Sparkly Gift Tags

I really enjoyed joining in on Simon Says All That Glitters is Gold Challenge so when I woke early this morning gathered together some supplies to get a start on Christmas gift tags for bottles.

Dies - Eliza & Kate Snowflakes (Simon Says Stamp), Fancy Cut Christmas (Hero Arts), Circle Nestabilites (Spellbinders) and Stitched Circles (Pink & Main)

I think shaker cards are so fun so made a shaker to go on my first tag. I adhered five glittery gold stars to the plain black background of the shaker element, added a mix of sequins and stars and used a gold frame over the acetate to trap all the shaker pieces inside. A pretty bow, not made by me but recycled from a box of chocolates, finished off the look I wanted.

I love the way my friend Linda used a die to emboss the background on her bicycle card here. So I did the same with the Eliza Snowflake die on this tag, added the Kate Snowflake cut from glittery card and a little gold gem to the centre of the snowflake.

When I was taking photos of the tags on the bottles who should come along with his own bottle of Buck's Fizz looking for a chase - Toby! I don't know if it was coincidental or if he recognised the similarities between what I had and one of his toys, but I had a good laugh when I saw him and managed to get him to pose for a few seconds after I chased him down the corridor.

Linda's Snowflakes and Dry Embossing Challenge

As I'm off work for a few days I was able to get straight into making a Christmas card for the challenge set yesterday by my friend Linda - a card with snowflakes and dry embossing.

I started by applying distress inks (faded jeans, broken china & tumbled glass) to a piece of white card, spritzed it with water and then embossed it using a gorgeous folder that Linda gave me when we met on holidays recently - thanks again, Linda! The pretty snowflake dies Kristina Werner designed for Simon Says Stamp are my favourites so I just had to add one of them to my card too.

Embossing folder - Snowflake Scroll (Darice)
Die - Kate Snowflake (Simon Says Stamp)
Stamp - Very Merry Christmas (Hero Arts)

The snowflake was die cut from white card and a layer of diamond stickles and a gem applied for some sparkle.

Next up I made a matching gift tag with pretty much the same supplies.

Dies - Kate Snowflake (Simon Says Stamp) & Lacey Squares (Spellbinders)

It's great to have another card and tag to put into my bundle for Christmas. Linda, thanks again for the fun challenge and helping me be better prepared for Christmas this year!

Secret Santa Swap

Over at the Hero Arts Flickr Group a number of us took part in a Secret Santa Swap and sent a Christmas card, a Christmas ATC and a gift to the person we were playing Secret Santa to.

Char in the US received the parcel I sent to her, so now I can show what I made for her. First up is the card. The background snowflakes were stamped with faded jeans distress inks and I applied lots of diamond stickles to the die cut snowflakes.

Supplies - Stunning Snowflakes (Hero Arts), Eliza and Kate snowflake dies (Simon Says Stamp), WPlus9 Woodland Wreaths and Spellbinders Fancy Tags One

Next up is the shaker ATC I made. Every time I make an ATC I just want to make more and more of them - it's fun working with the small area.

Supplies - Snowman and Snowflakes (Hero Arts), Woodland Wreaths (WPlus9) & Snowflake embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Now I want to share the fabulous package I received from the very talented Maria in Russia. This is Maria's photo of the amazing card and ATC she sent me as well as the wonderful goodies - I'm such a lucky girl! Thank you so much again, Maria, I am absolutely thrilled with everything:):)

Scrappy Snowflake Tags

The other day when I was making this card my first attempt at a watercolour background looked really hideous. When this happens I usually set the piece aside and see if I can come up with another use for it. Often the not so nice pieces are die cut into butterflies or flowers but in this case I die cut some snowflakes to make gift tags for Christmas. Sorry for the gloomy photos but it's a really dull day here today.

Dies - Simon Says Stamp (Eliza and Kate snowflake dies) & Spellbinders (Picot Edge Circles)

I used the inlaid die cutting technique, and between using the scrapped watercolour panel and scraps of white card left over from other projects, I was happy with the amount of scraps I used up.

