Christmas Cards « Nicole Stalker

Merry Christmas.

I know it’s only June but I can’t believe how quick this year has gone so before too long it will be Christmas.

For the month of June I have been asked to be a Guest Designer over on Just Add Ink with this week being my first.

When I received the Sketch for this week’s Just Add Ink Challenge I wasn’t too sure what I was going to create. I was looking through the IB&C to decide on a stamp set, initially thinking of flowers as I always do, but then I decided to turn the sketch upside down and knew it had to be a Christmas card.

Here’s this weeks sketch JAI #70 (the right way up….lol)

And this is what I created.

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Tree Trimmings, Snow Swirled
Card: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Jolly Holiday DSP
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive inkpads, Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker
Accessories: Big Shot, Scallop Circle die, Circle Scissor Plus & Glass Mat, Basic Jewels – Rhinestones, Old Olive 1/8” Taffeta ribbon, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Glue Stick.

For the inside of the card I kept with the same layering and just added the Christmas verse.

So there’s my first weeks’ creation. It’s very simple but I’m happy with it. What do you think? Have I inspired you to start some Christmas stamping?

Till next time….

Secret Santa Part 4

Well this is my last post for Secret Santa and I’ll be sharing what I made and bought to give to Marelle.

First up is the initial presentation. The Gift Bag.

I’ve decorated a standard white paper bag using some Cherry Cobbler Cardstock and Jolly Holiday DSP on both sides of the bag. I’ve then cut out ‘Merry Christmas Marelle’ using some Jolly Holiday DSP, Timeless Type Junior Alphabet Die and of course my Big Shot which appears on the front along with a line of Basic Jewel – Rhinestones. All girls love bling! Don’t they??

What’s inside the bag??

Lots of goodies.

First item out of the bag is a slider which contained one of Marelle’s favourite sweets – Peanut Brittle. It’s actually one of mine too although I was good and only purchased some for Marelle.

Next item out of the bag was this.

I’ve been seeing a lot of these Star boxes around the blogging world lately and thought it would make a lovely addition to my gifts for Marelle. The box is one of Lauren Meaders wonderful tutorial creations.

What’s inside?

Another of Marelle’s favourite sweets – Toffees. Well I hope they are okay as Marelle did say ‘hard’ toffees and these are English Toffees and aren’t exactly hard.

The third item out of the bag was these little hexagonal boxes which are a tutorial from DigiChick.

Inside these boxes was my Stampin’ Up product purchases.

One contains a pack of Brights Brads and the other a pack of Brights Buttons.

And the final gift in the bag was……

One of my Tissue Box covers. I was thrilled with how this one turned out. The colours are just gorgeous and better still Marelle loved it too.

I was asked by numerous fellow team members if I have a tutorial for my Tissue Box Covers and the answer at the moment is NO but I do have intentions of doing one up. I’m not sure if it will be before Christmas though as I have more end of school things on this week, plus a holiday before Christmas, but you never know I might get enough spare time to get it done and share with you all. When it’s done it will appear in my sidebar with the other tutorials so just keep watch. I’ll also post a brief message to let you know it’s ready for those that regularly visit or follow.

One last photo of all the items together.

Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think of my gifts for Marelle.

Till next time….

Secret Santa Part 3

Now to share the items I made for my partner who was none other than our fabulous Team Leader, Marelle Taylor.

Here is the card I sent her earlier in the week.

Actually to tell you the truth this isn’t her card but one very similar. I went and popped hers into the Post Box only to realise that I didn’t take a picture beforehand so came home and whipped up another while I remembered what it was like……lol

I decorated the inside too with some of that gorgeous Cherry Cobbler paper from the Jolly Holiday DSP pack.

Decorating the inside just makes the card that much nicer and of course ties it all together.

Tomorrow I’ll share the gifts Marelle received at our Team dinner.

Till then…..

Secret Santa Part 1

I can finally come on and share some things with you. I’ve decided to split them over a few days posts so hopefully I’ll have some more to show you by then.

Each year at our Stampin’ Up team have a Christmas Dinner and we also run a Secret Santa swap. The swap involves creating a gift for your partner, which includes some Stampin’ Up product, and also to send them a card prior to the evening.

I’m just going to share the lovely card that my Secret Santa sent to me today and this is it.

There are so many things about this card that I love.

The use of Satin Ribbon is a big one. I just love this ribbon but for those that visit my blog regularly you might have guessed that already.

The Scallop Trim border punch. This punch is just that bit more delicate looking than the Scallop Edge Punch.

