Bevy Warm Season's Greetings

Hello
My turn at Sassy lady's again. I am real glad to be up and creating again. It's been like forever. I have been working on a couple of projects and got so carried away working in my room that I lost track of time. Hopefully will have the other project in soon too. I like how the other one turned out too , simple but have been decorating and decorating and still needs to be done.
I wanted to make my own card with pocket to hold the beverage packets like tea bag or cocoa (or maybe even a small cookie).
So I played  and came up with this

Cartridges used were
1. Plantin for envelope
2) Christmas cheer - main one
3) Tags boxes and more for the pocket or rather small box (used the windows feature)
4) Martha Stewart seasonal cake (for the greetings and snowflakes border)

I have of course used paper and glue :) (ha ha how brilliant!)
pipe cleaner - yep wanted to try something other than ribbons and have had these golden and white ones for a while, blue button as shamefully I did not use hide and contour on the hole in the tag and since it was so big I could not use brad!! (Dang - this is what happens when one gets rusty!!) and my favorite pens - souffle opaque gel pens!! This is one of my best investments. I have used markers too. Oh and some plastic . I always cut the cartridge blister pack to flat rectangles (getting rid of the rest) and save them. And when I laminate in school the extra plain bit they throw away - I bring that home too. I have used that for the pocket window and also for the swirly smoke from the cup

Now I will share this file soon . (most probably will be up by the time this post is up) so you can see which cut is from which cartridge. (To do this select the image go to keypad and in the keypad layout menu hold your stylus over the image and the cartridge name will pop up mostly below your hand and tap on it and it will take you not only to the cartridge but also to the exact creative feature screen)

Here is first page - the card from christmas cheer.I have also added a rectangle for the envelope as the envelope goes out of the mat and I wanted to match up the card - just like in doe a deer card I made. Sometimes when you like an effect stick with it.

2nd page the envelope. Take care to have the smaller end of the envelope stick out while trying out this technique.

Then I wanted to cut the label and the pocket in blue and border for the envelope and inside of the card. As the label  shadow was in blue I named it label blue. I know I know- can do better but what works for me right :)

Here I want to mention 2 things
one I used two labels shadow as th pocket is thick and I am using double layering/tiering the pop darts I need the pocket on a blank label .
2nd is the swirl is part of the cup but I have used hide contour. I lined up the shadow on one page and the actual label on another leaving the page eye(open template) on first so that I can see between the pages to line up the cup as I wanted the swirls to coincide. Then I grouped the shadow and the swirl so that they move together. I did this to the next page too. Of course in the final file I moved it almost to the last and named it brown!! as that's what I wanted to cut the layer out of.
I wanted the swirl to cut as I wanted to sandwich a plastic in between the shadow and the label to give a smoke like effect. It kind of looks cool  - Live! But the camera doesn't capture it quite as well. You can see what I am talking about in the close up pics of the card.
Here is  page called brown (last  but one page  in the file)

Now the next two pages is what I have for using marker. I could have used similar technique to write directly on the card itself which I do many a times but here  I wanted it to cut separately . So what I have done is added the shadow on one page and using the template the word/phrase on another perfectly aligned (using the template feature ie eye at the top open between these two pages) . I write ie add the marker and cut with the 1st page (here even though I have named penbrown I have used a blue pen ). Then do not press Unload the mat but Return to Design and then go to the next page (or whichever page you have designed) and this time change the marker for the blade cartridge (careful - practice!!) and cut the shadow.

Here's close up of the line up - image zoomed. Can you see the outline in grey of the shadow. This is how you use the template feature and the same way I aligned the swirl (cup hidden afterwards) on the 2 labels.

Here's the shadow

zoomed

And lastly the cup itself. I did fatten it up a bit by unlinking the golden chain and using hide and contour for the swirl! as I did not want that to cut..

So here we go the close ups.

I have used the opague soufle marker to doodle the blue small stars/snowflakes or whatever design border that is on the brown label as it seemed kind of plain. The tiny snowflakes 6 of them - well what was left over cuts from the border of the envelope. I have also brushed the brown paper with gold foil pen a little here and there to give a shine. Looks nice and gives a texture like ones found in washi or ricepapers!

I have used the opaque marker on the button too to unite the composition and then tied a little bow with crochet thread. Well if I had hidden the hole to begin with I could have used a nice brad but well-sometimes accident happens and they do good.I like the country warm feel of button!!

I have sandwiched the plastic between the blue shadow (top layer as there are 2 blue shadows one with swirls and one plain for the pocket to sit on) of the label and the brown as you can see here

And the pocket itself

Here for the pocket I wanted it open so i cut of the closing cover. You will know when you assemble. But if you can leave it on. My pipe cleaner will block it falling out but you can leave it on. I have pushed the pocket/box as far back to the label (which I also scored so it opens easily) . As it is thick I needed to tier the pop dots to 2 layers and to make so that it does not show I butted the pocket far back and added glue to the top side of the pocket and stuck it to the top label flap. i have also added some gold foil pen here and there n the blue to blend and unite.

Here is the pipe cleaner also bent and attached at the top and the sides (with glue dots)

Well we are almost near the end
the inside

The greetings were first written in blue and then I felt the inside was empty so I wrote with brown copic

So that's for today the Bevy (Beveragy!! Season Greetings) card and envelope

File cane be downloaded from the gypsy file tab in the menu
Happy New Year and Merry Christmas to you' ll (said with same accent like Chief Brenda from The Closer ) !! Be sure to leave me some Luv' in the way of your comments. I love to read and I cherish them so much!! Makes me warmer than this beverage will ever do :)