Christmas in July Card Classes

July went by in a whirl with two Christmas in July card classes, my bestie returning for Stampin' on Tuesdays and some beginner's Stampin' 101 classes under my belt.  And now, it's on to August. But, before I switch gears, I thought I would share my Christmas in July card class for some inspiration.

What fun we had making these four Christmas cards.  Almost all of the supplies are from the 2015-2016 annual catalogue.  Participants made two of each card and matching envelopes.  All supplies were included.  Details are on my event calendar. 

This beautiful card features the Wonderous Wreath Bundle stamp set and framelits.  The card face is dry embossed with the new Elegant Dots Embossing folder.  The wreath is stamped in Smokey Slate and Versa Mark ink and embossed with Silver Embossing Powder. 

This card also features the Wonderous Wreath stamp set, this time stamped in Pear Pizzazz, Mossy Meadow and Real Red inks.  This is a fancy fold card with a delightful peek-a-boo window behind the wreath. 

This card which can double as a gift card holder was a blast to make.  It's made with the Mini Treat Bag Thinlet Dies, the Tree Builder punch and Boho Chic Embossing Folder. 

 

I've had such a fun time with the mini treat bag that I made some additional samples to show the girls.

This fourth card features a peek-a-boo window made with a retired BigZ Die of the same name.  This is a fun card with its hidden Christmas messages.  

 

I've decided to hold this class again by request, so if you're in the area and  interested in gathering some friends (six maximum) and hosting a workshop in my house or yours, contact me to arrange a date between August 18th and September 30th, 2015.  

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens

Wacky Watercooler July Blog Hop

Welcome to the July Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop.  You're in for a treat!  We have 13 hoppers sharing their wonderful projects, which will include a Christmas in July theme, a CASED project and a project using a Punch.  Hope you'll visit all the sites and leave some comments and encouragement. 

This is a circular blog hop so if you continue along you'll eventually get back to where you started.  This blog hop runs from today July 16th through Saturday July 18th, so visit as many times as you wish and let your friends know it's happening.

Christmas in July 

Are you counting off the days until Christmas yet?  I know I am.  For my featured "Christmas in July" project I chose to use a stamp from the Merry Everything stamp set as my focal point.  This is a great little stamp set that was carried over from last year.

I started with a standard A2 Bermuda Bay card base followed by a Silver Foil mat.  I hated to waste that beautiful foil sheet by hiding it under another layer, so instead punched out my two trees from the center.  I embossed the White mat and Silver Foil trees with the Bo Ho Chic TIEF.  This embossing folder is quickly becoming one of my favourites. 

I kept the inside of the card pretty clean and simple by just stamping and embossing one tree image from the Festival of Trees stamp set and the sentiment " May Happy Moments and Cherished Memories Surround You with Joy This Season", from the Wondrous Wreath stamp set. 

For the shaker portion of the card I used a piece of Bermuda Bay DSP from the Cherry On Top paper pack.  Even though the DSP used for the front of the shaker box isn't a Christmas paper, it works really well with the Bermuda Bay and Silver Foil card stocks. The decorative window was punched out using the Note Tag Punch. 

I stamped the sentiment with Versa Mark ink and heat set it.  I added Bermuda Bay sequins to the mixture of Frosted Sequins and a few crystal seed beads to give some more action to the shaker.  A small strip of Silver 1/8" ribbon was added to the bottom. 

CASE THE CATALOGUE:

When the powers that be at Wacky Watercooler Blog Hop decided our second project would be CASEing from the Catalogue I was thrilled.  I grabbed my glasses, catalogue, a cup of Java and headed for the back yard to search for my next project.  

Since I was looking for some "Artistic Expression" I went to the section bearing the same name in the Share the Fun Annual catalogue  and found what I was looking for on page 118.  Here's the card that inspired me:

When I bought the Work of Art stamp set last year I made a ton of cards and used it in a lot of projects, and then it got lost on the shelf. Stamping with this set again reminded me just how much I like the wonderful shapes and paint swatches in this 11-piece set.  Here's my card:

I pretty much copied the original placement of the stamping but I changed the ink and card stock colours to make it a little more masculine and added some detail with the large splatter stamp from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set.

Here you can see the gold embossing on the sentiment.  It really makes the word "you" stand out. 

I added Basic Rhinestones to the centers of the gold sequins for extra shine and because my Gold Metallic thread hasn't arrived yet, I used a retired  Stamping gold thread to make the loops.  Note:  When you want to add loops under a button or a sequin, begin with a glue dot on your card surface and use that as a base for bringing your loops around to and stabilizing them  

For the inside of my card I used the Gorgeous Grunge splatters stamped off in Delightful Dijon and Early Espresso inks.  The sentiment "You are a fabulous work of art" was stamped in Early Espresso.

Use a New Punch:

I've been using the Gift Bag Punch Board, the Banner Triple Punch and the Bow Builder Punch a lot since the catalogue was launched in June, so I thought I would combine the three of these great tools to make a cute little gift box for my third project. 

Here it is:

This adorable little box measures 3 5/8" x 3" and is the perfect size for tucking away a sweet treat or small gift for that special person on your list. Since the friend I made this for is really into animal prints I chose a piece of dsp from the new Go Wild Designer Series Paper Pack to decorate the box.

The Banner Triple Punch makes it so easy to make perfect banners every time by eliminating the guess work.

I used the Bow Builder Punch to make a single bow for the front of the box and added a Basic Rhinestone to the center.

These boxes are super easy to make with the Gift Bag Punch Board.  I'll be doing a post next week showing you templates and ideas for many different projects you can make with this very versatile tool, so I hope you'll come back and visit.  

Everything from envelopes to gift bags and card holders can be made with the Gift Bag Punch Board.  

 Well it's time for you to move on to  Bev's awesome blog "Stamp With Bev".  I know you'll enjoy her projects!  

Click Here to Go To Stamp With Bev

Click here to go to Jackie's Blog

Click here to return to the Wacky Watercooler Main Page where you'll find a list of all the participants.

Happy Stamping!

Penny Tokens 

INSPIRATION IN ACTION CASE CONTEST - SNOW FUN

Gretchen Barron recently held a unique and fun contest on her site, challenging stampers to sellect a project from the new Idea Book and Catalogue and to make it their own.  I was very excited about this challenge, and thought wow, I can do that!  And I have, only I was too late to enter into Gretchen's contest because I was out of town duringher time frame. 

The project that inspired me is on page 21 of the catalogue and is made with the Snow Much Fun Set. I loved this set from the moment I laid eyes on it and when I saw the sample in the new Idea Book and Catalogue, I just knew I had to recreate it and make it mine!

Okay so here's my version and the changes that I made to this card's design and set up.

I liked the warm homespun color combo in the sample card and decided to go for the same look.  My card started with a base of Confetti Cream (102835) cardstock and the image and sentiment were stamped on this too.  I chose Soft Suede (115318) for the first layer of the card and embossed it with the Framed Tulips Embossing folder......... I know it's a stretch but on this card the tulips look like little Christmas lights.  Okay so I have a big imagination......try squinting.  I'm sure you'll see what I mean. 

For my next layer and the one behind the sentiment I used Real Red (102482) cardstock.  I liked the look of the ribbon on the original card so decided to do the same and used 5/8" Real Red Grosgrain.  I also liked the way the Bigz Die Square scallop from the Scallop Squares Duo (120903) looked so retained that element but I wanted to change up the image by adding the cute little snowball and bird. All images were stamped in Chocolate Chip and colored with markers.  I used a Crumb Cake marker to create a shadow effect around the image.  Once I finished colouring this image I stamped a second one, repeated the coloring then cut it out and mounted it on dimensionals over the original snowman.  When I was cutting around the second image, I omitted the boots, arms, ends of the scarf and tassel on the hat, they show through from the original image and by piecing in this way you get a lot of dimension.  I used one of the sentiment stamps from the Snow Fun set and punched it out with the Modern Label (119849) punch and then mounted it on a strip of Real Red cardstock which was about an 1/8" wider.  I hand cut the points on each side of the sentiment and then mounted the label with dimensionals onto the ribbon.  Finally, I adhered Dazzling Diamonds with 2-way glue pen to the hat brim, snowballs and ground to give a shimmery effect. 

I was so pleased with this little guy and wanted to share how easy this card was to make, that I added him as one of the cards in my Christmas in July SAS workshops on July 10th and 13th.  Lot of ooooohs and awhs here....he was a big hit!  Hope you enjoyed this card as much as I do. I'd love to hear your comments.