Bethinking

Christmas Peace Banner

This is the 4th of the projects using the Stampin' Up! Elegant Bird die that I shared during my presentation at Stampin' Up!'s recent Convention. This was my favourite project - a silvery white banner to hang up at Christmas time.I've used the bird die to create the doves on the banner, as well as for the angels' wings. These were cut out using the gorgeous silver glimmer paper, and then attached to a white triangle of cardstock that was decorated with some scalloped pieces of Designer Series Paper. 

The pieces of the banner were created using the largest of the framelits labels shapes. For the letters, I used the big shot alphabet and lots of white and shimmery white cardstock. The banner was quite difficult to photograph, but hopefully you can get an idea of how it looked overall thanks to 3 year old Bella, my lovely photography assistant!

Christmas in July

This Thursday night, July 19th is my Christmas in July event. I'll be holding a Stamp-A-Stack at my place in Turramurra, and I'd love you to come along! We'll be making 10 cards, 5 each of the designs pictured here.

The class starts at 7:30, and costs $20, which includes all materials. We're halfway through the year, so it's a great time to get started on your Christmas cards. Please let me know if you'd like to come along!  

Beth: 0412 008 027 or mail@elisabethstewart.com

Christmas Gifts

With the end of the year fast approaching, I really need to think about all the gifts that have to be organised within the next week or so. I'm not meaning the toys for the kids, or the what-on-earth-will-I-give-my-husband-for-Christmas type gifts, but what to give the ballet teachers, school teachers, pre-school teachers, music teachers and the girls' school friends!

I like to make some of the gifts myself, or if I can't make the gift, then at least make a cute box in which to place the gift. This year I've made some Christmas wreaths. I think that these will be for the school teachers and pre-school teachers. I made them using the Stampin' Up! fabric, in 3 different varieties: Deck the Halls, Candy Cane & Timeless Portrait.

Each wreath has a few rosettes made with ribbon that's scrunched around a circle cut from our Sticky Sheets. An Antique Brad in the centre holds the rosette together perfectly.

For music and ballet teachers, I'm thinking a box of handmade gift tags. Everyone needs some classy tags to identify whose present is whose, after all. Hopefully these will be useful as well as looking good!

 

And for the girls to give their friends, I'm trying for something that's not lollies or chocolate this year {although my kids don't know that yet}, just as a change! I've made some festive pencil boxes, using the Scallop Envelope Big Shot die, and for close friends, some notebooks, which are stamped and decorated on the inside as well as on the cover. Hopefully everyone will love their gifts - now I've just got make my list and check it twice to make sure I've made something for everyone!

Christmas in July

Last Friday night I had a lot of fun hosting my "Christmas in July" stamp-a-stack. It was a little strange trying to design Christmas cards and feel festive so early in the year, but after I'd pulled out a few favourite Christmas decorations and found my Christmas playlist on my i-Pod, I was feeling more in the mood!

We had some yummy food to eat - I tried stamping on some shortbread to create a holly andsnowflake image, and I also made some little Coconut Ice treats for everyone to take home as a thankyou for coming along. I packaged these in little boxes that were made using the Big Shot Box no 2 die, some Jolly Holiday dsp and the Holly & Jolly Christmas rub-ons. The boxes were so quick and easy to make and decorate, but don't tell my guests - they all thought that I'd put lots of work in!

And of course, we made some Christmas cards! So, each of the 14 people who were here have made a good start to their homemade Christmas cards for 2011. I'll be having another Christmas Card class in August, so please sign up for my newsletter if you'd like to find out more details about that!