Merry Christmas!

Yay! We made it to Christmas!!!!

Things have been pretty busy for me with craft sales and classes and open houses and work. But I've finally reached a patch of time when I can sit back and relax a little bit before it starts all over again in January.

Hopefully, this also will allow me some time to regroup -- get my craft room organized and my supplies updated. There wasn't much time for that between the time the room was finished and my first open house in September, so everything was just tossed onto the shelves in my craft room to get it out of the way, and then my schedule really picked up. As a result, I STILL can never find anything. With 11 days off work and nothing on my calendar until January 7, hopefully I can remedy that!

Today I'm sharing with you a swap gift I made for both of my Stampin' Up! demonstrators holiday get togethers earlier this month. Once I came up with a design, this project was really easy to put together. (Click on the image above for a closer view.)

NOEL Wood Blocks

Materials

Ink:
* Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad
* Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad

Paper:
* Whisper White card stock
* Real Red card stock
* Garden Green card stock
* Garden Green textured card stock
* Wild Wasabi textured card stock
* Holly Berry Bouquet Designer Series Paper* (DSP)
* Red Glimmer Paper

Accessories:
* Big Shot Die Cutting Machine
* Serif Essentials Alphabet Bigz Die Set
* Stocking Accents Originals Die*
* Spider Web Embossing Folder
* On Board Sheets (chipboard)
* Cork Sheets
* Heat Tool
* Clear Embossing Powder
* 5-Petal Punch***
* Boho Blossoms Punch***
* Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack
* Glimmer Brads
* Stampin' Sponge
* Dazzling Details*
* Real Red 1-1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon**
* Real Red 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon
* Stampin' Dimensionals
* Multipurpose Liquid Glue
* Two-Way Glue Pen

Miscellaneous Items:
* Wood blocks or 2x4s in various sizes
* Green spray paint
* Hot glue gun

* Items shown in italics are in the 2011 Holiday Mini Catalog and are available only until until January 3, 2012

** Real Red 1-1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon is retired, but a length of it is included in the Christmas Keepsake Box currently available in the Stampin' Up! Clearance Rack for $11.97 (preferred customer price).

*** Old style 5-Petal Punch and Boho Blossoms Punch are currently on display in the Stampin' Up! Clearance Rack for $9.59 (preferred customer price).

Instructions:

1. You can use pre-cut, pre-sanded wood blocks, or if you're like me, you save everything! In this case, there were several 2x4s left over from the construction of my new craft room, so when the guys started to haul them away during cleanup, I said, "Wait a minute -- didn't I pay for those?!" My husband has a nice big miter saw, so he set it up on a table for me (it's quite heavy), and I cut the 2x4s into various lengths (these are, from left to right, 5-1/2", 4-3/4", 4-1/4", and 6"). These particular 2x4s were quite smooth around the sides, so I only had to sand the cut edges to smooth them down. Color all of the blocks with dark green spray paint and set them aside to dry.

2. The paper layers for each letter are, from the bottom up, Whisper White (2-5/8" x 3-1/4"), Real Red (2-1/2" x 3-1/8"), DSP (2-1/4" x 2-7/8"). Distress the edges of each piece with Chocolate Chip Classic Pad, and then adhere them together and to the wood blocks with Multipurpose Liquid Glue.

3. Cut the letters from On Board chipboard with the Serif Essentials Alphabet dies. Press each letter directly onto Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad, and then emboss with clear embossing powder. To achieve a high-gloss effect, you can do one of two things -- either (1) add more embossing powder while the original layer is still hot and liquid and continue to heat with heat tool (repeat this process once so there are three layers of embossing), or (2) if you find that the embossing powder is drying too quickly, after the first layer of embossing you can press the embossed letter directly onto a VersaMark pad and emboss with more clear embossing powder (repeat this process once for a total of three layers of embossing). When letters are cool and dry, adhere to DSP with hot glue.

4. Embellishments:

* N - Cut two holly leaves from Garden Green card stock with the Stocking Accents die. Emboss holly leaves with the Spider Web embossing folder, lining up the centers of the holly leaves with the lines in the spider web to look like veins in the leaves. Distress edges with Stampin' Sponge and Chocolate Chip Classic Pad, and then adhere to block above letter with Multipurpose Liquid Glue. Use the circle punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack or the berry shape on the Stocking Accents die to cut three berries from Red Glimmer Paper. Use Two-Way Glue Pen to adhere two berries to the holly leaves; adhere third berry with a small piece of Stampin' Dimensionals. Cut two lengths of Taffeta Ribbon. Hold the two pieces together and tie into a bow. Adhere to the block with hot glue.

* O - Cut two trees from Garden Green Textured card stock with the Stocking Accents die, and one from Wild Wasabi Textured card stock. Use a Stampin' Sponge and Chocolate Chip Classic Pad to distress edges of all three trees. Adhere the two Garden Green trees to wood block with Multipurpose Liquid Glue; adhere Wild Wasabi tree with Stampin' Dimensionals. Dot all of the trees randomly with Dazzling Details and set aside to dry.

* E - Punch one 5-Petal Flower from Red Glimmer Paper; punch one from Real Red card stock. Punch large Boho Flower from Red Glimmer Paper. Line up all three pieces as shown and attach a Glimmer Brad in the center. Adhere to block with Stampin' Dimensionals.

* L - Wrap Striped Grosgrain Ribbon around top of block and tie into a big bow. Trim edges.

5. Optional last step -- feet to protect furniture: Cut 12 circles from Cork Sheet (the Cork Sheets are too thick for the punches, so I used the berry shape from the Stocking Accents die) and adhere with hot glue to the bottom of each block, one near each corner.

I hope you enjoyed this project. I had so much fun coming up with the design and the embellishments! (And yes, I plan to make more to sell in my craft sales next season.)

Until next time . . . .

Merry Christmas to all!

Cathy ;D