christmas in july – Artful Musings

Hello, crafty peeps! I hope you are enjoying the Carols of Christmas blog hop. You should have arrived here from Jennifer’s blog, but if you started here that’s okay, the links to all the talented designers are at the bottom of this post. This hop is focused on the new Carols of Christmas stamp set, which is part of the new holiday catalog.

Beginning on August 1st Stampin’ Up! customers will have the opportunity to purchase this set or the bundle, which includes the stamps and coordinating dies. I love this bundle. The stamps are lovely with these large sentiments that create great focal images for your holiday creations. The Card Front Builder dies are quite innovative with a beautiful border, a night sky, some poinsettia corners and other wonderful elements.

I know, I know, I know … Christmas already, it’s still summer! Decorations and treats seem to arrive earlier and earlier each year. On the positive side, it’s a great chance to get a jump on your handmade cards and gifts.

The Merry Little Christmas suite is being called a “mega” suite as there are two stamp sets, a die set, and a punch, not to mention two coordinating DSPs and several trims and embellishments all coordinated together. The suite is located on pages 10 – 13 in the holiday catalog. Today I used the Carols of Christmas stamp set, the Card Front Builder dies, and the Merry Music Specialty DSP. I also used some of the new Boxwood Wreaths and the Silver 3/8″ metallic edge ribbon, which I dyed using my Cherry Cobbler reinker.

My first card uses the largest stamp in the set, Deck the Halls, as the focal image. I began with an A2 (4.25″ x 5.5″) Cherry Cobbler card base. I cut a piece of the white Merry Music DSP to 4″ x 5.25″ and mounted it to the base. Next, I cut a 2″ x 3″ piece of the black Merry Music DSP and using the Banner punch, created a banner. I die cut the largest oval from the Layering Ovals out of Cherry Cobbler and the largest scalloped oval out of Whisper White and stamped “Deck the Halls” on the scalloped oval in Cherry Cobbler ink. I adhered the scalloped oval over the Cherry Cobbler oval. I wanted a matching trim, but none of the red ribbons I had looked right. What to do? Dye white ribbon, of course! If you haven’t dyed your own ribbon, you’re missing out (check out this post for more on dying ribbon).

Once the ribbon was dry I cut two pieces and attached them to the back of the oval using mini glue dots. HINT: I prefer mini glue dots over liquid glue or tape runner for adhering ribbon and other trim to paper. I find it holds faster and better in the long run. I adhered the oval and ribbons to the banner and finished off the front with one of the new Boxwood Wreaths, which I glued down with mini glue dots.

For my second card I decided to make a shaker card. I began with an A2 Whisper White card base. I cut a Garden Green panel to 4″ x 5.25″ and ran it through my BigShot to cut out the three trees. Using multi matte medium, I glued a piece of acetate in place behind the trees, creating the front of my shaker card. Using the small star cluster stamp from the Carols of Christmas set, I stamped it all over the front of this panel using Garden Green ink for a tone-on-tone effect. HINT: Rotate the stamp to maintain an “organic” feel on the panel. Next, using the largest Layering Circles die I cut a panel in Whisper White and stamped “Peace on Earth” in Garden Green ink. I also cut the largest scalloped circle in Cherry Cobbler for a matte. I glued these two panels together and sat them aside.

Now it’s time to build the shaker. I wanted to make sure the shaker bits stayed within the tree shapes so it was the Stampin’ Up! Foam Adhesive Strips to the rescue. These strips are perfect for getting into small nooks and crannies and creating custom shaker cards. I filled in the rest of the panel using standard foam tape. Using a paint brush and my anti-static embossing buddy, I went around the inside edges of the foam tape. This helps reduce static between the acetate and the shaker bits and neutralizes any adhesive on the side of the foam tape. HINT: Make sure to do this step BEFORE you expose the adhesive. I added shaker bits (if you’re like me, you’ve glued the backing panel on with no shaker bits inside at least once) and adhered a piece of Merry Music DSP to the shaker panel. The final touch, a deer die cut out of sparkling silver paper.

There is a ton of inspiration throughout this hop. Since you started here, I encourage you to grab your favorite beverage and visit the other talented bloggers listed below. Next up is the talented Diana. Until next time, remember, creativity and imperfection live together in all we do. “Grace is the face love wears when it meets imperfection.”

