A Camo Christmas with TPD Stamps and Bleach Technique

Here we are, Thanksgiving week, and I've got a Christmas Tree card with a twist, perfect for your favorite member of the Armed Forces, your favorite hunter, or anyone who lives in their camouflage.   As often happens, when experimenting in crafting, I totally stumbled on this look.  It's not what I had intended but I have to admit, I kind of like it.  Ok, I like it a lot.  In fact, I plan on giving this to my retired Army Dad.  He will love it.  Don't forget, Two Paper Divas is having a storewide 40% off sale.  It's the perfect time to snag some amazing stamps at Black Friday prices!  Gift yourself or a crafty friend.

So how did this come together?  There was a fantastic bleach technique, stamping with bleach, in the Fall issue of Creative Scrapbooker Magazine, written by the late, great Christy Riopel.  Basically,   This technique works best on black cardstock, and I'm using the Neenah brand today.  I added a very thin layer of bleach in a ramekin dish and dipped my ornament stamp in the bleach, stamping onto black cardstock in levels, to form a Christmas Tree.  After I finished stamping, I filled in the gaps with more bleach and a paint brush.  Grab a heat embossing tool and dry it for just a minute so the color lightens up.

Next, I tinted my bleach using Green glimmer mist from Spellbinders and Bronze shimmer spray from Bo Bunny, just add a droplet or two.  The colors won't mix if you do one color on both sides of the dish.  Dip your paintbrush into the green tinted bleach and paint the ornaments.  Zap again with your heat tool.  Touch up the right side of your ornament with more plain bleach to give a "light" effect".  Looks camo now, right?  Cool!  Next I filled in the bronze tinted bleach in the gaps because it actually comes out with a light gold sheen.  Very pretty in person.  Zap again with your heat tool and you are done.  Be careful not to overheat or you will burn your bleach image.  I used a paintbrush to draw in a tree trunk with the bleach as well, and dipped my sentiment in the bleach, too.

I grabbed a white gel pen and  a green ultra fine Bic marker to draw in a plaid design on the tree trunk to give it more masculine appeal.

Purchase Holiday Greetings, here.

Purchase Holiday Bingo Words, here.

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Christmas Hop with DCWV and The Ribbon Resource

(FTC disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links so, if you purchase a product using the link I may receive a small commission. I only participate in affiliate programs that feature products that I use and love. Your purchase price is not affected in any way, by using my links.)

I'm so excited to be hopping along this week with The Ribbon Resource and DCWV.  I love my DCWV papers!  I have quite a few collections and the DCWV brand is one of my favorites, mainly because the papers are so thick and easy to work with.  Of course, The Ribbon Resource is the online retail store for May Arts Ribbon.  Be sure you hop all week long as there will be 3 prize packs given away which include stacks of DCWV paper and ribbon from the Ribbon Resource in each prize pack!  And, don't forget you can get FREE SHIPPING on any order through Nov. 8th at The Ribbon Resource, no promo code needed.  Sweet!

I was sent their new Christmas release, DIY Project Stack Favor Boxes and DIY Project Stack Ornaments.  I'll be featuring a number of May Arts Ribbon's as well and you can get the full supply list at the end of this post.

This entire line is dedicated to templates, pretty papers and fun embellishments.  DCWV has made it easy for you with clear, concise instructions and templates that you can cut out and trace over your papers.  When I saw the pillow box template, I knew that's what I wanted to feature.  I ADORE pillow boxes!

To begin, I cut out my template and traced over several of the DCWV papers.  Once I trimmed my paper outlines, I scored where appropriate, starting with the 1/2" edge to fold and seal the box.

To score my arch, I measured approximately 1 1/2" from both ends of the curve and marked it on the opposite side of the paper that I want exposed.  I want to show the gingham design, so I flipped it over and marked the opposite side.  I then traced the arch, using my bone folder, from my marker to the appropriate points on the template.  I used 1/4" Scor-tape to seal my edges.

Here's my first box featuring the gingham DCWV paper, some of the included embellishments and May Arts Ribbon wired faux natural burlap ribbon,   I've used a 7.5" strip wrapped around the box and fashioned a bow with a 10" strip of burlap ribbon.

Here's my favorite DCWV paper, the cardinals.  I really wanted to go a little rustic with the gingham above, and this one as well.   The tag and red star are just a couple of the embellishments available in this collection.  I strolled out into my yard and snagged a few twigs to really enhance the rustic feel, and added a lot of May Arts Ribbon natural burlap string.  One yard, to be exact.  I took a 36" piece and folded it in half 6 times, then wrapped around the box and tied off the bow.   This string is a staple at my house.  I use it on most of my craft projects.  Mr. Cardinal, or is that a Mrs?  I can never tell the difference.... my 13 year old could tell you the difference!  Anyway, I added a little glitter glue on the wings and tail.  Love!

My last pillow box is all about the red.  What is Christmas without lots of red, right?  I kind of went all peppermint stick on this box with diagonal striped May Arts Ribbon wrapped around the box (7.5") and lots of silver and red sparkly curling ribbon (12" ea).  Isn't that polka dot paper bow adorable?  Another embellishment in this DCWV collection, along with the light bulb tag.

Now for the Ornament stack, I opted to try out this layered ornament template.  The instructions were to trace and cut 5 images for each ornament.  You will also need two 6" twine or string sections to fold in half and glue for a hanger.  Again, I scored all my images and used some hot glue to keep it all together.

Yes, that's my Christmas Tree!  Up and ready to go for Christmas crafting!  I'll use any excuse to get my tree up early.  

I finished off my first ornament with a pretty velvet polka dot bow and a tiny gemstone to match.  I love this pretty plaid DCWV paper which has olive tones, beige, red and white.  The flip side is a solid olive color.

Finally, we have another ornament that features the red swirly Christmas tree paper with gold foil on the flip side.  Gorgeous!  I topped this off with a really pretty, gold sheer bow (24"),

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Here's the list for the week if you missed someone.

Monday

• Gini Williams Cagle
• Jen Shears
• Jenifer Cowles

Tuesday

• Jennifer Davey
• Karen Baker

 Wednesday

• Karen Hanson
• Latrice Murphy
• Lori Williams

Thursday

• Mallika Kejriwal
• Marielle LeBlanc

Friday

• Michele Kosciolek
• Tracy McLennon
• Terri Burson

May Arts Ribbons used:

C-1-30 1" Gold Sheer Ribbon (24")

455-15-10 1.5" Faux Natural Burlap Ribbon (18")

SE-14 1/8" Red Sparkly Curling Ribbon (12")

SE-31 1/8" Silver Sparkly Curling Ribbon (12")

SM-10 1/8" Natural Burlap String (1 yard)

SM-09 1/8" Ivory Burlap String (12")

QD-46 1.5" Green Sheer Velvet Dot Ribbon (10")

352-14 1.5" White Sheer, Red Striped Diagonal Ribbon ( (7.5")

Additional supplies:

Tombow Adhesives/Foam Squares

Ranger Stickles Christmas Red glitter glue

DoubleClick Skittles Bubble Embellishments

Green Rhinestone

Scor-tape

We R Memory Keepers Trimmer/Scorer

Ruler, Scissors, Marker

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