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All crafters find themselves in need of a little inspiration every now and then, and the Somerset Studio publications are a great place to find it! Stampington & Company publishes a number of wonderful idea books throughout the year and they recently issued the first volume of Somerset Holidays & Celebrations. This publication is filled with a ton of decorations, altered keepsakes, and gift ideas all centered around the theme of celebrating the holidays! Their are 144 pages of stunning holiday art pieces in this issue! Each piece has been beautifully photographed and comes with easy to follow instructions. You will find over 170 different project ideas for Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Valentines, and other special events and occasions. The book itself is thick and very sturdy, which is a great quality when you find yourself looking through it over and over and over again! I have always wanted to decorate a muffin tin and when I saw the decorated Halloween tin in the book, I decided it was time to give it a try. I used brown spray paint to coat the entire muffing pan, then used crackle paint on the 12 muffin holes. I added pictures, flowers, chipboard, buttons, and several other embellishments to decorate the muffin tin. To finish it, I dressed everything up with glitter glue and rhinestones. It really was a lot of fun, and a great excuse to buy a new muffin tin.
Title: Love Muffins I loved the "Angels of the Arts" ornaments in the book and decided to try making my own version. Instead of paper doll like angels, I printed and trimmed some of my favorite pictures of Charlie for my angel ornaments. I dressed each one up with different wings and decorations. I adhered ribbons, fibers, and charms to the back of the angels to use for hanging. I absolutely love how they turned out and I will for sure be making many more in the future. I call them Charlie's Angels!
Title: Charlie's Angels
After making Charlie's Angels, I liked the look of the cut outs so much that I decided to make a little pedestal dedicated to one of my favorite pictures of Memphis and Charlie dancing. I used a bulk ribbon spool for the base. I cut out Memphis and Charlie, adhered a bent chipboard strip behind them to hold them up, and then glued them to the top of the ribbon spool. I placed a wooden dowel down the hole in the middle of the ribbon spool and then adhered the decorated chipboard tile behind the dancing couple. I added paint, flowers, ribbon, chipboard, and rub-ons to complete the project!
Title: Dancing Joy
I really enjoyed looking at all of the unique projects in Somerset Holidays & Celebrations. Each time I looked through this book I found something new, like a new detail or technique that would catch my eye. I was a little intimidated by a few of the projects at first, but after creating some of my own, I am excited about trying more! I think this is an awesome Holiday/Celebration idea book and would highly recommend it!
Pure eye-candy is the way I would describe the Somerset Holidays and Celebrations book. Whenever I have picked up a Somerset Studios Magazine in the past, I have always loved pouring over the rich supply of beautiful projects. But this, Holiday and Celebrations edition is absolutely amazing! Such wonderful inspiration and beauty! The Somerset Holidays and Celebrations book is over 140 pages filled with projects for decorating and celebrating every major holiday. When I first began thumbing through the book, it was hard to concentrate on the words because I was trying to devour every image on the pages. This is definitely one book that I will turn to time and time again in order to absorb everything that is in it. The articles are wonderfully written, and each of the projects in the book also has instructions for how to reproduce it. The pictures alone make this book worth the cover price, but having instructions for the projects makes it even more worthwhile. After the Letter from the Editor, there are five chapters in the book: Deck the Halls, With Love, Spring Greetings, Happy Halloween, and Through the Year. Each of these chapters contains 7 to 10 projects which center around the holiday which it is focused on. Each of the projects is beautiful and artistic. While reading through the book, there were about ten different pages that I marked of projects I wanted to try. The “White Christmas” cards and article on page 12 of the book caught my eye the first time that I flipped through the book, so I decided to do this type of project first.
