I knew a little girl, who had a little curl...

An interesting technique for you to achieve the Curly Ribbon look - combines crafting and Baking :-D Brought to you by Wendy Stamps last year.


These curlys can be used in a variety of centerpieces, on favors and gifts (hairbows as well as wrapping bows, I am picturing it now!), and would make for some great Home decor pieces as well!

You will need:
Grossgrain Ribbon - she used 1/4" Chocolate Chip and Olive
Wooden Dowels - the thickness of the dowels will determine the size of the curl - ones used were 1/4" in diameter. Try experiemnting with different sizes. For the ribbons on the cake centerpiece (see link in name, above), two dowels put together to make more of a zig-zag curl. You may even try using popsicle sticks - anything wooden and oven-safe.
Wooden Clothespins - I used smaller ones. Do not use plastic as these may melt

1. Use a clothespin to secure one end of the grossgrain ribbon to one end of a dowel.

2. Wrap ribbon around the dowel, being sure to leave space between each rotation as shown above. If you do not leave space, the finished piece will resemble a long tube of ribbon instead of a springy curl.

3. When you get to the end of the dowel, cut the ribbon and secure with another clothespin.

4. Place your wrapped dowels on a cookie sheet or baking pan. The clothespins keep the dowels and ribbon from touching the bottom of the pan.

5. Bake ribbons in oven at 275 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove ribbons from oven and allow them to cool completely before removing from dowels.
Here is a fall project I made using the curly ribbons:

The 3-D pumpkin was adapted from one found on the Stampin' Up! demonstrator website, & the Big Shot was used to cut leaves from old olive cardstock using the Leaves #2 Die. She wheeled a design onto 3/4" X 11" strips of Pumpkin Pie cardstock. Everything is held together with rhinestone circle brads. The curly grossgrain ribbons made festive vines and tendrils!
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Accent the Savings

Deals of the Week continue with some great embellishments offered up:



1/2" Library Clips Let your inner librarian run wild when you clip a tag to a project with one of our adorable Mini Library Clips. These clips to add the right touch to your projects. They look great with onboard chipboard pieces, and get festive with a bit of ribbon added.
Contains 24 pieces, 8 each of 3 colors: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Whisper White ,Powder finish





These Mini Library Clips are a nice change from the usual types of clips. They’re adorable with a piece of ribbon tied around the end. I especially like to use them to attach journaling to my scrapbook pages. . These clips are 1/4" x 1/2" and each package contains 12 each of 4 colors (Black, Silver, Antique Brass, and Pewter).
Also on Sale this week are some Circle Designer Brads.
These high-quality cast brads are so easy to use. They're finished in Styled Silver, and can be used separately or with Hodgepodge Hardware. Brads always add a nice finishing touch to a project, but these substantial brads add so much more. Their size and intricate details make them stand out on any project. they make great accent pieces for the hears of flowers, or very clean corner accents. Assortment includes 16 pieces; 8 each of 2 sizes (1/2" and 3/4")
You can use the 1/16” Circle punch to make a perfect hole for your brad. When punching the hole for your brad, make sure you are far enough from the edge of the paper that the tails of the brad won’t extend past the edge. If the punch won’t reach where you want to place your brad, use the paper-piercing tool from the Crafters’ Tool Kit to punch a hole wherever you want.

Another awesome Deal: the Basic Jumbo Grommet!
Look at the accent potential! Custom designed, these large grommets add some real spunk! These grommets can even frame small images for real art appeal.
Available in Basic Black, Silver, Very Vanilla, Whisper White
20 grommets per package, 5 of each color
1" diameter; 1/2"center hole
Sized to coordinate with the 1/2" Circle punch
Perfect for framing small images
To set these grommets, push them through your paper and bend the prongs back with a
bone folder or similar tool. Do not use the Crop-A-Dile to set these grommets—the Crop-A-Dile will exert too much pressure and dent the grommets.
I love the cards here: all are from the Stampin' up Gallery on splitcoaststampers.com; if you'd like the supplies to make any of these, please email me for the "recipe".
To order the hot Deals of the Week - please visit my Stampin Up Store, and click on Shop Now, then Deals of the Week from the menu.
Open 24/7 for your convenience, and these deals are available without any special purchase. But Hurry -- the offer vanishes Monday 10/26 at 9:50am!! Get your accents while they are cheap enough to use on EVERYTHING!


