Christmas gift and tag

Part of the fun with giving gifts is to wrap them prettily. At least it is if you aren't in a hurry, and don't have too many gifts. Which usually during Christmas is never the case... But this time I managed to take some time to wrap this gift up prettily and even make a handmade tag for it. The Stampin' Up White Christmas stamp set is great to make quick and easy tags and cards. This tag was so quick to make. First I used the tag topper punch to make the tag. I then stamped the trees, the cute polar bear and the bird using Early Espresso onto Crumb Cake card and used my white gel pen to draw some snow on the trees and the ground, and some snowflakes in the air. I love the cute polar bear, and I don't care that polar bears are not supposed to be in the woods, I just love the cute scene, and will keep on using it no matter how unrealistic. 

I wrapped the present using Stampin' Up paper and added some red ribbon and a star. To finish off in style, I added a big bow from Stampin' Up Pretty Presents Designer Bows, which are ready die cut pieces you can use to assemble a bow. 

I would like to link up with the following challenges: 
Crafty Cardmakers and More - Snow 
Crafting for All Seasons - Christmas, anything but a card
Sweet Stampin' - Merry Christmas
My Time to Craft - Last Minute Christmas Makes
Challenge Up Your Life - Polka Dots
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Winter Wonderland

Card: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake
Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas, Good Greetings
Ink: Stampin' Up Early Espresso, Signo white pen
Other: Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, Pretty Presents Designer Bows, Festive Designer Kraft Paper, red and white bakers twine and red gift ribbon and star from my stash

Small Christmas cards and big thoughts

Can I please moan just a little? I've been home with a cold, and it really does my head in. Such a waste of time to not be able to contribute at work, but also not being strong enough to do anything sensible while being confined to the house. I've spent the day just sitting on the sofa/lying in bed (alternating), having checked everyone's Facebook updates, watched bad daytime TV and then finally even cleaned my email inboxes. Going all the way back to the oldest emails in my inbox (which for my Gmail seems to be 2008). Most emails were just Paypal payment confirmations or Pinterest updates, but there were long forgotten email threads from people long gone (as in not dead, just gone from my life), trips already forgotten about and research papers never published. Oh wow what a trip down memory lane. Isn't it amazing how you forget about things. 

And isn't it amazing how those messages can bring back to the surface all the emotions you went through at the time? Some emails were from a time when I was going through some stuff I rather not remember. They made me feel really anxious, in fact so badly that I had to take a break from the email sorting as I was literally (and using the word literally in it's correct sense here) starting to break into a cold sweat. Many of those email conversations have now passed through the virtual graveyard of the trash bin, and been permanently deleted! 

How different wasn't life when people still wrote real physical letters? Of course you could destroy them too, but will there be any legacy for later generations? Will all our correspondence just disappear, digital photos disintegrate back into the bytes they came from? Not that I think there is anything particularly interesting to remember from my life, but what about the much more important people? Will anyone be able to write biographies in the future? Will they just be given access to a million emails, having to sort through the adverts and spam to find the really meaningful stuff? And will anyone write meaningful stuff ever again? Like the letters my Grandma and Grandpa wrote during the war, when he was out on the front line? Will those be replaced by messages consisting of unicorn emoji, smiling emoji, poo emoji? Rant over...

Anyhow, I haven't quite felt well enough to craft today but I did make some Christmas cards earlier. It's my second batch of quick and easy mass-produced Christmas cards. They were fun to make with lots of stamping, and then a quick and easy assembly process. I started by stamping small scenes using stamps from the Stampin' Up White Christmas set, and the the white craft ink dry. I then used a brush to add some Perfect Pearls to the scene to create a bit of shimmer. I die cut part of the sentiment from gold mirri card, and stamped the other part in black to create a contrast. All that was needed was then to just mat the card front onto gold mirri card and a small, square kraft cardbase using 3D foam pads. Without too much effort I had nine cards done in no-time, three of each scene.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Shopping Our Stash - Light My Fire (starts - they are the same as suns after all...)
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - So Glossy (mirri card)
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
The Glory of Christmas - Add Glitter or Shine (mirri card)
Winter Wonderland - Anything Goes (second entry)
Christmas Cards All Year Long - Oh Christmas tree (it said make a card with a tree on it, not specifically a Christmas tree on it...)

Card: kraft card, gold mirri card
Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas, Endless Wishes
Ink: Stampin' Up Whisper White craft ink, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Lawn Fawn Merry Christmas border die, Perfect Pearls

White Christmas Tags

Today is Christmas here in Finland (we celebrate on the evening of the 24th). Today we will eat our traditional Christmas rice porridge for brunch. It's an age old tradition to put an almond in the porridge, and the one who gets the almond can make a wish for the year to come. Then it's time to relax in the Christmas sauna, and then relax your way to the Christmas eve dinner. We always focus more on the starters, salmon and herring with roe. By the time main course is served we usually only have a tiny little bit as we are stuffed from the starters. And we don't even bother with dessert, apart from munching on the chocolate Santa always brings every year. 

