Hello, crafty friends!
 

It’s Emily again, and I am back showing you another 3 cards you can make with December’s Cherry Box – you guessed it right, Christmas cards! This Cherry Box features the traditional and very well-made Carta Bella paper, stickers, chipboard phrases & enamel dots from the line “White Christmas”. 

 

Also included is an adorable snowflake stencil & some idea-ology, distress mica stain spray, and distress crayon from the holiday line of the beloved Tim Holtz! You get one of the colored crayons, one spray & one of the 3 wonderful options from the metal adornments. I received the fresh balsam (light green) crayon, the tart cranberry (red) distress stain spray, & the snowflakes. But these adorable vintage buttons are everything you need this Holiday season! 

 

The first thing I did was look through all the sheets of paper and assess of course which ones were my favorite, but I also grabbed the 2 sheets that had all the sayings on them and cut those up. These sayings are perfect for card making. You can use them on the outside and the inside of your cards, and it makes it very simple! No stamping or anything fancy is required. 

  


 

From there I took out which sayings and pictures I liked the most to be able to use in the cards. And then I went on to review the sticker sheet and chipboard phrases! It’s always great when you have a whole collection to work with, that way you can coordinate the paper, stickers and phrases and it all makes sense and has a theme.

 

The first technique I decided to use was trying out the spray. I decided to water down the spray using a technique Jess showed in a previous blog post (found here) and basically watercolor some white paper I had on hand to create a beautiful red background for one of my cards. I kept adding some of the spray and then water and painted over spots I’d already painted for a layered effect. 

 

I also spritzed the red once it was complete with some silver distress spray I already had to give it some shine and shimmer. 

 

I decided I wanted to use the green piece of paper with the red watercolor paper I had made, and I chose these sayings to begin: “Home for the Holidays” & “Happy Holidays”. I wasn’t sure yet which would be on the outside of the card, and which would be on the inside. I wanted to add some effects to the “Home for the Holidays” cutout. This is one of my favorite Christmas songs, so it just spoke to me! First, I used the distress crayon and colored in the tree. It’s subtle but does add some beautiful dimension. I even used my finger to spread the color around the tree. 

I then decided to add some of the cute little enamel dots, I went with white and light blue, so it matched the paper and had the effect of snowflakes. 

 

I like doing the little details like these first and then assembling the card and seeing how it all fits together, then we can add more as needed! I decided to put the red watercolor paper in the middle of the green card, going for the traditional green & red look. 

 

I also framed the “Happy Holidays” saying with the same green cardstock I made the base of the card out of, and decided I wanted this on the red watercolor paper on the front of the card. I added this on with some of the foam adhesive since it is smaller, to give it a little lift. From there, it was about adding the details! I added in some of the enamel dots as a frame around the “Happy Holidays” but also wanted to make sure to showcase the watercolor paper. 

 

I knew I also wanted to add a button, so I picked one that had some definite red in it to go with the theme. I then picked two chipboard sayings out, the little ribbons I thought would go nicely in the corner, and had to decide, green or red? At first, I thought the green would be a nice contrast but decided to go with the red, as it just went so nicely with the watercolor paper and the red enamel dots I was using. Sometimes more of one color is a good thing! 

 

I added the button with Wendy Vecchi’s perfect card adhesive (which I love and use for any non-sticker embellishments). This glue held the button down so well (in case anyone is worried about that – you don’t have to be!). Also, I thought the buttons might be too heavy on a card but turns out they are the perfect addition. They are on the thicker side but add such a beautiful unique touch, and they are nice & light as well.
 

For the chipboard, the easiest way to adhere them to paper is with cherry tape! You just put the cherry tape on the back of the chipboard, cut off the excess tape and it becomes a sticker (you know how much I love stickers!).  I decided to use the green chipboard on the inside of this card and used Cherry Tape with it. 


 

I also put the “home for the holidays” saying on some of the green cardstock so it would pop more on the inside of the bright red card.   

The inside of this card is complete! I do like to add a little detail to the back of my cards, and I decided to stick with the stickers (pun intended). This way, when someone is writing, there is nothing on the back of the card that is going to make it hard for them to write. That way it’s a nice, flat surface! On the back of the card I wanted to stick with the “Home for the Holidays” theme and decided on the “warm & cozy” sticker with some of the snowflake stickers as well! 

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For my next card, I knew I wanted to use this patterned paper and the giant “Merry Christmas” that I cut out. I loved this paper because it reminds me of a snow village, my parents put one up every year & it truly is magical. Once I cut out the paper for my card base, I realized the “Merry Christmas” on one line didn’t fit. So I decided to cut it in half! This inspired my next idea, which was to use the stencil with the crayon for some more texture. 

 

What’s nice about stenciling is you can see exactly where you are adding, I made sure to add around the houses as I didn’t want the snowflakes covering the actual design, but more of a background effect. I do think this would look super pretty with the blue crayon, but these also could be trees! When I stopped and looked at it, I thought they looked a little like drawn on trees. Or if you have a gold or silver stencil butter, they could be really beautiful stars. It really is up to interpretation! There is a lot you can do with this stencil! 

  

I really love the effect of the crayon, it adds dimension and texture and gives off a 3D vibe, which I love on my cards. From there, I placed the “Merry” & “Christmas” separately with some foam adhesive to add a fun sort of display around the ‘snowflakes’ (or trees). 
 

For the inside of the card, I really liked this Santa holding the tree. I decided to add him with a frame of red to pop against the blue plaid. I also decided to add the sticker with the birds on the branch and chipboard saying that said “Home for the Holidays”. I liked the small thin size of the chipboard and the red to add that pop. 

 

Because the patterned paper on the back of the card paper will appear upside down, I add a different piece of paper to the back, so you don’t really see the upside-down paper. Then, I added more stickers!

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For my last card, I was inspired by the beautiful snowflakes! I thought the snowflakes would be too heavy to add to a card, but all said and done, the card ended up weighing under an ounce. What this means is that it could be sent with regular postage through the mail. The card with the envelope however ended up weighing 1.25 ounces. The basic rule for a card is if it’s under an ounce you can send it with a regular stamp in the mail, no problem! If it’s over an ounce, you just need to add extra postage. There is a special stamp called the butterfly stamp, which allows your card to go through the mail “manually”, meaning it wouldn’t go through a machine. This is perfect for cards like these with extra embellishments because it gets handled more delicately and in turn won’t ruin your card. But I will say, sometimes cards like these are best given in person. That way you can see the look on someone’s face when they open it! 

I loved the “Let it Snow” saying. This is my husband’s favorite song, so it’s also special to me too. And obviously goes perfectly with the beautiful flashy snowflakes! I decided to cut out the “Let it Snow” banner and use that on the adorable snowman paper. I mean, look how cute these guys are. 

 

I also decided to cut the left side of the ribbon tail off “Let it Snow” to give it a clean break so I could add it onto the card the way I wanted. Now time for the snowflakes! I added one onto the banner and a couple more onto the base of the card with the snowmen. I used the same Wendy Vecchi glue I used for the buttons on the snowflakes, and they held perfectly. 




 

I added the “Let it Snow” banner with foam adhesive to provide some lift as well. I decided for the inside to continue with the snowman theme – this is the reason why it’s so nice to have a whole collection kit of paper! Then the theme of the card can all match and make sense. Since the inside of this card is darker, I added a red frame onto the snowman base to allow some pop. I added some more white & light blue enamel dots onto the green portion of the snowman as well. I added another adorable button to the inside of this card also. This one read, “Tis the season”. 

  

 

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I had 6 more snowflakes left and knew I had to use them for something else! I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to use these. This collection kit also came with a sheet of paper that had mini gift tags. I saw the snowman and knew I could make matching gift tags as well! This also gave me an opportunity to use more of the buttons and enamel dots. I started with the snowman because it was just easy to have it match the “Let it Snow” card! I grabbed some string I had on hand (you can get this at ACOT!) and also got my gift tag stamp. I stamped out the different patterned paper I hadn’t used on my cards. You can find gift tag die cuts all on ACOT’s website, with a lot of different designs as well!

I used my needle poker to poke a hole in the small gift tags. I used a hole punch for the big one! 

   

I then took some plain cardstock I had to cut out another gift tag to tape onto the back since both sides of the paper are patterned and not easy to write on. From there, I strung the snowflake and stamped on “To:” & “From:” on the plain side so you can address this to whoever you’d like! I ended up adding some enamel dots and did the same thing with the other 2 I made! I also added a button to one of the gift tags. They turned out so cute! 

 

I plan on making more with the rest of the snowflakes! 

Here are the final pictures of the cards with their handmade matching envelopes & gift tags!

Happy Holidays Card:

 

Merry Christmas Card:

 

Let it Snow Card:

 

Thanks so much for reading! I hope this inspires you to create some Christmas magic! 

 

Have a safe & Happy Holiday season! 

Stay crafty,

Emily

 

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My name is Emily Moore & I love handmaking cards! I have an amazing, supportive husband, and a giant beautiful Bernese Mountain dog named George. I get very excited about pretty paper & love making detailed designs using die cuts, stencils, and any new techniques I can find! I used to work as a scrapbook teacher at Scrappy Chic in Livonia, but the pandemic allowed us to move up north more towards family (& A Cherry On Top!). I also recently made a career shift from finance to working at A Cherry On Top and absolutely love it. Come, stop by & say hi! You can find me in the storefront!

You can find more from Emily on her Etsy and Instagram!

 

 

 

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Subscribe before November 25th to receive the December Cherry Box!

Posted by Jessica.

 

In this post, I will be showing how to use the mixed media products found in the December Cherry Box. Included in this box is a Distress Mica Stain bottle, Distress Pearlescent Crayon, and a stencil to use them on. Between these three products, there are so many possibilities! Both the spray and crayons have a beautiful pearlescent sheen to them that sparkles in the light. Perfect for the holidays!

 

Each box will receive one crayon and one spray from Tim Holtz's new Holliday colors.

    

This first technique is great for getting a clean look using the stencil. Take the stencil and color over the cut-out areas using the Distress Crayon. You will get crisp raised images using this technique. This technique can be layered on top of backgrounds for a beautiful look.

  

Because I did not want to waste any of the left over color on the stencil after the first technique, I decided to use it by running over it with a wet paintbrush. Both the mica spray and crayons react with water. You do not want an overly wet paintbrush because the water will seep under the stencil and create a more messy look. 

  

These can also be used like regular crayons and color directly onto the page. They act like very smooth and soft crayons that blend beautifully even without adding water. You can also go over the drawn-on areas using a wet paintbrush to spread the color around and create a watercolor look.

    

These paints can also be used as regular watercolors! Scribble some pigment onto your palette and add water to the paint! Layer up the color to get darker areas of color.

 

    

Now we are going to talk about the stain spray. I love this stuff and use it all the time. It shimmers just the right amount for me (not too much but definitely noticeable). My favorite way to use it is to just spray directly onto the page. Because this is also reactive with water, I like to blend out the color using a wet paintbrush. When you do this you can still see the areas of the spray and splatter, but it is toned down just a touch.

If you just want a touch of it and not a whole spray, unscrew the lid and tap on it over your paper to add smaller shimmery dots.

  

Now I'm going to use the stencil with the spray. Set down the stencil (you can tape it down if you'd like) and just spray over the area of it. Carefully lift the stencil up, and there you go! 

    

You know I don't like to waste my products, so I'm going to use the spray on the back of the stencil rather than just washing it off! I added a spritz of water to this before I placed it down to let the color flow a little easier. Then, I pressed it down on my paper, lifted it back up, and I have a colorful reverse of the stencil! 

Look at how that shimmer catches in the light! 

    

And like the crayon, it can be added to a palette and then used as watercolor. This is a more subtle way to use the spray.

Now I am going to take all of the test pieces I've created and put them together on an art journal page!

I started by ripping up my test pieces. I ripped them so you couldn't see the hard lines at the edge of the stencils and also ripped off areas I didn't like as much. I cut my watercolor blobs out with scissors because I thought they could look like ponds or ice rinks. 

Next, I glued them onto my art journal page. I wanted the majority of the background covered using scrap papers. I then decided to blend some of the white areas so they didn't stand out so much. To do this I used a wet paintbrush and brushed over them. I wanted to keep this page mostly white and blue so I pulled out the embellishments that I thought would work with that. I also fussy cut some of the houses from the Cozy Village paper to create a scene. 

Here's the finished page! I added white splatters to the page with watered-down white acrylic paint to mimic snow. I also added White Opal Liquid Pearls to look like snowflakes on the page as well. I also added this on the roofs of the houses on the tops of the other embellishments to look like shiny snow.

I wanted to use the Snowflake Metal Adornments but wanted to alter them a little first. They come with a hoop on one side which is great when using it as a charm, but that's not what I wanted for this page. So I used Jewelry Pliers to cut it off. I also thought the metal looked too dark for my white and blue page so I covered it with Silver Effectz Luster Wax. I also did this with the other metal embellishments I used on the page.

  

This was such a fun page to put together and I'm glad I could make use of the scrap pieces I created to show off some techniques! This goes to show that testing and practicing with new mediums isn't done for nothing.

  

  

I hope this post has inspired you or shown you a new technique to use with the Distress Crayons or Mica Stains! 

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Subscribe before November 25th to receive the December Cherry Box!

Posted by Jessica.

Today we are sharing the projects that Jess and Rachel created using the December Cherry Box! This box is perfect for your Christmas crafting. It features the White Christmas collection from Carta Bella which has a nostalgic feel and pairs perfectly with the vintage-inspired Tim Holtz products that are also in the box. Included in this box is the White Christmas Collection Kit, White Christmas Chipboard Phrases, White Christmas Enamel Dots, Christmas Sparkle Stencil, Tim Holtz Metal Embellishments (embellishments vary), Tim Holtz Christmas Buttons, one Holiday Distress Mica Stain Spray (colors vary), and one Holiday Distress Pearl Crayon (colors vary).

 

 

Jess leaned into the nostalgic feel of the box by choosing to work with an older photo of her and her mother in the 90s. She knew she wanted to use the red plaid paper, as it matched perfectly with her mother's dress in the photo. She used a piece of white cardstock to spray Distress Mica Stain on then used a wet paintbrush to swirl it around and give it a watercolor effect.

   

 

 

Rachel loved the B-side of this paper because of the deep green color and the subtle stars but she wanted to add a mixed-media look to it. She sprayed the mica spray onto it and because of the shimmer in it, it showed up beautifully against the dark background. 

   

 

Watch as they create these layouts in the video below and get a closer look at all of the products included in this box!

 

 

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Subscribe before November 25th to receive the December Cherry Box!

 

Posted by Jessica.

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