Holiday snowflakes

I was busy stamping again yesterday and managed to make six Christmas cards. (I wanted to make more, but the last two were giving me fits, so I had to walk away.) I create about sixty Christmas cards each year; I usually decide on six to ten designs and then make eight to twelve cards of each design. A couple of years ago I decided to make each card unique. The positive: I was able to use a bigger variety of stamps and embellishments, which is fun. The negatives: It took more time, effort and brain power (which I don't always have to spare), and it was harder to decide who should receive which card. (Note to self: Consider spending less of my limited brain power deciding things like which card is the perfect one for each person/family.) But it's looking as if I might be heading in that direction again this year since I've made eight Christmas cards so far, and they're all different.

I'll share my cards over the next few days in groups of two since they pair up nicely. The two I'm going to share today are more winter or holiday themed, not necessarily just for Christmas.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^® unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Warmest Regards (inside card)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Island Indigo, vellum card stock; Festival of Prints Designer Series Paper (DSP) stack
Ink: Early Espresso
Accessories: Snow Flurry die, Top Note die, Island Indigo and Early Espresso baker's twine, Designer Naturals buttons, 1/8" hole punch (Fiskars), 1-1/4" scallop circle punch, Tombow multipurpose glue, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

OK, I admit it. These two cards are the ones that were causing me trouble, especially this one. I knew I wanted to use the new Festival of Prints DSP and the Snow Flurry die together, but it took me forever to come up with a design I liked. I also had serious problems adhering the DSP to the card front so it was straight (I think the diagonal stripes were throwing me off) -- this was actually my third attempt after two ruined card bases.

Anyway, I decided to add the vellum overlay to soften the background because the snowflakes just didn't "work" directly on the stripes. To attach the vellum, I punched a 1/8" hole in the top and bottom of the left side and then used the baker's twine to tie it to the DSP. After adhering the large snowflake to the vellum, I also placed a couple of Glue Dots behind the center of the snowflake so you can't see any adhesive through the vellum.

The Festival of Prints DSP stack is just a bit bigger than a traditional A2-size card, so I only had to trim one small strip off the bottom and one off the side to get the right size for the card front. I adhered one of the leftover strips to a piece of Very Vanilla card stock, cut it out with the Top Note die and adhered it to the inside of the card to stamp and write a holiday greeting. The other leftover strip I used on my second card ...

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Small Script, Many Merry Messages (inside card)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Island Indigo card stock; Festival of Prints DSP stack
Ink: Island Indigo
Accessories: Snow Flurry die, Island Indigo baker's twine, 1-1/4" scallop circle punch, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, Scallop Edge Border punch (inside card), rhinestones, Tombow multipurpose glue, Dimensionals



I thought that little bit of striped DSP added a nice contrast to the more subtle print on the background of this card.

For the snowflakes on both cards, I cut one piece of Very Vanilla card stock and one piece of Island Indigo card stock with the Snow Flurry die. Then I used two of the blue snowflakes with one vanilla on the first card and two vanilla snowflakes with one blue on the other. On both cards I added an 1-1/4" scallop circle in Island Indigo to the largest snowflake. When I adhered the snowflakes I didn't put any glue on the ends of the larger snowflake. I liked having them "loose" to create just a bit of dimension.

For the inside of this card, I again used one of the leftover strips from the piece of DSP on the front of the card. Because this card base is Very Vanilla I didn't need to add an extra layer for the greeting. So I punched the strip of DSP with the Scallop Edge Border punch and then adhered it directly to the inside of the card.

For as much trouble as I had with these cards, I'm pretty pleased with the finished product (or maybe I'm just happy they're done!). I'll post a couple more Christmas cards tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!