CFS Release: Mwah

Big Happy New Year wishes to you all! I've sure missed everyone in blogland over the holidays. Hope you had some wonderful times with family and friends!



 

What better way to start the new year than with some new stamps?! The next three days we'll feature new Valentine and love-themed sets from CAS-ual Fridays.

This project uses every single stamp in the new "Mwah" set (obviously I just couldn't decide which ones to use!) I was going for the subway art style, mixing text and objects, as well as different fonts. Really love how it turned out, and am considering leaving this up after Valentine's Day.

 I left the glass off the frame so I could pop up the stamped panel on two layers of chipboard. The background paper is from Crate Paper. I think the pattern works well since there isn't any white in the design, so the white panel completely stands out.

I know most people like seeing cards, so here's what it would look like as a traditional card. 

You can laugh at me, but I almost always stamp everything ahead of time on a quarter sheet of copy paper. I have to know if it's going to work or not, right?! So for a different project, I folded this quarter sheet in half and cut out a heart to use for a template. When I was cleaning up my desk, I threw this and some other scraps away. The next day I saw it in my garbage on top of some solid red paper and thought it would make a pretty decent card as it was. Indeed! Sometimes you can't think too much about it : )

[PS. since it's on copy paper I'd probably only give this to my kids, but one day I may stamp it again on "real" paper]

I'm SO in love with the large script font in this set! It mixes so well with other heavy, solid fonts. And, it's large enough to stand on its own. Here it's just been stamped across the flap of an envelope. So easy, but I can totally see myself doing this on all the cards I send.

The glitter heart is from a set that's debuting tomorrow, so please come back to check it out if you're in the area!

You're not going to want to miss checking out the other Ink Squad girls:

Marcie | Jingle | Virginia | Deepti | Zoey | Angie

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Fun Family Christmas Party Games to Try

Want to get everyone out of their chairs at your family Christmas party? We had a few Minute to Win It games after dinner this year and it was SO FUN to see everyone cheering, yelling, and jumping up and down. 

A key to our success is that we got all the adults to play, in addition to the kids. I recruited an older cousin to write everyone's name on a paper, and randomly divide the family up into four teams of 8. Two teams of adults and two teams of kids. For each game, each team selected a member to participate (without knowing what the game will be) and then we announced the game and rules.

We started with a challenge to hang an ornament on the Christmas tree without using your hands. People used their mouth ...

... and their forearms. If we do this game next year, I'll have them start with the ornaments in a bowl on the other side of the room, and then transport the ornaments to the tree without their hands as well. This game was a little too easy.

The next game was to stack as many plastic cups as you can with one hand in a minute.

Since we had four teams competing at once, and we only had about 80 cups, we ended up seeing which team finished stacking their cups first. They finished in about 30 seconds, so if you want this to last a minute plan on 40 cups per person. Also, we had to re-do the first round because we had an onlooker topple one of the contestants' stack of cups.  

The next game was to unwrap a present as quickly as possible with mittens on. I may or may not have intentionally given the mittens with the cute face to my manly cousin who used to work security at The Bellagio in Vegas.

My mom shocked everyone by finishing in lightning speed. She's the one at the end waving the box above her head. After the party, my mom said winning the present unwrapping game was her favorite part. OK, totally worth it all!

This game is to toss as many peppermint mini marshmallows into a Christmas pail in one minute. You can only throw one marshmallow at a time. We also lined people up according to their arm span ... so the kids got to be a little closer than the adults.

I didn't realize until after I downloaded the photos that my older son was lying on the floor in front of the table with his mouth wide open. Trying to catch stray marshmallows, it looks like!

Some teammates offered themselves up as a human backboard to increase their chances of winning!

Again, all the cheering made everything so much more fun, and was extremely contagious. I'm on the Winnie & Walter blog today showing how to make the peppermint Christmas tins if you want to stop by.
  

Our last game was perhaps the most fun, and the one we repeated until everyone on the team had participated. You put a cookie on your forehead and try to get it into your mouth without using your hands. If it falls you have to start over with the cookie on your forehead. 

This game was probably the most fun to watch, and resulted in the best pictures! Oh my gosh, I was laughing so hard!!

Everyone was either laughing, cheering or taking pictures.

These games were so much fun, we had to watch them again and again right afterwards. Somehow they were even funnier on the video!

  

Here's a summary of the games (which I got from this post on The Mason Family Blog you've likely seen floating around Pinterest). I've included the supplies needed after each game. It's also helpful to have a long table to line your contestants behind and set the game supplies on:

- hang ornaments on tree without hands (one ornament with a hanger for each team);
- stack cups with one hand (40 plastic cups per team);
- throw marshmallows in a tin (Christmas-themed marshmallows, Christmas tin for each team);
- get cookie from forehead to mouth without using hands (cookies); and
- unwrap present with mittens (a well-wrapped present with lots of tape and a pair of mittens per team).

Hope you're able to try some games this year! We honestly had a blast seeing everyone have so much fun. It was a highlight of the party.

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Feature on Paper Crafter's Library

Just a quick note to let you know I'm over at the Paper Crafter's Library today. If you have a minute I'd love to see you stop by!

Thanks!

Kelly

PS. I've only made it through a small percentage of posts from yesterday's tribute to Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking. If you haven't hopped yet, WARNING: HAVE A BOX OF KLEENEX HANDY. You may need it, even if you're not a crier. Everyone's post that I've read is so touching and heartfelt. Jennifer McGuire is the start of the hop.

Fusion Challenge: You'll Never Guess What Happened!

Yay, my first honest to goodness December Daily page is complete! I feel part of the DD club now : ) Let's see how long I can keep this going!!

 

This page is inspired by the photo and the sketch in the current Fusion Challenge.

It tells the story of how it's always stressful taking formal pictures of the boys because they don't sit still and have difficulty smiling at the same time. This year really took the cake, however, which you'll see when you turn the page ...




are you ready?!




...brace yourself...





... it gets ugly ...

Yep, it happened. Logan actually PUSHED Jackson forward. Right into the biggest section of mud in the whole forest preserve, I'm sure. There really wasn't a speck of clean pants in that whole mess. When asked what on Earth he was thinking, Logan replied that Jackson was moving too slowly. We took a break for a snowball fight and I guess afterwards Jackson didn't return to the ottoman quickly enough. 

I can't believe I had my wits about me and managed to take a few pictures before I started screaming and carrying on. I must have yelled pretty loudly because Jackson didn't even complain at all to Logan ... he felt I had expressed it all. Unbelievably there were another two pairs of pants for Jackson in the car since, crazy as this may sound, I was thinking about changing his pants if we took pictures on my gray/green bean bag instead of the brown leather ottoman (the warm tan of his pants didn't look right on the gray/green ... I know, way too detailed. It's why I don't get a lot of things done!)

I ended up laughing about it EVENTUALLY, and Logan felt so bad that he was exceedingly cooperative for the rest of the photo shoot. Including climbing into a log for a photo op (Jackson refused on account of any mysterious animals that might be in there). It's a memory, that's for sure!

Back to the page ... so excited to have pine cones just like the inspiration photo (these are from Winnie & Walter), and that they go with the photo of the kids in the woods. Perfect match!

Here are some fabulous cards by our design team!

Amy Tsuruta

Betty J.

  Danielle Robeson

Deepti Malik

Julia Aston 

Katie Brooks

Lynn Mangan

Kimberly Wiener

Lyndal Higgins

Michelle Williams

Michelle Lupton

Stephanie Severin

Winners: Will be chosen by all of our teammates in two weeks. We each will choose one favorite. The winners will be announced at 4 am (PST) in two weeks!


Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking Special Thanks Blog Hop

Welcome to the blog hop honoring Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking! If you're hopping along you've just come from Glenda Wyatt's blog. A big thanks to Taheerah Atchia and Veronica Zalis for the countless days spent organizing this tribute to PC&S!

From the very beginning of my relationship with Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking, they have opened their arms and made me feel so welcome in this wonderful paper crafting community. I remember when I got my first project acceptance email Susan asked me where I'd heard of Paper Crafts. Searching through my sent mail, I found my reply, and would like to post it here as it sums up my feelings 2 years later:

This is indeed the first time being in your publication. I found out about you through ... well, it's hard to say really. You're everywhere! Paper Crafts Magazine is the only quality publication (in my opinion, aside from the Somerset series which targets a more artsy audience) featuring card making and other paper crafts. I found the publication calls on your blog and have since become a follower (Moxie Fab too). After blogging for almost a year, it's become common knowledge that you are the experts, and all the "stars" of the paper crafting world are featured in your publications. So that's where I'd like to be too!

Little did I know then what wonderful PEOPLE were behind this most esteemed paper crafting magazine. Susan, Jennifer, Kerri, Stacy, Holly, AND CATH (who will always be a part of this crew) are such genuinely caring, trendy, forward-thinking, inspirational, and just plain FUN people. They are wonderful to work with, and I'm always amazed at how quickly Susan replies to emails. She must get hundreds per day and you're pretty much guaranteed a response within the hour. Now that's a woman on top of things!

Here's the card I'm sending for them. I found this in my "to be submitted" shoebox, and I'm pretty sure it was originally created for a sewing/stitches publication call.

I drew the face and legs of the "ewe" with a black marker, and then sewed a bunch of french knots on the card to make the sheep's body.

Here's the envelope I made for the card along with a peek inside of the card. I really enjoy going through my scrap drawer to find bits and bobs to fancy up the inside. It's a much more organic way to create, vs. having an idea of what you want to create and then executing it. Don't the red swirls look like a sheep's curls?!? Hahaha, OK, it's just me then : )

I know this can't be the end so I will just leave with a warm shout-out to the PC&S staff:

"Sincerest thanks for all the opportunities you have blessed me with. I am incredibly grateful, humbled and honored. See ya later!"

[and to Susan I'll say, "see ya in a month at CHA!!!"]

Now you're on to the fabulous Michelle Lupton who has a gorgeous floral creation to share.

All these people want to thank you, Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking Magazine!

1.	Lisa Henke	72.	Katie Gehring	143.	Kim Hughes
2.	Kelly Latevola	73.	Jennifer Cuthbertson	144.	Becky Olsen
3.	Lesley Croghan	74.	Cecilia Hsieh	145.	Kim Heggins
4.	Jennifer McGuire	75.	Laura Sterckx	146.	Ashley Harris
5.	Taheerah Atchia	76.	Donna Bowman	147.	Susan Liles
6.	Veronica Zalis	77.	Rachel Kleinman	148.	Darnell Knauss
7.	Laura O'Donnell	78.	Ellen Hutson	149.	Donna Hitz
8.	Julia Stainton	79.	Tanis Giesbrecht	150.	Miriam Prantner
9.	Lorena Cantó	80.	Marcie Sharp	151.	P. Kelly Smith
10.	Amy Tsuruta	81.	Danielle Walls (Neat and Tangled)	152.	Yana Smakula
11.	Piali Biswas	82.	Beverley Brown (Uniko Studio)	153.	Nichole Heady
12.	Rae Barthel	83.	Tracey McNeely	154.	Altenew
13.	Jessica Witty	84.	Laurie Willison	155.	Alice Golden
14.	Annette Witherspoon	85.	Bev Gerard	156.	Cath Edvalson
15.	Gayatri Murali	86.	Nina Yang	157.	Cindy Lawrence
16.	Maria Fischer	87.	Barb Housner	158.	Karen Dedman (Your Next Stamp)
17.	Laura Williams	88.	Clare Prezzia	159.	Sandy Allnock
18.	Lisa Arana	89.	Tasnim Ahmed	160.	Operation Write Home
19.	Wendy McGaffey	90.	Joyce Mehrberg	161.	Jennifer Ingle
20.	Heather Hoffman	91.	Sabrina Alery	162.	A Creative Journey with Melissa
21.	Cristina Kowalczyk	92.	Waltzingmouse Stamps	163.	Yvonne Yam
22.	Lynn Mercurio	93.	Leigh Penner	164.	MFT
23.	Jamie Greene	94.	Jenn Shurkus	165.	Shemaine Smith
24.	Lori Tecler	95.	Kimberly Wiener	166.	Spectrum Noir
25.	Susie Wittwer	96.	Amber Hight	167.	Nicki Scheck
26.	Jocelyn Olson	97.	Lindsay Amrhein	168.	Asty Purbasari
27.	Chaitali Narla	98.	Shelly Kurth	169.	Danielle Pandeline
28.	Hero Arts	99.	Mayuri	170.	Isha Gupta
29.	Nadine Perez	100.	Vera W. Yates	171.	Jen Carter
30.	Sarah Martina Parker	101.	Connie Mercer	172.	Mendi Yoshikawa
31.	Laura Bassen	102.	Audrey Tokach	173.	Keren Baker
32.	Lori Barnett	103.	Paulina Nakamura	174.	Trinh Arrieta
33.	Deepti Malik	104.	Reverse Confetti	175.	Tenia Nelson
34.	Tessa Wise	105.	Libby Hickson	176.	Angie Tieman
35.	Karen Baker	106.	Yoonsun Hur	177.	Lawn Fawn
36.	Tifany DeGough	107.	Maureen Plut	178.	Lydia Evans
37.	Virginia Lu	108.	Jessica Pascarella	179.	Samantha Mann
38.	Ruza Rebel	109.	Lynn Mangan	180.	Kymona Tracey
39.	Emily Leiphart	110.	Mariana Grigsby	181.	Jess Moyer
40.	Ashley N Newell	111.	Shery Russ	182.	Kathy Martin
41.	Jennifer Rzasa	112.	SRM Press	183.	Joni Andaya
42.	Dana Warren	113.	Sarah Jay	184.	Debbie Marcinkiewicz
43.	Amy Kolling	114.	Anabelle O'Malley	185.	Lisa Johnson
44.	Wanda Guess	115.	Michele Boyer	186.	Laine Webb
45.	Kalyn Kepner	116.	Clare Buswell	187.	Bethany Stellpflug
46.	LauraJane:)	117.	Angel Rivera	188.	Melania Deasy
47.	Tammy Jackson	118.	Laura Pryor/Lil' Inker Designs	189.	Ivanka Lentle
48.	Karolyn Loncon	119.	Beth Pingry	190.	Sweet Stamp Shop
49.	Heather Campbell	120.	A Jillian Vance Design	191.	Jeanne Jachna
50.	Niki Garcia	121.	Jillian Vance	192.	Emily Branch
51.	Erin Schreiner	122.	Bunny Vance	193.	Anja Bytyqi
52.	Vanessa Menhorn	123.	Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L	194.	Chameleon Pens
53.	Simon Says Stamp	124.	Kristie Larsen	195.	Francine Vuillème
54.	Donna Mikasa	125.	Maureen Merritt	196.	Newton's Nook Designs
55.	Lin Brandyberry	126.	Heather North	197.	Alicia Thelin
56.	Giovana Smith	127.	Nina Brackett	198.	Sarah Moerman
57.	Brenda Weaver	128.	Clearsnap, Inc	199.	Winter Sims
58.	Glenda J. Wyatt	129.	CAS-ual Fridays Stamps	200.	Amber Kroening
59.	Kelly Griglione	130.	Lori Craig	201.	STAMPlorations
60.	Michelle Lupton	131.	Lydia Fiedler	202.	Avery Elle
61.	Michelle Williams	132.	Julie Campbell	203.	Caryn Davies
62.	Lyndal Higgins	133.	Lea Lawson	204.	N@ Ali
63.	Elena Roussakis	134.	Taylor Usry	205.	Amy Sheffer
64.	Kara Vrabel	135.	Jill Dewey Hawkins	206.	Nance Salkeld
65.	Michelle Woerner	136.	Chunyuan Wu	207.	Meredith MacRitchie
66.	Amanda Coleman	137.	Melissa Cash	208.	Jill Norwood
67.	Winnie & Walter	138.	Annette Allen	209.	Penny Ward
68.	Cheiron Brandon	139.	Carisa Zglobicki	210.	Karin Åkesdotter
69.	Kristie Goulet	140.	Crafter's Companion US	211.	Yainea Nuñez
70.	Kimberly Crawford	141.	Stephanie Muzzulin	212.	Lucy Abrams
71.	Lalo IK	142.	Alice Wertz	213.	Mama Elephant

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

CAS-ual Fridays: Christmas Carols

One more sale for you today ... CAS-ual Fridays Stamps has one of their best-selling Christmas sets on sale Cyber Monday. The Christmas Carols stamp set is 25% off for today only.

The sentiment is slightly curved and is from Christmas Carols. The Christmas tree was built using both sizes of the Truth Blooms dies. As the dies go up to build the tree I cut some length off. I had red sequins on the tree originally for ornaments, but it seemed a little much so I used two different sizes of green sequins instead.

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

CAS-ual Fridays: Truth Blooms Fri-Dies

   

The last of our CAS-ual Fridays Fri-Dies release is a large and small bloom that coordinates with the flowers in the Truth Is stamp set. Or, as you see here, can be used on its own … as a butterfly!

The edges of the “wings” are curled up a little. With the two layers of wings, it would be fun to make these in all sorts of patterned papers. The clouds are from the Bubble Labels die, and the “hello” sentiment is from the Wallflower set. A golden thread is wound around the card to mark the butterfly’s path (secured on the other side with washi tape).

We’ve got one more post tomorrow … an existing Christmas set that is going to be on sale for Cyber Monday. That card will also show a different way to use these Truth Blooms Fri-Dies. Stay tuned!

More inspiration waits for you with the rest of the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Design Team:

Virginia

Jingle

 Angie

Deepti
Zoey
Marcie

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly