Special for December

A new special started today with Stampin Up. When you spend $20 on any product you can choose a stamp set from the Fall/Winter Sampler catalog for 20% off. See the chart below for details. Also check the left side of my blog to download the Sampler catalog.

Product Offer: December 1, 2008-January18, 2009
Spend $20 and get 20 percent off any stamp set from the Fall-Winter Sampler.

Item #	Description	Retail	20% Off
111564	Flight of the Butterfly	$31.95	$25.56
112911	Vuelo de la mariposa (Spanish Flight of the Butterfly)	$31.95	$25.56
111676	Puns from the Past	$27.95	$22.36
111660	Just Jawing	$25.95	$20.76
111624	Dreams du Juor	$18.95	$15.16
111700	Thank You Kindly	$13.95	$11.16
111714	Wow Flowers	$12.95	$10.36
112955	Flores llamativas (Spanish Wow Flowers)	$12.95	$10.36
111600	Bella's Bloom	$12.95	$10.36

Please email me directly to place an order at nikkischmaltz@yahoo.com
Have a great day!

Spreading Joy

I did get a chance to stamp just a bit yesterday. I really wanted to try this sketch by Jen Del Muro. I decided to try and include a Limited Supply Challenge that was issued on Splitcoast Stampers. What I should be working on is my own Challenge...my CHRISTMAS CARDS! I'm hoping to get them done by next weekend.
This card features the stamp set Holiday Hedgehogs. I have had this set for so long and ony used it a few times. Can you believe I almost sold it?! These images are sooo cute. I stamped the image in Versafine Black Ink onto Whisper White CS. Then I decided to try something I have never done before. I used my watercolor crayons. I just took my wet paintbrush and picked up some of the color from my crayon and painted it onto the image. I LOVED the results. I am definitely going to be doing this again. I cut this image out with my CM circle cutter and applied Dazzling Diamonds all around the border with 2 way glue. The pixie pink piece is cuttlebugged and layered onto Basic Gray CS. The pink ribbon is from American Crafts and small circle is punched out with a 1"circle punch. It has a snowflake stamped in pixie pink and then the word "joy" stamped overtop in Basic gray. I covered the whole thing with 2 way glue and Dazzled it with diamonds. It is tied on with a retired silver cord from SU. Let me just tell you that this card sparkles. LOTS of glitter! Here is a close up of some glitter.




I have to share with you what my kids did yesterday. They decided to play restaurant which turned into making REAL food with their MADE UP recipes. This is a picture of one of the creations. It is a "salty slit" and a "sprintz". I was told that I couldn't tell what the recipes are as they are TOP SECRET. I'm sure you can figure it out. Let me just say it was very interesting and not too bad. Watch out Giada! ( family joke).

I hope you all had a wonderful ,LONG, holiday weekend. Did you get any Christmas shopping done? I had way more fun shopping online. Free shipping makes it even better:) Have a good one!

Overindulgence Limited

Good morning to everyone. I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. It was my anniversary. And even though my dear hubby was working I was busy making him a "card". I will show that later. It is a dreary day here in our town. So, I'm hoping to be able to do some creating today. However, I woke up with a monster headache so we shall see. I have several things to share today.

The first is a card that is very similar to something from my SU demonstrator magazine. It is one of the cards we made in my class last week. I used Baja Breeze cardstock as my base. A strip of Textured Whisper White makes up the mat on the front. We used the 1", 1 3/8" and 1 3/4" circle punches from SU to make up the various circles on the front of the card. The cardstock used is So Saffron, Certainly Celery and Real Red. I colored the image from the set Party Hearty with Chocolate Chip and Cert. Celery markers and then punched it out with my 1 3/4" circle punch. The image fits inside the punch perfectly. The little present was inked with Baja Breeze and then punched out and popped up with dimensionals into the center of the main image. Celebrate today was inked with Chocolate Chip and is from the set called Starring You.

This card was another from my class. It uses the sets Snow Burst and Heard from the Heart . I ran the top part of my Whisper White card base through my cuttlebug to create the embossed snowflakes. A strip of Brocade Blue was adhered to the bottom . Then a scallop edged strip of Real Red was layered under a strip of White that I distressed along the top edge with my SU Cutter Kit. The sentiment was colored with my Real Red and Brocade Blue Markers. After adhering this to the card I stamped one of the snowflakes with Brocade Blue ink and added the fine cosmo glitter in blue to areas of the snowflake using my 2 Way Glue Pen. This was then punched out with the 1 3/4" circle punch and adhered with a dimensional.

We will now pause from our regularly schedule program for some advice on how to NOT over indulge on Thanksgiving Day...


Let a child cut the Pie. You are sure to not get TOO big of a piece .

This is how my son cut the pie for Thanksgiving. He cracks me up everyday without even trying. I'm not sure how many people he thought we were serving. There were only the four of us for dinner. And yes, that is HOMEMADE:D He also requested we eat on the "chinese" plates...uh that would be the China to translate. Yes, we are very fancy here can't ya tell:)

Back to the regularly scheduled program..

