Upcycling - beginning with 'B'

First of all - thank you all so much for the lovely comments yesterday about me being on the Cuttlebug Mania Design Team.

If I could have picked any team to be on, this would be the ONE. I adore the versatility if you stand back. The peeps are lovely and of course I do love die cutting and embossing, as you know :)

It's not going interfere with the Playground - but most importantly, the themes are really easy if you think it through. For instance, this current two-week challenge is based on I 'heart' you - most probably Valentines Day. Do you need to have a heart die cut or embossing folder? Of course not - there are many, many stamps and images out there with heart or love themes and if you just cut the background using a die and/or including an embossing folder that is non heart - you're in it!! Tee, hee - think outside of the box :) OMG, this is where I get kicked out of the team - but I very much doubt it :)

Anyhow - today's offering is for: Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is to make something for Christmas, featuring something beginning with 'B'. I got carried away and made two quick and easy upcycled Christmas cards whilst everything was out on the desk to play with:

 This card has the following 'B's' - Bird, Blue, Branches

 And this card has the following 'B's' - Berries

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blanks with all four corners rounded using Fiskars scissors

- a layer of white Centura Pearl card, embossed using the Darice 'Snowflake Background' embossing folder, trimmed slightly smaller than the card and all four corners rounded before being stuck onto the card front using Collall All Purpose glue

- then used two cards from this last Christmas to upcycle. In both cases it was a question of using a die from the Spellbinders 'Labels One' set and carefully positioning it on the card front to get the best cut. For instance, I wanted the bird (dove), the star and as much of the trees as possible to be included on the first one. And then I wanted the sentiment on the second one, which was right down in the bottom left hand corner of the original card so there was some careful addition (and a lot of checking) in both cases of lo-tack tape whilst the dies were in place for cutting

- using more white Centura Pearl card I die cut the 'lacy' backings using a Spellbinders die from the 'Luscious Labels One' set and stuck the images on using Collall All Purpose glue

- just a case then of fixing the lacy edged images onto the cards, using thin sticky pads

Two more for the 2015 box!

And I'm also entering into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for February, which is always 'Anything Goes'

Di

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