The Greetery {Nordic Christmas Greetings}

 

Hello and welcome, friends! I'm here today sharing a pair of Christmas cards inspired by an ad that kept popping up in my feed! Does that ever happen to you? While most ads might be annoying, I think we’re all pretty used to them by now. Every once in a while, I will get an ad for something that inspires me either from the color scheme, layout, etc. This particular ad kept popping up so I took the hint and ran with the inspiration! Ha ha!

My algorithms seem to know I’m heavily involved in the paper crafting world, which also includes stationery. This particular set of cards was inspired by a Fresh Cut Paper ad for their holiday advent. I love the traditional red and green and the use of berry clusters and pine sprigs so that is what I got to work making. I pulled out any and all dies that I thought might work; first up was the pine sprigs that are cut using the BotaniCuts Pine Bough Die. I cut them from white and then colored them with finger daubers and distress oxide ink in colors pine needles and rustic wilderness. The berry sprigs are cut using the Rosemary and Berry Die and colored the same way but with twisted citron, mowed lawn, and rustic wilderness. For the berries, I simply added some Pure Poppy ink to a scrap of white cardstock and then cut them out using the included berry die. I glued the berries to the sprigs and then added some Ranger Glossy Accents to the berries and set them aside to dry.

My next step was to create the cute birds and tree. I cut the base of the birds from Pure Poppy cardstock with gold cardstock wings using the Nordic Birds Die. I added a bit of Scarlet Jewel ink around the belly of both birds for some contrast and then added the gold wings using foam squares.  The tree was cut using the Nordic Tree Die from Powder Green cardstock and antique gold for the trunk and the star. I added some gold pigment ink lightly to the bottom of each section of the tree and gussied it up with some adhesive pearls.

I used the Ornamental Tag Die to create the cluster of greenery on the tree and at the bottom of the card with the birds. I cut the bows from Pure Poppy and gold and secured them to the middle of each cluster.

I love how Betsy showed how you can use the beautiful Rosemal Reflections Embossing Folder with a standard A2 card. My inspiration ad also used “chopped/cut” corners like this, so it was just perfect! The background of the bird card is Pure Poppy and the background of the tree card is Colorplan Forest cardstock. I ran them though my die cut machine using the sandwich guide recommended for my particular machine. I layered them onto white card bases using liquid glue.

I used the Capsule Borders 1 Hot Foil with champagne foil and then cut them using the Capsule Basics Die. I adhered them to the background using foam squares; I made sure to add them to the flat, unembossed portions so that it wouldn’t be wonky.

I had fun adding in all of the premade greenery and foliage using both liquid glue and foam squares. I added some Tim Holtz Rock Candy glitter to the greenery on the bird card for holiday sparkle! I had so much fun creating the pair and now my ads should return to normal since I’ve gotten it out of my system! Haha! Thanks for fluttering by!