Lili of the Valley...It's Another Christmas Hop!...

Hello, everyone!  Lili of the Valley (LOTV) is getting ready to release the second group of new Christmas stamps, and the Design Team is showing off the new designs in another blog hop today. This is the second set of their 2013 Christmas collection, and there are 20 stamps, including some of your favorite characters, and a few more traditional designs.

The new stamps will be available to purchase on the LOTV website starting at midday (UK time) Sunday, August 25th.

As you may know, I focus on showcasing the LOTV sentiment and background stamps. Although there are no new sentiment stamps in this part of the release, I still wanted to participate in the hop by sharing how I used a couple of the existing Christmas sentiment stamps as focal points on the cards to get two different looks when I was done.

Once again, there is a great prize up for grabs on the hop.  We don't know whose blog it's hidden in, so to make sure you have the best chance to win, please visit and leave a comment on every blog along the way!

You will have a couple days to join in - the "lucky blog," and a randomly drawn winner from all the comments left on the lucky blog, will be announced on the Ideas to Inspire blog on Saturday evening, August 24th (UK time. If you're like me and constantly forget how to convert times for all our different U.S. time zones, here's a site to help you convert to BST (British Summer Time) from all the time zones around the country and the world).

The prize is a full set of the new Christmas stamps from this release...

that's 20 rubber stamps, one each of all the newest designs!

Here's a full list of all the blogs taking part on the hop.  Remember, please visit them all and leave a comment on each one to have the best chance of winning the great prize...

Ideas to Inspire

Anne

Becky

Dawny

Debbie

Dena

Elise

Fleur

Gretha

Jen

Kathy (you're here!)

Kim

Lou

Mary J

Moni

So on to the fun of seeing some cards!  As I mentioned above, there are no new sentiments in this part of the release, but I did have some fun with Set 33, Christmas Grungy Messages.  I used two of the stamps from this set on two separate cards, placing the sentiment in the same area of the card fronts, but changing the technique and embellishments around it, and getting two cards with very different appeal.

On the first card, I took the "grungy" feel of the stamp to heart, stamping the sentiment onto kraft cardstock that has the true texture and color of a paper bag, and contrasted that grungy look with more elegant and bright white embellishments...

I masked off the outside border of the sentiment stamp, and first stamped just the sentiment with black ink, adding some Stickles to the centers of the little hearts.  Then I stamped just the border in white ink, and coated it with an embossing powder that has some silver mixed in among the white powder, and heat embossed just the border, to make the sentiment stand out on the front.

After adding the lace, and the die cut poinsettia (also accented with Stickles), I stamped one of the tags from Set 32, Christmas Sentiment Tags and fastened it behind the flower.

There are so many options for getting the look of snow. This time, I chose to use white German glass glitter to make the falling snowflakes and form the base of the snowbank at the bottom (the glass glitter gives it a built-up, uneven surface as a real snowbank might have). To get the sparkly snow look along the bottom, I made a batch of Polar White Flower Soft mixed with coarse clear glitter, and glued that over the glass glitter.

The little tree is a button that's been in my "stash" for who-knows-how-long. LOL

Here's a side view to give you an idea of the dimension on the card...

It's so hard to capture the look of the clear glitters in a photo, but here are closeups of the Star Dust Stickles used on the poinsettia and the little tag tucked behind it...

Supplies:

Sentiment stamps:  LOTV Set 33 Christmas Grungy Messages;   Set 32, Christmas Sentiment Tags

Dies:   Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia          Punch:   Martha Stewart Medium Branch

Pearls & Crystals:   Prima and Recollections          Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com

Miscellaneous:  Star Dust Stickles,   Stampendous Winter Wonderland embossing powder

On the second card, the sentiment stamp is from the same Set 33, and it's in the same location on the front of the card, but this time it's surrounded by Country Lady  patterned papers and sits down inside a die-cut "well."  The combinations of the colors and patterns give this card a more "cottage-chic" feel. 

When I saw this particular sentiment, I started singing the Christmas carol of the same name (in my head...not out loud...even I can't handle the sound of my singing! LOL), and that's where I got the idea to add the music bar die cut...

This time, when I stamped the sentiment, I masked off the edge and the words "Merry Christmas," and stamped the rest in black, then went back and stamped "Merry Christmas" in red.  Die cut graduated sizes of squares are cut into the patterned papers above the sentiment, and they're all adhered to the card using foam tape to add dimension to the sentiment block. 

In hindsight - and as a tip if you want to do something similar - I probably didn't need to mask off the outside border of the stamp.  The stamp is a rectangular shape, and I was trying to fit it into a square cutout, so I masked off the border so the bottom line wouldn't show at the bottom of the cutout. But I'd forgotten at that point that I intended to put the small pompom trim beneath the sentiment to "fill in" the bottom of the square...the trim would have covered the bottom of the border. :)

Once again I used my mixture of Flower Soft and coarse glitter sprinkled on the flowers, die cut pine branches, and a strip along the top of the pompom trim.

One reason I like this handmade mix is because clear glitter often doesn't show up unless you tilt the card just right...and Flower Soft on its own doesn't have sparkle. But by mixing the two, you get the best of both...the white of the Flower Soft shows up as dustings of snow, and the coarse glitter adds a little sparkle to it all!

I stamped the word "Noel" from the same sentiment set, and turned it into a little tag tucked under a couple of the red flowers...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Country Lady collection, NitWit Collections for Lili of the Valley

Sentiment stamps:   LOTV Set 33, Christmas Grungy Messages

Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Pearl flourishes:   Recollections

Dies:   Impression Obsession Pine Branch;   Memory Box Virtuoso Music

Lace,  mini pompom trim,  pearl spray:   local craft store

Phew! Are you still with me?  Good! :)   Now it's time to hop on over to Kim's blog to see the beauty she has waiting for you.  Don't forget to stop by the Ideas to Inspire blog on Saturday night (UK time) to find out if you're the lucky winner!  

Thanks so much for stopping by...have fun on the hop, and good luck!