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.

Tri-fold Snowflake Card

 When I started to create this card, I had planned to add some deer, snowmen or penguins for extra interest, but when I finished the basic card, I loved it so much I decided to showcase it as is.  I think the secret for getting the best look from this die is to chose your card stock carefully. The one I chose was 'Flurry' from the My Mind's Eye Sugar Plum line which I purchased from HM Ben Franklin Crafts. One side of this paper has sparkly snowflakes and the other is subtle plaid.

The words were cut from paper in the DCWV Glitzy Glitter 6x6 pad.  The snow beneath the words were cut from Shimmer paper in a DCWV 6x6 pad.

 I recommend using sturdy card stock and running it back and forth through the die cutting machine because the delicate snowflake and words will rip when you are trying to remove the excess paper if the cuts are not clean. The glitter paper especially needs several passes through the machine because the paper has a thin rubber backing.

 I love the look of this card and the way that it stands up with its windowed layers.  A large snowflake was cut from glitter flecked vellum and glued onto the front snowflake.  With leftover card stock I cut a smaller snowflake (in the set) and glued it and an acrylic crystal onto the vellum snowflake.

 This card is so pretty; it could even be hung on your Xmas tree as an ornament. Besides the supplies below, you will need an extra long cutting pad because the die is bigger than the standard size. I know that I'll be using this snowflake card die for many years to come....it's my new favorite!