Gilded Happy Holidays

Hello crafty friends!  

I'm happy to be joining the Crafty Meraki team for the month to share some inspiration with you!  I don't know about you, but I like to get a head start on my holiday cards and not be panicking at the last minute to send them all out.  I've made the bulk of my cards for this year already over the summer, but I saved a batch to make for my guest spot this month!

The theme for this week is foiling with press plates, and where that is one of my favorite things to use press plates for, I don't have any of Crafty Meraki's press plates in my stash--yet--so I needed to do some foiling with an actual foil plate. My first card uses the Spruce Up Layering Tree Die set and the Jolly Holly Hot Foil plate.

I started out by cutting a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 piece of Kraft cardstock and foiled it with a shiny gold.  Crafty confession:  the cardstock slipped and the bottom ended up without a pattern so I needed to crop the panel, which I did with a pierced rectangle die.  I then distressed the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

My next step was to dig in my cardstock stash for five coordinating shades of green from light to dark.  I cut out the 5 layers of the tree and put foam on the back of each for dimension. Before I attached them to the card, I made sure to curl up the pine ends to add even more dimension to the tree. 

More gold was next for the star at the top (included in the Spruce Up die set) and I used gold for the garland too...another die that is included in the set.  

Now it was time to select a sentiment.  I used the Effortless Artistry Papers--Gilded Holiday paper pack and coordinating die.  I die cut the entire panel first, then selected the sentiment I wanted to use and saved the rest in a baggie for a later time.  Using my Royal Sovereign laminator (I'm old school in these parts!), I got a perfect foil transfer. 

Last, I needed some ornaments on this tree.  I used some Sparkle Red rhinestones to stand out against the green tree and all the gold.  With the variety of sizes of rhinestones in the pack, the tree was decked out with care. 

After mounting the finished panel on the evergreen cardstock base with foam tape, I have one more Christmas card to send out this year!

I'm looking forward to sharing more with you all this month! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

--Maggie