Holiday Catalogue Favourites

Today I am participating in the Stampers Showcase Blog Hop with other Stampin' Up! Demonstrators from all around the world. Our theme is Holiday Catalogue Favourites.
Well I have a few favourites actually as there are so many beautiful products in this year's Holiday Catalogue. It was hard to choose which one to highlight, so I decided on the So Many Stars Bundle, with coordinating stamp set and dies.

Firstly I want to share a little story with you...

My papercraft journey started 19 years ago, when my youngest child was just 3 years old. This was back in the day when my friends and I were all doing the party plan circuit and inviting each other to this party and that, of all different kinds - Tupperware, kids clothes, adult clothes, kids toys, make up AND card making!!!

At the first ever card making "party" I went to, I was introduced to multi coloured ink pads, rubber stamps, Versamark ink AND Gold Embossing Powder! That was it, I was hooked!
I had to get my hands on this magic stuff called embossing powder. I bought some and I got creating. Back then many of us were using our humble kitchen toaster to heat the embossing powder as heat tools were hard to come by and very expensive. The good old toaster did a great job back in the day.

It's fun to look back on my cards from the "old days" when I started. I sure have come a long way since then and so has card making and paper crafting in general.

Let me share with you my very first Christmas card that I made in the year 2000, using, you guessed it, Gold Embossing Powder. Of course I didn't know of Stampin' Up! back then and I'm not even sure it was in Australia at that point. It was pretty fancy to layer elements and cut around images, which we now know as "fussy cutting". Thankfully back in the day I use to keep samples of all my cards, before I realised I could just take photos of my cards.
Not too bad for a beginner I reckon!
Over the next couple of years I went on using this star stamp and stepping it up and changing the colours and layout.

So now, lets skip ahead 19 years to our current 2019 Holiday Catalogue.

As soon as I saw the So Many Stars Bundle I immediately fell in love with it and remembered my very first Christmas card. I pulled out my card from 19 years ago and decided to do a stepped up 2019 version. What do you think?

I have teamed up my stars with the Wrapped In Plaid Designer Series Papers which I felt went so well because of the gorgeous gold seams running through the paper. The ribbon from the Wrapped In Plaid suite also tied in well.

Here is a close up of my large star and as you can see I have used Stampin' Dimensionals to give the star some dimension and lift. Of course I had to add some bling because as I always say "Every card needs ribbon and bling". I love the embossed detail on these star stamps as well as the stitched detail around the edge of the die cut.

The gold foil circle beneath the star is from the Stitch Shape Dies and lifts the star beautifully from the DSP.

I hope you have enjoyed my little story and my beautiful project in this Blog Hop and I do hope I have given you some inspiration to get creative.

Please now Hop on to the next blog in our Blog Hop and get some more inspiration from some talented crafters. Click on the Next Blog image below.

Product List

So Many Stars Bundle (En) [153016] $99.75	So Many Stars Photopolymer Stamp Set (En) [150496] $45.00	Stitched Stars Dies [150653] $66.00	Stitched Rectangle Dies [148551] $61.00	Stitched Shapes Dies [145372] $50.00
Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock [140490] $14.25	Shaded Spruce A4 Cardstock [147006] $15.25	Gold Foil Sheets [132622] $8.75	Wrapped In Plaid 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper [149596] $25.00	Versamark Pad [102283] $16.50
Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder [109129] $10.50	Heat Tool [129056] $50.00	Shaded Spruce/Gold 3/8" (1 Cm) Striped Ribbon [149597] $12.25	Red Rhinestone Basic Jewels [146924] $12.25	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $6.00
Snail Adhesive [104332] $11.50	Mini Glue Dots [103683] $8.00