Christmas Craft Fair

The Christmas Craft fair for our junior high Destination Imagination teams was December 11th and 12th. What a relief to finally have it over!

Instead of pricing everything individually, we priced them by "table" and had $1, $2, $3, $5, and $7 & $10 tables. That worked out extremely well for us.

Surprisingly enough, our most popular sellers were the $1 gift card holder ornaments pictured on this tree. I'm not sure which batch this is because each time we'd finally make enough to fill the tree again, a new person would come in and buy all of them! One customer purchased the 13 that we had in stock and special ordered 7 more!

We had tons of the little mini portfolio gift card holders in stock, but the ones that hang from the tree beat them hands down. We also sold quite a few packages of the reindeer food that's pictured on the left. It wasn't ready until the 2nd day, and I think we'd have sold a lot more if we'd had it ready the first. Several people came and bought stuff from our $1 table to give out as Christmas presents for their children's day care and elementary school class mates. We sold all of our pillow boxes filled with M & Ms for that reason--before we even had a picture of them!

Although the students really enjoyed making these Sizzix boxes, they didn't sell as well as we'd hoped. Part of the problem was that the heater in the gym foyer got too hot the first day and the adhesive in some of the boxes started "melting" and those boxes deflated like balloons! We sold the majority of the whisks we'd made and will probably offer them again next year. I'm not sure how many of them actually made it home as Christmas presents and how many were quickly emptied of their candy by hungry students!

These were the altered frames on the $7 and $10 table. We sold most of the large ones and received several special orders for the word frames. I don't have any pictures of the frames on the $5 table because we couldn't keep them in stock, either! The small frames were sized to hold 4 x 6 pictures, and some customers were snapping up two and three at a time. We'll definitely be offering them again. Instead of wearing the DI team members down, this craft fair seems to have pumped them up! They want to have another one in the spring closer to Mother's Day and Graduation. Since our DI competition is February 28th, we'll have plenty of time to get ready!

Giving Thanks

Last month I was scheduled to do a workshop for my friend, Carol, and had to cancel due to illness. She'd asked for Thanksgiving themed pages, and these were the ones that I designed.

I'd planned on letting her guests choose between using the markers and

aqua painters or pastels and the blender pens to shade in the stamped images.I left the inside of the scallops plain so people could journal, add a date, or put a quote.

I thought these would be the perfect pages to post as I wish you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

O' Christmas Tree

After working with the Real Red, Chocolate Chip, and Old Olive papers in the SSK, I needed to do something completely different and came up with this!

I haven't decided if I'm going to use these pages for more of my ornaments or for various Christmas trees we have around the house!

I could also take pictures of the trees at the different family members we visit over the holidays and display them here. The scalloped circle die-cut stickers are raised by stampin' dimensionals again. The dimensionals have become my new best friends!

My Favorite Ornaments

I created these pages to spotlight some of my favorite Christmas ornaments.

Cutting strips to hang the die-cut sticker ornaments really gave the page a different look, and I plan on using my Big Shot to cut a title to add to the pages.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I've been playing around with the I Wish Simply Scrapping Kit since I ordered it back in September. At first, I wasn't too crazy about the Chocolate Chip color that's included this year, but the more I worked with it, the more it grew on me!



This is one of the first double-page spreads I created. It uses a cardstock sticker raised by scrappin' dimensionals as the title on the left-hand side and includes an actual wish list raised by scrappin' dimensionals on the right side.

If I don't make a picture collage, I'll probably use Chocolate Chip cardstock to mat all my photos.

Gift Cards

This weekend I fell in love with these gift card holders that kspiv at SCS posted directions for!

We've been looking for a variety of holders to offer at our craft fair on December 11th and 12th, and these were exactly what we needed.

If you have any of the 6 x 6 DSP pads that are offered as level 1 hostess gifts, they are the perfect size. The gift card holder on the left is made out of Real Red and the one on the right is last year's in-color, Wild Wasabi.

To make the card holders, you score the paper at the 3 inch mark, turn it, and score again at the 4 inch mark.

