I love Christmas time! I’ve been working on my Christmas cards (home-made, of course) for the past several months, doing a little bit at a time. I want to share some of the techniques I used for this card.
The front of the card is made using a technique called “paper tearing” and is very versatile and fun to use. I cut 2” x 12” strips of Bazzill Basics textured 12 x 12 paper (aloe vera), using my Fiskars Ultimate 12” paper trimmer. While watching the kids play outside, I tore triangle pieces from the strips of paper to make the Christmas trees and rubbed Rangers distressing ink around the edges. Tip – tear towards you instead of away; it gives a nice edge on the paper. I used my Xyron machine to put adhesive on the back of the triangles and set them aside. (This step took the most time and I did it while visiting family in October.)
I cut and folded all the red cardstock for the actual card part. Then I tore the corrugated brown paper into approximately 3”x 4” pieces. Using my Xyron machine to put adhesive on back of the corrugated paper made each piece like a sticker; so easy to put together!
I’m an organizational freak and like to have all my parts together before I assemble, especially when I’m doing mass-productions (75 + cards), so I printed my pictures using the Epson PictureMate (LOVE IT!), typed and printed the inside journaling. So now I’m ready to assemble the whole card. I had each part together in a neat pile on my table. I took a folded card, stuck a piece of corrugated paper to the top part of the card and arranged two to three torn triangles on the corrugated paper. Then I punched a hole using my Silent Eyelet Setter and set a star snaps I stamped the phrase “Tis the Season” on the lower right hand corner and with that, the front is done.
The inside – I trimmed my picture to size (about 3 ½” square) and used Hermafix adhesives to attach it to the inside left cover. I positioned it to cover the hole made from the star. On the other side, I attached with Hermafix adhesives my journaling letter to our family and friends. I didn’t want to cram it all into a 4” x 5” space, so I printed it on a half sheet of 8 ½ x 11 paper and folded it in half to fit inside the card.
After addressing the envelopes and figuring out that I needed to make 30 more cards (aghh!) because I missed half of our friends list, I am now done with Christmas for another year! Hope you have a Merry Christmas yourself!