A Christmas Craft Fair

Christmas Ornaments I Love To Make

It's been a while since I added anything to my blog, and after many months I'm ready to get back to sharing with you all. 

The event that took up so much of my time at the end of last year, was preparing for The Canberra Christmas Craft Fair. My friend and fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator Lorraine Spencer really enjoy this event as the other stall holders are so friendly and the organisers are awesome. We spend time making ornaments and Christmas gifts to sell to customers. Some want them for their personal use and others find just the right thing for work team gifts or stocking stuffers. We try to have a variety on offer so there is something for everyone. 

The ornaments at the top of the post are my staple. I cannot imagine how many of these I've made over the years, but it must be in the thousands. They sell so well and are quite relaxing to make. They also are a great way to use up your Designer Series Papers that you just had to buy and then didn't want to use! 

I have a video that shows you how to make these, but if you live locally and would like a class, then I'm happy to arrange that for you. 

Another ornament that I enjoy making is the Shaker Ornament.

These ornaments indulge my love of watercoloring. Simply stamp the image on a pre-cut 2 and1/2 inch circle of Basic White A4 using a permanent ink such as Stazon Jet Black, then colour with Water Painters and your chosen colours. Use any small sequins or snowflakes as the shaking medium, then cover with a Snow Globe Shaker Dome. (now retired from SU but I'm sure you can find them on-line somewhere) I cut the trim using the SU Snow Globe dies and the ornament was backed with a 2 and 1/2 inch glitter circle. these were very popular lat Christmas. 

Another of the ornaments that I always enjoy making are the Christmas ornaments using Designer Series Papers. These were featured in the Holiday Mini Catalogue in 2012 - it just shows you how timeless some of our paper craft can be, and because of the layers of glue used, these ornaments are sturdy and last a long time.

The framelits used are from the Ornaments Keepsakes stamps, but I've also made these using the Gleaming Ornaments 2 pack punch set. They are a little smaller but still beautiful.

I hope I've inspired you to make some of your own Christmas ornaments. It is never too early to get started and already we are in the 4th month of the year. I can't believe how fast the year is flying by. 

I would love you to go to my Stampin' Up! Demonstrator website if you want to look further at what is in the current catalogues. You'll also see an on-line version of the new 2024 - 25 Annual Catalogue and lists of the retiring products. There may be something you've been holding off on getting, so do check to make sure you don't miss out.

Until next post,

Best Wishes and Happy Crafting

Ann Craig

Freshly Brewed Projects Blog Hop - Mini Catalogue Sneak Peek

Hello again, and welcome to this week's Freshly Brewed Projects Blog Hop. Today we are giving you a sneak peek at some of the lovely items from the Mini Catalogue that will be available to you on August 4.

 I have chosen to show you some ideas using the Poinsettia Place Suite on page 15 of the catalogue. This was the first set that caught my eye as we do have Poinsettia's in Australia and they feature in many of our Christmas decorations. 
 There is a set of 18 dies that go with the stamps - some cutting and some embossing.

The first of my cards features a large poinsettia made up of  2 stamped and embossed images. The embossing is copper, but would look equally good in gold.

I've layered the 2 sets of petals with a dimensional and added one of the stunning Beaded Pearls embellishments in the centre.
The leaves  are made with Soft Sea Foam card and the card base and background are Crumb Cake spattered lightly with Early Espresso ink.

This is a fun, quick card to make and I think it represents our Southern Hemisphere Christmas quite well.  

The second card uses the beautiful Plush Poinsettia Specialty Papers along with 3.8cm Metallic Mesh Ribbon (p. 53) 
The Poinsettia Specialty Paper is so beautiful and the different plush patterns on vellum, combine together so well. 

I have combined 2 patterns and matted them with Cherry Cobbler card. The branches are die cut in Mossy Meadow and the double layer of Metallic Mesh Ribbon is scrunched then tied with some silver cord.

I hope this little sneak peek has encouraged you to shop with Stampin' Up! when the catalogue is launched on August 4. 
The catalogue covers a number of festivities including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Autumn. So there is something for everyone.  Come back to visit me soon to see lots more examples of how to use the products.

Now it is time to follow the blog hop to see what other creative ideas might inspire you. You are with me - Ann Craig, so you can hop to any of the demonstrators on the list in any order you wish.

Enjoy the inspiration!

·       Narelle Fasulo

·       Libby Dyson

·       Ann Craig

·       Debbie Yeomans

 

I hope all my readers are staying safe and taking care of themselves and their families. 
Crafting can be a wonderful family time and equally great individual time, so it satisfies all.

Best Wishes.

