Creatables Wooden Christmas Box

Sorry about more Christmas things in January, but I'm still catching up on posting projects I finished last fall.

This is another altered cigar box. This one had a sliding top, so my husband drilled a hole in the top, and I added a little knob so it would be easier to open. The knob and the edges of the box were shaded with Viva Decor Inca Gold, then I applied some wood veneer to all the sides. The Marianne Creatables were cut and embossed from a lighter veneer, and shaded while still in the die with the Inca Gold, then the whole thing was varnished.

I made it while the shop was still open, and a lady paid me for it while I was still working on it. She wanted it for her husband for Christmas. I love it when that happens!

Pink Roses and Creatables Card

This is another card I made a few months ago with dies from Marianne Creatables.

The design was cut from Core'dinations white pearl CS, and shaded with Brilliance Pink, then mounted onto some pink Core'dinations Gemstones CS. It was matted with gold mirror card, mounted onto a white card, and accented with roses, a bow, and pink and white rhinestones.

3D Christmas Pop Up Scene

This card was kind of an experiment. I decided I wanted to do a 3D scene with Marianne Creatables on hills of snow. The top photo shows the card open.

This picture shows the card closed. I wanted the inside to show when the card was closed, so I made the bottom half smaller. It isn't as pretty as I wanted it to be, but it's kind of neat anyway.

It was kind of difficult figuring how to do it so it would pop up right. Each layer is one quarter of an inch in front of the one behind it, and was done with strips of CS scored and folded into little open boxes between each layer.

All the paper is Core'dinations Pearl, in white and gold. The die cuts were colored with a Viva Decor Inka Gold Metallic Rub, and the Sentiments were embossed with gold EP and shaded with the gold ink. The sentiment panels were cut with Spellbinders. The inside sentiments are from JustRite, and the one on the front is from Our Daily Bread Designs.

Butterfly, Bow and Flowers Card

We got back from moving some of my mother's things up to Maine from Massachusetts about an hour ago. We aren't going to unload the U-Haul and take it back until tomorrow, and will have to make another trip back down again to get more of her things sometime soon, so I probably won't be making as many cards until things settle down a bit. I also may be slow about visiting you all for a few weeks.

Anyway, Here is another card I made a while back that I haven't uploaded yet.

This one is another of my digital stamps colored with Copics. The butterfly was done twice so his wings could be raised. All of the papers under the stamping are Core'dinations Pearl shaded with Brilliance Sky Blue except for the darkest blue one. That was a pearlescent blue from my stash. After coloring it, the stamping itself was shaded with the Brilliance ink as well.

They were cut and embossed with a Marianne Creatables die and Spellbinders Marvelous Squares, and the pearls are Liquid Pearls.

I hope to catch up and visit you all soon!

Creatables and Butterflies Card

I haven't used this Marianne Creatables die for a long time, so I decided to use it today. I also wanted to make a card that looked like spring, so I chose greens, yellows and Brilliance Galaxy Gold, which is a very yellow gold.

The Creatables die was cut in white and light green CS, and layered onto darker green, gold mirror card, and a white card. The die was accented and shaded with Brilliance Galaxy Gold, and the outside of the doily was outlined with a metallic gold pen.

The white filigrees in the center are from Spellbinders Marvelous Squares. The butterflies are from the MS Monarch punch. I wish they had been more delicate. I tried some stamped ones, but they weren't delicate enough, and my Cheery Lynn and Spellbinders butterflies were all too large. These were the ones which looked the best. I tried different flowers in the center, and liked this dimensional one from K&Co the best. The butterfly bodies and the pearls are Liquid Pearls.

Pink Gold, White Gold and Yellow Gold Card

When I was in New York in December, I bought some pretty white paper with a gold shimmer to it. I also bought some ink pads with a gold shimmer, including Tsukineko Brilliance Rocket Red Gold, and Tsukineko Brilliance Galaxy Gold.

