The last of the Christmas cards (almost)

That's it, I'm officially now done with the card making for this Christmas. What's more, I've even written out the lot of them - all 79.

I've already shared four of the designs that I made (my posts of 12 December and 14 December), but I have three more to share.

Stampin' Up! supplies used:

Stamp Set : Best of Christmas
Ink : Island Indigo
Card Stock : Pool Party, Smoky Slate and Whisper White
Designer Series Paper : Winter Frost Specialty Designer Series Paper and Silver Glimmer Paper
Accessories : Christmas Ornament Punch, 1/8" Silver Ribbon, Dimensionals, and Red Sticky Tape

Stampin' Up! supplies used:

Stamp Set : As Lovely as A Tree and Greetings of the Season
Ink :Smoky Slate and Midnight Muse
Card Stock : Midnight Muse, Smoky Slate and Whisper White
Accessories : Basic Rhinestones

I was tempted to add some Dazzling Diamonds to the card above, but I over did it the other day and I've been suffering from an allergic reaction ever since because I forgot to take an allergy tablet.

Stampin' Up! supplies used:

Stamp Set : Best of Christmas and Petite Pairs
Ink : Baked Brown Sugar and Cherry Cobbler
Card Stock : Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and Very Vanilla
Accessories : Season of Style Washi Tape, 2-1/2" Circle and 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punches, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Sponge and Dimensionals

Actually, I have a fourth card still to share. It is going out to the ladies who are my direct down lines and I'd like them to have received theirs before I share it with you all. So,  it is going to have to wait a few days. Sorry.

I should add that I made different designs simply because I kept running out of different coloured card stock. I probably shouldn't admit that to you but I am human, and I can't keep multiple packs of all the different colours. I would love to, but I simply don't have the storage space.

Make & Take Challenge

Yesterday I shared the cards from the Secret Santa Swap from Saturday's Christmas Party. It's not a Stampin' Up! party without a game and a Make & Take. I did in fact prepare two make & takes. The first was a really quick one which involved making a desk calender but the second was a little different.

Here's my desk calender.

Stampin' Up! supplies used:

Card stock : Crumb Cake and Crushed Curry
Designer Series Paper : Sweater Weather
Accessories : Stampin' Trimmer or Simply Scored Scoring Tool, Boho Blossoms Punch, Basic Rhinestone.

As I said, the second Make & Take was a little different because I simply provided a package of cut card stock and designer series paper and a box containing three ink pads and two sets of stamps (plus a couple of other things to throw them off the scent). Everyone then had free reign to make a card and there were raffle tickets to be won depending on how close their design was to mine. I had pre-made a card and put it in a brown envelope. I'd even put cardboard around the card so that if they felt it it would not give anything away (a little extreme I guess). We opened the envelope when everyone had finished.

Here's my card and one of the packs that I gave everyone.

And, here's what everyone came up with.

Bottom one is mine

It was lovely to see how different they all were, and yet there's one or two quite close to the mark.  If you are wondering how it worked, there were points awarded if the card was the same orientation (landscape), had a V cut into the banner, used Cherry Cobbler for the greeting, used the same greeting, used one or more of the splatter stamps from Gorgeous Grunge, etc. I think you get the idea.

I think this Make & Take was enjoyed by everyone and I for one certainly loved seeing all the different designs that were made from three pieces of card stock and three strips of Designer Series Paper/Glimmer Paper.

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

Stamp Sets : Gorgeous Grunge and Joy to the World
Card Stock : Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler and Whisper White. Champagne Glimmer Paper.
Ink : Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive
Designer Series Paper : Season of Style
Accessories : Paper Snips and Dimensionals

I have a piece of exciting news to share with you today. A new Clearance Rack Blitz starts tomorrow (10 Dec). There will be retired products, with some of them up to 80% off their original prices.

