Sending Smiles

  I'm done with winter.  If it's not going to give me a beautiful snowfall, let's just move along.  Haha - I wish it was that easy but it is in my craft room.  I needed a cheery card and I always love butterflies in season and out of season.  So here is my happy versions of Sending Smiles in a slimline format.

I started by using an old leaf stencil by Art Impressions and sponging in some different shades of green with my Distress Oxides.  I then cut the Symbol background out of pastel green foil by Recollection and used trimmed it to use the smaller halves to flank the sides of my slimline base.

The Sending Smiles and butterflies from the Butterflies Spray and Butterfly Pocket Insert were cut from the same slightly different shades of blue cardstock.

Supplies Used:

A Way with Words Sending

A Way with Words Sweet Smiles

A Way with Words Butterflies Spray

ECD Butterfly Pocket Insert

ECD Symbol background

Quick Christmas thank you card

 It's almost Christmas! I hope you've got all your Christmas cards out by now.  I love opening the mailbox and finding a bit of that personal mail in the midst of junk mail - this is true anytime of the year but I love the frequency of it in December.  And it should keep going with a flurries of thank you cards in January.  So today I'm sharing a quick thank you card you can make and use up all those red and green scraps.

Many of the die cuts that I used were already around as extras from my previous Christmas card projects.  I did have to cut some extra pine branches to fill it in my little spray.  After gathering up one holly branch, one berry branch and 3 pine branches from the Create A Wreath set, I placed all of them together and hid the ends with a pinecone.  

I used a bit of holographic washi tape to run across the card - that was very helpful in lining up the pastel foil thank you die cut.  I topped off my spray with a bright red bow and voila - I've got a festive card ready to be filled in after all the presents are open.

Supplies used:

Thank you 2

Christmas Accents

Create A Wreath

 

Building a Christmas Scene

 I'm over on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog today with a Christmas scene I made using a lot of different die sets.

Christmas shaker ornament/card

 How many homemade Christmas ornaments do you have on your tree?  Every year I make some so the numbers are increasings and the plain glass ones are gradually staying more and more in the box as I have less room.  Maybe I just need to add another tree.  :)

My latest ornament is inspired by a friend who called me and asked me to make something to put on her mom's Christmas tree as a surprise.  She just got diagnosed with breast cancer, her grandkids won't be able to come for Christmas and she's just not feeling festive this season.  So her wonderful daughter thought of bringing a fully decorated tree to her front door with ornaments made from her family/friends.  Isn't that a great idea?

I made this ornament all with dies from Quietfire Design and then taped it to a card - makes it easier for mailing and it just completes it, you know?  It took me a while to figure this out but any die with a nice simple shape can be made into a shaker card!  And you don't even need to have foam which I never seem to have on hand.

I die cut the Flourished ornament from the Love Joy and Peace Ornament set 7 times.  I found a circle die that was bigger than the opening and smaller than the outer edge and used that for the backing of the shaker element.  You can handcut one if you don't have the perfect size because the edges of the circle will be hidden later.  I also cut a circle from an acrylic sheet for my shaker component.  Glue all the 7 layers together and on the back, the circle from cardstock.

You can add more layers depending on how thick you need the spacing.  I'm using chunky glitter so I did not need it too thick. 

Add the glitter and seal it in with the acrylic layer.  I die cut another ornament out of gold foil and put that on the top.  I flipped over the foil and die cut another ornament the wrong side up so that I could put that on on the back of the ornament.  To get rid of the edges of the die cut that is going the "wrong way" I ran just the diecut through my Big Shot again to flatten it out.

I added a tiny poinsettia from the Christmas accents and the word Peace to the front.  I liked this so much I made a few more and am sending the set below to her.  You can write on the back a message - I added some Bible verses that I thought would be encouraging.

I hope you like it and will be inspired to see which dies you can turn into a shaker card/ornament!

