A Christmas Wish

One last holiday card to wish all my friends and blog readers a Merry Christmas:

We made this at a special, "Christmas Cards Only" class earlier this month.  It was a favorite, due to the peaceful, calm colors and lots of silver.

The branches and sentiment from the Embellished Ornaments set were stamped in Versamark ink and heat-embossed with Silver Embossing Powder.

Using a mask (I cut the outline of the ornament using the Delicate Ornament Thinlits Dies on a piece of Whisper White Thick Cardstock, which we laid over our card front), we sponged Soft Sky and Lost Lagoon inks through the mask.  When the mask was removed it left a beautiful background for the silver cut-out ornament.

 

The ornament was cut out using Silver Foil paper, and adhered carefully using tiny drops of glue from the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

Then we mounted the white layer on a thin layer of Lost Lagoon, and to our card base of Soft Sky.  Soft and serene...

 Wishing you all a very happy holiday!

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Christmas Wrapping

Last week I showed you some easy Christmas packaging (see here). 
Today I want to give you a little more detail about what I did to make this special.

These boxes use the Tag a Bag Gift Boxes, which are wonderful, food safe, boxes that come with acetate sleeves.  They are essentially good to go, but you can have lots of fun decorating them.

This box was dressed up using the Season of Cheer Designer Series Paper.  I cut a piece the same length as the box, with a 1" overlap on either side.  The corners of the DSP were rounded with the Project Life Corner Rounder and I scored each side at 1".  Then I just laid the paper over the box and slipped it inside the sleeve.

The box was tied using White Organza Ribbon.  Under the knot, I slipped a 3/4" circle with Silver 1/8" ribbon looped over it, and then I added some Silver Sequins.

But it's the tag that makes this special:

I first cut a piece of Whisper White Thick Cardstock with the Chalk Talk Framelits.  I sponged "sky" using Marina Mist and Night of Navy inks.  I then used my Sleigh Ride Edgelilts to cut Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper and then cut another one of the trees using Lost Lagoon, and the sleigh from Night of Navy.  The horse was cut using Early Espresso.  I carefully trimmed the trees, sleigh and horse, and adhered them right over the original piece.

Very soft and sparkly gift packaging.

Then I took another box and stamped it using the mistletoe stamp from Embellished Ornaments.  I covered it with another piece of Season of Cheer DSP:

And I decorated the acetate sleeve using Mossy Meadow cardstock, Burlap Ribbon and a sparkly piece of Glitter Ribbon.

The tag (another Chalk Talk Framelit) was stamped and colored and added to a Mossy Meadow oval:

I finished it off with a Home for Christmas Enamel Dot embellishment and a cute little Santa hat (it uses a SU Clothespin to hold it in place).

So I'm already getting a head start on my holiday wrapping!  Yippee!

All products can be purchased here. 

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October Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop

It's that time again...time for another Blog Hop from the Wacky Watercooler gang.  This month it's all about the holidays!  From Halloween through New Year's, let's see what our friends have come up with to help get you in the spirit!  You may have just hopped over from the ever-awesome Heidi Weaver--she never fails to WOW me!  And if you've just joined us now, don't neglect to make your way around and see what everyone has created.

I couldn't choose just one holiday, so I chose three--let's start off with Halloween.  I simply couldn't resist the adorable Howl-o-Ween stamp set and matching Boo To You framelits dies. 

This Cascading Card uses nearly every stamp in the set.  My owl is getting ready to Trick or Treat--see his little pumpkin candy holder?

This card also uses Happy Haunting Designer Series Paper.  

And the best part?  The card folds flat so it can be mailed:

Because it's rather tall, I used my Envelope Punch Board to make my own, matching envelope--easy peasy!

I'll feature this card later next week, so you can have directions on how to put it together.


Next up (for us Americans) is Thanksgiving (our Canadian friends celebrated earlier this week--Happy Thanksgiving!).  This is a holiday that goes hand in hand with beautiful autumn colors, and I SO love seeing the leaves turn.  So what could be better than seeing the trees through your window?

