Not New but Oh So Cute!!!

I am so excited about the Mini Milk Carton Die Cut..... There are so many things you can create out of it other than milk cartons. I love birdhouses and there are a lot of other birdhouses shown in other blogs; but I haven't seen one with "EGGS" yet :) I'm actually waiting for the Easter season to get the little jelly bird eggs , but in the meantime I had some Malted Milk eggs I put in my house. I also have some nesting stuff, but it seems to have migrated to the bottom because you won't see any; there's lots in there, but the weight of the Malted Milk balls are holding them down.

Since the top has a roof on it, I made a place on the bottom of the milk carton to open to get the candy out. I used the Word Window Punch and the Horizontal Slot punch to make this happen. I did have to cut a little more than half of one of the bottom tabs to make this work.

My birdhouse is made with Barely Banana cardstock and I also used the Close to Cocoa cardstock for the roof after running it through the Big Shot using one of the texture plates. I punched a hole in the front of the birdhouse with the 1" circle punch and attached a piece of window sheet so I could fill it with candy.

I sponged some of the Soft Suede ink on the edges of the Barely Banana cardstock to give it some dimension and age and I also sponged chocolate chip ink on the Close to Cocoa roof for some highlighting. the bird and branch were cut from the NEW Extra Large Two-Step Bird punch (117191). The punch is soooo fun and versatile. I tried sponging some Pumpkin Pie ink on his belly so he would sort of look like a robin; not sure I accomplished that; anyway I don't think robins nest in birdhouses :)

I hope you all have an extraordinary Monday!!!

Another Birthday Gift

This must be the month of birthdays...... My dear friend and upline is having a birthday tomorrow and I have a gift for her, but we can't just wrap a box that we purchased with ordinary wrapping paper, can we? So I saw a cute box on Crafty Squirrels website and wanted to make one similar to hers but made it a birthday box using the new Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper and some of the felt Sweet Pea Stitched Felt. The card I made for her is using the same designer series paper and sweet pea felt, so at least this time everything matches. I think this is really cute; it's so fun to make your gift your "own". I hope she likes this.

Birthday Gift

One of my friends and co-worker is not only retiring at the end of this month, but she's having a VERY BIG birthday on Monday. I thought of several things I could buy her that she'd like but then I decided that maybe what she'd like more is something I made myself. I had demonstrated something similar to our stamping group a couple of years ago, and had purchased several bottles like what you will see to hold Bath Salts. Not long ago, I bought a LARGE bag of bath salts, but hadn't used them yet..... they are lavendar colored and scented and have little black things in it that look like an herb.... probably that's what it is, huh? Anyway, I thought that this would be a fun gift to make and give to her.

I used the Bloomin Beautiful Stamp set, stamped the flower with StazOn Black Ink, then colored the flower with Pale Plum and Perfect Plum inks and the leaves and stem with Certainly Celery and Old Olive, using both colors to add dimension. I cut out the flower and using my Tombow glue, I adhered it to the bottle. Then I used a long piece of White Taffeta Ribbon and tied a bow around the neck of the bottle, then using Mini Glue dots, I attached the tendrils of the ribbon in several places down the sides of the bottle in loose folds. I stamped the words from the Charming Stamp Set in Perfect Plum and the flower image from the same set in Pale Plum, then punched out the image using the Small Tag Punch and then punched a larger piece with the Large Tag Punch out of Pale Plum card stock. I adhered the two together then punched a small hole at the top using the 1/16" hole punch and using some Linen thread, I tied the tag onto the ribbon. I thought this turned out pretty nice. I hope she likes it.

Thank You

I am so in love with the new stamp sets and the new clear mount stamp blocks....

I needed a Thank You card for a dear friend, so I chose to use Tote-ally Tess holding a "thank you card". I also used the new Sweet Pea Designer Series paper; it is sooo gorgeous. On one of the DSP pieces I used the new Scallop Trim Border that you can also get for free during Sale-A-Bration with a $50 purchase.

Have a nice Monday

Scentsy Decorated

Scentsy has come out with a new ceramic candle that is designed to put rub-ons or stickers on; they also sell some stickers or rub-ons or something (I didn't get any of those) so I'm not sure exactly what they are, but when I saw this I knew it would be perfect for Stampin' UP!s rub-ons and Definitely Decorative vinyl products.
I decorated this for Christmas, but didn't take any pictures. Today, I took off all the Christmas rub-ons and put on some retired images from the Anchored set. I was wishing I had some of the new colored ones (Dots & Designs; Dotted Delicates or So Cool); they would have been fantastic and a really wonderful eye-catcher!!

Even though I love how they turned out; I wanted something that didn't need to be changed out often and until I find something else, this is what I did. I keep this in my Stamping Room where I have monthly classes to show how else you can use the rub-0ns and decor elements.
When I first did the Christmas one, I was afraid the heat from the light bulb would be too hot and they would fall off, but was excited to see that they didn't!!!
I think Scentsy is sort of a local franchise so many of you may not have any idea what this is. What I am showing you does not have the top tray on that holds the candle wax. The Scentsy's are ceramic holders with a light bulb that heats and releases the candle wax scents and let me tell you; it's hard to choose a scent because there are so many.

