Punches, Punches, Punches...

Last fall I had a Punches class which seems to be one of everyone's favorite classes.  Here is one of the cards that we made.  I cased it from a very talented person on SplitCoastStampers - my favorite place for inspiration!

Her dress is made using the Artisan Label punch in two colors.  The bodice is punched using the Small Oval punch to give her a waistline.  Her hat is made using the Extra Large Oval and the Small Oval which were run through the Big Shot using an embossing folder.  Her arms are made using the Word Window punch and her hair is the Scallop Oval punch.  Her purse is made using the Ticket Duo Builder, Itty Bitty Shapes and 1/2" & 3/4" Circle punches.  The mirror is made using the Ovals Collection framelits with the frame embossed using the Woodgrain folder.

Here's what you will need to duplicate this card:
Stamps:     None! 
Inks:         Calypso Coral & Early Espresso (for sponging edges)
Paper:     Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pink Pirouette, Early Espresso
Other:       Silver Foil; Modern Mosaic, Woodgrain and Lacy Brocade (retired) embossing folders

Forever Stampin',

    Cathy Williams

I am back!  I can't believe how long it has been since I have blogged.  Boy, does life get busy sometimes.  So I will start by bringing you up to date on my life.  As you may recall, we had a rental house burn down in 2012.  Well, we finished rebuilding and sold the house in August which has led to a new construction project.  We are remodeling our place over at the coast. 

In November, we spent two weeks at the coast, catching and eating a ton of crab.  We had crab cocktails, crab cakes, crab salads, crab enchiladas, crab mac 'n cheese, crab omelets and crab sandwiches.  Needless to say, we got our fill of crab!

As soon as we returned home, I had a class and a workshop and then our daughter came home for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Boy, was it good to have her home.  The best part is that she returned to Montana for two weeks and then was back for Christmas break for over a month!

She headed back to Montana the second week of January and I have been playing catch up ever since.  So today I decided I really needed to catch up with all of you!  As I am sure you can guess, a lot of the projects that I will be showing you over the next few weeks are from last fall.  Yes, that means Halloween and Christmas cards!  I hear ya, "what am I going to do with ideas for holiday cards?"  Well, just file them away until this fall - which will be here before either you or I know it.  Or, even better, get started on your cards now!

Here is a Box Fold Card that we did last year - I don't know how I missed posting it earlier!  I loved this little bunny from the Everybunny stamp set which has retired but you can definitely use the cute animals from the Life in the Forest set from the Occasions Catalog.
Here's what you will need to duplicate this card:
Stamps:      Everybunny
Inks:           Versamark & Early Espresso embossing powder, Calypso Coral reinker for dying flower
Paper:        Tea for Two DSP (retired) - use the Sweet Sorbet DSP from the Sale-A-Bration catalog
Other:       Scallop Border Punch, Windows Frames Framelits, Pearls, Tasteful Trim die

Forever Stampin',

    Cathy Williams

Stampin' Up!'s Holiday Sale is here!!!!

Dates: November 20-December 2, 2013

Details

You can get incredible discounts-up to 50 percent-on some of your favorite products! This is the perfect time to stock up on some of your favorite items.  Here is a FLYER listing all items available at a discount, including some never before seen bundles!

Make sure you don't miss out on our 24-hour-only doorbusters happening on the first day of the sale (TOMORROW) -30 percent off the Stampin' Trimmer (I love this trimmer!), Simply Scored Diagonal Plate, and Many Marvelous Markers! The 24-hour sales period on these three products ends at 11:50 PM (MT), November 20.  You can place your order at my Online Store and have it ship directly to your home.

The Fine Print - of course!

• Discounts range between 20 and 50 percent.  Awesome!
• There's no minimum purchase required to participate in this promotion.  Sale on!
• For product bundles, you need to use the bundle item numbers provided. If you use individual item numbers, you won't get the discount.  Bummer!
• You can buy additional products from any of our current catalogs  on the same order.  Sweet!

       

Forever Stampin',

    Cathy Williams

Too Cute - Festive Flurry Ornament Kits

FESTIVE FLURRY ORNAMENT KITS

Available NOW! - while supplies last

Add a little festive flare to your holiday decorating with our new Festive Flurry Ornament Kit! Top presents, embellish cards, create a wintery garland, or trim the tree. How you use them is up to you!  Stampin' Up! even has a YouTube video to show you how easy it is to make these ornaments!

