Distress Style Christmas Card With Fancy Folds Flower

Tim Holtz Inspired
This is a Christmas card I made for a friend who likes the distressed look. The background is a blend of Tim Holtz Shabby Shutters distress inks onto white card, and a touch of Tea Dye distress ink overlaid in parts. I usually use a blending tool, but sponged the background this time, and quite like the effect. I still started from the edges as Tim shows, and find that works well.

I also sponged the edges of the flower with distress ink to make it stand out from the background. The background stamps are from Kaisercraft and the sentiment is a Verve stamp and I think they fit the Tim Holtz style as well.

The flower is basically 9 punched circles fancy folded then arranged  in a circle. I used a 1.5 inch scallop punch. The holly is cut from Designer paper with Glossy Accents on the 3 holly berries.

Fancy Folds
I saw the folds for the flowers in a book called Fabulous Folds For Card Making by Tanya Fox. Lisa Silver was the designer for the card that inspired mine. You can see her Happy Day card using this flower at her blog. I think hers is very effective with the 2 contrasting colours and the brad, so this flower fold is very versatile for all card styles.

Challenges
Simon Says Stamp & Show - Lord Tim Holtz technique
2 Sisters Challenge - Christmas

Gift Bag & Notecards Set

This is a little gift I made for a friend - a mini bag and 4 notecards. The bag is a variation of a Bagalope. There are numerous tutorials online for a Bagalope - a bag made from an envelope. The one I started with is a video from Dawn's Stamping Thoughts - a very talented lady.

I just varied it using Bazzill Black Swiss Dots instead of an envelope plus designer paper and ribbon to finish it off . The tag says "A Little Something For You" (Stampin Up) and cut with a Nellie Snellen Oval die.

The notecards are very simple layers prettied up with the Fiskars Threading Water Punch. The edges of the cuttlebugged (Birds & Swirls) white card are sponged lightly with pink stamp ink.  The base layer is black Swiss Dots, the same as the bag.

If you try this the only issue I had was that the folded card is hard to keep together underneath the bag as it wants to spring back. Next time I would add some strengthening pieces, but I'm happy with it for a first effort.

Do you have any fave gift bag designs you can recommend or point me to? I'm ready to try a few more now that I've dipped my toe in the water.

New Year Blogaversary Giveaway

Erika at Taylord Concepts is having an amazingly generous crafty blogaversary giveaway valued at $900 in the new year. To share the goodness around, there will be multiple winners sharing the prizes.

Not all the giveaway items are pictured here. These are just 2 pics of many you can see at Erika's blog of all the items in the giveway. The little dresses above are alterables and the second pic is an assortment of crafty goodness. Check out the amazing ribbon organizer too... love it. Thanks for your generosity, Erika.

Head on over to Taylord Concepts for all the details. Closes January 5th. While you're there, check out Erika's blog... one very talented lady.