Category: Holiday

Welcome to the November SOTM Blog Hop

Published on by Miss. Carrie's Creations23 Comments

Did you know that we offer a monthly stamp set that you can get at a discount or free as a VIP?  Each month, our blog hop team shows you a variety of ways that you can use these exclusive stamp sets, and, this month, we are sharing ways you can create some warm, cozy creations with our You Warm My Heart stamp set. 122097650_10157916282307686_8702769391684009400_n If you have come here from Brandi Robinson’s Blog you are on the right path. When you are finished viewing my Cozy Christmas Coffee Card, you can click on the link at the end to move to the next blog.  This blog hop is simple, fun, and full of artwork created by some very talented consultants.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants on Melinda’s Blog

Those of you who know me, know that I truly enjoy my coffee, which is why I was so excited when I saw the You Warm My Heart stamp set.   Each image on this acrylix stamp set is perfect for creating holiday cards, scrapbook pages, and winter gifts.   I plan on creating quite a few gifts this month in my VIP group using this stamp set.  Today, I am sharing with you how I made a 6″x6″ Cozy Christmas Coffee card. 

The base for this card was cut from White Daisy cardstock and folded to form a six-inch card base.  I added some strips of Comfort & Joy Paper and a beautiful patterned border across the center of the the card. 

The border was cut from Kraft paper and White Glitter paper using our new Yuletide Borders thin cuts. This intricate design matched the coffee cup perfectly.  

After stamping the sentiment onto the card, I added a large stitched square. I had debated making this into a shaker card using some of our new square shaker windows, but I wanted the papers and the border to show through, so I chose to create a simple frame instead. 

The main portion of the coffee cup was stamped with Black Pigment Ink then heat embossed with clear powder to allow the texture of the intricate designs to stand out. The wrap on the cup was also heat embossed, but with white powder on black cardstock.  I trimmed this to fit onto the center of the cup.  I also heat embossed the lid and the small flowers.

I shaded the lid and the flowers with our TriBlend Markers. Now that we have six shades of dark red, I was able to add more shadows to that lovely lid. Once all of the images were shaded and cut out, I layered them onto the card along with a poinsettia sticker and some Gold Embellishing Thread.

I hope that this Cozy Christmas Coffee card inspired to to try something new and that you plan on creating a few of these to send at Christmas.  Now ‘Hop” on over to the talented Becca Whitham ’s Blog to see her work!  Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their blogs to get some great crafting tips and other fun ideas. 

Don’t forget! The You Warm My Heart stamp set is only available until November 30th.  Contact your CTMH Consultant, or visit the my website to learn how you can get this stamp set for only $5.00 or free as a VIP♥ with a qualifying purchase.

Some of the links in this blog post are affiliate links. By clicking on those links, and making a purchase, your are helping to support my small business. This is at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.

Day 28| A Christmas Cricut Card Tutorial

Published on by Miss. Carrie's CreationsLeave a comment

October is soon coming to an end, which means that I am posting my final 31 Days of Christmas Card project.  To be honest, I debated dividing this week’s video into two separate tutorials, but, instead, chose to gift you with a full-length Cricut class tutorial showing how to engrave our Shaker Acetate windows with your Cricut Maker.  I have also added a bonus tutorial, but, before I get into that, I want to remind you to check out all of the Creative Design Team’s 31 Days of Christmas Cards projects. 

Throughout the month of October, our team has been posting a variety of Christmas card projects for you to enjoy.  If you have missed any of this month’s video collab, you can view the entire collection here.

Like I said, this week’s project is basically just one big Cricut class. Teaching people how to use their Cricut machines is a passion of mine. My weekly Cricut classes bring me such joy and being able to share a few techniques on my YouTube channel allows me to share my love of all things Cricut with you, too.  Today, I am sharing a few ways to dress up your shaker cards using the engraving tool and the foil transfer tool.

two shaker christmas cards with cricut engraved acetate

I honestly wish you could see these two cards up-close and in-person. The engraved acetate turned out simply beautiful.  To create those etched images, I used the Engraving Tool on my Maker machine to etch onto our Rectangle Acetate windows. 

