I am not left-handed

Just kitting! (See what I did there?)

On Sunday, 1/29/12, I will be co-teaching a Sizzix class at the CHA show called "Love is in the Air" with Eileen Hull. Eileen posted a sneak peek of her class project yesterday on her blog. She will be teaching with her fabulous new release called "Sweet Treats" and students will make two decorated Candy Jars to display in their stores. (Click the photo of Eileen's project to go to her blog post)

In the second hour of class, we will focus on my new release, called Pop 'n Cuts. For a video preview of Pop 'n Cuts, scroll down or use this link: CHA-W Sneak Peek Pop 'n Cuts

Students will make two Pop 'n Cuts cards using beautiful papers from Creative Imaginations with coordinating Bazzill cardstock.

Since we are working with brand new dies I had to pre-cut everything for the class kits. I've been cutting all week and finally had everything ready for assembly into kits. Gretchen came over today to help me pack out 60 kits. 

A big thank you to Xyron, who sponsored the adhesives for the class. The Creatopia is perfect for adding adhesive to the backs of the Love Sizzlit word.

Here is the first half ready for bagging:

In addition to the kit products to make two cards and two candy jars, students will take home a brand new Sizzlit set from BOTH collections! Thanks to Sizzix for specially manufacturing those giveaway dies for us, months before they will be available in stores!

Hope to see you there!

CHA-W Sneak Peek - Pop 'n Cuts!

In just over a week I will be attending the CHA show in Anaheim to demonstrate and promote my brand new release of Sizzix dies!

Pop 'n Cuts are similar to Movers & Shapers dies, in that they are magnetic. In fact, they are the same height as Movers & Shapers, which means you will be able to use your Pop 'n Cuts interchangeably with all the other magnetic dies from Sizzix.

The best way to understand the system is to watch this 5 minute video:

 

Pop 'n Cuts will be available in stores this spring. (Exact shipping month still being determined, so I will update as soon as I hear)

If you are attending the CHA show, I would love to show you the dies in person. Here are the times I will be demonstrating at the show:

Sizzix Booth #949

Sunday 2-5 pm

Monday 10am - Noon

Tuesday 2-6 pm

Wednesday 10am - Noon

Additionally, I am teaming up with Eileen Hull to teach a Sizzix class called Love is in the Air that will feature two cards made with Pop 'n Cuts. The class is currently sold out, but sometimes space opens up closer to the show, so check with CHA about registration.

I will also be teaching with Pop 'n Cuts at the Sizzix Basix class being offered Saturday morning. If you are a retailer coming to the show, check with your Sizzix Rep to see if there is still space in that class. It is a free class sponsored by Sizzix, not an official CHA class, so you won't find it on the CHA site.

On the subject of Pop 'n Cuts, they have been in the works for nearly two years, so it is exciting to see them finally come to market. Why so long? Well first, although they resemble Movers and Shapers, they are actually something new. The inserts are part of the function of the card, not just a decorative hole. The manufacturing has to be very accurate for the dies to cut and function properly. Plus, inserts will be sold separately, so they must be manufactured to the exact same size every time so they will fit in the Base die. Although it has been excruciating to wait, I am so glad that everything has been perfected! 

Pop 'n Cuts all fold exactly the same way, and it's SIMPLE! Been looking for an easy way to make pop-ups? Pop 'n Cuts is the answer!

CLASS: Devotion Pop-up Layouts

It's a New Year and back to work for me.

In 2012 I will be teaching once a month at Scrapp'n Savvy in Spring, TX. This month's project is layouts, February is cards, and March will be a pop-up mini-album. 

To register for the classes, visit the Scrapp'n Savvy website. This first class, the Devotion Pop-up Layouts Class, will be offered next Friday, January 13th, in three sessions. The morning one is full. The other two have spots available.

Both layouts use the IOD Devotion paper line, from Creative Imaginations and Bazzill cardstock.

The first layout features two cards that are arranged with opposite folds (gate style) and stay closed with a decorative butterfly closure.

Spin the oval to release the cards:

Next, bring the two brown pieces up to the center and they will stick together using hidden magnets:

Two Floating Frame sculptures pop up. The Floating Frames Pop-up Die is currently out of stock at Sizzix, but the store will have them for sale after class on Friday!

Here is a close-up of my journaling:

I used pictures of my daughter, but this layout is suitable for more than just feminine subjects. It would make a great Love, Family or Gardening layout.

