The Wacky Watercooler 2013 Year End Blog Hop

Welcome to the Hop from Blackfalds, Alberta, Canada.  That's quite a leap if you just left the talented Jeanne Kupsch who is stationed over in Germany right now.  Wasn't her post wonderful?

* * * * * * * * * *

For my first project, I'm featuring Christmas and that wonderful Pop 'n Cuts Card Base die and matching Dress Form die designed by Karen Burniston exclusively for Stampin' Up!  The dress-form has undergone a bit of a transformation in my card, but the bones are there and they provided a wonderful base for my design.

I chose to use Basic Black as my base cardstock because I had plans to decorate the card using my favourite Designer Paper from the Annual Catalog(ue), Modern Medley.  I love the designs in that pack!  Because I had plans to make the inside of the card look like a living room, I used two of the designs: one for the "wallpaper" and one for the "floor".  The dress form quickly disappeared and became a fireplace with the top portion of the cut-out covered by a feature picture stamped with the Wetlands stamp set.  The logs and fire were made using my Word Window punch and the wing from the Bird Builder punch.  Love what a little embossing or sponging will do, don't you?  I free-handed the little stockings from some Modern Medley paper and coloured in the heels, toes and tops and then sponged the rest with Cherry Cobbler ink.

The final touch to the inside was to stamp the sentiment from the Joyful Christmas stamp set onto a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and then cut it out using my Apothecary Accents framelits.  With a bit of Basic Black sponging, it looks just like an area rug, doesn't it?

Since my base was Basic Black, I decided to layer the front of the card with some Cherry Cobbler and a piece of the Modern Medley, this time the music notes.  I used another of the Apothecary Accents framelits to cut out the Greeting which I had heat embossed in silver.  Then I tied a pretty bow using the Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding ribbon.  But the card still needed a focal point.

For the focal point on the front of the card, I decided to use the Joyful Christmas stamp set.  I simply can't get enough of that wonderful Poinsettia!  This time, however, I only used the centre portion of the flower because otherwise it would have taken over the entire front of the card and I had other plans.

I heat embossed the flower using Silver embossing powder and cut out the centre, smaller flower.  Then I heat embossed two leaves using the Wild Wasabi embossing powder on the new Silver Foil sheets.  I love how that turned out!  

This is definitely a card that is fun both inside and out!

* * * * * * * * * *

Since Stampin' Up! carried over that beautiful Jewish Celebrations stamp set from last year, I decided I would try my hand at a Hanukkah card using the new Thinlits Circle flip flop card die.  For my base, I used Pacific Point cardstock, which is one of my favourite deep blues.  Even though it's not one of the colours in the Winter Frost Specialty Designer Paper, the colours compliment each other beautifully.  The card has the extra fold that I explained back in this post.

This is the front of the card with a strip of the foil pattern from the Designer Paper.  The other foil pattern is on the inside flap that you can see.  I stamped the design using Pacific Point ink on Shimmery White cardstock and then heat embossed the Star of David on a Silver Foil sheet using Pool Party embossing powder and punched it out using my 1" circle punch.

For the inside I cut a strip of the Designer Paper and adhered it to a piece of Whisper White.  On the reverse of the circle flip-flop, I stamped the Menorah using the new Metallic Silver Encore ink and then heat embossed the sentiment on the Pacific Point using silver embossing powder.  The folded star below the sentiment can hold money or a chocolate coin.

And that's my interpretation of a Hanukkah card.  

* * * * * * * * * *

My final project is geared for the man in my life.  My husband loves fishing and so I decided to use one of the wonderful new Wood-Mount Cases that Stampin' Up! introduced in the Annual Catalogue.  Those cases are so nice and strong and will hold all sorts of goodies.  I plan to fill this one up with some little things that he's been muttering about needing.  The way I see it, a fly-fisherman who ties his own flies "needs" about as much as a paper crafter.

We used to see a lot of wildlife when we lived in British Columbia so I decided to use the Walk in the Wild stamp set and the Lovely as a Tree stamp set for this project.  I masked off the grass on the ground so that I could give the illusion of a snowy landscape.  Then I used my Aqua Painter and watercoloured the scene, adding some Dazzling Details on the tree and on the ground.

Then I made a starburst using embossed pieces of Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso Core'dinations, and Marina Mist, mounting it on a piece of the Marina Mist Polka Dot Parade Designer paper.  The finished piece slipped under the plastic window of the Wood-Mount Case perfectly.

This is the way my husband will probably use the case, but to dress it up for Christmas I had to add a little bit of extra.  For that I created a "girdle" using the 1 1/4" Burlap Ribbon.  I attached one of the brown buttons from the Designer Naturals with a brad and safety pin from the Vintage Trinkets.  That provided me with the perfect way to attach my snowflake (from the Festive Flurries bundle) and tag (from the Very Merry Tags).

I know he's going to love this.  Wouldn't the man in your life be happy to receive something like this, too?  It's easy to make and so handy.

* * * * * * * * * *

Well that's it for my blog hop post.  I hope you've enjoyed my projects.  I'd love to hear what you thought about them if you have a moment.  Your next stop will be Terri Antoniw's inspiring blog.  I'm sure she'll have some amazing projects to share with you.   Thanks so much.