Hi friends! Happy Friday! How was your Thanksgiving? I hope you had a great one! Our Thanksgiving was very quiet and peaceful here at home. I did the cooking and we relaxed and watched some movies. The holiday days always go so quickly! Now it's Black Friday! Are you shopping today? We usually go out at 5am and go shopping and hang out but this year we're not doing that. There isn't the budget this year and really, honestly, I want for nothing! I am so blessed and we are in general trying to be more zen so we are home crafting and decorating instead of in the shopping madness! Maybe next year we'll get back at it! We have a full weekend to come with my work at the store (I work part time at Paper Source) and church activities. But enough yammering on from me….Let's get to some crafty things!
There were SO many wonderful Christmas releases from the stamp companies this year! Wow! I feel like everyone crushed it. Today I'm sharing FOUR cards in one post! Cards I made with the EXTRA SUPER DUPER FABULOUS Make it Merry release from Honey Bee Stamps. Like wow. WOW. I saw the new items and the ideas flooded my brain. I sat down this past week and made everything and I'm so excited to share it all with you. It's a little bit vintage, a lot classy, and some fun too. My cards all have a different flavor to them. This is one of those long posts with tons of pictures, so grab your coffee and spend some creative time with me! I'll show you all four cards first and then go into the detail photos. Thank you for being here with me!
All four cards are A2 sized card bases. There are tons of little details I put into each card to make it my creation – that is my signature – I love the small details! The supplies are listed at the bottom of my post (or click here). There are tons of Black Friday crafting sales now on these items too!
Let's go a bit more in depth on this classic Christmas poinsettia card! This card features the Lovely Layers Poinsettias and the Vintage Picnic Basket Dies… SO much fun and vintagey goodness!! Lots of snow and some gold too…. I die cut the poinsettia dies from dark red paper and blended on some darker red distress ink to the tips. I die cut the leaves from both green and gold. Nothing says classic vintage Christmas like red, green and gold….and plaid! The picnic basket die is genius and so much fun. I die cut it from plaid cardstock to mimic those old thermos tins.
Just like all the other gorgeous Honey Bee Layered Florals, this Poinsettia came together like a dream. It's four layers and then the yellow center. EASY to put together! I used Snowfall Grit Paste and Opaque White Grit Paste to make snow and painted it onto the leaves and petals and set them aside to dry. In this photo you can also see that gorgeous background texture plate….love…. I used bits and bobs of the Winter Greenery Dies also to complete my arrangement.
My card base is made from woodgrain cardstock and layered with red and cream…
For the picnic basket I wanted a hint of metallic to make it look like a metal picnic basket. I used the Foundry Wax in Gilded to add gold with my fingers just at certain places…. I really like how this came out!!
Here's a side view of that beautiful poinsettia flower! I gently lifted the petals with my finges to raise them upwards. I used Bearly Glue to glue them all together. I added some gems to the flower center and splattered on some snowy white ink…
I think this bells card might be my favorite one of the bunch! I LOVE how it came out with that 50's Christmas vibe!!! These dies are so pretty. I found just the right striped paper in my stash and it all came together…. I used the new Holiday Bells Dies along with the Winter Greenery Dies (just used the Holly leaves) to make this card. I again used red and green to create a vintage/classic look. I die cut the bells from red cardstock and used Copic Markers to add the darker red you see on the botton part of the bells. I used cream and silver cardstock to complete the bells.
Here's a close up of my little cluster at the top of my bells. I had a red bow at first but it didn't look right with all the other red… So I finally decided on a pretty teal bow. I think that keeps with the 50's theme I was going for. I layered cream, red, stripes and vellum and then an oval for my card. To apply the texture paste snow is a bit tricky. It took me a few tries to get it the way I like it. I used a small paint brush but instead of 'painting' I 'dabbed' the paste on, leaving it super bumpy. I found if I 'painted' it, when it dried it was flat….
I used some glitter glue Diamond Stickles on the yellow part of the bells. I added a few clear and white gems to finish off the card. I stamped the sentiment in brown ink instead of black, and die cut it with the matching die.
A few quick and easy ways to add details to your cards…. When you're making die cuts, either blend on some distress inks with a blender brush, or use your markers to add some quick shading… Add gems, pearls, enamel dots, rhinestones for a bit of texture…. Add paint splatters in white, black or gold for that artsy feel (or snow feel!) Use a layer of vellum in between some of your other layers to add depth…. Me, you know, more is more. So I use all these things! Ha!
My next card features the new Winter Greenery Dies, the new Mason Jar Vase Dies and the previously released Build A Snowman Dies (a favorite)…. I wanted to make a little scene inside of a mason jar…. This card has a fun and playful feeling to it… I found the red snow paper in my stash and it's still available! It matched my card perfectly….
I built my classic snowman and gave him a plaid scarf and a peppermint on his hat! Of course he has a broom and a little red cardinal friend too! I wanted some trees in my scene and the trees from the new Winter Village dies set were PERFECT!! I added a stitched hill to set the scene and added my trees… The mason jar was die cut from light blue cardstock and I stamped some snow onto it….
I used Winter Greenery for the pine boughs and the bow from the bells die set for the top of the jar…. I added a small snowflake to the center.
For this last card I wanted to make another poinsettia in PINK! Such a pretty pop of icy colors…and silver….and blue…. This card is so cheerful and bright!! I made the poinsettia and then splashed on silvery white metallic watercolor!! I made the background with the awesome Fancy Flakes Die… I used a new to me embossing powder that is really pretty and glittery…it's called Silver Moonlight. YUM.
I made the leaves from green and silver – again trying to get that 50's vintage look… I used vellum as my top layer.
Every time I get one of these lovely layers dies I am blown away by how pretty they are. I mean, seriously. Could it be more perfect??? And so simple. Love it.
Okay! Thanks for hanging in there with me on this long post. I believe we have officially KICKED OFF CHRISTMAS here on the blog! Yay! Looking forward to sharing with you over the next month as we go through this fun time of year. Again, I'm going to run out of time, but I'll make as many fun things as I can! LOL. I hope you are enjoying a beautiful day and will find some creative time this weekend. Love ya! See you soon! XOXO
