Hello and welcome! It’s Kelly here today and I’m thrilled to be sharing quite a few projects that all
started from 2 leftover scraps! If you saw my Thanksgiving Day post, you may have read that I had two
die cut pieces left over from that project. I simply could NOT throw those away, so that was the spark that ignited the flame for today’s projects! Which, by the way, the Thanksgiving Day post was all because of Betsy and her giving us the fabulous tip to try woodgrain cardstock with some of the new embossing folder! Betsy is just the best at fueling our creative spark, isn’t she?
So, with that being said, let’s get started because we have quite a bit to cover and for me to share! I’ve
decided I’m just going to share in the order that inspiration struck and how the design process evolved
and hopefully that will cover everything. To begin, I had those two pieces leftover; the center of the Shortbread Shapes: Snowflake Die and the center portion of the Capsule Basics Die. Both of these pieces were cut from a beautiful Cherry Wood Veneer cardstock (Cardstock Warehouse) so they were “special” scraps! Ha ha!
I went ahead and embossed the star-shaped center portion using the Shortbread Shapes: Snowflake
Embossing Folder and then added some vintage photo distress ink over the raised edges to give it additional dimension and depth. I also die cut the base piece from China White cardstock from
Cardstock Warehouse and ran it through the embossing folder as well and followed the same steps for
adding ink. Once that was done, I adhered the wood piece using liquid glue. One of the things I have
found that works well for gluing the embossed pieces, is to find the “flat” portions that didn’t get embossed and add the glue there. This will help with the adhesion to whatever you’re gluing it to.
I mentioned in my Christmas Gallerie release post that I had cut, colored, and assembled a whole garden
of botanicals that were just waiting to be used. I chose two of the Papewhite clusters to use for both cards. I toyed around with just using the cluster over the wood panel, but it felt empty, so I went to my
stash and looked through some of my older foliage dies and settled on the Magnolia wreath. I cut it
twice from Forest cardstock and blended some Handsome Hunter ink (SU!) to the tips.
I added some white acrylic paint splatter and then glued the two wreaths together. I adhered it t to the
center of the wood/star portion of the card along with the Paperwhite cluster. For the sentiment, I heat
embossed one of the greetings included in the Capsule Quick Tags stamp set and cut the ends and
added a few gems. I layered that on top of a Little Linked Label that was heat embossed, cut using the
coordinating Little Linked Labels Die and then embossed with the Little Linked Labels Embossing Folder.
I absolutely love the rustic feeling of this card and I just about stopped there, but the other lone
“leftover” piece was calling my name. I placed it in the Rosemal Reflections Embossing Folder to give it the beautiful embossed pattern and added a touch of vintage photo distress ink over the top. I cut an A2 panel of Forest cardstock and embossed that, also! I glued the wood grain portion over the top using the same gluing technique as the other card. I decided to simply add the Paperwhite cluster in the middle with the same sentiment/label combo as the other card, but the sentiment is from the Simple Holiday Sentiments Mini Stamp Set. Both cards have a gold bow cut from the smaller size included in the Regency Bow No. 2 Die along with some “hardware” cut from the Hang It Up Die. One of the things I love most about the Christmas Gallerie Collection is all of the basics that can be used all year long! I added some Rock Candy Glitter to both cards for some holiday sparkle and shine!
Now, I had played around with adding one of the buildings from the Market Place Collection of dies to
one or both of these two cards, but as you can see, I went in another direction., I decided at this point I
wanted to make a coordinating A2 Arch Box with one of the buildings and I chose the Market Place No. 2
Die. I kept the colors the same as the cards but added in the Stormy Sea color for window frames, etc.
I die cut all of the pieces with the base being cut from Colorplan China White from Cardstock
Warehouse. I wanted the windows to show through the box, so I cut that from one of the two base
pieces before I got started assembling everything. I used liquid glue to add all of the window frames,
shutters, etc. I landed on using the Tannenbaum’s name stamp for the shop which then took me in the
Christmas tree direction.
I really wanted to add the miniature bottle-brush trees to the outside, which I definitely could have just
glued them directly to the building, but instead I decided to attach the entire box to a small base. I cut it
using the Capsule Basics Die and then added the Filigree Border using liquid glue. I adhered the Market
Place box to this using hot glue and then placed the trees next to the building using additional hot glue.
The building was decorated with elements included in the Holiday Festoons Die, some snow flock
(thanks Betsy), and some gems on each of the bows on the windows. I had so much fun creating this box
and my mind has been racing with additional ideas for other boxes/cards! I have been so inspired by all
of your creations you have been sharing on social media; well done, friends!
My youngest son wandered down as I was creating this box and asked what I was doing. I showed him
what I was up to and he asked if we could put a votive down inside. I told him yes and that is definitely
an idea that people have used before. When I took the pictures, the sun was streaming through the
window on the detail shot to it actually looks like a votive is down inside, but there’s not! I thought that
was funny after he asked me about putting a light inside!
Now, onto the tags! I had so much fun using all of the architectural details on the box, I thought it might
be fun to make a pair of tags to complement the other projects. I used the darling door that was
released as part of the Fireside Holiday Collection last year. I never used this particular die so I was
thrilled to pull it out and use it for this array of projects. I also pulled in the A2 Arches dies to create the
different layers and such.
I cut both doors using the Single Arch Door Small Die; one from Kraft and one from Stormy Sea. I cut a
larger mat using the A2 Arches from the China White cardstock and added a glow with some yellow ink
so it was placed where the openings would line up. I used liquid glue for the frame and then foam squares for the additional layers. Hardware from the Hang it Up Die, wreaths, and sentiments that were used on the cards. I wanted to keep everything cohesive so It was fun to just use things here and there until I was happy! Of course, I just HAD to add a few trees to one of the tags!
I had SO much fun creating this collection of projects! Thanks for joining me today!
~Kelly
