Keeping Christmas - October 2019 Edition

Hello Friends!  Today's post is part of the monthly Keeping Christmas Blog Hop and I have several cute and quick gift card holders for you.   Not to scare you or anything, but Christmas is just 2 months from today!  

A few weeks ago, I happened to check and see if any of the Ink to Paper September release products that I wanted had come back in stock.  The one item I most wanted was back in stock; Tag Creations: Modern Gift.  I absolutely love how well thought out this die set and it makes these beautiful Gift Card Holders!  The stitching details in the poinsettias are so perfect!  

A week or so after this die set arrived, my husband had traveled home to the family farm for a family reunion.  My father-in-law is the last of his siblings to still be living at the age of 89, but a few of his nieces and nephews live in the area and still come each year.  I have to pick and choose my trips as travel is difficult for me, and I want to be able to go at Christmas, so I stayed home with the doggies this time.  

Our dogs are pretty spoiled and they won't eat unless I am sitting right with them.  I grabbed my scrap bin of papers, my little sidekick machine, the Modern Gift Dies and sat and die-cut for several hours to make piles of the pieces for these gift cards.  Sadly, this barely made a dent in my scrap pile.  I know some of you can probably relate!  

On the other side of that is the fact that I made more than 30 gift card holders and have already given several of them away.  I also have a significant number of the poinsettias left to work with for many more of these.  I have a whole bunch of photos for you.

I also have some tips for you on maximizing your paper usage.  If you cut your paper in half lengthwise (4.25 x 11) you can get a gift card holder and a ribbon from that one piece.  Especially when you are mixing and matching papers, this works great.

I don't buy much paper from retail stores unless I really like it and when I do it is often a paper pad from Hobby Lobby for a specific purpose.  In my case, this is usually something masculine or foiled.  Quite by accident last weekend, I discovered that the 4.5 x 6.5-inch paper pads from Hobby Lobby are just enough longer to cut the gift card holder from with almost no waste.  Because of the tab that you tuck in, you need that little bit of extra length that this paper size affords.

You don't get that ribbon piece from the taller piece of cardstock, but given my penchant for gold or shimmer cardstock, this worked out well for me.

Initially, I also felt that the ribbon would be a lot of wasted paper, but as you can see in this image, you can cut multiple items from the set from the scraps.  In the end, I didn't feel there was any waste at all.  Even though I was using scraps for the decorative elements, I still don't like waste good quality and/or specialty cardstock.  It was actually very cleverly thought out!

These next few projects are a few of my favorites and I added them to my personal stash!

Red Glitter Paper, Red Satin Flower with white Glitter Ribbon and Silver Accents

Misty Rose Metallic with Garnet Plum flower and gold foil ribbon and accents

Iridescent Ice Gold, Shimmer Gold, and Gold glittered paper scraps

Aqua Mist, Gold Shimmer, Moss Green, and Alcohol Inked background scraps

Iridescent Ice with Tonic Gold Satin Silk Effect, and Lovely Lady Cardstock for the bloom

Misty Rose Metallic with Gold Satin Silk Effect elements

And last but not least, my personal favorite!  You know how I love pink and gold!  This was an awesome way to use up some of the scraps in my bin.  I am very hopeful that Ink to Paper will add other seasonal elements that can be used with this tag for other holidays.

As you can see, I have many of these to use and will most likely include some in the Sister-In-Law Christmas Goodie Bags this year!  I'm definitely planning to look through my stash to see what other stamps and dies I have that can be used for other occasions.  Even if it's just a $5.00 Starbucks Coffee Gift Card, what a nice way to brighten someone's day!  Think of all the special days throughout the year that you could use this type of item. 

There are always so many projects to see that I know you'll enjoy.  I hope you'll stop and leave a little love with these ladies who bring content to you each month of the year except December when we actually observe Christmas.

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

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I appreciate it when you take time to visit, comment or shop through my affiliate links. Here is my affiliate link to the Ink To Paper Store.  

