Keeping Christmas

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for stopping by today to check out the monthly Keeping Christmas Blog Hop that a group of us hold on the 25th of each month, January through November. This monthly hop is the brain child of Kelly Lunceford and Lesley Croghan and the members of the team are former teammates from The Challenge. Our goal is to show you how to build your stash of cards (or tags) a few at a time all through the year. We try to include all of the tips and tricks to help you get it done and to know that it is do-able so you don't get overwhelmed. Hop along and be sure to visit each blog. There is always a lot of inspiration and ideas to get your creative juices flowing!

My post today is a long one, but I have several cards and tried to keep everything very simple as far as instructions and thought processes.  Here are the other stops on the hop:

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Rachel Bergfeld

Vicki Finger (You are Here)

I am actually writing this post very early on (April 15th) because we are getting ready to move to another state and I have got to finish packing up my studio for the move.  In fact, I have basically opened every box that was packed at one time to get some thing or other out and use it so I really have to get it in gear and get everything packed up soon.    

I could not make up my mind today what I wanted to make so I grabbed the two products I wanted to use together and started thinking about the color combination I wanted to use.  I decided to use some deep red shimmer vellum  with some traditional Pinefeather and Vintage Cream Cardstock for a really elegant but Christmas-y look. As usual, I wanted to use Gold Foiled Cardstock for one of the elements as well.  The particular one I used today is from Die Cuts With a View (DCWV) and I've had it for a really long time.  It is foiled, rather than being mirrored cardstock which is what I like better most of the time.  Gold Mirror Cardstock is much more yellow than the Antique Gold color I prefer although I've recently been trying some of the Satin Effect Cardstocks from Tonic and I like those a lot.  I have a few of the monthly card kits from Spellbinders and they have a nice one that they often include.  It is a nice color as well but I don't know who makes it or where they are getting it.

I guess my point is that there's a lot of different options out there, so just find what you like as far as style, color and finish. It usually is more expensive  but a couple of sheets will create lots of die cuts for you. I can think of about 5 different ones I have on hand and as you may remember, I often use the gold foiled poster board from Hobby Lobby.   The one downfall to that is that you cannot "clean" it up if you get a bit of glue on it.  That's why I have others.  Gold Mirror Board or cardstock, has a very thin protective layer of plastic over the top so you can use a little alcohol swab if you get messy.  I haven't really tested this theory on any of my other gold cardstock which includes Papertrey Gold Luxe cardstock.  One cardstock that is a shimmer gold versus a foiled gold is the Gina K Designs Metallic Cardstock.  It is a very thick cardstock, but glue dries matte so it doesn't matter.  I still use Multi Medium Matte 99% of the time for dies. 

I always start by die cutting all of my elements, then scoring and folding my card bases. I used two sets of dies from Pretty Pink Posh for these cards; the Joy Shaker Die and Festive Holly Dies.  I adhered the die cut panels of the Shimmer Red Vellum to the card base and then played with a set of elements to figure out how I wanted to arrange them.  To make them easier to adhere, I put a small and a large holly leaf together with some Multi Medium Matte.  I also adhered the large red satin sequin to the tip of the Holly leaves.  I love those Satin Finish sequins.  They were in a pack with several sizes and I have no idea where I got them from by now.  It was before I started making cards seriously or blogging. I added a Bitty Bling gem in the center of each that I think came from Close to My Heart but they might have come from Stampin' Up. I also decided I wanted some backers for the Joy die cuts, so I die cut them using a die from PTI's Limitless Layers 2½ Inch Circles Die from some patterned paper that had a design done on cream with gold glitter.  I love how that decorative edge shows up behind the gold die cut.

This uses a couple of basics that I have mentioned here before in the Keeping Christmas posts.  Anytime you have to or want to create multiples of a card, use your patterned paper and dies to make quick work of this.  Just break it into stages by how many cards you are preparing to make.  In my case, I wanted to make four cards so I die cut four of each thing I was planning to use.  The Festive Holly dies have two different styles of holly so I chose which one I was planning to use.  I somehow never tire of the stitched look.

