Christmas blessings to you & yours

 

On this most special of days, I'd like to send Christmas blessings & the happiest of wishes for 2013 to all my wonderful family & friends, stamping lovelies, customers, blog & fb page customers, Stampin' Up staff & anyone else I've forgotten.

Thanks very much for your love, encouragement & support this year & always. Looking forward to sharing more with you soon.

Inky wishes, Di

PS: In case you're wondering, my Christmas flower wreath is based on one shared by amazing SU Trainer, Sophie Zadeh at the Heartfelt stamping events this year. I'll provide more info about it next time.
Now, back to the Christmas fun!

Ornament Keepsakes Christmas SAS

So many Christmas projects to share, so little time. Today I'm sharing cards from my Ornament Keepsakes Christmas stamp-a-stack (SAS) on 13 October. The Ornament Keepsakes set & matching dies were my absolute MUST from the Holiday Catalogue.
First up, a clean & simple favourite in midnight muse, baja breeze & white; love this colour combination. I showed my  ladies 3 versions of this card - super simple to stepped up. This class card was version 2 - quick & easy, with some extra popped & pearly details.

Version 1  was super quick - only 2 layers - the base & stamped piece - no popped images.

 

For version 3, I popped all the ornaments, added more pearly bling & a pierced sentiment panel. I had also thought of embossing the background, but decided to leave it clean.

 Apologies for the colour - I've photographed these cards 4 times now & just can't get them looking as crisp & bright as in irl.

Ornament Keepsakes Gatefold

Regular visitors know I love using different folds, however, I normally stick to regular folds for my SAS cards, since they're all about simple & quick. This changed when I got my Simply Scored & metric plate & discovered how super quick & easy they are to make. We made 2 each of these cards....as I couldn't decide which colours I liked best....oh & the green class version included more beautiful olive Candlelight Specialty DSP, but I only had a pic with my sample card. I've included some gatefold instructions below too.

Bauble Tip - Are you wondering how I made the tiny baubles? I punched out part of a bauble image using the circle from the itty bitty punch pack. You can get all sorts of cool patterns depending on where you punch.

2 gate-fold cards - using Simply Scored & metric plate.
1 Place A4 sheet lengthways (portrait) down sheet
2. Score on 5.25cm line, down full length of card.
3. Turn card 180 degrees & score again at 5.25cm
     You will then have 2 score lines 5.25cm in from each side.
4. Using paper trimmer, cut A4 sheet in half (14.8cm),as when making 2 regular cards.
5. Fold in each side panel towards the centre front & flatten score lines for a perfect gatefold base.

Well I need to keep moving, so I'll say bye for now. I'll be back with more Christmas goodies soon.
Inky wishes, Di

Supplies
Blue Baubles
Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, Greetings of the Season (Holiday Catalogue)
Card/Paper: midnight muse, baja breeze, whisper white card
Ink: midnight muse & baja breeze ink pad, baja breeze marker
Accessories: basic pearls
Tools: Big Shot, Holiday Ornaments Framelits dies, 3/4 inch circle punch 

Gatefold baubles 
Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, More Merry Messages
Card/Paper: old olive, real red, very vanilla card, Candlelight Specialty DSP 
Ink: real red, old olive, ink pads & markers
Accessories: basic rhinestones
Tools: Simply Scored & metric plate, Big Shot, Holiday Ornaments Framelits dies, itty bitty punch pack, 1 inch circle punch

Clearance Rack is here!

Great news for those "wish I'd gotten that" moments! Over the next month, Stampin' Up are temporarily taking over a hundred products out of retirement with discounts up to 70% off – while supplies last. There will be a different groups of products available each week, for the next month.  
This week, you'll see lots of Christmas stamp sets at ridiculous prices, some great retired colours & a retired style stamp pad or 3, markers & lots of accessories. All clearance rack items were retired from the 2011-12 Idea Book & Catalogue, which you can view on the Clearance Rack page, if you don't have a paper copy.

 See what's available each week

Download & Save Clearance Rack documents

week 1 - 14 to 20 December

week 2    21 Dec - 3 January

week 3 - 4 to 10 January

week 4 - 11 to 21 January

Since it's such a busy time for everyone, you can place your clearance rack order for the whole month of specials with me now & I'll process them as the specials become available, or you can let me know each week. Either way is fine! I'll be placing my first order tonight, so let me know today if you'd like anything ASAP.

Note: shipping & handling on each week's order will be $5.95 minimum, or 5% of the total for orders over $120. I will combine orders being shipped to me, to reduce postage costs where possible.

