What’s On My Desk Wednesday and Two Trees Card

`What’s on my desk today?  Absolutely nothing!  I have had a festive tidy up!  Doesn’t look right does it?

These Christmas trees are from a pack I found in a garden centre craft shop.  They have a wooden background with an embossed green felt front, but I don’t know who made them. I have added a few flat backed gems to them for extra bling.  As I  have run out of white glitter card, I’ve used a liberal sprinkling of micro glitter on white card for the snow.  I have finished the card by doodling snowflakes with a white gel pen on the pale blue sky.

I don’t think this is a card I will go into production with as it needs some more twiddling, the proportion of the trees and their positioning isn’t quite right.

Julia’s Christmas Chocolate Bars

This is not one of my own ideas I found it on Julia’s inspiring and sooooo funny blog Stamping Ground and thought it would make a brilliant small present/stocking filla.

I have taken the paper wrapper off an own brand bar of chocolate and recovered it with a holly design scrapbook paper (sorry I don’t know the name or maker). I have added a red band round the middle and added a few doodled faux stitches.  The message is copied directly from Julia’s chocolate bars, typed and backed on silver.  The holly leaves are made using a holly punch with red Paperchase flat backed gems as berries.

Thank you again Julia.  In the New Year I am going to look for some more chocolate sayings, in fact I am sure there is a website dedicated to them ….. This is an idea that could be adapted to many different occasions.

Chocolate Christmas Spoons

This is a very simple last minute idea ….  and not a piece of card or flat backed gem to be seen ……!

The teaspoons are from a Poundland pack, where else?  I have then drawn very rough holly leaves and berries on the handles using Sharpie pens

 

I added melted chocolate to the spoon bowl with a few white chocolate stars….
 

And then packaged them up when set; the single spoons in a cut down pretzel bag (from E-bay)  and the pack of three in a cut down narrow cello bag with a green ribbon finishing them all off.

Snow Alert - Get Out There With Your Cameras

Believe me, you will thank me for this Top Tip next Christmas!!

If this card looks familiar – I posted my first version back on 9th October (see archive)

Since then I have fiddle farted with it a bit more and this is the version I have finally sent out to family and friends. The above is a reject, as the top snowflake has a bit missing!

The reason for my repeating the post is simple – IT’S BEEN SNOWING……. wooooo hoooooo, and there is bound to be more on the way…….

So when it gets to you, get in the garden with your camera and start making snowmen ……..

I took the picture for this card when it snowed way back in February, when  I had an inkling of an idea.  The snowmen are tiny, about 10 inches tall and stood on my garden table.  Then in September I had 50 copies printed off and this is what I came up with.

My sister has made her Christmas cards using her snowman picture too – I will add it to this post when I take a photo.

Wouldn’t it be brilliant next year  if I featured all our snowmen cards on this blog????!!!!!!!

Christmas Poop Favor/Treat Bags

I have jumped onto the festive poop bandwagon. I had resisted such a long time ..... but market forces and all that ............ once it was in the staffroom I just could not produce enough! I am now totally pooped out!

This is what I have come up with using Poundland jumbo chocolate coated raisins and Accessorize christmas stickers

 

 

The vacumn sealer below has been a brilliant buy for making sweetie bags, I really prefer to use wrapped sweets but sometimes this isn’t possible.  I bought it off E-bay for about £14.99 a couple of months ago.  I only tend to use the sealer option. What I like best is the fact that if I put a few sweets at the bottom of a tall cello bag, when it seals and cuts off at the top, the remains of the bag are sealed at the bottom too, effectively giving me two bags from one (I hope that makes sense!)

The contents of the sweetie cupboard in my craftroom, – all ready to make sweetie bags, snowman soup and fill jingle beans jars (see October archive)

Deck The Halls

Not sure if this card is worth a post.  I think my writing is a bit dodgy and could have been better.

It took a matter of minutes to make, the holly leaves are from a packet of table confetti, they came with berries too, but I swopped them for small red flat backed gems.

Nothing to it, an easy project  for anyone just starting card making, and cheap too!

Blue Nosed Reindeer Favor/Treat Bags

This is just for fun, I saw these blue bon bons and just had to buy a few ….. because they made me think of cold noses in winter!

The wooden reindeer heads are from Hobbycraft own range and I have just added a blue flat backed gem to add to the joke.

Naughty or Nice Christmas Card

This couldn’t be simpler – and look, no mat and layering !The stockings are from a pack of 9 from Papermania and the Naughty or Nice sticker is  from a set of embossed stickers from The Paper Loft called Flip Flops, but I haven’t got a clue where I got them from -  E-bay probably.

