Gift Card Holders -- Dress Up Your Gift Giving

When my children were little I loved finding that special gift they really wanted for Christmas but now that they are all grown up I find it difficult to get them presents because they just buy whatever they want as soon as they have the money. 

So now I give them gift cards which they can use on what they really want . . . and who doesn't need extra money. But a gift card (or cash) alone doesn't seem special enough so I package it inside a handmade greeting card!

You can make a left or right opening card with this fun fold technique.

You can hide a gift card or cash behind the removable tag on the front of this card.

The tag can be used for gift giving as well or just leave it in the card as extra decoration.

This fun fold video shows how to make the tag/gift card holder cards.

These two cute cards used the Sweet Little Stockings bundle of products.

The inside of these cards reveal a pocket for you to hide a gift card or cash.

If you'd like to recreate these cute cards have a look at my instructional video here.

You can even change any existing greeting card into a gift card holder using a bit of extra paper and a punch as shown in my Quick Tip video.

I hope I've inspired you to dress up your prezzy card giving this year and I'd love to see what you make!

#KeepCalmAndCraft #ComputerAndCraftDesigns #StampinUp #CreativeTherapy #KeepStamping #RubberStamping #CardMaking #GiftCardHolder #FunFoldCard

How to Make a Christmas Pop-up Card

Last year I made my first pop-up card by watching several different videos online and I even taught several classes using the Animal Outings and Signs of Santa stamps and Designer Series Paper. I really love how pretty pop-up cards are and how they show off the designs. They are perfect if you have a stamp set that has too many cute images and a flat card just won't do it justice.

This year I had a customer order five pop-up Christmas cards and now that I have a YouTube Channel I decided to make an instructional video to show how they are made. I re-sized the card base to fit in a standard size envelope (A6) and so I could create a card from one piece of paper. In fact, I can get 1-1/2 card bases from one A4 sheet of cardstock, so I can make three cards from two pieces of paper.

Pop-Up Christmas Cards

Most Wonderful Time Product Medley

Several of the cards I made for my customer used retired stamps and DSP, but three are made with current products -- Truck Ride dies, Stitched Stars dies and the Most Wonderful Time Product Medley from the 2019 Holiday catalogue. 

The video shows you how to make the Christmas tree and reindeer card using supplies from the Most Wonderful Time Product Medley along with Old Olive and Whisper White cardstock and Old Olive and Golden Glitz inks.

Most Wonderful Time Christmas Pop-Up Card

I mentioned the sizes in the video and I have a Word Document I created last year with instructions in metric sizes showing the Signs of Santa bundle which is now retired. If you would like a copy of the instructions please give me your email address and I will send it to you. I would love to see the cards you make with my instructions!

#KeepCalmAndCraft #ComputerAndCraftDesigns #StampinUp #creativetherapy #StayHome #PaperCraftIdeas #ChristmasCard #PopUpCard #SoManyStars #SignsofSanta

Custom Handmade Christmas Cards

I love papercrafts and that is why being an independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator is a perfect fit for me. I really enjoy making cards and other handicrafts and love to show my creations to other people. That is how I got a custom Christmas card order from my daughter's boss. Last year I was showing her a Christmas card I had just made and she asked if I could make 20 of them for her to give to her customers. That was my first custom order!

So this year I created a couple 'sample' cards using the So Many Stars bundle especially for my daughter's boss. I showed her the two cards a few weeks ago and she chose to order the design on the right with the swirls.

I used my computer to print her company's name on whisper white cardstock which I cut to size for the inside of each card. I then went about making 20 of these Christmas cards using balmy blue cardstock, silver foil, silver glimmer paper, silvery shimmer delicata metallic ink for the background stars and silver embossing powder for the sentiment.

I love the Stitched Stars dies because they look beautiful in glimmer paper and the stitching even makes plain paper look more elegant. I used the little stars which cut out of the swirl die as accents on the front of the card as well as one on the back of the envelope, which I stamped in balmy blue ink with the speckled stars from the So Many Stars photopolymer stamp set.

I don't have much family here in New Zealand and the cost of postage to send cards to my relatives in the USA is very expensive so I don't send many Christmas cards, however I am still able to satisfy my desire to make handmade Christmas cards by doing custom orders.

So if you live in New Zealand and would like some handmade cards just let me know. Or better yet, I can teach you how to make your own cards at one of my classes! Just have a look at my website for my contact details and upcoming classes.

#KeepCalmAndCraft #ComputerAndCraftDesigns #StampinUp #creativetherapy #StayHome #PaperCraftIdeas #ChristmasCard #HandmadeCard #SoManyStars 

World Card Making Day is Coming!

Saturday, October 5th is World Card Making Day and I decided to offer a Free Christmas Card Making Class here in my home. I've been advertising all over Facebook and other internet sites so I am hopeful that there will be a few people coming to make cards. Today I've been busy making lots of Christmas cards as samples for the class.

I will be using the Night Before Christmas Memories & More cards and envelopes in the class because it is very easy to put together a few elements to make a card quickly. However, since I didn't know what the final cards would look like I decided to spread all my supplies out on my dining table.

I grabbed some retired DSP, threads, stamps and embellishments to bling up the cards as well. Even though it looked like a card shop had thrown up all over my table, it was an organised mess!

My original plan was to create four sample cards for the attendees to choose from but once I started combining my supplies together I created 10 cards and I could have kept going! I even got out last year's Poppy Parade coloured cards and envelopes which worked well with some of the images in the Night Before Christmas card pack. I was trying to create simple cards in case those attending were new to papercrafts, but I couldn't help but add embellishments and die cuts.

So I ended up with 5 samples of beginner cards and 5 samples of more complicated cards. I will let those who show up have a choice of which one they would like to make or they can just create their own card from the supplies I will have on the table -- once I clean up my mess! 😅

I could spend days playing with this set by fussy cutting and punching out all sorts of shapes from the cards since the colours coordinate so well and with just a few extra elements I would have 50 Christmas cards. But I didn't want to make things too difficult since I want to get people interested in card making and not scare them away! I will do some more 'messing' about with the cards that are left over after Saturday to make more Christmas cards for my markets and future classes because for me . . . everyday is Card Making Day! 💟


#KeepCalmAndCraft #ComputerAndCraftDesigns #StampinUp #creativetherapy #StayHome #PaperCraftIdeas #ChristmasCard #MemoriesAndMore