Valentine's Day Tablescape

I should be a pro at this Valentine's Day stuff with all of the Hallmark movies I have watched over the last few month, but I always find this holiday a kind of difficult one to decorate for. Maybe because I feel it is a bit limited - how much can you do with red hearts?!   or maybe get real daring and use  pink hearts? or double dog daring and use XOXOXO's?  But I threw caution to the wind and this is as daring as I get!

I am happy to be part of the Valentine's Day Tablescape Blog Hop that Chloe Crabtree, from Celebrate and Decorate, has put together.  There will be 24 different talented table stylists showing off their Valentine tables just for you to enjoy.  Check back each day, as I will be updating the links at the bottom of the post all week long.  

So, for my table I added some brown to the mix of red and pink!!  And that isn't all that daring when you consider that chocolate is brown and that is one of the most popular things about Valentine's day!

My inspiration was the floral paper that you see on the hearts, it is a beautiful mix of a dark khaki, pink, red and sea foam green.  I tried to mix the sea foam green in somehow with my dishes, but trust me - it looked horrible!

I used several sheets of my favorite Valentine paper from Stampin' Up! to create an embroidery hoop collage above my mantel and then moved that color scheme onto my table.

The hardest part about putting together this table is that we were in a polar vortex this past week with temperatures in the negative degrees, and wind chill factors making the plunge unbearable.  So I was not about to go out and go shopping for anything new.  I had to make due with what I had.

I wrapped some old red Christmas candles with khaki colored paper cut with a heart die cut and placed them in a wood tray I had - along with some white wood heart ornaments for a simple centerpiece.

The wood hearts were Christmas tree ornaments, after adding the paper to the middle and that beautiful soft variegated ribbon to the wood hearts it looked much more appropriate for Valentine's Day.  I was going to make some cute little chocolate favors, but again, I didn't have any at the house and I wasn't really thrilled at going out in -25 degrees to get some chocolate.  Worse yet, I would just eat it because I never left the house for three days and I didn't need to do that.  So I opted for the little hearts on the easels instead of candy,  much easier on the hips!

Below are all the links to the wonderful Valentine inspiration for you to enjoy this week.

Check out each blog, I bet someone came up with a fabulous out of the box Valentine Table that is surely drool worthy!

Monday

A casa di Bianca | Panoply | From My Carolina Home | Corner of Plaid and Paisley | The Little Yellow Corner Store

Tuesday

Everyday Living | Life and Linda | Knock it Off Kim | Home is Where the Boat Is
Belle Blue Interiors 

Wednesday

Bluesky at Home | Debbee's Buzz | The Painted Apron | Camelot Art Creations

Thursday

Home and Gardening With Liz | Sweet Sensations | Celebrate & Decorate 

 Our Crafty Mom | My Family Thyme 

Friday 

Follow the Yellow Brick Home | Zucchini Sisters | Red Cottage Chronicles

My Thrift Store Addiction | Me and My Captain

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day and you get to spread some love.  A simple smile or a well placed compliment can do wonders to spread that love around.  

Hug someone today!

Stampin' Up! Meant to Be -Not just for Valentines!

It is always nice to spread some love.  It is easy to do with the new Meant to Be bundle from the new Stampin' Up! 2019 Occasions Catalog.

And just because this is considered a Valentine's day set, It can be used for many other cards such as Mother's Day, Miss You  or Wedding Cards.  I have also used it for a Thank you card here.

Since this is a new bundle, you save 10% by purchasing the Meant to Be stamp set and the Be Mine Stitched Framelits Dies together.  On all of these cards I used black ink and cardstock.  I did however use several other sentiments other than 6 sentiments it comes with just to give you some ideas on how to expand this set even more.

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Let's make the Thanks card!

The base of the card is Crumb Cake Card stock cut to 5 1/2" X 8 1/2", scored down the middle at 

4 1/4" , folded in half to make a basic A2 card.  I cut a rectangle piece of Whisper White  5 1/4" x 4" and ran it through my Big Shot using the Pinewood Planks embossing folder giving that a nice wood texture look.  

