I don't know about you but Christmas Crackers are an essential part of the celebrations in the Philpott household at Christmas. We love them and not only have them on the Christmas table but have them in the Christmas tree and have even been known to wrap presents to look like a cracker to disguise it before giving it to the lucky recipient.
I even try to find crackers at other times of the year as I would love to have them on the Easter table as well as on the table at Birthday Parties. That all said, you can imagine how excited I was to try the new cracker die from Tonic Studios which came in a few weeks ago.
December is approaching fast and so yesterday Little Miss P and I enjoyed an afternoon playing with ideas for the Christmas table as well as making a few gift tags as I need to think about wrapping presents very soon.
I made a traditional cracker using some lovely papers from Authentique Paper. I wanted to keep more of a vintage feel to my crackers so I added an extra piece of paper at either end of my crackers (shown in red on the photo above). This was really easy to do. I just used my Dotty Border Punch from Tonic Studios to create 2 border strips which I stuck to the two ends of the cracker before rolling up and securing into place.
The gold edges on both sides of the cracker were created using a Krylon Gold Leaf Pen for that extra special bit of detail.
This time the doily ends were created by punching strips of computer/copier paper with my Dotty Punch. The vintage effect blue paper is from the Winter Tortellini range from Jilli Bean Soup. The glitter chipboard snowflakes are from Pink Paislee and make a simple embellishment on the front of the cracker.
A little bit of red gingham ribbon adds to the vintage effect. Finally I used my new Funky Pattern Tape to add a sentiment to a piece of brown card, trimmed and added to the front of the cracker.
If you have not seen our new Funky Pattern Tape check it out on our website. You get 6 meters of printed tape with 'Merry Christmas' written in several different fonts. Since trying it I have not been able to put it down and so you will see it lots throughout this post. It gives an effect very similar to a rub on but in my opinion is much easier to use. You simply run it along your card as you would any other tape runner but instead of adhesive you will be left with the sentiment.
Little Miss P. enjoyed watching me make the crackers so much that she wanted to have a go at making her own and this is the result ...
Not bad at all for an eight year old. She spent lots of time making sure that it looked exactly as she wanted it to. She even used the little diamond offcuts that come away when you have cut the cracker using the die to make the star on the front of the cracker.
I used up my waste bits as well to make a flower/star gift tag ...
Once I had started I just could not stop so here are a few of the other projects that I created:
I created this gift tag using the Build a Wreath from Spellbinders and some more of the Authentique Paper Festive Range (Spot the Funky tape runner again!)
I wanted to add a little more depth to the wreath so I cut the wreath from 2 coordinating papers and used bits of both to build the wreath by slipping the individual branches into the pre determined slits on the base.
As I had cut the wreath twice I had a couple of little bits left over so I used them as holly on the Christmas pudding gift tag below:
The tag was created by punching a circle out of brown cardstock and using the Tonic Studios Dairy Circle die to cut a patterned circle from white computer paper. I stuck this to the top of the circle, trimmed and edged with a little Peanut Brittle Memento ink and a sponge. I punched a hole in the top to add some bakers twine, added the holly and a button and added a sentiment using the Funky Tape Runner.
The Funky Tape runner, glittered snowflakes, twine and a button were used to create this simple but effective gift tag. Adding Ice Stickles Glitter Glue around the edge keeps the design simple yet festive. I actually used the same pot of glitter glue on all of the projects even through I have not mentioned it!
Finally I made a couple of projects using my new Holiday Trees die from Spellbinders ...
The first is a simple gift tag using the die, the tape runner and some glitter paper from My Minds Eye ...
Glitter Snowdomes add a little bit of festive bling!
... and then a couple of 3d place settings ...
To make these cut all of the trees from the set from strong paper (I used the Festive Range again for a traditional feel)
Ink the edges of each with a sponge and Peanut Brittle Memento ink ...
Add foam to the back of each piece and build up the tree using all of the pieces so that the smallest is on the top. Stick to a small place setting card and add the sentiment from the tape runner. The baubles are created using some Orange Glass Dots.
I hope that you have enjoyed these projects. I am off to make our Dairy Free Philpott Family Cheesecake recipe now as we have guests for Sunday lunch tomorrow. It might sound a little odd but I promise you it is the most delicious cheese cake ever. I'll post the recipe when I get chance.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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