St. Nick in Traditional and Non-traditional Colors

Spellbinders St. Nick die set creates a perfect old fashioned Santa and I could not resist him the minute I saw the set. I created this tag and mini-slimline card and love how they turned out. I admit I usually use mostly traditional colors on my Christmas cards and tags, but I did make Santa's outfit blue on my card. I love how the set includes a tall hat and a shorter one that fits on an A2 card!

But I saw that Spellbinders has a contest going calling for lilac colored cards to promote their Lilac Scout Platinum Machine which is an adorable mini die cutting machine perfect for your desk or to travel with. So I stepped out of my box and made this book binding z-fold card:

I cut his suit out of several shades velvet paper so it is soft to the touch. His "ho-ho-ho" sign was created with a die from the Spellbinders Stitched Christmas Sweater die set. Spellbinders had a great sale recently and look at what my Christmas present to myself is:

I work in limited space here in my craft room and teach classes where sometimes the students have to cut just one or two small dies, so I treated myself to the Spellbinders Lilac Scout Platinum die cutting machine in the Starter Gift Set. It is small but mighty and I am thrilled to add her to my Spellbinders die cutting family. 

I am entering the lilac colored St. Nick card in the Lilac Shimmer Contest at Spellbinders. 

Perfect Cards For Any Book Lover

I know so many book lovers and so when I saw the new Concord & 9th True Story Dies and Stamps sets, I could not resist them. I had great fun creating many cards with these sets for my newest video here. Here is a look at the several layers of this tri-fold card:

I took a class at Let's Create recently where we played with various Tim Holtz Ranger Sprays like the Distress Mica Sprays. I took some of the pieces we made and cut books out of them for this card. I also embossed some of the books and added decorative pieces from the True Story Die Set. The Thinking of You die is from a set from Hunkydory and Moonstone. I made a joy fold Christmas card in the video step by step and made books with the die set and some smaller ones without. Here are several views of that card:

I folded the front of the A2 card base in half and cut the top of card with the Concord & 9th to form the book shape. I cut two sets of books out of decorative Christmas paper and glued them in place before decorating. I added the smaller joy fold card to the right side, layered some smaller books and the Christmas Blessings are Family, Friends and A Good Book. I decorated many of the books with 49 and Market Laser Elements. I spelled the words "A Good Book" with Spellbinders BetterPress Bestie Alphabet Beads. 

I also share several other cards I made with this die and stamp set perfect for book lovers in my new video. The stamp and die set have been so popular, they may be on back order when you click the link. You can have them notify you when they get back in stock- you won't regret it. It is such a great set of dies and stamps!

Who Said Shaker Pouches Have to Shake or Be Flat??

After making a card with an embossed Pink and Main Shaker cover I just had to get some more! I shared a bunch of embossed shakers in my new video here. But I wondered what else I could do with the rest of the shaker covers as we get 10 in a package. Creating with acetate can be difficult because thick acetate is not easy to score and fold, and attaching it is also difficult. I decided to cut off three of the adhesive tab sides of the Pink and Main Shaker Covers and here are the cards I made with that idea:

I simply applied a 49 and Market rub on transfer to the acetate cover along with some Tim Holtz fabric tape. The die cut sentiment is on the inside blue card base.

Both of these cards were made with embossed Pink and Main shaker covers that had 3 sides cut off so they are attached on one side only, and were decorated inside and out with 49 and Market Laser Elements over their patterned cardstock. The embossed acetate adds such texture but is hard to show in still photographs.

This card shows a way to use the Pink and Main shaker cover without any shaker bits. I attached a large rub on transfer over an embossed piece of cardstock and sealed all four sides. I will be honest that I tried a brand of rub on transfers other than my usual current favorites like 49 and Market, Graphic 45 and Hero Arts and do not recommend them. They were so hard to work with and get both covers off that this is the last card I will make with them. So you  can learn from my mistake:)

Leaves of all Kinds on Cards Before The Snow Flies

Our fall color here in central Wisconsin has come and gone but we did have brilliant color for a few short weeks. I love the leaves in fall and had some new products sitting here so I quickly designed a few cards with them before winter comes. Brutus Monroe shared some gorgeous skeleton leaves in a kit for a weekend of classes and I used three of the rub-on transfers for this card. The background was created in a class I took at Let's Create in Wisconsin Rapids with Ranger Mica Sprays. I added some texture with spattered black paint to complete the card. 

