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!
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.
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot
Penny Hanuszak, Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator
October Hostess Code: MM72ZPM
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.