Green Tangerines November Card Kit - Part I

I had a lot of fun making holiday cards with this month's card kit from Green Tangerines.  Today, I'll show you five of the ten cards I made up, and the second batch of five cards will post tomorrow.

One of the things I usually pick up each year at the craft store are a couple small branches, or sprays, of artificial evergreen, and if it has little pinecones on it, even better!  I cut it apart and use pieces on cards, package decorations, place cards, etc.  So I couldn't resist using some on a few of the cards this month.

This first card uses the holiday tag that's included in each kit. I happened to get one of the yellow tags, and at first, I was a little unsure how it was going to work out. But as soon as I started laying out pieces of paper and the velvet ribbon, it all fell into place with a little shuffling of materials.  I dyed a couple 10" pieces of the Hug Snug seam binding from the kit (I used handmade mists - one of gold, and one olive green), one of the American Crafts glitter buttons from the kit, and a strip of the May Arts green velvet cotton lace.  I put some Martha Stewart tinsel glitter around the edge of the tag (a little hard to see in the photo - I put it over the white border around the image), and added some clear coarse glitter to the sprigs of evergreen up by the ribbons. (And you'll notice there isn't even a sentiment on the front. Sometimes cards don't really need one, and this is one of those times. )



This next card uses one of the Maya Road transparency snowflakes from the kit. I added some Martha Stewart clear coarse glitter to the inside of the snowflake, and accented it with some of the Queen & Co. gold gems from the kit.  More of the green velvet cotton lace ribbon, some of the Hug Snug (left uncolored), and a small printed sentiment tag add the finishing touches.  (I used the Tim Holtz Ornate On-the-Edge die for the bottom edge.)

On this card, I cut a couple pieces of the Maya Road double ruffle elastic lace - I stretched the lace out slightly and machine-stitched it to a strip of the turquoise American Crafts ribbon from the kit. *HINT: the elastic in this cotton lace is very strong - I tried using both ATG tape and  Terrifically Tacky tape, and neither was strong enough to hold the stretched-out lace in place.  So if you want to use your lace in the same manner, I strongly suggest hand or machine stitching it to the top ribbon, or to the paper or cardstock beneath it, to hold it to the length you stretch it to.

I dyed a couple more 10" strips of the Hug Snug to turquoise and red shades to match, and topped them with another of the glitter buttons from the kit. A few of the KaiserCraft pale blue pearls from the kit add a finishing touch to the ribbons. The sentiment is one of the SRM stickers from the kit, adhered to cardstock that's punched in a scalloped circle shape and lightly glittered around the edges.  And I couldn't resist adding a couple more small pieces of evergreen around the bows, too!

This Happy Holidays card uses one of the TPC rub-ons from the kit for the sentiment.  I used a Martha Stewart Punch-Around-the-Page punch (eyelet lace) for the lacy doily edge. I wanted to add some stitching, but knew it wouldn't show up as boldly as I wanted, so I used a Uniball Signo Broad white pen to draw in the stitching. I added a couple gems from my stash to one of the Maya Road pearl stick pins from the kit to complement the button and Hug Snug bows.

And lastly, for today, is a holiday card in non-traditional holiday colors - something I love to make.  It uses more of the elastic double ruffle crochet trim, but this time has strips of the patterned paper down the center. Five of the silver glittered buttons from the kit run down the center of the black and cream patterned paper.

I textured plain cream cardstock in a diamond pattern using my Martha Stewart scoreboard and the envelope scoring piece to get the scores on a diagonal.  I die cut a shape for the sentiment block, and used the American Crafts stamp from the kit for the sentiment.  A light application of glitter around the edges, a small red ribbon bow, and a few Pebbles Glitter Candy dots (not in the kit but available at the store) finish off the sentiment block.

See you tomorrow with the rest of the cards from this month's kit...