Next I took my black ink and stamped out three out of the 6 heart stamps that comes with this set on Crumb Cake cardstock. Then matched them up with the framlits that fit the hearts I chose and ran them through the Big Shot to cut the hearts out.   TIP: I use washi tape to line my dies up with the stamped images and run them through my Big Shot. I personally don't like using the magnetic plate with the dies - I have don't like the way the dies jump around a bit with the magnetic force!!  I would rather just use the washi tape - it sticks just enough to hold it in place but not ruin you piece when you remove the tape.

Lastly I cut the Thanks word out with the Well Written Framlits Dies (also found in the new 2019 Occasions Catalog) from Blushing Bride Cardstock, .  I applied the hearts and the word Thanks with Tombow liquid glue.

Very Simple! 

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 On the You're the Best (sentiment from the Label Me Pretty stamp set) card I used dimensionals to pop out some of the hearts, that would be an option you could do on this card as well.  I also want to point out that there are a lot of framelits in the Be Mine Stitched Framelit Dies set.  I only used a few on these cards.  Check out how many come with it here!  

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If you don't already have a Stampin' Up Independent Demonstrator that you work with - I would love to be your coach!  You can shop 24/7 by clicking the little store front  on my side bar.  Please use the hostess code that is posted at the top of the side bar.  If you spend more than $35.00 before shipping and tax - I will send you a sampling of the Gingham Gala 6X6 Designer Series Paper - 2 sheets of each of the 5 colors when you use my hostess code.  You will also receive a copy of the Occasions Catalog and Sale-a-brations catalogs. 

Now is a great time to buy because of the Sale-A-BRATION event that Starts on January 3rd and runs through March 31, 2019.  Free stamps and accessories are available with every $50 purchase! yes - that is on top of the DSP sample I will send if you use my hostess code! Plus you will receive free merchandise from Stampin' Up! with a purchase of $150.00 or more a long with the free stamps and accessories for Sale-a-bration!

Check out the Sale-A-Bration Catalog here!

When Snowed In, Set a Winter Table!

We didn't get quite as much snow as they had predicted but we still stayed home and hibernated this weekend.  And when you are snowed in, what better thing to do but set a winter table?!

I had purchased these fun plates and chargers at the semi-annual warehouse sale at Ragon House in Bolivar, Ohio back in November.

Their warehouse sales are wonderful!  They have them twice a year, spring and just before Christmas.

They are very well attended, very well staffed and it is definitely a shopping frenzy! If you see something you like, you have to pick it up and carry it with you or it may be gone when you go back 10 minutes later. 

These plates and chargers are melamine, which I have an appreciation for because they are much lighter and easier to store.  Plus they happen to be a pretty darn good deal!!

I had them displayed on my hutch until I decided to throw together a quick winter table.

I thought it was just a tad early to do Valentine's Day.  Besides with all the snow we are getting, this just seemed right!

You can just see the hint of snow we had on the deck outside.  They were predicting that we would get 12-14" of snow, but after it snowed for about 3 hrs and it was starting to pile up- it changed to rain and it rained for about 5 hours.  I can't imagine how much we would have had it not rained because it is snowing like crazy as I am writing this post.

So for a last minute favor to add to the table I just went into my stash and pulled out a few canning jars.  I got out my Stampin' Up! Buffalo Check stamp and made some tops for the jars and the little tags, filled the jars with cocoa mix, sprinkles and mini marshmallows. 

 While we don't live in Montana or Vermont as these plates suggest, we do live out amongst nature on a little lake.  We have had a pretty mild winter thus far.  Our lake has not frozen over yet, this time last year we were watching all of the ice fishermen.

I hope you are warm and cozy where you are.  We are going to throw another log on the fire tonight and enjoy these days we get when the snow puts a hush on the world.

Stampin' Up! Piece of Cake Card

Spread some cheer with the new Piece of Cake Bundle from the new Occasions Catalog. This stamp and punch set is great for birthdays, weddings and anniversaries - or anytime cake is involved!

I started with a basic A2 card by taking a piece of 8 1/2" by 11" Coastal Cabana cardstock and cutting it in half so that I had a 5 1/2" by 8 1/2" piece.  Using my Simply Scored, I scored at  4  1/4" and then folded it in half and used my bone folder to crease the fold nicely.

