December 2015

Christmas Wreath

December 11, 2015

Hello everyone,

For today I have prepared a wreath to decorate your door and welcome your guests with the warmth of the winter holidays. Because the poinsettias are made of paper, please hang it indoors or on a door that is well protected from rain and snow.

To create this wreath you need a base of twigs, True Red Silk Microfine Glitter, Gold Metallic Shimmer Sheetz, a Metal Adaptor Plate, the other supplies on the list, and these 3 steel cutting dies from Susan’s Garden Club:

Garden Notes – Poinsettia

Garden Notes – Whitepine Boughs & Pinecone

Garden Notes – Holiday Holly & Berries

1. First die cut the poinsettias. Draw the veins on the red silhouette shapes with a Gold Gelly Roll Metallic pen. Use a Green liner pen or Green Metallic or Glitter pen to draw the veins on the green silhouette shapes. For added realism and dimension, shape them using the Susan’s Garden Tool set. Note: The die automatically embosses the vein lines, the pens are used to give them extra pop and contrast.

2. Next, die cut holly leaves and tint the edges using a Fingertip Sponge Dauber and Pine Needles (green) Distress Ink.

3. Using the Metal Adaptor Plate (required for die cutting Shimmer Sheetz) cut some Gold Shimmer Sheetz Whitepine Boughs. Review Els van de Burgt’s YouTube video if you are new to this technique.

4. Cover the Styrofoam stars with Clear Double Sided adhesive Tape, sprinkle with True Red Silk Microfine Glitter and polish the glitter with a fingertip to bring out the sparkle.

5. Tie a ribbon and bells at the top of the wreath. Use a hot glue gun to adhere the poinsettias, glittered stars, holly leaves, and ‘berries’ made from red beads. Refer to the project photo to see where to place everything.

Here are links to Susan Tierney-Cockburn’s video tutorials:

I wish you all Happy Holidays!

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs –

Garden Notes – Poinsettia (1090)

Garden Notes – Whitepine Boughs & Pinecone (1091)

Garden Notes – Holiday Holly & Berries (1088)

Gold Metallic – 3 Pack (SS 0212)

True Red – Silk Microfine Glitter

Susan’s Garden Club CountryScapes Tools Buy It All

Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape (wide enough to cover Styrofoam stars)

Other –

Wreath made of twigs (purchased or make one!)

1/8″ or 1/4″ (narrow) red ribbon

7/8″ or 1″ (wider) holiday-patterned ribbon

Gold jingle bells

Red beads

Styrofoam stars

Fingertip Sponge Dauber

Pine Needles Distress Ink

Sakura Gelly Roll Metallic pen in Gold

Liner pen in Green

Hot glue gun and glue stick

Announcements Uncategorized

Elizabeth Craft Designs January 2016 Sneak Peek

December 10, 2015

We’re bursting with excitement! Elizabeth Craft Designs’ 5 talented designers have created new dies, stamps, stencils, embossing folders, and papers for you to enjoy!

The Sneak Peek begins today and continues in the coming weeks, here on the blog as well as via Facebook. The official product launch takes place in January at the CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) Mega Show in Anaheim, California. Many stores are already pre-ordering with us, so you won’t have too long to wait. And if you can’t find what you want at your local retailer, our online store will be fully stocked. Keep an eye on our blog on Tuesday, December 15th for some extra exciting information!

els-img-1

Els van de Burgt Studio

Els has expanded her endlessly versatile Fitted Frames series with ovals and circles, circles shown above. And there’s more: She has also designed a series of three 6×6 paper packs called Through the Lens, based on her own photography! Wood. Metal. Stone. It’s all about close-ups, and textures that have caught her eye. Each pack holds 48 sheets, 16 designs (3 sheets per design), for cards, for scrapbooks, for any kind of project. She has also created must-have ribbon, chain, rope and jewelry dies, along with some amazing decorative corners that you’ll be seeing in the coming days and weeks, so be sure to stay tuned on our blog and Facebook page…

KB_SneakPeek2

Karen Burniston Pop it Ups

Two new collections with so much to love! Karen Burniston isn’t monkeying around. Or maybe she is…We just know that the High Jinks Collection with its clear stamps, Jinks the Monkey (one of the two new Characters), the Bananas embossing folder and the rest of the collection is sure to please. You’ll have to wait just a bit to meet Coffee & Cake, the second collection, but not too long – it’s all coming soon, we promise. Meanwhile, HERE is a link to a YouTube video for the High Jinks card.

