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2020 - 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 4

I've been having fun making these tags... though several of the "planned" ones haven't turned out as I'd expected, so they haven't made the cut... but the next few did.
This tag was done using basic shapes and a few other commands found in the software.  I love the look and the layers.

The photo doesn't do it justice -- but the studio lighting hasn't been cooperating the last few days... so my apologies.  

I love adding a stitching line using the contour cut feature, inset shadow and then changing the line to a dashed line.  The white stock for the front cover was watercolored using an antique colorway.  All of the trees are washed in a little bit of light gray and some Wink of stella.  I used some stacked foam tape strips along the edge after the insert was created and placed on the back piece.  I wrapped a length of gold cording around the edge to cover the foam.  

 

2020 12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 3

Tag three was a blast to make.  I'm in love with shaker cards and thought I would adapt a design to create a shaker tag.  

I used the rounded square from the basic shapes library and the half circle with a cutout.  Union command in eCal3.  Copy and paste a 2nd shape on the mat. HIghlight one of shapes, choose contour cut from the Effects menu.  Create an inset shadow, that would leave about 1/4 inch of an edging on the basic shape of the frame. Click okay.  When you get back to the mat, move the shadow to the top of the layer palette.  choose Path > back minus front.  This piece will become your shaker front.*  Open the library again, choose the rounded square.  Make it a little bit larger than the opening of the shaker front.  This will be the cut for the transparent window of your shaker front.  

Add a snowflake to the mat.  Size as needed.  

Create the sentiment using a favorite font**, place on the shaker back.  Set the letters to draw.  Using the foil quill, foil the lettering.  If you're not using a single line font, you'll need to use line fill (effects tab) to fill the lettering.  

Cut the shapes.  Place the transparency on the back of the front and secure in place.  To create the shaker:  Add some narrow foam tape to the right side of the back shape of the shaker card.  Add the shaker bits -- in this case, I used some holly and berries mix from Kat Scrappiness.  Place the shaker top in place.  

 

*I used a digital print from and old Echo Park Christmas collection to fill the shape with the holly and berry paper.  And print 2 cut.  You could also set the sentiment to print to cut if desired. I also set all strokes on the shapes to none.  

** Font, Hello Blushberry Sans Serif is from CreativeFabrica

2020 12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 2

Day 2 - Simple 2 layer tag.  

A bit of watercolor and Wink of Stella add the touch needed to finish this tag.  

Create the word you want as a focal image... Font is American Typewriter from Use the weld command - Make 2 copies of the word. 

Using the desired tag shape, size as needed.  Add a circle and center on the tag.  Use the back minus front command.  Next add the word and center on the tag in the circle.  Adjust size and space as needed.  Union to the tag.  

All pieces are cut on the eclips using eCal 3 to mat.  All pieces for this tag were made of white cardstock.  Color as desired.  I used watercolors and some wink of stella and a rose colored gel pen to define the letters a little bit more.  

2020 - 12 Tags of Christmas

It's that time of the year again... and we're celebrating the holidays on the eclips/eCal FB page with our annual 12 Tags of Christmas reveal.  

Tag 1:  Playing with basic shapes in the eCal 3 library - place a circle and half circle on the  mat - using the union command, create a single shape for the ornament base. Fill using a buffalo plaid* using the pattern fill command.   The smaller circle has a foil quilled sentiment. 

Fonts (Charming and Charlotte) from CreativeFabrica.  
Buffalo plaid from CreativeFabrica.  

Happy January -- 2020

The Christmas cards were a hit with the fam... and being able to share Mom's voice in a recording was the highlight at our family party. These 5 x 5 cards are actually a triple fold with an EZ Sound module with a recording on them.  We were able to get Mom to record a Christmas greeting -- we finally got a usable one after 3 tries.  We thought it would be a perfect touch to the cards we were sharing with my siblings this holiday season.  THEY WERE A HIT!  The image is one taken by a friend of ours and I purchased the rights for commercial use.  Printed on glossy photo paper and trimmed to 3.50 x 3.50 for the 5 x 5 card version.  The foil quill was the perfect tool to use to apply the foil on the vellum.  Trim the vellum as desired and using some vellum tape, adhere to the card front.  I used Print Shop to create the insert for the inside of the card.  


Materials:
Per card:
5 x 15 cardstock, scored at 5 and 10 inches (cardstock from Envelopes.com 11x17 in navy, matching envelopes are available)
EZ sound module (InviteByVoice.com), with desired recording (voice and music clip - a royalty free clip was purchased from Melody Loops)
Audio editing software (Audacity - it's free)
vellum
eClips 2 and eCal3 software
WRMK Foil Quill ( fine tip and adaptor for your cutting machine , heat activated foil (glimmer mist from Spellbinders)
Focal image 
Printer
glossy photo paper (4 x 6)
PhotoShop Elements (17)
Envelopes (I used a plastic box for cards from Clear Bags with an elastic band the same color as the foiling)

It's been a busy couple of months -- hopefully, as things slow down a bit now that the BIG work projects has been completed there will be more craftiness to come in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned!  

