Happy New Year!

Celebrate the Chinese New Year!

Today I am celebrating the Chinese New Year.  We are officially in the Year of the Tiger!

Here is a little bit about the Holiday:

Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.


Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity”. On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is a great way to reconcile forgetting all grudges, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.

Have a great Chinese New Year!

All My Heart with Pretties

I am almost done with Valentine's Day cards but I have a few more to show you.  Sorry for the glare on the picture, I forgot to get the pic until After I put and sealed it in a cello bag.

This almost has too much going on for me, but I still like it.  I think the Pretties flower really adds something.  Of course the DS paper has that wonderful glitter on it!  Love it! 

Supplies:
Stamp Set(s) - With All My Heart
Card Stock - Real Red, Whisper White, Specialty DS Sending Love
Ink - Real Red
Accessories - Pretties Kit, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1/16" Circle Punch, Sending Love Real Red 1/2" Epoxy Brads, 3/8" Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon

Punched Hearts Valentine

Valentine's Day is right around the corner are you ready for it?  Here is a very quick card that looks just beautiful!  You can whip these up in no time and be ready to go.  I CASEd this card from Dreena, I just LOVE her work!

Start with a white card base. Cut about a 1/4" off the bottom on the front of the card. Punch out the hearts. Attach a piece of DS paper to the inside of the card. The trick is to put adhesive on the white so not to have adhesive show through the punched image. Take a 1" wide piece of card stock and punch out the border. Then attach it to the bottom of the card. Tie a ribbon on top and you're done! Easy Breezy.

An alternative is to cut the DS paper the full size of the card front and then punch the border from it. When you adhere it to the back the color and trim will show on the bottom. I thought of that after I made up a bunch of the card. It would have made it even easier to complete.

Supplies:

Stamp Set(s) - None
Card Stock - Whisper White, Real Red, DS Specialty Sending Love
Ink - None
Accessories - Scallop Trim Punch, Heart to Heart Punch, 5/8" Satin Pretty in Pink Ribbon

Go Green

I had purchased the new Go Green St. Patrick's Day Stamp from the mini catalog.  I was having creators block so I headed to the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Connection Site for inspiration.  I saw a card similar to this one and was inspired.  This is a great Earth Day type of card and very simple to make.  I am now officially inspired to work with this stamp so look for more ideas coming soon!

Supplies:
Stamp Set(s) - Go Green single stamp
Card Stock - Kraft, Always Artichoke
Ink - Always Artichoke marker
Accessories -Vintage Brads, 1/16" Circle Punch, Stylus, old style texture plate from some craft store (I need to get some Big Shot texture plates!)

Chicken Curry Color Challenge

What a week!  I am so glad to have a weekend to stamp!  Too bad the Superbowl will get in the way of a perfect weekend.

Today's post is my submission for Dreena's Chicken Curry Color Challenge I just love her challenges, her inspiration come from the best things!

I had great fun putting these colors together.  The requirements were to use Real Red, Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, and Whisper White.  I used the retired sets Botanical Blooms and Bitty Basics for the flowers.  I stamped the flower then used a mask to stamp the leaves.  I then hand cut out the entire flower and attached it to the card using Dimensionals.  The thank you label is the Lots of Tags Sizzlit for the Big Shot.  I stamped the thank you from the Short & Sweet stamp set in Crushed Curry and then used the marker to go around the edge and highlight it as well.  The DS paper is from the Patterns Pack III Level 1 hostess gift.  The rhinestones I added were for a little bling.  Not sure yet if they are too much or not.

Masking-A mask is the same image cut out of cardstock.  When you lay it over the image it protects it and makes it so whatever you are stamping second (in this case the leaves) appear behind the object.

Supplies:
Stamp Set(s) - Short & Sweet; Botanical Blooms (retired); Bitty Basics (retired)
Card Stock - Night of Navy; DS Patterns Pack III; Whisper White
Ink - Crushed Curry, Real Red, Old Olive
Accessories - Lots of Tags Sizzlet; Big Shot; 5/8" Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon; Dimensionals; Rhinestones (not SU)

Love Bug Valentine's

Another idea I got from cards on the new Demonstrator Stampin' Community.  This community is one more of the many benefits to being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.  Go to my website to learn more about being a Demonstrator and sign up today.  The password is nicolebstampin.

I just love this set.  This is a Level 1 Hostess Set that you can earn when you have a workshop!  As I had about ran out of Real Red and Pretty In Pink making other Valentine cards I decide to make this another non-traditional card.

It came out perfect right until I was all done and was packing up my supplies.  I proceeded to drop one of the stamps and made the mark that you see just above the ribbon on the left (never fails).  Despite the oops, I still love this card.  The little hearts on the top were made using the Heart to Heart Punch.  I also used the Heart to Heart punch after stamping love bugs on the Bashful Blue Heart.  The dots below the bugs on the Pumpkin Pie were made using the Paper Piercing Tool and Mat Pack.  I colored the bugs in with Watercolor Pencils.  In hindsight I wished I would have put the blue love bug heart on with a dimensional.  Let me know what you think of the card!

Supplies:
Stamp Set(s) - Love Bug
Card Stock - Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Whisper White
Ink - Basic Black
Accessories - Watercolor Pencils, Paper-Piercing Tool, Mat Pack, Heart to Heart Punch, 1 1/4" Old Olive Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

Valentine's Day Treats

As we are now officially in February (I can not believe it is February all ready!) I thought I would post an easy treat idea for all those parties coming up.  I got this idea from Andrea Walford.  I used this as a door prize at my January Workshops.  They were a hit!

I used the Love You Much set and think it is fun to have the hugs & kisses stamped tag over Kisses candy.  I used the Real Red marker to color just the parts I wanted from that stamp.

Supplies:
Stamp Set(s) - Love You Much
Card Stock - Whisper White, Real Red
Ink - Real Red
Accessories - Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Big Shot, Two Tagz Die, Cello Bags