The Wacky Watercooler November Blog Hop - "All Out" Christmas Celebration

We're giving ourselves a break and taking December off.  That means November is all about Christmas.  We're going "all out" and presenting our best ideas and projects so that we can inspire you.  Between the Annual Catalogue and the Holiday Catalogue there are some awesome products to use.  And if that's not enough, a little dip into that growing "stash" is inevitable.  I know I love this time of year and all the creativity I see online.  I hope the projects I've put together for this blog hop give you some inspiration.

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 Penny Hanuszak's' post. Penny makes her home in British Columbia, Canada and is a member of our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge artists as well.

* * * * * * * * * * 

My first project is a fun gingerbread house created with that terrific Home Sweet Home bundle.  I loved it for Hallowe'en and love it no less for my Christmas creations.  In this case I'm making a number for some of my special customers.  Filled with chocolates, they should be a hit and also show them my appreciation for their continued loyalty.  I began with the Kraft paper.  To my eye, that is about as close to baked gingerbread as our paper gets.

I decided to keep it toned down.  Yes, I could have added a whole lot of candies and totally covered it the way my grandsons believe all gingerbread houses should be covered (they don't eat the gingerbread but love the candy).  I guess I go the other way.  Less is more (I eat gingerbread but don't like the candies).  Sadly, I hand cut a whole bunch of candies from the gorgeous Candy Cane Lane Designer Series paper but wound up holding them here and there and just not liking the effect.  So I added some hand-cut gingerbread items from the same paper.  Minimaslist, but it appeals to me.

After all the chocolates are gone, the little house will be terrific as an ornament in the tree, especially if a little mini-battery-operated light is put inside.

* * * * * * * * * * 

For my second project I decided to revisit a special fold which I featured back in the March 2015 Blog Hop and for which I posted the template in my March 28th 2015 post.  I thought it would make a wonderful Christmas card.  For this one I used the Christmas Magic and the Father Christmas stamp sets.  The two sets are terrific on their own but together they are simply favulous!

My base is the Heavy Whisper White and I've also used Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green cardstocks.  They're the featured colours in SU!'s This Christmas Specialty Designer Series paper and, since that's the paper I used on the inside of the card, it made sense to use them throughout.  Of course that paper also features Very Vanilla but since the design which I chose doesn't include it, I was able to use Whisper White instead.  

Although I stamped the borders from the Father Christmas set on Whisper White, both the train and Father Christmas were stamped on the wonderful Shimmery White Specialty paper.  I love the way that paper takes watercolouring.  It doesn't pill and, best of all, adds a slight shimmer to the entire image.  Of course I also had to use my brand new, just arrived Stitched from the Heart stitched shapes framelits which Stampin' Up! just released.  I LOVE them.  Look at the way they cut my square for the train!  Look at the wonderful circle and oval around my sentiment!  Those stitches cut deeply and look great.  

If you look along the edges of my "book" on the inside of the card, you'll notice that I've managed to give the illusion of pages.  Just another of the many uses for the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set.

One of my layers for the inside of the card is Mint Macaron cardstock.  Strangely the lighter versions of the Garden Green in the designer paper are an almost exact match to the colour.

* * * * * * * * * * 

For my last project I created a bag and matching card set.  First the card.  I used a base of Very Vanilla and then added black and a very small amount of red.  Again, I just loved the Stitched Shaped framelits which I used for my oval on the outside and my square on the inside of the card.

 I love using the Gift Bag Punch Board and what better paper to use it with than the gorgeous This Christmas Specialty Designer Series paper?  I love the plain Very Vanilla sheet with the hundreds of black snowflakes all over it.  The problem with the paper is that it really is quite lightweight and I was afraid it would tear too easily as a bag.  So, how did I get around that?  I added a "girdle" of Basic Black cardstock along the bottom of the bag and a narrower one at the top of the bag.  

To enhance the black girdle, I added two silver foil Christmas trees to the front and back, scattered red Glimmer paper "ornaments" all over them, and then stamped little white snowflakes around them.  To enhance the silver foil at the top of the bag, I added a die-cut black "NOEL" to the front and back.  I also added a tag using the beautiful Merry Tags framelits dies.  If you look carefully, you'll see that I've mounted the silver foil tag on a black base cut with the stitched circle framelits die.

Lacing the lovely Cherry Cobbler Silky Taffeta Ribbon through the top finished the bag off perfectly, don't you agree?

* * * * * * * * * * 

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 visiting another wonderfully creative stamper, Sheri Lee.  Sheri is from British Columbia and is a frequent participant of our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.