Hello, Crafters.
Since I became a born-again Christian three years ago, I find that I send more and more religious Christmas cards each year. When I decided to make a card for today’s blog using the Great Tidings Stamp Set my intention was to keep the design simple so I could reproduce it easily for my personal use. Although today’s card may not look simple, with two or three minor changes it will be. The die set that matches this stamp set is called Wise Men Tidings and it was a die that cut the decorative arch which frames the Three Wise Men. After I had die-cut the window, I embossed it using the 3D Brick & Mortar 3D Embossing Folder to make the arch look as if it’s a part of a building.
To give the effect of a star-studded sky, I used some Black Glimmer Paper for the background. As usual, my photographs don’t show the true beauty of this card because I’m an avid card maker and a very amateur photographer! I wasn’t sure if I wanted the Wise Men in black or gold, so I did one set of each by heat embossing. Once I had die-cut the Wise Men I was able to place them on the card front, black first and then gold, to see which I liked best. Gold won hands down so the black images are saved for another project where I will probably colour them using my Stampin’ Write Marker Pens.
To adhere the gold layer on the the Black Glimmer Paper, I added a lot of Glue Dots on the back of the Gold Foil layer. To give myself a bit of time to position the Gold Foil layer correctly, I added a small dot of Tombow glue to each Glue Dot. This made layering the two pieces together so very easy. Before I adhered the Wise Men in position I die-cut three more of each so I could adhere them together and adhere the gold embossed image on top. As well as adding extra dimension to my card, I found it easier to adhere the more solid images to Glimmer Paper because it isn’t a smooth surface. After deciding which position I wanted each Wise Man in, I adhered the middle one in position first using Glue Dots and Tombow Glue as I did for the Gold Foil layer on to the Black Glimmer Paper earlier.
I positioned the black images of the two Wise Men where I was going to place the gold images. By doing this, I could work out where I needed to put Dimensionals on the back of my gold images. I didn’t want add any that would adhere to the image I had already adhered at the back. When I was heat embossing the images, I also heat embossed two sentiments – one in black and one in gold. My two favourite Christmas sentiments are JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON and WISE MEN STILL SEEK HIM. Fortunately, there is a stamp for the latter in the Great Tidings stamp set and that is the one I heat embossed in gold. It suited the front of the card beautifully, especially once I had layered it onto a strip of Black Glimmer Paper.
To decorate the inside of the card I added a middle layer of Basic Black Cardstock (CS) and a top layer of Basic White CS. Using the same Gold Foil Paper I had used for the front of the card, I die cut four sets of the leaves and adhered one set in each of the four corners. I used a die that mimics the shape of the arch on the front of the card to die-cut the black heat-embossed sentiment: GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST. The die was from the Ornate Frames Dies. I’m hoping to make about 24 of these cards but I will use some retired gold ink we used to sell three or four years ago instead of heat embossing. With the aid of my Stamparatus it will speed up the process of stamping a total of 72 Wise Men.
I will also see if I have some Night of Navy or Misty Moonlight Designer Series Paper that I can use for the sky instead of the Black Glimmer Paper because it is slow progress adhering Glue Dots onto images! Apart from these two changes, which will speed up the process for me, I think it’s unlikely that I’ll make any other changes; oh, apart from the sentiment inside the card. I’ll use my Stamparatus and Gold Ink and stamp directly onto the top layer of cardstock. As you know, I keep my favourite stamp sets when they retire and this Great Tidings is definitely a keeper!
That’s it for today. I’ll be back again soon and in the meantime, please take care and stay safe. Happy crafting.
JanB. xx
Cardstock Sizes: A4
Card base 8¼” x 5¾” scored and folded at 4 1/8”
Middle layer: 2 pieces 3 7/8” x 5½”
Top layer: 2 pieces 3¾” x 5 3/8”
Cardstock Sizes: Letter-size
Card base 8½” x 5½” scored and folded at 4¼”
Middle layer: 2 pieces 4” x 5¼”
Top layer: 2 pieces 3 7/8” x 5 1/8”
Products used for this project: please click on any of the links to be taken to my 24/7 online Stampin’ Up! shop. The Hostess Code for NOVEMBER 2021 is FWS2DFZV Thank you. xx
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This is simply the most beautiful card. I too send cards that reflect my faith. Thank you for the details.
Many thanks, Jean. Now to get on and make my simpler version for members of my Church family! xxx
Hi Jan,
This card is beautiful. I was wondering what you used on the star to get the shimmering effect. If I missed it in the write-up, my apologies.
Many thanks,
Stuart
Many thanks, Stuart. No you didn’t miss it. It was some Glimmer Paper we used to sell about 4+ years ago. I have a box full of scraps that I find come in very useful at times like this. I’m sorry I omitted to mention this at the time of writing my blog. xx
Thank you.