It's a Thank You! It's a Valentine! It's a Calendar!

I'm still cleaning up all the Christmas stuff, but just had to craft something in my super messy craft room.  Here I've used a new stamp set by Santoro that will be selling soon at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  I love all the sweet images in this line of cling stamps.

The pastel striped and gold accented papers are from a line of Christmas paper that I didn't use in my Xmas crafting because it wasn't 'Christmasey' enough.  I love how the soft feminine image matches the precious paper.

I added heart candy-like buttons (shanks cut off) to the upper corners of the cards which along with the gold foil die cut 'love' (die is in Sizzix card blank die set along with lots of other decorative dies) help to make this card suitable for a Valentine gift card.

The Vippies calendar (ordered online) was adhered with the self-stick strip on the back of the calendar.

This side view shows how easy it is to stand up the card front for displaying.

Thank you for stopping to read this post.  I hope you enjoyed your visit. Please come again for new ideas and inspiration for a crafty 2017!

Peace and Merry Christmas to All!

The thing about this card that makes it the worst to photograph is also the thing I like the most....the iridescence, sparkle and shine.....so mystical that it can't be captured by a digital camera!  However blurry, the message of PEACE is one that I send to everyone in blogland via this card.

The origami style reindeer images were stamped on blue foil card stock and cut out with the matching Hero Arts dies.  The rolling hills were cut from a long hoarded piece of dyed and foiled specialty paper.  I feel that the die cut (Sizzix) ' PEACE' font (cut from glitter card stock) was a good compliment to the angular lines on the deer and hills. The pearlized lavender card base is another hoarded supply that surely can still be found at a stationery store.  The Hero Arts and Sizzix products as well as the snowflakes were purchased at HM Ben Franklin Crafts, a local store where you can get all your crafting 'fixes' every day of the year. Cheery crafting and splendid shopping to all our BFC patrons in blogland! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Xmas Tree Calendar/Candy Party Favor

Here is the Xmas favor I came up with this year for our annual holiday brunch.  I wanted to include something that would be usable for the guests so I started with a little Studio G stand up chalkboard memo holder I found at HM Ben Franklin Crafts ($1.50).  I used a Bistro marker (but chalk works well, too) to write my name (or the other guest's) on the memo holder.  Then I die cut the trees and sentiments (Sizzix set).  I found that a rolling tape glue works well to get just enough sticky stuff on the back of the words to adhere it to the tree.  For the tree topper I glued on a snowflake sequin and added a small sun one that I had in my stash. The tree was clipped in the memo holder along with the top of a goodie bag.

This is the back of the favor where you can see the Heiko cello bag (with the top attached to the memo holder) and Xmas sticker. The Heiko products were also sold at HM BFC.

When the treats are eaten the guest will be left with an erasable chalkboard memo holder with a (Vippies) calendar attached to the back.  I think it is nice to make favors that don't end up in the trash or contain artificial flowers that sit on a table collecting dust.  At least with these favors the recipient can put the calendar on his/her desk and even use it to hold memos/chalk in reminders. I'm sure you will find many other uses for the this die that are not shown on the package so let your creativity float like snowflakes this holiday season.

Using Dies to Dress Up Gift Bags in a Jiffy

Okay, the crunch is really on, but these bags only require a few minutes of crafting because of the fabulous dies available at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  This winter village scene bag was pretty but not unique so I added two iridescent vellum panels of die cut snowflakes (Sizzix). A piece of frosty mini garland was used to tie the panels shut. The 'Winter Wishes' ( Sizzix) were die cut from silver foil DCWV paper        

When the panels are untied, the wintery village scene can be viewed.

Here is the same bag with a die cut (Ionic) gold foil deer and the 'Winter Wishes' cut from Paper Arts glitter paper. The Ionic reindeer has fancy antlers and an embossed body which make him very handsome. I made his collar from a mini holly garland (Darice) that I purchased at BFC.

 These are the dies that I used to fancy up these bags. It was easy and fun....give it a try...you have two more days, so craft like a crazed elf! LOL!

Folding Christmas Tree Card

When I first saw the Folding Xmas Tree Sizzix die, I wasn't positive how the card was cut out and folded.  The few photos included with the die didn't help me much but luckily the Sizzix website had some YouTube videos that were informative.