The 2 inches at the bottom fold up to form a pocket on the inside for the gift cards. I made mine similiar to the card portfolio I posted awhile back and cut a small V at the fold to help the holder close easier. Sticky tape holds the outer edges closed, and I used my Crop-o-dile to punch holes for a ribbon tie.

The fronts of the holders were easy to decorate, and the students will have fun decorating them for the craft fair.

October Hostesss Gift

These were the pages I made for my October Simply Scrappin' Kit hostess. I gave them to her along with a sampler of the Juntos Designer Series Paper I used to create them.




Since SU!'s partnership with Sizzix, in August, I've really enjoyed using my Big Shot to create die-cuts for my scrapbook pages. The F for fall and the pumpkins are all made with Sizzix dies.


So were the leaves on this page. My favorite part of these pages is the Juntos Designer Series Paper that can be ordered from our Hispanic Supplement. I love the fall colors and patterns in this paper, so I tried to use as many as possible on the leaves, pumpkins, and decorative strip. I also edged the leaves and pumpkin with Mellow Moss ink to help them pop off the pages. Now I'm ready for the leaves to finish changing so I'll have pictures to go on these pages!

One Craft Fair Down/One to Go!

Yesterday was Country Fest in Mt. Vernon, TX, and students on the DI teams I manage sold their wares outside of M. L. Edwards & Company Emporium on the square. While the stamps they used were SU! only, many kind people donated supplies for us to work with, and we were more than happy to use them!

We sold over half the bags of Autumn Trail Mix and Texas Trash that the students made on Friday afternoon. The rest will go quickly when we get back to school tomorrow. I'm very thankful to my friend, Ellen, for giving us the Autumn Trail Mix recipe last Wednesday. We started using it on Thursday, and it's been a BIG hit. Plus we're super excited to have something to sell that doesn't have to be coated in white chocolate almond bark first!

We had one table (the one with the green cloth) of $1 items that sold well. Besides the bags of trail mix and trash, we had the large decorated magnet paper clips, the garden pebble magnets, and the chocolate mints covered with scallop circle toppers. One set was white with ghosts. The other was pumpkin pie with spiders.

We also sold quite a few cards on this table. Most of them were my examples from classes I've taught over the past six months since some of our "helpers" on Friday managed to damage the majority of the cards the kids had ready to sell. Fortunately, most of them were not damaged beyond repair, so we should be able to rework them in time for our craft fair at school at the beginning of December.

Our other table had items ranging in price from $3 - $10. We sold almost all of the little trinket boxes we made (thank you, Dollar Tree!), most of the altered Halloween letters, most of the small altered frames, a few medium altered frames, and two large altered frames.

The kids were disappointed that none of their framed words sold. We'll need to decide if we should add more embellishments to them or lower the price, but in this economy, we had a hard time moving the $10 items.

One of the teachers at our school donated tons of tiles to us. We stamped small and medium-sized tiles with StazOn. We hot glued matching ribbons on the back to make them wall hangings and sold about 2/3 rds of the ones we took. We even got a special order for one from a customer who offered to pay in advance. That was one of the highlights of the day.

The main benefit of the craft fair (besides the money the students earned) was the fact that it was an incredible bonding experience for the children, and by the end of the day, they'd turned into very savvy sales people!

5th Best Ever Spread - Part 1

This is the right-hand side of our final Best Ever double-page spread. When I took all the photos on Sunday night, I still didn't have the rest of it finished! I used my Sizzix Big Shot to create the Ridinghood Red photo corner at the top. I was going for a more sophisticated look with these last pages since I'm always struggling for the appropriate pages to scrap my mother-in-law's birthdays. I used Stampin' Dimensionals for the cardstock sticker in the center and added Kraft cardstock to the kit for the mats. I took my camera to work yesterday to start taking pictures of our Craft Fair items and forgot to bring it home. As soon as I take the rest of the photos of these pages, I'll add them to my blog.

4th Best Ever Double-Page Spread

This double-page spread was easy peasy to make!


