Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. On Christmas day, My mother and I normally get up fairly early and get our breakfast and then settle down in the lounge with our coffee and open all our presents. I act as Father Christmas handing out the presents to each of us and then we count how many pressies we have to open and then we take it in turns to open one. We normally give each other lots of little presents as well as something bigger, that way it takes several hours to open all the pressies. We then have more coffee and admire all our pressies and cards before having a light lunch and then we have Christmas dinner with all the trimmings in the evening. I am not mad on Turkey so we normally have Roast Beef and Yorkshire puddings which is my favourite, followed by the traditional Christmas pudding with brandy butter complete with charms inside.

This card I am sharing today is a Step Christmas card and I have used cuttlebug die cuts and embossing folders with it. I have made several step cards recently and I think they are different to your normal card and they create a real little scene as it were.

I hope that you all enjoy your day and have a fabulous Christmas and try not to eat too much.....

Angel

Now you know I just love angels. Today's card uses some gorgeous wide ribbon that I bought years ago in Durban at a shop that Kim took me to.

Materials: Cream cardstock, wide star ribbon, wooden stars, angel stamp, gold paper, gold magic ribbon, clear embossing ink pad, gold embossing powder. word stamp.

Method: Fold cream cardstock to create square 15 x 15 card. Run strip of wide ribbon around card and secure at back. Then take another piece of cream cardstock the same size as the card front and secure this to the inside front cover to hide the back of the ribbon. Place strip of gold magic ribbon on the right hand edge of the card. Use clear embossing ink pad to stamp words into bottom corner of card and emboss with gold embossing powder. On a piece of cream cardstock use clear embossing ink pad to stamp angel and emboss with gold powder and mat onto gold cardstock and then to cardfront. Add wooden stars.

It's Christmas time - well nearly

Another christmas card idea for you today, using a stamp from Denami Designs.

Materials: Black cardstock, Gold cardstock, Christmas red and green printed papers from Making cards magazine insert, Denami Stamp, Cuttlebug Swirl embossing folder, Copic Pens, Stickles glitter glue, Green ink pad, white cardstock, red stickles glitter glue, black brilliance ink pad, ruby red color box ink pad

Method: Stamp image onto white cardstock and trim to size. Go around edges with green ink pad and then color in image using copic markers and highlight areas with stickles glitter glue. Fold black cardstock to create top fold square card and attach gold cardstock. Trim christmas patterned papers to size and go around edges of green with green color box ink pad and the red with red color box ink pad and attach to cardfront as shown. Run strip of gold cardstock through big shot using Cuttlebug swirl embossing folder and attach to card and then attached stamped image. Attach rhinestones.

Vintage Christmas

Today's card just oozes sparkle and bling. It is one of those cards that are much better in real life as then you can see all the sparkle from the glitter.

The poinsettia and snowglobe images are from a Vintage Christmas CD and the backing paper is from an Elusive Images Seasons Greetings CD. The pearl/diamante bling strip at the bottom of the card is from a Chinese shop kindly bought for me by Debbie. Its really super sparkly bling and of course this girl loves her bling.

Materials: Seasons Greetings Elusive Images CD background paper, Brown cardstock, Pink Bazzil cardstock, Mauve bazzil cardstock, white cardstock to print poinsettia and snowglobe image onto, Vintage Christmas CD images of snowglobe and poinsettia, bling, tiny pink pearls, rhinestones, clear and very pale pink glitter, glue pen, small diamante, dusty pink color box ink pad.

Method: Fold brown cardstock to create square top fold card. Go around edges of pink and mauve cardstock with color box ink pad and attach to cardfront. Print out sheet of paper from Elusive images Seasons Greetings CD and trim to size and go around edges with color box ink pad and attach to cardfront. Print out Poinsettia image and snowglobe from Vintage Christmas CD onto white cardstock and cut out. Go around the edges of the snowglobe - just the globe part with glue pen and sprinkle with Clear glitter. Go over the tinsel on the bottom part of the snow globe with Stickles clear glitter glue and attach 3 small diamante. Attach snowglobe image to cardfront and then attach poinsettia. Go over areas of poinsettia with glue pen and sprinkle with pale pink glitter. Attach small pink pearls to the centres of the poinsettia. Attach rhinestones in the top corner as shown and then attach row of pearls/diamante bling at the bottom of the card.

Wishing everyone a happy weekend.

Christmas card with honeycomb paper

Well thanks to Debbie for taking the photo of this card and adding to her blog. Decided to borrow her photo for this lesson.

Christmas is a wonderful time to make those special cards for friends and family and a pop out card is sure to wow them. Pop outs do take that bit extra time but they are so worth it.

Materials: White cardstock - 2 sheets, gold cardstock, white cardstock, white and gold organza ribbon, Christmas words stamp by PSX, Snowflake stamp by Hero arts, selection of Sissix and Cuttlebug embossing folders, big shot, sticky red tape, gold glitter, Cuttlebug snowflake die cut/embossing folder, small gold star embellishment, Clear embossing ink pad, Gold embossing powder, WS Designs Christmas tree pop out template, Gold Honeycomb paper.

Method: Take 1 sheet of white cardstock and fold in half to create square 15 x 15 card and set aside. Take square of gold cardstock 14 x 14 and attach to cardfront. Take square of white cardstock 13 x 13 and run through Big Shot using Sissix snowflake embossing folder. You will be left with strip down the right hand side of cardstock that has not embossed - onto this strip add red magic sticky tape and peel off liner and pour on gold glitter. Attach organza ribbon using vellum tape and secure to back of cardstock and then attach cardstock to cardfront as shown. Use Big shot to cut out snowflake from gold paper using Cuttlebug snowflake die cut and then emboss with the snowflake embossing folder and attach to cardfront as shown and add small gold star embellishment. The front of your card is now finished so you can set this aside.

Take your second sheet of white cardstock and again fold in half to create square 15 x 15 card. Take your ws designs christmas tree template and place up against the fold line and trace out your christmas tree and cut out. When tracing out the christmas tree mark the score lines on both sides of your card and score. Take the extreme right hand side of this card and run through the Big Shot using Cuttlebug Christmas words embossing folder. On the extreme left hand side, use clear embossing ink pad and gold embossing powder to stamp and emboss the snowflakes and christmas words.

Use your WS Designs tree template to cut out tree from gold honeycomb paper. Put lots of ds tape onto both sides of the tree and then using the inner piece of your card that you have just worked out as a guide, take off the tape on the one side of the christmas tree and lay it down on the inner part of your outer card. Once you are happy with positioning then remove tape from other side of the tree and close your outer card to secure the honeycomb tree.

Its now time to attach your inner card to your outer card. You only need to secure the right hand and left hand panels.

WS designs offer some wonderful templates and making pop out cards with their templates is so easy as they even have the notches in them as to where to score your card. They have both big and small templates in most designs and they also have a very good DVD all about pop out cards which is very good. They also sell honeycomb paper if you cannot find it in South Africa. I have bought it from them in the past and its pretty economical as you get about 16 christmas trees out of 1 sheet of honeycomb paper if you cut it carefully.

Hope you enjoyed this pop up technique.