Monday, December 2, 2013

Jingle Bells

Arrgh! It's December already...Christmas will be here before we know it! Thank goodness for this fortnight's "Christmas Card" challenge at Creative Cutting Challenge, or I wouldn't have a single card done yet!

I decided to start with family cards and created this cool gift card holder for one of my nephews. It's a fantastic idea I gleaned from Cindy at The Creative Pointe. It's the perfect size for holding a gift card, but I typically give cash, and this works for that too!


I wanted this to be fairly masculine and mature enough looking for a 17-year-old. I chose The Creative Pointe's 'Christmas Bells' SVG file to cut a large jingle bell to adorn the front.

To make the bell look aged metallic and give it some interest, I clear embossed some French writing and then layered on metallic Distress Stains. The ribbon was colored with an Aged Mahogany Distress Marker.

I modified the inside a tad since the flap on my invitation envelope comes to a point, unlike the one in the example from Cindy. Instead of using the right half of the flap, I tucked it in to create a little slant pocket. A row of jingle bell garland (colored just like the bell on the front) adorns the pocket's edge.

On the left side, I added more patterned paper and stamped "Merry Christmas". Here you can see how the inside looks with the "gift". It's just the cutest little gift card!

Other Challenge Fun:
613 Avenue Create: Challenge #48 - Anything Goes or twist of gift packaging
House of Cards:  Holiday Blog Hop
Perfectly Rustics:  PR Design Challenge No.12 – Christmas Gift

Supplies:
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink ‘Kraft’, ‘Ivory’
Patterned Paper:  My Mind's Eye Lost & Found 'Christmas' 6x6
SVG:  The Creative Pointe ‘Christmas Bells
Stamps: Croppy Cat; Stampin' Up!
Inks: Distress Ink ‘Walnut Stain’; Distress Stain ‘Pumice Stone’, ‘Brushed Pewter’, ‘Tarnished Brass’, ‘Antiqued Bronze’; Top Boss embossing pad; Distress Marker ‘Aged Mahogany’; Archival 'Coffee'
Embellishments: Zing embossing powder ‘Clear’; twine
Tools:  Foam ink blending tool; heat tool; SCAL; Cricut Expression; 3M spray adhesive; Tim Holtz paper distresser
Misc: A4 invitation envelope ‘Ivory’