The only DSP I had to cut was the strip on the left-hand side of this page! Once again, I used Stampin' Dimensionals to make the circle stickers "pop" on the left-hand side.


And the faux DSP at the bottom of this page is actually a boarder sticker placed on top of the Ridinghood Red word border sticker! How simple is that?

I used Stampin' Dimensionals under the cupcake stickers so it would be easier for people to go back and add their pictures. I also did something daring for me by mixing up the photo mats instead of lining them up by size. I like the funky way it turned out!

This is my 7th Simply Scrappin' Kit to design, and the hardest part is keeping the pages from all looking the same! While it would be fun to use circular mats or very odd-shaped ones, I try to stick with variations of the 4 1/4 x 6 1/4 size to make it easier for people to use uncropped pictures or photos that just need a little trimming.

That way they can adhere their pictures fast and spend their time focusing on journaling, titling, and the other little techniques that personalize the pages we make in our club.

3rd Best Ever Double-Page Spread

This is the 3rd double-page spread my Simply Scrappin' Kit Club will make on Sunday. I must say it's one of my favorites because I love the color green, and Kiwi Kiss is really growing on me!


People who scrap with me know most of my layouts are very symmetrical. I like everything balanced and even, but when I saw the Make a Wish sticker and the cock-eyed cupcake on the samples that come with the kit, I just had to use them on a layout. If anyone asks me about it, I'm going to "blame" the crooked cupcake on the candles since I used more on this layout than the others! :-)


Whenever I design the pages for the month, I try to include one set like this to give scrappers with LOTS of photos of one event the chance to collage as many as possible.

And while I love the way Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze look together, I added a small strip of Ridinghood Red under the cardstock sticker strip on each page to make it really stand out.

One of the things I love most about using these Simply Scrappin' Kits is the way they encourage me to move outside my comfort zone and try colors I normally wouldn't think to put together. Now that I've worked with these pages, I know I'll be using Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, and Ridinghood Red together a lot more while they're In-Colors.

2nd Best Ever Double-Page Spread

This is the 2nd Best Ever DPS. I must say I'm falling in love with Ridinghood Red! I mourned the loss of Purely Pomegranite when the in-colors changed, but I'm finding that Ridinghood Red is every bit as versatile.


The DSP that came with this kit is very eclectic. One sheet is playful with bright stripes on one side and fun circles with words in them on the other. The other sheet is more elegant with words on one side and a pin-striped kraft colored design on the other.


There are plenty of cardstock stickers to match both sets of DSP designs, and for some reason with this kit, I find myself reaching for my Stampin' Dimensionals more than usual. I just had to use them underneath the circle and star on the right-hand side.

And while I like my pages clean and simple, I realize a lot of my club members need to pack as many pictures as possible on a page so I've left space in the upper left-hand corner and on the right-hand border for more photos if needed. I could definitely envision some circle-cut photos adding extra whimsy to these pages.

Best Ever Simply Scrappin' Kit

The hostess for the October Simply Scrappin' Kit Club chose the Best Ever kit. This kit is very unusual in that it uses THREE new in-colors and whisper white, and I love how these colors look together IRL.


While the kit does include a lot of flower embellishments, this month's hostess chose this kit for one of her friend's son's birthday pictures, so I went with more of the circular elements on my pages. People with girls could easily switch out the circles for flowers.


I also used more Stampin' Dimensionals than usual to really help the accent elements "pop." Our club meets next Sunday, so I'll be posting the other four double-page spreads this week.

Craft Fair

I spent the weekend working on craft fair items. This is one of the picture frames I made. It uses Bella Rose DSP, Old Olive Ribbon, and one of the Hodgepodge Silver Ribbon Slides. It looks better IRL than it does in the photograph.


I also tried my hand at coaster calendars. This one uses Summer Picnic DSP, Old Olive CS, Real Red Striped Grosgrain ribbon, and Old Olive ribbon. I also used Real Red Classic ink around the edges.


If it were sitting on someone's desk, this is the side that would be facing outward. I can't decide if I want to do anything else to it.

