A Dasher Christmas

There are always a couple of stamps that I am a bit sad about losing in the retirement lists (stamps and accessories) and Dasher is one of them....and you can get him for the rest of this month/or until he runs out for just $11.21 so a bargain!

If you want to order anything from the retirement lists contact me sooner rather than later as some items have already run out!

Stamps: Dasher, Contempo Christmas
Ink: Early Expresso & Cherry Cobbler
Card Stock: First Edition DSP, Early Expresso & Very Vanilla
Accessories: Basic Rhinestones, Dimensionals, Cherry Cobbler Seam binding, Bird builder punch

Merry Christmas - Secret Santa

We had our demonstrator Christmas dinner this week and as part of it we did a secret Santa swap. I made my gift using no ink or stamps (bit scandalous I know!), but I did use the new petal cone die and created a Santa and Christmas tree and filled them full of Lindt chocolates. I loved how the tree gave me the opportunity to use up lots of little scrap pieces of green card stock and also silver glimmer paper (not that the recipient wasn't worthy of me cutting up new sheets of card stock, far from it, just that after lots of Christmas classes I end up with lots of strips of green and red card stock left over!).

The two petal cone creations were than popped into a gift bag decorated to resemble a Santa suit and adorned with a little owl Santa tag - sorry the photo was a bit blurry!

Hope you all have a very safe and happy Christmas with your loved ones.

Card Stock: Real Red, Garden Green, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Basic Black, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer

Accessories: Decorative Label tag, Owl builder punch, Big Shot, Petal Cone die, scallop boarder punch, sticky strip, SNAIL, Tombow multi adhesive, bird builder punch, ornament punch, elegant lines embossing folder, 1" square punch, 1" circle punch, wide oval punch, Boho Blossoms punch, 1/16" handheld punch, white Bakers twine, word window punch, petals a plenty embossing folder, white gel pen.

Silver Snowflakes

Snow Swirled has to be one of the all time favourite Christmas stamp sets and I don't own it!!! I did borrow it from a friend recently (thanks Annette) and I made up three different cards using it. The snowflakes in the below card are done in silver embossing powder.

Stamps: Snow Swirled
Card Stock: Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze & Whisper White
Ink: Versamark, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: Baja Breeze seam binding, silver embossing powder, scallop border punch.

Dasher amidst the Green

This was a relatively quick card to make for Christmas using some die cut leaves, DSP and my all time favourite al a carte stamp - Dasher, such great value! I did after taking this photo add some basic Rhinestones to the antlers to add some extra sparkle.

Stamps: Dasher & Contempo Christmas
Ink: Early Expresso
Card Stock: Old Olive, Brights Patterns DSP Stack, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
Accessories: Bright brads, Big Shot, Little Leaves die, Dimensionals, Basic Rhinestones, 1/16" handheld punch, Boho Blossom punch.

Beautiful Season in Blues

Here is another card made using the Beautiful Season stamp set - not made by me though. It was from a swap at our Regional training day earlier this year by Heather Bennett, doesn't that layer of Pool Party card stock make the image pop!

Stamps: Beautiful Season
Ink: Concord Crush
Card Stock: Glossy White, Concord Crush & Pool Party
Accessories: Wide oval punch, scallop ribbon punch, blender pen, Dimensionals, Silver Smooch Spray, Sponge dauber

Beautiful Season in Black & White

Here is another quick card made using Beautiful Season.......The red berries were coloured with a Stampin' Write marker and highlighted with Crystal Effects. The ribbon was crimped by opening the brad and sliding the ribbon in and then closing it and then cutting a fish tail on each end to give it a more bow effect, without having to actually tie a bow!

Stamps: Beautiful Season

Ink: Real Red & Basic Black

Card Stock: Whisper White & Basic Black

Accessories: Rhinestone brads, Real Red satin Ribbon, Dimensionals, 1/16" hole punch

Beautiful Season in Red & Green

I borrowed this stamp set from a super generous friend last week (thanks Catherine!) and made a couple of different cards with it - thinking I might have to buy it though as it is so lovely! For this one I kept to the traditional Christmas red and green colours with lots of sparkle. The red behind the modern label punch greeting is actually two more modern label punchies offset to give the greeting a boarder.

