A Peek-A-Boo Christmas

I just love the Festive Friday Challenge, not that I have had the chance to join in lately, but hoping that will change in the coming weeks.  I was extra inspired to join in this week because last weekend at the Stampin' Up! Convention I got to meet the very lovely Nicole who runs the challenge!!!  I just love Convention because I get to meet in person those I know on-line.

 In a double Convention hit this week I have chosen to use one of the sneak peek items that will be in our upcoming Annual Catalogue in September.  We got to use this new Big Shot Die at the I Am Creative class on the Friday night, I can't wait to get my hands on these when the new catalogue comes out, I can see so many options for this one!

I have also used the DSP from the Christmas pack - I just love the way the pattern on this one seems to sparkle and it went so well with the Glimmer Paper '25'.  

The window opens up to show a cute little image underneath, aren't these cute?  They come in a variety of shapes, all open up to reveal a surprise underneath.  For this one I chose to use another image from the stamp set we used in our creative class, I inked this up with a Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker so that the '25' on the stamp did not get inked.  This is another of my attempts to use this set as more than just an advent set.

Happy Stamping

Freshly Made Blossoms

Having some fun with my new toys!  This time I am using some DSP that I received at Convention, and the matching Bright Blossoms stamp set that is available in our current Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue.  I wasn't initially going to get this stamp set, but have slowly been falling in love with it seeing the beautiful creations made with it by other crafters, then with the new DSP in my hot little had I knew I just had to order it!

I am entering this card in two challenges, Freshly Made Sketches and Colour Q Challenge.  The thing I like about Bright Blossoms is that it is challenging me to use a brighter palette of colours, and the Colour Q Challenge is just the start!

I kept to the challenge but decided against using ribbon, instead I used my Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, but didn't punch right the way to the edge. This let me slip the polka dot piece of DSP underneath. Instead of a bow I used a 3/4" circle punched out of Lucky Limeade with an In-Colour brad through the centre.  As a first attempt I was pretty happy with the finished product but had a feeling that it needed a little something else, so I decided to sleep on it.

After a good night's sleep I woke with a couple of ideas, firstly I carefully removed the top layer of the card and stamped one of the images from the Bright Blossoms stamp set over the base card with Lucky Limeade ink.  I re-adhered the DSP layers back onto the card, and then added a couple of little tags from the Tiny Tags stamp set and matching Jewellery Tag Punch.  Isn't it funny how a couple of little additions can give a project a lift!

Happy Stamping

411 Christmas

We have a long weekend here in Canberra and so, having put the housework behind me, I am getting in to join in with some challenges.  The first one I want to share is a card I made for the Stamping 411 Sketch Challenge.

 I was quite inspired by this challenge, and knew immediately what I wanted to do for this one.  A bit of back story first, last weekend was the Stampin' Up! Convention, an amazing annual event. This year there was a optional I Am Creative class, and we were lucky enough to get a bag full of items to make an advent calendar, the truly exciting thing about the bag was the inclusion of products from our up-coming Annual Catalogue (note the name change from Idea Book & Catalogue).  I used some of these products in this card, the DSP is from the new Christmas pack, and the little wreaths are from the new stamp set.  The Merry Christmas is from the Delightful Decorations set.  I love how they work so well together in this lay out.  

I wanted to give the card some bling, so used my 2 Way Glue pen to make some dots on the wreaths and added red super fine glitter, I also used my blender pen to pick up some Champagne Shimmer Paint and coloured in the bows and star.

I will be using more of the sneak peek sets over the next little while so please do pop back to see some glimpses of what we will be able to order here in September.

Happy Stamping