Want a quickie?

Whether you have a long list of people on your Christmas card list or a short one, you don't want to spend days or weeks making your cards.  This card is simple to make but still has a real "wow" factor.  Best of all, it's a quickie!

First of all I start off with a 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" piece of Ivory Naturals cardstock.  I love using this cardstock as my base when I want a cream base for my card because it is a really nice weight.  If I'm stamping on cream then I prefer Very Vanilla cardstock because the image is incredibly sharp on that paper but for the base  of a card in cream, I'll take Naturals Ivory anytime.I also pick a pattern from the great new mini pad of Designer Paper, the Festival of Prints collection.

 

I cut my Designer Paper to measure 4" x 5 1/4" and put the narrow strips aside for later use on this project.  In this case, because I want to keep the circles in the pattern centred, I cut strips away from all four sides of the Designer Paper.

Then I line up the round Holiday Ornament framelit to cut out the lower full circle and cut it out using my Big Shot.  At this point I take my Naturals Ivory base cardstock, used the Simply Scored to score the centre at 4 1/4", and then line the Petals-a-plenty embossing folder to cover the cardstock up to the scored line.  I put that through the Big Shot and love the look of the embossed cardstock.

My next step is to centre the Designer Paper over the embossed base card.  When I am certain that it is perfectly centred, I take a pencil and lightly trace the shape of the ornament cut-out onto the embossed cardstock.  You can just see the outline if you click on the picture to enlarge it.

Putting aside the Designer Paper once more, I take my Champagne Mist shimmer ink and a flat paint brush and paint the outlined area on the embossed cardstock.  I purposely go over the pencilled lines to ensure that  no unpainted area will show once the card is assembled.

My next step, while the ink is drying, is to take the Designer Paper and place a strip of Victoria Crochet Trim across the top of the paper and anchor the ends on the reverse side.  While I am working on the reverse side of the Designer Paper, I also place Dimensionals around the paper, making sure that I place some around the cut out design.

After I adhere the Designer Paper to the embossed side of the base cardstock, I tie a short piece of the Victoria Crochet Trim to the strip of trim and add a small banner.  The banner is Very Vanilla cardstock which I stampe with Lucky Limeade to match the Designer Paper and cut out with a Bitty Banners framelit.

For the inside of the card, I get to use the cut out ornament and two strips of the Designer Paper as decoration and stampe my sentiment in Lucky Limeade.
 

To use the last strips of Designer Paper, I take an envelope and glue a strip to the back and the front bottom.  I love the effect and also love the fact that I have only about a 1/2" x 1" piece of Designer Paper left over.

And there you have it: a quick card that really does have a "wow".  In person, the painted ornament really shimmers and shines.  I just love it!