"Festive Frame" Blog Hop!

Welcome to our "Festive Frame" hop! Today I am sharing a card and gifts using the frame. What you see below I am unofficially calling the "Grandparents Card": it is worth the extra time to make a card with extra panels for these special people, they are sure to appreciate it and have it on display probably all year long! :)
You'll need one 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of Pure Luxury White CS,( stamping the frame into all four corners and cutting), and 1 and a half sheets of Pure Luxury Fresh Asparagus CS, cut and score to make 3 side-folded A2 sized cards. The third card is what's adhered to the back right and left sides of the other two cards to create the accordion. I'm showing a second view of the same card so you can see how it can be "mountain" folded, like an "M" in the card above, or "valley" folded like a "W" below. You could also bring both ends around in a kind of semicircle to frame up a little candle or something in the middle. :)
I chose to photograph it on our coffee table not only because it's extra long (but still folds up to A2 size!) , but it would be beautiful displayed on a bookshelf or here as a centerpiece, if you had a little more time you could also decorate the backside with four more frames showing Christmas memories. TIP: to cut down the time of this project, stamp the frame in color on white or emboss on colored CS and skip the coloring! This accordion is something I would be happy to make for myself for our family to enjoy every year, like a mini scrapbook so to speak. These are my two sons' school pics, along with greetings from the set, but with your printer or alphabet set you could add names, dates, stamped holiday images, or two more photos in the panels in between. I added some Cranberry Tart Large Punched Flourishes and adhesive nail heads to the corners and flower centers.

You can see in the closeup the sparkle on the images, I used the Sakura Galaxy Glitter Pens. I've long been a fan of their Stardust Pen, but just got these colored ones, and I am so pleased with the results! While they may not always be an exact match for your colors or cardstock, when you apply then tone on tone, like the golden pen over the Mignonette Copic in the flowers and lime pen over the Verdigris Copic above, or the rose pen on the Cardinal Copic below, they blend beautifully but the glitter still really pops!

I did not use any additional papers to mat the frames, all the different "borders" you see are just the images colored with markers!

My next projects use the waterproof labels Gina K sells. These HUGE 3 1/3"x4" labels are a steal at only 43 cents a project (you get 30 labels for 12.95!) You don't need special inks, all your stamping and coloring are preserved, even if it gets wet! If your packaging already has a label on it, you can soak it off in a few minutes with some water and then dry before applying your new one. On both of these I stamped the frame in Memento Tuxedo Black onto the labels (before applying them to the bottles LOL!) and colored them with Copics. Now I have beautiful, handstamped labels to dress up these gifts and don't need any additional papers, adhesives or embellishments (except maybe some ribbon, I'll get to that in a minute!).

Here is a closeup of the wine label, I rubbed the Antique Linen Distressing Pad all over it to give it this beautiful yellowed patina, and then stamped the crackle image from Bold Flowers all over it in Tuscan Tan, perfect for an elegant and aged-looking wine label, isn't that gorgeous?? TIP: I stuck with just greetings from the "Festive Frame" set today, but try personalize the oval window by adding the date ("2009, a very good year!"), a monogram, your family's name, etc! As you can see, the label is slightly smaller than the stamp image, but you do get the window in its entirety and corners clusters, the only thing that's missing is the outside frame...still looks like it was made for it!

A bottle of wine makes such a wonderful housewarming or hostess gift (or "emergency gift" for someone who drops by with something when you forgot them on the Christmas list! (not that I've ever done that...!)), and with this festive label, after the wine has been enjoyed the bottle can stay out on a counter dressing up the kitchen or dining area, or made into a candle holder or oil lamp and serve as a happy memory of holidays past...

I found this large vanilla jar candle at HEB, they had an assortment of holiday scents for only $3.98 each, but you can find similar ones just about anywhere. After stamping and coloring the image, I colored the oval with Lionet Gold Copic and stamped the music score from Nina's Vintage Borders in Antique Linen Distressing Ink over the whole label. I also rubbed a little of the gold Metallic Rub On Paste over the corners. This time I mounted the label horizontally to fit the jar. The gold lined organdy white ribbon is from Gina K Designs, and I made both of the bows you see in this post with the Bow Easy.

Jar candles like these make perfect gifts for friends or teachers, with their extra long burn time they can enjoyed over and over and the label outside will look just as pretty once the candle is gone. BONUS gift: The remaining wax inside can be popped out and the clean jar repurposed for holding candy etc! I hope these labels inspire you to explore the many gift giving possibilities for these Festive Frame labels, they would be just as perfect on a tin of cocoa, jar of bath salts, or store bought or homemade preserves, and as I mentioned before, with an alphabet set you could add "Mom's Jelly", "Snowman Soup" etc to the frame!

Today I'm giving away a Bow Easy and assortment of handpicked holiday ribbons ! I will draw a winner randomly from one of the blogs in our hop tonight, so be generous with your comments if you'd like one, you'll be ready to start making festive bows for projects like these right away! :)

I've invited a couple of friends to join in on the blog hop tonight, so please click on their blog links to see the projects they've created for us:

Joan Ervin

Linda Payne

Wendy Price

Then, check in on these GinaK Designer's participating in the Blog Hop tonight:

Carolyn King
Donna Baker
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Lee Murphy
Theresa Momber

And our fabulous Center Stage Spotlight Team:

Deb Felts
Diana S. Queen
Melissa Cash
Sharri Seffens
After you're done hopping to all the Designer's blogs stop by GinaK's Idea Center here: Festive Frame for lots more ideas on how to use the Festive Frame stamp set. And, don't forget to check in on GinaK's blog so you can leave your comment to be entered as a chance to win this stamp set, too!