Swirling Tree Christmas Card

For this card I used the Spellbinders Swirling Foliage Tree hot foil plate. Simple card to put together but still has the sparkle and shine for a holiday card:

Here is a photo of the hot foil plate packaging for this tree:

I hot foiled the tree onto a piece of card stock, cut larger than I would need for my card front. I used brushed gold foil for the tree. For the card base I used a piece of white card stock cut and scored at the top. Used the Spellbinder Precision Frame die set and cut a frame for the card front out of brushed gold mirror card stock. Trimmed the hot foiled tree card front to size and then used liquid glue to put the frame on the tree piece. Set this aside. 

Pulled out a sentiment I had hot foiled last week using the Spellbinders BetterPress plates "Merry Wishes" and this sentiment had been foiled also with the brushed gold card stock. I put the sentiment on the card front using pop dots for dimension. Used the Pear Blossom crafters T square ruler to center the sentiment over the tree. Easy card to put together and still has shine for a holiday card...... This photo shows the shine on the sentiment strip:

Here Comes Santa Claus... Cocoa Mug Cards

Was happy I was able to pick up the new Spellbinders Cocoa Wonderland die set at the stamp show I went to in Duluth, GA last month:

Wanted to make a card using this new die set but I also wanted to use the new Spellbinders BetterPress Plate "Snowfall Shimmer" for the background to my Santa mug. I have used this background plate and hot foiled pieces for projects but for this project I wanted to use it on vellum. Here is a photo of the Snowfall Shimmer BetterPress plate:

For the background to my Santa Mug cards I used regular vellum (not heat resistant) and I used the Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil machine. I cut the vellum sheet in half and I used matte white foil from Spellbinders to foil the snowflake background on the foil. I had not hot foiled vellum before so I let the plate heat up a little longer than what the timer says on the machine. With my BigShot machine when I hot foil I already use a card stock shim so I get a good foil impression. Since I had not hot foiled vellum before I decided to use a piece of copy paper folded in half and added that to my card stock shim for the sandwich for my BigShot machine. All machines are different but that sandwich worked well for my vellum background pieces. 

Here is the first card I made to show the vellum background:

I die cut all the pieces for my Santa mug using scrap card stocks and with those all cut I sponged the edges of the beard and mustache with a light gray ink. Then I assembled all the pieces and did a dry layout. Decided that I would use a gray cardstock behind the vellum piece and for the card base for that card I used red card stock. I cut and scored the red card stock at the top. Then I used my Spellbinders Precision Layering Basics (frames) die set and I cut out a piece of white card stock for the front of the card. Used a smaller frame die and cut out the gray card stock and the vellum card stock.

With Santa assembled I added pop dots to the back of the mug piece:

Last week I had hot foiled the new holiday die set from Spellbinders - the "Merry Messages" BetterPress plate in different colours - I did the hot foiling as well as hot foiled the waste pieces and here is the pile all foiled and die cut:

With these all foiled I separated them by colour and I keep them in small snack bags from the Dollar Tree. So when I made these Santa mugs I decided to use gold greetings for my cards. 

To assemble these cards I put all the Santa pieces and greeting piece on the hot foiled vellum piece for a dry layout. First I put the greeting at the bottom of the vellum then the Santa mug piece. Above him I put the white whipped topping piece with all the trees glued to that and decided where I wanted the top of the tree with the star to be from the edge. With that decided I used liquid glue and put that piece onto the vellum. Then I removed all the paper from the pop dots behind the mug and I put that on the vellum piece at the bottom edge of the whipped topping piece. Then I moved the greeting piece to the center of the mug and away from the bottom edge of the vellum and I used liquid glue for that. 

With that done I then put liquid glue behind the greeting piece, the mug piece, and the whipped topping piece and put this onto the gray card stock piece that is the same size. Using a toothpick and liquid glue I went around the vellum piece and added glue here and there. Once that was done I used liquid glue and put the gray/vellum piece onto the white frame piece and set this aside. Once that had set up I added the round ornament and the present to the top of the mug piece using foam tape. Added red crystal gems from the stash here and there to add sparkle to the card front. 

Since this Cocoa Wonderland Santa die set has a lot of pieces to die cut I cut out doubles so I could make a second card as well. For this second card I wanted to use light blue card stock behind my hot foiled vellum piece:

For the second Santa card I did not sponge the gray onto the beard and mustache and I changed out a few colours of card stock scraps so each card has a different look. Here are the two cards next to each other to easily see the differences:

First - the Santa card with the gray front on the right - that Santa I made following the photo on the packaging of the die set. I used black card stock for his eyes and his mouth. I also sponged gray ink on the edges of the beard, mustache, and his eyebrows since I knew I wanted to use gray behind my hot foiled vellum piece. For the Santa mug on the blue card on the left, I gave him a pink mouth. 

Second - since I used gold mirror card stock for the star on the tree as well as the top to my ornament I used a greeting that had been foiled with gold foil. If you should want to use a different colour foiled greeting then just use that same colour for the star and ornament topper. First I did want to use a silver foiled greeting but decided to go with the gold so it would match the star and the topper. 

Third - Having not hot foiled vellum before I was not sure how the vellum would foil but I had also used a matte foil and was not sure how the vellum would take that finish of a hot foil. There were no problems with the matte finish at all - but when I laid the layering die on top of the foiled vellum piece to cut out for the card front, I made sure when I put my tape on the frame to keep it in place (while I die cut it) that the tape did not touch the inside of the frame which would be the piece I was cutting for the card front. I did not want to risk peeling off the tape on my hot foiled vellum and maybe lifting my foil - but I do this with all foiled pieces I use so that the tape do not damage my foiled piece. But the tape came right off the vellum and even my waste vellum piece was not damaged by the tape. 

These were easy cards to assemble as I did all the die cutting for both cards at the same time. Then I did all the assembling of those pieces. For the vellum I cut those two pieces and hot foiled them right after each other and they were ready. Did the card bases and white frame pieces for the card fronts together and then cut the vellum pieces and the gray and light blue pieces together. This way I could assemble both cards together so when I was finished I had the two cards ready. Cute die set to assemble. Happy to use more of the stash scraps and even though both cards used the same die set they look different with one Santa sponged with gray and one having a black mouth and the other, pink. Also very happy my first attempt hot foiling vellum went so well and I really like the matte finish of the Spellbinders white foil. Fun holiday cards!