a merry little christmas

Hi friends! I have some more inspiration for you today using the new De-Lightful Christmas Collection from the July 2023 Spellbinders Holiday Release. Earlier this week, I posted some super saturated inspiration with a more traditional color scheme of intense, vibrant red and accents of green, but today my inspiration comes from my childhood. My mom had a couple of different themes for our Christmas trees when I was growing up, ranging from the more traditional hodgepodge of handmade and hand-me-down ornaments with colorful lights to a sophisticated and coordinated Victorian tree, complete with aqua, pink, gold, and pearl color scheme-and even pink lights! I channeled that tree when I was creating these two cards, so let’s get started with the details.

To start, I pulled out several different color elements that I wanted to incorporate into my projects, including Pink Lemonade and Sea Glass cardstock from Concord and 9th, as well as Pink Lemonade, Sea Glass, and Juniper inks, also from Concord and 9th.

For my first card, I began by hot foiling the beautiful Glimmer Holly Background on some Hammermill cardstock (super smooth and my preferred white cardstock for basically everything) using Satin Rose Gold Foil from Spellbinders. This background is so beautifully detailed, so full and rich, that it could easily stand on its own. I can’t wait to try adding watercoloring or alcohol markers!

For this card, though, I used the Layered Glimmer Holly Stencil Set with Pink Lemonade, Sea Glass, and Juniper inks from Concord and 9th, increasing the intensity of the Juniper ink for the holly leaves and decreasing it for the little spruce sprigs to get multiple colors from just one ink pad! The Layered Glimmer Holly Stencils are designed to be a bit stylized, leaving some of the images without color, some completely colored, and some with bare spots to add some highlights to the images. Such a unique look without compromising the beautiful design in the slightest! I trimmed down the full background panel and added a couple of strips of Pink Lemonade and Sea Glass cardstock to accent the colors in the stenciled panel.

The background is so lovely that I kept the card itself very simple so as to allow the background to be a main point of focus. I hot foiled one of the large sentiments from A Merry Little Christmas Sentiments using Satin Rose Gold Foil and die cut it with the coordinating die. I popped up the greeting using some foam adhesive, orienting it over the seam of the colored cardstock. The final touch was to add a few Aura AB gems for some sparkle. A simple card, but so effective!

My second card features the gorgeously detailed Poinsettia Bloom Dies. I began by die cutting the Poinsettia Bloom Dies twice from white cardstock. I removed each individual piece from the die cut and used a small blending brush to lightly blend some Pink Lemonade ink, concentrating the darkest blending towards the center of the flower. Once I had finished blending each piece, I die cut the solid outline piece from some heavyweight vellum cardstock and adhered the super detailed piece from the top layer using liquid adhesive. I then placed each blended petal in it’s appropriate spot using liquid adhesive. A bit fiddly, but replacing each piece honestly went a lot more quickly than you would think!

For the background, I ran an A2 panel of Pink Lemonade cardstock through my Platinum 6 using the Holly & Foliage 3D Embossing Folder . My matchy-matchy-loving heart adores that each element from the De-Lightful Christmas Collection coordinates perfectly together! To add a little interest to the background, I also blended some Pink Lemonade ink around the edges of the embossed panel, giving it just a touch more depth and dimension.

I popped up the blended poinsettia die cut using some foam adhesive, then added a few sprigs of pine cut using the Christmas Blooms Dies from White Glitter Foam. I love adding little individual botanical die cuts to bouquets like this; it helps to fill out the bouquets and direct your eye to the sentiment, because you can orient the direction of the bouquet based on where you place the additional sprigs. For the greeting, I used another hot foiled sentiment from the A Merry Little Christmas Sentiments using Satin Rose Gold Foil. I popped it up using a double layer of foam tape to give it a little extra height from the poinsettia. The final touch was a few more sparkling Aura AB gems!

Well, that’s all for these projects!

One last thing: the Christmas In July sale from Spellbinders is going on through July 16, and there are tons of stunning holiday products and essentials on sale for up to 50% off! (Click HERE to check it out!)

I have lots more to share with you using these beautiful new products from Spellbinders, so be sure to check back for more holiday inspiration! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and Merry Christmas in July!

