Joyeux Noel

I'm playing with some of the recent Neat & Tangled releases today.  I love the images from Elena's Nativity Play set (which incidentally is just back in stock).

My images were stamped, colored with Copics, and die cut.  I chose a couple pieces of patterned paper for the background, and framed the scene with piece of gray cardstock that was die cut using the largest frame die from the Scalloped die set as well as one of the ovals from the Card Front die set.

The framed piece was then dry embossed using the Cubic cover plate for some additional texture/interest.

The sentiment is from the Nativity Play set and was cut out using one of the banners from the Scalloped set.

Aren't these kiddos so cute?

Neat & Tangled October Release and Giveaways - Day 4

It's the last day of Neat & Tangled October release reveals and today we're featuring a mini set from Elena called Darling Dreidel. 

This set has both a little boy and girl dressed up as dreidels.  I colored the little girl dreidel with Copics, die cut her and set her aside.

For the background, I inked up my Cubic stencil twice, once with a Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and once with Broken China Distress Ink.

I cut two strips of the Chipped Sapphire inking to frame the softer inking, adhering both to my card base and then adding thin strips of silver glitter paper as accents.  I could have achieved this with one inking and some masking, but I was kind of winging it with this card without a real plan.

I thought I would have some fun with the sentiment, using one from my older For the Record set, and then added the little dreidel girl beside it.

And that's a wrap for the October release!  Everything will be available in the store tomorrow morning at 8 AM EST.

But for now, head over to the Neat & Tangled blog to be entered to win this set, and don't forget to leave comments on my release week posts as well as I'll be drawing some winners for my new release products and announcing them tomorrow morning.  Good luck!

Neat & Tangled October Release and Giveaways - Day 3

It's Day 3 of the Neat & Tangled October Release and today we are showing off my newest cover plate and stencil design - Cubic.

As you may have gathered, I love geometric designs, and this is one of my favorites to date.  There are so many ways you can play with the the openings varying the colors used and the arrangement to get very different looks.

For this first card, I cut the cover using four different shades of blue cardstock as well was from white.  I did use a shim after the first cut and found this really helped.

Then it was just a matter of deciding on a pattern and completing the inlay.  A little fiddly, but really these pieces are pretty decently sized and not a lot of trouble.

The sentiment is from my Art Deco set and was embossed with a sparkly silver embossing powder.  A silver glitter mat added sparkle as did some gems placed at the corners of the squares.

I had lots of leftover pieces from this first card, so I put them to use in my second card.

For this card, instead of creating an allover pattern, I created a sort of diamond shape by just using a portion of the cover plate, and graduating the colors in solid layers around the center.

A lot of times for a card like this, I'll have the cover plate 'webbing' in place to help place the pieces, but this time I thought I would wing it, and it worked reasonably well. 

The pieces were popped up with foam tape which was the most time consuming part of the process, but really once I had decided on the pattern/layout, it was just a matter of putting it together.

The sentiment is from the Lovely Lotus set that we showcased yesterday.

As I mentioned above, there is also a stencil available in this same pattern.  You'll see it in my card for tomorrow, but many of the girls have been using it all week as well. 

OK, head over to the Neat & Tangled blog to check out what the rest of the team made and to be entered to win today's products.

Leave a comment here as well.  I'll be picking some commenters at the end of the week to win some of my new release comments.  You'll want to head over to Instagram as well (@mprantner) to get some more chances.

See you back here tomorrow for our final day of reveals!