Not a rear view...

NOT a rear view of a snowman (that would be kinda dull) but rather a top down view.

NOT my original idea (wish it was).  I first saw this done by Lynda Fraiser HERE.  But I hear that Sharon Field was the first to do it.  And I seriously copied the face from a card by Doris Denman that I saw on a Stampin' Up Demonstrator site.

So, since so many ladies have done these, you have probably already seen one - but this is one from me.  I used it on a tag for a swap with my upline/sideline/downline.

Base - 1.75 circle
Mid-section - 1 3/8 circle
Head  - 1 inch circle
Arms - snowflake punch - with twigs trimmed
Nose - freehand triangle using "deckle" edge scissors (remember all those fancy scissors from the late 90's scrapbooking?)
Hat - half  of a one inch circle in green - small oval near small oval hole in blue - 1/2 inch circle in blue

Face drawn on - cheeks are my finger print in pink ink.

My Christmas Card

My friends and family should have received their cards by now so I can share this with you....

I told you all that I thought this snowman was cute.  And even after using him on so many cards and projects - I STILL like him.

This is what is called a "joy fold" card - I don't know how it got the name - maybe someone named Joy popularized it?  Whatever - it worked well for me this year. 

The blue part lifts up to reveal the sentiment.  The wish big circle element is on dimensionals and it holds the focal point down until you are ready to open the card.  This gave me space to have a cute card front, record my holiday message, include a short note about our family AND include a wallet size photo of my girls.

It is all Stampin' Up except I borrowed a snowflake embossing folder from a friend.  This has embossing, stamping, punching, texture wheel, sponging, ribbon, marker details and on and on 80 times.

I am not good about getting cards out during the year, but Christmas Cards are MY THING.  I know lots of stampers make a variety of cards at Christmas but for me that creates the AGONY of deciding "which card goes to who?"

It is much better for me to mass produce one themed card.  And I make a layout with the card, photo and  letter which serves as the "divider" in our chronological Christmas scrapbook to indicate the change in year.

INFO:  College girl should arrive home today or tomorrow so my posts may not be daily during the holidays.  You need to be finishing up your holiday preparations and enjoying your family anyway - not surfing blogs!  (grin)

I'll be here - just maybe not everyday.  Have a great weekend!

I love you THIS MUCH Snowman

The Inspiration Fairy was nowhere to be found yesterday - maybe she is busy Christmas shopping? 

But it is okay, because inspiration was delivered to my inbox, thanks to Janine Wills, a member of the Stampin' Up Late Night Stampers yahoo group.

Janine stamped and shared the cutest card.  A snowman with the opossum (from the retired set Mini Mates) hanging from his very stretched out arms and her sentiment was... 

outside: "This Christmas, as always..."
inside: "I love you THIS much". 

So so so cute!  She mentioned that the inspiration for her card had 2 birds on his arms.

Here is my version - recycling a previous snowman - with Janine's idea and 2 birds on a tag...

This is a BIG old tag so let me show you each side

Left: 

buttons from my stash and my sloppy printing

And sorta the right side:

And in case you want to make a tiny cardinal:

blurry photo but you can get the idea:

half a 3/4 inch circle red

half a 1/2 inch circle red sponged with bravo burgundy

half a standard hole punch black

quarter standard hole punch summer sun

I can see using this idea in some form or fashion as a border on the bottom of a scrapbook page.  Alas and drats, there is no room on my desk for a sheet of 12x12 paper - MUST clean up before I scrap.

Honest Snowman

I commented a few days back that I live in the "land of little snow" and that got me thinking about what most of our snowmen have looked like...

Oue snow (the few times we get some to stick) is almost always gone by the next day and the snowmen are reduced to melting piles.  And the piles are not pure white, they have plenty of dead grass rolled up in them.  But snowmen are so magical, they can look good even when they are melting.  Snowmen just make you smile whatever their shape!

Ribbon is from my stash and was chosen to represent the brown grass in the yard this time of year.  And the sentiment was computer generated.

Obviously I was undecided on hats...

Tall Snowman

We don't get much snow in North Texas so it is a real treat when we get enough to make a snowman.  This is a photo of a photo I took in 2004 (the last few months before I went to a digital camera).

Notice there is no snow left in the yard - we had to use it all to make this tall guy!

I used this as my model for this silly snowman

So while snowmen (three circles) are one of the easiest punch art things you can make - don't be afraid to dress them up and change them up a little bit and make them unique.  These are the same glasses that the bookworm wore.

 

Since I am born and bred here in the "land of little snow" I'm all out of snowman experience so tomorrow I'll have to show you something else.

Kissing Snow-folk

Rather than just standing there as most snowmen do, when you "build" TWO snow-folk you can have them interact. 

