Christmas is coming!

My late mother, God love her, would always rail against stores that would put

up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving had passed. Nowadays,

Christmas decorations go up before Halloween! Horrors!

But, for card makers, Christmas cards have to be designed and created early, many I have noted, as early as July. I can almost feel her standing behind me, giving me THAT disapproving eye as I design my own for the season! Forgive me, Mom, I hafta do it! lol.

In the spirit of the season, I have a tutorial for you. I hope you enjoy the card and

instructions. I have tried to make the instructions clear, if you have questions, feel free to ask any questions by email beardiepaw@hughes.net or sher@paperthyme.com.

Card Front

I apologize for the glare. I have to sharpen my photography skills with foils.

Inside

The supplies I used for this card are all from Stampin' Up! and I have links below to everything I used, if you would care to make this happy sparkle card yourself.

All Measurements in Inches

1. Card Base: (1 piece) 8.5 x 5.5, score at 4.25 Mossy Meadow

2. Inside: (1) 5.25 x 4 Whisper White to line inside of card

3. Front: First layer: Brightly Gleaming DSP (Designer Series Paper)

(1) DSP 5.25 x 4, ornament pattern

(1) DSP 5.25 x 4 second pattern, stars pattern cut diagonally

(1) 5.25 x 4 Noble Peacock Foil, Blue

4. Glimmer Paper:

1. Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper scraps

2. Rose Glimmer Paper scraps

3. Sparkle Glimmer Paper scrap

This card would look beautiful with any of the DSP papers in this suite.

(Btw, the Brightly Gleaming Bundle comes with the stamps, 2 ornament punches, and the gorgeous DSP).

You will use the Glimmer Paper scraps to back the ornaments on the front (3) and to punch

out the small ornament for the inside. For the backing, punch or fussy cut (3) 1-inch circles.

Punches:

1. 1 small ornament Brightly Gleaming punch

2. 1 1-inch punch

Brightly Gleaming Foil Elements:

1. 3 of the ornaments

2. 1 Large Star

3. 1 small star

5. Embellishments:

1. Approximately 4 inches Gold Cord

2. Champaign Jewels

6. Tools:

1. Multipurpose glue

2. Stampin' Seal

3. Scissors

4. Versamark pad

5. Paper Trimmer

6. Bone Folder

7. Heat Tool

8. Stampin' Embossing Powder - Gold

9. Silicon mat

10. Fine tip glue pen or mini glue dots

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I show the ribbon and Noble Peacock Basic Rhinestones, but didn't use them after all.

FIRST

Glue the Noble Peacock blue foil down onto the Mossy Meadow card base. I punched a few small ornaments out of it first, making sure I had enough margin that it would not show.

I used Stampin' Seal to adhere it.

Next, I added the DSP I had chosen for the rest of the front panel, again with Stampin' Seal.

To that, I added the second pattern, cut diagonally. With the 5.25 x 4 piece of DSP, I set it with the corners on the cutting track to make the diagonal cut.

Again, using the Stampin' Seal and the Silicon Mat, I added the diagonal piece to the front, leaving just a little of the ornament paper peeping out to work extra interest.

Next, I added the Brightly Gleaming Foil Elements star to the front.

At the top of the image, you can see other elements, plus the punched out

1 inch circles to back the foil ornaments.

Using the glimmer paper (Rose, Sparkle and Balmy Blue) I glued them to the back of the gold elements. This is a little fussy, I used a small glue dot under the top of the ornament, and added Multipurpose glue with a fine tip glue bottle to attach the glimmer paper. It is a little fiddly, and I had to sit something heavy on them till the glue held. Then, I strung the ornaments on the gold cord. The first card I made with this, I used silver thread, but it was not very noticeable. However, this cord is thicker, and I needed to go back and shorten my cord about 0.75 of an inch. It also helps, because of the natural fraying, to add a little glue to the tip of the cord and make a point with the cord before you thread the ornaments on. I did this to both ends. You can also, if you don't want the ornaments free floating, to either tie a little knot in the cord by each ornament or put a small dimensional under each one.

Before I added the ornaments to the front, I finished the inside of the card.

For this, I took the small punch out of the small ornament and glued the small star onto it and placed it on the bottom right with a glue dot. I added a Champaign Jewel to the center.

I used the sentiment from the Snowflake Wishes stamp set. I stamped the sentiment and snowflake sparkle with a block with Versamark and added Stampin' Embossing Powder in Gold.

I attached the cord with a dot of glue on each end and added 2 large Champaign Jewels to each side of the cord. I also added a 5th large Champaign Jewel to the center of the large star. You might need to add a drop of glue under the jewels, since the cord is a little more robust than the silver thread I used the first time.

I love how the ornaments dangle from the cord, reminiscent of the garlands we used to hang in our windows for Christmas. It sparkles when it moves, thanks to the foil elements and jewels.

I hope you like this card and enjoy making it, or a version of your own! I'd love to see them. Don't forget, if you send this out, put a piece of heavy cardstock to protect the Jewels from catching on the Post Office's machines.

