Christmas Inspiration: Fancy Nesty

It's never too early to get started making Christmas cards.  Hopefully this one will inspire you.  It was created using the technique Sue demonstrated on her PartiCraft blog - Fancy Nesty Tutorial. It was a fun card to make and SO pretty when completed!  This is what it looked like on the inside.

Materials used:

• Spellbinders "Heirloom Ornaments 2010" Nesting Dies
• Just Right stamp sets: "Deck the Halls" and "Noel Christmas Ornaments"
• Spellbinders M-Bossability Folder "Imperial"
• Red Ink
• Clear Embossing Powder
• Embossing Gun
• Red/green patterned paper
• Red satin 1/8" ribbon
• Adhesive

The stamped ornaments were cut with the ornament die and then stamped in red and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

I did the background by embossing two 5" x 7" pieces of white glimmer paper in the M-Bossability folder.  For the outside I basically cut it in half and cut a piece out with the die so it would line up nicely. 

For the inside I cut a piece out of the middle of the 2nd piece - once again using a die. I did this because it's rather difficult to write a message on embossed paper! :) You can see the piece I cut out is matting my focal element on the left side. 

I thought I had measured carefully enough so my cut hole would line up with the front, but it didn't line up as well as I would have liked. That's where the red frame on the inside came in so nicely - it not only framed the space for a message, but covered up the fact that the hole hadn't lined up with the front the way I had wanted.

The frame was made using two of the dies together.  I find that blue painter's tape works great to hold multiple dies in place when I prepare to cut them out.

Black & Pink with Roses

The other day I suddenly realized I needed a birthday card made quickly!  I was SOOOO glad I had prepared card focals ahead of time! They made this card quick and easy.

Materials:

• Prepared heat-embossed focals
• Smooch inks
• Black paper
• Pink striped paper (HOTP)
• Cutting dies (Fancy Tags Two, Labels 29, Edgeability insert, Vintage Labels Two - all Spellbinders though last one was made for JustRite)

Method:

1. Starting with the prepared Rose focal, I colored it using Smooch inks, and set it aside to dry.  I did the same with the "Fabulous birthday" focal that I used for the inside of the card (see below).
2. While those pieces were drying, I prepared the rest of the card front, starting with the striped piece cut just a bit smaller than the card so the white card became a mat for my background paper.
3. Using the largest Labels Twenty-nine die, I cut a piece from black paper and attached a horizontal strip of the pink striped paper in the center of it.  I ran a piece of pink grosgrain ribbon across the center of that.
4. After the ink dried on my rose focal, I cut a shape from black paper using the same die that was used to cut the focal.  I cut this black piece in half lengthwise, arranging the pieces so they formed a mat on either side of my focal, trimming the pieces at the top and bottom as needed to finish it nicely.
5. I cut a black decorative piece using a die from the Fancy Tags Two set, cut it in half, and arranged each half behind my focal before gluing all in place as you see here.

Here is the inside of the card, using that same striped paper:

Pre-Made Focals

The other day I decided to make a bunch of card focal elements so I'd have them ready to go when I wanted them.  In the picture above, you see some examples. 

Materials:

• Acrylic and/or Rubber Stamps (most were from JustRite as I like having the coordinating dies for ease of cutting them out!)
• Cutting dies (Spellbinders/JustRite that coordinate with my stamps) with Grand Caliber or other die cutting machine
• Glossy white cardstock
• Alcohol inks & Alcohol Blending Solution & Applicator with felt pads
• Embossing ink pad
• Embossing Powder in a variety of colors & Heat Gun

Method:

1. Cut out a variety of shapes from the glossy white cardstock using the dies.  I like the Grand Caliber for this as I can cut out so many at one time!
2. Color the cut-out shapes as you like with the alcohol inks and blending solution on the applicator with felt pads, and let your shapes dry (doesn't take long).
3. Stamp images and sentiments on them using embossing ink.
4. Before the ink dries, add embossing powder in color of your choosing, and then heat emboss with the heat gun.

I'm sure that in upcoming blogs you'll see plenty of examples of how I have used these pre-made focals!

Thinking Teal

I LOVE this border stamp from JustRite.  I like to stamp it and heat emboss it with black.  Then I can color it as I wish and add different sentiments to the center to create a wide variety of card toppers.  I also like that it was designed to coordinate with a Spellbinders die so is easy to cut out.

Materials:

• "Good Friends Labels Twenty-Nine" and "Grand Sentiments" stamp sets (JustRite)
• Labels Twenty-Nine dies (Spellbinders)
• Gold glimmer paper
• Teal card stock
• Smooch inks - Ocean Soul, Sugarberry, Green Apple, Gold Lame
• Embossing ink
• Black embossing powder
• Paper Piercer
• Piercing Ruler

Method:

1. Create focal element: Die cut white card stock with largest Labels 29 die. Stamp with embossing ink and heat emboss with fine black embossing powder.  Then color with Smooch inks.
2. Mat with Gold: Die cut gold piece with largest Labels 29 die.  Cut into quarters, round the ends of each and glue in place.
3. Background: Pierce teal background all around the edge using a piercing ruler and paper piercer. Glue to card and then add matted focal element.