Aloha, all!
I’ve had several friends over for crafting sessions the past couple of weeks, and each of them has something they really want from the upcoming Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog (next week!). But I’ve had lots of fun helping them understand that there are many ways they can already start making this year’s cards just with products from the Stampin’ Up! ANNUAL Catalog! So when it came time for me and Cheryl Hamilton from Maui to come up with a theme for this month’s Island Hopping Blog, I suggested that we show off a card that we made just with Annual Catalog Products!
I originally went to my stash of 6 x 6 Designer Series Papers (DSP) looking for some reds and greens. But as I thought about how I was going to decorate the card, I realized that everything might be easier if I stuck with a blue and white theme. For one thing, I have a friend from California – a fellow Kilauea evacuee – visiting, and we’re just too busy crafting for me to spend too much time making designs. So that should tell you just how easy this card is.
I ended up choosing the Night of Navy DSP from the 6″ x 6″ Neutrals Collection. It already had some white in it with the script design, so it was easy to find other “whites” to go with the paper. The first white was the gorgeous Sparkle Glimmer Paper. Once I focused on that paper, I realized that the Word Wishes Dies that I’d used in some other recent projects would be perfect with it. So out came the “Merry” and the “Christmas” dies to create my sentiment. With that pretty accent, why not use the Glimmer Paper to mat the DSP? So that’s what I did.
Embellishments were the next step. I looked at my ribbon collection, and the Silver Metallic Edged Ribbon jumped right out at me and said, “Use me!” Again, so that’s what I did! And I wrapped it around the DSP matted with the Glimmer Paper. Perfect!
I thought my final step would be to mount the whole card front onto a card base made with Night of Navy Cardstock. Not so. Once I had the card put together, I thought that a little bit of “snow” might be the perfect finish to this card. As I’m just using products from the Annual Catalog, I went looking for embellishments from that catalog that would mimic snow. Pearls! Pearl Basic Jewels specifically! I scattered several of them around the card front and again thought I was finished. Not so.
When you have a dark color, such as Night of Navy, as your card base, you need to add a light color layer inside so that you have something on which to write (well, at least so people can read it). So I added a layer of Whisper White Cardstock to the inside. I have to tell you, those naked pieces of light cardstock inside a card are just the worst. But where was I going to find a stamp to add to it. In the Colorful Seasons Stamp Set, of course! I keep forgetting about this stamp set, which has images for every season in it. Hmmm – what if I’d just started with this? OK, that’s another card. Anyway, I stamped a snowflake using Night of Navy Ink. I used stamps from that same set to add a bit of color to the envelope, too! I’m getting better at this using the envelope to stamp bit!
I hope you enjoyed seeing how you can make cards from the Annual Catalog until you can order from the Holiday Catalog – even beyond that! I can hardly wait to see what Cheryl Hamilton has to share with us on this same theme! I don’t get to see her project until we both go live on Wednesday morning. But I’m sure it will be lots of fun. Be sure to visit her blog, too!
Happy Stamping – especially for the winter holidays!
Cheryl