I've also been helping my best friend in making several cotton dresses for her July trip to Puerto Rico but I finally claimed this week for myself to get some cards done and some blogging done as well. I have four Blog Hops coming up so I definitely have projects to work on.
For this month's Keeping Christmas Blog Hop projects, I have some tags and some cards. One of my all time favorite dies was released last year by Papertrey Ink, now known as Ink To Paper. Bold Borders: Yuletide is a Christmas Greens type of frame and I just love it in a variety of ways so I opted to show you some simple and some more time-consuming ideas.
If you want something super fast and easy, grab a couple of your favorite cardstock colors, and die cut the frame from gold or silver foil paper and it's easy to whip several cards together in very short order. I've found that the easiest way to do this is to run my cardstock through the Xyron first and then die cut it. When I remove the release paper, I do it so the die cut is laying face down. Then I cut about 1/8th inch off each side of my background panel and lay it carefully over the adhesive. Then I attach that to a card base and embellish as much or as little as I want.
In both of these examples, I used Little Things from Lucy's Cards Glossy Porcelain Mix to add as white berries to the golden foliage. It is a little bit time- consuming to glue all of the berries down, but worth the effort for the final result.
While it is very difficult to capture in photos, both of these cards use a satin finish metallic cardstock from PaperPapers.com for the background. Red Satin and Blue Satin. The names are simple and easy to remember. Lots of the other cardstocks have more complex names but not the Satin Finish ones.
My next card uses an unusual (for me anyway) color pairing. I die cut the frame from Moss Shimmer Cardstock and paired it up with Aquamarine Metallic Cardstock. For this card, I layered a white glitter "Joy" die-cut over a gold one, to make it appear as a golden shadow for the front die-cut word.
I put Tonic Aqua Shimmer Pen all over the center area to make it really sparkle as well as the Glossy Porcelain Pearls. You can really see the sparkle on this card!
As always, when I begin to run low on background panels, I sit down with either watercolors or alcohol inks and make some backgrounds until I have to quit and move on to other more pressing things such as dinner. For my last two cards, I used Alcohol Inked Backgrounds in two different ways.
For the first card, I die cut the frame from the background panel. The panel had lots of emeralds, blues, and teals with gold, so I thought it would be pretty for the frame. More of Lucy's Pearls, this time in Glossy Eggshell, were added for the berries. I used some Teal Foil Cardstock for the die cut word. I should probably mention that the word die is from a different Bold Borders die, Bold Borders: Flurries. But I think it is universal and can be used for pretty much anyone around the holidays. You might notice that the teal foil picks up all of the various colors in the frame and has that same kind of marble look to it.
For my last card, I did the reverse of the previous card. This time I die cut the frame from gold foil cardstock and left the alcohol inked background panel intact. I went all out here and added red sequins first and a little gem inside each one for the finishing touch.
I did this side view so you could get an idea of all the shimmer and shine there is on this card. This particular background panel was done with orange, pink, red, and gold alcohol inks.
These are really very quick and easy to put together if you have a lot of cards to make. Substitute a foiled designer paper for the background for instant elegance!
For the tags, I wanted to make some festive ones to put on a bottle of sparkling cider or wine so I just stamped and heat embossed several panels of the PTI What The Doodle: Snowflakes, and the center sentiment, then die-cut all the of the other elements. I mixed and matched as I went along with just a few variations. All of the wine bottle tags were die cut from Papertrey Ink Tag Stock which is extra thick and sturdy at #160. Then I also added a layer of either patterned, shimmer or glitter cardstock on top of that. This gives additional sturdiness. The first tag has Pure Poppy Bitty Big Stripe on it. The two middle tags have white glitter paper, while the last one has white shimmer cardstock.
The Tag Sale: #12 was cut from Red Satin Cardstock for all of the ornament looking tags. Then I die cut a Gina K Designs stitched circle from Gold Foiled cardstock for the outer circle. Next, I heat embossed the center circle on 3 of the tags, with Versamark and Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder using one of the images from an older PTI set called "Holiday Photo Finishers". As you can see, I combined that with the snowflakes to add to 3 of the wine bottle tags. On the last tag, I wanted something that felt festive, but more generic for the holiday season for those folks who think more scientifically than spiritually. I put one of the large snowflakes in the center of that with the small circle of glitter paper behind it, then the gold foil circle. I used foam tape for most of the layers combined with a bit of Ranger Multi Medium Matte for some of the die cut elements.
My favorite of the group is the one with Pure Poppy Bitty Big Paper on it as there is something so fun about that vertical stripe.
Be sure to stop at all of the blogs along the hop to see everyone's projects!
Broni Holcombe (Off This Month)
Claire Broadwater (Off This Month)
Vicki Finger (You Are Here)
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. Be sure to check back next month on the 25th for the next edition of "Keeping Christmas". I have several upcoming projects for other blog hops as well, so check back often.
 Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS |
 Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS |
 Little Things from Lucy's - Glossy Eggshell Mix Shop at: SSS |
 Little Things from Lucy's - Glossy Porcelain Mix Shop at: SSS |
 Marvy Jewel Picker Shop at: SSS |
 MSP Original MISTI Stamping Tool Shop at: SSS |
 PaperPapers.com - Cougar Super Smooth Digital White - #110, 200 pack Shop at: PP.com |
 PaperPapers.com - Curious Metallic Aquamarine Shop at: PP.com |
 PaperPapers.com Shine Blue Satin Shop at: PP.com |
 PaperPapers.com Shine Moss Green Shop at: PP.com |
 PaperPapers.com Shine Red Satin Shop at: PP.com |
 PTI Bitty Big: Pure Poppy Shop at: PTI |
 PTI Bold Borders: Flurries Shop at: PTI |
 PTI Bold Borders: Yuletide Shop at: PTI |
 PTI Tag Sale #12 Shop at: PTI |
 PTI White Tag Stock #160 Shop at: PTI |
 PTI Wine Bottle Tag II Shop at: PTI |
 Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS |
 Ranger Non-Stick Craft Sheet Shop at: SSS |
 Scor-Pal Scoring Board Shop at: SSS |
 Scotch 3M Foam Tape Shop at: SSS |
 Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS |
 Tim Holtz Ranger Alcohol Pearls - Set of 12 Shop at: SSS |
 Tim Holtz/Ranger Alcohol Ink Blending Solution Shop at: SSS |
 Tonic 6 Inch Personal Trimmer Shop at: SSS |
 Tonic Aqua Shimmer Pen Shop at: SSS |
 Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS |
