Welcome to the 101st blog hop with the CASE-ing the Catty crew. This week was an easy one: Be inspired by your Favourite Annual Catalogue Bundle. Hmmm…. maybe it wasn’t so easy after all. There are TOO many bundles that could quite easily be my favourite!
I’ve used the Sweet Cupcake bundle quite a bit lately (lots of October birthdays!) so you could say it’s my favourite of the moment.
I was inspired by the pretty little card on page 23 of the annual catalogue.
Here it is:
And here is my version….
My colours were Sweet Sugarplum and Perfect Plum, and Sahara Sand with a touch of Tip Top Taupe.
This is a large bundle, with 24 individual photopolymer stamps and 10 dies.
I used the Sparkle embossing folder on the base, which was Sahara Sand.
Next on the hop is the lovely Julia Quinn, who is not only a lovely friend but also an awesome stamper and artist. Check out her post here.
How exciting! This week we are celebrating 100 hops with the CASEing the Catty team. We reckon that deserves a special mention, don’t you? I’ve only been a part of this great group for a short time, but all the crew are so talented and we love sharing our projects inspired by the Stampin’ Up! catalogues. Thank you so much for your support, your lovely comments and for joining us each week.
This week we are looking at pages 18 – 31 of the Holiday Catalogue: the Presents & Pinecones suite.
Living in the middle of a pine forestry area, as we do here in Creswick, the Christmas Pines stamp set and Pretty Pines Thinlits dies immediately caught my eye. I’ve been looking forward to creating with this awesome bundle of products.
The card on page 19 is the one I chose to CASE (copy and share everything) this week.
Here it is…
I kept my card pretty close to the original this week, but left off the bells which had been fussy-cut from the Presents & Pinecones designer series paper pack.
I also got out the clear Wink of Stella brush which, if I’m honest, is never too far away. I love that stuff!
It gives just a touch of sparkle and glimmer.
Very appropriate for this sentiment, don’t you think?
Continue on with the blog hop by visiting Monique to see what lovely creations she has for us this week. As always, if you get lost along the way you can always pop back to the CTC Blog and see all the links in one place.
One of my favourite projects of the year is coming up – my annual Hello December album.
What is a Hello December album?
Sometimes called a ‘December Daily’, Hello December is a 6″x8″ album where you record the everyday happenings, fun family activities, and festive celebrations throughout December. Hello December is the suite of products Stampin’ Up! produces to make this whole process simple, easy, coordinated and fun.
Preparing the album
With mine, I prepare the album beforehand (usually during November) and then fill it with the photos as the moments happen throughout December.
Printing the photos
I usually take the photos on my phone, then every couple of days throughout December I print them out at home.
Many places like Big W and Kmart have print kiosks now, so it’s not usually an issue to print out the photos as you go. Don’t think about it too much. Just print out the photos and cut them down with your paper trimmer if needed when you get home.
Journalling
Even for those of us who don’t like writing a lot in our albums, it’s important to record the little details. If you’re anything like me, you’ll convince yourself you won’t forget but by the next day you can’t remember what you did or even what you had for dinner!
The easiest thing I found is to write a little note to myself in the Notes app on my phone. It might be just a little quote from the kids that I want to remember, or maybe a record of times and dates, or just some fun activities. Record these things as they happen and you won’t have to spend one minute trying to remember while you’re pulling it all together.
Hello December by Stampin’ Up!
Stampin’ Up! offers an awesome Project Life range called Hello December, and they’ve been bringing out a new one each year. This makes it soooo easy to create the album and fill it with pretty cards, places for journalling (recording the who, what, when and where) and even embellishments to make it really your own.
Want to learn more?
Check out this awesome video with Donna from Stampin’ Up!. She explains it all so well.
And another video here which shows you more about the products available in this collection.
Get started
For your convenience, here are all the products used in the video. To learn more about each of them, just click on the picture and a link will take you to the item in my store.
Order your 2016 album supplies from my online store, and I’ll be happy to email you more ideas and photos of how I embellish my album this year.
I feel passionate about this project, and I know the value in recording these memories and moments as they happen. Life changes so quickly, especially if you have young children or grandchildren. But for every one of us, no matter our stage in life, we’ll never have these days again. Our life next year will be different. Don’t underestimate the value in recording the ‘little things’ as well as the big events.
* Legal disclaimer: I have achieved the awards and recognition listed above, but this is not representative of typical Stampin’ Up! demonstrators. The level of sales to achieve this result requires significant work and is accomplished by a substantially small percentage of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators.
