Catered Crop: Small Size Matters

The current challenge at Catered Crop is that (small) size matters!!  Make some mini cards - they can be tags or gift card holders or anything teeny tiny.

The challenge came at the time when my kids were making hot chocolate mix for their teachers.  We've done this for a number of years and I have a template in Word that prints off tags in just the right size for one of my tag dies.  I just change up the teachers name's and it's ready to go.  However, the mini card challenge got me thinking of how easy this makes it for my kids - too easy (other than the fact that they measure out the hot chocolate mix).  A card would require them to write something on the inside - and think a little bit about each teacher as they put the gifts together.

I just got the Holiday Treats set and dies from Verve Stamps and with its mini cups, I knew it would be perfect for my mini cards!


Here's a close-up.

It's a very nice hot-chocolate mix - rich chocolate with a dash of peppermint.

The layers are:
1 cup powdered milk1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder1 cup granulated sugar1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips1/2 cup crushed peppermint candyIt all fits in a 1-quart jar and makes 12 servings









On the inside flap of each card, I did pre-print instructions and added my favorite stamps from the set "Have a cup of cheer". 

The jars aren't actually done yet - I made one so that I could write this post.  So, after my kids and the entire high school marching band perform in today's Christmas parade - we'll come back and the powder will start flying and the sound of crushing peppermints will echo!!

• Stamps: Verve Holiday Treats
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake
• Ink: Stampin' Up Poppy Parade, Certainly Celery, Crumb Cake, Memento Cottage Ivy, WPlus9 White
• Accessories: Verve Cup of Cheer die set, Hemptique Twine, Pretty Pink Posh sequins

Winter Peace with the Lawnscaping Winter Blog Hop

This is my second post today. 

My post for Fresh Squeezed Stamps is a short scroll away!

I was one of the lucky group who snapped up a space for the Lawnscaping Winter Blog Hop!!!

You should have come here from Amy's card at Tsuruta Designs.  If you started with me, be sure to head to the Lawnscaping Blog to start from the beginning.  There are also details there about the great prizes and sponsors available as part of this hop.

Being a winter hop, it gave me a chance to pull out Making Frosty Friends.  I am so in love with Lawn Fawn's sweet little animals that I tend to forget this set, but it is a great set to work with. There are two sizes of snowmen plus individual stamps and dies for everything you might need to dress up the snowmen - hats and scarves and mittens and even a broom.  Of course, I had to pull out one little creature from Into the Woods.

Next on the hop is Erica from CardsByErica.  Just remember that if anything goes wrong on the hop - head back to the beginning at Lawnscaping Blog.
Have fun!!

• Stamps: Lawn Fawn Making Frosty Friends, Lawn Fawn Into the Woods, Lawn Fawn Critters in the Snow (the bigger snowflake)
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Winter Wisteria, Authentique Seasons Winter 6x6 dsp
• Ink: Memento Black, Copics, Papertrey Ink Winter Wisteria, Soft Stone, Spring Rain
• Accessories: Lawn Fawn dies for Making Frosty Friends and Into the Woods, Lawn Fawn Cole's ABC dies, Lawn Fawn Silver Sparkle Hemp Cord, Cuttlebug embossing folder (retired but see this post for an alternative), misc gems

Fresh Squeezed: Don't Forget to Have Fun!

In the middle of this busy holiday season, I wanted to remind to make time to have some fun!  After all, it's Friday and it's sure to be 5:00 somewhere!


I was looking at this skyline stamp from Fresh Squeezed Stamp's On Trend 2013.  It was the end of a long day and I was also contemplating whether it was too early for a glass of wine.  That wasn't a particularly hard to decision, so I poured myself a glass of wine and came back to my desk only to realize that the set Take a Number had the perfect sentiment.   The geo-tag and stamped sequins also all come from On Trend 2013.  I had to add in a few real sequins for sparkle.
That's quite a party building, isn't it??

• Stamps: Fresh Squeezed Stamps Take a Number, On Trend 2013
• Paper: Black, white, Astrobrights Glow cardstock
• Ink: Memento Black, Hero Arts Neon in Blue, Orange, Pink and Green
• Accessories: clear sequins, Yellow Stickles

Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop!

Wow! What fun! So hop on over to all of the participants and pick up a few prizes along the way:)

Here at TrulySimplyPink "simply" leave a comment and you will be entered to win a book...I have several for the winner to choose from and so don't worry that you may have already read it! The Hop runs through the 20th and so I will pick the winner on the 21st! 