Any questions about Clearance rack or anything else, just give me a call.
Inky wishes, Di

Scentsational Season - Christmas SAS 1

With only 2 weeks until Christmas, it's well & truly time to share some Christmas ideas with you.
Today's cards are from my first Christmas Stamp a Stack  (SAS) class on September 15th. This was our first chance to play with the Scentsational Season stamp set & matching Holiday Collection framelits dies (Holiday Catalogue), plus a few more new goodies. My lovely ladies made 8 cards, 4 each of 2 designs - good start for their Christmas cards list. First up, a pair of cute gingerbread guys.

The soft suede gingerbread were cut with a matching framelit (yay -no scissors!). The gorgeous swirly cherry cobbler coloured background is the new Lacy Brocade embossing folder (Holiday Catalogue). The sentiment is a new fave from the More Merry Messages set. Here's a close look at the gingies, so you can see their little eyes & buttons, made using the eyeballs from the owl punch & attached with two way glue. You can also see the pierced circle (Essentials piercing template).

Next up,  a Christmas tree version in gumball green.

We varied the layout a bit by adding a banner tail & delicate doily border behind the circles & changed the DSP to another print from the 'Be of Good Cheer' pack. Here's a close up of the tree to show a bit more detail.

The star is punched with the star punch from the merry mini's punch set, which matches the star in Scentsational season. There is a star die in the framelits set, but using the punch made it a little quicker for all the ladies. This was also my first outing with our new style ink pads & I'm so happy with how fantastic the solid tree image stamped on the vanilla card. Oh, I also coloured the tree trunk with a choc chip marker.
While these were the 2 class cards, I made a couple of others to show other variations....which some of the ladies decided they wanted to make. For this one, I used the candy canes.

 

This final card was a result of me playing with some of the scraps on my desk after the first 3.

Thanks for visiting. Hope you liked these projects. Leave a comment oif you have any q's or just want to say hi. I'll be back with more Christmassy projects soon.
Ink wishes, Di

PS: If you're wondering what a Stamp a Stack  (SAS) is, it's a class where we make mostly quick & easy cards, that are easily duplicated, generally with just stamps & ink (& maybe some quick extra bling), so that we can make lots in time we usually make two. Perfect for Christmas, where you need lots of cards & time is short.


Supplies
Gingerbread
Stamps: Scentsational Season (Holiday Catalogue), More Merry Messages
Card/Paper: cherry cobbler, riding hood red, very vanilla card, Be of Good Cheer DSP
Ink: soft suede, early espresso ink pads
Tools: Big Shot, Holiday Collection Framelits, Lacy Brocade embossing folder, Circles #2 die (largest circle), 1 3/4 inch circle punch, owl punch, Essentials piercing pack, piercing tool & mat 
Tree
Stamps: Scentsational Season, More Merry Messages
Card/Paper: gumball green, cherry cobbler, very vanilla card, Be of Good Cheer DSP
Ink: gumball green, cherry cobbler, early espresso ink pads
Accessories: basic rhinestone
Tools: Big Shot, Holiday Collection Framelits, Circles #2 die (largest 2 circles), Delicate Doilies sizzlit,owl punch, square punch, merry minis punch pack (star), or star from framelit.
 Candy Canes
Stamps: Scentsational Season, More Merry Messages
Card/Paper: cherry cobbler, riding hood red, very vanilla card, Be of Good Cheer DSP
Ink: cherry cobbler, early espresso ink pads
Tools: Big Shot, Holiday Collection Framelits, Lacy Brocade embossing folder, Circles #2 die (largest circle), 1 3/4 inch circle punch, owl punch, Essentials piercing pack, piercing tool & mat
 Cane medallion
Stamps: Scentsational Season, More Merry Messages
Card/Paper: gumball green, cherry cobbler, very vanilla card, Be of Good Cheer DSP
Ink: cherry cobbler, early espresso ink pads
Tools: Big Shot, Holiday Collection Framelits, Circles #2 die (largest 2 circles), Delicate Doilies sizzlit,owl punch, Essentials piercing pack, piercing tool & mat, square punch

Owl for the boys

I'm back again with the second card from my Father's Day/Masculine card class...

My owlie card was adapted from this cute owlie Christmas card by First Hand Emotion. To create rustic tree background, I roughly inked up the new woodgrain embossing folder (Holiday Catalogue) directly with a soft suede ink pad, before putting the fold through the Big Shot with soft suede card. It really made the ridges stand out. Then, I created a torn frame in the embossed panel for owlie to peek through. The leaves were cut with the 'Little Leaves' sizzlit & I added texture with my stylus & piercing mat.
You can see more detail in this pic....inlcuding the cute googlie eyes (Holiday Catalogue).

 

Today's Tips
- For a more even look when inking embossing folders, use a brayer to roll the ink.
- Check out this fab torn frame tutorial by Sharnee Torrents if you'd like to learn more about this technique.

