Holiday Making: DIY Christmas Card Holder

 

Taking down Halloween today. After years of working for Nordstrom in another life, which used to be adamant about no Christmas decor before Thanksgiving, and a son, who when he was with me at Michaels one year as a young child, gave a whole soliloquy about Thanksgivng getting short-changed because stores went from Halloween to Christmas without passing go, I still can't do Christmas until after Thanksgiving. That makes it hard in the Maker-Creator world because I see everyone doing their decorating now!

Speaking of which, I've been curious. I see all these "influencer" videos with curated trees...by color or character themes...does ANYONE have trees that aren't like that anymore, or am I the only one? I have decades of annual collectible ornaments that I've invested a small fortune in, but I feel like I'm alone in not re-doing a tree every year. 

Back to this! When we downsized, we got rid of the Christmas Card holders we used to have, and we don't get as many cards as we used to. For the past couple of years, I kept meaning to make something smaller but dedicated to the ones we do receive. 

I'm planning a Sweet Shop theme for our kitchen island so I made this with that in mind! 

Supplies:

• Wood Cigar Box
• Multi-Surface Acrylic Paint
• Mod Podge
• Coordinating Scrapbook Papers

I removed the lid from the cigar box which will get used in something else. I thought I'd use both red and white paints but ended up only using the white. And from my holiday paper stash, I chose these fun papers. 

Measure the spaces you want to cover with paper and cut to size. 

I covered the edges only with paint since I knew the rest of the space would be covered by the papers. 

Did this for both the outside and the inside. 

Section by section, apply Mod Podge and your papers. 

You can use a scrapng tool and/or brayer to smooth out any bubbles. 

I've seen people do this in videos, and decided to try it myself! Grabbed my Cricut Mini Heat Press and went over the paper once adhered to both get it really smooth and also speeds up the drying process a bit. Once all of your papers are applied, use Mod Podge to seal. 

My math didn't math so my interior sides were a little too tall. No biggie. Once the paper was dry, I creased the edges as shown here and then just sanded them off. 

Now for the fun part! I picked up these ornaments at Walmart last year after Christmas. They were perfect for this! 

I used them around the box to add a little more glitz and fun. Used a combination of hot glue and tacky glue to ensure good adhesion and clamped them in place to make sure.

Not gonna lie...I'm itching to put my Sweet Shop together but, Thanksgiving first! 

Sharing At:

Vintage Charm Party 515 atOur Hopeful Home 

Sundays on Silverado #274

Holiday Printables

 

Creative Fabrica subscription plus Procreate equals more Printables than I know what to do with. Which is why sharing is caring right? You can download these here: 

If you use any, would love to see! 

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Creatively Crafty Linky Party #227

Sundays on Silverado

Gift Giving: Pet Ornament and Card

 

Working on some holiday gifts! When we moved this Summer, we needed to ensure that we found a new place to board our furbaby, and we are so glad we found one nearby; they love her and take great care of her. They are definitely on my nice list, and I wanted to make sure I showed them that we appreciate them!

Supplies:

• Ceramic Disc Ornament (I got these at Michaels last year and then bought a bunch more on sale after Christmas).
• Black Vinyl (I used Cricut Glossy Black)
• Ribbon
• Pet Sentiments (Creative Fabrica)
• Coordinating Scrapbook Papers
• Transparency
• Paw Jeweled Sticker (Jolies, Michaels)
• Digital Cutting Machine (Cricut Explore 2)

I removed the ribbon that came w/ the ornament and then cleaned it with alcohol to remove any residue. I downloaded a bundle of Pet Sentiments from Creative Fabrica, chose one for the ornament, sized in Cricut Design Space, and cut using Cricut Glossy Black Vinyl. 

Weeded the vinyl and applied the transfer tape then applied to the ornament. To finish, added a piece of ribbon to use to hang. 

But what's a gift without a card? I grabbed some papers from my stash, used another sentiment from the Creative Fabrica bundle, cut more vinyl, and applied to a piece of transparency cut to size.  

Using Cricut Design Space, I made a rectangle shape with a circle cutout as shown, then layered background paper, transparency, and top. 

Admittedly, I goofed on the "O" when weeding so I added a rhinestone as the hole in them middle, ad finished with some paw shaped rhinestone stickers I found at Michaels on clearance!

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Christmas: Peppermint Gnome Candles

 

Stash busting meets Christmas! I always have a few of these blank prayer candles from The Dollar Tree in my stash and while grabbing for something else I saw them and thought of a quick and easy idea. This is a fast an easy project that could work as a hostess gift or an easy addition to your decor!

Supplies:

• Dollar Tree Glass Candles
• Scrapbook Paper (I used papers from the White Christmas Stack at Michaels I used for my cards)
• Vinyl (Oracal Red)
• Image (Creative Fabrica)
• Ribbon
• Mini Ornaments

I didn't even take pictures while doing it. If you don't have a cutting machine, you could easily do this with stickers. 

These are the plain candles from Dollar Tree. Similar ones are also sold at many grocery stores. Measure your scrapbook paper for circumference and height, cut. I cut mine 7.25 x 7.25. Tear the top of the paper. Apply to your candle using double sided tape or you can use Mod Podge. 

In your cutting machine's software ( I used my Cricut Explore 2 and Design Spance ) size your images accordingly, cut, weed. Apply transfer tape and then center and apply to your candles. 

To finish, wrap coordinating ribbon with a charm or mini ornament and DONE! Easy Peasy! I like the subtlety of the print on the paper behind the outline of the Gnome image. Easy additions to my hot chocolate bar for which it looks like I  need to make more hot chocolate mix and marshmallows since a certain tall elf who lives here has been enjoying! 

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Christmas 2021 Cards

 

This week's party continues here.

I had maybe the most fun I've ever had with making Christmas cards this year. I've really focused on learning how to work with layered cut files and while I am still a novice at making my own, I almost don't need to ( except for my innate stubborn nature and wanting to do "all the things" ) with all of the amazing files that are out there. For these, I used files from Creative Fabrica and Sweet Red Poppy 

Disclosure: I am a Creative Fabrica affiliate so I do get a small benefit if you order through my link

Supplies:

• Christmas Scrapbook Papers (I used various packages from Michaels)
• Foiled Cardstock (Recollections, Michaels)
• White 110lb Cardstock (Recollections, Michaels)
• Foam Squares / Tape (Dollar Tree)
• Coordinating Sequins, Glue, Tape Runner

I used a combination of papers I already had and ones I got new this year because I'm a paper addict and Michaels keeps coming out with gorgeous papers and when they have their buy one get 2 free Hot Buys can you blame me?! 

This year I added White Christmas: 

and Evergreen

and this week (12/12-12/18) they're on sale for $4.99 each!!! Hmmm...

I can never decide on just one style both because the papers are too inspiring and the cutting files too plentiful. So I did some with silver as the primary, some with gold, and some red. 

I'm also having fun playing with a great site called Designify I learned about from Abbi Kirsten, one of my favorite designers, who taught a workshop I attended called The Magic of SVGs and showed how to easily remove backgrounds from photos. Basic use of the site is free ( you can pay to upgrade ) and includes some backgrounds like the one I used in the focal image. 2021 was supposed to be the year I really focused on skills but it had other plans and distractions and I'm glad to be able to get back to it. 2022...don't get any ideas! 

For the red cards, I used papers from last year's Hot Buys: Christmas Red and White.

I imported, sized, and cut my images using Cricut Design Space and my Cricut Explore 2, and then layered them using foam squares and foam tape then finished them by adding adhesive rhinestones and coordinating sequins. 

Cardmaking remains my first crafting love!