Sunflowers & Dragonflies

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah

Merry Christmas to you and your family.  I feel so blessed to have so many visitors to my blog, and thank you for your regular visits and comments.  I have a nice surprise in store for you in the new year, so keep checking in to see my big announcement.  My news requires me to be absent from blogging for a tiny bit.  You can expect to hear from me again in early January.

I wished you a blessed holiday season, Merry Christmas, and Happy Hanukkah.

Hugs Beth

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Christmas is For Kids Too

Glitter snowflake ornaments

For the teenager, create a Menorah

Nature’s pinecone turned into an ornament

Tall Mouse has a lot of ideas

Tales of the Despereaux mouse ornament

Santa’s beard card

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Holiday Hosting Ideas

Be the hit of your party with an ice wreath

Tree place cards

Treat your guests to the Giving Tree on the table

Glitter bird centerpiece

Hand out cellophane wrapped cookies as your guests go home

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Free Ornament Patterns

It might be a little late in the season to create detailed ornaments, so here are three patterns that whip up quickly.  The mittons are darling so I plan to start making several a month starting in January.  Enjoy!

Ribbon Pinecone Ornament

Birds of a Feather Ornament

Mini Mitton Ornament (what a darling knitted pattern)

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Corner Punch Re-Invented

Are you looking for new ways to use your punches?  Tired of the same ‘ol?  Then today’s demonstration is for you.

Punch cardstock with a corner punch

Cut the corner punch apart from the cardstock

Once your corner is cut away from the cardstock, trim the edges so you have the decorative corner looking like it isn’t a corner punch

Glue the punch

Adhere the punch to cardstock

Punch out a snowflake and adhere to a punched circle

Finished card

Stamp:  Sunshine Designs line from The Stamp Barn.  Image was watercoloured with Tombow markers.  Paper: DCWV Ultimate Stack

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Christmas Greetings

Good morning.  Keeping warm?  Today’s card is for Splitcoast Stamper’s sketch challenge.  It reminded me of a Christmas present so I used ribbon, and even added a flower bow.

To soften the edges of the squares, I punched out snowflakes and glued them onto the pointed edges.  All layers of paper were run through the Cuttlebug.  Crystals were added to the center of the flower.

Here is the sketch if you want to play around.  You can see the cards created with this sketch by clicking here.

Stamp:  SU’s Fabulous Flowers; Paper; SU’s White and Real Red; Ribbon, Michael’s; snowflake punch

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Tutorial Tuesday: Floating Card

While I was visualizing different ways to use my beaded paper, the Floating Card came to mind.  Pat, owner of the Technique Junkie Newsletter, graciously allowed me to film a tutorial to share with you.  When I asked Pat if she did this tutorial, she said she did when her newsletter was in its infancy, but was happy to let me show it to you here.  This week I beaded Flair Design Christmas paper, added flowers and an Odd Bird Planet Sentiment to create a very unique design.   Read on for directions, and for tips for designing your own floating card.

Supplies:  Decorative Christmas paper, string or narrow ribbon, beads

Bead two designs that are the same size and adhere the two images together (wrong sides together)

Tape string or ribbon onto the back of your image

Cut your card.  Cut designer paper 1/4 inch smaller to use over top of the cardstock front.  You can cut an A2 size (4 1/4 x 5 1/2).  My favourite size is 6 x 6 so that is what I cut today.

The hole will be cut through the designer paper and cardstock paper.  To hold the designer paper in place, place scotch tape on the back of the designer paper.  Make sure the tape is close to the edge so it does not interfere with the hole that will be cut.

With a punch or Cuttlebug, cut a hole in the center of the card front

With double-sided tape or ATG tape, glue string onto card front

Lay designer paper on top of cardstock front

And there you have it.

This will be the last tutorial until the new year.  If you have any tutorial requests, please let me know.

More ways to decorate your floating card

• Stamp an image for the floating part of the card and stamp a sentiment on the back of that image
• Use decorative chipboard in place of decorative paper or stamped image
• Use Prima flowers for your main image
• Fancy fibres could be used in place of the narrow ribbon

Bead a whole series of images in an hour, and have them on hand for making a card in a hurry.  This card goes together very quickly and so does the card I did last week entitled Beaded Christmas Card.

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Visions of Sugarplums Dance in Their Heads

Happy Monday!  Did you have a nice weekend?  I was busy working on Odd Bird Planet assignments and pulled out the sewing machine for this card.  The sketch is from Splitcoast Stampers.  It is perfect for a 6″ x 6″ card like I made today.

Is it really visions of sugarplums that dance in their heads, or is it Christmas loot?

All images are from the new release at Odd Bird Planet

Seasons Greetings

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Tis The Season

Did you know that Santa has gnomes that groom his reindeer?  Here is a reindeer being pampered.  There’s nothing like a good back stratch for him or me!

Santa’s village is on the outskirts of a gnome filled candy forest.  Don’t stop to eat any candy–it’s almost suppertime.

The owls are wishing you all frosty greetings.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and stay warm!

Odd Bird Planet new release stamps can be found here.

Subscribe to the comments for this post

Tutorial Thursday: Creating an extra large Cuttlebug background and Odd Bird Planet Sneak Peak Into the New Stamp Line

Many of us are in love with our Cuttlebug and long to create oversized cards with the Cuttlebug.  This card is 5 1/2″ x 6 1/2″, yet the Cuttlebug template is only 4 1/4″ x 5 1/4″.  My tutorial will demonstrate one way to enlarge a Cuttlebug template background.

Before you glue your background down, make sure there is enough area to adhere corners, as seen in the photo above, where I added small pink corners.

Run two pieces of paper through your Cuttlebug.

Adhere a 4 1/4″ x 5 3/4″ (or size suitable to you) embossed paper onto a 5 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ background paper.

Trim smaller pieces of background to fit into the open space of the original background sheet (red in this example).

Trim overhanging pieces of cardstock.

Decorate corner cardstock as desired.  You may wish to stamp or emboss the paper prior to cutting into smaller pieces.

Add sentiment into open white white space.  I AM NOT a symmetrical person so I angled my sentiment.

Whalaa–we’re done.  Oh, you’re probably wondering about these adorable images–they are new images available at Odd Bird Planet very soon.  I’m providing you with a sneak peak.  You’ll be seeing a lot of gnome images from me and the other Design Team members–we’re all crazy for the gnome series.

To see more sneak peaks, visit the OBP gallery here.

Dianne’s sneak peak

Godelieve’s sneak peak (look at her cool new blog banner too)

Karrie’s sneak peak (penguin)

Laura’s sneak peak

Laura O’s sneak peak

Marnie’s sneak peak

Nicole’s sneak peak

Ryann’s sneak peak

Sparkle’s sneak peak (Owls)

Tanis’ sneak peak

Theresa’s sneak peak

Tiffany’s sneak peak

Tracy’s sneak peak

Tracy’s Gnome pillow box tutorial

Did you know my full list of tutorials can be found up top under my blog title?  There is a “tutorial” page that you can click on where all my tutorials are listed alphabetically.

Subscribe to the comments for this post