Christmas 2015 – Christmas Card Making – Lawn Fawn Otter & Basic Grey Evergreen Adorable & Easy Card Design

This is a super cute card using the same paper tearing technique from the previous card that I posted. This time I adhered the strips vertically and I left a lot of space to the right-hand side. In the space I put a stamped otter holding a Christmas present. I didn’t colour him in I liked the cream/craft look of leaving him blank. He was die cut out using the matching Lawn Fawn dies. This is from one of the birthday stamp sets. I adhered the otter using foam squares and finished the card off using a sticker embellishment from a Basic Grey Christmas Collection.

This card turned out super cute and was really fun and easy to make.

Christmas 2015 – Christmas Card Making – Basic Grey Evergreen Easy & Fun Scrap-Busting Card Idea

This one was super easy and really relaxing. It’s also a great way to use up a lot of scraps. I have simply torn strips of pattern paper and then adhered them to the card, stacking them on top of each other. I added in the ‘ho, ho, ho’ in the center parts as the sentiment and didn’t use any stamps at all. The ho, ho, ho lettering is actually part of some pattern paper in the Basic Grey Evergreen collection.

Christmas 2015 – Christmas Card Making – Penny Black Leaping Deer Stamp card Idea

This card design, I think I’ve done something similar last Christmas using the Basic Grey Evergreen papers and stamping the Penny Black Leaping Deer onto the yellow pattern paper. I don’t mind this card but I wasn’t completely satisfied with this one. I decided to gift this card to my mother as she loves me even though I’m not perfect, so I think it’ll be the same for the card. I’ll have to try and do something super creative with the deer stamp next year.

I used up some scraps of the Basic Grey Evergreen papers, in green, red and yellow. Adhering them on top of each other. I stamped HohoHo using the Penny Black Whoooos Wishing stamp set in green Memento ink. I wrapped some craft twine around the top of the card and tied a loop and I finished the card off by placing a red rhinestone on the deer’s nose to turn it into Rudolf.

Christmas 2015 – Christmas Card Making – Basic Grey Evergreen Paper & Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Simple Card Design

This was a very simple card design that I’ve seen around on Pinterest and I wanted to give it a try myself and I thought it be a good way to use up some more scraps. I’m all about getting the most out of my supplies; waste not want not! (haha but I always want more supplies ^-^)

I’ve simply torn one red piece of paper for the trunk or pot and torn several pieces in varying lengths in green pattern paper. I’ve stamped ‘Merry Christmas’ using the Simon Says Stamps Christmas Sentiments set which is very affordable and is under $10. I stamped it using red Memento ink. And I topped the tree off with a gold star which is a left over embellishment from the very first set of christmas cards I made about… I think 4 years ago now. I adhered it using glossy accents as it was what I had available and it did the trick.

Christmas 2015 – Christmas Card Making – Basic Grey Evergreen Elegant, Simple, Fast & Easy Card Design

This Christmas card I made for my older brother so I didn’t want to make a card that was super cutesy. I stuck with the more traditional Christmas colours of green and red using Basic Grey’s Evergreen papers from a 6×6 paper pad. I divided them and added a bit of elegance with some gold washi tape and tied a gold bow over the washi tape. To finish it off I simply added the numbers 2 & 5 from the Basic Grey Evergreen letters & numbers pack to signify the 25th, Christmas Day. It was very easy and quick to put together but I think a great result.

Christmas 2015 – Christmas Card Making – Lawn Fawn Cute Card Simple Card Idea Basic Grey Evergreen Paper

Together with my bestie, Yvette, this was the second card we made together. I love how super cute this card is! The platypus is so gosh-darn adorable! We used Faber-Castell water colour pencils I had nearby (I’ve had that box since I was a little kid) and coloured in the platypus which was stamped from the Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under Stamp Set and cut him out using the co-ordinating dies. And similarly, we coloured in the Christmas hat which was stamped from the Lawn Fawn Critters in the Arctic Stamp Set and cut it out using the co-ordinating dies.

We made two sets of trees by cutting up scraps of green and a golden-brown pattern paper from the Basic Grey Evergreen collection. One tree we adhered flat to the card and the other tree, the left-hand tree, we adhered using foam squares to bring some more dimension to the card. And then we positioned the platypus amongst the trees.

Yvette had the idea to place the sentiment “seasons greetings’ above the trees in green, which I love. It looks fantastic and is so cute. I would like to make another card like this as it was super fun to make.

Basic Grey Clearance Warehouse Box Haul Shipment Package

For midyear, Basic Grey had another Warehouse Clearance Box sale. I was lucky enough to grab one of these for Black Friday and whoo boy was excited for another chance as that Black Friday box was pretty epic. I was so stoked as the boxes are loaded with goodies and it’s a saving of $100’s of dollars.

Basic Grey really spoiled me with this haul. I got little snippet journalling cards from the Highline Collection, a set of stamps, alphas, borders, posies, buttons and lots of bling!

Now for the really exciting part, this really blew me away and I was so happy with the items that had been chosen for me. Did I mention that I have no idea what I get? Basic Grey just fill a box up with random goodies, you have no choice in what you get. I love that part of the sale too, as I get a surprise! It makes the unboxing that much more thrilling!

Look at how thick that stack of scrapbooking papers is! I received so many papers from many collections which I’ll picture all below. I received lots of elements stamps which are like $6 each! Amazing! And not only that I got not one, but two card kits! I love card kits, especially for the design ideas, but I was especially excited for the Grand Bazaar card kit as Grand Bazaar is hands down one of my top, favourite ever, Basic Grey collections. I’m too lucky!

So I’ll start with the papers! Three papers from the Mint Julep Collection. I have quite a few papers still left over from the Mint Julep Collection I got on sale at Spotlight, so I’ll probably add these papers to that.

Three papers from the Herbs & Honey Collection. I love that yellow/gold pattern paper.

Two scrapbook papers from the Spice Market Collection.

Four papers from the Second City Collection designed by Kelly Purkey a great source of scrapbooking inspiration and knowledge. I love the colours in the collection and super stoked to have gotten one of the journal card pages.

Two pattern papers from the 25th & Pine collection. I’m going to store these away ready for Christmas. I would like to do some really neat and special layouts for Christmas this year!

I wasn’t as excited for these two papers from the Fresh Cut Collections, but that’s only because I still have about 50 pages from this collection left from when I went nuts on Fresh Cut supplies for my scrapbook journal I was doing. I filled the journal up and I have heaps of supplies left. I’m thinking of making a second journal to use up those papers. It’ll just mean I’ll have a couple gap months between journal 1 and journal 2, but I think that’ll be fine.

Three pattern papers from Carte Postale. As nice as these papers area, they don’t actually inspire me much. I’ll have to have a good think about what I’m going to do with these ones.

Five papers from the Soliel Collection. Really digging the bright colours and love the blue and yellow pattern papers. I can see those two being used as bright backgrounds for a couple of layouts.

One pattern paper from Kelly Purkey’s Mon Ami Collection and one pattern paper from the Capture collection. I think these will be very versatile and useful papers.

Four papers from the RSVP Collection. I think I’ll put these papers together with some mini kits. I’m going to have to crack open the rest of my scrapbooking supplies and put some more kits together. Putting the kits together also helps spur some inspiration and project ideas.

Four pages of the Evergreen Collection another one of Basic Grey’s Christmas Collections. Again these papers will be going away into storage along with the 25th & Pine papers.

Three Basic Grey Grand Bazaar papers. Super happy to get some more of these papers. I want to finish recreating some of Kelly Purkey’s designs from her Craftsy Course – as with everything, it’s about finding the time.

Five papers from the Highline Collection. Again, super stoked about these pattern papers. I actually wanted to get this collection to do some layouts with my crafting friend as I think these patterns would be right up her alley.

I have quite a few Persimmon papers already, getting most of them in a previous Basic Grey sale and also snagging the Collection Kit for around $10 so I’ll probably add these in with those as spares.

I was surprised to get these three papers. Even though there’s only one of each as these are from the more recent collections, I wasn’t expecting to get any papers from these three collections: Adrift, Aurora and Vivienne.

And lastly to finish off the papers, one more from Kelly Purkey’s Mon Ami Collection and one sheet from the Capture Collection. I think this scrapbook page is really awesome as it has lots of elements I’ll be able to cut up and use.

This is the contents of the Herbs & Honey Card Kit: 6 x 6 pattern paper pad, brads, bottle caps, title stickers and a design sheet by Arielle Gordon. There’s enough supplies to make one of each of the cards.

This is the contents of the Grand Bazaar Card Kit: 6 x 6 pattern paper pad, title stickers, foils, envelopes/pockets and a design sheet by Becky Williams. I really like the simple and clean designs. As with the Herbs & Honey Card Kit, there’s enough supplies in the Grand Bazaar kit to make one of each card.

And finally the wowzer. Twelve sets of element stickers including ones from recent collections such as J’Adore and Vivienne. The other collections are: Fresh Cut, Jovial, Clippings, Paper Cottage, RSVP, Highline, Grand Bazaar, Herbs & Honey, Spice Market and Capture.

To summarize, I could not be happier with the selections made by the Basic Grey staff and I’m super grateful that I was able to snag one of these epic deals. I won’t have to get any scrapbooking supplies for years!

Christmas 2014 – Christmas Card Making – Basic Grey Evergreen Holly Jolly Paper

This is another card I made before starting my blog so I don’t have the photos during construction.This one I made with my favourite uncle in mind. I really liked the ‘Holly Jolly’ print pattern paper in the Basic Grey Evergreen 6 x 6 paper pack and decided on using that.

Then I picked out some coordinating paper, a plain blue and an angled stripe pattern. All the colours go together perfectly. Basic Grey’s Evergreen series is obviously very well thought out with many combinations to use with all papers coordinating beautifully.

I decided early on to use the blue paper as a stripe to separate the bolder prints of the Holly Jolly and the stripes. It looked okay but I wanted to have a little more. So I stamped ‘Season’s Greetings’ either end of the blue stripe in red and green memento ink. There was enough of a gap in the middle of the two stamped sentiments to put a mistletoe stamp. The mistletoe stamp is a part of the Penny Black’s Whooo’s Wishing stamp set.

To stamp it, as the berries and leaves are one whole stamp, I had to first cover the berries with washi tape, then add the green ink to the leaves, then remove the washi tape and then finally stamp it down. I had to repeat this process with the berries. First covering the leaves with washi tape, then adding the red ink to the berries, then removing the washi tape, and then finally stamping it down. It took me a couple goes to get it right and I practiced first on a separate piece of scrap paper. I was happy with the results.

It still didn’t look completely finished. So I used some brown hemp cord to create a border top and bottom to the blue paper. And I finished with a little brown cord bow at the top corner with the scrap piece of cord I had left from the borders.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the results and process of making this card. This card has been posted to my uncle and I’m excited to hear from him to find how he liked the card.

Christmas 2014 – Christmas Card Making – Basic Grey Evergreen with Penny Black Whoooo’s Wishing Ho ho Ho Stamp

I made this Christmas card before I started my blog so didn’t think to take pictures of it in progress. I made this and two others at a friend’s house. We got together to make a few Christmas cards together.

I made this one for my father.

I used the papers from the Basic Grey Evergreen 6 x 6 paper pack. I chose out the pretty pattern paper with the red birds and the leaves first. But I didn’t want to use it as the entire background. I wanted to try a vertical stripe effect so I chose the green pattern paper as the background with the bird pattern paper as a stripe in the middle on top.

Now I was at a loss. It took me quite a while to brainstorm that I would put a lighter pattern paper in the middle of the bird pattern paper with a sentiment. But it took me even longer to to think of using the ‘Ho ho Ho’ sentiment stamp from Penny Black’s Whoooo’s Wishing stamp set and to use it in an alternating pattern of red and green.

I was pleasantly surprised with the effect and the results. It was still missing a little something, so I finished it off with some hemp cord by tying a couple bows top and bottom of the sentiment piece.

I’m really happy with the result and it has since been posted to my father and I hope he enjoys the results as well!

I hope this Christmas card inspires you and has given you some ideas for card making of your own.

Christmas 2014 – Christmas Card Making – Basic Grey Evergreen with Ribbons

After a very trying night at work that left me feeling very grumpy. I wanted to relax with some card making while watching some CSI: Miami. Though I quickly found this card almost as frustrating to make as my night at work.

I chose two coordinating papers a gold and a red from the Basic Grey Evergreen 6 x 6 Paper Pack. And I found some red and gold ribbon I had left over from about three Christmases ago.

I had a bit of trouble making this one… I was trying to be quite precise with measurements and have the outer border all the same and was doing really well, I thought, until I adhered the gold pattern paper to the red pattern paper and the gold was the tiniest of tiny bits too short.

Carefully, oh so carefully, I tried to remove the pattern paper – it started to tear. I stopped and looked at the problem and tried to gently come at it from a different angle – I ended up tearing the paper and then the card stock.

…Then I lost my temper at it – I looked at the card and heard the Ironside sirens and saw red like Kiddo from Kill Bill when she sees her target. I then tore the remnants of the card into many little pieces.

After heaving a few heavy breaths, I pulled out another bit of card stock, stared at it menacingly just daring it to act in a manner that would displease me.

One last deep breath and then I remeasured and cut another pair of patterned paper. I was able to successfully adhere the paper together and have it be exact and matching. I breathed a sigh of relief.

The next challenge: adhering the ribbon. I don’t think I’ll make another card like this again…

I’m sure there would have been a better and easier way to make this card but I apparently chose the hard way. I also chose to use super glue…

I adhered a strip of red ribbon under the pattern paper and then the gold strip of ribbon positioned underneath that. Easy to write about… wasn’t easy to do. I ended up making a mess to the right hand side with the glue. Now I had to find a way to cover it up.

I thought, ‘a bow!’

To make the bow I folded one strip of red and super glued the edges together. Then I super glued two strips of the gold ribbon to the back to be the bow’s tails. And then to finish the bow I wrapped another strip of red ribbon over the top of the other ribbons and adhered that to the back. I cut the tips of the gold ribbon bow tails and then adhered the bow to the card to cover the messy glue fiasco I had created.

The result didn’t look too bad!

But it still didn’t look complete. More brainstorming and imaging to think of a way to finish this card…

I really like the ‘Ho ho Ho’ stamp that is in the Penny Black’s Whooo’s Wishing clear stamp pack. I’ve used this stamp to finish off a card I made for my dad and thought it would look nice to finish this card too.

I used some of the yellow pattern paper I had left over from the leaping reindeer card I made for my partner’s grandparents. I cut this into a ribbon shape and then stamped the ‘Ho ho Ho’ sentiment on top in red ink.

Finally I added a triplet of rhinestones to the left-hand side of the sentiment to balance the card and give it a bit more shine.

I’m happy this card is finally finished and that the result is quite pleasing. I finished it with fading light and took two very bad photos. I made this one for my Aunt so hopefully she likes it, though I’m sure you won’t realise my trials in creating it…