Non-Traditional Christmas Colours

I'm not sure how you feel about non-traditional Christmas colours.  Are you a firmly entrenched red & green fan?  You'll probably want to skip this post then.  If you are a little adventurous in your decorating, tell me how you feel about these:

 Are these tree ornaments okay with you?















How about these more extreme colours?

Have I crossed the line now?

We all have different ideas about how a Christmas tree should be decorated, but sometimes it's fun to explore new colour and design.

At our Creative Retreat on the weekend, I was planning to work on Christmas cards for up-coming classes, and so brought mostly Christmas stamp sets with me.  Then we were given our first challenge!  It was a colour challenge and the palette was So Saffron, Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay, all very non-Christmas colours.

I could have gone to look for a non-Christmas stamp set, but I wanted to see what I could do.  I brought along one set with me that could be a Christmas sentiment or not.  So this is what I came up with:

Do you think it could be a Christmas card?  Or does it work as an all occasion card?

• So Saffron cardstock forms the card base, and the next layer is some Blushing Bride DSP from the Subtles Designer Series Paper Stack - chevron design to be exact.
• On some Whisper White cardstock I used  the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set to create a splotchy background using So Saffron, Melon Mambo and Blushing Bride ink.
• The sentiment itself is stamped in Bermuda Bay ink and some 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon in Bermuda Bay adds the finishing touch, wrapping around the Whisper White card stock at a bit of a non-traditional angle!

What do you think?  It's simple and quick, but a very cheery, up-beat card to give as a Christmas card or simply a pick-me-up!

Stamps:  Love and Joy (w131865); Gorgeous Grunge (w130514; c130517)
Paper:  Subtles Designer Series Paper Stack (130135); So Saffron (105118) and Whisper White (100730) card stock
Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in So Saffron (126957), Blushing Bride (131172), Melon Mambo (126948) and Bermuda Bay (131171)
Accessories:  1/8" Taffeta Ribbon in Bermuda Bay (131206)

Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set

Love and Joy Stamp Set

Subtles Designer Series Paper Stack

Bermuda Bay 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon

Mystery Hostess Week and The Paper Players Entry

I bet you know what this means!  Yes, this week marks September's Mystery Hostess Event!  From today, Monday, Sept. 23 until Sunday, September 29, any order you place with me or on-line will earn you an entry in the Mystery Hostess draw.  By ordering $50 or more you earn an extra entry for every $50 you spend.  You can email me or call me with your order, or go to http://heathercooper.stampinup.net and order online.  Make sure you name me as your demonstrator and use the following Hostess Code: DCW4Q3U9  (If you are making an order of $200 or more, don't use the hostess code, because you will be getting your own hostess rewards due to the size of your order!)  The amount of free product you can earn if you win the draw makes it well worth while to make even a small order.  The more orders I receive, the better the rewards are for the winner, and it only takes one entry to win!

The Paper Players' latest challenge is a sketch, shown here:

Here's my take on it:

• I was excited to use the Love & Joy stamp from the Holiday Mini, mostly for that lovely ampersand in the middle.  Ampersands are very big in paper crafting these day!
• I created a mask for the ampersand by stamping that image on a Post It note, being sure that part of it is on the adhesive part of the Post It note.  Then I cut it out, carefully where it mixes with the words and loosely elsewhere.  I added it to the stamp itself, covering up the ampersand.  
• Then I inked up the "Love" with Old Olive and the "Joy" with Cherry Cobbler.  I removed the mask and stamped the image on Whisper White.  
• I used the fourth largest Circles Collection Framelit to die cut a circle around the words.  I used the third largest Circle Framelit to cut out the Old Olive matte.

• The card base is Baked Brown Sugar, then the next Chocolate Chip layer has some Cherry Cobbler DSP from the Designer Series Paper Stacks, some Season of Style Chevron design DSP and some Crumb Cake card stock embossed with the Pretty Print embossing folder and wrapped with some Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine.
• As you can see from this photo, the ampersand was die cut from some Crumb Cake DSP using the Typeset Alphabet Dies and mounted on some Stampin' Dimensionals.  The whole Love and Joy sentiment is popped up using Dimensionals also.
• I "Love" how it turned out  & I get a great deal of "Joy" from creating the design!

Thanks for dropping by and don't forget to enter the Mystery Hostess Event!

Stamps:  Love and Joy (w131865)

Paper:  Cherry Cobbler DSP from the Regals Collection Designer Series Paper Stacks (130139); Season of Style DSP (132340); Baked Brown Sugar (131296), Chocolate Chip (102128), Crumb Cake (120953), Old Olive (100702) and Whisper White (100730) cardstock

Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in Old Olive (126953) and Cherry Cobbler (126966)

Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine (123125)

Tools:  Circles Collection Framelits (130911); Typeset Alphabet Bigz Dies (127553); Pretty Print Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (132175); Post It Notes for mask

Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine

Circles Collection Framelits

Love & Joy Stamp

Pretty Print Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Season of Style DSP