Proud Mom~~

My daughter Kim is a creative girl. Recently she was in my craft room and an issue of Stampin' Success was nearby. She saw on the cover that they had made some cool sunflowers out of CS, using a Sizzix die I think, and she decided I had stuff she could use to make her own. This is the result!

She used a Word Window punch ( a lot!) a 3" circle punch by Marvy, SU's 1/2 in circle punch (a lot!) and a heart punch for the leaves! There is a circle on the front and back to hold things together, but she just went to town! I was pretty impressed! She later made a smaller one too with a 2" punch for the center. Together they are fantastic! She amazes me!

I hope you enjoy your Labor Day and that your weather is as lovely as mine will be! I have to work, but we have Friends coming over after work so that will be great!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

Dream Dancer~~

My 17 year old daughter is a dancer....and a mighty fine one if I do say so myself! So when I came across THIS in the gallery on SCS, I grabbed my punches and got to work! I made one specifically for my daughter and personalized it with her name.

The alphabet is a tiny one I got in the dollar spot and my LSS. Then for the punches; scallop circle, heart, word window, 3/4 inch circle, 1/2 inch circle and the 1/8 inch handheld circle (eyes). Blush Blossom CS is the key to the flesh tones here. All punches except the heart are SU and the heart is an EK Success, the medium heart punch. I sponged the edges of the heart and glittered the edges of the tu-tu. Add some eye lashes with a marker and you are good to go!

The trick to putting these punch things together is to lay them out first on your work space, then see how the layers have to go so that as you attach them to your project (card, notebook, whatever) you are not peeling layers up to make room underneath. Some of the assembly can be done before you adhere it to the project and some of it is just easier if you do it as you go. Also, if you add white gel pen for accent, like for the penguin or the reindeer's nose, do that last after he is all glued down. This will you keep you from smearing the gel pen. I am talking from experience here!

Who knows that next week will hold stamping wise, but I hope you will stop back by to see!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

Monkey Business~~

How about that huh?!! Isn't he adorable?!!

Most of you know, I am not terribly creative on my own, but I can copy like no body's business! The secret is having all the tools right? HERE is my inspiration!
Today's notebook is punch heavy, to say the least! I used the large oval, the small oval, 1/2 inch circle, 1 3/8 inch circle, 3/4 inch circle and free handed the bananas! Whew......worth the effort I think. His eyes are black brads, which adds some nice dimension.

Tomorrow will be the last one.....promise......though I hope you are not sick of these cute little guys!

Be kind today, you never know what stress someone is under!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

Gettin' Punchy Again!~~

Lovin' these things----but I think I have to stop. I have to many other things to make for the Boutiques as well! But isn't she sweet! HERE is my original inspiration for the note book.

I used a 1 3/8 inch circle punch, a 3/4 inch circle punch as well as the scallop edge Punch all by SU!

Two more over the next couple days, and then that's' it for a while!

Did you know it could snow in October in Arizona? Well, it can! We got snow yesterday....but not the kind that sticks, but it falls! It was fun to watch.....makes me start looking for my scarves, warm coats, and hot cocoa!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

Gift Boxes~~

You might have seen these tag boxes in the current Stampin Up catalog on page 14, and if you go HERE you will find a tutorial. If you don't have a Scor-Pal, you can do the job with a scoring tool on your cutter. You will not be able to do it (with out a lot of yelling) without one of those, however! To much measuring involved!
This first one was made with silver textured CS. I created 40 tags for the box, 10 in each slot, and it is covered with a window sheet! I used a variety of SU punches to make the tags as well as a variety of stamps! I kept with the blue and silver theme here and added some bling to dress up the tags!
This second one was more traditional Christmas colors. ( I sold this one already at Bench Ranch!) I enjoy creating things beside cards too! So much so that I haven't made a card in quite a while. Guess I better get back to that huh? If you have specific questions about these, shoot me an email!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

Punch Art #5...last one~~

I hope you have enjoyed all the fun little notebooks this week! I sure enjoyed making them all! The last one I CASEd from the Splitcoast gallery. There are many takes on this cardinal, each one is kind of adapted to the punches you have on hand. Mine is no exception.

I used the SU little laves Sizzix die here under the bird, the Signo white gel pen for his eye, as well as these punches: 1 3/4 inch circle, 1 1/4 inch circle, large Star (beak) and Word Window. The feet and tail were made with old SU punches I have from days gone by, but look at what you have and I bet you can make it work. If not, then maybe you need to BUY some punches!

Here is just a detail shot of the bird so hopefully you can see more closely what I have done here. You can also go to the gallery on SCS and use the search window (on the left) and search Punch Art. There you will find hundreds of reasons to go Punch Crazy!

Tomorrow you will see more with punches, but not notebooks! Stay tuned for some fun!

On another note, Monday is the day we find out if we will have a grandson or a granddaughter! Super excited! It will be a joyous spring for us to be sure!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

Punch Fun #4~~

Get ready to sing............





Oh such cute-ness huh! I adore the singing reindeer, he even has a red nose! Next time I will put him on a non-red background so his red nose is more visible! I think he is just the cutest!

Reindeer uses the punches: Word Window, 1 3/8 inch circle, 1 inch circle, Large Oval, Small Oval, Snowflake (new), 1/2 inch circle, and the hand held rectangle (teeth). The song book I cut with just a straight cutter, simple.

I have one more for you tomorrow! HERE is the link to Mercedes Weber's blog where you can see the original inspiration for my note books. She does some cute stuff! She made tags, which is also fun.

See you here tomorrow, same Bat time, same Bat channel!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

Punch Fun #3~~

Did you smile? I knew it! Is he not adorable?!!

Penguin dude uses these punches: 1 3/8 inch circle, 1 3/4 inch circle, Large Oval, Wide Oval, 1/4 inch circle, and an old SU! flower punch, but the current Boho Blossoms punch does the trick too! A little white gel pen for his eyes, and voila! The scarf is just free handed and straight cut.

What do you think? One more tomorrow, and you will "sing" with cutness-joy (made that up!) when you see it!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

Punch Fun #2~~

Who doesn't love a snow man!

Remember my motto "the secret to a happy stamper is having everything you need on hand to complete a project"? Well, you NEED punches! I mean, really! You can do so much more than make holes in paper with them!

This fun snowman uses these punches: 1 3/4 inch circle, 1/4 inch circle, Large Star (nose), Word Window, 1 3/8 inch square.

Easy peasy.....no, I won't finish it!

Tomorrow's notebook will make you smile!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

Finally~~

Between vacation and being sick, I have been a terrible blogger! My apologies! I hope you will forgive me after you see the next few items! I have a post scheduled for every day this week, 6 days straight!

These little guys come together so easily! I have made about a zillion of them , but these are my first with the punch art! Don't you just love it! These are 3x5 spiral notebooks that I recovered and decorated! You can buy them anywhere, but your warehouse stores have the best price! HERE is a link to Angie's site and a video to watch to make your own!
At the end of the week I will post a link to the blog where I got the ideas for the punch art, so you can look forward to that. But in the meantime, you can enjoy mine!
These little notebooks are going with me to the Bench Ranch Boutique this weekend. I think they will be popular! The rely heavily on punches, but I do adore my punches. I haven't met an SU! punch I didn't like!

Santa uses these punches: Scallop Square, Word Window, Scallop Circle, Three Flower, 1 3/4 inch circle, 1/2 inch circle, 1/4 inch circle, the corner rounder, and the 1/8 inch handheld circle. He has some glitter on the "puff" on top of his hat as well as on the hat band.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's notebook.....

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

Punch Purses~~

How did I ever stamp before punches? IDK! My BFF, Jo Ann, sent me a card with this purse punchy idea, so I CASed it! I used the 1 3/8 circle for the purse with the top little bit cut off, the Designer Label Punch for the purse flap, and the Scallop Oval and Large Oval for the purse strap. I adore the Cottage Wall DSP, and I think I will need to buy another pack soon~~~~

Who doesn't love a new purse! Especially when they are on sale! I honestly HATE shopping for a new purse though. I always want my new purse to be just like my old one, only different. It is the different part that makes me hate the shopping! I remember one time being in the store a REALLY REALLY long time with a friend, and we pretty much destroyed the purse department before we found one we could settle on! And wallets....don't even get me started! At least with this purse, there is just new DSP to ponder! Enjoy! Any questions.....email me!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

More Perfect Pumpkins~~

I promised you another pumpkin today, and here it is! For this one I used the Large and Small Oval punches from SU. I sponged the edges and added the Little Leaves with Old Olive. I adore the Top Note die, and it was a nice frame for the pumpkins with out being square. The striped ribbon is SU Pumpkin Pie....notice the theme.....and Teeny Tiny Wishes framed with the Scallop Oval punch. There we go again, more punches! I love em'!

If you are planning to send out Thanksgiving cards, you can start now and easily have them ready to go in time! When you celebrate Thanksgiving, remember to Whom you are giving thanks!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli

Perfect Pumpkins~~

I know you may have seen these pumpkins done a zillion times before, but I had never done them! I used the Wide Oval punch from SU to make these. The secret to making them look really good is sponging! I used Pumpkin Pie CS and sponged with the same color ink. I sponged around the edges and sides. The part of this card that is all me (at least I had never seen it done) is the Little Leaves Sizzix die I used to make the Old Olive leaves and pumpkin top! Ever had one of those "now I can't sleep because of this card idea" moments? Yeah...maybe it's just me! Anyway, this little epiphany came to me Thursday night, so Friday morning I changed our club card to this one! Genius I know.....

This is a very basic card. Just Kraft CS, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White CS, clipped the corners with the Ticket Corner Punch by SU, and the little greeting is from the new Teeny Tiny Wishes set. Fast and easy!

Maybe you are not hopelessly addicted to punches, but I am! SU has so many great ones that can be very specific, or used to create so many fun things! I have 34 Stamping Up Punches, and 17 others! But hey, whose counting? Maybe some day I will put pictures up of my Wall of Punches! But maybe that would scare you......

Stay tuned tomorrow for another punch card!

~~Stamping Smiles~~

Shelli