Kellie’s Halloween Treats

Posted on October 9, 2010 by mauistamper

Kellie was here this week and shared these fabulous Halloween treat holders. She told me that she made over 30 of them with her mom and her daughter for her daughter to share at school, and they had a great time together. Her mom commented that the 9 year old recipients might not appreciate all the time and effort that went into the making, but her daughter responded “But I’m having a GREAT time!!” Doesn’t that make your heart melt?

Wicked Cool Stamp set
Basic Black Classic ink pad; Whisper White Craft ink pad
Basic Black, Whisper White and Pumpkin Pie card stock
Wicked Fun Specialty paper
Circle and Scallop Circle punches
XL Two Step Owl punch
Big Shot and Candy Wrapper Bigz die

I don’t have the exact list of supplies from Kellie, so I’m improvising here. My photo barely picks up the cob webs running along the side of the black cardstock but they are the perfect touch.

Do you recognize the ghost? Kellie saw it on Stampers’ Showcase, the Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator creative sharing site. It’s the XL Two Step owl, standing on his head with his feet cut off. Doesn’t that crack you up? I guess I’m easily entertained, but it gives me the giggles.

So what’s keeping you from making a few treat holders – and some memories – with your family??

A Happy Birthday Lei

Posted on August 26, 2010 by mauistamper

Women of a certain age don’t tell their ages anymore, but we still celebrate our birthdays. First of all, we’re worth it, and second of all, considering the alternative we’re happy to be around to have those birthdays!!

Today is Robbie’s birthday and I made her a special lei. What you may not realize is that I don’t have the Candy Wrapper die – yep, you guessed it – it’s hers and I borrowed it. But I came up with this goofy idea all by myself (you can certainly tell, can’t you?) It was actually one of the first things I thought of when I saw the little box.

As you can imagine, lei are a very important here in Hawaii. There are many beautiful and more traditional lei made from plants and flowers, shell, or feathers, each invested with cultural significance. This is not one of those lei. This is a crazy-cousin-who-really-doesn’t-quite-belong-in-the-family-but-we-love-him-anyway lei. We have many variations on that too – some time I’ll have to do a post on some of the more creative versions. This one is made from Melon Mambo cardstock rolled with the cupcakes wheel, spritzed with Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint spray and embellished with words from the Fabulous Phrases set. The boxes are attached to one another with some retired ribbon. I know, I know…maybe next week when my schedule frees up I’ll post another Un-Tutorial.

If you look closely you’ll see a couple of slightly amusing things in this photo. The first is Owlie Eyeballs drying on the side of my desk. The second is my pathetically warped cutting pad from the Ribbon Flower episode (And yes, I’ve gotten my hands on some Sticky Pages and I intend to try again. But first I need a 2×4 to hold the ribbon securely so I don’t melt anything else in my craft room.)

Don’t tell her…I’m counting on her being too busy to look…but I had to post this photo – her outfit coordinated with the lei!! Happy 29th birthday, my friend.

Maui Stampers Brainstorming Goes Batty

Posted on August 21, 2010 by mauistamper

The Maui Stampers met Friday morning for our monthly team meeting (wouldn’t you love to be one of us? You can, you know – email me!). We mostly gab and stamp and then at the end we try to eat healthy stuff because we’re all watching our girlish figures. Crystal brought Isaac – she was only going to drop off some stuff and run home but we persuaded her to stay. I had a senior photo moment and didn’t take one picture of him, but he was very happy sitting next to Auntie Kellie.

We were playing with Halloween stuff (most of it was Robbie’s, and she had to work) and came up with a concept that we thought needed work but had great potential. I have faith in all of you and your creative abilities so take a look and then leave a comment on how to spiff this baby up:

Pumpkin Pie and Basic Black card stock
Early Espresso Classic ink pad
Big Shot and Candy Wrapper Bigz L die; small oval punch
Stampin’ Sponges, Window Sheets and Tombo the Wonder Adhesive

We punched out the bats and used the negative image as a template to sponge bats all over the cardstock. We tried adding ribbon to the ends but it didn’t work for us. To make the bat stand up, we punched a small oval from a window sheet and cut it in a spiral to make something that spproximated a spring. The oval worked best because of the shape of the bat.

We all think it needs more/another color – some white somewhere to catch your eye? Can’t wait to hear what you think.

A Holiday Mini Sneak Peak

Posted on August 11, 2010 by mauistamper

Robbie is flying out tonight on the red-eye to go to a huge family event in Northern California, and being the amazing and generous soul that she is, she INSISTED I take her brand-new, Holiday Mini Sneak Peak for demonstrators Big Shot die to play with because otherwise it would be lonesome at home. Now that I have it, I may not give it back:

I didn’t intend to do anything more than put this Candy Wrapper Box together so that when Robbie returns, I could show her how to assemble the box. Ha! If you don’t have the Big Shot yet, you’d better change the channel, Cherie. Imagine this in Pumpkin Pie with bats and spiders…in Night of Navy covered with stars and snowmen…in Bashful Blue with that cute little onesie rolled around it…you get the idea.

Cute by the Inch Hostess Level II stamp set
Melon Mambo and Whisper White card stock; Retired Designer Series Paper
Regal Rose Classic ink pad
Big Shot and Candy Wrapper Bigz L die
Pretty in Pink 5/8″ Satin ribbon; Rhinestone jewels
Heat tool; hideously messy non-SU glue
Jewelry tag medium punch, 1″ circle punch

Now don’t go thinking I’m rubbah-dulteratin’ (courtesy of Jan Tink) by using a non-Stampin’ Up! flower. Shannon West showed us these flowers at convention and I’ve been wanting to try them since I got home. I considered taking photos for you but thought I’d better figure it out first…good decision. Shannon used our Sticky Pages to form and hold the ribbon into a flower, and since I didn’t have any Sticky Pagges on hand I decided to use a very sticky clear liquid glue – something similar to what hot glue would be if it were liquid. I won’t name names.

To make the flower, you snip almost all the way through your ribbon at 1/2″ intervals and then use your heat tool to curl up the “petals”. At this point, I discovered my first challenge. Any surface appropriate for holding the ribbon flat in order to blast it with the heat tool was not going to survive the blasting, and my fingers were not either. I ended up warping my old cutting mat (I need a new one anyway, no biggie) because the alternative was holding that ribbon across my lap and believe me, that was not going to happen.

It took a while for the ribbon to heat up, but once it started to curl the edges rolled up quickly and I was on to step 2. I punched a 1″ circle from a scrap of cardstock and covered it with the Glue That Must Not Be Named. Shannon had worked so quickly and smoothly, but she wasn’t dealing with those funny stringy bits of glue – you know the ones. I had to add more and more glue as I worked my way around the circle, mostly because a significant amount of the GTMNBN was at this point stuck all over my fingers. Not only must it Not Be Named, it does Not Come Off of Fingers very well.

The final result is very pretty, especially with that blingy Rhinestone in the middle covering up the messy end bits all covered with GTMNBN. I want to point out that this was my very first attempt at this technique, and I’m sure I’ll get better. I’ll also get some Sticky Pages (#114300, $6.95 for two 12×12 sheets and worth every penny).