I love it when new innovative products come onto the crafting market and was delighted when I managed to get hold of the Angela Poole Magic Windows Slide & Reveal Die Set a few months ago. I knew it would be perfect to use for my family Christmas cards. Because of the mechanism, the card you use needs to be flat. This gave me the perfect opportunity to use some gorgeous Hunkydory card stock I had in my stash as it had fun designs that would work well with the dies.

Well, I managed to make all of my Christmas cards again this time, over 100 in total. The secret to saving a huge headache is coming up with a simple design that is quick and easy to mass produce. If you break the process down into steps and set up a production line it saves time too. I came up with 2 designs that were similar but different. Here is the first design with step by step pictures of the processes invloved. The second design can be seen at the bottom of this post. You’ll notice the second one was much simpler as I ran out of time and made some mistakes in my efforts to get things done in time. These are worth sharing to save you doing the same.

Design One

The main feature of this design is the stamped background using the Concord & 9th Deck the Halls turnabout stamp. I started by cutting sheets of A4 card in half lengthways to make two A6 landscape card blanks from each sheet. I then used post it notes to mask the card blanks and blended distress oxide ink.

Next I cut the Kraft card stock for my background to size to make the stamping process easier. I stamped 26 squares, doing each one and then heat embossing with coloured embossing powder before rotatating and then changing colour, half I accented with silver and half gold. Once all of the squares had been stamped and heat embossed, I cut them in half and ink blended the edges.

I then die cut scalloped circles from co-ordinating green card stock and also die cut ribbons from the same card. I die cut stitched circles from white card and stamped these with distress oxide ink and heat embossed with clear powder.

Using the Marianne Confetti die I die cut small circles form gold and silver Mirror card for the Holly berries and punch holly leaves from dark green card.

I then assembled the cards using PVA glue and used small foam squares for the holly berries to add dimension. And here they are. I made 52 in total.

Design 2

I was rapidly running out of time so opted for simple matting and layering using patterned papers with a similar motif on the front. My big mistake with this set of cards was to glue the mats and layers together first. I should have stamped and heat embossed the sentiment first and then attached the mats and layers one at a time to the card base rather than what I actually did. I glued the mats and layers first, heat embossed the sentiment and then glued them to the card base which I am certain is the reason there is so much warping in the papers as the heat affected the glue. Ah well I’ll know better next time. I die cut circles from ivory card stock and ink blended them. The holly and berries were die cut from coloured card. I added white gel pen highlights and glossy accents to the berries.  I figured that although they were not perfect, they were still hand made and a lots more effort than buying shop bought mass produced ones.

My friend requested a card for her daughter’s 30th birthday in October featuring a Housemouse design. She was planning to have a Baby shower instead of a birthday party as she was expecting a baby. Everyone has a name for their ‘bump’ and in this case, the bump was being affectionately called ‘little pumpkin’. I used the Joanna Sheen Housemouse CD-ROMs and combined a few different images using Craft Artist Professional 2 to create this autumn looking 8” square easel card with a tiny little pumpkin mouse added to the picture and also featuring on the card stopper. All of the mice in the picture represent various members of her daughter’s family.

The first Christmas for any child is always very special. I was asked to make a special card for my Friend’s Grandson’s First Christmas so I came up with the idea of a Tox Box. I used a number of dies to make this including the following; Toffee bear standing die by Tinker & Co, Jessie bear and outfits dies, Sizzix originals Train, Stocking and Candy cane dies, Spellbinders Die D-Lites Little Guy dies, Bosscut bunnies die, unbranded giraffe dies, Craftycat cistom wooden bear die, Quickutz revolution build an animal dies. Paper boutique sentiment dies and Gemini Expressions Metal Dies – Uppercase and lower case Alphabet Sets.

I was recent;y asked to make a first wedding anniversary card which replicated the flowers in the bridal bouquet. Quite a fitting choice as the traditional gift for the first anniversary is paper. Looking at the bridal bouquest and my stash of flower dies, it took a little experimentation to recreate some of the blooms. I love shadow box cards for flowers, it allows the depth of the flowers to accomodated within the card so they don’t get crushed. I used the following dies to create this; Tonic Shadow Box Creations die set, Heartfelt creations Majestic Blooms Die, Cheery Lynn Baby’s breath flower die, Memory box Norrland flower dies, Altenew Garden Picks die set, Alt-e-new Layered Rose die set, free with issue 174 of Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine and Britannia Sentiment dies.

Here’s a birthday card I made for sister’s November birthday. I used the Sizzix Thinlits Rain boot planter 663322 die set and the Sizzix impresslits window box set 663585 to create this. The view inside the window was stamped and then coloured to match my Sister’s front room curtains. The sentiment to finish off the front was cut using a Paper Boutique sentiment die. I just love how cute the wellies are.

No birthday can be more important than a baby’s very first one. I was asked to make an extra large card for my friends Grandson with a photograph of him included. Hope you like it. For details of materials, dies etc used just click on any of the images.

I find that people generally commission as card to made when it’s an extra special celebration. None more special than a Ruby Wedding Anniversary. My friend wanted a large extra special card with lots of photographs included and this is what I came up with. The double waterfall meant there was room for 10 photographs. There are challenges when upsizing cards, as the base card needs to be made of heavy enough weight card to stand up. In the case of this waterfall stepper card there was the extra weight of 2 waterfall mechanisms on the front too. I Used 300 gsm card and glued strengthening pieces also 300gsm to the inside. I also attach a hidden ribbon to cards with a tent fold like this to stop them opening too wide and ending up lying flat.

My Son In Law Celebrated his 30th Birthday recently so our card to him had to be something special. I made him a tankard from silver mirror card and decorated with items representing his two great passions after my daughter, i.e. Manchester united and Golf. 3D construction with mirror card is not without it’s challenges, namely ensuring that no glue residue shows on the right side and avoiding damaging/marking the surface of the card while putting the vaarious elements together. I used a template from a CDRom I bought a few years back to make the tankard and then, because it doesn’t fold flat I constructed a presentation box. For details of CD Rom and dies used just click on any of the pictures.

I also did a bit of sewing to create a surprise extra present for him. I have, in the past made my hubby a customised waistcoat and two bow ties with Manchester City logos, and my son in law said he wanted a united bow tie. There was nothing suitable available to but and no suitable fabric to make one. I managed to buy a silk tie on ebay that had united logos all over it. I pulled it apart and made him a bow tie from it.