Life is Better When It Sparkles: A Tribute to my Twilight Friends

Right before Christmas, I realized that my plan to make something special for my Twilight friends was just not going to happen, but I decided that a Happy New Year card would work.  And what better way to usher in the New Year than with the help of Rob Pattinson himself?  This card was so fun to make that I literally could not stop myself from adding things to it, even though I had to make a bunch of them, I just kept on embellishing.

The idea for the card came from a Verve Stamps set that I had seen a few months ago.  I  literally bought the set the moment I saw it — I just knew that I had to make a Twilight card, in particular, an Edward card with the sentiment, "life is better when it sparkles."  Does that sound like the Cullens or what?!  I included a lot of metallic, sparkly, shiny elements on this card to keep with the sparkle theme:  blue metallic cardstock, sparkly white cardstock, silver ribbon, silver brads, silver rhinestones, silver ink, silver Stickles — I think you get the idea.  I really went overboard on this one!  It was very fun to make this card for people who would really enjoy receiving a Rob card — that just kept me motivated!

One thing that was tricky with this — on the prototype card that I made, I used a couple  of embellishments that were seasonal/Christmas items from Michaels, and those items promptly disappeared from the shelves along with the Christmas clearance sales.  [Note to self -- when you see ribbon and other Christmas things that I would like to use year-round, buy a TON of them!]  I don’t know what they are thinking — those silver rhinestones should definitely be a year-round item!  Don’t they know that there are people out there who need Cullen-style bling for their cards?! 

So, half of the recipients got the cards with silver ribbon and silver rhinestones, and the other half received the white and silver ribbon and clear rhinestone embellishments. Both cards are pictured here.  It all worked out in the end.

And I have to get just a little bit sentimental here — I love my Twilight friends.  It amazes me that we have met online over a series of books (and one movie adaptation) — I have met the nicest people ever through this and I am grateful to know all of them.  This one’s for you, guys. 

Card components:

Paper:  Papertrey Ink white cardstock; The Paper Company blue steel metallic cardstock; Bazzill Bling in Diamond (white)

Stamps: Verve Stamps Starlight Starbright set; Inkadinkado Bohemian Flourishes (inside of card); Anna Griffin for All Night Media (sentiment on inside of card)

Ink: SU! Brocade Blue; Encore silver metallic ink

Accessories: Cuttlebug: textile texture embossing folder, Spellbinders Nestabilities small labels and tag dies; Making Memories silver brad; From Michaels: silver rhinestone embellishments and silver and blue ribbon.  On some cards: white ribbon with silver trim – Joann Fabrics; clear rhinestone embellishments from Michaels.

New Year’s Gifts

Here are a couple of things that I made for my friend for her teacher gifts.  Since they didn’t make it out for the holidays, we’re calling these New Year’s gifts.  One reason that it’s good to be late with your teacher holiday gifts — they can really enjoy something in January when they’re not given a lot of stuff (especially edible stuff) at once, as they are in December.  So that is what my friend and I are telling each other, and we’re sticking to it. 

The card’s in blue and white, a color combo. that I seem to be very focused lately.  Literally, the last three cards that I’ve made have been blue and white.  (One of the blue and whites has yet to be posted; it’ll be on here soon.)  I made four of the same card so I kept them pretty simple. 

As is often the case with cards with shimmery, metallic elements on them, this one didn’t photograph too well.  There are some metallic silver flourishes around the sentiment that didn’t really show up, and the ribbon across the card is actually a shimmery dark blue.  And here’s a bargain-hunters tip that I learned on Splitcoast — the little Dew Drop-looking thingies in the corners?  Not Dew Drops!  They are from Michaels and come in a huge bag that costs a few dollars that I found in the area of the store that has floral supplies and vases.  Unlike the variety of colors you can get with Dew Drops, these just come in a few colors.  However, the clear are really versatile.  I used clear on this card.  In the past, I’ve also added a bit of color to them with Prismacolor markers, which also works well.  I found these at Michaels several months ago, so I’m not totally sure they’re still there. 

Speaking of products, I have meant to share this Cuttlebug tip for ages — Scotch Removable Tape works wonders for holding dies and embossing folders in place while they are run through the Cuttlebug.  The tape lifts off of cardstock really easily, although I’m still really careful with it — you just never know when a little tear will occur!  You can even reuse the pieces of tape many times — I often keep a piece of the tape right inside my embossing folders for quick access.  I didn’t know this tape existed until someone else gave me the tip, so I was happy to learn this one, given that I use my Cuttlebug for pretty much every project I do.  This tape is at Michaels in the gift wrap section.

And then the bags — I love these bags!  They’re from Papertrey Ink, and I think that I’d like to have these around at all times.  You can throw a little sweet treat in them, decorate them up, and there you’ll have a very nice gift package!  But here’s what’s odd — the cards and the bags don’t match.  When I decided on the stamp I wanted to use for the bags, I realized that it sort of had to be stamped in red (it’s a cardinal after all!) and I had already made the cards. The not matching really bugged me,  but since it didn’t bug my friend, we went with it.  The bags eventually were personalized with to and from tags (not in the photo), and then filled with chocolate! 

Card components:

Paper: Papertrey Ink white cardstock; The Paper Company Zoolander Blue Steel metallic cardstock

Stamps: Anna Griffin for All Night Media; Inkadinkado Bohemian Flourishes

Ink: SU! Brocade Blue; Encore Silver Metallic ink

Accessories:  Cuttlebug: D’vine swirls embossing folder, Nestabilities rectangle and scallop rectangle dies; American Crafts brads; Michaels faux Dew Drops and ribbon; dimensionals, SU! Ticket Corner punch

Bag:

Large frosted tin tie bags from Papertrey Ink

Paper:  SU! Riding Hood Red, The Paper Company gold metallic, Papertrey Ink white cardstock

Stamp:  Inkadinkado Winter Birds set

Ink:  SU! Riding Hood Red

Accessories:  Cuttlebug: Spellbinders Nestabilities curved rectangle dies; Stickles in fruit punch

Holiday Thank You Cards

To get my holiday thank you cards done, I thought keeping them simple would be best to ensure that I actually got them in the mail during the month of January.  So, what did I do?  I kept playing with the ribbon until I ended up with four different results! 

The cards were still simple and quick to make, nonetheless. I think that I really needed to put the Christmas colors aside — I was in the mood for a snowy, wintry kind of feel for these cards.  I included photos of the four different ribbon styles just to show how I could not leave well enough alone. 

Card components:

Paper: Papertrey Ink white; Bazzill light blue

Stamps: Inkadinkado Garden Flower set

Ink: Tsukineko Brilliance in Pearlescent Sky Blue

Accessories: Cuttlebug:  Snowflake embossing folder and Spellbinders Nestabilities ovals; dimensionals; ribbon; SU! slot punch

A Christmas Card Recap

I hope you all had a very happy holiday! With December coming to a close, I didn’t think posting about individual Christmas projects would be all that interesting at this point, so I thought that an overall recap would work to catch me up.

This was my first year doing any handmade things for the holiday, and some really good things came from that. I really enjoyed it all so much and liked the way so many things turned out. Doing things for the first time this year, I learned a lot about what I would like to do in the future, and hopefully, learned some tips that will help me going forward. I saved all sorts of specs on the things that I made this time (dimensions of cards, details on the candle cover that can be seen in the slideshow, etc.), which I hope will help with next year’s holiday preparations.

You can probably tell that I’m trying to focus on the positive…because, really, things weren’t quite as well in hand as I would have liked! In jest, I’ve been blaming all of that on the ice storm that knocked out our electricity for three days a few weeks ago. But seriously, the window for using that excuse has long since passed. I would really like to do better in planning things out for next year – I have a feeling that starting things much earlier would be a really good idea. That can never hurt. I might even try to schedule things in (a schedule like – this week, work on this, etc.), if I get my act together enough to actually write that up. If any crafters have tips that have helped you to get all your holiday crafting done, or mostly done, please leave a comment and share!

Onto the cards — although I didn’t photograph every card that I made, samples of them are included in this slideshow. Even the Cullen cards are in there! My usual practice is to include a list of the components for each card, and with so many cards in this slideshow, I skipped that step this time, although the components for the card pictured above are listed below. However, if anyone is curious about what was used on any of these cards, please leave me a comment and let me know. I’d be glad to provide the details if desired — I love seeing that information myself.

Card components:

Paper: Canson Watercolor paper; SU! Riding Hood Red; Bazzill Bling cardstock in Emerald City; Sandylion designer paper

Stamps: JustRite stamper with small alphabet set; SU! Holiday Minis

Ink: SU! Riding Hood Red; Encore Metallic ink in gold

Accessories: Cuttlebug: D’vine Swirls embossing folder, Nestabilities circle and scallop circle dies; ribbon; dimensionals

Elfster Secret Santa — Revealed!

