Create with Connie and Mary--Thinking of Christmas!

I will admit it, I have been thinking of Christmas! It is actually not that far away and I find this is the busiest time of year with other holidays along the way and one of my kids celebrating a birthday. Plus we have On Stage to look forward to as well.

The theme this week is “Thinking of Christmas” and I created this pretty traditional card to reflect the holiday.

I really love mixing and matching products as shown in this card here. I featured the Gift Wrapped Bundle with accents from the Snowflake Splendor Suite and the Everything Essential Bundle.

I started with a base of Cherry Cobbler and ran a layered piece of card stock through the Winter Snow Embossing Folder for a subtle winter feel. I used the Essential Tag punch with some retired DSP (there I said, it, I have it and I still use it when it works) to create a base for the gift bow. I stamped the bow and embossed it with gold embossing powder. I love Gift Bow Builder punch! I added in bit of Shaded Spruce Ribbon (also retired) with some of the gold thread included in the Tag Buffet kit (waste not, want not!).

A Very Merry Christmas is stamped in Shaded Spruce card stock in the same ink. I added in another gold detail by cutting some of our Gold Foil paper with the scallop die from the Peony Dies.

This card design has such great potential. I will definitely be using it again and will just mix up some of the elements.

Can’t wait to see what the other girls have created! You can go BACK to see what Melissa designed or NEXT to see what Connie has made this week.

Merry Christmas Wreath

Okay, so I will admit that I am late to the game here with the Arrange a Wreath Bundle…and I LOVE it! I recently took advantage of a 50% off item to get this bundle and its so fabulous! I decided to pair up the wreath with the In Good Taste Designer Series Paper to mimic a rustic front door.

I loved this card so much I decided to make a bunch for a card swap I have on the horizon. I started by choosing Just Jade and Shaded Spruce to be my wreath colors and added in some Very Vanilla poinsettia’s , both cut from the Wreath Builder dies.

Merry Christmas is stamped in Just Jade ink with a bit of ink flicking done in the same color. I added some Blue Adhesive Backed Gems to the wreath as well. Don’t let the description fool you, these gems have a magical quality of reflecting the surface they are on, so you can see on the wreath how they pick up the green tones! Sometimes, the only way to figure these things out is by playing around.

You may notice I added another little strip of DSP to the side of the woodgrain DSP. It from the Tis’ the Season 6x6 stack and it combines Real Red and Cherry Cobbler together. The base of my card is Cherry Cobbler which helped that little strip just pop off the page.

I absolutely love how this finished card turned out. It is traditional holiday colors and Christmas feel to me and I hope you will give this bundle a try!

If you are in Canada, you can shop my online store by following the link below or using my host code on the side of my blog. I would love to send you a thank you card so make sure you don’t click NO CONTACT when you are ordering (unless you want to be anonymous).

Have a fabulous day!

Stampin' For Christmas-Let's get Christmassy!

Thank you for joining us on this monthly Christmas themed blog hop featuring the many fabulous Stampin’ Up! products we all have to choose from! Sometimes it is hard to pick just one set to focus on! I did narrow it down to the Coming Home Bundle as I am having too much fun colouring all of the houses and trees. Colouring can be so relaxing and its so easy with our Stampin’ Blends! This bundle is part of a larger suite called Trimming the Town.

This stamp set does not have any sentiments to it, which is sort of unique to Stampin’ Up! It is all images. So I pulled in a nice sized ‘Merry Christmas’ from the Tag Buffet stamp set.

I used Balmy Blue as my card base and stamped the sentiment in the same color. The house is coloured in Real Red with Crumb Cake accents and Balmy Blue on the windows. The trees are classic Old Olive and Crumb Cake.

I used one of the dies from the Home Together Dies that has the trees and the snow drift shapes. It created a great background and I stamped directly to this piece. The house and trees are layered over top.

I wanted the illusion of a snow storm too so I stole a snowflake from the So Many Snowflakes dies and added those in. I then created a spray with my Wink of Stella and Balmy Blue markers to add to the snowfall feel.

I think this is a great card that you could easily mass produce and enjoy the relaxing creative benefits of colouring!

You can visit Sue Allen’s blog next to see what her crafty Christmas creation is! I hope you hop all the way through so you do not miss anyone’s creativity!

