Christmas banner - Stampin' Up-style!

First things first: my mobile phone is currently out of action so please don’t text me. Use email or my landline if you need to get in touch.

Now to today’s project, and it’s a whopper! Saturday was my final class of the year – the much-anticipated Christmas: All Wrapped Up.

The main project of the afternoon was this one and I admit that this project was big enough to fill a whole class. I’ll be working on timings next year, I promise! The picture isn’t great as it’s so dark all the time right now; I should have taken one at the hall on Saturday.

We used the banner kit from the Autumn/Winter catalogue. This kit is really generous and definitely one to consider for any time of the year. In the kit you get:

• 18 canvas banner pieces in three different shapes
• Three pattern stencils
• One circle stencil
• A full alphabet of stencils
• A length of thick jute twine
• Two spritzer bottles 

You can also purchase additional banner pieces to make more projects. I highly recommend both and wish I’d latched onto this earlier in the life of this catalogue, which expires at the end of January!

We began by sponging ink onto the banner pieces through the stencils. I’ve been reliably informed that spritzing ink through the stencils can cause smudging, so we used sponge daubers instead, picking up the ink from the lids of ink pads. 

It's a shaker behind the Frosted Finishes embellishment

There was a LOT of die-cutting for this project so, in the end, I stood at the Big Shot to help out. The muscles in my right arm are now quite developed!

I love the stamp set, Lovely as a Tree, and was surprised that one of the ladies at the class hadn’t used it before. Needless to say, it’s now on her wish list. She won’t regret buying it; it’s one you can use all year round for Christmas, birthdays, masculine cards and sympathy cards. Here we stamped and stamped off to get various shades of Old Olive on the Very Vanilla ovals.

Chris was justifiably proud of her banner!

The embellishments in between add some bling – and are a little over-the-top for me, I’ll admit. I was inspired by a swap I received at Convention from my friend Frenchie Jo. 

Jo's fab Christmas ornament

What you can’t see from the photo is the shaker element of these sections of the banner (that’s the bit inspired by Jo). This bit was quite tricky as it has to be done in the right order! Behind the Frosted Finishes embellishments is a piece of acetate covering a spoonful of glitter which is held in with the fabulous Shaker Frames from the main catalogue. These are perfect circles in various sizes and made just for creating shaker cards.

We have silver AND gold on this banner – Silver Glimmer Paper and some Gold Foil cardstock, as well as lots of Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive… my perennial favourite colour combination for Christmas.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree

Cardstock: Textured Cherry Cobbler 12x12, Very Vanilla, Silver Glimmer Paper, Gold Foil cardstock

Paper: Season of Style DSP stack

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Baked Brown Sugar

Accessories: Build a Banner Simply Created Kit, Banner Simply Created Kit, Frosted Finishes embellishments, Festive Flurry framelits, 1” circle punch, acetate, sponge daubers, Gold glitter, Shaker Frames