Shop on-line for these products after August 4, or contact me to place an order for you.

Canberra Christmas Markets

Hello!

I, along with a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator friend attend 2 major Markets a year. We make this an investment for our businesses and not only work very hard, but also have loads of fun doing the markets.

This year for the first time we attended the Canberra Christmas Market held out at EPIC. 

We set up our stall on the Friday evening, got to know the other stall holders and felt quite pleased with our display, knowing that it would look even better the following day when we turned on our Christmas lights. 

There was a slight disruption to our preparations as we both spent a couple of weeks in November visiting the USA. However our flying time was not put to waste as we crafted as we flew. This generated quite a bit of interest from the crew and other passengers!

Our trip was for a Stampin' Up! On Stage Live Event in Salt Lake City and as we have friends living there, we  decided it was a good idea to go for a visit. Such a lovely time visiting, but not such good timing for market preparation. Next year we will try to be finished before we go to the big 30 year celebrations for Stampin' Up!

Back to our Market stall.........

Pictures tell the best story so here are a few snaps of our stall and products. We specialise in Christmas decorations, small Secret Santa Gifts, stocking fillers and generally anything pretty. 

Lots of glitter is used and we constantly assess what is selling well and try to work out why. 

 Ann and Lorraine in front of our stall

Christmas ball ornaments

 

 Great gifts for co-workers

 Doves and flowers

 Generating interest for our classes

 Old favourites (above and below)

Lorraine's smaller ornaments are very popular

Do you like what you see and think you'd like to earn some extra income from stamping?  

If you are looking for a hobby, a part or full time job, working from home and at your own pace, AND you love craft, then you should consider doing what I do. It is fun and rewarding.

  See more information on my website or contact me with questions you may have. 

There is a wonderful special offer to join Stampin' Up! starting January 2018.

Contact me for details

or

Join On-line

ORDER STAMPIN' UP! PRODUCTS ON-LINE 

You might be interested to know about my monthly Host Code. It works like this:

I post a Host code on my blog and you simply enter that code on your on-line order to be in the running to win Host Benefits for the month. 

This is a random selection from all my on-line orders. 

It costs nothing to use the code. 

Your goods are still shipped to you immediately after your order is processed

I will notify you by email if you are the lucky winner. 

Best Wishes and Happy Crafting

 

Night in Bethlehem - Stampin Up card by Ann Craig

 Night In Bethlehem is a lovely Christmas stamp set available in the new Stampin' Up!® Holiday Catalogue. It offers a variety of ways that it can be used, from easy stamp to card all the way to embossing and layering.

These are some samples you'll find in the catalogue on page 26. Take a look at all the beautiful Christmas, Halloween and Autumn themed stamp sets, bundles and accessories. Stampin' Up! is well known for the offering of coordinated products and you'll find some beautiful suits in this catalogue.

The Stamp set comes with a set of Edgelits in a bundle and if you purchase them together you'll save 10% on the price. The Edgelits make cutting out the images so quick and easy and they add a wonderful dimension to your cards.

 I chose to do 4 different samples in my class this week - today I'll show you one that involves both heat and dry embossing and the use of some of the accessories that are available.

The card base is Thick Whisper White. The image stamping is done with Archival Basic Black ink onto Whisper White card. This is then cut out with the 2nd largest circle from the Stitched Shapes Framelits and matted onto a Gold Doily. A little gold thread was scrunched up behind the image that has been raised on Dimensionals. To achieve the gold and white patterned texture, I patted Versa Mark ink directly onto the  Embossing Folder, inserted some Whisper White and ran it through the Big Shot. I then sprinkled it with Gold Embossing Powder and heat set it with the heat tool. I didn't have space for any of the greetings from this set so I found my favourite script and stamped "Merry Christmas" below. A couple of Gold Faceted Gems complete the card.

This was a fun card to make and it did not take a lot of time for the rich result.
You'll find a list of the products used  at the end of the post. You are most welcome to shop online by selecting any of the products - they will take you directly to my on-line store.

Check back tomorrow to see more examples made with this versatile set.

Until then,

Happy Crafting

Product List

Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock

[140490]

$12.25

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

$15.75

Basic Black A4 Card Stock

[121688]

$14.00

Night In Bethlehem Clear-Mount Bundle

[146044]

$83.50

Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies

[145372]

$50.00

Foil Snowflakes

[144642]

$10.00

Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad

[140931]

$12.25

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$15.00

Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder

[109129]

$8.75

Gold Faceted Gems

[144141]

$8.75

Final Days of Weekly Deals from Stampin Up

Many of you have been enjoying the savings from the Weekly Deals offered by Stampin' Up!® , but sadly it is time for them to finish.

