Calendar pages for cards!! These images were cut from calendar pages from a 365 day calendar. This is a great way to get a lot of images that are somewhat related for making cards for gifts!! Collect the pages as time goes by and choose a day a month to make cards! At the end of the year you have over 300 cards for giving as gifts!! The trimmed images were glued to the card front and a colour printed greeting was embellished with a black sharpie marker and added at the bottom.
Christmas is coming!! A friend of mine and her coworkers and friends decided to make their gifts this year so they asked me to put together some all occasion cards to make as gifts!! They will be packaging them in card holders for a great presentation!!
I so loved this handmade paper when I made it!! Looks like large fluffy snowflakes coming down from the sky!! I knew I wanted to use it with a snowman!! I used an acrylic ornament to create a papercast of this great little snowman just the size I needed for this card!! I attached my handmade paper to my card front and used hot glue to attach the snowman paper cast. Added some white fiber on the left hand side with a snowflake punchie and a white snowflake brad. Added another snowflake punchie to the lower right hand side with a regular white brad.
This snowflake looks so great in real life - so sparkly!! I used the hole from die cutting a Sizzix snowflake!! It worked out so well!! I did a few experiments before I settled on using label on the back of the hole to hold the glitter. Works really well for getting a nice coverage of glitter. I used the large label sheets (8.5" x 11") and cut a piece the size I needed to cover the snowflake and placed it on the back!! Added two long skinny pieces to the top and bottom then a large bling to the center and covered it with glitter. I gently rubbed the glitter into the adhesive to ensure good covereage. The excess shakes off quite easily and I used a little brush to get off any of the extra. I mounted this to the front of the card and added my layered greeting using 3D foam tape.
Had fun designing these cards! Have seen similar ones on Splitcoast a while back and thought I would give it a try. The base of the card is 3.5"x 4.25". I attached some decorative paper to the front, added a snowflake embossed strip and a multi layered circle greeting to the lower part and a layered embellishment to the top part. The circle embellishment was created using nestabilities scallop circle die cuts and plastic snowflakes!! They fit nicely in the A2 sized envelopes!!
I have been busy with classes and not at my blog as often as I used to.
Wanted to really highlight the wonderful flocked decorative paper on this card and the holly embossing folder (CB) did just what I needed it to do!! It was hard to cover up any of it!! Used decorative scissors on the white rectangle and tucked it below the flocked paper. Could have cut both edges and placed it over the edge of the flocked paper instead. Used my distress tool on the edges of the greeting and the green layer and mounted them to the front of the card using 3Dfoam tape. The saying went so perfectly with the flocked paper and the embossing!!
I love the trees on this card!! Each card has 7 trees made from Basic Grey decorative paper called Wassail. LOVE IT!!! I made the trees using the same method I described earlier by marking triangles on the back of the 12x12 cardstock. It is double sided cardstock so there was a wide variety for each person to make this forest of trees their own!! I stamped the greeting on a white rectangle and each person was able to customize their snowbanks!! The snowbanks were trimmed to the size of the card front and then the ribbon added. Then, the forest was created and glued in place and the snowbank glued on over the top of the bottoms. There are three different heights of trees - 4", 3.5" and 2.5". Love the graphic look of this card!! 
You can see that this design is versatile!! It was a good thing because somehow I managed to include both landscape and portrait greeting inserts with these kits! No idea how that happened!! So we had some cards created in each format. Good thing one of my participants was working ahead and had a keen eye. She spotted my mistake and we were able to warn the others to watch for the change in format.
This was my first card for my large Christmas class the first weekend of November!! I started with this stunning green, red and silver handmade paper from India (100% cotton). I cut the 12x12 sheet into triangles by marking off 4" for the height of the tree and then 3" for the width of the tree on the back of the paper. Then I drew lines to join the marks which gave me over 20 trees per sheet of paper!! I gave each one a little brown tree trunk and glued it to an embossed (Swiss Dot) red layer which had been trimmed to evenly fit on the white card front. Added a silver star punchie and a stamped greeting which I attached with two silver brads. I ripped the edges of the white greeting but I could have used decorative scissors instead. Worked out really well!! A fairly easy card if you are wanting to make a batch of them for your holiday greetings this year!!
These are pocket calendars I upcycled!! Purchased them at a local dollar store and created new covers for them! It is a quick and easy way to make personalized gifts for everyone on your list and they certainly will think of you every time they dig it out to check their availability for a project or a lunch!! Everyone should have one in their briefcase or purse and it really does help to keep you from double booking!!
Here is another ornament I made with the Sizzix snowflake die! The coaster snowflake is layered with a plastic one and then a silver punchie!! I added another punchie to the other side to finish it off nicely!! Added a bit of crochet thread to hang it! Made a few of these - can be used on the tree, on a special gift or in a window!!
These cards feature die cut felt shapes!! Fun!! I added cardstock accents and brads to attach the felt shape to the card front but they could have been just glued instead!! Once I attached my felt accent I stamped a single word greeting (SU) and used a push pin to add a pin pricked design that incorporated the word and the felt accent. I freehanded my pin pricked design but you may wish to draw a light pencil line to follow and then erase it when you are done.
Here is another card created with the glossy cardstock that I recovered from my presentation folders!! I embossed this one with the harlequin embossing folder (CB), added a couple of strips of cardstock and a round greeting embellishment (SU)!! I used a large metal brad in the center of the embellishement to keep this card looking masculine!! 
Love this card! I struggled with the design of this card - the cardstock was ivory and making the whole thing look too warm to properly show off the little ladybug. I finally decided to try adding black to the edge of the card and that worked perfectly to tie in that lady bug accent. I used a black marker and drew a line around the edge of the card front. FRUGAL TIP: This is a great technique if you are wanting to have the look of a separate layer without the bulk and also when you do not have the right colour of cardstock but have a marker that you can use to simulate it!!
Had another great group of cardmakers at my October class last night!! 
I made another Christmas card for my exchange this month. It really is best to start Christmas cards earlier in the year to avoid a rush in November. It does also allow you to make several different designs and sort of play with your supplies to come up with new designs. Under the crunch of time we rarely do our best work. 
I have decided to try to put all of my creative brainstorming in one place as opposed to bits of paper all over the place. There are several projects on hold because I cannot find the paper I mused the details on!!!
