Stampers 6 project from August

Inside flap of the box has a greeting, but you could also put an image here if you prefer.

I have been such a bad blogger this summer, todays post is the August project from my Stampers 6 / 7 group that I have only just got round to photographing & editing.
The summer has been very strange for lots of reasons.

• Abi went on Study leave in May & went on to take her GCSE's
• June our middle son got married
• June Dan came home from his first year at University & bought bags & bags of belongings that wouldn't fit into storage.
• At work we lost both of our weekend staff, but to safeguard jobs neither were replaced immediately, leaving the existing staff to cover both Saturdays & Sundays, which is something that I seldom had to do previously, so extra hours & commitments ate into my spare time.
• Two litters of beautiful kittens the first litter had two kittens & the second litter had four kittens, one of which we kept as one of my big cats went missing 15 weeks ago.
• I also re-discovered my love of baking, well cupcakes & cake pop's but i'll save that story for another day.

I realised something last Tuesday after we had taken Dan back to Nottingham & Abi had started 6th Form that I hadn't spent a day at home on my own since early May, I don't mind my own company it gives me quiet time to be creative. Usually I start Christmas projects in July but this year I am very much later.

So to kick start Christmas I made this delightful little matchbox card & matching gift card. I thought that you could use these as Table favours or as little gift boxes containing Chocolates, Mini soaps or even a pandorra charm.

I have used the set Contempo Christmas & the Elegance wheel ( Which isn't strictly Christmas but thats exactly what I love about Stampin' Up & being creative )

Contempo Christmas 118734 wood mounted 120594 Clear mounted

Supplies needed to make this card

3" x 12" whisper white card

Scored at 3" , 4", 7", 8" & 11"

The areas coloured red are the areas that need to be decorated  before assembly

4 7/8" x 4 7/8" Whisper white square

Scored at 1" in from the edge on all four sides, this makes the drawer to slide inside the box.

2" x2" Whisper white

2 1/4" x 2 1/4" co-ordinating card stock

Scraps of co-ordinating card stock & DSP to decorate.

Tools

Tombow glue

Mini bulldog clips ( available from good stationers )

Stamp a ma jig

1/2" circle punch

Ornament punch

1 3/8" Circle punch

Word Window punch

Paper Piercer

Stamps

Contempo Christmas

Ink

Old Olive or Wild Wasabi

Real Red or Cherry Cobbler

Decorations

Dazzling diamonds

Basic Rhinestones

Jolly Holiday DSP

This is the first of my Christmas projects for 2011, so keep checking back over the coming weeks while I catch up with all of my Christmas preparations.

Is your tree up yet?

I love this time of year when all of the decoration boxes come out of the loft & it really begins to feel like Christmas, well if your house hasn't yet descended into Christmas Chaos then here is a little tree to keep you going, its all made with Stampin' Up punches.

Supply List

110844 1/4" circle ~ Berries / Decorations

119883 Full heart ~ Tree Branches

117190 Jewelery tag

Old Olive Card

More Mustard Card

Early Espresso Card

Real Red Card

Whisper White card

Frost White shimmer paint

All of the above products are from Stampin' Up & are available to purchase Through me.

Reindeer Table favours

I have been experimenting with some different ideas for table favours for the Christmas dinner table, so here is Rudolph ready to hold a small present or a sweet treat.

Supply List
Crumb cake Card stock 121685
Chocolate Chip Card stock 108599
Basic Black Card stock 121688
White gel Pen105021
Basic Black Journaller pen 105394
Bird Punch 117191
1/2" Circle 119869
1/4" Circle 110844
Top Note Die or similar shaped die

The inside of the box is made from a strip of card either matching or co-ordinating. The strip is 10 1/2 " long x 2 1/2" wide, & is scored at 1/2" in on either long side, & again at 3 3/4" & 6 3/4".
Fold along all of the folds & snip into the middle fold lines.

Glue as shown in the picture.
































Glue on the back Top note panel




















































All of the above products are available from myself as an independent Stampin' Up demonstrator.

Santa Table favour

Another Favour box for your Christmas table, of course this could be made in alternative colours to coordinate with your colour scheme.

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My stampers 10 Ladies

My lovely stampers 10 ladies are so creative.
Last month when we met I set them a challenge to make a Christmas item that was NOT a greetings card, It had to be 3D & of course it had to contain a Stampin' Up product & not just Tombow glue.
On offer was a £15 Stampin' Up voucher to spend with me, so basically if you rise to my challenge your name goes into the draw for the voucher.


Lucy was inspired by Monica to make this beautiful pendant, she realised after she had made it that I had specified it must be a Christmas item, so creatively she made a 3D stand of a Christmas tree.

By Lucy

Lucy used Occasionally ( Retired ) Tiny Tags set & True Friend ( Retired ) The pendant is made from a domino.


Kate made the cutest snowman, can you guess what she is made from?

By Kate

Did you guess? The body of the snowman Is a children's white glove, her face is a polystyrene ball, the buttons are punched with the triple flower punch ( Retired ) with a brad through the middle, the nose is an orange pencil lead. The Stampin' Up item in this project is the 3D tree that the snowman is holding made from the A Holly, Jolly Christmas set ( Retired ).

Well done Kate that is lovely, How any are you making for Christmas?

By Alice

Alice made this tree decoration using an origami fold that she taught me, she made me a layer & I have searched for it all day, but I think I remember how you make it, Alice used Certainly celery ribbon to Hang her tree up with.


Thank you to all that took part, The winner of the £15 voucher was Kate, chosen at random during the evening.


Well done kate

Scrapbook House

Finally I have arrived in my craft room.


What a busy week last week was with viewing 6th forms & work I don't think I sat down until Thursday. I don't think that it helped as I had a major blitz of the craft room, airing cupboard & then decided I needed a bedside table!!! Simple enough request you may think, but not in this house. We have been living in our house now for 5 years  & we are slowly getting the house how we want it. I must confess to hating the house for the first 18 months that we lived here. It was a newly built house and week after week we had builders in & out with there trusty mastic guns to fix the ever lengthening faults list, well I digress. Two years ago following up on a census our house was chosen to be surveyed by a government surveyor, where we found out that although we have 4 bedrooms, my craft room is not large enough if we wanted to let it out as a bedroom & our room is only 1" over the legal measurements for a double bedroom. Can you see the problem here? With fitted wardrobes the only option & they had to have folding doors, we are extremely challenged for space. So yesterday DH thought he would move the bedroom around into the only other position it would fit so I could have a bedside table. Well he managed it & now I have space for a bedside table, although it will have to be a small one.
So all week I have been full of inspiration but I have only just made it into the craft room


Whilst I was away at the recent Stampin' Up convention I was very fortunate to see some very inspiring demonstrators on the main stage, one of these was a fellow UK demo called Michelle Last, Her blog is wonderful so pop over and see some of her creations.


My Inspiration

One of the projects that Michelle shared with us was the mini scrapbook houses using this template

Roof panel measures 14cm x 9cm

For my house I have used the card stock & the papers from the Simply scrappin' Christmas Jingle kit & have made a little house to give as a Christmas card, inside the roof panel I've stamped a greeting from the occasional greetings stamp set, I will also use this to write my message.


Just a note, it is easier to stick your ribbon onto the base card layer before covering both sides with the designer series papers, it is much stronger & tidier.

Ready to decorate with some pictures of our Christmas preparations

If you pop over to Michelle's blog you can see that she has made them for a variety of different occasions & they are all equally as lovely


This will be one of the projects that I am making with  my stampers 10 & Stampers 6 groups on our optional December meeting.
There are two sessions Monday 6th December at 7pm & Thursday 9th December at 7pm.
be sure to let me know which session you would like to attend.


All of the product used in this project is available from Stampin' Up & can be purchased through me as an independent creative coach.

Pete the Christmas Penguin

Let me introduce Pete the super cute Christmas Penguin.
He is one of my Punch Art projects


Supply List

• 1119859 Large Oval Punch - for Arms (102851 Basic Black)
• 119863 Small Oval Punch - for Mouth (105117 Pumpkin Pie)
• 119851 Curly Label Punch - for Feet (Pumpkin Pie)
• 119873 3/4" Circle Punch - for Eyes (Basic Black)
• 119871 Corner Rounder Punch - for Body
• 119883 Full Heart Punch (106578 Real Red card stock)
• 113463 Top Note Die - for Body Front (100730 Whisper White) Not yet available in the UK but there are other similar Sizzix dies 
• 109034 Real Red 1 /4" Grosgrain Ribbon
• 105021 White Gel Pen
• 106578 Real red cardstock
• 106565 Bashful Blue Cardstock

Well the weather feels wintry so here is a card to match

 With the weather so Wintry I decided that a card to match was what was needed, The base of the card is Bashful Blue & I used one of the Serene Snowflake stamps to stamp a background pattern with Night of Navy ink. The main panel is stamped on Very Vanilla card stock & mounted on a layer of Night of Navy. The tree's from Lovely as a Tree are stamped onto the layer in Garden Green. The misty background is Marina mist applied using a sponge Dauber.
The Deer from the Winter Post set is stamped in Early Espresso in front of the tree's. To make the snow effect I used the Versamark pen to scatter the snow, this was sprinkled with heat & stick powder, heated using my heat gun & when melted I sprinkled on Dazzling diamonds & heated briefly until set.

All of the above products are from Stampin' Up & are available to purchase through me.

Good friend is following in the footsteps of True friend

As promised I have now chosen another retiring set to feature, today it's the turn of Good Friend.

I love this card as it looks like one of the painstakingly stitched cards.

The colours for this card are Glorious Green. Real Red & Whisper white.

The firework stamp was stamped at 2 o'clock, 4 o'clock, then 5 o'clock, 7 o'clock, then 8o'clock, 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock, 1 o'clock. Then using a 2nd generation stamping I stamped between the gaps.

2nd generation stamp is where you ink the stamp pad & stamp off onto scrap paper & you then use the 2nd impression on your project.

The greeting is from A Jolly Holly Christmas set & stamped with Real Red ink.

The corner decoration was made using the pricking mat & piercing tool.

The holly like dots were made using the Stampin' Write pen in Real red & coated with Crystal lacquer.

The top of the wreath has two holes made with the crop o dile & threaded through with real Red Grosgrain ribbon, before matting onto a layer of Real Red cardstock.

Farewell to some old favorites

Not just one retiring set but two on today's card A Holly Jolly Christmas {R} Spotlight on Christmas {R} These sets are only available whilst stocks last until 30th September. the cardstock that I've used is Old olive, real red, Whisper white, designer series papers from the Christmas Jingle kit ( Whilst stocks last )

The tree's on the card are coloured using Stampin' write markers in Chocolate Chip & Garden green the swirls are with the Real red ink pad. Two way glue pens from Stampin' Up are great for accenting small areas with the Dazzling diamonds glitter. Both of the ribbons are also from Stampin' Up Old Olive striped Grosgrain & Very Vanilla taffeta. The punches are Word window, Small tag & Large tag.

All of the above products are from Stampin' Up & are available to purchase through me.

A jolly Holly Christmas ~ Make & take

The second of Wednesdays make & takes is using A Jolly Holly Christmas

The tags on the card are made from Kraft card & the card blank is Chocolate chip, the backing papers are from the sweet pea paper stack. The stamps were coloured using the Stampin write pens.

Dis you know that you can create your own reinforcing rings using two of the Stampin' Up circle punches.

Firstly punch using the 1/4" circle, not too close to the edge, then using the 1/2" circle punch held upside down over the first hole & punch & you then get the fake reinforcing rings

All of the above products are from Stampin' Up & are available to purchase through me.