Warmest Wishes | VIDEO | Natalie Elphinstone

We're quickly hurtling towards Christmas and if you're of the inclination to create some handmade Christmas cards (and I'll hazard a bet that the majority of people reading this probably are!!) then it's well and truly time to start creating your Christmas cards! In fact, I'm sure you already have right? But it never hurts to throw in some new inspiration and maybe I might encourage you to try something you've never tried before.

Did you manage to grab one of the new release stitching dies that Neat and Tangled designed in collaboration with Benzie Design yet? These are changing my perspective on the traditional paper-based Christmas card this year by encouraging me to add some felt embellishments with all the trimmings!

If you notice carefully, the Ugly Sweater Die Set comes with a whole range of small dies for decorating your sweaters with. But don't feel that you have to be limited to just that, when all the pieces can be used as stand-alone embellishments for sooooo many of your Christmas projects. And that's exactly what I've done here. I used the wreath and the poinsetta and the bow to make a kind of banner across my card, and the texture created by cutting these from Benzie Design felt is just incredible.

In my video today I'm going to walk you through the process of creating this card start to finish (including the part where I first finished the card with a whole different sentiment and then changed my mind and used this one instead!!!) I hope you enjoy it, and I hope I've inspired you to add some fabric textures into your next card.

        

Supplies:

Neat and Tangled with Benzie Design: Ugly Sweater Stitching Dies
Neat and Tangled Merry Kisses Stamp Set
Neat and Tangled Tiny Cuts Die Set

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Squirrels Can Do Anything

Hey everyone!  We're so happy to be welcoming our May guest designer Therese Calvird back to the blog today.  Her cards today will have you smiling for sure, here she is with all the details:

I’m back today with some of the cutest squirrels on the block, these little fellas are from a fun set called My Favorite Nut which is cuteness overload.

I took the clean and simple road today. For my first design I thought it would be fun to stamp the nut image directly onto some wood design paper.



Then I stamped it a second time onto some white cardstock and coloured the leaves and squirrels with some Prismacolor pencils. Then I fussy cut everything out and basically paper pieced the image back together.

Finally, I used the Tiny Cuts die to cut a heart border and added the You Can Do Anything sentiment die cut in smoke grey and layered onto brown fun foam. (and those tiny red hearts are rescued from the border and coloured with a red Copic marker)



I used one of those cute squirrels from My Favorite Nut and the same You Can Do Anything die to create my second design, but this time the sentiment became my focal point with the help from a little bit of colour smooshing.



I also decided to add some bling from the Peacock Feathers Sequin mix and I have a video here showing you how this card came together.

I’ll be back next week with another video and some fun inspiration, I look forward to seeing you then.

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Neat & Tangled / Et Cetera Papers Collaboration - Day 2

Welcome back for Day 2 of our team up with Et Cetera Papers.  Et Cetera Papers produces specialty real wood papers and products, and several team members are working with these papers this week.

The Et Cetera Papers team will also be working with our products, so you'll want to stop by their blog as well.  At the end of the week we'll be drawing a winner from comments on our collaboration posts for prizes.  We'll be drawing a winner here on the Neat & Tangled blog for the $25 prize pack you see below (which consists of adhesive backed real wood cherry and birch veneer papers and as well as real wood envelopes), and Et Cetera papers will be drawing a winner for a $25 Neat & Tangled store credit.



OK, let's take a look at today's projects.  First up is Cheiron:

Hi there, Cheiron here. So happy to be joining in on this wonderful collaboration with Et Cetera Papers this month.



I love the idea of using wood paper on my projects, and the adhesive birch and cherry wood sheets are perfect for card making. I used a Cherry Wood Adhesive Sheet to create the main panel of my card, then die cut the Birch Wood sheet several times to create my wooden hooray. Once my hooray pieces were die cut, I glued 4 of them together with matte medium to create a dimensional piece for the front of my card.



I did not want to take away from the clean look of the wood, so I applied colors that were similar to wood stain so the wood texture would still show through. I put some aged mahogany and rusty hinge Distress Inks on my non-stick craft sheet and sprayed them with water. I then picked it up the color with a small paint brush and painted it on to the dimensional die cut.

Next up is Elena:



Hi there! Elena here, with my Etc Papers collaboration project. I used the Birch Wood paper as a way of grounding my focal images. It's hard to make out in the card, but it gives such a fun texture and makes the card more special.

I tried my hand at a softer, no-line coloring of the deer from Into the Woods. The Making Waves die provided the perfect backdrop. I love the little cloud edges that are left behind by that die. The sentiment banner is from Mermazing. I did some stamp surgery to remove the original sentiment and now I can use it with whatever greeting will fit the space. I really love how it curves perfectly around the circle.



Just above the Birch Wood paper, I cut a strip of crosses from the Tiny Cuts die set. As a finishing touch, I added a sweet little heart to the bottom corner, using some Cherry Wood paper.

OK now it's time to head over to the  Et Cetera Papers blog to see what they have to share, but first leave a comment to be entered to win our Et Cetera Paper prize pack.  See you right back here tomorrow for our final collaboration post!

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Neat & Tangled / Et Cetera Papers Collaboration - Day 1

Hi Friends!  We're teaming up with Et Cetera Papers today through Thursday.  Et Cetera Papers produces specialty real wood papers and products, and we'll be showing those off for the next several days.

The Et Cetera Papers team will also be working with our products, so you'll want to stop by their blog as well.  At the end of the week we'll be drawing a winner from comments on our collaboration posts for prizes.  We'll be drawing a winner here on the Neat & Tangled blog for the $25 prize pack you see below (which consists of adhesive backed real wood cherry and birch veneer papers and as well as real wood envelopes), and Et Cetera papers will be drawing a winner for a $25 Neat & Tangled store credit.



OK, let's take a look at today's projects.  First up is Daria:

Hi everyone, Daria here! Happy to join this fun collaboration with Et Cetera Papers.

Self-adhesive sheets are very easy to use and ideal for all kind of die-cutting.  Before die-cutting, I glued it to some foam sheets and then to stick it adhesive sheets. It made it very easy and fast to assemble adding a little bit of fun dimension.

I went with simple, yet elegant no-stamping cards. I used some of my favorite dies from Neat & Tangled: Punchinella and Celebrate Dies for one card and intricate Hooray die for the second. All of them cut just perfectly.

For my today's cards I used Rustic Cherry Wood adhesive sheets from Et Cetera Papers.
I think it pairs perfectly with light blue cardstock. Variation in color in wood pattern looks awesome in real life and adds so much to the design.

Next up is Stephanie:

Hey friends! Stephanie Gold here with a little project in collaboration with Etc. Papers! I am working with these incredible Cherry wood veneer envelope and tape sets and oh my are they pretty!! Since they are perfectly coordinated already, I decided to make them even more so by creating a matching card and envelope.

I started by placing the tape on a diagonal and then using the Tiny Cuts dies to cut dashes in between each wood stripe. I whipped out a couple of older stamp sets to create the focal point of my card. Ornate Frames stamps and dies were used to create the hollow frame and my sentiment was created using Painted Hello.

I wrapped a vibrant green hemp cord on the diagonal and tied it into a bow. The wood tape looks so beautiful next to the bright colors of the ink and twine.

For my envelope I used a pink shipping tag and stamped one of the hollow Ornate Frames and adhered it to the center. I wrapped more of the green hemp cord around the envelope, tied it into a bow, but also secured it to the envelope using a Tiny Attacher. This helps keep it in place while in transit. :)

That's all for today, be sure to leave a comment here and stop by the Et Cetera Papers blog as well.  We'll be back tomorrow with some more beautiful collaboration projects to share. See you then!

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Tiny Cuts with Nancy Damiano

Hey everyone, Nancy here with a closer look at the new Tiny Cuts die. I love this die for creating borders around my cards but I wanted to do something a little different. What if I ran the die across a card to create a punched out background? This is the result!

I lined up the dies 5 at a time and ran them through my Big Shot and repeated the process a few times to cut through the entire card. I backed the punched out card with a watercolored patterned paper for a peek of pink.

I wanted the background to shine, so just two images from the Eggstra Special and Cottontail Cuties stamp sets. A script title cut with the Celebrate die and covered with ink blending anchored with a vellum flag provides a simple and colorful title. A few scattered sequins from the Spring Mix complete the card!

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March 2017 Release Day 2: Introducing Good Vibes and Tiny Cuts Dies!

Hello friends!

It's our favorite week of the month- release week! Welcome to day 2 of our March 2017 release! This month we have some amazing products for you - stencils, stamps, and dies! All new products will be available on Friday, March 10th at 8am EST. Be sure to stop by here everyday this week for lots of fun, inspiration, and giveaways! In case you missed it:

Day 1: Yo Ho Ho stamps + dies

Today we have a fun 3x4 stamp set designed by Danielle Walls. Good Vibes is the perfect set for sending positive and encouraging thoughts! 

 We are also introducing Tiny Cuts Dies. This set of 5 dies are perfect for adding little details to your cards. You can easily create fun repeating patterns on all your projects! The dies measure 5.5" long and can be used for either orientation of an A2 size card!

And now for some inspiration! Be sure to head to each design team members blogs for details by clicking on the photos, and for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate! One person will be chosen from among comments on the design team members blogs!

Today's projects are so fun!

Would you like to win the new Good Vibes stamp and Tiny Cuts Dies? To enter:

1. Be a follower and leave a comment! 

2. Follow us on Facebook and share about release with your friends! (leave another comment)

3. Follow Neat and Tangled on Twitter and tweet about our release, use @neatandtangled! (leave another comment)

4. Follow Neat and Tangled on Instagram and repost about our release! Use #neatandtangledrelease (leave another comment)

See you back here tomorrow for even more fun!

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