Kids' Canvas with Floral District DSP

Last Friday, I hosted a birthday party for my daughter (who turned 7) and ten of her 'best' friends. She actually had many more 'best' friends, but we were able to cap it at 10. Thank goodness. Because as fun as it is crafting with eleven 6-9 year olds, it is crazy and exhausting! Luckily I had a good friend helping me. Funny thing is, she's not super crafty, but she was the one doing all the stamping and punching with the girls :D I think she's good for the rest of the year now with respect to craftiness ;)

So what did we make? Well, my daughter wanted to make a card - so we made a Valentine's card for the girls' parents with the Dress Up stamp set as well as various Happy Valentine's Day greetings. But the bigger project was an 8x10 canvas. I wanted to keep the project simple. The girls were old enough to punch and stamp, but I also wanted to leave some room for their creativity.

Each girl got their initial in  Silver Glimmer Paper so that they could personalize their canvas. I focused the project around the Floral District DSP because it's so pretty and girly. I thought the girls would love it and I was right :) Here are a few Tips & Tricks I've learned along the way on stamping with kids:

*Keep it simple! Leave a lot of room for personalization. Every single girl had a completely different canvas when she was finished. Only two loosely followed my example. The other nine did their own thing. It's one of the things I love so much about stamping with kids - the uninhibited creativity.

*Have a lot of extra DSP and card stock on hand. I let the girls go crazy with the Full Heart and Blossom Punches, and crazy they went. They used nearly five full sheets of DSP! I kept cutting more to keep them happy. They were punching and gluing flowers and hearts everywhere!
*Do the ribbon tying for them. It will avoid wasted ribbon as well as frustration. Many adult stampers have a hard time with ribbon and bows, the kids will too (for the record, I adhered their ribbon and tied the bow where they wanted it).
*Offer them some personalization. The girls were THRILLED to have their initial for the canvas.
*You can never go wrong with bling. Silver Glimmer Paper and Basic Jewels were definitely popular!
*Use wood mount stamps. They won't fall of the block and are less likely to get lost.

To show you I'm not a one trick pony, I made the cake below for my daughter's birthday as well. She wanted a Barbie cake. She didn't tell me how she wanted it decorated but I think I know her pretty well because she said it was exactly what she'd imagined :)

I hope these little tips are helpful if you're ever stamping with kids! The girls had a blast and you know what? So did I! :) 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Hallowe'en Layout with Googly Ghouls

I love Hallowe'en. Not as much as Christmas, but there's something so fun about kids running around in costumes, super excited and totally juiced up on sugar ;) My favorite Hallowe'en stamp sets are the cutesy kiddie ones. Which is why I especially loved  the Googly Ghouls stamp set in the Holiday Mini. How can you NOT love witches, ghosts, bats and googly eyes??? Best of all, SU!'s Googly Eyes have glue dots on them so they're easy to stick onto your project.

This week, two of my favorite challenges, Try Stampin' on Tuesday and Freshly Made Sketches had sketches that were just perfect for scrap page layouts. And they worked really well together. So I worked it the best I could :) First, the Freshly Made Sketch:

I used the Howlstooth and Scaringbone DSP for my layouts. I really love the way the Tangerine Tango color pops. It's so vibrant! My second page is using the Try Stampin' on Tuesday Sketch:

Tips & Tricks:

*Not sure where to start with your scrapbook layouts? If you started out as a card maker like me, you may be a bit intimidated. I used a tip from a fellow stamper - approach it like it's a card and build on it. My photo mat is the image mat from the card. I added the 'BOOO 2012' to the left to build on my page. See how simple it is?
*My flagged element on the the second page seemed a little plain. Yet I didn't want to use DSP because I thought it would be too busy. So I embossed it with the Spider Web Embossing Folder. Love how it turned out!

