Best Wishes to You

Who doesn't love a cozy pair of Mittens?

I was cleaning my desk, thinking about what would be my next project, when I decided I would use the Snowhaven paper pack

to make at least one more card before putting it away for a while.  Don't worry, I'll still be making Christmas cards and projects for a little while yet.  Unfortunately, I may not get to make quite as many as I was planning, though.  I've decided to return to the work force, to help pay for the care of my MANY, MANY rescue animals.  I had hoped I would be able contribute with my crafting and my Close To My Heart business, but sadly, I'm just not bringing in enough to be of any help.  I'm a little worried my blogging will suffer, as there is only so many hours in a day.  I'm going to do my best to post at lease twice a week, but please, bare with me if I can only manage once.  Between the farm, the house, CTMH, blogging and now a new job, I'm feeling, well, a little overwhelmed!

OK, now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's get into today's card.  I started with a 5 x 5 card base of black cardstock.  The next layer was cut at 4.75 x 4.75 from one of the light blue patterned papers from Snowhaven. 

The next layer was cut at 3.75 x 4.5 from the black background with light blue polka dots, again, from Snowhaven.  I ran this piece of paper through my sewing machine to add a little interest to the edge.

Here's a closer look:

My next layer came from an old book that I had taken apart for previous project.  I cut this layer at 4.25 x 3.75

The next photo shows the lower border piece that I was planning on using, but later decided the striped ribbon added more pattern than was needed.  This card has plenty going on already, lol!!!  Anyway, I forgot to take a picture of the border piece without the ribbon.  Oops!

Even though I decided not to use the ribbon, I did decide to use Red Shimmer trim instead.  I stamped the sentiment from the Art Philosophy Seasons collection that comes with the Art Philosophy cartridge bundle.  I also used this cartridge to cut the scalloped circle that is the focal point of the card.

The mittens are from the Snowhaven Compliments chip board pieces.  I popped them up with a little 3-D foam tape.  I added some Clear Sparkles to the snowflakes on the mittens.  I used a small amount of Baker's Twine to connect the mittens.

That's it!  

As always, if you have any questions, just leave them in the comments section, and I will do my best to answer them as quickly as I can.

Also, don't forget to check out my "Meanwhile, back at the Ranch" page.  I've been adding more life stories of the many rescues here at the ranch.   That is also the page where I will be posting some of my more "Homestead" oriented topics.  I've had a few requests for more stories about our life at the ranch, so that seemed like the logical place to put them, lol!

Winter Wishes

Snow Scene Shaker Card

I have a little spiral bound notebook that I like to scribble sketches in for possible cards or tags, or whatever.  I was flipping through it last night and came across the one that inspired this card.  I've been wanting to make a shaker card for a while, so this was the perfect opportunity.

I could have quite easily designed the shaker portion of this card on Design Space and cut the scalloped frame with my Cricut Explore, but to be honest, I have just about every type of crafting supply in my "arsenal" that I feel bad if I don't use them once in a while.  That being said, I pulled out my Spellbinders Dies and cut the frame.

I used Post It tape to hold the dies in position and ran it through my Evolution machine.  I used the tiny polka dot print paper from the Snowhaven Paper pack.

Once the frame was cut, I pulled out some Black cardstock and cut 6 more "frames" so I could create a sturdy space between the frame and the card base for the glitter to have room to "shake", lol.

The next step is to glue them frames all together.  For this, I used Bonding Memories glue pen, so I'd have a few seconds of "wiggle" time, just to be sure I could get everything lined up.

This is what it looks like when they are all glued together.  

Before I glued the printed frame to the stack, I glued a piece of acetate that I had cut to fit behind the frame.  I bought a box of transparencies at the thrift store, but you can easily find it for sale at your local office supply.  

I glued the transparency to the back of the printed frame, then I added the stack of black cardstock.  I set this aside for a bit and worked on coloring the snow scene image to go inside the frame.   I used the Frosty Fun stamp set for this image and colored it with my Shin Han markers in:

warm gray 4

mahogany

cherry pink

barely beige

bronze

leaf green

carmine

clay

turquiose blue

sap green

colorless blender

The reason I use so many colors is because I actually use my colorless blender to pick up color from the other pens and apply it to the image to build up a light layers of color to keep it very subtle.  

I sprinkled some home made glass glitter into the window area.  You can see the tutorial for making this glitter here.

I used Tombow MonoMulti glue to hold the frame to the colored image.  I just wanted to be sure there was plenty of "hold".  I could have used liquid glass, but to be honest, my desk was a mess and I couldn't find it, LOL!!!  I have trimmed the colored image down to fit behind the frame, and pressed it into place.   I set it aside to dry and went onto work on the card base.

I cut the card base from black cardstock to end up as a 5 x 5 inch card.  I then cut another piece from the Snowhaven paper pack  that is a beautiful tonal look of snowflakes on a black background.  I really like that print!  It's very subtle.  I also cut a strip of Gray glitter paper and cut it into a banner tail.  I attached the framed piece over the banner.  I decided I wanted my sentiment to be embossed in white, so it would "pop".  I used "Winter Wishes from the You and Yours stamp set

I'm showing the picture of the set because I want you to see that the original sentiment is on a single line.  I needed it to be stacked, so I cut the sentiment apart.  I could have inked up the word separately, but to be completely honest, I didn't want to take any chances that some of the ink would get where I didn't want it, so cutting it was the best option for me.  I can easily nest them back together the next time I want to stamp it in a straight line.

