And welcome to my stop on the "It's All About Blue" Blog Hop!  This is a small blog hop sponsored by a group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators who get together online just to do blog hops, and you may have come from Cynthia Ferenz's blog, Stampin' Dragon.  I've been a member since this group started several months ago, and this is the first chance I've had to be able to take part in a tour.  If you can say the word, "Busy," then you know how I've been. 

     And if you can say the word, "Blue," you'll be correctly describing my project for the day!  You might remember my last blog post where the challenge was to use my favorite Christmas Colors, and I chose Blue and Silver.  Well, as happens a lot of the time, that blue and silver was still out on my craft room work table, so it was easy to conjure up some blue.  But conjuring up the design was a bit harder. 

     Earlier this week, I saw a photo of one of the tables in the White House.  It was delightfully decorated with paper-crafted Christmas Trees.  I was sure I could duplicate them, but then I ran up against my own limitations, especially in terms of my creativity.  As you can imagine, the White House has only the BEST decorators, and somehow my invitation got lost in the mail this time around.  You need not wonder why that happened!  What I ended up with every time I tried to put this tree together was something that looked like a bunch of lamp shades stacked on top of one another.  I finally got the height and width and colors organized the way that I wanted them and I like the way it turned out.

     I made the Star with some of the Silver Glimmer Paper, featured in the Stampin' Up! 2011 Holiday Mini Catalog, cutting it with the Sizzix Stars #2 Die. The next problem was decorating the tree.  I tried wrapping various kinds of ribbons around it – rats, we don't have that lovely silver trim from last year from Stampin' Up! – then I tried hanging some bells on the bottoms of the layers.  It was just too much – so I decided to leave it alone, except for some circles of the Silver Glimmer Paper that I hope look like ornaments.  Oh, and some of those delightfully sparkle-y Basic Rhinestone Brads.  The circles were punched with the Owl Builder Punch (those "eyes" are SOOO useful!) and the bottoms of the three layers of the tree were punched with the Eyelet Border Punch.  Oh, and the blue colors that are in the tree are Marina Mist (my "go to" blue for this Christmas season) and some Bashful Blue for an accent.

   I designed the whole tree as I went along so there's no tutorial yet.  But I will have one done by the end of next week which, coincidentally, is just about the time I'm going to be sending out my next Newsletter.  So, if you'd like a copy of the instructions – including a template for making the top "layer" of the tree, sign up for my Newsletter today!  The link is at the top of the column on the left.  I'll be including several different kinds and sizes of paper Christmas trees!  I can't let the White House outdo Robin's Craft Room, can I??

     And speaking of being outdone – you have just GOT to go check out Angela Walters' Blog, Life With a Weiner Dog.  I'm sure that Angela and Frank have something wonderful to share with you today.

Aloha, all!

     There are so many wonderful products in this year's Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog that I haven't been able even to start to use them all.  One that I finally decided I had to use (because I have grandchildren who are young enough to still believe in Santa) was the stamp set, Dear Santa.  I actually bought the set because I just had to have the "To:  From", Holly, and Snowflake stamps in the set.  I wasn't so sure about the "Dear Santa," but now I've figured out how to put even that stamp to good use.

     These are two "Letters to Santa" books that I've made for two of my grandchildren (would you guess that their names are Morgan and Kiara?).  These books are made from the 5" x 5" On Board Journal sold by Stampin' Up!  I covered them with paper from the Designer Series Paper Set, Holly Berry Bouquet and decorated the front with the Dear Santa Stamp Set.  

     Inside each journal, I decorated pages on which the girls could write their letters to Santa – or this could be their Christmas Scrapbook!  Most of the pages are decorated with either the snowflake or the holly sprig from the Dear Santa Stamp Set.  But other pages I decorated with some of the stockings from the Stitched Stocking Stamp Set (also – you guessed it! – from the Holiday Mini Catalog!).

     I actually got the girls to help me out with this.  Last month, when I was visiting them, I asked if they'd each write a short letter to Santa so that I could use it when I was blogging about this project.  They jumped right into it – and they both wanted a puppy!  It was so touching, as they'd lost their last dog to an illness this summer, and you could tell right away that this was to be THE thing for this Christmas!