Card Packet Directions

Everyone has been so nice about the hostess gift I posted last week that I feel guilty about all the attention it's received!

My upline learned how to make the card packets at convention and taught us at a team meeting when she returned. Several people have asked for directions, so I thought I'd better post them.

I'm not very good at writing directions, but this is what I've been telling everyone who has asked:

1. Using an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of cardstock, score at the 5 1/2 in line
on the 11 in side (or score to divide the paper in half on the long side).

2. On the 8 1/2 in side (short side) score at the 2 1/4 in mark.

3. Once you've folded on the scored lines, it makes the card holder.

4. Cut a small V on the bottom flap of the card holder so it looks
like the inside of a pocket folder kids use at school. (You can
use sticky strip on the outside part of the flap to help keep the
cards from falling out or the flap from falling down.)

5. Use your Cropodile to punch holes at around 3 inches from the
bottom on either side. (You want to make sure the holes are
above the bottom flap.)

6. Cut ribbon long enough to fit through the holes and tie a bow.

7. You want the majority of the ribbon on the inside so it will keep your cards in place.

8. Make two cards to fit in each pocket with matching envelopes.

Hope that makes sense!

My students are helping me make more of these to sell at a Craft Fair for a fund raiser, so I'll be posting more examples sometime this week.

Hostess Gift

This is what I gave the September Simply Scrappin' Kit Club hostess today. It had one sheet each of Ridinghood Red and Kiwi Kiss 12 x 12 patterned paper and two 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of each of the new in colors.


I also included this card packet with her stuff. I learned how to make it when I attended my team meeting and fell in love with it.


When you open it, there are two birthday cards and two thank you notes inside. The Old Olive 1/4 inch ribbon that ties the packet shut also holds in the cards so they don't fall out.


The birthday cards are made out of Ridinghood Red cardstock. I used a retired jumbo dotted wheel down the right side and matted some Bella Rose DSP with Kiwi Kiss. Then I stamped the birthday greeting with Kiwi Kiss and used the Scallop Punch to cut it out.


The thank you notes are made out of Kiwi Kiss cardstock. I used a retired jumbo rough edged wheel down the right side and matted some Bella Rose DSP with Ridinghood Red. Then I stamped the greeting with Ridinghood Red, punched it with the Scallop Punch, punched a small circle out of Kiwi Kiss, and used a Stampin' Dimensional to make it pop!

Final UR Sweet Layout

This is the final UR Sweet Layout for the Simply Scrappin' Kit Club that meets this Sunday.

On the left-hand side, the scrapper can choose to put her title on one of the 4 1/4 x 6 1/4 gray mats, the smaller gray mat, or even on the journaling sticker, and to go along with the school theme, I used the spiral punch at the top of the gray mat for the journaling sticker so that it looks like a page ripped out of a mini spiral.

On the right-hand side, I wanted to try something different, so I used four square gray mats that will be perfect for those 4 x 6 pictures that are a little off center and need to be cropped. I also used Stampin' Dimensionals to make the flower sticker "pop."

This has been a really fun kit to work with, and I'm looking forward to designing pages for our October Scrappin' Kit Club meeting that will be using the Best Ever celebration kit--especially since my husband's birthday is in October!

4th UR Sweet Layout

Can you say school? Since the UR Sweet Simply Scrappin' Kit contains its own faux notebook paper, I just had to design a page with a faux file folder on it! This fake file folder actually mats two 4 x 6 photos, but doesn't it look cool?

Once again I used the spiral punch on the left-hand side of a decorative strip for the left page and then on the right-hand side for the strip on the opposite page. Both strips also double as places to journal or jot down important information.

The Totally Sweet title is actually a cardstock border sticker cut down to size, and I used Stampin' Dimensionals with the flower stickers to make them "pop" and also leave room for photos underneath them.

This was one of my favorite pages because I love how it came together. I can't wait to add my pictures!

