Hi! I’m sharing another red Christmas card today. I’ve been sharing a lot of red Christmas cards recently, I’m hoping to go back to normal colors soon 😉 I created a shaker card, focusing on the Snow Folk image from the Christmas 2021 release from Lili of the Valley. This digi set actually comes with two images. There’s one with a frame and a few additional stars and extra greenery and this pared back version that I used.
I printed the image on a 4 1/4 x 4 1/4″ piece of X-Press It blending card and colored in my scene using Copics. I don’t always color the sky behind my images, but for this one I knew I wanted to create a framed shaker card, and I colored the sky with a single marker, making sure it was nice and juicy before starting.
Using a couple of dies in a set of nesting squares from Lifestyle Crafts, I created a frame to go around my image. I taped the two squares together, so I could run them through my die cutting machine several times and be sure that the size of the frame would be the same with each pass through the machine. I die cut 8 of these frames, I wanted a very dimensional shaker card. I stacked 7 of them, glued them to my colored piece, added lots of sequins from the Icicle sequin mix from Hero Arts and glued the last die cut frame on top.
That’s when I ran into trouble. I wasn’t able to glue the frame onto the acetate so that it lined up with the others. I’d adhered it with score tape, so there was no way to remove it without ruining it. My solution was to die cut a new, larger frame with a slightly smaller window. I went one die larger for the outside and one die smaller for the inside for this frame, and adhered it directly onto the ones that were already there. It was a happy accident, because I’m really happy with the chunkier frame.
I added the shaker to a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2″ card base I created from Wild Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things, before stamping and white heat embossing a se23ntiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS to a separate piece of the same color cardstock, which I then die cut using a die from the Gemini Extra Deep Loving Tags die set from Crafter’s Companion. I adhered it directly to the inside top right corner of my shaker frame, and my card was finished.
Not a whole lot of colors for this card, in spite of all those stripes on the snowmen’s accessories.
I printed my image with gray lines so I could do no line coloring. Whenever I do this, I like keeping facial features black or a dark brown, so I don’t have to free hand draw them back in once I’m done coloring. It’s a neat little trick.
I die cut my colored panel using the largest die in the A2 Double Stitched Rectangle STAX die set from My Favorite Things and adhered it directly onto a cardbase I created from Amarena Cherry cardstock, also from My Favorite Things.
I die cut the word wishes five times from my red cardstock using a die from Mama Elephant. I stacked the words for a dimensional look and also stamped and white heat embossed the words Sweet and Christmas onto separate pieces of the same color cardstock. The stamped words are from two separate sentiments from the Bitty Bears stamp set from My Favorite Things. I love using pieces of sentiments from stamp sets to create new sentiments, it makes them more versatile.
I felt like I had to add a little something to this, so I pulled out my White Orchid Sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards and added them in a visual triangle on my card. This mix is one of my favorites, it’s right up there with the Sparkling clear mix from Pretty Pink Posh.
I don’t often create red Christmas cards, but when I can pair that red with a tealy blue, a light blue or a gray, I can make red work. I printed and colored the image onto a 3 1/4 x 6 1/4″ panel of X-Press It blending card, before sprinkling on lots of chunky white embossing enamel from Stampendous to make my scene extra snowy.
The patterned papers are all die cut from the 6×6″ Home for the Holidays paper stack from Maja Design. I love their patterns and their colors, and the colors in this stack are SO good, I couldn’t resist.
Mini slimline cards are fun to make. I really should make my envelopes as I go, but I’m not very consistent with that, I’m afraid, and will have lots of envelopes to create once we get a little closer to Christmas (we’ve got less than 100 days to go, by the way).
I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Holiday stamp set from My Favorite Things onto a scrap piece of patterned paper from that stack from Maja Design, and die cut that with the coordinating Itty Bitty Strips die.
I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the entire panel is adhered onto a card base I made from Wild Cherry cardstock from My Favorite Things. I love their cardstock!
As usual, I finish with my colors. Not a whole lot for this image.
These badgers are the 
I adhered my colored panel to a top fold card I made from Bright Buttercup cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I added a strip of that same cardstock below my image and left tons of white space. I printed a sentiment from the 
Simple color palette, of course with a pop of yellow in there.
I colored in the image using my Copics, adding footprints on the ground with my markers. Using the new Watercolor Wash Free Form die from My Favorite Things, I die cut a hole from the center of a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 panel of Classic Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. My Favorite Things released a stencil with this design back in July, and it’s awesome. Now there’s a die to match. I added two more layers of white behind my kraft panel to give it a little bit of dimension. I love how the little kid is looking back through the opening.
I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from the Itty Bitty Holiday set from My Favorite Things onto Scarlet Jewel cardstock from Papertrey Ink and die cut my sentiment using the coordinating Itty Bitty Strips die set. MFT has a stamp set called Itty Bitty Basics, which I love. Great sentiments in a font that will never go out of style, and it makes me so happy that they now have a Christmas one too – I love making Christmas cards. I added a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards to finish off my design.
Simple color palette. I always use lots of blues, purples and blue greens for the snow.
I put the penguins on a sheet of ice, made the ice no line and scattered baubles and stars around the ice to create a fun scene.
