Happy New Year's Card--Yes, I Send Them :-D

I always laugh and tell people if they didn't receive a Christmas card, they're probably on the list for a new year's one.

Starting Christmas crafts in July isn't a guarantee one will be done in time for the holidays, and, to be honest, once I let go of the pressure to make Christmas cards, I felt so much happier. In fact, I think the new year's cards turned out better than the Christmas ones!

There's no shame in sending a New Year's card--after after Christmas fun, frolic, and feasting, it's kind of nice getting a bonus card in the mailbox IMHO.

These cards started out as Christmas cards but it was easy to change them up. I started with six Basic White and six Very Vanilla cardstock bases.

I used the stamps (as well as dies) from the Christmas Lights bundle and some silver ink to stamp the top and bottom of the bases. Then, I cut up gold and silver metallic dotted paper from the fall Sale-A-Bration freebie DSP pack.

My main goal was using up all the metallic scraps hanging around the craft room and I succeeded! There were enough scraps to make gold, silver, blue and light purple snowflakes large and small. I used all the snowflake dies in my collection by the way.

New Year's stamps aren't super popular, so I saved myself some time by printing a sentiment in a colour close to Early Espresso and cut out each tag.

However, I had a problem--I had big shapes, little shapes, stamped images and DSP--all good things. Something just didn't look right and after chatting with a friend, I decided to add some more snowflakes in matte colours.

Diving into the scrap basket, I found small pieces of Night of Navy, Misty Moonlight, and Purple Posey to die cut. The flat, solid colours tempered the shiny elements.

Lastly, I glued thin metallic strips under the tag to make another reflective surface and make the tag stand out more.

Just like snowflakes, each of the twelve cards were different. Click the image for larger size.

Have a shiny 2023 friends!

It's Here--The January-April Mini Catalogue and Sale-A-Bration!

Time to celebrate and sale-a-brate the new year with an exciting new catalogue with winter and spring holidays and more! Contact me for a printed catalogue or shop with me online.

Don't forget that qualifying orders also earn you free product--stamps, paper or more!

I'll share my new catalogue favourites soon along with a project or two.

Some Festive Stragglers :-)

It makes sense that there's a little bit of 2022 coming into 2023! The problem with being so sick is forgetfulness--and somehow I totally forgot about these three designs I made back in...October? I would have liked to make more, but they are just one-offs.

The two cards below use Snowflake Vellum Paper. The catalogue photo didn't do this paper justice in my opinion--it's so pretty! I used some scraps of metallic and glitter cardstock to add snowflakes from older sets.                   

In the horizontal card, you can see where I tried stamping the Basic White Base before putting the vellum on top. I'm not sure how well this worked out, but I would try the technique again. Vellum is perfect for toning down colours or shapes.

Lastly, if you purchased some Boughs of Holly paper, you may have fallen in love with the poinsettia patterns. One sheet in particular offered lots of fussy cutting fun, as you can see here! The Shaded Spruce die cut and stamp are from the Merriest Moments bundle, which features stamps, dies, and an embossing folder. It debuted in 2021 and was actually a returning favourite in the 2022 August-December Mini Catalogue. Returning favourites don't often happen, but sometimes they do :-) I sponged the Shaded Spruce die cut with some Evening Evergreen to tone it done a little. Dots of copper ink complete the festive mood. 

So, for sure that's a wrap on 2022's holiday cards. Time to get ready for the new year because it's going to be time to Sale-A-Brate verrrrrry soon!

December's Sunday Sketches

I had lots of ideas for cards this year that never materialized (thanks COVID!), but crafters are eternal optimists. Late for this year, early for next!

Merry Christmas friends and all the best in 2023!

Feeling Festive and Festive Feelings!

Adding to my perpetual feeling of being behind on posts, ideas, and more--well, after dodging the plague for two and a half years, it struck our household and despite what some may say, it affects people very differently. Hubs slept most of the symptoms off in four days and has a lingering cough. For me, COVID ran the whole ten days. I was super thirsty, napped a lot, and lost my appetite. Then, afterward, I was unbelievably tired and constantly reminding myself to take it easy. I'm only now finally feeling 100% again. We were doing all the right things, but our luck just ran out!

One of my favourite holiday suites this year was the Santa Suite. I wanted to do a whole video about it because I thought the whole ensemble was just wonderful. It just has so much possibility and I hope Stampin' Up! makes more suites like it.

There was co-ordinating paper for die cutting shapes and stamps perfect for colouring! Other elements included envelopes and a Memories and More pack with matching and retro elements. Originally, I wasn't sold on the Parakeet Party sky, but once you put it all together, it just works! Here are two samples while spending the afternoon with friends, who went wild for the set. Despite the two other ideas I had, all we worked on was the trains :-D

Here are two cards made with metallic snowflakes and two of the Santa Suite Memories and More cards. When you're pressed for time, a card from one of these packs often has the right message or image you need. They're such good value IMHO.

Lastly, here are two cards made with DSP from the Lights Aglow suite. This festive paper with a touch of gold was super popular. Consider yourself lucky if you snagged a pack because it was unavailable and not restocked. I used some scraps from the stash for the letters. I'm not 100% sure they're finished--but they are lovely!

Sadly, I didn't send out as many Christmas cards as I hoped. A stack of bases will become New Year's cards. Fortunately October's Paper Pumpkin came to my rescue. This kit made 9 cards and the Santa theme was great for my friends with children. Did you know, by the way, you can gift Paper Pumpkin? They're also great to have on hand for yourself or to share with others :-)

That's a wrap for Christmas crafting in 2022! Have a healthy, joyous, and wonderful time with your loved ones!

November Stampin' Up! News

Oh my goodness, where does the time go? How is it November? I think my brain is still stuck in October :-D

Anyway, there's lots of exciting Stampin' Up! stuff going on in November, namely, the Seasonal Sale, which, if you live in North America, know it's kinda of a Black Friday sale. It's a-m-a-z-i-n-g!

Between 15 and 18 November 2022, select products from the 2022–2023 Annual Catalog will be on sale with the following discounts:

• 10% off all punches
• 15% of all stamps
• 20% off all dies
• 20% off all embossing folders
• 20% off all non-specialty Designer Series Paper

Dust off those wish lists and maybe leave one where your SO can see it ;-D Contact me at stampingfriendchristine@gmail.com or shop with me online.

Another exciting release is the Fitting Florets bundle, which I have in my hot little hands and haven't used yet! You may have noticed that Stampin' Up! releases products outside of the Annual Catalogue and Mini-Catalogues and this is one of them. Don't worry--it's carrying over until next year. It's kind of a fun sneak peek at what's coming :-)

I have been working on Christmas cards lately, although I'm not as organized this year as I have been in previous years, but I promise my next blog post will be sooner than later.

Summer Card Swapping!

One of the fun things about Stampin' Up! is being able to live my values which corresponds pretty handily to SU's "inspire, create, share". I love sharing knowledge (even in my day job!), I enjoy a creative and colour ful life and I love taking in inspiration from others and sending it back out into the world.

I haven't done a team swap--or even a group swap--in forever, so I jumped at the chance back in May to sign up for one. Swaps are a great way to try a new technique or use up some supplies and the theme for my swap was use your oldest, uninked set that's still in the current catalogue..

Challenge accepted! It turned out my oldest, uninked and still current set was Jar of Flowers which also has a matching punch. I had to sneak a sentiment from another set as Jar of Flowers does not contain any. While I sketched the card to be horizontal, it would have been much easier to create it vertically. Once the flowers go on top of the jar, it's easy to run out of space. I made four of each flower for some variety.

It took a while to patiently wait for the other swaps to come in and each one was a delight to receive! Thanks gals!

And the last card came in after I made this post :-D

Don't worry, the Santa Suite blog post is coming soon!