We have been doing a lot of designing with Christmas elements lately to provide some early inspiration for the Christmas season. I love that Nellie's has made scalloped dies as companion dies for the straight lined die-sets. This beautiful set of scalloped circles and straight circles will provide you with lots of opportunities for lovely layering. Below is an easy Christmas door card. The wreath is made from two scalloped circle dies with a straight edge circle die used to cut the centre. The edge of the green cardstock was distressed with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and the two circles have been separated with foam tape. The door panels were cut from specked cardstock, distressed with Antique Linen Distress Ink and raised with foam tape. I love the finishing touch of a square brad (or a round brad) for the door handle. The Memory Box Tiny Bow comes in three pieces and makes a sweet dimensional bow (the one used on the card was an old punch which is unavailable). This card works well when you want to create a number of cards very simply and quickly.

You could always add a small Merry Christmas on the bottom right door panel to complete this card for Christmas mailing.

Sometimes its difficult to think of card styles for young teens or a favourite nephew. This sneaker stamp from Deep Red is a great bold image to base your design on. In the sample below, we used Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn direct to an acrylic block. You will want to stamp off lightly once and then stamp the block onto your white panel. We then stamped the sneakers three times in Black VersaFine. The finishing touch is the Distress Spritz using the Salty Ocean marker. The spritzer works best if the marker tip sits about an eight of an inch longer past the marker ledge. When you squeeze the ball, you need a fairly short and fast movement so the air can actually blow the ink from the marker. If you hold the spritzer close to your cardstock, you will have quite a burst of colour. If you want a finer spray, work about an elbow's length away from your cardface. The sentiment is from Impression Obsession and it works for all ages of people.

 



This distress spritzer will work with any of your markers. The barrel piece even comes out to allow for wider markers, like a Copic Marker.

Magenta has manufactured these wonderful stencils and templates which will allow stampers to create detailed scenery for backgrounds. The template set has 10 different pieces with smooth and jagged edges for layering. In the card below, we have used Peeled Paint Distress Ink for the grass, and we used Broken China for the two mountain ranges, and Tumbled Glass for the sky. The branch stamp is from Magenta as well. I love that the stamp such detail in the leaves and twigs. The deer were sponged with Distress Vintage Photo.

These new products from magenta will be a great addition to your arsenal at such a reasonable cost. This technique will allow you to create some quick cards when needed.

Some new products from Sizzix! I really loved working with the Sand and Sea set of dies. In the sample shown below we actually did use sandpaper to die-cut the starfish which offered a very unique texture on a tag. The seahorse has been cut from grunge-paper, and Distress Inks were used to colour it. The small bit of grey die-cut open mesh at the top of the tag is called Cobblestone. We did use the waves folder to add the lovely water lines and coloured with Distress Inks in browns and blues. I love both the waves and bubbles folders in the set. The bubbles folder is going to make an intriguing background for any water-themed card.

The seahorse on the package shown was first painted grey-blue, and then clear crackle paint was applied on top. When the paint dries you can apply Walnut stain ink and mist with water so that the dark brown fills in the crevices. As always, these designs have so many uses especially the cobblestone. I see it more as a webbing design element, but if you used the webbing with some paste thru it you would have cobblestones. Or perhaps reptile scales!

These lovely large dies are from Sizzix/Tim Holtz. I was fortunate enough to see them and play with some prototypes in March. So glad they have finally arrived! Each package comes with the Sizzix die and the matching embossing folder to create great detail on the surface of your diecut. The bugs each range aprox. 4 x5 inches. As these are the thick cutting dies from Sizzix, you will be able to cut chipboard, some fabrics and plastics with these wonderful dies. Each piece of this kit works well as a stand alone whether you used just the die, or just the embossing folder. In the canvas shown to the left, we used Viva Décor paints and Inca Gold and Glitter Pens.

As everything you look at these days is involving mixed media of one description or another, these dies are a perfect size to embellish your wall-art.

I know we all have far too many embossing folders, but the pack below from Sizzix shows some lovely framing options. I love what Bev did with this card using a raised oval inside the oval frame to highlight the Hero Arts dandelion stamp. The pink printed cardstock used to frame the card, the oval and die-cut flowers is from Papercuts which sells for 50 cents a sheet (8.5 x 11). This printed cardstock is exceptional because the print is on both sides. The tiny gold butterfly stickers are a really nice finishing touch for any flower card. The sentiment is from Magenta and I love the size of it. I have actually cut my cling stamp into two pieces for times when I want to arrange it differently.

The second folder that is shown in brown cardstock also has an elegant oval opening to frame a larger salutation or a stamped oval insert.

The new pivot dies from Elizabeth Crafts are much easier to create with than you might think. The main die is the house and fence, and as you can see in the picture, all of the other elements are separate dies. The way these dies have been manufactured, you will need to cut apart the fine connecting wires with a wire snip. In the card below, Bev has used some trees, grass, and a walkway stamp from Stampscapes. The sky has been created with Broken China Distress Ink. You will find marvelous videos if you search the designers name Karen Burniston, under YouTube. Also you'll want to check out her amazing blog for numerous design suggestions involving this series of dies.

Can't you just picture this house all done in white with some snowy trees for a lovely Christmas card? It's never too early to start your Christmas cards!!!