Christmas with Graphic 45

All paper artists and crafters understand how supplies can accumulate when you aren't looking.  I swear they multiply all by themselves!  When I buy scrapbook paper it's because I think it's pretty and /or has great greeting card potential.  This year as I was thinking about what to make for Christmas cards, I found a few sheets of an old Graphic 45 pattern called Twas The Night Before Christmas that I had forgotten about.  It was finally time to use them.  Enjoy!

Want to go for a ride?

I love the style of this old-fashioned bicycle.  It's one of the chipboard die cuts available at DIY Design Studio and it is a lot of fun to use.  

My first idea was to try and distress the image with ink.  The StazOn is good for distressing chip board because it's permanent and dries quickly.  It just wasn't the look I wanted today.  So I decided to paint them instead.  Perfect for my project.

I liked the gold bike so well that I decided to paint the other one, too.

I added some rhinestones just to blint them up a little bit.

For the gold bike, I chose the Life Time pad of Prima paper.  You've seen me use this one before.  It's one of my favorites because of the range of shades and splatters.  They are beautiful papers.

I needed a piece of paper 6 x 4 1/4.  I opted to make the darkest section the body of my card and then use the part with the sentiment as a layer.  

I added some light brown ink to the edges of each piece so that they stand out once they were pieced back together.

This paper pad has a sheet of tags and embellishments.  I wanted to use a mini brad on the mini tag.  I could have used the cream color but it matches the paper a little too much.  I painted it the same gold as the bike to pull it into the card more.

Because the bike is chipboard it really stands off the page.  Foam adhesive squares hold the little embellishments up off the page to balance that out.

Card one - great for a note card or special occasion.  But it's almost Christmas and the other bike is red, sooooo...

I painted some chipboard snowflakes white to go with the second bike.

I found this piece of snowy scrapbook paper in my stash and added a washi tape sidewalk, then glued on the chipboard pieces. 

Products Used:

Die Cut Chipboard Bicycles

Die Cut Chipboard Snowflakes

Inks and/or Acrylic Paints

Adhesive Gemstones

Prima Life Time paper pad

Dimensional Foam Squares

Double-Sided Adhesive Tape

Glue

Scans of each card

Merry Christmas, ferret style!

I'm not really obsessed with ferrets, it's just nice to create cards that help out a cause.  All of the ferret cards featured here on Robin's Birdhouse are donated to Motor City Ferrets.

In Camelot!

I went to see my first play during my Freshman year of high school.  What better introduction to theater than to see Camelot?!  I love the romance and the action and, oh the music!  

I wanted to capture that Medieval feel with today's card.  Castles always have tapestries and banners so I used two different size banner dies with three of the images from the Mists of Avalon collage sheet and two pages from the Life Time Prima paper pad.  

What is royalty without a little pomp and circumstance, right?  So I added shine to these tapestry banners with some gold glam stickers and gems.

I just happened to have a crown and sword die cut in my stash and it really gives this card the Camelot feeling!  Both shapes were cut out of gold paper.

Thanks for stopping by!  Leave a comment if you have a moment.