The Wacky Watercooler's First January Mini Blog Hop

Welcome to our first January mini blog hop.  A mini blog hop?  Yes, that's what we've decided to do this month since the Occasions 2016 Catalogue just launched and we've begun Sale-a-bration.  It just didn't make sense to wait and hold our usual blog hop on the third Thursday of the month.  Of course you're getting a bonus this month.  We'll be holding a second mini blog hop on January 21st just to ensure that we cover the third Thursday as scheduled.  What does this mean for you?  You'll get to see even more wonderful creations using the gorgeous new products from the new catalogue.

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 and creative Marsha Reed.  Weren't her projects terrific?

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For my first project I decided to combine a brand new embossing folder from the Occasions Catalogue, World Traveller.  I love that we have the world map to emboss, especially since the Sale-a-bration brochure offers a stamp set that absolutely stole my heart, Sky Is the Limit.  You see my nephew is mad about planes and his birthday is coming up this month.  Of course I created my card with him in mind.

I've used a new product, Wink of Stella, on the propeller and also on the clouds.  It's not very obvious in the pictures but it adds a real shimmer to the area where one brushes it.  This close-up also shows the subtle sponging I've done to make the lines of the embossing  pop.

I created a larger than usual card to use the entire embossing folder.  Of course it can also be used for the 4.25" x 5.5" sized cards but a bit of the edge detail will be lost.  As a result the bi-plane looks a bit smaller on my card than it would on a standard-sized card.

I love those little vellum clouds, don't you?

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For my second and final project I used two stamp sets from the new Occasions Catalogue.  As soon as I saw them, I knew I would buy them.  They're versatile and, better still, really appeal to me.  I hope you love them as well.  I created a real scene using them.

I hope you can tell from the photograph that the front window looks reflective because I've covered the Soft Sky with a layer of the clear Wink of Stella.  I've also used that on the chrome areas of the car.  If you've never used the Wink of Stella Glitter Brush, may I suggest you get some.  It makes any colour shimmery.

For my base I've used the heavy weight Whisper White and then topped that with a layer of Daffodil Delight followed by a layer of Basic Black.  For my stamped and painted layer I've used Whisper White.  The background mountains and the tree at the right side are stamped using images from In the Meadow.  The foreground "road" is stamped using one of the images from the Gorgeous Grunge set.  For my classic Volkswagen (or punch buggy as we Canadians are likely to call it), I turned to the new Beautiful Ride set.  I had such fun with that!

I love the way the photopolymer stamps can be seen through for perfect placement.  It would have been difficult to get that cute dog placed in the back window otherwise.

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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 stamper, Marie Green.

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