Beverly's Stamping Beehive

While shopping on our annual Christmas Church Fair Day - our beloved tradition of visiting local church's holiday craft fairs to find great handmade gifts during November, we found this great DOG BISCUIT WREATH and fell in love with it! So we bought it for a neighbour's pooch Lucy, a friend to our beloved dog Maggie! It was wrapped wonderfully, but no tag.  So when I found Impression Obsessions Challenge Quick Holiday Gifts  I decided to add a tag to the wreath and enter the challenge as well.  [click on link to take you to Impression Obsessions blog] It took minutes to make a quick tag using the Large Snowflake Die and a simple scalloped circle and a wee bit of twine. I left the snowflake diecut mainly intact for a bold look. The small snowflake I did remove (from the center), I used on the back of the tag. Easy peasy :) I added tiny red gems to the interior of the snowflake as the wreath's wrapping has a pretty elaborate ribbon but I adjust...

Hey - back with my crazy project I mentioned!  Its a small canvas that I recycled {former life: an Easter bunny painting}into a colourful holiday decoration which now hangs in our bathroom!  We have a really bright bathroom in a turquoise and white colour scheme, so I thought an upbeat decoration could go in there to perk us up first thing in the morning, right? I slapped a very bright pink patterned paper over the canvas, and then had a ton of fun trying to stick a plastic mesh over top of that - I liked the mesh because it would add texture, and it is a bright sparkly white which is pretty. But it was dreadful trying to get it to stick down,...I managed with jots of sticky tape and a final brad to make double sure it stays in place. Where ever the sticky tape showed through the wide weave of the mesh, I sprinkled glitter, so it looks just fine. Next, I used my Big Shot and dies to assembled one of my Tim Holtz "ASSEMBLED SNOWMAN" and cut a sparkly turquoise Fleur-de-lis...

Here is a bright young thing - having fun with my latest and greatest die, Tim's ASSEMBLED SNOWMAN! This is such a fun die - I love the whole ability to pick and choose the colours and I know that is true of any die, but its just more fun when your creating a snowman!! I want bright - bright - bright this year!  I have had years of traditional colours and beautiful prints, but I never really had those candy-coloured materials for my Xmas projects. Just wait till you see what else I did with this die for a home project - crazy!!!   Tim Holtz ASSEMBLED SNOWMAN, 2013 Cuttlebug SWISS DOTS Embossing Folder Michaels Scrapbooking Paper Stacks, assorted. Flourishes, Classic White Cardstock [110 lb]

As we close the doors on our church next Sunday, many of us will bid each other a sentimental good-bye. Farewell cards for several key figures in our church were needed, and I opted to help with the one for our minister, Rev. Ellen Redcliffe.    From experience, I reckoned that the card should have multiple pages to accommodate the many signatures of the congregation, and this one has: a front, a sentiment page, a photo page and then 6 pages for signatures - hope that does it!   Here then are several photos of many but not all the features of this card {tempted to call it a booklet!}  All in all, there is 20 man-hours into this project - a good portion of that is making decisions!  Hope you can tell that I put my heart into this one - enjoy!  

I feel sort of bad :( Because now Stampin' Up! decision makers have put some  of the BIGZ XL DIES for The BIG SHOT on  chopping block !  I can only surmise its due to their lower sales value and to follow that line of logic then, we 'demos' didn't do enough to show the   ' p o t e n t i a l '  of these dies, so we share some of the blame. So - here I am last minute trying to make up for some of that with this project!   In my last post, I pointed out the fab talent of the designer behind the pop-up dies manufactured by Sizzix, and so I pulled out the POP-UP BIGZ XL DIE - O CHRISTMAS TREE!  and co-ordinating SIZZLIT DIE ' MERRY DETAILS ' which has several tiny decorations for the tree including a bird! And I also pulled out the BIGZ XL ' PERFECT SETTING ' - which includes the CUPCAKE HOLDER/WRAPPER! As for cardstock - I've chosen the retiring HOSTESS LEVEL - PATTERNS PAPER STACK which showcases the new IN COLORS of the retiring 2010-...

