Christmas 2013 - 1

This is one of the card designs I made for Christmas 2013. I’ve done a few, but this is one of the ones that will need to be hand presented as I don’t think it will post well without getting squashed and it certainly won’t meet the rules for Christmas card rates!

The base is a rectangular card. Beck from Amazing Paper Grace has a tutorial on how top make hinged cards but I find that they don’t sit up well as they are too soft along the bottom.A spellbinders die set was used  to create the second layer, tone on tone and the third gold card layer. I cut a fourth layer in cream the same as the gold layer and carefully trimmed back the edge of the card, You could simply cut it out in cream and use gold to distress the edges, which I did do for the last oval with the sentiment. Under the sentiment is a filigree layer in gold from the same spellbinders set.

The greenery was cut using a branch punch by Sullivans that I got in Lincraft, the roses are mulberry paper roses  and the ribbon some gold edged cream satin I picked up in a dollar store.

Cutting intricate designs using spellbinders, or any other make I guess, is not easy as the card tends to stick in the die. I’ve seen people say to use waxed paper between the die and the card, but I’ve tried half a dozen supermarkets and no one seems to carry it these days. Glad Bake does work to a certain extent. I did see today a post where someone suggested using thin viscous fabric. I haven’t tried it yet, but if it cuts the fabric then it’s quite an expensive option. If not then it sounds like a good option…something I’ll have to try out.