Pinched Strip Ornaments for December's Newsletter Tutorial

 

I'm excited to show you some cool little Christmas tree baubles that you can make from designer series paper that have an interesting trick to them, but aren't that hard to make. You could make these by the dozens for your tree and never have to leave your house to buy ornaments. You'd just have to order some Stampin' Up! designer series paper, or better yet, some specialty designer series paper with some metallic foil designs to enhance the holiday feel of them.

I will share the "how to" with you in my free photo tutorial that comes with my December newsletter. If you're not a subscriber to my newsletters, they are also free and are sent to you via email once a month. The photo tutorials that come with each of them have step-by-step instructions for the project they demonstrate, with photos illustrating clearly each step. They also include a list of all materials used and quantities and measurements.

Here's a closer look:

• With these three baubles, I used paper from both Brightly Gleaming Specialty DSP and Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP, but there are many others that you could use.
• I got my instructions to start with from Jane from JD Papercrafts.
• I don't want to give instructions here, as you will find all the details in the photo tutorial.

To sign up for my December tutorial, scroll to the bottom of the page and sign up to be on my mailing list, with the understanding that:

1. You can unsubscribe easily and quickly, and
2. I will only send you one, or two at the most, emails a month.

If you live in Canada, and don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the right side bar at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in Canada by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the top menu or clicking on any of products below from my Online Store.

Product List

Brightly Gleaming Specialty Designer Series Paper [150429] $20.00	Gilded Autumn Specialty Designer Series Paper [153520] $20.00	Feels Like Frost Specialty 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [150444] $20.00	Tear & Tape Adhesive [138995] $9.50	Stitched Shapes Dies [152323] $41.00
Layering Circles Dies [141705] $48.00	Take Your Pick [144107] $14.00	Silicone Craft Sheet [127853] $8.25	All The Trimmings Ribbon Combo Pack [153541] $11.00

Simple But Elegant Christmas Card Using Brightly Gleaming

 One product that I got a lot of use out of last year is the Brightly Gleaming Specialty Designer Series Paper and it was brought back in this year's catalogue. I happened to have a partial pack left over from last year and I thought it was time to use it up. Because it is such elegant and beautiful paper, it doesn't need much added to it to create a Christmas greeting card with big impact! All it really needs is a stylish sentiment in an eye-catching label, some embellishments and you have a beautiful card that anyone would be pleased to get from you. In fact, this would be a great card to mass-produce and you could even leave off the ribbon and the rhinestones and it would still look great and be cost effective.

• This design from the Brightly Gleaming Specialty DSP has a Pretty Peacock base with copper foil flourishes, so I used Pretty Peacock for my card base and backed the DSP with Copper Brushed Metallic cardstock.
• Before gluing them all down though, I die cut the label backing from the center of the backing layer, since, with the stiffness of this specialty DSP, you won't notice the absence of that piece at all. 
• The label and it's backing are die cut using dies from the Stitched So Sweetly Die set. They are nested dies meant to fit together.
• The sentiment from the Peaceful Boughs stamp set, is stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock with Pretty Peacock ink.

• The ribbon is from the Basketweave and Metallic Combo Ribbon Pack and Champagne Rhinestones from the Annual Catalogue were also added.
• The label is popped up on dimensionals.

• I hope you were able to catch my November Online Technique Class last night on my Facebook page, but if not, you can still find it there for a day or two. If you didn't purchase a card pack and one of the three options, it's not too late. I can still put together a class package for you and mail it out. To register click HERE.

Find out all the details HERE.

If you live in Canada, and don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the right side bar at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in Canada by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the top menu or clicking on any of products below from my Online Store.

Product List

Peaceful Boughs Cling Stamp Set (En) [150541] $31.00	Peaceful Boughs Bundle (En) [153033] $71.00	Brightly Gleaming Specialty Designer Series Paper [150429] $20.00	Brushed Metallic Cardstock [153524] $20.00	Pretty Peacock 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [150880] $12.00
Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [101650] $13.25	Pretty Peacock Classic Stampin’ Pad [150083] $10.25	Basket Weave & Metallic Ribbon Combo Pack [153553] $11.00	Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels [151193] $8.25	Stitched So Sweetly Dies [151690] $44.00
Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [149653] $163.00	Stampin' Seal [152813] $11.00	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50

Brightly Gleaming Earrings

Every Christmas, I like to reward my Stamp Club members and downline with earrings and pendants made from the Christmas trinkets in the Holiday Catalogue. Imagine my chagrin this year when, at the last moment, I realized that there really wasn't any trinkets that were good for making jewelry! I guess I could have used the jingle bells, but I didn't order enough of them for the job and there was no time for doing that. 

What I did find, however, was a photo that someone had created earrings using the 1" Circle Punch, Brightly Gleaming DSP and the Shimmery Crystal Effects. I was determined to do the same, not realizing the difficulties about to ensue. I did learn some valuable lessons though, that will definitely make a difference if I ever decide to do this again.

