Inkspiration for Stamping and Scrapbooking

Christmas Card Classes

If you are attending this Saturday's Christmas cardmaking class at my place, and you want to be surprised i.e. don't want to know what we're making, stop reading now! If you're dying of curiosity, read on!

Attendees will choose 4 of the 5 designs, and then stamp 2 of each to make 8 cards.

  This card is a CASE of one done by Beate Johns, except that I eliminated 1 layer.

It features a new set from the Holiday mini, A Christmas Cardinal, new colour with the Riding Hood Red, new Alpine ribbon from the mini, and new punches, the Scallop edge and the square scallop. The large scalloped square behind the cardinal image is actually 4 punched out squares taped together with SNAIL. The dsp comes from the mini catalogue too!

 

This card is a CASE too from one I saw on Carolin LeBelle's site. I love the poinsettia paper!

The image is coloured in using blender pens and ink. There is dazzling diamonds on the stmaped poinsettias, though it's hard to tell in the photo. Certainly celery, chocolate chip and ruby red make a nice bright Christmas card, don't they?

 

This card was inspired by one I saw on SplitCoast stampers. I copied the colours and sets but changed up the layout just a bit.

This card features the oldy but goldy Lovely as a Tree to create the landscape for the cheery snowmen from Merry & Bright. The snowflakes stamped in Craft white on the lower third of the Baja Breeze cardbase also come from the Merry & Bright set. Love that Riding Hood Red taffetta - so striking with its white edge!

Does the snow glisten enough?

This card is a CASE from Dianne Pappas. The only changes I made were to the ribbon. I LOVE how the felt ribbon looks and feels on this card - it suits the vintage-y theme and the idea of the sleigh riders huddled under their blankets! Colours are Always Artichoke, Kraft, Ruby Red and Vanilla. The image and greeting are both embossed. The set is Sleigh Bells Ring.

 

This last card was inspired by one I saw on SplitCoast but I changed it up quite a bit.

This is Pacific Point set off with white and Brushed Silver.

The white felt flurry has been glitterified thanks to Tombow glue (it dries clear) and the chunky glitter.

If you have any questions, leave a comment. If you would like to attend the class, there's still room for 2 more people. Email me to reserve your spot. Kits are available for $30 + shipping (or pickup) where all pieces are pre-stamped and pre-cut and you just follow the instructions to assemble.

On My Way to some Sweet Fun

I have a few favourite blog/websites that I love to check out for ideas. Last month, Dawn posted this cute little candy holder and I just knew that I had what I needed now for an advent swap I signed up for.

I participated in this advent swap, hosted by Donna, last year and was very pleased with the quality of the swap, so when she proposed she'd do it again, I decided I'd go for it again. The idea of this swap is that each participant makes 24 of the same thing, in this case, some sort of packaging idea. The package will contain a little sweet treat and/or SU! treat. The packages are numbered; for instance, my packages represent December 11th. Those participants who can control themselves, open one package each day from December 1st through to the 24th. At least that's the way it is supposed to work, but I think that last year, there were a few people who couldn't wait, isn't that right!?! At our house, Sarah helps me open them, so we do stick to one each day - she loves it. So do I!

Like Dawn, I am giving a York peppermint pattie inside this, so I also opted for the Merry and Bright snowman. There's something about the icy mint and a cold snowman that just seem to go together. And this is probably one of the last times I'm using this little set, at least for this season, since the Holiday mini ends VERY soon - November 30th. I guess we won't know until next July if it will go into the next Fall/Winter catalogue. OK, back to the project, I coloured the snowman (minimally - I had to make 25 of these babies, you know!) with SU!'s watercolour crayons and blender pens. The pompom is the SU! silver glitter, to play on the silver wrapping of the peppermint pattie. The snowman is punched out, layered onto sage shadow and then onto a scallop-punched piece of Wintergreen designer paper. I've had these scallop scraps kicking around here from a project I did earlier this fall, so I am glad to use them up. The artichoke front is stamped with the word block from Season of Joy, another Holiday mini favourite.

Here's a side view:

And here's a view of the inside:

ETA: I've sinced stamped "Be Merry" from warm words in silver below the candy and repeat stamped the small poinsettia from Season of Joy, also in silver, to jazz up the inside.

Today is the day we meet and swap our advent packets, and do some stamping, of course. I'll show you that next week.

Visit often in December when I'll share all the advent goodies as Sarah and I open them! :-)

Happy stampin'! - Ann

Still Room for Saturday's Christmas Card Class

Well, the cardstock is cut and in the drawers along with the ink and stamp. I'm ready for Saturday's class. I showed you the cards in a group setting last week, but here they are individually. As I said in last week's post, most of these have their starting point in other stamper's cards. A couple are complete CASEs. I know that Saturday's stampers are going to love these cards - how do I know that? Because I had to add a second private class when a few stamping enthusiasts saw these cards. They are unable to come on Saturday, but there are enough of them that they deserve a date of their own. If you are unable to attend on Saturday, gather up some of your friends and we'll book in a private class for you, too!

If you are thinking of joining us, the class is this Saturday afternoon, starting at 1 pm. The cost is $19.99, or free with a $75 order. Email me to reserve your place, or ask for the class to go if you live beyond driving distance of Elmira.

Here they are (By the way, if you can see a numbered post it hanging off the side of the card, that is to indicate which bin all the supplies for that card are in - I lack organization in some aspects of my life and my business, but my classes do not fall into that category!):

 

Workshop: Christmas Cards

I did a stampin' party for Tina last night and she had a mixture of beginers and experienced stampers.

I got everyone warmed up with this card:

We used the Warm Words set for the greeting and the Merry and Bright set for the focal image.

Merry and Bright is an inexpensive and versatile little set in the Holiday mini. If you have had your eye on the set, it's only available until the end of this month, so don't hesitate to email me your order and take advantage of the free shipping being offered as well!

We incorporated a little designer paper too, since it's on special this month. This paper comes from the Cutie Pie selection, which just shows you that  you don't have to have a specifically wintery or Christmasy paper to make Christmas cards and projects!

The stamping on this card is fairly simple, but it incorporates two instances of masking. I saw a card very similar to this on an online gallery, and it was also in pink. I honestly don't think I would have come up with a pink Christmas card on my own (purple yes, pink, no) but I like it a lot now and will have to challenge myself to get out of the red/green or blue/silver box a little more often.

There is lots of dazzling diamonds and a pink rhinestone brad for sparkle, so that the card can live up to its name!

Finally, we did this card:

This card is a CASE of on I found online. It uses the Wintergreen paper with the Season of Joy set. This set, has proven to VERY versatile and I will miss it when it is no longer available after November. I wonder if it will appear in the 2008 Fall/Winter Collection - we'll have to wait until July to find out...   

The colours here are Soft Sky, Certainly Celery and Almost Artichoke. Don't they look kind of icy together? I love this card. There is lots more Christmas card making happening this Saturday -join us here at my studio for some Christmas stamping; I'll have Christmas music and baking on hand to help us get into the spirit!Elmira is not that far - a half hour less from Drayton, Palmerston, Listowel, Heidelberg, Conestogo, St. Jacobs, Kitchener, Waterloo, West Montrose, Salem, Arthur, Cambridge, Guelph - so come on out for a great afternoon of stamping. The cards we are making are posted here.

Meantime, if you are hoping to get some stampin' Up! stuff in the stocking or under the tree this year, why not print off the wishlist to the right? You can email me your selections and I'll give your loved ones the hint for you, or you can leave your wishlist out in a very obvious place and hope they take notice!

Happy stampin'! - Ann

Glitter and Embossing - It Must be Christmas!

I've been planning for the next Christmas Card stamp camp on Saturday, November 17th, from 1 - 4pm. For just $19.95, you get to make 8 cards from this selection. You can make 1 of each, 8 of 1, or something in between, and envelopes are included. And of course, our designs feature a lot of glitter and embossing, because Christmas cards just seem to demand that! Come on out and join the fun!

Can't make it? You can still get in on the fun by ordering the to-go version. You will receive instructions/photo, and all pre-stamped materials, ready for you to assemble. Ask me for more information, or to reserve your kit/class spot.

Many of these cards have been inspired by other demonstrators, either through their online galleries or websites, or through swaps. I've tweaked them to make them my own, but appreciate that I get that starting place sometimes. 

I have purposely not posted individual photos of them yet so that those coming can enjoy a bit of an element of surprise. But if you really really want to see them up close, let me know and I'll post a photo of each one!

Check Out this month's SU! party cards

I enjoyed another stampin' Up! party late last week with another fabulous hostess and some really great ladies.

Most of these women have stamped before, but because there were three there who hadn't, I included this simple but striking card:

We made this card with Very Vanilla cardstock, and Old Olive  and Purely Pomegranate inks. The flourish stamp is the larger of the two flourishes in Priceless. The focal point is stamped on scraps and punched out with the Five Petal Flower punch, that co-ordinates so nicely with the stamp we used from In the Sjpotlight, a level two hostess set. We added some detail by using the Crop-o-dile and the mat pack to dry emboss the border. Even the experienced stampers were really "wow"ed with this card! I am sure the inspiration for this card came from a SCS gallery.

We also did this card. I am sure I've shown it to you before. This group hadn't seen it, so why not - it's gorgeous and they had fun doing the kissing technique with the flannel background and the small flower from the Pick a Petal stamp set. 

Our final card was this one - it took a little more work, but it was a huge hit. Again, I am sure that a SCS gallery inspired this one - actually I think I took one idea from one card and another idea from another card, and came up with this...

Here's my favourite little snowman again, from Merry & Bright. He's coloured in with blender pens and ink. The card uses lots of masking to set him in this setting - the tree and snowflakes behind him.

The vertical piece is the emboss resist technique using the "snow" wheel and Bashful Blue ink on glossy cardstock. It's mounted on Wasabi paper.

The background paper comes from the Winter Bright Simply Scrappin Kit. AND I have TONS of the kit leftover for more projects!

If you love incorporating patterned paper into your cardmaking and scrapbooking projects, you are going to LOVE the upcoming November special. Stay tuned!!! Meantime, don't forget that this month, Stampin' Up! is trying to help you simplify things by allowing you to create custom kits for your Christmas cardmaking. Click here for more info, or email me. These kits can be shipped anywhere in Canada.

Happy stampin'! - Ann

It's not too early to think Christmas!

I am making twenty of these for some upcoming swapping with other demonstrators later this month.  I think the Merry & Bright set, found in the Holiday mini, offers so many possibilities. The template for this card came from an online gallery. But I made some changes, including turning it into a glitter window. The paper is one of the new designer papers, Wintergreen. Kind of neat, doing a snowman in greens, don't you think? (Click on the image to see it in a bigger format.)

Don't you love the simplicity of the line art? If you do, you will want to put this stamping event on your calendar: my Merry & Bright class

When:  Monday, October 29th from 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Where:  my stamping studio in Elmira

What we'll make:  5 adorable Christmas Cards !!!! Maybe 6 if you're good! Use them to give this Christmas or keep them to inspire you as you use your set.

Cost: $35 which includes ALL your supplies, envelopes PLUS a FREE STAMP SET valued at over $26 !!!!

Registration for this class is open now. It will close on October 18^th. Email me to register.