I then cut with my Big Shot and the new Rectangle Stitch Framlit Dies four rectangles, the first from Melon Mambo cardstock with the 3" stitched rectangle die, the second from Gorgeous Grape cardstock with the 2" die, and then two rectangles from Whisper White cardstock -  Cut one with the 1 3/4" rectangle and the other with the largest (4"0) rectangle for the inside of the card.  

Here is my tip of the day:  When using a punch, take a piece of paper and punch out the shape and keep the outside of the paper and use it as a guide - in this case I punched it out of a scrap of Old Olive I had laying around - most of the time I will be punching out white or light colored cakes - so I used a contrasting color to be able to see to line it up better.  I hope from this photo you can see what I am trying to explain!  Then I placed the actual stamp in the holes that I punched out of the olive cardstock and placed my block or Stamparatus over it to get your stamp to cling to my block.  Now they are lined up right to ink and stamp them - then punch them out.  This is a bit easier way to get things lined up.  I do this once - then I will keep that piece of olive paper in my stamp case for the next time I want to line those pieces up again.

Now that I have my stamp lined up, I stamped it out with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink, so that I can color the image in with my Stampin' Blends.  After coloring, I carefully line it up in my punch- looking at the back side to make sure everything lines up good - and punch away!! Then out pops my cake and my cake stand, all pretty!! I laid out my cake stand and my cake on my smallest Whisper White rectangle to line up where my candles should go and stamped my candles.  I used multi - purpose liquid glue to adhere the stand and cake under the candles. 

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Using the Around the Corner stamp set, I stamped the corner of the Melon Mambo with Gorgeous Grape ink with the It's Your Day sentiment.  I also took the Hello Cupcake stamp  - that you can get free with a $50 purchase from the Sale-A-Brations Catalog - and stamped in Soft Sky ink, the sprinkles down the left hand side of the Coastal Cabana side of the card base.  Next I attached the layers of each rectangle with my Snail adhesive.

Moving to the inside of the card, I chose my sentiment and stamped the large Whisper White rectangle with Gorgeous Grape Ink. I also stamped the corner of the inside of the card as well as the corner of the envelope with the little swirl corner from the Around the Corner stamp set.

I 'm not sure why this photo came out so blurry - but you can see that I added some sprinkles to the inside of the card as well and  then adhered the rectangle to the inside of the card with my Snail Adhesive.

Then for just some extra fun, I added three little Glitter Enamel Dots to the right hand corner of the front of the card.  

I hope you enjoyed my little crumb of inspiration!!

If you don't already have a Stampin' Up Independent Demonstrator that you work with - I would love to be your coach!  You can shop 24/7 by clicking the little store front  on my side bar.  Please use the hostess code that is posted at the top of the side bar.  If you spend more than $35.00 before shipping and tax - I will send you a sampling of the Gingham Gala 6X6 Designer Series Paper - 2 sheets of each of the 5 colors when you use my hostess code.  You will also receive a copy of the Occasions Catalog and Sale-a-brations catalogs. 

Now is a great time to buy because of the Sale-A-BRATION event that Starts on January 3rd and runs through March 31, 2019.  Free stamps and accessories are available with every $50 purchase! yes - that is on top of the DSP sample I will send if you use my hostess code! Plus you will receive free merchandise from Stampin' Up! with a purchase of $150.00 or more a long with the free stamps and accessories for Sale-a-bration!

Check out the Sale-A-Bration Catalog here!

Stampin' Up! So Happy Together Sale-a-bration Stamp

I have had more fun working with these darling frogs for the last few cards. They are from the  So Hoppy Together stamp set in the 2019 Sale-a-bration Catalog.

  This is one out of several free stamp sets being offered during the sale.  Today I am going to give the details to the middle card - the Hooray card!

The base of the card is from a piece of Granny Apple card stock cut in half the long way to measure

4 1/4 X 11".  I took one of those long pieces and score it down the middle at 5 1/2", folded it in half and creased it good with my bone folder. 

 The striped piece of Sea Foam Designer Series Paper is from the 6"x6" pack of Subtles DSP, cut to 5" X 3 3/4".  I stamped the dotted section on the bottom of the striped piece with Granny Apple Ink using a stamp from the Petal Palette stamp twice so that I got a wider section of dots.

I used the new Well Written Framelits Dies and cut the word hooray out with my Big Shot once with each of three different cardstock colors, Granny Apple Green, Old Olive, and Mossy Meadow. I adhered the words using Tombow liquid glue.  Then using my 2" circle punch, I punched the circle out.  Now comes the fun part.  I stamped the unicycle frog with Momento Tuxedo Black ink on Whisper White paper.  Tip: anytime I am going to color something right away,  I use the Momento black ink, it dries faster and smudges less than any other ink when you are coloring with alcohol markers such as Stampin' Up! Stampin' Blends. Then colored my frog with the light and dark set of Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends.

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You may hear the term "fussy cut" in card making, all that means is that it is cut out by hand - the old fashion way!  Since there are no dies for the frogs, I fussy cut my frogs.  On this card I cut the unicycle off and just used the frog.  Turning over the main striped piece of the front, that now has the circle cut and the words hooray on it - I placed Stampin' Dimensionals around the outer edges of the back. ( I used quite a few - I don't like my card to sag)  I also placed some around the circle cut out and used these dimensionals to adhere it the front of the card so that it pops out just a bit.  I used two Mini Stampin' Dimensionals on my frogs left eye and cut another one in half and used it on his left hand (which would be the eye and the hand on the right as you are looking at the frog!!) and liquid glue and the rest of my frog.  I placed him in the circle so that most of him is on the green back ground and yet his left hand is is just outside of the circle overlapping the striped paper slightly because of the half dimensional on his hand.  

For the inside of the card I stamped one of the other cute frogs in the corner of a  5 1/4 " X 4" piece of Whisper White cardstock.  I used the Well Said stamp set for the sentiment on the inside, stamping the word hooray and the frog in Granny Apple Green. ( Just make sure you have the sentiment going the right direction on the card stock since this card is going across instead of up and down like the majority of the cards we make - I of course stamped it wrong the first time!) Then I stamped the words for you and the bees in black and adhered it to the inside of the card.  

  

The other two cards have some retired Designer Series Paper on them- but I thought you might enjoy just seeing some more ideas on how this cute stamp set can be used !

The Hip Hop Hooray sentiment used on this card is from the retired stamp set - Sweet Little Something.  The retired frog DSP is from the halloween Toil & Trouble DSP series.  The dotted banner piece is from the still current Tropical Escape 6"x 6"Designers Series Paper (146916)

The green and white dotted paper is from the retired Toil & Trouble DSP series.  The gingham check is from the new Gingham Gala 6"x 6" Designer Series Paper .  The ribbon is Granny Apple Green Textured Weave Ribbon, also still current.

I hope you enjoy these little frogs as much as I do!!

If you don't already have a Stampin' Up Independent Demonstrator that you work with - I would love to be your coach!  You can shop 24/7 by clicking the little store front  on my side bar.  Please use the hostess code that is posted at the top of the side bar.  If you spend more than $35.00 before shipping and tax - I will send you a sampling of the Gingham Gala 6X6 Designer Series Paper - 2 sheets of each of the 5 colors when you use my hostess code.  You will also receive a copy of the Occasions Catalog and Sale-a-brations catalogs. 

Now is a great time to buy because of the Sale-A-BRATION event that Starts on January 3rd and runs through March 31, 2019.  Free stamps and accessories are available with every $50 purchase! yes - that is on top of the DSP sample I will send if you use my hostess code! Plus you will receive free merchandise from Stampin' Up! with a purchase of $150.00 or more a long with the free stamps and accessories for Sale-a-bration!

Check out the Sale-A-Bration Catalog here!

Stampin' Up! Nine Lives Card from New Occasions Catalog

Welcome to my first Stampin' Up! blog post.  I have been blogging for years with my tablescapes and renovation projects, but I have now added my second love - (well, make that third or fourth if I count my husband and kids too!) paper projects.  Today I am showing a Thank You card.

