Christmas Joy Pocket Card & Tutorial

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.

The star border is from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Stars & Flourishes Borders and Corners Set. 

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.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy