Well, its that time of the year to start thinking about creating some cards for Christmas and today I have a very textured Christmas card for you.

There is embossing, die cutting, shimmer of many varieties and gold gold gold. Hope you enjoy.

To begin my card I created the base which made from red card stock and measures  51’4 x 5¼, from there   I pulled out my Leaf 2 die from Paper Rose studio as well as the Leaf 1 die, I decided to use  two different shades of green card stock as well as some vellum and gold matt cardstock to create all the branches and layers of the wreath.  

It took about ten minutes to die cut everything out as I thought I would need more than I apparently did.  The next step was to  create a little circle die cut ring, this is what I would adhere all the branches on to create the wreath.  In addition to the ring I had just created, I realized that I had to create something for the sentiment. I decided to die cut a red circle to match the card base

While I was still using my die cutting machine I decided to die cut the Dove bird die from Paper Rose, ( I love doves they have a very symbolic meaning to me, connects me with my departed father , so when I seen them I was all to excited to use them right away)  I ran the dies through a couple of times as I could not decided if I wanted metallic cardstock or shimmer, in the end the glitter won, hehe 

 

 One last task had to be done through my die cutting machine and that was to create the background for the wreath, I hummed and hawed for a little bit as I rummaged around my craft room for just the right thing. I then found this Christmas embossing folder in my stash. I embossed with heavy cardstock to give it some strength  and then covered it with some Cosmic shimmer enchanted gold gilding polish, it added just enough texture and shine.  

   

Now that I had everything die cut and embossed it was time to create the wreath, I made a major blunder when I created this beautiful wreath, that was not using stick it adhesive, hehe, next time I do something so intricate I will definitely remember.

  Because I forgot this I had to painstakingly add the adhesive to each individual stamp for the die cut leafs and adhere them to the ring I created, I just kept layering and tucking each colour of leaf together until I was happy with the way it looked and it covered the ring. After that I set aside to dry with a large acrylic block with enough time to make sure everything set . 

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Now it was time to stamp the sentiment, which I did using the Winter Trees Stamp set from Paper Rose Studio, using versa mark  clear sticky ink and white embossing powder. I felt this would pop in the center of the wreath.  

To complete the card, I cut down the embossed panel to 5 ¼ x 4½, I cut down some gold metallic paper to  ¾ x 5¼ this would be added to the side of the embossed panel slightly underneath.  I adhered the gold down flat and then popped up the main panel with foam tape. I added the wreath with some strong adhesive as I did not want it to go anywhere. and finally  I placed the sentiment in the middle of the wreath using a bit of foam tape.

For the finishing touch I added the smaller of the two doves. 

I hope I have inspired you.

xx Nancy