Stampin' Up Class - Christmas Crafts

A few weeks ago, when I was back in Bristol visiting my parents, my mum asked me if I was interested in going to a Stampin' Up Class with her friend Belinda (a Stampin' Up demonstrator). I love Stampin' Up products (and don't think I'll ever have enough, though I picked up a few bargains on a Facebook sale group a few days ago), so I immediately jumped at the chance. Over the course of the evening we made 4 christmas items all produced solely using Stampin' Up products :)

Gift Box (made using a Big Shot Die)

For this box the first step was to create our own patterned card. We used two squares of green card and stamped snowflakes on them in white (to make it uniform I followed a grid pattern so that both sheets were the same). The Big Shot die was used to cut out the same shape from each piece of card, it was then simple to attach the two pieces together to form the box (and we had left over scraps, which I always love to have, though my available crafting space would disagree). All that was left to do was to decorate the tag and attach it to the box. The circle with the snowflake is raised using 3D foam, with my love of bling I couldn't resist adding some to the centre of the snowflake! Two sentiment stamps were used to stamp merry and bright in Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler (coincidentally two inks that I bought in my bargain finds on facebook). Finally I attached the tag using a sparkly silver ribbon.

Gift Box (made using the Stampin' Up box board (there is also the same box board produced by We R Memory Keepers)

This box was made using the new box board, at first I found this board very intimidating to use and got very confused with how to cut and score the box. After a simple demonstration and a bit of practice I had mastered it (and remember that we only had 2 hours to complete all 4 projects). Once I had punched parts out and scored my card (all using the board), the construction was fairly simple. I mounted some co-ordinating patterned paper on white card and then mounted it on the front of the box and then tied the box together using both ribbon and silver threaded twine. Personally I would decorate this box further (patterned paper on each side and maybe a sentiment tag for example) but I do understand that in order for a class to make money you will only be given a certain amount of materials for your money. The board is absolutely fantastic (and my Mum bought me one a week ago which I still need to play with, thanks Mum!) and can make lots of different boxes of all different shapes and sizes, and not just in the sizes shown on the board, after a bit of practice you can figure out your own measurements.

The Gift Boxes

Simple Christmas Card

Truthfully I don't like this card, I cannot get straight in my mind what I would do differently but I do know that it needs a lot of improvement in design.  Most of the card was already trimmed to size for us. First we stamped the sentiment 'A very merry everything to you and yours' (too wordy a sentiment in my opinion) and punched it out using a Stampin' Up tag punch, there is supposed to be a white border around the sentiment but my hand slipped (oops!) as I was punching it out and left my border wonky, I wasn't happy with this at all, so I cut all the white off (using my lovely new X cut scissors, they are brilliant!). In the class sample a white circle was stuck to the grey card but I decided to make it differently and punch a circle in the grey so that the white would show through. The sentiment was stuck to a green backing which was cut using the Big Shot and a Stampin' Up die (I did say that everything provided and used in the class was Stampin' Up, scissors and adhesives aside as we had to bring our own, they are trying to sell their products after all!). The flower is the only part of the card that I actually like and will be trying to replicate again, the leaves were cut once again on the Big Shot, we then punched out 4 flowers, sprayed them liberally with water and screwed them up, they were then layered together, attached with a brad and left to dry before attaching it to the card (look out for more projects using these flowers at some point in the future).

More Complicated Christmas Card

I found this card slightly more challenging - using an embossing folder (I hate trying to get them lined up straight and wish the piece of card had been marginally wider as part of the design on each side got chopped off) and it was the first time I had attempted two step stamping. The embossing was the first step. Next, I used a small piece of white card to stamp the Christmas tree in green and then to add the red 'baubles'. This stamp has a co-ordinating punch (and I am very jealous that my mum has ordered the bundle of the two, they may be 'borrowed' next time I go home), so I punched the tree from the centre of the brown circle (using a post it punched tree as a guide) of card and then layered the two together. After sticking this to the embossed piece of card (which was unfortunately barely big enough to stick the circle too without covering part of the design - I'll shut up about this issue now!), I attached a gold star to the top of the tree and stuck two snowflakes on for ornamental purposes). The sentiment ('A merry little wish') was stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink (I love love this colour) and I hand cut the white and red card to look as above, as a finishing flourish I tied a bow in red and white 'floss' and attached it to my card. Not shown is the design inside - a sentiment stamped in Cherry Cobbler and a two-step Christmas tree in the lower right hand corner.

The Christmas Cards

The four items produced at the class (an evening class lasting just 2 hours!)

Thanks for reading, apologies for a lengthy post (I hope you enjoyed it and found it informative), please follow me and visit again soon,

- Rebecca