The Wacky Watercooler Welcome 2014 Blog Hop

Welcome to our brand new Blog Hop.  There is something particularly exciting about welcoming in a brand new year with a blog hop.  I know we're all excited about the new Occasions mini catalogue and, of course, Sale-a-bration.  Hopefully all the wonderful creations in our Blog Hop will make you just as excited about the new Stampin' Up! products as we are.  If you've just come from the talented Marsha Reed's blog, I know she'll have gotten your creative juices flowing.  Isn't her blog wonderful?  

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It's threatening to snow again and we already have way too much snow on the ground as it is.  Under the circumstances, I had to lift my spirits and work with some bright and spring-like colours just to escape the winter outside my window.  I love the watercolours featured in the new Occasions mini.  The Designer Paper is lovely and the stamp sets simply make me smile.  For my first project, therefore, I decided to use a mixture of my favourite images and products inside a frame.

I chose a frame with a 10" x 10" opening.  I also chose to leave the glass behind the art to allow the full 3-D effect.  For my base layer, I used a 10" x 10" piece of Core'dinations Very Vanilla.  The next layer was an 8 1/4" x 8 1/4" piece of Basic Black cardstock onto which I mounted an 8" x 8" piece of the lovely Modern Medley Designer Paper.  Then I created four pretty 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" squares of watercolour paper mounted on 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" squares of Basic Black cardstock.

For each square I used the brand new Happy Watercolor stamp set to create the background effect.  For square one I added two colourful vellum butterflies using the Papillon Potpourri stamp set and the matching Elegant Butterfly punch and Bitty Butterfly punch.  That glossy black down their bodies was created with the Crystal Effects and Basic Black ink.  For square two I added sentiments from the Happy Watercolor stamp set which I cut out using the new Word Bubbles Framelits dies and then sponged along the edges using Basic Black ink to make them stand out.

For square three I used the beautiful poppy from the Happy Watercolor stamp set.  Before I did the background, I stamped the poppy twice, using a mask to allow one to appear behind the other.  Then I used a mask over the stamped poppies to avoid getting the background colours onto the flowers.  Finally, I used my Aqua Painter to colour the poppies.  The centres of the flowers are glossy thanks to Crystal Effects.  For my last square I decided to first do the background using the Happy Watercolor stamp set but then covered that layer with a square cut from So Saffron cardstock using the new Hexagon Hive Thinlits die.  Then I stamped the bee from the new Springtime Hello stamp set on several of the solid hexagons.  Finally I painted "dripping" honey using a mixture of So Saffron ink and Crystal Effects.

I love the finished frame and, yes, it does make me happy to look at it rather than the snow outside.

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You've probably seen one of those "cards in a box" which Tanya Bell created.  I believe she originally got her idea from Monica Gail and adapted it to a smaller Australian envelope size.  Well, their envelope size is larger than our usual size (for a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card).  So I played with the measurements and brought it down to that size.  Yes, it does save a bit in materials and, more important, I have a lot of that size of envelope and so do my customers.  I've provided the template and measurements here to save space in this post.

I needed a birthday card for my nephew and thought this would be a fun change from the "normal" card.  I kept the main colours neutral to let the explosion of images take centre stage.  For the base, therefore, I used the Naturals White and followed by a layer of Baked Brown Sugar.  For the lower portion of the box I then did a layer of Whisper White and finally a layer of Venetian Romance Designer Paper.  For the folded-over upper portion of the box, I stopped at the layer of Whisper White, onto which I stamped an image for each section.  Using the elephant and balloon from the You're Amazing stamp set kept the feeling festive, as did the sentiment from the Label Love stamp set.

Finally I finished up with images stamped from the Banner Blast, Peachy Keen, Just Sayin', and See Ya Later stamp sets.  The inks I used were Early Espresso, Real Red, Crushed Curry and Smoky Slate.  I used strips of Window Sheet to hold each element up in place.

The long rectangle of Whisper White at the back leaves lots of room to write under the sentiment from the Yippee-Skippy stamp set.

There is a real "explosion" of elements coming out of the box.  If you look closely, there is some Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details at the top of each candle.

 Believe it or not, this box folds down easily to fit into one of our standard envelopes.

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My final project for the Blog Hop is a wedding card.  I may have gone a bit over the top with the dazzle, but that's easy to do when using that gorgeous Gold Foil sheet as well as the Gold Glitter.  I nearly had to wear sunglasses to work on the card!

For this card I began with a base of Shimmery White cardstock.  There is such a subtle lustre to this paper that makes it perfect for special cards.  To create a sharp border around the Gold Foil, I used Basic Black cardstock as my next layer.  I love the way it frames the gold!  The foil was too flat and polished for the look I wanted, therefore I used the fun Decorative Dots embossing folder that is one of the free Sale-a-bration items this year.  Doesn't the texture look terrific?

I wanted to use one of those dainty Tea Lace Paper Doilies on the card and decided to use it as a frame.  The fifth size of Circles Framlits (beginning at the smallest and working out) was perfect to take out the centre of the doily.  I also took a piece of Gold Foil and "stacked" the fifth size of circle and sixth size of circle and ran that through the Big Shot to get a gold ring that perfectly fit the hole.  So I stamped the sentiment from the One In a Million stamp set onto a circle of Basic Black using Versamark and then heat embossed it using the Gold embossing powder.  You can see how nicely all that came together.

Right here I'm going to stop and tell you that I absolutely love the new Spiral Flower Originals die that is in the Occasions mini catalogue.  With it, you can make truly beautiful flowers.  I've made several using cardstock and Designer Paper but for this project I decided to try making three using the Creped Filter Paper.  The results exceeded my expectations.  I sponged a bit of the Gold Encore ink on the scalloped edges before making the flowers and then, once I had hot-glued them firmly into place, used an artist's fine brush to put a tiny bit of Tombo glue along the edges and then to add some Gold Glitter.  The result?  What do you think?

Inside, I went for simple elegance.  I layered some Basic Black and Whisper White and, besides the sentiment from the Love & Laughter stamp set, added a heart cut-out and little Gold Foil heart.

The finishing touches for the front were some leaves cut from more Goil Foil using the Little Leaves Sizzlits die, a scattering of Basic Pearl Jewels and a little Gold Foil heart cut with the Small Heart punch.  And that's where I stopped.  Anything more would have been excess.  How do you like it?

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 Well, that's it!  I hope you enjoyed my projects for the Blog Hop.  I'd love to hear what you thought of them, if you have a moment to comment.  Since we're linked in a circular fashion, your next stop will be the beginning, with the talented Jean Fitch.  Jean never ceases to amaze so I'm sure you'll love seeing her terrific projects.  Thanks so much for joining us today.