Hello!
I have been wondering when I should share my Christmas card this from this year (or I guess it was technically last year). I didn’t want to share it prior to Christmas because I didn’t want to spoil the surprise for those who received it. And sharing it after Christmas didn’t seem as inspiring.
Seeing as this month’s Blog Hops With Heart theme is Paper Pizazz, I jumped at the chance since I used a lot of specialty paper, which certainly added PIZAZZ! The hop starts with Amie, but it is a circle so you can follow along to see the fabulous projects that our team created. (And might I add, we have some very talented designers!)
Like most people nowadays, I like to include a family photo on my Christmas card. But being a cardmaker, I just couldn’t order them online…I had to create my own design. We hadn’t sent a Christmas card in 3 years, so I wanted to come out of the holiday card black hole with a bang! I am not sure where the snow globe idea came from, but I was adamant that I would design the card around our family photo looking through a snow globe. I decided to adhere the photo to the inside of the card so that those who wanted to remove the photo could do so.
After much trial and error and Cricut-engineering, here is the final result:
This was probably the most complicated Cricut project I’ve put together. My dad is an engineer and I notice every now and then that I do have an engineering gene! I cut the 10×7 base (folded to 5×7) and all the layers with the Cricut, so I had to make sure the snow globe circle lined up on all of them.
I also wanted to make sure I maximized every inch of the paper I used, because I used some fancy paper that is not cheap! I used glitter cardstock, foiled patterned cardstock, and the red is also a fun foil-finish cardstock. (Check out the DS file below to see how I maximized the red – I thought it was pretty clever, if I do say so myself !) 😊
To hide the edges of all the layers and define the globe, I added a thin border around the circle with glitter paper. The layers of the front of the card in order from bottom to top are: Card base, red frame, clear acetate square, foiled patterned paper, glitter paper border, snowglobe base, and “Blessed” sentiment. (Which, by the way, is 2 fonts that I combined together then welded, because I didn’t like the look of any 1 font for this sentiment. Yeah, I am a perfectionist which sometimes makes things more complicated.) 😏🤣
This is what you see when you open the card. I also covered the inside of the window with glitter paper. I added a stamped sentiment from Close to my Heart using Espresso ink and some paper strips to coordinate with the outside of the card.
I used CTMH cardstock for the base because it’s nice and heavy paper. I used a retired color but it’s close to the current Almond or Toffee. You could also use white if you prefer, but I find it more difficult to use white when cutting with the Cricut – it doesn’t have the dye coating and when you peel it from the mat (especially if it’s a newer mat), the cardstock tears more easily. If you really want to use white, use a Cricut mat that has been around the block a time or two and also make sure you remove the paper ASAP once the cut is finished!
I want to note that when I mailed these, especially since I added a bulky wood veneer snowflake, I put a thin layer of foam (similar to the foam that comes with CTMH’s stamp sets) over the front, then inserted into a sturdy A7 envelope. You could also use a bubble envelope, but this worked well from the feedback I received, and only cost 2 stamps for postage. I also included a family update letter that I cut to 5×7 and added to the envelope behind the card (so as not to interfere with the see-thru design of the card!).
I hope you enjoyed! I’m happy to share my Design Space file so that you don’t need to put in all the work I did! The file is set up for mass production to maximize the use of a 12×12 sheet of paper for each shape. You can find it here:
Design Space File
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