Christmas in July

I really loved doing the Christmas in July workshop. I cased these designs that I found on the Splitcoast Stampers gallery. It was so nice to create Christmas cards, gifts and decorations without the pressure of Christmas!! Way to go to get organised for Christmas! At the Stamp-a-stack workshop we made 6 cards: 2 each of 3 designs.......

CARD 1

I love the images in the Holiday Lineup stamp set they are so comical, it puts a little fun into Christmas.... but who has ever seen a thin Santa? Why are all these Santa's thin??

Materials used:

cardstock - whisper white, real red, basic black

stamps - Holiday lineup, Spotlight on Christmas, polka dot background

ink - jet black stazon and real red stampin' write marker

extras - black eyelets, large oval and scallop oval punches, red gingham ribbon, in this photo I used white embossing powder on the santa's pom poms and collars, but at the workshop we used dazzling diamonds glitter and I think that was nicer!

CARD 2

Isn't this pretty? This one makes me think of my mum - she loves poinsettias. It is a quick card using the Big Shot and the 5-petal flower punch - gotta love stamps that match/fit the punches an the "Spotlight on Christmas" stamp set has 6 stamps that all fit different punches and since I am a punch addict I had to get this stamp set to make quick and cute cards!!

Materials used:

cardstock: very vanilla, real red, glorious green (retiring)

stamps: Spotlight on Christmas, Best Yet (hostess)

ink: real red

extras: Top Note die for the big shot, 5-petal flower punch, gold shimmer spray (can't see it on this photo but it gives a lovely light shine/shimmer to your card/page **not a SU product**)

CARD 3

How cute are these reindeer? I love my traditional Christmas colours, but I also enjoy experimenting with non traditional colours.

Materials used:

cardstock: certainly celery, kraft, whisper white, soft suede

stamps: Holiday Lineup, Spotlight on Christmas

ink: certainly celery, soft suede, jet black stazon, chocolate chip, real red

extras: certainly celery5/8" wide ribbon, large oval punch to cut the corners, circle punches 1-3/8" and 1-1/4", crystal effects.

Variation to card 3

Here are a few other cards I made in preparation for Christmas in July.......

How cute are these little mice? (**not a SU image**) Normally I HATE mice, discussting little rodents LOL, but these ones are safe and they are not going to get into my food storage!!! I love how this stamp can be used for either birthday or Christmas, jut by changing the way you colour the gifts - my 8 year old daughter coloured this image and I put the card together.

I had lots of fun doing this card, I cased it from the Splitcoast Stampers gallery, took ages though, but I am sure next time it will be a lot quicker since I won't have to work out all the measurements. Do you love the little owl in the tree, there is a little blue bird in the other branch too but it didn't come out so good. These came from the the hostess set 'Picture This' in the autumn-winter mini. If you want to earn this set and get free stamps, email me today to arrange your own Stampin' Up! party - you won't be disappointed :)

Thanks for looking, come back again soon and be sure to pass on this link to all your crafty friends!!!!

No birthday cards can you believe it?????

My daughter was invited to a birthday party and me being me left it to the last minute to buy a present and I thought I would just grab a card from my stack of cards..........well to my great amazement I had no suitable birthday cards!!!!!!!! Plenty of 'friend' cards or 'happiness' cards or 'christmas' cards or even birthday cards for older people but nothing suitable for a little girl. So I had to buy a birthday card (being rushed and all I had not time to whip one up), it was a simple sweet card that I thought shouldn't cost that much........$4.95 later I decided then and there I was going to go home and make a stack of both boy and girl birthday cards. I chose a simple design that I could just run off lots of and I used a 1/4 of an A4 to make it even quicker and more cost effective - especially for kids.

Here is the boy card using my favourite "Bugs & Kisses" stamp set, Kraft, Whisper White and Soft Suede cardstock and Soft Suede Classic Ink Pad.

Here is the girl card using the Butterfly Punch (which, by the way you can still purchase even though it was in the last mini catalogue - contact me if you would like to know more) with 'Cottage Wall' Designer Series Paper and Pale Plum cardstock and the 'happy birthday' stamp comes from Teeny Tiny Sentiment p.26 in the current mini catalogue and stamped in Rich Razzleberry. I cased this design from Amy Waters, I loved how she sewed down the middle of her butterflies so I did a quick version!!!

I hope this inspires you to go and make a stack of birthday cards and never pay $4.95 for 1 card again!! (just think...that's almost half the price of a classic ink pad, or half the price of a pkt of 24 sheets of cardstock in which you could make 48 cards this size, or the cost of a giant block of cadbury chocolate from Big W......the possibilities are endless LOL)

The technique of MASKING

This is an oldy but a goody, you overlap the stamps so that it looks like the 2nd image is sitting behind the 1st. It looks great with solid stamps, but also looks amazing with flowers or people/animals. We used this technique at the last workshop in June and you can find step by step instructions at the Stampin' Up! website here. I used the 'I {heart} Hearts' stamp set to create this card. Just remember to cut your image on the post-it note inside the lines (smaller) so as to not get that gap between the images like on mine below LOL!!!

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Sweet little paper handbags

At my last workshop in June we made these sweet little paper handbags that are a perfect size to pop in some choccy's or a small gift to give to someone. They would also be great for a little girls birthday party bag with treats to give away to her guests. I promised to give you the link to the instructions so you can go and make a bunch of them so click here to go to the very talented Makeesha Byl's pdf instructions that you can print out and have handy whilst making.

Here are a few of the ones I made (in a rush to photograph before the sun went down and I didn't iron the sheet in the background-doesn't look the best!!!)