justBstamping.blogspot.ca: Stampin' Friends Celebrate the Season Blog Hop

I would not usually think of black and gold for a holiday card, but I really wanted to stretch this month's blog hop theme of celebrating the season to include some surprise elements. And I love the final result:

If you are following along the hop, you have arrived from Terri Pocock's (UK) blog. Be sure to read through my post, comment below (I'd love to hear from you!) and continue to Jean Beaulieu's (US) blog. If you get lost along the way you can find a list of Blog Hoppers at the end of each post.

As always, I've bolded the names of the Stampin' Up! products I used to make my projects. If you are interested in purchasing anything you see and don't already have a demonstrator I would be grateful for your business. :)

I started with a 4" x 5.25" Basic White cardstock panel and made diagonal score marks using my Stampin' Trimmer, which created little boxes perfect for my Christmas DSP squares. This also added texture and interest to the panel, and provided a guide for adhering my pretty paper in my grid pattern.

The DSP is from the Heartwarming Hugs DSP paper pack, and are cut into 1.5" squares. This is a great way to use up scraps of your pretty paper! I chose a more traditional red and green palette, since I knew I was going to add the unexpected black and gold accents.

I added the panel to a top-folding Basic Black card base (4.25" x 11", scored at 5.5"), with a wider border than I usually use, so that you see a nice 1/4" border of black all the way around.

For my sentiment I used a die cut from the Christmas Cheer Dies. By cutting it from Gold Foil paper I got a totally different look. It's hard to see, but the sentiment is actually two pieces: one that is the larger background/shadow, and then the letters cut individually as well and are layered on top of the shadow.

I took a strip of Basic White cardstock and embossed it with the Timeworn Type 3D Embossing Folder, and layered it onto a strip of Basic Black. This became the "home" for my sentiment. I cut three of the Christmas Cheer shadow layers from Basic Black and used those to build up the thickness of my sentiment, rather than dimensionals, which would have been awkward to fit behind the letters.

I then heat embossed in Gold Embossing Power the word "Christmas" on a scrap of Basic Black cardstock, and added that to my sentiment. As a final touch I added three Gilded Gems (probably my favourite embellishment right now!) to add some shine around my sentiment.

I kept the inside of my card simple with a Memento Black sentiment (from the Christmas to Remember Stamp Set) and a strip of DSP from the Heartwarming Hugs paper pack.

For my 3D project I created a fun coordinating hostess gift--a decorated bottle of wine.

I wrapped some of the Heartwarming Hugs DSP striped paper around the bottle, covering the wine label. I then made a tag for the neck of the bottle, using the Tailor Made Tags dies; the large tag in Basic White, where the stitching detail really stands out, and the smaller tag from the DSP.

I once again heat embossed my sentiment in Gold Embossing Powder on Basic Black cardstock, using the Tidings & Trimmings Stamp Set.

I added a Gold Foil stitched snowflake, from the Stitched Snowflake Dies set, and some Gilded Gems for some sparkle. I LOVE the gilded gem in the middle of that snowflake!!

I wrapped some Gold Ribbon around the neck of the bottle, and fed my decorated tag through, then tied it into a pretty bow.

I am so grateful that you stopped by today. If you like my projects please leave a comment below, it would make my day! And please keep hopping along and see everyone's projects by clicking on their names--and leave them comments if you can!

Teri Pocock - UK

Barb Pfeffer - Canada (you're here)

Jean Beaulieu - US

Maureen Rauchfuss - US

Steph Jandrow - US

Melissa Thomas - US

Katja Ettig - GER

Jo Blackman - UK

Tiziana Milano - US