Happy Holidays!

Click the catalogue to view it online

 I know it's only the first of August, but today is the day the Holiday season begins for me!  The new Holiday Catalogue is now live and all those fabulous new products are available for order!  I received my pre-order box of goodness earlier this week and let me tell you, you are in for a treat!  More to come on that later...

With the start of a new month comes a brand new challenge from The Technique Twist!  This week's technique is Faux Wax Seal.  Now, there are a ton of different ways to do this and if you visit The Technique Twist you will see many different ideas and how-to's from the design team.  I did a couple of different projects...here is the first (I'll save the second one for the weekend!)

Love note featuring the Faux Wax Seal technique with image from Best of Shelli (133488) and sentiment from Best of Love (132987)

Isn't that cool?  I love the way the stamped image almost looks like it was fingerpainted.  It would be a fun card for a child to give to a parent or grandparent.  I might actually use this one for my son to send to my parents to thank them for his wonderful week at Grammy's while I was at convention!
Anyhow...now for the nitty gritty.  Here's how to get this look:

1) Start with a 4" x 5-1/4" piece of Whisper White card stock.  Stamp some of the ink splotch images from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set in Basic Gray and Cherry Cobblet in the lower left corner.  Stamp love to the right of the ink splotches in Basic Black.

2)  Run the embossing buddy all over the stamped card stock.  Dump a small pile of Cherry Cobbler embossing powder over top of the stamped splotches.  (You don't want too much powder because it will be hard to heat evenly, but you need enough to be able to stamp the image and have it show up.)  Flatten and even out the embossing powder with a flat edge (I used my bone folder).

3)  Ink the heart stamp with Versamark and set it aside.

4)  **This is the important instruction...read carefully!**  Carefully pick up the Whisper White card stock, trying not to dump the embossing powder all over the place.  Heat the embossing powder from the underside of the card stock.  This will take longer than it does when heating from above, but be patient and allow all of the powder to melt.  Be careful not to hold your heat tool too close to the card stock as it will burn (ask me how I know!)  Once all of the embossing powder has melted, quickly place the stamp in the molten pool and leave it there until the powder has hardened completely.

5)  Remove the stamp from the hardened powder to reveal your faux wax seal...cool, huh?

6) To finish the card, wrap some Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine around the top of the Whisper White panel and tie a bow.  Adhere the panel to a 4-1/4"x 5-1/2" card base in Basic Black.

Really, aside from the danger of blowing embossing powder all over your house, and setting fire to your card stock with your heat tool, this is a pretty quick and easy technique.  Give it a go and then be sure to link up over at The Technique Twist!

Now for some other exciting news!  As if all the fab new products in the Holiday Catalogue weren't enough, Stampin' Up is also launching a new line of dies called Thinlits TODAY! 



They've been called flip cards, flip flop cards, swing cards, and more-but they have always been a bit tricky to create. Not anymore! Our amazing new Thinlits Card Dies cut and score to create a card that flips in just one step.

Item	Description	Price
133479	Label Card Thinlits Die	$40.95
133480	Circle Card Thinlits Die	$40.95

These new card dies come with extra die pieces that have versatile designs, so you can use them on other projects, not just flip cards. (The Circle Card Thinlits Die comes with 10 total pieces; the Label Card Thinlits Die comes with nine total pieces.)  With the number of dies you're getting, plus the die that creates the card itself, the price is a great value-especially to create an interactive card!

Click flyer for a larger view

The main shape in the cards (circle and label) can work with a lot of our stamp images so you can create tons of different kinds of cards using many different stamp sets. Here are just a few suggestions to get you started:

Label Card Thinlits Die (item 133479):

• Happy Day Stamp Set (item 130294 W item 130297 C)

Circle Card Thinlits Die (item 133480):

• Worth the Wait Stamp (item 131094 W)
• Five-Way Flower Stamp (item 131088 W)

Both card dies pair well with:

• Oh, Hello Stamp Set (item 131931 W item 130733 C)
• Yippee-Skippee! Stamp Set (item 131341 W item 131344 C)
• Really Good Greetings Stamp Set (item 130330 W item 130333 C)
• Regarding Dahlias Stamp Set (item 130324 W item 130327 C)
• These dies also work well with our new magnetic platform (item 130658) so you can place the dies exactly where you want them!  *Note the magnetic platform is currently unavailable due to supplier shortages.  It is expected to be available in the Fall.

 I am ordering these first thing this morning...Shelli demonstrated them at Convention and they are a-maz-ing!!  I can't wait to get my hands on them!!