Cable Knit Christmas

Today I had my first play with products from the new Holiday Catalog and all I can say is, "Woweeeeeee!"

The products I played with rocked and the rest of the catalog is AMAZING! Stampin Up has outdone themselves this time! Seriously, you will want it ALL!

The first product I chose was the Cable Knit Embossing Folder. This is unlike any of our other embossing folders. It is very thick and produces a really 3D emboss!

I cut a matte from Real Red card stock and spritzed it lightly with water on both sides before putting it in the folder. This is done to relax the paper fibers so that they will be able to stretch and not break while being embossed.

Because the folder is so thick, you will place the folder directly on your platform. If you are using the old platform, you will want to use "no tabs" (flip both of the tabs back off the platform) and then place the folder with one cutting pad on top of it and run it through. The result is stunning–looks just like a knitted sweater!

I set the embossed matte aside to dry and cut a card base from Thick Whisper White. I then die cut three pine branches from Emerald Envy using the new Pretty Pines Thinlits. I used the dryer sheet method and they popped out perfectly!

Next, I die cut a large pine cone from Early Espresso using the same die set. For the small pine cone, I used the cooridinating stamp set, Christmas Pines. I used the set of three photopolymer stamps with my MISTI to stamp the cone using Tip Top Taupe, Soft Suede, and Early Espresso. I then die cut the cone and inked the edges of it with Soft Suede.

I stamped the sentiment on a strip of Thick Whisper White using Emerald Envy and then Versamark so that I could heat emboss it with the new Emerald Envy Glitter Embossing Powder. I used Emerald Envy ink first, rather than just Versamark because it gives the embossing powder a richer color base.

I found the new embossing powder a little challenging to use because it is hard to know when the embossing powder has been set because it looks basically the same before and after unlike our other embossing powders that seem to "turn" as heat is applied to them. If anyone has some tips for using this new powder, I would love to hear them!

I attached the now dry embossed matte to the card front using foam tape. Glue dots were used to adhere the pine pieces. The Banner Triple Punch was used to flag the end of the sentiment strip and it was adhered over the pine with the cones on top, adhered with dimensionals. Before adhering the cones, I used my bone folder to shape the cones a bit.

Though I did think about adding further embellishments to this card, I held back, allowing the wonderful embossing to take centre stage!

If you are in Canada and would like to get your hands on these wonderful products before anyone else, contact me to sign up as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and choose products from the new Holiday Catalog to start your stash!