Sale-A-Bration 2013 Sneak Peek!!!

I LOVE Christmas and all the decorations that go with it! And I'll fully admit that my Christmas tree and decor go up around December 1st, and stay up till at LEAST the end of January (somewhat embarassingly, it's often until I have to take them down to decorate for my oldest's birthday, in late February!). But, despite that, I decided that my blog must move on at the pace of the average person, and while it may be Christmas in my home still, many others have moved on... and so, I've changed my blog presence to showcase the upcoming, and very exciting, Sale-A-Bration 2013!!! Everything here, aside from the Gumball Green is from the One Big Sale-a-bration 2013, My Digital Studio disc. Ask me how to earn this MDS content, or the real hands on papers, ribbons, buttons and stamps for FREE (among others, and an adorable little punch!)

And here are a few digital cards I whipped up to show you a bit more... again, this is all from the SAB disc, except for the Gumball Green, and some basic shape punches. The one new punch is in here though (it has a coordinating stamp on one of the cards), and one of the cards has digital punches based on paper embellishments available in the SAB.

 

Shabby Chic, Fabric and Bead Knot, and Washer Combo Necklaces

For my son's three teachers, using the 3D option of the JAI Just Add Christmas challenge, I thought of trying my hand at the Washer Necklaces I'd been seeing around, and then I thought about trying the Fabric/Bead Knot ones instead. Then I decided I should combine them! I decided, instead of sewing the fabric into a tube, I'd overlap it and let the ends fray a bit for a shabby chic look. (Okay, you got me, it may have had something to do with the fact that my sewing machine is years overdue for a tune up! Which is also why the ribbon is handstitched to the fabric ends.). I used Crystal Effects for pretty much everything here... gluing the paper to the washers, covering the paper, adhering the embellishments, sticking the top washer to the bottom so they would stay aligned properly and attaching the bail to the back. (How many words are there for gluing, lol?)

As it turned out, only one necklace ended up being Christmasy, as I wanted them to match each teacher's style, so I'll just enter that one, but I'll post the pictures of the other two here as well... first the bold and festive one. I discovered that when you put rhinestones under a thick layer of Crystal Effects, they lose their cut, and look like really pretty smooth stones with just as much bling. The DSP is from the mini Paper Stack in the Fall/Winter catty, but there is an equally, dare I say MORE awesome, pack in the Spring/Summer too...

 

No, it's not uneven, that's just how it was laying kind of crooked.

And the others:

The soft and pretty one with the Crochet Trim and some more of my favorite suite ever from last year's Sale-a-Bration (although, I am quite smitten with the Sale-a-Bration DSP coming up next month ;)...

And the bright and funky one, for an equally fun teacher, using our new Pop Tops to embellish it...

Perfectly Decorated Tree

I LOVE how this Be of Good Cheer paper looks just like a decorated tree when you cut it out with the Holiday Collection framelits! Especially when you add some Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details to the dots. Also, the cute new Scallop Rectangle Clearlit, which will be awesome for framing/cutting sentiments out!

I also used some leftovers from my last Faux Linen card we did at Club, and the emboss resist with the Natural Composition DSP. Scraps and extras can come in so handy when you're in a rush (like me right now). Like the Doily I used on this card, which has been sitting in a pile of scraps for ages, because some of the holes in one spot didn't cut through. But with the right layout, I covered those holes up with the Noel tag, and what was garbage is now a centerpiece!

Anyway, for this I used the Freshly Made Sketches challenge, and again, the SUO Glitter theme and JAI's Just Add Christmas...

 

And the sketch:

A Bright Noel

The blitz is finally continuing... this one is simple but bold, with a lot of shimmer (far more than it looks like in this picture). I love how the doily looks so Christmasy here, even without altering it. This is the Red Hot Stampers sketch challenge, Just Add Ink's Just Add Christmas theme, along with Stampin' Up! Only's Season of Glitter theme (this baby is Super Smooched!)...

Here's the sketch:

Another quick and simple...

Here's another spin on the one I did last week for the Unscripted Sketches challenge, this time with the ColourQ palette...

The challenges:

First sneak peeks! Spring and Sale-a-bration!

Here's a cheerful card I whipped up with the new Sunshine & Sprinkles Designer Series Paper and Cloudy Day Textured Impressions Embossing Folder from the Spring/Summer Catalogue. Also, the center of the tag is done with the Pretty Petites stamp set and the Petite Curly Label punch, both from the Sale-a-Bration flyer. This punch will also still be available after SAB, and has more stamps in the Catty that coordinate with it!!

I used the sketch challenge from Freshly Made Sketches, and the color challenge from The Color Throwdown...

Here comes the Christmas card Blitz!!!

If there's one thing I'm great at, it's procrastinating... so last night I finally made my list of people I need to make Christmas cards for, subtracted the ones I already had made for Club and random challenges, and got started on the rest. I'm trying to keep them simple and easy, which is a challenge for me as the designing and playing is my favorite part of paper crafting. I'm not a fan of assembly lines or making multiples of cards, so one way I'm trying to speed it up is to use the same sketch for 2 or 3 cards, but change the details for each card. I'm also trying to incorporate as much of my new Spring pre-order goodies as possible, while still keeping it Christmasy. If all goes well, I'll be posting a lot this week ;) So, here we go....

This one I tried out the new Honeycomb embossing folder from the Spring catty. I used the Pals Paper Arts color scheme, the Unscripted Sketches sketch and Crazy4Challenges theme of favorite holiday stamps...

And the inspirations...