     For the very young people in your life, they wouldn't even have to write in the book!  Think about having them draw pictures of what they'd like, as Morgan drew a picture of the puppy she'd like.  Or have them cut or tear pictures out of catalogs and paste them onto the pages.  Hmmm, I might just have to cut some pictures out of the Stampin' Up! catalog to show Santa what I'D like this year!

     Finally, you could use the pages that are the journal as the basis for a Christmas Scrapbook.  You could make this into a fun 6" x 6" Scrapbook or even put the pages on a large 12" x 12" scrap layout.  This is a hybrid project – the background and lettering is done with My Digital Studio and the rest is the "real" stuff.  The stocking uses the Stocking Builder Punch and the candy cane is from the Sizzix Stocking Accents Die (both in the Holiday mini, of course!

     And as for that puppy that my granddaughters had asked for for Christmas this year?  It turns out that this year Christmas came two and a half months early.  Their new puppy arrived three weeks ago and the whole family is absolutely thrilled. 

          I hope you've enjoyed reading about my idea for the Dear Santa Stamp Set!  I had a lot of fun with it and I'm sure that you will, too. 

If you're a member of the SUDSOL online Stampin' Up! Demonstrators group, click here find in the patterns section of the website a set of instructions for you to use as a tutorial or class handout, including a template to use to cut the holes through which the binding wires go and the measurements for the paper to use for the cover.  Demonstrators who are NOT a member of SUDSOL can access the instructions, too – with a FREE two-week trial membership to the group!  Why not try it out TODAY!!

     Today is the last day I'll be posting a project from the Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition!  But don't forget – you can still subscribe to this fabulous series of 6 WEEKS OF PROJECTS!  I've been thinking that getting these projects all at once might be a lot of fun – and they're available to everyone who subscribes for ONE YEAR!

     Today's project was a challenge just for the Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition Design Team.  We were to make a bag or a box and a tag.  That sounds like Christmas to me!!  Well, it could be a birthday, or any other event that calls for a small gift.  And such a unique way to present a special gift! 

     A couple of years ago I made a lot of these "box in a bag" (or is it "bag in a box"?) containers, and I forgot how much I loved to make them – and how EASY they are!!  I looked around for a pattern and found quite a few.  But I kind of felt like "Goldilocks" when she was dealing with the Three Bears:  This one was too tall, this one was too wide, this one required retired products.  I wanted one that was "just right."  So I made my own pattern with my own measurements and found that "just right" size and set of products for this holiday season.  The base for the "box" bottom is 2" x 4" and the whole bag is 4-1/2" tall.  The closest existing pattern for the shape that I wanted is one posted by Andrea Walford back in 2008, and she in turn based her design on one by Diana Gibbs earlier the same year.  In the 3 years since, lots of people have made variations on the same design.  If you can't find a tutorial that you like for this project, just let me know in the comments on this blog post and I can point you to them.

     The card stock for this whole project is Wild Wasabi,(with a touch of Real Red on the tag) and the designer series paper is from the Holiday Mini set, Holly Berry Bouquet. I just love the little Holly and Berry overall pattern on this paper – I could almost use a whole pack of it all by itself!

     The stamp on the central motif on the front of the bag is from the Pines and Poinsettias stamp set (also in the Holiday Mini Catalog).  I used my Wild Wasabi, Cherry Cobbler and Real Red Stampin' Write Markers to color the stamp before I applied it to the Very Vanilla Card Stock. The card stock is a 2-1/2" square and it's mounted on Wild Wasabi that I cut with the Sizzix Scallop Squares Duo Die.  The gift tag is a 1-3/4" square (cut a piece of Very Vanilla Card Stock 3-1/2" x 1-3/4" and fold in half).

     I hope you've enjoyed everything that I've been sharing with you as I've participated in the Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition!  I've been kind of scarce here on my own blog because I've been busy with them.  But from now until the end of the year, I'll be back here in full swing, ready to show you what I've been creating in my Craft Room!

     I hope you're having a great weekend – and are having some time to get some of your holiday crafting done!  Have fun whatever you do!

