#CTC202 - Favourite Holiday Tags

So many choices this week as we CASE our favourite holiday tag.

With all that choice, I've ended up on the back cover and the tag on the top right:

I've shifted it up a notch to a Christmas card, using a base of thick Whisper White. I've die cut some Pretty Pine thinlits pine tree leaves in Old Olive as my feature.  The tag part is my top layer of whisper white, and the background I've opted for is stamped with the doily from the hostess set "Very Vintage".  Each time it has been stamped off once, to lighten the image  I've used Gold Glimmer paper for my banner instead of the red above, snipped with the Banner Triple punch at each end. I've then staggered the pine die cuts in a kind of wreath pattern and added a pine cone die cut in Soft Suede.  I've then added the greeting (from "Making Christmas Bright") which was stamped in Old Olive, and the word 'Bright' has been gold heat embossed. It was cut using a circle shape from Stitched Shapes Framelits. I've then added another two pine cone diecuts and finished off with Metallic Pearls

Thanks for stopping by. It would be great if you were to play along, create your CASE of your favourite holiday tag, and add it to our Facebook page using the link on the right.  Time to pop over and see Rebecca's creation, which was one of the tags I was considering, but love what she's done with it...

#CTC195 - Festive Farmhouse

Hi and welcome to our weekly blog hop. This week sees us at the Festive Farmhouse Suite from pages 12-17 of the Holiday catalogue.

Page 12 for me and the card on the top right:

I kept with the layout and switched my colours around.  I've used a Cherry Cobbler base card, with another Cherry Cobbler piece embossed with the Dynamic Corrugated TIEF. I've sponged all my edges with Night of Navy. How long since you've added sponging to your project? I forgot how much I like the look.

Laid onto the corrugated piece was a strip of the foliage DSP from All is Bright. Banner cut and spritzed and scrunched for a little texture. Onto that a piece of cheque pattern DSP from Under the Mistletoe which had some Night of Navy embellishments diecut from the Pretty Pine Thinlits. A stitched circle from Cherry Cobbler was added to the middle of the card. The trees from Rooted in Nature were stamped onto Cherry Cobbler, diecut and added over and above the CASe to give some balance to the empty space I had. A strip of Night of Navy was added behind the banner greeting from Snowflake Sentiments (the top half only), the bottom section having been masked off. Finally a metal button threaded with Night of Navy baker's twine (both now retired). 

Now we're hopping over to see Rachel's super cute projects this week. Please join us, create a card from the section above, and add it to our Facebook page using the link over on the right.

Wish Me Luck!

Stampin' Up have invited demonstrators who wish to apply to be a Display Board Stamper to create a blog post with 3 card fronts, 1 scrapbook page and 2 off the page items.  

I may have slipped a little extra project in, but only because they are very similar and it just gives people an extra little idea during this season of giving.

My first card features Santa's Suit and Oh, What Fun with the trending 'eclipse' method using the Large Letter framelits.

My next card is a special card created for my lovely Mum who celebrated a birthday this week.  I used the Delightful Daisy stamps, matching punch and DSP along with the Happy Birthday Thinlits.  I believe this is called a Double Dutch fold card, although I created my own measurements to make this a 6" square card (can be easily adapted to standard size though).

The inside:

 and then it can stand on it's own:

My final card is a four fold card which I adapted from ideas online, but I get two card bases from a sheet of 12"x12" and 1/2 sheet A4. I realise the brief was for a card front, but this is a special Christmas card and it does fit in a standard envelope. Father Christmas, Merry Music Specialty DSP and Snowflake Sentiments were used with some diecuts from Pretty Pines Thinlits.

Opened:

The photo I selected to scrapbook with jumped out after I had been flicking through the new Petal Passion Memories and More card pack. The powder pink sky matched the cards from this pack perfectly. I have used one of the large and 3 small cards to create the embellishments.

Close up of Petal Passion cards (yum!):

Off the page items. First using the Window Box thinlits run through the Big Shot with the 3D Dynamic Hexagons. Greeting combination of Pretty Kitty and fussy cut Floral Statement, with a fussy cut bumble bee from Dragonfly Dreams - all elements raised with mini dimensionals.  

Next project incorporates little cups inspired by Mel Pagano - they hold a Ferroro Rocher perfectly and I've popped them into a Wood crate with a few simple 3x3 cards. The cups were made from Coffee Break DSP.

