Mixed Media Christmas Cards - Challenge Post

Hello.  I hope all of you had a fantastic Christmas yesterday.  This year's Christmas with my family was the craziest holiday celebration ever... and not in a good way. In all honesty, I am sick of seeing ambulances and EMT's on Christmas.  This is the second year in a row that a family member had to be rushed to the hospital on Christmas.  Hoping next year our family can have a normal holiday celebration.  For now, I am glad that Christmas is over.... I love the holidays, but not the drama or medical problems that pop up during the festivities.

Today I thought I would share a couple last minute Christmas cards I made on Christmas Eve.  These cards were relatively simple and cheap to make. I used a lot of materials already on hand including scrapbook paper and lace.  I did purchase some felt reindeer and paper poinsettia flowers to embellish the cards. All other stickers and embellishments were from my crafting stash.

The materials I used:
Various glitter scrapbook papers
 Kraft paper
Tombow glue
Pop dots (foam adhesive squares)
Alphabet stickers
"Warm Wishes" holiday stamp
Black ink pad
Glitter glue
Lace
Felt reindeer
Paper flowers
Velum

The first card I made has a simple red mat and glitter paper background for added sparkle. I wrapped a 1" thick strip of velum around the background paper before gluing it to the mat paper.  I was originally going to only add one flower and a ribbon bow, but loved these paper poinsettias so much that I added three.  All of the flowers were adhered to the card with pop dots. I used a stamped sentiment for the greeting on the card.  I used pop dots to adhere the matted sentiment to the card.  I love the dimension that pop dots can add to the card. The final step in making this card was gluing the entire matted card front to the kraft paper card.  I discovered Tombow glue on a youtube tutorial a few months ago and am hooked.  It is the only glue I use for cardmaking.  I highly recommend it.

The second card is similar in layout to the first card.  I used beautiful glitter papers for the mat and background.  Instead of velum, I wrapped lace around the background paper.  I added a cute lace bow to add interest and dimension.  I wanted to make this card masculine for my brother, so I did not add paper flowers or snowflakes.  Instead I added an adorable felt reindeer diecut.  I purchased a package of six holiday felt reindeer at Hobby Lobby for $1.24. I adhered the reindeer to the card using pop dots. Instead of adding a stamped sentiment to the card, I used light blue glitter alphabet stickers to add the word NOEL.  When I was satisfied with the placement of everything, I glued the card front to the kraft paper card.

These cards turned out super cute and took no time at all to put together.  I am entering one or both of these cards in the following blog challenges:
That Craft Place Challenge - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Winter Wonderland
Anything But Cute - You've Got Happy Mail
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make It Sparkle

I hope these simple cards inspire you to make your own greeting cards.  Thank you for visiting my blog, sharing my posts on social media, and subscribing to the Copper Blossom Blog.  Have a great day!  ❤ Tia - Copper Blossom Paperie ❤

12 Freebies of Christmas - #10 - Digital Word Art

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas. I can't believe that Christmas day is already here. I have been busier than a hive of bees the last two days, but am now able to relax and post to the blog.  I hope all of you are enjoying your Christmas with family and friends.  I just wanted to post another Christmas freebie to the blog before the festivities at my mom's house begins.

The Christmas freebie today is a set of holiday word art that can be used for card making, art journaling, or digital scrapbooking.  These word art images are in .png format and can be used with any digital scrapbook software including My Memories Suite.  To download, simply left click on each image to view in a new window, then right click on the design and select save image as.  You will be able to save the image to your computer to use whenever you like. These word art images are for personal use only.

  I hope all of you have enjoy your Christmas celebrations today.  Please follow the blog and share this post via social media or google+ if you enjoy my posts and freebies.  I greatly appreciate all of the comments, follows, and shares!  Take care everyone and Merry Christmas!  ❤ Tia - Copper Blossom Paperie ❤

A Few Handmade Mixed Media Christmas Cards - Challenge Post

Good evening everyone.  I just want to share a few Christmas cards that I made over the past week for friends and family.  These cards were relatively simple and cheap to make.  I ended up using scrapbook paper and ribbon I already had.  I did purchase some diecut snowflakes, and paper poinsettia flowers to embellish the cards. All other gems, stickers, and embellishments were from my crafting stash.

The materials I used:
Various foil and glitter scrapbook papers
 Kraft paper
Tombow glue
Pop dots (foam adhesive squares)
Ribbon
Winter and alphabet stickers
"Warm Wishes" holiday stamps
Black and brown ink pads
Glitter glue
Sakura star dust gel pen
Sakura Gelli Roll white gel pen
Double sided tape
Lace
Alcohol markers
Paper flowers
Diecut snowflakes
Pearl and gemstone stickers

 The first card features the layout I used the most this season when creating Christmas cards.  The main focus of this card is a tree image that I cut out from old scrapbook paper. This card layout also has a vintage key ribbon and bow embellishment. I used a brown ink pad to distress the edges of the tree image.  All of my cards this year have different mats and backgrounds.  I tried to use metallic and glitter papers as much as possible. This card has a stamped sentiment (that was used in most of the cards I made) and pearl accents. This layout is extremely simple... I had no problems manufacturing a bunch of similar cards quickly.  You could use a family photo or old Christmas card image instead of the tree image I chose to use.

This card has a similar layout to the card above, except the sentiment replaces the image.  This greeting card features a diecut snowflake and paper poinsettia flower.  The stamped sentiment is the same as the cards above. This card was embellished with clear gemstone stickers and a burgundy ribbon.  Just like the card above, I was able to quickly create a bunch of cards using this layout.

The layout for this card is the same as the first two cards, except their is no ribbon detail.  Instead, I used white lace behind the winter tree chipboard sticker.  Both the sentiment sticker and chipboard tree image used to create this card came from a winter scrapbooking kit.  I added pearls to this card to add a little extra bling.  I decided to make several winter cards this year as apposed to only Christmas cards.  I usually only make cards for close friends and family, but this year I wanted to give cards out to my doctors, mail man, city bus drivers, and co-workers. There were a lot of people who helped me this year both before and after surgery, so I wanted to give them all cards as a way of saying thanks.

 Here are a couple more winter cards with a horizontal layout.  The top card features snowflake diecuts, wreath ribbon, and a sentiment from a winter scrapbook kit. The bottom card features purple ribbon, a stamped sentiment, diecut snowflakes, and gemstone accents.  Almost all of the horizontal Christmas cards I made this year feature this layout, or a slight variance to this layout.  Just like the vertical cards, all of the horizontal cards have different mats and background papers. 

One or more of these cards are entered into the following Blog Challenges:

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge
 
Emerald Creek Dares
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Deep Ocean Challenge
The Mixed Media Card Challenge


I do have a few other handmade cards to share with all of you, but will be posting them in a couple days.  Those cards will also be entered into various contests and challenges. I hope these simple cards inspire you to make your own greeting cards.  Thank you for visiting my blog, sharing my posts on social media, and subscribing to the Copper Blossom Blog.  Have a great night!  ❤ Tia - Copper Blossom Paperie ❤

Handmade Christmas Ornament Tutorial

Hello blog!  So glad that it is finally Friday.  This has been a super long and busy week, but I can finally take a load off and relax. I have finally finished all of the ornaments I intend to give as gifts this year, and cannot wait to share the tutorials with you. Today I am sharing the tutorial for a clear glass ornament that is filled with fake snow, berries, and pine cones.  This is a super fast and easy ornament that is inexpensive to make.  Each ornament cost me roughly $1.55 to make. 

To make this ornament, you will need:
Glass (or plastic) clear ornaments
Fake snow
Berry stems
Glitter spray
Fake miniature pine cones
Wired ribbon
Twine or hemp string

 You could also add Christmas charms, a dated tag, stickers, glitter glue, rub on sentiments, pine stems, sequins, or buttons to the ornament.  I kept these ornaments rather simple to keep their cost to a minimum.  As always, I encourage you to create these ornaments with materials you already have at home.  The hemp twine and glitter spray were already in my crafting arsenal, so I used them.  I was originally planning on adding a pine stem (from last years broken Christmas tree), but decided against it.  I did not want the filling of the ornament to be too busy.

Before filling my ornaments, I washed them off with Windex.  I had purchased these clear ornaments at Wal-Mart and had noticed a few of them were a bit dirty.  The clear ornaments at Wal-Mart are plastic which makes them easier to handle and a lot less fragile.  I personally love glass ornaments, but since many of these ornaments are gifts for friends and family with small children, I opted to go with plastic.

After washing and drying off the ornaments, I added a bit of fake snow to each ornament.  I purchased a 1 pound bag of fake snow from Hobby Lobby for $1.00 while it was 50% off last week.  The fake snow I used looks more like mini snow balls.  Wal-Mart also sells fake snow that is iridescent and fluffy for a couple bucks.  White fiber fill, pom poms, cotton balls, or down feathers would also work for this part.

 After adding the snow, I added the berry vines and mini pine cones to the ornament.  The berry vines were bent into a circular shape before I placed them into the ornaments so that they would wrap around the interior.  The pine cones and stems were all sprayed with glitter spray paint prior to being placed in the ornament.  I did not glue any of the berries or pine cones inside of the ornament, but you could if you want them to stay put. 

The contents of the ornament are completely up to you.  You could add glitter stems, pine stems, poinsettia flowers, paper flowers, fake holly, or even mistletoe to the ornament.  For added sparkle, be sure to add glitter glue, glimmer mist, or glitter spray paint to the floral stems. 

When I was satisfied with the ornament's interior, I placed the metal top back on each ornament.  I tightened the cap around the ornament opening so that the top would not come lose.  You could also glue the metal cap to the ornament to be sure that the contents of the ornament cannot escape.  (This is definitely an important step if you are gifting these ornaments to families with children or small pets).

After the cap was secured, I added a hemp twine loop to the top of the ornament.   If you do not have hemp or twine, you could use a thin ribbon, baker's twine, embroidery floss, or yarn to hang the ornament.  I have a ton of hemp twine around the house (that I use to craft hemp necklaces from), so that is what I used.

The last step was to add a bow to each ornament. The ribbon I used was a wired burlap ribbon, but any ribbon or string will work.  The ribbon I chose was too thick to wrap around the ornament cap or tie into a bow.  I ended up using my hemp twine to help create each bow and to affix the bow to the ornament.  The hemp twine matched the burlap ribbon perfectly, so the bows turned out beautifully. 

These ornaments turned out better than I expected them too.  I may end up adding a holiday charm or 2015 tag to each ornament, but for now I think they are done.  At this point, you could embellish the exterior of the ornament with a rub on sentiment, stickers, or glitter glue.  If you have any leftover berry twigs or pine cones, you could glue them to the center of the bow.  The way you personalize your ornaments is totally up to you.
 
I hope you enjoyed this ornament tutorial.  I will be sharing another handmade ornament tutorial with you next week sometime (if I'm not too busy).  This time of year is always hectic, and it has been difficult for me to find time in my schedule to post to the blog.  I also will finally be releasing my Vintage Christmas scrapbook kit in the next couple days.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog.  I appreciate all of the shares on social media and google+.  Have a great night everyone. ❤ Tia - Copper Blossom Paperie ❤

Vintage Christmas Digital Scrapbook Paper Pack Release

Good evening everyone.  I hope all of you had a fabulous Monday.  Yesterday and today were odd days for me.  As you know, I recently returned to work.  I have been working through the ankle pain (related to the triple ankle fusion surgery I had several months ago) trying to return to my normal life.  Yesterday my ankle pain went through the roof, but I managed. Today the pain was even worse.  I worked five days in a row, and couldn't wait to come home and take my shoes off.  When I got home tonight and finally was able to take my shoes off and relax, I found that my sock and shoe was covered in blood.  Apparently my foot became so swollen today that one of my toenails popped off and the skin on some areas of my foot ripped open.  I did not feel any of this because my ankle pain was so excruciating. My foot looked so bad that I broke down and started to cry.  I am still in shock that this happened to me.

My return to work this week has been a struggle and the pain has been preventing me from working on any art.  Even now I am struggling to write this blog. My concentration and focus have been thrown out the window in exchange for fatigue and chronic pain. I look forward to the pain lessening and life returning to normal as time passes. For now, I will try to post to the blog and work on art when I can.

Tonight I just wanted to share the release of my new Vintage Christmas digital scrapbook paper pack.  This kit contains 18 12"x12" digital papers inspired by vintage Christmas cards and decorations.  I love this kit and cannot wait to post projects featuring these papers.  These papers are great for scrapbook pages, journaling, seasonal crafts, and card making.  This kit is $1.75 and is available for purchase HERE.  All digital files purchased will be sent to your e-mail directly from Etsy when your payment clears.  If you have any problems downloading any of the digital files, please contact me at copperblossompapergallery@gmail.com and I will help you with the zip files or even send the files to you directly.  

I will be releasing the full Vintage Christmas digital scrapbook kit and set of pockets cards in the next couple weeks as well as a printable greeting card set and gift tags! I also started working on a second Christmas collection titled Merry & Bright.  I will be announcing all upcoming digital scrapbook releases on this blog so be sure to follow and subscribe!

As always, I hope all of you have a fantastic week!  If you enjoy reading this blog, be sure to share this post on google+ and social media.  You can also like our facebook page and follow my pinterest board.  Until next time, stay classy blog world!   ❤ Tia - Copper Blossom Paperie ❤