     I'm back from my traveling and over with the cold that I brought home from the U. S. mainland.  So I've actually had some time in the Craft Room the past couple of days!

     While my big project for the weekend was a Create with Connie and Mary project, I also had to get a project done for the biweekly Stampin' Up! Only Challenge Design Team.  This was a very different project than what I'm used to doing.  In fact, I think that most of us on the Design Team were a bit nonplussed about having to make something that we ended up not spending much time on to make it a cute finished project.  Heck, I usually spend at least an hour or two coming up with my card design, then another hour putting it together, making design modifications as I go along.  That's not what happened with this week's project!

     For one thing, making that bag is a piece of cake (or candy, which is what's in it).  All I had to do was pick a piece of Designer Series Paper (Pick Your Poison from the Holiday Mini Catalog), cut it out with the Sizzix Fancy Favor Die, add some ribbon for a handle and it seemed like it was done.  But wait.  I only spent 10 minutes doing that.  How can that be a finished project?!  OK, so I went hunting for the Pick Your Poison Quick Accents, wrapped one of the designer stripes around the top of the bag and added a label to the front.  Done!  But wait.  That was only another 3 minutes.  Hmmm.  OK, make a ribbon fleurette to attach to the base of the handle.  Now that was more like it – it took 15 minutes to do that.  Then I decided that the two packages of chocolate covered macadamia nuts (yes, I live in Hawaii so what else would I put in a treat bag!?) needed some company.  I just happened to have some chocolate flavored Twizzlers on hand and wondered how they'd fit in one of the new 1" cellophane bags.  Turns out they fit fine, though they needed a little coaxing to get that last inch or two into the bag – they're a bit on the sticky side!  I added two self-adhesive die cuts from the Quick Accents pack to the tops, added them to the bag and, finally, I called this project, "Done!" 

     I'm having a card-making class in the craft room this weekend, so I may just have to make one of these for everyone who comes!  It really is that simple to make this little treat bag!

     As you're getting ready for treat season, remember that Stampin' Up! has so many products for us to use to make QUICK AND EASY treat holders.  Just look through your catalog and you'll see dozens and dozens of ideas!  Don't have a catalog?  Just let me know and I'll get one out to you!

     No, it's not "Easy Money"; it's an "Easy Card"!   Last week I showed off a Mini Accordion Fold Album that I made for our duplicate bridge club to give to one of our members who has a brand new baby.  I mentioned at the time that we were also going to present the group gift from the club members using a card that I made to hold a check.  I've used this quick and simple pattern several times, and it worked wonderfully for this occasion, too!

     These cute little owls are printed on paper from the Nursery Nest suite of Designer Series Papers featured in the latest Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog.

     For both the Belly Band on the outside of the card and the greeting label inside the card, I cut out two of those cute little owls and adhered them to Card Stock.  The card stock colors that I used for this project are Marina Mist and Pear Pizzazz.  The strip of paper at the bottom of the fold in the card is also from the Nursery Nest paper set.  The label on the top of the inside of the card is made with Whisper White Card Stock, cut with the Sizzix Two Tag Die, and a Scallop Circle Punched piece of Marina Mist Card Stock. 

     One feature of this card is one I always try to incorporate into any cards and as many gifts as I can – and that is that this will fit into a Stampin' Up! Envelope that can be mailed.

     In this case, the money card with the Belly Band around it (to keep it closed) fits into the Stampin' Up! Small Open End Envelope. 

     Now for my treat for this blog post – I have a template for this money card!  And it's FREE, with no strings attached (actually no ribbon attached to this project either).  Just click here to download a one-page tutorial for this card.  I used it last year for a Christmas project, but, just as with the Accordion Fold Album, it's great for many occasions!

     Have fun with this project – or with whatever you do this week!

     Last weekend one of my online Stampin' Up! groups – SU! STARS – hosted a Blog Tour, of which Robin's Craft Room was a part.  I showed off a Mini Accordion Fold Album that I'd made for some friends who have a brand new baby.  As a bonus for visiting my blog, I offered anyone who made a comment the opportunity to win an album of their own.  Actually, the comment challenge had a little twist.  I asked that those who commented make suggestions for how such an album could be used. 