Christmas Coffee Explosion Box

This project is definitely in my top ten favourite things I have EVER made! I just couldn’t love it any more and definitely know its the gift I am making for my kids teachers this Christmas!

If you haven’t tried making an explosion box, don’t be intimated, its actually quite simple. You can look at each panel as a mini card and let your design inspiration go from there! This overhead shot shows you what it looks like once you take off the top and the sides ‘explode’ down.

There are tons of tutorials out there and almost all of them start with a 12x12 piece of card stock which is what I used here. I scored it at 4 inches on all sides and then cut some of the panels at a diagonal to create the two ‘pocket’s. I wanted a couple spots to add in some gift cards (one for coffee, one for booze!).

I used the two stamp sets Warm Hugs and Wrapped in Christmas from the Heartwarming Hugs Suite to decorate and embellish this project. These two sets work so well together!

This is the top of the box. I just love this mini coffee cup that fits inside the For You… it gives a little hint of what might be inside.

You can also use the Glitter Star Ornaments as a stationary embellishment by cutting the string and tucking the hook behind something.

I used the Heartwarming Hugs DSP and used the same pattern on the lid and on the inside panels and decorated the box with colors that coordinate with the DSP. I love the options of using Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, and Soft Suede. I used white embossing powder on many of the sentiments to help them ‘pop’.

The pull out pockets also have some stamping and you easily have enough to add a gift card.

I sacrificed one of the cups by carefully taking it apart to trace it onto the DSP so that the shape would be perfect to wrap around the cup. I used Tombow adhesive so it would stay adhered until the end of time! I decided to hot glue the cup to the base of the box. This way you can add some little treats inside the cup too and won’t move around in the explosion box.

I love how the Warm Wraps dies have such great layering options. The top of the coffee cup illustrates this perfectly and I used this layering option on all of the panels.

I would love to share this project with you! I will be offering it as a class on October 21st at 12:30 and October 23rd at 7pm. If you are in the Edmonton area please feel free to reach out if you would like to come stamp with me, or order any of the supplies by following the link to my store. Click on the button below to contact me to sign up for this class!

Coffee Carriers--not just for coffee!

The very first suite I ordered from the Handmade for You catalogue was the Heartwarming Hugs suite. Once I saw those mini coffee cups and that carrier I was SOLD! Hahaha! I have been crafting with them all month long in preparation for a display I was putting together and let me tell you, they are for so much more than coffee!

This cute little project is home to a little coffee bean plant! Isn’t that fun? I went to a local greenhouse and they told me it would maybe grow a bean in like a decade! hahaha! Keeping it alive for that long is actually more of a challenge!

To create the DSP wrap I sacrificed one of the cups by gently dismantling it. I then traced it onto the Heartwarming Hugs DSP so that the shape would be exactly the same to wrap around a cup. I used Tombow to keep things glued down. I love the color palette of this DSP as it allows you to bring in several brown and green tones and the patterns are so versatile and easy to mix together! I wrapped this carrier in DSP. I want to mention that you cannot wrap one strip of 12x12 around the carrier. It isn’t long enough so you need to cut individual pieces for the 4 sides. I wrapped it with the Real Red Braided Trim which is also a part of this suite.

I decided to add in a couple mini cards alongside my mini plant. I cut them to 2 1/2 inches wide so they could slip in the other side.

The Heartwarming Hugs Suite includes two stamp sets, Warm Hugs and Wrapped in Christmas. I used the Wrapped in Christmas set to make these mini cards and accented them with images from the Warm Hugs set.

The suite also includes two slim embossing folders which are great for adding in some texture like in this card shown.

Don’t all these patterns look awesome together? I love the Mossy Meadow Diagonal Stripe ribbon and the Glitter Star Ornaments in this suite. They help make the perfect tag! You can also see on this tag how fabulous the Warm Wraps Dies are as they have shapes that layer on top of each other! I always love when that is a component of a die set.

I actually ended up giving away both of these carriers as gifts so I wish the recipients luck in keeping these little coffee bean plants alive! hahaha! I also hope they are able to put the mini cards to good use and find themselves inspired.

I will be posting more coffee carrier projects so keep checking back so you don’t miss out! And if you need any supplies to make these projects, please shop my online store!