Stampin' Addicts Fall Holiday Blog Hop

Welcome to the Stampin' Addicts Fall Holiday Blog Hop, featuring Fall Holiday projects with stamps and products from the Stampin' Up! Holiday Catalog. This new Holiday Catalog goes live on September 1, 2014 and features some beautiful new stamp sets, designer series papers, kits and embellishments for all your Fall and Winter Holidays. The Fall Holiday Blog Hop includes Autumn, Halloween and Thanksgiving inspiration. 

Watch for the Stampin' Addicts Winter Blog Hop coming October 10th.

I am featuring the My Digital Studio Halloween Bites Designer Kit. I have only used my MDS program a few times, but the Halloween Bites Designer Kit caught my eye because when my son and I make Halloween treats we are making SO MANY of the same item and creating digitally makes duplication much quicker and easier. Also, I always love a good candy wrap!


How adorable is that vampire with his cape flashing open to reveal a sweet treat?! He has a two piece coffin as well, that he fits right into, with a fitted lid and more Halloween sentiments on it. The Halloween Bites Kit includes 5 pages of templates to make a vampire candy bar wrap, a coffin and coffin lid to house the vampire, and a page of belly bands (with and without bats) for nugget size candy.

On the Designer Kit template, each page has a text box of instructions, such as this example on the vampire page. As well as the templates, the MDS Halloween Bites Kit includes the belly band and vampire as embellishments and two bats, several Halloween sentiments and the coffin elements as stamps in the MDS program.

Here are few tips I learned as I played with this kit.

• Add a text box of your child's name (or you!) next to the 'FROM:' on the vampire cloak before printing. 
• Try copy weight paper, instead of cardstock for easier scoring. (I printed all the template pages onto copy weight paper and did not use the solid black page, designed to print on the back of the vampire page. Instead, I adhered the vampires to a piece of Basic Black cardstock and then cut them out.)
• Adjust the margins of your page because the vampires use a narrow margin to fully print. (I set mine to 0" Borderless and also changed the Print Options/More Settings/Image Size to Custom.)

In addition to creating the Halloween Treats designed by this MDS Designer Kit, I also used the elements of the kit to create the banners and buttons for this blog hop. This led me to see the belly band and other pieces with additional possibilities and I created this fun Halloween scrapbook page. I dropped in photos from a past Halloween and even with my lack of MDS experience, this page came together pretty easily. I used a Sun Garden 12x12 photo layout and changed all the flowers and butterflies to bats. I re-colored the Scallop Trim piece, added photo mats, changed the title from FRIENDS to SPIRITS and added the script 'kindred' over it. Then I used an enormously enlarged bat belly band from the Halloween Bites Designer Kit to create the bat background along the top edge of the page. I like the framing effect it gives to the page, too. Finally, I went back, re-sized a few bats and added the Halloween sentiment in white.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to click through to all the blogs on the Stampin' Addicts Fall Holiday Blog Hop. Use the Next and Previous buttons below to see more inspiration and ideas from Stampin' Addicts members.I also listed the Blog Roll at the bottom of this post. You'll find tons of creativity and inspiration! Happy Blog Hopping!

Stampin' Addicts Fall Holiday Blog Hop

1) Kim (s1itcher45) -- Season Snapshot Project Life -- Stitchin' n Stampin' on Paper
2) Carmen -- Frightful Wreath -- Stamping Addiction
3) Rhonda (rhondag) -- For All Things
4) Tina (tina123) -- Color Me Autumn DSP
5) Tanya (tanya27) -- Four Feathers
6) Paula (scrapshappen) -- Freaky Friends
7) Twila (tjdstamosalot) -- Motley Monsters DSP -- Stamp A Little Longer
8) Betty (kittystamp) -- Fall Fest Bundle
9) Holly (catrules) -- Halloween Street -- Rubber Redneck
10) Mary (nuhddad) -- Tee Hee Hee
11) Yapha -- Making Spirits Bright
12) Mary R. ( MaryR) -- Halloween Bites MDS Template

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Flamingo Lingo - Watercolor Wash

Another Flamingo Lingo card for me! I am in love with this stamp set and it is so unique, there isn't another one like it in the Stampin' Up! catalog.
This time I stamped and punched a big pile of the pretty flowers! To finish them off and give the petals a little curl, I put them on my Paper Piercing Foam Mat and draw tiny circles in the center of each one with the Embossing Tool from my Scoring Tool.

For this card I created a bold Watercolor Wash background for a Heat Embossed Flamingo to create a resist. First I stamped the flamingo in Whisper White Craft ink onto Watercolor Paper. I Heat Embossed this image with White Embossing Powder. Then I wet the Watercolor Paper with a Spritzer and put ink direct from the ink pads onto my largest Acrylic Block. The inked block is stamped onto the wet Watercolor Paper and pressed down for about 5 seconds to make sure it is nice and saturated. When it dried, I added a few water spots with my Aquapainter, just dripping a spot of water here and there.

Did you notice the colored pearl centers on the flowers? That is the Blendabilities marker colored onto our Jewel Pearls.








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Making Spirits Bright Birthday - a Sketch Challenge

 Here's a birthday card using the Making Spirits Bright stamp set from the upcoming Stampin' Up! Holiday Catalog. I colored the birthday martini drink with a variety of Blendabilities and then covered it with Crystal Effects. This layout is from the Craft Project Central Sketch Challenge this month.
I like the tall narrow design of this layout - my card front measures 3 3/4 x 6".






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Making Spirits Brights - Pals Paper Arts Sketch

Making Spirits Bright is a fun new stamp set from the upcoming Holiday Mini Catalog from Stampin' Up! This stamp set includes martini and hurricane glass drink images and sentiments for several holidays and occasions, including Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's, Birthday as well as a due champagne toast image.

