Cards - Christmas Trees - Watercolor

I am going to need a lot more Christmas Cards so I decided today to start.

I found a tutorial video on line for these 5 trees last week.

Masked the bottom of the trees then drew 5 triangles with pencil. Painted them with watercolor, drew designs on them, and added metallic accents.  Then spattered the watercolor piece by loading brush with color and tapping it against another brush to produce the blue spots.

I traced the greeting.

Trimmed the watercolor paper to fit on an A2 card. Mounted it onto a SU Baja Breeze card base.

Add a seasonal insert and white envelope.

This one is in non-tradional colors.

Purples and warm tones of yellow / orange.

On the last 2 I worked out how to print a greeting on the printer.  Took quite a bit of time but now I can repeat it when I want.

I did add a black line to ground the trees.

The card base is SU Pumpkin Pie with a seasonal insert and white envelope.

This card is all in blue tones with silver metallic accents.

Mounted on a SU Taken with Teal card base in the A2 set in portrait orientation.

Seasonal insert and white envelope.

 

Card Exchange - Dec - Triangle Trees

These are my December exchange cards.  I used the beautiful screen printed decorative paper again because the colors where Christmasy.

I selected a beige card base.

I cut some triangle trees from solid card stock. For this card it was a warm green then I cut the decorative paper a bit smaller leaving a border all the way around.

I used pencil crayons in browns and greens to create a soft background and for the tree trunk at the bottom. I then adhered the Christmas Tree over top.

I added a red star sequin at the top of the tree and gold ones around the rest of the card.  These are adhered with Bling Zot glue dots.

For this card on the right a very similar layout to the top one.  This time I used a Very Vanilla card base.

Same warm green solid card stock for the tree.  

Again, a color pencil background and tree trunk.  A red star sequin at the top of the tree.

The small stars were punched from gold card stock with my Creative Memories star border punch. This is the largest of the one in the border.  I adhered them with Scotch Quick Dry liquid glue as it has a very fine point on the bottle.

I used the green pencil crayons to add some rays to the stars.

A seasonal insert was added as well as a white envelope and they are ready to go.

Christmas Tree Scent Ornaments

For those of us who put up artificial Christmas trees wouldn't it be nice to still have the smell of a real tree during the holidays?

I love the smell of a real tree.  I received one of these last year for my tree and I was on the search for the right scent.  I discovered that it can be tricky.  I believe we always had spruce trees at Christmas when I grew up.  Others will have different types of trees in their tradition therefore a different scent.

There are quite a few Christmas tree blends available as well.

I bought Pine Needles last year which was not quite right.  I will add Spruce this year in a blend and see how that goes.

I have hung these on a tree ornament stand.

I started with traditional green triangle trees for the first set.  I cut them 3.5 inches high and 3 inches wide at the base.  Triangle trees are very efficient in materials.  I cut 2 exactly the same size. I embelished the front triangles. On the left with red embroidered garland with gold e bead ornaments. On the right with small round felt button ornaments tied on with gold thread.  Of course the need a star and a trunk. 

Once the fronts were done, I layered them together, put my trunk and my hanging thread in between and sewed very close to the the edge all the way around.  The stars were added on last with a bit of hand stitching.

I made 3 felt ball wreaths with these non traditional colors of white, black and aqua.  I strung them onto string cotton thread and tied them really tight.

I added a white thread hanging loop.

For these ornaments I would recommend put the oil on the black balls so no discoloration will show.  For the other ornaments I would put the oil on the back so again if the oil causes some discoloration it will not be on the front.

I made some round ornaments featuring reindeer die cuts.  The white one is sporting the red nose of Rudolph. 

The reindeer were layered on a medium circle then onto the 3.25 inch circles.  The reindeer and the medium circle were attached to the front large circle then they were sewn together very close together in coordinating thread with the hanging thread in between.  

The one on right I tried making my own grey hanger and on the second I just put a small circle of felt in between the large circles and stitched it in. 

