Amazingly, it is time for the September-December 2023 Mini Catalog (otherwise known as the Holiday Mini) to come to an end! Many products are retiring, some are discounted, and many are sold out, but today is the time to take the last stock of this catalog and see what you can’t live without!
Here are some of my favorite cards I made with products from the Holiday Mini! The products may or may not still be available. Click on the card to go to the blog post!
There are lots more good things in that Holiday Mini so check it out one more time!
Back in September and November, I made Christmas cards with this Beary Christmas Designer Series Paper. I’ve made other cards with this paper, too, but for the ones I am referring to I used a “scene” from the paper to be the card front. The other day when I was using this paper for more cards, I decided it was time to cut out more scenes to use. It is a little tricky because you have to figure out what area you can cut out without getting something you don’t want in the scene. But it can be done, and making the area smaller, like with a layer underneath rather than directly on the card base might make it easier. It is handy to have a ruler that you can measure with to get an idea of what scene will work.
In the top photo, you can see the large-enough “scenes’ I could cut out of the paper. This paper is just so cute with bears and other forest animals on other sheets. I didn’t use all of the scenes yet, but here are some cards I made with the scenes that I cut out. I was sort of copying the two previous cards I had made, but you usually can’t get the exact same scenes. Maybe this will give you some ideas!
On these cards, I was able to cut out the exact same scene as on the top card from the second sheet of designer paper. But the card on the left has a different scene. I wasn’t in the mood to do embossing, so I just stamped a new greeting in the Brightest Glow Stamp Set and die cut with a banner die in the Stylish Shapes Dies. I put the greeting up against the edge of the paper so I cut off the banner end to just have a straight edge on the right. I tucked under a little piece of Silver Trim on the banner end.
The top card is the original one I made. The bottom card matches the top card, but then the two middle cards have different scenes. You may even have to move your greeting around to different spots depending on the scene on the card.
I didn’t do anything yet with the bears floating on the ice or the snowflake paper, which is the opposite side of the bear on the ice. But I went ahead and cut out the paper so it is ready to go.
This Beary Christmas DSP is still available in the Online Store but will be retiring in January. So if you like it and don’t have it yet, get it while you can!
Don’t forget to shop the Clearance Rack in the Online Store as well!
If you missed the October Paper Pumpkin Kit, Home For the Holidays, you can order it in the Stampin’ Up! Online Store! You must be a subscriber, though! OR maybe you just want more cards to make if eight weren’t enough! This is the Refill Kit which means you get all the materials you need to make the cards except for the ink spot and the stamp set. But you won’t need the stamp set if you have any Christmas greetings. You can use what you have or write it out on the greeting piece.
This card kit is beautiful and comes with layers of houses and trees to adhere on to the card base popped up with included dimensionals. It’s an easy kit to make! You will end up with eight cards, four cards each of two designs plus matching envelopes. As a bonus, the kit contains a bottle of glitter glue to use on the snow on the cards!
If you are looking for some more fairly easy ideas for Christmas cards, these Framed & Festive Painted Christmas Cards might be the ones. You can make yours even easier by leaving off the diecut greenery and berries. How about just designer paper, a greeting, and some ribbon?
This is the Painted Christmas Designer Series Paper. It was around last year and was carried over this year which I was happy about! I still had some from last year so I was happy to have another chance to use it, and I did use it a lot. I think I only have a little bit of paper left! It is on the Last Chance Sale so you can grab some at a bargain price! I especially loved the two patterns of paper I used on these two cards.
Both greetings are in the Framed & Festive Stamp Set. I loved using these this season. Stampin’ Up! released this stamp set in the Fitting Florets Collection, but this stamp set will not continue on into the Spring Mini Catalog. I loved the font of the greetings and they were ones I would actually use on my Chritsmas cards, either on the card front or maybe inside the card. If you want this stamp set, be sure to get it by January 4th.
The top card has a Garden Green card base. I had to use two patterns of designer paper because I only had this one strip with the evergreens and red berries left, not enough for a full card so I used another pattern for the bottom portion. I used this Real Red Ribbon (retired) to cover up that seam of the two papers, plus for decoration.
The greeting is stamped in Real Red ink and diecut with a one in the Painted Labels Dies. It almost looks like the die is too small for this greeting but it does actually fit.
The second card has a Real Red card base and uses a full front layer of designer paper. I just added a bow to the bottom of the greeting. The greetings are popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals on both cards.
Now if you have time and energy, use whatever dies or punches you have to cut out some greenery and maybe some Red Glimmer Paper berries! I used the leafy dies in the Christmas Banner Dies and the berry die is in the Organic Beauty Dies. Just stick a few in under the greeting. On the second card, I used that really sparkly paper from the previous Sale-A-Bration! You can’t get any more sparkly than that paper!
It does take a little bit of time to die-cut that greenery and berries so if you are down to the wire (as I am!), just skip that part and make the cards without it!
It seems like Saturday afternoons are good times to work on a Paper Pumpkin Kit! These Christmas cards were made with the October 2022 Paper Pumpkin Kit! Very cute! I only made two of each of the designs and then I like to go back and see if I want to make some alternative ideas with the supplies in the kit.
Of course, it is past time to join Paper Pumpkin and have this kit mailed to you, but most of the time, it is possible for you to be a subscriber and then go back in the Online Store and purchase a Past Kit or Refill. The Refill has all the supplies you need except for the stamp set and ink spot, because if you already got the full kit you would have those already and would only need the consumables. Sometimes if the Past Kit isn’t available, the Refill will do and you can use your own stamp sets and ink pad with the kit contents.
The best way not to ever miss out on these super cute kits is to Join Paper Pumpkin and a kit will automatically come in your mailbox about mid-month (unless you live at my house, then it seems that the post office likes to send it to farther away cities first!) (but that’s not Stampin’ Up!’s fault!). You can skip a month if you need to or don’t care for the upcoming kit. And Stampin’ Up! guarantees all Paper Pumpkin Kits.
The November Kit has already been mailed out. If there are extras, they will be in the Online Store a little later, but you must be a Paper Pumpkin subscriber first to order the Past Kits & Refills.
The December Kit is up now! Subscribe by December 10th! You’ll make little boxes that will hold gift cards, and they have designs that you can use all year long. Or use them for other small gifts or treats. You will probably even receive the kit before Christmas if you wanted to make a few for holiday gifts.
Join Paper Pumpkin today so you don’t miss out on any of the fun!
Yesterday when I went into one of my favorite gift shops, I saw a display of Christmas nutcrackers, buildings, decorations, and ornaments all in pastel colors! It was all really pretty and I was a little surprised to see a big display like that of those soft colors. That is what inspired this Jingle Jingle Jingle Pastels Christmas Card!
I sometimes forget I own this Jingle Jingle Jingle Stamp Set but I really do like it! I plan to make lots more cards with this stamp set. There are so many ways to use it and extra images to add more whimsy!
For this card, I simply used a Pool Party cardstock base with a layer of Blushing Bride pink cardstock. The top layer is Basic White. I used three colors of ink – Pool Party, So Saffron, and Blushing Bride, plus Memento black for the “all the way” part of the greeting. Maybe I should have used a pastel color instead of black. Then when I spied the candy canes in the stamp set, I stamped those around randomly in the same colors. And for a finishing touch, I added a few of the 2021-2023 Opal Rounds. These aren’t the exact colors I used on the card, but they are close enough since they are light-colored.
I may try another version of this card using these or similar colors. I have some other ideas! We’ll see!
Get your “Jingle” on and check out this fun stamp set!
This card started out being an experiment of using white trees on a white layer on a white card, but it turned into this Embossed and Colored Whimsical Trees Christmas Card. That didn’t seem to be going like I imagined so I tried another technique of embossing and coloring the trees.
