Fun gifts from DSS

DH is just about done remodeling the family room -- just has some paint touch ups to do so almost there.... DSS made us a quilt picture for the new family room for Christmas. She made it all by herself and it is very pretty and will look good in there:

She picked all the right colours for the room - this matches the wooden floors hubby put in and refinished and also the mantel and the furniture we have for in there. Will take a better photo once it is hung on the wall and in place. Love that is is rustic looking and it is perfect for in there! She also gifted me a gorgeous cutting board for the kitchen that a guy she works with made:

That is one side and the other side looks like a tray and it has the same pattern:

Will be rearranging the kitchen countertops so this cutting board is center of attention for sure. Love hand made items as they are one of a kind and so much thought goes into them.... 

Beaded Icicles

Finally got to make some of the Beaded Icicles I have seen other crafters make last year or so.... I made two for my PIC (stamping Partner In Crime):

I made her a red and white one for Christmas as well as in her favorite colour, purple. These can be hung on a tree, in a window, on a cabinet knob, whatever to add a little sparkle and shine. For her two icicles I made a hook for her to hang them with. This next group:

I made a green one and a blue one for the DSS for Christmas and I made another red and white one for me. For these three icicles I used satin ribbon to hang those on a tree or wherever. To package them for gifting I used stiff glittered felt from the craft store and cut that to fit in a candy treat bag I had in my stash. I used a white grommet pin at the top to hold the two icicles in place in the candy bag:

Taped the top of the bag closed on the back. This next photo shows the size of these icicles next to the beaded pokey tool I had made a couple of years ago:

The beaded pokey tool is about 5 inches long where the beads are and the icicles are about 6 inches long - I added an angel to the purple one and a small flower charm to the red and white icicle. They would be shorter if you do not add anything at the bottom to dangle. Easy project to assemble and good use of more of the beads in the stash.

Collage Thank You Cards

Needed thank you cards and first thing I did was to decide what card stock print to use - went through my floral stash and found part of a Prima floral card stock that was left over from the altered clip boards I had made last year. Wanted to use that print but being a partial single sheet I needed to dig through other papers for ones I could add to for the card front. This was a perfect time to make a collage card front. Went on YouTube and in the search bar I typed "collage card fronts" and a few videos popped up. I watched one from "Lucy Patrick's Card Making Channel" that I liked so since I needed 3 thank you cards I decided I would make three of these cards using different card stocks. Here is the first card I made:

The first card uses the left over sheet of the Prima floral paper and other papers from my stash-including some 6x6 card stock pads. I wanted a cream coloured card stock base for the card so I cut and scored that piece at the top and set that aside. I needed a piece of lighter weight cream card stock for the front piece for the card to put all my torn pieces on so I found a piece for that and cut it to the size of the front of the card. 

For the various torn pieces I decided I wanted the Prima print on both sides of the front of the card so I tore those and laid them on the cream card front piece. Filling in areas using other card stocks. But I decided I wanted my torn edges to be more prominent so I sponged the edges using a dauber and brown ink. Here is a dry layout of the card front:

With all the pieces on the cream card front piece where I thought I wanted them I slid them off the cream card front piece so I could then add wide tear and tape to this card front piece. I then put the torn pieces on that card front piece with some pieces over and under others and over lapping. Once I had all pieces on the card front I used liquid glue behind areas that did not touch the tear and tape on the card front base. With that done I used the trimmer and trimmed all my edges to the size of the cream card front piece. Then sponged the edges of the card front using brown ink again. Here is a photo of that:

Used liquid glue to add the collage piece to the cream card stock base card. Wanted to use gold on the front of the card so for the word "thank you" I used this die set from Little B (remember them?)

I die cut "thank you" from gold poster board from the Dollar Tree and I also die cut a rectangle frame from that same gold poster board. Used thin tear n tape behind the frame piece. Die cut the words again from white card stock for stacking the words using liquid glue for dimension. Wanted to add a butterfly but I wanted a layered dimensional look so I used a layering butterfly die set from MemoryBox from the stash. Used liquid glue to put the words on the card front and liquid glue to put the butterfly together. Used tear n tape to add the butterfly to the card front. 

For the other two cards I decided to use card stocks from the same paper pads - both being 6x6 pads. At first I thought it would be easier to use papers that easily go together due to colours/prints but I did not find that much easier. This first card I used silver foil card stock for the frame, words, and detailed butterfly wings and this is on a white card stock base scored at the top:

The final card I wanted a more vintage look so I used a darker floral print and an antique gold foil card stock for the frame and words and a cream card stock base scored at the top:

On all the butterflies I added small crystal gems to the body of the butterfly for a little sparkle on the card fronts. All three cards have a different look due to the foil card stock frames and the printed card stocks I used but they all will work. For the solid base of the butterflies on the cards I cut the butterfly base die out of the darkest part of the printed card stocks I used so that the foil card stock dimensional wing piece of the butterfly would show up better against the solid butterfly base piece. The key to the collage cards is to not be too fussy with how pieces look together because once the whole card front piece is done it is just the background to the card front with other items bringing dimension to the card.  

Circle Christmas Angels

Lots of videos on YouTube for Christmas Angels this year but the first one that popped up is by "Made to Create with Lisa" on her "Circle Punch Angels" video. I watched that and about an hour later I had my own angels:

In her video she suggests using a 2 3/8" circle punch but I do not have a punch that size so I used what I have on hand - a 2 1/2" circle punch. I also used double sided card stock for my angels so they are sturdy to hang on a tree, tie on a gift, or use as a tag. I punched out three circles from the same sheet of card stock - two for the body and one for the wings. I folded the wing piece to show the backside of this double sided card stock. Her video is easy to follow along and I did everything as she says but how to get the gold twine/cording through the hole in the bead for the head?

Put the two body sides together and then added the wing piece. Then worked on adding the bead for the head to the gold twine/cording. 

I cut my gold cording 8" long. Tied a knot at the one end and put that on the angel body - put the second side of the angel on and for the twine I used a piece of red thread to help fed the gold twine through the bead hole. Here are some photos:

Put the thread through the hole in the bead:

Slid the bead to the top of the angel - over the knot in the twine/cording and I used a little hot glue to keep that in place:

I wanted to use different card prints for my angels rather than Christmas prints. Some of the angels I made have a wooden bead for the head, a crystal bead for a head, or a clear plastic bead for her head. The only thing I changed on my angels was to use a very small bow punch I bought years ago at Hobby Lobby and I added a mirrored card stock bow to the front of each angel under her head. More angels:

Fun project to assemble and really it can not be any easier than this! Used cording, card stock, beads, and mirrored card stock all from the stash so did not need to buy anything to make them. Fun holiday project!

Thanks to Lisa for sharing her Circle Punch Angels and the video to share all her how-to's!

Framed Ornaments Card

I am a member of the Spellbinders Stencil of the Month Club and my first set of stencils is their Baubles & Festive Background stencil set of 5. I really like the ornament (baubles) stencils and I used them to make this card:

I wanted to make red and green ornaments to keep with the traditional Christmas colours so I picked out a red and a green ink pad from the stash. Wanted my ornament tops to be a brushed silver so I decided I would use my metallic silver ink pad from Encore and a dauber to add ink to that stencil:

I cut and scored my green card stock base and set that aside. For my stenciled piece I cut a piece of white card stock to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 knowing when I finished stenciling I would be cutting this piece to the size I wanted for my card front. I will say I was surprised when I took out my stencils for the ornaments that none of the stencils are labeled or numbered - so here is a photo to show the three stencils needed to make this background:

First I stenciled the stencil on the left - for my red ornaments, then I stenciled the second stencil in the center of the photo for my green ornaments and the ornament rings. The stencil on the right is the stencil for the tops of the ornaments. I was happy that with making this stenciled background for my card I could use my new Wilton cake turntable from Walmart (approx $12.00) and my sticky mat from Waffleflower to hold my stencils in place while adding inks. This turntable is a game changer -- so happy I finally bought one and put it to use for my stenciling!