Joset

Joset Designs

Just like the words you see on the cards above, Joset Designs’ new dies by Joset van de Burgt are yummy and sweet; happy, fun dies that celebrate life’s occasions, both big and small. Who doesn’t love strawberries, especially when they are chocolate-coated? And her banner dies will make everybody’s short list, for sure. Be on the lookout for hot air balloons, rainbow, sun and clouds, kites, cupcakes and more!

Susan-Img-2

Susan’s Garden Club

Susan Tierney-Cockburn (‘Co-burn’) continues to amaze, with her garden growing more and more each season. How come there are no weeds? Oh well… We can create paper flowers with her new Garden Notes dies like the low-relief daffodil shown above in a Stitched Oval and make wreaths that never wilt and are perfect for any season! There are three wreath shapes in her new release: Oval, Square, and Circle. The oval is above, the others are equally wonderful. Susan’s adding a brand new Garden Edges collection, the CountryScapes series is expanding, and there are new Seeds of Thought red rubber stamps as well. You’ll see these and more as the Sneak Peek continues.

Suzanne-BRIGHT

A Way With Words

Let’s All Celebrate! You asked for more and Suzanne Cannon has met the challenge. Her new release comes directly from her pen and ink hand-lettering, calligraphy that is magically transformed into elegant, amazing cutting dies. In addition to Celebrate, you’ll find Calligraphic Elements (an exclamation point, shown in the card above, plus flourishes), Thank You (in English, German, and French), It’s a Party, Live, Love, Laugh…and…and…we don’t want to spoil the surprise, but we can say with full certitude that there is a lot to love. As always, the dies are big enough to star on card fronts, and perfect for mixing and matching with dies from all of the other designers’ collections. A detail to note: The colorful strings on Suzanne’s balloons.

We hope you are excited for us to reveal the full details very, very soon. You might want to keep an eye on this section of our website too…

Happy Crafting!

5 Comments

Pop it Ups

Wednesday with Karen Aicken – Pull Card with Extra Flap

December 9, 2015

Hello friends

Karen Aicken here with a masculine birthday card. It’s a Spiral Circle Pull Card with an extra flap, which gives you more room to write a message or add a larger greeting. Here is the card in the closed position:

Here is the card part way open;

And finally, opened all the way;

Here is how to make the card:

1. Cut your patterned paper 12 x 5-1/2″ and score at 4-1/4 and 8-1/2″. Line up the Spiral Circle Pull Card’s alignment nubs on the 4-1/4″ score line (pattern side up), centring the circle and stopping the cutting pad before the notches. You do not want to cut the notches for this card. Fold the right flap to the inside (patterned sides together). Fold the left flap to the inside on the 4-1/4″ score line, (patterned sides together) then fold the smaller section back to the left (pattern side out). This is your base card which is now ready for layers and embellishing.

2. Cut a second patterned paper as follows: one 3-1/4 x 5-1/4″ and one 4 x 5-1/4″. Adhere the larger panel to the inside centre of the card, and the smaller panel to the front of the right side flap (when it’s folded in).

3. Cut a white panel 3-3/4 x 5″ and centre it over the larger patterned paper centre panel from Step 2.

4. Using the decorator dies that come with the SCPC, cut a circle from the second patterned paper and adhere it to the front circle. Draw or computer print a number 4, fussy cut and add colour with markers if desired. Add to front circle with foam tape. Cut a few elements from the first patterned paper and adhere around card with foam tape. (Alternatively, you could use the Numbers & More die set.)

5. Using the Clock and Gears set, cut two large black gears, one small black gear and one large gear from the second patterned paper. Pierce a hole in the two large black gears and adhere a red mini brad through each. Add a red mini brad to the small gear. Layer one black gear with one patterned paper gear on the inside panel, and the others as shown or as desired.

6. Using adhesive backed red card stock, cut two red stars from the Happy Birthday Pop-Up and the letters to spell your name of choice. Adhere to card. Using adhesive backed black card stock, die cut the Happy and Birthday from the Happy Birthday Pop-Up and adhere to the inside panel as shown.

Note – If you want more room to write a message or note, add a second white panel to the inside right flap.

This type of extra flap works for many different occasions, and all the Pull Cards! It’s an easy way to change up the look of your cards in addition to giving you extra room for decorating. Try adding a spinner to that inner fold – or add the spiral to that extra inner flap!

