Christmas Boxes...

Coming up to Christmas, I was asked to make quite a few Card In a Box(es), so it was refreshing to be asked to make something different. I have a friend who had made Ornaments with her children's class & teacher's name in them & needed a special box for them.

When Melissa asked for a red box & a green box, I wasnt so surprised... Then the last box was going to be Mustard... Mustard?, I asked, thats an unusual colour to request, isnt it?

It turns out that they are the favourite colours of the 3 teachers. So off to create I went!!

I began by measuring the ornaments and then making a standard box for them. Due to the dimensions, I needed to make 2 halves, as the A4 cardstock wasnt wide enough. Once I was sure the dimensions were correct, by using Rule #101: Measure twice, cut once, I began to assemble my boxes.

I then worked out if I could have a window in the box, to display the ornament - it was gorgeous and Melissa had worked hard for it to work...

(Gotta love my scrawl on the bottom of the page, dont ya? LOL!!)

So once I was happy with the box and the lid, that needed to slightly larger than the box, I began to grin like a Cheshire Cat!

In the end, they came together really well. 

The final colours were Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant and More Mustard, (retired) and I think they all complimented each other, even though they werent for the same person. And the Glimmer Paper just gives it the Christmas feel!!

When I was done, I knew I wanted to show off the ornament as the lid was removed. So I constructed a little tab that held the ribbon of the ornament. This is how it worked :))

As you can see, the papers with the children's names can be seen through the windows. I love how what Melissa made & my contribution made this work so well!!

Until next time, stay safe and keep crafting!

Holiday Catalogue Blog Hop

How exciting is it, to be seeing all these creative peices of work!! This is my first blog hop & Im loving everyone's interpretation of the wonderful Stampin' Up! product!

And it doesn't matter where you started, you will eventually see everyone's work!! I do love what Emma made with her products, I haven't seen her work before, but I will certainly be stalking, I mean following her blog!!

Many of you may know that I am, proudly, a Stampin' Up! demonstrator & have been for 6 years now. Of course, because of that, we get to share ideas, sneak peaks & tutorials about the SU! products, but the added bonus is the friendships & support I have received from all over Australasia. This un-expected family of Stampin' Sisters & Brothers, (yes males can join also!!),  make this company a fantastic one to work for!!

So.....(drum roll, please...), with all the official 'paperwork' done, here are my items to share with you...

While the Holiday Catalogue has lots of lovely Christmas stamps & embellishments, I decided to use one of them for a couple of completely different projects.... 

We had Father's Day here last week & my dad loves all things fishing & camping. 

I always like to live life 'outside the box', so when I saw a different way to use the Bird Builder , I immediately had to use it, differently!!

While I wanted the sun to be a feature, I didn't want it to take over the whole card, so stamping it at the back worked for me. I then cut the rolling hills freehand, & used the Perfect Pines Framelits to make a forest & the Bird Builder & Word Window punch for the fire. I sponged the sunset, hills, trees & fire before sticking it all down with either Dimensionals or Tear & Tape. 

I am a bit happy that it seemed just perfect for the occasion & for my Dad!!

To continue to show you how the Stampin' Up! products are so versatile, I have used the beautiful bird from another Christmas Set, Joyful Season. I have a very close friend whose mum passed away 2 years ago & blue birds remind her of her gorgeous mum.

As soon as I saw this set, I began to work out how I would use this bird for her Mother's anniversary. Using the 2 step stamp set with Marina Mist ink, I placed the bird on our thick padded tape, Dimensionals to help her stand out...
I also used the Marina Mist marker to ink only the "Thinking of you", when the full sentiment actually says, "Thinking of you at Christmas". This is a great technique for isolating a certain part of a stamp. This stamp is from the Embellished Ornaments set :)
I believe this card would lend itself to being a great Male Birthday card or even a Sympathy card?

Ok, onto Christmas, hey? You know there is only 105 sleeps until Christmas, right - time to get moving on some ideas!!

Here I have wrapped a present using the brown packing paper that our orders come in. , I just love up-cycling & this is a very cheap but effective way to wrap the special gifts for loved ones. 

I stamped the tiny holly image with Old Olive onto Whisper White, matting it with Old Olive cardstock. 

One thing you can be sure of is that the ink, cardstock, ribbon & embellishment match so well through Stampin' Up! products, it makes colour matching so easy for brain dead people like me!!

    

In this close-up of the Embellished Ornament , you can see the Crystal Effects shining & the sparkliness of the Glimmer Paper, just gorgeous!! I've stamped the sentiment on Whisper White & stuck that on the back, so it is also now a tag for my present! 

Can you hear me smiling from my stamp room?

                                                   

One of many things that Stampin' Up! has taught me, is how glorious it is to have matching items - therefore I used the 'template' of my present to then make a matching card... I discovered along the way that the 1 3/4 circle punch is an exact fit for the smaller of the ornaments, so this helped my card to come together so quick!! Again, I used Crystal Effects to give the glass effect.

It may be hard to see, but I have cut each peice of cardstock so that the complete card is only 1 layer thick, rather than many layers. It gives a cleaner finish, dont you think?

 Here are both the present & card together, a match made in Christmas Heaven, lol...
All in all, Im very happy with how they compliment each other so well :))

Thanks for looking at my work, Id love you to leave a comment to tell me which ones you liked or to ask any questions about how I've made something you have seen...

I hope that Ive inspired you to get Stampin' too!!  Feel free to come back to see what else I've been working on at other times, also..

From my blog here, you can continue to drool at:

Rebecca

Andrea

Rochelle

Kathryn

Monique

Bernie

Liv

Sally

Ria

Delys

Jessica

Lou

Barbara

Kelly

Jenny

Libby

Paula

Keryn

Carly

Rachel

Narelle

Emily

Emma

Thanks again :))