The Wacky Watercooler October Blog Hop

Welcome to our Wacky Watercooler October Blog Hop.  It's been a busy month!  October began with World Card Making Day and then, for Canadians at least, we celebrated Thanksgiving.  It's also Breast Cancer Awareness Month and, of course, Hallowe'en is right around the corner.  For cardmakers, this has definitely been a very busy month.

Our Blog Hop is set up in a circular style so that no matter which blog you begin with, you will, inevitably wind up at the same spot again if you keep going to the "next" one in line.  I hope you'll take the time to visit every participant's blog.  You don't want to miss the inspiration.

If you've been moving forward in the blog, you'll have come here from Christine Giuda's inspiring creations.

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Since Thanksgiving is over for us here in Canada, I decided to concentrate on Christmas.  For my first project I created a little favour box that could be used for either a little gift or as part of a table setting.  You could make these boxes in all sorts of different colours.

After making a little base box using Cherry Cobbler cardstock, I stamped the cute Nutcracker image from the Santa Stache stamp set onto Whisper White and then coloured it using my Blendabilities.  I stamped a second Moustache and, after colouring it, cut it out using the matching Moustache framelit.  For the top of the little box I cut a narrow piece of Cherry Cobbler using the zig zag Finishing Touches edgelit.  I made a tag to match using one of the little tag framelits that goes with the Curvy Keepsakes box die but you can easily just use an oval or circle cut with one of your punches.

I've entered this little box into the SUO Challenges.

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Next I decided to create an ornament using the Simply Pressed Clay.  It's so light and flexible when it dries, that I was sure it would make a wonderful Christmas ornament.  I began with a circle of clay, flattened to about 1/8" thickness.  Then I used a star cookie cutter to cut out my shape and put the whole thing, cookie cutter and clay, into the freezer so that the clay would harden sufficiently.  Once I took it out, I was able to remove the star cut-out easily without distorting the clay.

I left it out to dry for a day and then stamped it with the adorable little snowman from the White Christmas stamp set as well as the little star from that set.  Then I just inked up the "peace" from the "joy & peace" stamp in the hostess Good Greetings stamp set and stamped that diagonally along the top right.  I found everything stamped quite clearly with the StazOn ink.

Once that was dry, I coloured the front of the star using my Blendabilities.  I found they worked very well, although the colours were muted, which was fine for my purposes.  I followed that up with a clear coat of Crystal Effects over the entire front of the star.  After that dried thoroughly, I covered the back with Crystal Effects as well.

I finished up by putting a thin layer of Tombo glue around the perimeter of the star and then covering the glue with Silver Stampin' Glitter.  

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My final project is a Christmas card.  When I first became a Demonstrator for Stampin' Up! back in November 2011, I designed what I called a "stage" card and made a template for it.  That one was for a 5" x 7" card and today I re-designed it to be a standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card.  The new measurements were perfect for creating a scene using a combination of the White Christmas and the Holiday Home stamp sets.  For my sentiment I turned to the Christmas Bliss stamp set.

I began with a base of Naturals White cardstock and then layered it with Lost Lagoon cardstock and the beautiful All Is Calm Specialty Designer Series Paper.  I stamped the trees right onto the Designer Paper and added white for the bark using my White Signo pen.  All the rest of the images were stamped onto Whisper White and fussy-cut.  I almost went cross-eyed, but managed to cut even the tiny twig arms of the snowman.  Believe me, that was no simple feat!  The house, however, was cut using the Homemade Holiday framelit.  

Added embellishments were the white heat embossing for the sentiment, the Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details for the berries on the tiny wreath, and the clear Dazzling Details for the "stars".  You can also find the template for this "stage" card here.

I've also entered my card into the everything goes challenge at the Stampin' Royalty Challenges.

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Well, that's it for my projects.  I hope you've enjoyed them.  Your next stop will be with the talented Jackie Susnik.   She always has great projects to share.

If you get a moment, please leave a comment.  I'd love to know what you thought of my creations.