Silent Night, Longest Night

Remember that snow I was talking about yesterday, yeah. It's long gone, replaced with icky rain. Not really the kind of weather typically associated with the first day of winter, that's for sure. Happy Solstice!

This beautiful card made by Jean K is reminiscent of the Solstice for sure! Enjoy!

Supplies Used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Softly Falling Glitter

The Softly Falling embossing folder really looks like falling snow - and seems appropriate for today. If you've never used the Heat & Stick powder before, I recommend it for adhering glitter to your project (and doesn't every project require glitter!?). 

To use it, first stamp your image with VersaMark® (any craft or pigment ink will also work). Then apply Heat & Stick powder to the inked image. Shake off excess powder. Heat the image with the heat tool just until powder turns to liquid. And now the fun part: pour glitter onto the inked image, making sure that the image is coated completely. Shake off excess glitter, and then heat again briefly to set. Voilà!

Supplies Used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Warm Wishes

I'm sending out warm wishes tonight as we have (finally) hit a cold-ish day ... and it's snowing!! This card was designed by Samantha Forrest and I just love it! I love the snowshoes and the toboggan in this stamp set so much. And it's a great use of the label framelit, which I seem to have forgotten all about with all the new dies recently! Keep warm :)

Supplies Used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Silent Night

I love this stamp set - it's got to be one of my favourites from this year's Holiday Catalogue. The trees are so pretty even in blue! This was another beautiful card I received in a swap at OnStage this year. 



Supplies Used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Joyful Season

I love the way the background paper is off-kilter in this card. This is another one that I made at our Shoebox swap; it was designed by Vanessa. 

I had originally thought that she had coloured in the bird, but then realized when the supplies came my way that the bird's body is actually one of the stamps in the set! 

Supplies Used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Beautiful Birch Background

Today's card was made by Debbie Prins - by inking up the Woodlands embossing folder (with Soft Sky) before running it through the Big Shot, she was able to 'colour' the sky a nice blue, and leave those beautiful birch trees white. And lining the torn snowbanks with silver - great idea!

Supplies Used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Christmas Cheer!

This is a great super fast card made by Diane Hilborn. Its design is simple enough that it can be customized to use whichever Framelit dies you have available, and it looks sharp! The glimmer paper star just adds that bit of necessary bling :)

    

Supplies Used: 

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Merry Christmas Tree

I love how Carol Ann Steeves used Lovely as a Tree to build up her pine tree to be a lot larger than just the confines of the usual card size. Love the simplicity of this card, and how beautiful it is!

Supplies Used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Snow Way! Super Cute Swap Card

This is a super cute card I received in a swap back in November at the OnStage event in Mississauga. It was made by Julie Leblanc. You can buy these adorable stamps and framelits bundled together to save 15% :)

Supplies used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Merry & Bright - Washi Tape!

Today I have yet another card I received from a swap; this one's made by Alycia Tedford. I love how she arranged the washi tape!

Supplies Used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Joyful Christmas

Today's card is courtesy of yet another swap card I received. This one's from Patti Wright. I love the extra detail from the embossing folder!

Festival of Trees

Under the wire today to get this posted in time … and I made it! This is another card that I received in a swap this year and I love its elegant simplicity :) I'm also a fan of how the tree's ornaments line up perfectly with the tree, making it super easy to decorate. A perfect card for when you need one in a hurry ;)

Supplies Used:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Christmas Eve Swaps

It's Christmas Eve! Today's inspiration contains some more of my favourite swaps I received this year, either through a Canadian demonstrator swap I participated in, or from convention - which was so much fun for swapping!

I have just a few more things to finish up before tomorrow - including making Christmas crackers for dinner; assuming I have them done in time, I'll take pics to share ;) Hope you're all done all your last minute things and that you're able to enjoy the holiday!

Tree Step Card

This card was one I had made for a swap - I think the steps give it just that extra bit of oomph and bring it to the next level - it's an excellent one to have on display :) I love this tree and am sad that this set retired last year. It's one of my favourites!

Supplies used -
Stamps: Snow Swirled (retired)
Ink: Lucky Limeade (retired)
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper (retired)
Embellishments: Cherry Cobbler 1/2 Inch Seam Binding Ribbon, Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents

Christmas Swap Cards

Today's card is brought to you by Laura Freund; this was a card that Laura made for a swap I participated in this past summer. Isn't it fantastic?! 

This is one of the many reasons I like to participate in swaps - I get to see some really neat designs with products that I wouldn't have seen or thought of otherwise.

Supplies used - 
Stamps: Color Me Christmas, Oh Goodie!, Petite Pairs

Paper: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler cardstock, Season Of Style Designer Series Paper Stack

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Jet Black StazOn, Versamark Pad

Markers: Real Red, Basic Black, Blushing Bride, Blush Blossom and Tempting Turquoise (retired)

Tools: Circle card Thinlits Die, Scallop Edge Border Punch, 2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch, 1" Square Punch, 2-3/8 Inch Scallop Circle Punch

Other: Iridescent Ice Stampin' Embossing Powder, Old Olive Simply Styled Embellishments

Having fun at Convention!

We're having a great time at Convention so far!  It's been jam packed with inspiration, swaps and so much more. Yesterday after a delicious breakfast with my upline, we took a beautiful drive through the mountains and then took a tour of the warehouse in Riverton.

In the opening session yesterday, we all received an awesome Convention bag filled with goodies, and there were double the Prize Patrols compared to other years. This is my first Convention, so I have nothing to compare it to. Seeing the sea of white Conventions shirts and bags streaming out of the Opening session was overwhelming!

And of course you want to see the swaps I've received so far - I'm nearly out of the ones I'm giving away - I should've made more!!

Today was fantastic as well and we got to see some really great new products that will be released in the next few weeks! If you don't have a Big Shot yet, you're going to want to get one!! And, if you've ever dreamed of having a stamp that you've designed yourself ... stay tuned!!

The new catalogue is here!

The new catalogue is here!  There are some really new cool products in it that I can't wait to share with you - and of course, some old favourites are still kicking around too.  I'm busy with swaps to get my samples ready to display the new products and I'm having fun!  Stay tuned for details of the new ribbon shares too - can anyone say chevron!!

So many swapped cards!

Just a few short weeks ago, I had mailed off the swaps I had completed and was awaiting some beautiful cards created by demonstrators across the country showcasing many of the new stamp sets in the 2012-2013 catalogue.

Yesterday I had a surprise in the mail:  the returned cards have arrived!!

I can't wait to go through them all (around 100 cards!) to get some ideas to share with you in the weeks to come.  Hope you're doing something crafty today!

..am

Kindness Matters swap card

For your viewing pleasure today - a card made for one of my recent swaps.  This one features the set 'Kindness Matters'.  When I made it, I did the embossing of the oval first and then ran it through the Big Shot again to do the trim at the bottom with the framelit.  I would recommend doing it in the opposite order, as some of the embossing got flattened when it went through the Big Shot a second time.  

Stamps: Kindness Matters
Ink: Early Espresso
Paper: Very Vanilla
Tools: Designer Frames Embossing Folder, Finishing Touches Edgelits
Embellishments: Soft Suede Taffeta Ribbon, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals

100 cards ...

101 cards to be exact! I haven't mentioned my swap obsession recently as I've been very busy working hard at completing the swaps I've signed up for ... I'm happy to report they have been mailed to the hostess and I'm currently stalking my mailbox waiting for all kinds of beautiful cards to arrive!

Here they are all packed up and ready to be mailed .. 

I will be sure to share the cards I created over the next few weeks ... as well as the ones I receive back!