 This is an adorable new stamp set from the just released 2019 Occasions Catalog called Nine Lives. It can be found on page 32 or by clicking on this link. Check out this new catalog for all the exciting items just added to the Stampin' Up! line on January 3rd. The release of this catalog coincides with the Sale-a-bration catalog that I linked at the bottom of this post or in my side bar.
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I used Soft Suede Cardstock, for the base of the card - 

For those of you new to card making - a basic A2 card is one 8 1/2 X 11" piece of cardstock cut in half, now measuring 5 1/2" X 8 1/2" - score it down the middle at 4 1/4" and fold in half using a bone folder along the edge to get  a nice crisp fold.

A piece of  So Safron, measuring  3 3/4" X 5 1/14 " -  was stamped with the little fish across the top and the little mouse across the bottom with Crumb Cake ink. 

I punched out a cat on Crumb Cake cardstock and  used my Stamparatus with Soft Suede ink to stamp two separate stamps that are layers of the Cat ( this can be done with a block as well, it is just much easier  to line up with a Stamparatus)  

 Then I cut a 1" wide by 4" from the Soft Suede cardstock and  and a 3/4" wide by 4" from the yellow gingham from the new Gingham Gala Designer Series Paper (or DSP). Using my Snail Adhesive, I centered the yellow gingham strip on the Soft Suede Strip,  then adhered that across the So Safron piece you stamped your fish and mice on, a little above center so that there was room for my sentiment, and I let the edges hang over just a bit on each side.  Once I  attached it - then I  trimmed off the edges on either side.  TIP: I find that making those strips a tad longer than the piece and attaching it first and then trimming off the edges makes a much cleaner look than trying to line up the edges after you have already cut it. 

Next, I used my Big Shot to cut out the two sizes of the Layering Oval framelits dies- the larger from Crumb Cake cardstock  and the smaller out of yellow gingham DSP.  Using my snail adhesive, I affixed the the layers together and the cat on top.  After adhering the cat on the front - I then stamped my sentiment of You're the Cat's Meow on with Soft Suede ink. Now I attached it all to the front of the card.  

Moving to the inside of the card, I stamped my sentiment and one of the cats in the corner of a 3  3/4" X 5 1/4 " piece of Whisper White Card stock.  I also added the Thank You  - from the Love What You Do stamp set.  All were stamped in Soft Suede Ink, then adhered to the side of the card.

I love to send happy mail - so I almost always stamp something on the envelope as well.  I stamped part of the kitty in the corner of the envelope as well, this time using the lighter ink - Crumb Cake - and included a little Meow for fun!

If you don't already have a Stampin' Up Independent Demonstrator that you work with - I would love to be your coach!  You can shop 24/7 by clicking the little store front  on my side bar.  Please use the hostess code that is posted at the top of the side bar.  If you spend more than $35.00 before shipping and tax - I will send you a sampling of the Gingham Gala 6X6 Designer Series Paper - 2 sheets of each of the 5 colors when you use my hostess code.  You will also receive a copy of the Occasions Catalog and Sale-a-brations catalogs. 

Now is a great time to buy because of the Sale-A-BRATION event that Starts on January 3rd and runs through March 31, 2019.  Free stamps and accessories are available with every $50 purchase! yes - that is on top of the DSP sample I will send if you use my hostess code! Plus you will receive free merchandise from Stampin' Up! with a purchase of $150.00 or more a long with the free stamps and accessories for Sale-a-bration!

Check out the Sale-A-Bration Catalog here!

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I hope you enjoyed this card! For all the dog lovers there is an adorable dog and punch bundle in this new Occasions Catalog that I will be doing soon, so be sure to stop back in!

Christmas Hot Cocoa Bar

Welcome to our Christmas Hot Cocoa Bar!

We are ready to warm everyone up with a nice cup of cocoa.

 So grab a mug and join us.

If you are anything like me, you are running around crazy during the day, baking, shopping, wrapping and decorating.  If you are - you deserve to sit down in the evening and relax, maybe turn on a Hallmark Movie?

Enjoy a nice cup of cocoa - how do you like yours? With marshmallows?  With peppermint? Anyway is a good way to stop and savor the Christmas Season.