Do you have no time for crafting at the moment? Or maybe your mojo has gone walkabout? I'm hearing both of these issues from many of my Stampin’ Up!® customers and friends.
In fact, thanks to a new job and the commitment of rehabilitating a rescue dog, I barely have any crafting time for myself either.
Undeterred, I decided to throw some quick Christmas cards together at the weekend to show you how quick and easy making cards can be.
I think these must be the easiest Christmas cards ever! Two of them don’t even require any measuring at all.
It took me a total of around 20 minutes (and that’s a generous guess because I didn’t time it) to make these three cards using a very basic kit of products:
- One Horse Open Sleigh Designer Series Paper
- Christmas Classics stamp set
- Basic White Thick A4 cardstock
- Ink pads - I used Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso but you’d get away with just one of these.
These easy Christmas cards were not only inspired by a lack of time – I was also inspired by the beautiful scenes on this One Horse Open Sleigh Designer Series Paper which do almost all of the work for you.
Take this card featuring a deer in the snow, for instance. All I have done is cover the front of the card base with a piece of One Horse Open Sleigh Designer Series Paper, leaving some excess at the left to fold around the back.
You don’t even need to measure the paper; simply glue it to your card front and trim off the excess around the top, bottom and right. Don’t forget to leave around 2cm, 3/4" at the left to fold around, as I think this gives it a more finished look than a cut edge.
Next I stamped a greeting from Christmas Classics in Cajun Craze and added a second greeting inside to finish off. Simple!
Here’s another easy Christmas card using the same technique. This time I used a woodland scene on a landscape card, leaving the excess paper at the top edge this time so I could fold it around the crease.
This beautifully serene image is again from the One Horse Open Sleigh Designer Series Paper, which is a Stampin’ Up!® exclusive. All this means is you won’t find it in any catalogues but you can still order it in all of the usual ways; online or directly through me.
To finish this card, I stamped “Peace on Earth” in Early Espresso, again directly onto the Designer Series Paper, in the plainer, paler area on the right. This is definitely something to consider when planning your project. You want to ensure you use a section of paper which allows you to stamp your greeting without obscuring anything vital within the image.
My third card is slightly different as I had already used some of this beautiful fox sheet and didn’t want to cut into a new sheet unnecessarily.
Instead, I mounted it onto a piece of coordinating Cajun Craze cardstock to pick up the colour of the fox. This time you will need to do some measuring – but all I
do is knock 5mm off the card front size for the mat, and another 5mm off
for the Designer Series Paper.
To finish off, I stamped Christmas in Cajun Craze, and Wishes in Crumb Cake; both words come from the Christmas Classics stamp set.
You may think these cards are a little plain and boring! If so, you can always add more elements to them, just as embellishments, some Wink of Stella, or ribbon or twine. You could even stamp you greetings onto a die-cut label and pop it up, but personally I like them stamped directly on the Designer Series Paper.
There are other Christmassy Designer Series Papers which would work well with this concept, too. Why not try it with Winter Meadow (162133), another one of my favourites?
Are you planning a Stampin’ Up!® order? There are some GREAT offers at the moment!
Free shipping
This three-day offer began yesterday (Monday) and only runs until Wednesday, so don’t miss out. You will get FREE shipping on all orders of £60 or more.
TWO Starter Kit offers!
Lovely clean and simple cards. I like the idea of leaving the 2cm to fold over onto the back of the card, will have to give it a try. Thank you
ReplyDelete