Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Make It 3-D Christmas Spool

It's not too late! Christmas isn't quite here yet (thank goodness!) and you still have a few days to enter Eileen Hull's December Art With Heart Challenge, "Favorite Things". I finished up another Christmas themed decorated spool.  (See the first set HERE.) This time I used the extremely useful Make-It-3-D die in combination with the Tim Holtz Sleigh Ride die. The Make-It-3-D die works on all sorts of dies, not just Eileen's! It has three different shapes with various score and tab configurations that you can adapt to make just about anything "3-D".

The Make-It-3-D cutting diagram. I'll be using the shape in the upper left
corner to make the sleigh dimensional.

Here we go! First the finished project:


Ta-da! Let's see how I constructed it.
Step 1: Cut two sleigh pieces out of scoreboard and the Make-It-3-D section in the upper left corner. (I just cut the center part of the strip because that's all I needed and I had a scoreboard scrap that fit perfectly.)


Step 2: I trimmed the 3-D sections and tabs to fit the contour of the sled. Tip: cut the shape out of scrap cardstock first to figure out all your folds and scores. Then you won't make mistakes on your final material.

The solid red lines are where I cut and the dashed lines are where I added a score by cutting
part-way through the board with an X-acto knife.

I ended up trimming the front tabs even more.
Step 3: Bend the pieces gently at all the scores. I used a quick grabbing liquid glue and glued one side at a time, holding everything in place while the glue set up. Once it was all dry, I painted and distressed the sleigh. Then came the fun part – filling it! =)




Be sure to head on over to Eileen's blog and check out more seasonal inspiration from the whole team. Join us in the December Art with Heart Challenge!

The supplies I used for this project can be found at Sizzix, Inspiration Emporium or Amazon. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE at Inspiration Emporium to save 10% if you go shopping there. I will also point out that US shipping is always $5 and international shipping is just $10 at IE.


Saturday, December 19, 2015

AJVD Guest Post – Winter ATCs

Hello everyone! I'm back on the AJVD blog with a guest post featuring a pair of winter themed ATCs. Keep your eyes on my blog because I'll share the rest of the set soon. ;-) Check out the post for more details about these.


Merry Christmas!!!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Quick & Easy Gift Card Holders with Eileen Hull

This is the time of year when I'm always in need of quick and easy yet stylish ways to dress up little gifts. I discovered that Eileen Hull's Luggage Tags die makes a perfect holder for a gift card! I think it's just right tied to a bag of gingerbread biscotti. I hope my son's teacher and class aides think so too! It really is a quick project to make – take a look:


I whipped these up in an afternoon (the baking took longer!) I started off by adhering the patterned paper to a piece of Sizzix Scoreboard. Using my Xyron sticker maker to apply the dry adhesive made it super fast and easy.


Die cut the luggage tag. Make sure the patterned paper side faces down when making your sandwich!

Nice fit! I love it when a plan comes together.

It's easiest to decorate the tags while they are still flat. I used stamping and embossing to jazz these up a bit. A little Distress ink around the edges gives them some nice depth.

Look at how nicely that gift card fits. I wrote a little note under each card on the inside of the tag before I stapled them shut. Make sure the card is pushed right back against the fold when you go to staple it. You can set the staple in about 1/16th of an inch and still have room. The card is in there tightly enough that a single staple holds it firmly in place. If you use a thinner chipboard or cardstock you would probably need to fasten the bottom as well so the card wouldn't fall out. Check it and see!

I thought, why stop now? I like to give a bag of cookies to the bus driver too and thought his gift should look nice as well. Fortunately the Place Card & Flowers die makes a great bag topper! I just cut it out of patterned cardstock, did a little stamping, and cut out the scalloped circle to cover up the "flower" part. (being non-seasonal and all ;-) ) Now the cookies are tasty and festive.


Are you thinking those gingersnaps are looking mighty tasty? You are in luck because last year I shared a free download of this recipe and other family favorites. You can find the link HERE at the bottom of the post.

Be sure to head on over to Eileen's blog and check out more seasonal inspiration from the whole team. The December Art with Heart Challenge is also going on right now and we want to see your creativity!

Dies Used:
Sizzix: 
Eileen Hull, Place Card & Flowers (Sizzix )
Eileen Hull, Luggage Tag (Sizzix )

Stamps Used:
Tim Holtz (S.A) - Season's Silhouettes
Tim Holtz (S.A) - Grunge Flakes
Tim Holtz (S.A) - Mini Holidays 4
AJVD - Pine Branches

Other:
Distress Ink - Vintage Photo, Embossing
Ranger Archival Ink - Fern Green, Pale Ochre, Red Geranium
Embossing Powder - white, gold, Ranger Antiquities Red Cinnabar, Moss
Sizzles mat board
Sizzix & Simon Says Stamp links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks! (My husband also thanks you!)

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Eileen Hull's December Art with Heart Challenge – A Few of Your Favorite Things…


Merry Christmas everyone! It's getting closer and closer. ;-) I still have so many ideas of projects I want to make. We will see how many come to fruition this month. The theme for the December Art with Heart Challenge is "Favorite Things". Basically that means anything goes lol. Show us your favorite themes, supplies, whatever. Unleash your creativity and take some time for it in this busy month. You could be rewarded with a great prize from Eileen for linking up your project in the challenge post!

My project was an idea that I had last year and never got a chance to make. Nativity decorations are definitely one of my favorite things and I enjoy having them set up around the house for the Christmas season. I knew that an ATB tower would be just perfect for the detailed mini nativity I bought from Retro Cafe Art. (They come in three sizes and I was just amazed at the crisp detail. So wonderful!)


Of course it is so hard to photograph but I used lots of metallic paint, shimmer mists and glitter. This ATB really sparkles and shines!

around we go…

turning…

need to get all the sides!
Please head on over to Eileen's blog and check out all the wonderful projects that my teammates have been cooking up. It's inspiration all month long!

Thanks for stopping by!


Dies Used: 
Sizzix:
Eileen Hull - Block/Cube/Bank 3-D (Sizzix
Eileen Hull - Blocks/Cubes 3-D (Sizzix) retired 

Other supplies:
Tim Holtz stamps - Joyful Song, Mini Holidays 4, Christmas Nostalgia
Tim Holtz stencils - Rays, Christmas
Wendy Vecchi Layered Tree Stencil
Distress Glitter - Vintage Platinum
Sizzles matboard
Distress Ink - Vintage Photo, Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Scattered Straw
Ranger Texture Paste
gold embossing powder
Wendy Vecchi Metallic Embossing Paste - Gold
Tim Holtz Foundations Metal Box Feet


Simon Says Stamp and Sizzix links in this post are affiliate links which do not affect the price you pay but allow me to earn a small percentage of a sale. Thanks! (My husband also says thanks!)


Tuesday, December 8, 2015

'Tis the Season' for an Inspiration Journal Challenge

It's time for the December Inspiration Journal Challenge! This month the theme is 'Tis the Season' and anything goes!


You may remember the Halloween spools I made in October. I promised that I would make some Christmas versions and I did! (I still have two left so we will see if those get 'Christmasfied' as well.) I really packed on the wintry Christmas goodness with lots of Tim Holtz and various findings from my stash. Onward for some closeups:


detail of top
Number two spool has a front and a back side:


Two sides are better than one!
I'm also going to enter these into the Emerald Creek Dares Christmas challenge and the Frilly & Funkie 'Tis the Season' challenge. =)

Thanks for stopping by! The supplies I used for this project can be found at Sizzix, Inspiration Emporium or Amazon. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE at Inspiration Emporium to save 10% if you go shopping there. I will also point out that US shipping is always $5 and international shipping is just $10 at IE.