From the New Seasonal Catalogue

It's a busy time for SU demonstrators (and customers) as not only is the retiring list available, this year for the first time, is the launch of the new Seasonal Autumn/Winter catalogue. As a demonstrator I am able to get certain products on pre-order and I have chosen a couple of very quick and easy Christmas cards to show you which are made with the new Snow Flurry die, Brushed Gold and Brushed Silver cardstock. The die has three snowflakes on it and these cards use the two largest (the larger one positioned on top of the middle sized one) The card at the top is matted onto Raspberry Ripple cardstock and, the card to the right, on Gumball Green which are two of the new In Colours. I used Basic Pearls with the red & gold and Basic Rhinestones with the green & silver. As I was unable to pre-order sentiments I used ones from Beautiful Season and Polar Pals which are carrying over to the new annual catalogue.
The retiring lists (one for stamp sets and one for accessories) can be found here & here and are available while stocks last. You can view the Autumn/Winter catalogue by clicking on the catalogue image on my sidebar.

Firstly I must apologise for the awful quality of the photos but this was a card I made tonight, which I have to take to work tomorrow, so I had to take the photo under artificial light. I was asked by a friend to make a Christmas card which is going to be taken abroad and given to a German lady. She wanted a traditional 'British' style card and what can be more British than a robin?

I coloured the stamp from Beautiful Season with Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler and Chocolate Chip markers and stamped onto Whisper White and then used a blender pen to colour in the image. The berries were highlighted with a white marker and some Dazzling Diamonds was added to the leaves. This was matted onto a piece of Old Olive and then onto Cherry Cobbler which had been stamped with the small holly stamp, from Pines & Poinsettias, in Cherry Cobbler ink. Some Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding was tied around before layering onto a white card blank. The sentiment was stamped in Cherry Cobbler and punched with the Modern Label punch and another label, in Old Olive, was placed behind. I added two Basic Rhinestones for an added bit of sparkle.

Christmas Pillow Boxes

You are probably aware that I do love making 3D projects and, following the Pillow Boxes I showed you the other day made for a 50th birthday, I was asked to make some more but this time for Christmas. I am entering these for the Simply Stampin' challenge which is 'Leaves' and you are allowed to enter 3D items, as well as cards, which is right up my street!

I won't bore you and go into huge detail but supplies used were Old Olive and Whisper White cardstock, Soft Holly wheel, Old Olive Satin ribbon and stamp pad, Old Olive and Real Red Stampin' Write markers and a sprinkling of Dazzling Diamonds. The holly leaves were made with the Oval and Circle punch and the berries were covered with Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds and the sentiment is from Beautiful Season coloured with markers and punched with the Curly Label punch. Oh and of course, the Pillow Box die!!!

Leaves

   This is my card for the Less is More challenge which, this week, is One Layer - Leaves. I have chosen to use holly leaves to make yet another Christmas card, this time using the Beautiful Season stamp set. I used part of a stamp from this set and coloured directly onto the stamp with Old Olive and Real Red Stampin'Write markers. Once stamped onto a plain white card blank I used a blender pen to draw out the stamped colour into the leaves and berries. I like this technique as it gives different shades on the stamped image which is perfect for leaves. I stamped the sentiment (again from Beautiful Season) in Old Olive and added dots of Dazzling Diamonds to the berries - plenty of white space this week and definitely CAS!!

Below is another card, made with the same stamp, but this time the whole image was stamped in Old Olive before colouring with a blender pen. For the little bird I decided to make him into a robin and, because I had stamped in green, this time I picked up ink from my ink pad to colour him brown with a nice red breast.

I thought I would be very good this morning and actually get some jobs done before embarking on the challenge, one of which was getting the washing out on the line. At 8 o'clock this morning it was quite bright here, and even looked like the sun may show itself, so off I went into my craftroom to 'create'. When I emerged I found that it was raining (you know that rain that you can't really see but manages to soak everything) so the washing had to be put back to spin and is now destined for the clothes horse - yet again!! Roll on summer :0)  Have a great weekend and I'll be back soon x

Post Script!! Kelly from Simply Stampin' Challenge  has suggested I enter these over there as well - so I am!! Thanks Kelly x