By now, most of you have had the opportunity to personally meet the newest team member at Art 'n Soul, Patti Highlander. Today (Sunday) will be her first day doing solo duty; if you have the chance, please stop in and say "hi" to Patti.

Patti Highlander & Dianne Johnson
Art 'n Soul

At Inchies Club last month, we learned how to make that package bow I told you about a few days ago. Here are the bows everyone made that night . . .

by Sam Lee

by Marilyn Dawson

by Linda Beveridge 

by Sue White

by Sue White

by Sue White 

by Sorrento Ward

by our newest member of the Inchies Club

Here's how we were taught to make this bow from scrapbooking paper. You will need:

• 12 x 12 scrapbook paper with a design on both sides
• small paper trimmer
• paper punch
• 1 large brad
• scissors
• quick-drying glue

Trim your scrapbook paper into one-inch strips (1" x 12"). Place the strips into 2 piles . . . 4 strips and 4 strips. Cut the first 4 strips into 8 strips that are 1" x 8"). Cut the second 4 strips into 8 strips that are 1" x 6". Take one of the 4" strips left from the 1" x 12" cut to 8 inches, and place that one aside.

This is my two-sided 12x12 scrapbook paper.

These are the strips that I have cut.

Take 4 of the first set of the 1" x 8" strips and fold each one with the point at the top center, keeping your tails as close together as possible. You will want to close the gap shown in the photo by
pulling down on the tails.

Like this . . .

Fold 4 using one side of the paper, and
fold the remaining 4 of the same size using the other side of the paper.

All of the 8" and 6" strips folded and
the tails glued together.

Punch each of the tail sets, approximately

where they meet in the center. You want to leave enough

room for the stacking but not so much that

there is a wide gap between the layers.

You may want to trim the length of the tails

at the bottom so they don't stick out under

the bow points.

With the large brad, stack the layers building

down . . . smaller strips first and ending with the

longer strips, alternating the layers between

with the opposite side of the strip being used.

You can see that I did not cut
the tails from the longer strips down to size and they're showing
between the layers; that's why you should cut
them down before you start stacking. In this case,
I had to cut as I added the longer strips.

The finished bow.
Using the 4" strip remaining, roll it and glue
both ends to secure it to the size roll you want.
Then secure it to the center of the bow.
Instead of glue, you might want to use a
pop dot (aka a 'zot') for a more secure placement.

I hope my directions are clear enough that you'll be able to make this easy bow for your packages. It's a great one to make for any occasion that you're presenting a gift.

Let's thank Jenny Ward for showing Sue White how to make the bow, and thank Sue for walking us through the instructions at the Inchies Meeting.

Now, let's look at the Inchies we exchanged . . .

by Sorrento Ward

by Sorrento Ward

by Linda Beveridge

by Linda Beveridge

by Sam Lee

by Marilyn Dawson

by Marilyn Dawson

by Marj Marion

by Debbie Gaetz

by Sue White
I couldn't select just one to show . . . Sue
wtaercolored the backgrounds and then
sketched in the the drawings with a
black Sharpie pen.

by Sue White
a series of intricate cut and embellished Inchies
from a former paper collection from Graphic 45

by Marj Marion
A special card Marj made for the Inchies Meeting
featuring a word stamp from Magenta

By the way, Inchies Club will not meet again until it's regular date in January, the 4th Wednesday of January (January 23, 2013) from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. We hope you'll mark the date on your new 2013 calendar now so you won't forget!

From Spellbinders' . . .

Versatility of Nestabilities® dies

by Beate Johns

"The coming week is all about Nestabilities® dies. When I saw the first Nestabilities shapes my love affair with Spellbinders™ began. I sold all my punches (do you remember those big heavy circle punches?) and got all the shapes and matching scallop dies. And so my collection began.... In my video today I want to show you a few different ways you can use Nestabilities dies on your cards, with a quick tutorial on how to create a telescoping image card.

by Beate Johns

Spellbinders™ Paper Arts Supplies:

• Spellbinders Grand Calibur® Machine
• S4-166 Standard Circles SM Spellbinders™ Nestabilities®
• S4-292 Beaded Circles Spellbinders™ Nestabilities®
• S5-089 Home Sweet Home  
   
  Spellbinders™ 
   
  Shapeabilities®
• LF-126 Grand Squares Spellbinders™ Nestabilities®
• LF-127 Grand Scallop Squares Spellbinders™ Nestabilities®

Preferred Promotional Partners: 

• Flourishes - A Season of Celebration, Trimmed with Love
• Want2Scrap - Beautiful Bling Borders - Fancy That!, Sleek Strip Silver Rhinestones<

Cross Promotional Partners:

• Bazzill Basic Paper - Timeless 6" x 6"mini prints, Sea Salt Cardstock
• May Arts - White Organdy Ribbon, pom-pom ribbon
• Scor-Pal® - 1/8" wide Scor-Tape, Scor-Mat
• SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVE BY 3L™ - Foam Adhesive Squares

Others: Sewing machine, sanding block, blending tool, white and brown cardstock, blue and brown ink, iridescent ice embossing powder, heat gun, button, silver cord

Here is a close up look at the layers:

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope this inspires you to create with your dies today! Have a wonderful day and weekend.

Hugs and smiles"

From Cheery Lynn Designs . . .

"I created a holiday card with the stamps and inks I received.

by Jodi Baune

I started by stamping the The Snow Cardinal with Prussian Blue on white cardstock. I cut the my card 3.5 inches x 6 inches and extended to 4x7 inches on the bottom to make my folds. I stamped the background paper with the Musical Border using Warm Red ink. The card base and matte were cut using the Mini Pearl Rectangle Reflections Mega Dies. To the right of the image, I added a portion of the O Tannenbaum X-mas Tree, adding color and filling in the scene. On the first fold, I added the Garden Gate(distressed with Chestnut Roan), adorned with the Christmas Light Swag. Pine Branches in the top corner add more color and texture. Snowflakes flutter about.

Snow flowers #1 dress up the sentiment stamp (Love & Cheer), stamped in Dark Moss.

Supplies From Hampton Art:

Chestnut Roan-SN71403

Warm Red-SN71417

Prussian Blue - SN71407

Dark Moss - SN71401

Snow Cardnial J - PS0700

Love & Cheer H - PS0718

Musical Border - PS0670

I hope you have enjoyed our venture with Hampton Art this week! Be sure to browse back and see the gorgeous inspiration my teammates my created for you this week.

Also, head over to Hampton Art and elxpore the fabulous ways they have used our dies!

There is still time to enter this weeks challenge for your chance to win the $20 gift certificate!

Detail Here

Thanks for stopping by!!"

That's all for tonight on the blog. I'm now going to play "elf" and start decorating the house. Now that we're home for the remainder of the holiday season, I'm hoping to carve out more time for artistic endeavors.