I am not sure if this is a “top tip”,  but, if I am not sure about the design of a card I put it on the window sill in my craft room and occasionally take a quick glance at it, if after a day or two it “looks right”, it’s a keeper, if it still looks dodgy, it goes in the bin!

When I “bin” a card I always tear it up, this guarantees I can’t go back to it and niggle over how to put it right.

I have enough festive ideas to blog up until Christmas Eve, after that I would like to keep things going over the holiday, so I have put together a few posts about the tools I use, like my scoring boards and punches as well as a few Top Tips. Once we have celebrated New Year I will back to normal ....... a bit like Cadbury's I'll be starting Easter!!!!! -  Only joking!

Christmas Kisses and Santa Favor Bags

Two more ideas for using sweets that are in the shops this Christmas

This packet is made using jelly lips (available in WH Smith and Thorntons Pick and Mix)

I have made 27 of these Santa bags for one of the teachers at work to give to her class as an end of term present.
The chocolates are from M & S (99p for net of 10, I got them when they were on offer, buy 4 pay for 3 – something like that).  I have added a few festive sprinkles for extra bling.
The bag toppers for both these ideas are  made using a Nestabilities label die and punches from Stampin Up (see archive).

Spotty Birthday Card

I call this my Minnie Mouse card.  There’s not a lot too it.  The red spotty background is a good quality wrapping paper that I have stuck with spray adhesive for a smooth finish, the black and white spotty paper is a bit of scrap and the buckle, I am sure is from Purple Elephant, bought at NEC Hobbycrafts Show last year.
It could be very easily altered for Christmas to look like Santas jacket, using a red card blank and a plain black paper for the belt.

Initial Christmas Tree Decorations

I was sorting out my little “fairing “ gifts, as my Mother In Law used to call them this morning for my friends at work.  I wanted to give them all a “Wish Bauble” (see 8th December) but I didn’t have quite enough ….. aghh…

  

But, I also had these ceramic letters from Hobbycraft (about £1.79) that  I bought a while ago, but they looked plain and boring … and not at all festive.

 

At first I was going to try sticking stars on them, then I remembered  a packet of “Say It In Studs” ( Prima) I got from the NEC in November – wooooo hooooo, everything started to fall into place!

I stuck the studs on first, and then fiddle farted a little more by adding a few tiny flat backed pearls and black dots using a sharpie pen and finally an ivory ribbon.

Job done, a little gift to hang on their tree for years to come for less that £2.00, result!

Reindeer Noses - Christmas Sweetie/Favor Bags

These first noses are whoppers!  I got them from one of those big Pick and Mix stalls they have in shopping centres that cost a fortune. The times I have seen people go pale when they are told how much their suck comes to and then ask if they can put some back. But when I saw this huge marshmallows I just had to have them.

The reindeer heads on the tags  are Accessorize Christmas stickers.

This second packet contains smaller foamy strawberries but are equally as cute!

Snowball Sweetie/Favor Bag

I used Cadbury’s Snow Bites for these little bags, it’s a wonder I’d  got anything left to put in them as they are scrummy!

The snowmen are from an Accessorize Christmas sticker pack and I have doodled the snow and snowflakes with a white gel pen.

New Years Resolutions

This is an idea I saw a while back that I thought was a bit different from the usual small crafty desk/magnetic calendar.

I’m not entirely happy with it, I don’t think the proportions of the bulldog clip are quite right compared to the size of the board, but I have plenty of time to jiggle around with it before New year.

The papers under the clip are loose, but could be replaced with post-it notes or a small note pad.

The flowers have been stuck in such as way as to allow the calendar pages and resolutions sheet to be removed without spoiling the effect

Snowman Christmas Card

This is the only card I have done to order this Christmas, I have made it for a colleague for her granddaughter’s first Christmas.

I have used a digital download set from Sweet Shoppe Designs called Little Joys by Zoe Pearn.  It is sooooo cute.

I enlarged the snowmen to the size I needed, then printed and cut out a few spare so that I had enough make a simple decoupage with the scarves for extra dimension.

The snowman are standing on a layer of cream glitter card over a background paper from the set.

I have used small black Glitterati sticker dots to go over the eyes and mouth and a little Anita’s 3D clear gloss finish on the nose.

The letters are a mixture of alphabet stickers from American Crafts.

To match the printed zig zag pattern on the snowmen, I have doodled round the edge of the card in a light brown fine tipped pen.

