Hello, Friends! I’m soooo far behind on my Christmas preparations! I am trying to get a few last minute cards done before it’s too late! I pulled out my Crafty Secrets Creating with Vintage Christmas CD the other day and found the cutest little vintage image that I worked up into this pretty layered Vintage Happy Christmas Card.
I created lots of layers by tearing and overlapping sections of paper beneath my cute focal image. All the papers are printed from the Creating with Vintage Christmas CD. I used the brown music paper, Red and Green Music Paper, and the December Calendar from our free 2016 calendar download. I found a beautiful vintage poinsettia card on the CD, and I used that as a layer in the background, too. I fussy cut the poinsettias and layered them beneath my focal image, then added some pretty Petaloo blossoms and stick pins, die cut ornaments and a sparkly sheer iridescent red organza bow.
I hadn’t done a really distressed card in a long time, so I went to town with my distressing tool
I crumpled, crinkled, distressed and inked my papers, then used loads of foam adhesive to create dimension and depth.
It seems like I find something new to love every time I open up this amazing CD!
So, are you finished with all your Christmas cards yet? I think some of our friends and family are destined to receive New Year’s cards this year! LOL Or, better yet…maybe I’ll just get a head start on Valentine’s day!
Crafty Secrets December 2015 Linky Challenge and Blog Hop
Hello, Friends! Welcome to the Crafty Secrets December Linky Challenge and Blog Hop. I’ve prepared a sweet Christmas Joy pocket card & tutorial to share with you here today. You should be arriving here from the Crafty Secrets BLOG. We have an “anything goes” theme for this month’s challenge, so it’s a great time to create with your Crafty Secrets goodies and then link up on the Crafty Secrets Blog. One lucky winner will be randomly selected to win a $25 digital shopping spree in the online store. And everyone who plays along gets to use this month’s free downloadable paper and image. So let’s get this show on the road!
I am such a huge fan of our Creating with Vintage Christmas CD. I sat down one afternoon and just trolled through all the scrumptious vintage papers, images, tickets, tags and templates and printed out a nice stack of goodies to play with. It seems I find something new there every time I look. This time, I found this darling Christmas Joy greeting and decided to work it up into a pocket card. For my tutorial, I’ll be sharing with you how I created the star border with chipboard and will show you how I made the pocket as well.
As you can see here, the inside of the card opens up to reveal a pocket that I’ve stuffed with an ornament and some vintage buttons. You could easily tuck in a gift card or other small goodie, making this a card and gift in one. This sort of card is wonderful to send to friends or family who live far away.
The card itself is pretty enough to decorate a mantel or to add to a holiday display. The little ornament would be cute hanging on a door knob or in an office cubicle. I stitched it onto some denim with a layer of cardstock between to add some stability.
I tapped my chipboard pieces thoroughly with Versamark ink.
Next, I covered them with Stampendous Frantage Shabby Blue Embossing powder. This powder has chunky granules, as you can see in the photo along with flecks of gold and blue and blue glitter flakes. When you tap off the excess and heat emboss, they all melt together and leave a shiny enamel type finish. It’s a quick and easy way to alter chipboard.
I backed my open stars with antique gold paper scraps, but you could easily leave them open. To do this, I just traced around the outside edge of the chipboard, then cut the star shapes out on the inside of that line so that they would fit perfectly. Just glue them to the back side of your chippie and you are all set.
How to Build a Pocket
This is such a quick and easy way to add a pocket to a card, and you can adapt it to be whatever size you want, as the basic steps are the same no matter the size of the pocket.
Start with a 4.25″ 5.5″ rectangle of cardstock that matches your project.
Score in 1/4″ from both sides.
Rotate your paper 90 degrees and score a line 2 1/4″ from the right hand side.
Fold both sides in and burnish with a bone folder. Fold the short side UP and burnish with a bone folder.
Trim away the excess side flaps.
Punch a thumb hole on the short side with a circle punch.
Add white glue to the side flaps on the short side.
