Sweetheart Treat Box

Here's another project for our upcoming rubber stamping class. This fast and easy Sweetheart Treat Box can be made with any designer card stock or your own hand-stamped decorative 12 by 12-inch card stock.


Tools used: Sizzix die for treat box, Big Shot Pro, Stampin’ Up Sweetheart stamp set, Stampin’ Up Heart of Hearts Embosslits die, ribbon, designer card stock

Put together the box, gluing strategically.

Use the Heart of Hearts Embosslits die to cut and emboss two hearts from designer paper. Ink up the Be Mine heart stamp with Riding Hood Red and stamp onto white card stock; make two hearts; trim them.

Put together red and white hearts, and stick them on the box.

Fill the box with treats for your honey.

Close up the box and decorate with ribbon.

Valentine Calendar

In early January, some of my fellow stamping friends were making lovely creative calendars. I wanted to make one with my stamping club, but our first class isn't until February 1st. By now, they are more interested in Valentine's cards and projects.

My husband, who is very supportive of my hobby and craft but doesn't really 'get it,' suggested: Why don't you make a Valentine Calendar? Okay, I was dismissive at first, but then I thought about it and realized, "What a clever idea!"

The Valentine's Day Calendar was born, featuring a Sizzix mini album die and Stampin' Up's You Are Loved stamp set.

Stamp Set: You are Loved


Ink: Riding Hood Red


Extras: Heart Texture Plate, Sizzix Mini Album Die, Soft Suede Taffeta Ribbon, Brads


Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Soft Suede/Tan, Decorative/Designer Paper

Die cut pieces: 
1 Large Red (Back)
1 Medium Tan (Middle/Embossed)
1 Small Red (Top/Stamped)
1 Small Designer (Bottom Edge)

Use Riding Hood Red to ink up the heart stamp from the You Are Loved set; stamp onto tan (Soft Suede) card stock. Trim out the heart.

Select a texture plate with lots of little hearts or some other heart motif. Use it to run the medium-sized tan die cut piece through the Big Shot.

Take the small red die cut paper piece and stamp flowers randomly using the Riding Hood Red ink pad. Make sure some of your flowers go off the edge of the piece.

Put together the small red, medium tan, and decorative bottom edge pieces.

Make sure that the overall size does not exceed the size of the large red piece that will go on the back.

Take calendar pieces and punch holes in top corners.

Adhere the December calendar to the tan/middle section.

Use the holes previously punched as guides and punch holes through the tan section.


Add the rest of the calendar pages, ending with February on top. Clasp them in place by using the colored brads.





Attach the heart to this piece using pop up adhesives.

Finish the calendar by adding the large red piece to the back of the calendar.

Enlarge holes at the top using a hole punch.

Take the tan ribbon and add knots (so ribbon will not slip. Tie a ribbon at the front.

Taking Tea with Friends

My sweet friend Diane sent me the lovely Stampin' Up set, Tea Shoppe, for my birthday. She knows I'm a little tea-crazy, and I love my teapots, tea cups, tea mugs, and tea.

As soon as I saw the stamp set, I knew I needed to include it in our upcoming rubber stamping class. First, I needed a little inspiration, so I visited fellow SU demo Cindee Wilkinson's Just Sponge It blog. She had used markers to color directly onto the rubber teacup to create a multi-colored image.

I decided to do the same, but I found it was easier to use the Baja Breeze ink pad to entirely ink up the rubber first. I then used an eye makeup applicator sponge to remove ink from the areas of the flowers and leaves.

Then I took Perfect Plum and Wisteria Wonder markers and colored the flowers on the rubber. I also colored the leafy bits with Lucky Limeade. Once finished coloring, cut out the teacup.

If you are not familiar with coloring directly onto rubber, you can have a look at my Tea Shoppe tutorial.

How to build the card: 

You will want to use the SU scallop edge punch to create a strip of striped paper. Make sure the stripes are pointing down vertically.

This striped strip will be attached to the larger piece of green designer paper to create a nice background layer.

Now, attached a piece of Rich Razzleberry polka dotted ribbon on the seam between the striped strip and green paper. Adhere this to the folded square card.

Run the square purple designer paper through the Big Shot with a scallop frame; it should be about 3 1/2 inches square.

Create a little teabag tag by punching out a label or using an office supply tag like the one on my sample card. Use Perfect Plum ink on the small flower stamp in the Tea Shoppe set to add flowers to the tag; stamp on both sides. Use Lucky Limeade or Baja Breeze to ink up "You suit me to a tea," and stamp onto the tag.

Add pop up adhesives behind the tea cup image. Tuck the string of the tag behind the teacup, sticking it onto some of the adhesive, and then let the tag dangle over the top of the teacup.

Stick the cup onto the top of the scalloped square. You're done!

Welcome 2012!

Wishing all my friends and family a splendid and successful new year!

I'm still trying to get my head 'round the fact that it is 2012. To start off the new year, I made this card to send out to my friends.

This is the first chance I've had to use this SU stamp set, A Cardinal Christmas, which I adore! We don't have red cardinals here in the UK, and I certainly miss them, as they are a regular fixture to bird feeders in my home state of Texas. As I was using this as my new year's card, I created a label, "Warm Winter Wishes."

I also used the SU Framed Tulips embossing folder.

Baby Booties

Happy New Baby! It was such a joy to follow Alisha through her recent pregnancy, and she delivered a beautiful baby boy, Nathaniel, in December.

This baby card was made using Stampin' Up!'s Stitched Stocking rubber stamps and their Stocking Builder Punch, which were both available in the US Holiday Mini Catalog. Jewelled blue brads were added for a bit of special baby bling!

The booties are dangling from a window in the card made with a Sizzix die. After I made the window, which I thought was clever, I then realized that a message on the inside of the card would show through. I had to write my note strategically!

Tags For All

The Stampin' Up! Tags For All set has been well loved and used this Christmas season. In particular, I pulled the stamps out to make about 50 tags for our school's annual Christmas Fair. Our year runs the charity cake stall, and we use these tags to help decorate the packaging of the cakes.

I like to stamp for stamping sake, but I especially love to stamp for a purpose.

In addition to the Tags for All stamp set, I also used various dies to cut out the tags, include the SU Sizzix Two Tags die.

Hot Cocoa Christmas Pouches

When my teen-age son was young, I often sent in goodie bags to his teachers at Christmas. Now that he's older, he wants to acknowledge his teachers without making too much of a fuss and losing that cool factor. He wanted to do more than a card, and we decided that hot cocoa packets with a decorative folded cover would be just the trick -- easy and discreet to carry into class, but something special and festive.

These Cadbury cocoa pouches are available in twin packs, and when folded over, they tuck neatly into a card.

The folded cards were made with 6-inch squares of designer cardstock. The cocoa packages are a half-inch thick, so the cards will need to be scored to accommodate the thickness. I scored the 6-inch square cardstock at 2 3/4 inches, and then I flipped the card and ran a parallel score at 2 3/4 inches again.

A decorative strip was added to the sides of the card.

While this dresses up the card, my primary reason for adding the strips was to make the card a bit longer to better hide the cocoa packet.

You need two strips at 1 inch by 6 inches. Adhere these strips to the edges of the card. They will run parallel to the scored lines.

Next, cut a strip of ribbon, 30 inches in length.

Determine the middle, and center and glue the ribbon into position in the middle of one side of the folded card.

Now you'll want to add your artwork on top of the ribbon.

I've used Stampin' Up's Tags for All and colored the snowmen with markers. Obviously, you want the artwork to be small enough to fit on the folded card. Use a liberal amount of adhesive tape on the back of the artwork so that it helps to keep the ribbon in place.

Tuck the cocoa packets into the folded card. You might want to use a small amount of snail adhesive or a mini glue dot to help keep the cocoa packet in place.

Close the folded card, and tie the ribbon nicely in the back of the card.

The pouches look sweet from either the front or back!