Christmas Cards - ACC02

Really love this holiday card stock in my stash from Graphic 45. Knew this was going to make a cute card for this holiday season - the card stock base is green from SU and I used SU Very Vanilla for the card front. The Graphic 45 print is directional so I was careful to be sure I was aware of that when I cut it out using a edge die from Pink & Main for the card front.

Cut and scored the card stock base - cut the Very Vanilla card stock for the front of the card. Wanted to use a stamp from the SU stamp set Christmas Punch but did not want to stamp it with the brackets on the image -- here is a stamped sample of what this stamp looks like:

So I used a red marker and the huff method for the greeting on my card front. Using the ATG I put the trimmed print piece on the left card front. Put these onto the green card stock base using the ATG. Using small scissors I fussy cut out one of the candy canes from the printed card stock. Added clear Wink of Stella to the holly leaves and bow on the candy cane. Put micro mini glue dots on the back of the candy cane double stacked and put this onto the card front. Added three green sequins from the stash:

The Wink of Stella adds a little sparkle and shine to the candy cane and IRL it shows up. TFL

Christmas Cards - ACC01

For Halloween this year I decided to make all different cards rather than one card to duplicate. This way I was able to use a lot of the Halloween products I keep stashed in the craft room plus it was fun to use different techniques for the cards. Although I enjoyed using lots of products the craft room became the chaos center for cards in no time.... here is a photo of some of the Halloween cards I had made:

Barely had time to dig out the craft room and Thanksgiving cards were needed -- so I made one card and sent out duplicates:

With the Thanksgiving cards made and mailed out first thing I did was get everything put away that did not have anything to do with Christmas.... then decided I would make all different Christmas cards but I had to have a "controlled chaos" this time.

Went through my stamp sets and decided which ones I would start with. Then went through my dies and decided on which of those I wanted to use. With these products chosen I wrote a list of what cards I wanted to make with the products and so it began. In one day I made 9 cards and that has to be a record for me... haha.... Definitely helped having a list and a plan before I began. I will post some of the cards I have made so far but am still making cards so will post those when they are complete.

First card -- This snowman is the Sam E. Snowman die by Jillian Vance:

Card stock base is SU Cherry Cobbler and the front of the card is SU Sahara Sand card stock. I put two different washi tape patterns across the lower part of the card front. I picked them up at Mikes earlier this week. I used a dotted stamp and SU white craft ink for the falling snow on the card front behind Sam E.:

Sam E. Snowman die also has the snowflake die so I cut out three snowflakes from white glittered card stock and put them on the card front using micro mini glue dots. "Merry Christmas" is stamped using Cherry Cobbler ink and that is a stamp from the SU stamp set Good Greetings. The only thing I changed on Sam E. is he does not have arms so I used a tree die and cut a tree out of kraft card stock and I used scissors to trim off branches for his arms. He is on the card front using pot dots. Fun little guy to make. TFL

Thanksgiving Treat Holders

When I made my Thanksgiving cards this year I did all my die cutting and punching out acorns first for my assembly line card making:

Once all the parts were die cut or punched out and sponged I began the cards. With the cards finished I had some extra pieces left so I decided to use them on my Thanksgiving Treat Holders that I made using the Goodie Bag die from Lawn Fawn - here is a photo of some of the treat bags:

Here is a photo of one of the treat bags:

For these treat bags I used Kraft card stock from Taylored Expressions. Once I put the bags together I sponged the edges of the front of the bag using light brown ink. Again used corrugated card board at the bottom of the bag behind the greeting banner. Added two die cut leaves using a glue pen. Then put the punched acorn on top of the leaves. Added sequins using mini glue dots to the greeting banner and the front of the bag. These bags are free standing and would work well at a holiday table.

With all the products out in the craft room for my Thanksgiving crafting sometimes die pieces can get lost in the maze..... to be sure that does not happen I cut a small piece of magnetic sheet, (vent covers from Lowes home improvement stores), and I put that on the front of the cabinet above my die storage bins. I cut this magnetic sheet piece small so I do not get in the habit of putting all die pieces on it -- it is for "stray" dies or if I just grab one die piece out of a die set. This way when I use dies again from my die storage I can see I have a few pieces to put away first. Here is a photo of this sheet on the cabinet door -- I used double sided Scotch tape to put it on the door:

The leaf die is from the Seasonal die set from Stampin Up -- Sizzix makes their thin metal dies and all the Stampin Up die pieces have a product number on them so if I forgot which set the leaf die went with I could always check the product numbers on the die sets. I also keep my second magnet bar for my MISTI on this sheet.