As a first Christmas card is extra special I have added a strip of another backing paper from the set down the side of the envelope

And again on the inside, adding a snowman’s head peeping out.

Phew! I think this took me about an hour and a half to put together.

Christmas Wish Bauble

To get a decent picture of this wish bauble was nigh on impossible, but I hope you can get the gist of what I have done.

The iridescent baubles from Paperchase  come in a box of 9 and measure 6cm.  They cost £5 per box which works out at 55p each.

I printed the word “wish” in blue and then ripped the paper around the word giving a rough edge.  I then added Hero Arts hologram micro glitter, using a sukura glue pen around the edges and lightly over the word.

I then carefully placed the paper and some small very pale blue stars into the bauble.  Done!
I am giving these baubles  instead of Christmas cards this year, a card is soon forgotten, but hopefully these baubles will be hung on friends trees for many years to come.

Jazzy Christmas Tree Card

This is an experiment ……. as I have made all my cards for this year, I now have time to experiment with some of the embellishments I have not used yet.

The tree is from Hobbycrafts own range of wooden embellishments that I have just added a few flat backed gems to.  The scalloped square is made using a nestabilities die.

Jewelled Christmas Wreath Card

Hmmm, I can’t say that  I like the stamp I have used for this card that much. It was only 99p and is by Zap! Scrap, found in one of those tubs they have in craft shops. It’s been in my stamp drawer for ages, I bought it on impulse and after stamping with it once  decided that the design was not delicate enough for what I had in mind.  I love Christmas wreaths but as of yet haven’t found one I really like.

After stamping, I have coloured it in quite roughly using three different shades of green from my Whisper pens.

I have then cut it out and mounted it on the card using foam pads to give it a lift. I have finished it of by adding lots of very small red and clear flay backed gems, which was very fiddle farty.  I am not sure about the micro glitter I added to the bow. Anyway i will stick it in my card box and see if it goes.

Gingham Christmas Pudding Card

I think I may have peaked with my Christmas ideas! I am hoping I can still keep a steady flow of cards and small gifts going, but if I were to do it all again, I should have started Christmas in mid October.  But there again, I know a lot of other crafters are getting their ideas together in the summer, so its swings and roundabouts really.

My confidence in stamping is increasing since I set myself a target of stamping at least once a month.  This is another stamp I have used only once before assigning it to the dusty stamp drawer

When I first tried this card the design looked too stark and flat on white despite my colouring it in. Then I hit upon the idea of stamping on gingham card first, which I did with some trepidation but much to my surprise it worked!.

I stamped the pudding out again on white, cut it out, coloured it in, added micro hologram glitter and then placed it onto the main part with a foam backed pad to add dimension.

Next followed a bit of mat and layering on white, silver and red and faux doodle stitching.

I did add some tiny weenie silver rhinestones to the centre panel around the pudding, but I am not sure they really added anything to the finished effect.

Christmas Branch Card

This is the sort of card I would like to receive; plain, simple and magical.  It only took a few minutes and I am so pleased with how it turned out.

The branch is made from four punchies using a punch I bought recently at the NEC, (there is no manufactures name on it, so I don’t have a clue who made it)

When I bought the stars (49p pot) I thought they were an unusual colour and so might be hard to find a project  to use them on , but they go perfectly with the olive green bazzill paper used for the branch.

I’ve added a dusting of hologram micro glitter and a few tiny flat backed gems (but, if I made the card again, I might not use them, as I am not sure that they added to the overall effect.

I handwrote the greeting, I find if I write in a random sort of way, it looks like it was meant to be like that, if you know what I mean!

I have forgotten to add over the past few months that I put in a blank insert in all of my cards.  This is a job I hate doing, cutting to size etc. but have to admit it finishes a card off perfectly.

This is a design I plan to use next year, as there is no time at the moment to make anymore .

Over the past month or so I have been posting a variety of Christmas card ideas I have made, some I have made a "run" of and others are still in need of a little fine tuning, so I will probably make them next year.  In all, I had made about 200.  I took a box into work yesterday and another friend took a box into her staffroom. ….. well, I now have about 15 left,  even the “one off” samples have gone!

I like to see what went down well and what didn’t.  The Bare Tree With Heart, Early Learning Baubles and Mistletoe with pearls disappeared immediately, the ones that proved the least popular were the Accessorize Snowmen squares.

I usually rely on what’s left over to use for myself  but this weekend I will be frantically making another pile for me! Ho Ho Ho!