Beary Gift Card

One of the regular attendees in my classes loves gift card holders.  I always try to make at least one card that can include a gift card.  This sample was fun to make, and it's actually made from an envelope!  Frenchie Stamps created a youTube video to explain how to make this cute card that worked great for the Beary Christmas Paper Packet.  The Beary wreath is a fussy cut out Picture My Life card from the paper packet, attached to the Cranberry belly band.  The inside sentiment, "Happiest HOLIDAYS", was stamped on a different Picture My Life card (right side with the snowflakes and trees).  When you pull out the Cranberry insert, it is easy to add a gift card for the recipient.

Merriest Wishes

When you need to create a bunch of cards assembly line style, but create gorgeous cards to send to friends and family, the CTMH  Workshops Your Way® Merriest Wishes Cardmaking Kit gives you all that you need, card bases and envelopes, paper, stamps, and doodads to make 12 cards using two designs.  The Bitty Sparkles and Glitter Paper create some bling and sparkle that makes a fun card to receive in the mail!

Happy Holiday Wreath

Remember the swirly tree branches from the last card?  Can you find the stamp in this card?  Being able to use images for more than they were intended make the sets more versatile.  In this case, I used the swirly tree branches to make a wreath by repeatedly stamping in a circle.  The rest of the card is made from Beary Christmas Complements and Beary Christmas Paper Packet.  Pretty quick card that is dimensional and interesting.

Christmas Surprise!

Interactive cards are so fun to get in the mail.  The directions for the Surprise Pop-Up Card can be found at Splitcoaststampers.   You'll need a certain kind of paper trimmer, or a ruler and craft knife.  The tree in the sample is stamped from the Workshops Your Way® Merriest Wishes Cardmaking Kit, and the rest of the stickers and chipboard images can be found in the Beary Christmas Complements. 

Forest of Merry Wishes

Another way to add a watercolor affect to cards, without using actual watercolors, is to take advantage of the dye ink pads.  Dye inks are water based, so when in contact with water, tend to blend easier.  For this card sample, I inked the tree stamp, stamped once on scrap paper, sprayed the stamp with water, then stamped on the White Daisy paper.  This is a combined 2nd generation/watercolor technique.  The lighter 2nd generation allowed the second stamp, swirly tree branches to pop out.  In my sample, I also heat embossed the bottom, center tree in silver, but all of the workshop attendees heat embossed all of the tree branches to make a sparkly forest.  Ink colors used are Cranberry, Glacier, Sweet Leaf, and Charcoal. 

Light your Way

Crafters always have left over bits and pieces of paper that you don't want to throw away, but need ideas to use them.  This card from Chat is a great way to use extra Christmas-themed papers.  Rectangle pieces can easily be turned into candles, and the leftover tiny bits of glitter paper make great sparkly flames.  Stamp a sentiment in the corner, like "Happiest HOLIDAYS" from the Workshops Your Way® Merriest Wishes Cardmaking Kit and add even more glitter for the red branches from the Beary Christmas Complements. 

Christmas Explosion!

Exploding Boxes are all the rage the last few years because while they look complicated, it turns out that they are pretty easy to put together.  Once you get the box base created, the really fun part is to create the 3-dimentional scene.  And then what's cool?  The box folds up flat to fit inside an envelope.  The box base is a patterned B&T sheet from the Beary Christmas Paper Packet.  All of the stickers and chipboard elements came from the Beary Christmas Complements.  I added a stamped sentiment "HOLIDAYS", and a little Cranberry bling.  To create an area for a sentiment and place to sign, I added a Picture My Life card under the front flap.

Beary Festive

When making card samples for workshops, I love finding new ways to create interactive or interesting looking cards.  This card template came from Mama Inkysquid.  She took a class that showed this interesting card cut that works great with double sided cardstock.  The CTMH Beary Christmas Paper Packet included two sheets of green stripes/red words.  The glitter paper and Bear paper can be found in the Workshops Your Way® Merriest Wishes Cardmaking Kit, while the"BEARY" and "Festive" stickers match from the  Beary Christmas Complements. A square sheet of White Daisy was added inside for a space to add an inside sentiment and area to sign the card.

Cold Winter Nights

 

Holiday cards are the perfect time to pull out your water color paints to make masterpieces.  The cards on this page use Watercolor Paper and  Watercolor Paints to create colorful background sky images. The paints are a combination of greens and blues to look like the Northern Lights.  Two pieces of White Daisy were torn to look like snow covered hills.  The White trees can be found in the Beary Christmas Complements.  The snowflakes were stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with white.  Tiny Bitty Sparkles add some subtle sparkle to the snowflakes.

Christmas Card Month

The Christmas season is in full swing.  During the next month, I'll share all of the samples from my 2017 Beary Christmas Card Workshop.  This year's workshop used the Workshops Your Way® Merriest Wishes Cardmaking Kit, Beary Christmas Paper Packet, and Beary Christmas Complements.  The idea for this card came from Michelle's blog at  Evergreen Memories.  I made a few changes.  The card base uses a Z-fold technique where the front of the card is folded back in half.  When you open the card, the ornament and sentiment block flip open with the card.  The bow is fussy cut from the glitter paper from the Workshop kit and the tree mini-ornaments are from the Beary Christmas Dots.  Check back during the next month to see more samples from the Beary Christmas kit!

We're born to Shimmer!

Our NEW shimmer brush will make your artwork glisten! Two different colors are available, gold and clear. But, if you add some reinker from your favorite color to the clear shimmer brush, you can color any project the way you want! 

Gold Shimmer Brush

Clear Shimmer Brush

Watercolor Christmas

 

CTMH Watercolor Paper and Watercolor Paints are so much fun to play with.  The card above is made with the White Pines Cardmaking WOTG stamp set.  

To make the slanted hill, I tore a scrap paper from one corner to the other, slightly bigger than the watercolor paper (I did watercolor paper at 6" square and scrap was 7" square).  I taped the top part of the scrap paper to the left of the desktop and the bottom part the right.  I slide the watercolor paper inside the left scrap and used a mixture of white, gray and tan watercolor paints to make a hill, making sure the darker grey/tan colors were at the top to create a "shadow".

 

 Once the hill dried, I slide the watercolor paper below the right scrap to stamp and paint the trees and background.  In the card above, I stamped the trees first, and watercolored inside the trees with green and the night sky outside with blue and gray.  The snow is heavily pigmented white watercolor flicked from a paint brush held high above the project.  The watercolor paper was cut down to card size and a sentiment stamped on the hill.

 

This version of the watercolor image uses watercolors first, then stamped the trees on top.  But I liked the precision of the first image instead of the artsy version.  Both have really pretty night skies and I love the texture of the snowy hill.

Santa's Wallet

Santa's Wallet is a cute card that I've seen throughout Pintrest and the web. It's a super easy card, and was also easy to make into a gift card.  The card base is a solid Cranberry Cardstock and the belt is solid Black Cardstock.  The belt buckle is a Cricut cut in CTMH's glitter paper, with a Bitty Sparkle in the center.  The center of the gift card is two simple pockets on left and right.  One side is a sentiment card to sign, while the other is the place for the gift card.

 

Peek a boo Christmas Tree

 

This optical illusion card idea comes from Yellow Bear in NZ. It uses a simple A-2 sized card, but with the center of one side cut out.  The trees are the things that keep it together.  All of the stamps are from the White Pines Cardmaking technique workshop that I taught (don't miss out next year!).

 

Inside, I stamped another Christmas tree in the center.  You can stamp another sentiment inside, as well as sign the card.  It adds more color to the card using the multiple colored stamping (dark outline plus inside color).

 

Snowflake Interactive

Last year, CTMH released another Cricut cartridge called Artfully Sent.  It is a super fun, interactive card cartridge. It also has many cuts for Picture My Life style scrapbooking.  On one of the keys, it has a snowflake flip card, but the snowflake wasn't very big.  So I cut out two large snowflakes from the Artiste cartridge and made my own flip card.  In the Holiday Expressions Idea Book, we also released silver snowflake charms which is attached in the center of the Snowflake.  To show the versatility of the White Pines kit, I tried a different color scheme.  The card base is Fern; the B&T is from the WOTG; and the snowflakes are cut from White Daisy and Glacier cardstock. 

