Monday, November 03, 2008

12 Cards of Christmas - Card 8

I do love the challenge of making Christmas cards out of non-Christmas stamp sets. The very clever Liam gave me the idea to use this one. It's "True Friend" from our Spring Mini, not even remotely a Christmas set. But the flower looks slightly poinsettia-like, and the other one is a bit starry or snowflake-ish, and then you stamp in Christmas colors and voila!
The background has been stamped in Versamark. Next stamp 'Merry Christmas' in Old Olive ink (I used the one from 'Season of Joy', but you could substitute any Christmas greeting), and then stamp the other stamps around it in Real Red and River Rock.
I discovered a nifty ribbon-tying trick, and I'll try and do up a tutorial for that sometime this week!

Stamps: True Friend, Season of Joy
Ink: Real Red, Old Olive, River Rock, Versamark
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Real Red, Old Olive
Other: Real Red Wide Grosgrain Ribbon

Edited to add: The Promised Tutorial "Nifty Knot-tying Trick"

In the card I showed you above, I just tied the knot in the usual way, by wrapping it around the piece of cardstock and tying a double knot. Sometimes I tie the knot as a separate piece of ribbon, but I still find that I need to tie a double knot to make it stay in place. Here's a trick you can use so you just need to tie a single knot, and it will stay in place without coming undone. This is what the finished card looks like with the new knot:

See how the knot sits nice and flat, and is not bulky, unlike the first card I posted?
So here's how you do it, step by step with photos!

1. Use the Double Rectangle Punch to punch 2 holes where you would like your knot to be. You'll be going through 2 layers of cardstock for one of the holes, so use your big muscles!

This is what it should look like:

2. Thread a piece of ribbon through the 2 holes (make sure it is long enough to tie a knot with):

3. Place another piece of ribbon across the front of the cardstock, and adhere it to the back

This is what the back looks like:

You can tape over the ends with Sticky Strip to hold it securely.

4. Tie a single knot over the top. Because the ribbon is going through the 2 holes, it will stay in place, and tie tightly without the need to do a double knot.

Voila!
I hope you found my tutorial useful :o)


5 comments:

  1. Please share your ribbon technique! That's a good looking knot! :D

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  2. Great idea! I will definately try that next time I want to tie a knot and keep it flat. TFS

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  3. How cool is that! TFS. Judy H.

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  4. Clever idea. Now I want one of those punches LOL!

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  5. What a brilliant idea. Thanks very much for sharing it with us.

    ReplyDelete

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