The rub-on transfers are no longer available, but the stamps, stencils, dies and new vellum leaves are still available here at Brutus Monroe. The background of this card was again created with Mica Sprays and IRL is more navy than purple as the photo looks. I stamped the leaves and cut them out and added some texture with a fun stencil from Hero Arts.

I also had a new leaves stencil set from Lawn Fawn I needed to use before the snow flies so I created the background here with red and yellow inks. The leaves and sentiment were stamped and die cut with the Skeleton Leaves from Brutus Monroe. 

Of course leaves are green for a longer time that the fall colors are, so I used  two shades of green on this background with the Lawn Fawn Fall Leaves Background layered stencils. The leaves were punched out of another Distress Mica Spray piece. 

Pink and Main Shaker Covers With Gorgeous Embossed Texture

In the Crop and Create Cardmaking weekend of classes I participated in recently, Michelle of Pink and Main showed us how to make the easiest shaker card ever with her A2 Shaker Covers and mentioned they could be embossed in embossing folders. I was intrigued and loved the look when I embossed this one with a Spellbinders embossing folder we also received in our box of supplies. The paper and sentiment were from other kits. I decided I had to get more Pink and Main A2 Shaker covers and explore this idea further and here is the card I make step by step in my new video:

I used 49 and Market Rub On Transfers and Laser Elements to decorate this card both on the acetate itself and on the inside. The sentiment is from Concord and 9th and the shaker gems are from Kat Scrappiness. 

Here is another card I made with an embossed shaker cover and these beautiful rub-on transfers are from Graphic 45. And here is a card I made with the shaker cover from Pink and Main and 49 and Market laser elements and cardstock. 

As you can see these shaker covers are lovely with and without embossing with embossing folders. In the new video I show how these A2 Shaker Covers do not have to be used to make shakers and so many cards, I have to share them in a separate blogpost which you  can see on Wednesday of this week.

Friendship Bracelets and Disco Balls Shine Bright With Spellbinders Foils

I just received new Spellbinders products from the Shine Bright by Carissa Wiley and Beads of Friendship collections and I had so much fun playing with them with all sorts of different papers for my newest video here. The card above is the one I make step by step in the video. The "world" in the center is actually a disco ball from the Disco Impressions BetterPress and die set  and I use it many times as you will see in the cards below. But I made it a globe or world for this card with loving hands of all colors sharing love, joy and peace. The background was made with  two impressions of the new Sparkle Background Hot Foil plate and I used it again and again the cards below. 

The new Heart Hands die set from Spellbinders and Bestie Alphabet Beads are so fun to design with and I said "Choose Joy - The World Needs More" as a perfect sentiment on this card.

In the new video I show many cards I made with the Shine Bright Collection and Spellbinders Gold and Silver Treasured Assortment Packs of glitter and mirror cards of all types. Here are two I made with glitter cardstock, mirror card and patterned paper:

And here is one I made with red velvet paper and more of the gold and silver metallic papers:

I had great fun trying hot foiling on many different surfaces with the new collections of BetterPress plates from Spellbinders (which can be letterpressed or hot foiled) for my new video! I hope my cards inspire you to give some of the ideas and products a try!

Crealies Never Ending Tree Cards In Minutes

Have you ever tried to make a never ending tree card following a scoring and cutting template and it wasn’t fun because it took a very long time to make? Or you saw one that just looked to intimidating to even try? In my new video I show how to make an interactive never  ending tree card in just minutes using a new Crealies die. Here is a couple looks at the card I made in the new video: 

 

 I have added a flap to write a message on the card above. Here is another never ending tree card I made so easily with this die set:

Both of these cards also feature the new Crealies Cozy Christmas two sided patterned paper which is perfect for holiday cards but has many papers that can be used all year. Sometimes the person receiving a never ending card have a hard time figuring out how to get the card folding and folding for the fun interactive movement. I added some arrows from the Paperclip Arrow die set to help get them started.

I wondered what else I could do with this die set and made this card with a scene on the front following Mandy’s instructions in the introductory video on the Crealies You-Tube channel:

 

The die set makes a pretty Christmas tree so I made this Christmas ornament by adding designer paper and gluing down some of the folds:

 

I am happy to share that Crealies dies shown can be purchased either on the Crealies website OR in the United States at the Frantic Stamper website.