Here is the link to visit the other participants!!

I am very excited to be a part of a Christmas blog hop! and so I hope you are too! 

CAS(E) this Sketch: Cheers to You!

This is my second post today.

If you are looking for the My Favorite Things Release Rewind,

it's just a post away BUT the card in this post also uses MFT new products!!

It's time for a new sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch!

There is so much that you can do with these three elements.  As is usual, I am amazed by the variety of elements that the design team has come up with.  I went with actual circles because I have these fun new dies from My Favorite Things.


You won't believe how I picked these colors?  Blue margaritas - do you see it?  Red wine.  Champagne!  I wonder what that says about my state of mind as I was creating this card!?  I cut the circles in their colors and then again in white.  I painted the white with MFT's Glitter Glaze to give it shine and a bit of sparkle.   I think it all says "cheers"!
I hope you can play along - I look forward to seeing what everybody uses for those three elements!

• Stamps: My Favorite Things Celebrate Big
• Paper: MFT Blue Raspberry, Brick Red, Natural, Project Life Midnight Edition (the stripes)
• Ink: MFT Brick Red
• Accessories: MFT Cheers Glass Charms Die-namics, Pretty Pink Posh flat black sequins, Hemptique 10 lb black twine

25 Days...

Have you been following along with the Heidi Swapp  scavenger hunt on instagram ? We have been having fun each day searching for items for each clue. I have been using the Believe Memory File Album to record my journey once my photos have been posted to instagram.

 

For my cover I wanted it quick and simple, I used some paper from the Believe collection, some vellum and I cut the deer head from glitter cardstock.

 

I spritzed the Color magic letters in Gold Lame Colorshine and then added some glitter glue over the top for some extra sparkle.

 Each Day there is a clue posted on Heidi's blog and I have created a page for each.
 Heidi also created some free downloadable 3x4 cards to use as a countdown , you can find them here.

 

The clever Maggie Massey also created the 1inch round circles here that fit perfectly in the Epiphany Crafts round 25 tool, I used these to create my dome accents on my pages.

 

Most of my pattern papers and embellishments are from the Believe collection.

 

 

 I am  not afraid to move away from the traditional red and green colours to suit my photos!

Even hot pink and gold make it into my album.

 

My favourite page so far.

 This page opens up...

 

So that's is for now. I am on track at the moment, I hope I can keep it up as the month progresses.

Its not too late to join in the fun, If you want to play along remember the all important hashtag is #heidiholidayfotofind

My Favorite Things Stamps Release Rewind

The big December release at My Favorite Things Stamps was Tuesday evening and now it is time for a Release Rewind!  The design team will be doing posts on Thursday and Friday showing you a few more ideas with the new products.  This is my last post as an official guest designer so I definitely had some fun with it!

My first card uses the Celebratory Greetings Die-namics along with part of a phrase from Celebrate Big (the free with $60 purchase set).  The flower is from the new LJD Grand Peaceful Wildflowers.


The pink and red color combo is not a usual combo for me, but I am still working on showing off MFT colors.  The colors on this card are Cotton Candy, Red Hot, and Jellybean Green.  (I just realized that for my candy-lovin' self - this is a great combo!)
Full credit for this card layout comes from the current Muse challenge.
Then I had an inspiration for the Pure Innocence Close Knit stamp set...actually for a border for the Close Knit set.  Did you know you could use the Looped Border Die-namics and loop it together so it looks like knitting?!  What do you think?

I am not usually a pastel color person.  (Probably comes from being surrounded by three men and boys and my childhood in the sand box with my Tonka trucks!)  But I hadn't used any of the pastel color family at MFT on my previous posts.  This is my attempt at pastel using Pink Lemonade and Banana Split.  The button is Bubblegum.  Also on this card are the Washi Tape Die-namics and the DC More Washi Patterns stamp set.
Now for my final card.  I wanted to end with color and what better to use on a colorful card than Sunny Day Doodles Be Your Best Self.  There's nothing fancy on this card - but that's the joy of a fun sentiment - it doesn't take much else to create a great card.


My rainbow of colors includes Razzle Berry, Orange Fizz, Lemon Drop, Sour Apple, Blu Raspberry and Grape Jelly.
I have had a fantastic time over this last week.  I hope that I have been able to show you how much I love these products.  I have many other stamp sets and dies from My Favorite Things that I have purchased over the years so they won't be a stranger on my blog.  Thanks for dropping by this week!