TRADITIONAL CARD

I have a fairly traditional looking Christmas card to share with you today. Traditional in that the primary colors are red and green and not a lot of frou frou going on.

You see, the Paper Pumpkin kit I received in November had the most adorable stamps in it. One of them was this gingerbread house. And the best part? It was MADE for coloring in with the Stampin' Blends! And color I did -- and had so much fun doing it.

Once it was colored, I fussed around trying to decide what to do with it. Because it was so cute in and of itself, I wanted the house to be the star of the card.

So I fussy cut the house -- WHAT A CHALLENGE! No, just kidding. With its straight lines, it was a cinch.

I then popped it up on a little square of white that I'd cut with one of the square dies from the Stitched Shapes on page 183 in the Annual Catalog. I repeated the square look with a larger one cut from Real Red cardstock. I love how the stitching around the squares adds to the homey look of the gingerbread house!

Just a modest amount of dimension since only the house itself was raised 

with Stampin' Dimensionals:

The gingerbread house was busy enough, so I wanted something more serene and subdued for the backdrop for it. I chose this Christmas tree design from some Designer Series Papers I'd had for a long time.

Adding a "merry" using an old Stampin' Up! die in Whisper White, then mounting it top Real Red on a Whisper White card base, and it was done!

I don't think I'll be sending out this particular card because I plan on using it as a little seasonal decoration in our living room.

How are you doing on your holiday card making? FYI, December is in a few days! OH NO!!

Traditional

Smiles.

 

SNOWFLAKE WISHES

If you want to make quick, beautiful and easy Christmas cards, grab just a few products: the Snowflake Splendor Designers Series Paper (page 37 in the Mini Catalog), the Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper (page 37 in the Mini Catalog), and the Snowflake Wishes Bundle (same page). See? ONE PAGE SHOPPING! Easy!

The card I show you today is the simplest Christmas card you could possibly make. Seriously.

And isn't it elegant?

Die cut two of the snowflakes from the Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper, cut a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of one of the DSP papers, pick a pretty sentiment from the Snowflake Wishes stamp set, stamp it in Balmy Blue onto a diecut label. Add to Balmy Blue cardstock and then to a Whisper White card base. And you have a gorgeous card!

Read on for a tutorial to recreate a card like this for you and all on your holiday card list!

SUPPLIES:

Whisper White cardstock

Balmy Blue cardstock

Snowflake Splendor Designer Series Paper (page 37, Mini Catalog)

Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper (Page 37, Mini Catalog)

Snowflake Wishes stamp set (page 38, Mini Catalog)

Balmy Blue ink

So Many Snowflakes dies (page 38, Mini Catalog)

Chalk Talk Framelits (retired -- do you still have yours??)

Die Cutting/Embossing Machine

Stampin' Dimensionals

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of Whisper White cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Add to this card base a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Balmy Blue cardstock.

To this, add a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of the Snowflake Splendor Designer Series Paper.

On a 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of Whisper White cardstock, stamp the sentiment from the Snowflake Wishes stamp set in Balmy Blue ink. Use an appropriately sized die to cut out the sentiment.

From Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper, cut two of the snowflakes from the So Many Snowflakes dies. Adhere the smaller of the snowflakes to the upper right corner of the sentiment label.

Adhere the label to the DSP, raised a bit from the center point, with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Add a bit of adhesive to the points of the larger snowflake, and slide it under the lower left corner of the sentiment label, pressing it firmly in place.

Snowflake

Smiles.

ROSY JINGLE BELLS

Today, I am featuring a very strangely colored Christmas card. Strange in that the main colors are Night of Navy (even though it doesn't look like that in my photos) and Melon Mambo. Weird, eh?

During the winter -- and before COVID -- when it was on the Clearance Rack, a few of my friends and I ordered the Everything Is Rosy bundle at about half the original price.  A phenomenal bundle, filled with such awesome and elegant goodies, I made a handful of cards from it. You can see the cards I made in THIS POST. 

After making those cards, I'd put all the components of the bundle into a container and set it aside. Frequently I come across it and consider making some more cards, but never actually do. The papers that came in the bundle are especially wonderful, and one of the papers is a rose gold colored metallic cardstock. It is so tempting and gorgeous, I am sorely reluctant to use it. So, it sits.