Santa’s name?  Elizabeth!  I received my Stamp Happens Elfster Secret Santa package on Thursday; “Santa” was very good to me!  What a thrill to receive this in the mail!  Elizabeth did such an amazing job with this gift — look at that color coordination! 
In this adorable basket are a whole bunch of pre-scored cards, all ready to go, in both the magenta and aqua marine colors.  Then some cool stickers — again, a perfect match!  Just a little while ago, yet another set of stickers surfaced — they were originally in the basket and must have been snagged by little hands before I even saw them!  So those were not photographed, but they match the whole set and are lovely.  And the final touch — two Shimmerz, one of each color, and matching ribbon, so adorably wrapped on clothespins.  I cannot wait to break out the Shimmerz! How fun will that be? 
I truly appreciate the time, care, and thoughtfulness that went into this gift. Elizabeth, I really appreciate your generosity and thoughtfulness!  Thank you so much. Another thank you goes to Tonya, who so kindly arranged the Secret Santa exchange.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge #11 – A Very Cullen Christmas!

Happy Twilight Tuesday! Time for another Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge. This week’s theme, chosen by Rebecca at Bella Carta, is "A Very Cullen Christmas." First of all — love the title. It just reminds me so much of insanely campy Brady Bunch Christmas movie, and thinking of the Cullens and Bradys together is very amusing to me. Please visit Rebecca’s guest post on Tonya’s blog, Stamp Happens, for all of the challenge details and play along!

As always, there is a crafters’ portion of the challenge, along with a comment portion (details on that below). I loved doing this crafters’ part of this challenge! Already being in the holiday spirit really helped a lot, so I ended up with two cards. I thought that a dramatic look would be good for the Cullens, so I went with some bold reds on my first card. For some reason, I thought of using holly right away for a Cullen card, so a fake holly branch from Michaels did the trick here. I just cut off a leaf and a clump of berries and hot glued them together, and then adhered them to the card. Pretty simple! I used my JustRite stamper on this card (and on the second card below). I really liked this sentiment for the card — it’s got a gothic, old-fashioned look that I think works for the Cullens.

I think that Twilighters might recognize the "vegetarian vampire" joke built in to this second card. I just knew that I wanted to use a deer for a Cullen card! I used my JustRite stamper again on this card along with the JustRite small letter set, which I used to spell out "Happy Holidays from the Cullens." I love that small letter set — it gives you so much flexibility to make any sentiment you wish. I stamped a small holly leaf, from SU!’s Holiday Minis set, in the center of the circle, and die cut the circles from the Nestabilities petite circle set. I was able to use a couple of new products on this card, which is always fun! I used my new Nestabilities curved rectangles, a shape I like a lot, and a new type of paper. I’ve noticed that Becca of Amazing Paper Grace, who is truly one of the most talented paper crafters you will ever see, mentions using watercolor paper on her projects. I found some and used it for this card, and I was really happy with it. The paper I used is made by Canson and is of a 90 lb. weight, which is really substantial. The paper is an ivory color rather than a true white and has a bit of a ribbed texture; that worked well for this card, but it is something to know if you want to try out this type of paper. It’s got a bit of a different look than a smooth white cardstock. You can see the paper’s texture well in the close up photo.

For the comment portion of the challenge — discuss your favorite holiday tradition, and if you’re feeling creative, you can discuss what you imagine to be a Cullen holiday tradition. Or a tradition of any character in the Twilight world. My favorite, favorite Christmas tradition is sort of an obvious one — Christmas Eve is my favorite. Since I can remember, Christmas Eve has been the time when my family has done most of the Christmas celebrating. All presents were opened then (and you know, I can’t even tell you why it was this way), so that night is very special to me. I still spend Christmas Eve with my sisters, brother, and their children, without fail. Now that I have my own family, we are working to create some new special traditions for our daughter, including a few things to make her Christmas Day special. We’re finding that each holiday is more fun than the last one, as she gets older and understands more of what is going on.

As always, Twilighters, please join us and play along! And be sure to visit the blogs of the other design team members:

Beth, Stamp Insanity

Dani, Count Your Beautiful Blessings

Eve, This is Bliss

Jen, Deconstructing Jen

Margie, Oh Bumble Is Me

Rebecca, Bella Carta

Tonya, Stamp Happens

Card components:

Merry Christmas from the Cullens

Paper: Papertrey Ink white; Bazzill Bling in Red Carpet; The Paper Co. silver metallic; Doodlebug Designs white velour paper

Stamps: Inkadinkado Christmas Silhouettes set, JustRite Stamper

Ink: Versamark

Accessories: Cuttlebug: Nestabilities circle and scallop circle dies; embossing powder – silver and red tinsel; red velvet ribbon; SU! ticket corner punch; red metallic brads; artificial holly branch; dimensionals

Happy Holidays from the Cullens

Paper: Canson 90 lb watercolor paper; Bazzill Bling – Red Carpet and Emerald City; SU! Always Artichoke; Basic Grey Wassail- Greetings designer paper

Stamps: Inkadinkado Christmas Silhouettes set, JustRite Stamper; SU! Holiday Minis

