Inspiration: SheetLoad of Cards February 2024
I decided to play with the February SheetLoad of Cards sketch. I was looking at paper options and realized I could probably use up the rest of my Mad 4 Plaid paper pad (which I am glad to see I did!). I only had three full sheets left, but since the pieces are all small, I was able to cut what I needed out of leftover papers.
I picked Cherry Cobbler for my card base and Always Artichoke cardstock for the matting. For the sentiment, I found this beautiful font stamp that has the beginning of the French version of "O Christmas Tree" and it fit the circle perfectly. I embossed my sentiment with sparkly gold embossing powder and since I was not finding that the white was standing out enough, though, I added a layer of gold foil paper. Inspired by the gold, I also tied a piece of narrow gold ribbon around the horizontal strip and added two gold foil pearls to the top right corner.
This was my initial design and it looked very elegant, but the sentiment felt a little out of place, so I got the idea of pulling out the Bottle Brush Trees stamp set from Tim Holtz. I was very happy when Simon Says Stamp decided to offer matching dies for this set in December, knowing this would stretch the use of the set for me, and this was my first chance to test them out. They produce a much better result than fussy cutting would. I tested out three combinations: stamped in Always Artichoke on white cardstock, embossed in sparkly gold powder on white and embossed in sparkly gold powder on Always Artichoke cardstock. While the one on dark cardstock looks beautiful when it hits the light, the images were otherwise getting lost. The one in ink looked nice, but the gold trees gave elegance to the card, so I went with that option for the remaining cards.
I stamped the trees in green ink on white envelopes and added patterned paper to some of the flaps, but I did not have enough paper to do them all. I lined the inside of the cards with a layer of white cardstock (to facilitate writing a message) and stamped the small tree in green ink there as well.
I am loving the content creators that are preparing sketches and instructions like Alicia does for her SheetLoad monthly feature. This is helping me prepare cards for donations and also getting through my stash of paper, as I am finding that it is lasting a long time when I do individual designs. Stash busting is still very high on my list of resolutions in 2024.
Supplies
Stamps: Bottle Brush Trees (Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous); Classiques de Noël (Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Basic White, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke (Stampin' Up!);
A6 Rich Gold Mirri Mats (Hunkydory)
Patterned Papers: Mad 4 Plaid Christmas (Photoplay)
Ink: Always Artichoke, VersaMark (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: 1/8" Gold Ribbon, White Medium Envelopes, 2½" and 2-3/8" Circle Punches,
Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); Brilliant Sparkle White Gold Embossing Powder (Cosmic Shimmer);
Gold Foil Pearls (Studio Katia); Bottle Brush Trees Dies (Simon Says Stamp)
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