May Your Christmas Be Filled With Love

Hello!  It's Maria Russell here with you and it's my turn to share some inspiration on the blog today.  My super simple Christmas card showcases the Partridge in A Pear Tree stamp set.

Sometimes, less is more.  If you are not into creating scenes, this is the stamp set for you.  It's simple yet classy and it is also on clearance at the shop!  So grab it before it sells out because it will never be restocked again!

Coloring this was super easy with my alcohol markers.  I finished my card design by stamping the sentiment and added a small pearl on the bird for more texture.  

Here's what the stamp set look like.

Don't forget that you can also use my coupon code below to get an additional 15% off.

May your Christmas be filled with Love!!

Welcome to August everybody!! Is it just me or does it feel like we just had Christmas?? Can't believe its past halfway thru 2019, I really need to get going with my Christmas card stash, hence today's cards.

A few weeks ago I was at a craft fair and spent up large (as you can imagine). One of the things I definitely wanted to buy was more alcohol inks as I keep seeing them on projects. I certainly need more practice with them but they were the main focus for today's cards:

 
I kept imagining lots of white against the vibrant colours, so I'm really happy with how these turned out!!

I started off by cutting two panels of Tim Holtz Yupo paper. On one I put drops of Ranger Alcohol Inks 'Aqua' and 'Pistachio', the other 'Salmon' and 'Flamingo', giving them a gentle blow with a straw.

Once they had dried I die-cut circles using the 'Ornament Tag Fri-dies' and also the little ornament topper from some white cardstock.

To decorate the ornaments I die-cut the 'Flakey A2 Panel Fri-die' from white cardstock. I cut it in half and then worked out what corner I could glue on to the circles.

I used Gina K Connect Glue to attach the corners to the circles and just cut off any over-hanging pieces. I really liked the idea of the ornaments not being completely covered as I wanted to see the inks underneath.

I made some 4inch x 4inch white cardstock bases and put the ornaments on foam tape. The sentiment (from the 'Partridge in a Pear Tree' stamp set) was stamped in Versafine black ink on strips of white cardstock and put on foam tape as well.

To finish off I glued on some sequins from Neat and Tangled and tied on some silver thread.

Whew, that was a long post of photos so well done for making it through the whole thing. Really hope I've given you some ideas for your Christmas cards and ways to use your panel dies too. If you haven't seen these products before and might do a bit of shopping, don't forget to use my special code to save yourself 15%!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you back here soon with some more cards ideas!

Take care
Shona

 

We Wish You A Merry Christmas-Create Your Own Glittery Embellishments

Here We Come A Caroling savings days are still going strong!  Today we're singing (to ourselves) and featuring the Merry Christmas Fri-Dies!  Here's how I was inspired!

I just love the size and font for the Merry Christmas Fri-Dies!  They make for the perfect focal point on a Christmas Card. 

I started with a pretty plaid and then added a white layer using the Bubble Box Fri-Dies to frame the focus of my card.  I just love the shape of these dies ... simple enough to not take over the card, but so pretty to complement whatever your design!

Then I cut the Merry Christmas Fri-Die once from red cardstock and twice from white.  I smooshed the red onto my Versamark pad to cover it completely and then added some pretty glittery embossing powder (more on this in a bit) and heated it up.  Next I stacked the sentiments together for some dimension.  It turns your flat die cut into something that seems a bit like chipboard!  And I almost always use some kind of gem for any of my word die "I"s ... lol... I can't be expected to keep track of those little dots!!  And I always have some kind of embellishment or Nuvo drops that I can use to dot my "I"s so it's all good!

I stamped and die cut the cute bird from the Partridge In A Pear Tree Stamp Set so I could nestle him in amongst my flowers.  I stamped the outline in Versamark and embossed with gold EP and stamped the fill in stamp in red.  I popped the red up a little inside the outline for some dimension and used a fine pen to define his eye.

 And I love to use the 4 Petals Fri-Dies for all kinds of flowers!  With their pretty and simple design, just by changing the colors you can get all kinds of looks.  I knew I wanted to create poinsettias with them and was at a crop when I realized I'd forgotten to throw my glitter paper into my bag.  You think you're all prepared, right?  Well, luckily I had my box of embossing supplies with me (can't be without it!) and I was all set! 

I've found the easiest way to add embossing to small die cuts is to use some repositionable adhesive and attach them to a piece of scrap paper after smooshing them into some Versamark.

Once they're all attached it's easy to sprinkle some pretty glittery embossing powder on them, tap off the excess and run your heating tool over them all at once!

Since they are adhered to the paper with repositionable adhesive, it's easy to remove them once the embossing is cooled.. it only takes a few seconds!  Then I layered all of my sizes together and added some pretty gold pearl accents!

Ta.  Da.  Lol!  I actually had the already glittered snowflakes in my CAS-ual Fridays goody box.  I never cut just one.  I've left all of the Funky Flakes attached to each other and if I'm cutting one, I'm cutting all of them and just save the extras for later.  It was fun to be able to tuck them in under the flowers.  I cut some leaves from gold vellum using the Garden Fri-Dies and tucked those around as well.

A couple sequins later and I was done!  One more Christmas Card in the pile and ready to send!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  And don't forget today's special!  Plus all of the Christmas and Hanukkah products in the shop are on sale AND there are some items in the Retiring section that are 50% off!!  And the cream cheese frosting on the red velvet cupcake.... you can use this if you'd like!

Check out the Sale section here!

A Partridge in a Pear Tree Shaker Card

Maria here with you today!  I am absolutely LOVING the holiday release by CAS-ual Fridays, don't you?! I can't even pick a favorite.  

For my shaker card today, I am featuring the Partridge in the Pear Tree stamp set and the Pear Tree Fri-Dies.  Here's what they look like:

I inked up my Bristol smooth white card stock with Tumbled glass and Spun sugar distress oxide inks.  I used used some rectangle dies from my stash to die-cut the frame.  I also stamped and colored my image with my Copic markers, then die-cut using the Pear Tree Fri-dies.  

To create my well for the shaker, I adhered some acetate sheet on my frame then used some foam adhesive.  

I used some iridescent and colorful sequin mixes for my shaker element.

To finish my design, I stamped the sentiment on some black card stock with versa-mark ink and heat embossed with my heating tool.  I also used the bow die included in the Pear Tree Fri-Dies to die-cut a red bow.  Also added glossy accents to the pears to add some shine.  Here's a little close-up:

I wish you can see this card in person because the colors are so beautiful!  I really love how this one turned out.

I hope you like my shaker card today.  Please use my coupon code below to get 15% off your order.  Happy shopping and happy crafting!