Ornament Keepsakes cards

This month the SoShelli.com Creative Challenge is to make anything related to the holidays. I'm not quite ready to start making holiday decor or gift items -- though I should be since Christmas always seems to come so quickly -- but I can make Christmas cards just about any time of the year. And this was the perfect "excuse" to get out my new Ornament Keepsakes stamp set and the coordinating Framelits dies to see what I could create.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®):
Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, Petite Pairs, Merry Minis
Card stock: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Ink: Soft Suede, Old Olive
Accessories: Holiday Ornaments Framelits dies, Top Note die, Merry Minis punch pack, champagne glass glitter, linen thread, sponge, Tombow multipurpose adhesive, Mini Glue Dots, Dimensionals

When I first saw these stamps and dies in the Holiday Catalog, I fell in love with them. The ornaments are different shapes and sizes, and they all have different patterns, so you could use just this stamp set for your Christmas cards and no two cards would have to be exactly the same. I wanted to use a somewhat muted color combination for my first card, so I chose Old Olive and Soft Suede. I used a few "rustic" elements -- sponging on the card base and Very Vanilla layer and a double bow made with linen thread -- and for contrast added a little sparkle by gluing glass glitter on the ornament tops.

For the inside of the card I repeated the same Top Note die-cut shape from the front of the card. I also wanted to include a few ornaments, but the Keepsake Ornaments seemed a little overwhelming inside the card. So I pulled out my Merry Minis stamp set and punches (also from the Holiday Catalog) and added a few tiny ornaments. It's just the right finishing touch for this card.

This is the card lying flat on the table.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes, Season's Greetings
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake card stock; Festival of Prints Designer Series Paper (DSP)
Ink: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede
Accessories: Holiday Ornaments Framelits dies, extra large oval punch, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, pearls, linen thread, Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon, Soft Suede taffeta ribbon, Tombow multipurpose adhesive

For this card I wanted to create a way to have one of the ornaments actually hanging and moveable on the card front. I selected one of the smaller ornament stamps and decided that the extra large oval punch would work well as the ornament's "frame." I stamped and die cut two of the ornament shapes and glued them together, back-to-back, with a small piece of linen thread between them and then set that piece aside.

This is the card standing up.

On to the card construction. I used a 4-1/2" x 3-1/4" piece of DSP (half of one of the Festival of Prints sheets) and a 4-3/4" x 3-1/2" layer of Crumb Cake card stock. First I held the DSP in place on the card front (without gluing) and punched the oval in the card base and DSP together. Then I adhered the DSP to the Crumb Cake layer and punched the oval through that piece of card stock, using the hole in the DSP as a guide. I decided I needed to break up the large pattern on the DSP just a little, so I layered a piece of Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon with a piece of Soft Suede taffeta ribbon and adhered them to the right side of the panel.

This is the back of the card front and ornament. I added one punched
flower but left off the curled one and the pearl so the card closes flat.

To assemble the card I laid the ornament inside the oval opening and glued the linen thread to the Cherry Cobbler card base at the top of the oval. Then I adhered the Crumb Cake and DSP panel to the card base, concealing the end of the thread between the pieces. To embellish the ornament I used the Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack to punch two Cherry Cobbler flowers. I curled up the edges on one of the flowers, glued it to the second flower, added a pearl in the middle and then adhered the completed flower to the middle of the ornament. I repeated the element on the card front by adding three more flowers in the upper right corner of the layered panel.

This is the card when it is open.

For the inside of the card I added a layer of Crumb Cake card stock and stamped a greeting on the right side of the card. I had to use a greeting with a vertical orientation rather than a horizontal one so you wouldn't see it through the opening on the card front. This verse is from a retired Stampin' Up! set, but it is one of my all-time favorite Christmas greetings. To add some interest to the left side I adhered a thin strip of the same DSP I used on the card front, making sure that it wouldn't peek through the opening either.

Guess I got a little long-winded with this post, hunh? Sorry about that. I wanted to try to explain everything clearly, but if you still have questions, leave me a comment below and I will respond as soon as I can. I have a few non-Christmas ideas to try out with this stamp set, too, but that will have to wait for another time. Thanks for stopping by!