Wishing You A Merry Christmas

Hi Crafty Friends,

It seems this year that I have a bit of a poinsettia theme going for many of my Christmas cards haha! It's just the way it happened and the few things I did buy this year were poinsettias themed.

I purchased this Pinkfresh Studio's Poinsettia Frame Betterpress plate a few months ago when I was looking for something else to add to an order so I could get free postage. Why pay for postage, when for the same price or less I can add something else to my order.

It arrived some time ago and then I decided I needed the coordinating die and stencils, which I finally received last week, so I pulled everything out to make some cards. For this one I kept to reds. Once I had betterpressed the poinsettias I used the coordinating stencils to add color and then the dies to cut them out. I layered this to a piece of pink gingham patterned paper. I then layered this panel onto a 5 x 7 card which I had added an embossed red card panel.

I added the sentiment to the centre portion of the card, before adding a few pearls randomly to the card.

I added the sentiment to the inside of the card, this is also a Betterpress plate, but from Spellbinders.

 

Snowman Christmas

Hi Crafty Friends,

Back in September, I pre ordered the Made To Surprise Advent Calendar for 2024, it has 12 papercrafting related gifts in it. My Advent Calendar finally arrived on the 30th November the day before it was due to start opening.

Day 2's gift was a die set which contained the dies to create this fun 3D style pop-up. I don't have much time right now, but I did want to make at least one card using it so I quickly die cut the pieces in white.

I added a diecut oval in blue which I added to the white oval portion of the card.

I still had a couple of images leftover from the rescued Christmas Crackers from last year, so I grabbed the snowman to add to the card. I did end up die cutting and adding the scarf to the snowman rather than the bow it had already. This made the image fit better on the oval.

I added the "Merry Christmas to the front of the white half oval portion, this is from the stamp set from Day 1. 

To finish the card, I added a few white glitter snowflakes randomly around.

The card folds flat so it can fit into a 5 x 7 envelope.

Presents Cracker Tower Card

 

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I have three more Christmas cards to share with you using stamps & dies from Made to Surprise by Sam Calcott’s Festive Towers Collection.

All these cards are basically the same other than the colouring of one of the stacks of presents.

I used the Circle Cracker Tower die set for the base of my card. 

The stack of presents is from the Festive Fun stamp & die set. I used the Festive Towers Tartan Embossing Folder to add texture to the white centre panel.

I stamped the Merry Christmas sentiment onto white card and added it to the centre of the present stack.

I added a Christmas sentiment using the sentiment stamp set from the Festive Towers Collection. 

 

Snowman Cracker Tower Card

 

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing two Christmas cards I created using stamps, dies & papers from Made to Surprise by Sam Calcott’s Festive Towers Collection. Sam’s original Tower Collection was my first set I purchased back in 2020, I loved that set and knew I would love this collection too. 

It feels good to be able to finally get to play with at least one of Sam’s new collections from this year. Sam showcased my cards using her dies on her Mixed Up Crafts Facebook page around about the time I became ill and stopped making cards. You can see her article here. I may not have been creating cards, but my only purchases for the majority of the year were her releases.

Both of my cards today are the same. I used the 5 x 7 Cracker Tower die set for the base of my card. I kept the layering simple using papers from the Festive Towers Collection. The snowman, trees & lamppost are all from the Festive Fun stamp & die set. Unfortunately all are sold out at present.

Here is a side view of my card, the pink sentiment is from the Festive Sentiments set which is a set of papers in teals & pinks with various Christmas sentiments to cut out.

Here is a look at the back of the card, I added white panels to the centre so I could add a sentiment also from the Festive Towers collection.

 

Celebrate the Season

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing four cards I created recently using embellishments I rescued from last years Christmas crackers. Fortunately I was able to grab the baubles and reindeers before they landed in the rubbish bin! 

The patterned paper used on all cards is one I found on Etsy. I kept the design fairly simple as I am in need of quick and easy cards this year!

I used a stitched rectangle panel to mount the bauble/reindeer to the cards. For the ornament cards, I added the Pine Needles to the top using a older die from Memory Box.

The sentiment used on all cards is a very old stamp from my stash, probably one from when I first started stamping :)

Here is a close up of the reindeer card.

