Sunday, December 3, 2023

12 Days of Crafting with TCP - Christmas Placecards



Hello friends! Today I'm back for another day of The Cat’s Pajamas 12 Days of Crafting!  I thought it would be fun and festive to create place cards for our Christmas table.  For us, Christmas Eve after Church is all about our extended family, but Christmas Day is our family of 5, plus significant others if they are around.

So, I created a set of place cards that will match our dinnerware and the ever cute and retro set Give A Little from the November Release.  


I began by printing the whole digi set on Copic XPress it paper, and colouring the images up with Copics in colours that would coordinate with what we had.  Then I trimmed out each image, die cut some sparkly snowflakes from a retired TCP die, and started to assemble simple folded place cards (2”x 3 1/4”) from cardstock. I ink-blended the edges of the cardstock to get a little more depth of colour.  

I tried to pick the image that matched something about the person, so since my husband is my honey, he gets our favourite bear PJ.  




Next up, for our son who grew up milling through the presents to see how many he had, it’s Poochie the pup.  On each place card I have some mirrored holeless sequins and their name written in white gel pen.  




Now for our other son it’s Poochie surrounded by presents and stuffies.  




Next, for our daughter, it’s Sprinkles the Cat on a candy cane. 



And finally, one for me.  And since I’m the shortest in the family, I get the ornament holding penguin.  

They make a sweet little set ready for Christmas Day!  Hope you’ve enjoyed the tour!  

Saturday, December 2, 2023

Stitching Saturday: Merry Cardinal

 
Hello, and happy Saturday!  I’m dropping in today with another sweet stitching project, perfect for Christmas.  This design incorporates a few products from Spellbinders,  the Circular Stitched Background, and this adorable little die, Sweet Birdie Etched Die.  


Once I had all the stitching done with a rich evergreen and metallic white, I added holeless sequins for sparkle, and a die cut “merry” sentiment from Concord & 9th’s set Christmas Cloche.  It has the perfect thin script!  I stacked 3 die cuts together and ink blended some soft green ink to the sentiment to help it stand out then gave it sparkle with fine and chunky glitter.  

I used the adorable bird to fashion a red cardinal from the dies, and he’s perched perfectly on the sentiment.  It was a fun project!  Thanks for joining me today!  

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Gift Card Holder Tutorial with TCP

 

12 Days of Crafting

Full Size Gift Card Holder with Polar Bear

Greetings TCP Friends!  I'm here today with another new idea for the 12 Days of Crafting at The Cat’s Pajamas!  If you’re like me, even though I love to give personalized gifts, there are times when you have to resort to a gift card.  Have you noticed that most gift cards these days on the rack at a store come much larger, with a section that hangs on the display rack?  I think this larger size is a bit better so that those gift cards don’t get lost. So, I decided to design a gift card holder that would accomdate that larger size.  

I'll show you a few pictures of the process and then some more pictures of the finished tag holder.  

Gift Card Holder Tutorial 1

Here you can see I’ve cut the holder from a piece of Kraft cardstock and scored it at 3 1/2, and then scored a little 1/2 inch tab.  Then it’s all about the decorating, I stamped some retired TCP postage stamps in white craft ink first.  

Gift Card Holder Tutorial 2

Next, I stamped some red postmarks, then added a retired TCP die cut postage frame.  

Gift Card Holder Tutorial 3

I used a circle punch to cut out “ticket” half circles, and brought in the Copic coloured image from the very cute I Like Big Gifts digi set from November’s Release.  I adore this cute polar bear!  

Gift Card Holder Tutorial 4

Here you can see the outside holder put together and the gift card insert I created to slide inside, it’s a great place to write your greeting for the gift card, and a neat feature is that the gift card “ties” into the tag holder using the baker’s twine.
 
Gift Card Holder Tutorial 5

You can see that the hole you use to hang it on the gift card dispay at the store makes a great spot to tie it into your insert!  

Close Up Gift Card Holder

This is a close up of the Gift Card Holder put together. 
 
Gift Card Holder Open

And now you can see the Gift Card Holder pulled a part, and you can just see a peek of blue where the gift card is behind the tag.  

Gift Card Holder Tag open

Gift Card Holder Flatlay

All in all, a pretty sweet and easy design for those last minute gifts!  Thanks for joining me for today’s episode of the 12 Days of Crafting! 

Monday, November 20, 2023

Give Thanks with The Greetery

 


A few weeks ago I was the speaker at a ladies retreat, which was a great event to be a part of.  So, I just popped this warm and rustic card into the mail to say thank you to them for having me.  I used The Greetery’s Thankful Heart Stamp and Stencil to create a simple mailable design.  

I used the elements in the set to make a little harvest scene, placing it on a kraft coloured background cut with Concord & 9th’s Stitched Leaves Card Front Die.  A match made in heaven!  



I added a little extra colour to the harvest elements with prismacolour pencils, and stenciled in the colour for the sentiment.  


Sweet and simple, but heartfelt!  Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!  




Wednesday, November 15, 2023

TCP - Citrus Christmas!

 


Hello!  Today I’m bringing you two citrus coloured designs from The Cat’s Pajamas November Release!   Its full of fun and festive designs for the season and I had a lot of fun creating these designs.   First up, this adorable pair in front of the fireplace, tucked in for a cozy evening.  This one is called I Like Big Gifts.  


I began by colouring up the image with Copics in fun lime green, orange and coral red shades.  Non-traditional palettes are really popular right now, and this is a fun one. Then I added in the background details with prismacolor pencils, like the wallpaper and wood flooring.  

The background layer was embossed with a snowflakes folder, and then I added sparkly touches with some  sparkly embossing paste.  I also added the same sparkle to the die cut sentiment.  


They are such a cute pair!  

Now we’re headed to Grandma’s house for Christmas!  


This one is called Beary Christmas, and I just love our retro style bear driving on over to celebrate!  He’s even brought the Christmas tree and lights along!  


I started by colouring up the image with Copics, and then created a background with a retired TCP stencil by ink blending some deep greens and white ink for highlights and depth.  


I die cut some snowflakes in rich citrus shades to coordinate with this juicy palette and accent the little scene. 


A bit of twine ties it all together and we’re ready to celebrate!  

Here’s a peek at the new TCP goodies I used:










Monday, November 13, 2023

Joyful Foiling with Spellbinders




When I saw this gorgeous foiling/stencil bundle from Spellbinders Paper Arts called Glimmer Holly Background I just couldn’t resist it!  The combination of the beautiful foiling plate and the ability to stencil in any colours makes for such a beautiful combination.  

I would like to try different colour palettes, but today I went completely Christmas traditional with greens and reds.  
 

For the sentiment panel I embossed the strip of red with the lovely Tufted Embossing Folder from Spellbinders and then added the foiled sentiment from The Greetery Opposites Attract.  



It has lovely shimmer in person!