Wednesday, 16 September 2026

Holly Jolly Branches for the Simple to Stepped up New at SU! blog hop

Hello and welcome to my blog. Today, I am participating in the New at SU! blog hop. We are a group of Stampin' Up!® demonstrators from around the world who are full of creative papercrafting ideas to share with you to get you crafting. We are showcasing simple projects that can be stepped up for more of a wow factor!

I have to admit that I started with my final version and pared in down to create two simpler, stepped down yet still elegant versions of my card. I used the Holly Jolly Branches bundle together with the Swirls of Magic embossing folder on each of the versions and in addition I included the Tile Garden set of dies to step up the design.

Each card has a snowy scene with a trio of trees. I chose to use a square card base because the trees look completely at home in a square setting. There are multiple layers to add depth to the scene.

I used tone on tone stamped stars to decorate the Pool Party sky and some snow detail, using stamped off Pool Party ink, to the drifts on the ground. Tearing the layers to create the drifts added some softness to the edges. The coloured trees are stamped using a coordinating colour and the white tree is embossed using the Swirls of Magic folder. The stars and swirls really add great detail to the biggest tree.

On the simplest version of the card the layers have clean lines whilst the stepped up versions include die cut squares with fancy edges. Each version has a Golden Glow star in the sky which is coloured with Wink of Stella shimmer and a trio of Basic Rhinestones for some shine.

The two stepped up versions also have splatters of shimmer from the Wink of Stella brush to add droplets of sparkle to the background.

My final version steps things up a notch by converting the card into a fancy easel fold card. The easel is propped up using the long sentiment label included in the Holly Jolly bundle.

I hope that you have been inspired by my projects today. I am smitten with the easel card, and I've made five more of them to add to my Christmas stash! Which version do you prefer?

Continuing along the hop to the others will provide you with even more ideas for simple to stepped up projects - you are currently with me, Furry Cat Designs by Karen Henderson - but before you hop on to the next post, please take a moment to leave a comment. We love reading your comments!

Do you need any of the products used on today's cards? If you live in the UK please take a look in my online Stampin' Up! shop. You can follow the link or click on the pictures below of the products I have used today.

Stay safe and as always, happy crafting,

If you would like to order any supplies, and you live in the UK, I would love to be your demonstrator. To place an order please visit my online shop HERE. The products I have used on today's project are linked from the images shown below.