Joyeous Noel

Hmm, I always thought it was Joyeux Noel but there you go! In the process of thinking about wedding stationery ideas I had a little play with a super Marianne Designables folder, which embosses and also does a little bit of cutting at the same time. I got the tip off about this super folder from my friend Dee who sent me a couple of ready embossed pieces of card - and I was hooked. The results it produces are really gorgeous but would be too much work for a whole load of wedding invitations so that idea was shelved.

I'd also previously been playing with a folder I bought at Ally Pally last month which I had thought was a set of long strips rather than one sentiment underneath the other in a single A6 sized folder :( Undaunted I still used it a week or so ago and then carefully slit through the horizontal joins between each message to produce a set of message strips. They also happened to be lying here on the desk - how fortuitous (today's long word!) - they are the same width as the trimmed Marianne embossed piece of card  :)) So, the two (four in fact - so I made two cards the same!) ready embossed/cut pieces of card were sitting here on my desk yesterday when I had a good old tidying session - just asking to be used, and this is what I came up with:

 Phew, the daylight lamp really does make the embossing stand out too, after all the difficulty I had previously :) The card almost speaks for itself - so simple to make once you have the bits and pieces for it. By the way, the holly leaves aren't cut out by the folder, they might look like it in the photo - I added those on top of the white, they're actually dark green.

I used:

- white 5" x 7" card stock (from Hobbycraft and lovely thick card - I think a packet of 50, including envelopes cost about £4.99 or £5.99. A really good deal!)

- white card and Marianne Designables folder (DS0907)

- white card and Crafts Too Christmas sentiments folder which I chopped into message strips as I said earlier

- silver, really shiny, mirri card, layered behind the embossed white card. A trick I used, being unsure about my skills at placing the sentiment and the Marianne embossed piece of card neatly together on the silver backing, I joined them first with a strip of narrow sellotape along the back.

- holly leaves punched out of dark green card with a single vein run up the centre using an embossing tool and an embossing mat for some 'give'. The punch also came from Ally Pally - it's made by Woodware and I think it's going to be mega useful :)

- holly berries are self-adhesive pearls, from Hobbycraft. The red has a bit of a pinkish tinge to it so I deepened the colour using a 'Cardinal Red' Pro Marker

Funny enough, once all the pieces are die cut this is a super quick card to make. It's crisp and clean although the Marianne folder gives it another dimension too. I've been looking for a design to make a bulk batch of cards, to boost my woefully low supply of Christmas cards - and this might just be 'the one' :))

Hope your weekend is going well and that you're finding some time to craft!

Di
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