Peaceful Boughs Christmas ornament in gold pizza box

I do love a woodland theme... and particularly a woodland-themed Christmas ornament, so it wouldn't be the festive season without one of these making its way into my craft classes!

I bought some MDF hearts from eBay, painted them white and then set to crafting by stamping them with the Birch Background stamp and Peaceful Boughs.

I embossed the boughs with clear embossing powder on top of the Mossy Meadow (hurrah for the Stamparatus!) and, because the Crumb Cake Birch image still wasn't quite dry that picked up some of the powder, too. I call this a happy accident! There's even a hint of glitter!

The box is die-cut (look out for the missing piece coming soon!) and given a window sheet insert which is stamped in Whisper White ink and heat set, then we wrapped our ornaments in stamped black tissue paper ready to give as a lovely handcrafted gift.

I don't like glitter because it can end up in our oceans but still have quite a bit left so I now only use it when mixed with glue or embossing powder. Here I mixed it with the clear embossing powder to stop it from going astray. It adds a touch of glitz to an otherwise quite understated project. 
 

Pizza box with shaker dome lid

Let's start the week off with an over-the-top, complicated project, shall we? Actually it's not as complicated as it first appears; it's just that I've overstuffed my dome and didn't have enough pizza boxes to make another one.

In fact, the hardest part of this project was cutting out the dome shape from the lid of the pizza box as you have to get through quite a lot of layers and the inside of the box has a plastic coating to make it food safe. Once that was done, it was just a case of assembling the pieces in the right order.

When die-cutting foil, you need either a really unblemished cutting plat on top, or a piece of scrap paper to protect it. Otherwise you will get imprints from the plate in the delicate foil surface. 

 

Glamorous gold snowflake gift bag

I love these gold and white striped bags - but you don't have to leave them as they are; you can add more to them. Here I’ve used washi tape to add some extra stripes, as well as some Delightfully Detailed Designer Series Paper, which has some really pretty borders. They come in white and vanilla (one colour on each side) but I’ve sponged them in Cherry Cobbler for a festive look.

Snowflakes in gold add some glamour, and there’s some festive bling, too. The whole thing took less than five minutes to make. Result!

Delightfully Detailed Golden wedding anniversary card

I don’t normally do card commissions but my Mum laid on the emotional blackmail pretty thickly so I caved in for this one. To tell the truth, I’d agreed to create a golden wedding anniversary card before the true scale of the job was revealed. Gold-themed card? No problem. “With their names on...” Aaaaaaagh!

I have known Jean and Tony all my life so know Jean isn’t a fan of bright colours and favours pastels. (She also likes frogs but I held back, despite the temptation of using Animal Outing...) So I created a gentle watercolour wash background and, thankfully, managed to stamp their names right first time using the Pick a Pennant stamp set.

You may recognise the watercoloured background from these projects, which were made from the leftover pieces.

You can’t see from the photo but I have applied Wink of Stella all over the laser-cut DSP to give a hint of glitz, and the sequins and gold “celebrate” are a further reinforcement that this is for a 50th anniversary celebration.

Rooted in Nature gift bag of cards

I LOVE the new Rooted in Nature stamp set and, for a recent crafty weekend, wanted to make a set of cards on a mixed metallics theme.

This is how I discovered that stampin the trees and leaves onto foil cardstock in Stazon looks absolutely gorgeous... I particularly love the look on the Champagne Foil, above.

These, plus two other cards, will form the basis of an upcoming workshop, so if you like the look of them and want to make them, please watch this space. I reserve the right to change them slightly, of course; you know I can’t help myself!

A Tutti Frutti witty birthday celebration

Birthdays are for celebrating; that’s a fact. Which reminds me that last year, I told my Mum I was starting my birthday celebrations early and she said “Why? It’s not a big one this year, is it? ”

I put her straight and said: “At my age, every birthday is a big one!” And it’s true, there’s no point in waiting for the next decade to come round. 

With this in mind, members of my Virtual Hostess Club get a card and present in their birthday month and this was for one of my April ladies. I love this Tutti Frutti Designer Series Paper, with its vibrant fruity patterns, so wanted to make the most of it for this card. I came to these designs late – I honestly don’t know why I overlooked them in my early orders – and absolutely love them. I’ve been trying to make up for lost time by making lots of projects with them, in the vain hope of trying to use up the whole stack. 

Have you ever tried to use up a whole Designer Series Paper stack? It’s not easy, as they are so generous!

Inside I stamped this fun greeting from Birthday Wit; I’m sad to see this is retiring as it has some really great sentiments, which are ever so slightly sassy. (For extra sass and sarcasm, do invest in an alphabet stamp set).

Karen’s present was wrapped up in a souped-up lunch bag, with a bold, brash tag and just a hint of Tutti Frutti to link in the theme. Hope she liked it!

