Welcome to the Stampin' Addicts Holiday Mini Blog Hop!

Well, the blog hop is over, and it sure was a lot of fun for me to see how many people stopped by to visit!  I had  about 1000 hits to my blog over the three days of the hop!  I'm now zeroing in on 25,000 hits, where I'll offer up some blog candy to say thanks to those of you who come visit my little corner of cyberspace.  I left the links at the bottom of this post active so you can visit Kat's and Holly's posts from the tour.  I loved Kat's pinwheel flowers that she made using the ornament punch.  Too cute!  And let me tell you, I'll be CASEing Holly's snowflake card in those rich brown tones - love it!  Here's the  text from my stop on the blog hop...

My stop on the blog hop features both sets of rub-ons available on September 1 from the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog - Icicle (116804), as well as Merry and Bright (116801). The rub-ons sell for $10.95 and contain two sheets of rub-ons, one in white and the other in silver. I'm also featuring an individual stamp available from the Holiday Mini called A Brand New Year (116838), which sells for $8.95.

My first project is a home decor project. I found this cute frame at our local Target. It fits a 4 x 6 picture perfectly. I used the silver Icicle rub-ons to accent the frame, and made a mat using Brushed Silver and Whisper White card stocks. Isn't it cute?

Next up is a card I created to highlight the rub-ons. I've always wanted to make an acetate card, and I knew it would be perfect to show off the rub-ons. I used a medium Window Sheet cut to 5 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches, scoring it in half (it fits nicely into a medium square envelope). I added white Icicle rub-ons to the acetate to frame the main image. The card front then uses Brushed Silver, Bashful Blue and Night of Navy card stocks. The ornaments were stamped on Whisper White card stock in Bashful Blue and Brocade Blue inks, using Delightful Decorations (116517, $21.95), and punched out with our new Ornament punch (116794, $15.95), both available in the new Holiday Mini. A white Merry and Bright rub-on adorns the foremost ornament, punched out in Night of Navy card stock and popped up with stampin' dimensionals. Serene Snowflakes (115438, $20.95), new in the Holiday Mini, is stamped behind the ornaments in White craft ink. Inside I added a sentiment from the Merry and Bright rub-ons on Night of Navy card stock. This was a fun card to make!

The next project I'd like to share with you is a mini garland that I created using mostly Icicle rub-ons (a few of the small snowflakes came from the Merry and Bright rub-ons). The garland was created using Night of Navy card stock cut into tag shapes, topped with the Jumbo Snowflake punch using Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue, and Whisper White card stocks. The chipboard letters are from On Board Loads of Letters. I covered them with White craft ink, sprinkled them with Iridescent Ice embossing powder, and then heat set them. They are attached to each panel using mini glue dots. The panels use Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue, and Whisper White card stocks, along with Bashful Blue Patterned designer series paper. Each panel is accented with the rub-ons. Silver and clear rhinestone brads add a little additional 'bling' to my garland. This is my favorite project that I created for the blog hop.

My stop on the blog hop ends with the individual stamp, A Brand New Year. I wanted to use black and gold, creating a 'black tie affair' kind of look for my card, so I stamped the image in VersaMark ink onto Whisper White card stock and embossed it in gold embossing powder. The new Groom Specialty Paper complimented the stamped image nicely (matted with Brushed Gold), but pairing it with Basic Black card stock just didn't give me the look I was after. I decided to stamp the edges of the Basic Black card stock with VersaMark ink and then emboss with black embossing powder, giving me that glossy look that fit with the Groom Specialty paper. The Tag Corner punch and gold brads accent the stamped image. I popped up the main image with stampin' dimensionals and put the black 1/4 inch black grosgrain ribbon behind it. Inside I used a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes and added accents from Priceless, all stamped in VersaMark ink and then embossed in gold.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hoped you enjoyed the projects I created for this fun blog hop - I hope to participate in another in the future.