The second layout we will make in class is:

You can definitely add more than just one picture to the front of this layout if you prefer. Open the card and watch what happens!

The Spinning Platform die is used to bring up another photo frame! There is plenty of space for additional photos and journaling inside the card:

The kit will include all materials to make the two single-page layouts shown above, which can be used together to make a spread.

Another option is to purchase the pop-up dies and extra paper in the store (your handout will include a shopping list) and re-make both layouts again, turning each of them into double-page spreads. Here is how they will look if you double them:

For the second layout, I repeated the same design, but simply reversed the fold location and the swapped the two decorative frames.

Here are the items that you should bring to class:

• Scissors & Trimmer
• Favorite dry and wet adhesives - tape runner and fine-line glue pen
• Strong adhesives - red liner tacky tape or scor-tape, mini glue dots
• Pencil and Ruler
• Paper Piercer
• Bone Folder
• Crop-a-Dile (if you have one)
• Mini-stapler and staples (Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher is my favorite!)
• Optional: (2) 12x12 Page Protectors, a cutting mat that will fit inside the page protector, and a craft knife (This is for altering your page protectors so the layouts can be opened inside an album)

Other upcoming class dates at Scrapp'n Savvy are:

Friday, February 10th - morning, afternoon and evening sessions - Pop-up Cards (photos coming soon!)

Saturday, March 3rd - morning and afternoon sessions - Pop-up Mini-Album (photos coming soon!)

Hope to see you there!

EDITED TO ADD: Lizzie asked about the third sessions because they aren't showing up on the SS website yet. The evening session will be 7:00 - 9:30 pm for both this Friday, January 13th (Layouts class) and Friday, February 10th (cards class). Call the store to register.

Pop-up Spotted: Mary Beth's AMAZING POP-UP BOOK!

Mary Beth Martin just sent me a link to her YouTube video showing the STUNNING pop-up album she made for her grandson for Christmas. My jaw is ON THE FLOOR!!! 

 

Wow! Wowie Wow Wow!!!!!!!!!

Mary Beth used a ton of pop-up dies in this book, including the Christmas Tree, Gift (retired), Snowman, Beach Chair, Scalloped Circle and Zig-Zag Insert

Thanks for showing off the dies in such a spectacular fashion!

Pop-up CLASS Spotted: Linda Fulghum

It was so fun to see my friend Linda Fulghum this fall on a teaching trip to Kansas City. One of the things I always say in my classes is that I want to "infect" other instructors with the bug to teach with the pop-up dies. If you're out there teaching with the pop-up dies, please let me know - I'll "spot" you here on my blog to help promote your class.

Thanks for using the Sizzix Pop-up Dies in your class, Linda! 

Pop-up Spotted: Donna Gibson's Party in a Card

Check out this awesome card by Donna Gibson! She used the Scalloped Circle Pop-up, the Celebrate Sizzlit Set, and the Zig-Zag Pop-up. Notice how the Zig-Zag has been split and used on two opposite folds to suspend her banner. BRILLIANT!

Thanks for showing off the versatility of the Pop-up Dies, Donna! 

2011 wrap-up. Charities & beaches.

Well that was a fun week off from life! Heh.

Seriously, though, I'm really ready for 2012, most specifically the children trotting off to school and John returning to work and me getting busy with CHA preparations.

A lot of people asked which charities the kids chose.

They both ended up making microloans through Kiva.org

Emma had $100 to loan, so she completed the loan of a Rwandan rice farmer who will use the loan to increase his rice fields and buy fertilizer. She also completed the loan of a Philippino woman who owns a fruit and vegetable cart.

Karl had $50 to loan, so he chose a fruit/vegetable market in Lebanon. The owners will use the loan to increase their inventory of fruits and vegetables.

Both the kids were extremely happy to know exactly where their money was going and how it would help these businesses grow in other parts of the world. Even better is that the loans will be repaid over the course of the next 14 months and around next Christmas they will have the money back in their Kiva accounts to loan out again.

It was also an eye-opening experience to read the stories and get a sense of how important these comparitively small loans are to people trying to better themselves in places where, for example, the average yearly income is around $5000. There was a loan request from a woman with a coffee shop who wanted just enough to buy a table and some chairs to make a seating area in her shop. Both kids were absolutely beaming after choosing their loan recipients, and agreed that the feeling was better than anything they could have bought for themselves with the money.

