More Advent Calendar - Pages 11 - 15!

Good morning everyone! Are you ready for the next installment of these pages?! I've gotten lots of fun feedback about this project and I want to encourage you to purchase the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' Kit and make your own. If you are going to save it for next year, you will only need one kit for this project - there is plenty of supplies left over for more crafting. I've made 6 cards and a card box as well as my Stamping 411 card last Saturday from my leftovers. And there is still more to work with. I hadn't worked with the Simply Scrappin' kits in a while (even though I own plenty of them!) and had forgotten how generous they are. You really do get your $19.99 worth and then some!

Anyway, on to today's pages! Above is a picture of Day 11 - nothing fancy here, just sponging with Chocolate Chip ink.

On day 12 I stamped the reindeer again across the page, and you could substitute Dasher if you don't have the Winter Post stamp set that I used. But I have to ask, if you don't have Winter Post, why not? It is honestly one of my top 5 stamp sets EVER and is more versatile than you would think. And I'm not just saying that because there are ice skaters in it! But, well, it helps! :)
Day 12 also has 3 pieces of ribbon, I just layered the top two to make the background more interesting at the top.

More stamping in the background on day 13 and the funniest quote in the whole batch. I just love Dave Barry, don't you?

Day 12 is my beautiful daughter's birthday, so I included a quote from her favorite Christmas Special - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Did you know that you can read the whole script for that show online? Amazing what you can find on the internet!
I loved this quote because it is the beginning of Rudolph realizing his value in the world. Something we all need to know about ourselves.....

And day 15, more simple sponging and a brad added to stacked sticky die cuts. Nothing fancy, the dsp makes this page special.

Again, this advent calendar was originally created by demo Karin Warner - I saw this project at Founder's Circle - someone had brought it to share - and I just fell in love with it! So I used photos of her project as my starting point to create my version. So if you know Karin, please thank her for me - I love this idea!

Happy stamping everyone - check back tomorrow for pages 16 - 20. On Friday I'll have 21 - 24 posted for you along with photos of the stand that my hubby created.
~~Robin

Christmas Countdown Advent Calendar Pages 6-10

Good morning and welcome to the most wonderful time of the year! It's the Christmas season - finally! I love, love Christmas and everything about it.
Today I'm showing you days 6 -10 of my Countdown Advent Calendar. Many of you liked seeing this yesterday and wanted to see all the pages, so stay tuned, I will be posting 5 pages each day this week so you get them all. I do have some other things to post, but these pages will keep coming until we get to day 24.
Again, the original artist of this calendar was demo Karin Warner and I thank her for her great idea!

Day 6, above is very simple with just some sponging and a rhinestone brad to accent the design. I did use the Tree Trimmings stamp set to create the background on the Real Red cardstock.

Dec. 7th is my wedding anniversary! Yay - this year it will be 18 wonderful years. The dsp on that page reminds me of the bed and breakfast in Maine we stayed in on our honeymoon.

Day 8 features the reindeer stamp from Winter Post, you could substitute Dasher if you needed to, but I'd move up the quote panel if you do that. The Real Red grosgrain ribbon is attached with a Mini Glue Dot.

Day 9's photo has shadows on it that I couldn't remove, but it's NOT sponged, just stamped.

I kept Day 10 very simple, just used the Snowflake Punch with Very Vanilla cardstock. they are attached with Mini Glue Dots.

The numbers on each day are punched out with the 1 3/8" Square Punch and layered on a cardstock square cut at 1 3/4". Both are sponged with Chocolate Chip ink on each page. I did use the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line up the numbers once I got into double digits. You'll see as we get into the 20's that you have to overlap some of the numbers to make them fit the square, but it still looks cute!
Day 5 from yesterday's post is the only oddball, it's punched out with the 1 3/8" Circle Punch.

Again, if you have any questions about the elements used here, just e-mail me at stampwithrobin@yahoo.com

Have a great day!
~~Robin

Christmas Countdown Advent Calendar

Happy Monday stampers! I hope you are enjoying the beginning of the Christmas season - I am really looking forward to Christmas this year! Well, I always love this time of year, but the next few weeks are just jam packed with fun family activities, church Christmas concerts and lots of stamping!

