Pot Pourri and Winter Wonderland Update

It was a busy November and I am ready to step into December. A late Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!


Thanks to Cheryl for hosting a Pot Pourri Class at her house this month. We had a fun afternoon. She wanted to do more 3-D projects with a year-round theme, so I came up with six projects.
We made a Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter project and then added in two birthday items.



Our Spring item was a lollipop turned upside down with a flower on the end of the stick. The flower pot hides the actual lollipop.


For Summer we made a the little orange and red bag with the lemon on the front.


The Fall project was the turkey card.

The Winter project was the snowflake origami box.


The birthday projects were a favor box that holds Ghirardelli chocolates and a matching birthday card.


If I can figure out how to post the links for the instructions to these projects I will do so in the next day or two. If I can't I will send them to anyone that requests them by e-mail. The files are pretty big, so hopefully the links will work.



Winter Wonderland Class


Not as many participants as last month, but definitely worth the time. I had three people on Saturday and six people on Sunday.

We had a great time making our tote bag, cards, gift card holder, tags and matching pen.

It was a lot of work but everything turned out great.

I am waiting to post the projects for my January class. I want to see what papers are going to be available in the new catalog - it begins mid-January.

I have one more class before Christmas that my friend Beth is hosting at her house. It is a class for kids. We are making three projects - a Christmas frame, matching candy jar and a matching card. We are expecting about 20 kids, so wish me luck!

My next post should come after Christmas and I should have January class information by then. I am off to work on my Christmas cards. Check back soon!

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First Class - A Success!!!

Well, the Fall Cards and Gifts Class is over! I had a great time and want to say a big "THANKS" to all that attended. There were a total of 11 people that signed up for the class, which I thought was a good response for my first time.

I have to give my husband a big "THANKS", as well. He took care of the kids, pretty much, the whole weekend and I truly appreciate him. Without him, I would not be able to spend my creative energy making cakes, stamping and doing the many other things I enjoy doing.

I am now looking forward to my next class. I will be holding Winter Wonderland sessions on Friday, November 21 at 7:00, Saturday, November 22 at 7:00 and Sunday, November 23 at 1:00. If you would like to attend, there are 18 spots available (six per session). Please let me know as soon as possible if you plan to attend. I expect these classes to fill up quickly - I have already had a few people reserve their spot.

We will be making a tote bag with matching pen, five cards, a gift card holder and three gift tags.

I plan to have projects for my January class for you to preview at the Winter Wonderland session. I am thinking about a card tin with matching dividers (to organize all of the cards that you will make in the next year :). If there is something you would like to make or a technique that you would like to learn, please let me know. I would be happy to have suggestions for my upcoming classes. The January class will probably include something for Valentine's day, maybe the tin, a card and a candy holder. I'll let you know when I figure it out for sure.

Thanks again to all who attended! Hope to see you in November!

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Big News . . .

Well, I finally did it! I am now a Stampin' Up Demonstrator! I went to the Regional Convention in Kansas City and that sealed the deal for me. I am so excited! I hosted my annual fall show on October 5 and the news seemed to be received quite well.


I will be hosting two classes this fall. There will be two sessions for each class. In the first one we will be making Halloween/Fall Cards and Halloween/Fall Candy Holders. Here are the projects that will be included:

This class will be held on October 24 at 7:00 p.m., October 25 at 7:00 p.m. and October 26 at 1:00 p.m. There are six spots available for each class and reservations should be made to ensure your spot. Everything will be pre-cut and ready to put together with instructions provided by me. The fee for the class is $20 or free with a $35 purchase. If you would like to sign up for this class please e-mail me as soon as possible. I have a printable flyer available, just let me know if you would like more information.



The second class that I will be hosting is called Winter Wonderland. This class will be held on November 22 at 7:00 p.m. and November 23 at 1:00 p.m. We will make a tote bag that holds five notecards, gift tags and a gift card holder. The fee is the same for this class. If you would like more information, please send me an e-mail or give me a call.

I will be sending this out to as many people as possible within the next few days in the hopes that they will then pass the information onto their friends who may be interested. Keep in mind that anyone can do this!!! You don't have to be crafty to attend a class. Full instruction is provided and your cards will look just like these when you are finished.

Stampin' Up now has 24-hour shopping through their website. Click on the current catalog to the right and then click on the "shop now" button at the top of my Stampin' Up home page to place an order. All on-line orders will be shipped directly to your home. Of course, you are always welcome to place your order through me, just let me know if I can help you!!

If you are interested in hosting a workshop, feel free to contact me. We can customize the make-and-takes to fit your needs (gift card holders, gift tags, cards, candy boxes, etc.).