 I used the always-classic stamp set Lovely as a Tree.  I mean, who doesn't own this?  On my card base of Whisper White Thick cardstock, I stamped my trees after coloring directly on the stamp with Stampin' Write markers in Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, and Cherry Cobbler.

 

I then took a piece of Whisper White, adhered Envelope Paper "wallpaper" to the top half and cut a rectangular opening.  A "chair rail" of Tip Top Taupe was scored and glued down.  The window was cut out with the Hearth and Home Thinlits die and a piece of Window Sheet was added to the back; this was adhered to my "wall".  Then this layer was popped up with Dimensionals to make it look like you are looking through a window.

And of course, every window needs a little "dressing"--Tip Top Taupe 1" Dotted Lace Trim made a perfect valance!


And finally, let's have a little Christmas spirit.

I'm getting a jump start on my Christmas wrapping.  Using the Tag a Bag Gift Boxes makes it easy!  These food-safe Kraft boxes (6-7/8" x 2-1/8" x 2-1/2") with acetate sleeves are perfect for treats and small gifts.  And decorating them is fun and easy.

I took one and covered the box with Season of Cheer Designer Series Paper.  Then I slipped the box inside the acetate sleeve and tied it with White Organza Ribbon.  There's some fancy looped Silver 1/8" ribbon and some Silver Sequins, and then a pretty tag.

But I'm not done:

This time I used the same DSP but in traditional Christmas colors, Mossy Meadow and Cherry Cobbler.  I wrapped the sleeve with Mossy Meadow and Burlap Ribbon, then tied on some sparkly Gold Glitter Ribbon. 

This tag uses Embellished Ornaments and Project Life Season of Cheer...and check out the little Santa hat!  Cute!

OK that's it for me.  Come back next week for directions on my samples here.

And now on to Buffy Cooper, who has something fantastic to show you!

Thanks for stopping by...enjoy the Hop!

Christmas Card Class

I had an idea and decided to make it happen.  Does that ever happen?  Not often!  LOL  I think about ideas, and then talk myself out of why it's good.  Like taking walks when I'm tired at work, or eating the healthy salad instead of the loaded-with-calories sandwich (and cookie "for only 99 cents!).  But this time I actually followed through!  Wowsa!!

I'm hosting three months of Christmas cards, using only one to two sets each month.  I want to show the versatility, AND show my customers that they don't have to spend alot to make very different cards, using just one (maybe two) stamp sets.  So my September class used the beautiful Embellished Ornaments along with the Delicate Ornament Thinlits Dies.  I also showcased the Season of Cheer Designer Series Paper.  And here are the cards we created:

First up  was a square card with a special opening in the center.  The gorgeous ornament was stamped with Lost Lagoon ink and hand cut with Paper Snips.  Then we cut a Silver Foil ornament using the framelits to place behind the stamped one.

The "merry" was cut using Christmas Greetings Thinlits Dies; only one half of the ornament and the greeting was adhered to the left side of the card so that it could open.

This card also used Rhinestone Basic Jewels  and 1/8" Silver Ribbon.

Then we made this:

Similar to a card previously posted here, we used the bokeh technique for the background.  The ornaments were cut with Silver Foil and "hung" with Silver Cording Trim.  "peace" was cut with the Christmas Greetings Thinlits, once from our bokeh effect cardstock and again using Coaster Board.

The "peace"s were pushed back inside the cut out to create a very subtle, raised sentiment.

For the next card (a total CASE of Mary Fish), we used the fabulous Red Foil Sheets:

Simplicity at it's best, this card uses Whisper White Thick Cardstock as the base, with a layer of the Red Foil on top.

The top layer of Whisper White is cut using the framelit, and the cut piece is adhered to the red foil sheet.  Then the top layer of Whisper White is popped up with Dimensionals.  A beautiful card.

And finally, some fun:

A shaker card using the Season of Cheer DSP with a cut out using the ornament that looks like a Christmas light.  The background is Hello Honey, embossed with the Lucky Stars Embossing Folder.

Our shaker card was filled with lots of stars punched with the Confetti Stars Border Punch and Gold Sequins.

