Hi, everyone! I’ve got another Christmas card to share today, this time featuring Letter to Santa from Rachelle Anne Miller.
This card was a bit of an evolution. Things really didn’t go my way, but I was able to fix it all in the end. The piece of Papertrey Ink Stormy Sea card stock I was planning to use was a teeny tiny bit smaller than I needed to be (and I’m running seriously low on that particular color), so I used a die from Waffle Flower to cut it down a little, and it’s now 4-1/8 x 5-3/8″. I cut the center portion out to use for later, no one will ever know that there’s a whole in the center of it. I glued it to a top folding white card base, creating a nice 1/16″ border around the perimeter. Problem number 1 solved.
Problem number 2: My hair was wet from showering when I started assembling this card, and there was a drop of water that fell on the bear’s head. Solution: Sprinkle on chunky white embossing powder from Stampendous and melt the powder with my heat gun…
… which led me to problem number 3. My heat gun was too hot and I burned the panel. It’s not super visible in the photo, but it tuned the piece yellowish right underneath the pole. Solution: use Copics to color the snow under the bear in a similar color, making everything look intentional.
My final struggle was figuring out where to put the sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS. I wanted it on the right side of the card, but it just wasn’t working, so I stamped and heat embossed it a second time with the fishtail end on the right and put it on foam tape on the left side of the front instead. I think it worked pretty well. I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things From Lucy’s Cards as my final touches.
I colored this image a while back, but only now had time to turn it into a card. I considered using a red card base for this, but really wanted the girl to pop, so I went with my trusty blue. This time I chose Blue Yonder card stock from My Favorite Things.
I die cut the panel with the girl and the polar bear with the largest faux stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things from their Stitched Rectangles STAX 2 set of dies.
I used another faux stitch die to create the little circle for my sentiment, which is a stamp from Norsk Stempelblad AS. I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark ink and sprinkled on super fine detail embossing powder from Ranger before heating that until it melted.
I mounted my little circle sentiment with foam tape and had planned to leave it at that, but I managed to spill a drop of coffee on the snow portion of my image and needed to cover that up. One single sequin would look silly, so I added a few more to make it look intentional. No one will ever know that there’s a coffee stain under that smallest one. The sequins are sparkling clear from Pretty Pink Posh.
I use a crazy amount of markers to color snow…
I did no line coloring of the 
I adhered my panels with tape runner and 1 mm foam squares. Each panel has a little bit of dimension towards the top, while the rest is adhered using tape runner onto a slimline card base I created from After Midnight card stock from My Favorite Things. I used the piece that was left over to create my sentiment, which I die cut three times using a die from the Let it snow die set from Mama Elephant. My last finishing touch was a few snowflake sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Limited color palette this time. I also used B90, which is a color I’ve made myself.
This color palette is definitely not the norm for me, but I was surprised at how much I like it. I think the secret was finding a pink combo I liked that wasn’t a screaming hot pink, and that also had a bit of contrast within it. Even better – my pink color combo matches the Autumn Rose color from Papertrey Ink, so I created my cardbase from a sheet of Autumn Rose cardstock and even stamped a few snowflakes from an old Simon Says Stamp stamp set (Holiday Envelope Sentiments) on the envelope using Autumn Rose ink. The envelope itself is a Deluxe white slimline envelope from My Favorite Things.
After coloring all my snowmen with Copics, I added a sprinkling of chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous and heated my panel from the back until all the granules had melted. It warped quite a bit, so I ran the panel through my Gemini Jr without any dies, just sandwiching the panel between my cutting plates. That took care of the warping, and I could continue by gluing the panel of snowmen to the cardbase, before popping up a Norsk Stempelblad AS heart sentiment that I stamped using Autumn Rose ink. I also added a few Crafty Moly snowflakes that I covered in three layers of white embossing powder.
RV99, R56, RV34 and RV32 – who would have guessed that it made such a pretty pink? Not me, that’s for sure, but I’m glad I stumbled upon this combo.
The stamp set comes with this quote, and many others. The quote comes with the name centered, but I wanted it right aligned, so I did some minor tweaking in Photoshop before I printed.
I die cut my panel using a rectangle die from Waffle Flower and added it to a card base made from Canyon Clay cardstock from Papertrey Ink. This card is slightly smaller than my regular A2 cards, it measures 4 x 5-1/4″.
I added a few orange sequins (and one clear) from the Candy Corn sequins mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and my card was complete.
For something so simple, I used quite a few Copics. 
I love this 
I felt like I’ve colored up far too many red Christmas images lately, so I didn’t want even a hint of red on this one. The blue bow totally works, I think, the same is true of the blue, green and hint of yellow on the bird that I tried to color up like a Eurasian Blue Tit. I die cut my image using a stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things.
I glued my panel onto a cardbase made from Enchanted Evening cardstock from Papertrey Ink, and stamped a sentiment from the Holiday Messages stamp set from Mama Elephant using Enchanted Evening ink, and my card was complete. I didn’t add any embellishments to this, I wanted the image to shine.
Speaking of the image, here are the colors I used. I also used B90, which is a color I’ve made myself, on her scarf.
I stamped, colored and diecut the bunny a couple of days ago, so he was ready to go. I wanted the background stamp from that same stamp set to be in the shaker, and also going across. The shaker portion was stamped using Extreme Black ink, then colored with Copics, while the parts on the outside were stamped and white heat embossed on vellum and colored on the back. You don’t want to ruin the tips of your Copics by touching the embossing, so the back’s a great option when using vellum, because it still shows through.
