Christmas-y Notes in a Little Box

Hello hello! It’s like 2 weeks ’til Christmas, and 2 days ’til Hanukkah  – how’s your holiday crafting going?? A while ago, in the thick of my card-production haze, I decided that what I absolutely needed to do–at that very moment–was to make something different. And then the Power Poppy 12 Days of Christmas December Challenge rolled in with some fabulous not-the-usual-cards-and-stuff inspiration. (Seriously, if you haven’t checked it out–click that link!)

So I’ve been dying to play with the Under Glass: Christmas Traditions set from Power Poppy, and what I came up with were some little holiday-adjacent notes that can be used for post-holiday thank yous, or for tucking into a gift, or as just something to send when you get an unexpected card and need to reciprocate (!!) I love the little scenes that you can put into the cloches, to create your own little world in there…

I colored these cards with colored pencils, in that same color palette I’ve been working with lately (below).

I’ve really enjoyed working with a few select colors. It seems to streamline how I choose to color each element of my projects (limited choices!), and I’ve learned a lot about shading/under coloring, because I can’t go looking for more colors to add in. Bonus: I can be lazy and just leave the pencils out on my table for a few weeks 😉

Once these cards were colored, I added sparkle with Stickles and Wink of Stella, but these cards can also be colored very simply. I just like to get all extra sometimes.

Oh, and the “Holiday Hello” sentiment is from Power Poppy.  The others are from a Waffle Flower set (“Heartfelt Thanks”) and Simon Says Stamp (“Thanking you for thanking me”). My notecards and envelopes came from Paper Source.

To contain and present my cards, I finally got to use my Gift Box die from Lawn Fawn.  While I’m only showing off three card designs in this post, the completed box is sized to hold six 4 bar-sized notecards and envelopes (that’s 3-1/2″ x 4-7/8″ or 8.9 cm x 12.4 cm). What’s really ingenious about the die set is that you use one die for both the bottom of the box and the lid! That’s because you also cut some paper corners for assembling the top, and therefore ensure a perfect fit! If that sounds confusing, Lawn Fawn has a video demonstrating how to use the set, and it’s really much simpler than it sounds.

I stamped Flowering Santa onto some grey cardstock, and colored him in with that same color palette. Of course, I needed some more sparkle, so I sprayed the whole thing with some shimmer spray, as well as stenciled on shiny aqua embellishment mousse around my Santa.  I also added some glittery Nuvo drops to the flower centers, and a glittery heat-embossed “Merry” sentiment.  Then I assembled the box lid and bottom, and packed it with the note cards.

This was a fun project to put together.  You can go as simple or as all-out as you want for decorating and coloring, and customize the contents for any recipient.

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Gingerbread Family – the sweetest new digi from Power Poppy!

There’s a new digital stamp coming out for Power Poppy’s Happiest Holidays 2017, and it’s all about the cookies! Meet Gingerbread Family:

This set has unlimited “decorating” potential! Have lots of fun coloring up all that icing, and making a sweet scene with the gingerbread house and ginger folk.  There’s also some great sentiments that can be used on all sorts of gifting and holiday tags and cards.

For my post today, I took one look at the gingerbread boy and girl and knew I needed to make some tags! Especially because there’s a back side to each cookie! How fun is that?

I copied the images into Pages, and sized each one to about 3″ x 4″ (7.6 cm x 10.2 cm), then printed them on some kraft card stock.  One thing I love about digital stamps is that you can make stuff as small or as big your printer can handle, and this size is perfect for a gift tag, as there’s plenty of room for writing “To” and “From” or even a little note.

Because the images are designed to fit together, I needed to do some fussy cutting. Fortunately, Marcella designed the ginger folk with nice and distinct edges, so running the scissors around was fast and easy (Fact: Each image took me approximately the run time of “Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran or 3 minutes 40 seconds). If you have one of those digital/scanning electronic cutters, you can make a whole troop of gingerbread tags in a flash (are you listening Santa?).

Ever since I heard rumors that a new cookie-themed digi stamp stamp set was in the works, I’ve wanted to try using enamel drops to mimic frosting/icing, and I finally got my chance.  To add decorative details to my ginger people, I tried out the Nuvo Crystal Drops in Gloss White and Red Berry. I love the dimensional look, although you can see that the white cracked a bit: looks like real royal icing to me, but I’m going to blame the incredibly dry heat wave we’ve been having in Southern California as well.  It was 90F in the room when I applied the drops and I think they got a little baked!

I also added a little more color with some pencils.  I chose a darker brown for the cookie edges to give dimension, and scarlet red and emerald green for greenery, bows and bowties. I also used just pencil on the back of the ginger boy, but you could go for dimension on both sides.  I think the pencil looks wonderful and surprisingly bright on top of that brown base.

I assembled the ginger boy as a folding tag, tying the string through one of his hands.  I did the same with the ginger girl, although I left as a flat tag. Look at how nicely that ginger boy stands up – I bet these ginger folk would make the cutest placecards for a cookie-decorating party.

Ready to see more sweet ideas from this new holiday digital stamp set?
Nancy
Cheryl
Power Poppy blog

 

 

Merriest Berries – a new digi from Power Poppy!

Hello! Have you seen the brand-new digital stamp set from Power Poppy yet? It’s called Merriest Berries, and it has seasonal greenery, ribbons, and yes – lots of berries! There’s three different styles of be-ribboned clusters, and even a candy cane nestled in there.  But my favorite feature of this release might be the sentiments: they say “Merriest Wishes” in sleek script, and the words are available together and separated, so you can customize to your heart’s content.

I decided to make a circle-shaped card with the candy cane option, so I was glad that I could move around the “Merriest” and the “Wishes” to get everything to fit. I thought a shiny rainbow theme would suit, as we are still in the throes of summer here in SoCal.  I colored up the image with my colored pencils, and added silver accents via foiling, a silver gel pen, and a silver-glittered background. I discovered that you can shade (somewhat) over the metallic pen, and I added a hint of shadow here and there.

I love how colored pencil pops against kraft card stock, and the berries and sentiment glow in the light.

Merriest Berries is available in the Power Poppy shop  now, and you can be downloading and coloring in no time!

Be sure to check out more awesome creations by the design team here:
Nancy
Broni
Rhea
Barbara
Jessie
Jennifer

One more thing! This is my first post as an Instant Gardener for Power Poppy, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to join such a special and talented team.  Look for more posts from me here, and occasionally on the Power Poppy blog.

Have a great day! I love questions and comments, so don’t be shy 🙂