Dashing thro' the Snow

My very first post as a member of the Gecko Galz design team for 2018! Never mind a drum roll, I'll make do with  a very strong coffee or maybe a glass of wine.

Two Christmas cards and an altered item up this morning.

6x6 cardstock

'Baby, its cold out here' design sheet

Spellbinders sentiment die

M Company square die

festive twine

silver glitter

The image was so pretty and gorgeous, I kept it plain and simple for this card, only adding a touch of silver glitter over the stars and the blue/white twine to pull the colours together.

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I can't skate, I did try when I was a teenager - never let go of the wall encircling the rink which meant I only skated round half of it for about two hours....... but to skate like the couple in the picture at Christmas would be a dream and so romantic, possibly with a lovely hot chocolate afterwards, with not a trip to A & E in sight!

6x6 cardstock

'Baby, its cold out here' design sheet

Free stamp

Red ink

Xcut snowflake punch

M Company snowflake border die

white pearlescent card stock

chritmas card stock from Joy!

blue gems

clear embossing powder

The image is quite pale so I jazzed it up a bit with the bright background paper just peeking out from under it. I used the snowflake punch and stuck them onto the card and popped blue gems in the middle, but I thought it didn't look quite right, so I quickly pulled the gems off and decided to use the snowflake border die and snip the flakes off and use individually, then I popped the blue gems back on. 

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I recently watched a YouTube video of a lady doing an Altered Mail Art Envelope, using an envelope destined to go in her recycling bin. It looked easy, so I thought I'd give it a go.

bog standard white envelope (had a bill in it!)

'Dashing Thro' the Snow' paper kit

glittery peel offs

white pearls

xmas ribbon strip

red glitter in glue form

red glitter

hole punch 

red ribbon

First thing I did was to tidy the envelope up by straightening the torn edge using my guillotine:

then I cut the other length and one end open, so it opens up:

I cut three pieces of the patterned papers to the same length of the envelope, but kept one A4 sized so I could stick it on the front of the envelope and overlap both side edges by about two inch so it continued round the back, making it a pocket.

The second piece I glued down to the front centre for my 'topper' and the last piece glued on the back of the envelope covering the remaining whiteness and the edges of the first paper. Remember to keep the open end at the top at all times - which I nearly didn't!!

Once everything was firmly stuck down I glittered and embellished.

The envelope flap was made from a piece of card measuring about two inches high and a width to fit snugly into the envelope mouth. I folded about half an inch over, longways, and put double sided sticky tape onto it, this is the bit that slides into the mouth and sticks to the inside..... slightly tricky and I had to trim the width to get it to fit straight. That was the only fiddley bit!

I used a hole punch, two in the flap and two through the back of the envelope and threaded a lovely red ribbon  through. 

Makes a lovely envelope for hand delivery, or a gift envelope instead of wrapping paper.

For these and many more designs, check out the GeckoGalz on Etsy