DIY TARDIS Christmas Ornaments

Hello!

Today I reveal the fact that I'm a bit of a geek.  One of my favourite shows is Doctor Who and I couldn't resist making some TARDIS ornaments to give to my friend for Christmas (who is the person who got me hooked on the show).  These are not easy to make and they take a really long time as well.  But I think they are so worth it!

Materials:

• TARDIS blue light-weight card, white (or in my case really, really light purple) and black card
• Light-weight cardboard (cereal boxes are good) and thick cardboard 
• 1 x 1 cm square punch (trust me you will want one)
• Light blue Sharpie
• Fine tip black pen
• Sliver gel pen
• Sliver wire

First I made a box based off of this tutorial from the lightweight cardboard to form a sturdy base.  I glued mine completely shut as I didn't want the box to open.  I then cut a piece of the blue paper to the same size needed to make the box and wrapped it around the cardboard.  Before I adhered the paper to the box I used my scissors to cut the tabs so that they could fold nicely over the top and bottom.  Kinda like what you do when you make the box but I was being lazy so just used the folds created when I wrapped it around the box as my guide.  If you have paper that isn't coloured all the way through (it has a white core) like mine did then use the light blue sharpie to carefully colour the edges blue.

From a spare piece of the blue paper I created two templates for the doors to trace around.  I needed two templates because all the sides aren't equal.  With the blue sharpie I traced around the outside of these templates onto all four of the sides of the Tardis and added a line down the middle of each resulting box.  I suggest doing this before you adhere the paper to the box also.  Then I wrapped the box and adhered down all the tabs.

For the two sides and the back of the Tardis, I punched two white squares and four blue squares, and for the front, three white and three blue.  On all but one of the white squares I drew on with a fine tip black pen the window panes.  The last white square has some (not all) of the writing from the sign.  For all of the blue squares I used the blue sharpie to colour the white core around the edges.  The 'Police Public Call Box' Sign is 0.5cm wide and 3cm long for the front and back and 2.7cm long for the sides.  I used the silver gel pen to write on these strips before adhering them to the box along with all the squares using double sided tape.

The top and bottom pieces are made from pieces of cardboard covered with the blue paper.  The smallest piece is 2.5cm x 2.5cm and the two bigger pieces are 3.8cm x 3.5cm.  One of the larger squares is adhered to the bottom of the tardis with a strong liquid glue.  Before I added the two top pieces I used a needle to create a hole through the center of both of them to add a loop of wire.  The wire is secured under the bottom piece with tape and adhesive is also under the top piece so it doesn't move around.

As I was giving these cute little TARDIS ornaments as a gift to my friend for Christmas, I created this box using this tutorial.

Materials:

• TARDIS blue light-weight card, white light-weight card
• Dark blue ink (Archival Cobalt)
• Star background stamp (Hero Arts Tiny Star Background)
• Paper bow made from silver paper

As I said at the start, these are time consuming (and unfortunately cannot travel through time and space).  These three took me around two hours to make but my friend loved them!

This is the end of my Christmas-ness for this year and for the blog too.  I will be back in the first week of January with a birthday card.

Till next time,

Stacey

Glitter Paper Inlay Christmas Card

Hello!

This will be my final Christmas Card this year seeing as it is only a little over a week till Christmas now!  At this point in my Christmas card making I'm a bit over it so I wanted something that didn't take a lot thought or effort to make.  I'm happy with how this card turned out other than the gold pen, not so sure about the colour.

Materials used:

• A white card base (which was a little longer at 15cm rather than 14.85cm) and a piece of white paper slightly smaller than the card front
• Flower and swirl die (Couture Creations)
• Red, green and gold glitter paper
• 'With love at Christmas' sentiment stamp
• Red ink (Archival, Vermilion)
• Red gems
• Gold metallic pen

I began by die cutting the flower out of the card base, then fully out of the green glitter paper, and partly out of the red and gold glitter papers.  

On the piece of white paper, I covered most of it with double sided tape and carefully adhered it behind the front of the card so that there is adhesive is visible through the negative of the die cut.  I then placed the green glitter paper die cut into the gap and the pieces of white card from the first die cut.  I trimmed the red glitter paper die cut so that only the flower remained and used a strong adhesive to glue it over the green glitter paper.  Then I added the gold circle to the center of the flower.

I created a border for the card with a ruler and the gold pen and added the sentiment to the bottom left corner.

For the finishing touch I added a line of gems either side of the flower.

See you tomorrow!

Stacey

P.S. This card has been added to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Bling it on.

Simple Christmas Gift Tags

Hello

Today I have some simple gift tags to show you.  When it comes to making gift tags you really want something that isn't complicated and can be put together fast.

Materials used:

• White card
• Tag shaped die (Cuttlebug)
• Green and red striped patterned paper (Rosie's Studio)
• Red dye ink (Archival Vermilion)
• A 'To', 'From' and 'Merry Christmas' stamps
• White thread
• Buttons

First I cut the tag using the die, the die I used was longer than I wanted so I just trimmed the paper down before I die cut it.  I then arranged the stamps in the layout I wanted on top of one of the tags then picked them up at the same time with my block so I could stamp them all at the same time and keep the same spacing for all my tags.

After stamping the tags I cut 2cm wide strips from my patterned paper and applied adhesive to the back.  Using my grid mat for reference I adhered the paper to one of the tags and used my scissors to trim off the over hang which I then used on the next tag and so on.  I threaded some of the white thread through the button and placed a piece of double sided tape to the back and adhered it in the middle of the patterned paper.  Turning the tag over I taped down the thread to fully secure the button.  To finish the tag I added a length of the white thread through the hole at the top.

This tag is great for mass producing as there is only a few different elements and each one is simple to execute.  

See you tomorrow!

Stacey

Paper Poinsettias

Hello

Today I bring you the first of my ornaments.  These are simple poinsettias, made from several identical pieces.

Materials used:

• Red and green paper
• Gold shimmer spray
• Leaf stamp
• Red and light blue (because I didn't have green) archival ink
• A pin
• String

I began by spraying both the red and green papers with my homemade shimmer spray (gold metallic paint with water in a spray bottle) and leaving it to dry.  Once the paper was dry I stamped seven leaves in red ink onto the red paper and three leaves in light blue ink onto the green paper.  I then cut them all out with scissors.

Line up all the red leaves together in one stack and push the pin through all of them at the bottom of the leaf.  This is so you can use the pin as an anchor for the leaves while you rotate them to find a placement you like.  Once I had the leaves arranged to my satisfaction I flipped the flower over and used tape to secure them.  I then removed the pin and added a small amount of liquid glue under the top three leaves.

Following the formation of the flower I then added the three green leaves behind the flower using tape to secure them.  Using liquid glue I added gems to the front for the center of the flowers.  Finally a simple loop of string attached to the back with tape allows the ornament to hang.

Other options:
I made another poinsettia out of gold paper and used gold embossing powder instead of just stamping the leaves.  I never quite got round to making the three leaves for this flower but had thought of making them from vellum with the gold embossing powder.

I really like how these turned out, The hardest part was cutting out all the leaves, though I imagine if you had matching dies for a particular stamp you could die cut them instead of fussy cutting them.

See you tomorrow!
Stacey

Happy Christmas Card

Hello

This will be my final Christmas card for this week.  Next week will be papercraft decorations for Christmas and my final Christmas card for 2014.  Today's card features my favourite colour because I just can't resist.

Materials used:

• White card base
• A purple and a gold shimmer paper
• Star background stamp (Hero Arts Tiny Stars Background)
• Versamark ink
• Clear embossing powder (Ranger)
• Purple ribbon
• 'Happy Christmas' die

First of all I created the background by stamping and embossing the star background stamp onto a piece of purple paper.  I adhered it flat to the card base.  From another piece of the purple paper I die cut the sentiment which I then covered with a layer of the embossing.
I adhered the sentiment on to the gold shimmer paper and created a banner end.  I wrapped a piece of the ribbon around the top and then adhered it to the card with foam tape.
For the final touch I created a bow from the ribbon and adhered it over the ribbon on the card.

This card didn't take very long to make but it still has high impact.  But maybe I'm biased towards the colour purple!

See you next week!
Stacey

Christmas Lights Card

Hello!

Today is the fourth day of my Christmas Card week and I've got a bright and cheerful one to show you today!

Materials used:

• White card base and black card
• Gold foil paper
• Christmas light stamp (Fiskars)
• Merry Christmas tree shaped sentiment stamp (Sullivans)
• Red, green, yellow and blue ink
• Versamark ink
• Gold embossing powder (Ranger)
• Nesting circle dies (Couture Creations)
• Paper bow template
• Red, green, orange and blue glitter glue

The first thing I did was to trace lightly around the circle onto my card base so I could stamp my lights in something that closely resembled a circle (which wouldn't have happened if I tried to do it by eye). 

I had previously stamped out the lights on to some scrap paper in black so I could figure out which lights to stamp in each colour.  Thankfully it worked out really well in that there would be 8 lights in each colour so the pattern was easy to create.  There is a small amount of overlap on some of the lights because even with the pencil mark my stamping was a little off but its not highly noticeable.

Once the lights were done I left them to dry before I erased the pencil.  I then stamped and embossed my sentiment onto the circle which I adhered using foam tape.

I then looked at my card and thought the bottom half looked empty so I created a paper bow using a template to trace and cut out the different pieces of the bow.  I didn't want the bow to just float so I anchored it by placing a strip of the gold paper underneath.

The final step was to put the glitter glue over the lights which gave them a pretty sparkle and the effect that they were 'glowing'.

That is all for today's card, come back tomorrow for another!

Stacey

P.S. This card has been added to the Simon Says Stamp 'Bling it On' Challenge.

Whimsical Christmas Card

Hello

Today's card is the third in my week of Christmas Cards.  It is a fairly simple card that uses a dry embossed background and a homemade patterned paper to draw attention to the sentiment.

Materials used:

• White and Navy card
• Christmas themed embossing folder (Couture Creations)
• Distress ink in salty ocean, peacock feathers and antique linen
• Sliver pearlised spray
• Peace on Earth sentiment stamp
• Versamark ink
• Sliver embossing powder (Ranger)
• Swirl stamp
• Blue and sliver gems

I began by creating the embossed background using the white card and the embossing folder and I trimmed the piece down to the edge of the embossing.

Next I created the blue handmade patterned paper.  I started by using a clean brush to wet the piece of card with the pearlised water and then picked up the colours and dotted them around allowing them to mix and blend together.  To get the intensity I wanted I added a few layers of colour.  Once the piece was dry I stamped the swirl stamp several times using the salty ocean distress ink.  I then trimmed the piece down and created a banner end.
I stamped and embossed the sentiment on to a piece of navy card then trimmed it to size.  I adhered the embossed background and the blue swirl piece flat while the sentiment was adhered using foam tape.  For a final touch I added the gems.

If you were wanting to make several cards like this then creating a large sheet of the patterned paper would be the best way to do it.

See you tomorrow!
Stacey

PS. this card has been added to the Christmas/holiday challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog.

Modern Christmas Card

Hello!

Welcome back, today is the second day in my week of Christmas Cards.  Today's card is in a more modern style but with traditional Christmas colours.

Materials used:

• Red and green patterned paper (Rosie's Studio)
• White with silver foil paper
• A wreath die cut and a joy die cut (Rosie's Studio)
• Red glitter glue

This card is really very simple and mass producing it will be easy.  I started by creating a curved edge on the silver foil paper but ultimately most of it is covered so it's not really required that it has a curve.  I then cut out a few circles in different sizes from the patterned paper.  After deciding upon the layout I adhered all the pieces to the card using foam tape behind the top green circle, the wreath and the sentiment.  Finally I added some glitter glue to the wreath.

I love how easy this card is and how well it turned out.  Even if you don't have the pre-made die cut images making a wreath isn't very hard.

Come back tomorrow for another Christmas Card!
Stacey

PS. This card has been added to the Christmas/Holiday Card Challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

Hanging Ornaments Christmas Cards

Hello,

Christmas is fast approaching so this week I will be posting a new Christmas card everyday for the next five days.  Next week I'm planing on posting some decorations alongside my final Christmas card for the year.

Today I've got a Christmas card that has three hanging ornaments.  I've made two versions, one with the ornaments embossed in gold and the other simply stamped in black.

Materials used:

• White card bases (Trophee, 240gsm, white linen)
• Red, green, white, pink and two shades of purple, subtle patterned paper and a pale yellow paper
• Gold embossing powder (Ranger)
• Versamark ink, Stazon black ink, gold (MSC) and purple ink (Rosie's studio)
• Ornaments stamps, star cluster stamp and 'Deck the Halls' sentiment stamp
• Gold and silver string
• Silver gel pen

I began by stamping my ornaments on to the various patterned papers and cut them out with scissors.  For the background panel I stamped the stars across the pale yellow paper after I trimmed it to the right size.  I then cut two strips from one of the papers used for the ornaments and adhered them and the star piece to the card front.

To add some sparkle to the ornaments that were stamped in black I used a silver gel pen to add some detail.  Before I added the ornaments I created a hole at the top of each of them for the thread to loop through.  The ornament with the sentiment was adhered with dimensional foam tape while the other two were adhered flat.

That's it for today's post, see you tomorrow for another Christmas card!
Stacey