Should you still have access to your crafting room on Christmas unlike me this year, you could put together these quick last minute gift tags in mere minutes. These match the White Christmas cards I made earlier. I used the Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper punch to create the tags out of beige cardstock and stamped and heat embossed the images in white. To finish, I added gold baker's twine. Super quick and simple for those last minute presents.

I want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing time over the holidays and that you have loads of delicious food to enjoy with your loved ones.

I'm entering the tags in the following challenges:
Loves Rubberstamps Challenge - Anything Goes 
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Pick any previous challenge (I picked two or four legs, although I'm not sure the snowman fits in either of them...)
The Cutie Pie Challenge - Lots of cuteness on anything but a card
Vintage Stamping Challenge - A Christmas Song (I'm dreaming of a white Christmas)
Cardstock: Coloured 240 gsm card beige
Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark
Other: Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper punch, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, gold baker's twine

Christmas gift bag

I love the Stampin' Up kraft gift bags, such an easy way to quickly and prettily wrap a present by just adding some embellishments. For this bag I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake die on copper coloured cardstock for the snowflakes. I also stamped some images and made a little tag. Finally I inked a doily with some red distress ink. Quick and easy, but it looks quite elaborate. Also, the gift bags are perfect for wrapping stuff that is slightly oddly shaped and would be difficult to wrap neatly using wrapping paper. 

I'm submitting my little bag to the following challenges:
Not Just Cards - Anything Goes
Inky Chicks - Winter Wonderland
Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - Christmas is All Around
Clear it Out Challenge - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything goes with optional twist Gift packaging

Card: Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Crumb cake
Stamps: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk, Tag It and White Christmas
Ink: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango and Real Red, Tim Holtz distress ink Festive Berries
Other: Doily from my stash, Stampin' Up Chevron Tag a Bag Gift Bags, Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, Chalk Talk dies, Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake dies

Snowman tags

You can never have too many tags in the run-up to Christmas, right? And if you happen to come across a challenge that encourages your obsession to create even more tags, it's not much you can do except get busy in the craft room. The current Card Concept challenge is to create a tag or a card with tags on it, combined with snowmen or snow. I used the great colour combo over at My Favourite Things. I'm also entering my little tags over at Sweet Stampin' Christmas where the theme is Snowpeople and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where Anything goes.

I love the Stampin' Up White Christmas set, the trees are just so graceful and beautiful, and I love the way the cute little snowman is looking up to the snowflakes falling from the sky. I can see this set getting plenty of use for many more Holiday seasons. I also love making tags with the Scalloped Tag Topper punch, so easy and I like the shape of the tags. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas
Ink: Staz-On Jet Black, Stampin' Up Soft Sky
Colouring: Stampin' Write markers in Real Red, Pear Pizzazz and Smoky Slate
Other: twine from my stash, Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, Ranger Ice Stickles Crystal Ice

Northern Lights

Funnily enough, I have never seen the Northern lights, although I'm from Finland. They are primarily visible in Northern Finland, and I have only spent short holidays up there, and been unlucky in never happening upon them.

I have seen the lovely Northern Lights technique here and there in the Blogosphere though. Most recently I found this amazing card from Heidi over at Running With Scissors Stamper, one of the DT for The Friday Mashup. In the same post there is a link to this tutorial on Splitcoaststampers. Just google "northern lights" and you will find the most amazing inspiration photos. Seriously, the colours are just unbelievable! I was particularly inspired by the below photo from the National Geographic web site, which acknowledges it as "Photograph by Alaska Stock Images". 

I haven't been trying out this technique as it looked quite difficult, and I thought I wouldn't get it right. But I was so inspired by Heidi's card that I thought I would just give it a little test, so I got my Distress inks out for a play. Mostly it resulted in disaster after disaster, my fingers were black and I was losing my patience. But then somehow I managed to produce two panels which weren't completely horrible. I thought after putting all that effort in, I might as well make them into cards although they are far from perfect.

These cards were inspired mainly by the card I referenced above, and two challenges: The Friday Mashup where the theme is "It's all about weather" and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is "To the moon and back" or use something from space or the universe. 

For my first card I used the sketch over at My Favourite Things. I die cut the letters for Merry from one of the failed attempts at the northern lights, so at least the failed attempts didn't go completely to waist. I used the deer from the Stampin' Up White Christmas stamp set. I'm also entering the card at Clear it Out where anything goes, and Winter Wonderland where the theme is to Add a Sentiment.

I also made a second card using the current Freshly Made Sketch and the Lawn Fawn Critters from the Arctic die along with a DSP from Stampin' Up called Sweet Sorbet. I'm also entering this card over at Crafts for Eternity where the theme is "Furry Friends".