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Class To Go - Spooky Bouquet and Halloween Treats

Get in the mood for a fun and funky Halloween! Make a spooky bouquet to decorate your table or give to neighbors and friends, then make special treat holders for your favorite trick-or-treaters. Once you see how easy these are, you will want to make more for all the neighbors and for school parties!




--Instructions Only--$10 I will email you a detailed 27 page PDF: full color photos and step by step instructions, as well as complete supply lists including item numbers.
Keep these instructions and use different color combinations, themes, and Designer Series Paper to make homemade floral arrangements and treat bags and boxes for all of the holidays. They will delight your neighbors, friends, family, and teachers.

Featured Products:
115677 Designer Series paper - Cast-a-Spell
116497 Twick or Tweet stamp set
116802 Sweet Treat Cups
103104 Cellophane Bags - Small Flat
112084 On Board Loads of Letters: 'BOO'
113439 Big Shot**
116819 Stampin' Up! Table Setting Bigz XL Die**

As a Special Bonus - email me your order for the Featured Products above and get 10% off AND the class instructions for Free! angelabodas@comcast.net
**SPECIAL DOUBLE BONUS: if you order by 10/18/09 Sunday night at 10pm PT the big shot Exclusive die and the Machine Itself will be %15 off!
---applies to EMAIL ORDERS ONLY---

PLEASE NOTE: This class-to-go is NOT offered to Stampin' Up Demonstrators. If you are a Stampin' Up Demonstrator interested in this Class to go, please contact me at angelabodas@comcast.net

For More Photos please view HERE
Products Used:
Stamps & Dies
• Twick or Tweet • Stampin' Up! Table Setting Bigz XL Die
Ink
• Basic Black Classic Ink • Platinum Shimmer Paint
Card stock
• Cast-a-Spell DSP • Basic Black • Perfect Plum • Old Olive
Other
• Big Shot Machine • On Board Loads of Letters Chipboard • Stampin’ Dimensionals • Old Olive 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon • Small Flat Cellophane Bags • Sweet Treat Cups • Silver Brads • Floral Foam • Google Eyes (optional) • Pipe Cleaners - Black
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How do you FIND the time?

I believe that is the number one question I am asked, and the most common comment when I share my craftiness...
We are All working with the same allotment here:
60 minutes an hour
24 hours a day
7 days a week
(If you know of some other arrangement by which I can get More hours in a day, please - Share!!)
But you will notice that there are people (or perhaps You are that person) who never can "Find" time for things they profess to Love. Finding time to spend with loved ones or friends, finding time to get those To Do's Done, finding time to go to those great Places To See Before You Die, or just finding time for personal pursuits - reading, worship, exercise, and my Personal Favorite: Crafting.

I used to wonder, back in the days before I had even one of the two wonderful "time bandits" I now have (aka children), What are those people talking about?! Finding time - if you plan it right, you have almost Too Much time! Hah... Thoughtless naivete of the Single Girl.
Even with the best plans, there really never is Enough time for Everything! Between work and family, and that old standard Sleep, really - Everything? EVERY thing? Now, if time ran in a circle and we spun pirouettes till the end of days, there would still never be time for Everything...Bills, groceries, Doctors visits, family celebrations, Holidays, sick time, play time, calm time, nap time, charity, social, and community events... the list is never ending of things that will at some point or another "steal" away that time you have.
But these words we use kind of point to the real culprit:
Find
Steal
Lose
these are all passive "it happened to me" kind of words... Where is your control, your decision, your power? Do you wear the watch, or does it wear you? And by Everything - what are we really describing there?
Granted, there are definitely things that will use some of that precious allotment with no substitutions: you have to eat, you have to rest, if you have children you have to meet their needs for food and rest (and love :-), you have to keep a roof over your head, and clothes on your body. There are definite "musts" that will always trump Craft Time.
But really - the majority of your time use is left to your own discretion. You choose to commute to work a certain way - public transit or driving. You choose to log onto Facebook and YouTube and see the latest updates or hot videos. You choose to spend hours looking for just the right outfit at just the right store at the mall. You choose to gab on the phone with that friend you never really liked anyway. You choose to maintain a Home & Garden show house. You spend hours watching TV. You spend hours (yes, it will add up to hours, if you were to really log the time you spend on your daily activities) a week on activities that do not feed your soul or further your agenda of "important to me" items. I know - ask me what level Farmer I am :-) or how many movie or book reviews I have clicked through, or take a gander at how many Tweets I post a week....
But: if I choose to relax and connect with friends, if I choose to get a cup of coffee after work, or choose to catch the latest Sesame Street with the kids, or choose to stop at the park on the way home from Target... I choose to Not spend that time crafting.
Essentially it boils down to this:
You Choose how you spend your "free" time.