*I absolutely love the Wacky Wishes hostess set. I wasn't sure about it when I first saw it. But it's so fun and cute! It worked so well on my second page.
*Aren't the Googly Ghouls just adorable? Just stamp, punch out and stick on a few Googly Eyes. :)

Once we have all our fun Hallowe'en photos, I'm going to do a class Saturday November 24th so that we can scrap them without a delay :) See my Class List for more information :)

'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Scrappin' Recipe:
Stamps: Googly Ghouls, Wacky Wishes, Wicked Cool
Paper: Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Basic Grey, Very Vanilla, Howlstooth & Scaringbone DSP
Ink: Basic Grey, Tangerine Tango
Accessories: 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, 1-3/4" Circle Punch, Basic Jewels - Rhinestones, 1/2" Satin Striped Ribbon, Googly Eyes, Big Shot, Tasteful Trim Bigz XL Die, Spider Web Embossing Folder, Typeset Alphabet Bigz Die, Stampin' Dimensionals, 2-Way Glue Pen

A Twitterpated Canvas

Well, almost a canvas ;) I just need to mount this scrapbook page on a 12x12 canvas with Mod Podge. But you get the idea. When I was working on this week's Try Stampin' on a Tuesday Sketch, I realized that the sketch would make a really great scrap page. And I promised you all that I'd make one. So here it is :)

I was excited to use the Twitterpated DSP because the pink and blue tones worked well with my little girl's picture. That's her school picture from last September when she was about 5-1/2 years old. We're moving to a new home in about 6 weeks and I'm super excited to display this new canvas there :)

Tips & Tricks:

*Do you see those gorgeous little flourishes in the background? I used the large flourish from Flowering Flourishes and stamped them on the Pink Pirouette card stock in the same color.
*The Twitterpated DSP has some very varied patterns. I love how I could incorporate sweet flowers into the butterflies, but could use the a more neutral grey pattern as a background for my daughter's photo.
*I used the Fancy Fan Embossing Folder on some Vellum Card Stock (not the Paper, the embossing folder will just chew it up, it has to be the Card Stock) for the top and bottom butterflies.
*I find I don't use the strips of adhesive Rhinestones enough but they were perfect for the centers of my butterflies. Adds a bit of bedazzle to my canvas :)
*Some patterns in the Designer Paper have a vintage feeling to them. The Baja Breeze Seam Binding Ribbon is perfect for vintage projects with a modern touch.
*I used my Simply Scored Scoring Tool to score my Baja DSP on both ends. This gave me a raised piece of DSP for my journaling.

I hope you like my canvas. My daughter was tickled pink when she saw it ;) I hope this also showed you how easily you can turn a card sketch into a scrapbooking sketch. 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Springtime Scrappin'

I took a break from packing, cleaning and decluttering to do some scrapbooking. I must tell you, scrappin' is SOOOO much more enjoyable! As if there was any doubt ;)

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch as the inspiration for my page. The sketch was perfect a scrap page. I love the contrast of Melon Mambo with Basic Grey ~ isn't it awesome? So warm but so cool, all at the same time.

Do you recognize the ribbon? Probably not! It's the Daffodil Delight Seam Binding Ribbon. It is a Sneak Peak and available during the month of April. Isn't it *gorgeous*? I just love the richness of the color!

Tips & Tricks:

*New to scrapbooking? Don't fret, use Stampin' Up!'s Simply Scrappin' kits to get you started. They contain 12x12 textured card stock, DSP and coordinating adhesive elements. Doesn't get easier than that!
*Because I've used the card sketch for a scrap page, I wanted to make it a bit more interesting ;) So, I cut six 3x3 squares from the DSP in the Spring Fever Simply Scrappin' kit and used it for the rectangular element. I love the way it stands out but doesn't take over the layout.
*How cute is Mr. Bunny? He's from the Heaven Blessed stamp set. I won him ~ well the whole stamp set ~ at a recent meeting with my upline and picked the set out for my daughter. She LOVES him :)

I can't wait for my Spring Fever Scrapbooking Class next week. Two more layouts to do but I'm so glad the gals at Freshly Made Sketches helped me out with this one ;) 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Christmas in February?