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, coloured 240 gsm kraft card black, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods, Stampin' Up White Christmas

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers, Pine Needles, Seedless Preserves, Worn Lipstick

DSP: Stampin' Up Sweet Sorbet

Other: Lawn Fawn dies Critters in the Arctic, Stitched Hillside Borders, Cole's ABC, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Ranger Ice Stickles Crystal Ice, Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper String, White Gel Pen

A different Christmas card

I'm very bad at using DSPs. I hoard them, I love to look at them, but I feel like I should save them for a "special occasion". How cooky is that? So when I saw that the current CASEing the Catty challenge was to make a Christmas card inspired by the Stampin' Up Autumn-Winter cattie, I knew the lovely All Is Calm speciality DSP was the way to go. The reason for this is that the only stamp set I have from the Holiday cattie is the ever so lovely White Christmas, but as I have already used it quite a bit (for example here and here) I thought something different was in order. I did use the lovely "Merry Christmas" banner from that stamp set though, and paper pieced it despite swearing before that I would never do it again.

I was inspired by the colours and the "feeling" of the picture on page 32, but unlike my other makes for this challenge, this isn't a direct CASE, I was just using the picture for inspiration. I do love the Endless Wishes stamp set with the snowflakes, but I haven't been able to justify buying it as I already have another snowflake stamp set. At first I thought I didn't like the very stylised snowflakes, but the more I see it used, the more I want it. 

Stampin' Up Autumn-Winter Catalogue page 32

I was also inspired by the last Viva La Verve sketch for the month (that is for last month of course, still trying to get to grips with November). I'm also participating in The Christmas Card Challenge where the theme this week is No Embellishments and Sweet Stampin Christmas where the theme is Snowflakes.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm White card, Stampin' Up Basic Grey card
Paper: Stampin' Up All Is Calm speciality DSP
Stamp: Stampin' Up White Christmas
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Other: Stampin' Up All is Calm Designer Washi Tape

White Christmas in kraft

The first thing I got from the Stampin' Up Holiday cattie this year was the White Christmas stamp set. It seemed to me like such a versatile set, you can do so much with it. I love the trees in the set, they are so graceful. I seem to be enamoured with tree stamps this season, with these beautiful stamps along with the Lawn Fawn Joy to the Woods trees. I love stamping them, and I love the look of them. I have seen several cards with this set stamped in white ink on kraft. I was asked to make some Christmas cards with Finnish and Swedish greetings, so I made a few different wintery scenes with the stamp set. I matted the wintery scenes onto mirri card and stamped some matching envelopes. I'm participating in the ABC Christmas Challenge where this week U is for Uncoloured. I'm also entering at Crimbo Crackers and Christmas Stamping where Anything goes this week. I'm entering the top card with the snowman in the challenge over at Christmas Card Challenges where the inspiration pic is a snowman in a snowglobe, and I thought my snowman in the snow would go well with the theme. 

Card: Craft UK kraft card, mirri card (I bought it off eBay and it came without an indication of make)
Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas, Hobbycraft Typewriter Alphabet clear stamps
Ink: Stampin' Up Whisper White craft ink

Quick and easy Christmas tags

CASEing the Catty has moved from the annual catalogue to the holiday catty and the theme for the current challenge is tags. I need to make some tags for Christmas, so I thought this was a good chance to get started. I based my tags on the funny Moose tag on page 28 but used a different stamp set for my tags. I used the White Christmas stamp set and heat embossed the images using white powder. I don't have the angled tag topper punch, so I just cut the corners off the tag and used a die from Chalk Talk to make the hole in the tag. These were super easy and quick to put together and I like the very simple look of them. If needed, these would be very easy to mass-produce. I'm also entering these over at Completely Christmas where the challenge this week is Anything Goes with the twist of Add a Tag.

From page 28 of the Stampin' Up Holiday Catalogue 2014

Card: Stampin' Up Black and Whisper white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Stampin' Up Real Red
Other: Papermania Seafoam White Embossing Powder, Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies

White Christmas in blue, green and grey

I was so excited to receive the first goodies from this years Stampin' Up Holiday Cattie. There is still so many other things I would like to get but these are a great start. I got the White Christmas Stamp Set along with the All is Calm DSP and matching washi tape. Unfortunately the washi tape is on backorder, but at least I got the other goodies to play with now. This is one of those sets that I wasn't quite sure about when I saw it in the cattie, but after seeing so many wonderful cards out there in the blogosphere, I thought it was worth adding to my collection.

This card was inspired by the Color Throwdown challenge, which seemed to be made for the All is Calm DSP. I also used the current CASE This Sketch for inspiration. Last but not least, I'm also entering the Christmas Card Challenge where the theme is Think Skinny. This is for two reasons - firstly as I was over-indulging on chocolate when I made this card so I thought I really need to think skinny thoughts to counteract, and secondly because I love the beautiful slim trees in this stamp set. 

I paper pieced the super cute bear and the tiny little banners in the sentiment (something I don't think I will be doing again in a hurry...). I took some close ups as the light wasn't optimal for photography. I was fighting a quickly setting sun in order to have at least some natural light for the photos, but the colours don't quite show up as well on the photo as they are in real life. It's depressing to think that we are getting back into that time of year when there is no chance of getting home after work, making a card AND photographing it all on the same day. I guess there's only 6 or 7 months to go until that will be possible again. Sigh!

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, grey cardstock from my stash

Paper: Stampin' Up All is Calm DSP

Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas

Ink: Stampin' Up Basic Grey, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Other: Ranger Ice Stickles Crystal Ice