Mission accomplished!

So what have we been doing around here for the last week? Lots of board games, lots of video games for John and Karl, lots of scootering around the neighborhood, a little bit of class design work for me, and a ton of reading for Emma.

We also decided to get out of PJ's for a day trip down to Galveston. For a bunch of land-lubbers from Colorado, it's pretty surprising that it has taken us 18 months to make the 90-minute drive to the beach.

They really make you feel "welcome" at the beach:

Now you don't necessarily think, on the last day of December, that it's going to be wading weather. In fact, we expected to just stroll up and down the beach and enjoy the sound, smells and views of the water.

But it is, after all, south Texas. And Lucy, we assume, was born in Colorado and had never seen an ocean. So it didn't take long for this to happen:

Would anyone care to guess whether the Burnistons took a day trip to the beach armed with, say, towels, changes of clothes, or even, say, several plastic bags in which to store seashells and wet shoes? 

Exactly. Your guess is accurate.

But hey . . . we know for next time!

A picture that I wish I would have taken would have been John and my pockets, which were overflowing with electronics after each kid ran up and asked us to hold a cell phone and iPod so they wouldn't get wet.

I commented to John that there was something completely timeless about this scene. This same photo could have been taken 30 years ago of me and my brother and sister, absorbed in the feel of the sand between our toes and waiting for the next wave to wash across our legs.

Batteries NOT required!

Happy New Year!

Countdown Ends on Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

The kids were kind enough to wait until after 7 am before waking us up and then it was a frenzy of tearing paper and squeals of delight. I had the video camera set up on a tripod but didn't realize until halfway through that I had never turned it on. *sigh*

The kids got new Scooters from Santa. Karl's is electric, but Emma asked for a push one. She likes the big wheels, which apparently navigate the sidewalk cracks far better than her old scooter. Karl has already taken his for a spin several times, coming in only when he gets too cold and/or needs to re-charge the batteries.

So you can imagine that there has been a lot of competition for their attention today, but I did finally get them interested in finishing the Clues.

ME: Why don't you guys do your very last clue?

KARL: The last one?! But December isn't over!

ME: It's a Countdown to Christmas, Karl. Today is Christmas.

KARL: Oh. Right.

KARL: It's Christmas Day! We feel love in our hearts, In our lungs, in our kidneys . . . (both kids laugh)

I should interject to say that I wasn't sure if either of them remembered that the buttons that control the sound of the pump organ are called "stops", so I added in an additional clue in the form of actual organs. (heart, lungs, kidneys) It was a totally brilliant and completely unnecessary plan.

Oh, and I should also explain, if any of you are wondering, much like my sister was during our Face Time chat this morning, why Karl has the strings of his hoodie in his ears - they each received headphone-hoodies from their grandparents, with the headphones built-in.

KARL: . . .and in all other parts, Some clues were perfect, others were flops, For double your charity money, I pulled out all the stops! FINALLY, it's the ORGAN!

He went right over and opened it up. Not even the slightest hesitation. 

EMMA: Wow! You solved that fast, Karl.

ME: Present me with your charity envelopes and I will match the money and send a check to your charity.

EMMA: Here you go! It's $50!

KARL: Mine is only $26.

ME: Any amount will be appreciated by your charities. Well done.

And hey - at least Karl got the true spirit on his last day - he donated both dollars today to charity! 

One last piece of business before I close the chapter on this fun 25-days of treasure-hunting.

The peppernuts.

Both kids helped make the dough, but when it came time to cut and bake them, Karl was too busy doing something else.

Emma rolled and cut most of them.

We waited anxiously for the first batch to bake:

Now many have tried and failed to match the melt-in-your-mouth goodness of Mimi's peppernuts. I recall that she has tweaked the recipe when, say, she moves to a new elevation/climate or has to switch to a different brand of cream. Even the quality of the cookie sheet matters, as we discovered when our second batch, on the cheap sheet, was cooked unevenly and half were burnt.

In the end, though, other than one sheet of dog food (Lucy, following in the tradition of all family dogs before her, loves peppernuts) we absolutely SLAYED this experiment. 

Our peppernuts are delicious, and if not quite as uniformly-shaped as Mimi's, have excellent flavor and texture!

Emma and I have shared fist bumps, chest bumps and a series of high 5's celebrating our accomplishment. We're thinking of having tee-shirts made! Heh.