To finish the tags I added some gems and baker's twine.

I'm not quite ready to wrap my Christmas pressies yet (in fact I haven't even bought one Christmas present yet!) but just wanted to see how the tags would work on a present simply wrapped with tissue paper and baker's twine.

I'm submitting these tags in Simon Says Stamp's Watercolour Challenge over on Flickr.

Joyful Flurry

I wanted to join in again on the Simon Says Stamp Watercolouring Challenge over on Flickr, so last night I got out some purple and blue watercolour paints to make a background. I much prefer the colour of the card in real life compared to how it appears in the photo. In real life it's more purple than blue, but for some reason my camera seems to be picking up the blues more than the purples no matter how many photos I've taken in different lights! Anyway you'll just have to imagine this card as being purple:)

Dies - Simon Says Stamp (Eliza & Kate snowflakes), Die-mamics (By the Letters), Memory Box (Bristol Snowflake)

To make the background I applied water to watercolour paper and then added the paint. Then I sprinkled some salt on parts of the panel. I wasn't quite sure how that would work out but I like the look it gave to the panel.

Then it was just a matter of scattering snowflakes on the panel. I used Simon Says Stamp's Eliza and Kate snowflake dies, a snowflake punch and some pretty snowflakes my friend Linda had sent me. For some sparkle I added sequins and gems. I die cut the sentiment a number of times from silver card, layered the letters and added silver glitter to the top layer.

Hope you're enjoying the weekend. Tomorrow is a bank holiday for us so we're looking forward to the extra long weekend and mid-term break from school.

Snowflake Christmas Ornament

Every year I seem to have a mad dash in the lead up to Christmas as I try to make a lot of Christmas cards to send to family and friends. So shortly after last Christmas when I was talking to my friend Linda we thought it would be a great idea to make two Christmas cards each month throughout the year to save the flurry of cardmaking before Christmas. Well Linda is all up to date (and maybe even a little ahead) in her cardmaking, but let's just say I'm not!

So I decided to pull out some supplies again this morning to make another Christmas card.



Dies (Simon Says Stamp) - Eliza Snowflake & Kate Snowflake
Stamp (Lawn Fawn) - Trim the Tree

Over at the Simon Says Stamp group on Flickr Barb has a fun challenge going on which is watercolouring. So I thought I'd make a watercolour background for a snowflake Christmas ornament. I used three watercolour paints (two blue & one white) to make the background. I think there are layers and layers of paint on the panel at this stage as I'd be just about happy with it when I'd add something and mess it up! Anyway when I had an okay background I decided to call a halt and just added a few more splashes of paint.

Next it was time to make the ornament. When Simon Says Stamp released a whole range of pretty snowflake dies last year I fell completely in love with them. For this card I die cut two different snowflakes and applied star dust stickles to them.



After the snowflakes had dried, I layered them together using foam pads and added some string to suspend the ornament from the panel. The sentiment was embossed in silver and to finish off the card I added a sprinkling of gems.

I'm so happy to have my quota of Christmas cards made for this month, now I just have to catch up on the rest of the cards I was supposed to make throughout the year!

Birthday Border Made From Snowflakes

I recently bought the very pretty Kate snowflake die from Simon Says Stamp (thanks again, Linda, for bringing over my order :) ) but didn't want to wait until I was making Christmas cards to use it.



Die (Simon Says Stamp) - Kate Snowflake
Stamp set (Hero Arts) - It's Your Day

I also wanted to try the inlaid die cut technique I've seen a lot recently. As I have accumulated so many small scraps over the years, I thought it would be a good opportunity to use up some of these too. I didn't cut out a full snowflake each time (or I'd have ended up with loads more scraps to add to my pile!), I just put small pieces of card on the centre of the die before running it through my Big Shot.



As you can see I just used three colours when I was die cutting and inlaid a mix of blue and green card on the centre line.



I had also intended doing the same on the two other lines but changed the plan as I went along as I think I'd be still here next week messing with the fiddly little pieces! To finish I added the Hero Arts sentiment and some star gems.

I'm submitting this card into Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Challenge.