A Way With Words - Season's Greetings, Merry Christmas

Welcome to A Way With Words!  Each day during this event we’re sharing projects made with the brand new Elizabeth Craft Designs word dies.  All these designs are from original hand lettering by Suzanne Cannon and can be found on the Quietfire site, and on the Elizabeth Craft Designs site.

Today we have Judi Kauffman joining us for a guest designer spot!

Thank you for inviting me to be a guest designer for the roll-out of your new dies, Suzanne!

When it comes to making a batch of holiday cards I like to keep things simple and I want impressive results without a lot of work. I think these cards fill both requirements thanks to the wonderful dies (A Way With Words Collection). 

Give them a try. They come together very quickly and are so easy to customize.

Add more sparkle. Switch to a different color palette. Use a patterned card base instead of a solid color. Incorporate a berry branch, pine bough, holly, poinsettia or other flat or low-relief dimensional die cuts below the greetings. (Susan Tierney-Cockburn’s dimensional pine cone would be perfect, as would Els van de Burgt’s new Poinsettia.)

If you prefer simpler cards, omit the stars and branches and add a single brad at each corner of the ivory rectangle. Or duplicate the cards precisely as shown.

Instructions:
1. Back a sheet of red cardstock with double-sided adhesive sheet. Die cut Merry Christmas or Season’s Greetings (or both!).

2. Place Season’s Greetings on a 4.75” x 3” ivory cardstock rectangle; place Merry Christmas on a 4.35” x 2.75” ivory cardstock rectangle.

3. Layer onto plaid paper and cut around the ivory rectangle leaving an eighth-inch border. Adhere to red top-fold A2 size card base. (5.5” wide x 4.25” high)

4. Die cut Leaf & Berry Branches from Light and Dark Green Adhesive Velvet Sheets. Arrange the branches below the greeting starting with lighter branches first and darker ones on top. Refer to the photos for placement. Carefully trim the branches where they extend past the edges of the card.

6. Back a small piece of Ruby Gemstone Shimmer Sheetz with double-sided adhesive sheet. Die cut three sparkly stars for each card. (*Reminder: Review Els van de Burgt’s YouTube video if you have not die cut Shimmer Sheetz. You MUST use a metal adaptor plate as instructed, cutting side of the die facing DOWN toward the metal plate with Shimmer Sheetz face UP in between.)

7. Arrange the stars in a cluster where the ends of the branches meet.

Options:

*If you have more time, add a Glitter Dot Peel-off to each berry on the darker green (top) branches. (Tip: Sheets of Glitter Dots have four sizes. To my eye, the smallest is the best fit for the tiny berries, but you may prefer larger Dots.)

*Instead of stars die cut circles, rings, or other small Shimmer Sheetz shapes.

*Instead of stars add a trio of flat-back faceted gems, small flat buttons, or other embellishments.

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs –
Season’s Greetings die (A Way With Words Collection by Suzanne Cannon)
Merry Christmas die (same collection)
Leaf & Berry Branches dies (Els van de Burgt Studio Collection)
Star-shaped die (a die in the Happy Birthday Pop It Up set by Karen Burniston)
Ruby Gemstone Shimmer Sheetz
Light and Dark Green Velvet Adhesive Sheets
Transparent Double-Sided Adhesive Sheets
Metal Adaptor Plate

Other – Die cutting machine, red cardstock, plaid paper