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!