Have fun with this technique.

Elizabeth Craft Designs Supplies:

916 – Spiral Circle Pull Card

917 – Clock & Gears,

947 – Happy Birthday Pop-Up,

967 – Alphabet 1 Caps

509 – Clear Double Sided Adhesive, 152mm (6″) width

Patterned paper – Pink Paislee

White, Black and Red card stocks

Red mini-brads

Font – KG Happy

2 Comments

Els van de Burgt Studio

Festive Leaves and Berry Branch Gift Tags

December 8, 2015

Hi there! It’s Marsha here again with a minimal but stylish idea to decorate your seasonal gifts.

Busy season has kicked in and I’m on the look-out for easy to do handmade projects that take minimal effort.

I was looking at a magazine and saw these beautiful gift tags with fresh greenery attached to them. I loved the idea, it’s easy to do, but you can’t really prepare this in advance, as the fresh leaves and berries won’t keep until the holidays. Unless… you make them out of paper!

The individual steps for these tags hardly take any time, so I think this is an excellent project you can do one step at a time, whenever you have a spare moment!

Here are the steps to create the tags:

1. Die-cut as many leaves and berry branches as you think you’ll need out of watercolour paper.

2. Colour the leaves and branches with watercolours. Leave the watercoloured die-cuts to dry completely.

Don’t have time to wait for paint to dry? Replace the watercolours with a colouring medium that is instantly dry, like alcohol markers, brush tip pens, or coloured pencils!

3. Die-cut as many tags as you think you’ll need out of your favourite cardstock.

4. Add Glossy Accents and/or Puffy Paint to the berries. Leave to dry completely.

Don’t have time to wait for the accents to dry? Replace them with Glitter Dots or self-adhesive crystals. Or… just skip this step!

5. Adhere the branches and leaves to the tags with small strips of washi tape.

6. Add some twine to the tags and use the tags to decorate your gifts or your home!

Happy crafting!

Marsha

SUPPLIES:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:
1074 Leaf & Berry Branches
1033 Leafy Branch
958 Tags & More 5 – Sunburst
758 Berry Branch
703 Triple Leaf Set

Other:
Watercolours (Winsor and Newton)
Bakers twine
Glossy Accents (Ranger)
Puffy Paint White (Tulip)

8 Comments

Uncategorized Videos

Frosty The Snowman Ornament

December 7, 2015

Hello everyone it is Christine from Susan’s Design Team here to share my Christmas ornament project. This idea came to me when I came across these clear open face balls which brought back a childhood memory of our Dad bringing home a box of 6 ornaments that were half balls with a scene in each one. Those became my favorite ornaments and today I have the only 2 remaining ornaments from that set. I knew Susan’s CountryScapes Build a Snowman die set would be perfect for this project. Lets get started on our project.

Using a small foam brush and Kids Choice glue coat the inside of a clear open face ball completely and evenly and also put some around the rim of the opening.
Pour diamond dust into the ball and swirl around covering all the glue and dump out the excess. Dip rim in diamond dust coating the rim. Set aside to dry.
Cut 2 inch foam ball in half then cut the half into 4 even pieces. Take the first 2 pieces with dome side up coat with glue and sprinkle on diamond dust. Set aside to dry.
Using Susan’s CountryScapes Woods 4 Holiday Evergreens and Trimmings die set, cut 4 trees from green cardstock. Cut top 1-1/2″ from trees. Cut wooden skewers to 2″ from point end and wrap with green floral tape starting at top and wrap towards point leaving the last half inch exposed. Run line of glue down the center of 1 tree lay skewer on the center leaving the exposed 1/2″ end as the tree trunk. Place glue down the skewer and add second tree off setting just a little to give a fuller look. Repeat for the second tree. When dry, use your fingers to pinch up the limbs and add dimension.
Apply Elizabeth Craft Designs’ Clear Double Sided Adhesive to the front and back of Elizabeth Craft Designs’ 100lb white Soft Finish Cardstock, then die cut the snowman from Susan’s CountryScapes Build A Snowman die set. Cut the hat, eyes and mouth from black cardstock with adhesive on front and back. Cut the nose from orange cardstock with adhesive on both sides. Using brown cardstock with adhesive just on the back, cut stick arms and 2 brooms. Using yellow cardstock with adhesive on the back, cut 2 sets of just the broom bristles. Cut the cat and bird using Susan’s CountryScapes – Country Critter 1 die set. 1 small holly leaf was cut free hand from green cardstock. Cut 2 scarves from printed paper and glue together.
Using Silk Microfine Glitter Cool Diamond, peel off the top layer of protective paper on the 3 pieces of snowman and sprinkle with glitter, the burnish it with your finger. Repeat with the hat, eyes and mouth using black glitter and orange for the nose.
Build your snowman on a scrap of black cardstock and then cut out using Elizabeth Craft Designs’ fine scissors. For the broom bristles using fine scissors cut the bristles into 1/2 or 1/3 glue onto the broom attach only on the top of the bristles and fluff the bristles with your fingers.
Take the first piece of foam ball (will be the shorter pc), add glue to the front lower part of snowman and attach the snowman to the back side of ball pc (which is the cut side), making sure the bottom of the snowman is at the bottom of the ball hold in place until the glue holds. Glue the cat to front of the ball. Stick 2 trees into the top of next slice of foam ball. Take the two pieces dry fit inside ball and adjust height if needed. When satisfied with placement, glue together and add glue to bottom edges especially on the ends place in ball. Allow to dry. Add the bow to the top. Elizabeth Craft Designs has a video on their YouTube channel on using the Silk Microfine Glitter seen here and Susan has a video for building the snowman seen here. The videos are so helpful!

I do hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial today and will be inspired to make your own ornaments. There are so many possibilities with Susan’s wonderful dies. Enjoy!Until next time,

Happy Scrapping!

Christine

Elizabeth Craft Designs Supplies Used

1081 Susan’s Garden CountryScapes – Build A Snowman
#989 Susan’s Garden CountryScapes – Country Critters 1

1093 Susan’s Garden CountryScapes – Holiday Evergreen & Trimmings

641 Silk Microfine Glitter – Cool Diamond

601 Silk Microfine Glitter – Basic Black

613 Silk Microfine Glitter – Orange

PSF102 100lb Soft Finish Cardstock

508 Double Sided Clear Adhesive

802 Fine Scissors

Other Supplies

Clear Open Ornament – (JoAnn Fabric)

2″ Smooth Foam Ball

Twinklets Diamond Dust

Kids Choice Glue

Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear Adhesive

Floral Tape

Wooden Skewer

Close To My Heart Cardstock – New England Ivy, Black, Canary, Chocolate and Cranberry

Close To My Heart Background & Texture Paper

1 Comment

A Way With Words

Candles, Candles, Candles

December 6, 2015

By Judi Kauffman

Thank you for inviting me to be today’s guest designer. I thought it would be fun to make cards with candles, and as always I wanted to play with unexpected colors and a lot of patterned elements – the candles themselves, along with background papers.

To me, candles always conjure up some kind of celebration, twinkling lights and good times. It was fun to decide which of Elizabeth Craft Designs’ candles to use for my projects. There are several options including dies and peel-offs. I chose Candles Peel-offs 2545 for my three cards because of all of the stripes and dots. I made a card for our goddaughter’s husband’s 40^thbirthday, one for their children for Chanukah, and one for a neighbor for Christmas.

There are a dozen candles on each sheet of Peel-Off Stickers, and of course with dies there is no limit to the number you can make.

Design Strategies and Instructions:

Place candle peel-offs on smooth white cardstock; color with markers. Use fine point scissors to cut out the candles, taking special care around the flame and wick. Candle peel-offs come in black, gold, and silver – pick the color appropriate to the project. Option: Add a Glitter Dot peel-off to the base of each flame. (As shown, Orange/Silver dots used on birthday and Chanukah cards.)

For the birthday card and Christmas card, die cut a large greeting from Shimmer Sheetz. Options: Lightly sand the Shimmer Sheetz before cutting, cut the greeting a second time from Adhesive Velvet in a darker color to use as a drop shadow as shown on the birthday card. A Metal Adaptor Plate is required for die cutting Shimmer Sheetz. Review Els van de Burgt’s video’s HERE and HERE if you are new to this technique.

For the birthday card cut Shimmer Sheetz and Velvet Adhesive numbers for the age of the recipient. Option: Add Glitter Dots Peel-Off Stickers to the numbers. (As shown, use the same Orange/Silver dots as on the candles.)

