The Winter Tree

I have been a bit obsessed with making rolled paper flowers after seeing a wreath on Pinterest. So I started gluing them onto a styrofoam cone and ended up with this:

I used my treasured - and retired - Stampin' Up First Edition and Newsprint papers to make this. Sure wish those would come back!!!

Basically, I cut the paper into rough circles of various sizes - the bigger the circle, the bigger the flower. Then I cut each circle into a spiral and hot glued them to stay together and then hot glued them onto the cone. I used bigger flowers on the bottom and made them progressively smaller as I worked up the cone.

Interspersed among the flowers, I used mini yarn balls I made with baker's twine, hemp cord and floral wire. after seeing some tutorials on Pinterest. Using the same idea, I glued Basic Pearls onto Vintage Faceted buttons and then glued those onto floral wire and pushed them into the styrofoam. There are a few Basic Jewels Rhinestones scattered here and there and finishing off the top are two Frosted Finishes Embellishments stuck together with a glue dot.

Here are some close-ups:                                                    

Top section.

Mid-section.

It's Hop time again!

                                                

Welcome! If you are following the Hop order, you've just come from the very talented Kath's blog.

I'm sharing a gift bag that is also an up-cycling project. If you've ever purchased tea from a David's Tea shop and you are a Stampin' Up fan, you may have noticed that the lovely bags they put your purchases into are very close to Bermuda Bay in colour. That makes them a perfect match with the Winter Frost Designer Series Paper.

I used two of the snowflakes from the Festive Flurry stamp set and stamped them at the top of the bag using white Staz-On. A strip of the beautiful striped foil design from the Winter Frost collection covers up the David's Tea logo at the bottom. Then I embellished it with the stars cut from the Silver Glimmer paper using the star from the Circle Thinlits assortment. And, of course, the Merry, using the Expressions Thinlits die.

The Silver 1/8" ribbon holds a Silver Glimmer snowflake cut from the Silver Glimmer paper. When I punched a hole to put the ribbon through, I looked at what I punched out and thought it would look good in the center of the stamped snowflakes.

Next, I made two designs of cards to match the bag. The card on the right is a total CASE of a design by Claudia Perry. I loved how she used the Circle Card die thinlit to make a tent card. I added a Silver Glimmer star to the center of the snowflake. The sentiment is stamped with the Merry Christmas stamp from Teeny Tiny Wishes. The other card uses the negative cutout from one of the dies in the set that co-ordinates with the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set. Although neither of these is in the current catalogue, they are both still available to order. The sentiment on this one features the fun Candy Dots in Bermuda Bay. I love Candy Dots!

And finally, a non-Christmas card but still going with the blue theme I seem to have going on lately. This one uses the World Map background stamp, stamped in black Staz-On on Very Vanilla, cut into three panels and sponged with Marina Mist then layered on more Very Vanilla. The sentiment is from Chalk Talk, punched with the wide oval punch and layered on a background cut with a Chalk Talk Framelit - and finished off with Candy Dots! You can get Candy Dots in all of the SU colours, making them the perfect embellishment.

If you are following the Hop in order, your next stop is Jeanne, who has some WOW projects. Enjoy. Just click on the Next button to visit Jeanne.

    

Blue for Christmas

For some reason, this year I'm drawn to the blue and white theme for Christmas. Maybe it's because I'm using the awesome Festive Flurry stamp set so much. And there is a lot of inspiration to be found on our Stampin' Connection site that is just for Stampin' Up demonstrators. This card was inspired by another demo, Rachelle Maggart.

For this card, I used a technique called Emboss Resist. It's very easy to do and I think the results are wonderful! First, stamp the image with Versa Mark on Shimmer White paper. Emboss with white embossing powder. Next, lightly sponge each snowflake with Coastal Cabana ink. It's almost magical how the image suddenly appears! Then, using another sponge and Midnight Muse ink, just do the center of each snowflake. I also used Midnight Muse to stamp the sentiment from the Christmas Messages stamp set.

