Home for the Holidays SOA Collection Blog Hop

 Hello Folks! I'm thrilled to be asked to participate in the Catherine Pooler Home for the Holidays Stamp of Approval release!! You should have arrived from the fabulous Allison Cope, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with none other than Catherine Pooler.

If you're not familiar, the Stamp of Approval box is a collection of products which are all exclusive to Catherine Pooler designs, so you won't be able to purchase them anywhere else. They also are only available as a whole collection and won't be offered individually for several months. All the products in the collection were designed to compliment each other. If you need to start playing with these goodies, I would recommend that you subscribe to the wait list at Catherine Pooler Stamp of Approval so you're the first to know when it's available. You don't have to pay anything to subscribe, you're just billed if and when you decide to buy the collection. Historically, the collections have sold out rather quickly. 

Now onto the projects!

Home for the Holidays ... doesn't the name of this collection alone just make you want to hibernate in your craft space for the weekend with festive music while you stamp out a few early holiday cards?

Well, that's kinda what I did : ) I ended up making a set of cards following the same basic formula: Sentiment from the Holiday Mix Stamp Set plus a watercolored focal point from the Christmas Cookies Stamp Set make up the panel. Then add a border from the Cozy Borders Stamp set.

Here's a super simple card, with that exact formula. There are so many different sentiments to mix and match, with such cute fonts! I love that they are separate stamps so you can easily change the colors.

 

Let's talk about how cute that sleigh is, right?! It's embossed in white and then watercolored with Party Dress ink. I'm big into details, and totally fell in love with how the tail of the "g" fits in the seat of the sleigh. A subtle background from Cozy Borders is stamped on the card base.

How cute are those cozy trees stamped as a border around the card? And so simple too.

The candy cane is the focal point here, but I did want to criss-cross them so I die cut a second cane and just flipped it over.

This card features the angel cookie watercolored in several soft colors. I masked off the outer 1/8" of the panel and sponged ink on the ends.

The border is stamped in purple Sweet Sixteen, but do you see hints of lime? I stamped a small snowflake in the center of each purple design. You can't tell there's a snowflake there, but I do like the hints of lime color you get peeking through all the purple.

I love that the Christmas Cookie images are broken up so you have specific areas to color. This totally takes the guess work out of how to color them! Just fill each section with a different color, like on this bird. No need to do any shading if you don't want to.

This one is probably my favorite. It's got a couple different sentiments, in a couple different colors, with some holly leaves and berries from a fourth set, Festive Trimmings. I love that there are stamps from FOUR different sets on this card, yet they all work seamlessly together.

It was fun picking different colors to watercolor the cookies with. I think the cards all look different enough, yet by having the same formula they come together fairly quickly.

PRIZES
There will be 3 random winners chosen to receive a $25 gift certificate to the shop! To enter, please leave a comment on this post. The winners will be announced on on Catherine Pooler's blog on September 24th.

Your next, and final, stop is the very lovely Lydia Evans who always has the most beautiful creations!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Kelly

Here's the complete list of stops in case you need them:

Catherine Pooler 

Kelly Martin  

Lisa Harrolle 

Susan Powell  

Karen Baker 

Kristie Goulet

Maureen Merritt 

Tracie Pond 

Allison Cope

Kelly Griglione <-- you are here!

Lydia Evans