17turtles is pleased to announce that we are sponsoring Creative Scrappers during the month of December! For your chance to win a $20 gift certificate to the 17turtles Etsy Shop all you have to do is create a layout using Sketch 283 and/or 284 and enter them using the inlinkz widget on the Creative Scrappers blog. The deadline to submit your layouts is December 31st at Midnight EST. Sketch 283 is live now and ready for you to play along!

And for your shopping enjoyment, you can use coupon code CS17TURTLES25 to save 25% off any order from the 17turtles Shop! I can't wait to see what you all create and share!

To create this Ho Ho Ho Christmas card, I embellished it with a 3x4 card from the November Exclusive Kit and a die cut from the Good Cheer Bits and Pieces set. The stars are from the Good Cheer Wood Veneer set. I added a mini clothespin, jute bow and red jewels for added texture and interest. You could certainly leave off the clothespin to make this easier to send in the mail.








So, have you already started on your Christmas cards? Or do you still need to make them? I still have a few more to make, but have a good start on them.  Thanks for stopping by!

SUPPLIES

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN CALENDAR

CREATING CUSTOM PUSH PINS

To attach the numbers to the board, I created my own custom push pins using standard push pins and BoBunny Brads.

1. Begin by selecting some brads from the Candy Cane Lane Brads.
2. Remove the prongs from the brad using wire cutters. Fold any excess metal toward the underside of the brad using the wire cutters.
3. Attach the brad to the top of push pin using a hot glue gun. I recommend using either a high heat glue gun or an adhesive that is made for attaching metal and plastic together. I had good luck with Glue Dots, however you have to be more cautious when removing the push pins from the cork board as this is not a permanent way to adhere the brad to the push pin.

I hope this project inspires you to do some family Christmas crafting projects this year. They are a great way to bring the family together and they can provide years of wonderful memories!

Today, I have the talented Chantalle McDaniel, from The Anticlockwise Fish, guesting for 17turtles. She is sharing some scrapbook layout inspiration with you using some of my new 17turtles Digital Cut Files as well as some behind the scenes details on how she goes about planning and designing her layouts. Make sure you visit Chantalle's blog to see another layout she created using my Houndstooth Hello cut file. Now, let's hear what Chantalle had to share about her layout and the cut files.


For this page, I have used the stunning script files, This Is Magic along with Butterflies No. 1. They helped me capture this gorgeous picture of my Sister on her recent trip to Australia, perfectly.


As a designer, I have the overwhelming urge to ‘plan’ layouts sometimes. I feel it’s super useful to get a feel for how big I want things to sit on the page, especially my photos, which I print at home. For this particular layout, I went about setting the image inside a mask in Photoshop. I then imported the image into a new document in a word processing programme (I use InDesign) to give myself a rough idea of where all the elements might be placed.

Once I was happy, I exported my page as a jpeg and imported the jpeg into Silhouette Studio. (The page set up to 8.5x11.)

I wanted the butterflies to look like they were rising out of the sunset, so I placed the designs in a scattered formation, colorizing them to match the hues in my image. When I was happy with the overall placement, I deleted the image and was left with the cut files.


I separated the butterflies into colour, so I could cut a batch at a time. (If you wanted to, you could do this as a print and cut instead.) The title was also cut separately.


When I had everything ready to go, I printed my image and text off onto white card stock and arranged my gorgeous little butterflies and title on the page.


Add some detail with pops of glitter and some machine stitching!


Thank you so much for having me Juliana!


It was a pleasure to have Chantalle guest this week. I really enjoyed learning about her creative planning process. Don't forget to visit her blog for another fabulous layout.

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SANTA GIFT TAGS

KIDS CHRISTMAS CRAFTING IDEA

THE DETAILS

FREE DIGITAL CUT FILE | TAG NO. 1

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The bubbles just needed to be stacked up on the page and there had to be gold. The bubbles were created using patterned paper and some vellum.


For the title - I cut out two of each of the words from cardstock, adhered them together (for added strength) and heat embossed them with gold embossing powder. I had initially tried using glitter but found that I wanted the words too small for the glitter to work well. I also added gold with a little mist splatter.