If you would like to know where to get these candles, I can send you a link to one of my friends who sells them; I know you would love all the styles. This rooster holder is one of my favorites; but that's probably because my WHOLE kitchen is in roosters. I have a funny story about this rooster, but that's for another day :)
This last one is new for me.... I decided I needed one for my living room too. See the top portion on these last two? They are the trays that hold the scented candle wax.
Anyway, I wanted to show you what a fun idea this was using Rub-ons and definitely decorative images to show off your Stampin' UP! ideas to your customers. I guess you can also say I love Scentsy!!!
I hope you all have a Happy Monday and I'll talk to you soon.

Fiesta Bowl

Our College Football team (Boise State University) was undefeated this year and lucky enough to earn a spot in the Fiesta Bowl which was held in Glendale, AZ ...... AND WE WON!!! I work full time in an office of about 25 people and 6 of our employees traveled to Glendale to watch our team win; it was so exciting.














One of the girls who went asked me to make her a Thank You card for the people who gave them a ticket to the game.... I'm so bad about creating from scratch..... but I still had some left over Jersey Shore retired designer series paper that had the perfect colors, Orange and Blue (same colors as the Denver Broncos) LOL.
I finally pulled some pictures off the internet of the Fiesta Bowl that showed the dates and the teams playing and made a joy fold card using the photos. I don't know if you can see, but I cut out the "Tostitos and the Bronco Head" and attached them on top of the main picture using stampin' dimensionals. The greeting is from Sincere Salutations. I used versa mark and embossed with Black embossing powder. I also used some of the Silver Hodgepodge Hardware and Silver Brads to help dress it up a bit. What do you think; do you like it? I hope she does!

Christmas Gifts and Sale-a-bration

My son lives in California and is an avid surfer.... Not only that, but in the beginning of December my daughter went to Seattle for a business education class and my son made a trip up there when she was through with the classes to spend the weekend exploring around Seattle and they took a really cute picture of themselves. My son played with the photo and made it black and white which I thought was really attractive and it gave me the idea to make a frame for the picture using our Night & day Designer Series Paper and give it to him for Christmas. It was so fun and easy to make. I had some wooden frames from Michaels laying around so I painted one white to begin with. When it was dry, I attached some Night & Day DSP on the front using our Tombow Multi-Purpose Glue. Using my Big Shot and the Flower Daisy #2 Die I cut out 4-5 medium and 4-5 small daisies in both black and white, then layered them all together then inserted a Build-a-Brad with a 1/2" circle from another piece of the Night & Day DSP attached to it. Using a Pop-Up glue dot, I attached the whole daisy piece to the bottom right side of the frame. I tied a 1/4" black grosgrain ribbon around the frame at the top left. I also cut out a piece from our window sheets to act like glass in a frame to help protect the photo underneath. Using a retired rub-on from the Anchored set, I adhered the one that says "families anchor us together" which seemed so perfect. I really liked how it turned out and he actually said how much he liked it as well.



Like I mentioned above, he lives for surfing when he isn't working... in fact travels around the world surfing on beaches in other countries. When I first saw this stamp when the new 2009/2010 Idea Book & Catalog came out I knew I had to have it (just for him). I thought this would also be a fun Christmas gift so I did the "stampin on candle" technique. I stamped the image of the surfer on tissue paper with versamark, then embossed with black embossing powder. Then I cut around the image and held it onto the candle using wax paper and heating with the Heat Tool until the tissue paper melted into the candle. You have to be careful not to heat too much or you will melt the candle too much and ruin it. When I was through, I re-packaged the candle in all the plastic and ribbons that it originally came in and sent to him along with the frame and of course some other fun things. Didn't it turn out awesome?





Don't forget, beginning tomorrow morning 1-5-2010 you can purchase products from the new Occasions Mini Catalog AND the Sale-a-Bration Catalog. For every $50.00 you spend you can choose an item (including one of the new punches) as well as stamps, paper OR you can choose any one of the specified stamps from the Big Idea Book and catalog!!!! So for the first time you have way more to choose from.... who doesn't like FREE STUFF!!!!

If you hold your own workshop with at least $300 in sales, you can earn a free Sale-a-Bration product in addition to the hostess stamp set AND a minimum of $15.00 of free merchandise. If you take it one step further and join my Stampin' UP! group during Sale-A-Bration, you can choose a free stamp set from the idea book & Catalog valued up to $47.95.

One of the items for purchase isn't in the new Occasions Mini catalog, it came out as a separate flyer. Check out how fun this is. Using the Full Heart Punch you can punch out and insert one of the new heart shaped treat cups and use this really cute stamp set for your valentines this year.
You can call me or order your products directly online from my Stampin' Up! website http://www.janetelam.stampinup.net/ and click on "shop now".
Just in case you didn't know after you get to this point there are also clearance items at reduced prices you can order!!!
Go to my website and click on "products" to view the mini catalog and the Sale-a-Bration catalog as they were late getting sent from Stampin' UP! You should get yours soon, but if not, let me know. Also if you don't currently have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, let me know and I'll send you the catalogs for free.