Snowman With A Heart – Personal Christmas Card Challenge 2021

Hello! The new Creative Fingers Challenge is open and we’ve super excited to be sponsored by one of our own, Tindaloo!

This year, I’ve decided to set myself a bit of a challenge, to see how many different ways I can use a seasonal looking background to create my Christmas cards. These dies are so expensive and I want to show that, with a smart choice of pattern, we can get value for money and variety from just one die. The die I’ll be using in my personal challenge is the Time For Tea Nordic Star Slimline Die.

My first card in this challenge is actually quite simple to create, which is also a great thing for Christmas makes when we usually have so many to make. I’ve used Tindaloo‘s Snowman with a Heart image, strategically printing it onto XPress-it Blending CardstockXPress-it Blending Cardstock using my Avery Design software. I added the snowman to the lower region of the cardstock and added a simple greeting beneath the image. I then printed it and die cut the area using one of The Ton’s Pierced Nested Slimline dies.

Once die cut, I coloured the image with my Chameleon Pens and pencilled in a “snow line”. I cut along that line and around the snowman to create a single panel.

My background panel was made using a new technique I created to add a metallic shine to any of my cardstock. For this background, I did some quick ink blending on some basic white cardstock, added my Pearlizing Medium, allowed it to dry and die cut the panel using the Nordic Star slimline die. I found the coat of Pearlizing Medium actually strengthened the cardstock, making it more sturdy and easier to cut without any areas tearing. Looks like all my die cut background panels, and probably many of my die cuts as well, will be getting cut from coated cardstock in the future!

I glued the background panel directly onto a slimline card base, cut to 8.5″×7″ and folded in half. As I’ll be making all my Christmas cards with the same background die, I’ll be able to cut multiple card bases at the same time to make thingsa bit easier. This is something I don’t normally do because I don’t usually know what size card I’m making before I start. I always build my card from the topper down and I stay flexible with my design right to the end. But, with me building my cards around the background die, I get the opportunity to do a little mass production of some of the card elements. Cutting the card bases on mass will be a great help during the busy season of Christmas. Just another reason why using the same background die for my entire 2021 Christmas collection can be seen as a wise move.

I added the snowman panel to the lower section of the card, over the top of my background panel. I could have used foam tape for this step but I decided to just use Ranger Multi Medium Matte Adhesive so it remained flat for postage.

I then broke our my newly refilled shimmer pen that had been refilled with the Pearlizing Medium. You can read how I did that in my post about using the Pearlizing Medium here. I painted the snowman with the shimmer pen and was blown away by how much better the Pearlizing Medium was in comparison to the regular contents of these pens. The glittery effect was more pronounced and it stayed in place, not rubbing off at all. I always felt the need to cover the bought glitter with Glossy Accents because it was proned to rubbing off, especially when it was applied over alcohol markers. But, with the refilled pen working so much better, I think I’ll be using this pen so much more now, and it won’t cost me anything to refill!

To finish off, I went over the snowman’s eyes, nose and buttons with my clear Sakura Glaze Pen and allowed it to dry fully. This gave a similar appearance to Glossy Accents but was quicker and easier to use. This is mainly because it’s in pen form rather than me needing to be careful when squeezing the glaze from a bottle.

I’ll be back with lots more cards made with the Nordic Star Slimline die over the next few weeks. Hopefully, by challenging myself to use the same die over numerous cards, I’ll be able to show lots of different ways to use the die to create many cards with unique looks. If you want to see all of the cards I create, don’t forget to follow me here or over on Facebook. Thanks so much for spending time with me today, I look forward to next time.😊

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