With the winter holidays approaching, it's never too early to start building up your stash of cards. I (Vivian) know that I'm always scrambling at the last minute to put together cards for teachers, colleagues, the mailman, etc. This year I am determined to get ahead of the curve and have cards ready and waiting for all of my holiday needs.
Enter today's tutorial: three quick and easy cards with a twist. Each card inspires the next, with one element carrying over, or morphing, into the card that follows. These cards will also help you think about new and different ways to use your stash of Silent Night. As a bonus, there's a sketch for each so that you can easily replicate the design.
So...let's start...
Card #1:
I was inspired to create this card when I saw all the different fun greetings on the Chalkboard Wonderland Silent Night washi tape roll. For a fun twist on the tree theme, I decided to use the Silent Night woodgrain-patterned paper (The First Noel) from the 8 x 8 pad as my background. Additional patterned papers in the background and some bits of adhesive ribbon added between the pieces of washi tape add splashes of color. I used a chipboard photo corner as the tree stand and added a yellow star sticker on a pop dot at the top.
Here's the sketch for Card #1:
For my second card, I started with the inspiration of the sticker on a pop dot from Card #1. I love how a 3D adhesive can change an otherwise flat element into something dimensional. For Card #2, I put three stickers on pop dots:
This card combines the three stickers from the 12 x 12 sticker sheet with three banner elements from the Sew Fun Banners set. One of the banners looked like a present, so I turned the other two into presents by adding gold glitter twine bows.
Here's the sketch for Card #2:
Card #3:
Inspired by the circular elements and the series of six elements from Card #2, I combined those ideas in a new way for my third card:
I die cut - or you can punch - three 1.5" circles from three different patterned papers and layered them with Tin Pins. I went for a tone-on-tone look here with the Tin Pins and patterned paper, but you could also try contrasting colors. Three die-cut cardstock snowflakes form the second set of three elements. I used the clear Silent Night stamp set to stamp a greeting on my white card base, added a torn piece of black cardstock tied with a peppermint-look piece of baker's twine, and then added my six elements.
Here's the sketch for Card #3:
There are so many ways to go with this. Will you use one or more of the sketches to help build your card stash? Will you take inspiration from the way I used the Silent Night products here - tape as a tree, banners as presents, creating layered elements with Tin Pins? Will you choose an element from Card #3 to create your own next card morph and come up with a unique Card #4? Will you take inspiration from one of these cards or sketches and create a layout? Whichever way you go with this, we want to see what you do! Please share your work with us in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery.