Handmade Gift Card Holder Holiday Cards (4 cards shown)

I had a custom order from Rhonda, my friend that always orders cards from me. She asked me to make something with an image of an angel and she had color specifications of green and gold for one card and blue and silver for the other card, but I didn't have any silver cardstock so I asked her if I could adjust it to blue and white and she said that was fine and then another one with colors of tan and red.

I ended up making her 3 really awesome gift card holder cards with my Stampin' Up top note die. who knew that thing could be used for more than backgrounds?!?! apparently all the crafty crafters except for me. LOL I saw it on pinterest, so I tried it and it came out awesome!

I liked them so much that I made one for my hubby, too.

Here is a sneak peek at one of them, click the link below to see the full card and the others I made.

this is the green and gold one that i made for her Mother in Law.

the angel stamp is from the 'angels' inkadinkado set and it's stamped in memento tuxedo black ink.  I colored the images with prismacolored pencils and then blended with gamsol.
the gold background paper is bazzill card stock. I am not sure what company the shiny gold christmas paper is, but I think it's basic grey. the ribbon is prima sheer shimmer ribbon. the pearls are prima gold flatback pearls. I hate that they say they are self adhesive cause I have NEVER been able to use a prima pearl that the glue dot actually sticks to. I always end up having to use my own glue dots or glossy accents (for an extra strong bond) which is what I used here, glossy accents.

I didn't want to use too much stickles, because I think there are some projects that are better left unstickled, but I thought it would be beautiful to try to make the wings glisten and of course, the halo, too! but I wasn't sure if i wanted to do it or not so I tested it on a scrap image. it looked really nice so I decided to just go with it and do it! LOL it turned out fabulous!! :)

Here is the inside. it's not a normal folded front/back and inside card. these just have the back piece and then the part that opens is the top note die part. it was SUPER easy to make, simply W fold some paper, run through partial of the top note die and then use the word window punch to create the slit. but, i didn't have the stampin up word window punch when I made these cards, so I just freehand cut the slits on a curve with my craft knife. Go figure, I NOW own the word window punch. LOL

this is the bottom side of the card. This is a nice poem that she requested I use. i typed it in word and printed it out and then ran it through one half of the top note. I meant to do it the other way so it could be put on the top part, (with the point facing up) but I wasn't paying attention to how i placed it on the die and it came out point down. lol I think it still looks ok though.
instead of inking the edges with an inkpad I used my metallic gold marker, it's nice and shiny!!

for the ribbon, BEFORE I adhered the die cut to the card base I folded it and used my crop-a-dile to punch 2 holes in it and ran the ribbon through. I put some double sided tape over the ribbon on the back of the die cut so it didn't slip out of the holes. then I adhered the die cut. this is how the card is held closed so that the gift card doesn't fall out.

Here is the red and tan one. image is also from the inkadinkado angels set. colored with prismacolored pencils and blended with gamsol. the wings have star dust stickles and the halo has gold stickles.
I used my colorbox cats eye queue stack in red to ink up the edges. I used bazzill cardstock and deco paper by an unknown company (got it in a paper swap).  I used clear crystal gems and then colored them red with a sharpie (NOTE: this can be done with ANY clear gems or white pearls, just use any sharpie and let dry for about a minute or two).

here is the inside.

and again. see, this is what it looks like to have the sentiment on the top! the bottom is left blank so that a message could be written. the sentiment is stamped in stampin up real red with a stamp from one of my mini holiday stamp sets.

here is the blue and white one. it's nice and sparkly!!!
I used the inkadinkado angel, and colored with prismacolors and blended with gamsol. I have to say, I was NOT at all pleased with the coloring job i did. I actually tried to do a fading job with the dress, and I colored 5, yes FIVE images before I finally went back and settled on this one and finished it. I really wish I could have blended the colors together better and made a better fading but oh well, its done. I used star dust stickles and gold stickles on the wings and halo.
the gems in the corners, again were clear and I colored them with a light blue fine tip (*NOT* ultra fine tip!) sharpie. I used a light blue ink pad from my colorbox catseye queue stack. the blue cardstock is bazzill shimmer cardstock and then I used some glittered cardstock as well.

Rhonda had asked me to use this poem for the sentiment inside. I typed it in word and printed it out. I ran it through my big kick with half of the top note die and then inked the edges.

 and last but not least, my card for my hubby! :)

I stamped the image from the recollections ho ho ho stamp set. I colored him in prismacolored pencils and blended with gamsol. the only thing on this image that threw me for a loop when coloring was santas shoes! I really wanted to color them black, but they had the swirls on them. I should have just went with it and done it!
I used red bazzill cardstock and a light green bazzill cardstock to pull away from the red but match the background deco cardstock. I didn't put any gems or anything on this since it was going to my hubby. LOL guys don't always appreciate all the bling and glam. haha.

 here is the inside... I just used a simple happy holidays image stamped in real red from stampin up.

 well, I hope you liked, and even if you didn't, that's ok too! thanks for looking :)

Keep on Scrappin' and please, be kind to one another!
~Melisa Marie

P.S. I REALLY enjoy comments!! :)