World Of Michael Trent: 2022

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Crafty Elves Countdown To Christmas - December 2022 Edition - New Year Cards

Hello...hello...hello! First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to those that celebrate. Second, welcome to the December 2022 edition of the Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas, where, on the 25th of each month, the elves - me, Debra of Meticulosity, Lisa of Life of a BZScrapper, and Misty of The Jolly Fat Elf - post some ideas and creations to help you with your Christmas and holiday cardmaking.

I celebrate everything this time of year. Yesterday was my birthday and, being Jewish, I celebrate Hanukkah. But, since all of my friends growing up were Catholic and Italian, I also love to decorate and shop for Christmas. I hope everyone had a great holiday, no matter what you celebrate.

This month, instead of showing you ideas for Christmas or Hanukkah, I thought I would show you some ideas for New Year cards - if you make them.

For both of these card ideas, I used two dies from my stash - both from Memory Box - Share The Happiness and Parker Upper Alphabet Set. If you don't own them, you might have an alphabet die set that will work. And, there are so many "happy" dies and alphabet die sets on the market, that I don't think you will have any problems re-creating these cards if you wish to do so. Also, these dies are from 2015, and, believe it or not, Frantic Stamper still has several of the Share the Happiness die in stock and she has a lot of alphabet dies. So, you might want to go check her out.

Let's get craftin...

Card No. 1

I started by cutting a piece of white cardstock using a stitched rectangle die that measures 4" x 5.25". Then I die cut the words "Happy" using the Share The Happiness die set and I used the letters from the Parker Upper Alphabet Set to form the words "New" and "Year".

Then I cut a piece of acetate and adhered it to the back.

I turned this over and adhered foam tape around the 4 sides and around the letters. I am only going to add shaker elements to where the words are.

Before I add the shaker elements, I made an A2 card using white cardstock to which I adhered a piece of decorative confetti digital paper.

I turned the piece with the die-cut words over, brushed the inside with an embossing buddy to remove any static, and then I added my shaker elements.

Then I carefully and slowly removed the tape backing (to avoid any small beads jumping on the adhesive), added a small amount of wet glue so that I will have some time to move the card around if needed, and then I adhered my card base to the top. Once it was secure, I picked it up, turned it over, and made sure the card front was centered. I also added 3 small blue sequins to the card front to finish it off.

Done!

Card No. 2

For this card, I die-cut a piece of white cardstock using a 4" x 5.25" stitched rectangle die. Then I die-cut the words New and Year using the Parker Upper Alphabet Set (Memory Box/retired) but I kept the words to the right side.

I also made a top-folding A2 card base using black cardstock.

Next, I place the Lots of Happy stencil (Heffy Doodle) on top of the white cardstock, securing it with a piece of washi tape and I used various Gina K inks and a brush on the words.

I adhered some foam tape behind and then adhered this to my black card base. And, since the blue sequins were out, I added 3 small ones to the card front too.

Done!

I hope you guys like these ideas for a New Year card. I also hope you can find some time to go check out what Debra, Lisa, and Misty have made. All of our social media links are below.

Misty's YouTube Channel

Misty's IG Page

Misty's FB Page

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a very very very Happy New Year. Stay safe and enjoy. I will be back again in 2023!

Hugs from Brasil.

~Michael

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Super Easy and Quick Hanukkah Shaker Cards

Hey, y'all. Are you in need of some super easy, fast-to-make, fun, and noisy shaker cards for your family and/or friends celebrating Hanukkah/Chanukah? Maybe you are not a stamper. This might be the post you needed.

To start, you need some Hanukkah/Chanukah paper or some 4" x 5" journaling cards. There are several companies that put out a Hanukkah/Chanukah paper collection but I went with the Happy Hanukkah Collection from Simple Stories. The collection is available as a physical paper collection and a digital collection. I bought the digital version.

I started with 2 different journaling cards. Although I printed 4 of them, I will only use 1 of each for this blog post. I can fit 4 on a sheet of A4 white cardstock at 80%. If you have the physical collection, you can just cut the cards out. They should be the 4" x 5" cards.

Next, I die-cut each of the journaling cards using the 2nd largest stitched rectangle die from the Stitched Rectangles Die Set 1 from Pink & Main. If you don't have this die, cut each of the journal cards at 3.75" x 5".

Next, my card base parts.

First, I made two A2 cards - one vertical and one horizontal - using navy blue cardstock.

Then, using the Gallery Frame #1 Die from Hello Bluebird, I cut two pieces of cardstock - one silver and one navy blue. These will be the frames of our shaker card.