** Packed some of the treat bags and decided they needed a 'little something' -- used a leaf die set I bought from Tessler Stamps at a stamp show and I cut the leaves out of bronze foil card stock. Put the die cut leaf on a mini clothespin from the stash and added a mini bow and a brown crystal. Now the top of the bag looks complete -- Here is a photo of some of the filled bags:

With a closer look at the clothespin/leaf:

Inside each bag is a three pack of Ferraro Rocher, Brach's Autumn Mix, two mini candy bars along with paper shred from the dollar store. Hoping everyone likes these small treat bags!

With all Thanksgiving cards and projects complete I will finish putting things away and getting ready for the big red and green holiday again --- CHRISTMAS!  TFL

Acorn Thanksgiving Cards

Happy me that my PIC (stamping partner in crime) bought a roll of corrugated card board on clearance at Mikes and I was lucky enough she gave me some! Knew I wanted to use it for Fall cards but then decided to use it on Thanksgiving cards instead.  The card on the left I cut the corrugated card board in one direction and for the card on the right I cut the corrugated card board in the other direction.

Card stock base for the cards is Stampin Up Cajun Craze card stock cut and scored at the top. Used Stampin Up Very Vanilla for the card fronts. Cut those to the size I needed for the card fronts. Using Stampin Up Crumb Cake ink I covered the Stampin Up Canvas background stamp. Laid the Very Vanilla card stock pieces on top of the inked stamp and pressed my hand onto that to transfer the inked canvas pattern to the cream card stock. Cut my corrugated card board to the sizes I needed and put them across the cream background piece using double sided tape.

For the greeting stamp "Happy Thanksgiving" I used a stamp from 1990 by Embossing Arts Co. and stamped that onto scrap Very Vanilla card stock using Cajun Craze ink. Trimmed my greeting piece to the size I wanted and used the Stampin Up banner punch for the one end. Put the greeting banner piece on top of the corrugated card board pieces using red sticky tape. Here is photo of the acorns for the card front and you can see the inked canvas pattern on the background piece as well:

For the acorns I used kraft card stock from Mikes (doubled up) and the plaid print is Authentique card stock I bought at Hobby Lobby. I used the acorn punch from Stampin Up and punched out the kraft card stock acorns and the plaid print acorns and put the tops on different bottoms to give the acorns some interest. Used a small bow punch for the bows at the top of the acorns and added a small brown crystal to the center of the bows. Acorns are on the card front using glue dots.

Here is a photo of the Northwoods Rubber Stamps greeting stamped for the inside of this card. I used a square punch and punched out a square from the plaid card stock. Cut that in half from corner to corner and put these corners on the greeting piece:

For the two leaves -- used the Stampin Up Seasonal Layers detailed leaf die to cut them out. One leaf is cut of bronze foil card stock from Mikes and the glittered bronze card stock is from Hobby Lobby. I tucked the leaves behind the corrugated card board piece and used a small glue dot behind the leaf pieces. TFL

Gourd Goodness Thanksgiving Card

Used the Stampin Up Gourd Goodness stamp set for this card. Card base is green and the white card front is white/GP. For the leaves on the card front background piece I used Stampin Up Pumpkin Pie ink and stamped the detailed leaf stamp randomly over the white/GP piece after I inked the stamp and stamped it off onto scrap card stock. With that piece stamped I set that aside.

Using a pumpkin and white striped piece of card stock from Hobby Lobby I cut that piece to the size I wanted for the card front. Using the two pumpkin stamps from the Stampin Up Gourd Goodness stamp set I stamped the solid pumpkin stamp onto scrap white card stock using Stampin Up Crushed Curry ink. I inked that and stamped it off onto scrap paper and then stamped the white card stock. Using Stampin Up Pumpkin Pie ink I inked the detailed pumpkins stamp and stamped over the Crushed Curry pumpkins image. Then I stamped the stem stamps at the top of the pumpkins.