I hope you have seen or heard of Stampin' Up!'s Pop-Up Dies which make wonderful projects - from cute and adorable - to just plain awesome! And the reason they are - is really due to some awesome-ness from KAREN BURNISTON - the designer behind the POP-UP DIES from Sizzix! Karen has a wicked mind in my humble opinion - and she has developed project after project that just makes you speechless - can you tell I'm a FAN!!!   Honestly, I am not the only one who thinks so - she has lots of fans! So here is a link to some of the projects she has designed for the POP-UP CHRISTMAS TREE and CAKE !  Click on her thumbnail pictures to see the project close-up. Karen Burniston and Pop-Up Dies for Stampin' Up! ************* Now - a word to the wise - SU! is discontinuing these 2 particular dies - don't know why, but they are ON SALE - really great price too, I believe as I write this - its 40 percent off!   I would be happy to help you order one or bo...

Here is the reveal of my Sneek Peek! I have to say the pictures do not really give the true colours very well, my camera "reads" the green background too much and so I did my best - just bear in mind, it looks prettier in person! But here it is....my labour of LOVE literally this past few weeks!  I did it in bits and bobs because it was just one of those projects that require your thinking beyond the norm, I usually do cards, LO's - but this was more of a collaborative - evolving - process.  I may have over-embellished, but that tends to be my style - you could do this much more simplier! Used the TOP NOTE DIE by Sizzix and sold by STAMPIN' UP! - as I am sure many of you recoginze.  The only other thing I can say perhaps, is that the middle piece (which serves to separate the two words, Love, You) has a heart shaped frame that is made of 2 SCALLOP FRAME die pieces - also SU! dies. Here it is in full length on my living room wall - sorry, this is a dreadful ...

Good Morning! I am back playing with Punch Flowers!  I was at a craft auction on Saturday - I had $113 dollars to bid with - which sounds like a lot until you discover the woman next to you has $800, lol, but it was "free money" I earned and so I wasn't spending real money and it was just for fun. But - I bid on some stuff and won a few nifty things, so I was a happy camper. I picked up this paper - and at first it was because I liked the kraft paper part - and the flowers were nice too. This is from ScenicRoute's Sonoma Collection - the Kraft Pink Garland however, for some reason, mine is the same design but with the Red Bouquet colours. Their collection is very nice. But like I said, I was mainly wanting this just for the 'kraft' section and planned to cut off the flower border. It wasn't until I got home and googled the paper that I saw women had done amazing things with this paper!  So I perked up! After musing for awhile, I knew I'd need so...

Hello to everyone out there on this nice Friday evening!  I am going outside for my evening walk with Pepper but not before I bring out my craft results from today!  I'm really happy about this one too! Here's why.... As Stampin' Up! Demonstrators, we're entitled to receive a monthly glossy magazine, Stampin Success - and I tell you - I look forward every month to receiving mine, lol. Last December's mag, showcased our Artisan Award winners who had been given a challenge and a new stamp set from SU! One of these lucky ladies was Demonstrator Shanna Jensen  with her pretty scrapbook page featuring a " Love You Much Frame "  - and the frame is made using 4 TOP NOTE die-cuts - and I loved it!!! I kept this idea in the back of my head until this morning, I just got inspired to create one for myself! Here's Shanna's inspiring project which if you notice features her putting her own 'stamp' on the Designer Paper - now isn't it just ...

These simple but playful monogram cards can be easily made with our large alphabet dies, Sans Serif.  Then use your imagination with our crimper!  I am trying my hand with a shabby look, slightly vintage too if you consider the watchclock. I have used a scrap piece of acetate which I printed a excerpt from Robert Frost's   Blue-Butterfly Day.... and I painted the background stamp with some markers and chalk, while also using a wheel stamp, and gold ink to hightlight areas. And a little pink 'frosting' on the sides. But mainly, I wanted to use the 'window' technique where I have rolled back the top paper layer to create a space behind for my focal point, its really nice technique!   ***** STAMPIN' UP SUPPLIES :  Equipment - The Big Shot,  crimper tool, Dies - Bigz ' Beautiful Butterflies '; Bigz Sans Serif Alphabet for monogram letter, L; Bigz Bird with Leaves and Flower  ( floral stem),  Stamps - Fresh Cuts,  Col...