Author Archives: janine

Luxurious Santa Card

Whilst this beautiful card is a little more time consuming to make than some of the more simpler designs, it really is worth the effort as the finished card is quite spectacular. It’s perfect for that lovely person you want to make an extra special card for. Of course if you want to use the outside design of the card on it’s own without the intricate inner design inside the card you can do this.

Materials for the outside of the card:

  1. A Cream 7″ x 5″ (126mm x 178mm) Card Blank
  2. Plain White Card
  3. Red Mulberry Tissue Paper
  4. Various Twinkling H2Os
  5. Star Dust Opalescent Stickles Glitter Glue
  6. Christmas Greetings Banners – Silver/Gold on White
  7. Christmas Santa Claus Frames Peel Off Sheet – Gold
  8. Various Borders Peel Off Sheet – Gold
  9. Sticky Foam Pads
  10. Invisi Dots For Vellum or Vellum Bond
  11. Scissors, Cutting Mat, Craft Knife, Ruler & pencil

To make the outside (front) of the card:

Measure and cut a rectangle from the red mulberry tissue paper that measures approximately 155mm x 105mm. Use vellum bond, invisi dots for vellum or a similar glue to stick the tissue paper centrally to the front of the card blank.

Apply a decorative border from the gold various borders peel off sheet to all four edges of the red mulberry tissue paper rectangle, trimming the border to size as necessary.

Stick one of the Santa Claus Frames peel off stickers to plain white card. Cut round the outside edge of the peel off sticker and then mount the cut out to the top centre of the red mulberry tissue paper rectangle, on the front of the card, using sticky foam pads.

Use the stardust stickles glitter glue to colour in Santa’s beard and the fur trim on his suit and leave to dry.

Colour the Santa frame peel off sections in using various twinkling H2O shimmery watercolour paints. The colours we have used here are: Solar Gold (decorative border) and Heavenly White (background), both colours are from Twinkling H2Os set 656, China Black (Santa’s boots, belt & buttons), Autumn Skies and Green Tea (presents in sack), all three colours are from Twinkling H2Os set 659 and Poppy Red (Santa’s Suit), Cinnamon Brown (Santa’s sack) and Wild Plum (presents in sack), all three colours are from Twinkling H2Os set 660. Leave card somewhere flat to dry.

Finally using sticky foam pads, stick a gold on white foil printed banner with wording of your choice underneath the Santa picture.

Materials for the inside of the card:

  1. Pearlised Ivory Card
  2. Red Mulberry Tissue Paper
  3. A5 Foil Printed Vellum – Gold on Red Xmas Messages
  4. 2 x Christmas Baubles Modern Peel Off Sheets – Gold OR Pearl Glitter Gold
  5. Card Creasing Board & Bone Creaser (optional)
  6. 6mm Ultra High Bond Double Sided Tape
  7. 6cm of red cotton or gold embroidery thread
  8. Ordinary Sticky Tape
  9. Invisi Dots For Vellum or Vellum Bond
  10. Scissors, Cutting Mat, Craft Knife, Ruler & pencil

To make the inside of the card:

Cut a 178mm* high section from one A5 sheet of the red Xmas Messages foil printed vellum. *The height of the vellum needs to be exactly the same height as the card blank you are using, so you might want to measure your card blank for the exact height that you need. Fold the vellum in half vertically and use vellum bond, invisi dots for vellum or a similar glue to stick the vellum inside the centre of the card blank.

From the pearlised ivory card, cut a rectangle that matches the exact height and width of the size of your card blank (i.e. around 126mm wide x 178mm high). Use your creasing board and bone creaser to make a central vertical crease on the card and then two more vertical creases centrally in each half either side of the central crease. Fold the central crease back and the two outer creases forward so you end up with a concertina effect. If you don’t have a creasing board you can ever so lightly score the fold lines using a ruler and the tip of your craft knife and then make the folds.

