Here's card I made several weeks ago for a customer who placed an order with me:

I CASE'd it from Amy O'Neill, who has a great sense of design.  I love how it has so many elements going on, yet still has a clean feel.  I love the combination of fruits, which is perfect for the end of summer and beginning of fall. 

​Stop in to this free open house and make cards to donate to Banner Thunderbird Hospital's Pediatric Department.  The nurses use these cards to celebrate patient birthdays and to reach out to patients' families after a loss.  Help get them stocked up with handmade cards for the year.

Saturday, October 1
1:00 - 4:00 pm (come when you can, leave when you must)
Nancy's Craft Room in Scottsdale
​RSVP requested but not required.

Halloween Treats
Come make a collection of small-to-medium-sized treat packages complete with goodies!  

• This class will be a project “buffet” where you can choose the number of each type of treat package you want to make. 
• Minimum class cost is $20 for 5 projects…additional projects can be added on.
• Please contact me if you want to make more than 10 projects so I’m sure to have enough supplies on hand.

Thursday, October 13
7:00 - 9:30 pm
Nancy’s Craft Room 
RSVP by Monday, October 10

Friday, October 14
9:30 am - noon
Nancy’s Craft Room 
RSVP by Monday, October 10

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October Monthly Card Class
Make 5 cards featuring great Stampin’ Up! products and a variety of techniques.  Suitable for experienced and novice paper crafters alike.

Tuesday, October 18
​7:00 - 9:30 pm
Ellen’s House in Peoria (Loop 101 and 75th Ave)
RSVP by Friday, October 14

Thursday, October 20
7:00 - 9:30 pm
Nancy’s Craft Room 
RSVP by Friday, October 14

Friday, October 21
9:30 am - noon
Nancy’s Craft Room 
RSVP by Friday, October 14

It's another set of One Sheet Wonder cards made using the same template I showed you here.  This time I used a sheet of (retired) Christmas DSP that I trimmed to 8 ½" x 11" and then cut using the template measurements.  

Have you played around with this or another One Sheet Wonder layout?  I'd love to see...send me a pic!

​World Cardmaking Day
Stop in to this free open house and make cards to donate to Banner Thunderbird Hospital's Pediatric Department.  The nurses use these cards to reach out to patients' families...help get them stocked up with handmade cards for the year.

Saturday, October 1
1:00 - 4:00 pm (come when you can, leave when you must)
Nancy's Craft Room in Scottsdale
​RSVP requested but not required.

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Halloween Treats
Come make a collection of small-to-medium-sized treat packages complete with goodies!  

• This class will be a project “buffet” where you can choose the number of each type of treat package you want to make. 
• Minimum class cost is $20 for 5 projects…additional projects can be added on.
• Please contact me if you want to make more than 10 projects so I’m sure to have enough supplies on hand.

Thursday, October 13
7:00 - 9:30 pm
Nancy’s Craft Room 
RSVP by Monday, October 10

Friday, October 14
9:30 am - noon
Nancy’s Craft Room 
RSVP by Monday, October 10

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October Monthly Card Class
Make 5 cards featuring great Stampin’ Up! products and a variety of techniques.  Suitable for experienced and novice paper crafters alike.

Tuesday, October 18
​7:00 - 9:30 pm
Ellen’s House in Peoria (Loop 101 and 75th Ave)
RSVP by Friday, October 14

Thursday, October 20
7:00 - 9:30 pm
Nancy’s Craft Room 
RSVP by Friday, October 14

Friday, October 21
9:30 am - noon
Nancy’s Craft Room 
RSVP by Friday, October 14

Believe it or not, this is my first time participating in a blog hop!  A group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators has decided to take on the challenge of making  cards for the upcoming Jewish holidays...using current products.  It's been several years since SU! released a Jewish-themed stamp set, so it really is an exercise in thinking outside the box!  

​There are links at the bottom of this post to hop through the entire group...check out everyone's creations!

For my readers not familiar with it, Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year (celebrated this year from sundown on Sunday, October 2 until sundown on Tuesday, October 3, though many families observe only one day). As with most holidays there are traditional foods - in this case apples and honey, which signify the hope for a sweet new year, and a loaf of challah bread studded with raisins for sweetness and shaped in a circle or spiral to represent the circle of life.  Anyone who knows me knows that I'm all about the food, so that's what I chose to use on my cards!

I used stamps from 4 different sets to make this card:  Sheltering Tree (tree), Sprinkles of Life (basket and apples), Shooting Star (beehive and bees), and Labeler Alphabet (sentiment).  

The background is made by pressing my Pear Pizzazz and Soft Sky ink pads onto an "E" acrylic block, spritzing it with a little water, and then pressing it onto a panel of Whisper White card stock.  

While it was drying I stamped the basket and beehive onto scrap Whisper White in Delightful Dijon ink, and then took a barely damp AquaPainter and brushed over the images just enough to color the images with bit of the stamped ink.  

