may I introduce Noel, ~ The ‘Merry Christmas’ Shaker Tree

Hello, and Happy Thursday!  I have another mainly white, with a dash of colour from the ribbon, and also from the sprinkles inside the shaker tree  –  card to share with you, direct from my craft desk.

Made on a 7″x7″ square white, scored card, and with a sheet of 7″x 7″ white card which the tree was cut from.

I love shaker cards – but the one thing I don’t love about them is how boring they can look when they’re stood up on the mantel shelf, and all the fabulous sprinkles fall to the bottom of the tree.  It leaves a card looking slightly sad and a bit miserable, because the receiver can only enjoy the card if they sit like a saddo, shaking the card.  (Which is fine if they’re a child, but a tad boring if in their 30’s and above).  So I devised a way of keeping some interest in the cut of part of a shaker card, and it’s really simple to do.  Just add a few ‘stops’ or streamers along the way, which the sprinkles get caught on, and will hold there, so that the shape you’ve cut out stays looking more interesting.

I’ve blown the tree part up in some photos – one with flash, one without, so that you can hopefully actually see the ‘streamers’ I built into this card.  This first photograph is with the flash on . . .

can you see how I’ve added some cut and shaped ‘streamers’ to the layer between the acetate and the back of the cut out – which I devised so that the sprinkles would get caught up in the shapes and wouldn’t all fall to the base of the tree, so keeping the shape (in this case a tree) more interesting to look at.

This next photo was taken with the flash off, so that it might show the ‘streamers’ better …

Can you see the ‘streamers’?

If you decide to have a go at this and do it yourself – don’t make your ‘streamers’ straight lines.  Give them some curves, so that you don’t end up with lines across your image – which could end up looking worse than nothing being there at all.  Oh … and don’t use glitter – because that can totally ruin a shaker card, as it’s a little divil and sticks to the acetate in such a way that it almost ‘fogs out’ anything else you may have in your shaker.

The greeting:  NOEL, was stamped using silver embossing ink,  teamed up with Tonic Embossing Crystals.  The stamp used was from a set of 6 greetings, made by Crafty Individuals.   I can recommend this company, both for their service and their products.  You can find this particular stamp set HERE  <— clickable link.  (I ordered these stamps and they were in my hands 3 days later.  I can’t say that you’ll get that ‘quickness’ right now, because we’re all living in the silly season right now, but I’ve found them, each time I’ve used them, to be very quick and efficient.)

To make the colours chosen for the sprinkles ‘pop’,  I added two lengths of Merry Christmas ribbon, in a lovely rich teal colour.  This ribbon was from the DoCrafts selection, and is a really fabulous weight of grosgrain.  Finally, I added a pearl star to the top of the tree, and voila …  Noel the Christmas Shaker Tree came to life.

I was aiming to get this card posted yesterday (Wednesday) …  but you know what they say about ‘plans’:-   If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.  He must be having a right old riot of a time up there in Heaven right now, as he reads down my list of ‘plans’.

Mr. Cobs and I went to see Little Cobs in his Christmas Concert with the other young members of his school year, at the Church near his home.  Ohhhhh…  I was wriggling in my seat and beside myself with joy.  I wanted to sprinkle rainbows from my eyes with happy and love.  Little Cobs was so over-joyed to see his Grammy and Grandad at the concert that he could be heard over and above any other noise, telling his teacher:  “That’s my Grammy!  It’s MY Grammy!  Look.  LOOK.  She’s there ”  <points finger>.  He’s such a darling, and it was such a privilege to be there.  (Not really well enough to go, but down right determined that I was going to be there, pain or no pain).

We came home,  and Mr. Cobs fed me lunch and then sent me straight to bed, where I spent the rest of the afternoon worn out from trying to escape the awful pain in my back.  He (my GP) has given me pain killers – and they do kind of work (they make the pain easier to live with) but they don’t last long enough, and even the smallest bit of doing ‘something’ causes whatever this is to flare up.  It’s become one step forward and two steps back.

OK.. moan and grizzle over with.  tsk tsk.

Well it’s Thursday ...  and I cannot believe how fast this week is flying past.  We have ten days until  YOU KNOW WHAT DAY!  But .. actually, I suppose I should say NINE days – because you can’t count the day itself – so  IT’S NINE DAYS TILL YOU KNOW WHAT DAY.  (and I still haven’t found a gift for Mr.C!  eek!)

Wishing you a truly lovely Thursday.  Make someone happy today.  Do something to make someones day a little brighter.  Buy them one of those big chocolate cookies?  Or maybe a magazine to read?  Perhaps a cupcake?  Something funny to put on their desk?  Some Christmas Socks? (men might find those a bit of a laugh).  Or just write down your most favourite joke, pop it into an envelope and deliver it to them with a wink.  That might get their heart racing, before they open it and fall about laughing.

Or maybe just tell someone how much you like them.  That’s bound to have a great affect upon someone.

Sending you love … oh … and do you know why I like YOU so much?  It’s because you have that special ‘spark’ about you which makes you fun to be around.  I really love seeing you here, and love knowing that you’re on the other side of my computer screen, having a bit of a smile with me.  So thank you for that.

Have a great day.  ~

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