I only just heard about the "12 Tags of Christmas" challenge over at Tim Holtz's blog, but I decided I needed to try something WAY out of my comfort zone for once. I love Tim's creations, but they are not my style so I rarely spend much time using his products. I do like his distress inks, however, for general purpose stamping. This tag was way more than stamping, though, as you'll see.
The back is where the gift card will go. It was pretty ugly from the distressing and UTEE soaking through, so I covered it with some patterned paper from my scrap tray and made a little pocket to hold a gift card. I'll put this in my stash for next year's gift-giving. ;)
I used the ivory GCHF, some red cardstock scraps, and the kraft is actually postal wrapping scrap paper that was left over from wrapping gifts - why throw it away when it lends some nice character to my project, right? =D I used some background stamps to liven up the plain background, and used the mistletoe image from the {ippity} set to create a little background strip in the center.
Welcome back to another H{ippity} Hop! Did you know today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year? Here in the interior of Alaska, this is a big day because today we only have about 3 1/2 hours of daylight. Within a couple of weeks, however, we'll be gaining an hour of daylight every week - what a dramatic change! We even have a carnival today to celebrate the lengthening of days!
I CASEd this card from Nichole Heady's blog. I created a background with the snowflake stamp from the Kissmas & Mistletoe set, then stamped the snowman in white. I ran my Aleene's 2in1 Glue around the edge and added glitter (click the photo to enlarge if you can't see the sparkle). The snowdrifts were cut from vellum, and I used StazOn jet black to stamp the sentiment. I used Glue Dots vellum adhesive to attach the vellum - can't see it can you? LOVE that stuff!
Today I'm sharing a couple of gift card holder folders. The basic layout is a CASE from Maria Gurnsey - one I've CASEd before in this card. The smaller format, however, doesn't leave room for a whole lot of elements or I'd lose the clean and simple layout, and I still have five more to make. These GCHFs are only 3" x 4.25" once they're all folded up (and if you'd like to get your mitts on some, follow the link above for a great price on them). I embossed the snow flakes with white ep, then mounted on a dark green mat before adhering to the front. The sentiment was stamped and matted on black. I tried inking the edges on one of them, and did some pen work stitches on the other. Both have a little gingham ribbon to keep it closed.
Closer to home, my school does a Secret Santa draw every year, so today's project is a set of thank you cards I made for my Secret Santa. I'm pretty short on time lately, so I wanted to keep it simple. Kelly Landers' post on the {ippity} blog was just what I needed! I just stamped with one color of ink, though, for simplicity's sake. I did the first three cards up with some ribbon, but also tried a few without it. This set was a breeze!
Today I have a Christmas card to share using the Kissmas & Mistletoe set. I used the December SheetLoad sketch and some Basic Grey papers, decorated the inside of the card and gave the envie a little love, too. This would be a great way to use up some of your scraps (I know I have a TON to use up) since the largest piece of patterned paper is cut to 3.5" x 1.25". Just three that coordinate and some matching cardstock...voila!
I only found out about SheetLoad less than a year ago and have really loved the inspiration I get from each issue. Unfortunately, this month is the final month of this wonderful e-zine. My hope is that one day it will make a comeback (please?).
I started with a thank you card, since I need more of those and plan to make this a gift set, too. It's a simple little card that I cased from Jackie Pedro. I left more white space on mine and kept the stamping to a single focal panel. I also opted for stamping in VersaMark and using some pearlescent chalks instead of simply ink. For mass production, I'd probably just use ink that matched my dsp and cardstock.
The second card is for a co-worker whose family lost a loved one this week. I decided to keep the same layout, drop the extra patterned paper and simply highlight with my chalks one of the birds from the dry embossing. The sentiment on this card was chalked, too.
I almost forgot all about FWF today! We had such a nice, relaxing day yesterday that I totally neglected my stamp room. Then today, we got up early and did a thorough house cleaning in preparation for Christmas decorating. It wasn't until about an hour ago that I remembered I was supposed to post. So sorry!
I decided this week to ink up two images from the October Stampin' Store Kit, {wonderful...you}. I saw a nifty tutorial on SCS called the "blurred vision" technique and thought I'd give it a go on the leafy branch image. It didn't blur as much as I thought it would (maybe 'cuz I let the ink dry?), but it did change the color slightly. The sentiment is the same ink as the leafy branch, but do you see how the leaves are slighty lighter?
