It’s almost July so that’s close enough for me to start making Christmas cards. I must admit I don’t like making them early because come December 1st when I mail them out, I look at the cards and think “ugh! I don’t like this anymore”. Anyway, I’m participating in this scrapbooking sketch class at www.gosketch101.ning.com and today there was a card sketch so I thought I’d give it a go – the sample was of a card with a flower but I decided this would make a good Christmas card.

To make this card I stamped the Christmas tree image onto some watercolour paper and watercoloured it using Old Olive and Real Red markers then added some definition using the fine ends of the markers. The gold star is simply Gold Encore reinker applied with a fine brush. The circle is a piece of chipboard onto which I glued some patterned paper and then cut around it, I then adhered this to the top of my stamped Christmas tree and trimmed around the circle. The base of the card is more patterned paper, there’s three sheets there, the top one which is striped the bottom with the circles and the middle is striped with dots and this was scalloped to add some interest. If you haven’t ever done scalloping you should try it, it’s so simple… all I did was use my corner rounder (it has to be a corner rounder like Stampin’ Up!’s – the Creative Memories one won’t work for this purpose). So just remove the base of the corner rounder which is the black plastic guard and then working with the underneath of the punch facing you, hold your strip of paper flush with the bottom of the punch and give the punch a squeeze. You’ll see that it’s created a ‘U’ shape… move your punch along a little so that the edge of the punch shape (it looks like a little smile) is matching with the punched out edge of your cardstock and punch again… keep going along. Okay, that sounds complex – so here’s two photos to show you how super easy it is.

Corner rounder with guard removed

Punch upside down, facing you as you punch.
The sentiments at the bottom of the card are also super easy… I just stamped the sentiment from the Crazy for Christmas stamp set then cut it up with scissors (didn’t worry about it being straight), adhered it to some Real Red cardstock and then cut it down again to leave a 2mm border.

So. Have you started making your Christmas cards yet? I’ll post more Christmas cards as I make them. In the meantime, here’s the list of items I used to make this card:

(All products by Stampin’ Up! images copyright Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008. All products available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)

Fun & Fast Notes stamp set
Crazy For Christmas stamp set
Real Red cardstock
Watecolour paper
Confetti White cardstock (for sentiment)
Old Olive marker
Real Red marker
Close to Cocoa marker
Aquapainter
On Board Lots of Letters Chipboard (circle)
Dashing double-sided patterned paper
SNAIL Adhesive
Paper Snips (scissors)
Encore Gold Reinker