This is the "card" I made for my husband. It is really a small book of quotes and reasons why I love him. When we were dating I made up a list. I still haven't looked at that one to compare what I said back then to what I have written now. I honestly could have written SOO much more but I was running out of time. That's me, "Last Minute Lucy", waiting til the day OF our anniversary. So anyways, this was made with Chipboard and my Top Note Die Cut by SU. I covered it with patterned paper from my vast supply. Everything on the front is either a rub on or sticker except the "U". That is chipboard from SU that is inked in Encore Gold and then Close to Cocoa Craft ink. I don't have all the details of the rub ons and stickers. They are just from my vast supply that I have had for awhile now. The inside is Bazzill paper that I die cut as well. Here is a view of the inside. Excuse the smudged areas but they are private. Also, when I saw that sentiment stamp on the left I knew I had to get it. It is the PERFECT saying for how I feel about my husband. It is from Stampabilities. The trees are from the Retired SU set called Noble Deer.

Thanks for stopping in today. I am still working on my tutorial. I have not forgotten but I have several projects in the works. They are for Christmas so, I will share when I can. Have a great Sunday!

Friday Happy Dance!

Doin' the Friday Happy Dance here...how about you? Probably not so much if you have to work today or if you've come back from SHOPPING? Well, I have to tell ya that I make fun of people shopping on this day. Ok, not really "make fun". More like, I think you're nuts. But, today my hubby came home from work at 9am and guess what was in his back seat? Yup...a NEW TV. So doing a different kind of happy dance. My husband , the one that doesn't like to shop, braved the store this am. Crazy on a whole new level. But we now have TV. The fam is in watching it now with full bellies after our Thanksgiving feast. Yep....life is good here at the Schmaltz home. So, I took a few minutes to post my design for Kristina Werner's Color Challenge. Here is the challenge:

Don't those colors just make you happy too? I love red, but being a redHEAD I can't wear it very much. Still I find it beautiful. So my creation is below










Here is a close up of the embossed star and the sparkly glitter around the edges...





Did you notice that gorgeous ribbon? It is the scrap piece I had leftover from the "crafty thing " I posted yesterday. I get seriously giddy when I use my scraps. I glued a big ol' piece of BLING from my stash of stuff that I bought forever ago. I used Crystal Effects for that because the other glue I bought for jewelry didn't work. Gotta love CE...works for everything I swear. So this is a layer of Vanilla CS on top of a folded 4 1/4X11" piece of Riding Hood Red. It is very hard to see in the photo but I also white embossed snowflakes from the set Scandinavian Season onto the vanilla. (This set is in the Holiday Mini located on the left side of my blog. Check it out.) Then a Cuttlebugged :D piece of RHR was layered onto that. My ribbon is just tied in a knot and adhered around the edges. I stamped the sentiment from a retired set from last year in RHR onto vanilla and layered this onto a piece of vellum. The glitter around the edges was made by tracing the edge with my Martha Stewart glue pen and then Dazzling Diamonds was sprinkled on. So pretty! I used Silver pigment ink and silver EP for the star onto RHR Cardstock and cut out. I then stamped again with the silver and EP onto vellum and cut out the little flower shape. I colored the back in with a blender pen and white craft ink. The center is another little bling piece that was in my stash. I popped this image up with dimensionals and then popped the entire star with dimensionals as well. Oh yeah, used dimensionals to layer this piece onto the card. Yes, I LOVE my dimensionals. I always have extra on hand because I ran out once. Card production stopped due to this major catastrophe. It was a sad week or so before I got them back. Ok, well I think that's it. I need to get this posted and up for viewing by Kristina herself. Also, my family is waiting for me....they love me:D Enjoy your weekend!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope you all are enjoying this beautiful Thanksgiving Day. Ours is not the traditional Thanksgiving. My husband is working today so our feast will take place tomorrow. You learn when your husband is a fireman that the true meaning of a holiday is spending it together and that it doesn't necessarily matter what the actual "date" of the holiday may be. So, our Thanksgiving will take place tomorrow. Today my kids and I are enjoying a day in PJs and watching TV and CRAFTING! How fabulous is that! This post was suppose to happen yesterday but we spent almost the entire day in town shopping. Our TV is dying a long, slow, painful death. So we went TV shopping. We also saw BOLT. This is a great movie. Go see it even if you don't have kids. You are sure to laugh. But after a long day of price comparison as well as research and help from the sales people what did we come home with....NADA, NOTHING, ZIPPO! That is only because EVERYTHING we wanted was not in stock and who knows when it will be back in stock. What we found out is that some stores will "Sell" you a TV and say it will be in on this certain date and then after much delay and rescheduling they will ultimately not be able to get it themselves and you will have no TV. So, we would rather wait until we can take a TV home with us. The search continues:D but NOT on BLACK FRIDAY....(shutter at the thought). Speaking of the dreaded day. We left Best Buy last night at around 6:30pm and there was already someone camped out,literally, with a tent, cot and sleeping bag on the sidewalk by the door. This is on a Tuesday mind you. Seriously, what can be THAT great of a deal to go through the torture. Personally, I don't get it. Not even for stamps would I do that. Ok, enough babble. My project to show you today is the "crafty thing" and card I made. The person really seemed to like it. I got the supplies from HL at 90% off. How COOL is that!