Both of these stamp sets - Festive Flurry and Christmas Messages - are available in the Holiday catalogue. To see them and all the other fun holiday-themed stamps, embellishments and patterned paper, just click on the image to the right.

The edges of the image layer are sponged with Coastal Cabana before layering on Whisper White cardstock and then the Coastal Cabana base. And because snowflakes need some sparkle, there is a Rhinestone Basic Jewel in the middle of each one. Emboss Resist is a fun technique to do and I will be trying it with lots of other stamps.

The possibilities are endless! Try some Emboss Resist today.

I've added this post to a challenge blog I came across while blog surfing. It's called Around the World Stampin' Up! Challenges and can be found here.

The Wacky Watercooler 2013 Holiday Blog Hop

You've just come from the blog of the extremely talented Kathe.

I'm thrilled to be participating in my very first Blog Hop. If you're wondering about the name "Wacky Watercooler" here's a quick explanation:

One of the perks of being a Stampin' Up demonstrator is access to a wonderful site called Stampin' Connection. It's a place where hundreds of demos share their creations, advice and encouragement. One of the threads I frequent on a regular basis is called Wacky women's watercooler (renamed once more) men welcome too. It's a place where we talk about everything under the sun - and sometimes about stamping too!

A while ago some of us decided we wanted to do a Blog Hop - and here we are! We agreed to focus on the new seasonal Holiday catalogue.

Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I chose for my first project to use the stamp set Truly Grateful. It has an awesome woodgrain stamp that would be great on its own as a focal point or to create your own background. For this project I used Smoky Slate - going for a silvered, barn-board effect. I love this shade of gray. For a pop of colour I went with some Tangerine Tango.

And I just had to make a custom envelope to go with this card using the brand new, absolutely fabulous Envelope Punch Board! I used a piece of the Sweater Weather Designer Series Paper that echoes the colours in my card to make a matching envelope. And this is it:

My next two projects feature the Festive Flurry stamp set and matching Festive Flurry Framelits. BTW - they are available as a bundle, giving you a 15% savings. I've done a monochromatic theme using Baked Brown Sugar and Very Vanilla card stock, Crumb Cake ink and seam binding, and added a bit of sparkle with a Vintage Faceted button. The sentiment is from Christmas Messages.

For my final offering I used the combo of Coastal Cabana and Smoky Slate with a little bit of Whisper White. Besides a Vintage Faceted button on this, I used rhinestones on the points of the Smoky Slate snowflake and some of the Silver 1/8" ribbon.

Your next stop is Deborah who will have some inspiring samples for you!

                      

Still Wheeling Around

The Shop Around wheel is definitely a favourite for me! This time I paired it with the Dress Up Framelit. I stamped the wheel using Baked Brown Sugar onto some brown packing paper. On the dress form I used the En Francais background stamp inked with Baked Brown Sugar, stamped off once and then stamped on Whisper White cardstock.
The doilies were cut from a piece of the Epic Day This and That DSP. I love cutting things out! And because the dress form looked a little naked all by itself, I added a sash made from Crumb Cake Seam Binding, gathered with a Very Vintage Designer Button. The button is threaded with a thread pulled from a burlap bag.
And of course, no dress form is complete without a pearl necklace!
For the base of this card I used Summer Starfruit.
And this is how it came together:

Here's the complete list of ingredients:
Stamps: Shop Around Wheel, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock: Summer Starfruit, Whisper White
Ink: Baked Brown Sugar
DSP: Epic Day This and That
Accessories: Very Vintage Designer Button, Crumb Cake Seam Binding, Pearl Basic Jewels, Dress Up Framelits, Word Window Punch
Other: brown packing paper, thread from a burlap bag

A new wheel!

