Christmas Emporium: Graphic45

May Arts & Graphic45 are teaming up again- and you know that means fun, inspiration, and giveaways! :) I've got 2 projects to share today, the first is this ornament using 'A Christmas Carol' paper. This was inspired by a sheet music ornament made by Camie, of The Paper Muse. (If you live anywhere near Sumner, WA you should stop in for inspiration & to pick up your favorite May Arts ribbon and Graphic45 products!)

To create this, I fan folded the sheet & inserted crepe paper in the folds. (make sure you run your adhesive the entire length, or the ones that aren't attached fall out during the cutting part- don't ask me how I know this.)

 The crepe paper was a little too white, so I distressed it with ink.

 I then cut through all the layers.

 You can see I ended up cutting those lines deeper & gently started to spread it apart.

 I hot glued it (hard to see here) to a punched piece of cardstock. (you can always click on the pics for an enlarged view!)

For the center I cut several pieces of silver metallic string & hot glued them to a small punched circle.

Then I frayed them out a bit!

I added a bit more that I didn't fray, topped with a silver star & a chipboard element from Christmas Emporium Tags 1.

 A piece of 5/8" black satin pleats for the hanger, fluff to your liking & you're done!

My next project is a gift card type of holder. I used 'Under the Mistletoe' paper. I was wrapping tickets, so I measured the insert & added some room on each side- it ended up 7" wide. I scored at 4" & 8.25". (I hope that makes sense! Overall it is 7"x4.25")

I lightly tacked ivory velvet ric-rac & sheer box pleats to the underside of the flap & machine sewed them in place. I then machine sewed around the whole outside. Another chipboard element from A Christmas Emporium Tags 1 is threaded with ivory solid/wrinkle ribbon.

Because I didn't want the project torn apart while the recipient was fishing around for the gift, I added this ribbon pull.

A piece of satin/grosgrain double band ribbon machine stitched to hold the gift in place makes an easy & beautiful pull!

Here's a list of all the designers participating from Graphic45 & May Arts:

Monday, December 12th

Lynette Carroll - http://www.lynettecarrolldesigns.typepad.com/

Jane Tregenza - www.janetregenza.blogspot.com
JackandCat Curio - jackandcatcurio.blogspot.com
Candy Rosenberg - http://candyscraps.typepad.com/scraps/
Latrice Murphy - http://www.latricemurphy.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, December 13th

Ellen Sosnoski - http://closeyourears.blogspot.com/

Laura Denison - www.followingthepapertrail.blogspot.com
Charlene Driggs - http://www.paperandinkplayground.com/
Melaine Forbes - www.melanie-forbes.blogspot.com
Jen Shears  <--------------------that's me! :)

Wednesday, December 14th

Robin Shakoor - http://robinshakoor.blogspot.com

Yuka Hino - http://nsnlso.blogspot.com/
Jenifer Cowles - http://scrapbooking-n-more.com/default.aspx
Gloria Stengel - www.gloriascraps.blogspot.com
Jingle - http://www.justjingle.blogspot.com/

Thursday, December 15th

Jinky Kowalski - http://jinkyscrafts.blogspot.com/

Sherry Cheever - http://sherrycheever.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Britta Swiderski - http://brittaswiderski.com/
Hilde Janbroers - http://hildejanbroers.blogspot.com/
Karen Baker - http://thebalddragonfly.blogspot.com/

Friday, December 16th

Tara Orr - http://eachmoment-onlyonce.blogspot.com

Kimberly Jones - http://serendipityvintagestudio.blogspot.com/
Nancy Wethington - http://art-from-the-heart.typepad.com
Peggy Cain - http://www.createwithbubbe.blogspot.com/
Nicole Eccles - www.NicoleEccles.blogspot.com
Vera Yates www.lingshappyplace.blogspot.com/

Thank you to Graphic45 for the beautiful products to use! I hope you've been inspired!

Now make sure to leave a comment here- and then head to the other designers & leave comments there to increase your chance at winning some goodies!!! :D

I'll add this to Jay Gee's Challenge too- they both fit the inspiration!!! :)

<><><><><><><><><><>