Scrap Paper Christmas Cards

If you're a paper crafter, you have scraps! I've been working away at my Christmas paper stash for a few years. I finally finished one pad off and another is about halfway there. I'm not going to buy pads again unless I love a lot of it or I'm making a mini album and I will use most of it for that singular project. I'm finally "low" on Christmas paper, but I picked up more from others who were offloading them, so it's still on the no-buy list unless I'm making an album.

So, this year, I've been saving up these scrappy card ideas and I made some Christmas and winter cards! I think they turned out great!

I started with the envelopes. Spellbinders has an "Envelope of Wonder" die set that is popular right now. But I knew I could make mini-envelopes on my own with my score board. I also knew I had tonnes of little shapes and stamps that I could stuff the envelope with. So, this is my take on it!

The first one is stuffed all with die cuts and a branch punch. For the second one, I cut out the snowman and ornaments from a paper pad. The trees, greenery, bird, and garlands are other die cuts I have. I used an embossing folder in the background for interest. The greeting is a hot foil stamp. I hot foiled it on the left and letterpressed it with pigment ink on the right. I don't have the matching die, so I cut it out by hand.

I had so much fun making envelopes in different sizes. The one above and the tiny mini envelopes were my favourites. The larger envelope uses a 4.5 inch square and the smaller one uses a 2.5 inch square. These use a decent amount of scraps! For the mini's, I coloured up a whole stamp set with my Copic markers and stuffed them inside the envelopes.

The next thing I tried were strip clusters. I had some left over strips and I've seen lots of YouTube videos for making your own cluster embellishments. Clusters are not my strong suit. I lean to clean and simple. I started with just layering up the strips. I made some paper stockings and these were the left overs. When I sat down to make cards, I pulled out the layered strips (pictured on the right). Then I just tried to match them with a focal image and a sentiment.

Although I tried to add some interest with the softly ink blended circle frame, this card still felt a bit too plain for me. It's fine for a masculine card, but it needed something more. So, for the next one, I embossed the background again and it made a big difference!

Then I did one more step with the embossing folders and used white pigment ink on top.

The last of the scrappy Christmas cards I made use the tried and true scrap strip background technique. You just keep layering strips next to each other to cover some amount of the background. Then I used an idea from Jill Foster (from the Penny Black YouTube channel). Penny Black has some sentiment dies that cut out only the top part of the word. So, I did some partial die cutting to mimic the effect. Their dies do a swooshy line. I could only achieve a straight line but I think it looks fine.

The "joyful" die by Hero Arts has a shadow. The shadow is what I partially die cut and then I cut the word from red foil cardstock. For the next batch, I don't have a shadow die. So, I just manually cut around the words. It's easier with words like these (from C.C. Rubber Stamps) that are not too frilly.

I finished all the cards off with some enamel dots - except the deer. It has flat stickers (I think they are vinyl). The "candy" style dots are from Queen and Co. and were actually marketed as beach balls. But I think they look like candies. The glitter dots are from my Your Next Stamp stash. (Your Next Stamp is closed now, sadly.)

I hope these scrap paper Christmas cards inspire you to work your stash this holiday season! I really like the bear on the strip cluster and the partial cut words on the strip backgrounds. What's your favourite?

Baby Girl Scrapbook Album XL

 Today, I'm sharing a baby scrapbook album I handmade.

I used ribbon for the bindings and sewed 6 signatures into a Kraft Tex cover. The onsie is an Accucut Craft die that I have. It appears several times throughout the album.

I used an eclectic mix of patterned papers, Doodlebug Stickers, die cuts, and my stamps in this album. I especially like this fold out page because... fairies!

This is another one of my favourite pages. I have a thing for arches. I really like how this teddy bear tag turned out. The quote is beautiful.

I just love these papers from Echo Park on this page spread. I made the crib myself from two different die cuts.

For the FULL video tour of this album, check out my video here:

Project Share: Baby Girl Scrapbook Album XL

 

Playing with Ink Blending on Handmade Cards

 Hello world! It's been a while since I posted any creations. Rest assured, I have been crafting but at a much reduced level for the last while. I have been experimenting with some new tools and techniques of late though, so I wanted to share some of that.

Today, I'm sharing some ink blending. The first up is a no-risk ink blended panel. There's no risk to this one because the panel is a separate piece. If it doesn't turn out the way you want it to, then you simply start over - no card ruined!

I used a purple and a pink about half'n'half. Then I used a blue at the top to blend over the lighter pink to create a bit of a purple hue to the blue. I used dye-based inks for this one. For this panel, I blended on Copic Xpress It paper because it's the smoothest card I have. The card background is embossed with a chevron patterned embossing folder. Since that adds texture, I thought simple, plain, smooth white cardstock die cuts would be just fine.

Don't have die cuts? No problem. On this version, I literally scribbled a tree line and some trees. Absolutely no skill required!

It's simple but effective, if you ask me!

On the next card, I did a traditionally blue sky. It was inspired by Michelle Short of the Card Grotto. See her card here: MFT Stenciling. Her cards are always a clean and sharp design that I really like.

This one was done with Distress Oxide inks directly onto the card front. I masked off the edges and used my homemade cloud stencil for the bottom edge.

I tried to make it cheerful and masculine but rainbow is just not my style. I find, every time I try something rainbow, I end up not liking it. I work better in monochrome, I guess. So, I did another with a stamped image as the focal.

I like this one better, but I feel like the border was a little bit too wide. Still turned out cute though! How could it not with the ever super cute stamp set from Lawn Fawn? (Really High Five stamp set.)

Lastly, I tried spotlight ink blending. I used the same stamp for the first attempt:

 This was also with Distress Oxide ink and a blending sponge. You can see marks - it's not that smooth. So, I tried again with a dye in and a blending brush instead and I like this result MUCH better. It's directly inspired by a card made by Gina K. Designs in this video: See snowman spotlight ink blended video.

Do you like to ink blend? What style is your favourite?