Holiday Craft Escape
I made Christmas cards to send as party invitations, a tiny scrapbook, wine tags, and Christmas tags. Having quiet time to craft, without the interruptions of life, can really unleash your creativity!
When we arrived at 4:00 on Friday, we got moved in and set up our stuff. I'm seriously digging my set up this time! All of my things were spread around me in an arc, ink on the left, embellishments and adhesive in the center, and stamps and punches to the right.
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| Elizabeth and Virginia all set up! |
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| Amy, Deana, and Patience all set up! |
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| Make and Takes |
The make and takes were fabulous. The Halloween project is a match box and the Christmas project is a hot chocolate k-cup holder...with a tiny bag of marshmallows in the bottom! I have to confess that I didn't actually make mine. I was too busy doing my own thing to stop and work on the make and takes! I have all of the parts, though and will make them at home.
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| Kay's Gold Celebration |
This month I promoted to Silver Elite. I've been working my hiney off since May to achieve this promotion. And because I promoted to Silver Elite, Kay promoted to Gold (I know, right? How amazing)! She is so amazing and does so much to help us be better demos and uplines, that we decided that she needed a Golden celebration. Patience ordered this gorgeous (and delicious) cake, Audra brought flowers, I bought Kay a gold sparkly crown, and Virginia got gold plates and napkins!
She was so totally surprised! What fun!
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| Jars of Cheer Card |
I had fun using new stamp sets and fun techniques. On this card I embossed the spray of ornaments and holly and then colored it in with Stampin' Write Markers. I stamped the jars on the left and right directly on the card. The center jar was cut out and the added with dimensionals.
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| Christmas Mice Card |
I love these little Christmas mice! I borrowed this stamp set from Crystal and made this adorable card!
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| Wedding Bells are Ringing! |
This bell stamp set and coordinating punch are so versatile. In addition to Christmas phrases, there is also a Wedding sentiment. I stamped the bells and the Mr. and Mrs. in Slate Gray and punched them out. I also punched a bell from pink glimmer paper. I think that ribbon is retired, but it came on a package from our fearless leader and it just looked perfect on the card so I had to use it!
To Do List:
I needed to make about 30 spectacular cards to send out with invitations to my Holiday Classes. I knew I wanted to make a Flirty Flamingo and Real Red card, and that I wanted to make a card using the Christmas bells stamps and punch. So, I put on my creativity hat and got to work.
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| Star of Light Card |
I love this color combo. Flirty Flamingo and Real Red make my heart happy! I cut out that star using the star framelits and then very carefully folded it along the score lines to make it 3-D so it would pop off of the page. I outlined the edges of the star in gold dazzling something. The flourish behind the star is stamped in both Flirty Flamingo and Real Red.
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| Christmas Bells |
I used the Real Red Glitter embossing powder on the topmost bell. This embossing powder is absolutely gorgeous! You have to see it to believe how beautiful it is! I used the Christmas Pines stamps to make the greenery behind the bells in Old Olive. The paper behind the white is also Old Olive, a perfect pine bough color.
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| Copper and Cherry Cobbler Card |
The third card I made using the Joy star stamp set. I stamped the Snowflake in Cherry Cobbler on Very Vanilla Cardstock. The starry flourish behind the snowflake is stamped in Soft Suede. I cut out the words from the ??? thinlints set in Copper Foil paper and attached them over the snowflake. I think these are spectacularly simple.
T'was the Night Before Christmas
Christmas eve couldn't get here soon enough! Finally it arrived and the pajama party started! Here's the whole gang; obviously some people forgot their jammies!
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| The Whole Stampin' Gang |
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| All of the pajama contest peeps |
As you can see, only these six souls were brave enough to wear their Christmas pajamas at the Retreat. FYI - Kay wore hers all day!
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| Sorority photo! |
And of course we had to have a sorority, duck lips picture!
And last, but certainly not least, Kay made homemade peppermint marshmallows. I can die now.
If you get a chance to attend one of Kay's retreats, don't miss it!
Joyful Stamping,
Elizabeth
So sorry I missed this! I'm putting the next one on my calendar. Love your Flirty Flamingo & Real Red Star of Light card!!!
ReplyDeleteYou're fantastic Elizabeth. The kind gesture of your recognition and this post makes me so happy. I'm so proud of you and your thriving business and this fantastic blog! What a fantastic weekend!
ReplyDeleteI truly believe that my weekend at this retreat was the best fun that I have had in a long time. The make and takes were fabulous! There was fun and food to go with everything. Prize patrol was tremendous fun too. So glad Kay enjoys doing this for us because it gives us a chance to love and encourage each other!
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