Keeping Christmas - September 2019 Edition

Hello there!  Welcome to this month's edition of Keeping Christmas!  There are several stops along the hop today and you should have started at Kelly Lunceford's Blog.  I'll have the full list of blog links for you below.

In case you haven't been here before, the Keeping Christmas Hop was developed to give you ideas, tips, and tricks to make a few cards each month so that when December1st comes around, you are ready to mail your holiday cards to family and friends.

Way back in April, I created a single card for the Keeping Christmas Hop as time was short for me because of the number of grandkids, nieces, and nephews who were graduating in May or had a significant birthday that month.  I also created an unusual sized card that month and I really loved the look.

Around that same time, I saw a die used on a card that was similar in size and shape.  After a little investigating, I purchased a set of dies for creating this size and shape of card that I just loved, so I splurged and got them from somewhere in Europe.  It took a couple of weeks for the dies to arrive and they had been sitting on my desk since around the middle of July.  I finally got them out and used them.  The card builder panel dies are from Paper Discovery, but as far as I know, they are not available in the US.  They are available at a store called Craft Stash if you want to check them out.  Keep in mind, that this does not make a standard A2 or A7 Card so I also purchased special #8 sized envelopes for mailing.   

The main thing I liked about this set was the insert panel and the card that was not a typical size.  I like this particular insert so much that I have not tried any of the other ones yet. There are inserts for diagonal stripes, tall stripes, short stripes, and even plaid.  There are also dies to cut the paper in the exact size to make the card, but since I use high-quality cardstock, I find it easier to cut my own in a 7 x 8 size, scoring it at 3.5 inches. This makes a card that is 3.5 by 8 inches and is different from most of the A2 sized cards that I usually make.  I use the extra piece of cardstock for the other elements on the card as you will see shortly.  This is really the only information that you need to know in order to recreate this card.  I searched for them on Amazon, but they are not available.  I can find plenty of items right here in the US but this set of dies was different than anything I had seen.

This particular color combination is one of my favorites and pairs Pinefeather Cardstock with Tropical Teal Cardstock from Papertrey Ink.  The shadow layer for the word die is cut from Stampers Select Vellum, also from Papertrey.  I haven't decided if I'm going to add "In The Magic of Christmas" to the word die or not so I tried to leave room to add that on most of these cards.

If you have a large supply of cardstock scraps like I do, this was a great way to get some use out of them.  As you'll soon see from my images, I made several variations of this same card.    I still have plenty of cardstock scraps left to make many more.  I usually make about 3 or 4 at the same time and add them to my growing stack of holiday cards and tags.

You could make these cards in any number of color combinations, adding touches of metallics, shimmer cardstock, or other specialty papers.  Since I plan to make all of my personal cards in this size this year, I went ahead and ordered a package of #8 envelopes to mail them in as well.  That is not a standard size, so be prepared to have some difficulty finding them if you choose to do that.  I didn't think that part through beforehand, so I want you to know going in, that they may be hard to find.

My daughter loves blue with silver and white at Christmas so of course, I used that combination a couple of times.  

This card uses shimmer cardstock from PaperPapers.com in Electic Blue, and Iceberg with Silver Cardstock for the insert.  

This card uses Pinefeather with Scarlet Jewel Cardstock, from Papertrey Ink/Ink to Paper.

This card uses Lovely Lady, Pinefeather, and Ocean Tides with gold metallic cardstock.  

Here I used Pure Poppy with Pinefeather and some New Leaf Ink Blending on Linen Cardstock.  I love the texture these leaves and poinsettias have on them.  

This card uses Vintage Jadeite with Pure Poppy.  

This card uses Vintage Jadeite with Hawaiian Shores, Autumn Rose and Ocean Tides for the leaves. 

Another personal favorite combination is Hawaiian Shores with Lovely Lady, Autumn Rose, and the same New Leaf Ink Blended Linen Texture cardstock from Papertrey Ink.  

Here we have Ocean Tides with Scarlet Jewel Cardstock.  

This card uses Pinefeather Cardstock with Red Satin Shimmer Cardstock from PaperPapers.com.  

