Tag Archives: Ornament Keepsakes

It’s time for a Merry Monday challenge

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I really like the idea of the Merry Monday challenge – it’s always about making Christmas cards. All year long. The idea being that by the time Christmas comes, you’re in really good shape. It’s a shame that I only found this recently! Here’s the challenge:

My favourite ornaments are, sadly, retired – the Ornament Keepsakes set. Having worn grey to school for about seven years, I still hate it so I was happy to see that I could use silver.

holiday ornaments navy and silver

I stamped the ornament three times in versamark on night of navy and then sprinkled the silver embossing powder. After using the heat tool to make the ornaments look magical, I cut them out using the coordinating dies. So much easier than using scissors! I then used the sentiment from Sassy Salutations on the bottom of the card, again using the silver embossing powder. I popped up the ornaments using dimensionals and, with the help of my trusty ruler, placed the two outside ornaments at a quarter inch from the edge. After this I lined up the bottom points of the ornaments using a clear block to help me position the middle ornament – the ruler was also handy here to ensure that the distance between the ornaments was consistent.

I had originally intended to put ribbon on the card to give the look of the ornaments hanging but in the end it was too much. I like the clean look of this much better. I matted the card in the brushed silver cardstock and used a night of navy card base.

A traditionally coloured Christmas card

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I seem to have been stuck on making Christmas cards in non-traditional colours lately. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I realised that almost all of my Christmas cards were that way. So, to prove that I’ve nothing against tradition, here’s one in red!

ornaments cherry cobbler noel

I love the gorgeous old-fashioned (sadly a set that retired last month) ornament here and I’ve paired it with the happy Noel text from a current set.

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ cherry cobbler

Top layer: 5.25″ by 4″ very vanilla

Stamp set: Ornament Keepsakes with matching framelit dies

Ink: Cherry cobbler

Other: Wondrous Wreath framelit dies

I stamped the ornament on a half sheet of very vanilla in cherry cobbler. Since I’d be running it through the big shot, I stamped other ornaments from the set at the same time so that I could cut out four for each crank through the big shot. Very useful if you’re trying to make multiple cards. I then grabbed my wax paper (liberated from the workshop in the basement where it’s used for all sorts of woodworking projects – I’d better buy more) and putting it between the card stock and the Noel die, ran it through the big shot. I find that a paper-piercing tool is very useful to poke through the holes in the die to get the card and die apart. Instead of the wax paper, I have tried using the embossing buddy or parchment but neither are as effective.

All that’s left now is to assemble the card. I like to use the grid paper to work on, finding that the lines are helpful in finding the centre of the card as well as helping text and images be straight. As you can see from the shadows, I popped the ornament up on stampin’ dimensionals; I tried stamping the ornament on the card, but it didn’t have that wow factor. I adhered the Noel text with the tombow glue carefully putting a splodge of glue on some spare card and carefully dotting it onto the noel with the small tip of the tombow. The adhesive remover is essential here for any slight errors. I finished the card off with the backgrounds DSP to line the envelope.

Coastal Cabana Christmas

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Looking at the title of this post, I seem to be catching the Stampin’ Up! alliteration habit – almost all of the 50 colours have two word names where both words start with the same letter. It does actually help with remembering the colour names.

Apologies for the photo – it looks a bit washed out. I’m getting a tripod any day now, so I’ll be able to produce better photos. Hopefully.

 

ornaments coastal cabana

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ coastal cabana

Top layer: 4″ by 5.25″ very vanilla

Stamp sets: ornament keepsakes (retired), good greetings (exclusive hostess set)

Ink: coastal cabana

I stamped the holiday ornament in coastal cabana on a piece of scrap cardstock and then cut it out using the matching framelit dies and repeated it another 2 times. The new trim for the 2013-2015 in colours, of which coastal cabana is one, is thick baker’s twine. I think it worked really well to hang the ornaments and wish that it was available in more than the 5 in colours. Actually they are “in colors” but due to my British upbringing, I add the extra letter. 🙂 I used stampin’ dimensionals to mount the ornaments and the first time, was not careful enough to ensure that the dimensionals did not go over the twine which resulted in a slightly lopsided ornament. Since then I’ve cut the twine just shy of the dimensionals and that works better. Stamping the sentiment in coastal cabana ink finished this card off.

Ornament Keepsakes

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Since I read on Facebook that there are only 16 Saturdays until Christmas (which is crazy seeing as I’m still in shorts here), I think it’s time for another Christmas card.

ornament cream on cherry cobbler

Base: Very vanilla 8.5″ by 5.5″ scored and folded

Upper layer: Cherry cobbler 4″ by 5.25″

Stamp set: Ornament Keepsakes (retired Aug 28)

Other: Wondrous Wreath framelits, ornament keepsake framelits, cherry cobbler embossing powder, embossing buddy, heat gun, stampin’ dimensionals

Ink: Versamark

I’m really enjoying making these cards with various ornaments and in various colours. I first rubbed a scrap of very vanilla with the embossing buddy and then stamped one of the ornaments on it. I sprinkled on the cherry cobbler embossing powder and used the heat gun to make it shiny and raised. I then easily cut out the ornament with the matching framelits and attached it to the cherry cobbler mat with stampin’ dimensionals. The noel is part of the Wondrous Wreath framelits and I cut it out using a scrap of very vanilla.