To complete the Chanukah card: Use the glittering technique and alcohol markers with a Ribbon Swirls Peel-Off Stickers strip. Choose colors that coordinate with the candles. Review Els van de Burgt’s video HERE if you are new to this technique. Cut the glittered strip into 3 pieces: 6 3/8”, 1”, and 5/8”. Use Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape to secure these pieces to Blue Velvet Adhesive sheet, leaving a 1/8” border on all sides of the first two pieces and a 1/8” border only on the long sides of the 5/8” piece. Center the menorah on a 4 1/4” x 7” piece of striped scrapbook paper in colors that coordinate with markers used to color the candles. Center the striped rectangle on a glittered cardstock top-fold card base, folded size – 5” x 7 3/4”.

To complete the Christmas card: Color two holly berry/leaf clusters and one bow from the Christmas Ornaments 2 peel-off sheet. Cut around them, separating the berry trios from the pairs of leaves. Position the Red Iridescent die cut Shimmer Sheetz Merry Christmas on a 3 1/4” x 4 3/4″ piece of red cardstock. Use small pieces of Power Adhesive Tabs to hold the words in place. Tip: Cut Power Tabs with non-stick scissors. Mat to a piece of red glittered cardstock, leaving a 1/4” border on all sides. Center red rectangle on a top-fold card base made from diagonally striped paper, folded size – 5” x 7”. Add the holly, berries, and candles, positioned as shown in the project photo. Note: The berries are above the greeting, the leaves are tucked partially behind it.

To complete the flat* birthday card: Center a 3” x 4” piece of glittered cardstock on a 4 3/4” x 5 1/2” piece of striped paper. Add a double border to the striped rectangle, leaving a scant 1/8” border on the darker color and a generous 1/8” border on the lighter color (the bottom layer). Arrange and adhere the die cut greeting and shadow, the numbers and shadow, and four candles, as shown in the project photo. *Flat cards are meant to be displayed on a Card Stand/Easel or hung on the wall. Use a side-fold card base instead if you prefer.

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs –

2545 Candles Peel-Off Stickers (Black and Gold)

1271 Ribbon Swirls Peel-Off Stickers (Gold)

2536 Christmas Ornaments 2 Peel-Off Stickers (Black for Holly, Berries & Bow)

7018 Glitter Dots Peel-Off Stickers (Orange/Silver)

1054 Happy Birthday

1056 Merry Christmas

SS0226 Red Iridescent Shimmer Sheetz

SS0109 Orange Iridescent Shimmer Sheetz

803 Metal Adaptor Plate (required for die cutting Shimmer Sheetz)

407 Blue Velvet Adhesive Sheet

505 Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape 3mm

(Other options for candles – 732 Candles die set, 0355 Candles Peel-Off Stickers)

Other –

12” Whiteout Solitutude #19101229 (striped paper) – BoBunny

ProMarkers – Winsor & Newton

Sanding block

Fine point and non-stick scissors

Tombow Power Adhesive Tabs

Solid color, glittered, and diagonally striped cardstock

2 Comments

Pop it Ups

Geometric Merry & Bright Stamped Card

December 5, 2015

Happy Saturday! It’s Karen Burniston here today with a stamped card front using the Merry & Bright clear stamps, plus a handy assist from a flourish die included in the Merry Christmas Pop Up die set.

Recently I saw a couple of cards on Pinterest featuring stamps combined to create geometric designs. I made a mental note to try my tree stamp to make a star shape. Unfortunately, I did not pin those geometric stamped cards that sparked this idea, so it took a little detective work, but I believe the credit for the original idea should go to Betsy Veldman.

My card is a very simple design. Here’s how to make it:

Cut a 5.5″ square of white cardstock and mark guidelines with a pencil at the horizontal and vertical centers of the panel (measure to 2.75″). Also mark guidelines on the diagonal. Stamp the tree in green over the vertical and horizontal pencil lines, placing the star at the edge of the cardstock and making sure the pencil line is in the center of the trunk when stamping.
Add double-sided adhesive tape to the back of a piece of red cardstock large enough to die cut four flourishes. Cut each flourish in half before adding to the card. Use the diagonal lines to help align the flourishes so they meet at the line and follow the edges of the stamped trees.
Stamp a prancing reindeer in dark brown ink on a scrap of white cardstock and cut into a circle. (Note, I used the small circle die from the Ring Accordion set, but this step can also be done by tracing something round and cutting the circle by hand. The glitter dots will cover any uneven edges) Stamp three snowflakes in red ink along the diagonal lines starting with the largest snowflake near the flourishes, then medium, then small.
Adhere the reindeer circle to the center of the piece and add glitter dots around the circle. Stamp medium snowflakes in red ink just outside the reindeer circle in the corners where the trees meet. Add glitter dots to the centers of all snowflakes and stars.
Mount the finished panel onto a 6″ x 6″ top fold red card and line the edges of the panel with Glitter Lines.

Stamp or write a message inside the card, or take it to the next level and add the Merry Christmas pop-up inside the card!

Ready to give this card a go? Here’s what you’ll need:

Elizabeth Craft Designs Supplies:

CS003 – Merry & Bright Clear Stamps
1039 – Merry Christmas Pop Up (flourish only)
904 – Ring Accordion (circle only)
7018 – Transparent/Silver Glitter Dots
7010 – ransparent/Silver Glitter Lines
Clear Double Sided Adhesive

Other Supplies:

White & Red Cardstock
Green, Red and Brown inks, plus acrylic blocks

2 Comments

A Way With Words Els van de Burgt Studio

Merry Christmas Poinsettia Home-Deco Candle Holder

December 4, 2015

Yogi here with a decorative home decor item for your festive table or mantel. I usually just make cards during this time of year, but thought I’d make something a little out of my norm… BIG GRIN.

I LOVE the Els van de Burgt Studio Poinsettia, Holly Leaves and Berry Branch and Suzanne Cannon, A Way With Words dies. I reach for them continuously.

Safety first: This project is for waxed battery-operated candles only, not the wick and wax variety.

Instructions:

Cut a piece of tissue paper and copy paper a little larger than the size of your die. Paint one side of the tissue paper with the Deco Art Dazzling Metallics “Emperor’s Gold” acrylic paint (or paint of choice).

ECDPoinsettiaHolder_Step1

2. (Note – I’m using a layer of copy paper to protect my tissue paper.)

The sandwich: with the cut edge of your die facing up (Merry Christmas), copy paper, tissue paper – painted side down (facing the die) and the rest of your machine’s cutting surfaces. PS I ALWAYS use a metal adapter plate to help with cutting, but also to keep my acrylic plates pristine… run thru machine.

Remove from die, while still layered, remove negative pieces, then carefully separate the tissue from the copy paper.

3. Create a cradle to hold your candle steady using a piece of copy paper with the ends rolled toward the center, then just place your candle within the cradle.

I use Ranger’s “Heat It” tool because it produces less ‘wind’ than many heat tools and my tissue paper doesn’t blow away…

Position the tissue paper word and while holding it down, start heating a small area of the candle. You will start to get a glossy wet look. Stop heating and use the metal spatula, gently press the tissue into the melted wax. It will cool rapidly so you need to work quickly.

Once this first section is adhered with the wax, the rest goes real easy. Do small areas at a time until all adhered.

4. Cut at least a 4″ circle from heavy box type cardboard (or chipboard (at least an 1″ larger than your pillar candle (3″)). Die cut with your machine. It will not cut through, but will give you a good guiding cut line to continue the cut with your x-acto knife.

Paint the surface and edges with the gold paint.

5. Die cut your various Shimmer Sheetz elements. Two large solid base Poinsettia pieces from red metallic, two pink Iris filigree pieces, 3 green holly leaves, 2 bronze metallic berry branches.

6. Place the filigree onto the solid poinsettia base matching the petal shapes and while holding both together, fold down 2 of the petals above the center dots. Shimmer Sheetz holds the folds nicely. The side view should look like a right angle. Place a drop of hot glue onto the dot area of the solid base the size of a pea, then press the filigree piece down. The glue will seep through the little holes and create a nice bond.

Place a line of hot glue about an inch long, along the outer edge of the circle and press the poinsettia down to adhere.

NOTE: For the best fit, leave at least a 1/8″ gap between the candle and the Shimer Sheetz elements when holder is finished.

Repeat with 2nd poinsettia.

Place a drop of glue in the center of poinsettia and carefully press the large half pearl down.

Cut the berry branch into 2 smaller pieces. Put a drop of hot glue on the end of the berry branch pieces, working one piece at a time place a branch on each end. Be careful – the glue slightly softens the branch but when cooled the branch will be stiff again.

Put drops of Liquid Pearls “White Opal” onto the berries.