First I stenciled the red ornaments and then stenciled the green ornaments and rings:

When I removed the stencil for the red ornaments I cleaned the stencil using a baby wipe and set it aside to dry while I stenciled the green ornaments and green ornament rings. Removed that stencil and cleaned it off and set it aside to dry. This photo below shows the ornament top stencil and the Encore metallic silver ink added using a dauber:

When done I removed the stencil and cleaned that off - again using the baby wipes:

The sparkle from the silver ink showed right away -- but being a pigment ink I wanted to set it so I could continue working on the card so I used the heat gun and dried it, front and back. On my craft table is the rectangle frame die set I have used recently for the candy cane cards I made so I decided to use the larger frame die in this set and cut out a white frame to go over my ornaments. I cut that out of the white card stock on the craft table. Measured the stenciled ornament piece and cut it to size to fit behind the die cut white frame piece and used liquid glue to put those together. See that aside to dry. 

For my sentiment I wanted to use a "Merry Christmas" die set that also had a shadow piece because I wanted to use a vellum shadow for this. Went through the stash and decided on this die set from IO Stamps (Impression Obsession) who closed their doors last month. :0(    I like this die set because the two words are connected and better yet there is no teeny, tiny dot to search for on the craft table or floor for the "i" in Christmas......

With the ornament tops being a metallic silver and having a brushed look finish I decided to use brushed silver foil card stock from the stash for the words. Used regular vellum from the stash for the shadow piece. 

Vellum and glue.... bad combo.... but once I die cut out the greeting I decided to pull out the Artistic Tac sheets and use that to add adhesive behind the greeting to put this onto the vellum shadow piece:

Once that was adhered I could assemble the card. Put the framed ornament piece onto the card base using liquid glue. Used liquid glue behind the vellum piece behind all the letters. Put these onto the card front. Wanted some sparkle so I added clear/silver gems from the stash near the greeting. This photo shows the brushed silver greeting on the card front with the gems:

This was an easy card to put together and I esp liked using the turn table while stenciling - here is a photo to show my sticky mat on that:

That photo was taken after stenciling was done and all I did was spritz the sticky mat with water and wipe it off  and it is ready for my next project. 

As for this stencil set for the ornaments you could do all the ornaments in different colours or monochromatic or even add details on the ornaments with a white gel pen, etc. A fun holiday set to use. As for the brushed silver foil used for the greeting IRL it is very easy to read and it matches the finish of the metallic ink used for the ornament tops. Also the clear gems show up even more as they are the shiniest things on the card front so more sparkle for this holiday card. 

More Candy Cane Cards

Used the Lawn Fawn Cute Candy Canes die set for these cards:

The first card I had made using this die set and layout:

This time I wanted the card front to have a holiday print on it but I wanted to use non holiday card stock prints so I went through the stash and found the red and green printed 12x12 card stock. Looked through my striped card stock and pulled out the green for these cards. 

The first card I used red and white striped card stock and cut out a rectangle frame. I did the same with the green striped but with me using a printed card stock on this card front I wanted the center of my framed piece to be white. So I measured my green striped frame and cut a piece of white card stock a tad smaller to put behind the framed piece to put my candy canes on. Used liquid glue to put the frames onto the white card stock. Set those aside to dry. Cut my printed card stock to the size I needed for the card front and put these onto the white card bases using liquid glue. 

Wanted to make my candy canes using glittered card stock for these cards. I cut out two sets of the candy canes - one set in red glittered card stock and the other set in the white glittered card stock. This way I would have enough pieces for the two sets of candy canes using alternate colours. One of the candy cane sets I started with red and then use the white and repeated this until the canes were done. The second set I started with white, then red and continued on until they were done. 

