Encre, papier, ciseaux

Christmas Under the Sea

Inspiration: Colour Inkspiration #157

I wanted to make a Christmas card using my Chibitronics, and I decided to make an underwater scene, lighting the algae tree from the Christmas Fishes stamp set. I added the mermaid and merman from Mermaid for You as well.

The background was inked with Salvaged Patina, Peacock Feathers and Uncharted Mariner Distress Oxide inks, and I added light rays with the Ocean Scene Builder stencils from Honey Bee and some Summer Sky stencil butter. The algae at the bottom of the scenes were added using the Bayou Backdrop dies, and I overlapped a Stitched Rectangle Frame die-cut out of ombre glitter paper.

I created my chibitronics circuit and placed one yellow light and three blue ones behind the algae tree. I made the little crab hold a sign that says "push here" where the battery was going to be placed. I also added some acetate behind the frame to be able to create a shaker as well.

I then made an oversize envelope to be able to accommodate the card since it is quite thick, with the double layers of the shaker and the chibitronics circuit underneath.

This card had so many steps, it ended up taking half a day to complete, but this will be my youngest niece's "Santa" card, so I wanted it to be special.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Christmas Fishes, Mermaid for You (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Basic White, Pretty in Pink, Lemon Lime Twist, In Colour Ombre Glimmer Paper (Stampin' Up!);
Acetate (Lawn Fawn)
Patterned Paper: ? (Bo Bunny)
Ink: Salvaged Patina, Peacock Feathers and Uncharted Mariner Distress Oxide (Ranger);
Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Dies: Christmas Fishes, Mermaid for You, Stitched Rectangle Frames, Bayou Backdrop (Lawn Fawn);
Bitty Banners (Stampin' Up!); Alphanumeric Theory (Tim Holtz for Sizzix)
Accessories: Seaglass Sequin Mix (28 Lilac Lane/Buttons Galore & More);
Battery, Lights, Copper Tape (Chibitronics); Markers (Copic); Envelope Punch Board (We R Makers)

 

Snowball Fight Diorama

Inspiration: Simon Says Stamp Monday (Let It Snow)

Christmas is fast approaching, so I needed to get working on my Christmas cards for my niece. I still leave "mail from Santa" in my wooden Christmas mailbox for them to find on Christmas Eve and even though the oldest has long figured out that this mail does not come from the North Pole, she still very much enjoy digging through the mailbox to see what's waiting for her there. I try to make interactive cards whenever I can, as it really delights the kids.

I had previously bought the Ta-Da! Diorama! dies from Lawn fawn when they were released but had not tried them out yet. The mechanism seemed easy enough to put together and operate, but I will admit that it gave me a lot of grief as I was working with the card as the front panels tend to always come out of the wraparound band, and there is not way to add glue anywhere, otherwise the card would not be opening up. I finally ended up adding eyelets and ribbon bows on each side, which helped a lot to avoid having the sides slip out. That being said, so far, this is not my favorite interactive set of dies I've worked with. I feel like the elements keep sliding around and are not as secure as some of the other interactive type of cards are. I also realized you can only add elements to the very center of the front hill, otherwise the card won't slide shut, so you are limited to the scenes you can create. I plan to create my mechanism with thick cardstock rather than patterned paper the next time to see if I like how the card opens and closes better.

I worked with one of my favorite paper collections: Candy Cane Lane from Bo Bunny (which dates back to 2014). I stamped and colored images from the Snowball Fight stamp set from Lawn Fawn and I added the snowball pile, one of the mice and the snowmouse to the front panel. I stamped a snowflake tone on tone on the pink paper and then I overstamped the words "Merry Christmas" in VersaMark and embossed in copper to match the eyelets. I die-cut the sentiment out with a stitched circle die, cut the circle in half and glued both sides on the moving panels. Inside the card, I created my snowy hills out of white chunky glitter cardstock and I used little strips of acetate to have snowballs flying through the air (one of my favorite trick to add dimension to a scene).

I created a regular A2 card base out of Hello Honey cardstock and layered a piece of patterned paper on the front, adding my diorama over it. I repeated some patterned paper inside the card, with a die-cut journaling block in the centre and I used the remaining mouse image. With the card being quite bulky, I created my own oversized envelope out of patterned paper and I used a cut-apart image from a 12 x 12 sheet on the front of the envelope. I used Tim Holtz's Alphanumeric Theory alphabet to cut out my niece's name out of Pastel glitter paper. I added a wax seal to the back flap.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Snowball Fight (Lawn Fawn); Y'a d'la joie, Joyeux flocons (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Hello Honey, Basic White (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Paper: Candy Cane Lane (Bo Bunny)
Ink: VersaMark; Blushing Bride (Stampin' Up!); Tuxedo Black (Memento)