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Saturday, November 06, 2010

Christmas cards - let it snow!

A cute little snowman embellishment is the 3D element on this card!! Can you tell I got a new border punch!! It just seemed to work so well for this batch of Christmas cards!! The background paper features a digital stamp - one I created myself!! It was fun to do and I am happy with how it turned out!! There is very little contrast in the paper - light blue and white - which makes it the perfect candidate for printing on!! I laser printed the greeting, cut the sheet into quarters, stamped on some mini snowflakes and then ripped the pieces in two!! Glued the two pieces on the card front leaving a gap to give the look of a snowbank!! Attached the snowman with 3D foam tape and glued on a random amount of snowflake punchies. I highlighted them with glitter glue and added some to the border as well. Always add your glitter glue the very last thing and set the cards aside to dry!!
There was a lot of creative use of glitter glue today!! Some highlighted the swirls and others attached their little punchie snowflakes with it - gave them little blingie halos!!

Therese

Christmas cards - three trees

Lots of white and texture on this one!! The background features dots created by the Swiss Dots (CB) embossing folder. I glued a layer of white tissue over the bottom third of the card to simulate a snowbank and added an embossed greeting with 3D foam tape which works the best with very dimensional elements. I used a Crafts Too embossing folder to emboss the greetings - 6 greetings at a time!! You can check out Ecstasy Crafts to find a variety of versatile embossing folders!!
I used a Sizzix Movers and Shapers die to cut the little trees and then embossed them with the D'vine swirl embossing folder (CB). I borrowed the die from a friend which is a great way to make the best use of your tools and supplies and provides some very nice quality crafting time!! The top of the card features a ribbon which looks like it has a bow tied in it but, in fact, it is an illusion. I came up with this option because some of the girls have trouble tying bows and this technique gives you the look in two easy steps. Attach a straight flat piece of ribbon to your card gluing the ends to the inside of our card with double sided tape. Now, take a smaller piece, 3" or so, slip it under the flat ribbon and tie a single knot, pulling tight. Voila!! the look of a bow without the fuss!!
Some of the girls used markers and chalks to highlight the embossing on their cards which adds yet more dimension and interest!!

Therese

Christmas cards - heart

I really like the contrast of red and white in this card!! It features a metal heart embellishment which I attached to the greeting layer using glue dots and features a simple little snowflake in the center oval to finish it off. The little red snowflake is a punchie produced when I created the snowflake border. I created the greeting in a layout program (CorelDraw) and colour printed it!! The white layer below the red snowflake border is actually flocked ribbon which I cut with a Borderabilities die by Spellbinders. The back of the ribbon was a bit shimmery and had been embossed by my cutting plate which made it interesting, so some of the girls used that to the front instead of the flocked side. Love that others think differently and are willing to do what works for them.
I really love these hearts and it took a while to come up with a design that I was pleased with and showed it off nicely!! Mission accomplished!!
The border punch (MS) is actually called a daisy punch which was a surprise to me when I took it out of its package because I bought it thinking it was a snowflake punch so I guess it will be more versatile than I originally had thought it would be!!

Therese

Christmas cards - little pieces of art

We made Christmas cards today!! A whole room of girls - big and little!! It is so fun to design card kits, have people add their own creativity to the supplies and end up with so many different looks by the end of the day!!
This card is simply elegant. I used Mary Engelbreit 3D stickers with glitter as my main element and simply added ribbon to make it look like a little piece of hanging art!! The background is embossed and the little bow is added with a glue dot!! I find that the "bunny ears" technique for tying the bows works the best when you want a nicely shaped bow that lays flat!!
I am always on the look out for interesting supplies for making cards. I bought these stickers after Christmas last year when they were being cleared out at Michaels. This design worked well because it accommodated the variety in sizes of the stickers. I chose cardstock colours that coordinated with the image so we ended up with cards in rather non traditional colours! It was a great opportunity to make good use of my collection of embossing folders.
A quick and easy Christmas card! Something we need come this time of year!!

Therese