....and it started with a hot glue gun!

Ever have one of those nights where you couldn't sleep then ended up staying up into the wee hours in a marathon stamping with crazy ideas which ended up being kind of fun?  Well, that's how THIS card came to be!  It's totally NOT my usual style as I'm in "quick and easy" mode as a general rule.

BUT one night last month, after having worked on samples all afternoon and evening for my holiday card class, I got into bed-- just as I was dozing off,  I realized the hot glue gun was still plugged in downstairs in my craft room.  It would never do to start a fire in the basement while we were upstairs sleeping, kwim?  What was I to do but crawl out of bed and go down to unplug it.

That's where the craziness began!  While I was down there I caught sight of a little fan folded "Medallion" (see photo top left) which I had been messing around with earlier and a smashed bottlecap magnet with a little snowman (also an earlier project) and on a whim I decided to combine the two. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I had made
another big mess on the table but had mussed and fussed and ended up coming up with an "interesting" card.  All I could think was "my customers will think I have lost my mind if I try to have them make something like this!"

But the next day I took the finished card (photo on the right) to show some friends and they all encouraged me to go ahead and use it.

This explains why I took leave of my senses and included this card in my "Headstart on the Holidays" class.  As it turned out, everyone DID like it and even though some were afraid it would be too hard, they quickly realized that it wasn't all that bad.  Getting the medallion scored and fan-folded was a breeze thanks to the new Simply Scoring board and stylus (pg 7 of the Holiday Mini, #12334 for $29.96...comes with little "markers" and an awesome stylus that stays in the groove when you are scoring!)  To make the "medallion" or "lolly" as some folks are calling them...just take a strip of decorative paper (I used a red polka dot piece from one of the DSP Color packs) and score it every 1/8th inch then fan fold it and stick the ends together with Sticky Strip.  I fashioned a "mold" or holder by cutting circles into the flap of an old Stampin' Up! box (easy choice, since I certainly have lots of THOSE around!) to keep the folded piece from springing loose but later saw a tip on a friend's blog to use an old mayonnaise jar lid.  How brilliant is that?  It easily keeps the fan-folded paper in the proper circular shape while waiting for the hot glue to set up.  Plastic lids are better but metal will work, just don't touch the metal as it conducts the heat from the hot glue really well!   I stick a punched out circle in the bottom of the "holder" before putting the fan folded medallion in place then squirt hot glue into the center of the hole and top it with another punched out circle.

The bottle cap decoration was added to that using more hot glue.  A little tip on the hot glue....it really IS very hot!  I keep an old pencil with my hot glue gun and use the eraser end to manipulate and hold things, much better to gunk up a pencil than to singe my pinkie with hot glue...not only does it stay hot for a while, but it really does stick very well which is good on a project but NOT on your fingers! 

Anyway, back on track with the project...the card came out OK and everyone liked it.  Now, I wouldn't recommend this card for mailing unless you want to stick it in a bubble wrap 5x7 envelope but it is cute.  The snowman image is from Jolly Bingo Bits (pg 41 in the main catalog  (WM #120857 $37.95  or CM #121187 $26.95....great set to get for FREE with hostess dollars, ask me how I know!  ;-)  The bottle caps are from an online craft supplier....no, I have not been recycling them after parties!  Because they do not have a plastic liner it's easy to glue things inside them.  Trust me on this, I bought a bag of bottle caps dirt cheap at a local beer making supply store...those liners do NOT want to come out and nothing really want to stick to them so don't waste your time or money trying.

I ran the Lucky Limeade layer thru the new Sizzix snowflake embossing folder (pg 33 of the 2011 Holiday Mini, it's #124096 for $7.95) and added a bit of our beautiful new style black polka dot scalloped ribbon (pg 195, item #124245, 10 yds for $7.95) underneath the snowman medallion just for interest.

Not the sort of card I would want to make everyday but I did have fun with it...and now I am hooked on bottle caps AND medallions so stand by to see more of those coming soon!