Tag: Cards

Quick cards for the New Year

On By lindaIn card making, tutorial, Uncategorized, Xyron8 Comments

Linda_Neff_mini_mug_shotEvery year I always miss someone or two or three on my Christmas card list. I’m sure that never happens to happen of you! My solution is to send a New Year’s card and include a little family newsletter. That way it looks like I haven’t forgotten them – I just choose to wish them a Happy New Year!

I made these cards from left over Heidi Swapp Christmas papers and embellishments. Who says you can’t use Christmas paper for other occasions? Without the phrase Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, these papers are just lots of pretty prints!

This set of cards came together really quickly: using a paper trimmer, a couple of punches, some Distress Ink and my trusty Xyron Creative Station.

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After gathering all supplies I cut simple rectangles to fit my standard A2 cards. I punched some borders with a Martha Stewart border punch and used a Fiskars hexagon punch to create some coordinating hexagons. I also used some of Heidi’s Believe Banner Delights as added elements. I just played around and did a quick layout of designs before inking all edges with Ranger’s Black Soot Distress Ink.

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I don’t seem to own a ‘Happy New Year’s’ stamp so printed my sentiment on white cardstock. I punched some with a Marvy scallop circle punch and trimmed out the others with the paper trimmer. I used my Teresa Collins Stapler to add some detail to one of my sentiments before attaching it to the card.

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All my card pieces are run through my Xyron 9″ Creative Station. I like to use this size when I have lots of pieces. I can line them up before shipping them through so adhesive is not wasted.

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Then the fun begins – peel and stick! So easy!

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These are the finished cards so now I only need to type up the newsletter and pop them in the mail after Christmas! This makes me feel like I’m actually ahead of the game.

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It’s not always so transparent …

On By lindaIn card making, Stamping, Xyron6 Comments

I have been trying so many glitter techniques lately and having a blast doing so! And, have you watched Craft Wars yet on TLC on Tuesday nights? They’ve had glitter everywhere – especially this week.

In just a few short months I’ve discovered so many ways to use glitter. Sometimes, an idea just hits me while perusing my stash of Stampington magazines to where I wonder if i could replace a certain product with glitter. That’s what happened last week.

I usually bookmark ideas with tons of sticky notes for future reference and I came across an article in the Apr/May 2010 The Stamper’s Sampler titled “Beautiful Brayering” I had bookmarked to try some day. So, I read the article again and I’m wondering, “can I replace the brayered ink with a transparent glitter?”

Not everyone understands the use of transparent glitter – it took me awhile before I understood it – and being a visual person myself, I wanted to share this project with you. The basics are: If you want your background to show through the transparent glitter, use a clear adhesive. If you want to block your background out to get the full color effect of the transparent glitter, block out your background with a dries-white glue. For the effect I wanted to achieve I actually used a Xyron Creative Station.

I used an old book page on this card that I inked, embossed and glittered with transparent glitter – cool isn’t? You can still see the ink colors and the print on the book page!

Hop over to the Art Glitter blog for complete instructions and give this a try! It’s really a lot of fun and gives such a wonderful muted effect. Happy Glittering!