Classic Holiday Inspirations...
September 13, 2016
Good morning and welcome to group post day #2 and the fourth day overall in the September Papertrey Ink countdown! We have some really sweet holiday products to share with you today that have a bit of a nostalgic vibe to them.
What is it about Christmas and the holidays that make us feel a little nostalgic? I have many fond childhood holiday memories. Every Christmas Eve we would gather at our little white church for the Sunday School Christmas program. It was easily my favorite night of the year. New dress (unless I nagged my mom enough and she would let me wear it a Sunday or two before Christmas), new shoes, curled hair, the little butterflies in my stomach about getting up to say my part, and even more excitement just thinking about what might be wrapped up under Grandma's tree after the program. Afterwards, my parents would inevitably make us ride around town to look at the Christmas lights so Grandma would have a little time to get the last bits of food and gifts ready. Torture!!
Speaking of Grandma and gifts, my Grandma would shop ALL year for Christmas, collecting things for each family member, putting them in baskets she had for each of us. It was her absolute favorite thing to do. Anyone remember Kmart Blue Light Specials? She lived for those and you'd better get out of her way! ha! We would all gather at her house after the program...ALL of use being a whopping 13 people across four generations. I come from a very small, close family and Christmas Eve was the highlight of the year...so many memories of fun and laughter. I have such wonderful memories of Christmas as a child, and I hope that my children do as well...we have developed some of our own traditions over the years, although different from my childhood ones, I hope they look back on them as fondly when they're older as I do.
But, enough with the stroll down memory lane and now we'd better move on to the real reason you stopped by today! New products and projects! There are two main sets being showcased today, the first is Christmas Critters, designed by Nichole. It's filled with the most adorable little mice, along with lots of different accessories for them. There is also a coordinating $5 sentiment set.
The other set being introduced today is my Winter Village set. The set features three different buildings - two houses and a church - and lots of different accessories so you can build all kinds of pretty winter scenes. This one is so fun to play with!
These new stamps and dies, along with anything else I mention as "new" in today's post will be available for purchase beginning at 10pm Eastern on September 15th from the Papertrey Ink website.
Ready for some projects? First up is a card using the new Christmas Critters set. Ahh! These little guys are cute! I hate real mice, but I seem to have a thing for fake mice of all kinds. :-) I created a stack of mice, working together to decorate one of the trees from the O'Tannenbaum stamp set that was released last year. I curved the tree on my block before stamping for a fun touch. The mice were stamped with Soft Stone, sponged with a bit of Smokey Shadow on the bottom edges and tails. The ears were done with Soft Stone and Pale Peony.
The top two mice are holding some of the small accessories from the new Dress Up Dolls: Elves set. The sentiment is from the new Holiday Swoosh set. For the background, I stamped some of the snow clusters from the Christmas Critters set with Versamark ink and heat embossed them with white powder. Then I sponged some Spring Rain and Blueberry Sky inks on top.
Supplies not linked, but available on September 15th from Papertrey Ink: Christmas Critters stamp set and coordinating dies, Holiday Swoosh stamp set and coordinating dies, Dress Up Dolls: Elves stamp set and coordinating dies.
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Now for a few Winter Village projects! I snuck a couple of peeks of this set in my posts the last couple of days. I've had so much fun playing with this one. For this card I used all three of the different buildings in the set to create a scene that fills an entire card front. This was the card I had in my head when I designed the set and I couldn't wait to actually get to bring the idea to life. I started with a panel of watercolor paper and added just a bit of pale blue watercoloring using a Spring Rain reinker. I diecut and stamped all three buildings using Sweet Blush, Pale Peony, Berry Sorbet, and Pure Poppy for the buildings, and Soft Stone and Smokey Shadow for the rooftops.
I started building my scene by first deciding where to put the buildings, then filling in with all of the little details...trees, fences, the snowy road, skating pond and more. Each of the different buildings also has a small die in the coordinating die collection which will cut snowdrifts that fit perfectly on each of the rooftops. I added some glitter to those as well as the trees. There is even smoke to add to the chimneys. The fonts I selected for the set fit nicely with the vintage look and remind me of something you might find on a vintage holiday card.
Supplies not linked, but available on September 15th from Papertrey Ink: Winter Village stamp set and coordinating dies
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My next card is a bit more colorful. I used the church and stamped it with Fine Linen, Classic Kraft, and Cocoa Bean inks. The trees were done with New Leaf and Smokey Shadow. I added some Pure Poppy mailboxes and fences.
The background was done on an Aqua Mist card base which was sponged with some Tropical Teal ink and then spritzed with water. I also added a few dots of liquid glue and sprinkled with glitter. The star was a little scrap I had on my desk - I believe it originally came from the Paper Clippings: Congratulations die. The bottom part of the scene has two layers which were cut with the In the Meadow dies (I did a partial cut so that I ended up with longer panels). I added the little skaters and pond, and stamped the "Merry Christmas" sentiment from the set right onto the pond.
Supplies not linked, but available on September 15th from Papertrey Ink: Winter Village stamp set and coordinating dies
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For my next card, I pulled out the pretty round frame from the Don't Forget to Write kit and built a little scene inside of it. I used the smaller house from the set, a few of the trees, the road, fence, and mailbox. The little hill inside the circle was cut using the Scene It: Everyday dies.
Under the framed scene is an In the Meadow hill diecut and also a little stamping done with Soft Stone ink, using some trees and fences from the Winter Village set. The sentiment is also from Winter Village, stamped with Pure Poppy ink. I sponged a bit of Aqua Mist ink in the background and stamped some small scattered stars, which are found in the previously released Christmas Cheer set.
Supplies not linked, but available on September 15th from Papertrey Ink: Winter Village stamp set and coordinating dies
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That wraps up my Winter Village projects, but before I go, I have a few more things! This next card uses the new Inspired: Jesus set along with the heart rays stencil from the Sunshine & Rainbows mini kit. I started with a panel of watercolor paper and sponged it with Tropical Teal, Amethyst Allure, Enchanted Evening, and Royal Velvet inks. Then I spritzed it with water to add some texture, and let it dry.
Once it was dry, I placed the heart rays stencil over the top of the inked panel and spritzed it with some Gold Color Shine. I let that dry, then stamped and embossed some small stars from the Paper Clippings: Congratulations set using gold embossing powder. I diecut the "Jesus" sentiment from Gold Shimmer cardstock and stamped and embossed the "love came down" sentiment with white embossing powder.
Supplies not linked, but available on September 15th from Papertrey Ink: Inspired: Jesus stamp set and coordinating die
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And of course, before we go, we'd better check in on our little elf friend. What's he been up to? Looks like you've all been very good this year and you're definitely on the nice list.
Looks like he's little wrapped up in his work at the moment.
:-) I hope you're enjoying all of the countdown fun! Want to see more? Go ahead and treat yourself to a hop around to the other team blogs...
Danielle Flanders
Laurie Willison
Dawn McVey
Amy Sheffer
Heather Nichols
Melissa Phillilps
Nichole Heady
Ashley Cannon Newell
Lizzie Jones
Kay Miller