The snow-boy here is the same character I make on my gift tag.  My snow-girl thinks he is kinda cute. (I personally agree with her)

I put this pair on a another gift tag...

and the pink mini tags are a sneak peek of the new Tiny Tags set and the new Medium Jewelry Tag punch.

The new tag punch doesn't have the hole in it.  I added that so I could string it on the linen thread.

Snowman by the Light of the Moon

Ever wonder what snowmen do to keep from being bored at night?  Well. if there is enough moonlight, they might look like this:

I realized that I had a couple of snowman posts this week so I thought I'd just make a series of them so this must be Number 3.   Pretty easy punching except the holly leaves. 

To get the holly I actually drew a holly leaf then pushed a circle punch into my paper just far enough to snip on the lines - of course I had to flip it over and use the back side so you couldn't see where I missed  and the pencil marks showed.  So it isn't an exact science but it works!

This snowman with his nose is a book (literally) goes on a gift tag as a hint to what the gift is.  It will be no surprise, we are all big readers in our family and come from reading families so lots of books have been given over the years at Christmas.  Just a little ribbon, the top note die and some dimensionals - and I'm done!

Chatter about punches now:

Thanks to those of you that participated in my silly poll this past week.  I feel so powerful knowing that I got 42 of you to purchase a punch!  bwaaaa haaa haaa  (evil laugh)

Now I need you two shy people to step on up and email me your requests.  I have several ahead of you that are waiting on the inspiration fairy to do her thing but you might as well ask in case she shows up with what you need.

And I got my first three punches in the new SU (EK Success) style.  I like them!  Of course even though they will stack nicely, I have NO ROOM for them so a punch reorganization is required.  Lots of potential in these babies.....   You can buy them starting January 5th. 

But dang I am going to miss the ornament punch!   I sure hope it winds up on some dormant list so you can still buy it during "off ornament" season.  Don't the powerful of SU read my blog?  Don't they know the versatility of  that punch?  DON'T TAKE IT FROM ME.  Oh, that is right, I bought it - they can't take it from me.  Have you bought yours?  January 4th is the last day of the Holiday Mini - and the last day to purchase it (that I know of).  Contact me or your demo - it may soon be gone forever...... OH NO!!!!!

Tag Swap Results

We did a tag swap at our meeting Monday night - and since we were planning on these being for personal use we didn't limit our supplies to SU only (although mine were all SU). 

I swapped the Snowman in the Moon tag and the Peppermint tag (with the ribbon choice corrected) and this tag:

I LOVE THIS SNOWMAN!  He is on our family cards this year too - simple and easy to mass produce but still just as cute as could be!

Here are the tags I received from the swap:

And here are the closeups:

first by Eileen Flannery (it opens)

Now 3 by Becky Adams

and 3 by Jenifer Lange

Aren't they all wonderful?  I'm sure you can glean an idea or two (or three) from these! 

Snowman in the Moon

An ornament from my tree is the inspiration for one of my gift tags for a swap.

All I have time for now.  Sorry, no clever chatter today.  

And don't go muttering that the chatter isn't ever very clever - that is not nice.

Sherlock Kemper and the Case of the Case

I try very hard to be original for you gals.  If I am inspired by someone's work, I try to let things "sit" for awhile so I am not totally influenced by the original project.  I like to come up with a new spin on the stuff I case.  But I found a "new to me" blog and I had to do some immediate casing.  Patti Lee has a fabulous blog and I HAD to copy her card fold.  I copied it the day I saw it - no waiting around.  There is a lot of inspiration on her blog and Sherlock Kemper is on the case!

Now mine looks pretty normal on the outside - Sahara Sand, Taken with Teal and some of the new Holiday Lounge Designer Series Paper.

Snowflake punch and Simple Snowflake Stamp (only $7.95)
Frost White Shimmer Paint (from the mini catalog)











but then you open it and KAZAAM
Look at those cute flaps - you could go wild decorating them!

Since I had such BRIGHT paper, I kept it pretty simple  - I used the sentiment Ready Set Snow from the Best Wishes and More set and of course the snowflake punch and circle punches!    

Thanks go to my ever generous upline, Jenifer Lange, for sharing her paper and letting me use her snowflake stamp. My order should be delivered SOON - I'm on Brown Truck Alert!

And here is a top down view so you can see the fold.

Yes, I know you want see Patti's blog and you want to see HER card and her directions for this fold - Here it is:  Creations by Patti  Go check it out!

And after you check out Patti's blog, you need to check out Margaret Raburn's blog  She took my acorn from the ornament punch idea and took it to another level.  She punched it from designer series paper AND she created her own embossed background from die cuts.  Check it out!  SO COOL.  Margaret gave me permission to share her card here. 

I just love all these stampers who are so willing to share.  Sharing  makes us all better at our craft!