Hi, there! You probably aren’t thinking of Christmas cards yet. We’re still in early April and Easter just ended, but I looooove making Christmas cards all year and have one to share today. Not very traditional with a sheepdog on the front, but I know just who to send this to.
I colored up Christmas Sheepdog (with hat) very quickly using my Copics. There’s also a version without the hat. I colored the fur uneven and streaky on purpose. I didn’t want to take the time to do real fur, but I also didn’t want it completely flat.
After die cutting my colored piece to a rectangle with faux stitching around the edge using a die from My Favorite Things, I adhered it directly to a top fold card base made out of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink. Initially, I wanted green, but none of my green card stock colors were a good match (green is tricky), and this grey from Papertrey Ink is beautiful!
I pulled out my usual cluster supplies – mini paper doily from Doodlebug Design, the Happy Days Ticket Stubs die from XCut and my Fishtail Flag Frames dies from My Favorite Things. They’re staples whenever I make embellishment clusters.
Rummaging through my drawer of Christmas patterned paper scraps, I found these lovely green ones from the Christmas in Norway collection from Pion Design, and used the dies to cut out a few pieces to go on my card. I also used a die from Papirdesign to die cut a pine branch, just to add something different to the mix.
I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS onto one of the banners, heat embossing it in white, before assembling my cluster and adding it to the card with foam squares to build up the layers. I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the card was finished.
Very limited color palette for this one.
I stamped the flowers in fadeout ink from Inkon3, before coloring them in with Copics and fussy cutting up to the line.
I die cut Hello three times from white card stock and stacked the die cuts for dimension. The die is from a die set that came with my Gemini when I bought it two years ago, and this is the first time I used it. It has a swirl going down at the bottom of the H that connects to the o, but I chopped that off. 
I added sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s cards on or near the flowers and the sentiment, and my card was complete.
Not a whole lot of Copics used for this image, it IS simple, after all. I also used V97, which is a color I’ve made myself. 
I started by coloring the polar bear (
I love the snowflake circle die from Hero Arts and have used it many times before. I die cut a window into the center of the front of my card base, and at first thought that would be it. Once it morphed into a trifold, though, it was so back heavy that I needed an additional two die cut windows on top of the card base for some strength and stability. I used the largest of the A2 Stitched Rectangles from My Favorite Things to create a nice finished edge to the top layer.
For the inside panel that you can see from the front, I stamped the 
I stamped a sentiment from the 
In this photo it’s pretty evident that the three layers of panels with die cut windows add a nice bit of dimension, as well as stability to what would otherwise be a pretty floppy card front, since the window is so big. I use 110 lb white card stock (Stamper’s Select White from Papertrey Ink), which is a nice, sturdy card stock, but with that big of a window, the only thing that will work is using several layers.
I added white pearls from Kort & Godt to the center of the snowflakes. 3 mm pearls for the largest snowflakes, 2.5 mm pearls for all the others.
Lots and lots of Copics for this one. I used 20 markers to color just the bear, 10 for his fur alone, which is a little bit crazy.
I’m starting with this bear, ready for a party! The papers in the P13 collections don’t have individual names, they just have numbers, and I fussy cut this bear from 05. I die cut a piece of 01 using a die from Papirdesign, tearing the edges for an uneven look and glued it straight onto my 4 bar top fold card base, before adding the bear with foam tape for dimension.
03 in this collection from P13 has wide, diagonal stripes in different colors. I cut it down to strips, and used them to emboss my sentiments to get the perfect color matches. The sentiment on this card is from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things. I added the sentiment strip using foam tape, and finished off the card with some sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
For my second card I covered the entire card front with the back of the 05 sheet. Most of the papers in this collection have lots of images on the front, and are more plain on the back, of course with colors that coordinate. The little mouse on a unicycle is from the 02 sheet, and again I used 03 to stamp my sentiment on. This sentiment is also from My Favorite Things, it’s from the Pawty Time stamp set.
I die cut a chevron pattern from white card stock using a die from Papirdesign and adhered it directly to my patterned paper card front, before popping up the image on foam tape, and the sentiment on even more foam tape. Again I added sequins from the White Orchid Sequin mix to finish the card.
Card number 3. Now, I’m not sure whether this is a cat or a tiger, but whatever he is, he’s definitely ready to party. I fussy cut him from the 02 sheet, and I used the back of the same sheet to cover the card front. Once again, I popped the image on foam tape for dimension.
I used the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set again, and this time I used some clear gems from the Crystal Glass collection from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to embellish.
I made the last card for today very simple. I die cut the same hole pattern as I used for the first card, only this time in white card stock for a bit of textured interest in the background. The cat is from the 05 sheet, which I used a lot of for these cards.
I added the cat using foam tape, the sentiment using more foam tape and those white sequins once again. These cards were so much fun to create, and I’ve got more in upcoming posts.
I colored up the boy version of 
Near the top right corner, I randomly stamped part of an old background stamp from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous. I thought the small text on the stamp would pair well with the newspaper in the image and stamped pieces of it at an angle with Memento Espresso Truffle ink. I didn’t even put the stamp in my Misti or on an acrylic block, I bunched it in my hand and stamped, giving it less of a rigid feel, since the stamping is uneven. I added my colored and stamped panel onto a card base made from Blueberry card stock from My Favorite Things, and a small cluster on top of my stamping.
I die cut some patterned paper scraps with a couple of dies from XCut and My Favorite Things to create my cluster. The blue piece is from Papirdesign, the other two from the Happy Birthday collection from P13. I stamped a sentiment from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things onto the orange banner using Hero Arts Soft Granite ink. I finished off with three enamel dots from Papirdesign and added Glossy Accents to the boy’s glasses.
Not a huge amount of colors. For the soles of his slippers I actually used the two lightest colors that I used for his hair (E31 and 30).
Papirmølla 