There are links below to everything I used in this card's design.

Tools:

There were a couple items that were retired, so I have put up what I think would be fitting substitutions. The Noble Peacock Foil, 1 inch circle punch, and Sparkle Glimmer Paper have been retired.

If you like what you see here, please give me a like and share my site with your friends. You never know, they might be looking for a sale on beautiful card making paper and supplies.

If you are interested in being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, please feel free to contact me, or click the "Join" button at the top of the page. For $99 dollars you will get $125 dollars worth of great Stampin' Up! products, a business supply pack worth. $50 dollars, that's a total of $175 dollars worth of free supplies to get you started. If you join, I will also add a free stamp

set for you. Did I mention 20% off your own purchases?

Thank you for stopping by, be safe and well! Hugs, Paper Thyme.

A Couple of "Good Things" to talk about

I have some important things to talk about today, and I hope you will agree with me.

First off, There is a group in Michigan called Cards for Soldiers, founded by

Charly Matthews. She and her group collect and send cards to soldiers, cards that the

brave men and women in our armed forces can use to send to loved ones back home. I have a link to her page, it gives you instructions on what cards are needed, how to package and some requirements. Easy peasy, really. I am donating the cards I get in my Stampin' Up! swaps as well as some of my own to her.

My family is a military family, and I know it helps with finding cards to send back to family and loved ones, especially when they are stationed overseas.

I am sending a challenge out to all card makers, professionals and just-for-pleasure, to send these generous and kind people cards to send to our military.

Please go to her link and follow the guidelines, they are not difficult, and will do a lot to make deployment a little easier.

Charly Matthews

Cards for Soldiers

388 E M 72 HGWY

Grayling, Mi 49738

https://cardsforsoldiersproject.wordpress.com/

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Next thing! Paper Pumpkin!

October will bring Joy To The World with our Christmas themed Paper Pumpkin kit!

This is special with lots and lots of beautiful card making supplies. You can subscribe to one

of the money saving plans, you can cancel at any time, and if you subscribe, you can also

cancel any kit you don't want. Subscribe now with the link at the top of the page, or

here: https://www.paperpumpkin.com/en-us/sign-up/?demoid=2225548

Check out our new Bundle, Beautiful Autumn. Let me show you what you can

do with it.

Beautiful Autumn link

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WAIT!! I'm not done yet!!

Stampin' Up! is having a huge Designer Series Paper sale, 15% off, no limits on amount you can order. Stock up now of your favorite papers!

If you spend $50 dollars in my store, I will send you a free stamp set from the

Semi-Annual Christmas catalog!

Well, that's about it for now, whew!

Please visit my Stampin' Up! store for more information and if you spend $50 dollars, I

will send you a free stamp set from the Christmas Catalog!

If you like what you see here, please give me a like and share my site with your friends. You never know, they might be looking for a sale on beautiful card making paper and supplies.

If you are interested in being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, please feel free to contact me, or click the "Join" button at the top of the page. For $99 dollars you will get $125 dollars worth of great Stampin' Up! products, a business supply pack worth. $50 dollars, that's a total of $175 dollars worth of free supplies to get you started. If you join, I will also add a free stamp

set for you. Did I mention 20% off your own purchases?

Click the Stampin' Up! logo to get more information now!

SEPTEMBER!

Oh, my! It's September already, where did the summer go? Well, Stampin' Up! has lots of new and fun things for your Autumn cards. The new Host Code is posted. Please use it when ordering in my Stampin' Up! store.

Also, the shopping card is operational!

If you wish to purchase one of my cards, please email me at sher@paperthyme.com and I'll send you an invoice. You do not need to be a member of PayPal, just follow the instructions on the invoice. Once I am notified of the payment, I will ship your order to you. Remember, FREE SHIPPING!

I will also have new pricing, so check it out!

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October is nearly upon us with cold winds, gray skies, glorious sunsets, and spooky full moons! Personally, I always watch out for Dragons flying across! To get us into October and Halloween later, I thought I would show you some costumes from Halloweens past.

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The first three images at the top are of my Indi DeWoo Morrow, dressing for Halloween, of which, in the second image, she is dispaying her amazing acting skills at showing one of her specialties, the ever popular "Stinkeye" look.

The second row starts with two pictures of my sweet Bocelli, loved as "Bo", now at the bridge and the third in the second row is Indi's beloved Auntie Charlie, who drove from S. Dakota to Texas to bring her to her new home with me, from a friend, Stacy. Thank you, both, it meant the world to me.

AND the last row shows what happens when a long-haired Bearded Collie in a full coat goes running through October leaves! It took me FOREVER to get that out of her hair. The bunny and Trouble the cat have too much dignity to dress up. I just looked stupid, so I didn't bother.

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So let me "leaf" you with a picture of an Northern Michigan Autumn early morning sky.

As always, paper hugs, love, and be safe,

Sher at Paper Thyme