Folded Christmas Tree Tag - Papertrey's Make-It Monday #46

The evergreen tree die from Papertrey's In the Meadow Silhouettes Die Collection just thrills me. It looks great all dressed up for the holidays, or au natural. Making the tree into tags, for Papertrey's Make-It Monday #46, offered another chance to decorate the tree. I used the same technique as Papertrey's glitter Make-It Monday #44. (See my earlier post here.) Just stick the 'ornaments' to the sticky paper before applying the glitter.

This tag would not stand up on its own, so I propped it up against my Mother's Putz house from about 85 years ago. Isn't it great, with it's little thatched fence? Holiday hand-me-downs are the best!

Have a wonderful and peaceful holiday, and thank you for visiting at this busy time of the year.

Papertrey Supplies: Vintage cream cardstock and tree from 'In the MeadowSilhouettes Die Collection.

Little Birthday Angel Tag - Papertrey's Make-It Monday #46

This past 'Make It Monday' #46 from Papertrey was a blast. I decided to break out of my Christmas rut and make an angel that would be at home any time of the year.

She is very small (no pontificating on her underskirt). I used the angel from  Papertrey's Love Lives Here: Holiday Die Collection, and made the fold at her neck. (She looks pretty funny without a head!) Then I cut two pieces for the top layer - a head plus shoulders out of cream paper, and her dress out of patterned paper from K & Co's Watercolor Bouquet pad. The wings are just the backside of her dress paper pattern. I glued the head on her body, added the dress (with lace trim, embroidered bouquet applique, and white gel penned collar), and glued the wings to the back of the tag. (This last step really makes her wings 'behind' her when she's propped open.) Her colored pencil face is truly primitive.

Papertrey supplies: Vintage cream cardstock, angel die from 'Love Lives Here: Holiday Collection

Thank you for visiting, and happy holidays!

Merry Snowman Christmas Tag - Papertry Make-It Monday #46

There are few things cuter than Nichol Heady's snowman family. (There are quite a few incarnations of snowmen stamps and dies available at Papertrey, and this is the largest one - Shape-Up Series: Snowman Die Collection.) My guy is ready for Christmas or any other party during snow season. I love those adorable arms that beg to be put to use.

Mounting a full fledged die cut of the snowman, over his folded counter part, allowed me to make a hat (that did not reveal his flattened head) and I was able to glue his arms between the top and front of the folded 'inside'.

The trim on his hat is just a plain silver pipe cleaner, as is the hat topper, with the pipe cleaner wound around in a flat circle. I glued the 'merry' from Wonderful Words: Holiday Die Collection to his folded in hands and everything fits quite nicely.

Papertrey Supplies: Cardstock (white and pure poppy), Shape Up Series: Snowman Die Collection, Shape-Up Snowman accessories stamp set.

Merry, Merry!

Here We Come a'Glittering!

Don't you just wish each day in the month of December were three times longer, so we could get all our crafting done?

This week PTI's Make It Monday kills two birds with one stone. (I must stop using that expression as it makes my two parrots open their beaks and pop their eyes wide.) Speaking of parrots, the darling bird to the right is my 20 year old cockatiel, Pookie. He was helping Liz (in the background, and whose creations appear on this blog from time to time), craft earlier this week. Sorting buttons is a 'speciality' of his. He strength tests each button with his powerful beak before it is used. (He's taking a well deserved break in this shot.)

Back to PTI's Make It Monday #44 -a small 'noel' tag waiting to adorn a gift. I mounted the adhesive paper, as in the previous post here. The 'winterberry' sprig does not show up as well as I would have liked, but  I really learned about color using this technique. The greater the contrast between glitter hues, the more decipherable the images are when finished. I love adding the pearls and rhinestones directly to the sticky paper before I glitter.  (They stick much better being adhered before the glitter goes on.) By the way, the elf shoes propping up the tag, have a post of their own here.

Supplies: Papertrey Ink's Winterberry Die Collection , Block Alphabet Collection Die, Tag Sale #1 Die, and White Adhesive Sheets.

Hope you had fun visiting. Please leave a comment or question if you like.

Merry, Merry Glitter to All

I just love making tags this time of year. There are so many techniques to try out, and the little venue of tags is perfect for experimentation. (The tags that work out get to come to the Christmas parties on gifts.)

This week's PTI Make It Monday #44 is a glitter-all-over format. In order to make tags using the floppy adhesive paper, I first adhered the plain paper side to a piece of card stock, and then sent it through the die. The overlapping silhouettes required some careful thought, and it was very hard to get the very small cardinal 'masks' to stay put while I glittered. I tried several other coated papers to see if they would work better than the backing, but all the others stuck TOO well!

Handy Glitter Tip: Toss your excess glitter on the floor - it's so hard to get back in the bottle any way. The glitter co-mingles with your dust bunnies (yours - I don't have any - ha) making them self illuminating, which makes dust so much easier to find, and vacuum up. No time to vacuum. No problem. Your floors are now decorated for Christmas!

Supplies: Papertrey Ink's 'In the Meadow' die set and 'White Adhesive Sheets', Martha Stewart glitter, and Jo-Ann Christmas ribbon.

Introducing the Fabulous Liz

Have you ever had a friend who, the very first time they try something. it's as though they have been doing it for years? That's my ever so special friend, Liz Tibbitts, and card making. Right out of the gate, she had a simple style that just blew you away. She will be a guest artist on this, my new blog, (until she gets so many more lovely comments than I do, I'll banish her to a blog of her own).

For Liz's first blog outing, we have chosen a nifty little number created for Papertrey's Make It Monday #40 - Reverse Applique.  You can see she has a really coordinated clean style, that is a marriage made in heaven with Papertrey. (We are both Papertrey groupies and support each others' habit.) She used their Mat Stack #3 Die and Kraft Card Stock. (Neither one of us was crazy about Kraft paper......until Papertrey's.) She is a embroidery floss girl, so that is what she used for the stitching. The printed papers are Debbie Mum's from a Jo Ann's holiday pad.

As an added treat, here are just a few tags she whipped up for Christmas presents. These were samples we took to a shoebox meet. All that was used were Papertrey's Mat Stack 1 and 2 Dies and the tree dies from Love Lives Here: Holiday. She used two sided paper so the pattern combinations werepractically endless for the small number of passes through the Big Shot. (Don't you just love the Mat Stack 2 turned the tall way? We think it looks like one of those old fashioned glass ornaments from the 40s and 50s - yes we're that old!)

Please leave her comments so I can post her other works of art. She just needs a little encouragement.

Thanks so for visiting today.