3rd UR Sweet Layout

Some of you who have been scrapping with me awhile may recognize this layout. It's one of my favorites. I found it in a magazine last year when I was at a Death by Chocolate Crop in Arlington and used it for a dog layout I was making to swap. For it, I used a gray background with red, black, and white stripes. I liked it so much that I changed the colors and used it in a layout of my dogs that had a beige background and used burgundy, gold, and navy stripes.

Since the Simply Scrappin' Kits come with textured cardstock, I try to design layouts where the texture can show through, and I thought this layout would be perfect for that. I used one of the cardstock stickers from the kit for the title on the left-hand page and the flower and star stickers to embellish the right-hand one.

And although I don't really use tabs a lot on my pages, they came in the kit and added a nice splash of color against the Basic Gray background.

2nd UR Sweet Layout

This is the second UR Sweet layout I made over the weekend. The left-hand side of it is adapted from the UR Sweet packaging. I exchanged the Rose Red background paper in the SU! version for Tempting Turquoise because I wanted to save the Rose Red for a different layout.

I loved that this layout uses the Old Olive ribbon from last spring's Occasions Mini and the flower-shaped ribbon slides from the Silver Hodgepodge Hardware kit. They really give the page a unique look.

It's hard to see on the right-hand page, but the third Basic Gray box at the bottom is embellished with stickers and a journaling box from the kit.

The First UR Sweet Layout

This is the first UR Sweet layout for our Simply Scrappin' Kit Club next Sunday. I had so much fun working with this kit. Three pieces of the DSP are notebook paper on one side and perfect for the SU! punch that makes paper look like it came out of a spiral. I used a small piece of it here for journaling.

The colors in the kit are Rose Red, Basic Gray, Tempting Turquoise, and Old Olive. I'd never used Rose Red much until the Rose Cottage Simply Scrappin' Kit and this one. It's amazing how well it goes with other colors.

This particular double-page spread is based on a single-page layout that was on the Simply Scrappin' Kit package. I liked two of SU!'s samples this month and incorporated them into our kit club pages. I'll be posting the rest of the pages this week.

Wow!

The first week of school with students just zoomed past.

Over this (much deserved) three-day weekend, I hope to get started designing the Simply Scrappin' Kit Club pages for September. We'll be using the new UR Sweet kit that came out this month. It has beautiful Taken with Teal, Rose Red, Basic Grey, and Old Olive DSP, cardstock, and embellishments.

Also, our October hostess has already chosen her kit. We'll be doing Best Ever, the new birthday kit that uses three new In Colors (Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze, and Kiwi Kiss) along with Whisper White.

If either of these kits strikes your fancy, join us! I'd be happy to order the kit for you from SU! and prepare it along with the kits for the club members who meet IRL.

Remember: each double-page spread is individually packaged to make putting it together (using jpgs of the finished pages) a breeze. So for $33.75 plus shipping, you'll receive 5 double-page spread kits, a separate card kit that includes envelopes and the supplies to make 3 cards, and have enough left over embellishments to create a few projects of your own!

I hope to add a PayPal button soon to make the process easier for you.

Happy scrappin'!

Cards, Cards, & More Cards!

These are the cards my Simply Scrappin' Kit Club members will be making today with the Boho Blend kit. I usually don't post the cards we make, but since we're doing two kits today and some people will be finishing them up at home, I wanted club members to be able to see the cards, too.


These are the cards we'll be making from the Rose Cottage kit. The one in the middle is my favorite. I just love those baroque flowers!

Final Rose Cottage Pages

I just finished the final Rose Cottage Simply Scrappin' Kit pages for our club meeting tomorrow. I have to say that I'm sad to be finished with this kit. It has definitely been my favorite so far.


This is the left-hand side. I decided to color block with the left-over pieces of DSP. The rose red DSP on the right-hand side is big enough to mat a 4 x 6 picture if anyone wants three pictures on this page.


This is the right-hand side. I left room for smaller pictures above and below the vertical one, or people can use the space for titles or journaling.


This is how the pages look put together. I hope everyone at the club tomorrow enjoys them, and I can't wait to get started designing the UR Sweet Simply Scrappin' Kit pages for September's club meeting.