Ink: Versamark, Tsukineko Brilliance in Galaxy Gold; SU! Riding Hood Red

Accessories: Cuttlebug: Nestabilities curved rectangles, circle and scallop circle dies; gold embossing powder; SU! ticket corner punch; Basic Grey brads; ribbon; dimensionals

Beate Johns’ Weekend Sketch Challenge

This was a first for me — I had never done one of Beate Johns’ weekend sketch challenges that I’ve heard so much about and finally tackled this one.  I can’t seem to use metallic papers enough lately!  I just picked up this dark blue metallic cardstock and was happy to have the chance to use it right away (although as I was making the card I wished the blue was a lighter shade).  I guess I’ll have to hit Michaels again…sigh.  I haven’t done very well in the past with Michaels papers and cardstocks, but lately I’ve found lots of metallic papers there that are great.  There are some 12×12 metallic cardstocks by Bazzill that are really nice — there are metallics in unusual colors, like browns and pinks. 

For this card, I used a Cuttlebug folder that I don’t use as often as some others; this one is called Snow Dots.  It’s a little more grid-like than the other Cuttlebug snowflakes folder, so it doesn’t always work with layouts.  The main time spent on the card was in coloring the snowman, which was a lot of fun!  I stamped the image in gray, then colored with Prismacolor pencils with Gamsol.  Then, lots of Stickles – two colors of those – an iridescent white and a blue.  I had a great time doing this — I think that it must remind me of coloring when I was a kid; I just find it such a nice thing to do.  The other key to this card was to find a very small sentiment – I’m finding that I often want a really small sentiment that won’t compete too much a card’s main image, and I don’t have many of those.  I was happy to see that this very small "very merry" (from SU!’s Short & Sweet set) fit on the tag I wanted to use.

As is often the case with glittery, shimmery cards, the card didn’t photograph very well.  I’ve included a close-up that helps to show the snowman’s glitter and the blue cardstock. 

Card components:

Paper: Papertrey Ink white c/s; Bazzill blue and silver metallic c/s

Stamps: Inkadinkado snowman; SU Short & Sweet sentiment

Ink: SU Brocade Blue, Versafine smokey grey

Accessories: Cuttlebug: snow dots folder and tag die; ribbon; dimensionals; Making Memories brads; Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol; silver cord; Stickles: Diamond and Starry Night

Happy Holidays Card

Still working on the holiday cards!  This was another quick one.  It doesn’t show up well in the photograph, but the sentiment is embossed in silver.  And again, the ribbon and bow won’t mail very well, but I can’t seem to stop myself from doing it!

Card components:

Paper: Papertrey Ink white; SU Baja Breeze & Soft Sky c/s; Bazzill silver metallic c/s

Stamp: Inkadinkado Holiday Trails set

Ink: Versamark

Accessories: Cuttlebug: snowflakes embossing folder; dimensionals; Making Memories brads; silver embossing powder; ribbon

Very Merry Christmas Card

I’m really trying to crank out the Christmas cards!  I’m still not sure what type of cards I’ll be sending out; since I love using accessories that make the cards a little tough to mail, like brads and big bows, I need to figure out how to make simpler cards for mailing.  This card is definitely simple, but of course I had throw in a big bow, so again — not so easy to mail.

This card came together really quickly – I used Basic Grey paper again and their coordinating brads in green. 

Card components:

Paper:SU Kraft, Riding Hood Red, Handsome Hunter and Very Vanilla c/s; Basic Grey designer paper – Wassail/Merry Happy

Stamp: SU Short & Sweet

Ink: SU Riding Hood Red

Accessories:  Cuttlebug: D’vine swirls embossing folder; Nestabilities petite ovals; Basic Grey brads; dimensionals; ribbon

A Vertical Christmas!

I had seen this Christmas stamp over the summer and loved it immediately, and I finally picked it up recently.  I love the vertical alignment — it’s such a different look.  I love cards with a top fold, and this vertical look works well with those.

The panel on the card features a designer paper from Basic Grey’s Wassail line; this paper is called "Mantle."  I recently found Basic Grey brads that coordinate with that paper and the red brads are very close to the color of SU’s Riding Hood Red.  It’s nice when things work out that way! The panel is popped up with dimensionals, as is the circle with the poinsettia.  The embossed layer is separated with rules done with my Scor-Pal.

Card components:

Paper: SU Kraft, Riding Hood Red, Always Artichoke and Very Vanilla; Basic Grey designer paper – Wassail, Mantle

Stamps:SU Holiday Minis (poinsettia); Sentiment: Magenta

Ink: SU Always Artichoke, Riding Hood Red

Accessories:  Cuttlebug: Swiss dots embossing folder; Nestabilities circles; Scor-Pal; dimensionals; Prismacolor pencils with gamsol; ribbon; Basic Grey brads