Peace Card
Products used: During the Halloween season, our house was “Booed”. I was about to run to the store to buy bags to fill with treats to “Boo” someone else when I remembered that I had the perfect inspiration for creating artistic little goodies. I opened my Somerset Holidays and Celebrations book to the Chapter 4: Happy Halloween, and began thinking of things that I could create for the neighbors I would surprise. I made a couple of goodie bags out of cardstock. I then created a digital image using digital images I have collected. A bit of glitter and ribbon, and my treats were complete. Boo Goodies
Products used: My next project was also inspired by the book. I decided to begin making small soldered charms or ornaments to give to friends for Christmas. I used some clippings from an old deck of inspirational cards that I’ve had for years to put into my slides. This picture is the first of hopefully many charms I will create. Just Believe Charm
Products used: Even though I am primarily a scrapbooker and this book details mostly altered arts types projects, I was still able to find a tremendous amount of inspiration from it! I can see myself creating project after project with this book as my guide. If you love altered arts, or if you love to use your scrapbook supplies to create décor and gifts, then this book is a must-have. You are guaranteed to find inspiration between the pages of the Somerset Holidays and Celebrations book.
I love a book that inspires me to do something out of the ordinary and just for the sake of the creative outlet. I found just that in Stampington’s newest release, Somerset Holidays & Celebrations. This 144 page, soft-covered book is divided into 4 chapters representing major holiday periods through-out the year: Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Spring, and Halloween with a fifth chapter that includes projects for many “minor” holidays such as Fourth of July, Baby births and birthdays. Each chapter contains several sections authored by different artists. Each section includes one or more projects with colored illustrations and detailed instructions. There is a gallery section at the end of each chapter, which includes projects and instructions from additional artists. Although the majority of the projects in this book are distinctly Victorian and collage oriented, the basic projects can be adapted to any design style. The instructions (including supplies lists) are thorough and fairly easy to follow. In some cases I would have liked a pattern or template, which are not included. I rarely take the time to create something just for fun. Usually my projects are specific to a certain assignment or product. I loved being able to take inspiration from so many different projects and ideas with free reign to create whatever I desired. There were so many projects that I loved and that inspired me that I decided to create a variety of “miniatures” for a fun altered project. The inspiration for my project as a whole came from an altered spice rack created by Colleen Devlin Bank, shown on page 84. I rummaged in my garage and found an old wooden spoon rack that I decided would be the perfect foundation for my tongue-in-cheek “Cat-Mouse” project. I created 12 different miniature projects, all inspired by the book, to represent the twelve days of “Cat Mouse” and these projects are displayed on my spoon rack. Here you can see the completed project.
I sanded the old wooden spoon rack, then sprayed it with Krylon’s spray Gesso in white. Once that had dried, I painted it with two different colors of Ranger’s Crackle Paint (Old Paper and Brushed Corduroy). I let them dry overnight and then sanded the spoon rack to further distress the piece. Now that my display piece was completed, it was time to create the ornaments. My theme is the 12 Days of Cat-Mouse, using Victorian images of cats and mice on the individual pieces. Ornaments 1, 3 and 5 were inspired by projects appearing on pages 29 and 96 of the book. Ornament 1 is a small cone filled with berries, ornament 3 is a small wire doo-dad, and ornament 5 is created from a glass microscope slide.
Ornaments 6, 8 and 9 were inspired by projects appearing on pages 9, 30 and 134 of the book. To create these ornaments, I used a pre-made metal embellishment for the hanging ornament, fashioned a glove out of patterned paper, and embellished a small puzzle piece.
Ornaments 10, 11 and 12 were inspired by projects appearing on pages 6, 39 and 94 of the book. I adapted a mini-quilt project to paper to create the ornament with the cat in the boot. The fan was created using pages from an old book and the heart is a piece of black chipboard covered with a page from an old music book. In keeping with the Victorian theme of my photos, I used old lace and beads on several of the ornaments.
This new publication from Stampington is full of wonderful, innovative ideas for holiday decoration. Most of these projects can be created using items found in your craft or sewing room. If you do not have the material, substitutions work well. I must admit that I have not been this inspired by a craft book in quite some time. I encourage you to check it out the next time you are in a scrapbook or craft store. I do not think you will be disappointed.
