One of my downline sent me this Star of Light Christmas Card, and I want to tell you it is an absolutely beautiful card! Just stunning in real life! The photograph doesn’t really do it justice because of the glare from the gold foil. The Star of Light Stamp Set is a perfect one for the Christmas season, not only with beautiful artwork but lots of sentiments to use.
The card starts on just a Whisper White base, layered with a piece of Gold Foil. The top layer is Night of Navy embossed with the Sparkle Embossing Folder. Underneath this Night of Navy layer are strips of Silver Glimmer Paperon each side, very narrow margins. It just looks beautiful along with the Gold Foil and Night of Navy cardstock! The Star of Wonder is made with the Starlight Thinlits Dies using the Gold Foil and the Silver Glimmer Paper in all the layers.
The greeting is embossed in gold and layered on Gold Foil with a bit of the Gold 1/8″ Ribbon folded behind. There is also a small Rhinestone Jewel on the front.
For texture, shine, and eye-catching beauty, this card really can’t be beat! All the elements are there from the embossing folder, the Gold Foil and Silver Glimmer Paper and the beautiful die-cutting and layering of the star with the Starlight Thinlits Dies. Really pretty!
You will find this Star of Light Photopolymer Stamp Set and Starlight Thinlits Dies in the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog on page 122, so it can be ordered any time. Perhaps you will want to get a head start on NEXT Christmas by making this card in January! This Star of Light Christmas card is one that will turn out beautifully!
SURPRISE! The Stampin’ Up! Clearance Rack has been updated! New items have been added to the Clearance Rack in the online store! Supplies are limited, and with discounts up to 70%, products will go quickly. Shop now and stock up.
You will find cardstock, dies, ribbons, embellishments, designer paper, punches, and more! Of course it’s all “while supplies last”! Check it out right now! The Early Bird gets the worm!
This sale has surplus inventory at reduced prices and retiring products from the Holiday Catalog!
Don’t forget! Last day to order from the Holiday Catalog is January 2, 2018.
Last day to order from the Year-End Sales Event is January 2, 2018.
AND: You can “reserve” your Stamparatus, the new stamp positioning tool until December 30, 2017. This is an earlier way to receive your tool before it appears in the next annual Stampin’ Up! catalog!
Just go to my Online Store, sign in to your account, scroll down until you see the Stamparatus.
You will see a link to click to go through the reservation process. Just put in your name and credit card number.
Your credit card will NOT be charged until the Stamparatus has been received by Stampin’ Up! and put in your Shopping Cart.
At that point, you can go ahead and add to your order, if you choose, or just complete your order as always.
You will want to be the first kid on the block to own the Stamparatus! First reservations in, first Stamparatus out! Reserve yours today before time slips away. You can always cancel if you change your mind.
Today the new Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, comes out so maybe you have a friend into Star Wars and want to make them a Star Wars card! My husband, my boys and my son-in-law are all Star Wars fans, and I admit to seeing a few of the movies myself. If you want to give a Star Wars fan a thrill, either now or maybe their birthday, here are some handmade Star Wars cards from the past. They were mostly ones I’d found on the internet, of course, and copied from people who were more creative than I was. I know my son-in-law has his cards on display, which makes me happy that he enjoys them! Mostly it just takes paper and punches to make all of these!
The picture above I made when Stampin’ Up! had My Digital Studio. Our family went to Death Valley a few years ago (Fantastic trip and scenery! If you haven’t been there, you need to put it on your list!) and although we didn’t know it at the time I don’t think, there was at least one hike we were on that my guys commented looked like something out of Star Wars. When we got home and researched it, it turned out that some scenes were filmed in this area! So I had a photo of my son on this hike and with My Digital Studio added a light saber!
But here are some other Star Wars cards I have made that you can keep on file!
This is a punch art R2D2 card, a little bit involved with all the small pieces! You can see it in my blog post HERE.
This might have been my first Star Wars card I made with Darth Vader and Yoda! I know I found some kind of “Yoda Language Generator” site where you could type in your message and they would translate it into how Yoda would say it! Here is the blog post about this card.
This card was fun with the BB8 character! You can read about the making of this card HERE.
Are you going to see the new Star Wars movie? I don’t know if I will or not. It will be a Christmas holiday activity for the rest of the family home for the holidays. If you have a friend into Star Wars, you might like to make a special Star Wars card for them to commemorate the new movie, The Last Jedi.
In keeping with my Christmas trees theme of yesterday, I got the idea to die cut Christmas trees with the Foil Frenzy Specialty Designer Series Paper to make a Christmas card. Using this colorful paper with foil colors and patterns makes for a more whimsical card! The foil patterns are printed on heavyweight kraft paper so besides cards, this paper is good for making boxes and other 3D projects for any occasion, not just Christmas! Check out the Foil Frenzy Paper!
One of the coordinating colors of the foil is Berry Burst, one of the In Colors, so I used that color for my card base. The card layer is, again, Shimmery White. After I die cut the three Christmas trees with the tree in the Santa’s Sleigh Thinlits Dies, I decided to slide them all over to the right and add a bow to the side. The card is wrapped with the Berry Burst Ribbon, and I also added a piece of the 1/8″ Gold Ribbon for an added accent. The bow is a “cheater bow” – I adhered the strip of ribbon around the card layer but then tied the bow separately and adhered it to the ribbon with several Glue Dots. Makes it a little easier to just attach the bow rather than to tie it actually on the card!
The greeting is one from Oh What Funand I simply stamped the whole thing with Berry Burst ink. Another thing you can do with markers is to color right on the stamp, coloring different areas different colors. After the coloring and before stamping, be sure to “huff” or breathe on the stamp to remoisten the ink, then stamp! This will give a slightly lighter inked image than if you inked up with an ink pad directly, but it is a good technique to use sometimes.
Even when you start with an idea of what you are going to stamp, often another idea comes to mind while you are creating. Just go with it and see what happens! If it doesn’t work, just keep working on it and you probably will find just the right combination of what looks good for your project!
Can you tell the difference in these two Santa’s Sleigh Christmas Tree Christmas Cards? I found this sample in a magazine we Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators receive from Stampin’ Up! quarterly, in an issue from last year, when the Santa’s Sleigh Stamp Set was new. The sample was made pretty much like my card on the left. When I looked at it closely and looked at the list of supplies to make it, I was surprised that it wasn’t actually made like my card on the right!
The original sample, the card on the left, is actually made with some brown colors rather that metallics like my card on the right. In the sample, one tree is die cut with the Santa’s Sleigh Dies Thinlits out of Soft Suede Cardstock and the other tree out of Crumb Cake Cardstock. The center tree is stamped with Soft Suede Ink and die cut. The card base and layer are made from the beautiful Shimmery White Cardstock. The center tree is made with this cardstock as well. There are also some Soft Suede stamped stars and some die cut stars.
Since I originally thought the sample was made with metallics, I made another card with the Shimmery White cardstock. The center tree is stamped with Versamark Ink and embossed with Gold Emboss Powder using the Heat Tool. The other two trees are die cut from the Gold Foil Sheets and the Copper Foil Sheet.
The center tree on both cards are popped up with both Stampin’ Dimensionals and the new Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals. In some cases, even the Mini Dimensionals are too large. If this is the case you can cut along the edges of the dimensional sheet as necessary.
To finish off the card, Linen Thread is wrapped around the card layer. On the metallic card, I tried some other ribbons, but mostly they were too large since the trees take up a lot of space. The greeting is stamped, in both cases, with Soft Suede Ink, although it could also be embossed in gold. In the original sample, the linen thread goes entirely over all the trees (not tucked under the center tree) and the greeting as well was adhered up by the trees and tucked under the linen thread. I chose to just put the greeting at the bottom of the card.
Both of these styles of Christmas cards are very pretty! I would say using the embossing and foil steps it up a bit. I’m even going to try some other designer paper. I think you could do many variations with this card! Just get started and then see where your creativity takes you! You can copy these samples of the Santa’s Sleigh Christmas Tree Christmas Card and see what you come up with!
