When a small group of us sit down each month to decide what the monthly downloads should be, the hardest part is deciding which of the great ideas we’ll have to save for another month. This was especially true for all of the holiday downloads this year. Between all of our brainstorming and requests, we had enough ideas for 10 holiday seasons. No joke! And, while the ones that made the cut are absolute winners, I decided to take one of the ideas that didn’t make it and use the Home for the Holidays Ensemble to make it happen.

In addition to this favorite free download, Christmastime is my favorite time of year. I adore advent calendars and the swatchbook is my new favorite print product (okay, one of my favorites!). So, I decided to combine all of these tried and true favorites and create a holiday swatchbook advent countdown that has a new Christmas activity listed from day one through 25.

I’ve simply used stamp and embellishment images included with the Home for the Holidays Ensemble download to create an interactive swatchbook for our family. I kept the design fairly simple and added text boxes on each page detailing a short activity. You can see a sampling of the pages below:

This ensemble is so versatile. The more I design with it, the more ideas I come up with! As you’ve seen, you can use the included embellishments and stamps to create new projects. Or, you can use the designer templates that come standard in the download –the holiday invite, thank you card, frameable art, and treat labels and flags.

Of course, with a few simple tweaks, you have a few more projects:

1. Turn the invite into a photocard – by leaving the front as is and using the back as a photo. Quick & easy (and cute!)

2. Change the frameable tree art into a Christmas card (edit>Change Project Size/Type)

3. Use the framable tree art as a scrapbook page – just add a photobox or two!

What small tweaks or large projects are you planning with this download? Share your designs by tagging your samples with “Home for the Holidays” in the Samples section. I hope this download soon becomes one of your favorites too!

From Andrea Bowden, Stampin’ Up! Digital Product Specialist

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Stampin’ Hugs!
~ Gail