I've wanted to use the paper for a while, but was hoarding it because I can't get it again easily. While I was trying to get to sleep last night, I was thinking of a way to use it, and decided I would make a card using that paper and the two ink pads, along with some dies.

The dies I used are a Marianne Creatables square, a die from Spellbinders Marvelous Squares, and two dies from Spellbinders Persian Accents. The papers are all either gold mirror card or the white paper with a gold shimmer to it. The colors are from shading the paper with the inks.

All the shading which looks pink is the red gold ink. The darker shade is applied with a combination of blending stumps and those Ranger nibs, and the lighter shade is applied with sponge daubers. The card itself is made from the white paper and shaded with the brilliance gold. It looks yellow in the photo, but in person, that, the pink paper, and the white paper, as well as the inks all have the gold shimmer and look quite pretty together. One layer of the pink shaded paper is outlined with a metallic gold pen. The pearls are Liquid Pearls.

Anja Edges Blue Gatefold Card

This is another card I'm not really happy with. I got the bright idea of adding ribbon to the sides. Then I decided to put the ribbon over blue paper, and have the paper border the ribbon. It looked okay, so I mounted it onto the card. Then I stenciled the embossing with VersaMagic Aegean Blue. Then there was too much white between the design and the ribbon, so I decided to color it with the blue ink, but I was out of Fantastix for shading, and used blending stumps instead. They didn't blend very well. I also was beginning to wish I had mounted the ribbon onto white CS before mounting it onto blue so it would be brighter.

Next, I put blue paper inside so the lattice would show up better. That looked okay.

Next I was trying to figure out what to add for decoration, so I added a bow. It was still missing something, so I added blue half pearls.

Anyway, this is what I ended up with. I should have stuck with white on white, or white with pale pink or something.

Blue and Gold Filigree Card

Excuse how crooked this photo is. We might be the first to see the sun rise in the US way down on the east coast of Maine, but we are also the first to see it set. I put this under a lamp and practically stood on my head to take the photo. It also made the gold on the filigree look green, when it is the same color gold as the shading in the dies.

I used my metal filigrees again to emboss this card, and used an assortment of Noor!, Creatables and Spellbinders dies to make the design. The blue and white papers were shaded with gold and Broken China inks. I don't have the distress ink pad, just the bottle with the sponge dauber in it, so I used a Fantastix to do the Broken China shading. It isn't as smooth as it would have been if I'd had an ink pad.

All the square layers were outlined with a gold pen, and I used another gold pen to add little gold dots to the scallops on the Creatable circle. Then I added blue and white Liquid Pearls.

Blue and Silver Filigree Card

This morning I was planning on doing a card using lots of embossing. Before I started the card, I decided to sort through a very old box of craft supplies that I hadn't looked at for years. One of the things I found in the box were some very pretty metal filigree corners.

I decided to try running them through my Grand Calibur just to see how it would work. I cut a piece of CS to five inches square, and taped one filigree to each corner. It came out quite pretty, so I decided to make a die cut card rather than one with lots of embossing.

All the card stock is either white CS or textured light blue CS, with a card made of textured white CS. I shaded parts of all of them with Brilliance Platinum ink except for one layer, on which I used Brilliance Silver. I wish the sheen of the Brilliance ink showed up better in the photograph. I used an assortment of dies from Noor! Designs, Marianne Creatables, and Spellbinders. Some layers are mounted flat, and some are dimensional.

Last, I added Blue and white Liquid Pearls.

Blue Butterfly and Rose Card

Yesterday and today I was playing with all my butterfly stamps and dies. This is one of the butterflies I made. It is from Cheery Lynn. I cut the filigree part of the die from gold mirror card, and the other part from Core'dinations Pearl CS. Next, I mounted the filigree part over the other part and colored the butterfly with sparkly gelyroll pens. The green in the butterfly isn't really this bright, but that's how it came out in the photograph.

The card is designed around the butterfly, so I chose a blue pearlescent paper which was the same color as the blue in the butterfly. I also knew I wanted a doily, so I chose my current favorite one from Noor!, and cut it out with the pearl CS, and used the blue Gelyroll pen to color the embossing.

I almost always use the same Marianne Creatables for the center of this die because it fits so perfectly, and I like the edge of it, so I cut the next layer in blue, then used a Spellbinders one in white. The corner dies are also from Noor!.

The rose is made from Spellbinders Rose Creations. It uses Core'dinations Pearl in white, and was shaded with VersaMagic Aegean Blue. The foliage is also from Spellbinders. It's from the Spellbinders Foliage set. I cut the side leaves off the stem and spread them out to surround the flower. They were colored with a green Gelyroll which actually matched the pearl green paper, except they were shinier, but they reflected blue in the photograph, no matter how many times I photographed them.

Next, I mounted the butterfly. It was supposed to be in the lower left hand corner, but I forgot to check which way the card was when I glued him on. Ooops! Luckily, the card didn't have a design where it really mattered. The fold was going to be on the side, but now it's on the top, and he's in the bottom right hand corner.

The card was mounted onto more gold mirror card, and a Core'dinations white Pearl card, then white and blue Liquid Pearls were added.

In order to use the Cheery Lynn background for the butterfly with heavy paper like the pearl CS, you have to cut it once, then flip it over and carefully align the die with the already cut part and cut it from the other side, because for some reason, Cheery Lynn only makes half a die for those. Since I cut out a bunch of them yesterday, it was kind of a pain, but the butterflies are beautiful. I love the look with the gold filigree over them!

Noor! and Creatables Birthday Card

We finally got some sun this afternoon, so I took a better photo of this one.

I had forgotten I had bought these flowers at a closeout store until yesterday, so I decided to make a card using them. For paper, I used a DP I got while I was away last month, some Core'dinations Pearl, and gold mirror card.

The corner pieces and the bottom layer are from Noor! Designs. The round scalloped layer is a Marianne Creatable, and the DP circle over it is Spellbinders, as is the tag on top.

All the shading and stamping were done with Memento Bamboo Leaves, and the sentiment was embossed with clear EP. The sentiment is from Becca's Kit Club, and was designed by Becca Feeken. The stamps were made by JustRite.

The layers were mounted using a combination of dimensional tape and glue dots.

When I finished the card and held the flowers against it, they looked too bright for the card, so I toned them down by spraying them with a mist from Lindy's Stamp Gang. The mist is brown with subtle green mica sparkles. The foliage is from the MS Branch Punch, and the pearls are Liquid Pearls.

Spellbinders and Creatables Layers Card

Yesterday I cut a bunch of Spellbinders and Creatables and shaded them with gold ink. I played with them, layering them in different ways, and with different combinations of the ones I had cut, and this is what I decided on.

The bottom one is a Marianne Creatable, the next one is from Spellbinders Marvelous Squares, and the top ones are all from Spellbinders Persian Motifs or Accents. Since I mounted all of my dies onto magnetic sheets, I'm not always sure exactly which set they come from, but I love being able to see them all at once!

All of the paper is Core'dinations Pearl except one layer, which is gold mirror card. The different shades are all made by sponging on the same gold ink. The darker shade of the gold is done by applying it more heavily with a Fantastix, and one layer is outlined with a Krylon pen. Almost every layer is dimensional.

I added Platinum Liquid Pearls for accents, and I'm hoping they look like pearls when they dry because these Liquid Pearls were very liquid for some reason. Usually Liquid Pearls are stiffer, but these are sort of flattening out on me. I was planning on adding very small dots of them to each little shape around the edges of the bottom die as well, but I thought I'd wait and see if they were going to hold their shape first.

