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A Winter Storm Watch in Hawaii

Updated November 16th–Quite a few people said my first photo looked more like blue and pink.  Not!!!!  Here’s a picture I took in daylight.  Definitely Handsome Hunter and Bravo Burgundy!

Aloha, all!

Oh, my, how the rains have come these past few days!  And now that it’s November, we here on the Big Island of Hawaii are all wondering if, when the clouds clear, we will see snow on the peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa!  An exciting time each year as we anticipate the first snows of the winter.  One tradition here is for people to take their pickup trucks up to Mauna Kea, fill them up with snow, and bring them down the hill.  I live far enough away that I’ve never seen a pickup arrive in our neighborhood still filled with snow.  After all, it is Hawaii, and it really isn’t all that cold – except up on the mountains.  But I have seen the neighbors all sunburned from their snowboarding trips because they forgot – it is Hawaii, and the sun is always hot!

All of this winter speculation has been enough for me to look for snowflake stamps to use this weekend!  The first is one of the snowflakes from the stamp set, Snow Swirled.  I especially love to emboss snowflakes on dark colors of card stock.  This time, rather than embossing a white snowflake, I chose Bravo Burgundy and Handsome Hunter (nicely embossed with the Sizzix Stampin’ Up! Petals a Plenty Embossing Folder), and added a bit of gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder and some Brushed Gold card stock.  Finish it off with some Gold Brads, and there’s a lovely Holiday card. 

The design for this card is part of this week’s Stamping 411 Challenge!  I just love this site because they not only give you a sketch to follow, but they also suggest measurements for the various layers.  If you have a stamp set you’re trying to figure out how to use, you should go to their website, pick out one of their challenge designs, and figure out how to use YOUR stamp set with THEIR design.  It really does get the creative juices flowing!

I’ll let you know when the clouds clear if we have snow!

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An Old Stamp Set with some New Colors

Aloha, all!

Yesterday I brought out the stamp set, Fun and Fast Notes.  While I had the box still opened (and lots of other stuff still not put away from my last couple of projects–what a mess!) I was reminded about a sketch challenge that had been posted on the website, SUDSOL, which is a site for Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators.  Rather than reuse the Tea Cup (my favorite image from the set), I decided on a Christmas theme, and took out the Christmas Tree image. 

Then the challenge (for me, at least) was which papers to use for the project.  I looked through all my Christmas papers, and settled on Holiday Lounge.  The colors in this Designer Series Paper set are Taken with Teal, Rose Red, and Sahara Sand.  One of the papers in the set has row upon row of Christmast trees, and I decided that would be my middle horizontal element, with the Teal on the top and Red on the bottom.  To spice it up, I added some Crushed Curry ink for the star and the garland on the tree, one of the central element layers, and a piece of the 1/2" Polka Dot ribbon in the same color.  Voila!  Truly a fun and fast card!

Now this is one other "fun" thing about this card.  Another demonstrator, at the same time as I, was reminded about the sketch challenge.  She used the SAME set of Designer Series Papers, and put the trees as the central horizontal stripe and the Teal for the top piece.  Check out what Mary Jo Price-Williams did with her card!

Tomorrow I’ll share yet another challenge card, which is also a Christmas card.  Boy, I sure am building up a supply!  I think everyone will get a different card from the Craft Room this year!

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Another Peek at Christmas Cocoa

Aloha, all!

After I posted yesterday, I went looking for another challenge card that I’d made last week, but hadn’t posted here.  Darned if I hadn’t used the same Designer Series Paper – Christmas Cocoa Specialty – that I used in yesterday’s challenge card.  This particular challenge was one that I did for the group, SUDSOL, during one of their online Chat & Challenge sessions.  The sessions are a lot of fun.  The host of the C&C (as they’re called) welcomes everyone and posts a challenge sketch or picture and then those of us out here in Internetland go try to come up with our own design to meet the challenge.

In yesterday’s card, I featured one of the sheets with snowflakes on it.  This card uses the flocked paper that’s part of the set (the white on red on the bottom strip) and papers that coordinate with it.  To set it off, I stamped an ornament from a set that you’ll be able to buy from the 2009 Holiday Mini Catalog, beginning September 1st.  The set is Delightful Decorations, and there is a PUNCH TO MATCH!!!  The punch is the Ornament Punch, and you’ll be able to buy it in September also.  (And lest you think it has limited use, in the next week or two I’ll be demonstrating some other things that fellow Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators have been doing with it, and none of it Christmas related!)  Oh, and I popped the ornament up a bit with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Don’t have your Holiday Mini Catalog yet?  Give me a call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me, and I’ll get one right out to you!

Are you an SU Demo who might like to join a great online group?  Click on the blinking picture to the right and get a free two-week trial with Simply Unique Demonstrators Sharing OnLine (SUDSOL).

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A Bit on the Fancy Side

Aloha, all!

Today I continue my effort to get my Christmas cards all done by the end of the week.  However, I got a bit sidetracked by a friend’s request to make a card for her to give with a "Welcome Home" gift.  Of course, it had to be made today!  But I’m all about customer service, so today it was.

This also gave me the opportunity to use the beautiful stamp set, Snow Swirled (111690), which I’ve been wanting to use with some embossing since the day it arrived on my doorstep.   This card is made with two different embossing powders.  The tree is embossed using VersaMark ink  (102283) and Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder (109029).  The snowflakes in the background, both design also from the Snow Swirled set, are embossed using VersaMark and Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder (109130).  So I got to fire up the Heat Tool (100005) twice!  I just love it when that embossing starts to show up on the card stock!

I finished off the top of the tree with a Rhinestone Brad from the Circle Fire collection (109110).  The card stock that I used for this card is Riding Hood Red and Handsome Hunter (Hmmm.  Seems like I used that fairy tale combination before!)  Finally, I added a bit of Brushed Gold card stock behind the Riding Hood Red.

It’s still not too late to order supplies before Christmas and before the FREE SHIPPING offer expires!  Just hop online and your supplies will be on YOUR doorstep before you know it!

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