Christmas Card Challenge - Scallop Oval / Lavender

This is my card for my blog Christmas Card Challenge.  The theme for September is Scallop Oval and Lavender.   I chose a white card then layered a piece lavender designer paper cut to leave a small border.  I then cut a scallop oval from lavender card stock with Spellbinder Nestabilities die.  I placed a iridescent fabric snowflake on every other scallop with a light purple tiny brad.  I placed a large white snowflake created with a Martha Stewart snowflake punch, the layered a medium snowflake again cut with a Martha Stewart punch then an iridescent fabric snowflake all held in place with a light purple tiny brad.  I chose not to include a sentiment as the snowflake says winter very nicely.  Sometimes I have folks on my Christmas Card list which do not celebrate so a winter card works in that situation.

Have you started your Christmas Card Making?  Get started today!

Card Club - October - Curly Label Greeting

I started with some small note cards which I cut in half.  I adhered them to the top left and bottom right corners.  I punched the color printed greeting with the Stampin Up Curly Label punch and then punched one from solid card stock.  The solid one was cut in half cross wise and adhered to the back of the greeting offset to the left and right.  This greeting was then adhered to the card front with 3D foam tape.


I did use scallop circles greetings as well in these card kits.

Card - Fall Leaves

I made a couple of fall cards for my card exchange group.

I used the SEI Nutmeg designer paper pad again. I cut the layer just a bit smaller than the deep rust card front.  I added a length of wide taupe grosgrain ribbon and taped the ends to the back of the DSP layer. I added a narrow strip of white card stock over the ribbon.  I cut a leaf from copper glitter paper with the Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves die and mounted it to the card front with 3D foam tape.

The next card I punched green maple leaves.  I placed a length of ginger ribbon across the top third of the DSP layer and taped the ends to the back.  I adhered the DSP layer to the card front. I adhered the leaves to the card with 3D foam tape.  I added a SU Modern Label punchie with a white Word Window punchie greeting.  It was mounted with 3D foam tape also.

SU Book Party - Christmas Tags

  

I made 3 Christmas Tags for my Stampin Up Book Party today!  Isn't the Holiday Mini full of great stuff?  I think so.  I chose the Stampin Up Ski Slope Designer paper for this project.  It contains Whisper White, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Real Red and Baja Breeze.   I designed a large digital tag with the same outline as the Tag Punch.  I put borders on them in Chocolate Chipr, Baja Breeze, and Real Red.

I chose Dasher for the Chocolate Chip tag. Stamped in CC on white die cut with a Spellbinder Deckle Rectangle as I had nothing in my SU that would do the trick.  I cut the next layer in the DSP.  I added the greeting from the Joy to the World stamp set.  I added a CC .25 grosgrain ribbon held in placed with a tiny white brad.

I chose one of the Keepsake Ornaments for the Baja Breeze tag.  I cut a piece of DSP then ripped in half and placed each piece with the rip toward the centre as shown.  I printed the ornament and cut it with the coordinating framelit.  I added French Blue .25 grosgrain ribbon which matched pretty well the Baja Breeze. 

I chose the Owl from the Punch a Bunch Stamp Set for the Real Red Tag.  I printed the owl on white and punched him out.  I punched his vest in the DSP as well as the 2.25 inch circle behind him.  I added the heart on his vest. I added googlie eyes.  The blue greeting is from the Joy to the World stamp set.  I added a French Blue .25 inch ribbon held in place with a tiny white brad.

Card Club - Sept - Lattice Heart

Wrap the seam binding ribbon around the background layer leaving room for the flag and heart.  Tie and knot the ribbon. Adhere the background paper to the card front.  The flag was color printed with stipple design and a flag shape printed on the back to help with making an even flag. Trim the flag with scissors and then adhere to the card front.  The hearts were made with the Martha Stewart Lattice Heart Punch in red card stock. Add the heart as shown.  Trim the ends of the ribbons.

Card - Butterfly Birthdays

I made these cards for my monthly card exchange.  I was working on a concept for a background.  I cut stripes of double sided paper on my paper cutter then reverse every other one and reassembled the piece.  The math did not quite work out so I ended up with only 6 strips instead of 7 which is an odd number and would have worked better.  I will have to work on it some more.  I cut down the piece to get proportion I needed for the card.  Layered it onto a coordinating piece of card stock and then added to the orange card front.  I added a Martha Stewart butterfly punchie in the top left hand corner and a stamped greeting in the bottom right. I used a corner punch to add a bit of something to the rectangular greeting.

Christmas Card Challenge - April - Punches

This month's challenge is punches. It could a shape, a border, a corner punch.