I love the these images and the fun sentiments with their play on words and the Pals Paper Arts PPA216 Sketch Challenge this week was a great layout for me to play with.

I colored the Christmas martini image with some Blendabilities Markers and then covered the hurricane glass, holly and ribbon with a thick layer of Crystal Effects.

{Inside}
Recipe:
Stamps: Making Spirits Bright
Cardstock: Basic Black, Real Red, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Red Glimmer
Ink: Memento Black, Blendabilities in Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Coastal Cabana, Flesh Tones
Accessories: Scallop Tag Topper Punch, Real Red Satin Woven Ribbon, Delicate Designs TIEF, Crystal Effects









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Flamingo Lingo with a Hanging Tail

The Flamingo Lingo stamp set from Stampin' Up! is so fun and I love that a donation is made to Ronald McDonald House with every purchase!

For these flamingo cards I sponged the color onto the flamingo image to get a bit of texture, using Blushing Bride and Melon Mambo Classic Inks and a Sponge Dauber. Then I trimmed out the tail and the back of one foot before die cutting it with the Oval Framelit. By trimming in a little bit on the pieces that I want to hang over the edge of die cut, I can slide that part of the image ON TOP of the framelit. Then it is not cut along with the rest of the die cut shape.

I also used the Sponge Daubers and two inks on the flowers, which give them just a little bit of interest over a solid colored flower. And have I mentioned how absolutely LOVELY the new cotton ribbon is?! I'm in love!



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Watercolored Blended Bloom

The color challenge from Pals Paper Art PPA215 last week caught my eye with Strawberry Slush, Basic Black and Pear Pizzazz. What a striking color combination! Although I didn't get my card finished before the challenge ended, I really enjoyed playing with these colors. I also used the sketch challenge from this week's Mojo Monday 359.

I stamped the Blended Bloom image in Basic Black Craft ink onto a piece of Watercolor Paper and Heat Embossed it with Clear Embossing Powder. Then I used an Aquapainter to pick up Strawberry Slush ink from the lid of my ink pad. For the flower center I did the same with the Pear Pizzazz ink. I used a fairly wet brush to paint this image and then set it aside to dry. The sentiment 'you are seriously amazing' is from stamps in the August Paper Pumpkin kit.

The other layers on this card are all texture embossed with the Big Shot, with the Argyle and the beautiful Beautifully Baroque Textured Impressions Embossing Folders. For the inside I embossed another strip of Basic Black cardstock and adhered it over the card liner.






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Santa & Co Christmas Album

Have you seen the Santa & Co product suite in the new Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog? With its rustic whimsy style and the completely adorable, oh-so-funny, completely irreverent (but NOT naked, Shari!) Visions of Santa Photopolymer Stamp Set I can't help but chuckle to myself every single time I color one of these guys! The Visions of Santa stamp set includes four different images of Santa in his long johns/pajamas/underwear and others with his suit sleeves and pant legs rolled up. There is also an adorable moose (or is he a caribou?) and several tiny accessories, including a candy cane and a string of lights, along with two corresponding sentiments 'Tis the season to get fancy and May Visions of Santa Dance in Your Head. The Santa & Co Designer Series Paper includes some coordinating patterns and a few sheets of dancing Santa's, including some images not included in the stamp set, and a few sheets of the moose and his moose wife - I just love her scarves! The Santa & Co Washi Tape, a set of 3 rolls, coordinates with the patterns and colors as does the Santa & Co Embellishments pack of 3-D Epoxy Circles.

I am so pleased with the Santa & Co Christmas Album I made using items from the entire product suite. I created this album at a recent Stampin' Retreat with a few close stampin' friends in Breckenridge, CO. A big shout out to Jacque Raila, Shari Rhode and Lisa Oates for all the fabulous inspiration they continuously provide to me as well as the creative direction and helping hands for this project.

Two pieces of Chipboard are cut to 8 1/2 x 6 inches and covered on both sides with Santa & Co Designer Series Paper for the cover. I stamped and colored the dancing Santas onto a strip of Whisper White cardstock for the title and then added the 2014 year with two layers of die cut numbers. To add some interest to the die cut numbers, I sketched a few lines and dots with the White Chalkboard Marker. The Visions of Santas Dancing...  stamp makes a perfectly whimsical sentiment to go along with this Christmas Album cover. I finished the cover off with two of the Santa & Co Embellishments adhered to Basic Black circles on a piece of Marina Mist Chevron Ribbon.

For the inside pages I folded 8 1/2 x 11 Soft Suede and Crumb Cake Cardstock in half and trimmed just a little off the top edge. This way the inside pages are smaller than the covers and I like the clean, finished look of that. Along the outside edge of each page, I added an edging of the Santa & Co Washi Tape. Then I added photo and journaling mats of matching Cardstock, Embellishments and Chevron Ribbon tabs attached with staples. This two page layout shown above was finished with the help of my stampin' friends with the beautiful tag made by Shari and the fussy cutting of the silly snowmen page by Jacque. These snowmen are featured on two of the Santa & Co DSP papers. 

An element that I really like in the album is the pockets created due to folding the pages in half. I cut strips off the top of some pages, adhered the two open edges (bottom and binding side) and this created a pocket to tuck memorabilia and letters. (You can see those pocket pages in the collage of pages shown here.) The Santa & Co Christmas Album has just over 20 pages and I added a few elements to each page with the stamping help of Shari, Jacque and Lisa. I can't wait to just add the photos and notes from this year's holiday to an already completed album!

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Mary Rindal is an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in Greenwood Village, Colorado.