I made one with a white snowflake die cut on red medium circle on dark green large circles. Then used a small felt circle for the hanger. 

On the right, I made a non traditional colored one with purple, white and some blues.  The focal element are white and blue layered hearts to which I stitched some silver ebeads. I added an tiny felt button with silver ebeads again on the right hand side. These were stitched together with a small purple felt circle hanger with white thread loop. 

I ended up finding some die cuts in my stash which I used to make a couple more.

The pink and white dove has a pearly ebead for a eye and again is in not traditional colors. The wings are stitched on both sides and it has a felt hanger.

The gingerbread man was cut from ginger looking felt and blanket stitched around both layers with a piece of red fabric put in between for the hearts and a bit of white for the eyes.  The mouth was outlined with black permanent marker.  Just a simple thread loop to hang.

These can just be ornaments on your tree with out having scent added to them.  If you are going to add essential oil to them be sure to put it on the back in order to avoid discoloration on the front of the ornament.

Christmas Card Challenge - Watercolor

Worked on Christmas cards again.   

Using 140lb rough watercolor paper trimmed to approximately 4.00 x 5.25 inches.

I wet the triangle and just dropped color inside and let it blend together.  Added a trunk and let dry.

The red dots were added after the tree was dry.

I used a Micron Fine Permanent black marker to add the lines, the star and outlines around the dots.  Spattered the background by covering the tree with scrap paper.   This was mounted onto dark green card base with a seasonal insert.

The colors are different on this one and I chose another pattern for my lines.  This are quite not traditional colors and I am okay with that.

Stars replaced the cots.

This one was mounted on a medium olive green card base with a seasonal insert and white envelopes.

A few more cards for the box! 

Postage Stamp Trees

After I took out postage stamps for my class this week I sorted some green ones to create these cards.

I glued them to some dark green card stock and let them dry.  I cut triangles 2" wide and 3.5 inches tall. I then layered them onto red card stock leaving a tiny border. 

I created a greeting layer with a triangle tree and a sentiment printed in Handsome Hunter.  This layer was trimmed to leave a small border onto a dark green card. 

I added a gold star sequin at the top of the tree held in place with a tiny gold star brad.

Another few cards for my Christmas card stash.  Very good.

Christmas Card Challenge - Feb - Blue / Snow

Here's the card for my blog Christmas Card Challenge.  For February the prompts are Navy Blue and Snow.

I ended up with a warm dark blue so it may be teal instead of navy.  I wanted to create a night sky with snow falling.  I chose the Sizzix Softly Falling embossing folder which I inked up with TH Distress Stain in denim blue but as you can see it's not anymore.  More about that here. I chose a card that coordinated and I adhered it to the card front.  I ripped a snow bank from white card stock. I cut a white triangle tree which I embossed with a Tim Holtz Alterations Star folder then I adhered it to the card front aligning the bottom of the tree to the bottom of the snowbank.  I added a silver star sequin at the top held with a Bling Zot.  I added a few silver rhinestones.  Then 3 small pearly snowflakes held in place with tiny white brads. 

Submitting to Anything Goes Challenge at Weekly Christmas Card Challenges.

R2G Christmas Stack Kit - Christmas Cocoa

Here's my next set of Ready 2 Go Card Stack kit.  In this one I chose the OSW1 Template which produces 3 card layouts per 6x6 DSP. 
The Stampin Up DSP is called Christmas Cocoa and has Real Red, Soft Suede and Whisper White as it's colors.
The greetings stamp set I chose is Owl Occasions in those colors.  The accent layers are the opposite from the card color so Soft Suede on the Real Red the other way around on the Soft Suede card.  Each of the accents have both colors included.  The greetings were cut to 2.75" with an accent layer of 3 inches.

The card layout presents 2 wide cards and 1 tall card. Of course, the pieces can all be changed in orientation to make cards the as you prefer. The kit makes 12 cards.