I got my Stampin Up! Chevron punch during Sale-a-bration and I wanted to use it for these cards.  It was a challenge. I measured 1 1/8" from the top right hand corner to align the points on the chevron.  One had to be marked on the front and the other on the back.  I punched the left once and then the top once and added 2 more holes. The white layer is pearl white with a hint of gold. I lined the back of the white layer with gold decorative paper.  I punched a star from the same paper.  I stamped the SU Prince of Peace large greeting with SU Night of Navy ink on white card stock.  It was cut with the matching SU Deco Label framelit.  I cut another from the gold decorative paper.  I trimmed the circle part of the die cut off going along the straight edge of the ends then cut it in half crosswise.  I then glued them offset from the left and right hand ends.  This greeting was adhered to the card front with 3D foam tape.

Card Club - Feb - Dragonfly Trio

This card was made with the Sizzix Framelits Die Set 10PK - Card, Triple Square Flip-its.  I chose double sided designer paper.  I chose to highlight the red and cut squares to put in each of the flips.  I punched white dragonflies and adhered in each of the red squares.  I then cut white squares for the back of the trio flips and neutral layers for the back of the card to allow the person giving to have a place to write their sentiments.  That meant 12 pieces for each card.  Needless to say that was a lot of work. I ended up finding a square on my Cricut Cartridges - Wrap it Up  which I allowed me to cut the white back side squares way quicker.

 I made several color options with this card which added to the time needed to make those selections.
I wished I had single square flip-it. Lesson learned.

Card - Flip Card Cherry Damask

I made this card for one of my on-line card exchanges.  I'm loving this Sizzix Flip Its Framelit set a lot.  It allows me to quickly make cards. I cut the flip card base in a cherry card stock.  I then cut the 2 side layers from a damask designer paper.  I cut a scallop circle in damask and layered 2 large punched daisies onto it, cut in ivory and cherry.  I added a red sequin under the brad to just cut down the size of the ivory centre on the flower.  All held in place with an ivory brad.I put a smaller damask circle on the back of the central element to hide the brad.

The Sizzix Flip Its framelits sets are well thought out and better compared to others being offered on the market.

Card Club - Sept - Four Squares

I started with a taupe card which worked well with the designer paper I had selected.  I chose 2 designer papers which coordinated as I wanted to alternate them on this card. I chose a taupe script paper and a red, black and taupe floral which worked well.  I cut the DP with one of the framelits from the Stampin  Up! Apothecary Set.  This one I have not used as much as the others.  This set is worth getting!!! I cut a piece of background card stock in a coordinating color in this case black. The piece is 3.75" square.  I printed the large birthday greeting in a coordinating color, for this card in black. I glued the black background square to the top of the card front. I decided to 3D and add some focus to one of the wavy squares.  I punched a coordinating daisy and mounted it to the bottom right hand square with a red brad.  This square was then mounted with 3D foam tape to the background square.

Challenge - CCT - Diecuts or Punches

I made this challenge at Cute Card Thursday which was Dies or Punches.  and All Beautiful Cards  which was Monochromatic.  I started with a warm white card.  I cut a Tim Holtz Cabinet die from designer paper in white/craft texture.  I cut the window into the shape with a QuicKutz die.  I printed the stars, snowflakes and hill in Crumb Cake and Soft Suede on the original card.  I added a layer of Soft Suede behind the curve and the bottom. I glued the cabinet window onto the card.  I added a branch die cut with Impression Obesession die of a branch (DEI021-N) in Soft Suede.  The snowflake in the curve at the top is a Martha Stewart punchie on Soft Suede.

Card - School

I made this card because I misunderstood the theme for a challenge so here it is!  I thought the card should have a ruler so I made one from some striped paper and glued it to the bottom of the card. I added my own numbers with black marker.  I printed some letters in the background on the actual red card in black.  I die cut a blue pencil with a yellow Sizzix die then cut another in white and trimmed those pieces off and glued them onto the blue one.  I created the stack of books with my round punch on both ends.  I wrapped the yellow string around them and tied a knot.  It makes a nice colorful card so I'm happy and I will head back to the challenge.

Card - Farewell - Blue Floral

Another card for the farewells at work.  I started with a large half sheet leaf green card.  I added the designer paper, which I ripped at about 1/3 down from the top.  I added a strip of blue card stock down the center at 8.25" tall onto which I added a length of bright green grosgrain ribbon. The ends of the ribbon were taped to the back of the DP.  This layer was then adhered to the card front.  I cut a scallop oval in an off white card stock with Spellbinder Nestabilities, then layered a smooth oval of the same blue as the strip, then a punched some sprigs of green leaves from some green card stock with the Martha Stewart punch.  I added 3 off white silk hydrangea flowers to the center held in place with a large blue brad.