I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark ink,  and used the White Super Fine embossing powder and melted it with the Craft Heater.  The final touch was to add a few sequins from my stash.  CTMH carries silver sequins as well as gold, but I wanted to add a touch of aqua to my card, and since I had my box of sequins out, I just used what I had on hand.  

Here's one more close up of the shaker portion of the card.  

As always, if you have any questions, please just leave it in the comments section.

Wishing you the Merriest Christmas

Layered Christmas Tag

Christmas will be here before we know it and I've been working on my Christmas cards (which I've been sharing with you).  I still have many more to make, but I also wanted to get a jump on my gift tags.  I started out by cutting some simple tag shapes from my Art Philosophy cartridge.  The smallest tag was cut from the music printed paper from the Yuletide Carole Paper Pack.  The second tag was cut from the New England Ivy solid that came in the paper pack.  The largest tag was cut from Bamboo cardstock.

I stamped the Pine Tree from the Always Grateful stamp set, that I inked up in Ponderosa Pine.  Of course, I could have used New England Ivy ink, but to be completely honest, I like the blue undertone of the Ponderosa Pine for the tree.

The next step was to stamp the Merry Christmas sentiment from the Merriest Christmas stamp set, also in the Ponderosa Pine ink.

Through trial and error, I realized I needed to mask the phrase prior to stamping the swirl background.  My first attempt, I stamped and heat embossed the swirl as the first step.  I quickly realized this wasn't going to work with my final design because the embossed portion works as a resist when you stamp over it with the tree and the phrase.  I used masking paper I've had in my stash forever.  You could just as easily use post it notes.  If you aren't sure how to do masking, feel free to leave a comment and I will do a pictorial showing how to mask in stamping.

Once the sentiment and tree were stamped and had a moment to dry, I grabbed the large swirl from the Love Life stamp set and inked it up with my VersaMark ink pad and stamped all over the music print as well as the largest tag.  I covered the swirls with White Super Fine Embossing Powder, and melted it with my Craft Heater.

Now, this picture is from the first tag I was "experimenting" on.  I didn't take a ton of pictures, primarily because my desk is fairly small, and I'm doing several of this design in preparation for up coming "tag swaps" with friends.

The next thing I did was to sponge the edges of the tag with Bamboo Ink.  Without this step, the tag looked a little "flat", and it was screaming for some added dimension.  

Once that was done, I decided to add some liquid applique to the tree to look like snow.  CTMH is not currently carrying liquid applique, so I don't have a link for this product.  Once the liquid applique dried, I heated it with the Craft Heater and watched it "poof" up.  I love watching that happen!!!  And of course, I love to bling things up to the fullest, lol, so I added glitter glue to the snow.

While that was drying, I heat embossed the largest tag to match the tree tag.  On the backside of the largest tag, I decided to stamp the same swirl in Bamboo ink to create a tonal look.  This is where you will put your message to the recipient of the gift.  I would suggest you stamp the back side first so you don't have any interference from the raised heat embossed swirls on the front side.

Now that the glitter glue has dried on the top tag,  I went back and added some vintage sequins to the front.  CTMH sells some self adhesive sequins in gold and silver, but I felt the tag needed a pop of red.  When I pulled out my little box of vintage sequins, I also saw some pretty white sequins and decided to use both of them together.

I attached the sequins with Liquid Glass.   I also wanted to reinforce the hole in the top of the tag.  I used some hole reinforcements you can get at the office supply store.  I wanted to make them green, so I got out my Sap Green ShinHan marker and dabbed the ink onto the reinforcers and allowed them to dry.  My reinforcers were slick and shiney, but I've seen them look more paper like, as well as some that look like fabric.  For those types of reinforcers, I would simply scribble the color on.

I would like to take a moment to say that I used my All Purpose Mat, so I would be able to lift the reinforcers off with out any problems.  In addition, the ink can be wiped off the mat very easily.  I keep this mat on my desk at all times.  It has made my life SOOOO much easier.  I have had the "craft mat" that Ranger sells since it came out.  It works great, but the CTMH All Purpose Mat, is heavier weight, and lays flat immediately out of the box!!!!  Also, one side is slick, which is the side I use, ALWAYS.  The other side is, for lack of a better word, sticky.  This keeps the mat still on your work surface so you aren't "chasing" it all over your desk.  LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!!

The final step was to layer the tags together and add the ribbon.  I used seam binding in colors that I felt looked nice with the rest of the tag.  I didn't have any seam binding in red, so I took a length of white seam binding, dampened with water, and then placed it in a plastic bowl.  I added a few drops of Cranberry Re-inker to the bowl and smooshed the ink around in the ink.  To dry it quickly, I just used my Craft Heater.  Once that was done, I took several lengths of ribbon and looped it through the hole in the top of the tags.

Here's one last look:

If you are interested in any of the products used, simply click on the highlighted name of the item in the tutorial above.  You will be directed to my CTMH website to easily place your order.   

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments section below.  Simply click on the pencil icon to open the "comment" box.

Thanks Everyone!  See you soon!!!