Blogging Break

Hi stampers!  I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!  I'm going to be taking a blogging break until the new year.  I need a little time to recharge:-)  And I haven't had much stamping time so I'm OUT of things to share anyway and I've got a lot on my to do list for the next week or two.  Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I've not fallen off the face of the earth!  I'll be back before you know it!  I'll leave you with a picture from our Christmas!

Happy holidays!

HSS #99

Hi stampers.  Hope you are having a fabulous Tuesday!  It's time for another challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  This week we have an inspiration photo for you and here it is:

Cupckaes!  As IF we need any more treats after Christmas huh?  :-)  I KNOW I don't but thankfully this week's challenge is calorie free, hehe!  So, break out the frosting...I mean paper and create something inspired by this picture!  But before you do that check out what I made!

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamps:  Create a cupcake, bring on the cake
Paper:  Very vanilla, lucky limeade, pool party, calypso coral
Ink:  Pool party & calypso coral
Accessories:  Edgelits, cupcake punch, dazzling details, twitterpatted buttons, circle punches, lucky limeade organdy ribbon (SAB), polka dot embossing folder

How fun!!??  I just had to pull the fun cupcake punch out this week.  I love that little thing!  There are also a few sneak peeks from SAB and the Occasions Mini Catalog in there too!  How about a little twitterpatted button cupcake topper?  Or a little organdy ribbon bow?  I LOVE the DSP from the SAB catalog and thought this little striped piece was very festive and oh so yummy!  My last little sneaky peek is that coral scallop!  Isn't it cute?  It's a cool little "edgelit" and the scallops have scallops..oh my, just too cute!!!  Add some dazzling details "sprinkles" and my cupcake is ready to eat!!!

Now head on over to the HSS challenge blog and bake up your own project:-)

Happy stamping!

Merry Christmas!

Hoping everyone has a very merry Christmas!  Thanks so much for following my blog!  Your kind comments are just like Christmas presents...all year long!  Thank you for taking the time to leave me nice words, I read each and every one of them and you all make my day!  And thank you for letting me share my passion for paper with you:-)  Here's a Christmas card for you (click on it to get the full effect)!

Love ~ Mindy (and Jon:-)

Christmas cookies!

Hi stampers!  Happy Christmas Eve!  I know everyone's busy (so far I've run four miles, made a pumpkin pie cheesecake, pizza dip, cleaned the house and baked cookies, lol) but I just had to share what I made today!  I finally used my Sweet Pressed Cookie stamps and they turned out so well!  I used the sugar cookie recipe that came with the stamps and I didn't THINK I liked sugar cookies....well...guess who can't stop eating them, ha!

The cookie stamps are very cool!  My hubby even agreed when I let him make a couple!  You get a wooden handle and then three silicone cookie stamps!  They leave a raised image on your cookie that is just too cool!  You just make balls of dough and stamp away!  They do take a bit of practice to get the cookie pressed to the right thickness and evenly but it was easy! 

Check them out!

Now, I made some without sprinkles and some with.  For the ones without I know some people had trouble with the dough sticking a bit and had to dip the stamp in sugar but mine didn't seem to stick.  I did not refrigerate my dough either like some have said.  I think I'll try that next time just to see if there is a difference!  For the ones with the sprinkles I took the stamp and turned it upside down and poured the sugar over it then wiped the excess off with my (clean, hehe) finger.  I then took the dough to the stamp and pressed down with my hand until I had the stamp covered.  Then I flipped it over and finished pressing it on the cookie sheet!  Viola!  Sprinkles only on the raised images!

And you know me, as a stamper I can't just GIVE some cookies away.  I HAD to package them up all cute!  I used some retired ribbons I had laying around and a stamp from Grateful Greetings and our cello bags.  It was quick and easy and super cute...I need some kids to do this stuff with, hehe!

I hope everyone likes them!

Wishing you all a merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ!

Christmases Past

Hi stampers!  So stampy time has been limited around here lately thanks to work and the holidays!  Sadly, I can't find anything new lying around to share....at least from this year! 

So, I'll show you a card I made last year that I don't think I ever shared.  Now, I cased this card from somewhere but since I didn't show it, I didn't save who made it SO...if it's yours please let me know as I don't like casing without credit!  But I really wanted to share something today and I'm all keyed up after Christmas with my dad tonight!  Too busy thinking of ALL the things I have to do tomorrow since we stayed pretty late and I'm not going to get done tonight what I thought I was:-)  I hope the pumpkin pie cheese cake I'm going to bake will have enough time in the fridge before we eat it tonight.  I should really share the recipe with you too, it's SOOOO good and I don't even like pumpkin pie!  Maybe next week!

This is a card I made last year using the cute Santa set from the mini.  That set was so cute and vintage!  I sure wish it had made it back in the big catalog!  I wanted to play with it again this year but never had the chance to get it out!  But here's a pretty picture anyway!

Hope you all have a merry Christmas Eve!

Dreaming of a white Christmas...

 sadly, I don't think it will happen!  Hi stampers!  I don't normally like snow BUT I always like when it snows on Christmas Eve and Christmas:-)  Although, normally I want to wake up the day after Christmas and have it gone, hehe!  It snowed last year and was so pretty but it stuck around way too long:-)  But it looks like this year will be snow-free.  Guess we'll have to settle for this little guy instead:

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamps:  Button buddies, teeny tiny wishes
Paper:  Whisper white, bashful blue, real red
Ink:  Basic black, real red, pumpkin pie markers
Accessories:  Northern flurry embossing folder, neutrals buttons, baker's twine, white taffeta ribbon

I've had this little guy sitting around for a while and I guess it's the perfect time to share!  Button buddies has to be one of the cutest sets ev-ah!  How fun is he?  I love that it works with our buttons and tons of other embellishments like brads and the shaker frames!  The images are also totally cute on their own too!

Are you ready for Christmas?  I'm usually set by now but I feel like I'm playing catch up this year!  I think I've put off a few things since I know it's on Sunday and I'll have Saturday to do a FEW things (but I think I've put TOO much off to cram into a few hours).  I finished wrapping the gifts I have (still need a few more dangit) and made tags for them tonight.  Going to try to finish shopping before work tomorrow and then Saturday I need to fit my workout in AND deep clean the house all while making some cookies with our new cookies stamps and a pumpkin pie cheesecake!  I think I'll try to make the cheesecake Friday night so it has time to chill but we are doing Christmas with my dad that night so we'll see how that goes:-)  Why did I do this to myself????  And we don't even have kids....yeesh...what's it going to be like when we do???  I hope you're doing better than me!  And I hope we can both find some time to stamp over the holidays!!!

Happy stamping!

Fancy Folds!

Hi stampers and happy Tuesday again!  I can't believe another week has come and gone and CHRISTMAS is THIS WEEKEND!  Of course I'm still kind of in the Christmas stamping mode so I have yet another Christmas card, hehe....sometimes I make them even AFTER Christmas!  Anyway, we have a FUN challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  Click the link to check out the FUN FOLDS!

I'm pretty much a traditionalist when it comes to card making but that's why a challenge like this is great!  It pushes you to do something different!  I'm really liking unique folds now!  So go ahead and check out what the rest of the design team did (they always make A-MAZ-ING stuff) and find a fold you like and play along!

Like I said, I'm still in full on Christmas mode (maybe because I'm STILL not done with my shopping...eek...let alone having anything wrapped and under the tree) so here is my easel card:

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamps:  Grateful greetings, many merry messages
Paper:  Very vanilla, lucky limeade, island indigo, calypso coral, pool party, blushing bride, silver glimmer
Ink:  Same as papers, tea stain distress ink
Accessories:  Stocking accents die, circles number 2 die, border punch, elastic cord (retired), fine glitters (retired)

I had some more ornaments laying around from my Shiny Brite inspired card I posted last week so I wanted to use them up...especially since I FOUND some Shiny Brite reproductions while Christmas shopping Saturday AND they were on sale!  I picked up a box for myself (hehe...another thing to collect) and one for my dad and step mom as they have a whole Christopher Radko tree and I think they'll like them!

Easel cards are by far my favorite fold I think!  They are super easy (you can find a tutorial on SCS) and they are cute!  Please excuse my crooked Christmas greetings...I don't know what happened!!!  I embellished my ornaments to look similar to Shiny Brites in fun retro colors using glimmer paper, fine glitters and sticky sheets.  I also added a bit of retired elastic cord.

Now head on over to HSS and play along!

Happy stamping!