A Little Cleaner, Now

I was able to spend some time clearing off the last two tables in the Stampin' Garage that I haven't put my new oilcloth on as yet.

These were the two larger tables, the ones that seem to contain 99% of everything out in the garage! LOL

Most especially "my table". I was amazed at how much "stuff" had accumulated on the top of that one! Gave me another opportunity to gather CS scraps into one place.

Right now I have a shoe box overflowing with scraps. Soon I'll sort these by size.

The half sheets will go with the rest I already have - sorted by color family (i.e., reds, pinks, etc.). I generally don't use many of these, but they're a God-send when I've run out of a particular color and know I can dig thru these and probably find at least a 1/2 sheet of that color.

The next batch will be the quarter sheets. I generally start my design process using these and scraps of white or vanilla.

Then come the smaller scraps. I now have a small container where I keep those that are large enough to be used with onw of the Big Shot dies I have. It's so handy to have them all together. But they're not sorted by color - they're just stashed in the box.

I get some of my most creative color combos by doing that. There are times when I find 3 colors together that I would have NEVER put together - yet they work.

I still have about 10 more shoe boxes full of "stuff" around here - hopefully, before I get bored with this task, I'll be able to gather them all up, and dump everything into a larger box to begin the sorting process.

Wanna see some great cards? Had my Team Meeting earlier this week and here are the swaps we all made from the Shoebox Swap that evening.

This one is mine. I had the Lattice dies already cut and added some of the Autumn Meadows DSP, and a cut out of the largest leaf from the Autumn Spendor set that I'd stamped using the Rock & Roll technique.



















And here's Natalie's card. She used the scallop piece from Sweet Season, and added a direct-to-paper technique.


















Here's Susan's. She used the Wandering Words set. I really like that set - it covers Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine's Day! From the very beginning I've seen that set being used on the envelopes that contain the cards for all those occasions.















And Del's - she LOVES Halloween, so we may see that genre from her all year! Bet she owns almost every Halloween set we carry! LOL



















And, finally, Sandy's. She had already embossed the circle design in White embossing powder and we used the daubers and Craft inks and to it the Bermuda Bay color you see now.















Hope you enjoyed those samples - did it inspire you to pull out YOUR stamps, inks & papers to start YOUR creative process movning forward? I hope so.

Making Boxes

Isn't this lovely?


It came about quite accidentally when I was making the ornaments for my brother's friend.

I knew they'd have trouble finding a box to fit them, so decided to make it myself.

I know how to make a box.

Well, sorta...

It seems when it comes to boxes, I always have to make at least 2 before I've got it right.

Should be pretty simple to calculate - determine the size you want the bottom of the box to be, and add 1" to all four sides for the sides of the box. (Example: 6 inch square bottom, add 1" in both directions, and you'll need an 8" x 8" square)

You'll notice I said SHOULD. For some reason, I calculate it in my head, and make the box, and invariably it's too large or too small, and I have to make adjustments to my measurements and start all over again.

Thereby comes the box above. It was too large for the ornaments I wanted to put into it, so decided, rather than pitch it (GASP! throw something AWAY?!! You're out of your mind!), I would to keep it and create a bottom for it.

I added one of the Vanilla lattice die pieces I'd just cut for something else. Then I decided to add the Bermuda Bay Polka dot ribbon.

It's coming right along, but needs some focal point.

I dug thru my stamp sets for something fairly large and found the cardinal from A Cardinal Christmas, stamped and colored him. Laid him on the top and it still needed something.

So, I layered the cardinal on to a piece of Bermuda Bay, then Rose Red. The Thoroughly Modern DSP I started with had both these colors in it.

And voila! I have a nice looking box top.

For the bottom, you cut the CS the same size, but when scoring, choose to score to the OUTSIDE of the measurement. That will make top just enough bigger that you should have a nice snug fit.

I used the Thoroughly Modern DSP for the top, so selected Bermuda Bay CS for the bottom.
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Just a reminder about my upcoming Christmas card Stamp A Stack on Saturday, October 24 @ 10 AM and again on Sunday, October 25th at 1 PM.

I showed you candidate for that event yesterday.

Here's another:

Call or email me today to sign up!

12 cards (3 each of 4 differnt designs) for $25.00! That's a steal for handmade cards!











Hope you saw something you liked!

Good to see friends again

It was another Sunday of sharing here in Sam's Garage - cards, techniques, pizza, chocolate, and lots of ideas and conversation.

Our monthly Get-together - just a group of SU demonstrators - some in my downline, some not... Just a great group of very talented ladies!

Teresa brought the CUTEST card (actually two versions) to share with us today - all made with punches!














Aren't they cute!!!?? Teresa punched out all the pieces for each of us to make one of these for our very own! She KNEW I'd love it!

Here are some of the cards that ended up in the garage (and my sample baskets!) today. I'm sure you'll enjoy them, as will I!

Veronica's card. Lovely, as always. She used the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder and Rich Razzleberry CS and dotted grosgrain ribbon. Her greeting is from the Wonderful Favorites set.








Teresa's card. She used the Medallion stamp inked in Whisper White on Old Olive CS and Rich Razzleberry CS as her main color for the card. She also used a Square Fire "bling" and silver cording to dress it up.








Susan's card. She used the Top Note die "leftover" as a stencil and daubered the color on to the ivory CS. She also used the Champagne Mist paints, which don't show up very well, but do add a lovely touch when seen in person.

Her CS is Elegant Eggplant, layered with Dusty Durango. She used dark purple grosgrain ribbon for her "bowless bow". She also used the ticket corner punch on several layers.


Del's contribution for today. She cleverly used aluminum foil to create her mirror!

Then she stamped the house from the House of Haunts set on the foil, using Black Staz-on ink.

The background papers are the Night & Day specialty papers. She used the scallop oval punch to create the mirror. I also like her take on how the card will fold to be mailed. Don't think I've ever seen this particular one before, but it's quite striking, don't you think?


Sam's card.

I used the Lattice Big Shot die, cut it in Ivory CS and layered it on to Real Red CS. Then I cut an oval out of Black CS using the Ovals die, and finally layered a stamped image from the Sweet Season set.











This card is a candidate for my upcoming Christmas card Stamp A Stack that I'll be holding here in my Stampin' Garage on October 24th & 25th. There will be 4 different designs, and attendees will make 3 of each of them for a total of 12 cards. Fee for the class is $25.

Call or email me if you'd like to sign up for this class. Final sign-ups must be to me by Friday, October 16th, so that I can order the materials and be sure they'll be here.

And last, but certainly not least, your cat photo of the day.

It's gotten chillier lately, so Velvet's taken to sleeping snuggled up to my reading pillow. Image my surprise when I found Smedley sleeping there too, the other day!

And look at that guilty look on his face! Guess he thought he was doing something wrong...




Happy Stampin'!