The Wacky Watercooler November Christmas Celebration Blog Hop

Welcome to our November Blog Hop.  Yes, this time it's all about Christmas.  I'm so excited to be able to concentrate on all my Christmas "treasures", old and new.  That's right, old.  I will get to use some of my treasured stash for one of my projects.  I know exactly which stamp set I will be using, too.  It's one of my favourites.  I wonder if you'll guess which one it will be.

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 a very talented fellow Canadian, Gail Allen.  Weren't her projects terrific?

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My first project is a little 3-D creation.  I've adapted a little box I found on Pinterest.  Actually the person who makes them calls them Belly Boxes and sells the patterns to be used on a personal e-cutter.  Well, I don't have a personal e-cutter but I do have imagination and, even though mine don't look like the originals, they are my version of such a cute creation.  I made the "belly box" using the Curvy Keepsake Box Thinlets but modified the pieces. Then I proceeded to personalize it with some fun punch art.  After all, it's Christmas and we want everything to be full of cheer (and sweets).

Isn't he cute?  I used the Heavy Weight Whisper White cardstock, Basic Black cardstock, my Stampin' Markers, and some of the red and white stripped 1/8" ribbon.  The little sprig of holly is from the Snow Place stamp set, cut out using the Snow Friends Framelits die.

And the reason it's called a "Belly Box" is that the candy fills up his belly.

You can see better from this side angle that I've used my 1/8" punch to put holes along the side and front in order to lace the ribbon through and hold the bos together.  That's right, the only adhesive holding his box together is at the bottom just like in the regular Curvy Keepsake Box but because I don't have the tops which "lock" together, I needed the ribbon.

Along the back, however, I simply used Tombo glue to attach the ribbon.  I'll post dimensions and more photos showing the construction in an upcoming post.  Isn't he just the cutest thing?

For TUTORIAL click here. 

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For my next project I decided to use that beautiful Wonderland stamp set.  Those pines are gorgeous, aren't hey?  I made an oversized card in order to use the full pattern of the Boughs & Berries embossing folder.  I began with a base of the Heavy Weight Whisper White, followed by a layer of Mint Macaron and then the embossed layer of Whisper White.  To make the embossing stand out even more, I sponged over it lightly using Mint Macaron ink.

In the centre where there was no embossing, I added my image layer.  First there is a layer of Mint Macaron, then a layer of Silver Foil and finally my stamped layer of Whisper White.  For the pines I used Mint Macaron ink.  When that had fully dried I stamped the snowflakes using Versamark and then heat embossed them with Silver embossing powder.  My banner is vellum onto which my sentiment is heat embossed in Silver embossing powder as well.

Doesn't that bit of Silver Ribbon which I tied in a bow diagonally across the top left look perfect?

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For my final project, I had the best time hauling out my retired stash and playing with some of the wonderful products which I still love.  I've used only four products for this card which are current.  Everything else is retired.  For my base I've used Naturals White.  I still love that cardstock because the random flecks give it such character.  My next layer is Baked Brown Sugar, a colour which is so versatile, especially this time of the year.  I loved it for gingerbread men and also found it was a perfect match for the colour of the burlap ribbon.

My embossed layer is current.  I used the Shimmery White specialty cardstock.  There is nothing else that looks quite the same and it is absolutely elegant.  I used a retired embossing folder and then sponged over the perimeter as well as the embossing with Baked Brown Sugar ink to make it stand out better.

For the ribbon, I really went to town.  My bottom layer is the current Burlap ribbon followed by the very elegant (and current) Very Vanilla 1 1/4" Subtle Stripes Satin ribbon, and then the retired Linen Cheery Cobbler ribbon.  Since the Linen is so tightly woven, it was possible to heat emboss my sentiment on it in Gold embossing powder.  I absolutely love the effect!

The stunning Poinsettia is made using one of my very favourite retired stamp sets, Joyful Wishes.  Yes, after heat embossing the images twice in Gold embossing powder on Vellum, I did have a lot of cutting to do.  But I don't mind doing a lot of fussy-cutting, as you know, and it went more quickly than I expected it to.  Once cut out, I set to colouring the flowers and the leaves.  I hauled out the retired but still-loved Blendabilities and set to work with the Cherry Cobbler and the Old Olive pens.  First I coloured them from the back side of the image and then I carefully coloured the front inside the golden lines.  A bit of curling and bending with my Bone Folder and the Poinsettia was ready to assemble.

For the centre I used one of my favourite embellishments (also retired) but first pushed it into my Versamark, covered it in Gold embossing powder and then used my heat gun to turn it into gold.  It looked perfect in the centre of the flower.

For the inside of the card, I used layers as well.  I decided to use a layer of Baked Brown Sugar and then added my stamped layer, which was Shimmery White to continue the elegance.  Both stamp sets which I used are retired.

And that's it for my projects.  I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed creating them.  From here you'll be returning to the beginning of the circle again, and another wonderfully creative Canadian stamper, Deborah Smart.

If you get a moment, I'd love it if you would leave a comment.