Batty for Halloween!

So I have been on this total Halloween kick lately. I can't seem to get enough of it. I was supposed to make a card for a Bat Mitzvah I am going to with my daughter tomorrow but I wasn't feeling it. The lure of Halloween was calling me once again. I even set up my Halloween decor in my house today.

Believe or not both of these cards starting out with this sketch challenge from Beate. I took off in another direction from the sketch but that's what sketches are all about right? A starting point.

Stamps: Batty For You, Polka dot background stamp, Boo is from Autumn Apparitions
Ink: Old Olive, Eggplant Envy
Cardstock: Old Olive, Whisper White, Eggplant Envy, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black
Other: Vintage brads, ribbon from District ribbon originals, small oval punch, photo corner punch, circle scallop punch, 1 1/4"circle punch, 1 3/8"circle punch, stampin' dimensionals, black hemp, prima flower

Boo!

Have you ever seen Jaron Winder(sp?) speak at a Regionals or Convention? The guy is hilarious and he is a talented stamper too! This year at convention he also entertained us with his beautiful singing voice. I have always admired him from afar. Well, that all ended this year at convention. My friend and downline, Kristina, wanted to get photos with all the presenters we ran into. I likened it to getting your photo taken with the characters at Disney. I was a lot more reticent about approaching these people and wanted to hang back and just take the photo. Oh no. Kristina insisted that I be in the photo too. We ran into Jaron in the entrance of the gathering place where there was a throng of women gushing over him. Glenda Travelstead, a very successful demonstrator who knows Jaron walked by and was just chuckling. She stopped to take a picture of the line of adoring fans waiting for Jaron. Well, we did meet him and speak to him briefly. He was very gracious about the compliments we gave him and was happy to pose for a photo with us. Of course I had to tease Kristina that he has his arm around me and not her! ;)

This is my version of the Boo boxes that Jaron demonstrated at convention. He made his own boxes out of cardstock. I found some tins at Michael's on clearance that were about the right size. I mod podged the Creepy crawly designer paper on it. I mod podged some Basic black cardstock on top of the tin. I paper crimped some basic black cardstock and adhered it around the rim. Next I traced the letters from Onboard chipboard onto some scrap cardboard. I mod podged Creepy Crawly paper onto the cardboard. I then embossed some Booglies characters with black embossing powder, colored them in with watercolor wonder crayons and the aquapainter, cut them out and adhered them to the letters. This was a fun project!

Cupcakes anyone?

I am thrilled with the trend towards cupcakes lately! You see them everywhere. In fashion, in art, and of course in stamping! There is something so irristable about them. They are so cute and small. This set from Stampin' Up! is called Big Bold Birthday. Besides cupcakes there is a balloon, shape for a present, blow horn, flower, heart, candle, bow, background dots, outline dots, a greeting that says "make a wish" and a greeting that says happy birthday over and over again. Of course I like the cupcake the best! The card on the left is a collaborative effort with my friend and downline, Kristina. We started out using some ideas from convention and took it from there.

stamps: Big Bold Birthday
ink: regal rose and chocolate chip for left card, groovy guava and brocade blue for the card on the right.
paper: Whisper white, chocolate chip, regal rose and soft sky designer paper for card on the left. whisper white, groovy guava, chocolate chip and Darling Doodles designer paper for card on the right.
other: circle scallop punch, versamark, hologram highlights and chocolate taffeta ribbon for card on the left. Flower punch, silver brads, and ribbon from sherbet ribbon originals for card on the right.

3 cats

This was a make-n-take for my downline meeting this past week. I wanted something simple but cute. A demonstratable card or one that could be used for a make-n-take at an event.
I started out with a piece of Basic Black card stock cut at 5 1/2 x 7 1/4. I scored the cardstock horizontally at 3 inches. When you fold it over it leaves a space where the larger half peeks through. This gave me some space to add the circles. I punched out the circles with the 1 1/4" circle punch. I adhered them along the bottom. I punched out the photo corners with the More Mustard cardstock and the Creepy crawly designer paper. I layered the smaller photo corners onto the larger photo corners. The rest is just simple stamping!