It’s December already and if you are looking for a quick way to make some nice Christmas cards, check out this Watercolor Christmas Project Kit!
This kit will make 20 cards, 5 each of 4 designs and gold foil-lined envelopes are included! The cards are the usual size we make. In fact, everything is included except ink, adhesives, and the recommended stamp set, Watercolor Christmas. (If you like the wood-mount set, it is on sale!) This is a great holiday stamp set, with or without the project kit really!
Watch the Stampin’ Up! video to get a better idea about the kit and pick up some tips as well!
These are cute cards, the watercolor look is trendy, and you’ll be able to send out handmade Christmas cards! Be sure to order right away because the kit is “while supplies last”!
Every Wednesday I have been sending out a special holiday email with one project to make. Only the people who are subscribers on my mailing list receive these as their special gift.
While you have missed the first 8 weeks, today begins the last four (can you believe Christmas is coming so fast??!) so if you sign up before 1:00 pm Central time you will receive Week 9 and all the rest.
I also send out an email usually every Tuesday with projects and instructions plus the latest Stampin’ Up! news that comes out every Tuesday morning. Don’t miss any special offers and fun by signing up for my mailing list! It’s free! Plus you get a free gift when you do sign up! And perhaps it will be helpful to you right now in this holiday season!
You can unsubscribe any time with a link in every email if you feel my newsletter is not for you. I know we all have to be choosy in which emails we have time for, but if you like stamping and Stampin’ Up!, you will want to join us!
Just put your name and email in the red box on this page! That will sign you up for my regular emails PLUS the last 4 holiday emails!
I think I have posted these little Thanksgiving turkeys before, but in case you need some fun little Thanksgiving favor or something, these are something I have made for years! These would be great to put at each place at the Thanksgiving table or take along to your hostess where you are going!
You will need chocolate Kisses, candy corn, caramels, and fudge-striped cookies.
Put a few caramels on a plate and just barely heat in your microwave. You want to just soften them, not melt them. Do a few for a test and see how your microwave operates. I did mine about 10 seconds or a tiny bit longer. You can probably do about 4 at a time and still make them all before the caramel hardens again.
Soften the caramel (take off the wrapper first!). Have the Kisses unwrapped also and candy corn and cookies handy. As soon as the caramel squares come out of the microwave, press the caramel on top of a Kiss for the base. Then smoosh the fudge-striped cookie up against the back of the caramel until it sticks. Take the candy corn and smoosh it into the caramel as you see in the photo. This is supposed to look like a turkey!
Someone taught me how to make these a million years ago! There are other versions out there but these are super simple. I used to make them for preschool Thanksgiving lunches and on to elementary school for the kids, as well as our own dinner. It’s always fun to have a Thanksgiving favor for everyone at the table or to take to a party!
Don’t forget the Stampin’ Up! Online Extravaganza is underway! The stamp sale is over, but plenty of select products are available for 10% – 40% off! And a to-be-announced FLASH SALE of something next Monday!
Today is the day! The Stampin’ Up! Online Extravaganza begins! Check out all these sales! And today, for 24 hours only, these select stamp sets are 20% off! Stamp Sale starts November 20 12:00 AM and ends November 20 11:59 PM.
These are the regular catalog prices show here. Take off 20% for the sale price! Or click any stamp set to see the sale price in the Online Store.
The next part of the sale are the Exclusive Deals for November 20-26. These are not the sale prices. Click on any item to go to the Online Store to see the sale price. These products 10% – 40% off!!
Beginning tomorrow, Monday November 20, 2017 Stampin’ Up! begins their Online Extravaganza! On Monday only, there is a 24-hour sale on select stamp sets! Stamp Sale starts November 20 12:00 AM and ends November 20 11:59 PM. Don’t delay! Choose the stamp sets from the list that you want!
In addition, beginning Monday Nov. 20 – 26, you can choose other items that are on sale! There are ribbons, thinlits, framelits, embellishments, Watercolor Pencils, In Color markers, punches, and more! Check the list! Click on the PDF below to print out the list. Tomorrow you will be able to go to my Online Store and see the sale items in the store.
