More Retreat projects

Here is my favorite project from the Retreat Saturday. It is a little canvas tote bag that we decorated with the Build A Bear dies cut from felt. The background of the bag is stamped with the smaller stamps from the Delightful Decorations stamp set. I hadn't even noticed it had 3 small stamps in there, I was so amazed by how wonderful the ornament stamps were I totally overlooked the small ones. I think this set will rival the Medallion stamp as my favorite, at least until Dec 25!

I took the picture up so close that it is hard to tell it is a tote bag and has gold bells on the handle tied on with the gold elastic cord. I thought it was a great project and will definitely use it for something in my Christmas decorating. There is also a pumpkin outfit for the Build a Bear to wear. Better order it quick because Halloween is going to be here before we know it!

Now, on to the beautiful cards we made with the Delightful Decorations stamps. Pink and teal are unusual colors for a Christmas card but have been popular the past couple of years. They look great together on this one. You probably can't see the glitter on the star in the middle ornament but it adds a very nice touch to it. One of the best things about this stamp set is that there is a punch to match! I'd do it if I had to but I'm so glad I don't have to hand cut all of these out. I've seen some great punch art with the Ornament punch too.

I also love the colors on the next card. Along with the traditional red and green we added an ornament in Night of Navy. It looks great, doesn't it?? First we wheeled the new Sparkle and Shine wheel inked up with the Versamark Watermark ink pad. We punched a window in the card where the red ornament is so you can see into the inside of the card there. The Kraft cardstock is a nice neutral background for the stamps and the Sleigh Bells twill ribbon is so pretty with it's Real Red and Old Olive stitching.

Next is a bling-y card. Pale Plum is another color you don't think of first when you think of Christmas but it is beautiful here. We used the strikingly beautiful Silver cardstock for a mat and a Fire Rhinestone brad in the center of the card. I know the picture won't show this either but the ornament was stamped by inking it up with Perfect Plum and then daubbing some of the platinum shimmer paint, blending as we went. It makes the ornament look nice and shimmery. Of course, we had to use the Silver Elastic Cord to "hang" the ornament on the card to keep the bling going.

The 4th card we made is absolutely georgous! It is in more traditional Christmas colors, Real Red, Whisper White and Silver embossing powder. First we stamped the swirly stamp from the Baroque Motifs stamp set and a "Merry Christmas" sentiment and embossed it with Silver embossing powder. We stamped the ornament on the far right with Real Red ink and added some glitter to the center. The one on the far left was made from Real Red cardstock, embossed with the Petals A Plenty embossing folder and I also added glitter to the centers of the flowers.

Did you know that Stampin' Up had flocked paper? The middle ornament was made from the red and white print from the Christmas Cocoa Specialty paper pack. Isn't that a great card? I love it!

That's it for the cards we made Saturday afternoon. They will fill that little red box beautifully. I need to figure out how to set the camera to put the right date on the pictures. The pictures say August 30 instead of when I took them on October 3rd. At least the year is right. With my old camera the year was wrong too!