Die cut out the holly in green card stock and then also in green glittered card stock. Die cut the holly berries using red foil card stock. For the solid green holly piece I sponged a darker green ink on that and then put the berry pieces onto the holly pieces using liquid glue. Used tear and tape and then foam squares to cross the candy canes and put them in the green striped frames. Used Beacon glue to add the holly/berry pieces to the candy canes. Used foam tape behind the candy cane framed pieces and added them to the printed card fronts - to be sure these would be straight I used a larger rectangle frame die and laid that onto the card front and then put the framed piece onto the card fronts. Removed the rectangle frame die and added my Happy Holidays foiled sentiments foiled using gold foil and the "Elegant Christmas Hot Foil Plate" from Waffle Flower. Another easy card to assemble and the glittered card stock brings extra sparkle and shine to these holiday cards. 

Here is a photo showing two cards using the candy cane die set - the one card on the left uses regular red and white card stock and the second card shows the glittered card stock for the candy canes:

Quite a different look using just a frame VS using a frame on a printed card stock front and then adding the glittered card stock to the candy canes.... Easy candy canes to assemble and a good size for card fronts or tags!

Tree Cover Plate Christmas Cards

Last year I bought the Pretty Pink Posh Tree Cover Plate Die set on sale to make cards for this year for the holidays. I wanted to make a traditional coloured card using just red and green and here is that card:

Not only does this cover plate die cut all the trees out but most of the trees have a design on them to add dimension to the card - here is a photo of the cover plate die:

This photo shows the designs on each of the tree. The upper right two trees are plain trees with no design on them. I cut and scored a piece of white #110 weight card stock at the top for the card. Used white card stock to cut out the cover plate. (I set aside all the white trees for later projects). I used scrap red and green card stocks to cut out the trees I would need for this card. 

With the white cover plate frame cut out I put this onto the white card stock base card front using liquid glue. Used that glue for each tree and I put the trees into the die cut frame - but before I added any adhesive to my trees I did put them on the card front for my  layout. One of the trees cuts circles out of the tree and for my card I cut that out of green card stock and wanted to use it for the center tree on my card. I wanted to use gold poster board from the Dollar Tree behind this center tree so that the gold would show through the circles.  I die cut one of the upper right solid trees from the gold poster board and put the green tree on that using Artist Tac (Amazon). With the layout decided I used liquid glue to add each tree to the openings on the white cover plate frame piece on the card front. 

For the greeting on the card front I used white Hammermill card stock and I used a hot foil plate from Ellen Hutson and I foiled that in gold foil. (Also while foiling I also foiled it in silver, red, blue foils and also foiled it onto black card stock). Here is a photo of that foil plate - LOTS of holiday greetings foiled all at once:

With all of those foiled I used the matching die to this hot foil plate and cut out all the greetings and put those in a bag for later use on other holiday projects. Here is a better photo to show the gold behind the center tree as well as the gold foil on the greeting:

Also made another card using this cover plate using various non traditional coloured card stocks:

Again used the gold poster board behind the center tree and again used the Ellen Hutson hot foil plate for the greetings in gold foil on white card stock. Fun cards to put together and a good use for more of the card stock scraps...... but decided I wanted to try something different ..... 

Wanted to use the tree cover plate die and make a monochromatic card using light blue card stock and I also wanted to use white splatter on the trees so they would look like they had snow covered branches..... and also wanted to use more of the trees that cut circles out on the trees. This time I wanted to use holographic silver card stock behind the circled trees - with a holographic tree in the center of the card. Here is that card:

As with the other cards I cut and scored my white #110 weight card stock at the top and then I used the cover plate and cut out a piece of white card stock. Set the white trees aside and used liquid glue to put the tree framed piece onto the white card stock base. Die cut this again out of light blue card stock for all the trees. For the circle designed trees I cut two of the solid trees out of the holographic card stock. Used the Artist Tac to add adhesive to the back of the blue circles trees and put them onto the solid holographic trees. Die cut one decorated tree for the center of the card using the holographic card stock. 

Laid all the trees out in the splat box -- not sure how the holographic card stock would take the splatter but thought I would give it a try.....