The Rectangle Windows are new to our line of shaker products. We now carry rectangle, square, heart, and star shapes in both the thin cut dies and shaker windows to allow you to create all sorts of fun shaker cards.  Now that you know that these can be etched with the engraving tool, the possibilities are endless. 

In the photo above, you can see a bit of the etching that was engraved onto that acetate window. I also used the new Foil Transfer tool to add some silver snowflakes onto the Pearl Paper frame. 

In the video, I show you how to create both of the cards in Cricut Design Space and how to assemble each one.  After you have watched the video, you can continue to read about both of these cards that I created. 

Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button so that you don’t miss out on our upcoming November collab.  We have some great holiday crafting projects planned for you next month. 

Let’s take a look at each of the cards in a little more detail.  The Tidings and Joy card was created using Pearl paper, some CTMH Cricut images, a sweet Scarlet Glitter bow, and a large acetate rectangle with engraved snowflakes. 

After engraving the acetate, I cut the rectangle frame from Pearl paper, attached all the pieces together and filled the shaker with white glitter and White Bitty Beads. 

The images on the front of the card were cut from Scarlet & Evergreen cardstock using images from our Season of Joy collection. This image was cut out multiple times so that I make the sentiment thicker and layer more pine boughs being the words. 

Not only did I experiment with engraving on acetate, I learned how to use Liquid Pearls for the first time.  Where have these been all my life?! I have been hesitant to try them because I was told that they were difficult to use and took forever to dry.  My crafts are usually created last-minute, so I don’t always have time to spare. 

I am so glad I chose to give them a try. They were so much easier to use than I had thought they would be and they were dry within 20 minutes.  As I was adding the Carnation Red berries, I was remined of my cake decorating days when I would spend hours adding little pearls of frosting to flowers and cake tiers. 

The bow at the top of the card was cut from Scarlet Glitter paper using our Small Bow thin cut die.  After assembling the bow, I attached a little white pearl in the center and the card was complete. 

On the second card, I decided to add a little bonus tutorial.  Not only did I etch the acetate window, I decided to show you how to use the new Cricut Foil Transfer Tool.  This new tool can be used with the Explore and Maker machines and it works just like most foil transfer systems except that there is no heat required. 

The Foil Transfer system is used more like a score tool or engraving tool with three interchangeable tips – fine, medium, and bold – which are used with the Cricut Foil Transfer sheets.  When you are creating your project in Design Space, you will need to change your Line Type to “FOIL” then select the tip(s) you are using and choose your color of foil. 

On my Peace on Earth Card, I used the Fine Tip with Silver Foil to create snowflakes on our Pearl paper. I just love how simple and subtle this pattern is. 

Once I had added the silver snowflakes, I knew that I needed to use our new Blue Belle color.  I am a bit partial to blue at Christmas time, so being able to create a beautiful blue and silver card just make my heart happy.

The flower on the card was created using the thin cut dies in our Comfort & Joy stamp set along with the stamen die in our 3D Flower thin cut bundle. I cut the images from Pearl Paper and Vellum, then layered it all together to create a beautiful white poinsettia. 

Both cards turned out so much better than I had hoped and the etched images add so much to each of the cards.  I wish the photos were able to show off that amazing detail. I plan on posting a little mini-video on Facebook and Instagram to show them up-close. 

I hope that today’s project inspired you to dust off that Cricut machine and create something new.  We still have four more Christmas Card projects for you, so make sure that you are subscribed to each of the Creative Design Team channels so that you don’t miss out on a single one. 

Some of the links in this blog post are affiliate links. By clicking on those links, and making a purchase, your are helping to support my small business. This is at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.

Here is a List of the Items I Used Today

Day 21: The Three Trees of Christmas Cards

Published on by Miss. Carrie's CreationsLeave a comment

Are you as amazed as I am with all the Christmas cards created so far?? I am just loving this 31 Days of Christmas card series, and I really hope that we continue the tradition next year. If you have no idea what I am talking about, then you will want to make sure you check out each of these lovely ladies channels.

Throughout the month of October, each of us has been posting a new Christmas card idea for you to create. Make sure that you are subscribed to each channel so that you don’t miss out! If you hit the notification bell, you will also be notified each time a video is added.

