Christmas Tree Card

My name is Yvonne and together with my husband, Robin, we own the Hecho a Mano craft shop in Vera. We run workshops for card making throughout the year, which have proved to be very popular, both with new and experienced card makers, and also Scrapbooking and ATC Clubs once a month. Now the summer visitors have left and the weather starts to cool, you may find you have time on your hands and feel that you would like to take up a new hobby. We specialize in card making and paper crafts and we are always ready to give help to the new crafter, or to the more experienced, trying new techniques. Many people like to make a start on their Christmas cards early so in this first article I have designed an easy card for all you crafters to make. It’s quite simple but I hope you will agree it looks stunning without too much effort. Everything you need to make this card is available at Hecho a Mano.

You will need the following:-

a sheet of dark Christmas red A4 card
dark green Card 14 x 9 ½ cm
piece of gold card
M & F Folding Board
peel-off stickers - Seasons Greetings, some square dots, two corners, some straight lines all in gold and some green and red holographic circles
Christmas tree rubber stamp CC Rubber Stamps No 17 0789
VersaMark pigment ink pad
gold sparkle embossing powder
a heat gun
1mm & 3mm double sided sticky pads
burgundy ribbon.
a glue dot
a gold star sequin
dries clear PVA glue
a gold spiral paper clip

Use the straight peel-offs to decorate the tree bending slightly as shown to look like garlands.
Next apply the red and green circles to look like baubles. Use the largest at the bottom of the tree and gradually use the smaller ones, finally ending with the very smallest at the top of the tree, and stick the gold star at the top.
Mount the green card onto the gold card leaving a small border.
Stick this to the front of the card using 1mm sticky pads, slightly nearer to the top of the card.
cut a flower pot shape out of a piece of gold card, and bend it slightly around a pencil.
Use 3mm pads down the middle of the flowerpot and 1mm on each side to maintain the curved effect.
Make a bow with the ribbon and stick onto the flowerpot using the glue dot.
Stick the greeting peel off to bottom right hand side of the card, preceded by some square dots (which could be waste pieces from another peel off sheet) and place the two corners at the top of the card, as shown.
Attach the spiral over the star at the top of the tree with PVA glue. Be really light with your application of the glue, as although it dries clear, we don’t want it to show.Score and fold the red card in half using line 4 (half A4) on the folding board to make an A5 Card.
Next, line up the outside edge to the tramlines and score all four sides on the front of the card to make a frame.
Using the VersaMark pad, stamp the Christmas tree towards the top of the green card, then sprinkle with the embossing powder. (The best way to do this is by putting the powder into a cheap plastic container and using a spoon to drop the powder onto the card, tapping the excess powder back into the container) Use the heat gun to melt the embossing powder but be careful not to over heat it as the embossing powder will flatten and you’ll lose definition.

All you have left to do is print or stamp some words inside to complete your masterpiece.

If you have any difficulty with this or any other project, please come along to our shop and we will do our best to help you. Our web site which has a ‘How to Find Us’ link to Google Maps and will give directions, or just phone us. We are less than 5 minutes from Lidl´s (Vera) by car.