Calgon, take me away. . .for a stamping and crafting day!

Holiday Shoebox Swap 

& Craft Extravaganza

Saturday Nov 15 from 9 am til 10 pm

Wyndham Glenview Suites,

1400 Milwaukee Avenue

Glenview, IL

Design your Day by choosing from these options:

Morning, select one: A or B

9:00 til 12:00

Afternoon, select two: B, C, D or F

1:00 til 5:30

Optional Evening Session, select one: B, C, D or F

7:30 til 10:00, Pajama Party!!

Option A- Holiday Shoebox Swap -- $20 Bring your pre-designed and pre-cut card supplies and participate in a morning of stamping! Make a variety of Christmas cards and fill your stash! Up to 20 participants, everyone receives a Stampin’ Up! door prize!

 

Option B-Many Merry Stars Kit Class $40  Everything you need to create 26 stars with supplies in the Many Merry Stars Kit, styrofoam wreath, fabric and adhesive to make door wreath.

 

Option C -- Christmas Advent Boxes $40 -- Assemble 25 darling boxes as a banner or ornaments, includes  cherry cobbler ribbon, Trim the Tree DSP paper Stack & black memento ink pad, use of my stamps, CS & punches while in attendance!

Option D -- Hello December Project Life Class $55   -- Get your album all ready for this season, or fill it with 2013 pictures! Kit includes Project Life Hello December cards, embellishments, album & pocket pages.

Option F-Bags, Tags, Boxes Oh My! $35 --  Create 2 bags, 2 holiday cards, 2 boxes and lots of super cute gift tags! Class includes Cheerful Tags Stamp Set and Under the Tree accessories set.

 Early Bird Swag Bags for the first 10 paid RSVPs. Nov 6 deadline for all class supplies. Late RSVPs may not have all supplies.

Wyndham Suites is offering a courtesy rate of only $89 for double room on 2^nd floor, atrium view, includes free breakfast. Make it a getaway!

Leave a comment, shoot me an email or give me a call. There is limited space and a short window of opportunity! Don't miss out, these kits are AWESOME! Come back for more pictures!

Happy Stamping,

Dee Tollaksen

Very basic Black & White card pops for Christmas

Today you have to read the words, and then you have to go beyond the pretty picture.

I love cruising through the blogs, looking at the cards and projects posted on all the demonstrators sites, I can browse through 50 sites in half an hour, picking up 2 or 3 projects that I will copy. This is actually one that I found on a blog.

But when you actually sit down and play with it, everything changes. This is actually a black and white card. Really! With a pop of red! And just a hint of green/yellow. Right? Do you see it?  I have covered the base of the card with a pretty b&w pattern, and a panel of basic black cardstock. Then I stamped the fireplace from the photopolymer set Get Your Santa On and added that white panel. I used a narrow strip of the wonderful Under the Tree Specialty DSP popped up on dimensional adhesive dots and a gathered length of red ribbon for some texture.

Just adding the strip of DSP (designer series paper) and the ribbon completely transforms the card into a colorful and cheerful Christmas card. Of course, the punchline of Santa being stuck in the fireplace helps too!

Now that it is less than two months til Christmas, are you getting serious about your Christmas cards? I'm here to help! Leave a comment, send an email or give me a call. Or just go shop in my online shop. I'm at your disposal!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Ho! Ho! Ho! How to get free stamps!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Not sure what the big guy is really saying, but his coy sentiment makes everyone happy!

Get Your Santa On stamp set is so fun to work with, found in the Holiday Catalog, it is full of cute sentiments and is easy and fun to color. I made a couple samples with fancy Santa, he has some silver Dazzling Details added to his buckle and pompom but otherwise, he is super simple!

This catalog has been a real problem for me. I decided I would only buy one, maybe two, holiday stamp sets this year. Okay, maybe three. Well, four sets isn't too many. So now that I have four, five is just one more. OK, someone stop me, but six sets are still a good investment.  Stop counting. And I just don't really think that beautiful feather stamp set counts as a holiday set, even though it is in the Holiday Catalog. And it is the eleventh stamp set I own from the Holiday Catalog. OMG.

Yes, you too can be a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. Ask me how many of those eleven stamp sets I paid for. Because it is way less than eleven. Way less. I swear!

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

Good to the Last Bite

Mmm Mmm Good, If you are my friend on Facebook, you know I have been furiously fighting the fat fight. Go ahead. I'll wait. Go friend me.


OK. So the point of this is. . . if I buy a bag of candy, I take one piece and then I force everyone else to eat the rest of the bag. So sometimes I have to dress it up to convince them to take it. LOL

The Merry Everything stamp set will let me go from Halloween through Thanksgiving and on to Christmas with bag toppers and tags, with birthday or All Occasion covered nicely as well. I went ahead and bought the bundle to take advantage of the 15% savings, and it makes using the tag so EASY!!


Just stamp and punch. Of course, for Halloween I used black card stock and the orange embossing powder, so there was the extra steps of heating, but oh boy, these are gorgeous. And there is the beautiful rose, made with a Big Shot die and the ribbon came from the Clearance Rack, such a deal!!!


I had a ton of DSP (designer series paper) in my stash, with lots of options in shades of black, purple and orange.
I made these for a tiny little craft show that I participated in. It didn't really go do well, so I have a bunch left. If you have a need for some cute Halloween treat bag toppers, let me know!

Happy Halloween Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

Double Duty

Nobody likes to make sympathy cards, but it is such a relief to have a nice one in your stash when you need one. So we discussed the design techniques of creating an effective sympathy card, and it was interesting to hear what the ladies in Stamp Club had to say.  I have seen so many cards on blogs that have rhinestones and ribbons and layers and flowers and glitter. . . to me the sympathy card is a challenge of simplicity. You want a lovely card, but no bling, nothing that makes a card feminine or masculine, nothing fancy.

