Holiday Catalog Sneak Peek!

July is almost over and I haven't even had a chance to show you any sneak peaks of any new products coming out in the Holiday Catalog that starts August 1.  So today, I'm sharing a card I made for the Stampin' Addicts Christmas Card swap.  It may seem a little early to be thinking about Christmas, but if you plan to send out handmade cards, it's NOT to early. :)

Colors: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla.  Stamps: Heart of Christmas.  Big Shot: Holiday Frame Textured Embossing Folder, Apothecary Accents Framelits Collection, Heart Framelits Collection. Accessories: Cherry Cobbler Core'dinations Card Stock, Stampin' Sanding Block, Pearl Jewels.

Do you notice all the new stuff on this card?  First is the fabulous Holiday Frame Textured Embossing Folder.  It is an oval wreath shape and has a lovely baroque feel to it.  Here I ran the new Core'dinations Card Stock through the Big Shot with this folder and then sanded it with the new Stampin' Sanding Block.  When you sand away this card stock, a monochromatic color is revealed.  Very fun!

The Heart of Christmas Stamp comes as a single image.  Here, I used markers to color right on the stamp to make the image multicolored.  And because the look and feel of the card is kind of vintage-y, I used Crumb Cake ink to distress everything on the card.  I love the way it turned out!

But you also might notice a major OOPS! on this card.  Swaps are always suppose to contain current product.  I just realized as I was posting this that the little heart stamp on here is RETIRED!!!  Yikes.  Substitute out that heart for another heart, please.

I promised to share more convention information with you each day this week too.  So today, I'm going to show you all the fun stuff you get for going to convention:

When you show up for convention, you pick up your bag and stamp sets for Make and Takes.  This year we received Your Amazing and Daydream Medallions from the main catalog and Affection Collection from the Holiday Catalog.  What isn't in the photo are the Make and Take projects because there wasn't room (and I haven't finished two of them).  Inside the bag is a convention book that contains all the schedules and other information you need and nice pen for taking notes of course. For attending the Make and Take sessions, we also received three different bonuses: Rhinestone Jewels, Primrose Petal Ribbon and the In Color Dahlias.  During one of the Main Stage presentations, I won the Friendship Preserves Stamp set with the matching Paper Piercing Templates and a new Paper Piercing Mat and Tool. In addition, everyone at the Closing Session received Moving Forward, the Ronald McDonald House Charity set for this year, and the Mixed Medley Hostess set from the Holiday Catalog.  And just for attending six different classes during convention, we got a really fun stamp set that goes along with theme of the convention.

Did I miss anything?  Oh ya, all the great idea and business tips.  They are kind of hard to show in a photo.  I seriously considered not going to convention this year but I am so glad that I did.  And look at all the fun stuff I have to show for it.