Love Joy Peace Ornament Set

Christmas Accents

 

Baby Frame

I started my paper crafting journey with scrapbooking - which I have not done in years.  But I do have a large stash of baby paper that I just don't use very often.  So when I saw on the registry for a friend's baby shower a picture frame, I immediately thought it would be a great to fill in the frames so they could go ahead and hang it up.  The frame has "my little prints" on bottom and came with a kit so the new parents could make a print of the baby's feet and hands later on.  

Everything but the paper is by Quietfire Design.  The center frame is a stamped sentiment which unfortunately is retired and flanked by die cuts of a onesie and a baby stroller from the Little Ones die set. The words Special and Sweet were also die cut from the same turquoise card stock.

 

As you can see, I only used two different sheets of designer paper but by flipping them as base and framed center, there is a variety but it's still a cohesive look.  Thanks for looking and I'll be back with more Christmas cards soon!

Challenges I am playing in:

Simon Says Anything Goes

Die cut background

 Hello!  I am loving the explosion of Christmas cards I see in my social media.  I find so many that I am inspired by but the downside is that sometimes I forget to "save" or tag somehow and I can't find it again.  This happened to me with a gorgeous card from the Facebook group Slimline Card Addicts.  It was a card with a holly stencil in the background and fat black lines stenciled over it.  I remember it being striking and so I attempted my own version of it.  

I don't have the stencils but I do have a lot of dies so I made my own background with the holly dies by Suzanne Cannon in the set Create A Wreath.  Using my Copic Markers, I colored half of each the holly leaves a darker green. I drew 3 lines across a base layer so I could arrange my dies for maximum effect.  I knew I would use some black satin ribbon over those lines so it was okay if that area was a little empty.

After gluing the pieces down, I wrapped 3 rows of black ribbon around it and then matted it down on a sheet of red cardstock.  I then die cut my Peace on gold foil and black cardstock.  To repeat the holly theme (more of the holly got "lost" than I anticipated) I added two white die cuts of the Flourished Holly.

Though it ended up looking quite different than the card I was inspired by, I think it is still striking and  I love the bold black.  That is not something that is naturally my style. Hope this inspires you to do your own take on a card that you've spotted.  Thanks for looking!

Create  A Wreath

Peace

Flourished Holly

Slimline Christmas Garland Card

I love decorating my house for Christmas but I have a love/hate relationship with my staircase.  I love the look of the garland along the staircase but putting it up and taking it down is a lot of work.  At least I have gone from twirling it around the wrought iron and banister to just using wires to have loops - way easier.  Every year I wonder if it's worth it but I'm also so picky that I don't let anyone else do it.  But as soon as the boys ask for it, I do it.  :)

Long intro into:  Look, the slimline card is perfect for a garland across!  

I started off with 8.25" x 3.5" layer of white card stock.  I sponged some light green and yellow along the edges for a nice glow in the clean white center.  

 

I divided the card roughly in thirds and drew a soft loop as shown below.  For my garland, I alternated between the soft rounded sprig and then the pinecone.  They were cut with different shades of green card stock,

I added a 1/16" red mat to the layer and then trimmed off the greenery off the edges.  Using the same red, I die cut two of the bows.

For the Merry Christmas, I die cut the Merry Christmas 3 four times.  The fourth layer I die cut out of a sheet of white card stock with a sheet of double sided adhesive on top.  I added Silver Sands Microfine Glitter over the adhesive.  A black card base turned the layer into a card.  I love how it looks in real life - so sparkly!

Definitely putting up the garlands this year!

Supplies used:

A Way With Words Merry Christmas 3

A Way With Words Create A Wreath

Challenges I am playing in:

Simon Says Stamps Christmas

Remake of a Christmas card

Do you ever go back an older card?  Here I did with a card I made almost 4 years ago.  The poinsettias have been replaced with some of the new Christmas Accents die set.  The candy cane is from the Flourished Christmas Minis 3 with the flourishes trimmed off.

The background die is by My Favorite Things called Polka Dot Dienamics and peaking through is silver washi tape.

Supplies used:

Christmas Accents

Create A Wreath

Flourished Christmas Minis 3

Bright Holiday Words (Emerald Creek)

Challenges I am playing in:

Simon Says Stamps Christmas