Waterfall Christmas

The waterfall technique is a well-known card style.  You can find a tutorial about how to make one at Splitcoast.  I switched up the waterfall part so the card was sideways to work for my idea.  At CTMH, we sell stickers to go into Base and Bling jewelry, but not everyone is into making jewelry.  But the stickers are still very useful in paper crafting.  This card utilizes the Base and Bling Jolly Holiday Style Sheet from the Holiday Expressions. 

 

The card background is handmade, second generation Fern and Cranberry ink, using the White Pines Cardmaking WOTG stamp set.  A little Fern twine helps the reader pull out the waterfall.
 

 

Gift Card Ornaments

The White Pines Cardmaking Workshop has a set of double-sided B&T paper.  One side was really easy to use and subtle.  The other one was brighter, and more difficult to utilize.  I thought about how to tame it down, and this card is the result.  With all of the white space from the card base, it helps to keep the focus on the ornaments, without being overwhelming.  And it is super easy too!  I cut two flat ornaments, and made one 3-d ornament.  The 3-d ornament is three circles cut the same size, folded in half, and glued together.  I edged all of the circles in Cranberry ink to make them pop even more.  The Fern Twine from the kit made perfect hanging strings.

 

Around the holidays, we tend to send out gift cards a lot. We have a lot of family scattered around the country, so gift cards are always going to be easier than large presents.  This gift card is easy to make  I use a toilet paper roll inside a normal A-2 card, gluing the end of the toilet paper roll so the gift card can only slide part of the way in and not get lost.  Then punched a half circle in both the toilet paper and the card base.  Finally, the toilet paper roll was glued inside the card and the card completely glued closed.  This card doesn't open like a traditional card.  The card giver can sign the back, and the whole thing fits in a normal envelope.  Pretty neat way to recycle empty toilet paper rolls!

Merry Christmas Fab Friday Gift card

Even though the week is over, this Fab Friday sketch was fun to use with the wreath in the White Pines Cardmaking WOTG.  The little Bitty Sparkles fit right in as part of the layout.  I stamped the wreath image using pigment White Daisy and heat set first.  The white circle was stamped with Fern and Cranberry ink.  The Bitty Sparkles are the center of the flowers.  The whole thing is attached to the Fern Cardstock with 3-d Foam tape. 

 

The inside is a holding place for a gift card.  I used two regular A-2 card bases.  I scored one of the sides of each card and glued them together, leaving the center area without adhesive (someplace for the gift card to sit in).  Using a circle punch, I cut out the center notch to make it easier to pull out the card.  Decorate the inside as you wish.

Check out other ideas using this sketch by clicking on the image below.

From our house to yours...

The White Pines Cardmaking WOTG stamp set is really fun to work with.  In this card, I used multiple techniques.  The background is the Smoosh technique with an embossing folder where you add ink to the raised side of the folder and sandwich the paper in the folder.  Run it through the embossing machine and you get nice grout.  The wreath is stamped in several different generations of Fern ink plus a darker color, New England Ivy.  The bird is cut out from the Cricut, and tied with Fern twine.  I love this idea that came from Pretty Impact.

Washi Thanks

Whenever I create a card workshop, my last card usually takes scraps and makes something from leftovers.  A lot of the time, the leftovers are long, really skinny pieces of paper, like 1/2" - 1" wide.  These tend to be the same widths as washi tape.  But sometimes I can't find washi tape in the exact color.  So combining the skinny pieces of paper and stamps, you can create your own.  Papertrey Ink has a great tutorial on how to make your own washi tape.

In my case, I didn't make my own washi tape and then attach it to the card.  Here, I tore the strips of B&T paper in alternating lengths.  I also directly stamped on the card base (like the Pear Ink stars).  Washi tape stamp sets can also be used to create homemade washi tape, like the Blossom Cardmaking Kit stamp set or the Snapshot Memories set.

Here is an alternative to the "Thanks" card.  The Cricut Collection, Artiste, has great celebration stamps and images.  The banner below is stamped in Smoothie Ink and Coral Sequins flank each side.