Sprigs & Ornaments Holiday Cards

December 14, 2014

Sprigs & Ornaments Holiday Cards

By Judi Kauffman for Elizabeth Craft Designs

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Judi Kauffman is back with some fun last-minute Season’s Greetings Cards.

Thank you for inviting me, Joset. I thought I had all the cards I would need for the holidays but the list kept getting longer, so I kept making more!

There are lots of ornament-shaped peel-offs and dies in the Elizabeth Craft Designs line-up so this is a project that can be easily customized. The supply list includes everything needed to duplicate the trio precisely as shown.

The key to making cards in a hurry is to keep them simple. You’ll need a standard size (A2) card base, an embossed Shimmer Sheetz square (3.75” x 3.75”) and one or more ornaments for each card. Use the new Transparent Double Sided Adhesive Tape to secure the embossed Shimmer Sheetz and foam squares under the ornaments for added dimension. That’s all there is to it.

The speediest ornaments require only an outline peel-off, a piece of un-altered Shimmer Sheetz, and a couple of minutes for fussy-cutting. Ornaments with a bit more detail, like the ones shown, add only about five to ten minutes per card.

  1. GOLD AND BLUE: The three ornaments on the card shown in the close-up below start with alcohol ink-altered Orange Iridescent Shimmer Sheetz. Add Christmas Ornament Round Peel-offs in Gold and lots of Blue/Gold Glitter Dots before fussy-cutting.

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  1. SILK MICROFINE GLITTER: The ornament on the card shown in the close-up below was made by Els van de Burgt, using her signature “Glitter Inlay” technique. A single ornament is plenty when it’s a sparkly beauty like this one!

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  1. PEEL-OFFS IN BLACK, GOLD, & SILVER: The trio of ornaments on the card shown in the close-up below was made by Els, using her signature “Sticker Inlay” technique. The outlines are Black and the open spaces are filled with the negative shapes from the same Peel-offs in Gold and Silver (leaving the outlines for other projects, like #1 above). Transparent/Silver Glitter Dots add sparkle.

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More Options:

If time is short skip the alcohol inks, don’t sand the Shimmer Sheetz.

To add more detail and dimension, use the Sprig from the Sprig & Berries Die to cut extra branches.

For ornaments that can go from card to tree, tie a narrow ribbon loop through the top, use low tack tape to keep them in place until removed.

For ornaments that are going to stay put on the card front, use Glitter, Gold, Silver or Black Border Peel-offs to create the vertical lines instead of metallic braid.

For greetings, use rubber stamps or hand-lettering instead of a Peel-off.

Accent the corners of the embossed squares with brads.

SUPPLIES

Elizabeth Craft Designs –

Shimmer Sheetz (Choose your favorites or use the ones listed below)

SS0220 Peridot Gemstones for Sprig-embossed squares

SS0109 Orange Iridescent for ornaments with Blue/Gold Glitter Dots

E127 Sprig Embossing Folder

Ornament Dies and/or Peel-offs (Choose your favorites or use the ones listed below)

2573 Christmas Ornaments Round Peel-offs in Black, Gold, and Silver

762 Ornament Set 2 (Die for glittered ornament)

797 Flourish with Flowers (Die for floral pattern on glittered ornament)

Silk Microfine Glitter (Choose your favorites or use the colors listed below)

601 Basic Black, 603 Silver, 606 Antique Gold, 612 Saffron

7018 Glitter Dots Peel-offs in Blue/Gold and Transparent/Silver

2581 Season’s Greetings Large Peel-offs in Black

503 Transparent Double Sided Adhesive Sheets

Other –

Sanding block; Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks in Clover and Espresso, Tim Holtz Ink Applicator Tool (Ranger Industries); Eighth-inch brads in Antique Brass and Antique Nickel; Cardstock in Green (for card bases), Black (for Sticker Inlay ornaments), and White (for Glitter Inlay Ornament); Foam dots or tape; Big Shot or other cutting/embossing machine; Antique gold braid and chenille needle OR Border Peel-offs in any style (for the lines above the ornaments)

 

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  • Mary Prasad December 18, 2014 at 12:26 pm

    Thanks for some more great ideas. Very shiny!

  • Christine Kosmak December 14, 2014 at 7:27 pm

    Oh dear, after seeing the baubles done with different colours of the negative from the peel offs I’m going to have to get peel offs in all colours to try this myself!!! Unfortunately that means more things to go on the never ending wish list too!!!

    • judi kauffman December 16, 2014 at 6:25 am

      Christine, It is definitely easiest to do the inlay technique if you have the same peel-offs in black, gold and silver…BUT there is another way to create the same look! If you have the ornaments in gold or silver and you have alcohol inks you can change the color. Place the gold or silver outlines onto solid color cardstock. Then use an ink applicator to put one color of alcohol ink on the leftover (negative) pieces and move them over to “inlay” them inside the outlines (tweezers work well!). If there are TWO of the same ornament, you can change the negative pieces so you have two new colors. Since the alcohol inks are translucent, you’ll still have a shiny surface, but now the pieces will be shiny red, shiny green, shiny blue, or whatever you used. I hope this is useful!

  • cindyh2014 December 14, 2014 at 12:43 pm

    What a great set of cards! I especially like the glitter inlay card and the sticker inlay card. Where can I find Els techniques on these two styles?

    • Judi Kauffman December 14, 2014 at 12:53 pm

      CINDYH2014 – Thank you for the kind words. I believe that you can find a lot of projects using both techniques in the archive of this blog, but I’ve asked Raquel Mason, whose comment was above yours, if she can help find a couple. Sticker inlay is easy to explain. Use outlines from one peel-off and use tweezers to move the pieces from another sheet (or two) to fill in the spaces! (Outline Peel-offs come in black, gold, and silver, so you have lots of options for mixing, plus you can alter peel-offs with alcohol inks for even more colors)

  • Raquel Mason December 14, 2014 at 10:37 am

    Love the cards! I’ve got to try the “Glitter Inlay” technique again.

    • Judi Kauffman December 14, 2014 at 12:51 pm

      Thanks, Raquel. Do you have any links to projects by you or others on the design team to share with CindyH2014, the person who asked the question below?

  • clickityklak December 14, 2014 at 10:25 am

    Oh so much fun and such neat cards ! What would I do without Els ? I just do not have enough hours in my day to do all that I want to do with Els products. Since discovering Els sight I am going broke. LOL, but oh how I love it.

    • Judi Kauffman December 14, 2014 at 12:55 pm

      Thank you! I know what you mean about not having enough hours in the day, especially around the holidays. That’s why I try to make sure my projects are easy and fast as much as possible.

  • Candy Spiegel December 14, 2014 at 8:46 am

    These are so beautiful!

    • Judi Kauffman December 14, 2014 at 12:46 pm

      Thanks, Candy. They were a lot of fun to make and SO easy…

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