I think using the right paper is the best advice I could give you when assembling this card.  I used printed card stock from a 6x6 Doodlebug Designs  Xmas pad.  I had to think a little bit about how to lay out the die to cut out half a tree without making one half with upside down mini trees.  The sentiment was cut out of foil paper and adhered to some leftover frosted snowflake paper.

I didn't want to spend time cutting and gluing the little poinsettias for the top of the tree so I just used some snowflake confetti (large bag of three sizes of snowflakes came from HM BFC). The confetti for the tree halves were folded in half across the tree tops. Oh yes, it will save you a ton of time if you purchase a Spellbinder rolling brush tool to get the chads out of the intricate sentiment die.  I think I also saw a Sizzix one at BFC.  Anyway, I think this is an elegant, unique card that is easy to make with this special Sizzix folding die. You could make lots of them for friends and family or possibly use them to decorate the Christmas dinner table. In the next post I will show you what else I did with this special die set that I purchased at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  Happy Shopping and Crafting!

Lawn Fawn Deer Add Sweetness to Chic Gift Bag

 I liked the soft colored stripes of this gift bag I purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts (and the fact that it came with matching tissue).  I thought that it was a bit plain (but elegant) so I couldn't resist adding a few die cuts.  The gold (Delicata)stamped and heat embossed (NUVO gold enchantment) Lawn Fawn deer with the pink Ionic die cut glitter paper tree were easy to do and added just the right touch of sweet chicness!  Since Christmas is just days away, I 'K.I.S.S. ed' (Keep It Simple Sweetie) this bag with love and a few crafty minutes. Enjoy this crafting season!

Gift Package Card with Vintage-Look Reindeer Ornament Inside

This rather plain ribbon-tied card hides the surprise ornament inside. The card base was cut with a Sizzix die set that I purchased at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  The tag was made with a Paper Smooches die and decorated with the Sizzix embossing folder and die cut foil words (word die is in the Sizzix folding card set).

Here is the reindeer ornament that was hiding in the card.  The vintage look of the deer was achieved with a coating of Martha Stewart Gesso sprinkled with MS fine white glitter. The ornament is tied to the card with the ribbon that is the ornament hanger and which ties in a bow in the back of the card.    ( In the photo above, there is another style of ribbon (Heiko) used for the card band.)

The green panel inside the card is also embossed with the folder and slipped into the card tabs before gluing it in place.  I am very happy with the result of this card and hope to acquire more unpainted laser cut ornaments to use in my next year's Xmas projects....gotta start thinking about 2017!

Ornament Card with Rustic Snowflake Ornament Inside

When I first saw the folding ornament Sizzix die at HM Ben Franklin Crafts, I was not impressed by the package photo, but I thought I could jazz up the basic shape into something unique.

Here is a top view of the card ornament which could be hung on a tree because it is dimensional and has a hanging loop.

But when you untie the top ribbon and bottom garland, the snowflake poinsettia ornament is revealed on the blue snowflake panel. (Please note that only one half of the die cut gold foil 'NOEL' is glued down so that the card can be opened. The ornament caps were also die cut from foil paper.)

The velvet holly leaves (Petaloo), poinsettia petals and yellow acrylic rhinestones were glued onto the rustic wood snowflakes (Sierra Pacific)....all were purchased at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.

The back of the snowflake was 'too rustic' for my taste so I added a snowflake decoration (Darice) that I also found at BFC.

The look of this ornament card can vary greatly depending on the paper that you choose....so many beautiful double sided card stocks available.  I was pleased to be able to coordinate the paper with the snowflake poinsettia ornament .....isn't it nice when it all works out? I think the Christmas fairy gave me the idea one night when I was sleeping....wink*wink* wink!

Light Up the Season Gift Bag With Ornament

Here is another idea for dressing up a simple gift bag.  For this one I took an undecorated bulb ornament that I purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts and added a stamped image (Stampendous) and some Darice mini Xmas light bulbs inside. With a ribbon to tie it to the bag...voila!...an instant upgrade to a gift bag.