Measure and cut two strips of red mulberry tissue paper big enough to cover the front of each of the two most outer sections of the card concertina. Use vellum bond, invisi dots for vellum or a similar glue to stick the tissue paper to the pearlised card.

Take two of the smaller Christmas baubles of your choice from the gold Christmas baubles modern peel off sheets. Stick one to the top of the left hand and one to the bottom of the right hand red mulberry paper covered sections of the concertina.

Measure and cut an oval aperture from the centre of the card concertina that measures approximately 60mm wide x 90mm high.

Take two identical larger Christmas bauble stickers from the gold Christmas baubles modern peel off sheets. Stick the two stickers back to back trapping one end of the cotton or thread in at the top of the bauble so the completed bauble can hang by the thread.

Use some ordinary sticky tape to stick the top of the thread to the back of the pearlised card concertina above the oval aperture, so that the bauble hangs centrally in the aperture. Stick some straight peel off strips from the bauble peel off sheet either side of the thread.

Align the left edge of the card concertina with the very left of the inside of the card blank and the right edge of the card concertina with the very right of the inside of the card blank. Use a strip of the ultra high bond double sided sticky tape each side to stick the card concertina to the inside of the card blank. The concertina inside the card should open and shut neatly as the card opens and shuts.

Card Idea by Jill

Pop Up Reindeer Card

This is a great fun pop up card that you can make quite easily from scratch. If you want something a bit different for your Christmas cards, then this is an ideal design. You don’t have to stick with the reindeer theme either, try out different colour schemes and different toppers. Below is a picture of the finished card standing and at the very bottom is a picture of the finished card laid out flat.

What you need to make this card:

  1. Plain Card (at least 290mm x 145mm)
  2. Mid Green Mulberry Tissue Paper
  3. Red Nosed Reindeer/Bell Topper
  4. Various Borders Peel Off Sheet – Gold
  5. Merry Christmas Peel Off Sheet – Diamond Gold
  6. Card Creasing Board & Bone Creaser (optional)
  7. Sticky Foam Pads
  8. Invisi Dots For Vellum or Vellum Bond
  9. Scissors, Cutting Mat, Craft Knife, Ruler & pencil

Cut out a shape from the plain card as per the measurements and shape shown in the shape plan below. We’ve used plain white card for our pop up card but you can use any colour you like. The shape measures 145mm from top to bottom and 290mm across from tip to tip. The shape plan is not to scale, it’s just to give you an idea of how to cut out and measure the shape.

Click on the image below for a larger view of the shape plan.

Pop Up Card Shape Plan

Use your creasing board and bone creaser to make crease lines on your card shape where there are red and green dotted lines shown in the shape plan. The creases shown by red dotted lines should be folded down and the green dotted line should be folded up the other way from the red dotted lines.

If you don’t have a creasing board you can ever so lightly score the fold lines using a ruler and the tip of your craft knife and then make the folds.

Once you have folded all the creases push the card flat, one of the diamond shapes in the shape plan then forms the base of the card and the other diamond is the front of the card.

Cut out a square from the mid green mulberry tissue paper the same size as the diamond front of the card blank. Stick the mulberry tissue paper to cover the front of the card using invisi dots for vellum, vellum bond or another similar glue that is designed to stick very fine thin papers without showing through.

Stick strips of a decorative border from the gold various borders peel off sheet to each of the four edges of the front of the card, on top of the green mulberry tissue paper.

Apply a ‘Merry Christmas’ wording sticker from the diamond gold Merry Christmas peel off sheet to the top corner of the card.

Finally use sticky foam pads to mount the red nosed reindeer/bell topper underneath the Merry Christmas wording.

You can write your personal message anywhere inside the card or on the bottom of the base.

Try making your own envelope using plain white paper and Lick and Stick Envelope Glue if you want a remoistenable lick and stick flap on the envelope for sealing it.

Here is a picture of the finished card laid out flat:

Card Idea by Jill