This white paper I used is my favorite, Shimmery White! If you look closely, in person, you can just barely see a little shimmer on the paper. It also works pretty well for a little watercoloring, as I used on this card. But the paper is so elegant, I think! I love using it.
To make this card, I started with a Shimmery White Cardstock card base with a layer of Shimmery White. On a separate piece of Shimmery White, I stamped two of the same trees and one different using Versamark Ink with the Whimsical Trees Stamp Set. Then I embossed with white embossing powder, which comes in the Basics Embossing Powders of three colors – white, black, and clear. You also need a Heat Tool to do embossing! Just hold the Heat Tool over the powder until you see it change! You will notice and it’s just magical! But it may take a minute until the Heat Tool gets hot enough after you turn it on.
After embossing the trees I die-cut them with the Christmas Trees Dies. I also die-cut the little ribbon decoration you can add to the tree. I cut out two of those for two of the trees. If you can think of it, this would be a good time to use the Adhesive Sheets so you don’t have to use glue.
After I decided the pure white trees on a white card weren’t going to work, I decided to use my Water Painter to add green color using an ink refill in the lid of the ink pad. Use it like a paintbrush except the water is already inside! Love these! I used Pear Pizzazz on two of the trees and Just Jade on the center tree. The embossing resists the ink so it still shows through. You can take a tissue and wipe any excess off the embossing if you need to. You could use any two or three green colors that you like. We have lots of choices!
When the trees were dry, I glued the ribbon piece onto two of the trees with tiny drops of glue.
For the background of the card, I used a watercolor background of Pool Party. I tried to apply it lightly with lots of water squeezed out of the Water Painter and a little bit of ink. I didn’t bring it all the way to the bottom so it would look like snow on the bottom of the card. Then I stamped a greeting with Just Jade ink at the bottom of the card with the Whimsical Trees Stamp Set.
After coloring the background and letting it dry, I adhered the trees, two popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals and one flat on the card. I usually like to slip one partially underneath another one.
It was absolutely necessary (to me!) to add some bling but you could totally not do this. I added a few of the greenish rhinestones in the Holiday Rhinestones. You could add them to the trees instead if you liked.
So all in all, even though I changed my original idea, I really like this card and maybe I will make extras to send. It’s time to start cranking out those Christmas cards so that you can mail them extra early this year! Have fun!
The other day I had so much fun making all the tags in the Love, Santa Kitto be ready for holiday gift-wrapping! But if you didn’t need all the tags, you could use some (or all!) to make Christmas cards to send like this Love, Santa Tag Kit Christmas Card.
To make this card, I use clipped off the hole at the top of the tree that would hold the string to tie on a tag. You could also leave the hole and string attached and adhere it rather loosely to the card so that maybe the recipient would remove the tag and use it themselves or hang it on their Christmas tree. When I was growing up we used to get a Christmas card from someone who was quite wealthy and the fancy card could be used as an ornament on the tree! I’ll always remember that!
To make this card, I relied on the coordinating colors listed in the Love, Santa Tag Kit so I chose Just Jade for the card base and a layer of Poppy Parade. That layer I embossed using the Tasteful Texture 3D Embossing Folder. You wouldn’t have to do it but it adds a little “something”. Just because I wanted to, I added a tree trunk from Cinnamon Cider Cardstock to the base of the tree. Then I adhered the tree to the front of the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals®. If you thought, or you wanted, the recipient to remove the tree from the card and use it as a tag or ornament, I would just adhere it with maybe two Dimensionals, maybe even the Mini Dimensionals or cut the Dimensionals down to a smaller size, top and bottom, and tell them how to carefully remove the tag.
The tree tag already had some jewels adhered to it that came with the kit, but I also added some to the Poppy Parade layer of the card. I couldn’t resist! It’s for Christmas anyway and that calls for sparkle and glimmer wherever possible!
On the inside, adhere a layer of Basic White with a stamped message and maybe some other stamped image or strip of designer paper to decorate and sign your name or write your own personal message.