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs:

Els van de Burgt Studio – Poinsettia (1067)

Els van de Burgt Studio – Holly Leaves and Berry (926)

Els van de Burgt Studio – Berry Branch (758)

A Way With Words, Merry Christmas (1056)

Shimmer Sheetz – Iris Sampler (SS 0227)

Shimmer Sheetz – Metallic Sampler (SS 0231)

Shimmer Sheetz – Bronze Metallic (SS 0215)

Other:

Waxed battery-operated pillar candle (at least 3″ diameter)

Tissue paper

Gold metallic acrylic paint

Die cutting machine

Ranger Heat It tool (low-temp heat tool)

Metal spatula

Scrap cardboard or chipboard

Hot glue gun

Liquid Pearls (White Opal)

Large half pearl gems

2 Comments

Christmas Gift Tags

December 3, 2015

Hi everyone,

It’s Frances Byrne here. It’s December and my Christmas Tree has been put up and decorated and it is time to start thinking about wrapping the presents to put under the tree, so when my Grandchildren come over they get all excited! Of course wrapping presents means I need some gift tags so I know who the present is for. Today I am sharing 5 gift tags I created using the Christmas Ornaments 2 Peel-Off Stickers and the Tags and More 1 – Lace die set.

I made made 5 gift tags as I wanted to use all the pieces from the Peel-Off Sticker sheet, but of course if you only want to make one that is easy enough to do.

Here’s how I created my gift tags:

Cut five pieces of red cardstock so they measure 3 1/4 inches x 5 1/2inches.

Using the tag edge from the Tags & More 1 – Lace die set place this as close as you can to one of the 3 1/4 inch edges of the card and run through die cutting machine.

Place the decorative die from the Tags & More 1 – Lace die set onto the card so it lines up with the curve and hole created from the tag edge die and run through die cutting machine. Set aside.

2. Creating the Peel-Off Sticker images:

a. Before reading the instructions below, you can see a video Els created using this technique here.

b. Place a sheet of Transparent Double-Sided Adhesive onto cardstock that is big enough for your peel-offs and remove the release sheet.

c. Be careful not to touch the adhesive or it will leave fingerprints in the glitter.

d. From the Christmas Ornaments 2 Peel-Offs, place the ornaments, holly leaves and bows onto the release sheet (sticky side up).

e. Place the cardstock that has Transparent Double-Sided Adhesive, sticky side down, on top of the peel-offs (In other words, place sticky onto sticky.)

f. Use release sheet in handling the cardstock until you cover the adhesive with glitter so you don’t leave fingerprints on the exposed adhesive.

g. Cover the adhesive with Warm Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter, polish glitter with your finger and brush off the excess.

h. Color your images as desired using alcohol-based markers on the glitter.

i. Cut around all peel-off pieces.

j. Color white edges with a black permanent marker to give a more finished look.

k. Attach the ornaments to the top portion of the tags and then decorate the ornaments using either the holly pieces or bows (refer to photo at top of post)

* Coloring Tips for alcohol-based markers and glitter: Remember that when using alcohol-based markers, such as Copics, work quickly and don’t let the tip of the marker linger on the glittered surface. Too much alcohol ink can dissolve the adhesive and remove the glitter. It takes very little ink to color the surface of the glittered image so work with a light touch. To get the blended look, lay a line of color down along one edge of the section you want to color and then use your Blender pen to pull the color across the rest of the image. You may have to lay more color down to get deeper shading after you blend it out.

3. Creating the Glittered Panel at Bottom of Tags:

Cut a piece of white card which is approx 3 1/2 inches x 6 inches. (TIP: I always cut my card slightly bigger than I need so I can trim down when the card is covered with glitter so any blemishes around the edges of the card can be removed.
Lay a length of 10 mm Elizabeth’s Transparent Double Sided Tape diagonally onto the white card as per first photo above. Next lay a length of 3 mm Elizabeth’s Transparent Double Sided Tape next to the 10 mm piece so it is butted up close. Add an additional length of 3 mm Double Sided Tape next to the first piece. Then lay a piece of 6 mm Elizabeth’s Transparent Double Sided Tape next to the 3 mm piece. Continue placing the tape onto the card until it is completely covered. Trim excess tape off around the edges of the card. (TIP: You may want to remove some of the excess tape from the edges while you are laying out the tape to make it easier to lift off your work surface when finished cover completely with tape)
Randomly remove the protective backing from the covered card and then every third piece of tape after that, being careful not to touch the adhesive you are uncovering. When you have removed the backing from the tape for the first color, cover the adhesive with Soft Green Silk Microfine Glitter. Brush off any excess glitter from the card, and polish the glitter on the card before continuing to the next step. (TIP: For Silk Microfine Glitter projects, Elizabeth Craft Designs recommends that you work with the lightest colors first, then the darker ones. This is not a rigid rule but usually produces the crispest and most accurate results. (Remember, if any of the glitter colors get mixed together during the process of polishing one color and then another, keep a separate jar for the random mixture and use it for interesting and unexpected textures.)
Remove the protective backing from every third piece of tape next to the Soft Green pieces and this time cover with Forest Green Silk Microfine Glitter. Repeat steps as per above.
Remove the remaining protective backing from the tape on the card and cover with True Red Silk Microfine Glitter.
Use black line peel-off stickers from the Borders Assortment Peel-Off sheet to embellish the glittered card. (TIP: Look at your glittered piece and if you have areas that may not have been glittered select these areas to cover with the peel-off lines.
Cut this piece into 1 inch x 3 1/2 inch pieces.

