Handmade Gifts for my Card Club Friends

I belong to a monthly card where we actually play cards, not make them:) We have a great time with lots of laughing and talking playing Canasta and other card games. Every December we all go out to lunch at a lovely tea shop and exchange presents. I found this calendar/notepad box with drawers perfect for candy here on Vicki Dutcher's blog and decided to give it a try. It wasn't hard- except the tutorial that Vicki linked to had a minor mistake in the measurements. It referred to 1/6 of an inch and I struggled for the longest time with that. What the heck is 1/6th of an inch on a ruler? Tried all sorts of adjustments and calculations- then I looked at the picture of a ruler and realized- she meant 1/16th (she was dividing 2 1/8th inches in half- so 1 1/16th- ohhhhh. So if you try it and go to the tutorial, keep that in mind. I also made this for the girls:

The snowflake on the front of the jar of sweet and salty snack mix was made with my favorite snowflake die from Tonic Gold and the stamp that says it all on the top is by Great Impressions.

I am entering these projects in the Anything Goes challenges at Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas and at Crafty Friends Challenge.

Crazy Bird Brusho Card for my BFF

I have been wanting Tim Holtz's Crazy Bird Accessories stamp set  forever and I finally got it! I have very little time to "play" but did make some Brusho backgrounds and one Christmas card with the Santa hat and my favorite Crazy Bird for a dear friend and her DH. I paper pieced the crazy bird and his Santa hat, and added some punched snowflakes and gems. The perfect sentiment is from Great Impressions.

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenges at Polkadoodles and 613 Avenue Create.

Just for You Holiday Card with Tonic Goodies

I wanted to make a couple holiday cards to say thank you to some special people at Tonic Gold U.S. who gave me this great opportunity to be a Tonic U.S. Blog Ambassador and who have been so generous with Tonic Gold products. They should have received their cards by now, so I am sharing the card here. I started with a background made with my favorite Brusho Crystal colors on watercolor paper. Then I die cut Tonic's Winter Snowflake out of the middle. I added some of Tonic's Mother of Pearl Nuvo Embellishment Mousse to the snowflake with a soft cloth and popped it back in. I also added the mousse to the words I cut out from one of the Everyday Squares Die Set. Then I added gold dots using Tonic's Bright Gold Nuvo Crystal Drops for the finishing touch. Both of these Nuvo products from Tonic add gorgeous metallic color so easily and the drops are round and perfect without the annoying curly tails of other similar products.

I am entering this card in the Holidays challenge at Scrapy Land and the Die Crazy challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge (of course I used Tonic dies).

Peace and Joy from Crackerbox Palace and Me!

It's Crackerbox Palace Friday and today I am sharing a Christmas card I made with Crackerbox Palace stamps, watercolor wash and embossing resist. In addition I used a pretty snowflake border die from Die’sire and some sparkly sugar glitter paste from BoBunny. I started by heat embossing the lovely snowflakes and the sentiment from Crackerbox Palace with white embossing powder. Then I mixed some distress ink and water on my craft sheet and brushed it across the snowflake piece and let it dry. I die cut the snowflake border from Die’sire out of the top fold of an A2 card and rubbed some sugar glitter paste from BoBunny on it to make it sparkle.

The wish on the card is our wish for you and yours – Peace and Joy!

I am entering this card in the Die Crazy challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the Holidays challenge at Scrapy Land (used Die’Sire die.)

Happy Holidays from Die-Versions Dies and Me!

Happy Holidays from Die-Versions and me! It's my turn to post a card on Die-Version's blog and mine, and I am sharing the rest of my Die-Versions Christmas projects. My first picture above shows some of the tags I made with Die-Versions dies. I started with some basic tag shapes and then simply added Die-Version holiday sentiments and images, then tied with curling ribbon. The tags are so easy and fun to make with great dies. Here are a few more:

Here are pictures of two fun holiday cards I made with Die-Version dies and stencils: 

In both cards I featured the Cozy Fireplace die and “Happy Holidays” from the Holiday Complements set of sentiments. I have used and used this set of holiday sentiments (see most of the tags above.) On the first card, I sponged Fossilized Amber Distress Ink through a Memory Box stars stencil after attaching the cozy fireplace. Then I added the sentiment cut in gold paper. On the second card, I attached the cozy fireplace with temporary tape and also attached the sentiment cut in white cardstock. I sponged the same distress ink through a large snowflake stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils and also through a stencil I created with acetate and smaller snowflake punches. Then I removed the cozy fireplace, sponged ink on the edges and re-attached with pop-dots to raise it.

**Remember you can get a 15% discount on any of Die-Versions great dies by simply using my discount code karen15 when you check out at the Die-Versions website.**

I am entering this card in the snowflakes challenge at Dies R Us, the holidays challenge at Scrapy Land (I used Die-Versions dies), die crazy challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge and the Christmas challenge at That Craft Place.

Joy Snowflake Card

I am sharing another card I made with the beautiful border dies I purchased at HSN from Die'sire. I cut the snowflakes out of the folded top of an A2 white cardbase. I sponged on just a pinch of blue ink while the paper was still in the die. I added just a pinch of BoBunny glitter paste though a stencil  by Memory Box, and attached the navy blue card front when it was dry. I die cut "joy" and the snowflake from W Plus 9 and added a few pearls to complete the card.

I am entering this card in the "Just a Pinch" challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and the Anything Goes challenge at Scrapy Land.

Tag It Card for Simon Says Stamp Challenge

My favorite challenge to enter is the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and this week their theme is Tag It! Today I am sharing a card I made with a die cut tag I found on clearance at Michaels or JoAnns. The butterfly was just too pretty to pass up. The butterfly tags sat on my bed for awhile and after I got a new deeply embossed embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers, this card came together easily. I embossed the black card base and added pearls in the intersection. I die cut the "for you" and added some fiber to the tag. I added a punched butterfly and a black liquid pearl for a super easy but lovely card.

I am also entering this card in the Create Your Own Challenge at 613 Avenue Create. I used sentiment, embossing, liquid pearls, pearl and fibers.