SSS Making Spirits Bright Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am so happy to be a part of the Simon Says Stamp Making Spirits Bright Holiday Blog Hop to celebrate the release of the latest Making Sprits Bright line. You should have come here from the very creative Kelly Latevola. Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop, and of course there are prizes to be won too.

Making Spirits Bright is a really big release is full of fantastic stamps, dies, sequins, and envelopes, for holiday crafting. There are products for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In my post, I will be sharing Christmas projects.

Christmas and winter crafting is a favourite of mine and I had such fun with the wonderful new products. I made two projects, and both are tutorials: a Christmas journal / notebook and a card. The journal could easily be turned into a card and the other way around.

When I saw the stunning big words in the Stained Glass Greetings set, I knew I wanted to use all of them on one project and thought they would look great on the cover of a journal or notebook. This journal is quite quick and you could make it as a gift for someone, or use it to document Christmas memories, traditions, gifts or to-do lists. The journal was embellished with a Picture Book Snowman and stamps from the Merry & Bright set.

These are the two stamps sets that I used: Merry & Bright and Stained Glass Greetings.

And these are the dies that I used for my projects: Picture Book Santa, Picture Book Snowman, Holly Trim, and Falala. I ended up not using the latter one, but was initially planning to use it as a sentiment on the card.

For the journal I used Eileen Hull's Sizzix Journal die. The journal is 4.5 x 8.7 in big. Die cut two covers from mat board. The XL dies fits perfectly through the normal Big Shot or Vagabond, all you need is a pair of Extended Cutting Pads.

White emboss the words on the cover. I stamped two of the words twice.

Mat board takes ink beautifully and I wanted my cover to get a lot of color. Distress Inks were smeared on a non-stick craft sheet and misted with water. The covers were pressed into the ink. I loved the look of Lucky Clover here, a color I don't use often and should use more.

I also stamped the background with some of the smaller sentiments from the Stained Glass Greetings set and one sentiment from Merry & Bright.

Cut 15-18 white or cream papers to 8.25 x 8.25 in (21 x 21 cm) and fold in half. Place them in three signatures with 5-6 papers in each and stitch down the center with a sewing machine. You can also use staples. Round the corners with a Crop-a-dile for a finished look. You can of course also use color or patterned papers, but I decided to keep this journal plain.

I glued the spine together with Matte Medium, placing it under heavy books to dry. Use a piece of elastic and string it according to the instructions on the die packaging. You can also bind the books in other ways than this one.

Tie the elastic ends through a button and tie again at the end to create a closure for the book.

Slip the signatures into the elastic to bind the books. I like the fact that the signatures can be removed if needed.

Die cut the Picture Book Snowman from SSS wool felt. The snowman is easiest to assemble if you have a base, and I simply pressed the die into a piece of cardstock, pressing down the edges of the die to make an impression and cut out roughly with scissors.

Assemble the snowman.

I wanted the snow to sparkle and added Frosted Lace Stickles to the white felt. It would be better to do this step before assembling the snowman.

The small circular stamps on the Merry & Bright set fits great for Tim Holtz's smallest metal-rimmed tags. Stamp on white cardstock with orange ink. You can use the coordinating punches, or simply trace the tag on the paper and cut out just inside the traced line. Press the tags in the Tag Press, to make custom metal-rimmed tags.

I also stamped a small snowman on white cardstock and added some color with pencils, as well as Frosted Lace Stickles.

 Glue the embellishments to the cover and your book is done.

The combination of white resist letters and the black stamping makes for an interesting look, and is also easy and quick to do.

I am fond of stamp sets that combine large and small sentiments, such as Stained Glass Greetings, since they are so versatile. You could make a card using just one of the big words, and adding one smaller sentiment to accompany it.

'Joy' is one of my favourite words - and not only for the holidays.

I was happy to see more Picture Book characters, since I have had a lot of fun with the Picture Book Panda from the STAMPtember release (check out this card and this tag).

You might see the sparkle from the glitter better here.

This journal has a nice chunky look to it, and is also quick to do. If you want more journal inspiration, I have made three previous journals with this die: Tree Sketch Book, Seaside Journal, and Alphabet Notebook.

You could repeat the stamping on the back, or add something else there, but I decided to keep it plain.

And since no holiday hop post would be complete without a Christmas card (and since I love to send Christmas cards), there is of course also a card.

The star of this card is the Picture Book Santa and he can be made in different variations when it comes to surfaces and colours. I decided to keep him traditional here, in red clothes. This card sparkles much more than would you can see here.

