Winter Soiree 2010 {Behind the Scenes}

I thought I would share with you a little behind the scenes look at what it looks like to prepare for one of our smaller programs. We have a collection of stores around the United States that have our entire Soiree Shimmer Paper collection - and we create new displays seasonally to show how to combine stamping and computers to create some fun and elegant invitations, announcements, tags and place card holders. In the spring, the displays tend to focus on weddings - but this time of year the ideas are more holiday themed - like the gift card ideas above.

We print the text onto our cardstock -  like the Frost White above. For large amounts of invitations, we suggest taking your computer file (Word document or photoshop pdf file) to a place like Office Depot to have them print it on their color copy machines - the text comes out crisp and bright!

You can print a small area or big area - depending on the card. In the example above, a strip that tells the recipient who the card is from is combined with the new Thistle Distressed Dots paper and the snowglobe/polar bear image (C1409 Fred P Bear and D1407 Snowglobe). 

Here we printed the "happy birthday to francis" in a fun font with multiple colors, leaving a space above the text for us to stamp the F1402 Brilliant Maple. This allows you to get 4 cards out of a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper - just print it, then cut it up and mount onto some 24 karat Soiree Shimmer cards.

It's fun to get the pets involved too! Here, Oscar posed with a Santa Hat!

It actually took more time to get a picture than it did to make all 12 cards!

I used photoshop to work on the photo, erasing the background around his head and adding text in the open space. Then, a few Design Adhesive stickers from the Flurries collection and some silver glitter were added to create a few snowflakes floating above the text. Our new Slate Shimmer color was a perfect match for his fur!

Party invitations are perfect for the Soiree paper - just create a "text box" in Word, red background with white type. Leave a space above the text box - then once the paper is printed, stamp the D1414 Winterberry Wreath in a beautiful brown ink, like Versacolor Pinecone. A bird sticker (from the In the Forest Design Adhesives pack) and some red glitter is a nice finishing touch.

I got out my sewing machine to create a border for one of the samples. After I stamped out the Mod Border D1319 I ran the strip through my machine without any thread. Sponge a soft brown ink along the edge - like Versamagic Gingerbread - and the layer gets a special treatment.

We used the same idea to create a "path" where a turquoise snowflake was falling across the text of another Christmas card. Here, the D1417 Pine Branch is stamped in silver - and the base card is our beautiful Lagoon Soiree color.

The stores that carry the full collection have (12) shimmering colors, available in 4bar cards and envelopes, A2 cards and envelopes and A7 envelopes on our custom shelving. These samples and more are displayed with the cards and envelopes - go by these stores to see them in person: 

Impress Rubber Stamps

Ink About It

Queen's Ink

Scarlet Empress

Simple Pleasures

Stamp and Scrap Nest

Stamp On Over

The Stamp Attic

Not close to one of these stores? We'll post some of the ideas soon - so you can see them!

Comments

[joanie guggenmos]

thanks, Dave, for showing your techniques. Our heads are spinning with all your wonderful ideas! I LOVE the Soiree papers!

[Wilson Janice]

These are all so awesome! Thanks for the great tips!

[Stacy Laurent]

Oscar made the blog! Great holiday ideas!