the hybrid chick

I love to send handmade holiday cards to family and friends, but it is hard to find the time to create them. Beautifully-designed digital papers can make your cards look gorgeous, while cutting down the time it took to make them!

I choose some wonderfully vintage papers from Mari Koegelenberg’s Snow Much Fun to use on my cards. The designs include irresitable little snowmen, stockings, peppermints, and snowflakes in some vibrant colors with a touch of distressing–all perfect in my book for holiday cards! I gathered together a few other things: some matching cardstock and ribbon, buttons and gems and my adhesives.

Supplies:

Snow Much Fun papers —Mari Koegelenberg (The Digichick)
Photoshop Elements 6
Epson Premium Presentation Paper
Cardstock (Papertrey Ink)
Stamps (Holiday Button Bits, Papertrey Ink)
Ink (Chestnut Roan, Clearsnap)
Ribbon
Gems or buttons
Circle punch
Adhesive
Sponge

 

First using Photoshop Elements 6 I resized the papers to 5 ½ by 5 ½ inches to get a better scale of the designs for cards.  I arranged the papers onto two new 8 ½ x 11 documents and printed them.

I then went to work cutting and scoring the cardstock into A2 sized cards.  I also cut apart the printed sheets in order to separate the papers by each design.  From there, I cut and added the papers to the cardstock, stamped the sentiments and added ribbon, gems or buttons to the cards.

I loved some of the papers so much I didn’t want to cover them up and I felt that I didn’t need to add much to make them beautiful.  The little snowmen are so adorable and the paper itself has so much detail and texture.

I send quite a few cards to families who do not celebrate Christmas, so I included several greetings that are more inclusive.  I liked that the papers in this kit are also winter related, rather than just Christmas themed.

I tried to use up as much of the paper as I could, so for my last card I used a small circle punch to cut portions and then popped them on the card using dimensionals.  This is a fun way to showcase several papers without cluttering the card.  I did sponge the edges of many of the papers to give more definition.

I was very happy that I used up most of what I had printed off and I was able to create 8 more cards to send out!  It was fun to do and very quick–it took me about 30 minutes to put them together!  I hope I’ve inspired you to make some handmade cards to send out this year—there is still time right??  I’ve now got 20 card down, 40 to go—off to print more digital papers!

Other Articles by melissaj17:

• St Patrick's Day box - March 12th, 2010
• Valentine's Banner - February 13th, 2010
• Tooth Fairy Tin - January 15th, 2010
• Christmas Memory Game - November 27th, 2009
• Masking and background stamping with digital papers - October 7th, 2009