I haven’t been posting much lately and that is because October was a big travel month for me. I was gone part of the time for work, but the last 2 weeks, I was lucky enough to be traveling through New England to see the fall foliage!  A trip like this had been on my bucket list for a long time. So when a group of friends in St Louis suggested this trip, I was in!  I called my sister to see if she wanted to go and she was in too!  We don’t get to see much of each other during the year. She lives in Florida, my home state.  And I am in St Louis. So, this was a great way to have fun while spending time together. And because I was traveling with a group, I just had to create a gift for everyone! After all, this is a Stampin’ Up! must! The group had several scrapbookers, so I knew they would be saving lots from the trip to scrapbook later. A folio seemed like the perfect idea.

The inside of the folio is decorated with Paper Pumpkin and some retired fall themed paper.  I also made a few tags for journaling or adding keepsakes to. We got visitor stickers for a lot of the places we visited and my sister put those on the tags. Great idea! I am not much of a scrapbooker, but I do save memorabilia when I am on a trip.  This folio was perfect for stashing things like that.  Here is a view of the inside stuffed with things I saved during the trip.

I knew I wanted to do a travel folio, but I also knew I did not have much time.  Paper Pumpkin came to the rescue! I had lots of leftovers from September’s Paper Pumpkin.  One of the best perks about being a Paper Pumpkin subscriber is the stamp set and the leftover pieces. It is great to be able to create more. Here is a look at the September2017 Paper Pumpkin. Click on the image to learn more or become a subscriber!

I also took this Paper Pumpkin and created notecard sets using the Mini Pizza Boxes. You can see that project by clicking HERE!

The folios were easy to create.  I used the “My Memories Suite” software to make the front plate. The leaf is from an old “My Digital Studio” set.  It is amazing how often I still use that software. I miss it! Below is a closeup of the front cover.

But now the fun stuff! Pictures from the trip!!! I have been in and out of New England for years. One of my best trips was getting marooned on a business trip for a week in northern Maine. But these trips were always in the spring and summer.  I had never been in the fall.  This trip took us to all 6 New England states starting in Boston. The scenery and leaves were beautiful! And the weather was much warmer than usual. Mostly 70’s every day we were there. It could not have been more perfect.  It was a lot to do in just 8 days. But now that I am home and had time to reflect, this was one of those trips of a lifetime! I am glad I went.

I have been looking for a project to use this wonderful black and white checked paper from Merry Little Christmas DSP.  I needed some inspiration to get started and checked the Global Design Project challenge for this week saw it was a color challenge.  So, I decided to get busy and enter!   Only a few hours were left  before the challenge closed, but when I saw the colors, I knew immediately what card I would do!  I have had this idea percolating for a while using the “JOY” die cuts.  I just needed a push to get it going.  Challenges are great for this! You can see more about this challenge by clicking on the #GDP109 icon below.

The color challenge really took me out of my comfort zone. In fact, the entire Merry Little Christmas Suite has taken me out of my comfort zone. At first I was in deep protest about the black & olive green color scheme for this suite of products. I have been very comfortable in my green and red holiday color schemes for many years. I wasn’t ready to leave that well known and well loved territory to an unknown one using black for holiday cards! I mean who uses black at the holidays?  Well, now I do and I love it.  Sometimes you just have to move a little out of  your comfort zone to learn to appreciate something new! Now I see unlimited possibilities using black. The addition of black to the holiday color palette creates both a trendy, sophisticated look as well as more traditional, homespun looks. Black is as versatile for holiday as it is for your wardrobe! A must have.

UPDATE!  This card won a SPECIAL MENTION in the challenge!  I am so thrilled to have been in the Special Mentions for this weeks challenge! #GDPspecialmention and #GDP109

Take a look at the entire suite of products for Merry Little Christmas below for your inspiration and click on the image if you want to see more.

Products Used To Make This Card

_{NOTE: The Typeset Alphabet Bigz Dies were used to make this card. This is a retired item. The current lettering set available is the Large Letters Framelits.} 

It is never to early to start thinking about the upcoming holidays. And the Merry Little Christmas Suite from Stampin’ Up! is just the thing to give you all sorts of options for holiday card making, gift giving and decor.  Today’s card was made for a swap. And I knew I wanted to use the Merry Little Labels stamps and punch.  As I have said before, I am so happy to see more punches from Stampin’ Up! While I love thinnest and framelits for die cutting, punches are perfect for easy card making.

And for this card, I chose the Merry Little Christmas DSP.  At first I have to say I wasn’t a huge fan of the Old Olive and Black combination for holiday cards. But now that I have used it a few times, I see how elegant and classic this color combination is.  It is also right on trend and gives everything you make a fresh look.  This card has lots of layers, which for a swap card, I will typically try to do.  I am swapping with other Demonstrators, so you want to show a lot of product as we share these with customers and want to make sure we are giving everyone lots of ideas for how to use all the wonderful papers, stamps, ribbons and other embellishments.  The image below shows all the fabulous products you can make with items in this Suite.

I stayed with the Merry Little Christmas Suite colors of Old Olive and Black. To make Black  & White Stripe ribbon pop, I found I needed a little something in white. That turned out to be an edge made from the Ticket Tear Border Punch. The edge is small, but adds just the right amount of pop.  The Oh My Stars embossing folder added just a bit of interest to the card base. It made a big difference embossing the card base vs. leaving it plain.  Another tiny detail are the Black Rhinestone Jewels on the Let it Snow sentiment. And I have to give credit where credit is due. I got a lot of help from some fellow demonstrators I was stamping with that day.  It is a joy to have time to get together and stamp together. Not only do we have fun, but we share ideas and help critique each others projects. It makes better stampers of all of us to learn and share like this.

“Ingredients” Used In This Card

_{Click on any link below to see a larger image or purchase.}