There are just 2 more offerings and there are lots of products in those offerings. This week April 6 - 12 have some excellent stamp sets, so I thought I'd just show you a couple of samples I made for a class this week to help you envisage how useful they can be. 

I've chosen 2 Christmas sets: 

Reason for the Season

and

Holly Jolly Greetings.

I chose these sets because they are really versatile and at such a good price, you may decide you need them too!

Images from both sets can be used to stamp randomly on your paper, creating lovely backgrounds for a simple Christmas Card.

We'll start with the Reason for the Season set.

It is photopolymer so very easy to place the stamps in the 2 step stamping process.

 I stamped the outline image in Archival Black Ink, then stamped  real red for the petals and Pear Pizzazz for the leaves.

I really like how this gives a "casual" feel to the images as they are not meant to line up perfectly.

I added a little bling - because I just cannot do Christmas without bling - using a 2-way glue pen and some Stampin' Up! Gold Glitter.

The next card is made from the snowflake image from the Holly Jolly Greetings stamp set.

I made the background with my brayer, (Pear Pizzazz) ensured it was really dry then randomly stamped  the snowflake images using Versamark, over the background. I heat embossed with Gold Embossing Powder

I cut the image into 3 equal parts, matted it onto Gold foil and then added a greeting (not from this set) 

I tried this technique in a few colours and matted them differently. Here is one using cherry Cobbler.

These cards are really quick to make a bundle of, and show just one way you can use these versatile stamp sets

If you would like to order them you will need to be quick. Use the Hostess code when ordering on-line via my website. The code for this week is: CJHFWTPN
You will be entered into a draw to win additional product if you use the code - Good Luck!
These sets are on special until April 12.

If you prefer you can email your order to me.

Until Next Time

Happy Crafting

Grand Vacation Achievers Blog Hop - Bring On the Bling

Welcome to the Stampin' Up! Grand Vacation Achievers Blog Hop for December - Bring On The Bling. 

With only a couple of days until Christmas day, we in Australia are having some amazingly hot weather. Strangely enough, I still like making Northern Hemisphere inspired ornaments for Christmas and today's project is inspired by a sample in the Handmade For The Season Catalogue.

Today I've just wrapped up the Christmas season of market stalls so it is time to show you my project which proved to be very popular at the markets. I've added my own twist to these great ornaments and I really enjoy making them. I made over 30 this week! They are versatile as you can make them in many different sizes, and I love that I can use up spare Designer Series Papers left over from other projects. 

The ornaments can be made to look old fashioned - one customer today said they reminded her of the Victorian Era, or they can be modern and edgy - simply choose papers to create the style you want.

 

This photo shows the variety of papers that I found work well. The Designer Series Paper Stacks patterns work really well together and when you adhere them randomly together, they give you a type of Harlequin style that is really fun. I've used left over bits of old styles together with some of the current patterns. 

Not much bling on these?  Just look at the next photos!

That is the Stampin' Up! fine gold glitter on each edge. This finish is achieved by applying 2-Way Glue Pen to all the edges, then rolling the ball in a tub of the glitter. Love it!  I used both the silver and gold glitter depending on the colour scheme of each bauble.

Another easy way to coordinate patterns is to use both sides of the one sheet of paper. Fold them alternately so the different pattern is stacked alternately in the preliminary stages of making the ornaments. This method will give you one pattern at the top of the ornament, and the other pattern at the bottom of the ornament. 

There are so many different ways you can construct these, leading to a nice surprise each time you try something new.

I hope you enjoy my project, but don't forget to follow the blog hop through and see all the wonderfully creative ideas from some of the top Stampin' Up! demonstrators in the world. You are at Ann Craig's blog now: so just click on the next name in the list below and you can move to the next person.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas holiday period,  filled with family, friends, peace and love.

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Hand Made Photo Album Keepsakes

Today I have some photos of a variety of Albums I've been making using Stampin' Up! Designer Series Papers and card stock.

I've had a lot of requests to teach this method at classes and have been busy doing this for the last couple of weeks, as I have a limit of 4 participants in each class. We need plenty of room to spread out so I think one table each is enough!

Here are some photos of the different types of Album you can make.

Add caption

Your class fee covers:
1 full pack of Designer Series Paper
1 full pack of coordinating colour A4 cardstock
1 Multipurpose Glue
Additional embellishments
Magnets
Additional neutral card stock for stamping and matting
Use of my stamp collection
Written instructions to take home.

If you would like to organise a group to complete one of these albums you can contact me