DIY Advent Calendar

I can't say this was a quick or cheap project, but I LOVE the way that it turned out! Plus, we plan to get many years of use out of it considering Ben is only 19 months.

I had purchased the vinyl from Stampin Up! probably about 4 or 5 years ago but only now that I have Ben did I bother putting it all together. I bought a large frame from Michael's and put a white poster board inside of it. Using double sided tape, I adhered the red and green ribbons along the two borders of the frame (this wasn't initially part of my plan, but it developed as I felt the outside part looked too white). The containers are just little containers from Michaels from the wedding favours section and I put a piece of Stampin Up paper inside each and adhered the tins with glue dots. The numbers are on green and white paper and attached with a magnet so they can easily be switched out everyday - it's a bit early for Ben to do so (he'd probably just eat the magnet) so it's currently being kept out of his reach!

Rudolph Christmas

It's the last post of my Christmas cards from class (I apparently forgot to photograph one of the cards - if I get a chance I'll try to get one - it uses the set Holiday Lineup and features the mica flakes from the holiday mini). Be sure to scroll down for two other posts from today of other cards from the class.

This final card was definitely the hardest of the cards to make, but is one of my favourites. It was inspired by Mary's card here and uses her tutorial for creating the punch template in the same post. Rudolph's nose is coloured in with a real red marker and covered with a dab of Crystal effects for dimension.

Stamp: SU Jolly Bingo Bits, Heard from the Heart
Ink: SU chocolate chip, real red
Paper: SU ww, real red, chocolate chip
Ribbon: SU 5/8" chocolate chip satin, 1/8" real red taffeta
Punch: SU 1 1/4" square punch
Misc: SU crystal effects, dimensionals, dotto adhesive

Snowflake Happy Holidays

Scroll down for other posts today of cards from my Christmas card class.

I always love the look of three panels down a card so I had to make one with snowflakes - you'll see a different take on the three panels in the upcoming post. It's hard to tell in the photo, but all the green snowflakes were coloured with my 2-way glue pen and covered with dazzling diamonds. The girls in class all chose various sentiments to use in place of the Happy Holidays from the Four the Holidays stamp set.

Stamps: SU Snow Swirled, Four the Holidays
Ink: SU real red, old olive
Paper: SU ww, real red, old olive dsp from brights stack
Punch: SU corner counder, scallop edge
Misc: SU dazzling diamonds, 2-way glue pen

In Colour Ornament Card

Here's another one of the Christmas cards from class.

This is a take on Jen's card here. I didn't change too much about it because I loved the colour combo and hints of silver!

Stamps: SU Delightful Decorations, Snow Swirled

Ink: SU basic gray, island indigo, pool party

Paper: SU ww, pool party, island indigo, silver glimmer

Punch: SU ornament punch

Brad: SU 3/8" jumbo silver brad

Embossing Folder: SU Snowburst

Misc: SU dimensionals

Festive Stitched Stockings

Last post for today! Scroll down for 3 other Christmas card posts! I'll hopefully get around to sharing the remainder of the cards sometime over the weekend.

The stitched stocking stamp set and punch were must-haves for me when the Holiday Mini catalogue came out so of course I had to make a card for the class using it! The girls loved it. Each person used a different stocking image and I have to admit I liked the look of snowflake and argyle stockings better than mine - I went with the polka dots since I thought it would compliment the old olive polka dotted paper!

Despite loving the jingle bells, this was the only card I made for class that used them because they do cost more to mail and I didn't want the girls to have to worry about all of their cards costing too much to send!
TIP: Use a floss threader to thread the baker's twine through the bell!

Stamps: SU Stitched Stockings
Ink: SU real red, old olive
Paper: SU whisper white, real red, old olive, old olive dsp from brights pack
Ribbon: SU white baker's twine
Punch: SU stocking builder punch
Misc: SU mini jingle bell, dimensionals

Northern Frost Snowflake CASE

Be sure to scroll down to view other Christmas card posts!