Christmas Card Challenge - Oct - Navy Red and Silver

October is a color challenge - Navy Red and Silver.  I wanted to use my newly acquired SU! Ornament stamp set.  The Joy one is my favorite.  I stamped it in Versamark and embossed in silver.  I punched it out and place a small hole in the hanger with a 1/16" punch.  I pulled through a length of crochet cotton to create the hanger.  I wanted to repeat the swirls in the ornament so I embossed the silver top layer with the Cuttlebug D'vine Swirl folder.  I punched the bottom of the layer with the SU! Eyelet border punch.  I selected some red Designer Paper for bottom portion of the card. I taped the ornament string to the red before adhering the silver embossed layer.  Once the silver was adhered I wrapped a length of white 1/4" gross grain ribbon across and taped the ends to the back of that layer.  This was then all glued to the navy card front.  I left my ornament hanging loose.

How To: Use a Die like a Punch

I wanted to punch out this flower from Designer Paper but the shape I wanted was in a die. This was a challenge because I could not see the paper through the tool like I can on a punch. I worked it out with a bit of thinking about it.  It worked really well.

How To: Hearts with a Scallop Circle

This is another How To entry.  Someone suggested this idea when I posted my border tag punch how to earlier so I thought I would work it out since Valentine's Day is just around the corner.

Do you need hearts but don't have a punch?  You can create hearts with a scallop circle!!  I used the small Stampin Up! scallop circle punch (1.75"w).  The hearts produced are about 7/8" tall.

1. Create your scallop circle with a punch, a circle nestabilities, or a die.  Measure straight across your circle with a ruler and mark the centre with  a push pin hole. 

2. Every 2 scallops cut in the V to the center.


3. Repeat till you have gone around the whole circle.  The number of hearts produced depends on the number of scallops on the circle.

Border Punch Tags - Samples

Things to remember:
1. The width of the pattern will determine the width of your tag.  The length is totally up to you.
2. Is there a centre opening in the v of the pattern?  You will be cutting that in half when you seperate it into tags.
3. Does it have a central opening?  If you want to hang the tag it works best if there's a centre hole.

I've put together samples with some border punches.
1. Stampin Up! Scallop Trim Border produces a half inch tag with a central opening.
2. Martha Stewart Arches Border produces a five eights tag with a central opening but it needs to have the extra trimmed.
3. Martha Stewart Deco Shell Border produces a five eights tag with no central opening.
4. Stampim Up! Eyelet Border produces a five eights tag with a central opening.
5. Martha Stewart Deco Shell corner produces a three quarters tag and has a central opening but is difficult to trim because of the angles.
6. Martha Stewart Daisy Border produces a seven eights tag with a central opening.

Christmas Card Stack - Gold Ornaments

The gold and black paper is wonderful. I selected card stock to match the decorative paper (black and purple). I found some gold paper that went well with it. I cut a layer of gold leaving a small border and glue it to the card front. Then I trimmed the decorative paper leaving a larger border. I cut the ornament with a Cuttlebug die folder combo "For You" from the gold paper. I glued a small eyelet in the card color to the ornament hanger. I folded the ribbon in half, pulled the fold through the hanger hole and the pulled the ends through the loop and pull taut. I put a big of glue behind the hanger and the ornament. Placing the colored snowflake onto the gold ornament and use a push pin to make a hole for the brad. Push the brad through and spread the prongs on the card inside. Trim the ribbon ends with scissors.

Christmas Stack Class - Silver Snowflakes

This is the last card of this Christmas Card Stack Class. This is a very versatile design in the sense that the color can easily be changed to create different looking cards. I choose turquoise and navy for this class but have plans for another kit with 4 different colors. The colors suggested at class were pink and purple. Keep I eye out for it.

I designed the snowflake background myself and color printed it on white cardstock. It was trimmed and glued to the card. I used my Sizzix Large Snowflake die and cut them from silver foil paper. I placed the snowflake and used a push pin to make a hole in the centre for the brad. I added a Martha Stewart snowflake punch in the card color then a silver metal embellishment which is all held in place with a tiny silver brad. The circle greeting is something I designed and color printed. Punched with a 1 1/4 inch punch then layered onto a 1 3/8 circle punchie same color as the card. The strip in the card color is embossed with the Cuttlebug Snowflake folder and cut to .75" X 4.25" and glued below the snowflake. The circle greeting is assembled and using a push pin to create the hole is held in place with another tiny silver brad.

I made 12 cards

Total = 61

Card - Christmas Sample

This is another idea that hit the cutting room floor during my prep for Christmas Card Stack Classes.

I started with a dark green card. I used a Crafts-Too holly embossing folder which leaves a nice blank rectangle in the top 1/3 of the card. I repeated the holly pattern with the MS holly punchies from the same cardstock as the card. I punched 3 red circles to add to the holly. I glued these together in the embossed rectangle.