Stampin’ Up! Sneak Peek – Wonder of Christmas for the Happy Stampers Blog Hop

Mornin’, y’all –  welcome to another edition of the Happy Stampers Blog Hop. We have a color challenge this week – and it’s a good one. I know it stretched my creativity!  I’m bettin’ all the ladies in the group will have come up with spectacular projects, so be sure to check them all out when you get done here! And we have a new blog hopper with us today – say hey to Jaime Babarczy! 🙂

First off, here are the colors we worked with:

So – a little background on our blog hop.  We all get to see all the challenges well in advance.  Which means we should never be behind.

Well, if you know me, you know that just ain’t the case, don’t you!?  We’re supposed to provide our blog post links to all the hoppers on Tuesday of each week – by 9am Eastern, to be exact.  That’s to let everyone have all the time they need to get their projects done and their posts written.  For all the smart ones in our group who don’t wait until the night before to do their posts. (not me….)

It probably won’t surprise you to know that I’m chronically late with my link.

Were you sitting down? 😉

So this week, a minor miracle occured and I actually got my shiitake together earlier on Tuesday than I normally do.  I sat down and tried to figure out what I’d do for Thursday’s blog hop.  I was so early (early is relative!) that I even pulled out a few stamp sets and started making a card.  Versus my normal – find a stamp set, come up with a really blurry “vision” of what I could do, and then build my link.

I think I’ve also told you that a lot of my cards don’t end up like I first think they’re going to – right?  Well…here’s the first draft I did on Tuesday morning – I took it far enough to convince myself that this Wonder of Christmas stamp set and I could come to an agreement and make this color scheme work.

So on Wednesday, when I pulled up to my crafting table to make my card – that’s what I started with.  Here’s where I ended up – take a look-see:

Almost exactly the same, huh? 😉

Even while I was building this one, the design was sort of evolving in my head.  Until about half way thru, I saw how it was going to look finished – and knew it would end up being one of my favorites!

I started by heat embossing the Wonder of Christmas angel in Copper Stampin’ Emboss Powder on Crumb Cake card stock.  I colored her dress and shoes in Bermuda Bay in with my Blender Pen.  Then I brushed her dress and her wings with my Clear Wink of Stella.  Once I was happy with the coloring, I fussy cut her and set her aside to await her cue.

The card front began with a piece of the new This Christmas DSP (annual catalog).  I cut it a little bigger than I needed and tore it down to size.  Then I flicked the edges with Old Olive on a sponge.  To age the paper a bit, I lightly sponged the entire piece with Crumb Cake.  Then I SNAILd it to my Crumb Cake card base.

I cut out several Old Olive pine boughs, using my Perfect Pines Thinlits, and a few Bermuda Bay berries and leaves.  Then I dry fit everything onto my card front.

And took a picture so I could re-create it!

How many of you out there remember when we didn’t have cell phones at all, let alone ones with cameras?  I do – but it’s like a distant nightmare.  I can’t even imagine not having a cell phone anymore.  Remember pay phones?  That only took coins (not credit cards)?!? My gosh – it was like making fire with sticks!! 🙂

So then I used Multi-Purpose Liquid Glue to adhere all my pieces onto the This Christmas paper.  See?  Perfect match!

After that, it was just a matter of adding my layers.  I used two lengths of 5/8″ Burlap Ribbon, adhering them with Liquid Glue.  Over that I wound some Copper Metallic Thread, using Glue Dots to keep the loops in place.  Finally, I stuck my Wonder of Christmas angel on with a combination of Stampin’ Dimensionals and Liquid Glue.

And that was it for the card front!

On the inside, I tore another piece of This Christmas DSP down to size and repeated the Old Olive and Crumb Cake sponging.  Over that, I placed a piece of torn and lightly sponged Very Vanilla card stock.  The sentiment, from Wonder of Christmas, is stamped in Old Olive.

I adhered a couple more Pretty Pines die cuts in Old Olive and Bermuda Bay in the bottom corner, and that was it for the card!

On the front of my Crumb Cake Medium Envelope, I used the Pretty Pines die cut negatives as a stencil to sponge a couple of Old Olive pine boughs and a Bermuda Bay berry.  Then I adhered a Bermuda Bay die cut bow on top, trimming the excess with my snips…

…and I used a little more of the Crumb Cake-sponged sheet music design from the This Christmas DSP to add a custom envelope flap cover.

Et Voila!  My final result barely resembles my first draft of Tuesday morning, but I’m a lot happier with this version.  Hope you like!

Card cuts and all the products you need to make this one for yourself are at the bottom of this post…

Now that you’ve seen my card, please take a little time to visit all the Happy Stampers Team blogs today!

If you click on the Next Blog button, you’ll go right to Jari Francis’ page.  And you can just click on the names below to go direct to all the blogs!

Amy Koenders

Shelagh Freemantle

Mary Deatherage – YOU ARE HERE!

Jari Francis

Kristi Gray

Jaime Babarczy

Have fun on the Hop!

TTFN

Mary

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