The card is for the splitcoast color challenge this week. The colors are Really Rust, Going Gray and Very Vanilla. I ran the gray through my cuttlebug for texture. The vanilla scallops are punched with my scallop edge punch and then pierced. I used my new Nestabilities for the oval and scalloped oval. That image is from a retired set called Garden Sillouettes. It is colored with the Really Rust and Going Gray markers, misted with water and stamped on watercolor paper. I then covered the oval with versamark and UTEE and heat embossed. The ribbon is something I tried to lightly dye and then dry with my heat gun. It dried kind of strange. Not sure I like it. This sketch is the MONDAY MOJO SKETCH over at Poetic Artistry.

Well, I'm off to do a million things. We are setting up our Christmas village tonight and I need to make sure things are dusted and in order before we create this huge "mess". It is my kid's favorite thing to do besides decorate the tree. My husband doesn't care to do the village so it is a perfect thing to do without him today. I hope you all have a wonderful time doing what ever it is you are doing today. May you be thankful for each and every little thing EACH day brings!
Warm wishes and blessings to you all!

CD Holder

Good Morning. I just have a very quick post this morning to show you a CD holder that I made for my daughter's friend's birthday. She wanted to make her a mix of favorite music. This CD holder is SUPER easy to make and I found the directions on someone's blog. I will get that website and give credit where credit is due. However, it is not readily available at this time. I will update this afternoon. For the CD Holder I stamped onto Wild wasabi (LOVE this color) with a flower from the retired set Little Layers Plus. I then scallop edged punched a piece of Pink Passion and adhered. The shaker flower is made from another retired set that I love called Big Blooms. I stamped with versamark onto Lovely Lilac and covered with heat and stick powder. After heating I dumped the new fine Cosmo glitter in purple all over it. Then I was sparkly for the rest of the day:D. I punched the center out with my 1 3/8 circle punch. A piece of acetate is adhered to the back and then a piece of foam that I cut into a ring using my Coluzzle cutter is ahered on top of that to create the shaker. I used Crystal Effects to glue on the foam. It seems to work the best for me. Micro beads were then poured into the little well once the glue had dried. The saying is from All Year Cheer II I believe and was stamped in Pink passion onto a die cut circle. This was adhered to sandwich those beads in. All this was then adhered to the CD Holder. I used my sizzix letters to cut out the name from lovely lilac and VOILA! I would like to be able to alter this CD Holder to list the songs that are on the CD. Will work on that template and share once it is complete.

Here is a close up of Sparkly Goodness. Shaker cards and glitter just makes people giddy. Especially little girls.

Ok, I'm off. I'm helping with a church project this am and then to work. After work I have to scour the craft stores for ideas. I was asked last night to make a last minute Thanksgiving "crafty thing" for someone. So wish me luck! I do have a card that I made this am to go with this crafty thing. I'll post that tomorrow. Happy Tuesday!

UPDATE: you can click HERE for the website that has the directions for this CD holder.

Doin' the Daisy Tango

Sorry I have been such a crappy blogger lately. This past week was a little crazy for me. I didn't get to do ANY challenges. Whenever I have a class it is like that. I have to just stay focused on the task at hand. Not sure why I planned it for when my husband was gone, but it all worked out well. I love to have girls over to create and talk and laugh. I had so much fun. I will show a few of the cards we made over the next few days. One of them will include a tutorial. But for today the card I'm showing uses the set called Upsy Daisy. The title of my post reminds me of the song that Burt on Sesame Street sang about pigeons...Doin the (bru, bru) Pigeon. I know I'm weird but I can't get that song out of my head. Plus I have the visual of him doing the pigeon moves. It's insane, I know. So, about that card:

I cut out on Whisper White Cardstock the Top Note Die Cut Design. Love this! I inked up the stamp with versamark. I then colored only the stems on the stamp using my homemade marker in Kiwi Kiss. Be careful to not do this in reverse or you will have a ink all over your versamark pad. ( You can see how to make your own marker in my tutorial section.) Then I used my SU Chalks and sponge daubers to fill in and highlight the daisies. I used orange and ruby red for this. I touched up the green with my old Olive chalk as well. The sentiment was inked with my "marker" again and then stamped and punched out with the oval punch. I chalked the edges as well. This is then adhered with dimensionals. I stamped the Sanded background onto the Kiwi Kiss Cardstock and layered the main image on top. The whole thing is wrapped with white taffetta ribbon that I colored with my orange chalk. See photo here:

I used a metal ring from the Silver HodgePodge set as an accent piece. All this is mounted on a folded 4 1/4X 11" piece of white cardstock. Well that is all I have time for today. Hope your Monday is great! It's a short week so we are happy here! I hope to be able to get some challenges done this week. My biggest one is getting my Christmas cards done:)

P.S. My free counter must have only been on a trial basis as last week it just disappeared! So even though I was really getting up there in hits we had to start over. Bummer. I'm hoping this new counter sticks around for a while. So hit me!