Christmas Inspiration: Wishing You Joy

Here's another Christmas card to inspire us to get some made ahead.  It came together really quickly.  Materials used:

• JustRite/Spellbinders "Antique Labels One" dies
• Spellbinders "Poinsettia" Dies
• JustRite "Noel Christmas Ornaments" stamps
• CheeryLynn "French Lattice" die
• Hot Off the Press "Red Jewel Dazzles"
• Red silk flower from my stash
• Red ink
• Clear embossing powder
• Heat Gun
• Grand Caliber Die Cut Machine

Method:

• Background - I cut a 1/4 sheet piece of red paper with the French Lattice die and glued it to the white card base using a glue stick. 
• Focal - The silk flower was adorned with die cuts from the Poinsettia die and some Jewel Dazzles.  
• Sentiment - I cut a piece of white glimmer paper using an Antique Labels One die.  Leaving the paper in the die, I lightly inked the edges using a sponge applicator dipped into the stamping ink, using a circular motion for a softened edge, then removed the die to show the remaining white frame.  Finally, I stamped the sentiment red ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

Make Your Own Card Making Kits!

When I needed several cards quickly, that Hunkydory kit was so helpful that I decided to think about making my own card kits.  I started with a variety of pre-made focals, and started going through my papers to find coordinating papers.  Then I put my gathered "kits" into envelopes that are organized by occasion (birthday, thinking of you, sympathy, congratulations, etc.).  This should make it much faster to pull together cards when I need them in a hurry.

Hunkydory Anniversary Card

For the outside of this card, I put together the papier tole with foam tape, saving a couple pieces for the inside of the card.  I die cut a piece of pink patterned paper (JustRite Antique Labels One) and outlined it with a silver metallic marker.  Then I added the printed tag (from Hunkydory) - adding the combo to the card with foam tape.

For the inside, I started with a piece of patterned paper.  I put together the saved pieces of papier tole, mounted it on a piece of silver, then a piece of pink vellum (cut with Fair Isle Spellbinder's Die) and then matted on a piece of white embossed paper (M-bossibility). The sentiment is an outline sticker.

HunkyDory Birthday

Continuing with my quick cards from the Hunkydory kit, here's another birthday card.  Everything except the card base itself and a pink ink pad was from the kit.  I used the ink pad to run along the edges of the paper to ink them a little.

HunkyDory Pyramid

Here's another HunkyDory quick card.  This one is a pyramid papier-tole type embellishment that was matted on a pink die cut piece (mulberry paper, 5X7 Elegant Labels Four from Spellbinders).  The little sentiment tag was also from the HunkyDory kit.

For the inside, I just added a piece of the coordinating paper:

HunkyDory Quick Card

 

When I looked at the calender this month I realized I had quite a few cards that needed to be made and QUICKLY!!!!   That's when I pull out products like this HunkyDory card making set that I received with a craft magazine subscription.  It's a gorgeous set with butterflies and flowers, papier tole and other decorative elements, and gorgeous coordinating papers.  

For this first card, I paired the papier tole and patterned paper with a die cut (Spellbinders Labels 27) that was inked and accented with a outline sticker sentiment (Dazzles from HOTP).

For the inside, I used another piece of the patterned paper, adding a small flower from the papier tole for a bit of interest.

Birthday - Waxed Paper Resist

Materials:

• Blue cardstock
• Waxed Paper Resist background made from: Glossy Cardstock,Waxed Paper, Dotted embossing folder, and Distress inks (Worn Lipstick, Broken China, and Dusty Concord) - see tutorial here.
• White glimmer paper
• White cardstock
• M-bossabilities Imperial Folder
• Happy Birthday Die-cut (not sure where I got this - it was in my stash) & matching punched heart

 Method:

1. Cut a piece of blue cardstock that is 7" x 10".  Lay it horizontally and score a vertical line at 5" for your fold line.  This gives you a 5" x 7" card base.
2. Cut 6 more pieces
   of the blue cardstock - each 2" square.
3. Trim waxed paper resist background piece into 6 pieces that are each 1 3/4" square.
4. Mount the pieces from #3 above onto the pieces from #2 above, giving you 6 matted pieces.
5. Emboss the white glimmer paper with the M-bossabilities Imperial folder & trim to fit so the blue card forms a narrow frame around it. Glue in place on your card, then add your 6 matted pieces as shown.
6. Glue your die-cut sentiment to white cardstock and trim around it to form a mat. (This would have been much easier had I used my Silhouette!)  Do the same with your small punched heart.
7. Attach to card using foam tape for dimension.

Unusual Anniversary Card

This anniversary card is unusual - at least for me - because I would seldom use those colors for such an occasion.  However, they are the colors the bride had at her wedding so I went with it!  I had to finish my card quickly because I had just remembered about the anniversary of guests who were coming that night for dinner and had plenty to do!

After cutting my background paper to size and inking the edges with dark blue ink, I attached it to my card front.

The focal element was created using "Dazzles" from Hot Off the Press. I simply placed the stickers on my yellow-gold glimmer paper and cut close to the edges.  Then I heat embossed my sentiment on them.

I matted my sentiment hearts on blue glimmer paper backed with the same yellow-gold.  The mat was created using one of Maryanne's cut and emboss folders.  After attaching the mat to the card, I added the heart sentiments with foam tape for dimension.

More Hunkydory Prefab

This card is similar to the one I showed yesterday with papier tole from Hunkydory (Flutterbye Wishes), pre-made sentiment, and even the same background paper!  This time I edged the paper and papier tole elements with a silver inkpad and added a silver ribbon border before adding my elements.  A little silver bow and I was ready to do the inside of the card.

As you can see, I used the same edgeability die to cut the border, but ran a length of 1/8" silver ribbon along each piece before adding the border to my card.

Hunkydory PreFab

Talk about fast and easy!  This card was made using paper and papier tole from a kit (Flutterbye Wishes) from Hunkydory that came with my Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine.  It's beautiful paper and very good quality.  The sentiment was one of my prefab ones I made the other day (JustRite die - Antique Labels One, Frame is a JustRite stamp from "Royal Antique Labels One" & sentiment from their "Enjoy the Day" set).  Both the sentiment and the papier tole elements were attached using foam tape for dimension.  A quick little white bow and I was ready to do the inside of the card!

Here you can see I simply made a couple of border strips from the paper (cut using an edgeability die) and added another piece from the Hunkydory kit (was supposed to be part of the papier tole) with foam tape in the upper right-hand corner.

PreFab Thinking of You

Today's focal is another of my "pre-made focals - made with alcohol inks, embossing powder, and frame stamp (Your Special Day) and die (Medallion Labels) from JustRite.  (Sentiment stamp from K& Co. &amp)

I decided to start using up some of the paper that I've been getting with my Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine, so chose this stripe as a background paper to coordinate with my focal element.  

As you can see, I matted the focal with cream and green die cut pieces (Spellbinders Decorative Labels 27).  The border along the bottom was made using an Edgeability die & Insert (Spellbinders) with cream-colored satin ribbon threaded through it.

The inside of the card was easy, too.  I used a smaller die-cut green piece for the focal, on which I stamped my sentiment  (HOTP "Stamp & Punch) and embossed it in black.  A couple strips of the striped paper top and bottom and the inside was done.