Today you can look over the list and be prepared to order tomorrow if you want the stamp sale and other things or any other day if you don’t want to take advantage of the stamp sale.
AND – Once this sale ends on November 26, there will be some sort of FLASH SALE on Monday, November 27! Stay tuned to find out what that flash sale will be! Stampin’ Up! has not unveiled it yet!
Tomorrow, Monday November 20 check my Stampin’ Up! Online Store to see all the items on the Online Extravaganza Sale! Remember, the stamp sale is ONLY Monday, Nov. 20, but the other items will be on sale all week through Nov. 26.
One of the best sources for inspiration when you want some is to look in any of the Stampin’ Up! catalogs, even past ones! This card, however, is from the Holiday Catalog on the page with products from the Painted Autumn Suite. I didn’t copy it exactly, but pretty much! Usually once you get started, even if you think you are going to copy exactly, your own creativity takes over and you see ways that YOU want to create your card or project! I even cut extra pieces for more cards while I was at it. Better to do it as you go along and make cards assembly style than to start over completely each time!
This card base is Garden Green Cardstock, which I would think that I don’t use very often, yet my package is empty and I have a new pack coming in my order today! But any other color of green would be fine too. Some of the other cards I plan to make will be in Old Olive. This card has the Garden Green layered on the Garden Green card base. You could have another color, like Very Vanilla, for the card base.
To begin, I stamped the fern-like image randomly on the card layer in the same Garden Green color. You could also use Versamark Ink. The strip of designer paper is Painted Autumn, some of the most beautiful paper we have had, in my opinion! I hate to see the fall season end.
For some texture, I added a piece of the 5/8″ Burlap Ribbon, which wrapped around the designer paper strip and the card layer. The piece of Baker’s Twine is Crushed Curry.
The greeting is stamped from the Painted Harvest Stamp Set, as well as the leaves and acorns. Although there are no dies to use to cut out these pieces, we do have a fun punch, the Leaf Punch. You can even save 10% by purchasing the Bundle with the stamp set and punch!
I”m sure you have a few people you would like to send or give Thanksgiving cards to in gratitude. Look in the Holiday Catalog if you need ideas for the stamp set you want to use. I’m sure you will get ideas and you can change it up to make it simpler, faster, or easier than the sample in the catalog. Or if you have time, go ahead and take some crafting time for yourself and enjoy making a deluxe card for someone special!
Check out the Painted Autumn Suite for Thanksgiving card ideas!
A new tool from Stampin’ Up! that positions your stamps precisely, stamps multiples with ease, easily creates 2-step, 3-step, and 4-step stamped images, compatible with red rubber and photopolymer stamps, and more!
I feel like we should play “Jeopardy”! “What is the STAMPARATUS, Alex!”
Yes, we are getting a new stamp positioning tool called the Stamparatus! How about that name??! As you probably know, there are other similar products out there on the market, but Stampin’ Up! has stepped up all the features in order to be the BEST stamp placement tool on the market!
Watch the video below from Stampin’ Up! to hear and see Carrie explain how to use this new tool coming SOON!
Since this tool is brand new, first announced at the Stampin’ Up! OnStage event over the weekend and announced to the public yesterday, there is going to be a new way to order your Stamparatus! Sort of like a preorder! You will reserve your spot and Stampin’ Up! guarantees shipment as soon as the product arrives in the warehouse.
This is how it will work:
From Nov. 16-30, 2017 you can RESERVE your Stamparatus. There will be a limit of 1. Reservation quantities are while supplies last. I suggest you plan to reserve yours as soon as possible. You will be required to provide your credit card information, but it will not be charged until the product ships from Stampin’ Up! During this reservation window, the Stamparatus will likely ship around February 1st, 2018.
You will go HERE to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store on Nov. 16 (or after) beginning at 2:00 PM Mountain Time. You will click on the banner for the Stamparatus and follow the instructions. These are the steps you will take on the day you RESERVE your Stamparatus HERE.
You will need to have your own Stampin’ Up! online account set up, which is easy to do, if you haven’t ordered from me as yet. Just click HERE to go to my Online Store, then under the Stampin’ Up! logo on the left side of the page, you will click on “Create Account”. That’s all there is to it!
