This has to be the coolest die I've seen recently!

I'm a sucker for new stamps and dies - sometimes I think I need help, BIG time! And now and then a stamp/set or a die comes along which just blows me away to the point of almost obsessively neeeeeding it, right NOW, this VERY minute!

It has to be MFT's 'Christmas Tree Window' for me right now. I found out about the die when Lynne posted her card in the Playground and also linked to where she'd seen more cards using the same die. I recently had Lynne's card as a fortnightly pick - if you missed it then go HERE to Lynne's blog and take a look! It's fabulous!

And, I then looked at the link Lynne had added to her post and found a very talented blogger called Dana Kirby. Now, I 'realised' that Dana had only been blogging since August last year (2018) and has just 23 followers. How could this be? Dana is soooo talented and I just knew you would love her work! So, I commented and encouraged Dana to come and play with us in the Playground, she very sweetly replied by email to thank me for the kind words and said she certainly would try to join in with us. Not a hint of anything more. Duh, later on though, the asses ears went up here! Whilst browsing I discovered that Dana began her blog after and in addition to using Instagram for ages - I guess mostly to be able to write more about her makes (I think IG sets a word/character limit?). Uh, huh - asses ears for sure. Dana has over 2,000 IG followers (including Gina K) - meep, I did feel a bit stupid when the penny pound coin dropped.

However - I had Dana's blessing on doing a very close CASE of her cards she made using the die that started all this off! And of course - I would love to CASE Lynne's design at some point as well, I need the 'teeny scallops' square die that Lynne used though - it's so pretty! Lynne - can you please enlighten us as to who makes it? Spellbinders perhaps?

Right, end of the mahoosive background story - they should have called me 'Mouth and Big Foot In It' - here's my card:

And in fact I made eight of them in total (whoop, whoop!) - two of each colour mix:

I used:

- A6 white card blank, cut down from a 5" x 7" card blank I confess as I find I rarely use them lately

- half a 5" x 7" card blank which I then die cut using a die from the Creative Dies 'Wonky Stitches - Nesting Rectangles' set. One reason I chopped up card blanks for the die cut layer was to make sure the white shades are exactly the same - we all know about how many shades of white there are out there - and also sometimes it's just as cheap in the end as using fresh sheets of white or other coloured card!

- then used a stamp from the Crafters Companion Gemini range of stamps called This bag is not a toy' - oops, should have looked closer - 'Festive Phrases' and a good old Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad. Plus the Misti of course, even more useful as I made eight at one time

- before embarking on making the card(s) I had already spent a really happy couple of hours sorting through my XCut self adhesive glitter sheets, finding snippets and cutting half inch wide strips from little saved pieces, which I then mixed around and stuck onto rectangular snippets (approx 2.5" wide and 3.5" high) of white card (any colour of card would do, just make sure you don't leave any gaps between the strips)

- next I used my current favourite die that I've been banging on about - it's by MFT called 'Christmas Tree Window - MFT-1429' - and then die cut the window in the edge stitched panel

- my method to fix the panels behind the apertures is as follows. I used red line tape around glitter sides of the bottom and both side edges of the rectangular glitter paper covered panels - NB. NOT the card front panel itself - too risky! My glittered panels were actually a bit close to the height of the tree once I'd jiggled the sparkly piece around so that the star is cut from one colour only (not essential but you know me!) - and so I added a small strip of red line tape on either side of the star on the reverse of the die cut white aperture piece of card to hold the top portion together on the card front

- that worked just fine and it was then a matter of holding the die cut panel over the sparkly striped rectangle of card with the red line tape protection removed ONLY from either side of the star and carefully lining it up so that the stripes were horizontal and also the star was only showing one colour - and then pressing it in place

- at that point the panel and glitter striped rectangle could be firmly pressed into place by slowly removing the red line tape backing with pointed tweezers on the sides and along the bottom and carefully pressing the panel into place

- then just added the panel to the card front using red line tape again - peeling off the top and one side only until it was lined up properly.  Sometimes glue will ooze through faux stitched edges, I found this out the hard way some time ago - a Woodware or SU adhesive removing rubber will clean it away but I just didn't want the hassle to be honest. I love using glue but this worked fine as an alternative - so long as you always bear in mind that once you press down that really is IT

- eight cards, finished for next Christmas - wahoo!

There is one thing I really still envy about Lynne's card - she was precise enough to have her star all of one colour and ALSO the tub is one colour. That takes some working out - well done! My advice is to do half inch strips all the way up the piece of card but make the top one just that little bit taller and so your star will sit higher on the glitter strips background and then your tub will also sit higher with some room to play. I do hope some of this makes sense - it will if you're actually making a card I promise!

Another thing you could do would be to get three tree shapes from one wide stripey piece of card by flipping the centre one upside down - but I so wasn't into trying that one! 

I do think this die is a stunner - for instance, Len doesn't like black Christmas cards (Victorian old values still come home to roost after generations). I'm fine with them and just bet that a plain black card with the tree die aperture cut and then backed with gold plain or glitter card and a sentiment in gold would look stunning!

And soooooo, the Playground Toy Box is already off to a start for Christmas 2019's prizes, needless to say! Ha, if you can wait that long of course.