Okay, that is my sales pitch for now. Check back occasionally to see what I am working on - there will always be something new! I will post all of my classes here and on my Stampin' Up website in the calendar section if you are interested in attending. After the Fall and Winter classes are finished I will probably come up with a few projects for a January Valentine class. Watch for new class information!

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This is my favorite time of year . . .

Hi all! I am now a blogger! Just wanted a space to post the things that I am currently working on and maybe some stuff about the family. I can't promise a post every month, but I will give it a go.

I can't figure out the spacing on this thing, so I apologize if it looks a bit strange. Maybe you get better as you go, I don't know. For you non-stampers and non-crafters, this post is going to be very boring.

Halloween is just around the corner, which is one of my favorite holidays. Then Thanksgiving and Christmas - so much to do. I have been trying to get a jump start on the fall season.

September has not started off well in the Nielsen household. Holly has had pneumonia, Macy has been sick (undiagnosed), our microwave went out, our oven went out and Mark nearly chopped off his thumb while trying to install the new microwave. So, I have been stamping and painting to keep myself sane among the illnesses and the appliance outages. So far, it is working, I think.

My friend Cheryl, from my job at WCP, had her last day this past Friday. She is a fellow stamper and I will miss talking stamps with her. I made her this set for her going away gift.

The set included a card, desk calendar, tin of chocolates, memo pad and matching pen. I made a matching box to hold everything. My favorite piece was the desk calendar. You start with two chipboard coasters. I covered it with coordinating paper and cardstock and added a few embellishments. Then I punched holes and added ribbon to hold it together. I thought it turned out pretty well for my first attempt.

Besides the occasional gift or cake, I have been working feverishly to get ready for some potential upcoming fall craft events . I am considering a craft show, maybe in October and probably another in December (the same one I did last year). Here's a sneek peek at a few things I've been working on:

Halloween Lollipop Bouquets

I used the Batty For You set from Stampin' Up, several circle punches, a scalloped circle punch and my Cricut to cut the largest scalloped circle. I bought the flower pots at Michael's for 69 cents and painted them to match with a "Happy Halloween" message at the top. They turned out pretty cute!

For some reason I have been in the mood to paint recently, so here are a few more Fall themed items that will be available, if I decide to do the October craft show.

Gift Card Tins

I have also moved on to a few Christmas items. These are little metal tins (altoid size) that I covered and embellished with a variety of christmas papers and a few different stamp sets. Again, my Stampin' Up punches came in very handy. These are the perfect size to use for gift card holders. I may try to make a mini card to match each one and sell them as a set.

At the end of the month I have been invited to attend the Regional Stampin' Up Convention with my friend, Susan, in Kansas City. I am making lots of cards and other little items to take along and swap out with the other stampers. I hope to get lots of new ideas on our trip. Here are a few things I plan to take along for the swaps.

Enjoy the Little Things

I love this stamp set!!!! I actually used two stamp sets here, but the Enjoy Every Moment set is one of my favorites. I also used the large flower stamp from a year or so ago as a template for cutting out the big flower. Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Black and White make this card pop. I was trying to experiment with colors that I don't normally use together and I think this turned out pretty well.

Welcome Baby

I love making baby stuff. Whether it is a cake, a card or a gift, everything baby seems to turn out cute. I have plenty of baby girl cards, but I wanted to make something that would be appropriate for a new baby boy. I used Brocade Blue, Barely Banana and Chocolate Chip for the color combination. The stamp sets were Everything Baby, Looks Like Spring and I'm Here. The small pictue is the girl version that I made several weeks ago for my mom's friend. It uses basically the same sets, Chocolate Chip and Pretty in Pink.

So Very Sweet

This is probably one of my favorite papers that Stampin' Up is carring right now. It's the Summer Picnic designer paper. I used the stamp sets So Very and Tart & Tangy. The small and large tag punches were used to punch out the stamped cherries. The colors are Real Red, Bashful Blue ad Old Olive. The ribbon is the 3/16" Gingham Ribbon in Red. I used Bashful Blue to shade around the outside of the white and printed paper. I love to layer different colors, if you haven't noticed, and that didn't change for this card. I used a square embellishment from one of my Hodgepodge Hardware sets. I've had a hard time finding good uses for some of the stuff in the hardware sets. I guess I'll just have to keep experimenting!

Small M&M Favor Box

I used my own measurements to make this little box. The base of the box is Chocolate Chip and the lid is Rose Red. I used designer series paper from Stampin' Up along with more punches and a word stamp for the message. I scooped a little less than 1/4 cup of pink M & M's into a small cellophane bag and placed them inside the box. You can find pink M & M's right now because October is just around the corner and it is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I pay close attention to such things because my mom is a breast cancer survivor. I will be making more of these boxes with Halloween and Christmas themes. Maybe candy corn in the Halloween boxes and red and green M & M's for Christmas. We'll see!

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