Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Rosette Tip and Christmas Cards

I have created a few cards for the March 2012 Christmas Card Challenge in the Waltzingmouse Stamps Forum, which is to use the colours blue and brown on our cards. In the process, I stumbled upon a clever way to help in the assembly of paper rosettes (near end of post).


My first attempt with this colour combination was only so-so. It's a card for Santa to leave behind on Christmas Eve. I adore the vintage border stamp that I used to create the background "wallpaper" with Vintage Sepia Versafine ink.

Not sure if you noticed, but the "tree" set is actually Santa's shoe! Here's the heel:

I tried again, using the current Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge sketch for my layout. (See the two snowflakes in the background?)



You might notice this is a tad grungy. I am currently taking the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 101 online class, exploring techniques using a number of his products. When I made this card I was messing around with Distress Inks, so went a little crazy with the Vintage Photo and Walnut Inks! I used a new stamp that looks like striped ticking on the right hand side of the stamped background. Love that new stamp!

For my third and final Blue and Brown Card for Christmas I had the itch to make a rosette.

I happened to use a Tim Holtz die to make mine, but you can make these easy enough by accordion-folding a long strip of paper. For this card, I used two strips to create a large rosette. In doing so, I discovered a neat trick.

After I joined the ends of the long strip together, I needed to press down on the center of the vertical standing rosette to make it lie somewhat flat, and then attach an anchoring base such as a disk of paper to stabilize the rosette and maintain its circular shape. I tend to be all thumbs with this maneuver.

Inspiration struck! I spied a spool of tape on my table and realized the large circular opening would nicely corral my rosette, freeing up both hands to glue the base down. (I realize if you have not made a paper rosette, this won't make any sense. But for those of you who have, you'll get the "Aha!" moment I had.)

Spool of tape.
Creative Memories circle making tool.
The spool of tape worked well, but was a little large for my rosette, so I tried an acrylic Creative Memories Circle Template tool with a slightly smaller hole and it worked perfectly. 
Then I started looking around for other items, and this small roll of tape with a standard size hole was perfect for smaller rosettes. The circular shape holds the rosette snugly, and gives me the option of distributing my accordion folds evenly before glueing down the base piece (seen below in the upper right corner).


Hope this tip is helpful to you! Thanks for stopping by and scrolling all the way down here to the end!

16 comments:

Quietfire said...

Great cards! You're on a roll with the rosette tip - nothing is safe!!

Art By Wanda said...

All your cards are wonderful!!! That IS a great tip for the rosettes!!!!

Kelly S. said...

Oh wonderful Christmas cards! Elf size 2, hee :) My fave is the lovely ornament card with the big snowflake patterns faded into the background...those big ones will be great with Nordic Winter, won't they? Claire packs so many images in sets it's hard to keep track of all of them :) Thanks so much for the medallion trick...they sure are bouncy little things, and the tape roll looks like an excellent lasso ;)~!

Lynn Mercurio said...

Brilliant tip! Having one of those smacking-hand-to-head-duh-moments...LOL Thanks for not only sharing all of these amazing creations for the WMS Christmas Card Challenge, but for sharing this great tip!

Yogi said...

I normally don't have too much trouble gluing down my rosette into shapoe, but this tip is great and will try it next time I do them. As soon as you said to use the spool of tape, I thought that was a big rosette and thought right away about my circle template... And then you went on to say using the other brand of template.
Have a great day

Maureen said...

Wow! Great idea to hold the rosette together. I am definitely trying this; thank you for sharing. BTW, LOVE your cards!

Deborah Frings said...

Charmaine - you're on a roll with your Christmas cards! I think these are super. Love the dark blue bauble, the Santa tree shoe is always fun, but the Santa Rosette is magnificent! Love the die cut border and snowflake and pretty papers! Wonderful!

Jeanne J. said...

You have been a very busy lady - your cards are beautiful I love the blue and brown combo! Your rosette idea is brilliant - the extra hand I've been missing. Thanks for the tip!!

Anonymous said...

awesome ip !!! thanks so much

Edna Morrisedie said...

Love the stamping behind the bauble, they pair nicely....thanks for playing along with the Mischief Makers this week!

Lynn said...

Great cards...and a super great tip for holding the rosettes...I will be scouting my craft room for suitable "holes". Thanks for sharing.

anna christensen crafts said...

Great Christmas cards and thanks for that tip on rosettes - great idea :0)

Jean Martin said...

Wow! These cards are gorgeous!!! And that tip is awesome! I've always wondered about it. Thanks for playing with us this week at WMSC! :)

Nancy said...

Great tip, thanks :)
Love that stamp too!
your cards are awesome :)

Dawnie401 said...

Great tip thank you.

Casmiles said...

Talk about an aha moment - love your tip about dropping the rosettes into tape spools. I get mine spread out JUST right, and as you know, then I reach for the glue and the base and POP - it's like those "snakes in a can" that just pop out everywhere. I'm definitely going to go find a couple of bases to use so I have them in place and ready! Thanks. And beautiful cards too. Love the tree made out of Santa's Shoe.