Welcome to the Blog Hop!

 

Hi and welcome to the ILWS (In Love With Stamping) Retiring Blog Hop.

Just dropped by? Not sure what a Blog hop is? No worries, I’ll explain….. A blog Hop is where a group of people all join in collectively to set up a post on their blogs to go live at the same time on the same day giving you, our fabulous visitors, some pretty awesome projects as you hop from blog to blog. In a second you’ll see the details for who is before me in this blog hop and at the end of this post you’ll see the details of the next person in the Blog Hop. Hopefully you’ll make your way round everyone who was involved picking up some fabulous projects, tips and ideas along the way.

I’ll also post at the end the entire list of Blogs involved just in case a link is broken along the way and you can come back here to find the next one in the hop.

Hopefully you have joined me from the lovely Julie’s Blog?   I’ll be off blog hopping later today to check things out too. I’m so excited to see what everyone has made!
Our blog hop as you’ve probably guessed was inspired by the retiring products from our current catalogue. Now hopefully the projects that you see will inspire you to purchase those goodies that you have wanted for ages but have just not got around to purchasing, or perhaps will give you some inspiration to using that particular stamp set or papers that you have in your crafty stash but are yet to use.

Right let’s get on to projects shall we?

First up is geared around my most favourite time of the year…Christmas. I love Christmas. I love everything about Christmas. My saddest part of the holidays is when the decorations come down as it means it’s over. But until then I can make lots and lots of fabulous projects & cards.

The three projects you can see all use papers found in the Jolly Holidays Designer Series Papers. They are just gorgeous.

First up is the Origami (Kirigami) Christmas Tree Card. It’s so simple to make and so adorable! The trunk of the tree is just a piece of Chocolate chip card with some lines drawn on using the Chocolate chip marker pen.  I mounted the tree onto a Top Note die cut of Cherry Cobbler and stamped in Cherry Cobbler with the Sanded background stamp.  I just love the texture that this retiring stamp gives. Some gold brads just for that bit of bling.

                 

Next up is a very simple decoration, one that you can get the children making.

For this I used the gorgeous Jolly Holliday Designer Series Paper. All you do is start off with a square of Double sided Designer Series Papers.  Mine was 3 inches x 3 inches.   Fold diagonally corner to corner, then again to make a triangle. cut 3 lines up from one diagonal to the other BUT leave 5mm at the other side.  Open it up and alternate opening up the cut lines and glue.  If you make 5 of these you can then attach them together to make a 3D snowflake.  There are ton’s of tutorials for this on the web.

And lastly in the Christmas goodies is the paper pinecone. All you need for this is a polystyrene ball or egg, 1 sheet of 12x12 Designer series paper cut into 2” x 1” strips, some short pins (Sequin pins) and some ribbon. Oh and a thimble!!!  Believe me, you really need a thimble.

            

Moving away from Christmas are a couple of other projects for you, using retiring stamp sets.

First up is this adorable matchbook pocket calendar.

               

I just love it. Made in Chocolate Chip, So Saffron and Pretty in pink.  The stamp set used is the wonderful Simply Said.  It is so girly and just perfect for this type of project.  These are great stocking fillers, teacher or family gifts and so easy to make.

And lastly using the same colour combo as the Matchbook Diary is a lovely “We’ve Moved” card made using just the “Neighborhood” Jumbo Stampin’ wheel.

 

            

I used Basic Black to stamp the row of house onto a piece of Whisper White card, and again on to a spare piece.  I picked out one house on the spare piece, coloured it in and cut it out,  mounted it onto the other using Stampin’ Dimensionals.  A little bit of Old Olive for the grass and shrubs and mounted all this onto So Saffron and Pretty in Pink matting.  Finally mounted onto a Chocolate Chip card base.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your time on here, now off you go to the next one. Up next is the wonderful Sandra’s blog http://www.kraftybiker.blogspot.com/ 

I can not wait to see what Sandra has in store for us.

