Punch Board Gift Card Holder

In my last video I showed you one of my favourite simple gift card holder. YouTube is full of other gorgeous examples of ways to make gift card holders. Today I am showing one of my favourite holders which is super simple, and is the same size as an A3 card and fits into the Stampin’ Up! envelopes. You could send them with a card or they also look well on a Christmas tree with the decorations. I can whip a few up really quickly (normally when the Thomas tells me he needs a present on short notice.) I personally like them to be simply decorated but you could add layers if you wanted to. My future videos will show the other options for this type of gift card holder.

I love that you can choose your own decoration, my original version used a piece of Night of Navy which I had made to be a snow background using the Stampin’ Chalk marker- the video can be found here. I a simply added a Snowman using Snowman Season Stamp Set and the Snowman builder punch. I used a Pumpkin Pie Stampin’ Write marker for the nose and then Magenta Madness for the buttons and added Shimmery Crystal Effects. I love the way the buttons look, but you do have remember to let the Crystal Effects dry, otherwise it adds interesting texture to the snowman but not the buttons.

Measurements

Metric

10.5 cm by full length

Score at 5cm

Punch at 1 inch on envelope punch board

Inside Panel - 10cm x 13.5

Imperial

4 1/8 inches by full length

Score at 2 inches

Punch at 1 inch on envelope punch board

Outside and Inside Panel – 3.75 inches x 5.25 inches

I love the snowflakes, I am very impressed with myself using dies. Do you prefer the snowman or the snowflakes?

How to Make Snow Backgrounds

And now for something completely different….

Over the last few weeks I have been making Christmas cards for my Christmas Card challenge. I have been going through my piles of designer series paper to find paper that I could use for a snowy background. As there is no current June to December catalogue and no Christmassy DSP in the the catalogue, I have been using some random sheets and colours.

I found some in the Artistry Blooms DSP and also the Flowers for Every Season DSP. They are gorgeous patterns but I thought that I would make my own. I have identified a number of ways to create snowy backgrounds.

Some are very simple, some are very messy, some take a while to create, others are super super quick.

All the techniques have been add to card which is 10.5cm by 29cm

Technique 1

This uses a Stampin’ Chalk marker to create dots, you could also use a white gel pen or the Craft White ink and a blender pen

Technique 2

This uses ‘tone on tone stamping’ this can be seen better on lighter colours, for this technique you use the same coloured ink to add snowflakes to the card.

Technique 3

This uses Versamark ink and embossing powder to create the background. Simply stamp in Versamark, add the embossing powder and heat using your heat gun. Do not forget to use an embossing buddy first, I would suggest that you emboss bit by bit to ensure that the embossing powder stays in place. The added advantage to heat embossing is that you can use the emboss resist technique and use blending brushes to create gorgeous blending on your card.

Technique 4

This uses White Craft ink and the snowflake stamp to create a snowy background, this needs time to dry or the ink can smudge and the snowflakes will not be as defined.

Technique 5

This uses the craft ink refill, add one drop to a block and spritz with water and use a paintbrush to flick the white water. This technique can get very messy.

Technique 6

This uses the white frost shimmer paint, add one drop to a block and spritz with water and use a paintbrush to flick the shimmery . This technique can also get very messy. you can use the Shimmer paint on its own, it does not create as many spots and I think creates a more abstract background than Snowy background.

I love the ink splatter background the best, even if it the messiest. Which is your favourite?

Simple Ink blended Snowman Seasons cards

I decided that I would doesomething slightly different today and use the Snowman Builder Punch. It is a super cute punch which creates the snowman, a hat, a nose and two arms when punched. It makes quick simple cards and tags really easy and multiple card making a dream.

I have also been inspired by a number of butterfly cards recently which has ink blended backgrounds. I am in love with the new blender brushes. I have a collection, from Amazon to make up brushes and even other companies. The new Stampin’ Up! brushes are super soft and amazing at creating gorgeous backgrounds.

My tips for using a blending brush are keep a brush for each colour family, tap off the excess ink before blending the colour on the card and use a light touch, you can add colour but you can not remove excess.

Card Measurements

My Metric

10.5 cm x 14.5 cm (10.5cm x 29cm scored at 14.5cm)

Inside White Panel – 9.5cm x 13.5cm

Metric

10.5 cm x 14.8 cm (10.5cm x 29.6 scored at 14.8cm)

Inside White Panel – 9.5cm x 13.8 cm

Imperial

4." x 5.5" (4 x 11” scored at 5.5”)

Inside White Panel – 3.5 x 5”

Snow Options

There are a number of ways to add Snowflakes:

1. Using the Stampin’ Chalk Marker

2. Using a Blender Pen and the Uninked Pad with white refill

3. Stamping the snowflakes in the White ink

4. Any white pen/ gel pen.

I love that you can change the look of the Snowperson on every single card. What is your favourite embellishment?

A different CASE

There are two different alternatives for the acronym CASE in the craft world. The first is copy and share everything, the other alternative is copy and selectively edit. Today I thought  that I would try the second meaning using the Global Design Project sketch.

Copy and selectively edit, means that you use the inspiration in a number of ways for inspiration, you could use the colours, sketch lay out, or pick out elements. From the stunning inspiration in #GDP200 I considered a number of options. The colours (I think that they are Crumb Cake, Lovely Lipstick and Petal Pink), the linen thread, the embossed layer, the three elements (using the Butterfly Gala Stamp set.)

I decided to go with the embossed background, three elements and the linen thread. Rather than using an embossing folder I used an embossing mat to make images of two snowflakes and used the same die to cut out the snowflakes.

Ingredients

Card Base – Petal Pink cardstock - 10.5cm x 29cm scored at 14.5cm

Layer - Whisper white – 9.5cm x 13.5cm

Scrap of  whisper white (for the snowflakes) and Sentiment

Linen thread

Early Expresso Ink

Seasonal Layer Dies

Ityy Bitty Greetings

Frosted and Clear Epoxy

I have loved playing with this sketch and creating a Christmas card. The GDP is an amazing source of creativity!

Snowflake Perfection

Wow have you seen the amazing new limited edition items from Stampin’ Up! They are gorgeous! It is a fabulous collection of snowflakes,christmasy and non christmas images. There are some gorgeous sentiments which are useful for so many different cards. I especially love the sentiments especially ‘sending positive thoughts,’ this would be perfect to send to a friend. Its a ‘not a birthday set!’

The video below, from Stampin’ Up! shows all the items, in the suite. There are stamps, embellishments and some gorgeous flocked paper. There are some amazing examples on Pinterest, demos have been coming up with some amazing ideas. The Strawberry Stampers have been sharing their ideas, it looks amazing with Night of Navy, Merry Merlot and Silver. The Stampin’ Up! examples are on the right.

The foil edged gold and silver cards go perfectly with this set. They are gorgeous too. These save on foiled sheets bonus!