It's beginning to look a lot like...

...uh oh. It's October and the holidays are right around the corner. I know that if I don't start my Christmas cards soon, I'll never finish them before Christmas. Things just get too crazy and overwhelming to try to finish them in December. As I was trying to get into the Christmas spirit, I went a little overboard and made a card with a whole bunch of fun techniques. Hopefully you'll learn something today!

Here's the front of the card:



I used the Big Shot die cutting machine (so cool!) and the Top Note die and cut the image out of a pop can (no joke--it's a pop can). Then I used the snowflake image from the Best Wishes & More stamp set and stamped with versamark and embossed with Whisper White embossing powder to make the white snowflakes.



I did my best to get all the extra white embossing powder off of the pop can before I used the heat gun, but some specks were left. I actually like the finished look because it makes it look like a light dusting of snow. It's very Christmas-y! :-) I found that embossing on the pop can and cutting out images with the Big Shot is actually very fun and it makes for really neat stuff! I'm sure I'll be sharing more with you in the coming weeks.

As if the front wasn't cool enough, here's the inside:



SO MUCH FUN! Here's a quick tutorial on how to make the spiral pop-up on the inside of your card:

Step 1: Cut a circle with the 1-3/8" circle punch. I think this technique works a lot better with the new 1-3/4" circle punch, but sadly I don't have that punch yet.

Step 2: Start cutting around the circle making a spiral toward the center:




Step 3: Attach the center of the swirl to the inside of the card with a mini glue dot. Attach a second mini glue dot to the other end of the swirl. Simply close the card and the swirl will attach itself to the other side. Cut out 5 snowflakes. Attach one snowflake over each end of the swirl to cover the ends, and attach the other 3 snowflakes to the swirl itself. Make sure that the card will still close and the swirl will still collapse correctly when you add the snowflakes. I used mini glue dots rolled into a cylinder to attach my snowflakes to the swirl, but you could also use the 2-way glue pen. Be sure to not use too much adhesive so that the snowflakes do not stick together.



So for the card itself, I used Not Quite Navy for the card base, then I layered Baja Breeze on top of Whisper White for the front of the card. I stamped the snowflake randomly with Baja Breeze ink on the Baja Breeze layer on the front. I stamped the sentiment on the front with versamark ink and then embossed with silver embossing powder. The silver stretchy cord is from the Holiday Mini catalog. I also lined the inside of the card with Baja Breeze card stock and stamped the snowflake image randomly with versamark ink.

Colors: Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Stamp Sets: Best Wishes & More, Heard from the Heart

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!