CardMaker Blog Hop: For You, From Me

Good morning! Welcome to my first hop with the CardMaker Blog Team! Tanya and Brooke challenged us to make last minute gift card holders this month and I am so excited to see what everyone is sharing today.

  A dear friend (wink! I *know* she's reading) introduced me to a tradition of sending an ornament as a gift for Christmas.  Although the ornament is only out for a few weeks, I get so much enjoyment from pulling out the decorations each year for our tree and hanging up the ones she's chosen for me over the years, just melting my heart thinking of my friend, then getting glimpses of them throughout the Christmas season as I walk through the room! So here is an ornament that will hold a gift card which the recipient can still use after the shopping is done!

I chose some super fancy Nestabilities (because nothing with ornate details like these could ever look "last minute"!) to cut out the front and back of my ornament and to cut the window for the gift card and photo to show through.  This small Romantic Rectangle die (2 7/8" x 1 7/8") nests perfectly in one of the larger Floral Ovals (5" x 4"), so you can cut them out in one pass.  TIP: Hold your various dies over the the gift card to make sure the die you choose is slightly smaller than the card in order to select the best shape and size die for the project before you do any cutting.  Cut and emboss two (using White Pure Luxury Base weight, you'll want a heavy cardstock for those tiny cut outs, which will also be sturdier to last more than one Christmas!) and then place your gift card over one opening.

 

Place Foam Squares (Scrapbook Adhesives 3L) along the bottom and sides of the card, these keep the gift card from falling out and ensure you have room to put it in.   

Don't put any along the top so you can get the card out.    

 

Then I used my gift card as a template to trim around my wallet sized photo, knowing it would fit perfectly behind the frame but not stick out the sides if I made it the same size as the card. 

Use permanent adhesive to put the photo directly behind the opening on the second die cut, as this will remain in the ornament.  

The back of the photo will be covered with colored cardstock (Gina K Pure Luxury Cherry Red) and I added a little white panel I printed with our name and date over it.  

Stick the two sides together.

 

The personalized panel is revealed when you remove the gift card and what you'll have is a two sided ornament for next year.  As an afterthought, I stamped and embossed a little flourish from Border Bling with some Crystal EP for some shimmer, but it definitely would have been better to do this before adding my photos and the Foam Squares (TIP:  If you you end up doing some stamping or embossing after, cover the opening with the rectangular die cut piece you already cut out, that really helped in not making a huge glittery melted mess of my photo!)   

 

I also added a few adhesive pearls.  Last I punched a hole through both sides with my Cropodile and tied some dotted ribbon through.  Ready to hang (or send!  This is on my tree for getting a photo for this hop but it is now in the mail!! (By the way, I am so sad I don't have a single photo of my friend and I together! wahh! So the whole family will have to do...)  

The recipient will need to untie the ribbon to get the gift card out.

 

I think I will surprise the boys with some of these (more macho and kid friendly that this, of course!) as I love making ornaments with their photos from that I can see year after year. (that's William as a toddler playing with the nativity scene behind it, 2nd Christmas!)  How fun it would be to hang some gift cards and send them on a hunt searching all over the heavily decorated tree to find the one with the newest photo and a little spending money at a favorite store!  

Hope you enjoy this idea!  So many ways to make them, a new one each year, that becomes a beautiful collection over time.

Enjoy hopping for my last minute gift card holders from the CardMaker team!!  Ready to get inspired myself and take some notes on what else to make this holiday season!

  CardMaker Blog

AJ 

Christine 

Glenda 

Ivanka 

Jennie 

  Thanks for visiting!