Then I stamped apples in Real Red on Real Red card stock, and in Pear Pizzazz on Pear Pizzazz card stock and punched them out with the Tree Builder Punch.  I covered them with Ultra Fine Glue and set them aside to dry, creating dimensional, glossy apples.

I stamped the bees in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Delightful Dijon card stock, then colored them with a Project Life Journaling Pen and the White Chalk Marker.  A little Clear Wink of Stella on the wings gave them a bit of a glimmer.

The Labeler Alphabet allowed me to stamp "L'shana Tova", which translates to "Have a sweet new year", and I punched it out with the Classic Label Punch, trimming off the right point.

Once the background was dry I stamped the tree trunk and branches in Chocolate Chip, then added the leaves in Garden Green.  "Apples" were simulated by stamping the snowflake stamp in Real Red.  Then I layered the other elements and mounted it on a Soft Sky panel and a Delightful Dijon card base.

I had another idea for a card that I also wanted to try out:

This time I took the round fruit image from Fresh Fruit and inked it up in Pear Pizzazz, then took a sponge dauber and added Real Red ink over most of it.  I added the stem and leaves stamped in Early Espresso and Garden Green.  I think it looks a lot like a MacIntosh apple, which we ate a lot when I was growing up. (Okay, we all know it's really supposed to be an image of a  peach, but I think it works - how about you?)

Then I stamped the smallest jar from Jar of Love in Memento Tuxedo Black, and added the liquid stamp in Delightful Dijon.  The "Honey" comes from the pot of honey in the Bear Hugs stamp set, and I used a Basic Black Stampin' Write marker to ink up just the word and stamp it on the jar.  The Jar of Haunts stamp set provided the  dripping honey image, which I stamped in Delightful Dijon, I then colored in with the same color marker and went over it with the Gold Wink of Stella marker.

The apple slices were my biggest challenge.  I punched a 1¾" circle in Whisper White and cut it in half, then dragged the round edged across my Pear Pizzazz ink pad in one spot, then the rest over my Real Red ink pad.  The one drop of the raindrops stamp in Sprinkles of Life set was inked with my Basic Black marker and stamped and colored in to represent apple seeds.  One apple slice I stamped a few times with the dripping image from Jar of Haunts in Delightful Dijon, and colored it in with Gold Wink of Stella.

The table top is a strip of Crumb Cake stamped with the Hardwood stamp in Crumb Cake.  The wall panel  is So Saffron embossed with the Brick Wall embossing folder.  The sentiment, stamped in Chocolate Chip,  is a mash-up of a masked stamp from Oh, What Fun and the only retired item I used - a masked-off sentiment the host set, Good Greetings.  The card base is Chocolate Chip.

Now it's time to hop on over and see what the rest of the group has created!

Here's a list of demonstrators and their blogs if you get lost:

​Nancy Hoetker -  nancysniftynotes.com  <-- you are here
Miriam Biegun Permut - MyInkPad.com
Yapha Nussbaum Mason - yaphamason.com
Jean Fitch - http://www.jfstudio.wordpress.com
Debby Hoffman - http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/debbyhoffman/blog
Liz Roberts - ​http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/lizroberts/blog

​Stop in to this free open house and make cards to donate to Banner Thunderbird Hospital's Pediatric Department.  The nurses use these cards to reach out to patients' families...help get them stocked up with handmade cards for the year.

Saturday, October 1
1:00 - 4:00 pm (come when you can, leave when you must)
Nancy's Craft Room in Scottsdale
​RSVP requested but not required.

I've set a goal for myself of having a new holiday-themed project to share with you every Monday until just before New Year's, for a total of 20 projects.  Here's this week's:

This is a quick-and-easy Envelope Punch Board Tote that was recently featured in a tutorial on splitcoaststampers.com.  I've made this one from a 6" x 6" piece of Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper. This one is embellished with the Santa from Cookie Cutter Christmas and a double bow of Candy Cane Lane Baker's Twine with the red metallic stripe.  It's not visible in the picture, but Santa's suit trim is all glimmer-y with Clear Wink of Stella.

Here are a few more I've made with Merry Moments 6" x 6" Designer Series Paper Stack I had leftover from last year...and it's now available in the Clearance Rack for only $3.20!  Need to do a bunch of teacher/coworker/secret Santa gifts or party favors?  Score!

These would also be very cute in the current Warmth & Cheer 6" x 6" Designer Series Paper Stack, or really any DSP and embellishment for any occasion!  See more examples at the splitcoaststampers.com Envelope Punch Board Tote project gallery.

Stop in to this free open house and make cards to donate to Banner Thunderbird Hospital's Pediatric Department.  The nurses use these cards to reach out to patients' families...help get them stocked up with handmade cards for the year.

Saturday, October 1
1:00 - 4:00 pm (come when you can, leave when you must)
Nancy's Craft Room in Scottsdale
​RSVP requested but not required.

