Nativity + Stampscapes:

 

It was hard to get a good photo of this card!  

Focal: I started with a piece of glossy card stock that had been die cut to an octagon shape using a die from Card Making Magic's Octagon Box kit. I stamped this with StazOn and a stamp from Divinity Designs' Our Savior's Birth - then added to the background with Stampscapes stamps (clouds & ground cover).  Using a piece of post-it note, I created a star shape and masked that.  Then I added multi-layers of Distress inks to create the color in the background.  The foreground was mostly colored with my Scroll & Brush markers - sometimes using a water brush to soften them.  When all was colored, I removed the mask & had a white star.  I decided I preferred it to be yellow, so added a bit of color using my markers.

Background/Frames: Using more of the dies from the Octagon Box kit,  I created the gold scalloped frame that is directly around the focal.  Using the larger dies, including the fancy inset die, I cut a brown octagon with fancy inset edges.  I cut a frame of gold (without the inset die but using the same die set) and taped it behind the brown where it shows through the cut outs.  

Assembling the Card Front: I glued the brown & gold background to a piece of white card stock cut to the same size.  This forms the base for the card front.  Next, I taped the gold scalloped piece to the focal (from the back side) before adding to the card front base using foam tape.  I found a sentiment in my Hunkydory book of Sentiments and added it with foam tape.  I set the card front aside while I completed the card base - including on the inside.

Card Base: The size of the card is essentially 6" square.  Not wanting to mess with a hinge of some kind, I simply took a piece of card stock that was 8 1/2" x 11" and folded it in half.  Then I die cut this as an octagon with the die right on the NON-FOLDED edge.  This gave me a shape that was ALMOST a folded octagon, but 1/2 short at the folded edge.  with the folded edge at the top, I stamped my message on the inside using stamps from Crafter's Companion Compendium (CCC) :

The top sentiment is from the CCC page called Magical Christmas Wishes, and the bottom one is from Believe in the Magic.

Putting it All Together: After the ink was dry on those inside sentiments, I simply glued the card front to the front of the card base.  This card was more work than many, but a special card for special people in my life. :)