Bye for now.

Elaine x

Full Blog List -

1. AlisonP http://craftyalisoninlyon.blogspot.com/
2. Twintrouble (Erika) http://twintroublescreations.blogspot.com/
3. Lauralou http://airingcupboardstamping.blogspot.com/
4. Sarah (IOW Sarah) http://www.stampinsarahiow.blogspot.com/
5. Theresa M http://my-next-chapter.blogspot.com/
6. Rozelle (LittleMoo6) http://thepapercraftsessions.blogspot.com/
7. Valerie (valmoody) http://stampingwithval.wordpress.com/
8. EmmaH http://emma-letsstamp.blogspot.com/
9. Donna (DonnaM) http://www.head-over-heels-by-dlm.blogspot.com/
10. Julie H (The Crafty Bug http://the-crafty-bug.blogspot.com/
11. Elaine (Sassy Stamper) http://www.thesassystampers.blogspot.com/
12. Sandra (Sarnie) http://www.kraftybiker.blogspot.com/
13. Natalie http://www.natalieoshea.co.uk/blog.html
14. Kimf http://kimfeecrafter.blogspot.com/
15. CarolineSkinner http://stampinupandbranchingout.blogspot.com/
16. VickyLou http://www.vickylouscorner.blogspot.com/
17. Michelle (ShellieStamps) http://michellescraftypaper.typepad.com/
18. allyf http://www.serendipitypapercuts.blogspot.com/
19. Maggiemae http://thefineartofstampin.blogspot.com/
20. Evy C http://www.evyscraftycreations.blogspot.com/
21. Niki http://www.mygroovystampinup.blogspot.com/
22. Sarah-Jane www.cardsandacuppa.blogspot.com
23. Tina( Tina Faghy) http://littlewhitehousecrafts.blogspot.com
24. Sally (Pink Sky) http://pinkskysu.blogspot.com

Top Note with a Twist

I wanted to make a card with a different type of matting layer.  It’s very easy to just trim your cardstock to a square or rectangle but this time I wanted it to look like a frame.  I also wanted to work with a colour scheme that I don’t normally use.

So here it is……

Isn’t the frame gorgeous??  So how did I do it you ask?  Well out came my trusty and well loved Top Note die – I really, really love that shape.  Using an piece of Pale Plum cardstock I cut out the top note shape using my big shot.  Then I turned it 90 degrees, lined it up and ran it back through again. So simple!  I love it!

The centre piece is a 7 cm x 7 cm (2 ¾ inch x 2 ¾ inch) piece of Whisper White cardstock that I stamped the leaves from the Just Believe Stamp set on in Sahara Sand and Pink Pirouette.  Using a sponge dauber I rubbed around the edge of the piece in Pale Plum to soften it up.  Stick this to the Top Note die cut and added some silver brads. 

I stamped the same leaves in River Rock ink on the front of the River Rock card and mounted it on my card using Stampin Dimensionals to give it some depth.

The Birthday Wishes comes from the Occasional Quotes Level 3 stamp set and is punched out using the Modern label punch.

Back Soon

Elaine x

Gift Card holders?? – It’s a Big Shot!

 

Now come on, How many times have you bought Gift Cards for family or friends and just wished that it looked like you put more thought or effort into the gift?  I know I have.  And sometimes due to the distance we all live from our families and the cost of posting items a gift card is the best option isn’t it?

Well at a recent training event we made this fabulous gift card holder that can either be put inside (handmade) birthday card or could even be the birthday card and gift card holder!

It’s made mainly with the Big Shot top Note, various punches and embellishments like Ribbon, elasticated thread, brads and Dimensionals.

The inside had little pockets for the Gift Card….

 

If I get enough interest I'll put together a tutorial for this project for you.  Let me know.

Don’t forget you can order any of the items used here through me.

Back Soon

Elaine x