     Well, did I ever get the comments!  I was amazed at all the suggestions, and I am posting the list following this blog post so that YOU can get some ideas for using this terrific little quick-and-easy album.  And, of course, I have a tutorial for it right here on my blog!

     The winner of the "Blog Candy" suggested that this would be a good album to use to show off pictures of Stampin' Up! projects to highlight classes that she's offering.  What a fabulous idea!  In fact, not only did I make an album for her, I made one for myself to do the very same thing!

     Making this project gave me the chance to use two of my favorite Stampin' Up! Stamp Sets that I rarely show of here on my blog!  One of them, however, is only available to Stampin' Up! demonstrators who attended the Stampin' Up! convention this year, and that's the set, Workshop Words, which includes the greeting, "I LOVE being your Stampin' Up! demonstrator."  But the other set – Tote-ally Tess – is available for everyone to purchase from the Stampin' Up! Catalog.  Even if you're not a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, if you're reading this blog post, you probably are a stamper, and that stamp set has lots of cute stamps for you to use especially when you're scrapbooking about yourself!  Of course, if you ARE a demonstrator, you probably use it for hostess gifts and customer thank you notes.  I just love the set. 

     Speaking of hostess gifts, the paper that I used for the cover of this album is ONLY available to hostesses or anyone who spends at least $150 on Stampin' Up! products in one order.  It's a whole set of Designer Series Paper called Cheerful Treat, and the colors from it that I featured in this album are Melon Mambo and Lucky Limeade.

The Winner of the Blog Candy!

     Oh, and you'd like to know who the winner is!  She is Julie Camell, who has a delightful blog, Camell's Creative Cafe!  Thanks for the comment on my blog, Julie, and good luck with your craft fairs!

The List of Uses for the Album!

     Now here's the list of ideas for using this fun little album:  Christmas; Weddings and Engagement Parties; Senior Birthdays; "Firsts" such as Halloween, Day of School, Sporting Event; Adoption; Day Trips, for example to the Beach or Zoo; Pets; Anniversaries; Memory Books featuring special people; New House; Get Well, featuring pictures of tea, bandages, tissues, etc; Teacher Gift; Stampin' Up! Hostess Gift; and, of course, Stampin' Up! projects!

     Now, with all those ideas, why don't you try one of these albums yourself!  I guarantee you'll have fun with it!

    This weekend, our Duplicate Bridge club is being introduced to the new baby of one of our members.  We're going to welcome Baby Luca with a gift from the club, including this fun pocket-sized Accordion Fold Album to use to show off baby pictures. 

     You've seen me show off this album style on a couple of occasions.  In fact, I was just looking over my introduction to the tutorial for the album and found that my husband had said last Valentine's Day that this was a great gift for just about any occasion.  And it's just perfect as a little baby gift!

     The nice thing about this album is that you can make what I'm showing off here with just one sheet of 8-1/2" x 11" card stock!  Of course, I added some Designer Series Paper and used a bit more card stock for the "photo corners," but it's still a very economical album to make – AND QUICK!

     For today's album, I used Marina Mist Card Stock, and paper from the Designer Series Paper set, Nursery Nest.  This paper set features some primarily blue (Marina Mist), pink (Blushing Bride) and green (Pear Pizzazz) prints, with a sprinkling of Perfect Plum for its colors.  About those photo corners:  As you know (if you use Stampin' Up! products exclusively, as I do) Stampin' Up! retired its Photo Corners punch this past year.  But they just added a 1" Square Punch, which is what I used as the basis for my photo corners.  I punched some Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White, and Marina Mist 1" squares, cut them on the diagonal, snipped out a triangle on the diagonal, and voila!  I had photo corners!

     To decorate the front of the album, I tied on some Marina Mist Scallop Dots Ribbon, added some Marina Mist lettering which I cut using my Sizzix Big Shot and the Decorative Strip Die, Naturally Serif.  I added a strip of the ribbon on the back, too, to tie the whole look together.  I punched the little flower in the upper right corner of the front with the Boho Blossoms Punch and added a Pear Pizzazz Glimmer Brad as a fun accent.