I think this card gives us a little color but not too much, is pleasing to the eye, but not extravagant, one layer, a nice sentiment. And now the club members have a sympathy card in their stash, or a nice sample they can copy.

This week Stampin' Up! is offering some great Weekly Specials. Remember that every Tuesday morning the website freshens the specials and a few new items pop up. If you wish to purchase just one or two of these items but do not want to pay the full shipping, shoot me an email and I can add your order to any workshops that may be pending and save you a couple bucks!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

Hello Fall and another peek . . . at the baby!

 Stamp Club Card number 2 for October -- definitely feeling the season. We used Cajun Craze, it makes me think of raw clay, back in art class, when the teacher would give everyone a chunk of red clay and we had vague instructions on how to convince a bit of water to transform the clay into a mug or a bowl or an ashtray? Maybe that's just me!

Also featured Hello Honey, a color I thought we really didn't need, since we certainly had plenty of yellow shades an awful lot like this one... but I have found myself loving it and using piles of cardstock in this shade while the old yellow shades linger in the drawer.

I received this For All Things stamp set as a door prize at a Demonstrator Training event in September, and I probably wouldn't have purchased it for myself. But I am LOVING it! I used it for the autumn collage, for this card and it has proved very versatile and useful in a number of upcoming projects. If you have overlooked this set, you might want to give it another look.

And now, another peek at Eric, the real star of the show. My grandson! He is weeks and weeks older now, this was from when I visited back in September. This bathtub contraption is new and improved over the kitchen sink, which is where his Dad was bathed when he was itty bitty. But it was warm and comfortable, despite the complaints of the wet baby!

Any last minute orders for the weekly specials, I'm closing my group order at 8:00 am Monday morning, so if you wanted to add glimmer paper or a journal or anything else, be sure to call or email before then! After that, you can place an online order at www.dtollaksen.stampinup.netwww.dtollaksen.stampinup.net
Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen

What makes you tick? Chocolate!

Let's talk motivation. For me,  there are a few things that make me really respond: good friends, chocolate, crafting, financial reward.

Wait, back up the train. I think I can package all this up in one pretty picture, right?! OK. So here we go. Let's get together, make a really fun fab Christmas Countdown Calendar, stuff it full of good chocolate and, since I will do all the planning and prepping and call it a class, there will be a little bit of a fee.

My house, Monday November 10, just $20 to cover supplies. OR your house, your date! Just leave me a comment or shoot me an email.

I would love to have you join me in creating your own calendar, while I work on adding some bling and jazzing up this one -- it definitely needs some more sequins, glimmer paper and ribbon.

Can you imagine these as ornaments on a fun little tree? Or as a banner on a stairway or mantel? There are all 25 numbers, my display is on a lazy susan and some of the boxes face away from the camera, but they are there!

Today there is a fun challenge on the Moxie Fab World blog that this project meets, so I'm linking up. . . the blocks in the inspiration picture totally  inspired my pyramid design for the boxes on my calendar. When the Christmas decorations come out of storage, these just might become ornaments on a mini-tree in the foyer!

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

October Stamp Club featuring Fringe Scissors

Fringe scissors, love 'em or hate 'em? Have you tried them? They tend to be a love 'em or hate 'em kind of tool, and I fall into the love 'em camp.

They're fun and I think they're easy to use. But some folks find them tricky. Here I punched some of our pansy flowers and blossom flowers in fall colors, Hello Honey, Cajun Craze and Real Red, sponged them with Chocolate Chip, then nipped the petals with the Fringe Scissors. I layered them up, they are held together with an antique brad and the face of the card is stamped with the Hardwood background stamp. Pretty simple.

It does need a sentiment, which was added on a large die cut with a few flowers stamped for fun, but could be changed up for any occasion.

This is one of the three cards we made at Stamp Club in October. If you are interested in joining our club, we meet on the first Wednesday of the month, in Arlington Heights. Members commit to spending $15 in the catalog or as a cash payment, as if it is a class and we make three cards each month; there will be 10 meetings in all and each member will have a month when they will receive hostess benefits of at least $25 in free Stampin' Up! merchandise.

Just leave me a comment or shoot me an email if you're interested in joining!

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen

Why does Scrapbooking make me feel guilt?

I am no priest, but today I am here to wipe away some of your guilt.  Do I have your attention? LOL

If you're anything like me, you know all about scrapbooking and that we should be "doing it." But there is so much work involved! And journaling. . . innermost thoughts, memories, grammar. . . ack! I can't stand the pressure! Plus the cost!!!

So, let me help! This week there is a little sale on a journal from Stampin' Up! It has pretty pages and a blank cover. You can add a little bit of decoration to the cover, using some of your stamping supplies, or a lot of decoration.

And then you can use the inside as a "smash" book, just taping your memorabilia into the book, all messy and fun OR you can make pretty compositions with planned pages and photos OR you can jot down lists and plans  OR any combination of fun stuff you wish.

This isn't the kind of book that needs to be planned and organized and agonized over. And the best part is that it is on sale!


I have one that I use for Christmas. It has a card exchange list. A guest list for a cookie exchange I'm involved in. It has clothing sizes and color preferences for my family members. These details don't change dramatically from year to year, so I can pull the book out every year, and even at their birthday.

If you would like to get your hands on one or two of these books while they are on sale, don't miss the sale dates, leave me a comment or shoot me an email, I'll be happy to order the journal, absolve your guilt, schedule a crafty time to decorate the covers and live happily ever after!

Happy Stamping!
Dee Tollaksen