Demonstrator Gift Exchange

At our Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Christmas party, we have a gift exchange.  Here are some of the gifts that the demonstrators in our group made.   The tree was made by Cheryl Hart.  She used the First Edition Specialty Designer Series Paper to make the ruffles.  The antique brad in the middle of the star looks great.

Christi Beck made a combination of gifts.  The Workshop binder is a great way to organize ideas by month for 2012.  The CD Calendar in the top right corner is a hybrid project with a printed calendar and stamped embellishments.  The third project is a notepad in one of our clear mount stamp cases.  What a cute combination of projects.

This stunning necklace and earring set was made by Cindy Peterson.  Many of the flowers are made using Stampin' Up!'s Deck The Halls Designer Fabric.  I love how she used buttons and antique brads in this project. 

Keep checking back for more of the projects that were a part of our gift exchange.  As you can tell, this is a talented group of women!

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX
My Online Store

Christmas Frame

At our demonstrator Christmas party, we have a Sneaky Santa gift exchange.  The gift that I made was another Pinterest-inspired project.  When you go to my Pinterest From This to That board, you can see where I got some of the ideas for this project.

The frame was brown wood that I painted white.  Kilz primer did a great job of covering the dark brown.  I did figure out that if you are going to add the wires, it's easier to find a frame with wider pieces of wood.  I ended up having to go to a hardware store to get wood screws that were small enough to not go all the way through the frame.  I'm working on a second frame where the wood is over an inch wide and it was much easier to add the screws and wire.

DH helped me attach the wire to the screws.  We put the screws on opposite sides of the frame.  While they were firmly attached, they were not in a far as you could go.  He then wrapped the wire around the screws keeping the wire as tight as possible.  When you tighten the screws a little more, that pulls the wire tighter.  I hope this make sense.  I'm glad he figured out how to do that.  You can get the miniature clothespins from my online store.

Here are some close ups of the individual items.  The red and silver glimmer paper look much better in person.  All of the images in this project come from My Digital Studio.  I printed them on either First Edition Specialty Designer Series paper or Very Vanilla card stock.  To print on the First Edition paper, I cut the 12 x 12 sheet to 8 1/2 x 11 so it would fit in my printer.  

Welcome Christmas stamp brush set

The images are from the Welcome Christmas stamp brush set except for the word tree. That is part of the Home for the Holidays digital kit.  What I love about digital designing is that you can change the size of the image to fit your project. 

Have fun making your version of this project.  I'll post some of the other items that were in the Sneaky Santa gift exchange later this week.  

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng

Richland Hills, TX

My Online Store

Quick and Easy Stocking Stuffers

Every year we have fun helping everyone make their stocking stuffers for family and friends on their Santa list.  This year we have 4 projects to choose from:  a bookmark, reindeer pencil, candy purse and snowman pail.  You can pre-order kits in any amount you would like, so mix and match your projects to fit what you need.  The cost for each kit is $1.

At the class you'll make one of each project so you'll have a completed sample to take home.  Then you'll take the rest of your kits home to assemble.  You do have to pre-register for this class and let us know how many of each project you want to make so we can have them ready for you.

Date:  Saturday, December 3rd
Time:  1 to 4 p.m.
Location:  Bedford, TX

We have a limited number of snowman pails, so if you want to make this project, please register early.  Once the pails are gone, we won't be able to take any more orders for these kits.  To register, please e-mail me at sharon@sharoncheng.com.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
My Website

From This to That: Pumpkin Bling

Several of my crafting friends have been inviting me to go to Pinterest for several months.  I avoided it because I knew it was going to be something that could get me into a lot of trouble.  Fun trouble, but still a lot of trouble.  Well, I finally went for it and I was right.  Thanks to Pinterest, I have more ideas to try out than I have time.

So in a crazy mixed up way, I combined several different techniques to make this blingy pumpkin.  In real life, the mica flakes are more white and look like frost on the pumpkin.  I thought it would be fun to share the different ideas and techniques that I combined to come up with this project.

1.  Covering a pumpkin with text paper.  I went to the Dollar Tree and bought this plastic pumpkin.  I then covered it with Stampin' Up!'s First Edition Specialty paper.  This is a pack of 24 12 x 12 papers with different texts on them.  Unlike pages from a book, it's acid free.

