I thought I would share with you today a Christmas Card that looks die cut but isn't! So put away your grand calibure or big shot, all you need is a little PC know-how, your printer, a craft knife and metal ruler!
Card Recipe:
Tools: PC, printer, craft knife, metal ruler
Paper and Card: Stardream Card, printable vellum, acetate
Embellishments: Flatback crystals, ribbon bow
To make this card, I started by creating a word document on my PC and inserting a triangle basic shape. I inserted the text I wanted to use, changing the font and font size until I was happy with the fit. I used double line spacing as I knew I wanted to decorate with crystals. Then I printed out the message onto printable vellum and left it to dry thoroughly.
To make the card, I trimmed out the "champagne glass" by simply cutting out the triangle of text from vellum plus a corresponding smaller triangle for the glass base. The stem was made from a narrow strip of acetate.
I decorated the printed vellum with rows of sparkling rhinestones before attaching it to the card base. This gave me an area which I could dot with glue from behind to adhere the vellum to the card without it showing through.
I've kept this very clean and simple, but you could also quickly add some 3D gloss "bubbles" too. My card is a Christmas card but the concept could easily be adapted for other occassions too.
Just goes to prove that you don't need new dies for a new card idea! Hope you enjoyed this quick post and that all your Christmas preparations are well in hand.
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Every year, I take part in a Halloween Swap on a Craft forum that I belong to, and it's one of my favourite swaps of the year. However, as Halloween is just once a year, I try to not spend too much cash on craft stash just for that occasion and today's card is a case in point. The only exclusively Halloween element on this card is the main stamped image, everything else has been adapted "spookify" it!
Card Recipe:
Stamps: Inkadinkadoo, Joanna Sheen's House Mouse
Tools: Tonic Studios Doomed Window Die, Tonic Studios Window Basket Die Tonic Studios Label Die, Cameo Silhouette, Grand Calibur
Colouring Mediums: Versmark Ink Pad, Versafine Black Ink Pad, Promarker Pens, Cosmic Shimmer Mist, Moon Glow Embossing Powder, Distress Ink Weathered Wood
Paper and Card: WRMK, Textured, Joanna Sheen's Elegance Satin, Velvet Paper, Opal Vellum
Embellishments: Tooth pick, foliage, silver-tone charm, string, bakers twine, crystals
To create the stamped scene, I cut a piece of stamping card slightly smaller than my window die, and punched out a 1" circle mask from a post-it note. I checked the position of my mask against the window die cut, then lightly coloured the stamping card with weathered wood distress ink. After removing the mask, I stamped my witch using Versafine black , so that she appeared in silhouette against the moon. Finally, I spritzed the entire image lightly with cosmic shimmer mist.
As this is a window scene looking from the inside to outdoors, my vellum blind needed to be proud of the window. I cut the decorative edge with my favourite gothic border punch, and created the velvet "pelmet" by die- cutting some velvet paper and cardstock with the window box die that coordinates with the window die (but turned upside down).
They say that necessity is the mother of invention and as I do like making my own embellishments, and I had fun creating this witchy-broom as a bespoke Halloween decoration. I used some sprigs of floristry foliage, which I pressed into my Versamark ink pad then coated in gorgeous two-toned moon glow embossing powder (midnight pewter obsidian). When I heated the embossing powder, my craft room was filled with the scent of pine.
I glued the now midnight-black sprigs to a wooden tooth-pick and wrapped some rough string around the join - et voila - a very witchy broom.
If you like to see how I created my All Hallows House Mouse, have a look at my original Scary House Mouse blog post.
You can also see how I used my Tied Together embossing folder and Black Soot ink pad to create my Halloween textured "wallpaper" from a piece of purple patterned paper.
The pumpkins were cut on my Cameo Silhouette, I like the curly fronds. The silver-tone spider was an Ebay find, I just added the crystal to the centre and suspended it from a thread of Halloween Bakers Twine.
Here's one final look at this spooktacular card...
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Trick or Treat! This is a fun project to transform brown sandwich bags into Spooktacular treat bags. Lots of techniques used, including: Dry Embossing ● Heat Embossing ● Stamping ● Decoupage ● Die Cutting ● Punches ● Accenting ● Charms
Project Recipe:Stamps: Inkadinkadoo All Hallows Eve
Colouring Mediums: Versamark Ink, Versafine Ink, Martha Stewart Embossing Powder, WOW embossing powder, pigment ink pad, Black Soot Distress Ink
Paper and Card: DCWV, WRMK, vellum
Tools: Tonic Studios Gothic Die, Tonic Studios Gothic Border Punch, Tonic Label Dies, Grand Calibur, Embossalicious Embossing Folder, Silhouette Cameo
Embellishments: silver-tone charms, Bakers Twine, glossy accents
My "Oldies" (ie using up bits and bobs from my stash that's over 6 month's old) are everything apart from the Bakers Twine and Charms.
Step 1 - Creating the Topper
The topper has lots of great detail to it. First of all, I die cut a label shape the stamped my Happy Halloween in Versamark Ink which I then heat embossed with WOW extra fine black embossing powder. Once melted, the embossing powder acts as a resist, meaning that I was then able to over stamp with the cobweb corner stamp, but it has the illusion of sitting behind the Halloween greeting. I also stamped on the filigree spider and accented the spider body with glossy accents to create dimension. For the pumpkins and Versamrk ink, I first stamped "off-the-edge" of the main label and heat embossed with Martha Stewart Peridot Glitter Embossing Powder. I then stamped the image twice more onto a slightly lighter piece of orange card and heat embossed with WOW black. I layered up the pumpkins to create some lovely dimension.
Don't think you always need to buy finishing accents for your projects, they are quite easy to make yourself. I printed off the word SPELLS onto another offcut of the lighter orange card, cut it out with a tiny banner die and edged it with black ink. I then tore a small strip of calligraphy-printed vellum and rolled it into a scroll, and glued the SPELLS card around it. A lovely little accent and made from a few scraps.
Step 2 - Creating the Tag
That said, I did use some sweet silver-tone charms to accent my Tag, attached with sppoky halloween Bakers Twine and a tiny brad.
The tag was cut using the very aptly named Gothic Die Set from Tonic Studios, and I used Black Soot distress ink around the edge. The mat was cut on my Cameo Silhouette using the trace method. I have imported all of my Tonic Dies into my Cameo to do this, very useful.
The Trick & Treat sentiment was stamped and heat embossed.
Step 3 - Finishing the Bag
My brown paper sandwich bags fitted perfectly into an 8" Embossalicous embossing folder, so I used the Polka Dot folder and then swiped over the raised embossing with an orange pigment Ink Pad.
I had a sheet of 12" WRMK cardstock that was Halloween borders, so I cut this into strips and mounted it onto black card that had been edged with the Gothic Border Punch. This created a decorative edge to the top of my Altered Halloween Trick or Treat Brown Paper Bags.
Here's one final look:
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Boo! There are creepy goings-on over at an Oldie But A Goodie, it's
new challenge time and the theme is Spooky.
The full rules are over on the challenge blog post, but in a nutshell, you
need to create a new project following the theme and use on it at least 1 item
that is at least 6 months old (what a great excuse to use up some old stash).
For this challenge, I've made a Spooky Halloween Lantern.
Project Recipe:
Tools: Cameo Silhouette, Spellbinders, Grand Calibur
Colouring Mediums: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Black Soot
Paper and Card: WRMK, Stardream, Textured Card, pearlescent vellum, coloured vellum
Embellishments: Glittery spider, glitter, rhinestone gems, Prima Got Flowers
I made this project largely using my Cameo Silhoutte, which is great for specialist projects when you may not have readily to hand a lot of subject material.
I've add photos of each side in daylight so that you can see the detail but also with the votive candle lit, so that you can see the effect when in use. Please remember, if you do a project like this, use only electric candles, not bare flames. On this side my orange moon is actually an orange vellum circle mounted behind the witch.
Next side features a rather spooky skull. The Cameo Silhouette shape that I used had lots of detail on it, but I find that this doesn't always cut so well if you've shrunk the shape to a small size. So I edit my shape before cutting by un-grouping and then removing the very smallest cuts. I think it's still effective - here I removed the smaller teeth and then re-spaced out the remaining ones.
I love these pumpkins! I like grown-up Halloween (it's not just about the children) and I think these pumpkins are classy!
Finally, Halloween wouldn't be complete without a Spooky House! Also, I've previously written a tutorial on how a Poinsettia (Die) is for Life, Not Just For Christmas, and my Halloween Poinsettia is a case in point!
Everything used in this project is over 6 months old (I think some of it's over 6 years old, lol), so it was a great way to use up old stash and hoarded scraps.
Hope you enjoyed this project. Do come over to an Oldie But A Goodie Challenge and join us for this fortnight's theme of Spooky. I would like to enter it into the following
challenges as well:
Cameo Creations - Spooky/Haunting
Clear it Out - Halloween/Orange
Crafty Calender -
Halloween
CountryView - Something Spooky
Use It Tuesday - Scraps, Pieces, Odds and Ends
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