Christmas all year round!

 Hello, it's been a while!!! I was so busy at the end of last year that I didn't get much time to post here. Things are a little easier now so I intend to post more frequently!

We had a good dump of snow on Wednesday and a winter storm with potentially a lot more snow is heading in today and Saturday!

Christmas is always a busy time for us crafters so this year I will be holiday crafting all year round so I am more than ready when it finally arrives. 

My card today is a card and a gift all in one.

Using a Gina Marie Designs Ornament die I cut 6 of it so I could stack them on top of one another making a chipboard thickness. This stops delicate parts from breaking off and makes the ornament substantial enough to hang on a tree.

I decorated a top folding A2 cardbase with some MirriSparkle Glitter cardstock. I then die cut a tiny hole in the center of the front of the card about half an inch down.

Ribbon was added to the ornament - this was then threaded through the hole in the card and adhered inside with tape.

Finally I added some gems to the ornament to make it sparkle.

Items Used:

CutCardStock Stardream Metallic Cardstock in Lagoon 

Classic Crest Solar White 110lb

MirriSparkle Glitter Cardstock

Gina Marie Scene Ornament Die

Thank you for stopping by and I hope I have given you inspiration for your holiday cards. Also of you have a lot of Christmas crafting to do - START NOW 😊

Pretty Little Clutch

Hello! we have had a crazy week of weather, Tuesday it was 52f and sunshine. Yesterday came another blizzard and the temps are in the 20s again!

Have you ever wanted to send a gift card but didn't want just a plain envelope or store provided card? Then this little clutch is perfect.

Stardream Metallic cardstock in Lagoon makes this extra special by giving it a sparkle.

I die cut all the components from Stardream Lagoon and Pop-Tone Strawberry Lemonade cardstock. 

The dies I use are from Concord & 9th's Classic Clutch Collection this also has stamps for the decoration.

The first step is to create the main part of the clutch the die cut full piece and mat. By scoring the parts and matting the Lagoon base with Pink Lemonade. 

This is the flap and back sections, part of the inside also has a mat. I leave this open at the top to form a pocket.

There is also a cute zip for pockets, this is from silver mirror card along with a heart pull. I add this to the back pocket of the clutch using wet glue.

The sides and bottom of this fold at the score lines and strong adhesive tape holds it in place.

Next I need to create the sides of the purse. Again these are cut using a die, they are then folded into concertina shapes.

I apply lots of tape on these as they need to be strong enough to hold the clutch in shape. The tent shape faces the outer edge of the sides to allow plenty of room for a gift card to fit inside.

They fit perfectly and still allow the piece of cardstock I placed inside to fit a gift card. Then you can use the main section for another small gift.

The clutch doesn't stay closed on its own so self adhesive Velcro dots are perfect for this. I place both parts together and apply to the flap of the clutch. when I then close the flap the second part adheres in the perfect place to hold the flap down.

The clutch has an adorable strap, this also has adorable tags and findings. I cut the strap in the Lagoon cardstock and the findings in silver mirror.

I then adhere this to the inside of the clutch which leaves the strap and tags hanging from the side.

Lastly the flap needs some decoration the word enjoy fits perfectly across the flap along with some die cut hearts. The outside as well as the inside looks pretty.

I just love the little zipper on the back.

I hope you have gained some inspiration from my post, If you have please tag cutcardstock on you Instagram or Facebook posts.

Altenew Educators Certification Program. Level 2 Final Challenge part 2

 Good morning from a rainy Michigan, we had storms last night and lots of rain so it's a bit cooler this morning - I just hope it stays that way.

I'm back today with part 2 of my AECP level 2 challenge. For this I needed to make an altered /upcycled project. I decided to do something that all us crafters use. Whether gifting cards or sending them envelopes are usually required. We put lots of effort and love into making the card but often send it with a plain white or colored envelope.

 As I did for part one I have chosen 3 techniques on this project too. Monochrome for the inside of the envelope from the Polychromatic class, layering from the All  About Layering Class and masking from Masking Unleashed. I love the layered stamp look, I don't do many monochrome designs and masking has opened a whole new designing world for me so that's why I chose these.

I have used Build a Flower Wild Rose (which is the latest build a flower set) with the Envelope Liner die set to upcycle some plain white envelopes.

I decorated 6 envelopes which turned into a mammoth stamping session each envelope has 52 individual stamping components!

I started with the liner, I die cut this from yellow cardstock for all 6 envelopes.

I then chose an ink collection that was same tone as the card stock so I could achieve a monochrome look. using my MISTI, I stamped the roses on to this.

I did initially start with all 4 inks from the Golden Sunset collection. I didn't use the solid stamp layer as the cardstock was the correct color for this, which meant I didn't need the lightest ink. I continued stamping all layers until I has 6 flowers and their layers on each liner.

Setting these to one side I made my masks for the outside of the envelope. I wanted to keep a white section for where the address would be written so I cut a piece of masking paper 3x2in and placed this on the envelope. I then stamped the flower and leaf outline a number of times on to the same masking paper and fussy cut these ready to use.

Now to decorate my envelopes - I started by stamping an outline flower in the darkest ink and placed one of my masks over this. I wanted this to be my top image so masking helps me achieve this - other stamped images will appear to be behind this. I continued stamping the outlines, leaves, small bunch of flowers and a little sprig that is also included with the set. masking elements as I went.

Then the magic of layering started to come to life when I removed the mask off the leaves and stamped their layers followed by the gorgeous roses.

After stamping the first envelope I did change my mind about the color of the small bunch of flowers and stamped these in black.

Next I turned the envelope over and repeated the masking and stamping process on the back. I also colored the small bunches and little sprigs, both back and front with fine line markers.

The Envelope Liner die set comes with word dies too so I chose 'for you' from these and die cut this into the flap of the envelope.

The address section mask was removed on all the envelopes. This masking technique is known as reverse masking - Where a section of the base color (white in this case) doesn't get any ink on it.

Because I had stamped all around and on to the mask it is quite impactful when it's removed.

The last part of my project was to add the liner. I folded the flap section on the embossed line which the die scores and slipped the liner in to the envelope. 

I decided to use an inverted corner punch on the liner flap for 2 reasons, 1 so the corners didn't show when envelope was closed and 2 because I felt it looked more professional.

Making sure I added glue to all the small parts of the die cut letters I adhered the 2 flap sections together. 

I love the way the words allow the yellow liner to show through.

I wanted to demonstrate with this project that you don't need a ton of craft products to make something pretty. I used a six pack of envelopes, some cardstock, one stamp set, a die set and inks for this.

I am going to make matching cards for these and gift them to a friend so I wrapped them up with a nice big bow!

Oh also waste from the envelope masks is so pretty too - I have kept these and may use them on another project - recycle never throw away!

 I said at the start this is part 2 of my challenge if you missed part one you can find it here.

Thank you for taking time to read my post, if this has inspired you to decorate your own envelopes please tag me on Instagram as I would love to see your creations!

Altenew products I used:

Envelope Liner Die Set Purchase From: SSS | ALW	Golden Sunset Crisp Dye Inks Mini Cube Set Purchase From: ALW	Build a Flower Wild Rose Stamp and Die set Purchase From: ALW	Green Fields Crisp Dye Ink Mini Cube Set Purchase From: ALW
All About Layering 1 Purchase From: ALW	Polychromatic Purchase From: ALW	Masking Unleashed Purchase From: ALW	MISTI Original Purchase From: ALW