It feels like Christmas!

I love it when I see that big brown van coming up my street and I know I have a Stampin' Up! box coming. It is so exciting (even if the order is for someone else), it is almost as much fun as Christmas morning.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on my new crop-a-dile. If you have not played with one, you do not know what you are missing. I love the look of using eyelets on cards and scrapbook pages but hate having to pound them into place, it is such a pain. With the crop-a-dile, setting eyelets is a breeze. It is as easy as using a hole puncher. I placed eyelets on my dragon fly card for my upcoming card swap. (I used the pick-a-petal set once again). It took no time at all and the eyelets really finish the cards. The only downside of the crop-a-dile is that my hand is a little too small for it. It is a little hard for me to grip and after doing 30+ eyelets, my thumb was a bit sore trying to hold onto it. It is also a little heavy. But don't get me wrong--it made setting those eyelets an absolute dream. It probably would of taken me an hour to do it with a hammer and set. It only took 20 minutes with the crop-a-dile.

I received all of my color families stamp pads today, which is so exciting. I only had the bold brights before, which is great for summer but with the holidays coming up I really wanted some more colors to choose from. Now I can really start playing with colors and designs. I also ordered some new holiday stamps, from the Fall/Winter catalog and the new mini. They are so much fun and they definately put me into the Holiday mindset. One of the sets I ordered was the Wonderous Gift set which I have fallen in love with, it is so elegant. I have been wanting to try embossing and especially the emboss resist technique. So I had fun playing with my new tools with my always eager daughter and my mom (a fellow, avid stamper).

To emboss resist: 1. Use a versamark or white craft pad to stamp the image on (preferably white paper). 2. Put clear or white embossing powder over the image. 3. Shake excess off into the tray. 4. Heat image with a heat gun until the emboss is set. 5. Use pastels or ink to color or sponge over the embossed image, the white lines will some through and you will see the white embossed image through the other colors. I am sure there are other ways to do this but this is the only way I know of at the moment. If I have missed a step or you know of another way, please let me know!

The emboss resist didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned. But I liked our cards, the first of many cards of the season. Chloe, my daughter, even got into the spirit and embossed a card for the first time tonight, she had so much fun. I will keep working on the emboss resist technique and hopefully I will get it down. But even if it is not perfect, I am very happy with it and I had a blast with the "girls" tonight working on it.