• The paper itself is perfect for earrings! It's dramatic, dark in colour and it has the metallic copper accents that shine out so well through the Crystal Effects. Although it is already sold out for this year, look for it to return with next year's Holiday Catalogue.
• The difficulties are getting the Crystal Effects to spread evenly over the surface of the whole circle, as the Crystal Effect seems to tend to pull toward itself in the center, leaving the edge empty. The remedy is two pours but that can cause other problems, with the new Crystal Effects sometimes sitting in a cloudy layer over the old layer, if you don't do the pour at just the right time.
• I would punch the hole for the findings after I've poured the Crystal Effects and it has dried, because I did it first and then I got the Crystal Effects leaking through the hole and marring the other side of the earring.
• I used Stampin' Blends of the same colour as the paper to colour the edges after the Crystal Effects had dried, so the white edges wouldn't show.
• The silicon craft mats are incredibly useful for this project as the Crystal Effects doesn't stick to the silicon and you can easily peel the earrings off them and trim the excess glue around the edges.
• I made the holes in the earring with the long retired, but still amazing Crop-o-dile! 
• The display piece for the earrings was made with the Everyday Label Punch and the Crop-o-dile.        

They were well received even though they weren't perfect! My team and customers are wonderful people and they appreciated my efforts on their behalf. That said, I hope Stampin' Up brings back the Christmas trinkets next year!!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Brightly Gleaming Specialty Designer Series Paper [150429] $20.00	Shimmery Crystal Effects [150892] $6.75	1" (2.5 Cm) Circle Punch [119868] $18.00	Silicone Craft Sheet [127853] $8.25	Blueberry Bushel 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146968] $11.50
Bermuda Bay 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [131197] $12.00	Old Olive 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [100702] $12.00	Everyday Label Punch [144668] $24.00

Crop-o-dile; jewelry findings

Shiny Stars for As You See It Challenges

Could it be Friday again, so soon? It is and it's time for a new As You See It Challenge, this time a sketch challenge, #213!

It's funny because I had a really hard time coming up with a name for this week's challenge. I was trying to avoid anything to do with circles because I wanted people to have the freedom to substitute other shapes as well, but nothing was coming to my brain. I thought of cells splitting, I thought of Alien, with the ETBE bursting out of the human's belly, but that was just way too gross, I thought of a bird's eye view of a Victorian woman walking in her skirts, I thought of a fried egg, but none of those gave me a snappy title. Finally, I gave up and decided to call a circle a circle and settled on "A Circular Argument" since that's what I had with myself over it!

I, myself, wanted to use the Stitched Stars dies with some foil and the Brightly Gleaming DSP! I'd been thinking about that for forever. Here's how it turned out:

• The Stitched Stars Dies are just so amazing! You can do so much with them! You've got a whole set of nested stitched dies, you've got a variety of intricate die cut stars and inserts for the stars to make them ornate and you have that wonderful swirl of stars! What more could you want. I mounted some Copper Foil Sheet on some retired, but hoarded Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets, and die cut all the little fancy inserts for the large die cut star. That made them so much easier to adhere, just peel and stick. No adhesive mess on the foil!
• I used the Blueberry Bushel Noble Peacock Foil Sheet for the background foil and for the sentiment circle, which is die cut, after embossing with the White Stampin' Emboss Powder, with the Stitched Shapes dies.
• Embossing the sentiment on the foil turns out to have been the hardest step of the whole card. Even though I pretreated the foil with an Embossing Buddy, I still got excess white embossing powder around the sentiment that was unwanted and was hard to brush away.
• The sentiment and the stitched stars on top are all popped up on Dimensionals.

Are you ready for a new Paper Trimmer, but not quite sure whether the new SU Paper Trimmer is for you, after your experience with the blade issues from the last trimmer? I did a review of the new trimmer recently for YouTube that I want to share with you, with the hope that it might help you out with your decision making:

             

Here are the details: 

You can order it already and the blade refills will be available in January. Let me know if you want to give it a try.


                           


Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.


Product List

So Many Stars Photopolymer Stamp Set (En) [150496] $33.00	So Many Stars Bundle (En) [153016] $76.50	Noble Peacock Foil Sheets [149495] $13.50	Copper Foil Sheets [142020] $6.75	Brightly Gleaming Specialty Designer Series Paper [150429] $20.00
Night Of Navy 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [100867] $12.00	Versamark Pad [102283] $13.00	White Stampin' Emboss Powder [109132] $8.25	Whisper White Solid Baker's Twine [124262] $4.75	Star Designer Elements [150430] $12.25
Stitched Stars Dies [150653] $52.00	Embossing Buddy [103083] $8.25	Heat Tool (Us And Canada) [129053] $41.00	Multipurpose Liquid Glue [110755] $5.50	Snail Adhesive [104332] $9.50
Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets [144106] $13.50	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50	Mini Stampin' Dimensionals [144108] $5.50