Challenge your Choices:
  • Take out a sheet of paper and write down your top priorities, put them in matter of importance to your personal well-being. Prioritise your priorities
  • keep a log of how you spend your time for a week : click here for a great explanation and How To of How to Keep a Time Log
  • At the end of the week, take a good long look at that log. Add up how much time you spend on your priorities. Add up the times spent on the most common items.

Are your priorities getting their deserved allotment of those precious minutes we have each day? Why not? What can you do about that?

Now if they were asking

"How do you MAKE time to craft?!"

that is a whole 'nother story!!
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Halloween Treat Box
Stamps
Pumpkin Patch (from Holiday Mini Catalog)
Paper
Pumpkin Pie card stock
Whisper White card stock (1-1/2" x 1-3/4")
Ink
Basic Black Classic Stampin' Pad
Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad
Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad
Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad
Accessories
Stampin' Dimensionals
Box Pattern

Instructions
Using a simple box pattern, trace pattern on Pumpkin Pie card stock, then cut out and score. Stamp grass image in Pumpkin Pie ink on unassembled box. Assemble box.
Stamp pumpkin image in Pumpkin Pie ink, face and stem images in Chocolate Chip ink, and grass and curly vine images in Old Olive ink on Whisper White card stock. Adhere to treat box using Stampin' Dimensionals.
Stamp "From our patch to yours" in Basic Black ink on top of treat box.
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Theeeey're Baaaack!

The Deals of the Week at Stampin' Up! that is!
Order today to take advantage - sweet Treats are all yours!
click on Shop Now at www.midnightcrafter.stampinup.net

The first deals of the week are from October 1, midnight (MT) through October 12, 9:50 AM (MT). After that, check for a new Deal every Monday at 10am MT for the new special Treat! Get great savings on all 4 Deals this month!!




This week its a 1-2-3 knock-out with these awesome Punches:

Item / Page / Description / Regular Price / Special Price
109183 186 Trio Flower punch $15.95 / $10.99
109041 187 5-Petal Flower punch $15.95 / $10.99
110709 187 My Way punch $15.95 / $11.99

Need some great ideas for these punches? Sure thing:
The Trio Flower punch adds adorable details to scrapbook layouts, papercraft projects, and can be used with the 5-petal Flower punch to create this adorable little lamb:
(also used, and Wonderful for all sorts of Punch Art -- Scallop Circle punch, and Word Window punch, Oval punch, and a small Circle punch).


It also coordinates with the current set Punch Pals (116588, $32.95 set of 12 --BTW - awesome muti-use set for the Holidays and Beyond! the penguin is TOO cute!!) It really is perfect for adding that 3rd dimension to many of the floral stamps, and looks great as a simple addition with a brad in the center.

The 5-Petal Flower punch coordinates with the Spotlight on Christmas (111694, $22.95 set of 6) and works well on its own as an accent in scrapbooks or paper projects, and there is a great 5-petal Flower punch Leaf tutorial here. Many punches have "another" use in creating Punch Art. fascinating creative use of the shapes, have to show you more on that another time...

The My Way punch is another great accent piece - use the arrows to draw attention to details in a larger card or scrapbook layout. It does coordinate with a couple stamp sets as well: Certified (113706, $27.95 set of 6) and Cute Cues (111622 $11.95 set of 6). Its also a great coordinating accessory for the creative Big Shot Pop-Up die that cuts a whole card: Look Here (115966, $42.95)


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