Cold like the North Pole

Of all the Stamp Sets in the Stampin’ Up! 2018 Holiday Catalogue, Signs of Santa has to be my favourite. As soon as I was able it was the first thing I ordered, along with other parts of the suite. I love the line art characters and additional images, especially the ‘official seal of the North Pole’. My granddaughter Alyssa loves this set too as she showed when visiting me in October. In fact the stamp set, coordinating dies, paper and accessories have been so popular that the entire suite except the stamp set is already sold out.

Although I still have everything in my craft studio I’ve stopped making things for my blog using the sold-out items. After all, if you can’t actually buy the products it would be cruel to tease you with them. For this reason when creating my Design Team project for the What Will You Stamp? Challenge this week, I limited myself to only using the stamp set.

So using a large candy cane I purchased at Walmart in Orlando, Florida last month, here’s my contribution to WWYS197 – Signs of Santa. Mind you when I took this photo yesterday in the snow, there was in a biting north wind straight from the North Pole. Quite appropriate really.

CANDY CANE STAND

Obviously it all started with the enormous candy cane and the need to make a box to help it stand.

I began with some Thick Whisper White Card cut to 5″ x 5″ and scored on each side at 1-1/2″. Then I folded the card along the scored lines and sharpened the creases with a Bone Folder.

When I measured the thickness of the candy cane it was 7/8″. That was a bit of a problem as I don’t have a 7/8″ punch or die so I needed to be creative. Using a ruler and pencil I drew two lines from corner to corner on the centre square. Where the lines crossed was the centre point. Next I folded one side of the card in so that I could punch the centre with a 3/4″ Circle Punch.

SPARKLING SNOW BANKS

While the Thick Whisper White Card is thick, I thought it would still need some reinforcing. For that I chose Sparkle Glimmer Paper. I cut one piece 2″ x 2″ and two more 2″ x 4″ each.

On the 2″ x 2″ piece I again found the centre by drawing lines on the back from corner to corner. Then I punched out the centre using the 3/4″ Circle Punch as before.

On the two 2″ x 4″ pieces I scored them both along the long side at 2″. Then I folded each one in half. On one piece I had the glitter on the inside, and the other one on the outside. Then using Paper Snips I cut a gentle curve along the top edge of each piece from from the fold line to the edge.

ASSEMBLING THE STAND

I was now ready to assemble the candy cane stand.

Using Paper Snips I cut up the vertical score lines on the 5″ x 5″ square from the edge to the first horizontal line. Then I turned the piece around to the opposite edge and repeated the process to create a tab at each corner. Next I tucked each tab in and used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to attach them to the sides. This was my simple tray box.

Using more liquid glue I fixed the 2″ x 2″ Glimmer Paper to the top of the box. Then I added the folded Glimmer Paper with the glitter facing out around two sides of the box . The final Glimmer Paper piece was added to the other two sides with the glitter facing in, so that needed to be attached with Tear & Tape Adhesive.

Because I already knew that the 3/4″ hole wasn’t big enough for for the candy cane I then cut a 1/8″ slit from the edge of the punched hole towards each corner. Now when I gently pushed the candy cane into the hole, the slits pressed inwards. This helped to hold the cane securely in place.

NORTH POLE

All that was left was to decorate the candy cane and this is where the Signs of Santa Stamp Set came in.

Using Tuxedo Black ink I stamped one of each of the elves onto Thick Whisper White Card. Then I stamped one of the snow-covered signs and added the ‘North Pole’ sentiment.

To colour the images I turned to my Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. On the North Pole sign sign I used light and dark Crumb Cake. Then I added a touch of light Pool Party along the edge of the snow.

For the elves I used dark Daffodil Delight, Ivory, light and dark Shaded Spruce and light and dark Poppy Parade.

Once coloured, I cut the images out using Paper Snips. This was quite easy and shows that this set works beautifully even if you don’t have the dies.

Finally, using Tear and Tape Adhesive I attached the images to the candy cane and stand and I was done.

WHAT WILL YOU STAMP?

I’m really pleased with how this North Pole candy cane project turned out. In fact if you can’t get hold of giant candy canes, this would be perfect for dinner candles. Just remember that the stand is for decoration only and should never be used to hold a lighted candle!

You’ll find lots more Design Team project ideas for the Signs of Santa Stamp Set over on the What Will You Stamp? challenge blog.

If you have this set please show us your ideas and join the challenge. Simply create a new project using at least one image from the set. Then upload it to the challenge gallery for WWYS197 – Signs of Santa.

At the end of the challenge we’ll randomly choose one person to be our weekly winner. They’ll get bragging rights and a winners badge for their social media. They’ll also receive an invitation to be our Guest Designer for WWYS200.