Pink & Aqua Christmas

Hello there, Michelle Short here and I am delighted to be back on the Spellbinders blog using the Lisa Horton Essential Holiday collection. This beautiful collection is like the name suggests, perfect for essentials! There are frames/layers, tags, backgrounds plus lots more!

MERRY & BRIGHT

For my first card, I wanted to show how you can utilise little die cuts on a card but for them to still be the focus. These trees are pretty small but absolutely adorable! To make this card:

• Cut two trees from Nested Tree Frame Etched Dies using Waterfall & Teal Topaz
• Cut another tree from Pink Sand and Fruit Punch
• Cut snow pieces three times from Snowdrift Cardstock.
• Cut tree stump three times from Latte Cardstock.

• Adhere trees together using Bearly Art Glue.
• Adhere trees to 6” x 3.25” panel of white cardstock with thin foam tape.
• Adhere panel to mini slimline (6” x 3.5”) card base made from Waterfall Cardstock using more thin foam tape.

• Hot foil sentiment from Essential Tag Accessories Press Plate & Die Set onto white cardstock using Silver Foil - heat up Glimmer Hot Foil System, place foil shiny side up onto cardstock, place press plate facing down on top, hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape, place on platform, press button and once heated, run through Platinum Six.
• Cut into a strip and adhere to card using Bearly Art Glue and foam tape.
• To finish, embellish with Pink & Aquamarine AB Color Essentials Gems.

As you can see, I went with a non-traditional colour scheme for my projects today. I really love pink and aqua for the holidays but lots of colours would work for the trees.

DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 25th

For my next project, I thought I would create a gift tag using the Essential Tags Etched Dies. These dies are great because there are lots of elements that you can mix and match – different toppers and different sizes of tags that can be layered – lots of options! To make this tag:

• Place sentiment from Essential Tag Accessories Press Plate & Die Set onto Chase of BetterPress Letterpress System.
• Ink stamp using Teal Topaz BetterPress Ink.
• Place Porcelain BetterPress A2 Cotton Card Panel onto the Platen and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
• Place Platten on platform and run through Platinum Six.

TIP: When pressing sentiments using the BetterPress Letterpress System, I like to remove one of the shims. I find that I get a better result that way but experiment with your machine and see what works best for you.

• Die cut panel using largest tag from the Essential Tags Etched Dies.
• Die cut hole die at the top of the tag.
• Die cut the square topper piece from Pink Sand Cardstock and then cut the hole in that also.
• Die cut eyelet from Waterfall Cardstock.

• Adhere pink square topper piece to the top of the tag, followed by the eyelet.
• Thread DMC Light Silver Diamant Grande Metallic Thread through the hole and tie in a bow.
• Die cut holly and berries from Festive Ornaments Etched Dies using Waterfall and Pink Sand
• Adhere to tag using Bearly Art Glue.
• To finish, add Pink Color Essentials Gems to the berries.

CHRISTMAS PUDDING ORNAMENT

For my last project, I am using the Festive Ornaments Etched Dies. I love the different designs for the ornaments in the set, but I was immediately drawn to the Christmas/figgy pudding! To make this card:

• Die cut Christmas/figgy pudding from Festive Ornaments Etched Dies using Snowdrift and Latte
• Cut holly from Waterfall Cardstock and Berries from Pink Sand Cardstock.
• Cut ornament topper from Silver Assortment Treasured Cardstock.
• Adhere pieces together using Bearly Art Glue.

• Place snowflake plate from Holiday Background Panels Press Plates onto Chase of the BetterPress Letterpress System.
• Place Porcelain BetterPress A2 Cotton Card Panel onto the Platen and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
• Place Platten on platform and run through Platinum Six.
• Die cut into panel using Nested Tree Frame Etched Dies.

I really love the subtle look of not using ink with the press plate, but ink would look great here too, a pink or aqua shade would work well.

• Thread DMC Light Silver Diamant Grande Metallic Thread through the ornament topper.
• Adhere ornament to debossed panel using thin foam tape.
• Secure thread on the back of the panel using tape.
• Adhere panel to A2 sized card base made from Waterfall Cardstock with more thin foam tape.
• Make bow using the DMC Light Silver Diamant Grande Metallic Thread and adhere to the ornament topper with small dab of Bearly Art Glue.
• Hot foil sentiment from Sealed Poinsettia Stems Press Plate onto white cardstock using Silver Foil. Cut into strip and adhere to card.
• To finish, add Pink Color Essentials Gems to the berries.

I really love how these projects turned out, but I think my favorite are the little trees! I love that you can add snow to them for winter trees but also decorate them with ornaments for a holiday/Christmas look! Thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Other Supplies

Thin foam tape.