Holiday Cards with Annie Williams Country Christmas

Joan Bardee here sharing Christmas in July with the Country Christmas Collection by the talented Annie Williams. This collection will warm your heart. It includes a barn, country star, rocking chair, snowman, horse-drawn carriage, and other elements that capture the nostalgia of a simpler time. I chose a bit of an Americana color palette – red, white, blue (and a bit of green and black) as this collection reminds me of the Pennsylvania Dutch country (one of my husband’s and my favorite places to visit) and its American folk-art tradition. Read along to see how I made these cards and my husband’s reactions to each – I can always count on him for honest feedback!

Country Christmas Barn

The details – wreath, bows, trees, snow, etc. in the Country Christmas Barn Etched Dies set bring this card to life. I particularly love the etched lines on the barn - Annie thought of everything.

• Copied a sample card that Annie Williams made. Made a few changes to make it my own. I like to do this when I’m not familiar with a set.
• Die-cut all the pieces as shown.
• Die-cut the snow on top of the roof, doors, and windows three times.
• Assemble the peaked roof border first, starting from the top: white snow, black border, and green (Peridot ColorWheel cardstock) lights. Adhered that border to the classic red (Poppy ColorWheel cardstock) barn and then adhered the barn to the Raven roof. Added more snow to the top of the roof.
• Adhered the windows and doors, and snow on top of them.
• Used the small window dies that the window frame die makes to create “handles” on the barn doors.
• Added the wreath and trees (Peridot and Fern ColorWheel cardstock).
• Added bows cut from Brushed Gold cardstock and Red Color Essential Gems.
• Hand-cut a piece of white cardstock with scissors 5 ½” wide to form a wavy snowbank.
• Cut and scored an A2 card from Cascade ColorWheel cardstock and splattered it with white paint to look like snow. Let it dry.
• Adhered the white snowbank to the card, followed by the barn, and then the trees.
• Used Bearly Arts Glue to adhere everything except the barn and the trees. Adhered those with foam squares because I cannot resist more dimension.
• Hot foiled a sentiment from Country Christmas Banner & Sentiments. Die-cut the sentiment and adhered with foam squares.
• Husband's reaction: “That’s really nice. Love the red.”

Tip: Before I start making Christmas cards, I stock up on several packs of the same embellishment (this year, Red and Gold Essential gems). I’d rather have multiples of one or two types of gems rather than an assortment of colors. That way I can be sure to have enough of the same gems to finish multiple holiday cards.

Charming Christmas Grid

Used elements from Christmas Rocking Chair Etched Dies and the gift boxes from Christmas Horse-Drawn Wagon Etched Dies to form a simple grid. It’s a great way to use smaller dies from different sets. I could make grid cards all day.

• Die-cut the elements using Brushed Gold, White, Cascade, Poppy, Peridot, Truffle, tan, and Indigo (the bear’s eyes) cardstocks. All are Spellbinders ColorWheel cardstock except the tan, which was from the stash.
• Using Bearly Arts glue, adhered all the pieces together as shown to create a bear, pillow, tree, and gifts.
• Colored some of the lights with a blue alcohol marker.
• Placed the elements on a piece of white cardstock to figure out where to put the sentiment.
• Hot foiled a sentiment from Country Christmas Banner & Sentiments on a 6” square piece of white cardstock using Glimmer Black hot foil. Then I die-cut that foiled panel with one of the A-2 Matting Basics Rectangle dies. That way, I could be sure that the sentiment was straight.
• Adhered each item onto the grid with foam squares.
• Adhered Gold Mix Color Essential Gems around the card and then, for a final touch, added Red Color Essential Gems to the tree, pillow, and the bear’s cute little bowtie.
• Husband's reaction: thumbs up!

Simple Barn Star Wreath

This card came together fairly quickly and would be easy to mass-produce. If you are not a fan of the black here (see below), substitute your favorite color palette.

• Die cut using my Platinum 6 machine the dotted star layer in Cascade and a solid star in Poppy.
• Die-cut the bow and berries in Poppy and the other wreath pieces in Peridot and Fern cardstocks.
• Adhere all the pieces onto the star as shown with Bearly Arts glue.
• Adhered Gold Essential Gems to the holly berries.
• Hot foiled the sentiment from Country Christmas Banner & Sentiments with Matte Gold hot foil onto Raven cardstock and die cut.
• Made a Raven A2 card and then added a piece of Poppy cardstock to the top of the card.
• Adhered the star wreath with White Foam Adhesive squares to the card.
• Husband’s reaction: “That star is gorgeous, but I’m not sure about the black. I like the colors in the other ones better.” Love an honest critic!

Thanks for reading and, as always, to Spellbinders.

Other Supplies

Tan cardstock