Tuesday, August 11, 2009

on the twelfth day of christmas...

ok, i think it's actually only been about a week of holiday and winter-themed cards and projects, but we've packed a lot in, dontcha think? here is my final hero arts project for the design team's expanded "winter wonderland" gallery over at caardvarks! (you'll see i've saved one of my faves for last!)

this one is not christmassy, as such; though it would make for a fairly nice semi-fancy holiday gift presentation. heck, if we swapped the little flowers for poinsettias...or threw a few holly leaves on there, it'd "theme up" pretty quickly! but at the moment this one is more valentine's day, i s'pose.*

(rubber stamps: hero arts; pillow box template w/heart window: the cutting cafe; patterned paper: basic grey + some croc-textured glossy black origami paper + some inkjet transparency + some hambly transparency; flowers & gem flourishes: prima (the white flowers came printed; the red i stamped & embossed with my hero arts houndstooth background stamp...sheesh i LOVE that thing!) gem brads: k&co; chipbaord frame (inside card): colorbok; inks: staz-on & colorbox; adhesives: tombow mono runners in regular and "power bond")

to make the stamped transparency in the window i used some of the more generic greetings ("joy", "warmest wishes") from the hero arts holiday sayings clear-stamp set, and then filled in with additional text from the all-occasion sayings set. one of the things i like about BOTH of those greetings sets is that they include a range of sizes and shapes and fonts...it's so easy to line a bunch of them up together on one acrylic block like i've done here and make a little piece of word art!

the box is of course done with the antique brocade "cling" stamp. i was slightly nervous about lining up the stamp since the "clings" are not clear like the acrylic stamps...but they are so nice and thin...and so neatly trimmed at the edges that i had no problem aligning the multiple images i needed to cover the whole pillow box!

the two hearts on the card are the bits i trimmed out to create the window and frame of the box. as they were sitting on my table when the box was done, practically screaming, "hellllllllllllllo! we'd make a really nice MATCHING CAAAAAAAAARD!!!" it seemed churlish not to make one.

there is still plenty of time to enter your very own freshly made "winter" creation in the current caardvarks challenge, and since the prize is a nice pack of BRAND NEW hero arts goodies...by golly, what are you waiting for???!?! :)



*in actual fact it will probably hold a gift card and some fancy chocs for my brother and s-i-l's anniversary the day after thanksgiving; by the time i was about halfway through construction, it was so clearly saying "sandy-n-bill" to me that i finished it off accordingly. so not xmassy...but another thing done really EARLY for the busy holiday season...SWEEEEEEET! :)

8 comments:

  1. Gorgeous gift set! If my scraps were as lovely as those hearts I'd have to make a card with them every time. I love how you made your own PP for the pillow box. I wouldn't have guessed it was stamped, the clings line up so nicely.

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  2. LOVE it! And I know you know this, but since I wasn't around to comment on them all the same goes for ALL of your amazing HA creations. Hmmm, the same actually goes for all of your creations in general 'cause I'm pretty sure I never met a Lauren creation I didn't love!

    FAB tutorial too! I never would have guessed those letters started out white!!!

    (-: Heidi

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  3. OH WOW! This one is my favourite for the week, even if it isn't very *christmasy*...I love, love, love it ♥ The cut out hearts, the matching card, the brocade background...it's all completely delicious!

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  4. Fantastic! Your craft creations are just amazing, so beautifully designed and embellished with loads of originality and great technique. Very inspiring :)
    - Crafts by Bee

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  5. This is a lovely set and yes, it could be Christmas-ed up very easily!

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  6. Yeppers, another fab Lauren creation. You make acrylic cards look so easy, but I am still a little intimidated to try them. The 'Varks has worked you to death, but you will be sittin' pretty after T'giving :)

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  7. Wow... you have some amazing cards on your blog! I love them ALL!! Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving me some love! :)

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  8. lovely, i just added up even more some other new emo backgrounds 4 my blog
    http://www.emo-backgrounds.info

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the *BEST* part of blogging is the comments, dontcha think? thanks for taking time to leave one! ~♥~