Snowmen with Snowglobe Shaker Card

Here is another winter card that I made using a die that came with a magazine I purchased at Barnes and Noble. The die made it easy to construct the shaker part.  It looks complicated, but I really had to only do one fully die cut piece, the dark blue one.  I traced the die to make the acetate that was glued behind the blue die cut piece.  Next, I used the die to cut a sheet of purple foam but snipped out the trees and house.  Finally, the lavender layer of cardstock was made by tracing around the die and cutting it out by hand.  The purple foam layer was glued to the lavender piece and the glitter snow was added before the acetate with blue house/tree scene was glued down.  The words were stamped and the ink heat embossed with gold embossing powder.  The die was used to trace out the word panel and it was hand cut.  The small snowflake dies were used to cut out pretty snowflakes from DCWV white shimmer paper.  The snowmen card stock paper I used is an Echo Park product purchased at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  This die would be great to make some fancy tags....ah, maybe next year....it's time for a hibernating nap! 

 

Joy to the World

Well, the big day is finally here....it's Christmas!  This card made with a simple die cut scene (die from a craft magazine purchased at Barnes and Noble).  First I used Distress Inks to color some watercolor paper and sprinkled the dyed paper with water and silver ink. The scene was die cut from blue card stock. It took awhile to pierce out the little paper chads which was a little irritating. The die cut piece was glued to the dyed paper and both were adhered to a white card.  Finally, the words (hot foiled strip) was attached with a glue tape runner.  Except for removing the excess papers from the die cut piece, this card was a simple project.  If I decide to make this card again perhaps I will reverse the the papers, put the dyed paper on top and add some glitter onto the rood tops. This card is for everyone in blogland....I wish all of you the merriest of Christmases and the anticipation of the best new year ever!

 

Hawaiian Santa Cards

During the holiday season, we do a lot of correspondence with friends and family on the mainland so when I saw the Lawn Fawn Beachy Christmas stamp and die sets, I knew that I could create some fun cards from them.  For the top card, I used the Giant Outlined Merry and Bright Lawn Fawn die.  It was easy to cut the words from Violet Studio blue glitter card stock.  This die cut was then glued to some Hawaiian print vellum paper. Stamping, coloring and die cutting the Santa image and coconut drink was super simple.  A little red Stickles was added for some bling.  

For the second card, I wanted to show how versatile this LF Beachy Christmas stamp set can be.  Here I turned it into a thank you card for our mainland friends and family who send us the most unique Xmas gifts. The beach scene paper is from an American Crafts paper pack which contains some beautiful photographic Hawaiian scenes.  To enhance the beach look, I heat embossed some Hero Arts 'sand' embossing powder onto the shoreline.  The Copic colored images were die cut and adhered with sticky foam dots.  The Lawn Fawn thank you script die was used to cut out the words from DCWV green foil paper.  I'm certain that I will use these stamp and die sets often during this and future holiday seasons....Santa is just so cute!

 

Vintage -look Xmas Cards

Some Tim Hlotz stamps and an ephemera pack of vintage Xmas images were the inspiration for these cards.  I started with Kraft paper notecards with envelopes to give my cards an aged look.  I stamped an image with dark brown permanent ink and colored it in a little with color pencils.  Next I flicked Hero Arts Glimmer metallic ink (silver white) to give the look of new fallen snow.  

It was easy to select just the right images from the ephemera pack and glue them down.

As plain as these cards look, I like the way they turned out.  Although Christmas cards from my childhood would not look like these,  I am a big fan of the Victorian era so these cards appeal to me.  I do think they really have a time-worn aged look... like me....LOL!  

 

Bee Santa Tags

Just like with the last set of tags posted, I used Lawn Fawn sweater print card stock for the base of these tags and a set of Art Impressions stamps for the humorous images and sayings. Because I am a supporter of Alan Wong's Beehive project at the U.H. of Hilo, I thought I would make some silly tags for my gifts of honey mailed to friends. Fussy cutting and coloring with Copic pens were the method of decorating these Little B die cut tags.  I kept the tags simple and worked in front of the TV....hahaha what a lazy crafter!

 

Ugly Sweater Tags

I love Art Impressions silly character stamps. The humor of the captions is great and the stamps themselves make great clean impressions.  These tags were started with Lawn Fawn 12x12 sweater print card stock and a large Little B tag die.  The sweater lady image was stamped on marker paper before being colored with Copic pens and fussy cut out.  The cut out sweater lady was adhered to the tags with foam dots. The words were stamped on marker paper and cut out before smudging the edges with turquoise ink.  Ugly sweater yarn was tied to the tags.  I don't send out too many handmade cards anymore so I like to put some effort into the tags I attach to Xmas gifts.  However, I doubt that anyone saves Xmas tags so I don't spend an enormous amount of time on each tag or add too many embellishments.  My goal is just to bring a smile to the face of the recipient.  That's the spirit of Xmas!

 

Year of the Rabbit Magnetic Calendars

Every year I try to make a mini calendar to tuck into my family newsletter.  This year I decided to make magnetic calendars because I had leftover cardboard coasters (purchased from Celebrations in a 50 pack) and extra sheet magnet packages from HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  I had to keep the magnets simple because I wanted to make a few in a short amount of time.  I started with rabbit printed washi paper (purchased in Japan but possibly available at Celebrations).  I roughly cut the paper to fit the coaster and applied 3 in 1 Beacon glue to the coaster before securing the paper. Next I simply cut off the excess washi paper. To make the golden rabbit seal I stamped the rabbit in gold ink and applied gold embossing powder before using a heat gun.  Then I used my Fiskar deckle edge scissors to trim around the stamped image.  The Vippies calendars have a peel off sticky strip so it was easy to add the calendar and glue down the rabbit image.  Finally on the back, I added a 2-1/2" magnet square. (The magnet sheet can be easily cut with a Fiskar paper trimmer.) The magnet sheet has a peel off paper back that reveals a really strong sticky magnet.  Because it is the year of the Rabbit (my husband's special year), I think I'll make a bunch more of these calendars since I have quite a bit of rabbit print washi paper....couldn't stop buying every design I saw in Japan...LOL! Have a healthy, happy Year of the Rabbit!

 

Ugly Sweater Happy Holiday Cards

Do you wear ugly sweaters during the holidays?  I think the tradition is funny and cute, just like these Lawn Fawn characters.  I paired them with hot foiled words on Lawn Fawn's constellation 12x12 card stock (comes in many colors). The shiny foil stars were already on the card stock so I wasn't sure that hot foiling the words (Hero Arts) wouldn't remove them. I am pleased with the results as the words seem to be part of the constellations.(Wish my photo was better...sorry!)  The matching dies made the sweatered animals super quick to create.

For added humor, I stamped the words (comes with the set) onto some sweater fabric print scrap card stock and added a mini sweater inside the card.

I had an extra hot foiled Happy Holiday piece of card stock so I made another  smaller card.  On this one I added two tandem sledding friends from another Lawn Fawn stamp set and die. I hand cut the snow hill from frosted pearlized white DCWV 6x6 paper.  These cards were fun to make an I learned another thing about hot foiling....it can be done over card stock that already has some foiled designs.  You learn something everyday if you experiment and observe. Go on be a crafty scientist....you'll have so much fun!

 

Holiday Cute Cup Cards

While playing with my new 'toy', a foiling machine (see previous post), I came up with these two cards.  The cute cup patterned 12x12 Doodlebug Designs card stock was used for the background. This paper is actually from the fall collection but I thought it looked wintery and it had a nice plaid design in the back. For the top card I decided to try the pink foil sold at HM BFC and a Hero Arts foil plate. I couldn't get a good photo because the script is a fancy style and the pink color doesn't show up well in photos. However, I do love the result of using non-holiday colors.  The Hero Arts stamp designs with matching dies are so cute especially with the animal shaped whipped cream.  It's an old set but worth getting because of the many applications it provides.

On the second card, I used rainbow foil on the plaid print back of the cup cardstock. The cute cup holding characters are Evelin T. Design stamps. Although they don't have dies, it wasn't hard to fussy cut the Copic colored animals.  I wasn't sure how to use the rainbow foil, but it does look fancy and now I can imagine it on many more future project. I hope that you'll consider getting a foiling machine to help enhance your cards and other paper crafts.  I think it will be an investment in creativity. Happy Holiday Crafting!  

 

Stenciled Pine Cone Card with Foiled Words

Yes, I'm still experimenting with my Spellbinder foiling machine.  I'm having so much fun!  Today I tried a new Tim Holtz pine cone stencil on crinkled Japanese paper with foil speck. I had the idea of stenciling over foiled words. However, although the words foiled onto the paper perfectly, they were too light to be seen well on the textured paper.  I decided to stencil the pine cones and pine needles onto the Japanese paper first and then attach a die cut foiled 'Merry Christmas'.  This worked well except that the Distress ink I used on the pine needles was too light to show up well.  I should have used dark green ink.  Oh well, overall I liked the end result of this card especially the distress look of the background with the gold flecks.  Okay, onward to more tests tomorrow. I love being a crafting scientist!

 

Foiled Sentiment Xmas Tags

I recently treated myself to a new craft tool....a foiling machine!  Yes, I know they've been around for awhile but I thought stamping and using heat embossing powder was good enough. However, recently many craft companies have come out with some really cool foiling designs so I caved.  I am happy with my new investment.  The Spellbinder foiling machine is easy to use and with my Big Shot die cutting machine enables me to make some very professional papercrafts.  Shown above are my first two experiments using Hero Arts foiling plates and matching dies.  The papers I used were from Echo Park (purchased at HM BFC).  Since these were tests, I used some scrap papers (good way to use them up).  A large Little B tag die was used.  Hopefully, you'll be seeing some foiled  Xmas greeting cards on my next post.  Okay, going back to playing with my new toy.......um, I mean tool! LOL!

 

Xmas Recycled Burlap Gift Bags

Gosh, I sure do love recycling!.  Making something pretty and useful from other people's throw-aways is one of my joys.  When I attended a niece's wedding, I was happy to receive a rustic burlap bag of macadamia nuts...for the bag!  It was a cute size but had the couple's names printed on the front.  I decided to use a white Ken Oliver opaque paint to cover up the names.  I'm sure that regular thick white acrylic paint would work too, but I used what was on my craft table...LOL!  I put some folded paper inside the bag so that the paint wouldn't bleed to the back.  Once the paint was dry, I used Tim Holtz stencils to print the words.  The ink I used for stenciling was a permanent red stamping ink. I think that the curved stencil brushes work extremely well...medium size is most versatile.  Tim Holtz die cut old fashioned Xmas design paper pieces were added for color and nostalgia.  I also added jingle bells to the drawstrings and a small piece of holly garland to the 'cheer' bag.  When I start my recycled projects, I never know exactly what the result will be. Today the recycling gods blessed me with the creation of two unique gift bags which will hopeful make the recipients eager to see what they hold. Cheer and Peace to all recyclers!