R2G Christmas Stack Kit - Winter Green

Here's another Ready 2 Go Christmas Stack Kit made with the 6x6 One Sheet Wonder cutting plan and card layouts. 
This time I used a retired Stampin Up DSP called Winter Green.
I chose the stripes as well as this bold floral pattern. I pulled 4 sheets of 12 x 12 which I cut into 6 x 6 pieces.  I decided to not use the set with the Stampin Up credit in the corner and besides I needed a some paper to make my card samples so it was a win win.

I picked Always Artichoke, Soft Sky and Certainly Celery for the card bases.
I chose the Owl Occasions Stamp Set.  The greetings are put on white card stock and cut to 2.75" square.  The greetings are mounted to the card front with 3D foam tape.
I chose Sage Shadow for layers on 2 of the kits and Certainly Celery for the other kit as I did not have enough of the Sage Shadow.  Good to have options.  The layers are 3.00" square.  The card stock strips are .5 inch by 5.5 or 4.25 inches.

The cards can be oriented in either wide or tall orientation.  The inserts provided allow the maker to choose.

This kit puts me in good shape for my June Christmas Stack Class.

Card - Challenge - Stripes

I created this card for a challenge which is using stripes on the card.  I selected the striped paper then the card then the bright green paper.  I stamped the snow in Bravo Burgundy on warm red card stock.I glued the striped paper toward the bottom of a landscape card. I cut a triangle tree from the bright green, punched 1/4" circles from a peach card stock.  I glued the tree on the left hand side and added the peach circles onto the tree.  I punched a modern label in green then stamped the greeting onto peach card stock then punched it with the word window.  I stamped the greeting in Bravo Burgundy.

Card - Challenge - Non Traditional Colors

I made this card for Holly Jolly's weekly challenge which is non-traditional colors.
I used cut offs from this card which was my blog Christmas Card for July - Angels.  I made the tree with the scraps from the angel's dress.  I mounted the 2 small triangles of this great Designer Paper from Webster Pages onto dark brown card stock and trimmed leaving a border all the way around.  I added a very small triangle at the bottom for a trunk. I needed a background and I decided to emphasize the star theme so I selected a star background but not a traditional Christmas one.  I chose gold card stock and embossed it with the Cuttlebug star embossing folder. I mounted that to my ivory card. I die cut a star from the ivory card stock with Sizzix die and held it in place with a gold glitter star brad. (recent purchase at Michaels). I added a SU! Tab punch in the dark brown folded in half over the gold layer on the right hand side.  I stamped my greeting in Chocolate Chip on the same ivory card stock and punched it with the SU Word Window punch. I mounted it with 3D foam across the tab punchie.

Christmas Stack Class - Version 2

A friend hosted a Christmas Stack Class for co-workers on Monday night. It was a smaller group and a different atmosphere. We had a good time!

I made up some of the card kits in a different way than the one I designed originally. It was fun. I know this happens every time I have a class because there is no rule that the supplies provided in the card kit must be used in a particular way. It's their cards they can make they way they like. Participants use their creativity and come up with great ideas. To the left are a few of the cards I made.

Christmas Stack Class - Triangle Tree

Top Card:

I started with a River Rock card. I trimmed the decorative paper to 5.25x4.00 inches. The greeting was printed on a sheet of the same cardstock. Originally the speckling on the tree was stamped but to quickly speckle a lot of trees I created a pattern in Corel Draw to color print directly onto the 8.5x11 sheet before cutting it into triangles. The triangle tree is Always Artichoke cardstock cut to 3.75" tall and 2.75" wide. The greeting was printed onto River Rock cardstock as well. I decided to punch holes into the tree to copy the dots in the background paper. The Berrylicious Bazzil cardstock tree was cut slightly smaller than the green one. They were layered together then glued to the card. A small piece of brown cardstock forms the trunk of the tree. The star is a sequin which was attached with double sided tape.

Bottom Card:

This card is the same sketch in different colors. The card stock is ivory and the background paper is a plaid Designer Paper.

Green Speckle for Trees: