Tree Made From A Square Scallop Punch

Here's a simple tree made from a square scallop punch. So easy for Christmas cards or scrap books.
Scroll down for the video.

Don't forget to visit my blog for more fun too!

Easy advent calendar & a little freebie

It's still much too warm in Germany, but Christmas time is approaching quickly. This year, I want to give selfmade advent calendars filled with stories, recipes, and poems to some very special people. The basis for each calendar is a simple 12x12 sheet of scrapbooking paper glued to a 12x12 piece of sturdy cardboard.

Step 1: The numbers
You can either stamp the numbers like I did into the circles of this beautiful paper...


...or you can glue them on. I used a 3/4 inch circle punch to create numbers in matching colors. If you like, you can download my numbers-in-circles design, just print and punch (3 color schemes on one sheet). Click here to download



Step 2: The holes
Beneath the numbers, I used my crop-a-dile to punch small holes through the calendar. If you don't have a crop-a-dile, you can use an eyelet tool or a hole punch out of daddy's toolbox. Punch two extra holes in the upper left and right corner, so the calendar can be hung to the wall.



Step 3: The gifts
That was a load of work... I chose 24 short stories, poems, recipes etc. and printed them on high quality paper. I folded and/or rolled the sheets, tied them to a pretty ribbon and threaded the ribbons through the calendars' holes. A square knot on the back - that's it. I used a small IKEA Allen wrench to push the ribbons through the holes. If you give the calendar to a couple, you can use two different ribbon colors for them to take turns in opening the gifts.


Step 4: Embellishments
You can embellish your calendar(s) as you wish. The only embellishments I used was a little snowflake mirror which I tinted with Adirondack inks to match the paper's colors:


Step: Be happy and present someone with your beautiful creation!





I hope you like this tutorial. If you do, please stop by at www.anke-art.de and leave a comment. Thanks!

Christmas Tree Made Out Of Circles

A supposed to be easy tree made out of circle punches. You know when you just have one of those really bad video days? This was mine! I hope you enjoy it.  There's another video tutorial below this one that is a wreath made out of die cuts and punches too.

Visit my blog for more fun too!

Simple Christmas Wreath

It's that time of year!  Christmas is almost here.
Here's a simple wreath to use on cards or scrapbooks.  Enjoy!

And don't forget to visit my blog for more fun!

Christmas Ornaments from CDs

Some ladies were asking how I made the CD Ornament in one of my blog posts, so I decided to make a tutorial to share with all of you.
You will need:
~an old CD
~patterned paper
~sandpaper or file
~glue
~ribbon
~materials to decorate the CD

1.Using the CD as a template, cut out 2 circles with the patterned paper.

2. Sand over the top of the CD so that the patterned paper will stick to it better. Glue on one piece of the patterned paper to the CD.

3.Cut some ribbon into 2 inch strips. Now comes the bit of a tedious part. You will need to do a few pieces of ribbon at a time and glue them to the CD.

4. Put a dab of glue on the end of a pice of ribbon.
5. Fold the piece over and glue together.They will look like this.6. My other scrapbook supplies helped me out! What darlings! I made a few at a time and put the pieces under something for the glue to set a bit. If you use a hot glue gun, then the process will go faster :O)

7. Then put a line of glue on a section of the BACK of the CD and start gluing the pieces down. It will look like this on the FRONT of the CD.And here's my trusty stapler sitting on a few that were glued down to help them set and stay put!!
This is what it will look like on the BACK when all the pieces are glued down. If you get to the end and there's not quite enough for another piece of ribbon, either move some around a little to make it fit OR move them apart to fill in the gap. Depends on the amount of space you have left.
And here's the front.
8. Cut another strip of ribbon and loop it and stick it down as well. Then take the 2nd circle you cut and glue it down to the back of the CD.

I received the cute digital image from Ildo Co. - SNOPALS ! I'm guest design team member there this month. Isn't it adorable! I think this image would be great as an "Our 1st Christmas Together". That could be written on the back of the ornament on a tag, maybe.

Deanne

Nestability Christmas Tree card

I am so dreadfully in love with my Nestability dies atm!! I'm really enjoying playing around with them and seeing what I can create with them!!


To create you will need –
Nestabilities scalloped ovals set
Card
Brown ribbon
Sanding block (only if using coredinations card)
Clear Kindy Glitz
Ink pad in co-ordinating colour
To begin –

1. Begin by cutting out the size card you would like – I cut mine from a piece of Coredinations card and then sanded the edges to give a subtle blue edge to my card.

2. Next, use your nestability Oval scalloped die to cut out 4 ovals. Run each through an embossing pocket – I used a cuttlebug Xmas Snowflakes one!!

3. Once embossed, rub a white ink pad over the top of the raised section of each scalloped oval then a co-ordinating ink pad over the edges.

4. Adhere each of the oval over each other, ensuring a ¼ inch offset.

5. Finally, ensuring your oval set is laid in front of you in portrait style, mark the centre top of the bundle. This will be your cutting point for the 2 cuts you will make. Next, mark 2 radiating lines from this point, you should end up with an upside down cone shape and cut. Turn around and your tree is complete.

6. It’s now up to you to complete your card. I chose to create a special effects background using inks and a straw but it’s up to you what you would prefer. I then drew a rough white line around the background square, adhered the tree with a strip of ribbon as my trunk and a small ribbon bow for decoration!!

7. The background has been created by dropping small drops of Ranger Distress inks onto gloss card and blowing through a straw to make it spread. I started with a linen coloured ink then used a blue and finally dripped droplets of silver alcohol metallic mix onto the surface. The cool part was when the metallic mixative went on as it reacted to the water based inks and created a really cool effect I really hadn't anticipated!!

Sharon

Christmas baubles

I know, it's only October! But if you want a handmade Christmas you have to start early.



I love how these look together. These use a mixture of Laura Ashley and Amy Butler papers.

You will need:
Polystyrene balls (I got mine from ebay, about £5 for 20)
Some 7inch florist wire
Wallpaper paste
Paper
Acrylic varnish



Step 1:
Use wallpaper paste because it stays nice and wet for ages, and you want to be able to mould the paper to shape. Make the paste quite "sloppy".
If you use quite thick paper, leave it to soak for a minute or so in the paste to soften.

Step 2

Chop up the papers randomly, into little bits.

Step 3

Bend the wire into a loop and twist the end inch together.

Step 4

Stick the end into the bauble

Step 5

This is the messy bit. Start by handing the bauble from something, then gradually cover the surface in your gluey paper.

Take your time, and allow the paper to soften if it's too stiff to work with.

Step 6
Allow to dry, it could take a whole day. When dry, apply a coat of varnish.

It also works quite well without the wire. Here are some I made using mullberry paper and some gold thread which look quite effective arranged in a bowl.

A

A note from Julie : Thanks for a great tutorial Anna !! For further inspiration check out Anna's Marmadaisy Blog HERE

Christmas Advent House

As soon as I saw this little beauty complete with instructions and a template on Nichole Heady's blog I new it would be a project in the making for me.

My youngest Daughter Natalie is still at home with us and although she is 17 she still likes to have an advent calendar although she hides it out of sight not to look soft.

The house is a perfect alternative to hiding the advent Calendar what could be nicer than 25 of these little houses hanging from the Christmas tree & each one filled with a favorite chocolate and the doors numbered from 1 to 25.

As you can see I only glued down one side of the roof as I figured a Thornton's Chocolate would fit into the house just nicely.

1 down only another 24 to make.

To see more of Jaks creations visit her at http://crafterskitchen.blogspot.com/

Snowflake Spinner - Tutorial

How it's made...

We start this by using a piece of A4 card stock and scoring it into 4 equal quarters as shown in picture 1 then cut away one of the quarters as shown in the 2nd picture.

Fold the card on the longest score line so that card is a tent shaped card.

On the side that is double thickness (2 layers) you need to cut out a circle making sure that you cut through both layers, I used a nestabilitie die.

When opened it should look like this.

I cut out 2 of each straight and scalloped edged circles the 2 scalloped circles are in a very pale pink card stock (you need to make the scalloped circles small enough to pass through the apertures you cut on the main card).

I stamped snowflake onto the plain circles and glued these on top of the scalloped ones.

I added double sided tape all over the back of the snowflake and stuck the 2nd snowflake on top of this by carefully aligning the scalloped edge.In the 2nd picture you can see the thread runs through the inside of the snowflakes (see arrows)

I used the snowflake embossing folder and wrapped this around the front of the card with the aperture cut out as this would not run through the cuttlebug I wrapped the back side of the card behind the folder as shown in the 2nd picture.

On the reverse of the cuttlebugged aperture I added 2 strips of double sided tape to adhere the silver thread to and hold the snowflake in place.

Add double sided tape over the silver thread and to the rest of the back of the aperture then fold over the other piece with the circle cut out and this will hide the silver thread making a neat finish

I added a sentiment to the bottom of the card some stickles for sparkle pearls to the snowflake center and knotted a ribbon around the top

& that's it your done!

A note from Julie

WOW what a fantastic card I'm definitely going to try this!!

Thanks for another great Tutorial Jak

Go and visit Jak's Crafters Kitchen Blog HERE you will definitely be inspired!

If you follow Jak's Tutorial to make your own spinner card please leave a comment with a link to your creation so that we can have a look :)