4. Using the Merry Christmas Stand Up Helper die, die cut this from dark green card so you have about 1/2 edge at the bottom, below the word.

Attach the sentiment to the back of the striped glittered piece created in step 3.
Attach strip to the bottom edge of tag so that the letter “S” from Christmas is lined up to the right hand side of the card.
Trim off any excess glittered strip from sides of tag.

5. Add ribbon to top centre hole of tag (Note: the Tags and More 1 – Lace die set comes with various reinforcement decorative dies if you wish to add one to your tags.)

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed my tutorial.

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs
Tags & More 1 – Lace (951)

Merry Christmas Stand Up Helper Word Die (939)

Christmas Ornaments 2 Peel Off Stickers (2536)

Red/Gold Glitter Dots Peel Off Stickers (7018)

Borders Assort Peel-Off Stickers (1167)
Warm Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter (639)

True Red Silk Microfine Glitter (614)

Soft Green Silk Microfine Glitter (631)

Forest Green Silk Microfine Glitter (633)
Clear Double Sided Adhesive Sheet (502)

Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape – 3mm (505)
Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape – 6mm (506)

Clear Double Sided AdhesiveTape – 10mm (507)

Other
White Card
Red Card
Dark Green Card
Foam Tape

Green Ribbon

3 Comments

Pop it Ups

Pop it Ups Wednesday with Shelly – Vintage Sleigh Ornament

December 2, 2015

Hi all! It’s Shelly Hickox here today with a fun spin on one of my favorite dies from Karen Burniston. When I first saw the Sleigh Gift Card Holder, I knew I had to find a way to make it into a dimensional ornament. After spotting a vintage pink sleigh online, I was inspired to use those colors to create my own shabby chic version from paper! Here’s how it came together:

1. Die cut two sleighs from silver glitter paper using the large base sleigh. Adhere a sheet of Elizabeth Craft Designs adhesive to the back of another piece of glitter paper. Cut two more sleighs, but make the cuts from the back side, creating a mirror image.

2. Remove the release paper and adhere the glitter sleighs, creating two sleighs with glitter on each side. Next, cut a piece of glitter paper measuring 4.5″ x 1.5″. Score 1/4″ from the edge on either side and adhere a strip of Elizabeth Craft Designs adhesive tape. Cut tabs as shown.

3. Fold up tabs, remove release paper, and adhere one side of strip to one sleigh. Repeat with the other piece. You now have a 3D sleigh!

4. Now we can decorate! Cut two of the decorative layers of the sleigh from Velvet Adhesive Paper, again reversing the paper on the second cut to create a mirror image. Emboss the die cuts using Karen Burniston’s Damask Embossing Folder. Note – it’s better to emboss after you cut. The texture gets flattened a bit if you emboss first.

To finish your ornament, adhere the embossed velvet paper to either side of the sleigh. Die cut the Noel and snowflakes from adhesive-backed paper and adhere as shown. Die cut several Berry Branches and glue inside the sleigh. Add a tree, die cut gifts, a ribbon, and your ornament is complete!

I hope you’re inspired to try making a sweet little sleigh ornament yourself. If pink and pretty isn’t your thing, you can choose different colors and style this in any fashion you choose. It would make a great teacher or secret Santa gift with a little candy and a gift card tucked inside. Or make a whole fleet and decorate your mantel – the possibilities are endless!

Supplies:

Other Supplies:

Glitter Paper
Ribbon
Clear Adhesive Gems
Silver Cord
Silver Paint

Thanks so much for stopping by today – have a great week!

Shelly

4 Comments

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