Snowflake Tree Explosion Box

Beginning last year all of us grandkids give our grandparents a variety of gift cards instead of things. They have said themselves that they really don’t need “things” so the gift cards were a great solution. This year was my turn to create the packaging for the gift cards. I really wanted to make something unique that would really wow them. So I created a tall explosion box using Night Sky shimmer cardstock (not SU) for the lid. For the sides of the box I used Bashful Blue cardstock that was stamped with Serene Snowflakes in Whisper White Craft, Bashful Blue, Frost White shimmer paint, and Pacific Point. I used some silver ribbon with snowflakes from my stash (not SU) to tie around the box.

On the inside the panels are layered with Night of Navy and Very Vanilla on four sections, and Night of Navy and Whisper White on the other four sections. The patterned paper is from my stash (not SU). Three of the panels have more Night Sky shimmer paper cut and punched with the slit punch to hold the six gift cards. The last panel is left blank so we can write a message to our grandparents. The “tabs” on the panels have sponged scenes.

The tree in the middle took the most amount of time. I use my electronic cutter with the Winter Woodland cartridge and cut hundreds of Snowflake #4 in the various sizes from 5 ½ inches down to one inch from Whisper White cardstock. I then glued two of the same sized snowflakes together for each layer of “branches” on the tree. I then pierced a hole in the center of the snowflake layers and threaded them onto a wire from my jewelry making stash. To separate the layers of the snowflakes I glued together a stack of circles that I punched out and used my cropodile to punch a small hole in the center of the stack. These are used on several of the bottom layers for the larger snowflakes. When I tried to just use a bead between these layers my large snowflakes rested at a downward angle. The stacked circles solved this problem. For the smaller layers I just used a white bead in between each layer. After threading on all of the snowflakes, circles, and beads I used my needle nose pliers to bend a small loop in the end of the wire at the top of the tree. This is to keep the snowflakes from falling off. I then cut off the tabs on two pewter snowflake brads and used several mini glue dots to glue the brads on either side of the wire loop for the star on the tree. To finish it off I made some glimmer mist from alcohol and the Frost White shimmer paint and sprayed the tree to give it a slight shimmer.

Unfortunately I did not get a photo of the box closed up before Christmas, but the real WOW is the inside anyway.
I just love this box and it really did wow everyone in my family. It took a lot of time, but it was well worth it.

Mom's 2009 Christmas Cards

These are the cards that I helped Mom make this year. She just fell in love with the Wandering Words set in the holiday mini and we came up with this scene. The card is Night of Navy with a Basic Black mat. The image panel is done on Whisper White card stock.

We used post it notes to mask the moon and snow area and sponged in four layers with Bashful Blue, Pacific Point, Night of Navy, and a Basic Black pad that badly needs re-inked (because it looks like a dark purple instead of black). It worked well on this scene and now that they are done I will re-ink my pad and return it to a black color.
The masks were then removed and the trees from Lovely As A Tree (one of my absolute favorites) were stamped in Basic Black. The image from Wandering Words was colored in with a Basic Black marker, to only get the sleigh and not the snow or the greeting, and this was stamped in the sky. We then used the Sandy Speckles roller with Whisper White craft ink and embossed this with a mixture of white embossing powder and iridescent ice embossing powder. Now it looks like Santa is flying through falling snow. The only difference between Mom’s cards and the one pictured below is that she didn’t add the punched snowflake and brad. But she had the most amazing idea for the inside panel. On the inside we added a piece of Whisper White CS so that a sentiment could be stamped and a message written. She had the idea of punching the snowflake in the panel before adhering it to the inside so you see a reverse image. How perfect! Thankfully she only wanted 20 because there was a lot of sponging. But they did turn out beautifully!

2009 Christmas Cards

This year I wanted to keep it pretty simple for my Christmas cards. I tend to lean more towards the difficult cards for some reason. I also wanted to use some traditional colors. The last several years I have done blue/snowflake cards and this year I wanted something different.

I used Basic Black cs for the back and mat, and two pieces of Whisper White. For the background piece of Whisper White I stamped the snowflakes from Snow Swirled in Real Red ink. I then embossed the greeting from the same stamp set in gold embossing powder at the bottom. On the small piece of Whisper White I stamped the tree in Certainly Celery and used the smallest snowflake to emboss the gold star at the top of the tree. I then used a Versamarker, heat and stick powder, and dazzling diamonds glitter to add some sparkly swirls. On the inside I stamped a snowflake in Certainly Celery and then the sentiment in Real Red. I really love how these look and they were pretty simple. I love making Christmas cards so now I’m already thinking what am I going to do for next years cards? LOL. Maybe next year I’ll be able to get my cards finished before the second week of December.