Snowed In!

Good morning, Stampers! I trust everyone had a fabulous Christmas. I sure did, despite being snowed in. We had 14" of the white stuff in the OKC metro on the 24th. While that may not seem like mammoth amounts to some of you, you would have to know that we only have a few snowplows for the whole state! Most everything is closed down if we get much more than 2-3" here. Here's a picture from my front door and one from the driveway.

Enough about snow. I wanted to show you what I made for our office gift exchange.

I also made her one of my "white boards" with the Upsy Daisy image. I used her favorite color and personalized the scratch pad holder with her first name. I thought it made a nice gift and several of the ladies oohed and aah ed over it.

Well, stampers, I have swap cards to make that absolutely HAVE to be in the mail (and overnight ed) by Monday. It has indeed been the season for procrastination! I have one of the two cards designed, but that's as far as I've gotten. At least I have all of next week off to enjoy time with my family before heading back to work!

Enjoy your weekend and remember, if I can stamp, you can, too!

Dry Erase Tiles

I have had several emails asking me for directions on the tiles I posted yesterday, so .... I thought I'd post the directions here for all of you!

I used glazed tiles that measure 6"X8" from the local hardware store. I rubbed the tile with my Embossing Buddy so I didn't have extra EP stick to the tile. (If this does happen, you can scrape it off with a razor blade/craft knife.) Next I stamped my tile with the image and Classic Stampin' Pads. I have discovered that line images work better than bold images as the bold images tend to look "gloopy". You do have to be very careful to stamp straight down and lift straight up because the ink will smear pretty easily since the tile is glazed. However, if you do have a smearing situation, the ink will wipe right off with a little spritz of Stampin' Mist and a paper towel (which is why you HAVE to use embossing powder on this project). Once you have your image stamped, sprinkle with clear EP and tap off the excess. (I blew on mine after that, just to be sure all the excess had been removed.) Then heat in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Remove with pot holders as they will be VERY hot. I put mine on racks to cool and they did this much more quickly than I though they would. It took about 15 or so minutes for them to be cool enough to handle. I then tied some ribbon around them and set them in the little easels I bought at the dollar store.

OH! I covered the dry erase markers with DSP and/or copy paper stamped to match the color of my image while the tiles were heating/cooling. I used 2 stips of Sticky Strip to adhere the paper to the markers. Voila! A quick gift that looks great! And the great thing about these is you can get several of them ready all at once and stick them in the oven together!

I'd love to see what you create. If you make one of these, please link back to this post so I can see! :) Enjoy creating.

'Tis the season...

To be BUSY!!! Sorry I have neglected you guys for so long. I have been busy both creating and with life. Here's a couple of samples of a project I've been working on. I hope you like them. They are really quick and I know I use one on a daily basis in my own home! The first one is done in Pacific Point (last year's In Color) and Country Morning a Level One hostess set. The second one is done in Melon Mambo and one of last year's SAB stamp sets that I still love, Polka Dot Punches. I whipped up 5 of these in less than 1 hour. If you want more details, just email me!

RETIRING STAMP SETS

Just this morning Stampin' Up released a list of stamps on the Dormant List that will retire on January 4, 2010. These stamps are still available in limited supply. If you see one you'd like to own, contact me or place your order online. I'm including a list of the stamp sets. The stamps sets can be seen on my website, tory.stampinup.net or email me and I'll be glad to email a PDF document with pictures of the stamp sets. If you have any questions, feel free to email me or give me a call.

Contact me to order your retiring stamp set and recieve 10% off the purchase price (tax and shipping will be calculated on the full price). Shipping is 10% with a $6.95 minimum. Email me at tabray@sbcglobal.net or call me to place your order!



Item Number Stamp Set
113407 Back Woods
114492 Beautiful Baby
114486 Birthday Wish
113200 Branch Out
114496 Celebrations
113732 Central Park
113206 Classic Sketches
113226 Classy & Fabulous
114498 Flowers in Silhouette
113405 Font of You
113216 For the Bride
114494 Forever
109425 Friend by Definition
114488 Fun Flowers
113716 Garden Greetings
114490 Glad Friends
111580 Grand Soiree
113242 Hit the Road
113710 Lexicon of Leaves
113236 Man's Best Friend
114423 Ocean Commotion
113728 Playful Petals
109276 Polka Dot
111544 Putt Putt
113240 Quilt Quips
113754 Really Retro
113403 Sip by Sip
113726 Sweet Stems
113250 That's Funny
113688 Wonderful Watercolors
114028 Para la novia
114032 Acuarelas Maravillosas

For best selection, order early.