Wish you had come?  Well don't fret; I'm holding my next class on Friday night.  We'll be using Your Presents along with Holidays Fancy Foil Designer Vellum and Merry Moments Designer Series Paper Stack.   Attendees who place a minimum order earn a half-price or FREE class.  Watch for an e-mail invitation (or contact me for your invite!).

Thanks for stopping by!








 

The Wacky Watercooler Gang Celebrates the New Catalogs

Yes, it's time for another Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop, and you know what that means - 15 blogs celebrating the beautiful new Stampin' UP! catalogs--the Annual Catalog and the newer Holiday Catalog.  Our blog hop is circuler--jump on anywhere and click the "next" or "previous" buttons until you've made it all the way around.  If you've just joined me from Kathe's blog, I'm sure you were wowed by her creations!  She always does such great work!

Our challenge this month is to create three samples using new items from our catalogs.  And I had such fun!  I decided to focus on the new Holiday Catalog, and I have one project for each holiday.

What's first?  Why Halloween, of course!

I made a double-sided carrier for my mini-coffee cups.  The Howl-o-ween Treat stamp set with matching Boo to You Framelits Dies were irresistible to me and I couldn't wait to play with them.

I started with two pieces of 5" x 5" Basic Black Card Stock, scored at 1-1/2" on all four sides to create two little boxes.  I stuck them together with a "handle" in the middle, and covered it all with Happy Haunting Designer Series Paper (did you catch the bats design in the paper?  <love>).  Then I used nearly every stamp and framelit in the set to decorate my carrier and cups.

My cups were covered with the DSP and I even used the framelits to cut Black Glimmer Paper (fabulous!!!) embellishments.  Don't miss the little spiders on the stir sticks!  I even had to add pieces of Spider Web Doilies to the tops of the cups.  Such fun!

Then it was time to think about Thanksgiving:

I love fall and all the beautiful, vibrant, rich colors.  So I played with the fabulous Woodland Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, using ink pads to color the actual folder.  After inserting my Whisper White Card Stock into the folder, I ran it through my Big Shot, leaving white birch trees with a rich, colorful background.

This card needs little embellishing, so I just stamped the sentiment from Among the Branches using three ink colors, Crushed Curry, Mossy Meadow and Tangelo Twist:

It was punched using the 2" Circle Punch and layered over a strip of Burlap Ribbon (still one of my favorites!).  I also stamped and fussy-cut a bunch of the little leaves, popping two of them up on pieces of Dimensionals around the sentiment; the rest are gathered underneath.

And finally, Christmas:

Now this card is very hard to photograph.  I wish you could see it in person.  It's a double-fold card, with a base of Mossy Meadow, just 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" and not folded.

Next comes a piece of Season of Cheer Designer Series Paper.  This piece is 5-1/4" x 8", folded in half and looking like a traditional card, but attached to the Mossy Meadow base.  I cut an oval in the front, using Oval Framelits.

Here's the special part of this card - inside is a piece of 5" x 7-1/2" Whisper White Card Stock.  This piece is folded in half like a card, but mounted backwards, inside the card.  On the front is a gold ornament; I used Gold Foil Sheets and cut three of the ornaments using the Delicate Ornaments Thinlits Dies.  After embossing them with the Zig Zag Embossing Folder I scored each one down the center, then attached them back to back to create a 3-D ornament.

It actually pops through the oval on the front of the card, yet can fold flat for mailing.

Now opening this layer gives you the full effect:

The holly leaves and sentiment from Embellished Ornaments are stamped on the inside (the holly was embossed with Black Embossing Powder and colored with Stampin' Write Markers), making a very special Christmas card for a very special someone.

And I don't want to forget the sensational Expressions Natural Elements on the front:

I "pounced" Versamark ink all over the element, then heat embossed it using Gold Embossing Powder.   The process was repeated twice, resulting in a very shiny embellishment.  I used the wonderful new Fine Tip Glue Pen to adhere it permanently to the front of my card.  


Well that's it for me!  Thanks so much for visiting; I'll have a video on how to make this double-fold card next week, so please come back.

And now go see what Heidi has in store!  She is our fearless leader and always has the best projects!  Thanks for stopping by!