Used the Dr. Ph. Martin white artist paint (Amazon) and put a little on an acrylic block. Spritzed it with water and mixed it up and used a fan brush to splatter this paint over the trees - 

Let these dry for awhile and I worked on other cards. When I went back to them they were dry and I am happy the holographic card stock took the paint - I was afraid it would just smear off but it did not. I put the trees all on the card front and I decided to add two small snowflakes to the card front. I used a very small snowflake die in the stash (freebie with a Sunny Studio order long ago). I cut the two snowflakes out of white glittered card stock. Used liquid glue to put the snowflakes on the card front. Added two small crystal gems from the stash. Picked out a blue foiled sentiment strip to put across the card front. Here is a photo to show the blue foiling and the holographic trees:

A fun tree cover plate for cards and very easy to use. Fun in any colours and you can cut out the tree frame and lay it on your card front base and then add your trees - lift off the tree frame and all your trees will be evenly spaced and straight. Another fun way to use this cover plate but happy with the splatter on the trees for this card:

Happy Holidays Card

Used the Candy Cane die set from Lawn Fawn for this card I just made:

Being a candy cane I knew I wanted a red and white stripe on the card front so I dug through the stash. The only smaller stripe card stock I have is an old card stock from Recollections - Michaels. I only had one full sheet and a partial sheet so I decided I better not use it all up at once as I do not know if I can get any more. To save that striped card stock for this card I used this rectangle frame die set from the stash to cut out a rectangle frame:

I used the center die in the set and put it on my striped card stock at an angle for die cutting:

Once this was die cut I made the card base - used white #110 card stock and cut and scored it at the top. Put tear n tape behind the striped frame and put that onto the card front:

 Used scrap white and red card stocks and cut out two of the candy canes from the die set:

This die set has the dies for the layered candy canes, a bow, holly and layered berries. For the card I used scrap green card stock and cut out the holly die. Then used red glittered card stock and cut out the berries. For the edges of the holly leaves I added Stickles for some sparkle and shine. I layered the berries and put those on top of the holly leaves using liquid glue. Assembled the two candy canes. For the bottom candy cane I put tear n tape on that and put that on the card front in the framed area. Used foam dots for the second candy cane that goes over the top of the bottom candy cane for dimension. Used liquid glue and added the holly/berries piece to the center of the candy canes. Used red gems and put three of those on the card front.

The hot foiled sentiment plate is from WaffleFlower.com "Elegant Christmas Hot Foil Plate". I used gold hot foil to foil this onto white card stock using my Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil machine. I used the matching die to cut that out. I had bought this set last year and when I got it I hot foiled this sentiment plate in lots of colours of hot foil and I die cut them all out and kept them in a Christmas sentiment stash box so this year I have these already for card fronts or tags or anything I want to use a foiled sentiment on. 

Here is a photo to show the frame on the card front:

Here is a photo to show the shine of the gold foiled sentiment:

Easy card to put together with another way to use printed card stock but to also save your printed card stock...... with the center rectangle that the frame die cut out I made a tag:

For the tag base I used an old stitched tag die set in the stash from Simon Says. I cut the tag base piece out of white #110 weight card stock. Used the rectangle piece my frame die cut out and that was my tag front. For the tag topper and hole reinforcement piece I used textured red card stock from the stash. Made the candy cane using scrap red and white card stocks. I used the bow die from the Lawn Fawn candy cane die set and I cut that out of red glittered card stock. My red glittered card stock has a white core so to keep that from showing I used a red Sharpie marker and went around the edge of the bow so it looks solid red. 

I added the striped card stock to the tag base using liquid glue and also used glue for the tag topper and hole reinforcement circle. I put the candy cane on the tag front using tear n tape. Used red and white twine from the stash for the twine at the tag top. To keep the twine in place I used a glue dot on the top bag of the tag above the hole to press the twine into:

I tied gold bells on the twine at the tag top. Added the red glittered bow to the candy cane front using tear n tape. Added a few red gems to the tag for some sparkle. Easy tag to assemble and another good use of the left over striped card stock print!