Concord & 9th: Cozy Christmas & Snow Flurries

Happy Friday everyone! I’m so excited to finally announce I have been invited to be a September guest designer for Concord & 9th! What a dream come true! I learned about this company last year when I first started stamping. I was watching… yes, a marvelous Jennifer McGuire video. And she was doing some amazing stuff with some amazing stamps, and I was mesmerized! My husband, who just happened to be in the room with me, said “if you like them, then buy them.” And so my love affair with Concord & 9th began… and now here I am, one year later, guest designing for them… Pinch me! And to be designing in such a perfect month. I say perfect because September is all about a Cozy CHRISTMAS! Yes!! Christmas cards are my favorite, and I will be making them all month long! I have two sets of cards to share with you today. So lets get started!

Set 1:

My first set of cards I made using the Cozy Christmas stamp set and coordinating dies. I first started off by practicing stamping. I wanted to find different patterns to make with the knitted poinsettia strip. I used the squares on my Original MISTI grid sheet for even measurements. I decided on using two different patterns. This first pattern is a stacked design that I did by starting in the right bottom corner of my MISTI, and one square row up. This made the poinsettias even on each edge of the panel. I stamped a row, then moved my panel horizontal 3 squares, then 4 squares up. After stamping the next row, I moved the paper over 3 squares again, and 4 squares down. I repeated to finish the 4.24×5.5 panel. I did this on 5panels in different colors. My next step was stamping the centers stamp. I lined the stamp up, stamped it, then moved the paper up 4 squares for each row until finished. After I had all my panels stamped, I worked on the sentiment. Again, I used a grid sheet to line up the sentiment. I cut a white panel large enough to have a tree above the sentiment. I stamped the tree with green ink on lime green cardstock. I die cut the tree out, and added thin foam adhesive squares to the back. I also die cut a small star for the tree topper out of Neutrals Gold Glitter Paper. To make the background have a softer look, I decided to add vellum.

After assembling the card, my final touch was adding some Pretty Pink Posh jewels. Here’s a couple more cards using the same pattern:

I did one more design with this stamp set. There’s a poinsettia die in the set that I wanted to use. I stamped the poinsettia strip 2 times, and die cut the poinsettias using my Sizzix Sidekick. I also die cut poinsettia shapes out of white cardstock 6 times. I glued each stamped poinsettia on top of a blank poinsettia.

For my card front, I stamped the poinsettia strip and centers on the top and bottom of the card front. Then I glued the die cut poinsettias on top of the stamped ones. I stamped the knitted strip down the middle of the card, and added the sentiment and jewels.

Set 2:

For this set of cards, I used Snow Flurries stamp set and coordinating dies. First, I stamped and heat-embossed the large snowflake from the set onto light blue cardstock. I used the large die to cut it out. Using the large snowflake as a guide, I started stamping and heat-embossing the smaller snowflakes in random order around the snowflake on two card panels. I stamped and heat-embossed the sentiment in the left bottom corner, trimmed the panels down, and glued the large snowflake to the first panel. I trimmed the edges off, and attached the panel to a card base. I added white jewels for sparkle. For the second panel, I die cut a large snowflake out of Neutrals Silver Glitter Paper. I also die cut a large white snowflake, and glued the silver on top of it for height. Next, I die cut 3 small white snowflakes, stacked and glued them together, and attached them to the middle of the large snowflake. I added the snowflake to the card front, trimmed the sides and added it to a card base. I finished up by adding clear jewels for shine.

For my last card, I used the Snow Flurries small snowflake die and the Snowflake Turnabout stamp set. I made a jig for the stamp, and stamped my cardbase with four different colors. To incorporate sparkle, I die cut 2 snowflakes from Peacock Glitter Paper, and 3 silver snowflakes. I popped out the middle tiny snowflakes from the silver to use. I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from the Snowflake turnabout set onto vellum. Unfortunately, the vellum warped from my heat tool, so I added a layer of double-sided adhesive to grey cardstock, and smoothed the vellum over the adhesive. This flattened the warping, and gave the vellum a nice linen look.

I trimmed the grey cardstock down, mounted it on to another piece of vellum, and added foam squares to the back. I glued the snowflakes onto the stamped panel, and trimmed it down. I added the sentiment, and attached it to a card base using fun foam and Scor Tape. my last step was adding clear jewels. (Can you tell I’m a big fan of jewel embellishments??! lol)