I love being able to get lots of use out of a stamp set. Stampin’ Up!’s Carols of Christmas stamp set has 2 focal sentiments, and it is very easy to use these to create your card around. For this post however, I have taken some of the smaller elements and used these as the main elements of the card.

For this card I have taken the poinsettia stamp and the leaves stamp and used these in conjunction with the matching dies to create a 3-D wreath. To start I took a circular die and placed this on the card, drawing around it in pencil to create a template for my wreath. I stamped the leaves and poinsettia multiple times and cut them out with the dies, and then simply glued them into place using my pencil line as a guide.  I then simply glued on some sequins and beads for a bit of glitz.

Here is where I realised my mistake.  If I were to make the card again, before gluing on the die cut pieces, I would stamp and emboss the sentiment in the centre of the wreath.  Here, I left it till last, which meant that I was unable to emboss the sentiment – embossing powder would have gotten all caught up in the leaves and would have been incredibly difficult to get rid of.  I used a metallic gold ink pad to stamp the sentiment here, and it looks ok, but there is no dimension and I think that this would have really made it pop.  This gorgeous handwritten message is from the Cheers to the Year stamp set.

The card didn’t look quite finished to me, so I used the bow stamp from Balloon Celebrations and fussy cut this out to glue on top of the wreath as a finishing embellishment.

This last card is super simple. I used a circle die cut to cut a window in a card front, and then used this as a guide to stamp the deer onto the card base below. I stamped the deer in Versamark and then embossed with a gold embossing powder, and then stamped the sentiment. In order to create the matching matting layer, I cut a matt slightly larger than the front and then similarly inked and embossed the matt. After adhering the matts together I used foam tape to attach the front to the base, to give some dimension. As a finishing touch I added some of the leaves and the poinsettia that I had left over from the previous card.

Products used:

Stamp sets: Carols of Christmas bundle (146037); Cheers to the Year (144928); Balloon Celebrations (140675)

Inks: Cherry Cobbler (126966); Garden Green (126973); Versamark Ink (102283)

Cardstock: Whisper White (106549)

Extras: Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder (109129)

I really hope you like what you see, leave me a comment below. If you would like to purchase any of the products used, click on the individual links above or click here to be taken straight to my Stampin’ Up! shopping page. Don’t forget there is also the new Autumn Winter catalogue too.

If you are interested in signing up as a demonstrator, you can join my team by clicking here. There are so many benefits, the first of which is the excellent value starter kit. If you want any more info, contact me on christine@poppaeacards.co.uk