I also cut two pieces of acetate, 3.75" x 5".

And, I used a stitched rectangle die to cut two pieces of white cardstock for the inside sentiment.

Turn your frame pieces over to the back, adhere 1/4" tape to the 4 sides around the window, and then adhere the acetate. If you do not have 1/4" tape, you might have to cut your acetate larger or smaller to cover the size of the tape you have.

And, adhere the sentiment piece to the inside of the card.

Next, position and adhere each of the journaling cards to the center of each card front.

Now...you could just stop here, write a sentiment on the inside of each card, and call it a day. But, we are making shaker cards. So, let's keep going.

For the next part, you can use foam tape or you can use foam weather stripping like I used. I love using weather stripping (from Home Depot or Lowe's) because it's thicker and I can fit more inside the shaker element. Only one side of the weather stripping has adhesive so I will have to use wet glue to adhere it to the card. But I am ok with that.

Adhere the tape around the back of the frame making sure there are no spaces. Yes, I ran out of one tape but found a different one and used that for the other. Also, you need to remove any static so use an embossing buddy or some talc or corn starch. Brush it on and then remove the excess with a brush or soft cloth.

Next, carefully place all of your shaker elements in the center area of your card front. You can use seed beans, sequins, ephemera, die-cuts, or anything that will fit inside the frame. I used small glittered stars and stars from blue fun foam with blue glitter. Place your items facing up since they might not be able to flip over once the frame has been adhered.

Add wet glue to the foam tape on your frame or, if you used foam tape with adhesive, remove the tape backing and then adhere to the card front, covering all of your shaker elements. Seal well so that nothing gets out when shaking the card.

Done! Here are the final cards and two short videos showing the shaker elements.

I'd love to know what you think of this idea. No rubber stamps were used to make these cards either. Do you make Hanukkah cards? Anyway, until next time...

Hugs from Brasil!

~Michael

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Woodblock Wednesday - 'Tis the Season to Sparkle

Hello everyone and welcome to another Woodblock Wednesday post. This is the day that I dust off a woodblock stamp and finally ink it up. Most of the time I am also using other stamps and supplies from my stash that need some loving. I am playing along with my friend Amy Tsurata in her Woodblock Wednesday Challenge.

If you would like to play along, use the graphic below and remember to use #woodblockwednesday and #woodblockstamps in your post so that we can see what you created.

For today's Woodblock Wednesday, I am using a large background stamp from The Artful Stamper. I have had this in my stash for years and, sadly, I did not see it on their site. But, you can go check them out because they have some really nice images. I am also using a retired rubber stamp (not on the wood) from Memory Box.

I started by stamping the image on a piece of white cardstock using Vintage Green Vivid Inkpad by Clearsnap. It was a bit wet so I heat-embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I die cut it using a stitched rectangle die measuring 4" x 5.25".

Next, I made a top folding A2 card using some red cardstock in my stash. I also adhered a piece of fun foam to the back of my image. Then I adhered the image to the card front using wet glue.

While that was drying, I stamped my sentiment, 'tis the season to sparkle (Memory Box/retired), on a piece of white cardstock. Then I die-cut it using an oval die from Petite Ovals Large (Spellbinders/retired) and adhered it to the card front using some foam tape.

Lastly, I adhered flatback crystals to each of the green dots, and one to the sentiment. And I adhered a piece of white cardstock to the inside for a message.

I hope you have enjoyed this card idea using stamps from my stash. Are you playing along? Let me know...leave a comment below so I can check out what you made.

Until next time....hugs from Brasil!

~Michael

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Yes, It's A Holiday - National Christmas Lights Day

Hello everyone. Today is a new "Yes, It's a Holiday" collaboration with my friend Debra and today we are celebrating National Christmas Lights Day! I love Christmas lights. Especially white ones. I am such a bad Jewish boy. But, I love the menorah too! LOL

According to National Today, before the invention of electric lights, families would balance candles on branches of their Christmas trees. I betcha there were way too many fires during those times. Electric Christmas lights were first invented in 1880 by Thomas Edison, who promptly strung them all over the outside of his Menlo Park lab. You can read more about this cool holiday by clicking on the link below:

https://nationaltoday.com/national-christmas-lights-day/

To help celebrate today, I made two cards using the same image with only 1 big difference. But, first I needed an image of Christmas lights, which I didn't seem to have. Well, I probably do have one or two but I cannot find them and I probably already used them so, let's get a digi. I jumped on Etsy and found THIS simple, fun, and cheap digital image from Clip Art Warehouse. $.99 - how can I go wrong?