And just because it's Christmas, and staying with 3" square card. Are you looking for some last minute inspiration - how about those mini pizza boxes? So pleased to hear they are carrying over, perfect little gift - again using the Merry Music Specialty DSP, also trimmed to fit the back of the envelopes, a simple punched black cat with a sweet little Santa hat from Santa's Suit, finished with a strip of Year of Cheer washi tape.

Thanks for stopping by. I wish you and your families a safe and happy holiday season.

CASEing the Catty - #CTC156 Christmas Twist

The brief is actually "Case any project from the annual catalogue and give it a Christmas Twist"... why don't you play along?  Make your card and link using the badge on the right...

 

This week, my inspiration came from the card top right of page 98

The base is thick Whisper White with Be Merry DSP. I wanted to see more of the DSP than above and opted to lose the middle layer with the embossing. My oval is Whisper white cut with the Layering Ovals framelits.  Attached to that is a Pretty Pines Thinlits branch, along with the Cherry Cobbler bow from the same set.  I sponged some whisper white cardstock with Soft Suede and then cut the birds using Birds & Blooms thinlits. This colourway reminded me of one of  my favourite garden birds, the thrush. I am especially grateful for the assistance they give me in eliminating snails from my garden! I added a bit more Christmas twist with the santa hat from Santa's Suit - as you can see I had to do a bit of reverse stamping to get it facing the way I wanted, and it may be a size too big but it will hopefully brighten the receiver's face! The greeting I used fit the purpose, as they live in a different country, so Holly Berry Happiness was used and mounted onto a Garden Green banner.

Thanks for stopping by and you must hop over to check out the amazing set Julia Quinn has created!

Mediterranean Moments

A set that jumped out of the new catalogue at me was inspired by $Million sales achiever, Susan Nygaard.  We also saw Liz Collett demonstrate some great ideas using this set at #onstagelive. Of course, once I started, I wanted to use all my samples, and another item showcased here is the Stitched Shapes Framelits which have proven so popular they will not be able to be ordered after tomorrow due until sometime in the future, but they will be in the new catalogue in June.  

First up a card to satisfy the Global Design Project sketch challenge #gdp062.  I have gone monochrome, using only Soft Suede against Whisper White.  The spots on the Fancy Frost Specialty DSP were made using Soft Suede refill dropped into water, then dipping my aqua painter in and flicking lightly.  Of course, I couldn't waste the coloured water, so see below for what else I did.  The image was stamped then diecut with the oh so versatile Stitched Shape Framelits.  The sketch was landscape, but I have gone portrait, and hope it still fits the rules.  The greeting from Jar of Love has been layered onto Soft Suede which I also diecut from the same framelits, just a little bit of tweaking along the way...

Next up, a card for a friend who has just purchased her first home after a change in circumstances - I hope it makes her smile. Greeting again from Jar of Love and diecut with the Tags and Labels framelits, Bow from Pretty Pines Thinlits and a few rhinestones to finish.

Something calming about this picture, so again you don't need to to put much behind your card as the picture says it all. Image diecut from Stitched Shape Framelits and layered onto scallop from Layering Squares. Greeting from Jar of Love and just a couple of plain strips of Basic Black cardstock for the background. 

Most people think of the vibrant blues and reds (along with terracotta) when thinking of the Mediterranean, so this card was a bit of a play on that. I believe it is called Spotlighting Technique, and my spotlights were again diecut from the Stitched Shape Framelits.  My blue is Island Indigo backed with Real red.  Greeting - yes, you guessed it - Jar of Love.

The last card to show you was using the leftover water I referred to from the first photo.  I watercoloured a piece of Whisper White card, and thought the colour wasn't intense enough, so I just tipped all the water onto it.  Of course, that meant waiting for it to dry.  So I sped it up with the heatgun, and like how the ink started to separate so it had a soft yellow haze around the edge.  I stamped it with my image in Archival Black, then ran it through the Big Shot with Petal Burst TIEF, then I actually shifted it a smidge and ran it through again.  I layered that onto Basic Black and now have a fun no occasion card ready to send, or I could pop a greeting on when called for...

Here they are all together.  Hope you love this set as much as I do, although sorry that you have to wait until January to order it.