No, I haven't got a new vehicle but I did just get a new stamping wheel! I don't use them a lot, but when I do I tell myself I have to use them more often. Wheels are a great way to make a background design very quickly.

Like this:

The wheel is called Shop Around (item # 129587 on page 98) and it reminds me of old newspaper ads. I love looking at old newspaper ads, especially for women's fashions. To use a wheel, I just roll it repeatedly over an ink pad until the entire wheel is inked and then just wheel it across your cardstock. Or paper bag! In this sample, I used a bit of the packing paper that used to come in Stampin' Up orders. I still have quite a bit of it, and it's wonderful to use for all kinds of things, from covering my table when I stamp to using it to stamp right onto. The ink is Baked Brown Sugar (item #131174 on page 141).

The image layer was then glued onto Very Vanilla cardstock (item #101650 on page 145) which was glued onto a Baked Brown Sugar cardstock (item #131296 on page 141) base. Baked Brown Sugar is one of the yummy new In-Colour collection in the brand new catalogue.

The sentiment is from Perfectly Penned (item #122892 - clearmount; #128703 - woodmount on page 95) and stamped in Baked Brown Sugar on Very Vanilla. It was then run through the Big Shot die cutting machine (item #113439 on page184) to cut it out with one of the framelits from the set Apothecary Accents (item #127003 on page 187). I then used the same framelit to cut a shape out of the Baked Brown Sugar cardstock, which I then cut in half width-wise and layered it under the stamped piece.

To balance the sentiment, I used a piece of the 7/16" Naturals Trim (item #129287 on page 173) to wrap around the corner. Then I threaded a piece of Linen Thread (item # 104199 on page 173) through a button from the brand new Very Ventage Designer Buttons (item #129327 on page169) and tied it onto the Naturals Trim.

What's the deal with Washi Tape????

Sure, I had heard about Washi Tape. Maybe I had seen samples using Washi Tape, but I wasn't really sure about it. And I didn't get why some people are so excited about Stampin' Up now carrying Washi Tape.

Well, now I get it! I finally got my hands on some and have to say, it's kinda fun! Here's what I created using the Epic Day Designer Series Paper - to make the 'cake' - and the Epic Day Washi Tape.

Also used on this card is the Banner Greetings stamp set. It's one of the hostess sets in the new catalogue. I stamped it using a brand new colour - Smoky Slate. Love this colour! I used a black Stampin' Write Marker to do the doodling on the cake layers, and then I stamped randomly over the Epic Day DSP using the fun new rotary stamp. It's so fun!! The cardstock is Tangerine Tango.

I will be using more Washi Tape. It's a quick and easy way to accent a card.

How about you? Are you crazy for Washi Tape?

What have I been doing?

Well, obviously I haven't been looking after this blog! But I have been stamping and it's time to share some projects with you.

One thing I've been doing is playing with new techniques. I've seen a lot of samples using a technique called Faux Linen. This card I made was inspired by all the samples I've looked at, especially one done by Julie Olivier who shared her creation on our Stampin' Up demonstrators' web site.

For this card I used one of my favourite stamp sets - By the Tide - and one of my favourite cardstock colours - Crumb Cake. The faux linen technique involves rubbing an ink pad all over a piece of Glossy cardstock. Sadly, this cardstock is being retired and had already sold out. The ink I used - More Mustard - is also retiring at the end of this month. After the ink dries, I lightly dragged a sanding block across the surface, which creates little lines through the ink.

Next, I stamped all over the background with the text image from the By the Tide stamp set. The fan coral stamp was done with black Staz-on. Then I stamped the little sea-horse stamp on top of the coral image and finished with the Nantucket seal stamp in the top left corner. The image panel was mounted on Midnight Muse and I popped it up on the Crumb Cake base with dimensionals.

A very quick card to do, and could be used for a thank-you note, or thinking of you, or just about any occasion.

I like this technique and have lots more ideas for using it. Hope you are inspired to try some Faux Linen!