Stamps: Beautiful Season
Ink: Black Stazon, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke & Crumb Cake
Card stock: Letters to Santa, Old Olive, Whisper White & Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: Basic Rhinestones, Dimensionals, modern label punch, scallop trim border punch, blender pen, stamping sponge.

Christmas Squares

Following on from yesterdays circles, today is Christmas squares! It wasn't made with designer paper though, but a randomly stamped pattern using co-ordinating inks - another card that can be made relatively quickly and in a production line or stages, which I find perfect for Christmas. The squares can either go on the diamond like below, or parallel to give a different look.

Stamps: Contempo Christmas, Delightful Decorations, Pennant Parade
Ink: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler
Card Stock: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive
Accessories: 1 1/4" square punch, 1 3/8" square punch

Word Play Christmas Circles

Here's a super fast card that is perfect for making multiples of for Christmas time. What really makes this card special is the designer paper - Mocha Morning - it's so beautiful, the double sided sheets all have a gold metallic sheen and then there are 4 sheets that are flocked - so pretty and a pack goes a very, very long way! If you need any supplies for this card, don't forget to contact me to place an order.

Stamps: Word Play
Ink: Basic Black & Crumb Cake (marker)
Card Stock: Early Expresso, Very Vanilla & Morning Mocha
Accessories: 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1/4" black grosgrain ribbon & Crumb Cake seam binding.

Christmas Scrapbook Layout 2011

I know I promised Christmas cards, but I just finished the scrapbook layout for Tuesdays class, so thought I would share that instead! There are still spots for the class if you want to come along - just let me know ASAP! I kept the layout fairly simple as for Christmas I think that the photographs are the most important element so they should dominate the space and journalling. 

I wanted to show off the new Silver Glimmer paper from the new Summer mini catalogue and added strips of it cut with the Tasteful Trim die, the new postage punch and the heel and toes of the stockings. The Baja Breeze circle that I cut with the Circle Scissors Plus to go inside the Scallop Circle Die for the year was 4" diameter. Extra journalling could be done in white gel pen on the Night of Navy card stock as well.

I chose not to title it with anything other than the year as I felt that the stockings hanging and the Christmas postage bauble stamp told the story better (as will the photographs - we got our first Santa photo today & it wasn't blue and silver!!!). I used the relief cut out of the Tasteful Trim die to border the DSP on this page as I didn't want to waste any of the gorgeous Silver Glimmer paper - did I ever tell you I was 1/4 Scottish!

I am not sure if you can see from the photographs (sorry taken at night so not the best), but each of the stocking tops have our names written on them - if you have a bigger family, then you can just add more stockings! I also added a few basic rhinestones on the stockings to add to the sparkle of the page. Most of the Baja Breeze will be covered by the photographs, but there will be enough left to give a slight contrast. The stockings are suspended by some white Bakers twine - how awesome is that stuff - 23m for just $4.95 - bargain of the year I say!

Stamps: Stitched Stockings, Merry & Type

Card Stock: Night of Navy, Baja Breeze, Whisper White. Regals DSP Patterns stack & Silver Glimmer Paper

Ink: Night of Navy (ink pad & marker)

Accessories: Big Shot, Tasteful Trim Die, Scallop Circle Die, Square Scallop Die, Circle Scissors Plus, Junior Timeless Type Alphabet, White Bakers Twine, basic rhinestones, 1" square punch, 1 3/8" square punch, postage stamp punch, Stocking builder punch.

Bleached Dasher

This was a card I made recently for a demonstrator swap using the bleach technique, I did it in two different matt colours Cherry Cobbler & Daffodil Delight. It's the sort of card that if you do it in stages, you could easily mass produce it!

The sparkle is the new champagne glitter glass that we received as a prize at Regional training last month, I used Crystal Effects to adhere it to the card stock.

Here is a photograph of the bleach developing in intensity - the bottom part of the picture is where it was stamped and I took a photograph within a minute, the top part is where the bleach had been left for over 5 minutes. So when you are using bleach, you really do have to be patient and allow it time to get to its final exposure point before you make your card up.

Stamps: Dasher, Lovely as a Tree & Contempo Christmas
Ink: Versamark
Card Stock: Not Quite Navy, Cherry Cobbler or Daffodil Delight, Early Expresso
Accessories: Gold brads, Crystal Effects, Champagne Glitter Glass, Gold Embossing Powder.
Non SU!: bleach

Merry & Type Partial Embossing

This is a super cool and simple technique that has been on the web for a while, I honestly can't remember where I first saw it I'm thinking it was probably on Dawn O's blog? You simply take a piece of chipboard (available now as sheets to buy on page 155 #114320 which is awesome as they make great die cut shapes to embellish) and cut a shape you want to show up patterned - in this case a triangle shape. I then sticky taped it to the OUTSIDE of the embossing folder, placed the white card stock inside as per normal and left off the bottom standard pad and ran it through the embossing folder as normal. I tend to get better results with the crease pad as the top layer than the standard cutting pad - but that is my preference for what I have found works with my Big Shot best. 

The embossing folder I used for this card is on sale this month - so if you want to save yourself some money, contact me to place an order now.

Stamps Merry & Type

Ink: Cherry Cobbler

Card Stock: Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White & Regals Pattern Stack DSP

Accessories: Basic Rhinestones, Petals A Plenty textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Dimensionals, Decorative label punch.

Embossed Stripes with Merry & Type

This was the last card in the Christmas stamp a stack for this month that we made - CASEd from the ever talented LeeAnn G. (although I did see a similar card on a few blogs, so I'm not sure who thought up the idea of only embossing half the card front first - but it was a good one!). The Stitched Stockings stamp set & builder punch is only available until the end of this month and then won;t be available again until the release of the Summer mini catalogue on December 1st.

My next Christmas Stamp a Stack is on the afternoon of Saturday November 19th and if you want to come along please let me know - they'll be all new designs again!

Stamps: Merry & Type
Ink: Old Olive
Card Stock: Riding Hood Red & Whisper White
Accessories: Striped Embossing Folder, Tasteful Trim die, Big Shot, Stocking builder punch, Basic Rhinestones, Old Olive Scallop polka dot ribbon, Dimensionals, 1/16" handheld punch, hemp twine.

Merry & Type Ornaments

This was the last for the Stamp-a-Stack using Merry and Type........it was CASEd from a super talented Canadian lady called Lynsay M.  and I just loved it - although I am very partial to colouring images!

Stamps: Merry and Type
Card Stock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Early Expresso
Ink: Early Expresso
Accessories: Blender pen, Basic Rhinestones, Dimensionals

Stitched Stocking Christmas Card

The third in the latest Stamp-a-Stack class is one using the new Stitched Stocking stamp set which has a co-ordinating punch and you can earn for FREE by hosting a party in October or purchase as a pre-order this month.

Stamps: Merry and Type & Tiny Tags

Card Stock: Letters to Santa DSP, Riding Hood Red, Early Expresso, Whisper White, Old Olive

Ink: Early Expresso

Accessories: Hemp twine, mini library clips, jewelry tag punch, 1/16" handheld punch, basic rhinestones, Dimensionals, Big Shot, Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, stamping sponge, paper snips.

Merry & Type Cracker

The next stamp-a-stack was all based around two stamp sets - Merry and Type and Stitched Stockings, the next one is designed to be like a Christmas cracker - cute hey! I borrowed the fold idea from a UK demonstrator called Elaine H. who blogged it back in 2008, but I've given it a bit of a makeover! It fits in a standard size C6 envelope and I added two panels in whisper white on the back so you can write your messages on one side and the other I stamped and coloured the ornaments from this set.

Stamps: Merry and Type
Card Stock: Riding Hood Red, Letters to Santa DSP, Old Olive & Whisper White
Ink:  Early Expresso
Accessories: Basic Rhinestones, decorative label punch, Dimensionals, bone folder, corner rounder punch.

Merry & Type Fold Square

Well I've been busy playing with some new stamp sets and designer papers this week....and still my wish list for items in the new catalogue is massive! I've been designing some cards for my Christmas Stamp-a-Stack (see here if you are interested in coming along) and this is one of them - what do you think?

Stamps: Merry and Type
Card Stock: Riding Hood Red, Early Expresso, Whisper White & Letters to Santa DSP
Ink: Early Expresso & Riding Hood Red
Accessories: 1 3/8" square punch, 1 1/4" square punch, basic Rhinestones, blender pen, Dimensionals & bone folder.

French Foliage Christmas

I am a big fan of leaf stamps - always have been and by now you would honestly think I had enough in my collection - but then I saw the French Foliage Set and went ekkkkkk!!!! It's just so nice and as I am finding - versatile! I love Christmas cards that you are able to make using non-Christmas stamp sets & that are simple enough to mass produce and the below fulfills both these criteria. Of course what would a Christmas card be without some sparkle, so I added Dazzling Diamonds to the bauble in the centre of the wreath.

Stamps: French Foliage & Word Play
Ink: Old Olive, Real Red & Basic Black
Card Stock: Old Olive, Real Red & Whisper White
Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Crystal Effects, dazzling diamonds glitter.

Children's Christmas Class

I promise I'm almost at the end of my Christmas items! I keep finding "just one more" that I haven't blogged! These were two items made at children's Christmas class, where I had some delightfully well mannered girls for a morning of creative fun. The first item was a double milk carton holder & yes, before you ask, the cartons did contain treats!

The one's the girls made had a lot more glitter on it than I put on mine and were secured at the top using tiny clips e.g. mini library clips, rather than punching the holes and fastening with string (faster way for them to access the treats!). Each side of the milk carton had a different image on it and all of the edges were sponged to add the "extra" finishing touch to them.

Stamps: Christmas Classics & Forest Friends

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Real Red

Card Stock: Jolly Holiday DSP, Real Red, Whisper White & Old Olive.

Accessories: Crop-a-dile, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, 2 way glue pen, SNAIL, Big Shot, Lots of Tags die, hemp twine, mini library clips, 1 1/4 circle punch.

The second project for the morning was another treat holder - this time a hanging snowman ornament. Very cute and refillable, with a  tab on the back hidden by this hat! What I don't think you can see from my photography is that there is a hole at the top of his hat to tread a gold cord through to enable hanging it from the Christmas tree. It held approximately half a pack of standard size Tic Tac's, but you could use mini marshmallows or other small white lollies (sweets/candy).

Card Stock: Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie & Old Olive.

Accessories: Crop-a-dile, Dazzling Diamonds glitter (on holly berries), 2 way glue pen, SNAIL, 1 1/4 circle punch, 1 3/4 circle punch, treat cup, 2 step Bird Punch, Word Window Punch, Small Tag Punch.

Christmas Tag

Even though I make lots of Christmas cards through the year in classes and for swaps for some reason I didn't send many this year - opps! I made larger gift tags though so they were a sort of pseudo card  - does that count? I mainly used Christmas Contempo as I love that set and it's such a bargain at just AUD$26.95 ($21.95 for CM), I also love that the ornament punch co-ordinates perfectly & make sit easy to pop up the ornament on Dimensionals!

Stamps: Christmas Contempo & Delightful Decorations

Ink: Basic Black, Real Red

Card stock: Real Red, Daffodil Yellow, Old Olive & Whisper White

Accessories: Basic rhinestones, 1/16" handheld punch, SNAIL, ornament punch, Dimensionals.

Non SU: gold cord