The Wacky Watercooler October Holiday Round-Up

It's time for another Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop and this one is such fun.  We're having a Holiday round-up.  In other words, we can make anything we want for the upcoming holidays.  When you consider that this time of year is full of holidays, that's really exciting.  You could say we have a "smorgasbord" of holidays from which to choose.

As you will remember, if you've wandered through our blog hops before, our blog hop is presented in a circular fashion.  What does that mean?  Wherever you begin in our blog hop, whether you go forwards or backwards through the participants, eventually you will wind up precisely where you began.  I hope you'll take time to visit all the participating blogs and, perhaps, leave a short message letting us know  what you've thought of our posts.

If you've been moving forwards through the blog hop, you'll have arrived here from the very talented Marsha Reed's blog.  Weren't her projects terrific?

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I like to start off simply and save the best for last.  In keeping with that habit, my first project is created using one of the frequently overlooked but ever-so-handy notecards and envelopes.  I decided to use a package of those for a make-and-take I'm doing for a charity event this weekend and so this card is doing "double duty".  If you're coming to the event, you get a preview today.

The notecards are slightly smaller than my usual cards, measuring 3 1/2" x 5".  That still leaves lots of room to create a terrific Christmas card.  I'll give you a quick preview of the inside of the card.  Yes, I've used the new and ever-so-elegant Joyful Season stamp set.

You can see I've stamped a partial cardinal in the top left corner and also partially coloured him.  The fun thing about this stamp set is that it is a "two-step".  In other words I can stamp the image and then there is another stamp which fits inside that image so it's possible to colour it in by stamping.  Lots of fun!

The notecard is Whisper White on top of which I've added a layer of Tip Top Taupe and an oval of Whisper White.  On that oval I've stamped the cardinal as well as the branch of berries upon which he sits.  I used Real Red for the cardinal and the berries.  For the branch I used Tip Top Taupe and Soft Suede.  I added a bit of sponging to the perimeter of the oval with some Marina Mist.  

Seriously, these notecards are perfect and there are twenty in a package, plus matching envelopes.

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My second project is all about Hallowe'en.  I'm not doing anything special for all the hoards of children who come to the door, but there are a few special ones for whom I like to fuss a bit.  I used the Curvy Keepsake Box thinlit for this treat holder, but not in the conventional way.  For this one I simply cut one side twice and then used adhesive to hold the bottom together.  This way it made a nice little wrap for some candy and used less of my cardstock.  

The treat holder is cut from the black diagonal striped Colour Me Irresistible Designer Series paper.  I love the subtle shine of the stripe.  The black also makes a wonderful backdrop for the images I stamped and cut using the adorable new Howl-o-ween Treat set and Boo to You framelits dies.  This is the back for which I cut "boo" out of a piece of Delightful Dijon cardstock and then sponged it using black ink before glueing it to the treat holder.

For the front I stamped and cut a Pear Pizzazz owl and Delightful Dijon pumpkin.  Yes, I had to give the little owl those spooky eyes!  It's for Hallowe'en, after all.

I finished off the treat holder by tying the top with a Delightful Dijon bow.  I love, love, love that wonderful Dotted Lace Trim ribbon!

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Time for my last project and, as promised, it's stunning.  Yes, I'm patting myself on the back, but I really do love this final creation.  What is it?  Well, it all began with a piece of corrugated cardboard from one of the Stampin' Up! shipping boxes.  I used that to cut a circle within a circle.  Yes, a doughnut, I suppose.  Anyway, I needed that so that I could wrap it up with Burlap Ribbon.

That didn't take your breath away, huh?  Well what about when I add this pretty die-cut, red foil "Noel"?  It looks a lot better now, right?

I'm sensing a degree of disappointment with my project so far.  But you have to indulge me and be patient.  I'm having a bit of fun here.  What do you think I did with these?

By the way, this was my first time playing with the Festive Flower Builder punch.  I made one small Poinsettia and a larger one.  For the green leaves on which they're mounted I used one of the Leaflets framelits.  First I cut all the petals and leaves from Watermelon Wonder and Cucumber Crush cardstocks.  Then I used the same colour of ink to stamp them with the vein images from the Reason for the Season stamp set.  After that I had fun with the pieces, using my Simply Scored stylus along the veins, folding them, crushing them.  All in the name of art, of course.  I love the resulting texture.

Be warned, I'm going off on another tangent.  We'll get back to the Poinsettias later.  What I did for the next part of this project was to take a circle of the white filter paper and stamped it using the images from the Reason for the Season stamp set.  Then I added some holly from the Embellished Ornaments stamp set.  After that, I used my Paper Snips to cut the images out, leaving a narrow white border.

What did I do with that cut out image?  I placed it on a candle, covered it with a piece of wax paper, making sure that the image was being held tightly and without buckling.  Then I took my heat gun and aimed it at the image on the candle.  I knew as the image became brighter and more colourful that it was melting onto the candle with a layer of wax from the wax paper over it. 

 I carefully peeled the wax paper away and had my decorated candle.

So, what did I do with those Poinsettia flowers that I created?  I hot glued them onto the burlap covered circle, the larger one at the beginning of the "Noel" and the smaller one at the end.  And then I slipped the decorated candle inside the pretty burlap circle.

I love the way it turned out.  The candle is wax-covered and battery operated.  In other words this will last forever without melting down.

You can see the burlap candle holder much better from this angle.  I've also turned on the candle so you can see the lovely glow of the flickering bulb.

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Well, that's it for my projects.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I've enjoyed creating them.  If you get a moment, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought of them.

Your next stop will be with a very creative member of our group, Priscilla Ivler.  I'm sure you'll be amazed with her wonderful projects.