This Love, Santa Tag Kit is a fun one to work with because the tags are such “happy” and colorful images. Even though it is for making tags for gifts, as you can see, you can use some or all of them for card fronts and make some quick cards to send! Or use them on the extra Love, Santa Treat Bags! Even if you don’t want or can’t get the kit, you might be interested in these cute treat bags with images printed in white that coordinate with the tags and are food safe. If you are someone who makes special treats for the holidays to give to neighbors and friends, these bags would be perfect! Even if you have a regular gift, wrap tissue paper around it and put it in the cello bag and tie on a tag! I know a gift shop that gift wraps items like this.
It’s time to be shopping for supplies you need for Christmas cards, projects, and gifts! We should all be trying to get an early start on all our holiday tasks to keep ourselves from getting rushed at the last minute! If you already have the Love, Santa Tag Kit be sure to put it together and enjoy yourself!
Can any of us relate to this poem?? I knew there were some stamping poems out there, from many years ago, and after searching I found this one in a forum from 2005! I don’t think the Demonstrator knew where it came from, it was shared with her from others, so I have no idea who came up with it, but they knew what they were talking about! I can think of one dear stamping friend in particular, but I think it applies to most of us! (Except for those people who had their cards done last summer! But what fun is that?!)
Enjoy! And have aHappy Christmas Eve!
The Week Before Christmas (In a Stamper’s House)
‘Twas the week before Christmas, and the house was a hush Save the stamping of rubber in a last minute rush. The cardstock was cut with precision and care In hopes that a greeting would soon be stamped there.
The children were tucked in their beds around eight, But now it’s ten-thirty… How’d it get so late? And I in my PJs with bleary red eyes Had finally arranged all the stamping supplies.
It started out simple. (It does every year.) Just make a few cards for friends who are dear. I pressed ink to paper. (It looked crisp and clean.) A sprinkle of powder, heat to a sheen.
When what on my green Christmas card should appear? Why, a tiny gold Santa with sleigh and reindeer. On pigment! On powder! On heat from a gun! Now ribbon and glitter! Can I make eighty-one?
“I can do it!” I said with all of my might And looked at the clock – ’twas well past midnight. I went straight to stamping out card after card. “This might take all night, but at least it’s not hard.”
But after I finished, they looked a bit lame. I didn’t want fancy, but these were too plain. And then in a twinkling, a thought came to mind. “I’ll just dress them up, and then they’ll be fine.”
So I went to my craft room and looked all around, Then back to the table with all that I’d found. My Fiskars I brandished (I wasn’t a quitter), And soon I was covered in EP and glitter.
The cap of a marker I held in my teeth. I’d lay in some color or maybe gold leaf. My broad little face was all beaded with sweat, But I wouldn’t give up – well, not at least yet.
There was glue on the table and ink on the floor. I laughed at the sight though my fingers were sore. I did not complain, just kept up my work. When more things went wrong, I did not go berserk.
When finally finished, one card about six, It looked pretty good after all of my tricks. I’m keeping this one. My work on it shows.” So clutching my card, up the stairs I arose.
I crawled into bed at the crack of dawn, Creativity all spent, motivation all gone. But make no mistake, I promise one thing: You’ll all get your cards, but not ’til next spring!
We’re down to the wire but you may still need some easy Christmas cards to make to put with a gift (or even mail late!) so take a look at these Brightly Gleaming Square Christmas Cards that you can make!
You can make square cards any size you like. I made these 4 1/4″ x 4 1/4″ by just cutting across a full sheet of cardstock horizontally at 4 1/4″. Since the paper is 8 1/2″ wide, when you fold it in half you have 4 1/4″ so that works out perfectly! You could also do 3″ x 3″ for a gift enclosure. Just trim your paper at 3″ x 6″.
You can make it super simple and just add a layer of designer paper, but I added some Copper Foil behind the designer paper on two of the cards. The first card has a base of Mossy Meadow Cardstock, then foil under the Mossy Meadow pattern of the paper, all just regular margins like we make on our cards.