Hi friends! I have some inspiration to share with you today using some of the brand new goodies from the July 2023 Spellbinders Holiday Release! I was lucky enough to get to play with several new products from this release earlier this spring using the De-Lightful Christmas Collection designed by my incredibly talented friend, Yana Smakula. Yana has an eye for beautifully detailed images that are not overpowering, and I absolutely love that all of the images in the collection coordinate perfectly together. I was channeling my inner Yana when I created some of these cards, inspired by her use of bold colors and layers. Let’s get started with the details on my projects!

I rarely use red outside of holiday crafting; I prefer bold jewel tones or muted pastels, but red is synonymous with Christmas to me, so I go through tons of red cardstock at Christmas time! Spellbinders has utterly luscious cardstock colors that are super smooth and perfect for hot foiling. I used a ton of Poppy Field on these cards, which I see is currently out of stock (because it’s the most stunning shade of Christmas red!). Be sure to sign up for email notification for when it comes back in stock!

For my first project, I used the new Joyful Glimmer Hot Foil Plate. This hot foil plate comes in two parts so that you can hot foil the letters in one color and the little botanical sprigs in another color. I hot foiled the letters onto some Fog cardstock using Crimson Star hot foil, then hot foiled the little sprigs twice using Viridian hot foil. I hot foiled the sprigs on both the main panel with the letters and again on another panel of Fog cardstock so that I could cut a few of them out and pop them up with foam adhesive for extra interest and dimension!

I die cut the foiled panel using the Essential Arches Nested Dies, cutting another arch from green cardstock that was slightly larger than my foiled arch to create a lovely green frame. This additional green frame helps to make the green hot foiled foliage really pop from the sentiment panel, as well as draw the eye to the center of the card.

For the background, I hot foiled the utterly gorgeous new Glimmer Holly Background Foil Plate using the pewter satin foil from the Satin Metallics 4 Pack on Poppy Field cardstock. The contrast between the pewter foiled lines and the vibrant red cardstock is superb! I mounted the foiled arches on the foiled background using foam adhesive, then added the additional fussy cut sprigs with some more foam tape. The final touch was to add some sparkling red gems to the berries for an extra bit of texture and shine!

My second card is an homage to the monochromatic. I gathered several different shades of red cardstock, glitter paper, and ink to create this incredibly vibrant and saturated red mini-slimline card. I started by die cutting the Poinsettia Bloom Etched Dies from Pomegranate cardstock. I kept the cut pieces in place with some washi tape on the back to keep the entire die cut intact. I also die cut another Poinsettia Bloom from some red glitter foam to add as an accent.

To create my background, I ran a panel of Poppy Fields cardstock cut to mini-slimline size through my Platinum 6 using the Holly & Foliage 3D Embossing Folder. (Spellbinders embossing folders are super simple to use with the new-ish Universal Plate System.)This embossing folder adds crazy beautiful texture to your background and can be used with so many techniques. I can’t wait to play with it even more! I used a blending brush to add some deep red ink around the edges, which coordinates beautifully with the Pomegranate poinsettia.

Also included in the De-Lightful Christmas Collection is a *stunning* new holiday sentiment set for the Glimmer Hot Foil Machine, called A Merry Little Christmas Sentiments. It features the beautiful scripty font that has become synonymous with Yana’s designs juxtaposed with a simple, but elegant, type font. I hot foiled the greeting onto some more Poppy Fields cardstock using the platinum satin metallic foil. I cannot get enough of that platinum satin foil on colorful cardstock; it is the height of elegance and sophistication to my eyes! I layered the different Poinsettia die cuts on the blended and embossed background, adhering them with a mixture of foam tape and liquid adhesive, then added the greeting with another layer of foam tape. Tons and tons of dimension and height on this card, which I think is a necessity when working with limited color palette projects! The final touch was a few more sparkling red gems. I am totally in love with the amount of color saturation and vibrance on this card.

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I also wanted to share with you that Spellbinders is hosting a Christmas In July sale on their website. You can save tons of money-up to 50% off!-on older holiday products now through July 16th! The new products that I’ve shared today are unfortunately not included in the sale, but there are so many beautiful products that are on killer sale. If you’re like me and love to purchase your weight in holiday cardmaking supplies, definitely check out their sale!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and Merry Christmas in July!

Childhood Inspiration for Christmas with Spellbinders!

Christmas In July with Spellbinders + SALE!