Thank You Note + Easy Distress Technique

How was your Christmas celebration? How about your New Year? Did you make any resolutions? If you made any, how's it going? We don't do new year's resolutions in our family, but one thing we do is send thank you notes to those who blessed us with gifts during the Holiday season, even if we can only send them in January. Not only is it appropriate to do so, but I'm sure the person who receives a nice, handmade (or not) thank you note smiles as they realize how appreciated their gifts were. It is always a good idea to take time to make someone's day special by letting them know they are appreciated. I got the idea for the card I made here,
and put my own spin on it.  

Material needed for this card
Tools: cutting board, stamping pad, 3D self-adhesive foam
Paper: white, brown and cream cardstock, patterned scrapbook paper
Stamp: thanks
Ink: espresso
Embellishments: "gift boxes", 1/8" (3mm) brown ribbon and bow

Distress technique: rub the edges and corners of cream color cardstock piece, and patterned paper with stamp pad - the same one you're going to use to stamp the sentiment phrase.

Measurements- Card: 4" x 5.5
                                 Bigger box: 2 1/8" x 3/4"
                                 Medium box: 1 5/8"x 3/4"
                                 Small box: 1" x 3/4"
This card is not difficult to make. I made 6 of them in an "assembling line". It was fun to do it, and it didn't take long. You can actually make a card similar to this for any occasion.

Thank you for stopping by, and have a very blessed 2016.

Vanías Reed   

Merry CHRISTmas.

I love to celebrate my Savior's birth. Some people have told me that there is no proof that Jesus was not born on December 25th. They are right. But I was just thinking about my son's birthday that was on a Friday this year. We couldn't celebrate his birthday on a week day for several reasons, so we decided to have a small celebration on Saturday. 

That's what Dec. 25 is - the CELEBRATION of Jesus' birth. He came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. He gave His life for us, He defeated death for us. Why not pick a date to celebrate Him? So let's decorate our homes, let's spend time - not necessarily money - on special gifts for the special people in our lives. Most of all, let's thank God for sending His ONLY SON to pay the debt we could not pay, to die the death we could not die… to give us the eternal life we cannot earn. Let’s celebrate Jesus, the WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, PRINCE OF PEACE, LORD OF ALL, IMMANUEL – that is GOD WITH US!!! Because the manger did bring God to mankind, and the cross brought mankind to God. 

Thank you for checking out my ideas, designs, creations. Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope I have been of inspiration to those who like crafts. I hope you have a very merry CHRISTmas, and a blessed 2016

Vanías Reed

Noel - Christmas Card

Have you ever asked yourself why we use the word Noel in so many Christmas songs, and during the Christmas season? I am originally from Brazil and my first language is Portuguese. In Portuguese we say Feliz Natal when we want to wish someone a Merry Christmas. The word Natal means birth. So literally translated, we say Happy Birth. Why is that? Well, the word Natal comes from the Latin word natalis, which translated to English is NOEL. Since Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ, it is natural for people to refer to the celebration as the “nativity” or THE “birth.” The card I'm posting today has the word Noel, in celebration of the most important birth in the world's history - the Son of God's birth. The birth of the One who humbled himself, left all his heavenly glory, to die on the cross for you and for me. So Happy Noel!

Supplies and techniques
Paper: White, dark brown, maroon, and glittered silver cardstock, mint green with polka-dots scrapbook paper
Tools: Paper cutter, electronic cutting machine, alphabet design, precision scissors, 3D foam adhesive
Embellishments: Fussy cut 'wrapped presents', Noel sentiment phrase

Thank you so much for stopping by. Have a very blessed Christmas.

Vanías Reed  

Shaker Box CHRISTmas card

Today my husband is helping me to address cards and envelopes. He wrote a personal message on 24 cards, and helped me with the dishes too. Is that an awesome husband or what? We love to make our cards as personal as possible, and having my husband hand write a message to each of our close relatives and friends makes each card even more special. So today I'm posting one of his favorites, which is a shaker box card. Here it is.

 Supplies used for this card
Paper: Dark red, white, black and silver glitter cardstock, transparency
Tools: cutting/embossing machine, rectangle stitched large and medium dies, snowflakes and swirls embossing folder, electronic cutting machine, nativity scene design (you can use a punch or a die), 3D foam self adhesive, silver glitter gel pen
Stamp: merry Christmas
Embellishments: fussy cut sentiment phrase, clear gemstones, medium size glitter (to shake in the box)

We love nativity scene cards because, after all, CHRISTmas is Christ's birthday celebration, isn't it?

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you have an amazing celebration with your family and friends, always keeping Jesus as the reason to celebrate.

Vanías Reed    

Ornament Christmas Cards + 2 New Tips

In my last post I mentioned what my amazing husband got me for Christmas/wedding anniversary. Today I'm posting a project I made using my Cricut. It was interesting because my sister came over to see my machine. In order to show her how it works I decided to cut something simple like a Christmas ornament. Then she said, "oh no, I don't want you to waste paper just to show me how the machine works."  I just smiled and told her not to worry. So here are the two cards I made using both the diecuts and the paper from which I cut them.

For the first card I used 
Tools: Cricut Explore Air, scoring board, stylus scoring tool (for the dots imitating a chain holding the ornaments), Sizzix embossing machine, swirl snowflakes embossing folder (Darice),
Paper: White, brown, and the same mint green cardstock
Stamp: merry Christmas
Ink: black
Embellishments: ornament diecuts, red ribbon, pearls and clear gemstones in different sizes. 

For this card I used:
Tools: Cricut Explore Air, Cricut Design Space, 3D glue dots
Paper: Brown and mint green cardstock, brown patterned scrapbook paper
Stamp: Christmas Blessings (Stampabilitties)
Ink: Espresso brown
Embellishments: red 1/8"wide ribbon  

You can use an ornament punch instead of a cutting machine. In this link, a lady teaches how to make a card similar to my second one, using a punch.  
When it comes to save and recycle, I get excited. This time, instead of throwing away the piece of paper from which I cut the ornaments, I decided to use it on another card.How about you? How do you recycle while creating and crafting?

Thank you so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful CHRISTmas!

 

Inspiring Glitter Snowflake Card

Hello everyone. Getting ready for Christmas? I just love this time of year. Everybody, or most of everybody, seems to be nicer, kinder to one another. They don't even cuss as much in traffic! LOL 
Today I found out what my Christmas/wedding anniversary gift will be. Yep, our anniversary IS in December, and I am very excited. As a matter of fact, my husband is in the store picking it up right now. What an inspiration. No wonder I sat here and wanted to write another post. Hehehehe. So here is an idea for you to make and get someone to smile as big as I am smiling right now.

Supplies used
Paper: Gray, dark blue, and glitter white cardstock for the outside, white cardstock for the inside of card
Tools: Cutting/embossing machine, snowflakes dies, heat gun, white embossing powder, white glitter pen
Stamp: Merry Christmas
Ink: Versamark
Embellishment: large pearl

Now you are probably asking, "What is she getting for Chirstmas?" or "What does the card have to do with the gift she's getting? ", etc.
Well, my amazing husband got me a Cricut Explore Air, and is picking up a nice computer to go with it today. So now I can cut way more than these two snowflakes, and create even more things that require a cutting machine. This was the very last card I made before I got the Cricut. Am I going to stop using my Sizzix or the dies? NO. Absolutely not. But it's nice to have other means of creations and execution, don't you think? - I bet you too are smiling now. ;)

Thank you for stopping by, and have a wonderfully blessed Christmas.

Vanías Reed    

 

Hanging Mittens Christmas Card

Wow!!! Can you believer we are in November? Is 2015 flying by or it's just my impression because I've been as busy as a bee? Thank God I've been selling my items very well, which means orders to fill, and lots of work. I'm definitely not complaining, but I am sorry I haven't posted much lately. Anyway, today I decided to find some time and post another Christmas card idea for you. Here it is.

Supplies needed
Paper: Red, white and patterned cardstock
Tools: Cutting/embossing machine, frame embossing folder (I used Sizzix "Tulips"), snowflake embossing folder, heat gun, mittens die
Stamp: Merry Christmas (Stampabilities)
Ink: Versamark, embossing powder in red
Embellishments: red and white twine, fuzzy white yarn, red, green and white pearls in different sizes.

This is card is not complicated at all. Actually you can make it in about 10 minutes. I hope you got inspired to create something new today.

Thank you for stopping by, and may the Christ of CHRISTmas bless you and yours.

Vanias Reed