It is day twenty-one of our Creative Design Team video collab, and I have created three beautiful cards for you to try.  As I was attempting to plan for this month’s series, I knew that I wanted to make some “tree” cards and had intended on purchasing the Winter Scene stamp set, but, unfortunately, my aging brain made an error and I ordered the Autumn scene instead. So…instead of throwing in the towel, I decided to show you how to make some Christmas cards using any of the tree series stamps you might own. 

three christmas cards created using distress oxide inks and stamped tree images

These three cards not only use the Autumn Scene stamp set, they also feature two of our new Distress Oxide Inks – Chipped Sapphire and Pumice Stone.  I used each of these on my designs, along with some masking techniques, to create winter scenes.

On the first card, I used a simple piece of torn white cardstock to create the snowbanks in the background. This was done after I stamped the trees in Charcoal ink.  I discovered that our dye inks do not work well atop the distress oxide inks, so you will need to make sure you are stamping your inked images before you add the background on this card. 

To create the little bits of silver on the trees and in the snow, I used our Embossing Ink Pens.  These are just like using VersaMark ink in pen form, allowing you to have control over where you want embossing powder.  I used my pen with Silver Embossing Powder to create little dabs of sparkling snow in this scene.

After adding the sentiment in Scarlet, I started to assemble to card.  The background was designed using dry embossed Glacier cardstock and Comfort & Joy papers.  The Cascading Dots embossing folder reminded me of snow and it combined well with the deep scarlet red papers. 

I had so much fun creating the snow scene on this first card, that I decided to get my moneys worth on an accidental purchase.  I remembered the many beach scenes I had created in the past on some of my cards and decided that I would continue with a few wintry scenes using the Chipped Sapphire Ink. 

For those of you who have been waiting for this video tutorial, you can head on over to YoutUbe and watch me create all three cards.  Once you are done viewing and being inspired, you can continue reading how I made the other two cards. 

After the first card was complete, I started on the Berry Christmas Tree card. On this second card, I masked off two inches of space using some full-adhesive sticky notes then added the Distress Oxide ink around the edges.  I wanted the look of a glowing light in the background, so I avoided adding too much ink to the center. 

After my discovery with dye inks, I decided to try pigment ink instead.  This worked beautifully to create some tree branch silhouettes on the background. I stamped each of the bent tree images onto the card with the Black Pigment, then sprinkled each with clear embossing powder and heat set the images. 

To add the snow, I again used those Embossing Ink Pens.  I brushed the ink onto the branches and used White Embossing Powder to create the look of fallen snow.  After stamping the sentiment, I decided to bring in a little Christmas cheer with red berries. 

You might have noticed that I am really enjoying these Bitty Beads this season.  I have always used items like this on my projects, but usually add the embellishment after taking the photographs for my website.  Now that we carry these beads, I can show them off. 

After the beads were adhered to the card with Liquid Glass, I set the card aside and began working on the third card.  This time I cut out a stitched square using our Stitched Square thin cuts, masked off the scene and began inking with both the Chipped Sapphire and Pumice Stone distress oxide inks. 

The trees were heat embossed like the second card, except, this time, I added leaves.  The Autumn Scene stamp comes with leaf images so that you can add multicolor leaves on your fall trees, but I wanted some leaf silhouettes on my trees so I also stamped them with the Black Pigment ink. 

If you wanted to, you could add some silver snow or white snow to these trees like I did on the first two cards, or even add a few berries.  I chose to leave mine as is for a simple silent winter scene. 

All of the sentiments on these cards have been retired.  I haven’t been able to purchase any new Christmas stamps this year, but, like most of you, I had quite a few in my stash.  If you are needed a few Christmas sayings, we do have some new sentiments on my website AND the new Christmas catalog is arriving in November so you will have access to even more! Don’t forget to join as a VIP so that you get 15% back in rewards on all your Christmas craft supply purchase.♥ 

I hope that today’s project inspired you and that you are looking forward to more Christmas card ideas in the remaining weeks. If you have missed any of the videos in our 31 Days of Christmas Cards series, you can view the entire playlist here.   I have one more Christmas card to add to the series on October 28th and I have big Cricut-ing plans for this one.  I hope that you are making each one of these along with me.   

Some of the links in this blog post are affiliate links. By clicking on those links, and making a purchase, your are helping to support my small business. This is at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support.

Here is a List of the Items I Used Today