     I have a one-page tutorial for this Simple Accordion Fold album right here on my blog!  I hope you'll enjoy using it the next time you need a quick and easy "occasion" gift!  Next week I'll show off the Money Card Holder that we're going to use to present the gift to Luca's mom and dad at next Sunday's bridge game.  I'll have a tutorial for that, too!  Be sure to keep an eye out for it!

     Those who have been around the craft room lately know that one of my favorite possessions is my Kindle eBook reader.  With all the traveling that I'm doing this year, it's sure nice to have to "lug" only one little piece of equipment around with me yet still have at least a half dozen unread books in my purse!

     But that doesn't mean I don't need bookmarks.  For one thing, it's still a lot cheaper to borrow a book from the library.  Even though I can now borrow eBooks, sometimes I just like to go over to our little public library and browse around the shelves and pick up something by an author who is new to me.  For another thing, there are lots of books in my kitchen – cookbooks!  I can have a half dozen or more bookmarks in just one cookbook to mark my favorite recipes!

     So it was a natural for me to join a bookmark swap when one of my online groups organized one last month!

     When it came to designing my own bookmark, I went right for the Stampin' Up! Specialty Designer Series Paper, "First Edition."  The "specialty" part of this paper is that it's a lighter weight than most Designer Series Papers from Stampin' Up!  That doesn't mean that it's not of a high quality, though.  It's just good for projects and accents that require a lighter weight.  In this case, I did need to add a bit of weight to the bookmark, so I mounted a layer of the First Edition paper on either side of some lightweight cardboard (the kind that ships in a package of Designer Series Paper is perfect!). 

     The really fun part about this design was that I decided not to stamp on the bookmark, but to do a little bit of stenciling!  I really like using Stampin' Up!'s Decor Stencils for paper crafting, though you can use them for fabric and furnishings as well.  Once I positioned the stencil, from the Stencil Set, Vintage Ornaments, I inked up a Sponge Dauber with some of the new Island Indigo Classic Ink and sponged away.  I placed the stencil again and made a second image on each side of the bookmark.  I punched some of the Island Indigo Card Stock with the Decorative Label Punch and folded it on each end of the bookmark before punching a hole and added some Very Vanilla 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon at one end. 

     As I write this I'm getting ready to leave home to go to the Stampin' Up! convention in mid-month.  If I receive the other bookmarks back from the swap before I leave, I'll post them for you to see tomorrow!

     Your assignment for today is to go find some fun card stock and make a bookmark – and have fun with it!

     As you read this, I'm out in the middle of just about nowhere, enjoying a vacation in the north woods of Minnesota.  This is a far cry from the Hawaiian Islands that I now call home.  The biggest difference is the length of the day.  In Hawaii, our longest day is only 13-1/2 hours. Up  in our part of the woods in Minnesota, the length of the day will be just shy of about 16 hours, and it stays daylight quite awhile after the sun actually sets. Other things that are different are the types of trees (no palm trees!) and birds (lots more from all those migrations!).

     Another thing that will be very different for me is that I won't have my craft room around!  But I did make sure that I had some papers and inks and stamps to play with while there because there are also going to be my two lovely little granddaughters who have tons of imagination when it comes to planning for just about any family event.  We we'll have invitations, place cards, greeting cards – all kinds of thing – to make while I'm there. 

     One thing that I'm going to do to get ready for all these projects is to cut out a bunch of bags from Stampin' Up!'s Sizzix "Fancy Favor" Die.  I made one with one of Stampin' Up! newest Designer Series Paper set, "Flirtatious."  This is a "specialty" paper set, and the special part of this one is that there are two pages that are made up of lace doilies – and this Pumpkin Pie doily is one of them.  They're all connected together into one 12" square sheet, but they're also very easy to cut apart as I did with this one.

     I made the bag with another of the sheets from the Flirtatious paper set – pretty and lacy!  For the accent color, I added a circle of Chocolate Chip behind the doily, and made the handles and bow from one of Stampin' Up!'s newest 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon, also in Chocolate Chip.  It comes in 10 colors, and you can be sure I'll be ordered ALL 10!

     If I can get some pictures of the girls working on the bags – or any of their other projects – I'll be sure to share them with you, but more likely on Facebook or Twitter than here.  So be sure to sign up to follow me on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest of what's going on in my paper crafting and family!