Fold up and seal. Voila! You have a pocket. You can decorate the front with designer paper and slip a slightly smaller piece of designer paper inside the pocket to finish. Told ya it was easy!
I embellished my card with one of the tickets from the CD. This was treated with Glossy Accents. Adding gold jingle bells, gold metallic string, Petaloo Botanica Flowers, painted baby pine cones, red beads, pine twine and a pretty bow tied with Sheer Iridescent Red Ribbon really gives this card a festive feel.
From here you will hop on over and visit the one and only Ginny Nemchak who no doubt has something totally fabby to inspire you in your crafty journey.
Don’t forget to link up your Crafty Secrets project to the BLOG before midnight on December 20th! I can’t wait to see what you make.
Bringing Home the Christmas Tree with Really Reasonable Ribbon and Crafty Secrets
Hello, Ribbon Lovers, and Happy Thanksgiving to you! I hope you are all enjoying a warm and happy day with your friends and family!
For lots of folks, today marks the day that the Christmas tree takes its place of honor in the home. When our kids were small, we used to visit a local Christmas tree farm the day after Thanksgiving and spend a few chilly but happy hours picking out just the right tree. Then it was home for hot chocolate and leftover Thanksgiving Pie. YUM!
This sweet vintage image from Crafty Secrets reminded me of those happy days, and I worked it up into a rustic Christmas card to share with you here.
Sometimes a card calls for fancy ribbon…and sometimes it calls for the rustic elegance of burlap string. For this simple bow treatment, I combined red burlap string, green burlap string and natural burlap string with gold jingle bells. I used one strand of each color and then “looped the loop” 5 times on my Zutter-Bow-it-All to get a nice, full string bow.
How about you? Have you put up your tree yet? I’m so glad that we took the time to enjoy a simple activity like bringing home the Christmas tree when our kids were small. It fills my heart and mind with happy memories even now!
Wishing you a heart that overflows with gratitude for the simple gifts in life…
I’m not trying to rush the season or anything, but here we are…more than halfway through the month of November, and that can mean only one thing: Santa Claus is coming to town! That means it is time for this girl to go full on with holiday projects, Christmas cards and home decor! I found a cute little vintagey frame at a yard sale this summer, and have picked it up several times to use it, but it never felt quite “right” for the project. That is, until a plan for an interactive holiday frame popped into my mind the other day. Then it was time for that frame to take center stage and get worked up into this super cute retro styled Christmas frame…with a pocket, of course…because I do love me a good pocket!
I had this cherry red pocket in my stash of Christmas goodies, and thought how fun would it be to make a Christmas frame with a pocket that you could tuck little daily surprises into: a movie ticket, an individually wrapped candy, a small toy or piece of jewelry…any little treasure that you can think of! It would make each day of the month of December a mini celebration leading up to the big day!
I wanted lots of dimension, so I decided to add this little bottle brush tree, which started out solid green. Too green for me, so I painted it white and sprinkled it with glitter. Then I wanted it to look like the big tree at the mall…the one they build on top of a bank of poinsettias. So I pulled out some deep red gypsophila blossoms and some gold beads and berries to create that look. (The beads and berries are temporarily out of stock at RRR, but Bonnie will get them in as soon as she can.)
Chipboard snowflakes were either painted with white acrylic paint or embossed with Stampendous Shabby White Embossing Powder. The chipboard title was heat embossed with Vintage Mahogany Shabby Embossing powder and then dry brushed with white acrylic paint.
When it came time to make the bow, I wanted something that would pick up on the retro feel of the piece. So I decided to custom dye white seam binding in a fun Christmas stripe.
Just in case you’ve never done this, I thought I’d provide you with a quick step out tutorial.
Select a piece of white seam binding that’s about 3 feet long. Crumple it up a little.
Choose 2 colors of distress markers that work well with your composition. For this Christmassy frame, I chose Festive Berries and Pine Needles.
Using the broad nib on the marker, draw a line down either side of the ribbon, being sure to leave a wide white stripe in the middle.
Spritz it lightly with water and let the colors bleed a little bit. Then dry with a heat gun. When the ribbon is almost dry, start to crumple it up with your fingers, as though you were scrunching mousse into your hair.
Use your Zutter Bow it All Tool and “loop de loop” 5 times around posts that are set 3.5″ apart. Top the bow with jingle bells for a real festive feel.
I love working with white seam binding, because in a matter of seconds, you can make custom ribbon to match whatever project you are working on. And, Bonnie sells it in 100 yard rolls for just $15.99. That’s a whole lotta pretty for not a lotta money!
I hope you’ll give custom seam binding a try…it’s loads of fun!
And, if you’d like to purchase this little frame, you can find it in my ETSY shop.
Crafty Secrets Creating with Vintage Christmas CD and Vintage Christmas Digital Art Stamps
Hello, Friends! Good Monday morning to you! Do you remember making snow angels when you were a kid? I remember so well falling backwards into soft, powdery snow, waving my arms and legs to create wings and an angel “skirt” then carefully rising to leave a beautiful snow angel impression behind. We used to make whole rows of them…and we didn’t mind the snow down the back of our necks, or up the sleeves of our winter coats one bit. Because snow angels were magical, and they just made you smile. While digging through my Crafty Secret goodies this weekend, I found this darling image…and for some reason the adorable little girls made me think of snow angels. I soon found myself busy at work with vintage lace, ruffled satin ribbon, burlap, pearls and creamy white flowers….and before I knew it, this shabby chic snow angels wall hanging had been born!
Aren’t these little coats and bonnets just too cute for words? This paper comes from our Creating with Vintage Christmas CD. I printed the paper to measure 8″ x8″ , inked and distressed the edges, matted it on soft blue metallic cardstock and then stitched the entire thing (ruffles and all) onto a 9.25″ x 10.25″ rectangle of burlap.
The vintage snowflake flowers were created by using Tim Holtz snowflake rosettes die. These were inked, dry brushed with white acrylic paint and then spritzed with homemade gold glimmer mist. Each rosette was topped with a Petaloo cream velvet hydrangea blossom.
Adding gold tassels and more Petaloo Penny Lane posies to the piece make it feel soft and feminine. And I love the touch of sparkle! Perfect for the holidays!
This lovely sentiment is from our Vintage Christmas Digital Art Stamps. I printed it out on cream cardstock, inked the edges and the stitched it to cream burlap. I placed a vintage crocheted lace doily behind the sentiment to really make it stand out.
I painted a small clothes hanger with white paint to help it blend in with the shabby chic vibe of this piece. Adding a touch of vintage lace and a pretty bow tied with antique gold delicate stitched satin ribbon gave it a really finished look.Here’s another peeky at the finished product. Every time I look at these shabby chic snow angels, I can’t help but smile. I hope it brings a smile to your day, too!
If you’d like to purchase this wall hanging, it is available in my ETSY shop.
I created lots of layers by tearing and overlapping sections of paper beneath my cute focal image. All the papers are printed from the Creating with Vintage Christmas CD. I used the brown music paper, Red and Green Music Paper, and the December Calendar from our free 2016 calendar download. I found a beautiful vintage poinsettia card on the CD, and I used that as a layer in the background, too. I fussy cut the poinsettias and layered them beneath my focal image, then added some pretty Petaloo blossoms and stick pins, die cut ornaments and a sparkly sheer iridescent red organza bow.
I hadn’t done a really distressed card in a long time, so I went to town with my distressing tool
I crumpled, crinkled, distressed and inked my papers, then used loads of foam adhesive to create dimension and depth.
The inside of the card uses a sentiment stamp from the Vintage Santa Digital Art Stamp Set. I added a cute image from the Vintage Christmas Booklet and more Vintage Christmas paper from the CD to finish off the card.
It seems like I find something new to love every time I open up this amazing CD!