The Jolly Holiday DSP. Now who doesn’t love this. The colour combination of Cherry Cobber (or should I say Kerry Cobbler – little joke from last night….lol), Old Olive and Very Vanilla is just gorgeous together and add some Crumb Cake to the mix and well what more can I say.

Lastly, but by no means the least is the use of the Snow Swirled stamp set with some Basic Jewel Rhinestones just tops the whole card off.

Now I loved this card so much I ended up CASING it, with just a little adaption/omission, for my last Christmas Stamp-A-Stack for the year as well as for a good percentage of my personal Christmas Cards.

Here is my adapted version.

I’ve omitted the bow as I thought that would be too fiddly for bulk production and in it’s place I’ve added a few more stamped images. This version is so quick to put together once you have everything cut and punched.

I’ve also decorated the inside of the card like my Secret Santa had.

Thank you again Secret Santa (I’ll name her in my next post) for your lovely card and inspiration.

Till next time….

World Card Making Day

Yesterday I held my annual World Card Making Day event. This year I focused the day on ‘Christmas’. I know it’s still 82 more sleeps till Christmas but what better time to make a start (if you haven’t already) on those Christmas cards so you have them all done in time.

Everyone who attended yesterday made 5 Christmas Cards with an option to make more for an additional cost. I made sure the cards were reasonably simple so everyone could make them at their leisure rather than have to sit through a demonstration of each and then have to wait on things to make their card. This also meant everyone didn’t have to stay for the whole 4 hours either but come and go as they please. All the cards used different colours and stamp sets too with none of them being a traditional ‘green & red’ variety. Stampin’ Up’s new Colour Coach and wonderful new Colour Collections made this so easy to do.

Card 1. For this card I used a Clean & Simple Sketch #109 although I used the colour coach to help with the selection it’s not an actual colour coach combination. As the new Colour Coach has a sample of every colour on one side you can quite easily put colour together to see what they will look like. I know this card does have a ‘green & red’ in it but it’s not the traditional green & red colours I would think most of us associate with Christmas.

and created this

Supplies:
Stamp set: Season of Joy
Card: Riding Hood Red, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla
Inks: Wild Wasabi, Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Scallop Trim Border Punch.

Card 2. This card is a Colour Coach combination. I’m really liking the new In Colour Pear Pizzazz so I went with the Sweet Set option.

This set is a new one to me as I hadn’t purchased it from the IB&C last year. I’m looking forwards to using it a bit more before the year is out.

Supplies:
Stamp set: Christmas Classics
Card: Pear Pizzazz, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Whisper White
Inks: Pear Pizzazz, More Mustard & Cajun Craze Stampin’ Write Markers

Card 3. This card was CASED from Karen Graff-Povis who created this in 2009. I’ve changed the colours so they are current almost using a Colour Coach combination but I substituted the Pretty In Pink for Crumb Cake. This card was a favourite among everyone.

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Snow Swirled, Dasher
Card: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark, Early Espresso, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Rich Razzleberry 1/4” Grosgrain ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Card 4. This card was CASED from Dawn Olchefske but again I’ve changed out the colours using the Colour Coach. This time I’ve gone with the Creative Combination for Elegant Eggplant.

Supplies:
Stamp sets: Delightful Decorations, Contempo Christmas
Card: Garden Green, Whisper White
Inks: Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard
Accessories: Whisper White 1/4” Grosgrain ribbon, Big Shot Movers & Shapers + Holiday Ornaments, Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions Folder, Ornament Punch, Basic Jewels – Rhinestones, Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Card 5. This card uses another Colour Coach combination and this times it’s the Sweet Set combination for Soft Suede.

You can’t really tell from the picture but the reindeers noses have some glitter (sparkle) on them.

Supplies:
Stamp set: Sparkly & Bright
Card: Baja Breeze, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
Inks: Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler inkpads, Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Write Marker
Accessories: Scallop Trim Border Punch, Two-Way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds.

Each person that attended also took home a couple of gifts from me along with a copy of the new IB&C or if they already had one they selected an inkpad. The day had a cost of $15 to attend.

One of the gifts they took home was a little Christmas box made using the new Box #2 Big Shot die.

Inside the boxes were some Christmas lollies.

These boxes are so easy to make and only need 1 little strip of sticky strip and the rest all folds together. You can whip them up in no time.

The other gift everyone received was one of these…..

I’d made up lots of these all in different colours and hung them on my Stampin’ Up card tree. One of my friends that attended said she wanted one of those…. The whole thing she was talking about…..lol

This is what they all looked like.