A Special Christmas Card

Aloha, all!

     This weekend's challenge at Create With Connie and Mary was a bit of a different kind of challenge.  We were to make a "one of a kind" card for someone special.  Hmmm.  One of a kind?  What in the world did that mean?  No hints out of Connie and Mary, though.  So I had to figure my own particular "one of a kind" out myself.

     As I looked around at all the Christmas products I've purchased from Stampin' Up!'s Holiday mini, I started to think about using some of the embellishments of which I'd purchased limited supplies.  Then I started to think about techniques that were very time consuming.  And of course, I considered color combinations that were a little bit "different" from those which I was most comfortable using for Christmas crafts.  Finally I had to decide who the special person was that would be the recipient of my card.  It had to be someone who would appreciate all the thought and work that went into the card. 

     Once I had that all figured out, the card started slowly coming into focus.

     All of these elements didn't pop into my mind in a neat sequence.  That would have been too easy!  But once I had them all out on my work table, they just all seemed to meld together perfectly into just what I wanted.

     There are two somewhat time-consuming techniques in this card.  Heat embossing required some planning – making sure that I close the window at my work table to make sure there is no embossing powder blowing all over the place (ask me how I know this happens!); having my Embossing Buddy and Powder Pals at the ready and making sure that the embossing gun is plugged in and ready to go.  That worked out really well – the Dove stamp from Comfort and Joy is a joy to emboss!  Then I wanted a sentiment with a bit of a fancier font than the "Peace on Earth" that came with Comfort and Joy, so I hunted down my Christmas Set, Four the Holidays (I knew it was around somewhere!).

     Then on to the Mini Jingle Bells.  I decided that the best way to attach them all around the central motif was to sew them to card stock.  That meant that I had to have some evenly-spaced holes around the edge, so I had to make sure that the size of that card stock fit with what I could do with the Paper Piercing Template in the Mat Pack.  I punched holes for my needle and thread around the perimeter of the Real Red card stock (layer 4 in the sketch below) and sewed a Jingle Bell on at every second space.  I love how they came out – and how good they sound when there are so many of them on one card!  But I used a good percentage of my supply of bells, so I won't be teaching this in a class any time soon!

     The Silver Glimmer Paper was the perfect finishing touch for this card.  It accents the silver embossing so very well.  I almost wish I could have made a larger card to fit more of Stampin' Up!'s silver products in it.  But I do like to keep my cards to sizes that fit into Stampin' Up! envelopes.  This 5-1/4" card fits beautifully into the Stampin' Up! Medium Square Envelope.  But I do have to tell you that, with all those bells, it weighs well over an ounce even without the envelope!  I probably won't be putting this card in the mail, though; at least not in an envelope.

     And who's going to get this special card?  I'm not telling because I think that there's a good chance that person reads my blog!  It's got to be a surprise!

     Oh, and don't forget that you can still sign up for the Create With Connie and Mary Holiday Edition!  There are tons of fabulous projects already published and more to come.  This is just the end of week 3!  And you'll have access to the full tutorials for every single project for a year after the subscription series is over!  I loved the Summer Edition and still go back and check out some of those projects (though I've downloaded most of the tutorials already).

     Here's the sketch for this card – would you believe SIX LAYERS besides the basic card!  That's something I don't do often, either!  No wonder this card weighs a ton!  But it was a lot of fun making it – and I'm sure you'd have a lot of fun trying something with the sketch, too!