Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Catherine Carroll

Endless Wishes for World Cardmaking Day

I always forget how busy September is in schools. We all joke that if we actually remembered how bad it could get, we'd never come back! Not that we should really complain having just had a whole two months off for the summer holiday... Anyway, I hope I can get back to some more regular crafting soon - in the meantime, I had to create at least one card for World Cardmaking Day, didn't I?

I really liked the diagonal positioning of the snowflakes from the Endless Wishes set while I was playing around with some Whisper White and my current favourite colour combo of Lost Lagoon, Soft Sky and Smoky Slate. I tried the pattern all over the card, but it was just too much, especially when I tried to layer the lovely All is Calm washi tape over the top! I think this might turn into one of my mass makes for Christmas cards this year as it is so quick and easy to do.

I'm off to find some new colour combination inspiration as otherwise all you will see on here from now until December are shades of blue and grey!

I hope you'll also manage to find a bit of time to craft today. Even if it's just for 15 minutes, I love that I get a little time to myself whenever I sit down to make a card and it's great that as a demonstrator I get to share that with other people.

 

 

 

 

Pinkies Blog Hop for the Autumn Winter Catalogue

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We're showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin' Up!® Autumn/Winter Seasonal Catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

You've probably joined me from Michelle's blog - that's another card for my CASE list, as if it wasn't long enough already!

I have found it so difficult to sit down and actually think about Christmas cards. I know that this is the perfect time to start my festive crafting (in fact, many of you will think I'm leaving it a bit late...!) but having only just gone back to school I can't bring myself to think of the END of the busiest, longest teaching term before it's even started. Still, I have my crafting to keep me sane as I struggle through which is amazing.

To ease myself into Christmas crafting, I wanted to make a wow card. One of those that you just make one or maybe two of and send to really, really special people. I've also decided on my main colour scheme for this year - Lost Lagoon goes so well with my old favourites Smoky Slate and Soft Sky that it didn't really need much thought!

The Festival of Trees stamp sets is going to give me so much variety when I finally get down to my 'bulk' Christmas card making. I was so glad to see Endless Wishes in our catalogue - I thought I'd missed out on that when it sold out in North America last year! Scribbled script fonts are so useful and I am very jealous of lucky people who can write like that freehand. AND it matches very well with the Good Greetings stamp set that you can earn free when you host a qualifying party.

I love gatefold cards for something special, especially when you fold back the 'gates' to create what is often called a double gatefold (I think). The extra weight just adds something, don't you think? Apart from postage charges, of course!

There's plenty more inspiration on offer from our team of demonstrators today, so do keep hopping through - next stop is Tracy!

 

 

 

 

 

Wonderful Wreath

It's about time I shared some of my Christmas card designs! Each year, I promise myself I will start in July. And then November comes around and I've barely had time to think about Christmas. At least the school holidays have started now, so I have plenty of time.

Even though I've not been blogging, I've been busy! I've done two stamp-a-stacks and a Christmas papercraft taster session for my local WI, so I'll share the cards from those over the next few days. They are all relatively quick and simple, so if you are a bit of a last minute crafter like me, hopefully you will find them useful to help you catch up with Christmas preparations.

My first stamp-a-stack was over a month ago now (I honestly don't know where the time goes during the Autumn term!). I kept the total supply list needed for the cards uncharacteristically simple, meaning that they didn't need to buy the whole catalogue to be able to replicate the designs themselves. 

I went with the classic combination of Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive here, with an almost compulsory Crumb Cake card base. I would have used Very Vanilla (my go-to soft neutral background) but the Season of Style DSP Stack pushed me towards Whisper White instead, and it does make the gorgeous wreath pop just that little bit better, don't you think? I couldn't help using the Expressions thinlits to cut the "Merry" from glimmmer paper to finish it off. I'm becoming a bit of a font and typography geek and the script is just perfect.
 

Stamp Sets:	Wonderful Wreath
Cardstock:	Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Whisper White Season of Style DSP Stack, Champagne Glimmer Paper
Ink:	Old Olive
Tools:	Big Shot die-cutting machine, Expressions Thinlits

More last minute Christmas crafting inspiration to come!

 

 

 

 

Embossed Evergreen for Less is More

This is my rather last minute entry to this week's Trees challenge at Less is More.

I haven't embosssed anything for ages. When I started crafting, everything had to be embossed. I think the shiny effect was just too special for the 10 year old me not to put on EVERY card I made! But Chrissie's gilded card made me reach for the heat gun and gold powder...

You may have thought that Everygreen had retired, but it's hiding on the carry over list from last year's Autumn/Winter catalogue.

Stamp Sets:	Christmas Messages, Evergreen
Cardstock:	Naturals Ivory, Brushed Gold
Ink:	Old Olive, Versamark
Tools:	Embossing Buddy, Heat Tool
Finishing Touch:	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals

I hope you like my attempt at Clean and Simple today. Don't forget the 25 stamps sets discounted by 25% - only available until Monday so don't miss out!

 

 

 

 

Pinkies Autumm/Winter Blog Hop

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We're showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin' Up!® Autumn/Winter Seasonal Catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

 

If you're following our Blog Hop through, you should have joined me from Sandie's blog. I think I'm definitely going to have to try out a wreath with the Festive Flurry bundle.

I've found it quite difficult to get into the Christmas spirit as far as crafting goes. We've not even been back at school for two weeks, and some of my students are already counting down to the Christmas holiday. I know I've got a lot to do between now and then, so would prefer time to slow down a teeny bit for me!

Here's my first Christmas card design of the year...

 

I chose to use the Wishing You stamp set. What I really like about this year's Autumn/Winter Seasonal catalogue are the numbers of small stamp sets and kits. You really don't have to spend out much to be able to make all your own Christmas cards. The set includes a sentiment, so you have a complete card with just one stamp set! Add that to the Season of Style Designer Series Paper stack, which has 24 each of two double-sided designs and the cards almost make themselves.

I always love Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive as a classic Christmas colour combination, but I know I'm going to be trying to get my new favourite Soft Sky into some of my Christmas crafting as well somehow!

Stamp Sets:	Wishing You
Cardstock:	Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Season of Style DSP stack
Ink:	Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, and Old Olive Stampin' Write Markers
Tools:	Stampin' Trimmer
Finishing Touch:	Silver ⅛" ribbon, Cherry Cobbler 1" stitched edge grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

I do hope you keep on hopping as there is more inspiration on show than ever before. Next stop is Suzette!