I recently had a hostess who wanted to do a private scrapbooking class with her scrappin' friends. Not only a scrapbooking class, but a Christmas scrapbooking class. In February :) How fun! I have tonnes of Christmas photos so a few extra pages to scrap them could come in handy!

I had never met this lovely lady and her friends so I inquired a bit about their style. She told me that they were quite varied in style, and easy to please, but she wanted to WOW them! Well now ~ how do I wow them? And what materials should I use? I wanted to use a DSP that wasn't strictly Christmas but that still looked festive. I've seen the Mocha Morning DSP used with Cherry Cobbler and with the metallic colors in the DSP, I thought it was perfect for Christmas. Turns out I was right :)

I love the Soft Suede with Cherry Cobbler as well. I sponged the wreath from Welcome Christmas with Soft Suede as well as the 'Memories' flag. I free-handed the DSP flags behind the photos with my Paper Snips although you can use any square punch as well. Since these ladies weren't familiar with SU! and our fantastic products, I wanted them to see how we have coordinating stamp sets and punches. No stamp set and punch show this off better than Delightful Decorations and the Ornament Punch

Tips & Tricks:

*Love the way I weaved the DSP? It's very easy ~ just follow the tutorial at this link.
*As much as I like doing bows, especially cheater bows, sometimes a simple knot ~ such as the one I made on the first page ~ is enough and doesn't take away from the rest of the lovely page elements.
*On the second page, the photo mat is 6-1/2" x 9". This way I can either fit a larger photo (such as a 5x7) or I can split the mat in two and put in two 4x6 photos. 
*I know my Scalloped Square mats don't seem to be very practical ~ photos are usually 4x6. But I always have so many photos that have 'dead space' that can easily be cropped off. I love using this Big Shot die to make mats for photos that can be cropped to 4x4 or 3-3/4" x 3-3/4".

If you're loving these pages, come make them! I'm doing my Fast & Fabulous Class as a scrapbooking class this month on Wednesday February 29th @ 7:30! Hope to see you there... 'til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Spring Fever Mojo

When I saw this week's Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge, the sketch screamed "scrapbook page!!!!!!!!!!" to me. I've been on a bit of a scrapbooking kick, since I realized I had way too many photos of the kids printed out and ready to be scrapped. I also have a couple of scrapbooking classes to get ready for, so it was win-win.

My next scrap class is my Spring Fever Scrapbooking Class, so I pulled out the Spring Fever Simply Scrappin' Kit and started scrappin' away. My first take on the page was too 'busy'. I used all the DSPs in the kit and while very pretty, it was all definitely much too busy. So I sat down today and came up with this:

I didn't have any spring photos of my daughter, so fall photos they are :) But the Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo seem to work well with these fall photos. I also think I did pretty good with the sketch, making it into a scrap page - what do you think?

Tips & Tricks:

*I absolutely LOVE the Simply Scrappin' Kits. They make scrapbooking so easy, especially if you're a beginner. The Spring Fever kit is full of gorgeous, bright card stock, DSP, and adhesive elements/borders. Perfect for spring and Easter photos.
*Although I love the Lace Ribbon Border Punch on cards, I love it even more on scrap pages. It makes such a lovely page border or photo mat border. You can thread ribbon through it or tuck it underneath your photo mat - the possibilities are endless!
*I love doing stripes on my cards and pages, but lining them up can be tricky. The SU! Grid Paper has measurements on it and makes lining card and scrap page elements easy!

I can't wait for this Spring Fever Scrap class, the ladies will be leaving with 6 absolutely stunning pages! Hope you've enjoyed this page, 'til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Christmas Lane Scrap Page

This past Saturday, our local mall had an event for kids to welcome Santa. I took my almost 6-year-old daughter to meet him, write him a letter, get cookies from Mrs. Clause and also get her face painted. She had a blast and I was one happy mommy when they told me Santa pictures were free for the special event :)

Next week, I'm doing a scrapbooking class using the Christmas Lane Scrapbooking Kit in the Holiday Mini. I had yet to make one page but with my daughter's new Santa photo as well as the class looming I thought I'd better get cracking :) I used this week's Mojo Monday Sketch for inspiration. A few months ago, my upline Marlayne posted her fall scrapbook pages and I CASEd some elements from them, too.