Using the Layering Squares die set from Stampin Up I cut out the pumpkins piece and also the Pumpkin Pie card stock behind the pumpkins piece. Put the pumpkins piece onto the Pumpkin Pie die cut piece using the ATG. Set this aside.

Cut and scored the green card base. Put the stamped white card stock piece onto the base using the ATG. Added the stripes piece on that. Used pop dots to put the die cut pumpkin pieces onto the card front. The greeting "Happy Thanksgiving" is a stamp from  www.morningstarstamps.com  and I stamped that onto scrap white card stock using Pumpkin Pie ink. Punched that out using a 1 1/8" circle punch. Using a 1 1/4" circle punch I punched out a circle from Pumpkin Pie card stock and put the stamped white circle onto that. Put the circle greeting on the pumpkins piece using glue dots.

The Gourds Goodness is a new 2 Step Stamping stamp set and has a lot of detail. Easy stamps to put together in the set with realistic details both on the pumpkins as well as the gourds in the set. TFL

Patchwork Christmas Quilt Card

To begin with I had seen this video on YouTube by Betty Traciak and here is the link to that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb-Md66awns&t=306s

I watched it once and then a second time to take notes for sizes and suggestions and such. She also has a written tutorial for this technique on Splitcoast that she did and here is the link to that:

www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/stackandcutquiltcards/

The written tutorial is nice since you can print it out and she also has photos of this process on her tutorial so that helps. Her cards are done in the portrait layout but since I used this pack of single sided holiday card stock from Hobby Lobby with the patterns having a direction I had to make my card in the landscape layout:

Here is the card I made following her pattern:

My card stock base is Stampin Up Crumb Cake with a piece of Mikes Kraft card stock for the card front. I will say even though my printed card stocks are single sided with having to cut 5 of them at one time my Genesis could not cut through that thickness. So to cut my patchwork pieces I used my Guillotine trimmer and that worked well. Since the front of the card has five pieces of printed card stock that is why you have to cut the five pieces of prints. This way you are not repeating a pattern on the card front. Here are the five card fronts I have from cutting out my printed pieces:

My concern with this pieced together card front was that it could be too heavy if I mounted all the patchwork pieces onto another piece of card stock for the base of the patchwork card front. For my cards I decided to used white printer copy paper cut to the size needed and I ran the ATG over that for adhesive and then put my patchwork pieces on that. Trimmed my edges and this is the back of the white copy paper backing the patchwork card front piece:

With the patchwork pieces on the white copy paper base I used the ATG and put this onto the Kraft card stock from Mikes. Then put these onto the Crumb Cake card stock base. Using the copy paper rather than thicker card stock the card front is not too heavy and does not "flop" shut from the weight of the thicker card stocks.

As she explains in her video she used the stitching stamp from the new Stampin Up Christmas Quilt stamp set for the stitching on her cards. I used the straight stitch stamp from that stamp set and stamped my stitching on my patchwork pieces using Stampin Up Early Expresso ink and when needed I used a Post It note so that my stitches do not overlap on the card front pieces. For the greeting "Merry Christmas" I used a greeting stamp from the Sunny Studio Poinsettia stamp set and red ink from Gina K Designs, Red Velvet.  Cut that out using a stitched rectangle die. Cut a scrap piece of Crumb Cake a bit larger than the die cut piece and put that behind the greeting piece using the ATG. Used large pop dots to put this on the card front.

Die cut a small holly/berries piece for the holly on the greeting. Used the clear Wink of Stella over the red berries and sponged the edges of the holly leaves with Old Olive ink and a dauber:

Put the holly/berries piece on my greeting piece using mini glue dots. Both the video Betty made and her written tutorial take the guess work out of this card and using different printed card stocks for the card front changes up the way the card looks. A big thanks to her for sharing her patchwork card technique and samples. Easy card to make!  TFL

Never Ending - - Birthday Card

Wanted to make a birthday card for my PIC (stamping partner in crime) but since she and I always go to the stamp shows together, road trips together, and shopping together we basically have a lot of the same stamp sets . . .   For her birthday card I decided to go through my older wood mounted stamp sets from Stampin Up to find a stamp set to use for her card and I am happy I found a set that was perfect for her birthday card. She is one of the "purple people" so I always try to make her treat holders, boxes, cards, etc using her favorite colour purple. Here is the birthday card I made for her:

Card base is Stampin Up Lovely Lilac card stock. Embossed white card front piece is white/GP and I used a woven We R Memory Keepers embossing folder that she had bought for me. Used the Stampin Up Never Ending Joy stamp set for the floral piece. Used Lovely Lilac and Old Olive ink for the floral piece. the SU Hostess stamp set Express Yourself for the Happy Birthday banner piece that I used the SU Bitty Banners die set to cut that out with.

For the floral piece I used square frame dies from the SU Layering Squares die set to cut that out with the purple scalloped piece. With those cut out I used a bow stamp from the stamp set and stamped the bow at the bottom of the flowers. Added a purple crystal to the center of that to give the card some sparkle and shine. Here is a closer photo of the flowers:

Inside the card I stamped a birthday greeting from my stash and used the stems/flower stamp to stamp a design on the lower left of the greeting piece:

For the inside of the card before I stamped the partial stems and flowers I stamped them off onto scrap paper so the image would be lighter than the stamped image on the front of the card. Easy card to put together and nice to visit an older Stampin Up stamp set from 2005. TFL

Needed a wreath - - -

With Halloween over I brought home my BOO Day wreath I had taken to work to hang on our door:

We needed another wreath for our door at work but I do not have an extra Fall themed wreath. Decided I wanted to make a mesh wreath but I have never worked with mesh before so decided I would check out a couple of videos on YouTube. I came across Laurie the Hard Working Mom who has a few how to videos for mesh wreaths. I wanted to make the Starburst wreath so I watched her video on it once and then watched it a second time writing down measurements and such. Here is my wreath -- and keep in mind this is my first attempt at mesh wreaths:

With it already being November not too many stores have Fall themed items left so I picked up a spool of mesh at the dollar store, other mesh is from Hobby Lobby, pumpkin ribbon and scarecrow is from Big Lots. The other wired ribbon for my wreath is from Michaels that was on sale for half price. I used a 12" wreath form because Michaels had no 14" or 16" forms in stock and the 18" form is too big for what I wanted to make.

As Laurie suggested I did all the cutting first -- cut my pipe cleaners in half, cut out all the mesh and the ribbons. Made all the mesh/ribbon bundles and set those aside. Once all the bundles were made - I used 25 of those for my wreath, I attached them to the wreath form. Laurie also said she sprays her wreaths using the E6000 spray to help keep fraying edges from getting out of hand. Here is a photo of my wreath outside before I sprayed it:

I had made a circle in the center of the mesh to put the scarecrow on the wreath once the spray was dried. I put him on the wreath using floral wire. I really would prefer to have a pumpkin or Fall words or something for the center of the wreath but I was lucky to find the scarecrow at all so my selection was slim. Here is a photo to show some of the various ribbons I used on the wreath:

And here is the wreath again:

While I was at Michaels I also picked up a garland wreath form and some holiday ornaments and picks and am working on putting that together now.... Sooner or later I WILL get back to making my cards again!! :0)   TFL

BOO Day Jewelry. . . .

Must dress up for the Halloween holiday so I made sure the gals at work will have the appropriate jewelry . . .   First I finished packing up all the treat bags I made for the gals at work -- attached to each bag handle is a ghost pin for them to wear on Halloween --

Here is a close up of one of the ghost pins:

Last trip to the dollar store I came across some holiday rings .. .. .. but rings they aren't now:

I snipped off the ring from the jeweled spiders:

Using the Sizzix Crescent Tag die I made holders to hold one Hershey nugget candy:

This photo shows the candy nugget inside:

This jeweled spider is too heavy for a glue dot to hold it on the treat holder front so I used my hot glue gun to attach it to the treat holder while the treat holder was flat before I added the candy nugget. Just a little something sparkly for the holiday.

Now for the merge and purge into the Christmas projects ... from black and orange and witches and spooks off to wreaths and trees and snowmen... and so the holiday season goes.... Happy BOO Day!

