Christmas card with a snowflake brad, green tag and rhinestones

Here is another card I made with the donated supplies.  This card was already started but I did add a few elements to finish it.  The green tag was already attached to the card but the snowflake element was damaged so I removed it.  I was able to cover up the glue marks where the snowflake had been by adding this large bell sticker (it also needed double sided tape support) and then I added a red rub on greeting below the sticker.  That finished off the tag very nicely.  It seems somewhat a drift on the large area of striped decorative paper so I chose a strip of red paper and positioned it below the tag and that helped.  After gluing the strip in place I mounted the tag with assisted foam squares from the supplies. I added three little clear rhinestone on the right which is always appropriate for Christmas cards!!  Pretty happy with the way this one came out.  Therese

Three Christmas cards from donated supplies

A friend of mine donated a bag of cardmaking supplies gleaned from her sister's craft space a while back and I have sorted through it and made a few cards.  These three cards were already set with the adhesive mesh on them so I dug through the other supplies to see what I could add to make them whole.  For the first one I added a piece of ivory cardstock which I embossed with the Swiss Dot embossing folder.  I had a clear area across the bottom which worked perfectly for adding a red greeting rub on.  I tied a length of fiber just above it.  I added the Santa tag from a set of stickers which were in the supplies.  I added a strip of striped paper over part of the mesh and then three stickers over the other portion of the mesh.  Lastly, I added my focal element to the left hand side of the decorative paper to finish off my card.  The stickers required a bit of double sided tape to keep them in place.

For the second card, I added a strip of the same striped paper across the card and then mounted this decorative element with a star and greeting to which I had added two layered snowflakes with a brad.  I used foam squares which were in the supplies to mount this layer to the card front but they did require some assistance from double sided tape to be effective.

For my third card, I added the Santa sticker to a white rectangle of cardstock and used my tracing wheel to add texture to the outside edges in a curvy manner before adding it to the card front.  I adhered the trimmed greeting to a strip of white cardstock and mounted it below the Santa element and then added the holly sticker next to it.  These stickers also required assistance to be effective.  I did find appropriately size large envelopes in my stash for these cards.

 These next two cards were created with A2 white card fronts I found in the supplies.  I trimmed the red pieces from a half started Valentine's card I found in the supplies.  For the first card, I added a strip of striped decorative paper to the bottom edge of the red layer to cover up some writing and then added the frame overlapping it.  I mounted a double layered snowflake with a brad inside the frame and then added a dimensional greeting sticker below it on the right.  The epoxy sticker was starting to curl so I convinced it to remain flat with a couple of pieces of double sided tape.  There were physical holes in the sticker in which I mounted brads to finish off this layer.  To finish off the card I mounted the red layer to the white card.

For the other card I trimmed and added a layer of decorative paper to the red layer which nicely covered the damaged areas on the card.  I found the background layer for my focal element in the supplies which I trimmed to size.  I added a trimmed tag to which I had added a brad and a red rub on greeting.  I added a few lengths of ribbon from my stash to this layer before adhering it to the front of my card using foam squares that needed assistance. I found them both envelopes in my envelope stash.

These were the easiest supplies to make up into cards.  The other pieces I have added to my pizza box of Christmas card making supplies and they will likely be used in good time as I work towards my goal of having all my Christmas cards made for the beginning of December.  I am way behind but still hope to have them all ready in time.           Therese

Altered tin!

I have been playing!! I do have a to do list of things that need to be done but instead I played with these little tins. My friend, Linda, was going to toss a bunch of these when I was at her house last month so instead, I took them home because I thought they had huge potential for altering!! I will be dropping by tomorrow to pick up my altered book which I forgot there when I was over for our play date. I'm in town picking up my sister - another play date in the works. So tonight I thought I would see what I could come up with using one of these little Making Memories tins that used to hold eyelets!!! I am sure you all have some hanging around your house too!!

We returned from PEI last week and I have some little treasures I collected on the beach while we were there so I decided to make a little treasure box for Linda with a few of my PEI treasures!!

I am so happy!! It turned out great!!!

First off I drilled a small hole in both sides of the cover that line up just above the dip in the tray when it is closed. I will be using them to seal up the treasure box when I am done altering and filling it.

I took the tin apart - just a little pressure will release the tray from the cover. I slowly rubbed paint thinner on the letters on the front cover using only my fingernail to gently scrub until they all lifted off!! Wiped that off and cleaned up the paint thinner with some dish soap - the cover was almost as good as new!! I added "friends" with rub ons and sealed them with acrylic sealer. They went really clear!! Yeah!! I added some yellow, green and blue transparent acrylic paint (homemade) which I used for this project on the outside of the bottom of the tray. It is a bit recessed so the paint, once dry, is perfectly protected from rubbing off or otherwise getting damaged. I put the tray back in the cover once everything was dry. It looks like the sea and sky!! I added a little sand dollar, a little white stone, a piece of white shell, a piece of blue mussel shell, some tiny bits of green, brown and clear sea glass - my PEI treasures - to the tray. To round out the mix I added a little red confetti heart, some multi coloured rhinestones and a few very small pearl white seed beads. I had experimented with sand and tiny holeless beads before altering the tin - they simply drained out of the tray when I suspended it. With the tray closed I added a wire hanger that runs through the little holes I drilled and keeps the treasure box nicely closed. I added curlicues to the ends of the wires!! I am sure there is a much better and prettier option but being very low on jewelery making skills I have decided that it will do the job for this project!!!

I am loving it!! These little boxes have so many surfaces that can be altered - inside and outside of the top and bottom cover - inside and outside of the tray - and are so transparent they would make wonderful little shrines, ornaments, jewelry, magnets, etc!! Alcohol ink and transparencies would be great on them!!

So, I challenge you to dig one out and see what you can do with it!!!! Load your creation to your blog and leave me a comment with the link!! I would so love to see what you created!!!! I think I will bring Linda back one or two so she can play too!!

Have a great weekend!! I am just starting a play date with my sister so I am sure we will have some creative projects to post over the next couple of weeks!!

Therese