A Touch of Grace

Hi, welcome back to day four of the Christmas series I’ve designed for my dining room table.  Today I have a gift card holder to show you.  I’ve made two of these with two different Christmas fairies.  One is a burgundy poinsettia fairy and the other one is a Christmas red poinsettia fairy.  The gift certificate holders are for my mom and my mother-in-law.  I’m inserting gift certificates to their favorite stores and hanging the holders on the Christmas tree.  I have several different Christmas Fairies in my store for a limited time.  The fairies are Christmas ornaments.  They range in size from eight- to nine-and-a-half inches.  I used the Open Passe Partouts stencil EH 1822 on this design, together with JustRite Stamper’s Deluxe Monogram 2″ Round Kit.

The first photo is of the Christmas red poinsettia fairy gift card holder and this photo is the burgundy poinsettia fairy gift card holder.  These fairies would be adorable on a gift bag as well!

A close up of the bow and poinsettias and holly leaves that I stamped on Carnation White embossing paper.

I hung the fairy on a light post to give you an idea of the size of the completed project.  It’s approximately 20 inches from the top of the ribbon hanger to the bottom of the fairy’s feet.

A photo of what the back side looks like.

A close up of the Christmas red poinsettia fairy.

A close up of the burgundy poinsettia fairy; her wings are gold and burgundy.

Christmas Poinsettia Gift Card Holder Tutorial:

Cut two pieces of paper to 10 3/4″ x 10 3/4.”  I used Anna Griffin DP and SU Very Vanilla textured paper.  Using Zip Dry Adhesive adhere the two pieces together, wrong side to wrong side. 

Measure from the bottom corner of the paper up 2 3/4″ and place a dot, do the same on the opposite side.  Draw a line from point “I” to point “J” as shown.  Place a dot (point “E”) halfway between points “I” and “J” as shown.  Draw a line from point “E” to the bottom corner (point “F”).  Come in from points “I” and “J” approximately 1 1/4″ and mark points “C” and “D.”

Go to the opposite corner of the paper (the top) and measure down 6 inches on both sides and place dots (“G” and “H”).  Draw a line across the paper connecting points “G” and “H.”  Measure in toward the center of the paper 1 1/4″ from points “G” and “H” and place points “A” and “B”. 

Draw a line from point “A” to point “C” and draw a line from Point “B” to point “D.”  Score from point “I” to point “J” (bottom of the page) and score from point “G” to point “H” (top of the page).  Now score from point “A” to point “C” and from point “B” to point “C.”

Place paper with the printed side facing down and fold up the end as shown. Use a bone folder to press down on the score line.

Turn the paper over, printed side up, and fold the paper down on the top score line as shown.  Use a bone folder to press down on the score line.

Turn the paper back over with the printed side face down and fold the left side over on the score line as shown (use a bone folder to press down on the score line).  Adhere the flap that you’ve just folded over on the very bottom only (place adhesive only where I’ve placed the black dot to adhere the flap down).

Now fold the right side over on the score line as shown and adhere the flap down (use a bone folder and firmly press down on the score line).  See the photo above for placement of adhesive.  I’ve drawn a squiggly black line to show you where to place the adhesive.  I promise I didn’t drink a pint before I drew the line . . . . LOL . . . . I have horrible Photoshop skills and don’t know how to draw a line so I used the paint brush tool.  I tried several times to make it straight and finally gave up.

This is what the gift card holder will look like from the front once you’ve adhered the flaps down.  You’ve got a nice roomy pocket for  large gift card.

I placed this beautiful gold foil trim around the outer edges and adhered it with Zip Dry Adhesive. 

Place the stencil down on a piece of Carnation White Embossing paper that is about nine inches wide as shown in the picture.  Center the stencil on the paper.  Mine was off about a 1/4″ and this makes a big difference, luckily I had enough room to compensate for the error.

Run through your die cutting machine as shown.

Down lines as shown.  Here is where you can see I got off 1/4″ on the right side.

Use a craft knife and cut on the pencil lines as shown.  Oops, I forgot to draw the pencil lines on the stencil for cutting.  Okay, place your stencil on the embossed paper and draw your cutting lines.

Cut out on the drawn lines as shown.

Place a piece of Christmas Red embossing paper underneath the Carnation White embossing paper and trace along the edges.

Cut on the tracing lines as shown above and adhere the two together.

Okay, are we ready to have some stamping fun?  I used the JustRite Deluxe 2″ Round Monogram Kit to stamp the wide border and the letter “J.”  The picture above shows the “J” on the 2″ square stamper.  Please bear with me, I’ve been working on several tutorials at the same time, including the wall hanging tutorial and when I took this picture, I accidentally included the square in the picture.  I know this doesn’t make sense now, but it will when you see the wall hanging tutorial . . . . LOL.  When I stamped this image, the “J” was inside the circle block.  I stamped the image with Encore Ultimate Metallic Gold and dusted it with Pearl Ex Brilliant Gold Metallic powder using a mini dauber.   