Tips & Tricks:

*For my big 10" diameter circle I used Marlayne's 'plate technique'. I took a paper plate, traced it on the wrong side of the DSP and cut it out with my Paper Snips.
*I love Simply Scrappin' Kits for scrapbooking and card making. They come with textured paper, DSP and adhesive decorative elements. You could do a bunch of pages with just the kit!!!  Easy peasy.
*I used Dazzling Diamonds Glitter and my 2-Way Glue Pen to add a bit of 'bling' to my snowflake.
*The Delightful Decorations stamp set is perfect for any project: home decor, cards and scrapbook pages.

I hope my daughter loves her page as much as I do ~ and I hope you like it too. 'Til next time, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Hallowe'en Scrappin'

I love Hallowe'en. It's one of my favorite holidays. I always get so excited to see my kids in their carefully selected costumes, as well as all the other children who come to our door looking for a treat. My camera is always ready to take lots of pictures. This is why I also love my Hallowe'en scrappin' classes. It's truly win-win. I get to make a couple of pages and help my fellow stamper's preserve their Hallowe'en memories too!

This year, I'm combining Fall and Hallowe'en together into one class, this upcoming Sunday. For the Hallowe'en portion we are using the Frightful Sights DSP as well as the Wicked Cool and Scaredy Cat stamp sets. Scaredy Cat is such a perfect scrapping stamp set because of its large images and small accent stamps. Last week I started off my Thanksgiving pages with a Mojo Monday Sketch and when I saw this week's sketch, I knew it would make a FABULOUS Hallowe'en page!

Tips and Tricks:

*I love the fun and interesting patterns of the Frightful Sights DSP. It's perfect for the Herringbone Technique for which I gave a tutorial here.
*Other than the interesting backgrounds on the top left and bottom right rectangles, this page is pretty simple ~ the bottom right is a pattern found in the DSP itself! How easy :)
*Love the two-toned 'Happy Hallowe'en'? I colored the stamp with our Stampin' Write Markers!
*The Spider Web Embossing Folder is perfect for a card front or the Scalloped Square. When putting pictures in this album, the web can be covered up or left as is.
*Kids grow so fast but sometimes is hard to tell what year it is when looking at pictures years later. I love adding in the year with the Simple Numbers Die on atleast one page so that in 20 years I know how old my kids were in the pics :)

Hope this page got you excited for Hallowe'en. 'Til next time keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Spice Cake Scrappin'

The Spice Cake DSP in the 2011 Holiday Mini is one of my favorite DSPs so far - and I've been stamping with Stampin' Up! for 4 years now! It's gorgeous, the patterns are beautiful - all 12 of them - and the colors in it are just fabulous! Combine it with the fall stamp set Gently Falling and no matter what you do, you'll have a gorgeous project!

On October 2nd, I'm excited to be using both of these products in my Fall / Hallowe'en Scrapbooking Class! But if I'm going to do this class, I had better prep the pages ;) For the first page, I used inspiration from the Mojo Monday sketch which is back after a two-week vacation (thank goodness!!!). As you see on my page below, I changed up the sketch a bit, added some details at the bottom, moved the element at the top left to the top right and omitted the oval to make room for my photo mat. But I think I'm pretty close to the original sketch.

I've also used the new Spice Cake Jumbo Designer Buttons on this page. Although I think that at 1-1/2" in diameter they pretty big for a card, I do think they're absolutely perfect for scrap pages.

Tips & Tricks:

*I created the illusion of leaves 'gently falling' I stamped crumb cake ink on crumb cake card stock. Love that tone-on-tone look! 
*Love the swirly DSP trim at the bottom? Cut out your own trim with the Bigz XL Tasteful Trim die.
*Dazzling Details is our new glitter glue-like embellishment. It looks lovely on the veins of leaves :)
*Like the way I curled the tips of the journaling tag? It was easy! I just used my bone folder to distress and curl the paper a bit.

