CANDY CANES AND GLIMMER

Last week I shared Christmas Cards made with the Merriest Moments products and this week I have more Christmas Cards to share with you.  If you are a stamper you, like me, are probably busily working on your Christmas Cards.  If you haven't started, it is time!

This week I will be using the Sweet Candy Canes Bundle which definitely leans more towards the cute and whimsical than the traditional and elegant that I shared last week.  I had a lot of fun making this week's cards, and no matter your preferred personal style, I hope you enjoy them and find some inspiration for your own cards.  

This Sweet Candy Canes bundle will also be the featured bundle for the November Stamp Camp-to-Go class.  If you would like more information on how to participate in that class, please sign up for my Newsletter and you will receive all the details!

I thought I would start the week with a card full of sparkle and shine (not that my photographic skills will necessarily fully show that).  In real life, this card has lots of both. 

I started by cutting two pieces of Thick Basic White cardstock with the stripes die from the Sweet Candy Canes Bundle.  If I'm totally honest, this die is what sold me on this bundle.  It is unlike anything I already have, and it makes a gorgeous statement.

To make the stripes crisscross, one is flipped over.  I have two hints if you do this.

1.  On the die cut that you flip over, use your bone folder and rub it over the cut edges of the die cut to lay those cut edges down.

2.  Use the "flipped" die cut on the bottom layer.

 And next comes the sparkle!  After adhering the die cuts together to hold them in place, I adhered them to Red Glimmer paper.  You will want to use a good adhesive to do this.  I found that liquid glue seems to hold the best when adhering other cardstock to glimmer paper.

Once the Red Glimmer Paper and two die cuts were assembled, I adhered them to the front of my Thick Basic White card base.

Now the decorating fun begins!

I wanted my Candy Canes to Shine, so I used the Colored Embossing Technique to create them.  This is a simple technique to create a shiny embossed image in any color.   For my Candy Canes I used Real Red ink.   If you are not familiar with this technique, I have described it in my FREE tutorial which you can download by using this link.  

In the following photo you can see the shine on the Candy Canes that is provided by the Colored Embossing Technique.

Once the Candy Canes were complete, I thought they could use a bed of greenery to lay on.  I used the detailed pine bough die from the Christmas Pinecone Dies to create some Shaded Spruce boughs for their bed.  I used the same die set to create a couple of pinecones to make a "bouquet" of sorts to lay over the candy canes.  To add a slight variation in greenery color, I tucked a couple of Pear Pizzaz leafy branches among the pine boughs behind the candy canes.  These were made with the stamp and dies from the Sweet Candy Canes bundle.

All that remained was adding a sentiment.  The Christmas Cheer sentiment is also from the Sweet Candy Canes stamp set.  After stamping it in Real Red on a Basic White scrap, I die cut it with one of the flag dies from Stylish Shapes Dies.  I hope this die set never retires (which I know won't happen) as it is a go-to, all-purpose die set that I use on the majority of my cards.  If you don't have it yet, you should consider it.  You can see more details by clicking on the image in my product list below.

For the inside of the card, I kept it extremely simple.  I added a strip of Red Glimmer cardstock to the left side of the Basic White and Stamped another sentiment from the Sweet Candy Canes stamp set with Real Red ink.  It doesn't get much easier than that!

As indicated above, a detailed tutorial is available for FREE so if you would like more step-by-step information, please use the ink provided above to download a copy.

A list of the products I used is shown below and you can learn more about any of them by clicking on the image.

Product List

Sweet Candy Canes Bundle (English) [161052]	Christmas Pinecone Dies [156309]	Stylish Shapes Dies [159183]	Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Thick Cardstock [159229]
Real Red & White 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Glimmer Paper [159578]	Shaded Spruce 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146981]	Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock [159276]	Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [120953]
Early Espresso 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [119686]	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad [147084]	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad [147104]	Versamark Pad [102283]
Basics Embossing Powders [155554]	Heat Tool (Us And Canada) [129053]	Stampin' Cut & Emboss Machine [149653]

Add All to Cart