Stamps: Autumn Apparitions
Ink: Basic Black, Really Rust
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, More Mustard, Creepy Crawly Designer Paper
Other: Photo corner punch, 1 1/4 circle punch

Dashing Duo

Beate posted her weekend sketch challenge. You can see it here. For the card I used a 6 x 6 piece of River Rock card stock folded in half to make a 3 x 6 card. The designer paper is Stampin' Up!'s Dashing paper. I punched out the the star in More Mustard, dabbed it in Versamark and embossed with Hologram Highlighs. The greeting at the bottom has an olive brad from the rhinestone ice collection. I decided to make a matching tin. I had purchased a candle tin from Michaels. I covered it with the dashing paper, the Merry Christmas from the Party Punch stamp set and 2 flowers punched from the 5 petal punch. The ribbon is from the Fairy tale Ribbon collection.

Here are the rest of the details:
Stamps: Perfect Presentation(Level 2 hostess set), Party Punch(Level 1 hostess set)
Ink: River Rock, Old Olive
Paper: River Rock, Old Olive, Real Red, Dashing designer paper, Very Vanilla
Other: Ice circle rhinestone brads, stampin' dimensionals, star punch, circle punch, coluzzle, label punch

Thank you's

I needed some thank you's to send out to my wonderful party hostesses. I wanted something a little extra special since my hostesses are very special to me. I thought this footed the bill!

I am loving the Groovy Guava and the Chocolate Chip together(as evidenced by a few of my previous projects.) I wanted to use this ribbon from the ribbon originals pack so I incorporated Soft Sky into my card. I really like the result. I hope you do too!

Stamps: Office accoutrements, little pieces, warm Words
Ink: Soft Sky, Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Chocolate chip, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, Very Vanilla
Other: Pewter Jumbo Eyelet, Snowburst punch, Sherbet ribbon originals, stampin' dimensionals

Make A Wish

I made this card for the featured stamper challenge on splitcoast. I CASE'd a card from MWohlers: The featured stamper challenge is where you are supposed to cruise through the featured stamper's gallery and pick a card. You need to change 2 or more things on your card. Here is what I used:

Stamps: In the Spotlight, Stem Sayings, All in a Row
Ink: Taken with Teal, Real Red, Old Olive, More Mustard
Cardstock: More Mustard, Taken with Teal, Very Vanilla, Old Olive
Other: Scallop circle punch, Word Window punch, 3/4 circle punch, ribbon

I used Beate's trick of using the All in a Row stamp set to look like stitching. I can't get enough of this. That girl is brilliant! Even though it's faux stitching my stitches still aren't straight! LOL Just like the real thing.

Thanks for stopping by and for all of the lovely comments lately. I surely do appreciate it!

Birthday card for a friend

Yesterday was Kristina's birthday. It also happens to be her daughter Mallory's birthday too! We had their family over for dinner and the chocolate fountain yesterday. Yum! I just wanted to dip my whole head in there! I did dip my plate in. ;) This is the card I made Kristina for her birthday. I used Beate's trick for using All in a Row stamp set to look like stitching around the Paisley piece.

Stamps: Wanted, All in a Row, Hugs and Wishes
Ink: Groovy Guava, Versamark, Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Very Vanila, Chocolate chip
Other: Photo corner punch, Groovy Guava double stitiched ribbon, scallop circle punch, jumbo pewter eyelet. stampin' sponge

Treat box

We made these treat boxes at my August parties. They are called 2,5,7, 10 boxes and were created by Jenn Balcer. Her tutorial on how to make them are on SCS.

Stamps: Fun and Fast Notes, See You Around Jumbo Wheel
Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip, Confetti Cream
Ink: Jet Black Stazon, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Groovy Guava, River Rock
Other: Corner rounder, double circle punch, ticket corner punch, River Rock double stitched ribbon, blender pen

Halloween Sketch

I made this card using Beate's latest sketch challenge. I am a Halloween nut so when I saw this sketch I went right to my Halloween paper!