For the inside of the card, I added a strip of the patterned paper to the right side of the card. I also added a sentiment which is from Divinity Designs. I love these long sentiments which fit the length of the card.

December 2024 Karen Burniston Designer Challenge

 

Hi Crafty Friends,

Welcome to our December Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.

Check out Karen Burniston's blog on Wednesday (US Time) when you will be able to see what all the designers created for the challenge this month, plus Karen will have an amazing video tutorial to share with us all.

Our challenge theme this month is ... "HAPPY NEW YEAR" - make a card that celebrates the new year. This can be a "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" card or just New Year. You can also stretch the theme to be a celebration of resolutions or manifesting something positive to arrive in 2025, etc.

It's been quite a few months since I have been able to participate in a Designer Challenge, but I have been able to find a little time to make some cards recently so I wanted to get one made for this challenge.

As you can see I opted for a New Year card rather than one that combined Christmas & New Year. I also wanted to play with a few of the new dies which were released in October.

For this card I used the Postage Pop-up and the Fireworks dies from the October release. As you can see I created a double postage pop up.

I created a 5 x 7 card, adding dark patterned paper to the inside panel. I then die cut fireworks using various colours of glittered cardstock. Before adding the fireworks to the background, I added the two pop up mechanisms so that i could figure out where the best places to add the fireworks.

I die cut the two of the postage frames from white cardstock and layered them onto a square panel of blue cardstock. I used the smaller dies included in the Postage Pop-up die set to die cut the inner panels of the postage frame from the same patterned paper I used on the background. I added fireworks to each of these panels, trimmed off the excess before adhering to the postage frames.

I used the "Welcome" and the "Numbers" die sets to create the Welcome 2025 to the left hand postage frame. I used the Happy New Year die set to add the sentiment to the right hand postage frame.

I kept the front of the card fairly simple as the focus is on the inside. I added the Celebrate to the centre of the card which has been die cut from silver glitter cardstock.

I die cut 4 of the smaller fireworks from coloured glitter and arranged them around the sentiment. I then added the 2025 to the centre of each of the fireworks.

Postage Christmas

 

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing another 8 Christmas cards I created recently. They are all "postage" themed style cards using Waffle Flower Crafts Postage Frame die set and pattern papers. These cards are all 5 x7 and are side folding.

This year I need reasonably quick and easy cards to make for Christmas, as I started late. Using patterned papers for the postage panels, made this very easy. I found some pretty patterned paper from a cheap shop which was ideal for this purpose.

Here is a close up of one of the cards I made using the blue poinsettia flower. I used Waffle Flower Crafts Postage Collage Frame and Postage Collage Frame Block. I didn't know until recently there was a die to cut the squares inside each of the panels, but there is which made this even easier.

I used some foiled sentiments from Spellbinders on most of the cards, these were left over from another project so it was good to be able to use them.

As you can see by the photos posted, I created three each of the blue poinsettia and ornament postage cards and 2 of the other one as I had already use d up one of the sheets of paper.

For the background panels of the cards I used the Festive Tartan Embossing Folder from Made To Surprise by Sam Calcott, loving this embossing folder. I rubbed Catherine Pooler Gold ink over the background to add some extra interest.

And my final two cards I created in this series.

For these last two cards, I used Waffle Flower Crafts Merry Christmas Duo which is hot foiled using black foil. These were two more leftover sentiments I had in my stash.

For the inside of the card, I added a strip of paper to match the postage frame on the outside, along the right edge of the card. I then added a Christmas sentiment which is an older one in my stash.

Blue Christmas

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing the final card I created after playing with Spellbinders Festive Poinsettias Betterpress Plate. I love that the Betterpress plates can be foiled and that when foiling you can make use of both the positive & negative pieces of foil. So two cards instead of one! 

For this card I used another piece of the negative foiled papers, gold foil on blue card. I layered onto gold card and then onto a pale blue card which i embossed using Made to Surprise by Sam Calcott’s Tartan Embossing Folder. 

To finish off the card, I added the foiled Christmas sentiment from Waffle Flower Crafts.

For the inside of the card, I added an older Christmas sentiment from my stash.