The kit includes everything you need (minus adhesive) to create 10 snowflakes, including

• 10 feet of Soft Sky Ribbon
• Printed cardstock - die cut and scored, ready to be assembled (Soft Sky, Crumb Cake, Whisper White Cardstock and Silver Glimmer Paper)
• Large Rhinestone Basic Jewels (40)

Product name:	Item #:	Price:
Festive Flurry Ornament Kit	135813	$14.95

These are only available while supplies last! Remember, you can combine these on an order with sale items from the Holiday Sale.

 

Last year's ornament kits sold out super quick so place your order as soon as possible!

Forever Stampin',

    Cathy Williams

Technique Tuesday - Paper Bows

Have you seen all of the cute paper bows showing up on packages and cards lately?  If you like big bows for packages (think Christmas!), go out to my website and order the Gift Bow Bigz L Die from the Holiday Catalog.  These bows are so cute and will dress up any gift you are giving.  I don't know about you but I never seem to have one of those store-bought bows in the right color!  Now you can make one in any color you want. 

But what if you don't want a big bow?  What if you have a small gift (think Tiffany's!) or a card that needs a bow?  Sit back and learn how to make a cute bow for that purpose....

Here's what you will need:

• Piece of cardstock or Designer Series Paper (I used Birthday Basics DSP)
• Large Oval Punch
• Glue Dots
• Scissors

 From your piece of paper, punch out four ovals and cut one strip approximately 1/4"-3/8" wide and 2" long.

 On two of the ovals, put them together and then cut a "V" out of one end of them.  You can do this separately but if you do it together, they will match.  Next, using a glue dot, fold and glue the other two ovals as shown.

 Take a glue dot and glue the two cut pieces together at the center

 Using a couple of glue dots, attach the loops to the base pieces.  Trim the base pieces along the sides where they stick out further than the loops.

 Attach one end of your strip to the back using a glue dot.  Wrap it around and glue it to the back.  Trim off any excess.
Too cute!


Forever Stampin',

    Cathy Williams

Stampin' Up!'s Punches...

Here is another card from my recent Punches class.  This is one of the wonderful reasons for attending Stampin' Up!'s Convention every year - swaps!  This year's punch swap gave me such great ideas.  The creative artist for this punched beauty is Laura Haffke.  Thank you Laura!

Instead of making it a normal size card, I cut off the bottom of the front and made it a flap card.  My one "tip" on this card if you want to recreate it is to take that leftover piece and place it along the bottom edge of the flap and run them through together using the Honeycomb embossing folder.  This way, you can hid the backing of the scalloped border and your honeycombs will line up on the back side.

Here's what you will need to duplicate this card:
Stamps:       Chalk Talk
Inks:          Early Espresso
Paper:      Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, Epic Day DSP
Other:        Linen Thread, Honeycomb Embossing Folder, Vintage Faceted Buttons, Signo Gel Pen,
                   Ovals Framelits
Punches:   2 1/2" Circle, 1 1/4" Scallop Circle, Small Heart, Owl Builder, Extra Large Oval, Scallop Border

Forever Stampin',

    Cathy Williams

Rocky Raccoon....

Here is a card that we made last month at my punches class.  I have to give full credit to the creative artists who figure out that they can make something like this adorable raccoon from punches!  In this case, Trudy Freas swapped a card using the raccoon at a Punches Swap at Convention.

My twist?  I added a tree made from the scalloped circle from the Circles Collection framelits.  The trunk of the tree was made by cutting off the sides using the Ovals Collection framelits.  I then embossed it using the woodgrain embossing folder.  The paper was the Early Espresso Core'dinations paper so we were able to get the two tone look on the trunk.

 

Since this was a Punches class and just constructing these little beauties took a long time, the cards were not "finished" on the inside.

Here's what you will need to duplicate this card:
Stamps:       Banner Greetings
Inks:          Garden Green
Paper:      Early Espresso Core'dinations, Garden Green, Soft Sky, Basic Black, Whisper White, Basic Gray
Other:        Fancy Fan, Cloudy Day (retired)  & Woodgrain embossing folders, Linen Thread, Black Pen
Punches:   Elegant Butterfly, Bitty Butterfly, Full Heart, Bird Builder, Modern Label, Extra Large Oval,
                   Large Oval, 1 3/4" Circle

Forever Stampin',

    Cathy Williams