As soon as I saw this stunning card by Mary, I knew I would have to CASE it. I swapped the striped embossing for polka dots and changed up the brads, but mostly left everything else the same! I love this shade of blue for Christmas! It was great to see such variety in the cards the girls made just by changing which snowflakes they cut and changing their placement!

Stamps: SU Petite Pairs
Ink: SU Versamark
Paper: SU whisper white, silver glimmer, pool party
Ribbon: SU 3/8" ruffled pool party
Embossing Folder: SU perfect polka dots
Die cut: SU Northern Frost
Embossing Powder: SU silver
Brads: SU silver mini brads, 5/16" silver jumbo brads

Silver Sparkle Dasher

Be sure to scroll down for other new Christmas card posts!

This photo really doesn't do this card justice, but I think it is one of my favourites that I made for this class. You really have to picture the contrast of the stark white against the shiny silver.

Stamp: SU Dasher

Ink: SU versamark

Paper: SU whisper white, brushed silver

Ribbon: SU silver elastic cord (retired)

Embossing Folder: SU Snow Burst
Misc: SU dimesionals

Joyful CASE

I've been totally ignoring my blog lately. First, I didn't want to share the Christmas cards I made because they were for a class, then I wasn't felt great, and then we've had Christmas parties, shopping, etc., the list goes on and on and as a result getting photos of the cards just got pushed further and further down the list. So here starts the posts of the cards we made in a Christmas card class for my husband's coworkers - you'll have to excuse the not so great photography!

This first card was a CASE of this card from Jill. I modified it ever so slightly and love both versions. The ladies at the class love to heat emboss so I added it to 3 of the 8 cards that we made!

Stamps: SU Sounding Joy
Ink: SU Crumb Cake, Versamark
Paper: SU crumb cake, very vanilla, cherry cobbler
Embossing Folder: SU Snow Burst
Ribbon: SU cherry cobbler seam binding
Embossing Powder: SU cherry cobbler

Holiday Mini Sneak Peek

As Stampin' Up demo's we are allowed to preorder merchandise from upcoming catalogues. The set that I used for this card is form the upcoming Holiday Mini that will be released September 1. It's called Stitched Stockings and has a coordinating punch!

For this card, I went back to one of my favourite layouts that I use quite frequently. I coloured my favourite stocking image from this set using my cherry cobbler and old olive markers, then stamped it on very vanilla cardstock and punched it out using the coordinating punch. Finally, it was adhered to the card base using dimensionals.

I also have to admit that I am not a huge fan of this years Christmas papers so you will probably see me mostly using this jolly holiday designer paper from last year.

Stamps: SU Stitched Stockings
Ink: SU cherry cobbler, old olive
Paper: SU very vanilla, cherry cobbler, jolly holiday dsp (retired)
Ribbon: SU 1/2" cherry cobbler seam binding
Punch: SU Stocking builder punch
Misc: SU dimensionals

Goodbye Sparkly & Bright

I know it's a bit early for Christmas cards, but it is exactly 6 months away now! Plus, the super cute Sparkly & Bright stamp set is retiring.

I decided to CASE this beautiful card by Stacey - I've had it in my favourites folder forever! I wanted to make it a standard size card instead of square because I don't have any satin red ribbon and I thought having a large card with skinny ribbon would look kind of funny. I was so annoyed because after the card was all assembled and all I had left to do was adhere the bow, I smudged the middle reindeer! If you are as picky as me, then you know this means I will probably never give this card to anyone but I was too annoyed with myself to make another! Maybe later!

It's a little hard to tell in the photo, but the one nose is coloured red,then  covered with crystal effects and dazzling diamond glitter.

