Catherine Pooler's Home for the Holidays SOA is Released!

Hi folks! If you were at all wowed by the Catherine Pooler team projects these past few days, you're probably super excited now, because the Home for the Holidays Stamp of Approval collection is finally on sale!

Based on all the wonderful comments I've read on the IG hop, it seems the majority of people are most excited about the Christmas cookies in this collection (coordinating dies are sold as an add-on), so I thought I'd post my Christmas cookie card and share a few tips on how I made it.

Although a few years ago I bought wire cutters specifically for cutting dies apart, I don't use them very much anymore because I like to keep as many dies together as possible so I can cut out all the images at once. Not that I'm a lazy stamper, hahaha, but I do want to maximize my time available for playing around with pretty things, vs. administrative tasks like die cutting images. Here's how ... set your dies with the cut side down on your misti. Then individually line up each of your stamps on top of the dies (stamping side down). Once you are set, close the lid of your misti. Now whatever you stamp will line up perfectly with every single die!

Tape the connected dies on top of your stamped/embossed images and run them through.

Can I tell you how GRATIFYING it is to have them all cut and ready at the same time?!? I feel so efficient!

To make this particular card, I "baked" 7 batches of cookies, and took out all the snowflakes. Four of them I kept intact, two I cut in half, and one I cut in quarters. Then you just adhere them on the card as you would arrange them on a baking sheet.

I also inked the edges a little so they're baked.

The best part is now I have 7 sets of all the other cookies to play around with!

The one set I didn't see as much is the Tiny Wishes stamps and Tiny Tags dies. I stamped and embossed most of the images on their coordinating tag shape just because I was dying to see what they all looked like! I really can't wait to use these on cute little gifts this season.

By inking the background, and adding details with marker or pencils, you can really have fun personalizing each of these designs to what you need. Plus there's a really good mix of sentiments, bold images, and outlined images. 

Well, I sure hope you've enjoyed seeing everyone's Home for the Holidays projects these last few days. I've certainly had a blast, and am so thrilled Catherine asked me to join along for this release! If you're at all interested, I'd make up my mind sooner vs. later in case they sell out. Hate it when that happens!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Kelly