Next week in my regular monthly papercraft class our theme will be Christmas In July and I’ve been putting together some new designs using old, but still available, Stampin’ Up! products.

The first set I grabbed was the Snowflake Sentiments Stamp Set, which has some lovely large sentiments as well as smaller sentiments that could be used on the inside of a card.  It also has some great coordinating images.

One particular sentiment “Wrapped in the warmth of Christmas’ caught my eye and from there the card seemed to design itself.

With the sentiment chosen I stamped it onto a piece of Very Vanilla Card using Merry Merlot ink.  I took it over to my Big Shot and Magnetic Platform and cut it out using the #3 plain-edged die from the Layering Ovals Framelits (counting from the smallest up).  Then I cut a piece of Gold Foil Sheet using the #4 plain-edged die from the same set and set these pieces aside.

Christmas always makes me think of pines swags so I grabbed my Pretty Pines Thinlits Dies.  From Garden Green Card I cut out 2 small and 2 large pine branches, and from Early Espresso Card one of the more solid pinecones with the triangle shaped cutouts.

I assembled the focal piece for my card by attaching the 4 pine branches to the front of the gold foil oval with Mini Glue Dots, trimming the pine branches down with Paper Snips where needed.  The pine cone came next and then the sentiment was added over the top with Stampin’ Dimensionals  On the back of the gold foil oval I attached a folded piece of Night of Navy 1/2″ Gingham Ribbon with a couple of Mini Glue Dots and then set the piece aside.

The word ‘warmth’ in the sentiment immediately made me think of cozy sweaters and of course that meant the Cable Knit Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  I took a layer of Merry Merlot Card and lightly sprayed it with clean water from my Stampin’ Spritzer, placed it inside the embossing folder and ran it through my Big Shot twice on the multipurpose platform with all the tabs open and a single cutting plate (on top of the folder).  I removed the card from the folder and then set it aside to dry while I prepared the card base.

EMBOSSING FOLDER TECHNIQUE

I filmed this short video showing you the differences between the standard and Dynamic embossing folders sold by Stampin’ Up! with some tips and tricks to get the best results from them and prevent the card from cracking.

In the video I use different embossing folders to the Cable Knit embossing folder used on today’s project but the technique is the same.

Back to today’s project…

I cut and scored a piece of Thick Very Vanilla Card, folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder to create my card base.

On a separate layer of Very Vanilla Card I used Merry Merlot ink to stamp the triple snowflake image from the Snowflake Sentiments Stamp Set in the centre towards the top.  This layer was then fixed inside the card base with Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow).

To create a coordinating set, the same triple snowflake image was stamped onto the centre of the flap on a Very Vanilla Medium Envelope.

Now that the embossed Merry Merlot layer was no longer damp I used liquid glue to attach it to the front of the card base and fixed the assembled sentiment on top with Stampin’ Dimensionals.  The first sample for my Christmas in July class was done.

 

Oh my goodness, I’d forgotten how much I love that Cable Kit embossing folder.  It was the very first Dynamic folder I’d purchased and I think it was the first Dynamic design ever sold by Stampin’ Up!  I’m never failed to be amazed by the texture it gives to a plain piece of card.  The combination of the embossing and the rich Merry Merlot color really does give this card a feeling of warmth don’t you think?

Oh and just in case you were wondering, it’s 166 days to Christmas.

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