Hey fellow crafters – hope you are doing well!
Today I wanted to share a few cards I made with 6″ x 9″ patterned paper and a new die designed by Becca Feeken. These are both from two new Spellbinders’ Christmas collections, but I was also able to make a few Diwali cards.
The 6×9 paper pad is from the new Christmas Flea Market Finds Collection by Cathe Holden. When I craft using patterned paper, I like to use it up completely. I searched online but most cutting templates I came across were for 6″ x 6″ or 12″ x 12″ paper. I ended up creating cutting guides and card sketches for personal use, which I’m sharing in this post and also on my free downloads page.
New products from both collections were provided by Spellbinders in exchange for my samples. All other supplies were purchased with my own money. I include affiliate links below to support my work at no cost to you.
I don’t like making duplicate cards, so to help keep all of them different, I used 2 different designs from the Home for the Holidays 6″ x 9″ paper pad (2 sheets each of 2 different designs). I cut the pieces as in the cutting guides below and then matted on cardstock that was 1/16″ wider all around. Finally, I mixed/matched the resulting pieces to make 15 cards.
I made 8 A2-sized cards and 7 mini slimline-sized cards. With some of the leftover die cuts and card bases, I was able to also make a 5″ x 7″ card and 2 regular slimline cards. Below I have the detailed card sketches with the actual cards I made and a brief overview of additional supplies I pulled in. You can download convenient PDF copies of the cutting templates and card sketches from here.
Cutting Templates
To ensure they would go together easily, I used a limited selection of cardstock for background panels and when I matted the patterned paper, specifically: Gina K Sandy Beach, Gina K Cranberry Tart, Papertrey Ink Honey Nut, Papertrey Ink Pinefeather, Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow, Bazzill Card Shoppe Sugar Wafer, Bazzill Card Shoppe Gummy Worms, and Bazzill Card Shoppe Chocolate Malt.
Diwali Cards
Along with the Cathe Holden paper collection, I used the Merry Flourish die set from the new Christmas Flourish collection. Becca Feeken designed this, so when Spellbinders reached out, I was interested based on her being the designer. I like Becca Feeken’s style as the intricate dies are wonderful for wedding cards, which I make a lot of. But, the main die in the Merry Flourish set is my favorite because of how you can turn it and have it be something completely different.
When you use the main die as designed, it creates a nice decorative focal point. You can include a cut-out section to add a ‘Merry’ and hang ornaments from different areas. Then a script ‘Christmas’ die completes the sentiment. But if you flip the main die upside-down, it looks just like a Diwali Diya.
I cut the main die a few times out of various gold scrap cardstocks. After assembling the other cards, I had one leftover die cut, so I used it on a 5″ x 7″ card base to make a simple but festive Diwali card. For the sentiment, I pulled out leftover die cuts from making cards over the past few weeks.
For the letters to spell out Diwali I used Spellbinders’ APG set from October 2019 (One Kind Word Alphabet Collage). I only had one ‘happy’ leftover from last week, so I used the older Small Die of the Month set – Spellbinders’ Layered Mix & Match Sentiments to cut a couple more from gold mirror paper.
Of the Diwali cards, the one using pieces A/B from cutting template 3 ended up as my favorite. I like how it is balanced and the sentiment stands out. The sentiment has a ‘happy’ die cut (+ the corresponding shadow) from the older Small Die of the Month set – Spellbinders’ Layered Mix & Match Sentiments. To spell out Diwali, I used Spellbinders’ August 2020 Small Die of the Month set: Sitting Pretty.
The Diwali card using piece 3C was one of the first ones I made. The happy is a leftover from the cards I made using the Classic Happy Holidays die. I cut the letters for Diwali from watercolor cardstock and colored them using the new Distress Watercolor Pencils.
The mini slimline card using piece E from cutting template 1 was the last card I put together. I pulled in several leftovers from my stash. The first was a die cut using Spellbinders’ Lavish Vine die from Papertrey Ink’s Pinefeather cardstock. I matted piece E on Gina K Cranberry Tart cardstock, then wove it through the Lavish Vine die cut.
I added a Happy die cut from Spellbinders’ Small Die of the Month: Our Favorite Font Sentiments (December 2019). The Diwali was again spelled out with letters from Spellbinders’ August 2020 Small Die of the Month set: Sitting Pretty. The image of the Diya in a lotus flower is from the Light Up My World stamp set by Verve Stamps. I stamped on watercolor cardstock with Tsukineko VersaFine Onyx Black ink, colored it in with Distress Watercolor Pencils, then fussy cut the image.