Inside the treat bags --

Here is a photo to show the candy holders I have made or put together to go into my dollar store treat bags I stamped for Halloween -- here are a couple of the bags --

Inside these bags are these treat holders:

I made the pumpkin framelit treat holders, the matchbook holder, and the small box in the lower left corner and that holds Ghirardelli candies. The "Happy Halloween" large pillow box with stickers is a kit from Jolee that I bought at the end of the season last year. Also bought the orange spider web box in a set from Mikes last year. Not shown in this photo is the Pumpkin Poop holders I made today to add to the bags.

Inside the stamped treat bags is black paper shred and then all the candy holders with paper shred on top of them with a crumple piece of Halloween tissue paper on top. Will try to take another photo of the bags when I finish assembling them all. TFL

Paper treat bag from the dollar store ---

Just finished putting the Halloween treat bags together I was making -- picked up paper treat bags from the dollar store for this year. I added black paper shred inside with the candies and folded the top of the bag closed. To secure it I used a black clothespin from the craft store and I had die cut a bat from black glittered card stock for the front of the clothespin. Here is this year's paper treat bag:

Here is the paper treat bag I had bought last year with the popular witch hat made using the Stampin Up triangle tree punch:



Cute bags and they hold just enough chocolates for any Boo Day celebrater!!  TFL

Halloween Pumpkin Poop Treat Holders

Had finished my treat bags I was making up for Halloween when I came across the orange Tic Tac candies.... Decided I wanted to use them for Halloween Pumpkin Poop so I brought them home and then made a holder to fit the candy box.

Three tries later I came up with measurements that work so here is a photo of a couple of the Halloween Pumpkin Poop Treat Holders I just made:

For the holder on the left I used Creamy Caramel card stock and ink from Stampin Up. The holder on the right is Lovely Lilac card stock and ink also Stampin Up. There is a poem out on "Internet land" but I did not want to use that for my holder. I do not have a stamp that says "Pumpkin Poop" so I printed that off the computer onto white/GP card stock. Used the Stampin Up Classic Label punch to punch out that greeting.

Here is how I made my holders:

To show this I am using a piece of white/GP 2" wide by 9 3/8" long. With the widest side at the top of the score board I scored this at:  1 1/8",  1 1/2",  and last at 4 3/8". In my photos I ran a pencil over the scored lines so you can see them better:

Once the three scored lines were made I turned the piece around with the other end in the corner of the score board and again I scored it at those marks:

With all scored lines made I used a bone folder and creased the two middle scored lines - this is the bottom of the treat holder. I made sure the two straight ends were even and I put this into the Stampin Up Scalloped Tag Topper punch and punched that out.  Using a 1 1/8" circle punch I punched out the circle window on the front side only of the treat holder. With that done I used a bone folder for the other scored lines near the scalloped ends of the treat holder.

Before you put your candies inside the holder if you want texture on your holder now is when you need to stamp that. For my Creamy Caramel holder I used the Stampin Up Linen background stamp. I put that on the table flat and inked that using the Creamy Caramel ink. I laid the treat holder onto the background stamp. Covered that with scrap paper and rubbed my fingers over that to transfer the inked design to both the front and back of my holder - here is a photo to show the linen texture on the Creamy Caramel holder:

The purple holder I used the ink to match the card stock but this holder I used the Cheesecloth background stamp from Stampin Up for the design:

With the stamping done open the holder and put your Tic Tac candy box inside - I used a wide piece of red sticky tape on the back of the plastic candy box to hold it inside the holder:

Put a small strip of red sticky tape at the top of the holder to keep the holder closed:

Before I had put my candy inside my holder I had added my Halloween printed washi tapes above the circle window on the front of the holder. Used a Sizzix Ghost die and cut out the white glittered ghosts in the Big Shot. Used a dollar star punch from the craft store and punched out glittered stars for the front of the holder.

I put the washi tape on, then the greeting and ghost. Added the stars last using micro mini glue dots. Used twine from the stash and tied it around the top of the holder. Used a glue dot to keep the bow in place. These holders stand up without falling over since the bottom of the holder is flat. Easy holders to make and hoping to use this pattern again for Christmas time for Snowman Poop. With the measurements all figured out it did not take long to put these together. Into the treat bags these will go....