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 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 first one might not even technically be a proper slimline card. It’s about 7-3/4 x 3-3/4″. I’ve used beautiful patterned paper from P13 for both my cards. I wanted the paper to be the hero, so I didn’t do too much to it. The sheet I used for this card is 
I used a 
My second card uses a different part of that same sheet of patterned paper, as well as the same slimline die from Pinkfresh Studio. The sentiment is even die cut using a die from the same set as the sentiment on my first card. 
On this one I have four layers stacked on top of each other, then a vellum circle, then another four layers of the negative word die, making this sentiment really stand out as a statement on my card. 
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. 
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.
I wanted a soft color palette for my card, so I have no colors that are really dark in this image. The darkest marker I used is E57, and it’s contained to the hair on one of the fairies, the flower centers and the ladybug.
Once I’d colored the entire panel, I took the largest of the dies from the Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set from My Favorite Things to turn it into a panel and create a nice border on the front of my card. I knew from the start that I wanted my sentiment inside the balloon, but I couldn’t decide on white or black. I thought the white might not pop enough against the yellow balloon, but I also knew that the end of the pigtail on the fairy would mess with any black stamping, making the letter illegible. In the end, I went with the white, but you can hardly see it in the photos against that lightest yellow. I might go in with a water brush and the refill for the darkest color I used on the balloon to darken it up later. I don’t want to ruin the nibs of my markers by touching the embossing, but refill and water brush with a little bit of blender solution will work without ruining anything.
I finished my card by adding some groupings of sequins and Jewels from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards. I used the Iced Sherbet mix for this card.
Last, but certainly not least, are the colors I used for my image.
As usual, I colored my image in with my Copic before die cutting it down to a panel using a stitched reclangle die from My Favorite Things. I glued it to a card base I made from Stormy Sky cardstock from Papertrey Ink, also a gorgeous color, and it matches my coloring pretty well.
I didn’t want to do too much to distract from my coloring, so I die cut a God jul (Merry Christmas) sentiment using a die from Papirdesign and that same color cardstock as my base, and glued that next to the little girl. I didn’t even stack several die cuts on top of each other like I normally would.
I finished my card by gluing on some diamonds from the Glass mix in the Crystal Collection from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Those last six colors in this graphic? All the colors I used to create the red scarf (I only used E08 for the red on the bird).
Papirmølla 