CKN Design: December 2023

Monday, December 18, 2023

Family and friends Christmas card with photo

Hi,

This weekend I handed out and mailed this years last Christmas card batch to our family and friends. Usually I order our family Christmas cards from a photo-store since I like them to have pictures of the kids, the dog and/or all of us together showing a moment from this last year. But for this year I knew I wanted them to be handmade, and to have a picture of my youngest son. So when we got to take a trip up further north in Norway to Meråker I packed his knitted winter outfit and took picktures with the beautiful mountain natur in the back. You also get a glimpse of the fence called "skigard" which has a long tradition in Norway.

Since I wanted the photo to be the main star of the card, and also to match the natural feel of the photo I kept my design simple and the colors natural adding some glitter paper to dress it up for that Christmas feeling.

I just love how these turned out 🎄💖

I started off with a kraft card base and matching envelope set. This makes it so fast and easy to create multiple similar cards. To add some interest to the background I used a Sizzix embossing folder I`ve had forever, and I love this simple and versatile design.

I used the oval from La-La Land carft stitched element die set on my photo. I used the same die on gold glitter paper and on dark brown cardstock that I cut in half to keep the card light for postage, and also to save on glitter cardstock since it`s quite pricey. I offset my two background oval pieces to frame my photo and adding some bling and depth to my card. The pine twigs are also a die from La-la Land crafts and the pointsettias are the small Poinsettia layers from Memory Box. I added a big flatback pearl from Melissa Frances as my flower center.

Adding twigs, ribbon and twine, all set up for getting this year`s cards ready in time.

On the inside of the cards I stamped a Norwegian Christmas greeting and heat embossed it with Simon Says Stamp EMBOSSING POWDER ANTIQUE GOLD ultra fine. I love the gold color and the quality. The mitten is embossed with Midnight Emerald from Lindy`s. The stamps are from Papirdesign PD 1900155 Enhjørning julestempel. I did this step before I glued anything on the front of the card.

On a few cards like to family in USA, Germany and grandparents I added another photo on the inside of the cards. To match the red on the photo I used red embossing powder from Lindy`s instead on these cards.