The card on the right has a card base of Pretty Peacock Cardstock. When I went to make the foil layer underneath the Pretty Peacock pattern, all I had were scraps of the Copper Foil so I just cut two strips of foil and put them on two sides of the designer paper. It looks like I designed the card that way, not that I ran out of paper!
For the middle card, I used a card base of Very Vanilla with a layer of Night of Navy underneath the designer paper.
Each card just has a stamped greeting that is die-cut and then layered on another die-cut. You could use punches or simply cut squares or rectangles for the greetings and layers. I won’t even list the dies I used, just use what you have!
These cards I made are difficult to photograph because of the pretty foil accents on the Brightly Gleaming Specialty Designer Series Paper. This paper is, as I write this, on the Giant Year-End Closeout sale, discounted 50%! It’s very pretty so you might want to grab some if it is still available.
Square cards are quite the thing these days. The only thing is that if you mail a square card in a square envelope you are supposed to pay a surcharge. But these square cards will fit in our regular Medium Envelopes so no worries. But if you are just enclosing one with a gift or handing one to someone, you can use or make a square envelope with no issues.
These cards with just a card base, layer, and greeting are simple to make. Change up the designer paper or colors and greetings and you can make a card for a birthday or congratulations or whatever you need. Remember to check out this pretty paper in the Stampin’ Up! Online Store. It is well-worth 50% off for sure! If you need last-minute cards, try these Brightly Gleaming Square Christmas Cards!
Talk about some easy stamping to make Christmas cards, especially the card on the left, these two Easy Tag Buffet Christmas Cards are it!
The other day when I had the Tag Buffet Stamp Set out, I noticed the stocking and just thought about stamping a background with it! Sometimes I like to just do some repetitive stamping! It feels so good!
For the first card, I just stamped the stocking around on the card front. I used the Thick Whisper White Cardstock because I wasn’t going to have layers. I stamped in Real Red Ink. The greeting is also from that stamp set and die cut with theStitchedSo Sweetly Die and layered on Real Red also die-cut from that set.
After I had fun making that card, I decided to use the ornament stamp in the Tag Buffet Stamp Set and stamp that randomly but with different colors! I used Poppy Parade, Old Olive, and Crushed Curry.
The Christmas greeting is also in the Tag Buffet Stamp Set and I stamped it in Old Olive. The rectangles are in the Stitched Rectangles Dies. Then I used the Ornate Garden Ribbon Combo Pack on the backside of the greeting for some pizzazz with ribbon instead of rhinestones!
So basically, these cards are just stamping and adding a greeting, maybe some ribbon or bling! Time is getting short to finish Christmas cards and get them in the mail so you might try this idea!
Have you checked out the Quite Curvy products yet that became available November 1st for customers? This card is a sample from Stampin’ Up! and shows the curves you can get with the new dies for some fun new looks on your cards and projects!
These new products are actually an early release from the upcoming Spring Mini Catalog coming out in January. However, if you want the Christmas portions of the whole selection, those must be ordered during this early promotion. The Curvy Christmas Stamp Set and the Classic Christmas 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper is only available through January 4, 2021.
If you are interested in ALL the products, Stampin’ Up! has made it easy for you! Just order this number #158396 for the Quite Curvy Variety Bundle and you get it all! No need to add each individual product. However, if you want only certain products, just order them individually as you would normally do.
Image Copyright Stampin’ Up! 2020
If you look online you will find so many beautiful, different samples of cards and projects made with the Curvy Celebrations products! Go to the Online Store and check out these new products, and especially check if you want the Christmas products so that you get those soon to use for the holidays and so that you get them before they go away in January.
The “12 Weeks of Christmas” is my special Thank You gift to my Stamping With Karen Mailing List subscribers. Each Wednesday for 12 weeks leading up to Christmas I send out an email with an exclusive holiday project to give you an idea complete with supply list and instructions. You can use it exactly or use it as inspiration to come up with your own creative project.