Once I got those four cards done, I had an extra set of the holly leaves on my desk, so using some other scraps, I pulled a single card together for this look.  I used a scrap of Silver Glittered Cardstock to go behind the Joy die cut (I used a plain circle die for this) the three leftover leaves for the Holly with a Red Satin Sequin and Bitty Bling.  Again, I used Vintage Cream for the card bases and put a lot of shimmer mist on the holly leaves.  I love the Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist from Tattered Angels (a.k.a. Canvas Corp Brands) and I cannot get it at Simon's because they don't carry it.  I've asked, but so far, no go.  So I order it directly from Canvas Corporation which happens to be in a neighboring state and I get it right away.  In fact, I ordered 6 bottles (about a one year supply for me) on Saturday and it came today.  That's pretty darn quick.  The stitched rectangle of the background panel is the same cardstock as the die cut "Joy", and the pattern in the smaller background was also a scrap.  I really try to utilize my scraps but about once a year I go through them and throw out the smaller pieces.  I'll be doing that soon with our upcoming move.

As I was getting stuff put away, I thought how fun it would be to do a card in some non-traditional colors so I pulled the dies back out and cut enough pieces for an additional 4 cards.  This time I went with the more fun color of Vintage Jadeite which is my favorite Papertrey green and Hawaiian Shores for the background panel.  I was so excited to see the new stitched rectangle dies from Papertrey Ink in this month's release of Simply Stitched A2 Vertical which cuts a vertical cardbase in two passes that has the stitching detail on it.  There are several other stitched rectangle dies in the set to use for layers and that will be one die set that I plan to add in the future.

I took all of the die cut holly leaves and gave them a healthy spritz of shimmer mist and let them dry. I misted the background panels, let them dry and again die cut with a stitched rectangle die.  I created my white card bases, this time opting for a  top folding horizontal card base. Next I used a Mini Round Ink Blending Tool to go all the way around all the edges with Vintage Jadeite Ink to help define them and add that bit of dimension.  Then I glued the two Holly Leaves together and used a big hot pink gem for the berry this time around. I assembled this set of cards without the backer for the "Joy" die cut.  I also added some thinner foam tape behind the holly leaves to pop them up just a bit.

I loved using this less than traditional color scheme for my cards and all together, I have 9 more cards for my stash.  It's pretty early in the year to have so many cards made, but I do share cards with my Sisters-in-Law each year, so I need a lot of them in order to do that.

I hadn't realized before how much I love Holly leaves until I looked back through the cards in my Keeping Christmas stash and they all have Holly leaves except for the first set which has Mistletoe. The thing is, Holly is an iconic Christmas image so it works great to immediately convey that this is a Holiday Card. By using die cuts and patterned or specialty papers and not doing any stamping, you can pull your cards together by doing one thing every time you have a few minutes.

Except for the gold foiled paper, all of the cardstock came from Papertrey Ink for these cards.  For the most part, Papertrey Ink is my go to for cardstock.  Their paper is heavyweight at #110 lbs. and is very smooth and nice with a fantastic color selection. It is also the most reasonably priced cardstock out there.  I have a few cardstock colors in other brands, but pretty much only when its a color not found in Papertrey's line up.

I hope I've been able to give you some ideas for creating a few Holiday Cards for your stash.  Be sure to check out all the stops along the hop for even more inspiration and ideas.  I've linked many of the supplies I've used below for your convenience (Affiliate Links may be used).

Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	PPP Festive Holly Die Shop at: SSS	PPP Joy Shaker Die Shop at: SSS	PTI - Limitless Layers 2½ Circles Shop at: PTI
PTI Hawaiian Shores Cardstock Shop at: PTI	PTI Perfect Match Vintage Jadeite Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Vintage Cream Cardstock Shop at: PTI	PTI Vintage Jadeite Cardstock Shop at: PTI
Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS	Scotch 3M Foam Tape Shop at: SSS	Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D Foam Squares Shop at: SSS