I colored in my scene using Copics, die cut my panel using a double stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things and decided to add a few little details for shine and texture. I added Rock Candy distress glitter to the stars, a dot of black glaze pen in each eye for a little bit of dimension and shine, and I also glued on some additional stars to the tree. The stars are from the Icicle sequin mix from Hero Arts.
I printed one of the sentiments in the scene creator set onto a piece of Aqua Sky cardstock from Concord & 9th, and die cut that using a die from My Favorite Things. I used the same die to die cut from some Grapefruit cardstock, another beautiful Concord & 9th color, and one that matches perfectly with the baubles I colored.
Near the sentiment, I added sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and that finishes my card.
I used lots of Copics for the ocean, the sheet of ice and the sky, not that many for everything else.
Enough blabbing. I printed the cute mouse onto a 1/4 sheet of X-Press It blending card, which is my favorite for Copic coloring. Using a stencil from My Favorite Things and Iceberg ink from Altenew, I did some very light ink blending around the image for a little bit of added interest before I started coloring.
Onto the “white” stripes on the bauble, I used my quickie glue pen from Sakura and sprinkled on Rock Candy Distress Glitter for a little bit of sparkle. You can kind of see it in this photo, but it’s more noticeable in real life.
I cut my panel down, added lots of foam tape to the back and added it to a top fold A2 note card that I created from Blueberry cardstock from My Favorite Things. Sadly, this is one of their discontinued colors, but I have a pack of this cardstock that I absolutely love, and this color is just beautiful. It’s dark blue, but not too dark, and it’s just the right tone of blue.
I stamped a sentiment from Norsk Stempelblad AS using Blue Yonder ink from My Favorite Things. I don’t have ink in the discontinued Blueberry color, and I didn’t want to use too dark of a blue ink, so I triple stamped using the Blue Yonder instead. It matches the robe pretty well.
I added a few sequins from the White Orchid sequin mix from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards, and the card was done. Super simple.
Super simple color palette, too.
I colored in my image using the no line technique. Before printing, I made all the lines in the image light gray except for the eyes and eyebrows, which I kept black. This is a great trick to color no line without having to worry about drawing things back in with a black pen and potentially getting things wonky and weird. I’ve done that once, starting over isn’t fun, so I’ve learned to get around it.
I cut my colored piece down using a stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things. I covered the card base with patterned paper from the Forever Green collection paper pack from ModaScrap and mounted my colored panel onto that using lots of foam tape.
I cut a couple of strips of patterned paper from that same paper pack from ModaScrap and added them onto my colored panel. Using a green marker, I created a green colored cardstock piece to match my dragon, stamped my Norsk Stempelblad AS sentiment onto it, heat embossed it and used a circle punch to get it to a perfect 1″ circle, before adding an epoxy sticker on top for a little shine and dimension.
To finish off my card I added a few enamel dots. The brown ones and the white are from Papirdesign, the green ones from Altenew.
Not a whole heap of colors for this one.
I opted for some no line coloring this time, keeping his eyes and eyebrows a dark brown before printing. I used my favorite blues and fussy cut him once he was all colored up.
Directly onto the cardbase I ink blended Distress Ink in the colors Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade and Scattered Straw to create an intense winter time sunset and create some contrast between the cool colors of the snowman and the background. I misted it generously with a sparkle shimmer spray which catches the light nicely when you tilt it, but it doesn’t really show up in my photos (except for a couple of bigger drops). I wanted to ink blend directly onto the cardbase because I knew I was putting lots of layers of die cut cardstock on top, and I didn’t want the card to be too front heavy.
Speaking of die cut cardstock. I used the Winter Forest Cover die from Mama Elephant to die cut three layers of white cardstock and glued them together for dimension, before adhering the stacked die cuts to the card base.
I stamped a sentiment from last year’s Stamptember collaboration set from Mama Elephant and Simon Says Stamp using Lazy Day ink from My Favorite Things. I love this blue color!!
I fussy cut my snowman and adhered him using 1 mm foam squares, before finishing off the card with a few snowdrift sprinkles from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Very few colors used for this one. B93 and 91 are used both for the snow and for the scarf and hat.
I played around in Photoshop before printing the image, making the lines in the snow and on the pompom very faint for a no line look, but kept the lines black for the rest of the image. I prefer no line when coloring snow or furry pompoms, but didn’t feel like coloring the entire image in no line. I’ve colored plenty of Lee’s dragons in the past, but this is the first time I’ve opted for a red one. I don’t use reds very often, and I’m super picky with my reds, but this Copic combo (which only includes one red marker) is one that works for me.
I die cut my finished piece with a double stitch rectangle die from My Favorite Things and adhered it onto a top fold landscape cardbase made out of Amarena Cherry cardstock, also from My Favorite Things. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from Mama Elephant onto Smokey Shadow cardstock from Papertrey Ink, added a few more cardstock strips behind it for dimension and adhered it to my card, finishing off with a few white sequins from Little Things from Lucy’s Cards.
Plenty of colors for this image. I even used B20, which I’ve made myself. Lots of colors for the snow, lots of colors for the bell, and lots of colors for the red. Even lots of colors for the black ribbon.
Papirmølla 