And so the 25 Clues of Christmas 2011 comes to a close. It's been a joyous month of getting to know my kids even better and I can think of no better gift to myself! Bring on 2012!

Merry Christmas!

Countdown Day 24 - The Eve!

John and I spent the morning leisurely wrapping the rest of the kids' gifts, knowing that they would be sleeping in for hours after our rollicking game night with the Schmidts. 

Gretchen and I had agreed that the menu should be easy and casual, so as not to take away time from the games and merriment. John (with a handy assist from Kevin) grilled up burgers, brats and chicken. 

While the chefs were finishing eating, the girls got their Soccer on. 

The bigger girls got their gift-exchange on. We both chose purple scarves for each other! How cute are we? I also received a beautiful jewelry set and a scoring board. Thanks,G!

Now if we look a little, uh, happy in the above photo, it may have something to do with the wine and rum&dietcokes with which we were toasting the holiday season.

That might also explain why I have no pictures of the evening after this one! We played Wits & Wagers and Reverse Charades and made a noble effort with concerto holiday crackers that each came with a differenty-tuned whistle so that, with one person (Kenna) being the conductor, we could make beautiful music together. 

It wasn't beautiful music.

It wasn't even music at all!

It sounded like eight dying geese!

But it was fun! And that's really all that matters!

OK, so back to today. The kids and I decided that today we will try our hand at making Mimi's famous peppernuts. My mother has been baking and sending out these kibble-sized gingerbread treats for over 35 years! This year she decided not to make them, much to Emma's dismay. However, we really need the next generation to carry this on - it's been passed down for 3 generations so far - so the time is right for us to figure out how to bake them ourselves.

But first, we needed to get the Clue done:

EMMA: . . . its color is ali the rage . . 

KARL: Ali?

EMMA: That's what it says . . . ali the rage.

ME: Oh, the wax took some of the letter off - that's supposed to say "all the rage"

Karl took over and read the clue through.

EMMA: Huh. I have no idea.

KARL: Oh! Ten speeds - I know what it is. It's the mixer, Emma.

EMMA: The mixer?

KARL: Yeah, the big one - it has ten speeds.

The number of mixing speeds on the KitchenAid is exactly the type of thing my son would remember. What he WOULDN'T remember, is where we keep it!

Finally they figured it out:

As the clue said, this mixer has been used for making peppernuts for many years. I can't remember how old I was when Mom got this mixer, but I'm going to guess under 10. Mom gave it to me many years ago when she upgraded to the larger KitchenAid. It's still running strong!

We mixed up the peppernut dough and it is currently chilling. The kids decided to play Rock Paper Scissors to decide who could lick the beater.

Emma won!

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I have one more clue for tomorrow and we all know where the money will be hidden!

The question is . . . will they know?! 

 

Countdown Day 23 - hand-me-downs!

KARL: ...which of you will be next? Huh? I have no idea.

And then, if I'm lying, I'm buying:

KARL: Maybe the organ?

The organ AGAIN?!!! That's it! Crafting a clue to lead them to the organ will be a fitting end to the clues on Christmas day! Stay tuned for that!

EMMA: Hmmm. Let me see that, Karl. (reads) Oh! I know what it is. She told me this story the other day. It's those bells that hang on the stairs!

They started at the bottom and methodically worked their way to the top.

But apparently the money must have really blended in with the greenery, because, despite a dollar being clipped to four different bells, they missed all of it.

EMMA: Karl - go downstairs and look up and see if you spot anything.

KARL: Nothing.

Finally I had to do a "cold, cold, warmer, warm, hot, blazing!" game with them to lead them to the right bells and they found the cash.

If I remember correctly, my mother bought these plastic bells at a garage sale when I was very young. We had an archway in our house growing up and these bells spanned the archway perfectly. Sometimes I would turn on just the bells and the tree and sit quietly marveling at how pretty everything looked.

Those giant lights from the 70's got so hot, though, that a lot of the red plastic melted. We've replaced the greenery, the light strand, and every year John patches the bells for me with red electrical tape so they can be hung.

To me, those bells ARE Christmas, but perhaps the enthusiasm skips a generation. My kids don't seem nearly as enamored!

But they ARE enamored with our second annual "Christmas Game Night with the Schmidts", which starts in just a couple of hours! I have already told Gretchen that I expect this legendary night of food, friends and merriment to be the star of her December Daily album! 

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!