This is absolutely FREE and I’m excited to share these project ideas with you! This is my annual gift to my mailing list subscribers, and I love sending out these weekly emails!
The 12 Weeks of Christmas is ONLY for members of my mailing list, however, and I have already sent out five weeks. But you don’t have to miss any more weeks if you sign up for my Mailing List TODAY by 1:00 pm CT to receive Week 6! We have already done 5 weeks of Christmas card ideas and starting today it will be Gift Ideas, then on to Gift Wrap, Bags, and Tags.
Just sign up in the box below or in the box in the upper-right corner of my blog. You will get a free gift just for signing up! We’d love to have you!
By now you have probably used up most of your fun Let It Snow Specialty Designer Series Paper unless you are a paper hoarder! And we all want to hoard this fun paper with the glittery snowmen on it. However, if you did actually cut up the sheets with the snowmen, you know it required drastic steps, perhaps destroying parts of the snowmen design. I know you didn’t throw away a bit of the scraps, so look through them now and see what you can make! You might still be able to salvage some snowmen!
On this first card, I had a smallish piece of designer paper with the two snowpeople on it. I just added extra layers so it would make a full card. And I jazzed up the snowmen by adding some stick arms and a scarf and hat. These pieces were from the Let It Snow Embellishment Kit. Don’t forget to use the cardstock cheat trick by punching out or die-cutting some pieces from the center of the cardstock that is going to be covered up anyway. No one will ever know!
On this card, I was able to save these two snowpeople and just made a smaller card! Make a 4 1/4′ x 4 1/4″ card or 4″ x 4″ size, whatever the piece of designer paper will fit best. On this one, just a little designer paper at the top and bottom of the snowman paper was enough to set off the focal point snowmen. Once you add a greeting and embellish the card a little bit you will have a great card even with a smaller piece of designer paper than you might have used.
Remember, sometimes the opposite side of the paper can be used long after the holidays. Often, we aren’t as familiar with the other side of the paper as we are of the well-known image.
If you have really small pieces of this Let It Snow Designer Paper, remember, you can make tags for gifts! Usually we run out before all the packages are wrapped, so it’s a good idea to make extra tags! Especially if you haven’t started wrapping packages yet1
Have fun making your last minute holiday cards, tags, and treats!
Surprisingly I hadn’t even played with the Toile Tidings Designer Series Paper in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog, so I thought I would make an assortment of Four Easy Christmas Cards with Toile Tidings. They are all the basic design of easy cards, put in one orientation or the other, using the Real Red side of the paper or the Garden Green side, full front layer of just one paper pattern or a split layer using two patterns of paper. A greeting is added and a bit of ribbon. That’s all!
The Toile Tidings Designer Paper coordinates with Real Red and Garden GreenCardstock along with Very Vanilla. I made two cards with the Real Red card base and two with the Garden Green. The paper with the toile scene has the same toile scene in the opposite color on the other side so that makes it easy!
On two of the cards, I used a sheet that has the houndstooth check pattern, red on one side and green on the other. I used a small strip of the check pattern underneath the toile pattern, in both orientations, portrait and landscape. This adds a little bit of interest and has a ribbon covering the junction of the two pieces.
For the greetings, I just chose some from several stamp sets. The “Season’s Greetings” stamp is from the Still Scenes Stamp Set with the globe. I used the pretty “Merry Christmas” stamp on two of the cards. It is from the Perfectly Plaid Stamp Set. And finally, the “Wishing You Peace….” stamp is from the Merry Christmas To All Stamp Set.
You can use any punches or dies to cut out your greetings and layers for them. I’m going to add some designer paper to the inside Very Vanilla layer since the card stock is colored. I may even add some colored rhinestones or dots to some of these cards…maybe. This is a simple card design and depending on your designer paper, you can leave your card as simple or as embellished as you want to. Just have fun with it because Christmastime only comes around once a year!