You can order on-line and have them shipped direct to you for £4.95. Alternatively, if you live close to me and are willing to risk them still being available this coming weekend (when I put my next order in) I can add them to my order and you can come pick them up. In this instance, shipping would be free. The choice is yours but don't miss out by leaving it too late. I am sure that there will be some great bargains to be had that would make great Christmas presents.

Secret Santa Card Swap

Yesterday I held my Stampin' Up! Christmas Party for my local customers and downlines. I have a few things to share with you about it over the this and the next post.

A quick snapshot of some of the ladies having fun

One of my favourite things, that I started last year, is a Secret Santa Card Swap. Everyone who wants to join in, has to make a card (they can choose to sign it or leave it blank). Then when everyone has arrived with their card,  names are secretly pulled out and everyone can then put the appropriately sticker on their card and put it into Santa's Sack.

Here's the card that I made for my Secret Santa.

Finally playing with Gorgeous Grunge

A little bit of Washi Tape inside

Poor old Rudolph has snow on his antlers

Stampin' Up! supplies used:

Stamp sets : Gorgeous Grunge, Very Merry Tags and Joy to the World
Card Stock : Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and Whisper White
Ink : Soft Suede, Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler
Accessories : Season Of Style Washi Tape, Dazzling Diamonds, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, 1-3/4" Circle and the 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punches

I did manage to take a photo of almost all of the other cards. There were two people who were not there at the time, so we did not open their cards.

I have to admit that I have no idea who exactly made or received what, but they are all fabulous.

Check back tomorrow to see what else they got up to.

More Convention News

So, Friday night was award night. We all got to dress up - some people went completely over the top with long dresses etc but I decided to be a little more informal.

As we entered the conference centre we were greeted by some of the staff from the Home Office and Demo Support and were each given our own country's flag to wave. Here's Chris, he is one of the team from Demo Support in Germany. He and Andre (not pictured) look after us UK demo's, and they do a brilliant job of it.

Friday night is our chance to applaud all the demonstrators who received some form of recognition because of their great leadership or sales.  There were quite a few from the team who got to "walk the walk" across the stage, including our esteemed leader, Natalie (she of the star impersonation in the previous post). And I have to thank my fantastic downlines because I got to go up for a leadership award.  I have to admit that I was going to give it a miss but there was quite a few of us and I thought that I would be able to slip through unnoticed. It didn't quite work that way because we were all asked to walk heads held up high and wave, and like a good girl I did!!!

Not quite the royal wave, but at least I did it!

I have a small team of lovely downlines, but we are growing and I'm proud to say that I'm even a Stampin' Up! great-grandma now.

After the awards it was off to the after party. We all had a great time messing around in the photo booths. I can honestly say I've not laughed as much or as hard in ages.  I'm not sure that I can show you all of the photos, but here is one.

We had 10 seconds between each photo to change hats, glasses etc. In normal circumstances that would be fine but we were laughing so much it proved impossible.

Anyway, enough of Friday night. I am sure you are really wanting to see some more ideas and inspiration. So here's a few more.

I'm sorry to say that with the exception of the last one, I can't tell you who made these cards as they were pinned to boards. The last card was made by Marine Wiplier from France. Marine made this card as one of the Workshop Wows. It is really cute and there were other examples made by her that were pinned to the boards.

Chocolate extraganza

Last weekend I held the penultimate classes for 2013 - the theme being Christmas Gifts and Packaging. It turned out to be a bit of a chocolate fest because three out of the four projects involved chocolate in some shape or another.

I'd like to share three of the projects (only two of them involved chocolate) because I've already shared one of them - the Table Treats, see my blog of 30 October (there is a link in the comments section of that post to the instructions).

This one involved chocolate

and a piece of 12" x 12" Old Olive card stock

The cracker was made with the help of the Envelope Punch Board. On first sight the instructions looked a little daunting but everyone soon realised that they were in fact pretty straight forward. The difficulty (all mine) was working out the scoring and punching measurements so that the box of chocolate (Maltesers, and I guess I should add other forms of chocolate are available!) fits into the middle section of the cracker leaving enough card stock for the ends.

