Izbzee

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!   

2019 holiday season

It seems like the holidays have descended in one fell swoop... late Thanksgiving and before you know it... well Christmas is just 10 days out now.

We've been busy "elves" the last several months!  I can now share a couple of things I've created now that InviteByVoice has shared the projects on their site.  

The turkey is a design we used several years ago and I decided it was time to bring it back.  I couldn't find the original cutting file and created my own using ecal3 and cut the shapes with the eclips2.  A little inking, pen and a wobble added a little dimension to the turkey.  The background was embossed and inked.  The sentiment was a file from CreativeFabrica and was printed in reverse on transparency... TIP:  Print and let dry for 24 hours before using.  I also added an EZ Sound module to this card -- the sentiment on the inside says and compliments the Gobble til you Wobble ringtone.  

A also created a trio of 15 minute cards using the same basic design, just altering the embellishments.  These cards were featured on the InviteByVoice blog - you'll find that post and a step by step tutorial  here.  

There are several other projects on the crafting table... will be sharing those very soon.  Thanks for dropping by.  Hoping you'll make some time this holiday season to do a little creating.  Happy Holidays!  

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. 

 

2019 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 9

A little foil quill and a few sequins and stars make for a quick shaker tag. 

The base is the basic tag shape. with a foil quill image from the Holiday file from WRMK.  The shaker is a stack of 5 rectangles, a piece of transparency and one more rectangle.  The Xyron's edge to edge adhesive made it easy to "build" the container for the translucent sequins and stars.  The whole tag was cut from a 6 x 12 piece of cardstock.  The eclips and eCal3 made this a quick quill and cut project. 

2019 12 Tags of Christmas - Tag 6

Time for a little whimsy....

This trio of gnomes was a fun find on 123rf.com.  The images are available in BW or color.  It's a background paper and I just isolated each of the gnomes and use the print to cut feature in eCal3.  The background paper is from CreativeFabrica.com  There are some fun patterns in the file. 

BELIEVE is a foil quilled small sentiment on some scrap cardstock. 

 

Thanks for dropping by and taking a peek at today's tag.  More to come tomorrow!  Hard to believe that we are half-way through the challenge already.  Don't forget to stop by the eclips/ecal Facebook page to see the rest of the challenge entries. We have a very talented group of makers! 

2019 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 5

Its day 5 of the 12 Tags of Christmas challenge on the Facebook eclips/eCal group page.  A little more foiling using the Foil Quill, the eclips2 and eCal3. 

The ornament image is from WRMK's Holiday collection. 

Silver foil (Glimmer Mist from Spellbinders). 

Blue cardstock (Envelopes.com)

Silver Cardstock (Ranger)

Foil Quill (WRMK) - fine tip and D adapter

score tape

eclips2 and eCal3

Foiling settings are shared in Tag 2 post found here.  

 

Thanks for stopping by today.  Hoping your creative time nourishes your spirit.  Stop by again soon.