Good Tidings from the Holiday Catalogue

After unpacking and using all my original pre-order from the Holiday Catalogue, I realized that 1) I really didn't have enough stamp sets from it and 2) there was a lot more that I really wanted. That resulted in another order going in and what you will see this week will be the result of that order. Today's card features the stamp set, Good Tidings, which is a two-step stamping set in photopolymer, with incredibly realistic looking holly sprigs and a wonderful sentiment! It caught my eye the first time I looked through the catalogue, but I hummed and hawed because not a lot of demos were talking about it. But it kept calling to me and I ordered it this time around and I'm really glad I did! I absolutely LOVE the images and the sentiments! You can't really tell just looking at the images in the catalogue how they are going to work together. You really need to see some finished projects with it. So I'm helping you out here:

• I chose to use the Merry Music Specialty Designer Series Paper to stamp on and it works very well because there are no extra shiny finishes on this DSP. Since we are stamping with holly images here, I used the sheet music with Deck The Halls (with boughs of holly) as my background! Clever, eh?
• I started by stamping my holly leaves in Tranquil Tide and Emerald Envy. When two step stamping, my advice is to always stamp the more detailed image with the darker ink first, so that would be the Tranquil Tide in this case. Then I used the Emerald Envy on the more solid, less detailed stamp to complete the leaves. It is easier to line up the image when you can see through the lighter coloured ink on the stamp to a darker coloured detailed image.
• The berries were done with Cherry Cobbler first and then Real Red. The branch was done with Early Espresso first and Soft Suede second.
• The card base in Tranquil Tide looks so elegant when paired with the Gold Foil sheet and the sentiment heat embossed with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder on Very Vanilla cardstock. The sentiment is die cut using the Stitched Shapes Framelits and the backing in Cherry Cobbler cardstock was die cut using the Layering Squares Framelits.
• The ribbon is the 3/8" Gold Metallic Edged Ribbon in Very Vanilla and the embellishments you see are the Gold Faceted Gems.

I would definitely recommend this stamp set, especially if you like realism in your images.

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

Good Tidings Photopolymer Stamp Set [144870]	Merry Music Specialty Designer Series Paper [144623]	Gold Foil Sheets [132622]	Tranquil Tide 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [144246]	Cherry Cobbler 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [119685]
Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101650]	Versamark Pad [102283]	Tranquil Tide Classic Stampin' Pad [144085]	Emerald Envy Classic Stampin' Pad [141396]	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad [126966]
Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad [126949]	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad [126974]	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [126978]	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder [109129]	Gold 3/8" (1 Cm) Metallic-Edge Ribbon [144146]
Gold Faceted Gems [144141]	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies [145372]	Layering Squares Framelits Dies [141708]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]
Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

Crafting Forever Conundrum for Freshly Made Sketches

I'm having a moment here at Playing with Papercrafting! I've been playing with the sketch from the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and I've come up with two versions of the same card and I can't choose which one I like the best. It's a conundrum! One moment I like the first version, and the next, I think the second version is better! What to do? I'll let you be the judge.

First, here's the sketch:

And here's my first version. Because the background was so vibrant, I went for a plain stamped image with a sepia tone and matched it to the sentiment:

• I'm playing with tones of Peekaboo Peach and Soft Suede, with Whisper White. The designer paper you see is from the retiring Playful Palette Designer Series Paper Stack, which is still available and 40% off until May 31. I always had a hard time liking that DSP, mostly because of the overly vibrant, busy look of it and the dubious colour combinations, but when you use the single colour pieces and some of the smaller designs, it can be useful. I thought I'd try to use some of it up here and it was one of the few DSP series that featured Peekaboo Peach!
• I'm using one of my favourite sets from the pre-order, called Crafting Forever*, and this image is my favourite image from the set, I think. Here, I stamped it in Soft Suede to match the background panel behind the designer paper and it gives a bit of a sepia feel to the project.
• The sentiment is also my favourite from the Crafting Forever set* and I've die cut it with the Stitched Shapes Framelits and backed it with a Scallop Square from the Layering Squares Framelits.

*New products from the 2017-18 Annual Catalogue, available on June 1.

Now take a look at the second version. Here I used watercolour pencils and a blender pen to add some colour to the craft tools in the pot:

• I love the colouring on it, but I'm not sure that it makes the same impact as the uncoloured image on the bright background. Here I stamped the image in Basic Black Archival Ink and coloured it in with the Pumpkin Pie, Calypso Coral, Real Red, Early Espresso and Basic Gray Watercolour Pencils and blended them with a Blender Pen. Both times, I fussy cut the image with my trusty Paper Snips and mounted them with Stampin' Dimensionals. 
• The sentiment was done the same way for both cards.

So there you are. You be the adjudicator! Which version do you like the best?

We're now into our last ten days of the 2016-17 Annual Catalogue and the 2017 Occasions Catalogue! Starting today, Stampin' Up! will stop manufacturing the retiring stamp sets and they will be available only while supplies last! Best get your orders to me quickly so that you don't miss out.

 Every year I find that someone has left it too late to get that set they really wanted and they end up disappointed! Don't let that be you this year!!  Here are the links again that you can use to see what's left and to order on line, or to find the catalogue numbers and prices to let me know what you want.

    **

**Remember that even though a stamp set and its coordinating dies will not be retiring, you will not be able to buy them as a bundle again in the next catalogue, so if you want to save the 10%, you should purchase them before May 31st.

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

Playful Palette Designer Series Paper Stack [141657]	Peekaboo Peach 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [141417]	Soft Suede 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [115318]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [126978]
Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad [140931]	Watercolor Pencils [141709]	Blender Pens [102845]	Paper Snips Scissors [103579]	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies [145372]
Layering Squares Framelits Dies [141708]	Big Shot [143263]	Big Shot Magnetic Platform [130658]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Fast Fuse Adhesive [129026]
Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

Crafting Forever Stamp Set *

*New products from the 2017-18 Annual Catalogue, available on June 1.