It’s a lot of information to take it all at once, but I think we will all figure it out! Basically, you can order/reserve a Stamparatus beginning Nov. 16 at 2:00 pm MT and it will ship around the first of February. This gives Stampin’ Up! a better way to control inventory since it is a new product.
If you aren’t ready to reserve the Stamparatus Nov. 16-30, the second window is Dec. 5-30 with availability approximately March 19, 2018. The third window to reserve will be January 15-30, 2018 with estimated availability April 15, 2018. The Stamparatus will be available in the new annual Stampin’ Up! catalog for 2018-19 and ordering will be as usual at that point.
When the Stamparatus is available after you have reserved one, the reservation will be put into your shopping cart in your account. At that time, whenever you are ready, you can add other products to your order if you like, just don’t delete the Stamparatus reservation from your account or you lose it! Then you just complete your order as usual and your order will be shipped to you.
Just circle November 16 2:00 PM on your calendar and check it out! If you really want to reserve a Stamparatus, go ahead and do it as soon as you can in that window of Nov. 16-30. Be patient with the website early on, I suspect a lot of people will be on it! I will be one of them!
Let me know if you have any questions! I will TRY to answer them! Watch the video, especially to the end to see the extra special features of the new Stamparatus, the new stamp positioning tool!
The new alcohol markers from Stampin’ Up!, Stampin’ Blends, are here and ready for purchase! These markers will take your coloring to new heights! Everyone can look like an artist!
The markers have dual-tips and each color has a light and dark shade. You can buy the markers individually or in a complete collection. The Memento ink is recommended to use with the alcohol markers. You can use Whisper White Cardstock, but it is recommended to use the Thick Whisper White Cardstock. The Shimmery White Cardstock also works well and is pretty as well! The ink from the markers is likely to bleed through the paper so you always want to have a scrap piece of paper of some kind underneath your work.
Watch these videos to learn more about the Stampin’ Blends Markers and how to use them! They really have a delightful feel to them when you color!
As you can see in the videos, you can start with the most basic coloring just to get used to the feel of the markers. Then add in blending and even blending different colors together rather than just the light and dark shades of one color. As Brandi showed at the end of her video, she used various colored markers to make different skin tone colors. You can be as basic or as stepped-up as you want! They are your markers to use!
I think you will find the Stampin’ Blends have a really nice feel to them when you color. And we know coloring is good for the soul! Just sit and color and relax, forget everything else for awhile! I remember how I used to love it when I was young if my mother would sit down and color with me because, of course, I thought she did the best coloring in the world! Now you can do the best coloring in the world with the Stampin’ Blends Markers!
If you want to make a quick and easy birthday card, use the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper and the Happy Birthday Thinlits Die! I LOVE this die! It is just perfect to put on so many birthday cards.
The card base is Real Red to match the Happy Birthday diecut. Actually I had already cut out this red diecut for another card, but it didn’t look right on that card so I just saved it. To make this card, I looked through the Birthday Memories Designer Paper and picked out this plainer background for this card. Real Red is one of the coordinating colors of this designer paper so it was perfect to use this diecut in red.
For something else on the card front, quick and easy, I decided to cut out one of the birthday cakes from one of the patterns in the Birthday Memories package. I just cut it out by hand, only took a few seconds, and adhered it to the card front with the Multipurpose Liquid Glue.
You have a few options for gluing down the Happy Birthday diecut. This time I just put tiny dots of the Multipurpose Liquid Glue all around on the back. Very tiny. I could have also sponged on some of the glue. Or I could have used the Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets if I would have stuck one onto the back of the cardstock before I diecut it!
If you would like to see the Happy Birthday diecut on another card, there is THIS POST with one of my favorite cards ever because of the beautiful background paper!
That is all there is to this card! Simply make the card base, adhere a plainer piece of designer paper, adhere the Happy Birthday Diecut, and cut out a birthday cake, or maybe some other image from the Birthday Memories Paper. There you have a quick and easy birthday card with the Birthday Memories Paper!