I prepared my card front in Pages and then printed two of them out on a sheet of A4 white cardstock. They are sized a bit larger than an A2 card front and, by printing two to a sheet, I can make two cards. Then I used a stitched rectangle die to cut one of them out. The other one is for another card on another day.

Then I colored in the lights using some fun markers from Zebra - Mildliner Warm Color Set and Cool & Refined Set - that my friend Debra sent me a while ago. Then I applied Diamond Glaze to each of the lights to give a glass effect.

I adhered a piece of white fun foam to the back and then I adhered it to my red A2 card front. After hemming and hawing whether to add a sentiment to the card front or not, I finally decided to just add 3 large crystals and a sentiment inside the card.

Done!

Here's another card I made. This time I used a Versamarker pen on the lights and I embossed them with clear embossing powder. You still get some shimmer but not like when I used the Diamond Glaze.

And, for this one, I used a sentiment from the 3D All I want for Christmas Scrapbook Stickers from Paper House Productions. And the inside, I made myself. :-)

Done. Again. I love them both for different reasons. I love how the Diamond Glaze really makes the lights pop but I love the sentiment on the 2nd card. Which is your fav if you have one?

Please hop on over to Debra's Instagram page to see what she made for today's holiday. And, follow us if you want. It would be cool if you did. Below are our IG pages. Just click on our names to go to each of them.

MY IG Page
Debra's IG Page
Lori's IG Page

Thanks for stopping by the blog today and, as always, until next time...

Hugs from Brasil.

~Michael

Friday, November 25, 2022

Crafty Elves Countdown to Christmas - November 2022 Edition

Hello everyone and welcome to the November 2022 Edition of the Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas. If you are just joining me/us, on the 25th of each month, the Crafty Elves - me, Debra of Meticulosity, Lisa of Life of a BZScrapper, and Misty of The Jolly Fat Elf - post several ideas to help you with your Christmas and holiday cardmaking.

Photos/links to the other Crafty Elves' projects, as well as links to our social media pages, are at the end of this post and I hope you can find some time to stop by to show them some love. And to follow us!

This month I have 2 card ideas (and a bonus idea) using just dies and papers. These can easily be mass-produced with some simple prep before to make things go faster.

For my prep...

I made 2 A2 card bases and then I adhered a piece of decorative Christmas paper to the front of each one. I went thru my stash and found some single sheets to use.

Next, using 2 different sized dies from the Stitched Rectangle Set 1 Dies from Pink & Main, I cut 2 pieces of white cardstock. One measures 3.25" x 4.5" and the other measures 3.75" x 5".

Prep is done. Now for the words JOY and NOEL.

I used the Outline Letters alphabet die set from Creek Bank Creations for the letters in each word. I love these letters because you get an outline part and a solid part for each letter, giving you more options. For the letter "O", I used the wreath die from the Mantel Decor - Winter Die Set from Altenew.

To make my life easier, I applied double sided tape to the back of each of the stitched rectangle pieces. This way the pieces of the letters will be easier to adhere down later. This is optional but worked best for me. You can use glue later on if you want.

Then, using a craft mat, I lined up the dies as best I could trying to leave the same amount of space between each of the dies. Then I used a piece of washi tape to secure the dies, place them on my piece of white cardstock, and then I die cut them.

This is what you will end up with. We will not use the solid inside letters but we will use the outline parts. Make sure to keep the small center piece of the wreath.

I adhered each of the stitched rectangle pieces to a piece of red cardstock. Then I trimmed them leaving a small border, adhered the outline portion of each of the letters to the inside of the cut out areas (optional), and then I adhered these to the card fronts using foam tape.

I used the white cut out wreath as a mask and adhdered the inside part to each of the card fronts. Then I die cut the wreath again using green(ish) paper and adhered them to the white wreaths, which I then adhered to the card front using small foam dots.

And, lastly, I adhered small crystals to each of the indentations on the wreaths, I die-cut the bow from the Mantel Set using red glittered fun foam, and then I adhered a small strip of the same paper I used on the card front to the inside of the card, with a Merry Christmas sentiment from Impression Obsession.

Done! Here are the final cards.

I hope you can find some time to visit the other Crafty Elves to see what projects they have made for this month. Their social media pages are below. Just click on the link and you will be taken right to them. And, if you want to follow us, that would be awesome too.

Misty's YouTube Channel

Misty's Instagram