Sweet Treat Gingerbread

I just happened to glance at the latest challenge at '52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown' and wanted to play along. It's a Theme Challenge this week, and the theme is "Holiday Goodies / Treats".  I pulled out the Tim Holtz Gingerbread Man die for my card this week:

I think I will put this aside for my Mom, as she will want 2 Christmas cards for the Great Grandkids.  I used a Sizzix scalloped card die for the card base, and added a white strip of holly embossed card stock. Instead of buttons I used a 1/2" circle punch and glitter glue. Much more mail friendly. The face stamp is by Peachy Keen.

The patterned card stock was in my stash ... and it is embossed & shiny. Finished size is 4.5 x 6".

I added a couple of panels inside and a sparkly punched circle to finish it off. Another Christmas card for my stash!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sue's February First

I have not yet shared Sue's February 1st mailing ...

Sue lives in a city a couple of hours away from me, and the first of each month we pop something into the mail for each other.

I wanted to make her a sweet little Valentine, using the Tim Holtz Gingerbread man die.

We are going to have to take a break for our mailing until probably June, due to time constraints. I am just not able to get into the studio for the next while.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Dynamic Duo's #32

This weeks challenge at the Dynamic Duo's blog is a monochromatic one ... my favourite!  And with the colours being PINK, I immediately thought of Valentine's Day and my Granddaughter.  :-) 

I am in love with the Tim Holtz Gingerbread Man die ... so decided to use it to make a Valentine gift tag. It's so cute I'm sure Master Tim would just choke at the way I used his die.  

Haha, I even used a Tim Holtz paper pack!  The tag was cut twice - once from patterned paper and once from white card stock. I inked the edges of the pink patterned one, added the white 'icing' (cuts with the gingerbread man) then stamped & coloured that cute little face (Peachy Keen).

The heart was cut from a different patterned paper in the same Tim Holtz stack using a Sizzix die, the edges were inked and I sewed a pink button on then attached a ribbon flower with a pop dot. The heart was attached to the Gingerbread Girl with foam tape.

In the photo below, you can see where I scored a line on the white die cut. I added adhesive above the score line, then attached the two together. This allows the tag to be opened for a message inside AND it stands up on it's own!

Since I had the white crochet cotton out anyhow (for stitching on the button) I did a crochet chain to add to the punched hole for hanging

Now that there is a baby brother in the picture I wanted to make a little boy tag as well...

He is made the same way, only I stitched a button to the heart using (SU) narrow ribbon. I used the same ribbon threaded through a punched hole for hanging.

I am still completely in Christmas mode ... so it was a challenge to switch gears and think Valentine's. The trick is going to be to keep these in a place where I will find them come February!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sue's November First

These are the first tags I made - the ones that started this whole new tag phase I'm in!  I thought it would be fun to make Sue a group of tags for her November first mailing**. They were so much fun to do...

I cut the gingerbread man (Tim Holtz) from some funky Christmas print card stock and backed them with white. The white is sparkly and embossed and nicely festive. The sparkle doesn't show up in the photos though.

The Papertrey Ink die 'Merry' was cut from white card stock and attached afterwards.

I punched a circle, and penned the 'to' and 'from'.

** For those that don't know, my friend Sue lives in a city 2 hours away from me and the first of each month we pop something in the mail to each other.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Gingerbread Man Tags

I could SEE these cute Gingerbread Man tags in my head, so had to make them up. I stopped myself at making 4, ha ha.

I have had this ginger coloured card stock in my stash for years, and I thought it would work perfectly with the die. I inked the edges of the front as well. Since I like my tags to be really sturdy, I'm doing them in either two layers or adding a punched piece to the back for writing on. On these four tags, I cut the fronts from the ginger card stock and the back from white. The To/From was stamped in red before assembling.

The buttons were stitched right to the gingerbread man tummies with bakers twine. That way I don't have to worry about them popping off if the glue freezes with mailing parcels this winter. Once they were finished, I decided to glitter the white 'icing' with stickles.

I think that similar ones would make ADORABLE tree ornaments - and I have a few ideas floating around in my head for those.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Gingerbread Man die - Sizzix, Tim Holtz
Buttons - Large, Stampin' Up. Small from my stash
Bakers Twine
Ink - Ranger, Tim Holtz Distress and Stampin' Up (red)
To/From stamps - MFT
Ribbons - Creative Packaging, Stampin' Up, Michaels
Ginger Card Stock - custom order many years ago
White card stock - Office Depot

Gingerbread Man Christmas Cards

Last last year, I asked our local scrapbook store (The Scrap Yard) to order me the Tim Holtz Gingerbread Man die. I had so many ideas for it that I didn't get to do last Christmas. Hopefully I can use it more for this holiday season!

One of my ideas, was to cut it out of patterned paper, instead of a gingerbread coloured solid card stock - and not add the icing and other traditional gingerbread man details. I think he turned out so cute!

I actually made three cards, using the latest sketch at the Freshly Made Sketch blog:

I had to eliminate the top layer of the sketch in order to use the gingerbread man die, just because of the size. The cards are 6.5 x 5" as it is, and I didn't want to go all the way up to a 5x7" card. I didn't put the ribbon on the cards either - it just seemed to take away from the popped up gingerbread man.

The patterned paper has glitter embedded in the pattern, which is hard to capture in a photo.  I cut a strip of the new tulle (Stampin' Up), cut the strip in half horizontally so I had two less bulky 'ribbons', then tied them around two of the patterned gingerbread men. I really like the tulle - it is far less bulky than ribbon for mailing!

The words were stamped on scrap white card stock, punched out and I outlined the punched label with a Sakura gel pen for some sparkle.  The card below is nearly identical except for the patterned paper strip at the bottom of the sketch. Rather than cut into a brand new 12 x 12" sheet, I used a scrap I had from the same paper stack.

This third card doesn't qualify as "Fresh & Clean", as the edges of everything are inked with brown so it is more 'grungy'. I really wanted to use this brown snowflake printed paper for a gingerbread man though, so went with it.

There is so much sparkle in these papers!  I used a narrow ribbon for this card, adhering the ends with sticky dots.

I think I'd like to take this idea a step further, still using a patterned paper for the die cut, then layering a pleated rosette on his belly.   :-)

I haven't been updating my blog too much this week - I've been trying to finish a couple of loom knit projects & I'm just not getting in the studio as much. The darn chores and errands are taking up the rest of my time. 

Thanks for stopping by today!