Seasonal Bells meet Pretty Pines!

Hello, Crafters.

I'm always looking for different ways to decorate the backgrounds of my cards, rather than using Designer Series Papers, dry embossing or stamping. 

Yesterday I thought about using snowflake die cuts, and absolutely love the result!

The idea of the bell and the fir was inspired by a card that was posted to Pinterest five years ago, so that was the starting point for today's card. 

The Pinterest card was stamped, but I decided to use die cuts as we have two stamp sets with co-ordinating dies that are ideal. 

I cut several fir branches in three different sizes, using Emerald Envy Cardstock (CS) and the Pretty Pines Thinlits Dies. 

Then I painted them using my Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen. 

To make the bells, I took a scrap of Smokey Slate CS and wiped over it with my Embossing Buddy.

Using Versamark Ink, and one of the bells from the Seasonal Bells Stamp Set, I stamped four bells. 

After I had dipped them in my Whisper White Embossing Powder box, I tapped off the excess powder and heat set the images using my Heat Tool. 

There were two reasons why I stamped four bells! 
 
First was because that was the size of the scrap of paper I'd picked up, and second was because, although I knew I wanted two bells for the front, I wasn't sure what I'd be doing on the inside. 

This is how I end up with so many images stamped/heat embossed/punched/ die cut/etc which I use in later projects! 

I decided to use Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper snowflakes, because I had a small pile of six of them sitting on the shelf behind me, and which had been there for a couple of weeks - a leftover from a previous project! LOL! 

Two of them in the pile have been used on this card, and I die cut an extra four, plus another four of the smaller snowflake which came from the same set of dies - Seasonal Tag Framelits Dies. 

As I didn't use the smaller snowflakes on this project, they're waiting for a future project! 

FYI this set of dies co-ordinates with the Seasonal Chums Stamp Set, and the Pretty Pines Thinlits co-ordinate with the Christmas Pines Stamp Set.

I punched the bow I've used on the top of the bells using the Holly Berry Builder Punch, and more Glimmer Paper. Then the fun really started! 

I played around with lots of different layouts, but always leaving space at the bottom of the card for the sentiment.

I hadn't given this any thought at this point because I would decide once I'd finished the layout of everything else.

Once I was happy with the layout, I used my Fine Tip Glue Pen to adhere the three branches to a layer of Whisper White CS, and these included two smaller branches, and one medium branch, which I'd cut off two sets of the lower branches.

When they were in place, I painted two of the bells using the Clear Wink of Stela Glitter Pen, and adhered them, making sure they covered the ends of the branches, using Dimensionals. 

Then I adhered the bow in place using Tombow on the back of the bow tails. 

Next it was time to adhere the snowflakes in a random design around the bells, and like when painting this kind of background, I made sure some went off the edge. 

When they were all adhered in place, I turned the layer over and trimmed off the overhanging snowflakes. I adhered this layer to a layer of Emerald Envy CS, and then onto a Whisper White CS card base. 

I decided to use the Happy Christmas sentiment from the Seasonal Bells Stamp Set, and then to cut it out freehand! 

So I took a scrap of Whisper White CS and wiped over it using my Embossing Buddy. 

I inked the stamp in Versamark, then in Emerald Envy Ink, and quickly dipped the images in my box of Clear Embossing Powder. 

After I'd heat set the sentiment, I painted it with my Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Pen, cut it out by hand, and then adhered it to the card front using Dimensionals. 

To finish my card, I added a layer of Whisper White CS onto a layer of Emerald Envy CS and adhered it using Tombow.
 
I arranged a bell and sprig of fir in the bottom right hand corner, and added a Dazzling Diamond Glimmer Paper Bow I'd found in my packet of cut outs made but not used!

I'm really happy with today's card, one of the few that I don't look at thinking I could have done this or I should have done that! LOL!

I have a very busy day ahead of me today, as we are doing a craft show on Saturday, and I have masses of projects to sell, but I haven't prepared them i.e. priced, wrapped, labelled, etc!
 
I hope you have a great day, and until tomorrow, happy crafting.     

JanB.