welcome back to the final day of the papertrey ink october countdown to new stamps, including merry kiss-mas from me. today i wanted to challenge myself to create non christmas cards using this very christmas set! first up, two birthday cards. every time i have a die cut shape that could work for a banner, i create a card with this layout and these bows are no exception. a bow birthday banner had to happen! each bow is two layers with the baker's twine sandwiched in between. the ends are looped and hung over shiny black brads found in my bottomless studio. but, instead of sticking the brads through the paper, i bent both prongs the same way and tucked them behind the layer. i used the same colors i used the other day because they were on my desk, but colors could easily be changed match the recipient or season and sentiments for any occasion would work - even christmas!
next, i put a bow on a box! to create the present, i scored lines 1/4" apart diagonally across a 1-3/4" square - just big enough to stamp the xoxo's in rows to create the look of wrapping paper. it's hard to tell in the picture (thanks to late night photography!), but i covered the bow in glossy accents so that it had a little extra dazzle and shine. either of the two bows would work for this idea and again, colors could be changed to match the recipient. it could also be created for christmas too, but this time: hugs & kisses, birthday wishes!
so the bows were kind of the easy answer to this challenge, but did you know the mistletoe has an alterego too? the image reminds me of dried flowers hung upside down, so that's exactly what i made it look like! i used the smallest flowers in betsy's brushstrokes kit, stamped and colored a little more with copics to get the edges, and pressed a stylus into the center on a foam pad. any small flower die or embellishments would work as well. assembled with a twine line stamped accross the frame and a bow of the same, now it's a stem of flowers hanging up to dry. if friends were flowers, i'd pick you - an oldie but goodie from green thumb!
and then there was take two, which actually started as take one. if you follow me on instragram you may have seen the simple black and white "leftover" i posted. the sentiment had smudged when i was working on the christmas tag for yesterday's post, so i had to redo it, but i cropped it and kept the mistletoe portion for another possible project. i almost added the flower die cuts to this one, but then moved on with the card above with other desk leftovers. when i came back to this one, i played around with "chalk" flowers, which started to match what had been in mind first - a chalk drawing of the hanging flowers. in the end, i like them both - same idea, different look. i really had fun adding the little details to the chalkboard! so there you have it, christmas stamps, but not just for christmas! and that's it for the countdown, too - i'll probably pop back in with a bonus post tomorrow and then the stamps will be availiable tomorrow night - yay! but first, it's another group day for the design team - head over to nichole for all the details and links. melissa has a post up with her new set as well...
enjoy!
:) lexi
