Spellbinders Exquisite Splendor, Part One

Hi all!  Whew!  It has been a crazy couple of months!  I've had so many amazing opportunities to guest this month for amazing papercrafting blogs like Neat & Tangled, In the Scrap, and Spellbinders.  I'm taking on all my regular work, too, and had a really successful Black Friday/Small Business Weekend sale in my Etsy shop as well.  It's been nonstop, but somehow, we've gotten almost all of our Christmas shopping done, too!  So, no complaints!  But now I can slow down a bit and prepare some posts to share with you.  I hope to share here and on Instagram every day leading up to Christmas.  If you're looking for last-minute gift wrap and tag ideas, you'll want to check in often!

Today, I’m excited to showcase the new Exquisite Splendor dies by Marisa Job at Spellbinders.  I have a couple projects to share today and I’ll have more projects in another post later in the week, so I do hope you’ll come back for those.  My papers here are Alexandra Renke and when paired with these dies, they make each other SHINE!

Today’s projects have a decidedly holiday feel to them, as I was inspired by the details in the designs of the dies. The leafy branches of the Blooming Floral Wreath, when cut from the right papers, is quintessential holiday. The Leaf Border panel seemed perfectly sized for gift tags, and again, when paired with wintry patterned paper, makes a pretty topping for Christmas presents.

The tags were very simple to make, but thanks to ornate details in both the die and paper, as well as a layer of lace tucked between the pale pink base and the die cut, your recipient will think it took ages to create!

I cut 6 plain panels from Alexandra Renke Christmas papers and then cut the leaf border into them. A thin layer of Fabri-Tac around the edge of the reverse side keeps the lace swatch in place. I then cut 6 slightly larger rectangles from the pale pink card stock, punching a 1/16 hole at the top of each one.

I adhered the detailed, lacy panel to the pink rectangle, and strung gold thread through the tiny hole at the top. The final touch is a glittery alpha sticker, corresponding with the initials of each of my recipients.

All that’s left is using these tags on my gift wrap this year, which will be the best part about making them!

Moving onto the cards, I chose a 5”x 5” folded base for each one, due to the size of the wreath, which is slightly smaller. I used more holiday papers from Alexandra Renke—some are the same as I used for the tags—and one piece from Pinkfresh Studio. I cut a flat 5” x 5” paper piece from the green gingham for the first card, adhering it to a white card stock base.

Inspired by the tags I’d already created, I allowed the pink card stock to be the backing for the other wreath.

After cutting out 2 wreathes for each card, I adhered one to the card with a Quickie Glue Pen, applying adhesive only to the round vine that holds all of the leaves together. Before adhering the second wreath, I wove some wispy metallic thread around the vines and branches. I’m not quite sure how much thread I used, possibly about 2 yards, but I went around the wreath 3 or 4 times.

After that, I attached the second wreath, adding a little more thread around it. It was important to me that neither the thread nor the leaves of the wreathes be glued down entirely since I normally prefer some dimension over a flat card.

The Blooming Floral Wreath, as the name suggests, comes with some small floral dies. While I didn’t use them here, you’ll see them on a project in my post next week!

The Exquisite Splendor die collection is very springy, but I also saw hints of the holidays in it and I wanted to share those projects with you first. Thank you so much for joining me here today and I hope to see you back here next week!

Spellbinders Supplies:
S5-382 Exquisite Splendor Blooming Floral Wreath
S3-347 Exquisite Splendor Leaf Border

Other Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Alexandra Renke (Christmas Rose Rapport, Fir Wreath, Red Berries, Vanilla Croissants Rapport, Kitchen Square Dark Green), Pinkfresh Studio December Days Paper Pad; Card Stock: Luxe Blush 210g by Paper Source; Glitter Alpha Thickers: American Crafts Fitzgerald and Journal; Adhesive: Fabri-Tac by Beacon, Quickie Glue Pen; Thread: Coats & Clark