Last Post of the Year - Hello!

Fitting for my last post of 2014, a Hello card!  While I have luckily been off of work since December 19th, finding time, energy and motivation to get to my stamp room has been challenging.  I am not even sure why.  I received a while box of new stuff from Stampin' Up from the Occasions Catalog and Saleabration.  Maybe it was too overwhelming?!?  Anyway, I finally made it into the stamp room and decided to create something 

I decided to make something for The Friday Mash-up Challenge (190).  I really liked the simplicity of the challenge (two layers) and the grunge look.  I don't really make too many two-layer cards, so it was a real challenge for me ;0).

I decided to pull out my Everything Eleanor stamp set.  I really like the label image in the stamp set. It goes well with the grunge look.

For this card I started with a base of Soft Sky and stamped it with the Gorgeous Grunge spots in Soft Sky.  Then I used the swirls from Everything Eleanor and stamped it with Versamark and heat embossed with silver embossing powder, Before heat embossing I tried to grunge up the swirl a little but removing some of the powder.

The label was stamped in Pear Pizzaz onto Whisper White Cardstock.  I heat embossed the greeting (from the Four You stamp set) with silver embossing powder as well and then fussy cut the label.  I added a little bit of Sahara Sand lace ribbon from the Occasions catalog.  Love the look!  Gives the card a bit of a vintage feel.

I actually wanted to use pewter embossing powder on this card, but then I realized that this powder was a retired item for Stampin' Up!  I made a second card anyway using it.  I thought the color would go better with the Sahara Sand ribbon.  It's a little subtle but I like this look as well!

Hope you have a safe and happy new year's eve celebration!

Stampin Up Items Used:

New Year Inspiration

Hi Everyone, time for another Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge (SC94)!  While the holiday season is very stressful for all, I always look forward to setting time aside to make things to celebrate the holidays.  This months inspiration challenge was perfect for getting me in the mood for New Years!  I felt kind of like when Christmas takes over Thanksgiving, but decided that I had given Christmas a lot of attention the past few weeks, so New Year's deserved a little time as well ;0).

The gold stars made me think of the Stampin' Up! Many Merry Stars Simply Created Kit in the 2014 Holiday Supplement catalog.  The kit makes 25 3-D stars, of which 5 of them are gold glittered stars!!  Perfect for this inspiration challenge! 

I wanted to make one of the the 3-D stars see-through so I could hang something inside.  I was going to hang some smaller stars inside but decided on hanging "2015" instead.  I used the Perfect Print Numbers Bigz Die to cut out the numbers from Basic Black cardstock.  Then I used a glue dot to stick the numbers to a piece of window sheet. 

For the star, I found that one of the stars from the Many Merry Stars 3-D kit was the same size as one of the framelit stars.  So I used the side-edges from the Many Merry Stars Kit and I die cut the front and back of the star from window sheets with the star framelit.  To help hide the edges used to stick the side to the front and back stars, I die cut a star frame with gold glitter paper and adhered that to the window sheet stars.

I put together the larger gold 3-D stars and die cut "Happy New Year" from the Perfect Print Alphabet Bigz Die. 

I die cut more stars using the Stars Framelits from the Back to Black Designer Series Paper and used gold baker's twine so I could hang them. 

I thought all of the stars together would make a nice "mobile" hanging from my light fixture in the kitchen. 

I tried a few different ways of taking pictures of the stars hanging from the light fixture.  My children had fun "helping" me with this project.   

When holding up a white board didn't work out well, can you see them getting in the picture from behind the couch too??  At least they turned off the TV so I can try the photo shoot without the TV on in the background.

This one turned out ok, still a little dark, but at least you can see the stars.  

While I had the star framelits out I decided to make festive drink decorations!

And finally, one of the first items I bought from the 2015 Occasions Catalog which goes on sale January 6th was a new die called the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Die!  I was so excited to get this die and it worked out perfect for my New Year's Themed party decorations!  I used the die on some paper from the Black to Basic DSP set and added some gold embellishments, including a gold glitter star!

The greeting was made using the Making Spirits Bright stamp set in the 2014 Holiday Catalog (only available for a few more days!).  I used gold foil paper and basic black paper to make the curls and added some gold sequin ribbon for embellishments.

So, I think I am set for New Years's now!  Now I just have to get through Christmas ;0).

I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season!  Hope you have time to play along with the challenge, can't wait to see what you create! 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

 

Delicate Decorated Gift Bag

I made some of the ladies who regularly attend my stamp camp a little gift.  Of course, the gift packaging needed to be special for them!

I bought the Alphabet Rotary stamp and have not used it yet, so it was the perfect way to make each gift personalized!

I was a little stressed the night of stamp camp.  I got off of work at noon and had to finish cutting the paper for the projects, make some special treats (luckily my 14 year old daughter helped me out there and made some really great chocolate sugar cookies I found on Pinterest) and type up some directions for each project.  I had about an hour before the ladies arrived and I was able to whip up these cute bags just in time!  Whew...  I will try to be ahead of the game next time ;0)!

Hope you enjoyed the gift bag idea!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used

     

              

My Christmas Cards

Thought I would share my Christmas Cards with you.  I made 120 cards over a few weeks.  I would cut, stamp and glue little by little.  Te greeting is from the Photopolymer Christmas Bliss stamp set.  Stampin' Up! releases a new photopolymer stamp set the second Tuesday of every month.  Always nice to see new things made available and I love the photopolymer stamps.

Last weekend I decided to sit and finish them up.  All of the pieces were cut so all I needed to do was put them together.  As I started putting them together, I found that Dirty Dancing was on TV that night.  I love that movie so it was great to watch the movie again will putting the cards together.  For some reason, the move was on twice that night, back to back, and I ended up watching the movie twice!  It was great!!

I finished up the following night watching another move, a different one.

I was going to add sequins but after putting the cards together, I decided the cards were fine without sequins ;0).

I would love to see any cards you made for the season!

Stampin' Up Supplies Used: