Christmas Caroller

Well last week's gingerbread house has certainly got me in the mood for getting a head start with Christmas cards.  Because we probably send more Christmas cards, than the sum total of all other cards during the year, they have to be fairly quick so they can be produced in multiples.  I tend to make a few special cards, and try and do 10-20 of each of several designs.  That way I get to use my abundance of Christmas craft stamps and stencils, and one design might be okay for your friend Sharon, but wouldn't be the right design to send to auntie Hilda.

This is just a 6" square card, but could be any size, with a panel of Christmas paper matted over a slightly wider panel of a plain colour.  I used a plain silver peel off border strip at the edge of the patterned paper where it met the plain.  You could punch a border.  I punched a circle, stamped a greeting, edged the circle and the card with the same colour ink, then made a hole to thread a little ribbon through.

I stamped a Magnolia figure and cut it out.  You will notice that I haven't cut on the line, but left a thin white edge.  This is ideal if you have something 'tricky' (eg. detail that might accidentally get chopped off), or if your cutting skills aren't spot on.  It's very forgiving and isn't noticeable, even if the narrow border is uneven.  I used ProMarkers to colour in the figure, as I wanted the colours to be bolder to reflect the paper.  A punched snowflake and a little card candi.....and ....well that's my cards started.

Catch you next week,
Christine

Gingerbread House

I wanted to share a new CandyBox Crafts kit that I 'requested'....as I intend teaching it for the November workshop.

I had two purposes for it.  The first was to sit on my Christmas dinner table, holding table gifts for everyone (I have dogs that don't like crackers, which is why I usually buy a small gift instead....better than the rubbish you find in crackers).  The second purpose was to fill it with sweets, preferably CHOCOLATE :), for the build up to Christmas.

 
It has been an absolute pleasure putting this together and decorating it.  I used Kaisercolour acrylic Mud Puddle, as I felt it was a gingerbread colour.  The papers were from the First Edition collection, Christmas Wishes.  In the kit were also gingerbread people, stars and candy canes...oh and little squares, which could be made into scrabble tiles to put your house name on.  I used them to make a few extra sweets....the glittery ones, like square fruit pastilles.
 
The stars, I simply painted and added some card candi...I thought they looked like smarties or skittles.  You will see the square pastlles (painted and glittered), and also some fimo sweets and candy canes I made.  The larger MDF canes in the kit, I papered, inked the edges and added some crackle glaze.  Two of these I used to frame the front door, which you will see in a later photo.

The window frames I painted white and added DecoArt crystal Glamour Dust to the second layer of wet paint.
 
 
I painted the path grey and used a stencil mask to create the path around the house.

And here are some of the table gifts inside :)

The label I draped around the chimney, happened to be something I took off a jar of marmalade, recently purchased at our local food festival (pink grapefruit and prosecco...mmmm)  I think the company was called Peckish, if I recall ?





 
I also found some letter stickers in my scrapbooking drawers, and I thought they looked a little like jellybeans, so I decided to use them rather than the square tiles to put our name on.

 There was also a tree in the kit.....fabulous value for money...or what ?!?!

I painted, papered and inked as I had with the house, and added card candi for baubles. I made the paper chains using quilling papers,

 This is a close up of the door with two candy canes overlapped to frame it.  The icing was done with liquid pearls and the handle was something I found in my craft stash.  You will notice I used some fimo sweets to define the path to the front door.

And look at these chocolates....alas they didn't last very long.  Unfortunately my waistline is expanding.

The gingerbread men were decorated with liquid pearls, enamel accents and Stickles.  I had intended using black beads for the 'currants', but once you start delving into your craft goodies, you find other things you feel would work better.  I also wrapped some small ring boxes for parcels under the tree.

This was enormous fun to make, and I will be using it year on year.

You should find most of the goodies in stock in the shop, or arriving very soon if you want to have a go.


Christine

Silver Wedding Card in a box

A number of weeks ago a young lady came to purchase some sheets of A3 card to make boxes to hold large cards she had made.  I suggested that she could actually make them from A4 with very little waste.  As I had a special anniversary card to make, I decided to share how I do this.  The lid of the box is the largest component, so this uses a full A4 sheet.  As my card was quite shallow, I only allowed 1 cm sides.  If you need deeper sides to accommodate your embellishments, then you will have to adjust your card to fit inside.... So, for the lid, I scored all sides with a one cm margin, cut two semicircles on the long sides (lid only - to allow you to lift the lid off easily), then removed notches, in order to turn in and hold the box shape.








 



I glued these tabs, fastening them to the opposing sides, and holding with clips until fully dry.

The base is made by the same method (minus the semi circles) but begin with a piece of A4 than is trimmed down 2mm on a long and a short side.  This allows the base to nest within the lid.  If using thicker card, you might need to make this 3mm.

Now the card itself is determined by the size of the box base,a tad smaller just so that it can be put into, and taken out of the box quite easily.  As my sides were only 1 cm, this gave me a card size of 18.5 x 27.3 cms.  The base is completely flat, but I scored the front 1.5 cms in from the spine edge (to allow it to open easily.

I decorated all my card, printed and decorated my inside sheets, then clipped all the layers together, to make sure they lined up before I punched some holes along the spine.  The inside layers were also scored 1.5 cms at the spine edge.  I spaced my holes approx 2 cms apart, starting in the centre.




 



Because I intended tying a bow in the centre, that's where I began.  I did a running stitch with narrow chiffon ribbon, to one end.








 

I then came back up, making a back stitch, back to where I began at the centre.  I continued with a running stitch to the opposite end, and a back stitch to the centre.

This is what it should now look like.

And I tied a bow, as I had intended.

This is the finished card and box. 

 ....And a close up. I stamped and heat embossed in silver.  For the writing I used an embossing pen.  I wrote what I wanted onto some parchment, and when I was satisfied, I wrote over the letters on the parchment reverse, then transferred it to my card by writing over the letters on the parchment front again.  I was left with faint pencil letters on my card, which I wrote over using the embssing pen and covered in silver powder which covered any pencil.  With the addition of some pearl paper flowers, slightly shaped/rounded with a ball tool, some pearls and mini gemstones (from a nail art kit), and I was pleased with the result.



 

 These are the inside pages.

I finished by wrapping in two lengths of silver tissue paper, stamping and embossing on the box lid, and tying with the same lilac ribbon.

 

Christine

Folded Frame Card

Begin with a 13 cms square of double sided paper.








 

 


 Fold in half diagonally.

Open out and fold in half diagonally in the other direction.








 


Open out again, then fold each point into the centre, lining up with the + made by the previous two folds. 







 





It should look like this.









 

Next Fold back the points.  I only did one fold back.......

 .....but you could fold the points back in.  Alternatively you might chose to even out these folds so that they are more evenly balanced.










I then cut a square piece of card to be inserted, about 9cms.

I stamped on this, and painted using a water brush and some Distress inks.  It was then secured with four eyelets, but you could use brads if you prefer.

I then cut a square card (approximately 6", then added a slightly smaller square of a complimentary patterned paper.  I decided to angle my frame, but you could place it straight if you prefer.  An addition of a greetings tab .... Et voila !!!


Enjoy,
Christine.

Mini album

Begin with a 12 x 12" piece of good quality, double sided paper. Score at 3", 6" & 9".  Rotate 1/4 turn and score at 4" & 8"





 



Rotate back a 1/4 turn, and fold all the corners in until they meet the 3" lines.  Punch out two parallel semi circles, halfway down the two sides.













Fold the two sides in.






 





 Tuck the bottom under.







 
 


Then tuck the top under.

 
Turn over, so that it looks like the photo on the right.






Then tuck the open edge, carefully, into the two diagonals of the layer below.  







It should now look like this.

Fold these two 'inside pages' together.

Next cut some journal cards/photo mats.  You will need 4 approximately
 2 7/8" x 3 3/4"

These insert into the two inside pages, which you can access by folding them away from each other, rather than together.

And the other two slot into the back and front pockets.

A few simple decorations on the front, and all that's left to do is add some photos and journalling.  Alternatively, you could stamp some verses and pictures/images.


Have fun,
Christine.