     You're probably not going to believe this , but none of the projects in today's blog post have any stamping on them!  Not a word nor a flower.  With the exception of a piece of ribbon on each item, simply everything that you see in these first three photos is from a Simply Scrappin' Kit that's in the Stampin' Up! 2011 Summer Mini Catalog.  The kit is called Playful Polka Dots, and it certainly is lots of fun – which of course is what "playful" is all about!

     My project for you today is a set of four greeting cards and a box that's made to hold all of them and their envelopes.  And just look at those colors!  I was immediately taken with the color combination – certainly one that I would not have thought up myself.  There are Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Daffodil Delight and Old Olive.  The kit comes with two pieces of 12" square textured card stock of each of these colors.  Then there are 3 sheets each of two different Designer Series Papers – double sided, of course.  For this particular project, I just used one side of each piece of the Designer Series paper set.  Finally in this kit are three 12" square sheets of Self-Adhesive Die Cuts including borders, flowers, floral elements and lots and lots of labels.  For this card set I stuck mostly to the flowers, adding in some of the borders and a few of the floral elements such as leaves and stems.  With all of that, there is a TON of stuff left in this kit to make quite a few scrapbook pages and even more cards and boxes!

     I found the pattern for this box in the SUDSOL (Simply Unique Demonstrators Sharing On Line – a group for Stampin' Up! demonstrators) patterns library.  What a fun place that is to look around when you're looking for project ideas!  I was glad I did that because I've never made this box before – but I'll be making it again for sure.  If you're a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, you can join SUDSOL free for two weeks – and check it all out for yourself!  I am just amazed what I've learned from this group and the inspiration that I get from all of the samples posted every day!  (If you're not a Demonstrator and you'd like some instructions for how to make this box and layouts for the cards, check back here during June when I'll have my own set of instructions and card layouts for you to use.)

     Now back to those cards.  The SUDSOL projects library also has ideas for cards to go with the box (click here for the layouts), but the papers are no longer current.  On the other hand, I really liked the layouts, so I tried to copy them as much as possible with the products in this Simply Scrappin' Kit.  You can do the very same thing with any of the projects in the SUDSOL library!  In fact, I'll be adding this set of cards to the library this week to help anyone on SUDSOL with ideas for using the layouts.

     HINT FOR WORKING WITH THE DIE CUTS!!!  Remove the adhesive!  This is so simple to do and it really helps when you are trying to figure out a layout and want to just skootch (that's a stamping technical term) a flower or a leaf just a tiny bit to get it just where you want it.  So how do I do it?  I keep a bowl of Corn Starch on my work table.  For multiple items such as with these flowers, I put out a piece of scrap paper and lay the die-cuts face down.  Then I sprinkle on the corn starch and rub it all over the backs.  Once each back is covered, I pick up the piece and wipe all the remaining corn starch off with a tissue until the back of the die-cut is totally smooth.  Not a whole lot of muss and not a whole lot of fuss.  And you can reapply adhesive such as Stampin' Up! SNAIL or Sticky Strip whenever you want to.  I've heard from others that they use the Stampin' Up! Embossing Buddy for this.  I've tried this and really like the Corn Starch better.

     As I explained earlier, for the first batch of everything, I used only some ribbon and what was in the Simply Scrappin' Kit.  But just to show you how well other Stampin' Up! Embellishments can look with this kit, for this photo op for my cards, I added buttons to the centers of several of the flowers.  Just a little bit of shine really starts to make these cards pop beyond what those fab colors do for them!  The only thing that I think I'll add from here are perhaps some greetings.  As it stands now, I'll be keeping this set of cards to show off to people who come to the craft room.  But some day I'll need a Get Well card or a Thinking of You card – and I can just pull out a greetings stamp set and add something right on the spur of the moment!

     You should try one of these kits!  If you like one that's in the Stampin' Up! Catalog this year, now's the time to buy one – because they're very likely to be retired at the end of June!  For sure, check back here on June 1st and I'll let you know which ones you might want to get right away! 

     As always, whatever you do, whether it's with paper and ink or a Simply Scrappin' Kit, have fun with it!