This too involved using the Envelope Punch Board

This little project can be used as a treat holder to go on the Christmas Table or as a Stocking Filler. It has three chocolate balls in it, but it is the right size to put a lip salve or other small item in it. Once again we used the Envelope Punch Board but this time a piece of 4.5" x 4.5" Designer Series Paper and the first score and punch on the board was at 1.5".

I saved this project to last

There was no chocolate involved with this project just some scoring and cutting of a flat Tag a Bag Gift Bag to make it into one that has a flat bottom and can then be stood up.

Stampin' Up supplies used:

Cracker

Stamp set : Very Merry Tags

Ink : Baked Brown Sugar

Card stock : 12" x 12" Old Olive Textured and a scrap of Cherry Cobbler and Whisper White (the other class used Cherry Cobbler  12" x 12" and a scrap of Old Olive).

Designer Series Paper : Season of Style Designer Series Paper

Accessories : Whisper White Organza Ribbon, 1-3/4" Circle and 2-3/8" Circle Scallop Punches, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Envelope Punch Board and Simply Scored Scoring Tool or Stampin' Trimmer

Treat Holder

Stamp sets : Label Love and Petite Pairs

Ink : Smoky Slate and Coastal Cabana

Card stock :  Whisper White

Designer Series Paper : Winter Frost Designer Series Paper Stack

Accessories :  Envelope Punch Board, 7/8" Scallop Circle and 1" Circle punches, and Basic Rhinestones

Tag a Bag Gift Bag

Stamp set : Mixed Bunch and A Round Array

Ink : Island Indigo

Card stock :  Whisper White, Pool Party and Island Indigo

Accessories :  Simply Scored Scoring Tool or Stampin' Trimmer, Blossom Punch and Word Window Punch, Island Indigo Baker's Twine, and Basic Rhinestones.

The next few days are going to be busy and very exciting as I am off to my first Stampin' Up! Convention. All my swaps are finished, and we are driving to Manchester tomorrow (Thurs) for two and a half days of Stampin' Up! fun. I'll share my swaps later this week and will try to write a quick post while I am there. I can't promise lots of photos. I hoping that we might get some sneak peeks and I know I will be sworn to secrecy about those.

My last class of the year is being held on 13 December at 7.30 pm. I have some places left so if you are interested in coming along drop me a quick line via email at fiona.whitten11@gmail.com

Recycled Peg Wreath

Earlier this year (1 April)  I shared a wreath that I had made using some Designer Series Paper and large pegs - Spring Wreath.  Rather than throw it away or hide it in the cupboard until next Spring, I decided to recycle it by simply covering the other side of the pegs to make a new wreath with a Christmas feel.

This is what I made using the Season of Style Washi Tape instead of Designer Series Paper.

It only took me a couple of hours to complete this from start to finish. I recovered the central piece of card with Old Olive card stock and I also printed and then coloured the poinsettia. I don't have the Joyful Christmas stamp set so I downloaded the brush set from My Digital Studio printed it onto Whisper White card stock and then coloured it using Cherry Cobbler ink and a Blender Pen.

I popped the coloured poinsettia up on dimensionals on a scallop circle of Champagne Glimmer Paper. A length of Cherry Cobbler 1" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon and voila.

But wait, there's more, I said I would share the finished pictures that I was making for my sisters. Here's one of them.  I had to take the glass out of the frame to take the picture, otherwise all you would see is a reflection of me!

I ended up adding Basic Rhinestones of various sizes and printing more snowflakes so that I could cut out part of them and pop them up on dimensionals over the original printed picture. I decide not to cut the snowflake to match the edge of the picture, but left them hanging over the edge to add a little interest. The Island Indigo one was finished in a similar way.  I hope that they will like these.

Off now to finish the preparation for Saturday's Christmas Stamp-a-Stack.  I share photos from that sometime over the weekend.