Time to deck the porch

Our pencil Christmas trees were beginning to look a little ragged and half the lights were out on the smallest of the three trees -- it was time to look at replacing the trees....but out budget for a replacement was a little skimpier than what I had plans for... so we bought one tree to replace the three.  No regrets... but then what do we do with the 3 old trees?  

Grab an old blanket or some felt, yarn and a ball ornament.  Some caulking, tin snips, a bucket and hot glue gun and sticks - this is a NO-SEW project!  

They've been transformed!  We now have 3 decked out gnomes ready to greet our guests as they approach the front door.  And since we no longer have a tree in the foyer, we opted for a smaller version. These are also no sew and quick to make, taking about 45 minutes each to make.  

The laser cut wood sign is from Expressions in Vinyl.  Thank you, Pinterest for the fun holiday decor idea.  These Dollar Tree gnomes are quick and easy to make.  I was very sad to learn that they had sold out of the trees when we went to puck another cart of trees to make more.  The buckets were from Lowes.  

I decided that i would add a couple more signs to our holiday decor this year.  

Let it Snow

Jingle Bells 

and the Nativity triptych 

More details (and better pictures) to follow on each of these projects in the next few days.  Thanks for dropping by.  Hoping your holiday crafting time brings you joy!   

prim for sure

This snowman was so fun to work with and I enjoyed "grunging" things up a bit to give him a little more personality

This file can be found in the Silhouette store -- a SnapDragonSnippets creation.  Be aware that you will have to adjust the pieces a bit as the SVG needs a few adjustments.  

 

I used a "new to me" grunging technique which was fun.  A bit of paint and ground cinnamon and cloves.  Best thing is that your paper smells good even after you're finished with the project!  And clean up is easy.  I plan to keep a small bottle of the spices in my crafting supplies now so I'm not raiding my cooking and baking ones.  Clean up is easy if you use acrylic paints.  And the "rust" looks pretty real!  

The file does not come with a hat for our snow dude, so I resized the hat from here to fit.  Added a bit of cotton to the edges, grunged it up with some tea with added cinnamon and cloves.  Just be careful not to get the paper too damp or it will tear.  

Rather than go out and purchase a dowel to help support the center post, I used a colored pencil from the grandkids' coloring stash.  They won't miss it and it was the perfect height.  I chose to put the head on an angle so the nose is lifted a bit more than is shown in the original file.  


Add the snowflake buttons and the rest of the embellishments - I grunged things up a bit on the buttons too.  

This is a relatively quick project and was fun as well -- I wouldn't be surprised if a few more appear this holiday season.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  Happy Creating!  

2019 12 Tags of Christmas Day 12

Today is the final reveal... Another simple tag and using stamps from my stash.

Find a fun snowflake and place on your tag and if desired, using the eCal software, choose path and back minus front.  Design your sentiment.  It's a little difficult to read Christmas on this one... sorry about that.  Use the foil quill to draw and then cut the tag.  I cut a second tag for the background piece. 

Stamp the tree.  I chose to use a color that would give a faint image, then added some background color.  Add a little snow to the branches if desired using a white gel pen.  Add some sparkle.  Set aside. (Stamp is from SU, retired)

Stamp the front of the tag. (Snowflake stamp is from Pink and Main, retired) I decided to heat emboss with some detail white embossing powder,

Glue the tag front to the stamped background. 

2019 12 Tags of Christmas Day 11

North Pole Delivery! 

Dimensional tree is cut using the eclips.  North Pole Deliver was made using the foil quill.  A little bit of inking on the tree, some gel pen ornaments added to each of the "faces."  Simple - quick and would make a fun tag for any kind of holiday gifting.

 

 

2019 12 Tags of Christmas Day 10

This year's Tag Challenge is drawing to a close.... hard to believe that we're already at Day 10.

Sleighs, trees and music are all part of our holiday celebrations and invoke fond memories of past holidays.  The sleigh is a side panel from Bird's Cards (Home for Christmas SVG Collection) and the Tree is part of a graphic file from CreativeFabrica.  The music background paper is a scrap from an old Paper Studio holiday stack from Hobby Lobby.  The Tree and sleigh are colored using distress ink on white cardstock.  The sentiment is a print and cut created using the eCal 3 software and cut using the eclips2.

Once again, thanks for stopping by.  Have you gotten started on your holiday crafting?  I've got a list of projects I'd like to complete this year.... and I'm looking forward to some hours at the crafting table very soon.