Another Great Project for Scraps

As mentioned in an earlier post, I’m a pack-rat who hates to throw away something I think I may find a use for in the future. Scraps of paper are a great example of that – I’ve got a whole drawer full of little pieces of paper that I’m just sure I can use for something. I recently created a card for my husband Chris (very) loosely based on a formal technique called Iris Paper Folding, which originated in Holland. It’s called Iris Folding because the centre of the design resembles the iris of a camera. I’ve got several patterns for Iris folding, but for this card (made entirely of scraps from my drawer) I decided to work free-hand. It makes for a less exact design, but I like the flow of it and the fact that the paper strips were large enough for me to stamp on. The top layer of the card is the scrap created when using the Top Note Bigz Die on the Big Shot die-cut machine, embellished with a bit of sponging. Proof positive that saving your scraps can make for great project ideas!

Where Do Stamps Go When They Retire?

Dozens of stamp sets from the Fall-Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalogue are retiring to make room for all the terrific new stamp sets coming in the next catalogue. Now's the last chance for you to get them - these sets are only available through January 18, 2009! With 75+ sets (including all the current hostess sets) retiring, one you may have had your eye on could be leaving the Stampin’ Up family… contact me today to find out if that set you’ve been putting off buying is on the Retiring list.

To make it easier for everyone to see the list of Retired Stamps, I’ve included it here in plain text form.

Ahoy, Matey*
Baby Jesus Is Born
Beautiful Life*
Brocade Basics
Bronc Buster
Bundled in Love
Bursting with Joy*
Calendar Cues
Canvas
Classic Backgrounds
Crab & Company
Dad’s Day*
Dots Are Hot
Elegant Notes
Everyday Flexible Phrases
Everything Baby
Fabulous Flowers
Floral
Form & Function
Fruit Stand
Ginormous Flowers
Happiness
Hattitude*
Haunting Halloween
Hi & Hello*
It’s All Good
Just Golf
Just Hockey
Keep Christmas
Kind Thoughts
Light unto My Path
Merry & Bright
Moose You
On the Fly
Paisley
Perfect Timing
Pictograms
Posy
Pretty Peony
Riot of Petals*
Seasonal Whimsy
Seriously Sassy*
Sleigh Bells Ring
So Cool*
Spring Pictograms*
Starstruck
Stemming From*
Stitched
Summer by the Sea*
Take Three
Text & Texture
Thanks for Everything
Thoroughly Thankful
Tree for All Seasons*
Twill
Well-Worn Alphabet
Well-Worn Numbers
Winds of Grace
Wishing You Cheer
With Gratitude
Wonderful Words
Wondrous Gift

*Stamp sets marked with an asterisk were "dormant", meaning they did not appear in the Fall/Winter 2008 Idea Book but were still available for purchase. To see these sets, please reference the Spring/Summer 2008 Idea Book.

Tin Time

At my recent Holiday Tins class we explored how a simple baby formula or coffee can becomes a beautiful tin for your home-made holiday sweets or a unique alternative to a gift-basket or bag. The results were colourful and creative, and I’m excited to share them with you here. We used several patterns of the Stampin’ Up Designer Series paper, and embellished the tins with ribbon, brads, and lovely hand stamped gift tags. If you would like details on the supplies used for this project or would be interested in joining me at a future Gift Tin decorating workshop, please contact me!

Tags Galore

It was so much fun making these simple and colourful tags for my Christmas presents this year… I used the “Deer Friends” stamp set, the 1 3/8” circle punch and the scallop circle punch to create a three-layer tag. On the back of the tag a 1 3/8” circle is stamped with “To:” and “From:” in a coordinating ink colour, and they’re punched with the 1/8” circle punch for easy stringing on presents.

Seeing Red

My friend Erin R. recently attended one of my Christmas Stamp-a-Stack sessions, and after making her set of ten vanilla/celery/olive cards decided she wanted to try the same card in white/red/black. We just spent the evening putting the card together in her choice of colour combination as well as coming up with a couple other creative cards. I think they turned out wonderfully - the colours are so crisp and dramatic. Great work Erin!

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Linda H. had the same idea after her attendance at my Stamp-a-Stack, but her vision was the card in shades of blue. I have a soft-spot for Christmas cards in shades of blue, and as a result seven of the past eight years I've sent out blue cards (I seem to continuously have a blue Christmas!) Here is her lovely addition to our Stamp-a-Stack colour family!

*It's great to see how many ways you can modify such a classic card design - keep up the good work everyone, and if you have another colour combination to share please send it in.

Being a Pack-Rat Pays Off

For the past three years I’ve been the Community Representative on Tecumseh’s School Council, which has led me to working on some very interesting projects. It’s a great school - very community and environmentally minded, and there are always lots of innovative fundraisers and events on the go. Recently the Community School program staged a play called “Street Signs”, based on anecdotes collected by students from members of the community, many of them seniors. The night of the performance handmade items donated by members of the Tecumseh community were given out as door prizes. My contribution was a set of 10 Christmas cards in a hand-crafted carrying box, and they’re a great example of why I keep most of the scraps from the many hundreds of pieces of card stock I cut each year.

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The three-layer strip of Vanilla, Old Olive and Certainly Celery card stock that runs horizontally on the card as well as the Certainly Celery rectangle with the embossed snowflake are scraps from my Christmas Stamp-a-Stack class. The circle with the smaller snowflake was punched from scraps of Very Vanilla, and both the handle of the carrying box and its tag embellishment were created using scrap as well. What a great way to recycle bits of card stock that might otherwise end up in the blue box and cut down on the supply cost per card at the same time! Take it from a consummate pack-rat… you really can find a good use for many of the things you just can’t bring yourself to throw out!

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Mailing the Cards & Getting a Latte

Christmas is one of my favourite times of year! This year promises to be even more special as it’s the first year my daughter Sophie understands the concept of the holiday and is excited about it. I want to be sure to have lots of time around Christmas to enjoy the season with her and have been working hard to get many of my holiday projects done early this year… no more last-minute panic for me! To that end, my Christmas cards have been made, filled out, addressed and stamped for about a week – I’ve just been waiting for December 1st to take them to the post office. As you can see, Sophie’s excited to help me put our cards in the mail slot too!

From there it’s off to Starbucks for a special drink… today is World AIDS day, and 5 cents of every Starbucks beverage will be diverted to the Global Fund for AIDS treatment in Africa. For the rest of the holiday season, 5 cents from the cost of any of their three holiday beverages will go to the fund. Did you know that it only costs 45 cents for the two pills a day it takes to provide treatment for someone with AIDS? I know that the next nine Starbuck’s beverages I drink will equal a day of treatment for someone living with this disease… and those of you who know me know I’ll be drinking more than nine lattes between now and the end of the holidays! Give yourself a treat today…and maybe I’ll see you at the Wellington & Commissioners Starbucks!