Whoa, Christmas already?

 Have you studied the Stampin' Up! mini catalog? Not that this is a pop quiz or anything, but the 25 & Counting collage is just so adorable!!  I was challenged to offer this project as a class and gave myself the afternoon to decide if it was manageable. Well, let me just brag and tell you, this is do-able! I put all 25 stamps onto the large acrylic blocks and just stamped a whole bunch at once. 13 at one go, then 12 on the second go. All in Cherry Cobbler ink. Then I cleaned them and reinked in green, maybe artichoke? And stamped half of them again.

Then I used the BigShot and the coordinating die to cut the cute scalloped squares with the peek-a-boo windows, added a bunch of DSP squares, card stock squares and used a few punches to add some circles. Back to the inked images, the new 1" square punch made quick work of most of the stamped images.

For a break, I wandered over to the local fabric shop and rummaged through their "reject" frames. I don't know if people don't collect their special orders or if the frame counter made mistakes, but they always have a couple custom frames at discount prices. The craft miracle of the day. . . a 12" square frame in the reject collection. Wow. What a lucky dog I am!

Back to work, using the cardboard backing from a package of DSP, I used Sticky Strip to adhere the frame and cardboard, then lined up all my squares, scallops, and stamped images. Then I made dinner, washed a load of towels and walked. the dog.  After dinner I added a couple tiny embellishments and relaxed with a season premiere of CSI.

Whew. What a great afternoon!

So, want to come stamp a Holiday Collage? Be on the lookout for the 12 x 12" frame and leave me a comment to schedule your class!

Happy Stamping,
Dee Tollaksen