A Trio of Cards with Paper Smooches

Hello folks!  Are you all in the mood for some more holiday card ideas?  I've got a few Paper Smooches cards to drop today, and I've got two holiday and one "anytime" card.    This first one uses the fun Snowman 2 dies.  I love these outline dies because they make it so easy to make shaker cards!  

First I started with my background.  Since it's a shaker card, the background is all one layer.  I die cut a panel in two with the wavy Borders 2 die.  Then I blended ink on just the upper piece.  I used Ranger white watercolor paper which I really love because it's more white than other watercolor papers I've bought.   You really don't want a yellowy snowman;)

For the shaker part, I used my Fuse tool to create a little sealed pouch.  I really wanted my snowman shaker to be totally filled up, so I used the Snowman die to draw an outline on the pocket page as a guide for fusing.  If you want a looser fill, a simple rectangle would be fine.  The great thing about the Fuse tool is that it is very easy to follow any line, straight or curved, to get that custom shaker.  Here's a pic of me filling the partially fused shaker with my mini styrofoam ball filler.  {BTW, I got the styrofoam balls from the dollar store.  I *think* they are meant to be used to make snow globes.}

As you can see in this close up, I added a couple extra touches to my snowman by drawing in his arms with a marker and substituting paper eyes with black enamel dots.  This was such a fun card to make!  

Here's another holiday card for you!  I used the Evergreens dies.  This card shows you how versatile those outline dies can be when you just use the inside of the dies.  I layered multiple die cuts to create a larger tree.  Each tier is colored with watercolors and the whole thing was misted with white ink.   The background sky is just blended ink.  I really wanted to focus on the tree, so I created a frame with the oval reverse cut and the stub punched corners.  

This last card is not a holiday card, and made a quick colorful card using the Natural Beauties stamps and dies.  My goodness is this set ever cute!!!  I heat embossed the wreaths and then loosely colored each one with my watercolors (the Peerless watercolor papers if you're wondering).  

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you have a great weekend!  

Mahalo and Aloha,
jj

Trio of Shaker Tags with Avery Elle

The Avery Elle Naughty or Nice set is especially made for gift tags, so it seemed like a no-brainer to pair it with the Pocket Tag die.  Instead of using the tag pockets for a gift cards, I turned them into a mini shakers:)   Seriously, who doesn't love mini stuff?

The first step was to cut my tags (with a window added).  Then I added a bit of patterned paper to each tag for a background to the shaker.  I wanted to add one more element, but I needed petite images to match the scale of the mini shakers.  Luckily, the new Avery Elle release has a bunch of mini images, so I had just the perfect stamps to dress up my mini shakers.  

The shaker packets themselves were made with my Fuse.  Since the shape of this shaker is a simple square it was incredibly simple to put together.  Just fuse 3 sides, add your fillers, and then seal the last side.  

I can't wait to use these tags this year!

Thanks for stopping by today!    I hope you have a wonderful day! 

Mahalo,

jj

Envelope Shaker Tags with The Greeting Farm

Good Monday everyone!  Over the summer, I was lucky to get a package from the folks over at the The Greeting Farm and I just wanted to share a couple tags I made with the  Always a Party and Make a Wish clear stamps and coordinating dies sets.  Aren't these little bears the cutest?  

The Always a Party set has the cutest little bear family, and I'm especially smitten with the little boy bear and little girl bear stamps.  So I paired them up with some cupcakes and banners from the Make a Wish  set.  Don't they all look like they belong together?  Of course, I could have left the tags just as they were here...

But I wanted to dress them up just a bit more.  I've used my Fuse tool to make a shaker before (check it out here), but this time I wanted to make an envelope shaker.  I placed my tag inside of a page protector like so...

Then I took the Fuse tool and the ruler and created a seal down both sides of the tag.  [FYI, I used the "fuse" tip as opposed to the seal tip for the Fuse tool.  It's a matter of personal preference, but I like that stitched look.]  I left the top open so I could fill the shaker with various types of sequins and glitter.  

Then I sealed the top of the tag (followed along the shape of the top of the tag).  This was so much fun!  

That's it for me today!  Thanks for stopping by today and thanks to The Greeting Farm for the chance to work with such fun stamps and dies!  BTW, if you stop by and pick up anything at The Greeting Farm, use the code "JJB10" for 10% off. 

XOXO,

jj

Ellie Shaker Card with Avery Elle

Helloooo!  It's been a crazy week here on the East Coast and I'm so glad that it's Friday:)  And I'm so happy to be sharing this card that I made with the new Avery Elle Ellie stamp!  So cute, right?  

When I saw the Ellie stamp I thought how fun it would be to make him spraying "confetti" from his trunk.  I used the arc die from the Custom Panels die set to create the aperture for the shaker, but I still had a problem with the edge of the card.  Most shakers have a frame so you can hide the foam layer that contains the sequins/glitter.  Instead of a frame, I used this new technique with my We R Memory Keepers Fuse tool.  Check out this video for the details...

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Mahalo and Aloha,

jj