Lone Christmas Tree CTC#59

Hello, its Sunday night, and I've been CASE-ing The Catty again. Maybe you have arrived here from Julia Quinn's blog, did you love what she shared? Don't forget to click on the link at the end to continue blog hopping around all the CASE -ing The Catty crew. This week we have been inspired by the Christmas trees in the Holiday Catalogue. There are plenty of them, so it wasn't hard to find inspiration. I chose one from page 12 of the catalogue and stayed with the same colour scheme and musical DSP. However, my tree comes from the much-loved Lovely As A Tree. The one I've CASE-d is the Bermuda Bay one on the right of the picture.

I've made this card 5.75 inches square, as it is accompanying a small calendar (of Australian scenes) all the way to Ireland, to get my cousin and his wife enthused for the Australian east coast road trip they are doing in January.

I've already made a number of thank you cards using this musical DSP, an order for a customer, but I decided I MUST make this card too, before I use all the paper up!

Lovely As A Tree is an absolute winner of a stamp set, it has been around for at least eight years, and its not going anywhere any time soon, because it can be used for Christmas, sympathy, birthday cards. After using Hello Honey ribbon on the front, it seemed logical to line the inside with that colour too. I had considered the DSP, but too much was hidden, and the honey colour looks so good with Bermuda Bay.

I decided to use the verse from Calm Christmas on the inside as the message is a lovely one for this time of year. Now, if you're wanting the cute littl wooden snowflakes or DSP with music - it's actually Jingle Bells - then you need to order before 4th January. Most of the Holiday Catalogue will be retiring then, if you want to know what is carrying over, I'm happy to share with you. You can shop 24/7 in my online shop and there is still time to get supplies before Christmas. Don't put it off, word is the word is that stock of the Sleigh Ride Edgelits Dies has been exhausted in Australia. Hope you weren't wanting to order those!

Now it is time to check out what the lovely Helen at H2 Designs has to show on her blog. See you next week,

Cheers, Rachel

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Hoping For a Calm Christmas

I'm sure we all hope for a calm, peaceful Christmas but how likely is it? We have been madly putting up the Christmas Tree, a live one, and the biggest we've ever had! I'm lucky because one of my sons goes each year to get trees for himself, his in-laws and us, so that is a big help. However, our lights weren't doing the tree justice, due to its increased height, and we have been out to purchase a larger set (and flashier too, I might add). We have added another bauble to the tree this year too, for our small grand-daughter, Alice, born March this year.

As promised, here are my Christmas Cards for this year. Both styles use Calm Christmas (132736) and the card on the right has World Map (130342) as the background. Petite Pairs (128706), on the left card says Merry Christmas on one stamp, while the other half of this pair says and a Happy, Joyful, Bright New Year. Petite Pairs is one of those "must have" stamp sets with greetings for all occasions. Instead of using my 12" by 12" pack of Winter Frost DSP, I used the Winter Frost Paper Stack (132183) because it contains 48 sheets of card-front-size double-sided paper in four of the designs, making it easier to mass-produce a quantity of cards. The items above are all directly linked to those items in my online store if you want to take a closer look. If you decide to shop there be assured that you are shopping on a secure, reputable site. It is recommended that you shop early, as Stampin' Up gears up for a clearance sale of retired stock, beginning early on Tuesday 10th December. Going by last year, stock will move very fast, some items were sold out within minutes, due to low numbers of stock items, and a heavy demand. This is the link to the online store.

The colours used are Smokey Slate, Bermuda Bay, Midnight Muse, Pool Party(World Map) Sky Blue and Marina Mist. The pale dove was inked with Sky Blue and then thumped with the three Stampin' Write Markers shown in the picture. The Thumping Technique is a BIG favourite of mine, I love the soft mottled effect this technique produces, but I'm equally fond of the bold appearance of the Midnight Muse dove. It shows up the patterned surface of the stamp so clearly. Do you like to craft your own cards, or Christmas decorations? I haven't any classes scheduled for the immediate future, because everyone seems to have a full calendar, but as I am away from my regular job from 20th December until Australia Day, let me know if there is a product you'd like to try out. or a technique you'd like to learn and we can see if it can be arranged as a workshop or party.

Thanks for passing by today,

Rachel

Retired items newly listed under For Sale tab at top of page.

Peaceful Christmas In Blue CTS#50

Finally! I've made my first Christmas card for the year. Compared to the rest of my team mates, I'm WAY behind, but never mind - I'll get there I'm sure.
As usual, I began with a sketch. Chrissy Larson at CAS(E) this Sketch provided the inspiration, and plenty of creations are on display there. This stamp set, Calm Christmas was on back order but luckily mine shipped during the week. Last night I played about with several shades of blue: Soft Sky,Tempting Turquoise,Island Indigo and Marina Mist.
The 2½ inch circle punch came in handy for creating the peephole in two layers of Soft Sky card (one at a time) and then I dry embossed the top layer with Fancy Fan Embossing Folder. The Peace greeting is only a part of one that is included with Calm Christmas, because I wanted the banner to be a little narrower. It has been stamped onto vellum and attached with mini glue dots finished off with pearls.

I thought I'd include a shot of the inside just in case you wanted a better look at the inside. Really loved making this card, think I will work on a quick and easy version for a Stamp-a-Stack class early in December.