‘Twas the Night

My Christmas card mission last year, which was to make some cards for my last blog post each month, was very successful and resulted in much less stress and panic-crafting in December.  I really enjoyed the variety of cards I had to choose from and actually got them written and sent by early December, which was doubly handy since the Royal Mail were often on strike.   My opening post for this year’s mission uses the Crafter’s Companion ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas die, which was free with Simply Cards and Papercraft 233 on 28^th July 2022.

To begin, I die cut the scene using my precision plate before using the embossing mat to get the details on the roof tops.

In an attempt to use my huge stash of patterned paper, I selected a non-traditional pinky-purple background paper for the sky.  I marked the top of the windows in pencil before colouring the window areas with a gold marker pen.

Some snow was added to the sky using a Posca pen and glitter for snow on the roof tops.  I then cut a frame 1cm wide as I didn’t have a regular border around the scene after die-cutting.

Monika, one of my fellow Cardmaker of the Year 2022 winners, had invited me to join a Facebook group making a new fun-fold each month.  January’s is the Joy Fold so that’s what I decided to turn this panel into.  I matted and layered in pink and purple before adding another piece of the sky paper and stamped the greeting, which was from Visible Image Go To Christmas Words.  This section would be covered by the scene when the card was closed.

I managed to get a tiny bit of the 'g' inked up after 'seasons', recified with some strategic stamping of snowflakes!

The card was finished with some die-cut snowflakes and a few gems.

The little ‘oops’ on the inside was rescued by stamping some snowflakes!

For the second card, I cut two of the dies as I wanted to use the two elements separately.  I cut a card base and aperture then cut two smaller rectangular apertures and glued some snowflake vellum and the houses between them. 

Since the card was largely monochrome, I stamped the tiny sentiments from Colorado Craft Company Christmas Hats in red and green ink around the frame to make it more festive.  The vellum panel was then glued behind and the sleigh attached on top.

The main feature I wanted for this was that it could be lit up using battery operated tealights, like this:

My first two cards complete!  Are you going to join me in getting ahead on your Christmas makes?