I wish all of you a wonderful day!

Today we are having dinner with my husband’s family. My mother-in-law always makes an incredible Turkey Dinner! As a thank you to her for making us a wonderful dinner I am bringing her a set of hand-stamped coasters.

The picture to the left was taken at my last craft fair. The two sets were stamped with Staz On and colored using pastels, but with different techniques.

The Santa set was stamped with Black Staz On and colored with a blender pen and pastels. I really like the shading you can accomplish using the blender pens with the pastels, however this does take a while to do.

1. First place your blender pen in the corner of your pastel square to pick up the color.
2. Then add color to your tile in a circular motion.
3. Go over any areas with a darker color to add shading.

After the image was colored to my liking, I sponged the entire tile with Creamy Caramel Classic Ink and then sprayed it with an acrylic sealer (4-5 coats). I added felt circles to the back of the tile to protect the furniture.

This is the set I am giving to my mother-in-law. I hope she likes it! This set was stamped using the “Give Thanks” stamp set with Brown Staz On and colored using the VersaMarker and pastels. This technique is a lot like “Poppin Pastels”.

1. Color in an area of your image with the Versa Marker.
2. Apply pastel color using a sponge dauber, cotton ball, or Q-tip (depending on the size of the area to be colored) using a tapping motion.
3. Repeat for each color you are using.
4. After you are done, gently wipe off excess chalk with a cotton ball. Then apply several coats of acrylic sealer and add felt circles to the back to protect your furniture.

TIP: I found it useful in most cases to start with darker colors first so the versamarker does not pick up the darker colors where you want the lighter colors to be.  :o)

If you would like to try stamping on tiles, register for my Gifts Galore Class/Marble Tile Coasters on December 15th at my house in Brimfield, Ma. You can find more details about this class by clicking on “My events Calendar” in the sidebar to the left. The last day to RSVP for this class is December 5th. Can’t wait to see you here!!

Happy Stamping!

I finally have a few minutes to share some pictures with you! My husband took all the kids with him to pick up the Thanksgiving Turkey at the farm. I can’t believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving day!!

Here is a picture of my display from the Holiday Craft Fair at St. Christopher’s Church in Brimfield last weekend. I was really happy with how everything looked. But I will tell you, before I got there I was a little nervous about how I was going to display my Christmas ornaments.

If you look at the post below this one, with pictures from the Harvest Festival, you will see a tree that my friend Maryann made to display our ornaments. Well, I forgot to borrow this tree from her for the weekend, so all I had was ornament hangers which didn’t add any height to my table at all!  SOLUTION? There was an undecorated Christmas Tree in the opposite corner from me. So, I asked one of the craft fair coordinators if I could use the tree behind my display. As you can see she was very sweet and allowed me to drag the tree to my corner! As the saying goes…”Ask and ye shall receive”. The tree was sooooo perfect!

I created a new batch of Paper clip Bookmarks for this Fair, since I sold out of the rest! These are definitely my favorite. I used “Holiday Tag Team” and the very cute snowman from the “Merry and Bright” set. By the way “Merry and Bright” is only available until November 30th, so if you want it CONTACT ME soon! After the 30th this set is gone forever!

Before I go I just want to show you some really cute purchases I made. The vendors next to me were so awesome, we really had a great time together. I am having a Tastefully Simple Party on the 30th and I spent most of my spending money last weekend on handcrafted jewelry for myself and Christmas presents!! As many of you know I collect snowmen. Well, take a look at these cute snowman earrings!! They are so adorable. I hardly wear earrings anymore, but I just couldn’t resist. The crafter’s name is Heidi and her business is “Heidi Ho Handcrafted Jewelry”.

I commented to her that the snowmen would be cute on a necklace for my girls. Heidi immediately offered to make them necklaces, and returned with them the next day! I think she did an amazing job with the necklaces for my girls and I can’t wait until they open them on Christmas Eve!! Thanks again Heidi! The pictures I took aren’t the greatest, but the jewelry is beautiful. If you would like to get in touch with Heidi for your own shopping pleasure you can contact her at autumnal@heidihojewelry.com.

I have to go for now, but make sure you check back soon…I’ll be posting more Holiday projects with detailed pictures and instructions. You can also subscribe to this blog in a FEED READER, so that you know when the site has been updated. The link to subscribe is located in the sidebar to the right.

Happy Stamping and Happy Thanksgiving!

This weekend I am participating in the Christmas Craft Fair at St. Christopher’s Church in Brimfield. This was the first craft fair I participated in last year and I had such a good time I was definitely going back! It looked like the craft fair doubled in size from last year. If you are in the Brimfield, Massachusetts area tomorrow, definitely stop by. It’s right on Route 20 in Brimfield, Mass. There were so many talented people there! I have done several craft fairs this year and I am definitely impressed with the crafts I saw today. My only problem will be trying not to spend the money that I make!

Today was such a great day. All the other crafters around me were so friendly, the time passed by so quickly. My table was so busy I forgot to take pictures!!  So, I thought I would post some pictures of the Sturbridge Harvest Festival that I was in a few weeks ago. I will definitely remember to take some pictures tomorrow…

I shared a table with my fellow SU! demonstrator Maryann for the Harvest Festival in Sturbridge. We had done one other craft fair before this and our crafts were all displayed on one level. It was a little boring, so this time we really wanted to add some height and dimension to our table. I was definitely happier with this display, but I would love to hear what you think. You can click on “comments” at the bottom of this post and tell me what you think of our display.

My favorite part of this display was the tree that Maryann made to hang our Christmas ornaments. This was an awesome idea! She poured Plaster of Paris into the snowman bucket and added tree branches she found in her yard. This definitely added height to the table!

Here are some pictures of the items we sold at the fair :

Paper Clip Bookmarks and Binder Clips

Marble Tile Coasters

…and Some of my Tealight Lamps

I will definitely remember to take pictures of my table tomorrow at St. Christopher’s. If you are planning to stop by, the fair is from 10AM to 2PM tomorrow (Sunday November 18th). The church is located on Route 20 next to Athen’s Pizza in Brimfield, MA. Have a great day and remember to check back for more craft fair pics.

Happy Stamping!