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!