Cardinal Ornament Card ODBDSLC134

N= Nestabilities (Ornament was cut and embossed with a circle Nestie) O= ODBD and Ornament E= Embossing L= Layers

I received my Our Daily Bread Designs Cardinal Ornament stamp set a few day ago, and couldn't wait to make a card from it. Since this one also fits the Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC134 Noel word challenge, I decided to enter it.

I took two photos of it, one shows the detail better, and the other shows the shine from the Gelly Roll pens.

The ornament was stamped with Memento Cottage Ivy, then colored with Copics. Then I used Gelly Roll pens to go over a lot of the details and add shine and dimension to the stamping and a metallic gold pen to go around the edge of the ornament.

The background is K&Co DP matted with gold mirror card and mounted onto a white 5x7 card, then a bow was added. After that, I mounted the ornament dimensionally over the tails of the bow.

Next, I punched a bunch of McGill foliage and cut and embossed a bunch of Marianne Designs Creatables Poinsettias. The veins on the poinsettias were outlined with another Gelly Roll pen. When the light isn't shining on them, they are darker than the poinsettias, but when the light hits them, they shine. Those were stuck down with a combination of Glossy Accents and silicone glue.

After that, I added gold pearls.

Bird ornament Card with Noor! Dies and Creatables

This is my favorite die at the moment, and I wanted to use it again. I made a card using it with the same Marianne Creatables dies a while back and liked the way they went together. I also like the way the Our Daily Bread Designs Bird Ornaments fit in this die. A week or so ago, I made a box in yellow and purple, using another Our Daily Bread Design Stamp, and liked the colors on the box, so I decided to incorporate all of these things into one card.

It actually didn't come out looking as good as I had hoped it would, but it isn't that bad. I'm not sure I like the yellowy gold I shaded the Noor! Die with. It was brighter before, then I tried to tone it down with a duller shade, and it kind of smudged. Oh well, some times thing work better than we expect, and sometimes they don't. :-)

The papers are white Core'dinations Pearl, and a pearlized purple CS from my stash. The outside two layers are Marianne Creatables, the next layer is from Noor!, the scalloped circle is another Creatable, and the bird layer is cut with a Spellbinders die.

The ornament is stamped with VersaMark and gold embossed, and everything is outlined with a gold pen.

The birds are actually supposed to be chickadees, but since I wanted yellow and purple, I decided to turn them into spring warblers. I love warblers, and I found out when trying to identify some of them that there are named varieties, and others that are called hybrids, and don't really have a name. Apparently warblers don't always choose the same kind of warbler for their mate, and their off spring are what is known as hybrids. So I figured it was okay to consider this a hybrid warbler, since it probably doesn't look like any named variety! :-D

I didn't have the shade of yellow I wanted for the birds in my Copic collection, so I used Staedtler Mars Graphic pens for all the coloring except the green. The green is a Copic marker.

The two center circles are both mounted dimensionally, and the pearls are actually purple, although it's difficult to see the color in the photo.

I made this card yesterday. Today, we went off the island so I could do some Christmas shopping. One of the things it is difficult to get anywhere here, is refills for my ATG, and I'm almost out of tape. I always try at AC Moore and Joann's, but they never have them.

I ran into AC Moore again today, but of course they still don't have them. AC Moore is much worse than last time I was there. The scrapbooking shelves are getting pretty empty.

The girl who used to manage it and tried so hard to get the things we needed apparently got fed up and left a few weeks ago. A new manager came in and got fed up and left after only a few days. Apparently there hasn't been anyone ordering for a couple of weeks there. You'd think that AC Moore would let their managers order what the customers want instead of always telling them that Bangor, Maine is out of district for all the good stuff. I didn't even bother to try Joann's, because that seems to be as bad as AC Moore.

