Global Stampers August 2016 - Christmas is coming

It's that time of the month for the Global Stampers to share their projects. The theme this month is Christmas is Coming. I know, I know, Christmas is still 4 months away, but it's never too early to make a start on your Christmas crafting.

Although the fabulous Autumn/Winter Catalogue will be released on 1 September, I thought it might be a good idea to remind people that there are some fabulous Christmas themed products in the Annual Catalogue.  I'm going to leave Robbie, Valérie, Alicia and Ann to provide you with sneak peeks of some of the new products. You are going to love them.

Using my Stampin' Trimmer and some Garden Green and Cherry Cobbler cardstock along with the This Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper, and the Peaceful Pines and Wonderous Wreath stamp sets, I made something to decorate the house. I love my Stampin' Trimmer because it has both a cutting and scoring blade on it, so need to change blades out.

The plaque (finished size is 22.0 cm x 13.5 cm x 1.0 cm, or if you would prefer inches 8-5/8" x 5-1/4" x 3/8") is designed to stand up like a picture frame but there is no reason why it couldn't be hung on the wall if you attach some ribbon.

The Garden Green frame is made out of a sheet of A4 cardstock and I simply followed the instructions that I had used before to make a rolled frame (there is a tutorial called Friends & Flowers Box Frame on the Tutorials page). The tutorial is for a much smaller frame but I simply followed the same scoring and cutting instructions as the smaller version.

I also made a co-ordinating card using the same stamp set and designer series paper but changed out the baubles on the tree for a different type. As you can see below, I did change out the framelits as well. 

I will be posting details of the projects made by Robbie, Valérie, Alicia and Ann tomorrow.  In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think of my plaque.

Fiona xx

If you are interesting is making the plaque, details of the products used are as follows:

Time for a Challenge

It's got to be a couple of months or so since I made a card for a challenge, so this weekend I decided to give the latest one from the CAS - Colours and Sketches Blog a go. This one is Challenge #144.

I love this colour combination idea but I wanted to keep it simple even though I had lots of crazy ideas going around my head.

This is the card that I came up with.

Among the Branches stamp set and the Woodland Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

I have admit that this is not exactly an original idea so I've not entered it into the challenge. It was fun to make though.

This is the card that I decided to enter instead.

For this card I used the Peaceful Pines stamp set and co-ordinating Perfect Pines Framelits Dies. These are available individually or as a bundle.

As you can see below, only the centre tree is popped up on dimensional, the two other trees are glued flat to the card. All of the stars and buckets/pots are on dimensionals too.

The Soft Sky flower on the bucket/pot comes from the Tree Builder Punch with the Night of Navy centre coming from the Owl Builder Punch.

As always, please feel free to leave comments to let me know what you think.

Happy World Card Making Day

Did you know that today is World Card Making Day? I know it's not a day normally found in diaries. If you did know, I hope you managed to get a little crafting done.

I spent the afternoon in my craft studio with five lovely crafters, helping them make a project that I had designed specifically for today. I wanted to do something a little different using the Hearth & Home Thinlits Dies and the Happy Scenes stamp set. I'd seen a card on Google that had been made by Julie Davidson way back in 2012, and thought I could adapt. And so I came up with a project that I thought fitted the bill.

This is what I designed for everyone to make.

I admit that I broke this year's New Year Resolution because I did in fact use two stamp sets on this project. The baubles from the Peaceful Pines stamp set were just too cute not to use on the garland over the window.

The card was a huge success with everyone.  It has a number of different techniques on it. The background for the scenes were coloured using Blender Pens for the trees and birds, and the sky using an Aqua Pen. There was of course a little bling in the form of the Red Glimmer Paper stars, and there is also Dazzling Diamond Glitter on the trees and snow (it doesn't show on the photo).

The great thing about this card is that it folds flat into a 5" x 5" square and of course we then just had to make an envelope for it. Once the envelope was made we then just had to then decorate it.  Never ending fun.

This is my envelope.

The flower was made using the Festive Flower Builder Punch. I have a confession to make because the stems were hand drawn using Real Red and Old Olive Stampin' Write Markers because I don't have the co-ordinating Reason for the Season stamp set.

There is a great Stampin' Up! video on YouTube showing how to make the flowers, and you can check it out here.

I have already written a tutorial on how to make my card and everyone who came received a printed copy. The tutorial has also been uploaded to my Tutorial page if you are interested in giving it a go.

Don't have the Hearth & Home Framelits or the Festive Flower Builder Punch, but would like them? You can shop online in my store 24/7.  What's more, this month I am running my BOGOF offer so you can get some free stuff through that and the chance to earn more if you use the Hostess Code that it at the top left of this blog.

Details of the Stampin' Up! goodies used for this project are as follows:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

PS I used Fringe Scissors to make the fringe on the rug. Forgot to add it to the list, oops. 

Pretty Peaceful Pines

At the moment I'm in the final stages of planning and making all my sample cards for the Christmas Stamp-a-Stack event that is on at the end of the month. I'm getting really excited because I have some great cards to share.

Everyone will get to make 18 cards during the day - 3 each of 6 different designs.  That means 18 cards in one day, with a lot of chatting and laughing going as well.  I have to come up 6 designs that people can replicate easily and quickly. Some of the hard work will be already done because I am planning on cutting some of the card stock.

One of the stamp sets that I want to use is the Peaceful Pines set. This is a photopolymer set with 17 stamps in it. It also co-ordinates with the Perfect Pines Framelits, and they are available individually and as a bundle.

While playing with the set, I made the following card. I really liked it when it was on my desk and when I held it in my hand but now that I've taken the photo I'm not so sure about it. I decided to share it with you anyway.

I love the scallops on these trees but maybe the card stock needs to be in a darker colour? Then again, maybe the stars
just need to be in Silver Glimmer Paper rather than Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper.

That's better.

The greetings in the stamp set are great too and there are some really cute little stamps such as baubles and a present. I stamped three presents on the inside of the card just to finish it off. There will be some going on the envelope too.

Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know which one you prefer.

Details of the Stampin' Up! products used are as follows:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog