25 Days of Christmas Tags: Jillibean style

Hello, thanks for joining me on the blog!  Today, the Jillibean designers are taking part in the final day of the 25 Days of Christmas Tags with Tracey McNeely.

I reached for the Jillibean holiday stamp and shaker products to create this extra special tag.  You can't go wrong with a trio of cute snowmen inside of a sweet little snow globe, can you?!  This tag could adorn just about any holiday package.

I stamped my snowmen onto watercolor cardstock, so that I would be able to use my Zig clean color real brush markers to bring them to life.  A smattering of iridescent sequins and glass seed beads move about inside my shaker element, to add to the look of falling snow.

I took a bit of a risk by attempting to stamp and heat emboss on the outside of the shaker circle.  If you look closely, you'll see that the heat from my heat gun caused the plastic to warp a little bit, but it was nothing I couldn't mask with some additional miniature tags. *If you try this yourself - be sure to keep your heat gun moving, as not to disfigure and/or melt the plastic completely!

Make sure you check out Tracey's blog for a look at all of the tags designed by the rest of the Jillibean team and for your chance to win an awesome prize from Jillibean Soup!

Just Nick Cards



Good morning! I'm popping on here quickly today to share some recent cards I've made with a slew of fun Just Nick Studio cut files!

This first watercolored design uses Just Nick's Butterfly Background file.

 

Supplies used: Just Nick butterfly background cut file; Stampin Up inks; Hero Arts ink: Felicity Jane stamped sentiment; Doodlebug sequins and gems; Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock; machine stitching.

And a close of the design, in which I stamped this pretty sentiment from Felicity Jane. 

This pretty card features not one but THREE Just Nick files: Stems for Stephanie, Stems and Card Sentiments 1.

Supplies used: Just Nick cut files - Stems for Stephanie, Stems, Card Sentiments 1; Recollections cardstock; Maggie Holmes/Crate Paper chipboard hearts, photo overlay and vintage buttons; DCWV glitter cardstock and text paper; machine stitiching

The Scripty Phrases file is one of my very favorites from the Just Nick store.  I knew it would pair just perfectly with this love themed paper from Chickaniddy Crafts.


Supplies used: Just Nick scripty phrases cut file; Chickaniddy Crafts patterned paper; Crate Paper patterned paper; Doodelbug Designs enamel dots; Scotch/3M foam adhesive; Other - crochet thread

I used the 'hello' sentiment from the Word Brushstrokes file to create a simple and eyecatching focal point for my card.  Not only does the cut file serve as my greeting, but also creates added interest to the design since I've turned it into a shaker box. 



Supplies used: Just Nick word brushstrokes cut file; Chickaniddy patterned paper; Doodlebug cardstock and sequins; foam adhesive, ribbon, button, crochet thread.

 

To see more details surrounding each of these cards and cut file designs, hop on over to the Just Nick site and blog!

Washi polka dots and another shaker card

Hello!  I'm just popping in for a minute to direct you to a little tutorial I have up on the Love My Tapes blog today.  I've made this fun birthday card featuring a shaker element and washi polka dots...




Supplies used: Love My Tapes - washi tapes and adhesive, Bazzill - cardstock, Me & My Big Ideas - clear sentiment stickers; We R Memory Keepers - circle dies; Other: silver seed beads, sequins, foam tape.

I hope you'll stop on over and give it a peek, and even better - give this technique a try for yourself!  If you do, be sure to check out and enter the giveaway they've got going on over there!

Shaker cards

Hi crafty friends!  Sorry for my unannounced absence!  I didn't intend to stay away from the blog for quite so long.  But with the holidays and new year's resolutions (recommitting to exercise!) thrown into the mix, I've had to prioritize a bit.  I'm sure you can relate!  The good news is, while I was away, I've also been busy crafting so I'll be around this week with lots to share!

Today I'm bringing you a couple of cards I created.  If you haven't noticed, shaker cards are making a bit of a comeback in the crafting world.  I was in need of cards for a few special people, so I decided to throw my hat into the mix and create my own version of the latest card trend.

For this first one, I resurrected some Imaginisce stamps from long ago.  Despite their 'age', they make for a sweet sympathy card for a friend who recently lost her dog.  I stamped the dog on white cardstock and colored her in using colored pencils and blending with gamsol, to match the coloring on my friend's beloved pooch.  I stamped and cut out two clouds to fit within the shaker window.  To give the background of my card some subtle interest, as to not take away too much attention from the showpiece shaker, I used an ink blending technique.  I stamped the cloud onto the sticky part of a post-it note and cut it out to create a mask for which to blend my ink over top.



Supplies used: Imaginisce - stamps (cloud and dog); Hero Arts - sentiment stamp, black ink; Diecuts With a View - cardstock and glitter paper; Simon Says Stamp - heart dies; My Favorite Things - oval die; Tim Holtz - distress inks; Scor-tape - adhesive; Fiskars - scissors; Other: colored pencils, foam adhesive, scrap sheet protector, glass beads.

I used an oval shaped die from My Favorite Things to create the window for my shaker card. Some ink blending behind the window, creates a nice sky look at the back of the shaker. Did you know you don't have to use any special material for the transparent part of your shaker?  For this card and the next, I cut up an old damaged page protector to fit in the window.  Talk about trash to treasure, huh?!  My shaker is filled with clear glass beads and sweet little hearts diecut from DCWV cardstock and glitter paper.  This DCWV glitter paper is my go to for manual diecutting.  It cuts wonderfully and leaves behind no mess!  I used a red sheet from the Holiday Glitzy Glitter Stack to cut my hearts.

On this next card, I thought it would be fun to create the shaker in the 'paper' part of the typewriter stamp.  It's kind of fun and unexpected touch, isn't it? Aside from a sprinkling of diecut hearts I kept the background pretty simple.  Because of that, I felt it was missing a little 'something', so I grabbed a small strip of glittery patterned paper from DCWV's Candy Cane Lane Stack to accent the right edge of the card.



Supplies used: Simply Iconic - stamps (typewriter and sentiment); Hero Arts - black ink; Diecuts With a View - cardstock, patterned paper and glitter paper; Simon Says Stamp - heart dies; Tim Holtz - distress ink; Scor-tape - adhesive; Fiskars - scissors; Other: foam adhesive, scrap sheet protector, glass beads.

More glass beads and tiny diecut hearts fill up the shaker.  This time I stamped the sentiment on the card base, so that it would end up in the background, inside the shaker box, for another interesting spin.

 

Thanks so much for joining me today as I dabbled in the shaker card world!  Hope you'll come back and visit me soon.