Silent Night "Dutch Door" Card

Hi y'all!  It has been a really busy week here, with chorale dress rehearsal and then two concerts over the weekend.  Between all of that I have been working on Christmas spinning and knitting.  I've finished Mila's hat and have about half of James' done too.  Looks like I'm gonna need to spin a little more green yarn before I can knit his green and white stripes.  I'm really getting impatient to get them finished, and when they're done I'll mail them so that they can open them early and get some good wear from them this winter.  

I had seen variations of these (what I'll call a sort of Dutch Door card) on Pinterest, and since then the idea for this card has been kinda simmering in the background.   I had made a vertical half-front card about a month ago, so it was only logical to make a horizontal one too.  I just had to find the right stamps and dies, and I think these are perfect for it!      

I used the trees die from our Country Church stamp/die set to die cut the trees from the card front, and used scissors to snip the rest of the card front away.  Diluted white acrylic paint scraped along the edges of the card stock and tree branches give the illusion of accumulated snow.  

The star was stamped with Memento ink, colored with Copic markers, given glittering accents with a clear Wink of Stella glitter marker and a sparkling jewel center.  

The starry night background is a combination of translucent distress inks in a variety of colors including pale green, light blue, dark blue and black.  The sentiments were stamped with silver Delicata ink.  

Finally everything was given a liberal "snowing" of diluted white acrylic paint and silver ink.  I love how soft and fluffy some of those snow flakes turned out to be!  

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Merry Christmas Bundle
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Country Church
• Delicata Non-Tarnishing Ink Pad - Silvery Shimmer
• Memento Full Size Dye Ink Pad - Tuxedo Black
• Gem
• various distress inks 
• Copic markers
• clear wink of Stella glitter marker
• diluted white acrylic paint and silver ink for "snow"

A Christmas Cardinal

Hello friends!

On Mondays I facilitate a ukulele group at Shepherd Center and this week, in the adjacent classroom the flower arranging class had beautiful red faux cardinals to include in their floral arrangements. They were SO pretty.  When I sat at my desk to create this week's project, they inspired me!  

I love the symbolism of the cardinal.  They're often associated with messages of love and hope, of remembrance of a loved one who has passed on, or the presence of angels.  Some say that the red signifies the blood of Christ and that cardinals are a sign of divine intervention.      

I combined our Vintage Christmas background stamp with one of our older sets, God Will Take Care of You, to create this project.  The background stamp and the branch were stamped onto some pale grey card stock, colored with Copic markers, die-cut, distressed and heavily inked with tea dye distress ink.

For the inside I stamped the bird and branch directly onto a piece of designer paper that had enough of a design to be interesting when viewed through the card front but was not so busy that it would detract from the stamping.  Here I added just a hint of black to the stamped image because I wanted the cardinals markings to be black rather than grey or brown.  Once again, the edges of the paper were inked and distressed, and the entire card front and back was generously splashed with diluted acrylic paint "snow."  (In all the years that we have lived in Florida it has only snowed once or twice, so here we are, "living vicariously!"  I'm not good at cold, so I'm ok with an only occasional experience of the real thing.)

There are other snowflakes in the store that one could use, but this little snowflake is a tiny little surprise that is not visible when the card is closed.  I added a bright red pearl to its center, but if you're mailing this card you could leave that off if you'd rather.  I kept the embellishments for this one really simple but if the recipient were a girlie girl, it could certainly be blinged and bowed up, especially if it could be hand-delivered!  

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Vintage Christmas Background
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - God Will Take Care of You Bundle
• Craft Consortium Test of Time 6x6 (inside)
• Stamp Simply Steel Dies - Christmas Stockings & Mittens (snowflake)
• May Arts 1/16" Jute Burlap Cord Sampler - 24 yards
• Kaisercraft Self-Adhesive Round Pearls - Red
• Memento ink
• tea dye distress ink
• Copic markers
• white acrylic paint "snow"

Hot tea and a good read! Well wishes for a sick friend!

Hi y'all!  Happy November!  Wow, time is absolutely flying by! Christmas is not far away!  If you're making cards and hand-made gifts, seriously, it is not that far off!  

And if you're here for the coffee lover's blog hop, a special welcome!

Illness seems to go hand-in-hand with this busy season.  My friend recently tested positive for Covid, so I decided to make a little tea-inspired "well wishes" tea bag/gift card holder for her.  The project has two criss-cross pockets that are perfect for filling with a folded tag, gift cards, tea bags, etc. 

While shuffling through stamp sets I discovered that the verse from one of our other sets would fit perfectly onto the front of this no nonsense mug, which is just the ticket for a not so frilly or frou frou friend.  This verse seems so appropriate for the circumstance, and I'm so grateful that the more recent versions of this virus seem to be less threatening than the original.  It was really scary at the beginning of the pandemic.  

Here is what it looks like from the back side.   

Ironically, the whole thing is tea-bag shaped when viewed from the side! *wink*

I included some soothing hot teas and a bookstore gift card for some sick bed entertainment.  Warm drinks help a sore throat, and curling up with a good book will help the down time seem to go by faster and maybe provide a mental/emotional escape!  I even stamped some eucalyptus silhouettes on the folded tag insert, because it's so often used for coughs and in breathing treatments.    

It would be really easy to convert this project to be coffee themed for a book-and-coffee-loving friend who is not confined to home!  

Making this project is actually pretty simple!  It is basically an 8.25 inch square of card stock scored at 2 3/4 from each long edge with the outside corners cut off (so it is shaped like a stop sign) and then the two outside middles are cut out.  Finally, the center/bottom is scored to fold in half and if desired, notched and tapered just a little so the corners don't show from the front when it's assembled.  

Even adding decorative papers is easy because they're just squares cut in half diagonally out of two-sided papers.  Easy-peasy!  

Supplies:

• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Coffee or Tea? Bundle
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Have a Cup on Us BUNDLE
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - He is the Light
• Stamp Simply Clear Stamps - Eucalyptus Silhouettes
• Stamp Simply Paper Pads - Coffee or Tea 6x6
• Dotted ribbon
• Burlap string
• Dritz Cheesecloth - 36" x 3 yards