8 x 8 One Sheet Wonder from a 12 x 12

Today my Mom shared some pretty 12 x 12 double sided Christmas papers with me.  We decided to use one of them, cut an 8 x 8 piece from it, and then use an 8 x 8 one sheet wonder to create 9 cards.  I MAY use the remainder (a 4" x 12" strip and a 4" x 8" strip) to chop & create more cards from (if I do, I'll add these to the end of this post).  These are the cards I made from that patterned paper.

Card #1 (above): This first card used a square of the patterned paper as a focal.  As you can see, I narrowly matted the piece with red, cream, and green.  I layered the background - plain cream, red, cream dotted paper on top. After gluing the background to the card, I adhered the focal to the top part of the card as you see here.  I cut a sentiment from green card stock (Spellbinders Happy Holidays), and added it to the bottom of the card.  Finally, I added a couple of white borders, a red die cut bow (Gemini Dashing Deer), and several Jewel Dazzles.

Card #2:

This time, I embossed the card front (Spellbinders 3D embossing folder called 3D Mediterranean Medallion A2).  I inked this using gold ink.  I cut a couple of die cut mats from green card stock (Spellbinders Fleur De Lis Rectangles, and Multi Frame Flower by Nellie Snellen).  I also cut gold glimmer paper mats to fit inside these green mats.  While I had thought the patterned paper would work well for a focal, in didn't work well in reality, so I added a die cut flower from my stash.  I added a couple of evergreen die cuts (Spellbinders Build-a-Wreath).  I added a circle sentiment (Sassy's LLC) that I had inked with gold around the edges.  Finally, I added red Jewel Dazzles to complete the card.

Card #3:

This time, as you can see, I matted the focal with a die cut & embossed mat from Spellbinders Tile Works cutting die set.  At the same time, I cut a mat for the sentiment (same set).  After embossing the pieces, I used a gold Sharpie through the dies as a stencil to decorate the edges.  I added another Sassy's LLC sentiment (rectangle this time).  Before adding the focal and sentiment to the card front, I embossed it using a Cuttlebug embossing folder called Swiss Dots.  I added a few gold Jewel Dazzles - some to the center of the large white flower, and a couple more as the "o's" in the sentiment.  Finally, I added a red ribbon bow.

Card #4:

For the 4th card, I first matted the patterned piece with green, then glued to the card front - offsetting it toward the left. Gold border stickers from HOTP decorate each side.  Taking a foiled and die cut sentiment (Gemini All the Happiness), I matted it with red card stock.  I completed the card with a red ribbon bow.

Card #5:

I started my fifth card by embossing a piece of green card stock using a Spellbinders embossing folder called 3D Cane Weave, and glued this in place.  Next I cut a couple narrow red strips to border my printed paper.  I die cut two lacy borders from white card stock using a die from Card Making Magic called A2 Card and Box Set.  This was more difficult than I expected.  I haven't run into this with their dies before - including other dies in this set - but this particular die had NO pokey holes.  This made it challenging to get the die cut out and the leftover bits cleaned out of the cutting die.  Once I got all the border pieces taped together, I glued them to the card front as you see.  I cut two ovals using the Double Stitched Ovals from Kat Scrappiness - the smaller from white and the larger from red.  I decided I wanted a narrower white border for the red oval so used my Magic Matter to draw a 1/8" mat and then fussy cut it.  I stamped my sentiment (HOTP Christmas Labels and Trims) in the center of the white oval - coloring the holly in with a couple of Scroll and Brush Markers.  I added the matted sentiment with foam tape, and this card was done.

Card #6:

This card about did me in.  The sketch looked like a lot of fun until I started trying to make it work.  I had a terrible time finding something I liked for the background.  Finally settled on the starry dark green.  Then, I didn't like what I chose for a focal, but it was already glued in place.  Oh well, win some lose some.  I DID like the double matting on most things (card blank counting for 2nd mat for the background paper), and the mat on the sentiment (strip sentiment from Sassy's LLC).  The added Jewel Dazzles also helped.

Card #7:

I cannot BELIEVE the amount of extra work I went through to get to my finished card #7!  I started with a cream colored background cut just a little smaller than the card blank.  So far so good.  

Then I needed mat for the 4 rectangles.  I cut it out of red - after carefully measuring that two would fit side by side vertically.  Unfortunately, I forgot to check horizontally, so my mat was not wide enough!  I didn't have enough of the paper to cut another, so decided to insert some green stripes to make it wider.  I was actually pretty pleased to find that I could just use my cutting die to cut the top and bottom of the green strip - then cut it in half vertically and inserting each on a side as you see in the picture (because I didn't want the green falling in the center between my rectangles).  It would have been great if I had left it at that, but I didn't.  I thought I wanted to make it into a frame, so die cut the center out in 3 pieces - then realized I DIDN'T want a frame, I needed a mat, so I had to tape the pieces back together! (Fortunately they don't show too badly.)  At any rate, once I got that all sorted, matted my rectangles and glued them in place, I decided to offset the matted rectangles so there would be room below for my matted sentiment strip (another of Sassy's LLC).

Finally it was time to put together my focal. I die cut two ovals using Stitched Ovals die set from Creative Dies Designs - the larger from white, the next size down from cream.  This formed the base for my die cut greenery poinsettia and greenery.  Dies used for these were from Spellbinders: Holiday Blooms, and Build-a-Wreath sets.

Card #8:

This one was pretty straight forward.  I chose a green star background, matted it with a fairly wide cream patterned paper, and then with a narrower green card stock before adding to the card front with a narrow border.  I took my piece of patterned paper from the 8x8, matted it with green, then cream, before adding to the left side of the green star pattern.  Finally, I double matted a Sassy's LLC sentiment - first on a punched scalloped green circle, then a cream circle, adding the whole with foam tape to the upper right corner of the card.  Finally, I added a ribbon bow below the sentiment.

Card #9:

This is another that went together pretty easily.  I started with a  piece of green card stock, narrowly matted it with cream and wrapping a red ribbon around the lower edge before gluing to the card front.  I cut two mats using Spellbinders Marvelous Squares dies - the larger one in cream and the smaller one in green.  To this smaller green mat, I glued my two patterned paper squares and two squares I cut from cream.  I added a couple of die cut pine needles and some holly berries using Spellbinders Holiday Blooms set of cutting dies.  I glued this in the upper part of the card.  For the sentiment, I used dies from Spellbinders Ornamental Tags Three cutting the small one from cream patterned paper and the large one from cream paper (trimming off the piece below the oval).  Then I drew around the inside of the large die on green card stock and fussy cut it for a mat between the two.  Finally, I stamped a greeting (HOTP Merry & Bright stamp set) in the center of the smallest oval and then glued the whole to the card front on top of the red ribbon.

Card #10:

Cards 1-9 were made from the 8 x 8 One Sheet Wonder Template, but I still had two strips of this patterned paper left - one that was 4" x 8" and one that was 4" x 12".  I looked at the 8" piece and thought a piece of it would be great as the main part of a card.  I may have gone overboard in adding a bit of greenery and berries (more from Holiday Blooms) to the ribbon border and matted Sassy's sentiment.  But, they're there now and not easily removed.  The sentiment was added with foam tape.

Card #11:

This will be the last card from this page.  The patterned paper is the piece remaining from the 8" x 4" piece of paper after completing card number 10.  I decided to save the 4" x 12" strip in case I want it for a scrapbook page.  I cut a green piece of card stock just smaller than the card front and embossed it with Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots embossing folder before gluing in place on the card front.  As you can probably see, I matted the patterned paper piece on plain white card stock and wrapped a red ribbon around the right side of this panel.  I added a green matted sentiment (from Sassy's LLC) to the upper right corner with foam tape - centered over the red ribbon.  Finally, I added a red bow below the sentiment.