As always, you can also use white card bases by making your own.  I usually prefer a white card base, but on this particular style of card, I prefer them on the colored cardstock.  If any of the cardstock is a dark color, I just pop a white insert inside for my note.  So far, I have 12 of these cards made, but it's time to move on to other designs and spread the love among my supplies. 

Don't forget to check out all the stop along the hop and leave each of the ladies some love.  

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Vicki Finger (You are Here)

Nancy Guse

Thanks for stopping by today!  Only two more months of Keeping Christmas ideas for this year and then it will be time to mail out your cards.  Christmas is just 90 days away.  Wow, that year flew by, didn't it?  

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.  

March 2019 Keeping Christmas Blog Hop

Hello everyone!  It's the 25th of the month so that means it's time for the next edition of the Keeping Christmas Blog Hop!  Thanks for popping in today to see my projects.  I am super happy with the way these turned out even though when I first started this technique, I wasn't too sure it was going to turn into anything.  This particular group of cards was started by just playing with Alcohol Inks on an 11" x 14" sheet of Heavyweight Yupo.  I don't normally like the heavyweight because you can't die cut words out of it, but I have a sheet or two left still that I'm planning to make backgrounds out of as well.

This is going to be a long and very photo heavy post, but I got a lot of questions about the background when I posted this one on Instagram, so I want to be able to give you some of that information in this post.

To create this background was simply sitting with my Alcohol Inks and also my new Alcohol Pearls along with some of the Pinata Alcohol Ink in Brass and playing using a combination of Alcohol Blending Solution and Rubbing Alcohol.  I used 99% Alcohol for this project but it can be hard to find.  It also evaporates quickly giving you less time. The 91% is easier to find and doesn't evaporate quite as fast.  The 70% Rubbing Alcohol that I always have around for cleaning doesn't work too well as it evaporates much more slowly.  All told, I spent about two hours getting the large piece to look the way I wanted which was agate or marble with gold veins running through it. I love the end result but the larger sheets of Yupo can be a challenge.  I knew I wanted to use vivid pinks, purples, and reds for this piece so I pretty much restricted myself to those colors.

You can also do this technique and then run it through your laminator or Minc machine with Deco Foil, but the Brass Pinata ink is a far superior choice to the Mixitives that are part of the regular alcohol ink line of products.   I wanted that bright shiny gold to give it the more defined look of actual veins, so I chose that product rather than a mixative.  The Alcohol Ink Mixative's give more of a pearly color than the bright pop of gold and you can't really get the super defined look of veins without laminating it or rubbing deco foil on it while the ridges are still slightly tacky.

I used an Air Puffer from one of my previous cameras to move the ink around because I don't like to get too close to the fumes of the alcohol.  Plus, it puts out a bigger puff of air and I can lay it on my table to move the ink around.  Rather than bringing it up to my mouth level and not really being able to see where it's moving.  Mostly it's a whole lot of playing until you get a result you like.

I posted this image on Instagram and it was done on a sheet of glossy cardstock rather than Yupo.  Let's face it, Yupo Paper is expensive.  Therefore, I've had to try other materials for this method.

Here are some things to know about working with Alcohol Inks:

• They are messy and they stain!  So I have trash bags over the back of my chair and the seat of my chair and I wear an apron or an older t-shirt.  My work Surface is glass, but I use a craft mat on top of that.  If you are working on a smaller panel, it's easier to contain some of the mess. 
• When working with Alcohol Inks on Yupo, you can clean up a mistake by cleaning it with a bit of alcohol ink on a paper towel or rag.
• When working with Glossy Cardstock, there is no going back.  You can add ink over the top, but you cannot wipe away a mistake. You can dab at it to remove some of the texture, and then put color over the top again, but you cannot wipe away the color like you can with Yupo.  In the beginning, I only used Yupo until I got a feel for how the inks moved and worked.  I recommend using Yupo in the beginning but cutting the sheets into card sized panels. I like to get the 9 x 12 and cut it into four panels which gives me four pieces of 4.5 x 6 inches so I have a little extra because I like to die cut all of my background panels for the crisp edge.  That size is also less intimidating.
• Alcohol Inks, Blending Solution, and the Rubbing Alcohol will pretty much destroy the finish on the handles and discolor your ink blending tools when using the felt pads, so I have a couple that I use exclusively for this purpose. I'm usually trying to get more texture, so I don't often use the felt pads.  
• Start with just a few colors and play around to see how many different looks you can get.  Once you get a feel for them and if you are happy with your results, then you can add more colors to your collection.
• Last, but not least, playing with Alcohol Inks can be very addictive!  Don't say I didn't warn you!  *Ü*