I think that's all I wanted to cover, but if you have any q's, just leave me a comment.
Thanks very much for visiting. Hope to see you here again soon.
Inky wishes, Di

Supplies
Stamps: Best Dad Ever
Card/Paper:  early espresso, more mustard, soft suede, crumb cake, old olive, naturals ivory card, Patterns DSP (Regals)
Ink: early espresso, soft suede ink pads
Accessories: cajun craze brad (Regals), googlie eyes
Tools: Big Shot, Woodgrain embossing folder, Little Leaves sizzlit, owl punch, square punch

Up Up & Away for the boys

Today's projects are especially for the boys - from my Father's Day/Masculine class at the end of August ( I know - bad blogger!). First up, a card using 'Up Up & Away' & some new colours (at that time) - midnight muse & gumball green, teamed with baja breeze on a crumb cake base.

 

A bit more about the card - I've been quite obsessed with tails or flag-ends, banners or whatever else they're called for a while & thought they'd be good for to add a bit of extra interest here. I popped the balloons & happy birthday panel are popped on dimensionals. I stamped some clouds & birds (trust me - the original has birds. Must have forgot to put them on this one). Speaking of the original card - I made it first with the similar colour combo of night of navy, wild wasabi & bashful blue, but decided to give the new in-colours (& new style ink pads) a  whirl for the class version.
Looking back at the card, it could be very easily changed for a girl...or anyone with a colour change....& a maybe a punched flower in each balloon (like the second card in this post).

Father's Day Chocolate Slider
Here's another quick & easy (but yummy) project we made at the class - a chocolate slider in the same midnight muse & gumball green combo.

We stamped the ties & 'Best Dad Ever' sentiment from the 'Best Dad Ever' stamp set (which also has the Happy Birthday stamp used on the card). & attached it to a gumball green box, decorated with a strip of Comfort Cafe DSP. This size fitted a large Lindt bar (extra creammmmy), but I've made lots of other sizes too. Here's a pic showing the lovely contents.

I know my lovely class ladies have been making lots of these sliders since the class too, so it was obviously a hit with them.
Anyway, it's been a long day, so I'm off to bed...after adding the supply list. Until next time...
Inky wishes, Di

Supplies
Balloon Card
Stamps: Best Dad Ever, Up Up & Away
Card, crumb cake, midnight muse, whisper white,gumball green card, baja breeze Patterns DSP (Subtles)
Ink: gumball green, midnight muse, marina mist ink pads
Tools: piercing tool, Essentials piercing template, piercing mat

Chocolate Slider
Stamps: Best Dad Ever
Card, gumball green, midnight muse, whisper white card, Comfort Cafe DSP
Ink: gumball green, midnight muse ink pads
Accessories: black satin ribbon (retired)
Tools: piercing tool, Essentials piercing template, piercing mat, 1/2inch circle punch

Papillon potpourri patchwork

I'm back!! I can't believe my last project post here was more than 2 months ago. I didn't intend a long break, but it's been such a busy time, both with life & creating. Thanks very much to anyone who's still visiting me here.
Anyway, onto a project....finally. I wasn't sure where to start again, so I'll just try to pick up where I stopped & see how it goes. I made today's card way back in September for my friend Jo's birthday (*waving*), using my (at that time) new butterfly stamp set, Papillon Potpourri....with matching punch (yippeeeeeee).

I had an idea to make a patchwork landscape background using some Patterns DSP & a square punch. Can you see the green grass, blue skies & a yellow sun in the corner? I added some subtle faux stitching with my new Essentials piercing pack & a crumb cake marker . It's mounted on a die cut scallop square. The beautiful butterflies are stamped in not quite navy ink & coloured very roughly with markers, then punched out (the small one is hand-cut). You can hopefully see the detail better in this pic.

The sentiment is from a super useful new set (with a great font) called 'Made for You', which I punched out with the curly label punch & placed under some fun new wild wasabi stitched ribbon.
Before I  go, here's the inside of the card. I carried over some elements from the front, but kept it very simple. By the way, the finished card front is around a 14.5cm square.

It turned out totally different to my initial idea, but I was really happy with it. Hope you like it too. Thanks again for visiting. I really appreciate you being here.
Until next time, sending warm & inky wishes.
Di

Today's Tip - 'Made for You' is a super useful sentiment set, which includes the birthday stamp I used here, plus 'thank you' & 'especially for you' sentiments. It's a total bargain at only $16.95 (AU) in clear mount.

Supplies
Stamps: Papillion Potpourri, Made for You
Card/Paper: baja breeze, whisper white card, Subtles Patterns DSP (marina mist, baja breeze, so saffron, certainly celery, Brights Patterns DSP (daffodil delight)
Ink: not quite navy ink pad, pretty in pink, bashful blue, so saffron markers
Accessories: basic pearls, wild wasabi stitched ribbon
Tools: Big Shot, Scallop square die, Essentials piercing pack, Piercing tool, Piercing mat, Curly label punch, Butterfly punch, 1 1/4 inch square punch