Gently dust away the excess powder with a Swifter duster or an ultra soft flat paintbrush (shown in the Prayer Card tutorial).

Using the Holiday Garden tapestry stamps, stamp around the gold border as shown.  I used Adirondack Cranberry, Bottle and Pesto inks.

Glitter the images with Martha Stewart Garnet, Malachite and Yellow Gold glitter.  Adhere miniature butterflies (I used a Fancy Crafts Twin Punch to punch the butterflies). Use a Krylon 18Kt. Gold pen and draw gold lines around all edges.  Adhere to gift card holder wrapping the ends around to the back side.  The ends should be an exact fit as shown here. 

Cut a strip of ribbon about forty inches in length.  I used May Arts gold edged sheer ivory ribbon.  Adhere the ribbon to one side of the gift card holder as shown above.   Leave a tail about 8/10 inches.

Form a handle to the size you want and then adhere the ribbon to the opposite side as you did in the step above.  If your tail is longer than 8/10 inches, trim with scissors.  Make two bows and adhere to each side where you adhered the ribbon handle.  Place poinsettia and holly leaves over the center knot of the bows.

A close up photo to show you the tails and bows.  I used 1/4″ May Arts gold wired ribbon in the bows for added elegance.

Adhere Christmas Fairy to the gift card holder with Zip Dry Adhesive.  Because of the weight of the fairy, it will require a lot of adhesive.  Let dry for an hour or so.

The two gift card holders are complete and ready to place on the tree with gift cards inserted.

Shopping:

A Touch of Grace:     Stencils:  EH 1822; AS 0703; Embossing Paper:  Carnation White, Iris Blue, Mustard, Christmas Red, Christmas Green; Stamps:  Holly Border, Holiday Garden; Ink:  Encore Ultimate Metallic Gold; Adhesives:  Zip Dry Adhesive, Quickie Glue Pen, Scotch Removable Tape; Accessories: Christmas Fairies; Joy! Craft 2mm Foam Pads, Joy! Craft Pearls Yellow, Joy! Craft Pearl Pale Yellow, Craft Knife, Craft Knife Refills, Mini Daubers, Pearl Ex Brilliant Gold, Mini Butterfly Punch, Krylon 18Kt. Gold Pen, Stylus, Perga Soft, Starform Gold Stickers (1021)

JustRite Stampers:     Deluxe Round Monogram Kit; Decorative 2″ Square Monogram Kit

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store:     Bow Easy, May Arts Ribbon:  1.25:  SK33 Gold, SK15 Emerald, SK25 Ruby, SK03 Sapphire; 1/4″; SK33 Gold, SK15 Emerald, SK25 Ruby, SK03 Sapphire; 5/8″ GH09 Gold Edge Ivory; 1/4″ GC30 Gold WIre Metallic Ribbon, Fiskars Scissors

Bonnie’s Best:      Genesis Paper Trimmer

Recipe:

Stamps: Holly Borders, Holiday Garden; Deluxe Round Monogram Kit; Deluxe Square Monogram Kit

Paper:  Embossing Paper:  Carnation White, Christmas Red, Christmas Green, Blue Iris, Mustard; SU:  Very Vanilla, Very Vanilla Textured

Ink:  Encore Ultimate Metallic Gold; Adirondack:  Pesto, Cranberry, Bottle

Accessories:  MS Glitter (Garnet, Malachite, Yellow Gold), AG (Mustard); Joy! Craft Pearls (Yellow, Light Yellow); Joy! Craft 2mm Foam Pads, Stamp-a-ma-Jig, Computer, Craft Knife, Scor It, Scor It Mini Metric, Mini Daubers, Pearl Ex Brilliant Gold, Mini Butterfly Punch; Christmas Fairies, Genesis Paper Trimmer, Zip Dry Adhesive, Quickie Glue Pen, Tim Holtz Clear Grid Ruler, May Arts Ribbons, Ornament Placecard Holders, Graph Paper, Stylus, Light Box, PergaSoft, Starform Gold Stickers (1021), Oval Ornaments (Michael’s), Red Berries and Gold Swirls (Silk Warehouse), Fiskars Scissors, Scotch Removable Tape, Stencils (AS 0703, EH1822), Wizard, Nestibilities Large and Small Squares; Large and Small Octagons, Krylon 18Kt. Gold Pen, Bow Easy,

Thank you so much for visiting, I truly appreciate you taking time to stop by.

Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas!