Keeping Christmas August 2019 Edition

Hello Everyone!  Welcome back to the August 2019 edition of the Keeping Christmas Blog Hop!  There are lots of stops and projects along the way so be sure to check out each of the stops along the hop!

I'm going to insert a quick note here before we get on to the projects.  While it may seem like I'm not doing much card making, I am!  I've been working on some projects for family and friends and doing a ton of sewing.  In the past few months, I've made 5 dresses plus a "skort" and top for my BFF plus I've made two dresses for myself and done several home decor projects that I will show pictures of soon.  One of those is for my daughter's birthday today, so I haven't wanted to post pictures until I actually give her the gift.  Plus, at the end of last month and the beginning of this month, we were on vacation; our first in 5 years so we have been super busy.  Things never really slow down in the studio, but I've been concentrating on making some cards for close friends and family members that have been requested.  I always try to make some up when we know we are going to be seeing someone in person, as was the case when we were in Kentucky last month.  Anyhow, on to the projects for the blog hop now.  

I have lots of pictures for you today as I tried to show just a couple of simple ways to dress up the Papertrey Ink Folded Pocket Tag Die which also holds a gift card.  I wanted to take something simple and elevate it a little to make a nice presentation for a gift card holder.  I grabbed a few of my favorites Holiday Dies (Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia and WPLUS9 Woodland Basics) with a couple of pieces of patterned paper and some ribbon.

I used my little sidekick to do my die-cutting so I could sit at my desk and work.  I grabbed some red, green and gold scraps from my scrap basket to die cut things from, knowing that I needed to keep it fast and easy as I have so many projects in progress on my desk at the moment.  

I started by die cutting the tag die using my 13-inch long Cuttlebug cutting pads.  I chose some of the 12 x 12 patterned papers that I have in my collection for scrapbooking and cut the pieces into strips that were 3.5 inches wide.  The die are 3.25 inches at the widest point, so I made sure it fit by giving just a smidgen of extra room when cutting. The tag die does not fit in the sidekick.  Once I had all of the tags cut, I folded all of the score lines and then used ⅛th inch wide ScorTape on the two flaps and then pressed it flat with my bone folder.  I used some Gina K Designs White with Gold Ribbon to run through the hole at the top, but I did not put a knot in, so that a gift card could be added down the line.  I popped one of my business cards into a few of these so you can see there is plenty of room.  We like to give our kids' families Movie Theater Gift Cards so they can see shows as a family or the kids can use it to go with their friends.  

And each year when I do Cards/Gifts for my sisters-in-law, I like to change it up a bit from what they got the previous year, so I think the addition of the gift card holders for this year will be a nice touch.  

Just select some papers that you like, some dies for the occasion you have in mind and it is fast and easy to pull some beautiful gift card holders together.  I even used the Woodland Basics dies to make a more masculine themed one to share with you all.  

I also found a neat little trick to use with the Sidekick for embossing.  As you probably know, Spellbinders Dies typically cut and emboss but when you cut them in the sidekick, there is no embossing pad for that.  So I made one to use for a one-time thing by folding a paper towel in half and then in half again, to use as my embossing pad.   It's not a long term solution, as it does cut through the paper towel some.  But it was enough to let me do all of the die-cutting for this group of tags.  I just rotated it and flipped it so the cuts wouldn't be in the same place each time and when I was finished with the die-cutting, tossed it.  I have so many glass surfaces in my studio, that I always have paper towels around.  I had just cleaned off my counter-top, so I let it dry and then used it for this.  It worked like a charm!

For these tags, I used one paper that had an all-over pattern and one that had a top and bottom border.  Either one works great, you simply have to think about where the front of the pocket will be and die-cut the paper accordingly.

I used some of my favorite paper scraps from PaperParers.com.  This particular one is called Red Satin and I hope you can see that it really does look like Satin.  With the Glossy Porcelain Pearls from Little Things From Lucy's, they look just beautiful!  These are the two smallest layers from the poinsettia dies.

You know I wouldn't pass up a chance to use gold foiled paper, so here are some of those as well.  I  included a more manly one with the acorn, pinecone, pine bough and leaves.  I could also have used snowflakes with this paper.  As I said, there will be many of these in my gift bags for my Sisters-in Law this year.

I only made three of the gold ones so far, but I have several sheets of white and gold with Christmas designs, so I plan to make more for all of my Sisters.  Another roll of Gina K's Ribbon can't get here fast enough.  

Don't forget to stop by and leave some love and kindness at each stop along the hop!  Here are the links for you!  

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden

Broni Holcombe

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Vicki Finger (You are Here)

Nancy Guse 

Thanks for visiting and I'll be sharing pictures of some of the projects I've been working on soon either here or at my Instagram Account.  I also have a pile of stamped die cuts ready and waiting for other cards, but I must get some other elements stamped to go with them.