Christmas Snowflakes with Phil Martin

I have an adorable set of Christmas stamps by Phil Martin designed to work with Sue Wilson's frame dies. The dies come in sets of squares, circles, rectangles and oval shapes and are large so will work with your 8x8 inch cards.  They have a neat pin prick around the borders of the dies.  I was never very good at doing the pin pricks with a ruler so these dies are a godsend.  I once enquired whether these could be made and was told it wasn't possible so that shows how far the die industry has come!

Along with the Christmas stamp range there is also matching paper.  The stamp range has a border to fit nicely around the frame as shown below.  There are also sentiment stamps as well as large frame rubber stamps that are oval, round, square and retangle.  These are great quality stamps and can be found here on Phil's website.

Above is a card I have made using these dies and stamps.  I have also created one for my parents for Christmas.  I will be experimenting more with these at a later date.

Christmas Winter Wishes

I have a fab winter wreath to use with my  Cameo Silhouette.  Here I have re-sized it to fit a 7x7 card and a Tonic Winter Wishes die to add a sentiment in the middle of the card.

This second one was done in cream cardstock and a pretty blue background.

It is one of my favourites, what do you think?

Christmas Shapeabilities Dies-Reindeer and Sleigh

Today I am sharing with you two different ways I have used two of my Spellbinder Shapeability Reindeer and Sleigh dies to make Christmas Cards.  

The first is used against a background made with an embossing folder, one of Sheena Douglass's.  I like this folder with the trees as a backdrop.  I made a frame to fit over the background using one of Sue Wilson's large frames then fitted this onto cardstock that I had embossed with little reindeer repeated over the background.

This time round I had some pretty paper with a subtle image of a house in the background.  Again, I framed the image and used my Winter Wishes die from Tattered Lace as the sentiment.

I love the crisp white look to these.

Cameo Silhouette made Christmas Cards

I have some designs from Lori Whitlock to use with my Cameo Silhouette I purchased in the Cameo Silhouette Design Store.

These were currently sized to fit a card that is 5.5 x 5.x5 which isn't a size I use so I decided to resize them to fit my existing 6x6 cardstock.  This would also mean I wouldn't have to cut a card to place the elements on as I could use my existing stock.

In order to achieve this I drew a line that was 6 inches in length.  I then grouped all the elements and resized them as a group image by placing the 6 inch line against the element that is the card template and then was able to tell when it was the correct size.

The first is "Oh Holly Night".

Followed by a happy Santa wishing you a Ho, Ho, Ho at Christmas.

  Lori called this style of card a "pop up" card but I didn't think that was what we would call it in the UK. 

If anybody knows the style of this card, please can they let me know, thank you.

Die'sire Die - Create a Card Christmas

These are some of my favourite Create a Card Christmas dies brought out this year from Crafter's Companion.  They measure 5x5 so great for the smaller card and there are also die sentiments that are 5x2 to use with these. You can view the complete collection here.

I have found these dies cut well and can be used in a variety of ways to create different style cards so today I am sharing with you the different ways I have used them.

The first is created using two pieces of card that have been joined together by overlapping them. You can purchase cardstock for this particular style card which I am longing to get hold of although you would need to use a machine where you reverse the feed so you didn't squash the already cut and embossed design the other end!  A machine operated by hand would work or the new Gemini electric machine.

I cut both elements out onto two cards before I joined them together.  This way the embossing is equally visible on both cards.  I then cut another in blue cardstock and made it slightly larger than the area it would sit on so that it would bow forward.  The panels on the half sides were backed with blue cardstock so that the centre of the card is hidden until the moment the card is opened.  

This card shows how the die can be used in the centre of the inside of the card.

This card illustrates that some cards can be simple but equally effective with the addition of some printed cardstock stuck to the inside of the card.

Here I have demonstrated how the 5x2 sentiments work well with these dies and fit nicely together on an A5 card.  I made the wreath some time back and didn't know what to do with it.  It seems to work really well placed on this card.

The sentiment has been used underneath the Create a Card die.  I prefer it below as in this example.  I have used navy cardstock behind the white card and decorated the card to add that wintery look with snow.

Here I have used Kraftcard and die ink to highlight the edges.  I saw a card similar to this which sold the dies to me.  Kraftcard can be very effective on cards and it works particularly well in this colour scheme.

Well this is the collection to date.  Like I said I am really pleased with these dies.  The designs are clear and cut particularly well in my Craftwell Cut 'n' Boss machine.  The embossing stands out well.

Crafters Companion Nordic Christmas Cards

Crafters Companion have this wonderful Scandinavian style festive Nordic Christmas papercrafting collection which is really adorable.   

I printed off a few images and teamed them up with my scene stepper die to create these wonderful cards.

This was the first one I made shortly followed on by this one.

The little houses are really cute.  

The card above was created using a stamp on Craft card then coloured in.  It's not an original but I really liked the concept and wanted to give it a go.


Then I had a go at stamping on a background I had created with one of my dies.  I love this die from Spellbinders.  It has the tiny poinsetta flowers to adorn your frame.  It cuts so beautifully as you can see. The blue cardstock was put in an embossing folder from Crafters Companion that has pairs of reindeers on the design. 

Hunkydory - Stylish Silhouettes - A White Christmas

I had so much fun working with these Stylish Silhouettes from Hunkydory and as you can see have made so many cards and they are all very different.

 

 

I created the background with inks and then stamped on the trees to make a bright winter card.

This is a a background created on acetate using coloured tissue powder and Pixie Powders with mica in them.

I created a wash of colour on the background before decorating the individual baubles.

This card was made using the paperpad that I purchased with the matching stamps for this collection.  I have used dies to cut out the baubles and then lay cardstock behind.  The proportions are just right.

 

This was another one made using the paperpad and a lovely wreath die by Chloe.

This card was put in an embossing folder then I used a piece of acetate that I had leftover which has the tissue paper technique for the background with pixie powders.

 

Here is my first snow globe card.  I have used the matching stamps to create this.

 

Another card using the paper pad.  This time I cut an aperture out and hung baubles on the front of the acetate window.  The paper behind is from Phil Martin's paperpad.

 
I love the simplicity of this card.  

 

Again, this one is simplicistic and well balanced.

The wreath's in the paperpack are ideal for creating little scenes in.

This isn't an original but I loved it so much I had to recreate it with my own spin!

Again, I think I copied this idea but put my own spin on it.

So beautiful!

This was fun to make.  I used one my dies from Crafter's Companion along the edge of the frame.  Doesn't it work well!  Again the background is acetate that was decorated with Pixie Powders and tissue paper.  It is one of my favourite cards.

 And here is another favourite.  I inked the cardstock around the edges and used matching gems to decorate the wreath with.
 

I thought it was a great idea to use the frames that the Stylish Sihouettes were attached to.  Again I did a colour wash over the background.  It has made a lovely dramatic background.  I did the same on the card below.

I have used an acetate to cover the front of card here.  Another idea I liked and wanted to try.

Again, I have been creating a background with inks and all the little houses are coloured black.

This was a sample in the book that came with the Stylish Silhouettes.  I love the use of pink and green together.

Another colour wash was used for the background on the next two cards. 

I was trying to tell the story by dividing the card up in panels.

Well that was the last of the cards.  I have a few bits leftover but as you can see the Stylish Silhouettes made a lot of cards.  I also still have the paperpad left and the stamps.

This has to be my most favourite Christmas papercrafting kit of the season.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my cards.