The Santa was die cut from watercolor paper, wool felt, black paper and paper covered with silver Deco Sheet (for the buckle). I added Frosted Lace Stickles to the wool felt parts. The watercolour paper parts were colored with Distress Inks, but I also wanted them to sparkle. Candied Apple and Tattered Rose Distress Inks were smeared on a craft sheet and misted with Mica Spray. I didn't use any water. The spray creates a sparkly effect. Pick up with a paint brush and color the hat, jacket and face.

The same technique was used for the light bulbs, or in this case, baubles.

The background is Tim Holtz woodgrain paper and it was first die cut with the pretty Holly Trim die, and then inked with Distress Ink.

The Picture Book Santa is so cute and he would look great in grey or green too.  The Santa was adhered with foam tape.

This stamp is versatile since it can be both a light bulb and a bauble. It would look great hanging from a stamped tree too.

I placed a piece of silver Deco Sheet behind the woodgrain panel so that the silver shines through the Holly Trim die cut. Some red rhinestones were added as more berries.

The effect of the Mica Spray is hard to capture, but you might see it better on this photo.

There are of course also prizes to be won and Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 gift voucher on every stop on the hop. All you need to do is to leave a comment. One winner will be randomly chosen from each stop along the hop and will be revealed on the Simon Says Stamp store blog on Tuesday. 

Your next stop on the hop is the always inspiring Kathy Racoosin, and I am sure she has some really fun ideas for you. These are all the stops along the hop, in case you get lost:

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Jennifer McGuire

Laura Bassen

Shari Carroll

Nichol Spohr

Heather Ruwe

Kelly Latevola

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

Kathy Racoosin

Lisa Addesa

There will also be a second Making Spirits Bright blog hop tomorrow, with even more inspiration and prizes.

Thank you so much for visiting here today! I hope you are inspired to start with your holiday crafting. 

Happy stamping!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Simon Says Clear Stamps STAINED GLASS... [ SSS ] Simon Says Clear Stamps MERRY AND... [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp PICTURE BOOK SNOWMAN [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp PICTURE BOOK SANTA [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp HOLLY TRIM [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp Wool Felt Sheets... [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp Wool Felt Sheets BLACK [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp Wool Felt Sheets White [ SSS ] Sizzix JOURNAL BOX ScoreBoards XL Die [ SSS ] Sizzix LITTLE SIZZLES MAT BOARD PACK... [ SSS ] Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB SMOOTH... [ SSS ] Tim Holtz DISTRESS WOODGRAIN CARDSTOCK [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology DECO SHEETS [ SSS ] Tim Holtz 8.5 X 11 DISTRESS... [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology PAPER STRING ... [ SSS ] Ranger Stickles FROSTED LACE Glitter... [ SSS ] Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival TIGER LILY [ SSS ] Ranger TIM HOLTZ DISTRESS Archival... [ SSS ] Ranger ADHESIVE FOAM WHITE [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp EMBOSSING POWDER... [ SSS ] Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK PAD [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium MATTE [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad TATTERED... [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad CANDIED... [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad LUCKY CLOVER [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad CRACKED... [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad HICKORY... [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad MERMAID... [ SSS ] Ranger WENDY VECCHI Designer Mica... [ SSS ] Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology TAG PRESS [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology TAG PRESS RINGS... [ SSS ] Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White [ SSS ] Sizzix EXTENDED CUTTING PAD [ SSS ] Sizzix MULTIPURPOSE PLATFORM STANDARD... [ SSS ] Sizzix PURPLE WITH SILVER GLITTER... [ SSS ] Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Tonic GUILLOTINE COMFORT... [ SSS ] Ranger US HEAT IT CRAFT TOOL United... [ SSS ] Ranger EUROPEAN VOLTAGE HEAT IT CRAFT... [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology TINY ATTACHER... [ SSS ] We R Memory Keepers Cropadile CORNER... [ SSS ] Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT... [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Tonic PAPER DISTRESSER [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Tonic Craft MINI SNIPS [ SSS ] Hero Arts Rubber Stamp SMALL BLOCK... [ SSS ] Hero Arts Rubber Stamp CLEAR ACRYLIC... [ SSS ] Hero Arts Rubber Stamp CLEAR ACRYLIC... [ SSS ] Derwent 24 INKTENSE COLORED PENCILS [ SSS ] Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS [ SSS ] Ranger MINI ROUND FOAM REFILLS [ SSS ]

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