August's Christmas card

This week has been a bit off, so I apologize that I only finished one blog post. But on the plus side, it's my August Christmas card, so that means I have eight Christmas card designs done so far this year. That's fifty-four cards ready to be signed, addressed and mailed in December. Yippee! I'll probably still need a few more, but after the next couple of months I should be all set. Anyway, here is this month's Christmas card:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Holiday Wishes (Altenew)
Paper: Kraft, Very Vanilla card stock; Under the Tree Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP); gold foil
Ink: Early Espresso
Accessories: Perfect Pines Framelits dies, Merry Minis punch pack, Sleigh Bells ribbon, gold sequins (Craft Medley), Baker's Twine Trio, green tree glitter tape (Paper Source), Glue Dots, Dimensionals

I bought the set of Perfect Pines Framelits dies and Under the Tree Specialty DSP at least a year ago, but I don't think I've ever used either one. So I decided to combine them to make a traditional, country-style Christmas card.

First off, I'll mention that this design is slightly smaller than a standard A2-size card, which is 5-1/2" x 4-1/2". My card is 4" wide because that works better with a 12" x 12" card stock. The base of my card is kraft card stock, so with the narrower size, I was able to cut three card bases from one 12" x 12" sheet of card stock. Likewise, the top background layer (the snowflakes) is 4" x 4", so I was able to cut nine pieces from one sheet of DSP (that's how many cards I made of this design). My card is also a bit shorter -- 5-1/4" instead of 5-1/2" -- but that's because I measured something wrong for the first card. Instead of redoing it, I decided to just go with it and make all the cards a little shorter.

The rest of the card front is pretty self-explanatory. I added another piece of the DSP along the bottom of the card and covered the seam between the two pieces with ribbon. I used Dimensionals to attach the die-cut tree, tied green baker's twine below the ribbon and added a bit of gold with a few sequins and a star on the tree.

Inside the card I adhered a layer of Very Vanilla card stock stamped with a sentiment. I wanted to add a little "something," and the tree shape on the front of the card reminded me that I had a roll of green glitter tape cut into this fun tree pattern. The green isn't the same as the tree on the front, but that's okay. I cut a strip of three trees for each card and placed them just below the sentiment.

I had originally intended this to be a quick, simple card design because I have another big card-making project I'm working on. Of course all the die-cutting, layering, bow tying, etc., took me much longer than anticipated. But they are done, and I'm happy. I still haven't finished my other project, though, so I'm not sure how much blogging I'll get to next week. I will do my best, and as always, thanks for stopping by!