Anyway, there was another Fiskars trimmer on sale for a good price, and the markings are easier to see than the one I bought a couple of weeks ago, so I bought it. This one doesn't have any metric markings on it, but at least I can see the lines more easily, and it has a wire thingy to make it easier to see where you are actually going to be cutting, instead of a slot. I have seen people using Fiskars trimmers to score with, but so far none of the four I have do that. I have no idea which ones have a scoring tool, because I can't find any that do. I do like my last trimmer, it actually cuts straight lines, and makes it easy to cut thin strips. My big paper cutter doesn't cut anything thinner than around two inches. After that, the numbers are under the thing that holds the paper down.

They also had a few Sizzix and Spellbinders dies left. I've wanted to try the Bitty Blossoms for a while, but that is one of the many they never had in our area. They did have Bauble blossoms One and Two on clearance, so I bought them both. It will be fun to see what kind of flowers I can make with those!

I also found a lacy Darice Embossing Folder and bought that. Everything was on clearance, so I left with a paper trimmer, two Spellbinders and an Embossing Folder for under $30! Gosh, I remember the old days, when it was almost impossible to get out of AC Moore for under $100. I miss those days. Now they are getting so bad I have a hard time spending $50 in there.

White Embossed Christmas

I always like all white Christmas cards, so I decided to make one with touches of gold.

I started by embossing this Sizzix EF and trimming around it. Then I matted it with two more layers of white, each cut 1/8" larger, rather than the 1/4" I usually use.

I cut another sheet of white 1/4" larger, and matted that with a sheet 1/8" larger, then cut a card 1/4" larger and mounted the two new plain sheets on that. Then I mounted the first three layers I dimensionally onto the three bottom sheets.

The layers look flat in the photo, but the added dimension with the top three layers floating above the bottom three look nice in real life.

Also, all layers are the same shade of white, but it's so dark here that even by using white balance, some of the layers look like cream because of the lights.

The JustRite ornament was stamped with Versamark, then embossed with gold and mounted dimensionally onto the embossed layer. I finished by making a Marrianne Creatables poinsettia out of white CS and Gold Mirror card, and added that to the bottom, then added crystal snowflakes and a white and gold bow.

Pink Flowers and Butterfly Card

I took two photos of this card, one without the flash, and one with it. The one without the flash shows how well the butterfly matches, but is blurry and flat looking, and the one with the flash shows some of the shine on the card, but the butterfly is in the shadows.

For this card, I used a Marianne Creatables die. All the DP and paper embellishments are K&Co, the white paper is Core'dinations Pearl, the ribbon is Offray, the gold is three different pens, the shading is Brilliance Perfect Plumaria and the pearls are Liquid Pearls.

All the layers are outlined with a gold pen, and all the die cuts are mounted dimensionally.

I wish I had outlined the flower and butterfly with gold, but didn't decide that until after they were mounted onto the card. I'm also not happy with the white between the flower stems. It would be very difficult to fussy cut them because of the way the dimensional sticker was made, but I may add a bit of pink shading to match the background.

Lighthouse Christmas ODBDSLC131

I made this card for Our Daily Bread Designs Winter Holiday Challenge.

Since I live on an island, and we have several lighthouses here, I wanted to make a Christmas card with a lighthouse, so I decided to use ODBD's Keep My Lamp Burning Set. This morning, I saw this card by Thea Wildeman and decided to try this fold for the card.

I cut the card with green CS, and made the panels with white. I embossed them with the Cuttlebug Dotted Swiss EF to simulate snow, then mounted them onto the card.

All the stamping was done with Memento Cottage Ivy. I cut around the lighthouse, and made a wreath around the compass with green EP accented with red for a bow and berries, then mounted it dimensionally on the large panel.

The rear sentiment is from the same set, and the front sentiment is from ODBD's Blessed Christmas Set. They were also mounted dimensionally, as was the tree, which was made with a Marianne Creatables die.

I made a poinsettia from another Marianne Creatables die, and used it in one corner, with greenery from the MS Branch Punch.

Last, I added some red pearls and more branches to the corners.

