Holiday Catalog Swap Time

Hi Crafty Friends!

It's Holiday Catalog swap time!

There are lots of perks about being a Stampin' Up demo. One of them is that we can order from the new catalogs early. If you love craft supplies, you know how exciting it is to get new ones.
And we of course get a great discount on all our products. 

(And it's always a good time to join my team).

A fun thing that many demonstrators do is called a swap. It's a great way to get lots of different samples to share with our customers. Sometimes we swap at Stampin' Up events, and sometimes we swap by mail. I'm participating in a mail in swap focusing on the Holiday catalog. So I made 22 super cute cards and sent them off in the mail and next week I'll get 22 cards back in the mail.

Here is my swap, featuring the Merry Cafe stamp set that works with the Coffee Cup framelits from the annual catalog.

It's so sparkly and cheerful, right?
Let's talk about the sparkle first. I embossed with silver embossing powder, the word cheer. There is a silver snowflake, silver sequin trim, and rhinestones! So. Much. Sparkle. There is also some Real Red 1/8" Solid Ribbon. The Designer Series Paper is called Quilted Christmas (3" x 3" and backed with a piece of Real Red ( 3 1/8" x 3 1/8"). And I dry embossed the Whisper White card front ( 4' x 5 1/4") with the Softly Falling embossing folder. The card base is Garden Green.

For me, one of the more interesting things about swap cards is making multiples of the same card. So next is a little bit about how I did mine.

I stamped the cups and lids on half sheets of Whisper White card stock. Then I stamped and embossed them, then I cut out all of the pieces with my bigshot.

I have been having a few issues with my knee, so I assembled most of the parts and the cards while propping up and icing my knee. Mini Glue Dots were the adhesive of choice here.

Once I had all of the separate elements prepped, I was ready to make the cards.

It does look really cool as you start to build a pile of card elements.

Once they're all done, I pack them up and send them to the demo who is hosting the swap and then next week I'll get an envelope in the mail with the other participants cards. Check back here in a couple of weeks, maybe after Sept 8 and I'll update with a photo of the swaps I receive.

To finish up, here's a close up of the main decorative part.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Stay Crafty!