The recipient get an ornament to hang on his/her Christmas tree and you'll get lots of compliments for your creativity.  If desired you could fill the ornament with tinsel or even a strand of light up mini bulbs (sold at BFC as a necklace).  Okay, that's it for today....lots of crafting left to do...return soon to see what else I've made for the holiday season.

Cats Light Up the Season Gift Bag

The Penny Black stamp of the two cats stringing up Xmas lights is one of my favorites.  I thought it would pair well with the Sizzix die cut Xmas lights. I like that this set has both stamps and dies.  I only used the dies and colored the bulbs with Stickles and a silver gel pen for the tops of the bulbs.

So that the fussy cut cats would blend onto the kraft bag, I stamped them onto kraft paper and colored them with a white gel pen.  You might just pass by this rather plain 'Light up the Season' kraft bag (sold at HM BFC), but when you consider the possibilities for crafting something special, you really should expand your Xmas crafting to include these kraft gift bags.  Did you know that more presents are given in gift bags than wrapped up, and mailing Xmas cards has been mostly replaced by digital greetings? For these reasons, I feel crafters should use their skills to embellish gift bags to share their crafty talents. Give it a try; it's lots of fun!

Let It Snow Cards With Embossed Snowflake Background

 As in the previous two posts, the backgrounds for these cards were created by rubbing a slow drying ink pad on the indented side of the Sizzix snowflake embossing folder and rolling it through a Big Shot machine with a piece of card stock in the embossing folder.  When the card stock was removed I quickly dusted it with embossing powder (Nuvo) before zapping it with a heat gun.  The ink pad I used was a Hero Arts ombre one and the embossing powders were a combination of blues and clear sparkle. For the ground snow I used a piece of glitter card stock that I hand cut.The 'Let it Snow' words were from a Little B die set.

I couldn't decide which stamp and die set to use so I made one card with the Hero Arts polar bear image and the other with the Lawn Fawn penguins. For both cards I used the trees from the Hero Arts set. All the stamps, dies, inks, and embossing folders were purchased at HM Ben Franklin Crafts. Although my photos don't do justice to the subtle sparkle and colors of the backgrounds, I really do like the way the cards shimmer.  I hope that you will try this technique on your next holiday card. I know that you will love the results.

Sweet Embossed Tag Gift Bag

Using the same technique of dry and heat embossing from the previous post, I decided to try it on a piece of red striped card stock with silver ink.  The resulting look (sorry for the poor too shiny photo) reminded me of a peppermint marshmallow candy tin....yummy memories! I fashioned the embossed stripped Merry Christmas card stock into a giant tag (Little B die set).  I further embellished the tag with a Darice gingerbread man (HM Ben Franklin Crafts has lots of wonderful miniature ornaments to choose from) and some little Dress It Up Christmas mice buttons (cut off the shanks with shears).

I used the HO die from the Little B die set (from BFC) to decorate the lower corner of the bag to balance off the large tag. I thought that the Funny Bones sentiment stamp added the perfect touch and sentiment to the peppermint inspired gift bag.

If you don't mail out too many Xmas cards, you might enjoy using your crafting skills to create gift bags that include card tags. I really enjoy turning a simple white or kraft bag into a one-of-a-kind card bag.  Give it a try!

Embossed Traditional Christmas Card

For a change, I decided to make a traditional, old-fashioned-looking Christmas card.  I started it by dry embossing a striped green card stock with a 'Merry Christmas' Sizzix folder. Before running it through my Big Shot machine, I used a gold ink pad to ink up the indented side of the embossing folder. Next I quickly removed the embossed card stock and sprinkled gold sparkle embossing powder (Nuvo) on the wet ink before melting the powder with a heat gun. It was difficult to photograph and capture the subtle gold sparkle of the background and the way that the words flicker back and forth so I decided to share a second view of the same card.

The beautiful poinsettias are Petaloo products that I purchased at HM Ben Franklin Crafts. All the BFC items shown below (some used for the next posted project) were used on this dry and heat embossed card.  In a day or so I will post another project using this interesting background technique.  Please come back for another visit to this blog site and leave a comment if you have time.  I love hearing from you; it makes all the time crafting and posting worthwhile for me.