I like my shakers done a certain way. I use a die slightly bigger than my shaker window to die cut several times from white cardstock. I stack my negative die cuts (for this card it was 7), glue them together and glue a thin strip of cardstock to the inside of my negative diecut stack. That way, none of the sequins or other bits in the shaker get stuck anywhere, but can shake freely in their little confined space.
I used a sequin mix from Hero Arts for the inside of the shaker. It’s a mix of matte white sequins and clear sequins, as well as iridescent star confetti. I’m not usually a fan of iridescent elements on my cards, but for a night time Christmas shaker, I don’t mind.
Not too many Copics used for this one! And the red one that says B97 should say R27, I must have undone the correct one before I saved my graphic in Photoshop.
I colored in my little scene using more Copics, die cut that using the same die, then fussy cut around the trees, snow and house. I added a sprinkling of snow by heat embossing chunky white embossing enamel on both panels. I glued my blue background to a cardbase I made from Pure Poppy cardstock from Papertrey Ink and added the rest of the scene on top using 1 mm foam squares – lots of them! I added a stacked die cut sentiment using a die from the So Many Snowmen die set from Mama Elephant and my card was done.
I didn’t use too many colors on this, and most of these were actually used on the sky and the snow.
I stamped a couple of penguins running into the scene to assist the little mouse decorating the tree. The sky that you see at the top is actually the inside.
In this photo the card is half open. I used the die with the snowbanks and trees from a coordinating die set to cut the top of my front. I traced on the back and used a knife and scissors to fussy cut a mirrored version of the die cut line for the the inside.
And this is it. Another Christmas tree, a couple of bunnies, a few more penguins and the rest of the sentiment. I had so much fun coloring this, and kept everything else very simple. I used the new Sending Christmas Joy die to die cut the letters for Christmas twice from Blue Breeze card stock. I glued the two layers together for each of the letters and added it below my horizon line. I’d planned this out carefully so there would be room between the stack of presents on the penguin’s head and the bunny’s ear on the right. I stamped the word Cheer from the Christmas Cheer stamp set in light blue ink right over my coloring. I’m glad I didn’t mess that up!
I thought I’d include some close ups. I wasn’t sure which color to choose for the sweater on this little mouse. I didn’t want it green, because it was next to the tree, and I didn’t want red, because there’s already enough of that. I figured why not go for the same “gold” color as I used for the baubles and the string on the tree. I think it worked out pretty good. I also wanted the tree to be a different green than the green I used for the clothing on the other animals, so I added some YG90s to the tree as well as the BG90s I’ve used elsewhere.
I love adding textured fur to my penguins. Penguins are usually lighter towards the underside of their “arms” (Flaps? Wings? What are they, really?), so I tried to mimic that a little in these ones. A lot of them also have yellow on their bellies. I couldn’t decide between gray or orange feet and beaks, so I went gray with a hint of orange. I think it turned out pretty good.
More gold, red and green. I never thought I’d use these colors on a Christmas card, they’re so not me. Adding texture on the fur of that tiny penguin was a challenge, but you can definitely see it, at least on his head.
I had no idea which colors to choose for my little fox, there are so many to choose from. In the end I think I ended up with a total of 6 colors for his fur, 8 if you include the lighter parts. I went with a warm gray ribbon on his present. I obviously couldn’t choose red or green, I already had those right next to it. The same was true of the E40s (his belly). I used warm grays on the last bunny as well, so it all ties together.
Speaking of – here he is. Warm gray fur, with a hint of E43 here and there. He’s holding a tiny candy cane, and I somehow managed to get 5 different red shades in there. I wanted it to look like he was entering the card from the right, so I made footprints behind him in the snow.
A total of 57 Copics. It’s actually 58, because for the sky I also used B90, which is a color I’ve created myself.
This is a small, but mighty one. It may look very unassuming as a 2-3/4″ square shaker card, but there’s a secret. It opens up to be quite big in the end. The shaker itself is filled with sequins, gems and a few die cuts in colored cardstock die cut using one of the dies in the Tag Builder Blueprint 5 set. I cut them down a little with my scissors and cut the ends off so they wouldn’t get tangled inside the shaker.
The gorilla from the Picture Perfect Party Animals stamp set covers the entire front, but there’s a magnetic flap on the back, and once you undo that, more is revealed.
Flip the gorilla over, and you’ve got more animals ready to join the party. I used the yellow polka dot pattern from the Party Patterns paper pad for even more fun and a way to get even more happy color into my card. These three panels are flaps that open to the sides (two to the right and one to the left) to reveal even more…
The last three (technically four, since there are two parrots in that one selfie) animals are ready to party. They’re tucked inside pockets, and I’ve stamped a couple of the sentiments that come with the stamp set onto Razzle Berry heavyweight cardstock from MFT and heat embossed them. That pink really packs a punch. I die cut my sentiments using the largest of the Fishtail Flag Frames dies, and cut down another patterned paper from the Party Patterns paper pad to strips that included the yellow, green and pink colors that I have throughout my card. I also added some die cut streamers from the Tag Builder Blueprint 5 die set using Razzle Berry, Pineapple and Limelight cardstock, all from MFT.
You can pull the selfies out of their pockets, and there’s room to write a personal message to the birthday boy or girl on the back of the selfies. The best thing about this card is that no specialty dies are required, this is all done with a paper trimmer, score board, bone folder, craft knife and a steel ruler. I prefer the craft knife and steel ruler over the paper trimmer, but that goes way back to my days of creating architectural models. Those knives are handy!
There you have it, my entry for the Innovation Master category for MFT’s annual superstar contest.
Papirmølla 