One Last Merry Moment

Today, I just felt like I wanted to use some of my favourite products from Stampin' Up!'s Christmas collection, both from the Annual Catalogue and the Holiday Catalogue. Since The Paper Players have a colour challenge going on this week, it made it easy for me to use whatever I wanted on this card.

I think my very favourite Designer Series Paper design is from the Merry Moments DSP collection. It's Cherry Cobbler with tiny gold polka dots, and to me it looks classy.

The Delicate Ornament Thinlits have been a wonderful addition to our Christmas selection. And now that we will be able to use the new Big Shot Die Brush*, coming in the new 2016 Occasions Catalogue, they are much easier to use! (No dryer sheets necessary)

*These products are found in the 2016 Occasions Catalogue and will be available to order on Jan. 5, 2016.

You simply roll the brush, which is mounted kind of like a brayer, over the back of the die and the bristles on the brush head push all the little bits out of the die cut and the die. It works on an accompanying foam pad because the give of the pad keeps the bristles from piercing the cardstock and allows the little pieces to fall free of the die and image.

The Noel die is from the Wonderful Wreath framelits from the Annual Catalogue. I tried the Die Brush on this but the die holds the letters too firmly for it to be really useful. It does, however, raise a portion of the cardstock from out of the die so that I could get a hold of it and gently remove it. I die cut it both in Mossy Meadow and Very Vanilla and adhered them so that the vanilla image acted as a shadow for the Mossy Meadow word.

The top of the ornament was cut from a Gold Foil Sheet and let's all write to Stampin' Up! to tell them that we really want to keep the Gold and Silver Cording Trim, and any other colours they want to add to that. I really love how easy they are to work with and how elegant the curving trim looks on a project.

Oh, by the way, no stamps were inked in the making of this card!

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

Gold Foil Sheets [132622]	Merry Moments Designer Series Paper [138450]	Mossy Meadow 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [133676]	Cherry Cobbler 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [119685]	Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101650]
Gold Cording Trim [139618]	Wonderful Wreath Framelits Dies [135851]	Delicate Ornament Thinlits Dies [139667]	Big Shot [113439]	2-Way Glue Pen [100425]
Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Glue Dots [103683]	Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]

*Big Shot Die Brush

*These products are found in the 2016 Occasions Catalogue and will be available to order on Jan. 5, 2016.

Delicate Ornament Ornament

My heart is heavy today. We found out that dear friends of ours lost their 36 year old son. He just died suddenly and unexpectedly. We spent part of the day with them yesterday, hoping to be of some comfort. There are no words to speak, just pain to share. It is the news every parent dreads to hear. As I wrote this post last night, I felt too emotionally drained to write or share much. There are practical things we can do in the days ahead to relieve the burden, but no one can lift the pain of bereavement. You can only be with the bereaved, pray for them and share their grief, hoping that will give them a bit of a ledge to stand on when they feel they are drowning in the sorrow.

I am working on two tutorials for my newsletter at the moment. For the next couple of months leading up to Christmas, I am planning on including 2 photo tutorials - one for a card and one for some holiday decor or wrapping ideas. If you are a subscriber to my newsletter, you will get these free.

• This is a three dimensional ornament, made from Glimmer Paper, die cut with the Delicate Ornament dies. It isn't difficult at all, but it is kind of fiddly to get it exact with all the sides matching up. I will give you some ideas about how to accomplish that.
• You could make a few of these of different designs for your Christmas tree. There are several colours of Glimmer Paper that you could choose from: Red, Dazzling Diamonds, Gold and Silver, and even Black. You can also colour the Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper any colour you want!

If you want this tutorial, and you are not on my mailing list, simply subscribe here:

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I will not list the supplies used here. You can find them on the step-by-step tutorial which also includes measurements and photo-illustrated instruction.

Have a great week, and give your kids an extra hug or a phone call today! Hold your family close!

Delicate Ornament Thinlit Dies and the Precision Base Plate

Two of the new products from the Holiday Catalogue, (which just went live yesterday),that I have not had the opportunity to use yet, are the Delicate Ornament Thinlit Dies and the Precision Base Plate for the Big Shot. When I was designing one of my cards for my Technique Night classes, I decided to give it a go. I found a design on Pinterest that I liked and I decided to adapt it to Stampin' Up! products and I love the result: a shaker card!

• I used the Precision Base Plate to die cut the shape of the ornament from the Always Artichoke card front, at the same time as cutting the shape out of a 3 1/2" x 3 3/4" piece of fun foam. This created an embossed frame line around the ornament shape.
• I didn't really see the genius of the Precision Base Plate until I die cut the ornament itself out of a piece of Gold Foil. Wow! One pass through the Big Shot and it was perfectly cut and it was an easy matter to use dryer sheets to remove all the little bits from the die and the shape. I also used it to die cut the sentiment from the gold foil with equally good results.
• I added some adhesive on the back of the front panel all around the ornament-shaped hole and around the edges as well, and adhered a piece of Window Sheet to cover the hole. I then added more adhesive in the same places and added the fun foam piece, making sure that foam was back a little ways from the margin of the hole. The foam stretches to make that easier.

• I added lots of sequins, some from the Gold Sequin Trim and others from some that I had left over from last year's Holiday Catalogue, with snowflake shapes and silver sequins. I then removed the backing from the fun foam (which has adhesive on one side) and attached a piece of Whisper White cardstock just slightly smaller than the card front. (3 3/4" x 5").
• Then I just had to adhere the shaker card front to the card base. I added the die cut ornament and the sentiment using the new Fine Tip Glue Pen. I found that it takes a while for this adhesive to set up, so just put a Clear Mount block on top of it to hold it down and leave it for 5 minutes and it will be great. Don't use too much glue either, as I have found that it is hard to remove excess with the Adhesive Remover.
• A bit of Gold 1/8" ribbon on the top and in a bow and the card is finished.                                             (No stamps were used or harmed in the making of this card!)

Since I have sequins, ribbons and a slight bit of embossing on this card, I am entering it in The Paper Players Tic Tac Toe challenge this week, going for the diagonal line.

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

Window Sheets Base Material [114323]	Gold Foil Sheets [132622]	Always Artichoke 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [105119]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Gold 1/8" Ribbon [134583]
**Frosted Sequins [135835]	Precision Base Plate [139684]	Big Shot [113439]	Delicate Ornament Thinlits Dies [139667]	Greetings Thinlits Dies [138275]
Fine-Tip Glue Pen [138309]	Fuse Fast Adhesive [129026]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]

**Retired product - not available for sale