121878 First Edition Specialty $12.95

2.  Dyeing Mod Podge.  Then thanks to some instructions on coloring mason jars, I realized that I could dye the Mod Podge I was using to make my pumpkin orange.  I used Stampin' Up!'s craft ink refills to dye small amounts of Mod Podge in Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive.

105164 Pumpkin Pie Craft Ink Refill $4.25

101425 Old Olive Craft Ink Refill $4.25

 3.  Add mica flakes.  While the pumpkin was wet with the Mod Podge, I added the mica flakes.  I sprinkled the flakes on top of the wet Mod Podge.

124115 Mica Flakes $350

4.  Adding Silver Glimmer Paper.  After adding the mica, I realized that the pumpkin stem needed some bling too.  So I covered the stem and made some tendrils with Stampin' Up!'s silver glimmer paper.  To do that, I soaked off the back of the silver glimmer paper.  I put the silver glimmer paper in the sink for a few minutes and then rubbed off the wet paper with my fingers.  I cut 1/4 inch strips of the silver glimmer and wrapped it around the stem and some pipe cleaners.  I dyed the silver glimmer with, you guessed it, Mod Podge that was dyed Old Olive green.

124005 Silver Glimmer Paper $4.95

And that is how I came up with this pumpkin with lots of bling.

I hope you will visit my my boards in Pinterest and be inspired to create a project that fits you.  If you are not a member of Pinterest, add a comment here and I'll send you an invitation. 

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

My Facebook Page

Pinterest

My Online Store

25 & Counting Advent Calendar

Stampin' Up!'s 25 and Counting stamp set is perfect for making advent calendars.  I saw an advent calendar made with pill boxes and had to make this one using the Holly Berry Bouquet Specialty Designer Series Paper.

Here is a close up of the calendar.  I put magnets on the pillboxes so they would stay on this cookie sheet memo board.  You can also use magnets to attach the pillboxes to your refrigerator.

Other items I used to decorate these pillboxes are the scallop square punch (119884 $16.95), the Buttons #5 Sizzlits (113440 $4.95) and the 1 inch circle punch (119868  @12.95).

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

My Facebook Page

Pinterest

My Online Store

Halloween Display and More

I LOVE Stampin' Up!'s silver glimmer paper.    It's so easy to cut, punch and die cut.  And it adds a little bling to your projects.  I used it in this project which also features the Gift Givers stamp set and Pick Your Poison Designer Series Paper.

What I also like about this project is that you can change out the Halloween tag to fit other occasions.  You can see some of the other tags throughout this post.

This display block is a great way to show your hand crafted  work in your home.  Some of the techniques used in these tags include dry embossing, wax paper resist, making a dahlia fold cross, and making a rosette.

 

 

Another fun thing is this is a green project that recycles the wood blocks from my stamps.  Many of you know that I've been converting my wood mount stamps to clear mounts.  Click here to see the details on my July 6, 2010 post. 

I've made several different projects using the wood blocks and wanted to do something special with the large wood blocks from my background stamps. 

To get more information about any of the techniques I used for these tags, please contact me at sharon@sharoncheng.com or leave a comment on this blog.

Visit my online store to get your supplies for this project.  Remember that when you purchase $25 or more in product, you are eligible for my Rewards Program.

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX

My Facebook Page

Pinterest

My Online Store

Get a Big Shot For Free

Stampin' Up! just announced one of their best specials ever.  When you sign up as a demonstrator in October, you can get a Big Shot for free!  You can also choose $100 in free product instead of the Big Shot. 

The Big Shot is one of my favorite tools for creating handmade cards, scrapbook pages and gifts.  With the large dies, you can cut many different products including card stock, fabric, leather, magnet sheets, and chipboard.

To see some of the things you can do, check out the Christmas project I did last year.  I used the Big Shot to die cut and emboss almost everything you see.  Using the Big Shot made it easy to make the kits for this printers tray.

Contact me today for more information about the Big Shot and becoming a demonstrator.   You can email me at sharon@sharoncheng.com or go to my website.  

Creatively yours,

Sharon Cheng
Richland Hills, TX