Christmas Cards
For the first Christmas card, I wanted to use up some of the smaller pieces from templates 1 and 2. I cut piece A (template 1) in half to help balance the large greeting. I had two small Christmas tree die cuts left in my stash from last year that fit well to balance the large greeting.
For the second card, I pulled in another greeting from my stash as well as a die cut from Spellbinders’ Large Die of the Month set from November 2020. The set, Frankie Goes to the North Pole, is one of my most used holiday sets and is on sale on Spellbinders’ site right now.
For the Feliz Navidad card, the greeting was from a Taylored Expressions set. The main focal image was again from Spellbinders’ Large Die of the Month set from November 2020: Frankie Goes to the North Pole. I liked how the two different patterned papers are balanced by the deep green cardstock (Papertrey Ink Pinefeather).
The Merry Christmas card also uses greetings from my stash – the smaller line is Taylored Expressions while the larger is from Simon Says Stamp. But the ornaments were my favorite part of this slimline card, they are from the Merry Flourish set. I like how the gold pops in person. Also, the white in the small strip of patterned paper balances the white card base and the sentiments.
For both of these cards, I wanted to emphasize the patterned paper so I didn’t add any die-cut images. I used sentiments from my stash from Taylored Expressions, Simon Says Stamp and Spellbinders. The script Christmas sentiment is also from the Merry Flourish set.
The only extras for these cards were two pieces from my scraps folders – one piece of Tonic Studios’ Copper Mirror cardstock to create a panel and a small piece of Tonic Studios’ Silver Glitter cardstock to create a small flag.
For this mini slimline card, I wanted to emphasize the mistletoe patterned paper. I used a large panel as the main focus but did layer some die cuts from my stash. The ‘Merry’ is made of letters die cut from Spellbinders’ August 2020 Small Die of the Month set: Sitting Pretty. The ‘Christmas’ is cut from a small piece of the Tonic Studios’ Copper Mirror cardstock using Spellbinders’ Merry Flourish die set.
The strip was in my stash, I believe this was from an older Spellbinders’ die set. I layered some gems on top then placed the sentiment at the top and bottom.
I regularly go through my strip, border, and accent dies then cut them from cardstock scraps. Keeping these precut decorative pieces on hand is helpful when I’m feeling blocked creatively or when I feel a card is missing something. I can mess around with different die cuts and patterned paper pieces until I feel inspired again.
For sentiments on both of these cards, I again dipped into my stash and used ones by Simon Says Stamp and Taylored Expressions.
But for the Christmas card, I tried to keep the focus on the patterned paper. The green glitter cardstock from my scraps folder helped balance the card. I like cards like this for donating to a local organization. Since it’s not overly flashy, it works for many recipients.
For the season’s greetings card, I cut a few of the larger ornaments from the Merry Flourish die set. The smaller ornaments I layered over gold vellum for a bit of contrast.
This mini slimline was one of the last cards I made. The main focal image is a combination of leftover die cuts and die cuts from the Merry Flourish die set.
The main medallion is from one of the Spellbinders’ Medallion die sets. I have a few of these and they frequently come in handy when I’m working on using up a paper pad. They make great focal images but still show off the patterned paper. Whenever I pull them out, I will cut a few from whichever colors of cardstock I’m working with and keep them in my die-cut stash. That way I always have a few handy.
I layered a circle sentiment from my stash over top of the medallion. Then, I hooked two ornament die cuts (from Merry Flourish) on either side of the medallion.
For these two vertical, mini slimline cards, I used a nested oval die to cut out a Christmas quote from another one of the patterned paper designs in the Home for the Holidays 6″ x 9″ paper pad. I used scrap die cuts from my stash to layer under the oval on both cards. All of these die cuts were from Spellbinders’ Amazing Paper Grace dies that I’d cut extras of while making wedding cards.
Bonus
The Home for the Holidays 6″ x 9″ paper pad has some interesting sheets with large scenes. The same paper with the large quote I used on the mini slimline cards above, had a large floral design across most of the rest of the sheet.
I used the large floral to create two generic, non-holiday slimline cards. For both sentiments, I pulled pre-stamped greetings from my stash and matted them on grey cardstock.
The leftover pieces from these papers, I used to create another set of cards that I’ll share in an upcoming post.
