Paper Tube Gift Card Holder

The challenge over at A Charming Place this month was to create a Gift Card Holder out of an empty Toilet Paper Tube. We bought my Mother-in-law tickets to a play at a local theatre, so I knew that a toilet paper tube was going to be too short (plus all of my rolls were quite full), so I cut an empty wrapping paper roll to size instead. The flower on the tag is attached to a clip which holds the tickets on the back side of the tag. This way she can use the tag as a bookmark later. Who would have thought recycling could look so great!

Paper: Deck the Halls, Early Espresso
Tag: Table Setting Die
Punches: Five Petal Flower, Three Flower, scallop edge
Accessories: Crochet Trim, Neutrals Brads


Joy Christmas Frame

This was one of my mom's gifts this year. I can finally post it! I had her take some family pictures of us on Christmas day to put into it later. The frame is just a cheap wooden frame, but I really like how it turned out. All the flowers and embellishments were created with Stampin' UP! products.

The white flower was created with satin ribbon, an antique brad centre, and a pearl.
The red flowers were created with the five petal flower punch and the island blossom die plus a stylus and pearls.
The little vanilla flowers were created with the three flower punch and neutral brads.
Best of all, the Deck the Halls Paper ties everything together! I added a top coat of Smooch ink to the holly leaves and berries that doesn't show in the photo, but shimmers beautifully in the light.

Cambodia Scrapbook Page: Souvenir Challenge

This page was part of my last month's challenge over at A Charming Place. I challenged participants to use a souvenir on a project. Unfortunately, this page sat on my table in pieces while I waited for my Mojo to return. Now that I have my first full week of school behind me, I think I'll be ready to spend some more time in my studio playing with the thousands (literally) of pictures I took.

This box from our flight from Siem Reap back to Phnom Penh was the inspiration for the page. I also added my ticket stub from the flight. Please tell me that I'm not the only person in the world who would even consider ripping apart the snack box from a flight to save it for a future project?

The "cambodia" tag was cut from the snack box, attached to the Hodgepodge piece, and covered with Crystal Effects for a custom embellishment. I also cut the logo from the Angkor Air box to add to my page.

Stamps: Sentimental Journey
Ink & Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Pacific Point, Concord Crush
Accessories: Paper Daisies, Vintage Brads, Basic Pearls, Floral Fusion Die & Big Shot, Hodgepodge Hardware
Charms: Arrows from A Charming Place

Travel Challenge at A Charming Place

Greetings from Cambodia! It's my month to hostess the challenges over at A Charming Place! Of course, when I signed up for August, I had no idea that I was going to be gone for a quarter of it. This is why I've scheduled this post for today and also why I've chosen Travel as this month's theme. You have all month to participate in the challenges. Each challenge you complete earns you one entry into the draw for a $15 gift certificate to A Charming Place. Believe me, $15 goes a long way there! I am also offering a $10 gift certificate to the first person who completes one of my challenges and posts it in the Charming Place Gallery and then posts a link to it in the appropriate challenge thread on the forum. Are you ready for this month's challenge?

Create a project that is inspired by some other country/city in the world. Use a french script background, scrapbook a Mexican recipe or that fabulous vacation. Any type of project goes, but it must contain at least one charm. Don't have any charms? Place an order in my online store this month and I'll mail you a selection of charms to play with (sorry, Canadians only). Have fun!

 Check out my sample, inspired by Paris! I used my new Artistic Etchings set on this card. Did you happen to notice the background? I made it using the wax paper resist technique. To create this background, run a piece of wax paper in an embossing folder (here Vintage Wallpaper) through your Big Shot. Sandwich your embossed wax paper between two sheets of Whisper White cardstock and iron. I placed a piece of scrap paper over top. Use your brayer to add ink over top to reveal the pattern - your own Presto Patterned Paper!

Stamps: En Francais, Artistic Etchings
Ink & Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso
Accessories: Charms, Crochet Trim, Pewter eyelet, brayer, Log Cabin Smooch Spritz

Stampin' UP in Cambodia

We were at Hagar's House of Smiles yesterday. Hagar is an organization that works with the people who fall through the cracks. In this case, Smiles is a program for children with mental disabilities. I got the chance to do some stamping with kids who have likely never stamped before. I was unsure about how it was going to go, but God reminded me that creativity is universal. I pre-cut boxes with the Big Shot at home. All we had to do was assemble, stamp a Build-a-bear stamp, color it in with markers and then attach it to the completed box - an easy task in Canada, but we needed to be able to do this on the floor, in the middle of the day heat, with kids who had never done anything like it and who have mental disabilities ranging from mild to severe. Oh, and none of them speak any English!