Hope you've enjoyed this page and maybe you'll even join me on October 2nd. 'Til then, keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Clean and Fresh Playful Polka Dots Scrap Page

Today's Pals Paper Art Challenge asked us to show our signature style. What is my signature style? I love bright colors, especially the new Bold Brights Color Collection. I like clean lines, straight layouts. Though I sometimes like to go out of my box and do some more 'vintage' projects, they definitely are not my signature style.

This is why I fell in love with the Playful Polka Dots Simply Scrappin' Kit in the Summer Mini. I've made cards and pages with the kit - it's got lovely Designer Series Paper, gorgeous card stock colours and beautiful self-adhesive elements. As far as embellishments go, I love the adhesive rhinestones and ribbon. Here are some samples of what I have done with the Playful Polka Dots kit. I think they show my signature style pretty accurately.

We'll be making this 12x12 page at my Playful Polka Dots Scrapbooking Class on July 17th. We'll be using the coordinating Fabulous Florets stamp set, as well as the Summer Splash set. Let's not forget the super fun Triple Bouquet punch.I also made the following cards for a recent card class.

Hope you've enjoyed looking a bit at my signature style. What's YOUR signature style? Leave me a little note - I love to hear what others are working on!

Island Oasis Scrapbook in a Day Class

Or more like an afternoon!

I know how hard it is to get around to actually making a scrapbook. So come make a 6"x6" tropical themed scrapbook on June 6th, 2010 and be ready for your beautiful summer shots ahead of the game!


The new Summer Mini, starting May 1st, has beautiful tropical themed stamps, DSP and cute Green Olive Polka Dot 6"x6" albums. At this class, you'll come and make your 20 6"x6" pages for all your summer photos. You'll also get to use the Big Shot for some of your elements! We'll also be using the Tropical Party stamp set pictured to the left.

What: Island Oasis Scrapbook in a Day Class
When: Sunday June 6th
Registration: 12:30 PM
Class: 1-5 PM
Where: Monica's Stampin' Room in Stittsville

Light refreshments, tea, coffee and water will be provided.

There are three options for this class:

Option A

*One package of Island Oasis Designer Series Paper
*One Old Olive Polka Dot 6"x6" album with 10 page protectors
*All other materials needed to complete your pages.
COST: $60

Option B

*One package of Island Oasis Designer Series Paper
*One Old Olive Polka Dot 6"x6" album with 10 page protectors
*All other materials needed to complete your pages.
*Tropical Party Stamp Set (Wood Mount) @ 20% off - to use at the class
COST: $85

Option C

*One package of Island Oasis Designer Series Paper
*One Old Olive Polka Dot 6"x6" album with 10 page protectors
*All other materials needed to complete your pages.
*Tropical Party Stamp Set (Clear Mount) @ 20% off - to use at the class
COST: $80

Space is limited. All registrations and fees are needed by May 18th to ensure all materials arrive in time for the class. Add an additional Old Olive Polka Dot Album and materials for a second album for only $42. Please note: If you add an album, please note that you'll get all the materials to make your album but you may not have time to put it together. Stamping can be done here, but cutting (etc.) will have to be done on your own time.

Please bring with you adhesive, bone folder and scissors. Label all your stampin' tools!

You can register by e-mailing me at stampingmonica@gmail.com or through Paypal. Can't make it? E-mail me for a kit-to-go!

Island Oasis Class Options

Option A $60.00 Option B $85.00 Option C $80.00

Add a Second Album (no DSP included)

Second Album $42.00

Please note: If you add an album, you'll get all the materials to make your album but you will not have time to put it together at the class. Stamping can be done here, but cutting (etc.) will have to be done on your own time.

Please e-mail me with any questions. Hope to see you at this fun class! And keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!