Fifty Christmas Cards - Batch Five: Wonderful Wreath

I'm really pleased with how this next batch of cards came out. There's eight cards, six of which were done with the Wonderful Wreath single wood mount stamp from Stampin' Up!  Brace yourself for a lot of pictures!

Card 1:

Crumb Cake card base, Season of Style Designer Series Paper, Expressions Thinlits die, Old Olive ink, Cherry Cobbler Candy Dots and seam binding, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Rotary trimmer with Small Scallop blade

Card 2:

Cherry Cobbler card base, Gold Foil sheet, Season of Style Designer Series Paper, Expressions Thinlits die, Old Olive ink, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Crumb Cake seam binding (for my first ever triple bow!), Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Rotary trimmer with Small Scallop blade

Card 3:

Crumb Cake card base, Season of Style Designer Series Paper, Expressions Thinlits die, Circles Collection Framelits dies, Gumball Green ink, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Word Window and Modern Label punches, retired Cherry Cobbler textured ribbon, retired gold cord, retired Snowflakes embossing folder, Rotary trimmer with Small Scallop blade

Card 4:

Cherry Cobbler card base, last year's Snow Festival designer series paper, Tags 4 You stamp set, Circles Collection Framelits dies, Gumball Green and Cherry Cobbler ink, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder, Rotary trimmer with Small Scallop blade

Card 5:

Crumb Cake card base, Snow Festival Designer Series Paper, Expressions Thinlits die, Old Olive ink, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Crystal Ice Ice Stickles, Cherry Cobbler textured ribbon, retired Merry Minis Punch Pack, Rotary trimmer with Small Scallop blade

Card 6:

Gumball Green card base, Gold Foil sheet, Snow Festival Designer Series Paper, Expressions Thinlits die, Gumball Green ink, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Rotary trimmer with Small Scallop blade

Card 7:

Crumb cake card base, Snow Festival DSP, Cherry Cobbler ink, Cherry Cobbler textured ribbon, ribbon slide, Stampin' Dimensionals

Card 8:

Crumb cake card base, Snow Festival DSP, Adorning Accent Edgelit, Cherry Cobbler ink, Stampin' Dimensionals

Inside greetings for cards 1-6 are from the current set Christmas Messages.  The greeting in the last two are from Many Merry Messages.

Sorry for such a long post -- I know most stamping blogs feature just one card a day, but I find this easier to do and it means less mailbox clutter for my subscribers.  It's unusual for me to make this many cards in a batch, so no worries, this will not become a habit!  With this post, I am caught up with everything I've made, and tonight I'll be starting a new (smaller) batch.  It's hard to believe I have only 11 more cards to go to complete this order!

So, what do you think of the cards?  Are you put off by non-current products?  Is there anything you'd like to see more of?  less of?  I'd love any feedback you have to offer!

Christmas-y Smiles,
Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)
   

Pop and Place Holiday Gift Tags

Stampin' Up! has a brand new pair of products, released about two weeks ago, called Pop and Place Holiday Gift Tags and the coordinating photopolymer stamp set Christmas Tagables. I've had the bug for some time now to create a batch of gift tags for a friend whose idea of a gift tag is a piece of wrapping paper and a large black Sharpie -- not that there's anything wrong with that! I just want to give her another option if she's interested, and if she's not she can always re-gift the tags.

Here's what the stamp set looks like:

and here's what the kit looks like:

I had a lot of fun making the tags!  I used the above items plus a few other holiday stamps, some paper scraps, and punches. The coordinating colors are Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, and Whisper White, and I added a few pieces of gold foil paper left over from a previous project. I also supplied my own 1/16" round hole puncher and baker's twine in Cherry Cobbler and Lucky Limeade (close enough to Old Olive to due in a pinch). Oh, and I threw in some Cherry Cobbler seam binding, too.

Now, I didn't use all the tags in the booklet for this project; I put the two largest sizes aside for use on cards later on. I also didn't use the cute little scalloped frames because they were in hiding under my computer keyboard until after I had finished and put everything else away. SU! perforated the sections of tags so that I can use the outsides (e.g. the patterned paper around the round gift tag) for another project if it suits me. The booklet itself has pockets in the front and back for storing punched out pieces.

The hardest part about this project was figuring out where to jump in. Once I got going, though, I had a blast making the tags! Below are pictures of just some of the tags I created. Some are simple, and some a little more creative. On the backside of each tag, except for the smallest "mosaic" shaped pieces, I stamped the words TO and FROM.

If you have any questions about the kit or my tags, you're welcome to ask by either leaving a comment or emailing me. 

Next post:  Another batch of Christmas cards!

Smiles,
Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)
   

Gelli Plate Monoprinting

When my BFF Chris came to visit me during the first week of September, one of the things we did was play with her 6" x 6" gelli plate.  She showed me how to use acrylic paint and stencils to "pull" images off the plate.  These are some of the designs that magically happened:

I think some of these look rather experimental (read: yuck), but there are some that are going to be perfect for use on cards or artist trading cards.  I may add more color to some, doodle on some others, and who knows what else my imagination will come up with?  I definitely see a gelli plate in my future so that I can play some more and experiment with other things besides stencils!

Gelli smiles,
Joyce Spear, a.k.a. StamperJoyce