Five Ornaments in a Row for Freshly Made Sketches #458

Kim designed this week's sketch #458  at Freshly Made Sketches and it had me really thinking this week what I would create.  Keeping in mind the FMS clean and simple themes, I wanted to make a Christmas card with clean lines.  Here's their sketch:

Here's My Card:

I wanted to fill out the five rectangles in my design with either a small Christmas stamp image or use coordinating papers.  As luck would have it I found a 6 x 6 piece of retired Stampin' Up! Designer series paper in my stash that would meet my needs.  I really liked the very delicate holly and bauble patterns on this paper and the red and green colour mix was just what I was looking for.  Perfect!   

I was able to cut out five baubles from  the design that were small enough to work as my focal point for the center panel.  I decided to match up the green and red in t he paper design with Real Red and Garden Green card stocks and threw in a layer of gold foil between the two to add some elegance to the card.    

I really liked the sprigs of mistletoe in the background of the paper, but not having a mistletoe stamp, I pulled out my retired SU Holly Embossing Folder (one of my all time faves) and I think it worked perfectly in adding some interest to the green layer.  

Supplies:

Card Base:  I used 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" Whisper White card stock for the base and scored it at 4 1/4".

Layers:  There are three layers on the card front.  The first is a 4 1/4" x 3 1/4" piece of Real Red card stock, followed by a 4 1/8" x 3 1/8" piece of gold foil and a 4" x 3" piece of embossed Garden Green card stock.

Ornaments:  I used my trusty 1" square punch to cut out the baubles and then added a 1 1/8" x 1 1/8" layers in Real Red or Garden Green.  The layering just brings these little baubles into a clearer focus and makes them stand out on the card.   

Stamps:  The sentiment "Merry Christmas" is from the Christmas Gleaming cling stamp set #150464.  I used my stamperatus to hold my scrap of Whisper White in place while I was stamping the sentiment in Real Red ink.  I find that this type of solid stamp looks best if it's stamped a few times to enhance the colour.  I fussy cut out the sentiment leaving a very narrow strip of white around it and then mounted it just below the baubles adding four mini dimensionals to the back.  I'm so happy that this set, coordinating ornament punches and designer papers made it into the Annual Catalogue this year.  This was one of my all time favourite Christmas bundles last year and I know I'll be hard pressed to part with it.  

Inside of Card:  For the inside of the card I cut a 4" x 5 1/4" panel of Real Red card stock and layered it with a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of Whisper White card stock.  The sentiment "May your days be merry and bright" is from a soon to be released stamp set called "Curvy Christmas".  Oh my is this a fun set and I can't wait to share some more samples using the dies and stamps from this bundle.  To finish the inside layer I stamped a small bauble in Real Red from the Christmas Gleaming set in the bottom right corner.  

So what do you think?  This was a super simple card to create and I hope you like it as much as I do.  What are your favourite stamp sets this holiday season?  Please leave me your comments, I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Stamping!

Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot

Penny Hanuszak, Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator 

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This hostess code will end at noon on October 30th, so don't miss out.  If you have an order under $200 CDN apply the Hostess Code and I will send you a free gift.  If your order is over $200 before shipping and tax, don't apply the code you will receive your own stamping  rewards.  

NOTE:  My post was not included in the FMS #458 post today because I keep forgetting it closed at 3pm EDT.  I was thinking it closed on MT.  Hopefully the next time I do one of their sketches I can do it earlier in the week.