Today I wanted to show you the first 6 pages of the Advent Calendar that we made in class last Tuesday. When I was at Founder's Circle this year, someone had brought along a super cool project that used a Simply Scrappin' Kit to make a 25 page Advent Flip Calendar. I cased the project - mostly - but I changed a few things along the way and added a few "Robin" touches! Yes, I know, I just can't leave well enough alone!
The original project was done by a demo named Karin Warner and honestly, she did an amazing job! Just to recreate the project took me forever! So, I hope my family loves this one, because there will never be another one made! :)

I'm showing you the cover page through day 5 today and I'll continue with a few pages each day this week. What I think is really cool about this is that you could recreate it with photos in place of the quotes and that would make a wonderful calendar to look back at each year. Or you could just put all the pages in a 6 x 6 scrapbook and give it as a gift! Any way you slice it, it's a beautiful project. Thanks so much for the idea and inspiration Karin!

The majority of supplies came from the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' Kit. I sponged all my dsp edges with Chocolate Chip ink as well as most of the elements to give it an antiqued appearance.

On all my textured cardstock pages, I stamped tone on tone color for the background to fill in the white space.

The numbers are stamped with Schoolbook Serif Numbers in Real Red ink.
I used the Winter Post and Tree Trimmings stamp sets for the background stamping.

I tried to use a variety of ribbon and embellishments on the pages, but some didn't need much and I wanted the quotes to really stand out.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for pages 6 through 10!
I love it when you visit me! Leave me some comment love to let me know you've stopped by!
Blessings to you!
~~Robin

Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge SSC127

Hi there stamping friends! This is an exciting week with the Stamping 411 Operators Crew - we have Thanksgiving weekend Blog Candy for you over at the Stamping 411 Blog. All you have to do to enter the drawing for one of SEVEN different prizes is leave a comment for us on THIS post, answering the questions posed in the post.
We at Stamping 411 are so thankful for you, our loyal readers and players that we decided to do something special just to show our appreciation. We wouldn't be who we are without wonderful stampers like you!

For my card with today's sketch, I decided to show you a completely different look. I took some leftover pieces of the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin Kit and used them to create my card.
I love the Simply Scrappin' Kits because they have so many different pieces to work with that even after you complete a major project with one, you still have sooooo much left over to play around with to create more!
Here is my card creation:

Believe it or not, there is NO stamping on this card at all!
Last week, I taught an advent calendar class using this particular scrappin' kit and only used just over 1/2 of it for the project. (I'll be posting the pages bit by bit over the coming few days.)
I've begun using up the other cardstock, designer paper and sticky die-cuts by making cards and a card box. So far I have 7 cards and a box cut with the Fancy Favor Die on the Big Shot. I'll be posting them later this week as well.

Today's Stamping 411 card starts with a piece of 6" x 6" Textured Very Vanilla cardstock, folded to make a 3" x 6" card.
The striped designer paper layer is 2 3/4" x 3". After adhering it to the card front, I nipped a small slit in the fold of the card with my Horizontal Slot Punch to create a hole for my Very Vanilla Taffeta ribbon to slide through. I added the Styled Vanilla Ribbon Slide to it before adhering it to the card front.

The Scalloped Circle layer is a sticky die cut, layered with the snowflake sticky die cut. I used my Paper Piercer to add a Gold Brad to the center before sticking this embellishment to the card front. The next two layers are Textured cardstock pieces from the kit, the old Olive layer is trimmed at 1 3/4" x 2 3/4" and the Very Vanilla layer is 1 1/2" x 2 1/2". I've used one of the red ornament sticky die cuts for the focal point here. The Gold Cord is actually knotted around the top of the die cut like a hanging ornament and I've adhered the ends behind the striped designer paper. Lastly, I've added my sentiment with yet another sticky die cut for a simple Merry Christmas.

I will tell you that I thought briefly about stamping with the Tree Trimmings stamp set on the background of this one, but decided to keep the look clean and simple. I like just the texture of the cardstock on this one. It keeps it very crisp looking.
For the other cards I created in my set of 6, I did stamp on the background. When you see them later this week, you be the judge of whether or not it works! I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

So, now it's YOUR turn! Use the Stamping 411 sketch and create something fun! We love to see your artwork and are excited each week to see what you've come up with based on Selene's fabulous sketches! Be sure to leave your comment on the Thursday post and enter to win the Blog Candy!
And thanks so much for being the fabulous readers and stampers you are! You make our days special!
Stamped blessings,
~~Robin

A Thanksgiving UDI Inspiration Challenge #71

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I hope you are enjoying a wonderful meal with the ones you love and that you didn't have to cook it! Or clean up! Yes, that's a pipe dream for many of us - at least I have a deal with my hubby, he cooks, I do dishes! I think I have the best end of that deal, even on Thanksgiving!

Don't you just love the photo above? That's my Thanksgiving table! Just kidding! It's the inspiration photo for this week's UDI challenge! I am so enjoying being on this design team - it's fun to let the photo take you somewhere creatively that you may not have thought of before.
Here is my card based on the photo:

I had the idea to use the Big Shot to dry emboss the Brushed Gold cardstock and then use my Versamarker to highlight the flowers and vines. I then used a mixture of Gold and Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder to heat emboss those areas. The photo doesn't show it very well, I think it looks much better in real life. C'mon over and you can see it for yourself! :)

I also used the mixed embossing powder on the frame image from the Great Friend stamp set. The greeting is stamped in Mellow Moss ink to match the taffeta ribbon. I hand cut that frame image and layered it with a piece of Ruby Red cardstock cut out with my Big Shot and the Matchbox Die. It's popped up on Stampin' Dimensionals over the layered ribbons.

To do the ribbons, I just adhered them separately behind the Very Vanilla cardstock layer and folded them up to create the pleat. I held them in place and used my Paper Piercer to go through all the ribbon and cardstock layers. The Clear Rhinestone Circle Brad holds the ribbons in place on the top two cardstock layers. I just trimmed the ribbon ends in a little banner.

All of the layers are mounted on a Ruby Red cardstock base.

So, what do you think - does it remind you of the photo or vice versa?
I hope you have some time to stamp this weekend in between all the eating, visiting and shopping. Find an inspiration piece like this one and see where your imagination takes you! Better yet, use this photo and let us see your creations! You can leave a comment on the UDI Blog with a link to your project - we'd love to see what you'll do with this! And while you are there, be sure to follow the links to the other design team members creations - I'm sure you'll be inspired by them!

Have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving!
~~Robin

Gilded Stenciled Birthday

Good morning stamping friends! Just one more day until we all share the wonderful traditions of Thanksgiving: eating turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce, watching football on tv and poring over the Black Friday sale ads as we plot our shoppping routes!
Oh, yes, and get a much needed afternoon nap! That's on my agenda for tomorrow! :)

Today's card share is a one I designed for my Just Cards classes earlier this month. I was inspired to stencil on cardstock by two Christmas cards I'd received in some swaps, so I purchased the Vintage Ornament stencils with the intent of casing them. BUT, when I saw the different stencil layers in the package, I was drawn to this flourish. I thought it would make a gorgeous card all on it's own, so that's where my idea for this card started.

I used Kraft cardstock as my card base and sponged the edges with some Soft Suede ink. It was trimmed up with the Corner Rounder on the bottom corners. Then I put a little Dotto adhesive (removable) on the back of the flourish stencil and placed it on the card front. Using my Sponge Daubers, I sponged Rich Razzleberry ink through the stencil onto the card.
Once I had the color saturation I was happy with, I removed the stencil and rubbed off the Dotto residue. The greeting, from the Sincere Salutations stamp set was stamped in more Soft Suede ink and then I highlighted it with my Paper Piercer and Mat Pack.

Now for the fun part!

I took out my much neglected Versamarker and traced a few parts of the stenciled image with it. Then I heat embossed it with Gold Embossing Powder and the Heat Tool. How cool is that?! I know, it's probably not anything new, but I love the elegance of this card! Even after being a stamper for over 14 years, I still get excited when something turns out so cool!

Two more things for the front of this card - I used my Color Spritzer tool and my Soft Suede marker to add some speckles to the card front. It is finished off with a piece of Chocolate Chip 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon tied all the way around the card front.

I couldn't leave the inside of the card unfinished, so I added a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, also sponged and corner rounded. As you can see, I stenciled just a bit of the design in the lower left corner and added a greeting from the Heard From the Heart stamp set.

It's a super simple card with a lot of impact - I was so pleased with how easy it was to do this technique. I'll definitely be doing this again!
Have a wonderful day doing all your prep for the big day tomorrow! If you have time, check back in with me, I'll have my UDI Blog Inspiration Challenge project posted for you to see.
So thankful for you all!
~~Robin

More Retired Stamp Sets for Sale!

Hi everyone!

Finally, I have photographed and priced all my remaining retired sets and wheels - well, those that I can part with for now anyway!
All the added stamps have been put on the slide show on my blog sidebar, so please check them out if you like.
I will only ship to continental US - Priority Mail only. The prices listed do not include shipping.

Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back tomorrow with another creative project for you!
Blessings,
~~Robin