I discovered some talent in one little boy sitting across from me. He couldn't have been more than five or six. I should have seen the artist in him when I passed around the paper and he insisted on red. I started demonstrating how to fold the box. I wasn't finished folding along the score lines when I looked up and saw him holding his completed box up for everyone to see. He had taken my completed sample that I had shown them earlier and copied it perfectly. He then told everyone else what to do. Next we stamped the Bears on a matted piece of paper. He watched me open the ink pad once. I had it closed and was working with some other kids when I looked up to see that he had found the flower stamp in the case, opened the ink pad (not always easy even for seasoned stampers) and was stamping flowers all the way around the box. We were not permitted to photograph the kids, but we could photograph their projects. Here's his completed work.

My other little buddy couldn't wait for the stamp. He decided that he'd rather make his own version.

They were so proud of their work - just like any kid in Canada would be. The main difference is that these are the kids who will probably never own their own set of stamps or even a dollar store ink pad. I paid more for the stamp set than their parents make in a week. Still, this truly was a House of Smiles. It was a short visit, but so much fun! Today we're heading out to Place of Rescue for a tour before we begin English Camp on Monday. I can't wait to meet the kids and see the place I've been praying for for the past six years.

Greetings from Cambodia!

I have been very busy since I arrived in Cambodia on Sunday afternoon. I promised to blog about my trip, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to post a quick update. I've done so much that I'll have to play catch up later! Here is the reason I got up at 4:25 this morning. Actually, I was supposed to be up at 4:00, but the guy at the front desk was sleeping on the couch and didn't get to our wake up call until 4:25 - we had to be out the door at 4:30. Needless to say, all I did was get dressed, brush my teeth, and go! The sunrise at Ankor Wat was absolutely worth it though. This is one of the many I took this morning.

I also made a new friend.

That would be a banana he's eating out of my hands. The people riding are from our team. I went for a ride around the ruins too - very bumpy and very fun! Tonight is our last of 3 nights at Siem Reap and we're flying back to Phnom Penh tomorrow morning. So far the trip has gone so smoothly. I can't believe how many amazing things I've seen and experienced in only a few short days.

Paper Strawberries, Anyone?

I created these paper strawberries for a challenge at A Charming Place. The challenge was to use the colour wheel to create a project and top it off with a charm. Naturally, I went with a Complementary colour scheme for these strawberries. The box was made using the Matchbox Die and embossed with the Square Lattice folder and the strawberries were made using the Island Floral Die. Best of all, each strawberry holds a Hershey Kiss, making them good enough to eat!

Paper: Real Red, Old Olive

Accessories: Island Floral & Matchbox dies, Square Lattice & Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folders, Hemp Twine, Old Olive Grosgrain













If you don't have the Island Floral die, you can also use the Fancy Flower Extra Large Punch to make miniature versions. Fill them with small candies and fit four in the matchbox basket. Here's how:

UPDATE: I created a PDF with these instructions (forgive the quality - it's my first attempt at this!). Feel free to download it here. I'd love a comment if you found it useful!

Punch out your flower. I used white embossing powder and a retired dotted wheel to create the white dots.

Cut one petal to the middle of the flower.

Overlap the petals on either side of the cut and glue in place

Punch a hole toward the top of each petal. For the leaves I cut down the a punched Five Petal Flower. Punch a hole in the middle of this piece.

Thread a 6" piece of Old Olive Ribbon through two of your petals.

Thread your ribbon through the remaining holes as shown.

Thread both ends of the ribbon through the hole in the middle of your "leaves" and tie a knot to create your stem. I curved the petals in before this step.

You can fit four of these itty bitty strawberries in the base of the Matchbox. Use the same steps with the flower from the Island Floral die for larger strawberries. There are also templates available on the internet if you don't have the punch/die, including several on Splitcoaststampers (but dies and punches make them so much quicker!).






On a completely different note, this is my last stamping related post before I leave for Cambodia on the 23rd. I will be posting my challenge for A Charming Place on August 1st, but other than that I've promised several people to attempt to post updates on my trip while I'm gone, so my blog is going to take a bit of a turn in the next couple of weeks. I promise to be back to Stampin' Up Only posts once I return! While I am gone I will spend approximately one week travelling with a team of people and experiencing Cambodia and one week teaching ESL classes at Place of Rescue just outside Phnom Penh. I am super excited and can't wait to share my journey with you.