Nutcracker Die Cut Holiday Card With Non-traditional Colors

Hello crafty friends!  Now that we are into December, (can you believe it?!) I am making as many Christmas cards as I can and hope to still have time to mail them!  What about you?  Well, if you aren't finished either, I have some inspiration to share today!  My card features Honey Bee Stamps awesome Lovely Layers: Nutcracker dies.  Check it out!

I put a different twist on the Lovely Layers: Nutcracker by using pastel colors instead of the typical red.  I chose some minty green cardstocks, a very pale peach color cardstock, matte gold cardstock, and 80# Neenah to die cut each of the various layers.

I love how Honey Bee provides layering guides for the Lovely Layers sets!  The Nutcracker has some small die cut pieces, but the layering guides makes the assembly easy!  I used Bee Creative glue to adhere all of the layers together.

Note:  I did use a few Copic markers to color the skin and hair.

For the background, I embossed a 4-¼" x 5-½" piece of white cardstock with the beautiful Into The Woods 3D embossing folder and glued it to an A2 card base.

Then I cut white cardstock with my scissors to make a hilly, snowy ground layer and glued that at the bottom of my card.

For more detail, I die cut two shades of minty green and peach cardstocks with the Lovely Layers: Trees dies to create two trees.  For the tree trunk, I die cut gold matte cardstock.  I glued the large tree to the base.  Then I popped up the smaller tree and the Nutcracker with foam tape.

I still have sentiments saved from the one time I stamped the awesome Simply Stated: Holiday stamp.  I love that you get all these sentiments at once and then can die cut them all at once with the Simply Stated die!  I used a foam tape strip to adhere the sentiment to my card.

For a bit of bling, I added gold and pearl stickers from the Merry Moments Pearl Stickers.

I hope you love this Lovely Layers: Nutcracker in the non-traditional colors as much as I do!  Thank you so very much for stopping by!  I hope your day is wonderful!

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A Holly Jolly Holiday Hello and A Sneak of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday Specials!

Hello crafty friends!  Today I'm sharing my card I made featuring the so fun and festive Honey Bee Stamps Lovely Layers: Coat and Lovely Layers Coat Holiday Add-on!  I love the decorative Santas I see in stores that are dressed in all white and have used that as my inspiration!

Before I get to my card details, today is the day that we are allowed to share with you the Honey Bee Stamps awesome Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals from!  Tomorrow, November 27, kick off the holiday weekend with 25% off your entire purchase — no exclusions!  No code needed — your discount will automatically apply at checkout.  (Please note:  Offer cannot be combined with any other sales, coupon codes, or Honey Coins.)

Read until the end for a first-ever extra holiday cheer giveaway!

The card base is 5" x 7" which was needed to accommodate the Lovely Layers: Coat and Holiday Add-on.  I embossed a 5" x 7" panel of white cardstock with the beautiful Frosted Filigree 3D embossing folder and glued it to the card base.

For the Lovely Layers: Coat and Holiday Add-on I chose white glitter cardstock along with white, brown, and silver mat cardstocks to die cut all of the layers from.  Note: I used 110# white cardstock for just a bit more dimension.

Referring to the layering guides available in each product's description, I adhered each layer with glue.  Because of the glitter cardstock, I did need to use my reverse tweezer to clamp the layers for a few minutes while the glue dried.  To get just a bit of a dimensional curve on the top layer of the Coat, I added a strip of foam tape down the center of the layered die cut.  Then I used foam tape to adhere the completed coat to the card.

To add a bit of color and interest to the card, I die cut the pine branches from the Lovely Layers: Sleigh Bell set from white cardstock.  I used blending brushes and two shades of green ink to color each branch.  After snipping just a bit from the ends of the branches, I used glue to adhere them to my card.

The sentiments are from the Simply Stated: Holiday stamp set and die cut with the Simply Stated Honey Cuts.  Because this is a one piece stamp and die, all I had to do was reach into the Honey Bee storage pocket and choose two of the sentiments I stamped from a previous project.  I used foam tape to adhere each one to my card.

I hope you love this all-white, sparkly version of the Lovely Layers: Coat and Holiday Add-on as much as I do!!  Be sure to save this blog post and come back tomorrow for the first day of Honey Bee's Black Friday sales!  I will be sharing the sales each day from Friday through Monday over on my Instagram, so be sure to check it out!

Now, here is the first-ever offered giveaway!

This means that for every individual order you make during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales weekend you will receive one entry for your chance to win a $100 Honey Bee gift card!  How awesome is that?!! 

Thank you so much for stopping by!  If you are in the USA, my wish for you is that you have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving.  No matter where you are from, I hope you know that I am so very thankful for you!

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Merry and Bright Christmas Card

Happy Wednesday, friends!!  Today I'm sharing my elegant holiday card that features Honey Bee Stamps Lovely Layers: Bow & Bough and the Snowflake Symphony stencil!  Check out all of the details below.

To begin, I sprayed the back of the Snowflake Symphony stencil with Pixie Spray.  This is a beautiful, but delicate stencil and the temporary adhesive will lightly adhere all of the stencil to the cardstock.   After placing the stencil over a 4-¼" x 5-½" piece of red cardstock, I used Detail Blending brushes to blend two shades of darker red inks through the stencil.

I went over the edges a second time with the darkest red ink for more depth.  I carefully removed the stencil and glued the piece to an A2 card base.

Next I used the dies in the Lovely Layers: Bow and Bough set to cut the Bough pieces from two shades of green card stocks.  I die cut the Bow layers from gold glitter and mat gold cardstocks.  I used glue to assemble the layers of the bow and added a few foam squares to the back to adhere it to the card.

I used glue to adhere the die cut Bough pieces around the bow as shown in the photo.

The sentiment is from the Simply Stated: Holiday stamp set.  As you may know, this is a single stamp that stamps all of the sentiments together.  I didn't really think that I will need that many sentiments embossed in gold on red cardstock, but it is really easy to get just one sentiment too!

I placed a small piece of red cardstock into my MISTI.  I positioned the sentiment I wanted from Simply Stated: Holiday stamp over the red cardstock.  Then I added some anti-static powder to the cardstock, inked up just the one sentiment with clear embossing ink and stamped it.  Then I added gold embossing powder to the stamped sentiment and used my heat tool to set it.

Next I used the Simply Stated die to cut out my sentiment.  It was very easy to do!  I added a few foam squares to the back of the sentiment to adhere it to my card.

I added a bit of bling to the card with a few pearls from the Merry Moments Pearl Stickers set.

I do love stencils and this Snowflake Symphony stencil is definitely one of my favorites!  I hope you've enjoyed this elegant, but also easy, card and have found some inspiration here.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Autumn Greetings Card With Beautiful Embossed Background

Hi, crafty friends!  Today I'm sharing my card that features Spellbinders 3D embossing folder for November.  This beauty is called Petite Tuft.  If you are a fan of Spellbinders embossing folders, this one may seem familiar to you.  That's because the Petite Tuft is a scaled down version of the Tufted 3D embossing folder that's been out for a while!

The Tufted 3D embossing folder has long been a favorite of mine and this month's Petite Tuft is a perfectly sized version for our cards!  I used this folder to emboss some Neenah Desert Storm cardstock.  I trimmed it to an A2 size and glued it to my card base.

The decorative elements of my card come from the Autumn Greetings Wreath die set.  This time I cut the Wreath dies from white cardstock and used my Copic markers to color them.

I love the off white pumpkins and used Copic markers in the colors of E43, E42, E41, and E40 to color them.  I kept a more muted palette by coloring the leaves with a mixture of G99, G94, YG93, YG91, YG25, and G40.

The sentiment dies are also included in the Autumn Greetings Wreath set.  I die cut the top layers from glossy black cardstock and glued them to the white cardstock die cut base.

I used foam tape strips to pop them up on the card.

So, what do you think about the muted autumn color palette?  I hope you like it as much as I do!  Also, be sure to check out all of Spellbinders Club Kits!  There's still time to join and receive November's kit!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a wonderful day.

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Merry Everything Mixed Media Card With Stitching

Happy Wednesday, crafty friends!  Today I'm sharing my card featuring Honey Bee Stamps gorgeous In Stitches: Snowflake Honey Cuts with the equally beautiful Silent Night stamp!  I created a sparkly stitched and embellished snowflake to add to my mixed media holiday card.  Check out the details below!

My supplies for the In Stitches: Snowflake are as follows:

• In Stitches: Snowflake die
• white wool felt (Note: wool felt die cuts much better than the acrylic felt you might find at your local craft store.)
• white glitter cardstock
• DMC size 24 Tapestry needle
• DMC B5200 white embroidery floss (separated into 3 strands)
• seeds beads (from my stash)

The In Stitches: Snowflake set has two dies--one for the top layer and another for the bottom layer.  Both layers can be die cut from felt, however, I die cut the bottom layer from white glitter cardstock.

After separating my embroidery floss into three strands, I stitched through the die cut holes in the center of the Snowflake as there are no holes for these in the back layer.  If you use felt for both layers, you don't need to do this step.

Then I stitched both layers together.  I used regular white thread to sew on the seed beads.  As I mentioned above, there are no holes for the middle portion.  I could use a sharp pointed needle to poke through the glitter cardstock, but I just used my cannot-craft-without die pick tool to add those holes.

I like to add little dabs of glue to the thread knots on the back of the piece.  Probably not necessary, but it gives me peace of mind that it won't come undone!  Haha!

The A2 card base is layered with a piece of patterned paper that is in the "Free Bee" paper pack that will automatically be added to a qualifying order.

I stamped the gorgeous Silent Night stamp set with clear embossing ink onto a light brown cardstock.  I added a white sparkle embossing powder and used my heat tool to set it.

Next I tore all of the edges of the panel.  Then I used an ink blending brush to ink the edges with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.  I glued the panel to my card base.

EDITED:  There was something I just didn't like about the look.  Several hours after publishing this post, I had a thought.  I DID NOT like the brown edges!!!!  So I used a blending brush and white pigment ink to go over the edges and I like it much better.

HERE IS MY ORIGINAL PHOTO.  Which do you like best?

I like the new version so much better!  Do you ever do anything like this?  LOL!

Next I decided I wanted just a touch of something with the Snowflake so I die cut a few branches that are in the Lovely Layers: Sleigh Bell die set.  I glued those to the card, and then glued on the snowflake.

I am a HUGE fan of sentiment stamps that are ONE piece and stamp several sentiments all at once!  That is what the Simply Stated: Holiday stamp set is!  I stamped it in black pigment ink and cut it out with the coordinating Simply Stated die.

After I chose one of the awesome sentiments, I used foam squares to adhere it to my card.

After I stamped the Simply Stated: Holiday stamp, I noticed four tiny little hearts that also were stamped.  Guess what those are for?  The Simply Stated die has four little heart holes that help you line up the die!  Isn't that genius?!!

There are so many fun techniques on my card today!  I hope you like it and are inspired to try one of the awesome In Stitches die sets on a project.  TIP:  I use this Storage Pocket to store all of my In Stitches sets together!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope your day is fabulous!

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Merry Christmas From One Little Birdie To Another

Hello, friends!  Today I'm sharing my card I made that features Spellbinders November Embossing Folder, called Luxe Lattice!  As you can see, this embossing folder is suitable for any occasion, including a Christmas card!

I embossed white cardstock with the Luxe Lattice embossing folder and glued it to an A2 card base.

I wanted to use these sweet birds from the Little Birdies die set and cut red, glitter, and white cardstocks with the dies in the set.  I adhered the birdies and branch with glue.

I love layered sentiment dies like this one from the Merry Sentiments stamp and die set.  Another BIG favorite is the one piece sub sentiment stamp that includes eight sentiments.  Just stamp it in black ink and then use the included die to cut out all the sentiments in one pass!

With all of the card elements complete, I decided on an arrangement and glue to adhere everything except the Birdies.  I used foam squares to adhere those.

I do love bird watching and I guess that's why I think the Little Birdies are just the cutest!!  I hope you've enjoyed my card and that you will check out all of Spellbinders Club Kits!  There's something for every taste!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a fabulous day!

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Life Is Better With Girlfriends

Hello crafty friends!  Today I'm sharing my card that features Spellbinders' November BetterPress Club Kit called Paws In The City.  I love this sweet and simple image!  This set also includes five different sentiments to choose from.

I inked up the Paws In The City press plate with BetterPress black ink onto Porcelain cotton cardstock.  After I pressed the image onto the cardstock, I colored the image with my Prismacolor pencils.  I used Gamsol and paper stumps to blend and smooth out the pencil coloring.  I haven't used this technique in a LONG time!  I really like the look that can be achieved!

There are five sentiments included with November's BetterPress of the Month.  I chose one to press onto Porcelain cardstock with black ink.  I love that there are coordinating dies included in the set to cut out each sentiment!

I trimmed the pressed image panel to 3-¾" x 4-¾" and added pink and black matting layers behind it.  The sentiment is popped up with foam strips.

This card is so easy and quick to make while still being a very special card to send to a friend!  I hope you've been inspired to check out the Club Kits!  Thank you for stopping by!  Have a wonderful and crafty Friday!

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