~xoxo

Supplies Used:
Carols of Christmas/Card Front Builder Bundle (146037)
Banner Punch (138292), Layering Ovals (141706) & Circles (141705)
Card Stock: Whisper White (100730), Cherry Cobbler (119685), & Garden Green (102584)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler (126966) & Garden Green (126973)
Paper & Embellishments: Merry Music Specialty DSP (144623) & Boxwood Wreaths (144176)
Foam Adhesive Strips (141825) & Silver 3/8″ metallic edge ribbon (144213)

Hello my crafty peeps! I’m happy to be here again this month as part of the Fun & Crafty blog hop. This month’s theme is Christmas in July! I know, I know, it’s still summer, but for better or worse stamp companies release their holiday products in August and September.

On the positive side, you can get the jump on your holiday cards and handmade gifts! Beginning in August Stampin’ Up! is offering everyone a chance to pre-order one of the new suites, Carols of Christmas, in August before the holiday catalog goes live on September 1st.

I really like the stamps and dies in this product suite. The dies are innovative and the bold sentiments are the perfect focal images for all of your holiday creations. I think my favorite element is the card builder border, followed closely by the night sky die. Both are perfect for all sorts of cards, not just holiday and I think that is why I like them so much! In my sample I created a background using a paper piecing technique called herringbone. This can be done with washi tape and also, as shown here, with patterned paper like the Be Merry DSP. It’s a great way to use your DSP and show off all the wonderful and coordinating patterns.

This technique may look complicated, but it is actually very simple. There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to apply the paper that creates the pattern. You begin with a base layer (a piece of card stock that you adhere the strips to) and the strips of DSP. For this sample my whisper white base is 5″ x 3.75″ and I used .5″ strips. Normally, I cut two, 6″ x 2″ pieces of each pattern (this yields four, 6″ x .5″ strips) and I apply edge-to-edge adhesive (Using Stick It! or my Xyron). Once I have the adhesive on, I cut down the piece into four .5″ strips from each pattern in the pack. I leave the backing on one side of the strips so I can mock up the placement before I expose the adhesive and stick each strip down permanently.

Once I’m ready to begin, I place three strips running diagonally across the middle of the base (left photo above), alternating the patterns and trimming off the excess on each side. HINT: I like leaving a little white space between the strips, but you could also place them side by side. These strips serve as an “anchor” making it easy to place the remaining strips. After the three center strips are down, I add the next three above them (right photo above), oriented vertically (the opposite of the first three strips). Next, I add three more next to those vertical strips, this time oriented horizontally (left photo below). I keep working in this manner until the entire base is covered (right photo below). You may need to add a few small “triangles” here and there to fill in some edges, but otherwise you are done. I will repeat patterns a couple of different times, if needed, but place them in different parts of the base.

One of the things I love about Stampin’ Up! products is the color combinations. Each pack of DSP lists the coordinating colors on the back. This is super helpful when choosing card stock and other embellishments. The coordinating colors for the Be Merry DSP are Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green so my inks, card bases, mattes, and accents were those colors. I began with a side-folding A2 card and cut a 5.25″ x 4″ matte (if the card is Cherry Cobbler then the matte will be Garden Green, and vice versa). The herringbone background is adhered to the matte and then the matte to the card base.

The large sentiments in this set are the perfect focal point for your card. I cut 3.5″ x 3.5″ squares in Whisper White for the “Peace on Earth” sentiment and stamped it using either Cherry Cobbler or Garden Green ink. I also cut a 3.5″ x 3.5″ matte out of Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green card stock. Using the Layering Circles, I die cut the sentiment using the largest circle and then using the largest scallop, cut the mattes. I adhered the sentiment to the opposite color scalloped circle (Cherry Cobbler sentiment on a Garden Green scalloped circle and vice versa) and I adhered it to the herringbone background using pop dots.

Both Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green are darker colors, so I decided to finish my card with a Whisper White panel inside and I used the card builder border die to add a little extra touch to this panel (see above right). These stamps and dies are wonderful and I hope my card inspires you to purchase this bundle for yourself!

There is a ton of inspiration throughout this hop. Since you started here, I encourage you to grab a cup of coffee and visit the other talented team members listed below to leave them some blog love! Next up is the talented Kathy. Until next time, remember, creativity and imperfection live together in all we do. “Grace is the face love wears when it meets imperfection.”

~xoxo

Christine – Artful Musings (you are here)
Kathy – Stamp-a-blog
Merit – MB Squared Designs
Susan – Stampin’ by the SF Sea
Jennifer – NW Stamper
Stacey – A Work of Carte

Supplies Used:
Stamps & Dies: Carols of Christmas Bundle (146036) & Layering Circles (141705)
Card Stock: Whisper White (100730), Cherry Cobbler (119685), & Garden Green (102584)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler (126966) & Garden Green (126973)
Be Merry DSP (144111)

Tag: christmas in july

Christmas in July | Carols of Christmas Blog Hop

Fun-n-Crafty | Christmas in July