Somerset Studio's premiere issue of Holidays & Celebrations ($14.95) came at the perfect time for me. I had recently made a commitment to give handmade gifts this Christmas and since crafting beyond basic altering and mini albums is not something I do often, an idea book was the right source for me to get started. This 144-page soft cover book boasts over 170 wonderful crafting ideas that are divided into five chapters: (1) Deck the Halls, (2) With Love, (3) Spring Greetings, (4) Happy Halloween and (5) Through the Year--which includes 4th of July, birthday, baby, New Years projects and more. Projects include altering items, creating paper crafts, ATC's, ornaments, cards and more. Each chapter begins with a few featured projects that receive a full page or two of examples, instructions and artist's history and narrative of the project. These featured projects also include a clear supply list on the bottom corner of the page. The supplies listed are generally not brand-specific which means that any attempt to identically recreate these projects would be difficult. Helpful tips are also included with many of the projects. Beyond the featured projects, several more projects and instructions for completing them are included within each chapter. This section features several projects per page and do not include a supply list. While the projects themselves cover a variety of crafts and mediums, their style almost exclusively has a vintage or collage look to them. This is a style that I am drawn to but do not create on my own. I found plenty of inspiration within the book despite that. One thing that I love about this book is that each project clearly lists the creator, their contact information and a brief biography. A great way to treat the artists! I drew inspiration from a puzzle piece project called "Yes, Virginia" by Judy Bidwell (page 30). I have several large puzzle pieces in my stash and didn't know what to do with them. Instead of making something similar to a mini album like Judy did, I decided to make mine a card. I used two large chipboard tags as my card covers, and two puzzle pieces within them that open like a book, essentially creating a card within a card.
Father Tag Card (front)
(inside of tags)
(inside of puzzle piece card) Supplies: I fell in love with Heidi O'Conner's Halloween Pennant on page 100 and knew that was going to be my second project. Heidi's Pennant had a great mixture of orange, black and white elements that look beautiful and somewhat vintage. Gorgeous! But since my style is more colorful I altered the style of the pennant altogether. For this I used painted rub on sticks, eyelets and ribbon to hang the pennant on. I love the way this turned out. Even though it looks very different from the project in the book, the inspiration to create a Halloween Pennant came from Heidi's project.
"Beware" Halloween Pennant
(close up of Pennant) Supplies: Somerset does an excellent job with this book. It is packed full of beautiful ideas that are incredibly creative and inspiring. The only thing I'd change about this book is to either label it as a "vintage" or "collage" themed book or to diversify the styles that are included in future publications. The layout, projects, color and content of the book are fantastic and well worth its cost.
I have to admit I am an idea book junkie. Looking through these types of books is like looking for tiny treasures. They are normally packed with ideas that can be converted to any style or occasion, not just what is shown. I love finding inspiration in these books whether it is a small nugget or a full scale project. When I was asked to review Somerset's Holidays & Celebrations book by Stampington & Company, I was thrilled! The Holidays & Celebrations book is 144 pages packed with great projects that are suitable for all levels of crafters. The book is divided into five chapters:
The chapters are then subdivided by artist, which includes a paragraph or two from the artist along with their projects. I found this very helpful because I could not only find out what inspired these projects they created, but I also got a little glimpse of who they were. Now I know that if I see that person's name whether I should look a little closer, whether it be in Holidays & Celebrations, or another publication. At the end of each chapter there is a gallery section which features various designers along with additional projects. This is where I found inspiration for my next project. The simplicity of using muted tones and white in Christmas projects is very appealing to me. When I saw the project "Winterbird" by Carlene Federer on page 27 I immediately knew what my first project would be. A couple of years ago my husband and son decided they were going to make barnwood projects. The first thing they made was a picture frame. The opening was not quite square (6 x 6 ¼-inches) and the corner joints didn't quite match up. It was a great start for their first try and I wanted to keep it. I knew that one day I would find the perfect picture for this frame. I am so glad that I was patient in waiting for the right project to complete this frame.
Title: Calm Throughout the book these beautiful cones are shown in different shapes; sizes; and for different occasions. The more vintage ones would look perfect in my sitting room so that is where I began. The directions state that you should only use a fourth of a circle to make the cone, but I wanted something a little larger so I used a half circle instead.
Title: Vintage Cone The Holidays & Celebrations book by Somerset is complete with projects from the soft Vintage look to the most bizarre (Edgar Allen Poe). The instructions for each of the projects were easy to read and follow and would appeal to all ages. If you are an idea book junkie like me, or you are just looking for inspiration for the holidays, I would highly recommend this book. Now, I gotta go get the supplies to make that adorable snowman on the front cover!
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