Aloha, all!
Believe it or not, the Stampin' Up! Holiday Catalog will be released next week! I just cannot believe that the summer is almost over and I have to start focusing on the holidays. Yikes!
When it comes to the "holidays" in the catalog, my first focus is on Christmas. Yes, I do enjoy fall favorites such as Halloween and Thanksgiving. But all my life, THE holiday has been Christmas. And, when you're in the greeting card making business such as I am, Christmas Cards are a big part of that. So of course I jumped at the chance to participate in a summer swap that involves Christmas Cards, even though it was still summer at the time of the swap!
This week, I'll be sharing the projects that I made for each of three swaps that was part of the activities of my summer Stampin' Up! online group, VC Rocks. The "VC" now stands for "Virtual Cruise," and it's meant for those of us who either cannot or choose not to go on the Stampin' Up! summer cruise. Most of us don't qualify for the cruise, as it's a reward for big-time demonstrators. Many of us aren't even demonstrators and those who are tend to be people who concentrate on their craft more than their selling. I like to do both, but not to any great extreme!
For the first of the three swaps, I wasn't yet able to take advantage of any of the products that will be coming out with the Holiday catalog next week. But there are plenty of Christmas images in the 2016-2017 Annual Catalog, and I chose one of my favorites from last year – the Peaceful Pines Stamp Set. The stamp set includes quite a few images, not just of pine trees of various shapes and textures, but also of items that you can use to decorate the trees (you'll see them all in the photo at the end of this post). But I chose this tree because I think that it's lovely just as it is, with no decorations, save the star on the top.
The green that I use throughout this project is Cucumber Crush, and the red is Watermelon Wonder. I usually think of other greens and red when it comes to Christmas, but for now these colors work for me. I do believe that the Holiday Catalog will be featuring some more traditional colors!
When it came to the ribbon, I wanted something a bit more delicate than the wide ribbon that has a Cucumber Crush color, and a bit fancier than the Thick Baker's Twine of the same color. I couldn't believe that I actually had a spool of the 1/8" Gold Ribbon in my stash! So gold it was, and I really like the look and the way it complements both the green and the red. Not only that, I also had some of the new Metallic Enamel Shapes, that include gold and silver stars, as well as circles and hearts. That gold star is just the perfect finish for this tree!
For this card, and for most of my Christmas Cards this season, I added a bit of a decoration inside the card. I think it adds a nice statement to a card, and I guess I'm just too lazy or busy most of the time to add that extra stamp. But I'm working on that little issue, starting now!
So I have my first Christmas Card of the season done, and by now I'll have some more in my stash as I should have my swaps from other players back in the mail by now. What fun this swap was!
Stay tuned for my other two swap projects on Wednesday and Friday this week! I had a blast with them all.
I featured the following products in today's project, and I hope you'll like them enough to check them out on my Stampin' Up! online store. All you have to do is click on a picture and you'll find yourself at that link in no time! Have fun with whatever Christmas projects you're working on this season!
