12 Cards of Christmas - Card 5

Christmas doesn't always need to be red and green. I particularly like Night of Navy for Christmas cards. Here I've combined it with Certainly Celery and Island Indigo:

I've used the Chock Full of Cheer stamp set. I love a set that works so well with punches!

12 Cards of Christmas - Card 4

When you have fabulous products to work with, you don't have to do a lot to them to get a great result. Here I've used a Snow Festival tag and one of our Stitched Felt Ornaments:

Both can be found in the Holiday Catalogue. The nice thing about the little ornament is that it can be hung on the Christmas Tree by the card recipient.

12 Cards of Christmas - Card 3

I used 3 of the new In Colors for this Christmas card - Gumball Green, Raspberry Ripple and Primrose Petals:

I could have used Patterned Paper to make my squares, but I decided to make my own using the Scentsational Season stamp set. That way you know it will co-ordinate perfectly :o)

12 Cards of Christmas - Card 2

I'm loving the Core'dinations cardstock. It looks gorgeous used as-is, and adds a lovely touch of texture, but when you sand it, a lighter-coloured core is revealed. It looks great when you use an embossing folder, and then sand the raised areas like this:

A simple and elegant design, easy enough to mass-produce for Christmas.

12 Cards of Christmas - Card 1

I have lots of Christmas Card designs to share with you, so I thought I would do a "12 Cards of Christmas" again. So it will be a card a day for the next 12 days!

The first card is one that I showed during my Presentation at the Heartfelt Event in Sydney. It's a Puffy Ornament card, using the gorgeous Candlelight Christmas Fabric:

One of my very clever team members, Cheryl, shared this idea with us at our team Stamp Camp. Here's a close-up of the ornament:

The "puff" just comes from ordinary cotton wool behind the fabric.

TIPS: I made the ornament hanger by twisting a length of Seam Binding ribbon, and the bow is a Faux Bow, made using an Antique Brad. Just open the prongs of the brad, and place your 'bow' (make two rabbit ears, but no knot) in between the prongs, then close it up again.

Quick and Easy Lolly Tubes

I'm loving these skinny cello bags for quick and easy little gifts. They are perfect for Christmas, or any time of year, really. All it takes is a cute punched embellishment for the top:

I've filled one with m&ms and one with mints. My kids will be making some of these to give to their friends this Christmas, and I think I'll be making a few too!
Edited to Add: You can find the Cello bags on page 161 of the Stampin' Up! Catalogue. They are $4.50 for a pack of 50 (2.5 x 20cm)

Cathy's ShoeBox Swap

One of the highlights of my Team Stamp Camp Weekend is the Shoebox Swaps. We usually have 10 boxes with all the ingredients to make a card inside each one. One of my lovely team members, Cathy, was unable to attend Stamp Camp but still kindly offered to make a ShoeBox Swap (because that's the kind of lady she is :). She used the stamp set Postage Due which she won during a Prize Patrol at Convention. So we were all lucky enough to play with what was at the time a brand new set. Here's her gorgeous design:

I can't link to her blog because she doesn't have one, but I'm sure she'd love to read some comments here complimenting her!

Happy Birthday to Boooo!

I know I'm a bit late for Halloween, but I actually made this card as a birthday card, using the Ghoulish Googlies stamp set:

This little witchy-gal is too cute to only come out once a year! I love that this Howlstooth and Scaringbone Designer Series Paper can be used all year too :o)

Papillon Potpourri In Color Notecards Set

I have had a BIG weekend...Saturday was Stampin' Up!s Sydney Heartfelt Event, and I had the honour of doing a presentation on Heartfelt Christmas Cards. It's always a bit nerve-wracking to present in front of your peers, but I managed to get through it! My good friend Teresa (aka "Trees-A") Dabrowski came to stay for the weekend, which is always lots of laughs. The Heartfelt Event was amazing...there's so much talent in the Stampin' Up! world and so many women who are so willing to share their ideas. I came away feeling awed and inspired :o)

I'm loving the Clear Mount stamp cases for quick and simple gifts. Here's a quick and simple Decorated Case and set of cards that I've been doing a lot lately as "Meet the In Color" Workshops. It makes a great gift:

A close-up of the vellum butterfly on the front:

and inside:

The notecards and envelopes are very simple, one of each In Color, using the Papillon Potpourri stamp set and matching punch.
These little notecards come in so handy - you get 20 cards and envelopes for $9.95. They are slightly smaller than regular cards, so they are really cute (page 162 of the Catalogue)

Blue Ribbon Stamp-a-Stack

This is the other set of cards we are making this week in my Stamp-a-Stack class. We're using the Blue Ribbon stamp set. It's a great one for masculine cards, which aren't always the easiest cards to make! I've also used World Spectacular DSP, and taken my colour scheme from there - Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight and Cherry Cobbler.

Everything Eleanor Stamp-a-Stack

This week I am running my last General Stamp-a-Stack Classes for the year. Wednesday morning and evening class is full, but I have a couple of places on Tuesday night. Email me if you'd like to come along and make these cards:

I've used Everything Eleanor in the colours Wisteria Wonder, So Saffron, Elegant Eggplant, Crumb Cake and Naturals White. We'll also be making a bright set of cards using the Blue Ribbon stamp set....I'll show you those soon!

Pencil Case

Here's a cute little idea (if I do say so myself!) that I came up with for a Teacher Gift this year. It's a "Pencil Case" with m&m pencils inside:

It was really easy to make...the hardest part was not eating all the m&ms as I was making it! I've used "Crispy" m&ms, but the plain would work well too. I had to eat all the brown ones because I only had room for 5 pencils.... What a shame! ;o)
I used a framelit to cut a window in my DSP, so that the pencils are visible from the outside. And here are my pencils, all lined up. The m&ms are in our skinny cello bags (trimmed down as they were too long to fit inside the DVD case). You can find them on page 161 of the Annual Catalogue ($4.50 for 50). And the DVD case is on page 7 (Clear Mount Case $9.95 for 4). I've used Summer Smooches DSP.

To make the pencils, I used the Pennant Punch to punch out a coloured Triangle (Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Pacific Point and Gumball Green) and a Crumb Cake Triangle. I hand-cut the tip off the Crumb Cake triangle so my "lead" would show. I re-inserted the other end of the Crumb Cake Triangle into the punch to get the inverted scalloped edge. I used Pretty in Pink and the Petal Card Punch for the eraser, and just a small rectangle of Brushed Silver cardstock, scored at regular intervals for the "metal" piece.

INK-redible Hostess Promotion

Who wants 10 free inkpads?? What a silly question - everyone does, of course!
From November 1st until December 16th, host a minimum $650 Stampin' Up! Party and get a FREE collection of ink pads - $79.95 value-in addition to our other fantastic benefits!

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Merry Christmas from Stampin' Up!

Stampin' Up! has an early Christmas present for you!
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Item	Description	Retail Value	Special Price
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132263	Christmas Gift Pack (clear-mount bundle) Includes Ornament Keepsakes Bundle (clear-mount), Candlelight Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper, and Festive Paper-Piercing Pack	$113.85	$99.90

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This special offer is valid until 30 November 2012, so contact me to place your order today!