Stamps: Autumn Apparitions(from the SU Holiday mini catalogue)
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Creepy Crawly Designer Paper
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Really Rust(to roll around the edges of the pumpkin)
Other: Hodgepodge Hardware, Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon, black gingham ribbon, Stampin' dimensionals, small and large oval punches.

Demo Derby

The demo derby is not something I ever thought my family and I would enjoy. There is a local county fair that puts one on every year that we go to. We've been doing it for the past 5 years or so. We have to get in line early to get good seats, it's often hot and sticky, it's expensive and the kids keep wanting to eat lots of junk food waiting for the demo derby to start. Just when we think it isn't worth all of the hassle, the derby starts. There is something about those cars crashing in to each other that gets your adrenaline pumping. Each person picks out their favorite at the beginning of the race and you root for them to win. My favorite one is when all of the losers from the previous runs get together and give it one last shot. Every car that they can get running long enough to get it into the ring will crawl in there. It's a hoot!

This page spread is based on a page that was on the Stampin' Up! Art from the Heart CD. We are making this at my scrapbook club next week. The colors are really off on this photo but this is what I used:

Stamps: Polka dot background, All in a Row, Short Order Alphabet, Best Friends numbers
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Craft White, Basic Black
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Certainly Celery
Other: Coluzzle circle cutter

Fun with microbeads

My stamp club ladies wanted to try making a card with microbeads. I don't know if you can even see it on this card but it is on the flower. I colored the flower with a regal rose ink pad and blender pen and then colored over it with crystal effects. Then I poured microbeads over the crystal effects and let it dry. It's a quick and easy way to kick your cards up a notch! Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Stamp set: Fun and Fast Notes(I got this set at convention. I just love it! I chose to mount the words separate from the image. I have found it is quite easy to line up with the words under the image if you like but you have the flexibility to use them separately.
Paisly background stamp
Ink: Soft Sky, Mellow Moss, Apricot Appeal, Regal Rose
Cardstock: Whisper White, Soft Sky, Regal Rose
Other: Photo corner punch, blender pen, regal rose wide grosgrain ribbon, crystal effects, microbeads.

Manly Card

This is a rugged card for the men in your life. It was done by stamping in Creamy Caramel ink on Creamy caramel. I used the Outlaw Designer paper for the layered piece on the left. I LOVE this paper! The brads were done with the paper piercer and the template to get nice even spacing with your brads. I used the Wanted stamp set to make this card.

I hear a lot of customers say they struggle with masculine cards. Using texture and earth tones are what I tend to do when creating a card for a guy.

Garden Box

One thing they showed a lot of at the Stampin' Up! convention is altering things. This is right up my alley! It inspired me to do even more. I bought this seashell box on Clearance at Mike's. I immediately had in mind to alter it with the Secret Garden Simply Scrappin' kit. It went together quite easily. I measured the width of the top of the chest and cut a patterned piece from my Secret Garden kit. I used mod podge to adhere it to the top. Then I traced the front and back top pieces and mod podged those on. Then I measured the width of the bottom piece and mod podged them on. All very easy! The trickiest part was removing the buckle and hinges and reattaching them(I had my husband re-attach them. He's quite handy that way!:) I used some of the adhesive backed die cuts from the kit to embellish and stamped a flower from the Brocade motifs stamp set to put in the middle of the flower. I topped that off with some linen thread through an Earth Elements button and that was it. I may fill it with coordinating secret garden cards.

Join the Stampin' Up! Family

Choose Your Family Promotion

Between Grandma Louise (who drips with sweetness) and your oh-so-suave brother, Vic, you know that in life you can't choose your own family. But at Stampin' Up!, we've found a way to bend the rules so you can!

Purchase the Starter Kit between August 10 and September 14, and you'll get to pick the family of your choice-color family, that is-of Classic Stampin' Pads® FREE. That's a $57.95 value! And we've designed our exclusive coordinating color families (including our In Color collection) so that every color fits in. After all, it's all in the family!

I'm so excited to share this promotion with you! The starter kit is a fantastic deal to begin with. The bonus of the ink pads just makes it all the better! I have a fun and friendly group of ladies on my demonstrator team. I would love to have you join our team, the Hopperstampers. Contact me at krhopperstad@juno.com for more information.

