Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Christine S. - Flowers on Simple Christmas Cards

How are you today? Christine S. here.  I've always loved Artfull Crafts' Christmas countdown, & I'm so happy to be part of it.  It's never too late to start making your Christmas cards now, whether they're simple or fancy.  This year I've been busy creating more Christmas cards as our family has grown.  This week I've created 2 simple cards using a couple of Kaisercraft Christmas collections.  I've used the same composition for both cards with flowers & different color scheme.  Flowers are not everyone's cup of tea, but that's ok because we're all diverse on how we create.   Majority of the papers in these cards are odd bits & ends that I've got left.  That's the great thing about cards, you can create something lovely just from strips & left over papers.
The first card is from Kaisercraft's Basecoat Christmas collection:
This is a delightful collection...woodgrains, natural elements, some glittery paper, with the familiar red & green Christmas colors.
I had small strips of the Natural paper left, I glued them beside each other to create my base.  I then grabbed my last little piece of Santa paper & curled both sides for dimension.  If you don't like dimension, that's ok too.  Just glue them flat.  I then fussy cut the middle image from the 3x4 Captured Moments Card from the same collection, glued it to the Glitter paper from the Basecoat Christmas Paper Pad, then cut around the edges & add a little red bow on it.  There's a good selection of die cut pieces from the Collectables.  I used the bow off the sticker sheet of the Teddy Bear's Picnic collection, as this is what I've got.  I then added my leaves & flowers.  If you're not the "flower" type, then you can just add some fussy cut or die cut paper/elements, or other embellishment/s that you like.  If you want super simple, then you can skip the embellishing altogether.
By then I thought I'm finished with this card, but I look at it & can't help thinking, there's a little something missing.  You know the strips that comes with the bottom of each 12x12 double sided papers?  I cut fringes on it & glued it on top of the card, & voila!
 
The second card is from Kaisercraft's North Pole collection, which is a fun chalkboard collection with reds, blues & silver.  It has pretty images of baubles, hearts, chevrons, doilies & snowflakes, reindeers, etc.  This card is especially made for a friend of mine who loooves black & purple.  Yes you heard that right, purple.  Chalkboard + Purple on a Christmas card, why not?  It's different & it's for someone special.  I did make sure that it wasn't "in your face" purple, just a touch here & there:
Again, these are strips & scraps I've used.  I've had this doily die for years & I still find so many ways of using it.  Make sure you check out the different selection of dies at the Artfull Crafts shop. 
The base for my card is from the Sleigh Bells paper.  I attached some strips from the Toboggan paper on the top & bottom.  I then tore some paper on the same Sleigh Bells paper. You can trim this straight if you don't like the torn/distressed look.  I sprayed some purple glimmer mist on it, for that extra hint of purple & shimmer.  Of course, you can skip this step or you can spray a different color of your liking.  Curl the top & bottom, or you can stick it down flat.  I then cut a piece of white weave cardstock using a doily die, making sure I only let it through my die cutting machine just once.  I didn't want this doily cut all the way through.  It gave it an interesting effect , especially when you flap the curves around it.  I then cut out a piece of circle on the Christmas Magic paper using a circle die, then distressed the edges.  If you don't have a die cutting machine, that's ok too...just cut them out, & buy the doilies yourself.  Use foam adhesive to attach the doily & circle for dimension, or glue them flat if you like.  I painted gesso on the Bow Wooden Flourish to attach on top of the doily & finished it off with Kaisercraft Paper Blooms.
 
Get creative with scraps & make something pretty.  Don't forget to keep an eye out every week for the Christmas Countdown challenges & inspiration. There's heaps of ideas to be shared & prizes to be won...how cool is that?

 

5 comments:

  1. I with you, I love flowers and especially like the green and red version, the colour combinations with the additions of the red and white flowers and the fresh green of the leaves together with the gingham bow make for a very fresh and cheerful looking card. The whole effect although simple is very eye catching.

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  2. Beautiful cards! I love how you've added flowers to them!

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  3. the flowers are pretty. :)

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  4. I love the fabric leaves for cards - the perfect touch with a few flowers.

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