Christmas Card Club - Baubles

Stampin' Up! Christmas card

It's another fortnight gone and another step, dare I say it, closer to Christmas, but in our little club we are all making cards in preparation for that festive season.  Our challenge setter this time is Kerry and she asked us to make a Christmas card using baubles.  Do you call them baubles ornaments or something else?  Leave a comment and tell me what you call your festive adornments for your tree or maybe you celebrate a different event and use other decorations or display please do share what happens with you?

This is how I created my baubles

• make a paper stencil using a circle punch.
• position stencil on your card and stamp with versamark. Remove stencil and emboss with clear embossing powder and allow to cool
• return the stencil to reveal only your embossed image, use a sponge and to add ink to make the embossed pattern 'pop'
• use different patterns to make different designs and add pearls or glimmer paper for that festive bling!
• To overlap two ornaments you need to do one and then partially mask it to add one behind following the same process above. 
• You can also stamp your bauble onto a separate piece of scrap card stock to then punch it out and adhere it with stampin dimensionals to give some definition.

I used gumball green, cherry cobbler and real red along with gold shimmer card stock for a matting layer and gold glimmer paper for part of my bling.  A few pearls and some satin ribbon make for an elegant card.  To finish the baubles I used a stamp from the Ornament Keepsakes set from Stampin' Up! to add 'toppers' to my baubles.  These I stamped in versamark and embossed with gold powder and then just cut them out with snips and adhered with a glue dot. 

For the bauble decoration you can use any stamp set and it doesn't have to be a Christmas one.  I used Mixed Bunch and you can see that used on another Christmas card on a previous post.  Sentiments only need to be simple for Christmas and this one is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Have a great day!
Zx

Stampin' Up! gifts for France

Olivia left at 0130 on Friday morning to travel Cahors on her french exchange trip.  She wanted to take gifts for her new penfriend Amandine and her parents and so I promised I would make some for her.  The gifts included this rather nicely wrapped (if I say so myself) cookie press.  I'm just adoring the new Comfort Cafe designer series papers which I used to wrap all the gifts. 

You'll also see that I stamped on the new cotton ribbon available from the Stampin' Up! Autumn/ Winter catalogue.  I stamped on it with the Border Banter stamp set using cajun craze ink.  A vintage tag from the retired stock of last year and a new brushed bronze designer button added just enough vvv voom!

On the right is a gift for Amandine's father.  Men aren't easy to buy for at the best of times and when you don't know the person even harder.  I didn't feel we could send chocolates or wine to France...... and so this neat package contains a tin of mints labelled 'THE BOSS'. 

Amandine and her mum were much easier to make for...  I used the sparkly vintage faceted buttons to make a button bracelet for Beattrice and Olivia chose the colours that she thought Amandine would like for her button bracelet.  I cased Jenni Pauli's idea for decorating empty button boxes as the gift wrap for these.

I believe the gifts were well received and by all accounts Olivia is having a wonderful time.  She's spent the first weekend with the family and today went into the french school to meet her english school friends and those of Amandine, before visiting some historical venues in the city of Cahors. 

I'll share one more gift with you tomorrow. 

Have a great evening Zx

Supplies

Stamps - broadsheet alphabet, mixed bunch, tiny tags, border banter

inks - cajun craze, midnight muse

card stock - whisper white, midnight muse, summer starfruit, soft suede, vellum

accessories - blossom punch, labels framelit dies, designer buttons, large and small pearls, crumb cake seam binding, dimensionals, cotton ribbon

Christmas Card Club

Our Christmas Card Club Challenge Lead lies with Anne this time and her challenge is for us to make a clean and simple Christmas card.  Not always easy, but with the rising cost of postage, clean and simple Christmas cards are exactly what we all need if we are to avoid needing a second mortgage to pay for the shipping. 
We have lots of friends around the world and so I've made a card for posting abroad with no ribbons, bows or bling, but have used texture instead.  You can create detail without bulking your card by using your scoring tool.  Score on the inside of your card to make it raised (embossed) of the front or 'deboss' by scoring onto the front. 
You can also get versatility from your stamp sets with a little imagination. My snowflake is from the Mixed Bunch stamp set in the Stampin' Up! Summer Mini catalogue which is stamped in white craft ink and allowed to dry.  To speed the drying process you can heat it gently with your heat gun or leave to air dry.  The curly label punch and modern label punch are great for adding detail to a sentiment and the corner rounder punch can soften the base of the card.
Inside the sentiment is perfect for those friends in distant lands, but is from a retired Stampin' Up! set.

Don't forget to visit Anne and the other ladies in our club and if you'd like to join in please contact me and I'll point you in the right direction.

Check back in the week to see pics from my first ever Stampin' Up! incentive trip to Vienna.  Zx

Supplies

Cardstock - crumb cake, whisper white, textured cherry cobbler

ink - stampin up cherry cobbler, crumb cake, white craft

tools - stampin up simply scored scoring tool

Simply Scored for a challenge!

Not only is this week special nationally, but it's a special week in our house too!  I become the mother of a teenager which is awesome realising that my little girl is going to be 13!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The traits of a teenager are already emerging, (oh joy!) and the notable distaste for pink!  However when we went to Disneyworld at Easter I was thrilled to see her get this excited about Donald and Daisy Duck.

However the moment of thinking she was still just my little girl disappeared when only Olivia could turn wearing a Padawan, trainee Jedi cloak into a fashion show!!!!!!

And of course the exuberance of pending teenagerdom shone out..........!

In answer to her moving on to things more trendy and the days when Mum just causes embarrassment I have gone for a card with bling factor and hope that it will stand up to the criticism of teenagers! I've also acknowledged that her teenager status is shared with the Jubilee celebrations and so went for a  patriotic colour scheme.

stampin' up! mixed bunch with sparkle and simply scored scoring tool

Coincidentally it's fallen in  with the Less is More challenge of red, white and blue and so the initial version at the top is for them and the lower version is the finished product for my BIG little girl.

Hope you are enjoying your celebrations whatever they maybe..

Zx

Challenges

Less is more - red white and blue

Stampin' Up! Regional Training Projects

I can now safely share these make and take projects that demonstrators were given the materials for when they attended one of the Stampin' Up! regional training days over the past month.  The last one in Leeds, today, will almost have finished as I type and so I can share with you the fun projects and not spoil the surprise for those who hadn't yet attended. 

 A very pretty scrapbook page using the Twitterpated Papers from the Summer Mini.

A card made with the Blossom Punch and Mixed Bunch Stamp set

A mini milk carton gift holder again with the Twitterpated Designer Series Paper.

By now you've probably realised that you can join the Stampin' Up! family for less than ever before and with lots more flexibility.  The starter kit costs £99 and is fully customizable to your own tastes and needs. 

Buy choosing to join Stampin' Up! you will benefit not only from the discount on your future Stampin' Up! purchases, but you'll also have access to fun training events where you can mix with like minded crafters, have lots of fun and learn lots of techniques.  You'll have access to the demonstrator website packed full of resources for your own personal use or for use in parties, classes or just with friends whom you like to craft with. 

There is an additional bonus if you buy your starter kit during May 2012; you will receive free registration for the 2012 European Convention worth £149 which will give you stamp sets, convention bag, access to classes, make and takes, prize patrols and a whole lot more..........

If you like the sound of this much fun, then please contact me for an informal chat to find out how we can make it work for you and take a look at more details about becoming a Stampin' Up! demonstrator in the UK.

more soon

Zx 

Stampin' Up! Mixed Bunch and Bright Blossoms

Well here I have a couple of cards intended to brighten your day in the midst of all this dreary and cold weather.

 Yellow is the colour theme if you want to take part in this week's Less is more challenge and so here you can see white embossing on daffodil delight cardstock and daffodil delight sentiment from Curly Cute.  You can also add texture to your cards using the Stampin' Up! Simply Scored Scoring Tool  which if you remember from my earlier post is a versatile tool that suits those of you who measure in inches and those who measure in centimetres. 

This card can be achieved if you use the oval of the two designer frames embossing folders on whisper white cardstock.  Use basic black and daffodil delight to ink up a pretty flower and vase from Bright Blossoms and stamp them on whisper white card.  Punch out with the extra large oval punch from Stampin' Up! and adhere the punched shape to your frame centre, having torn around the frame first.  Then you can use a new toy..... Yes Stampin' Up! UK has launched it's own exclusive set of Framelits Dies called the labels collection to add a daffodil  delight frame.  Simples....!  To get these dies or other Stampin' Up! products used just contact me or your own demonstrator.

A bright moment in a grey day! Enjoy your bank holiday whatever the weather!

Zx

Challenges
Less is more - Yellow

Supplies used from Stampin' Up! UK
stamp sets - Mixed Bunch, Bright Blossoms, Curly Cute, Sincere Salutations
Card stock - whisper white, daffodil delight
Tools - designer frames embossing folders, big shot, extra large oval punch, labels collection framelits dies, heat gun, simply scored scoring tool
inks - versamark, basic black, daffodil delight
accessories - ribbon, rhinestones, dimensionals