The biggest thing to do is just sit and play with different techniques.  There are a ton of YouTube videos out there to watch if you want more information.  I've tried the straw method to blow the color around but it doesn't work that well in my particular case because I've had lung surgery so my left lung has diminished capacity.  The puffer works great for me.  It also keeps you from accidentally hyperventilating.  *Ü*  You can find one on Amazon.com. 

Now let's get on to the cards!  This was the first card I made and when I was die cutting the background panel, I didn't tape it down so it wasn't quite straight mean I had to recut it using a slightly small die in order to salvage it.  Then the Gold die cut panel is one size up from that as I like a narrow border most of the time.  That is the main difference in this card from the other five that are like it.  I die cut the Art Deco Tree from the inside of the gold background to save on my gold cardstock.  This first card was also assembled using Ranger Multi Medium Matte for the frame and tree.  Because it is a fine-lined die cut, for the rest of them I used my oldie but good, Xyron in the 2.5-inch width.  It was so much less of a headache than glue!  I pretty much always have the smaller little Xyron sitting on my desk but I don't use it often.  It this case, it was perfect to use for the interior tree in the frame. That frame is a single die from Poppy Stamps called Deco Tree Frame Craft Die and it cuts the frame and tree in one pass.  I love all things Art Deco because of the super clean lines and graphics. 

The Greeting is from a Papertrey Ink stamp set called A Thrill of Hope.  It's one of my favorites for Christmas Cards.  I die cut a Double Stitched Rectangle from My Favorite Things and then stamped with Versamark and Heat Embossed with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder being careful to use my Powder Tool (cornstarch these days due to the dangers of talc) on each one of these.  I used a negative as my placeholder in my mini MISTI.  This card has a white border around the edge while the others all have a gold border around the edge.  

These next few cards are all made using cut down panels from that original piece of Yupo, each unique in that each section is from a different part of the larger piece that I cut down for my card panels. 

If you'll look carefully, each of the backgrounds is slightly different since the background was not symmetrical in any way.  Once I started working on these, I had everything I need to make six cards, so I did all the die-cutting from the interior of the background panels for the trees, die cut both layers of the background panels and the stitched rectangles for them sentiment and then just assembled everything.

When I was finished, I had a scrap of the marbled piece big enough to put behind the framed tree die, so I grabbed a sheet of the Scarlet Shimmer Cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and die cut a scallop A2 Notecard from it.  The piece was about 4.25 x 2.75 inches tall so it was big enough to put behind the tree.  I still have a little square left so it's on my table for a possible future something on some other card.

And that, friends, is how I ended up with a 7th and slightly different looking card.  This last card is actually my husband's favorite.  That scrap of Yupo had the largest concentration of the deep red which is why I chose the Scarlet Shimmer Cardstock.

Here they all are together and they are simply gorgeous!  I topped each tree with a sparkling gem for the star on top of the tree.

There are several more stops on this hop today so be sure to stop by each of the blogs and leave some love in the comments section.

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

We all work hard to bring beautiful projects to you each month in a wide variety of styles, so I hope you'll be sure to check out everyone's Blog Posts today.  

I know I haven't been blogging as much but my schedule has been absolutely crazy for the last 10 months.  I'm trying very hard to get back into my normal groove and I have a few deadlines for Blog Hops that I am participating in over the next 5 or 6 weeks.  I thank you very much for all of your visits, and notes of encouragement.  See you soon!

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