Joyful Holiday Bird

Christmastime is here!
Bringing lots of cheer!

What's more cheerful than this joyful holiday bird card made with bright paper and Unique Laser Designs? This Christmas card is a fun and easy way to send greetings to friends and family near and far!

 I love the natural look and feel of the unpainted wood. It lets the recipient of your card know that you've chosen a very special embellishment just for them. I used the natural Bird on Branch (small) from Unique Laser Designs, and really popped him off the page by choosing bright, vivid papers for the card itself.

To create a holiday bird of your own, begin with a white card stock base 4.75 inches wide by 5.75 inches tall. Then choose your favorite Christmas die cut. I used the Merry Christmas Background die cut from Poppystamps, cut in bright blue card stock. To create a smooth background effect, cut one piece in blue, and then a second piece in white. Punch out all the letters from the blue piece, round all the corners, and adhere it onto your white card stock base.

Once your blue piece is in place, carefully poke out all your white letters and glue them in place with a drop or two of adhesive. You may use any color combination you choose, but I love the soft blue and white effect. Once all your letters have been glued into place, you will have a smooth background with a unique texture, like a jigsaw puzzle, ready for the rest of your cuts and embellishments.

I used some of my favorite dies to create a bright holiday scene: Elegant Scrollwork from Memory Box, and Pine Sprigs from Poppystamps, cut in two shades of bright green. I then cut the Carousel Bird Cage from Poppystamps in snowy white glitter paper, and used small bits of foam pop dots to make the cage pop off the page.

To create the holly sprig on the bottom, select the Glowing Candles from Memory Box and carefully trim off the candles and just use the holly sprigs. Cut pretty pink berries with a small hand held hole punch and glue them onto the holly springs. Add the holly to your card.

Now for the star of the show, this adorable little Bird on Branch! I used him right out of the package, and just adhered him with craft glue. That's how smooth and easy it is to include a Unique Laser Design wood cut in all your card projects!

It turned out so colorful and festive, and I love the way both the wood cut bird and the cage seem to come alive right of the page.

Have a very Merry Christmas, and live your life in color!

Supplies List:
Unique Laser Designs: Bird on Branch (small)
White card stock
Bright blue card stock
Two shades of green card stock
Pink card stock
White glitter paper
Memory Box dies: Glowing Candles and Elegant Scrollwork
Poppystamps dies: Carousel Bird Cage, Pine Sprigs, and Merry Christmas Background

My Special Bag for Holidays

Hi everyone,

Martha Lucia here! This time of the year is absolutely my favorite; gathering with friends and family, decorating, celebrating the reason for the season and creating a lot of special gifts. Today I want to share My Special Bag for the Holidays.

One of my favorite things about the holidays is the opportunity to give the gifts and pack them. But during the last few years I have discovered more and more that gift cards and money seem to be a crowd favorite. It simplifies things, but sometimes money and gift cards don't feel very personal. So this year I decided to create special bags because the packaging becomes even more important, so as to make the gift feel more meaningful.

I think I chose the perfect product in the Unique Laser Designs Store. This is the Holly Ornament that I will show you today. This is a unique piece available in unfinished wood, great to decorate and personalize. I made mine using Versamark ink and different colors of embossing powders: Cherry Cobbler, Wild Wasabi, Early Espresso and Gold from Stampin Up.  I then created a little texture over the leaves with Gelatos in yellow, brown and dark green from Faber castell.

The bag is a Mini Muslin Bag from Stampin Up that came in a plain ivory color and I decided to decorate with Encore Gold Metalic Ink and a sponge dauber. To avoid mixing the ink in both sides of the bag I put a piece of cardboard covered with wax paper inside of the bag.

The final touch was a cherry cobbler bow with a line of gold sequins to tie a small tag with best wishes stamped. The holly ornament came with a ribbon to hang it easily on the tree. 

Now I want to show you the original form of my holly ornament and invite you to visit the ULD Store to see all of different ornaments that are available during this holiday season. 

Products Used:

• Holly Ornament - UNIQUE LASER DESIGNS
• Versamark Ink
• Embossing Powder in Cherry Cobbler, Wild Wasabi, Gold and Early Espresso (Stampin Up)
• Encore Gold Metalic Ink (Stampin Up)
• Sponge Dauber
• Muslin Bag
• Sequins
• Ribbon
• That´s the ticket Stamp Set or Ese es el Boleto Set de Sellos (Stampin Up)

 Come back soon to see more wonderful ideas!

{{HUGS}} Martha Lucia!

Easter Wishes

Hey there Unique Laser Designs fans and fans to be! It's Kisha here with my very first post that I'm super excited to share.  Easter will soon be among us and I figured what better time to share what I created using ULD's wooden eggs.

These cards were so much fun to create and as simple as the design ended up being, the look of them are just as lovely as a heavily embellished card.  I colored each egg by first giving them each a coat of gesso to guarantee a vibrant coat of color.  After drying the gesso, I began using various spray mist to color each egg and the final step was to add some clear embossing powder to give it all a shiny look.

This card I love so very much! To give this egg (or any of the designs) the multi color, just cover each section with cardstock to protect the area you don't want to color.  Then continue this process until you have achieved the look you're trying to achieve.

The blue egg shown here was still a bit to similar to the other eggs I distressed, so I decided to add a bit of stickles to make it stand out a little more.  And all the same this card will work well as a masculine card.

And for my final card I just had to add some pearls, this egg was screaming for pearls and it turned out so pretty.  There are so many different ways to create using these eggs, and they are not just for Easter.  They can very easily be used for baby shower invites/cards, expectant mother cards and kitchen decor.  Just step outside of that box and let your imagination run wild.

The products used on my projects can be found at Unique Laser Designs store under wood cutouts.

Until next time...Keep on creating!

Kisha