Halloween altered box

One of my favorite things to do is to alter a plain or ugly item into something cute with my papers, ink and stamps. There were lots of examples of this at the Stampin' Up! convention. It inspired me to make this box. It started out as a plain wood box from Michaels for $1. I used the Creepy Crawly paper to cover the box with the paper and mod podge. I made a fanned bow out of the Creepy Crawly paper. I stamped images from the Batty For You stamp set and punched them out with my circle punches. I strung those onto the paper bow with ribbon. Fun, fun, fun!

2nd splitcoast convention swap

I really need to work on my photo quality. These aren't the best photos but this is my 2nd swap for the SCS dinner convention swap. It is called a wiper card. It acts like a windshield wiper. It pops up when you pul it. I made 50+ of these as well. I got to the point where I could do these in my sleep! The tutorial was on splitcoaststampers but I couldn't find it to link. I will see if I can dig it up.

I have been working on some of the fun ideas from convention. Stay tuned as I will be posting them on here over the coming days.

Convention SCS swap

This was one of my convention swaps for the SCS dinner at 2nd session of convention. It is a double slider card. It is not as difficult to make as it looks. The tutorial for this is here.

I used the Wild About You stamp set with the Eat cake stamp set. I wanted it to look like when you opened it there were lots more balloons to help celebrate the occasion. I used Not Quite Navy for the base of the card and for the elephant. The ear is stamped in Soft Sky and popped up on a stampin' dimensional. The corner is punched with the new photo corner punch in Groovy Guava. The other colors used were River Rock and Purely Pomengranate. I really like how these colors look together. Here is a picture of all 50 of them together. These were a lot of work but fun to make!

Convention Pictures

Here are a few pictures from convention. The top left is of me and the co-founder and CEO of Stampin' Up!, Shelli Gardner. She is a warm and sweet lady! The right is of my downline
Kristina, Kathy and I at a fondue restaurant called La Fondue. It was fabulous! We were about to dive into our favorite course- the chocolate fondue. It was heavenly! Thank you to StarofMay from splitcoast. I saw her description of La Fondue on her blog from the 1st session of convention and knew I had to go! The projects you see are from demonstrators who sent them into Stampin' Up! There are so many talented ladies out there. Between the swapping, the pictures, the make-n-take projects, and the ideas demonstrated on stage, there is a plethora of ideas I want to try out. So many ideas, so little time! I'm starting to get rested up and am itching to try out some of these ideas. I'm going to be sharing some of these ideas at my upcoming parties and clubs. Book your party with me soon! Just contact me at krhopperstad@juno.com.

Convention Swap

This was one of my convention swaps for a Wow card swap I was in organized by my friend, Chris Fuhs. It's a diorama card. For instructions on how to make a shadow box card click here.
The neat thing is that these cards will fold flat to mail but you can pop them up on the score lines for some cool dimension once the recipient receives it! I used the Double line doodle stamp set, Pixie Pink card stock and ink, soft sky ink with the blender pen, Certainly Celery cardstock and marker, key tag punch, label punch, flower punch, black gingham ribbon, and the coluzzle. These are fun and easy to make!

I'm off to pick my daughter up from camp. It's a 3 hour drive one way so a 6 hour drive for me total. Ugh! I wish I could stay home and stamp with all of the great ideas I got at convention! Oh well. I am excited to see my daughter Rebecca and hear all about her camp experience. I'll be back soon with more swaps I did at convention.

Heartfelt Sympathy

I'm back from convention in Denver and I had a blast! I learned so much my brain is about to burst!
I have lots to share with you. Before I get too carried away I just want to stop for a moment and acknowledge the tragedy that hit us in Minneapolis while I was away. I'm talking about the 35w bridge collapse. This really cast a pall over the celebratory feeling of convention for me. It was hard to get really hyped up when I knew there were people suffering at home. I didn't personally have friends and family that were involved but this touches us all. My heartfelt prayers goes out to those families who were devastated by this tragedy.

I'll be back later with some photos about convention.