Mix It Up Monday: Window Box Thinlits

This amazing card is a work of genius. I totally CASEd the design from a hugely talented Australian demonstrator called Bronwen Eastley, whose blog pointed me towards this fabulous video tutorial from Barry & Jay. As I have a party coming up where I plan to showcase these gorgeous Window Box dies, I just knew it would be perfect for this week’s Mix It Up Monday colour challenge. 

It ’s an amazing design, which folds flat and fits in an envelope. Pity I didn’t think to photograph that, but Bronwen has pix from all angles on her blog, so please do take a look. 

I chose this colour combination from the few remaining from my In Color charts because I wanted to use a touch of GOLD. Can you imagine why? For the remaining two or three people in the world I haven’t yet told, I have just promoted to Gold – this is huge news and even more exciting as it comes in my 10th year of being a Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator. 

To celebrate, I have a special offer running throughout April. Simply spend £25 with me and I will send you a special gift of “gold” and a thank you card. I couldn’t have reached Gold without the support of my amazing customers and downlines, so thank you to everyone! I won’t do a speech...

The magic of Softly Falling plus vellum

When you use vellum in an embossing folder, something magical happens: the raised areas turn white. This makes vellum and the Softly Falling embossing folder a match made in heaven; you’ll get lovely white snow which stands out from the background, in more ways than one. 

This was the Make & Take for my party last Friday; it’s not as straightforward as my usual Make & Takes but these were experienced ladies so I knew they’d do as they were told when I explained that the stamped trees need to dry fully before they go through the Big Shot. Because vellum is not as porous as Whisper White cardstock, the ink sits on top and takes ages to dry; emboss too early and, as long as you keep your vellum still, you might get away with it… but the next person to use the folder will end up with a splodgy green mess. Thankfully, nobody did… and they all loved the project.

Now you may be looking at the supply list and thinking that the use of the Mini Treat Bag die is a little extravagant just for the tiny star on top of the tree. But this was part of a project ensemble, which included, yep, a Mini Treat Bag, so it was perfectly logical!

Wonderland Clear-Mount Stamp Set [140365] £15.00	Softly Falling Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [139672] £7.75	Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies [137547] £36.00	White Vellum A4 Card Stock [106584] £6.00
Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] £7.25	Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock [138343] £6.50	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock [121681] £6.50	Gold Glimmer Paper [133719] £4.50
Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad [126966] £6.00	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad [133645] £6.00	Gold Cording Trim [139618] £4.50

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Quick, easy and economical Sleigh Ride card

If my customers are anything to go by - and I don’t see why they wouldn’t be, fine arbiters of taste that they are - the Sleigh Ride Edgelits are the BIG seller of this year’s Autumn/Winter catalogue. 

Yes, they are a bit fiddly, but so worth it, as you can make beautiful festive scenes, perfect for Christmas cards, gifts and home décor. 

One idea I picked up from the Autumn/Winter catalogue is to use the “negative”, too - ie the bit you leave behind when you die-cut your shapes. This gives you a pleasing “two for one” deal, maximising your use of cardstock and speeding up the Christmas card-making process. If you’re short of time, or frugal like me, you’ll love this tip!

Here’s one we made at my Christmas workshop a few weeks ago; if I ever find the card we made with the other piece of white cardstock, I’ll show you that, too! (MUST get my craft stuff organised!)

Jingle All The Way Clear-Mount Bundle [140862]

Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock [121681]

Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]

Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad [101731]

Gold Cording Trim [139618]

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Golden wedding anniversary card... and out of my comfort zone!

Ha! Bet you never thought you’d see a card like this at All Things Stampy, eh? Not my usual style at all, is it? And, I have to confess, it was really hard to do, even though I was practically CASEing this project by Heidi Weaver. 

I tried using the spiral flower die to create the flowers from vellum but, of course, the vellum was too stiff. So I dug out some filter paper and tried again… but got in a terrible mess and ended up burning my thumb with the hot glue gun (that hurts!) 

Eventually I settled on simply punching out the filter paper and scrunching it up to create flowers. Happily I had exactly three tiny brads left, and just one gold sequin from an old kit, so could hold the flowers together easily. 

I don’t think I’ll be doing it again in a hurry, but then 50th wedding anniversaries don’t come around that often, so I think I’m safe. The alphabet dies are retired, by the way; I don’t make a habit of using retired products but these are too useful to get rid of and too perfect not to use. 

Something To Say Clear-Mount Stamp Set [134180]	Ovals Collection Framelits Die [129381]	Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [133520]	1-1/4" Circle Punch [119861]
Pansy Punch [130698]	Builder Bird Punch [117191]	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack [133787]	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]
White Filter Paper [129393]	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]	Gold Glimmer Paper [133719]	Gold Foil Sheets [132622]
Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688]	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock [140490]	Tea Lace Paper Doilies [129399]	Silver Mini Brads [122941]
Typeset Alphabet Bigz Die [127553]

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com