Recently, however, I came across it again, and since I'd ordered and received the jingle bell dies (Sounds of the Season, page 33 in the Mini Catalog), I was moved to cut a few of the bells from this precious paper. 

A hint to share from experience: When you are die cutting from a shiny smooth metallic paper, cut the paper down to the size you actually need, rather than running a strip of it through the die cutting machine. If your plates resemble mine, they are very grooved, worn and loved. These grooves and textures transfer to the smooth surface of the paper. If you like that look -- and I happen to! -- great. But, if you want it to be the smooth surface, cut the piece to the proper size. You will be a lot happier!

After I die cut my bells, I loved them, but was unsure what to do with them. My eyes landed on the rest of the Everything Is Rosy components, and I thought, "Why not"? So I grabbed all the stuff in Night of Navy and Melon Mambo, and this is what I came up with:

I tried all sorts of ribbons, trims, baker's twines, etc., for the bows on the bells, but nothing seemed right. Until I noticed this thick baker's twine in Melon Mambo, and that turned out to be perfect.

My bells found a home upon a strip of the cardstock that came in the bundle, which also featured some of the same rose gold metal.

Picking up on the Night of Navy that was within the strip of DSP, I opted to have Night of Navy on the other side of my card. Putting it through the Old World Paper 3D embossing folder (page 185 in the Annual Catalog) gave it an awesome texture that worked well with the rest of the card. 

A strip of the crinkled Melon Mambo ribbon that came in the bundle was stretched across the Night of Navy. 

I now needed a sentiment. Being extra brave, I die cut "Holly Jolly" from another of the papers from the bundle. This was was Melon Mambo, but with an abundance of flowers in the same rose gold metal. Whoa. I really did feel courageous adding flowers to this card. Fortunately the letters were thin enough, you can't tell they are flowers; they just look like flecks of the rose gold. 

A closeup of the words, as well as a little embellishment 

I cut from the same rose gold with a die that came in the bundle. 

And, a closeup of the jingle bells in all their weird colorful glory:

So, was I crazy to venture into such unfamiliar territory for a Christmas card? In real life, it is quite striking, which, of course, I failed to share with you because of my lousy photos.

I hope you enjoyed this little trek through weirdness. It was lots of fun -- for me, at least!

Rose

Gold 

Smiles.

JAR OF FALL

Since the Pandemic began way back in March, time seems to have been playing tricks on me. Have any of you experienced that feeling of The Twilight Zone? The feeling that things are not quite the way they should be, nor the time as it should be? Hard to explain. But, I often find myself saying, "Oh yeah. It's fall. Oh, it's NOVEMBER." Sort of confused. And weird. And tough to explain -- or endure.

Anyway, with all those profound words said, it's hard to believe that next week is Thanksgiving here in the US! Wow. Wow. 

I give you a little Happy Thanksgiving card this week. 

Utilizing the Jar of Flowers set, found on page 12 of the Annual Catalog, 

it is a fairly simple card to create.

Fussy cutting the Jar of Flowers  and popping it up with a few Dimensionals 

onto a sponged embossed base, it boasts a nice amount of dimension.

Would you like to know how I created this card, in case you would like to try something similar?

SUPPLIES:

Gray Granite cardstock

Whisper White cardstock

Fall-looking Designer Series Paper

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Cajun Craze ink

Stampin' Blends in: Dark Mango Melody, Light Gray Granite, Light Pumpkin Pie, Light Soft Suede, Light Mossy Meadow and Dark Soft Sea Foam

Jar of Flowers (Page 12)

Itty Bitty Greetings (Page 44)

Greenery embossing folder (page 184)

Die Cut/Embossing Machine

Very Vanilla 1/4" Ribbon

Stampin' Dimensionals

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Gray Granite cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Add a 1" x 5 1/4" piece of autumn Designer Series Paper to the left edge near the fold, leaving a 1/8" margin, as is usual on a traditional card.

Run a 3" x 5 1/4" piece of Gray Granite cardstock through the Greenery Embossing Folder. With a stampin' sponge, gently sponge Cajun Craze ink across the raised portion of the embossing. Adhere this piece to the right side of the card base, butted up against the DSP. Set aside for now.

On a piece of Whisper White cardstock that measures about 3" x 4", stamp the three components of the fallish bouquet: the jar, the stems in the "water" of the jar, followed by the bouquet of sunflowers in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Another option would be to stamp the jar and water separate from the bouquet of flowers. Fussy cut both components, then pop the flowers over the jar. This would probably be a better look.

Using the coloring tools you desire, color in the bouquet. I used Stampin' Blends in the aforementioned colors. 

Fussy cut the bouquet. I know it looks difficult, but it really isn't. One piece of advice when fussy cutting: hold the scissors in pretty much the same position and turn the piece itself as you are cutting.

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to add the bouquet to the center of the embossed portion, raised some from center so you have room for the sentiment.

On a 1/2" x 2" piece of Gray Granite cardstock, stamp a sentiment in black ink.

I did not have any ribbon that was Cajun Craze, and I feel this card really needed that. So I made my own! I had some quarter inch Very Vanilla satin ribbon to which I sponged Cajun Craze ink untilt he ribbon was evenly colored. 

Attach the ribbon to the back of the sentiment piece, and use a few Stampin' Dimensionals to add it to the lower portion of the card.

Fall

Smiles.

A SINGLE GOLDEN RING

When I first saw the Gold Hoops Embellishments on page 156 of the Annual Catalog I must admit I was quite intrigued. They looked classy classy classy. Measuring 2 1/8" in diameter, I needed to add them to my new catalog stash. 

Unfortunately they did sit there on my work table for a few months since I wasn't sure what to do with them. They were so fine and I kept worrying myself about how I was going to attach them to a project.

When the October Paper Pumpkin arrived with all the lovely Christmas-y card stuff, I suddently had a lightbulb moment. I took one of the stamps that came with the kit, the pretty flower, and stamped it onto Whisper White cardstock. I then proceeded to color it in with my Stampin' Blends in Light Cherry Cobbler, Dark Call Me Clover and Dark Daffodil Delight. 

After my coloring was done, I tried mightily to fussy cut the image. There were little berries on thin stems. Leaving a bit of white around those portions, I did not like the results. At all. Trimming off the berries (!), I was satisfied, and thought the flower would look gorgeous on one of the rings, like a little holiday wreath.

Of course, the wreath needed some greenery too! So, from Shaded Spruce cardstock, I used the evergreen branches from the Sounds of the Season (jingle bells) dies set and cut two of the small and two of the large branches.

I adhered the greenery to the back side of the flower/leaves. 

As I had mentioned, I wanted to add this little arrangement to one of the golden hoops. But how? 

Well, before I got that far, I wanted to have a backdrop for the wreath. So I ran a large tag through my diecut machine inside the Tasteful Textile embossing folder (page 185 of the Annual Catalog). I'd just recently gotten this embossing folder and hadn't had a chance to play with it at all. Embossing a piece of Whisper White cardstock with it, I was truly pleasantly surprised at the result. It looks exactly like a piece of fabric. It turned out to be the perfect piece to feature my little wreath.

After sort of placing everything together to see how it looked, I ended up putting Stampin' Dimensionals on the top and the bottom of the back of the flower to straddke the hoop. Holding the hoop in place, I attached the hoop to the embossed piece with the Stampin' Dimensionals. There! That took care of the bottom of the hoop.

A closer look at the main portion of the card:

I held two pieces of baker's twine, a Cherry Cobbler and a white/metallic gold, together and tied a bow. I attached the bow to the top of the hoop and to the embossed piece with a couple of glue dots, folding them to hide them from view. Yay! Now the whole hoop was held in place!

When I finished up the card by adding a sentiment in Cherry Cobbler, some Shaded Spruce cardstock, all popped up on a Whisper White card base, I felt it still needed something. The perfect something turned out to be a 1/4" strip of Cherry Cobbler cardstock at the top of the banner to balance out all the Cherry Cobbler. 

Golden

Smiles.