Reindeer Games

It has been unseasonably warm here in Massachusetts - the high today was 73 degrees!  The warm weather makes it hard to believe that Christmas will be here soon.  Are you making holiday cards this year?

I stopped in at a small Joann's store the other day and found a stamp in the dollar bins that made me smile.  The stamp is by Studio G and is part of a series of six Rudolph stamps that I was able to find on the Hampton Arts site HERE.  I just had to buy the stamp and make a quick card.

I needed a reindeer that was "cute" to make this card.  I don't do a lot of "cute" and usually would prefer a more stylized and elegant reindeer.  There are several reindeer on the "Christmas Cheer" cartridge that were just the right type.  This is an older cartridge and it was one of the first (dozen or so) cartridges that I bought when I got my machine in 2007.  I cut the layers in several colors - since the pieces were small I didn't bother to use the Design Studio, Gypsy or the Cricut Craftroom to hide contours to cut only certain pieces in the colors I wanted.

In case you don't know how to do this, click here to go to the post with a video that I made a couple of years ago - just before the Gypsy came out.   The video explains how you can conserve your paper by using Design Studio to cut just the pieces that you need in the color you prefer when the cartridge has multiple items on the same key.  You can do this with the gypsy and the new Cricut Craftroom as well.  Hiding lines to change shapes is one of the best design tools these programs have to offer.

When you are adding all of the tiny layer pieces, it is easiest to put the adhesive on the base and then put the tiny pieces on the adhesive.  I wait until the adhesive has dried to a tacky state and then add the pieces.  This tends to be much neater with less chance of the glue spreading and showing on the top of the image. 

I stamped the sentiment in red on white cardstock and used a long rectangle Nestability die to cut and emboss the sentiment block.  The distinctive font was one of the main reasons that I was attracted to this stamp - I have many fond memories of watching the television special. 

I checked and the font is called 'Island of Misfit Toys" and it is available from dafont.com HERE.  I think I'll be using this for several holiday projects.  If you can't find the rubber stamp, you could just print out a sentiment on your home printer and cut it out with a die.

I added some green eyes and a big red nose to the deer.  I used a white pen on the detail lines of the face and then decided that I didn't like the way they looked, so I used a black pen to go over the white and add definition to the face.

I tied red and green twine around the card layers before I adhered them to the card front.  Then I put lots of foam squares on the back of the sentiment and the reindeer to raise them from the card face.

The patterned paper is from K and Company.  I added a thin white cardstock layer to help set off the design.  The reindeer is cut from several colors of Core'dinations cardstock

Time for bargains..

Black Friday specials are starting already - Thanksgiving is two weeks away and the merchants want to tempt us to shop now and not wait for the season to start.  Cricut.com has a sale on many Cricut cartridges - they are reduced to $19.99.  A few of my all time favorites, like "A Child's Year" and "Three Birds on Parade" are included in the sale.  Just click HERE to go to the sale page.

I have also seen images of the Walmart Black Friday ad online and there is a Cricut Imagine with two bonus cartridges for $187 - this will be on sale starting at 10 p.m. Thursday through Friday, while supplies last.

If you are looking for another way to save, there is a new bargain site called "Blitsy" that will be open to members only (membership is free).  You will need to be a member to receive notice of the special sales and deals.  You can sign up now and be ready to start receiving notice of the sales as soon as they start.  To sign up for "Blitsy," please use this link.  If you refer friends, you might have a chance to win the new set of three seasonal Winter Distress Inks by Tim Holtz. 


I'll be working on some Christmas tree decorations today - but not for my house.  My neighbor and I are doing a tree for our local museum - I'll tell you more about this in a week or so when we actually put up the tree.  Have a happy and crafty day!

Lots of little Christmas Trees!

I have been making lots of Christmas cards - trying out all sorts of different styles.  I thought I'd start posting some of them since it will be December tomorrow (how did that happen?).

In October, I wrote about some design inspiration and the Nordic red/white look (here is a LINK to that post).  I was working on a new card design and realized that it would look great in plain red and white.

Here is the basic cut of the card.  I actually started out to make a border and then began moving things around and built this pyramid of trees.  I use the circle feature for the tree to make the borders and then just continued using that element, hiding the circle contour to make the tree shape from the trees.

In this screen shot you can see how I altered the tree shape by stretching to make the trees fit the typical A2 card front.  The trees look a bit odd because there are two layers on top of one another (I had to do this in order to make the circle stay hidden when the file was closed and reopened - here is a LINK to a post explaining how to do this).

 This preview shot shows the finished file as it will cut.  I hate to waste paper so I filled the extra space with two cuts of the original border I designed.

The file will work for a 6 x 12 mat - if you have an Expression you can simply turn the mat and do a second cut on your 12 x 12 paper to get two cards and four borders.

 This is the basic card cut from lightweight red cardstock and layered over a plain white A2 card.

Adding some pen stitching will make the card more interesting (I must have been tired when I did this - it is rather uneven - I'll just call it "homespun charm"!).

The border looks nice on a simple white card - these would make useful notecards for the holidays.

I used a glue pen to dot adhesive on the solid parts of the border - you have to be careful about tape runners with all of the tiny cut outs.

I decided to try adding another paper to make some more variations of the card.  I found this paper last fall at Tuesday morning reduced to $5.99.  It has great bold graphic designs for a modern Christmas look.

I cut a piece at 8.25 x 4.25 inches to form a liner.  Since the paper is one sided there will be a nice white surface for the message inside the card.  I adhered the liner to the front of the card and left the back unattached.

I like the way the stripes fit these trees - they almost look like trees with layers of snow on the branches.  I added a dot of yellow Stickles glitter glue to the stars at the top of each tree.

I used another border for this card.  I added a layer of the same red cardstock cut to 5.25 x 4 inches and then layered another piece of the green and white striped paper cut to 5 x 3.75 inches.

Here are the two cards that used an additional paper.

These are the cards that have only red and white (the original concept).

There are many more variations possible with this simple pattern.  Adding more layers and colors will change the look.  You could also add some sentiments or additional  images (cut or stamped).

Christmas Tree A2 card and borders