and White. I also used a retired background set I had to create the background on the white panel and the ink is River Rock. The Scallop Circle Punch, 1 1/4" and 1 1/3" circle punches were also used to highlight the penguin. He is stamped in Basic Black.My final card is made with the Dasher Stamp and En Francais Background stamp. The Joy sentiment is from the Delightful Decorations stamp set and is punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch.

Thank you for stopping by!
Happy stamping!
Lesley :)
To learn more about my upcoming Card Classes,
please visit my website.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Scallop Circle Punch and Nesting Circle Punches

I am teaching a Christmas Card class this Friday. These are two of the 5 designs we will be using for the class. I just need to cut all the paper and get it set up! For the first card, I used one of the ornament stamps from Delightful Decorations Set. Then I used my 1 1/4' Circle Punch to punch it out. I used the 1 3/8" Circle Punch to mat the cut out piece in white and the Scallop Punch in black to set it off. The Scallop Circle Punch has little holes punched out of each scallop. The main image used on this card is the Dasher Stamp. Dasher is stamped in Basic Black Classic Ink and the background of the card is En Francais in Basic Grey; for a softer look.
This next card I used my retired SU! Snow Burst Stamp set. I inked it up in Night of Navy and punched it out with the 1 1/4" Circle Punch. Then I matted it with the 1 3/8" Circle Punch in Bashful Blue and then punched a Scallop Circle out of Night of Navy with the Scallop Punch. The small swirl in the top right hand corner is from the Baroque Motifs Stamp Set. The sentiment is from the retired SU! set called Peaceful Wishes. The blue designer paper is from last year's SU! Sale-A-Bration. There is other Bashful Blue designer paper available in the catalogue and through online ordering.
Supplies Used:
Stamps: Dasher, Delightful Decorations, Paceful Wishes, Snow Burst, En Francais, Baroque Motifs
Paper: Card #1-Real Red, Basic Black and White
Card #2-Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, White
Ink: Real Red, Night of Navy, Basic Grey and Basic Black
Tools: Circle Punches and Scallop Punch, 1/4" white grosgrain ribbon

Please visit my online store located on my Stampin' Up Website to purchase these items.

Thank you for stopping by...happy stamping!
Lesley :)

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Christmas Cards and Open House

I made these Christmas Cards for a couple of challenges and for my upcoming Open House, tomorrow, Sunday November 15th from 2-4pm. Please email me for more details.This is a card will be making at the Open House. I also made it for the Charisma Cardz challenge "Merry and Bright" and for the Paper Pal's Challenge which was also a Christmas Theme.
This card I made is for the OCC Sketch Challenge. It was an awesome sketch and I had fun working with it. I love this new Delightful Decorations set and matching Ornament Punch! It is pretty easy to make lots of Christmas Cards quickly.
What Stampin' Up Products I used to make these cards:
Stamps: Delightful Decorations, Christmas Greetings, Elegant Cheer (retired), Baroque Motifs
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Mellow Moss, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Same as above
Accessories: Ornament Punch, 1/4" White Grosgrain Ribbon
Thank you for stopping by!!
Smiles,
Lesley :)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

CAS#40

This card was made for the Splitcoast Stamper's Clean and Simple Challenge #40 which was to use one colour and white. I had to stamp off each image with Always Artihoke Ink because I couldn't find my Mellow Moss...so I tried to match it as best as I could!! I hope that is ok!

Thanks for stopping by!
Smiles,
Lesley ;)

Recipe is made with all Stampin' Up Products
Stamps: Delightful Decorations, Baroque Motifs, En Francais
Ink: Always Artichoke
Paper: White/Mellow Moss
Accessories: Whisper White 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Ornament Punch

Colour Throwdown #68


These two cards were made for the Colour Throwdown #68 and they are my very first card post as a new Stampin' Up Demonstrator. I am really excited about becoming a Demo and have wanted to for awhile. Today I went for ir!

The colours to use for the CTD challenge are Crushed Curry, Real Red, Only Orange and a dark neutral. I chose to use my favourite dark neutral which is Basic Gray! I wanted to create really clean and simple cards so that the colours and the images shone through. I was also excited to ink up my new Fifth Avenue Florals set from SU! I LOVE this set!
Thanks for stopping by! Happy stamping!
Smiles,
Lesley :)

Recipe is made with all Stampin' Up Products
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Florals, Garden Greetings (on Dormant list)
Ink: Real Red, So Saffron (in lieu of Crushed Curry), Only Orange and Basic Gray
Paper: Real Red and Basic Gray SU! Cardstock
Accessories: Whisper White 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Scallop Border Punch,

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

New Face of Blog

Hi stamping friends...

After considerable thought, I have decided to become a SU! Demonstrator! I am very excited about this and am looking forward to sharing my passion for card making and scrapbooking with my friends. So I decided to give my blog a facelift and save all my old posts to draft. That way I can start fresh with a clean slate.

So please excuse the dust and the disorder...I will be up and running again soon...

Thanks!
Happy stamping!
Smiles,
Lesley :)

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Colour Throwdown #67 and FTL #66


This card was made for the Colour Throwdown and for the Fall to Layout challenges. I love these two sites but I have been unable to play due to being sick. But today I felt great and ready to craft!!!
As soon as I saw the colour combo, I knew I had to use this cute little tree from Cornish Heritage Farms. It belongs in an entire primitive christmas set that I love!! I need to ink it up more!! The DSP is a scrap I had, happy to use it!! It had all the right colours!! I used my piercer and mat pack to make little holes all around the image and the main panel. I thought this stamp set kinda suited that style!
I hope you like it. It is a quirky image, but I love it's sweetness...it really captures the whole "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree feeling...I added a little bow made of out soft sky ribbon...I don't know if I am happy with that? Is it too much?

Thanks for stopping by!
Smiles,
Lesley :)

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

SC253-Wishing You Cheer

Wow...this has been a hectic school year start up! I just finished P/T Interviews and then was hit by the sickness bug. I don't want to say "Flu Bug" as it really wasn't a flu feeling but a mix and mumble of awful sick feelings all wrapped into one. So that being said, I have fallen sadly behind on my card making and blogging. To be truthful, I had lost my mojo a bit and everytime I saw a wonderful challenge on the different blog sites I love, I just had nothing in my head to make. So I took that as I sign I needed to rest and get better.

So here I am, rested, feeling better and with a day off from work (I only work 4 days a week this year) and I was truly inspired by this week's sketch challenge over at Splitcoast.

Here is the sketch:
Thanks for stopping by!!
Happy stamping...
Lesley :)

Recipe:
Stamps: A Muse (Sentiment), Stampendous Wreath
Paper: All SU!-Rich Razzlebery, Mellow Moss, White, Artichoke DSP
Ink: Copic R59, Artichoke Ink Pad, Razzleberry Ink Pad
Extras: Cuttlebug, Distressed Lines Folder, Michael's Ribbon (Sheer Creations Mega Roll), MS Snowflake Punch, Pearls