Gold and Green Christmas

Hello there!  Hope you're staying warm and dry today.  Wintery weather has hit us here in Boiling Springs, South Carolina.  It's rainy and cold outside - only 40 degrees for a high today!  And it was only 28 degrees when I got up this morning.  Yikes!  What happened to our warm and sunny weather?  Ok, is this because I was bragging about how wonderful it was?  My bad!  Well, since it is so gray and ugly outside, it sounds like the perfect day to be inside stamping and creating!  So that's just what I'm going to do. 

My card today uses a mixture of dies and DSP from several different bundles/suites.  After putting them together, they ended up working nicely to make this card.  The idea of the card all started with the Lights Aglow DSP gold foil print of Christmas trees on an Evening Evergreen background.  You can find this gorgeous 6" x 6" paper pack on page 31 of the July-December Mini Catalog.  These prints are just fabulously elegant.  So of course, I had to use some of the very elegant Gold and Rose Gold 6" x 6" Metallic Specialty Paper found on page 139 in the Annual Catalog.  Don't they look wonderful together?  

The brushed Gold Metallic Paper measures 3" x 4".  The print DSP measures 5" x 3".  Since this comes in a 6" x 6" pack, cut off 1" from the bottom to use for something else, and cut in half lengthwise to get enough to make two cards.  I mean, if you're going to make one Christmas card, why not make at least two at the same time?   Double the cards in just about the same amount of time.

I'm getting ahead of myself here.  Let's start with the base of the card first.  That is Evening Evergreen cardstock cut to measure 4 1/4" x 11", scored at 5 1/2" and folded in half.  This makes a top fold card.  The first layer is a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock that measures 5 1/4" x 4".  Cut two of these - one for the front and one for the inside of the card. 

The brushed Gold Specialty Paper is added next.  I cut this so the 'brushed' look goes across the card.  This is attached to the card front with Multi Purpose Liquid Glue.  Then that 3" x 5" panel of the DSP is attached to the center front of the card.

Next comes the ribbon.  About a 16" length of Gold & Vanilla Satin-edged Ribbon was tied around the layers.   I'm guessing at the length of the ribbon because I always make the bow before cutting the ribbon.  The bow is positioned near the left edge of the card.  This ribbon is one of the hidden finds in the July-December Mini Catalog.  It's really beautiful and at 3/8" wide, it's just the right size.

The sentiment is next and is from the Decorated with Happiness set in the July-December Mini Catalog.  Oh yes, have I mentioned before that I really like this set?  And while I had this set out, I die-cut the ornament from Gold Foil Paper.

The sentiment is stamped onto a Very Vanilla piece of cardstock using Evening Evergreen ink.  Then it was die-cut with one of the dies from the Painted Labels Dies.  This one is an elegant shape that fits the greeting nicely.  It has an embossed edge around it to dress it up some.  

The sentiment was attached to the card front with Dimensionals above and below the ribbon.   This leaves the ribbon free so it can slide through to position correctly on the card.  The die-cut ornament is tucked in under the ribbon with only a Mini Glue Dot holding it at the top.  The gold Festive Pearls are the added bling for this card.  I wasn't too sure how all five of the different gold tones would work together on the card, but I love the sheer glitzy elegance of the card.  Hmm, is that a weird thing to put glitzy and elegance in the same sentence?

I didn't end up taking a picture of the inside of the card.  I used the sentiment from the Decorated with Happiness set stamped in Evening Evergreen ink.  I also added some pine branches coming in from the top in Evening Evergreen ink.  I used an old gold ink pad from a few years ago to stamp one of the ornaments and a few 'sparkles' inside too.

Now for the big news!  Stampin' Up! is having a huge Seasonal Sale!!  From Nov 15 - 18, most every punch (10% off), stamp (15% off), dies (20% off), embossing folders (20% off) and DSP (20% off) in the main catalog is on sale.  No Specialty DSP or Hybrid Embossing Folders are part of the sale.  Follow this link to see what is on sale!  https://www.stampinup.com/categories/sales-specials/seasonal-sale   You don't want to miss out.  And if you place an order, please consider using the Host Code shown at the top of the blog page.  Thank you!

Hope you were inspired to get started on your Christmas cards today.  Or if you've already started, keep at them so you can get them finished in plenty of time to get them in the mail.  Don't be like me still making the last few cards I need the week before Christmas!!

Happy stamping and creating (and shopping!),

Sharon