The Wacky Watercooler Holiday Catalog(ue) Blog Hop

Welcome to the Hop from Blackfalds, Alberta, Canada

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We're featuring products from the 2013 Holiday Catalog(ue)

As well as products that have been carried over from last year's wonderful

Holiday Catalogue, and some of the Holiday Specials that are current.

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If you enjoyed our first ever Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop back in July, you'll love the new Hop which focuses on the upcoming holidays.  We have some very talented people participating in our Blog Hop again. If you started somewhere in the middle or are moving through the Hop backwards, you will have come from the very talented Deborah Smart's blog, Stamp and Create.  Deborah always manages to use our products in new and exciting ways.  It's a pleasure to have her join this Hop once again.

We have Demonstrators from both the United States and Canada participating in this Blog Hop.  That's the reason for the (ue) in the Catalog(ue).  We're acknowledging the various spellings of the word, depending on which side of the border you happen to be living.

Why do we call it the Watercooler?  Well, if you've ever worked in an office, you'll know how much friendly chatting goes on around the watercooler.  Why Wacky?  We delight in our eccentricities and enjoy quite an off-the-wall sense of humour.  Wacky seems to fit the bill.

And now---on with the show!

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For my first project, I'm featuring Hallowe'en.  It's a holiday that people either love or hate.  There are very few people that are indifferent to it.  I happen to enjoy it because I love going out with my grandsons while they're trick or treating.  It's usually quite cold for Hallowe'en up here in Alberta but keeping up with the boys and helping to carry their loot keeps our blood warm.

I decided to use a brand new stamp set which is part of the Best of 25 Years collection: Best of Halloween. Along with that, I used the bat from the Holiday Catalogue stamp set: Halloween Hello.  The style of card is called a Flip card or Flip-Flop card and, although it used to be quite a complicated card, it has now been made easy for any level of card-maker to create.  Why?  Because Stampin' Up! introduced the brand new Circle Card Thinlits Die.  Using the die, it was easy to make this fun Halloween card.

What I've done here, however, is to adapt the die by extending the cardstock over one end, avoiding the cutting edge, and adding an extra fold.  The front, you see, has the "flip-flop" circle which turns as you open the card.  When it's closed you see the haunted mansion.  When it's open, however, you see the sentiment.  Since I've extended the card, you also see some more of the wonderfully spooky Witches Brew Designer Series Paper.

You can also see the orange spiders on the front of the card.  These are actually also part of the Designer Paper but have been cut out using the Mosaic Punch.

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This is a Holiday Blog Hop and so the next holiday project I've tackled is Thanksgiving.  Yes, it feels good to give thanks every day. Isn't it wonderful, however, to have a day set aside during the year when we gather together to share all the good things that have happened all year long and give thanks?  Somehow the "thanks" seem stronger and more powerful sent as a group. 

I love having seasonal decor.  It changes the atmosphere in the house, doesn't it?  This year Stampin' Up! has given us a boost in making our decor by providing all the necessary materials to make banners.  Since Thanksgiving is part of the Fall holidays, I couldn't think of better colours to use than the colours of Fall itself.  What is prettier, after all, than the colours of the leaves as they bid good-bye for another year.  I love the celebration of Fall!  Crunchy leaves.  Yellows, oranges, browns, rusts---all joyously cheering the end of another wonderful summer.

As you can see, I didn't choose to use the stencils for the banners but, instead, I used the Autumn Accents Bigz Die and cut out a stencil of the leaves.  Then I used a dauber to get the leaves.  The colours of the banners, which I sponged with a mix of alcohol and re-inker, are Pumpkin Pie, Baked Brown Sugar and Crushed Curry.  The colours I used to stencil the leaves were Crushed Curry, Baked Brown Sugar, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Cajun Craze.  I loved the look of the banners so much that I didn't want to hide any part of them but of course I did.  I cut out some Baked Brown Sugar with my Labels Framelits and stencilled "thanks" on them.  They adhered perfectly with my glue dots.

Instead of using the supplied jute twine, I chose to use the 1 1/4" Burlap Ribbon and attached the banners to that with the safety pins from the Vintage Trinkets.  Then I added some rosettes and some leaves and there you have my Thanksgiving Banner.

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I love Christmas!  I love the real meaning of Christmas as well as all the more commercial part of it.  Decorating the tree, of course, is right up there but I'm not going to post an ornament.  Cards are such fun because you get to reach out to people that you have, perhaps, not been in touch with during the year.  But I'm not going to post a Christmas card.  Before I keep going on about the things I'm not going to post, perhaps I should just tell you what I made for this Hop.  

Remember those wonderful Tag a Bag Gift Boxes in the Annual Catalogue?  They come with an acetate sleeve and are the perfect size for candies, ornaments, candles, cookies, and all sorts of items that you might want to gift a teacher or one of your friends.  Of course they're great for all sorts of occasions, but this one is going to be a Christmas gift box.

I adhered pieces of Island Indigo cardstock on all sides of the box after stamping snowflakes on the cardstock using my Silver Encore Metallic pad and the two smaller snowflake stamps from the Festive Flurry stamp set.

I filled the box with shredded white paper and then placed several little silver ornaments inside before putting on the sleeve.  Then I made a little girdle using Pool Party stamped with little silver stars.  As a final touch, I tied some Silver Ribbon around the girdle with a double bow.  I finished it off with a vellum Pointsettia stamped with the Joyful Christmas stamp set and heat embossed with Silver Embossing Powder.  I used a sponge dauber on the reverse side of the poinsettia and rubbed in some Island Indigo ink, concentrating the colour in the centre and then letting it be paler at the ends.  I stamped a second flower, doing the same, but only cut out the centre to adhere to the full poinsettia.  And in the centre of the flower, I adhered one of the gorgeous Frosted Finishes Embellishments.

If you noticed a bit of texture on the acrylic sleeve of the box, you're very perceptive.  I put the acrylic sleeve through the Big Shot in the Northern Flurry Embossing Folder.  Subtle but it makes such a difference.

Who wouldn't be happy to receive this little box?

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Well that's it for my part of the Hop.  Next you're going to visit the very talented Jean Kupsh's blog.  Jean is an American demonstrator who is currently living in Germany where her husband is posted with the military.  I expect that Jean's projects are going to be absolutely awesome.  Enjoy.