We hosted a delightful graduate student from Germany for a few weeks recently...she only stayed a few nights at our house, and the rest at an apartment much closer to the Arizona State University campus, but we enjoyed having her around and did some social activities together throughout her stay.  I even got her to stamp a card with me, and we checked out the Stampin' Up! Deutschland website so she could see that there were demonstrators nearby to both her home and her mother's home. You're welcome, German demonstrators!

Anyway, just before she returned home I found a nice wall calendar from Arizona Highways magazine that was full of stunning landscape photos, and decided to give it to her.  At my insistence she'd taken a day trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon, and had been duly impressed, so I thought this might be a nice souvenir to see all next year.  I wrapped it up in plain kraft paper because I wanted the tag to stand out.​

I keep trying to master the Japanese style of wrapping at an angle...I think more practice is required!  Once I got it as good as it was going to get, I wrapped it 3 times with Linen Thread and secured it with a knot, leaving long tails to thread through the tag and tie in a bow.  Then I made my tag.

I used Kraft yardstick for the bottom rectangle and the larger of the banner panels.  The rectangle is layered with a piece of Moroccan Designer Series Paper.  The Whisper White layer is stamped with images from the Sheltering Tree set (I know - not Thoughtful Branches!!).  The sentiment is "For You" in German, from an old stamp set I purchased years ago from a German demonstrator.  Wish we could purchase all of the translated options in this country. I used it because I have it, not because she needed it since her English is nearly perfect!  She's writing an academic paper in English with Glenn, and teaches MBA students in English.  Whew!

So much fun to use my stamps, paper and ink to make custom tags and cards!

What have you been making lately?  Send me pictures!!!

Stop in to this free open house and make cards to donate to Banner Thunderbird Hospital's Pediatric Department.  The nurses use these cards to reach out to patients' families...help get them stocked up with handmade cards for the year.

Saturday, October 1
1:00 - 4:00 pm (come when you can, leave when you must)
Nancy's Craft Room in Scottsdale
​RSVP requested but not required.

I've set a goal for myself of having a new holiday-themed project to share with you every Monday until just before New Year's, for a total of 20 projects.  Here's this week's:

Even though this card uses 3 stamp sets, it's really simple to make!  I've CASE'd it from Paula Dobson.   Yes, it's got the evergreen tree from Thoughtful Branches...which is still available to order.  I continue to use it more than any other set I own.

The fun and vibrant red stripe border is from a great little "sleeper" set in the Annual Catalog, Playful Backgrounds.  The rest of the card is so neat and clean, it's fun to have the slightly messy stripes as an accent.

The sentiment is from the returning Wondrous Wreath set.  It's so easy to get caught up in the great new items in the Holiday Catalog and to forget the items in the Annual Catalog...I'm glad Paula added it here.

For embellishment, a piece of ⅜" Stitched Satin Ribbon was wrapped around the Whisper White Panel, and another piece tied into a bow and added with Glue Dots.  An Enamel Shapes Regals (Crushed Curry) star was added to the top of the tree.

This card is so quick, easy and mailable it wouldn't surprise me if it makes the cut for my Christmas Stamp-A-Stack later this fall!

I recently played around with creating faux metal embellishments.  They are pretty easy to make, and add an amazing amount of dimension and shine.

To make these I cut 3 of the large flourish from the Flourish Thinlits and glued them together.  Then I smeared VersaMark ink all over them, trying to get along the edges, too.  Then I covered it in Copper Embossing Powder and melted it with my heat tool.  Once it was cool, I coated again with the VersaMark and embossing powder.  I did a total of 3 coats of VersaMark and embossing powder.

I also stamped the sentiment from Flourishing Phrases in VersaMark on a panel of Very Vanilla card stock, and embossed it with Copper Embossing Powder.  Then I mounted it on another Very Vanilla panel that I embossed with the Festive Embossing Folder, and a Very Vanilla card base.

Here's the second card I made with this type of embellishments.

This time I used the sprig of leaves from the Flourish Thinlits, and made 3 sets of 3 cutouts glued together.  I used the same technique, embossing one in Gold, one in Silver, and one in Copper Embossing Powders.  I layered them on a Very Vanilla panel that was embossed with the Petal Burst Embossing Folder and a mat of Soft Suede.  

I also stamped a Very Vanilla panel with the double leaf stamp from Flourishing Phrases, inking it up and then stamping off each time with Soft Suede, Crumb Cake and Smoky Slate inks.  All of these were mounted on a Soft Suede card base.  

The sentiment is from the My Hero stamp set, which is this year's Ronald McDonald House Charities benefit stamp.  It coordinates with the banner in the Cupcake Cutouts Framelits, which are on sale in this week's Special Offers!

Here is the tutorial by Amy McGuire that I watched to learn how to make these:

I love this Pinecones and Presents suite in the new Holiday Catalog, and it went straight on my first preorder.  This card is CASE'd from Lynn Starzl, and I think it makes a big impact with some simple elements.