Chalk Holder

     With the holidays coming I thought I'd make a few teacher gifts. A while back I bought these chalk painted flower pots and decided it was time I did something with them. They were a clearance item from Pottery Barn so I boght a few. I have one that holds my cricut markers but thought they would make a perfect holder for chalk to give to a teacher.
     I cut the images of both a girl and boy in vinyl from A Childs' Year cartridge. The shadow layer is in white whereas the top layer is in red. I also cut the image a third time out of card stock but cut the "apple" part off so I just had the leaves to work with.

     The bottom was sort of plain so I added a simple white picot ribbon and a few clear rhinestones. Add a box of chalk and you have a simple teachers gift! I do have a few for sale in my etsy shop. By the way, the snow is 5 days since our historic October snow storm. Maybe I'll get a lot of crafting done this winter.

The Three Wisemen Card

     As you can see I am on a roll with my Christmas cards this year. The more I do the more intricate I am getting. This is my new favorite for the week, lol. Fortunately I had cut these out in anticipation of our possibly losing power. It is truly a miracle that THIS time we didn't. However you can still see the snow that is left over and this is 5 days later.
     This time I went with a 5x7" card base. The card stock is a cream with a nice sheen to it. The image was cut using the Inspired Heart image @ 3" and the background is from a pale blue glossy card stock.I really love using embossing of all kinds on my cards and this has both dry and heat embossing.The background is Swiss dots whereas I used heat embossing for the stars in the upper right hand corner as well as the sentiment "Unto us a child is born".  The embossing powder is a detail silver and really makes a statement! Both stamps are from Inkadinkado.

     The flower was cut from Flower Shoppe cart by ProvoCraft.  I cut them @ various sizes: 1 3/4" and 1- 1/2". I used a DCWV stack and Donna Salazar's technique with the tulle and added some of her Pixie Dust Glitter. I assembled the card by using silver thread to sew the image and background together before adhering it to the card base.

     I thought the flower would balance the stars off and the colors just seemed to fit.It gives it a quiet elegance don't ya think?

     I also added a sentiment on the inside and used a rich blue ink. It says: "Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas everyday." I just love this sentiment. It would be wonderful if we could have that warm feeling year round, don't you agree?