With my love of retro-inspired things with a modern kick, I tend to appreciate the lines Steven Duncan designs for Carta Bella. The Merry Christmas has that mix of vintage baubles, old-fashioned Christmas trees and nicely-dressed people getting ready for the Holidays. While the designs are absolutely gorgeous, they are not necessarily easy to design with because those papers are crowded! I was trying to decide where to get started with the paper stack and the Christmas Tree dies from Lawn Fawn caught my eye. Those dies are not new, they were released last year. They are new to me, though, because I was late to the parade getting them. I scored the frame dies during a sale at my local store, but unfortunately, she didn't have the Ouside In dies that matched so I soon realized that this was creating a difficulty for making shakers since I didn't have the matching piece for the back. It goes without saying that there are many things that I could have create with that set of dies on their own, but because they were purchased after the Holidays, I have moved on to other seasonal projects and it got left behind - until this week.
I finally managed to purchased the other dies I wanted, and when I spotted the patterned paper with the tree branches and hanging ornaments, I thought it'd look great die-cut with the tree. It felt a little bare on its own, but I used the other green paper from the same stack to do the frame and that's when I got the idea of pulling out the newly released Mini String of Lights dies to decorate the front of my shaker. Those light bulbs take a while to put together because you need two die-cuts for each - the light with the little hole for the light reflection and the full piece to back it with (in this instance, white). You can thankfully die-cut four lights at at time, which I did in three colors of cardstock, then I did all my white, and the strings in an emerald green. I pulled out my glue pen and got working on it. It's easy but it takes a minute or twenty. I used a black foam sheet to create a raised frame. I keep trying that technique but the foam gets squished when going through the Big Shot and ends up being slightly larger than the die-cut paper so it shows. It's less obvious when using black foam instead of white, but still, the best option still remains stacking die-cut cardstock. Because the tree is so large, I decided the foam sheet would be a more economical option, though. I thought for sure I would have green sequins to fill the tree with, but it turns out I only have pale mint or olive green, which would have clashed, so I went with Moonstone sequins. It turned out great, I think the sparkle highlights the other elements so it was a good choice.
The top of the tree was decorated with a star. (I realized after I was done that I had the choice of two stars, since there's one in every die set, and I ended up picking the smaller one, where I think the bigger one would have fit better...) I covered the yellow cardstock with Liquid Stardust to make it shine, and it still felt a little bare, so I pulled out a gold faceted gem, which completed the look nicely.
For the envelope, I picked a Sapphire metallic envelope, added a die-cut from one of the patterned papers and finished it off with two light bulb puffy stickers. The inside of the card was decorated with the little pieces of light bulb strings I had left from trimming the tree. I rarely make cards with no stamping, so this is fun and different—yet still me because of all the cutesy thrown in there.
Supplies
Cardstock: Bordering Blue, Hello Honey, Poppy Parade, Whisper White
Patterned Papers and Puffy Stickers: Merry Christmas (Carta Bella)
Dies: Mini String of Lights, Stitched Christmas Tree Frames, Dotted Rectangle Stackables,
Outside In Stitched Christmas Tree Stackables (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Liquid Stardust (Lawn Fawn); Window Sheets, Gold Faceted Gems, Mini Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!);
A2 Sapphire Metallic Envelope (envelopes.com); Moonstone Sequins (Simon Says Stamp)
Comments