For all the people who have asked for a pattern for this one, It's been quite busy for me for a few weeks. When I made this card, I was experimenting. When I fold this card, it isn't quite right. I need to make the vertical sides a bit wider so the back of the inside box doesn't show. I need to figure out new measurements. When things slow down a bit, maybe even in a few days, I will try to figure it out and make a diagram for you. :-)

Update: I just went back to Thea's Page, and I see that she has added a diagram for the original card she made. I apparently made my card in the same way as she did hers, only I used inches. It looks like hers will do the same thing as mine, since her sides are also narrower like mine are. Mine is 6x12 inches, with the top and side measurements as 1" each, and the folds in the inserts are 1 1/2" each. It's the extra half inch that makes this card look a little strange when folded.

Anyway, since this is actually her card, it would be nice if you used her diagram even if you use my measurements, and leave her a little love on her blog.

I will still try to figure out measurements so this card won't look strange when folded as soon as I get a chance.

Christmas Tree Card using Noor! Dies and Creatables

I made this card from the measurements of this card on the Noor! Designs blog.

For the panels on my card, I chose two kinds of ribbon which were the right size for the folds, and cut separate strips of paper the same width as the ribbon, and a little shorter than the card. Then I applied the ribbon to the strips and mounted them onto the card.

Next, I cut out the Noor! dies, and shaded them with metallic gold ink. I mounted them dimensionally onto the card, and cut a red Christmas tree with one of my Marianne Creatables dies. I still haven't found a shade of red paper I really like, and had none to match the red ribbon, so I colored the die cut tree using Copics, and used a gold metallic pen to add the ornaments with.

To decorate the die cuts, I punched some tiny flowers out of gold mirror card. They look more like scalloped circles, which is what I wanted, rather than flowers. Then I added deep red pearls to them, as well as adding some to the die cuts without the punched flowers behind them.

I like the card while it is open, but next time, I will make the folds next to the center narrower, and the outside folds wider. It looks a little strange when folded, as only the center shows, with the rest hidden behind it.

Die Cut Filligree Card

I've always loved the cards made by Elly de Bruin. She is probably the queen of using die cuts. Today on the Noor! blog, they had instructions for making one of her cards. Although my card is nothing like the one on the Noor! site, it did inspire me to try making my own "Elly style" card.

I started by choosing this Spellbinders die for the main panel, and kept layering other dies on top until I found a design I was pleased with. Then I cut everything out using white CS and shaded them all with green. Some layers are dimensional, and some are mounted straight onto the layer below. Then I added some pearls.

The dies are from Spellbinders, Noor!, and Marianne Creatables. The white is actually all the same shade, but the white in the center motif looks brighter because of the camera's flash.

Center Step Card with Noor! Dies and Creatables

This is only the second center step card I've ever made. I know it's pretty easy if you have a Fiskers cutter that works, but unfortunately, the first one I bought was smaller and didn't cut very straight. Everything was a little wider at one end than the other. Then I bought a larger one, and the cutting thing doesn't move smoothly in the track. It has always stuck in places, and doesn't cut evenly because of this. The track has defects in it, and since I've had it for quite a few years, I can't return it. Anyway, way back when I bought those two cutters, I got fed up and purchased a more expensive one from a different company at Staples. This one works well, but it has a wheel, and you can't use it to start and stop precisely in the spot you want it to like you can with the Fiskers ones, so making these cards is kind of a pain.

I made this card as a 5x7 card, with 1 1/2" sides, and a 4" square center.

I took two photos of this because with the phone's flash, it doesn't show the shiny gold, and with just the lamp shining on it and no flash, the colors aren't great.

The die cuts on the sides and in the center are Noor!, and the one behind the tag is a Spellbinders Fancy Tags One. The trim on the bottom is Dresden paper, and the large flower motif is K&Co. The tag is from my stash, and the poinsettias on the sides are Marianne Creatables.

I also added green rhinestones and gold Liquid Pearls.