Stamps: SU Sparkly & Bright
Ink: SU chocolate chip, real red
Paper: SU chocolate chip, real red, ww
Ribbon: SU 1/8" real red taffeta
Misc: SU crystal effects, dazzling diamond glitter

No Stamp Holly Jolly Christmas Set

I know it's way out of season, but I only just got around to using my Holly Jolly rubons that I just had to have! I guess it's a good way to get a head start on Christmas cards (this past year was the first time we used all the Christmas cards I like to make because Grant used them for coworkers).

Here's a look at the 4 cards I made!

Happiest Holidays:

Merry & Bright:

Merry (based on February's SFYTT):

Season of Cheer:

These 4 cards were so cheap/affordable to make! Rubons are a fantastic way to make a lot of cards for less. These cards only used a couple sheets of cardstock, hardly any of the pack of designer paper and only a very small portion of the rubons. I could easily make dozens more cards with the amount of supplies left over. The rubons come with two sheets of each image set so I could even make doubles of each!

Rubons: SU Holly & Jolly

Paper: SU very vanilla, cherry cobbler, Jolly Holiday dp

Ribbon: SU 1/2" cherry cobbler seam binding, 3/8" old olive taffeta

Punch: SU 1" circle, scallop circle

Misc: circle cutter, dimensionals

Christmas Cookie Bags

Here's the last project I created for this Christmas. I made these cookie treat bags for dessert following Christmas dinner. I had purchased these glassine bags when SU had them out during Valentine's Day (unfortunately they are no longer available) and have been waiting for the perfect time to use them.

I ran the glassine bags through my cuttlebug using the swiss dots embossing folder so they would have more texture. Before putting my Christmas cookies (each bag contained 4 cookies), I put them inside SU cello bags so the glassine bags wouldn't get all greasy.  

Then I just wrapped a piece of the dp around it, added the stamped circles and adhered a white felt flurry snowflake using the real red glitter brads from the Holiday Mini that coordinate with the red glitter on the dp! I made 6 treat bags and each had a different shaped felt flurry attached so everyone would know which was theirs to take home. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good picture of all of them because of the shadows they created and the light shining off all the glitter! A very quick but fun project!

Stamps: SU Holiday Collection (retired)
Ink: SU baja breeze
Paper: SU ww, real red, candy cane christmas dp (unavailable)
Brad: SU real red glitter brad
Snowflake: SU felt flurries (retired)
Misc: Swiss dots embossing folder, SU glassine (retired) and medium cello bags, glue dots, circle cutter

This could easily be a SUO project if the swiss dots embossing folder was substituted for the SU perfect polka dots embossing folder.

Merry Christmas Cards

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I know I did! I was spoiled again this year!

I just have a couple of other Christmas projects to share to round up the holiday season. These cards are a hybrid project using digital images from MDS as well as actual ribbon and embellishments.

 All of the sentiments are from My Digital Studio and printed in baja breeze ink. It`s so easy to do and you don`t necessarily have to use SUs professional printing services, I just used my printer at home for this project. I had these sentiments in a retired rubon set from SU one or two years ago but it wasn`t in the colour I wanted so MDS made it so more versatile. Plus, you can resize them so they fit better with your project (for these cards, I left the sizing as they come).

Here`s a closer look at each of the cards so you can see how well it works out!

A great tip for spacing out pearls is to use your piercing mat pack and lightly pierce equally spaced apart holes to use as guides for where to place your pearls!

Supplies

Digital Stamp: SU Wishes & Greetings

Paper: SU ww, baja breeze, candy cane christmas dp

Ribbon: SU white organdy (retired)

Pearls: SU white halfback

Misc: MDS, dimensionals

Christmas Ornaments!

Again this year, I made ornaments for Grant's students. You can find the ones I made last year here. This year, I used the Jolly Bingo Bits set - it's not quite as colourful but the images are just so cute (plus I wanted to use an actual stamp as trying to emboss transparency paper that has been through a printer makes it very difficult to get clean lines).

While I was in the process of making these, my Mom brought Grant super cute ornaments for him to give to his students. They were miniature ornament versions of the reindeer here. So, as it turns out, we'll be hanging on to the ornaments I made until next year to give those students. Then, we'll write their name and the year inside the ornament too!

Stamps: SU Jolly Bingo Bits

Ink: SU versamark

Embossing Powder: SU white, basic black

Ribbon: SU silver elastic cord, 1/8" real red tafetta
Misc: ornaments, glitter, transparency

Christmas Tags

Here are some of the Christmas tags I made this year! They are all using Stampin' Up only supplies but much of it is retired!

More Fun with MDS

Although I am not posting much these days, I have been busy stamping! Most of it is for Christmas projects for other people so I haven't been able to share much of it!

I've been taking some more time to play with My Digital Studio and made these Christmas images!

I don't really have a particular use for them at the moment - they were the result of my fiddling around to become more familiar with all of the MDS features. Maybe I'll turn them into cards!

Mojo159 Dasher Christmas

Here's a quick simple card for Mojo159.

This card features the fabulous Candy Cane Christmas specialty paper and glitter brads from the Holiday Mini Catalogue. The red glitter brad brings out the glittered red stripes on the paper!

Stamps: SU Dasher, Best Yet (retired)
Ink: SU real red
Paper: SU real red, ww, baja breeze, candy cane christmas dp
Ribbon: SU 1/8" real red taffeta
Brad: SU real red glitter brad
Misc: SU baja breeze felt flurries (retired but available while supplies last in clearance)

Favourite New Christmas Set

The Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set in the new Holiday Mini catalogue is too cute and has so many fun images. I saw this card on Stampin' Connection and had to create a little set inspired by it using more of the images from this set. This set was fairly easy to make - the most time consuming thing was trying to line up and space the images as perfectly as possible. I accomplished this by straightening the white cardstock they are stamped on along grid paper then figuring out the center line and working out from there for horizontal spacing. Then, I just eyeballed vertical spacing and the angle I wanted the image at. It's not perfect - but I still like it.

Here you can get a better look at the cards:
It's kind of funny how even with such similar cards I still have a favourite!

The stripes were created just using my real red stampin' marker and a ruler! I have to say too, that I love this 1/8" taffeta ribbon! I originally thought it would be too skinny to be useful but it turns out quite nicely.

Stamps: SU Jolly Bingo Bits, Four the Holidays
Ink: Real Red
Paper: SU ww, real red
Ribbon: SU 1/8" real red taffeta

Christmas Jingle SS Cards

I know it's early but I couldn't resist making some Christmas cards when so many other crafters are already! I love making Christmas cards and I don't even send any out - I usually just sell them or give them as gifts for other people to use. This is a set of 5 that I made using last catalogue's Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' Kit. These are great for making cards out of because there are so many supplies contained in them. I made these 5 (albeit I did use a couple other supplies as well) and used maybe 1/8 of the kit, if that! Here's some better pics of each of the cards: The sentiment on this card is from the retired rubons "season of cheer." Some of you may recognize this sketch from last weeks Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge 155! The little tag punched with the jewelry tag punch and stamped with the coordinating "tiny tags" stamp set.Such a fun set to make! And I have so much more kit left to use!

Scrappin Kit: SU Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin Kit (retired)

Supplies not in the kit:

Stamps: SU tiny tags
Ink: SU real red
Rubons: SU season of cheer (retired)
Ribbon: SU 1/8" real red taffeta, 1/4" real red grosgrain, 5/8" chocolate chip grosgrain (retired)
Punch: SU jewelry tag punch
Brads: SU 5/16" very vanilla jumbo brads

Season's Greetings Group

Here's one last Christmas card that I made using the sketch challenge on SCS from last week, SC259. I love the look of the traditional Christmas colours! Supplies:

Stamps: SU Holiday Lineup, Four the Holidays
Ink: SU real red, old olive, pumpkin pie, close to cocoa, StazOn jet black
Paper: SU ww, old olive, real red
Ribbon: SU 5/8" old olive grosgrain, 1/4" real red grosgrain